On the practice of cultivating scientific thinking in the teaching of Gene Engineering curriculum / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Gene Engineering is a compulsory course for students majoring in biotechniques. Therefore, we have made innovative reforms to strengthen the "scientific thinking" elements in the course in all aspects of the course, such as content design, teaching strategies, inspection and evaluation methods on the teaching. Briefly, the contents are designed to reflect the scientific rules and thinking manners, and milestone findings and stories are mined thoroughly. During the teaching process, students are inspired and enlightened based on the history by scene reappearance to form the scientifc thinking. During the evaluation process, students are advocated to share their stories in gene engineering field and the underlying scientific thinking manners are taken into the assessment. With the teaching reform in the Gene Engineering course, the "scientific thinking" ability of the students has been significantly improved.

The value of high frequency ultrasound in the diagnosis of internal mammary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer / 中华超声影像学杂志

Objective:To investigate the ultrasonographic characteristics and risk factors of breast cancer internal mammary lymph node (IMLN) metastasis.Methods:A retrospective analysis of 296 first diagnosed breast cancer patients in the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University from March 2010 to May 2020. IMLN was divided into metastatic group (236 cases) and non-metastatic group (60 cases) based on pathology. Chi-square test and independent sample t test were used to analyze the ultrasound characteristics of IMLN metastasis and factors related to metastasis. ROC curve analysis of IMLNs were plotted to obtain the diagnostic thresholds and their sensitivity and specificity.Univariate and multivariate Logistic analysis was used to analyze the risk factors of IMLN metastasis. Results:①The appearances of IMLN in ultrasound were normal type, thickened-cortex type, unclear hilus structure type and thickened-nodular soft tissue type. ②In the two groups, the differences in IMLN long diameter, thickness diameter, number, and lymphatic hilum structure type were statistically significant (all P<0.05), and there were no significant differences in IMLN long diameter/thickness diameter and IMLN blood supply (all P>0.05). ③The long diameter threshold of IMLN for diagnosis of metastasis was 10.5 mm, the are under the ROC curve(AUC) was 0.825, with sensitivity of 58.5% and specificity 93.3%; thickness and diameter threshold was 4.5 mm, AUC was 0.790, with sensitivity 66.9% and specificity 75.0%. The sensitivity and specificity of the diagnosis of long-diameter combined structure type were 56.3% and 93.3%, respectively; the sensitivity and specificity of the diagnosis of thick-diameter combined structure type were 64.8% and 81.7%, respectively. The cortical thickness threshold was 1.9 mm, and the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 91.9% and 86.7%, respectively. ④The risk factors of IMLN metastasis inculded univariate analysis showed tumor length, tumor volume, axillary lymph node long diameter, axillary lymph node metastasis, and clavicle lymph node metastasis. There was a statistically significant difference in the pathology of the lower lymph nodes between the two groups ( P<0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that the long diameter of the tumor and the metastasis of the axillary lymph nodes were independent risk factors of IMLN metastasis. Conclusions:The metastatic IMLN mostly manifest as no lymphatic hilum structure or cortical thickening (≥1.9 mm), and multiple IMLN can help diagnose metastasis.Ultrasound can better assess breast cancer IMLN metastasis, and the diagnostic efficiency of IMLN long-diameter combines structure type is higher.Independent risk factors for IMLN metastasis include tumor size and axillary lymph node metastasis.

A review of multimodal neuroimaging fusion methods and their clinical applications to brain diseases / 国际生物医学工程杂志

With the rapid development of neuroimaging technology and related data processing methods, multimodal neuroimaging has been widely used in research fields such as neuroscience and clinical diseases. In this paper, the current development of multimodal neuroimaging fusion algorithm and its application in the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases were reviewed. The definitions, applications, and advantages of the three levels of multimodal neuroimaging fusion, i.e. early fusion, late fusion, and intermediate fusion, were introduced and analyzed. The commonly used multi-modal neuroimaging algorithm basing on signal source separation method and deep multi-modal learning was introduced. The application of multimodal neuroimaging technology in the diagnosis and treatment of severe brain diseases such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease was further discussed. Finally, the existing challenges and future research directions of multimodal neuroimaging methods and applications were summarized.