The prediction of recurrence and survival of patients with Dukes’ B colorectal cancer after curative resection with immunohistochemical detection of Survivin and Livin expressions

Objective: To detect the expressions of Survivin and Livin in Dukes’ B colorectal cancer tissues and analyze the prognosis after curative resection. Methods: The expressions of Survivin and Livin were evaluated immunohistochemically in Dukes’ B colorectal cancer specimens from 81 patients after curative resection of the tumor. Their correlations to clinical characters and survival were also explored. Results: The positive rates of Survivin and Livin in colorectal cancer tissues were significantly higher than those in normal colorectal tissues (58.0% vs. 16.7% and 45.7% vs. 8.3% respectively, P < 0.05). The expressions of Survivin and Livin were not related to gender, tumor site, primary size, T stage, pathologic category, and degree of differentiation (P > 0.05), and no relationship was found between the expressions of Survivin and Livin (P > 0.05). The expression rate of Survivin in patients older than 50 years was higher than that in patients younger than 50 years (70.6% vs. 36.7%, P < 0.05). Both Survivin and Livin were related to recurrence and/or metastasis (P = 0.02 and P = 0.001, respectively), and shorter survival (P = 0.039 and P = 0.001, respectively). Cox multivariate analysis showed T4 and positive Livin expression were independent prognostic factors (P = 0.002 and P = 0.047, respectively). Conclusion: Survivin and Livin are over-expressed in Dukes’ B colorectal cancer tissues and are positively related to recurrence and/or metastasis and poor prognosis after curative resection of the tumor.

Ecological Suitability Analysis of Siraitia grosvenorii Producing Areas across the World

[Objectives]The purpose of this study was to provide reference for scientific introduction and rational production planning of Siraitia grosvenorii.[Methods]Using the Geographic Information System for Global Medicinal Plants(GMPGIS),the ecological factors and suitable producing areas of S.grosvenorii were analyzed.The maximum information entropy model MaxEnt and the GMPGIS analysis method were compared.Verification analysis was performed with cosine similarity and Kappa method.[Results]S.grosvenorii is mainly produced in China.Brazil and Congo(Democratic Republic)are the two countries with the largest potential distribution.Indonesia,Colombia,Peru,the United States,Bolivia,Thailand and Myanmar have great development potential in the introduction and cultivation of S.grosvenorii.In China,S.grosvenorii mainly grows in the coastal provinces dominated by Guangxi,with a tendency of gradually expanding to the north,where the temperature has been rising slowly compared with the original producing area of Guilin.Guangxi is the main producing area.Guangdong,Jiangxi and Hunan are regions with potential wide distribution.Fujian,Yunnan,Sichuan,Guizhou,Zhejiang,Chongqing,Hainan,Hubei and Taiwan,China also have small distributions.Among the 210 largest ecologically similar areas,the average cosine similarity was above 99.9%.[Conclusions]The potential distribution areas predicted by the GMPGIS analysis method have high prediction accuracy.This will provide effective scientific reference for the introduction and standardized cultivation of medicinal plants.

What leads to readers' satisfaction with the mobile news apps service? An investigation into the roles of content originality and user experience

Purpose: This study aims to explore whether content originality and user experience have positive effects on online news readers’ satisfaction with the mobile apps service.Design/methodology/approach: Data was collected via a Web-based survey. Data analysis of this study can be divided into two stages. In the first stage, a descriptive statistical analysis was conducted based on a sample of 612 respondents. In the second stage, the correlation among content originality, user experience and satisfaction was analyzed based on a sample of 377 mobile news apps users. Findings: Results of the first stage showed that social media and mobile news apps were the most important tools for users to access news, and different types of media were playing complementary roles in information transmission. Users held a positive attitude toward their mobile news reading experience and they described news they read on mobile apps with such words as "interesting", "instant", "positive", "profound", and "ironic". Results of the second stage confirmed our hypothesis that content originality and user experience both had positive impacts on user satisfaction.Research limitations: The questionnaires were distributed entirely online, so the sample may not be representative of the general population being studied and thus undermine the reliability and generalization of the findings to some extent. Moreover, this study adopted only one method(survey) and more methods such as interviews can be used to improve the accuracy of the results.Practical implications: The findings of this study can not only provide insights into a better understanding of users’ mobile reading behavior, but also help mobile information service providers attract more users.Originality/value: This is one of the first studies to explore the effects of content originality and user experience on online news readers’ satisfaction with the mobile apps service.

Performance of single versus two operators in laparoscopic surgery

Aim:To examine the significance of team collaboration in the context of complex laparoscopic surgery,laparoscopic tasks performed by single operators are compared against that of dyad teams.Methods:The laparoscopic tasks require subjects to reach,grasp and transport a ring through a rollercoaster obstacle using a pair of laparoscopic graspers.The task was performed either bimanually(using both hands)or unimanually(using their preferred hands)in a dyad team.Results:Twelve participants completed all the tasks.The dyad teams recorded significantly greater number of anticipatory movements than individuals who performed the task bimanually(p<0.05).However,there is no significant difference in the task completion time(p=0.701)and the number of errors(p=0.860)recorded between the dyad and the bimanual group.Conclusion:Compared to a single operator,dyad operators performed the task with greater number of anticipatory movements.The increased movement synchronization can help benefit surgical education and team training.

Bifunctional Fluoroalcohol Catalysts Enabled Sustainable Synthesis of Poly(amino acid)s

A series of novel bifunctional single-molecule hydrogen-bonding organocatalysts based on fluorinated tertiary alcohol were synthe-sized to mediate the metal-free polymerization of α-amino acid N-carboxyanhydride(NCA)monomer.Through the screening of catalysts,the polymerizati on catalyzed by the preferred bifun ctional fluoroalcohol catalyst proceeded in a fast and con trolled manner,af-fording high molecular weight polypeptide up to 35.2 ×10^(4) Da with relatively narrow molecular weight distribution(D<1.20).A phenomenon of self-accelerating effect of polymerization induced by a-helical structure of polypeptides was observed,and a possible polymerization pathway has been discussed.