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In most cultural heritage courses, students physically visit several renowned heritage sites for educational purposes. However, because of time and manpower limitations, many teachers use traditional outdoor instruction methods to transmit vital information regarding these sites and buildings. This approach could result in students merely memorizing knowledge for test-taking purposes, rather than engaging in active thinking. Therefore, this study proposed using a ubiquitous guide-learning system to enhance students' performance and active participation in cultural heritage courses. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system, a trial experiment was conducted to visit eight heritage sites featured in the cultural heritage course offered by a local university. In total, 62 students were randomly assigned to either an experimental group testing the proposed system or a control group using traditional outdoor instruction methods. The experimental results indicated that our ubiquitous guide-learning system significantly improved students' learning achievements. The outcome of the Instructional Materials Motivation Survey questionnaire indicated that the experimental group participants were motivated to learn and interested in using the proposed system. Moreover, the two groups had statistically significant results for the attention, confidence, and satisfaction factors. Therefore, implementing our proposed system in conjunction with cultural heritage education courses may yield a significant learning advantage for students by improving overall learning performance and motivation.

Cancer is a complex disease caused by combinations of cellular genetic alterations and heterogeneous microenvironments. The use of the robust and programmable CRISPR-Cas systems has greatly improved genome editing for precision cancer modeling and enabled multiplexed genetic manipulation for cancer treatment and mutation detection. In this review, we outline the current CRISPR-Cas toolkit, and discuss the promises and hurdles in translating this revolutionary technology into effective and safe clinical applications for cancer treatment and diagnosis.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the benefit of adding hypoalbuminemia to the American College of Surgeons-National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) Surgical Risk Calculator when predicting postoperative outcomes in colorectal cancer patients.The ACS-NSQIP Surgical Risk Calculator offers qualified risk evaluation in surgical decision-making and informed patient consent. To date, malnutrition defined as hypoalbuminemia, an important independent surgical risk factor in colorectal cancer, is not included.This is a retrospective, multi-institutional study of ACS-NSQIP patients (n = 18,532) who received colorectal surgery from 2009 to 2012. Models were constructed for predicting postoperative mortality and morbidity using the risk factors of the ACS-NSQIP Surgical Risk Calculator before and after adding hypoalbuminemia as a risk factor. The 2 models' performance was then compared using c-statistics and Brier scores. The ACS-NSQIP database in 2008 was used for validation of the created models.The prevalence of hypoalbuminemia (27.8%) is higher in colorectal cancer, when compared with other most common cancers. In univariate analyses, hypoalbuminemia was significantly associated with postoperative mortality and morbidity in colorectal cancer patients. In multivariate logistic regression analyses, 15 postoperative complications, including mortality and serious morbidities, were significantly predicted by hypoalbuminemia. Most of the models with hypoalbuminemia showed better performance and validation in predicting postoperative complications than those without hypoalbuminemia.In colorectal cancer, hypoalbuminemia, with levels below 3.5 g/dL, serves as an excellent assessment tool and preoperative predictor of postoperative outcomes. When combined with hypoalbuminemia as a risk factor, the ACS-NSQIP Surgical Risk Calculator offers more accurate information and estimation of surgical risks to patients and surgeons when choosing treatment options.

This paper proposes a novel interactive ubiquitous learning system (IULS) for authentically teaching a cultural heritage course and imparting relevant concepts to students. Experimental results demonstrated that learning performance was significantly improved after students used the IULS. This study also demonstrated that students using the IULS achieved superior results to those achieved using conventional teaching models. No gender bias affecting the performance of students in the experimental group was observed because each student consistently performed to a higher standard on the learning tasks compared with students in the control group, particularly in learning comprehension-related content. The IULS was more effective in enhancing the overall learning performance of students exhibiting different cognitive styles in liberal arts education courses. Furthermore, the results of a survey on Instructional Materials Motivation Survey revealed that Relevance was the most highly rated motivational factor among students who used the IULS, suggesting that students were motivated to use the IULS. Thus, we believe that a liberal arts education supplemented with the IULS yields a significant learning advantage for students by improving overall learning performance and motivation.

Background/Aim: Frondoside A is a sea cucumber extract which is well known for its anti‐inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of Frondoside A application in the alveolar socket on inflammatory responses after delayed replantation in rat teeth. Materials and Methods: Human periodontal ligament cells were cultured and exposed to Frondoside A. Cell‐counting kit‐8 assay was performed to evaluate the cell viability and nitric oxide assay was performed to assess the anti‐inflammatory effect of Frondoside A. Molars were extracted from 32 Sprague–Dawley rats and randomly divided into control and Frondoside A groups. After 30 min of extra‐oral dry time, molars were replanted. In the Frondoside A group, Frondoside A solution was applied in the alveolar socket before replantation. The animals were sacrificed after 28 days and histologically and immunohistochemically evaluated. Results: 0.5 μM Frondoside A showed higher cellular viability at 6 h and lower production of nitric oxide compared with other Frondoside A solutions (p <.05). The Frondoside A group demonstrated lower inflammatory resorption scores in both middle 1/3 and apical 1/3 of root compared to the control group (p <.05). The Frondoside A group showed lower levels of expression in both cathepsin K and CD45 compared with the control group (p <.05). Conclusions: Within the limits of this study, intra‐alveolar delivery of Frondoside A alleviates inflammatory root resorption in delayed replantation of rat teeth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate the healing effect of hyaluronic acid films on palatal wounds. Materials and Methods: After making 5‐mm diameter palatal wounds, 72 rats were randomly assigned to three groups: control, hyaluronic acid gel, and hyaluronic acid film. The animals were sacrificed at 3, 7, and 21 days after the experiment. Clinical, histological, and RT‐PCR analyses were performed. Human ex vivo oral mucosa models were used. Histological analysis and pan‐cytokeratin staining were performed at 5 days after wound creation. Results: In rat model, both gels and films showed favorable healing on Days 3 and 7 compared with healing in the control (p < 0.05). Film showed remarkable VEGF and α‐SMA expression than did the others (p < 0.05). Immunohistochemical analysis showed that film exhibited significantly lower CD68 and greater α‐SMA and vimentin expression levels than those in the others (p < 0.05). In human model, re‐epithelialization rate of film group was significantly higher than that of the others. Complete epithelial regeneration was confirmed only in film group using pan‐cytokeratin staining. Conclusions: Within the limits of this study, hyaluronic acid film outperformed gels in terms of palatal wound healing in both models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]