Increased Plasma Levels of Pentraxin 3 Are Associated with Poor Prognosis of Colorectal Carcinoma Patients.

Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is one of the most common cancers globally. It is essential to identify a prognostic predictor for CRC. Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is a glycoprotein that is secreted by a variety of human cells. It plays an important role in inflammation and immune regulation. Increasing evidence reveals that elevated PTX3 expression is related to poor prognosis in various cancers. The aim of the study was to determine the usefulness of plasma PTX3 level as a prognostic predictor in CRC. Total 184 CRC patients and 216 controls were included. Plasma levels of PTX3 were determined using Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. On admission, plasma PTX3 levels in CRC patients were higher than those in controls (11.8 ± 2.5 ng/ml vs. 3.1 ± 0.9 ng/ml, P < 0.001). After resection, plasma PTX3 levels in patients were decreased (6.0 ± 1.4 ng/ml, P = 0.007), and were elevated at the time of relapse (10.8 ± 2.8 ng/ml, P < 0.001). During the 60-month follow-up period, 108 patients suffered from relapse. Plasma PTX3 levels of ≥ 12 ng/ml on admission were associated with relapse (OR: 3.11, 95% CI: 1.74 ~ 6.29), and tumor-free survival rate in those patients with plasma PTX3 levels of ≥ 12 ng/ml was lower than that in other patients (P = 0.001). Furthermore, plasma PTX3 levels on admission showed positive linear correlations with plasma complement 3, 4 and 5b9 levels (P < 0.001, P < 0.001, P < 0.001). Therefore, we propose that PTX3 is an independent prognostic indicator in CRC.

Strain distribution in the intervertebral disc under unconfined compression and tension load by the optimized digital image correlation technique.

The unconfined compression and tension experiments of the intervertebral disc were conducted by applying an optimized digital image correlation technique, and the internal strain distribution was analysed for the disc. It was found that the axial strain values of different positions increased obviously with the increase in loads, while inner annulus fibrosus and posterior annulus fibrosus experienced higher axial strains than the outer annulus fibrosus and anterior annulus fibrosus. Deep annulus fibrosus exhibited higher compressive and tensile axial strains than superficial annulus fibrosus for the anterior region, while there was an opposite result for the posterior region. It was noted that all samples demonstrated a nonlinear stress-strain profile in the process of deforming, and an elastic region was shown once the sample was deformed beyond its toe region.

[Research on VOC concentration detection by photoelastic modulation infrared spectrum absorption method].

In order to ensure high stability and strong anti-interference ability in static interference system for qualitative and quantitative analysis of gas, a static scans interference detection system was designed based on photoelastic modulation infrared spectrum absorption system. The system consists of infrared laser, polarizer, photoelastic modulator, polarization analyzer and CCD components. By photoelastic modulator the principal refractive index of optical crystal will change cyclically by the modulation signal, producing cyclical changes in the optical path difference. With the calculation of modulation phase variation, the authors can get the function of the crystal length, the modulation cycle, and the range of optical path difference. Based on phase delay value and the energy distribution of interference pattern, the authors got the formula for the corresponding interference light intensity. The experiment used ZnSe crystal as the photoelastic modulation crystal, the polarizer uses the DOP3212 polarizer, and the detector uses the TCD5390AP array CCD. The five groups have different concentrations with three common VOC gases (formaldehyde, benzene and xylene) for detecting the concentrations of gases. The experimental results with the traditional infrared absorption were compared with the test results of photoelastic modulation infrared spectrum absorption method. The method of photoelastic modulation infrared spectrum absorption had high stability and real-time features, while the detection accuracy is better than the traditional infrared absorption method.