Distal gastrectomy via minilaparotomy for non-overweight patients with T1N0-1 gastric cancer: Initial experience of 30 cases

AbstractMinilaparotomy is considered to be a useful treatment alternative to laparoscopic-assisted surgery from the viewpoint of minimal invasiveness, although it has several limitations for the resection of malignant tumors. We evaluated the usefulness of distal gastrectomy via minilaparotomy for non-overweight patients with clinically diagnosed T1N0-1 gastric cancer. Clinicopathological and surgical data on 30 patients attempted to undergo distal gastrectomy via minilaparotomy (skin incision, ≤7cm) without laparoscopic assistance were analyzed. Inclusion criteria were clinically (preoperatively) diagnosed T1N0-1 gastric cancer that was not suitable for endoscopic mucosal resection located in the middle- or lower-third of the stomach and the patient body mass index ≤ 25.0 kg/m2. The minilaparotomy approach was successful in 27 patients (90%), while laparoscopic assistance was required to accomplish the procedures in three patients (10%). The type of lymph node dissection was D1 + α in 23 patients and D1 + β in 7 patients. The duration of surgery was 105–170 min (median, 143.5 min) and blood loss was 25–520 mL (median, 152.5 mL). Pathological stage was stage IA in 26 patients, IB in two patients, and stage II in two patients. Postoperative complications were wound infection in one patient, bleeding in one patient, and anastomotic ulcer in one patient. The length of postoperative stay was 7–41 (median, 11) days. With a median follow-up of 31 months, there was no recurrence. Distal gastrectomy via minilaparotomy seems feasible and safe in the majority of non-overweight patients with clinically diagnosed T1N0 gastric cancer

Threshold Assessment: Definition of Acceptable Sites as Part of Site Selection for the Japanese HLW Program

For the last ten years, the Japanese High-Level Nuclear Waste (HLW) repository program has focused on assessing the feasibility of a basic repository concept, which resulted in the recently published H12 Report. As Japan enters the implementation phase, a new organization must identify, screen and choose potential repository sites. Thus, a rapid mechanism for determining the likelihood of site suitability is critical. The threshold approach, described here, is a simple mechanism for defining the likelihood that a site is suitable given estimates of several critical parameters. We rely on the results of a companion paper, which described a probabilistic performance assessment simulation of the HLW reference case in the H12 report. The most critical two or three input parameters are plotted against each other and treated as spatial variables. Geostatistics is used to interpret the spatial correlation, which in turn is used to simulate multiple realizations of the parameter value maps. By combining an array of realizations, we can look at the probability that a given site, as represented by estimates of this combination of parameters, would be good host for a repository site

Functional analysis of meiosis-related factors in ES cells

Low-power gesture sensors offer users a simple way to interact with technology using basic everyday gestures, making the interaction between humans and technology more natural. The various technologies used in these sensors along with the different features offered by each one make it difficult for companies and researchers to compare them in order to choose a sensor for any kind of a project. This thesis offers an insight into the different technologies used in low-power gesture sensors and provides a comprehensive and comparative performance evaluation of the most common types of low-power gesture sensors available in the market. Three of the mainly used technologies in these kinds of sensors i.e. infrared distance, time-of-flight and imaging, were chosen for testing. A further investigation was also carried out on the images obtained by the imaging sensor. The time-of-flight sensor offers very high accuracy of 99.3% and performs well at large distances but offers a very limited number of recognizable gestures. The Infrared distance sensor offers a bigger set of recognizable gestures but gives high accuracy only at small distances from the sensor. The imaging sensor offers a 98.9% accuracy and performs well at larger distances. However, due to its larger set of gestures it is prone to a higher number of incorrectly detected gestures. The image mode analysis of the imaging sensor shows how brightness of the surroundings affect the gesture detection capability of the sensor. The findings of this thesis can be used by any researcher to get an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of each sensor and choose one of them according to their requirements. The image mode analysis done in this thesis can be used as a base to implement better gesture detection algorithms and decrease the number of incorrectly detected gestures.Low power gesture sensors erbjuder användaren ett enkelt sätt att använda teknologi genom enkla rörelser, så att samverkan mellan människor och teknologi blir naturligare. De olika teknologiska teknikerna som används i dessa sensorer och de olika funktioner som var och en av dem kan erbjuda gör det svårt för företag och forskare att jämföra dem för att kunna välja en sensor för ett visst ändamål. Denna tesis erbjuder en kännedom om de olika teknologiska tekniker som används i low power gesture sensors och utgör en förståelig och en jämförelig uppskattning av effektiviteten av de vanligaste low power sensors som finns på marknaden. Tre av de mest använda teknologierna i dessa sensorer till exempel infrared distance, time-offlight och imaging valdes att testas. En vidare undersökning gjordes också av bilder tagna av en imaging sensor. Time-of–flight sensorerna erbjuder en mycket hög precision på 99,3% och fungerar bra på långa avstånd men fungerar dock endast med ett begränsat antal igenkännliga rörelser. De infrared distance sensors erbjuder ett större antal igenkännliga rörelser men fungerar med hög precision bara på avstånd nära sensorn. Imaging sensorerna erbjuder precision på 98,9 % och fungerar bra på långa avstånd. På grund av att de används med flera olika rörelser brukar de uppfatta dessa felaktigt. Analysen av bilderna frân bildsensorn visar hur ljuset i omgivningen pâverkar sensorns förmâga att uppfatta bilderna. Resultaten i denna tesis kan användas av olika forskare för att få en uppfattning om de olika sensorernas för- och nackdelar och för att lättare kunna välja en för ett visst behov. Image mode-analysen som gjorts i denna tesis kan användas som bas för att för bättre rörelse detekterade algoritmer och minska antalet feldetekterade rörelser

Usefulness of sennoside as an agent for mechanical bowel preparation prior to elective colon cancer surgery

We retrospectively evaluated the usefulness of sennoside as an agent for mechanical bowel preparation prior to elective colon cancer surgery. A total of 86 patients were given 12 mg of sennoside on the evening prior to resective surgery for colon cancer, followed by intravenous antimicrobial prophylaxis used on the day of surgery or until postoperative day 2. The incidence of surgical site infection in the study group was 4.7%, which was comparable to that in the historical control patients (3.5%, p > 0.99), who had received polyethylene glycol for mechanical bowel preparation prior to colon surgery. On multivariate logistic regression analysis, only body mass index (p = 0.04) was an independent significant factor affecting the surgical site infection. The intraoperative spillage was not influenced by the presence of stenosis, although the amount of fecal matter was higher in the upstream colon segment (p < 0.01) and downstream segment (p = 0.07) in patients with a stenotic lesion occupying more than two-thirds of the lumen (n = 29) than in those without such severe stenosis (n = 57). Sennoside seems to be an acceptable agent for mechanical bowel preparation even in patients with stenosis