经胸前壁入路内镜甲状腺手术与传统甲状腺手术的 对照研究

目的:通过临床非随机性对照研究,比较经胸前壁入路内镜甲状腺手术与传统甲状腺手术在手术时间、术中出血量、术后引流量、术后疼痛、功能恢复、术后住院时间、住院费用及美容效果上的不同,探讨经胸前壁入路内镜甲状腺手术的可行性及临床效果。方法:回顾性分析86例甲状腺手术,其中46例患者采用经胸前壁入路内镜甲状腺手术的患者为内镜组,40例行传统甲状腺手术为传统组。结果:两组患者均顺利完成手术,术后恢复良好,均未发生术后大出血、喉返神经、喉上神经及甲状旁腺损伤等并发症。两组患者的术后住院时间及术后引流量无显著差异。与传统组比较,内镜组手术时间明显延长(P<0.05),术中出血量明显减少(P<0.05),术后疼痛明显降低(P<0.05),功能恢复即术后自行下床洗漱时间明显缩短(P<0.05),住院费用显著增加(P<0.05),手术美容效果满意度明显提高(P<0.05)。结论:相对传统甲状腺手术,经胸前壁入路内镜甲状腺手术具有切口小、出血量少、术后疼痛轻、功能恢复快、美容满意度高等优点,是治疗甲状腺疾病安全、有效的手术方法。     

个性化后侧入路治疗胫骨平台后髁冠状面骨折

目的:探讨个性化后侧入路治疗单纯性胫骨平台后髁冠状面骨折手术方法。方法:12例单纯性胫骨平台后髁冠状面骨折的患者,采用后内侧或后外侧以及后内后外联合入路切开复位内固定治疗。结果:12例均获随访,随访时间8-24个月,平均13个月。患者膝关节功能评定按Hohl评分标准:优10例,良2例。复查X线片:骨折复位良好,关节面未见明显塌陷。结论:个性化后侧入路治疗单纯性胫骨平台后髁骨折冠状面可直视下暴露胫骨平台后髁,提供了更广阔的操作空间,有利于骨折的解剖复位内固定。     

前入路腹膜前修补腹股沟疝82 例临床分析

目的:探讨Modified Kugel补片治疗腹股沟疝的手术操作要点,并评价其疗效。方法:对2010年1~12月我院应用ModifiedKugel补片行开放性前入路腹膜前修补术的82例临床资料进行回顾性分析。结果:平均手术时间(55±10)min,术后住院(5.2±1.4)d。术后无尿潴留、切口感染等并发症。全组病人伤口一期愈合,无浆液肿及感染发生。术后随访12-23个月,无复发。结论:应用Modified Kugel补片修补腹股沟疝是一种创伤小、无张力、安全的手术方式,术后恢复快,近期疗效满意。     

Effect of oxygen minimum zone formation on communities of marine protists

Changes in ocean temperature and circulation patterns compounded by human activities are leading to oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) expansion with concomitant alteration in nutrient and climate active trace gas cycling. Here, we report the response of microbial eukaryote populations to seasonal changes in water column oxygen-deficiency using Saanich Inlet, a seasonally anoxic fjord on the coast of Vancouver Island British Columbia, as a model ecosystem. We combine small subunit ribosomal RNA gene sequencing approaches with multivariate statistical methods to reveal shifts in operational taxonomic units during successive stages of seasonal stratification and renewal. A meta-analysis is used to identify common and unique patterns of community composition between Saanich Inlet and the anoxic/sulfidic Cariaco Basin (Venezuela) and Framvaren Fjord (Norway) to show shared and unique responses of microbial eukaryotes to oxygen and sulfide in these three environments. Our analyses also reveal temporal fluctuations in rare populations of microbial eukaryotes, particularly anaerobic ciliates, that may be of significant importance to the biogeochemical cycling of methane in OMZs.     

Small effective population sizes in two planktonic freshwater copepod species (Eudiaptomus) with apparently large census sizes

In small planktonic organisms, large census sizes (N(c)) suggest large effective population sizes (N(e)), but reliable estimates are rare. Here, we present N(e)/N(c) ratios for two freshwater copepod species (Eudiaptomus sp.) using temporal samples of multilocus microsatellite genotypes and a pseudo-likelihood approach. N(e)/N(c) ratios were very small in both Eudiaptomus species (10(-7)-10(-8)). Although we hypothesized that the species producing resting eggs (E. graciloides) had a larger N(e) than the other (E. gracilis), estimates were not statistically different (E. graciloides: N(e) = 672.7, CI: 276-1949; E. gracilis: N(e) = 1027.4, CI: 449-2495), suggesting that the propagule bank of E. graciloides had no detectable influence on N(e).     

A computational approach to ecological and economic sustainable harvest management strategies in a multi-species context, with implications for cod recovery plans

Multi-species models consider interactions, particularly predation, between and within species. Traditional harvest management strategies, such as maximum sustainable yield do not account for these interactions. The exploitation of a single species can be maximised, but this does not mean that the entire ecosystem is being harvested sustainably or at its economic maximum. I present a computational technique (evolutionary algorithms) that can simultaneously optimise harvest management strategies of many species and can easily be modified to allow for factors such as stock recovery, sustainable yields or maximum levels of economic sustainable exploitation. I demonstrate that in an ecologically sustainably managed system where a stock is recovering, maximum economic yield is identical to the maximisation of yield by mass. These findings may have important implications for long term conservation aims and long term profits by fishers.     

Building objects from nucleic acids for a nanometer world

Nucleic acids are an ideal material for the construction of nanometer-scaled objects. An overview is given which focuses on the structural aspects of this field of research using native DNA and RNA and especially also chemically modified derivatives, which offer structural elements other than the Watson-Crick interaction. First examples for applications are discussed.     

On the Bayesian estimation of a closed population size in the presence of heterogeneity and model uncertainty

Summary .   We consider the estimation of the size of a closed population, often of interest for wild animal populations, using a capture–recapture study. The estimate of the total population size can be very sensitive to the choice of model used to fit to the data. We consider a Bayesian approach, in which we consider all eight plausible models initially described by Otis et al. (1978, Wildlife Monographs 62, 1–135) within a single framework, including models containing an individual heterogeneity component. We show how we are able to obtain a model-averaged estimate of the total population, incorporating both parameter and model uncertainty. To illustrate the methodology we initially perform a simulation study and analyze two datasets where the population size is known, before considering a real example relating to a population of dolphins off northeast Scotland.     

Comparing treatments in the presence of crossing survival curves: an application to bone marrow transplantation

Summary .   In some clinical studies comparing treatments in terms of their survival curves, researchers may anticipate that the survival curves will cross at some point, leading to interest in a long-term survival comparison. However, simple comparison of the survival curves at a fixed point may be inefficient, and use of a weighted log-rank test may be overly sensitive to early differences in survival. We formulate the problem as one of testing for differences in survival curves after a prespecified time point, and propose a variety of techniques for testing this hypothesis. We study these methods using simulation and illustrate them on a study comparing survival for autologous and allogeneic bone marrow transplants.     

On the impulsive controllability and bifurcation of a predator-pest model of IPM

From a practical point of view, the most efficient strategy for pest control is to combine an array of techniques to control the wide variety of potential pests that may threaten crops in an approach known as integrated pest management (IPM). In this paper, we propose a predator-prey (pest) model of IPM in which pests are impulsively controlled by means of spraying pesticides (the chemical control) and releasing natural predators (the biological control). It is assumed that the biological and chemical control are used with the same periodicity, but not simultaneously. The functional response of the predator is allowed to be predator-dependent, in the form of a Beddington-DeAngelis functional response, rather than to have a perhaps more classical prey-only dependence. The local and global stability of the pest-eradication periodic solution, as well as the permanence of the system, are obtained under integral conditions which are shown to have biological significance. In a certain limiting case, it is shown that a nontrivial periodic solution emerges via a supercritical bifurcation. Finally, our findings are confirmed by means of numerical simulations.