Persistent High Postoperative Carcinoembryonic Antigen in Colorectal Cancer Patients- Is it Important?

INTRODUCTION: Evaluation of pre- and postoperative serum CEA levels together has seldom been assessed for the prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC). OBJECTIVE: To concurrently evaluate pre- and postoperative CEA as factors of relapse and survival. METHODS: The study consisted of 114 patients who had undergone surgery from February 2002 to June 2006 for CRC. All patients were classified into four groups according to their pre- and postoperative CEA levels. Data obtained for clinicopathologic parameters, lymph node metastasis, stage, recurrence, and CEA levels were analyzed to determine their association with survival. Multivariate analysis by the Cox proportional hazard regression model was performed to identify the independent prognostic factors associated with survival. RESULTS: Postoperative serum CEA levels remained high in Group 3 (n = 32). Nineteen patients (59.3%) demonstrated a detectable cause for persistent high CEA levels, while the reasons for those in the other thirteen patients (40.6%) remained obscure. Abnormal preoperative CEA levels significantly correlated with the depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, and recurrence (p < 0.05). Abnormal postoperative CEA levels were significantly related to the depth of tumor invasion, TNM stage, and postoperative relapse (p<0.05). Patients in Group 3 demonstrated the worst survival rate. Abnormal postoperative CEA levels, lymph node metastasis, and location of the tumor were independent prognostic factors for survival. CONCLUSION: The survival of patients with high postoperative CEA levels due to unknown reasons may be extended if they are exhaustively tested with sensitive diagnostic methods and treated at an early stage

Lexical Collocations (Verb+Noun) Across Written Academic Genres in English

AbstractThe dominance of syntactic studies in linguistics has caused lexis and grammar to be perceived as two distinct categories. With introduction of the paradigm of cognitive linguistics, the studies in syntax have been replaced by those in lexis and concepts. Semantics has come to the fore through the studies in cognitive linguistics, and there has been a trend from syntactic studies to lexical ones. In addition to research in cognitive linguistics, construction grammar has also emphasized the continuum between lexis and grammar. With the emergence of corpus linguistics, the studies regarding the continuum between lexis and grammar have gained momentum, and thus studies of collocations have been theorized. Early studies of collocations have focused on only lexis and disregarded grammar. However, in the process the studies have also incorporated grammar as well, and this view supports the idea that each word has its own grammatical properties. Therefore, lexis and grammar should be studied on the same continuum because there is a continuum between these two categories rather than a discontinuum. Within the framework of this paradigm, this study focused on verb+noun lexical collocations across the health, physical and social sciences in the written academic genre and analyzed these lexical collocations through the frequency and chi-square analysis. The study aimed to search for commonalities and differences between the verbs with their collocations. The results showed that there were more similarities and relationship between the health and physical sciences, while the social sciences indicated a significant difference compared to the other two. The study found 165 common verbs used across the three sciences. 12 verbs among the 165 verbs were found to be candidates verb+noun lexical collocations as prototypes

Ecological Architectural Design Education Practices Via Case Studies

This paper presents two case studies conducted in Architectural Design education in order to meet understanding and ability criteria in MIAK (Turkish Architectural Accrediting Board) and NAAB (National Architectural Accrediting Board) for 'sustainability'. The main purpose of this clause is to reinforce students' ability to design projects that optimize, conserve or reuse natural and built resources; their ability to provide healthy environments for occupants/users, and reduce the environmental impacts of building construction and operations on future generations through such means as carbon-neutral design, bioclimatic design, and energy efficiency. First-year undergraduate architecture students provided the setting for Case Study 1. A comparative study was implemented in a basic design studio between two distinct groups (a test group and a control group) mandated specifically with awareness raising. At semester's end, both groups' projects were reviewed and evaluated via questionnaire. Third-year undergraduate architecture students provided the setting for Case Study 2. An experimental study was carried out within the context of green design education, with the purpose of reinforcing understanding and ability of sustainability issues. The overall aim was to integrate building energy performance assessment into the design studio as a design decision support tool. As in Case Study 1, there were two groups. Students in the control group followed the conventional design process, while those in the test group tested the environmental performance of their proposals with computational models and energy simulations carried out with Ecotect v5.20. The conclusion reached was that a conventional design process is inadequate for a multidisciplinary knowledge-based studio aiming to integrate the theoretical basis of the energy-ecology field with architectural studio practice