Transition from open to robotic assisted liver resection:A retrospective comparative study.Is experience of laparoscopic liver resections needed?

Objective:The authors present outcomes of robotic liver resections in comparison with open technique questioning the need to have experience of laparoscopy for such procedures before transition to robotic assisted.Materials and methods:Retrospective review of liver resections done robotically from February 2015 to June 2017 compared to matched control cohort of open cases from January 2012 to December 2016.Results:Twenty-one patients in the study groupwere comparedwithmatched control of 42 open cases(1:2 ratio).The types of procedure were similar in both the groups.There were 4 left lateral hepatectomy,3 left hepatectomy,and 1 left hepatectomy with hepatico-jejunostomy,3 right hepatectomy,3 right posterior sectorectomy,4 bisegmentectomy and 4 mono-segmentectomy.There were 9 patients with primary liver cancer,2 each with livermetastasis and carcinoma gall bladder and 8 patients had benign liver disease.Mean blood losswas 370±311ml in the robotic group compared to 451±330ml in control group(p=0.06).Minor complications developed in 19.0%of robotic cases compared to 40.5%in open surgery,while major complications occurred in 4.7%of robotic cases compared to 7.1%of open cases.Mean hospital staywas 5.3±0.8 days for the robotic group and 7.7±4.2 days for open group(p=0.02).Local tumor recurrence occurred in 1 out of 13 resections done for malignancy in the robotic group and 7 out of 26 in the open group.Conclusion:This study highlights the utility of surgical robots for segmental and complex liver resections with equivalent outcomes and decreased length of hospital stay compared to open surgery without having experience of same with the laparoscopy.

The bacteriophage mu lysis system–A new mechanism of host lysis?

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria and can choose any one of the two alternative pathways for infection,i.e.,lysis or lysogeny.Phage lysis is one of the conventional biological processes required to spread infection from one bacterium to another.Our analysis suggests that in the paradigm bacteriophage Mu,six proteins might be involved in host cell lysis.Mu has a broad host range,and Mu-like phages were found in both Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria.An analysis of the genomes of Mu and Mu-like phages could be useful in elucidating the lysis mechanism in this group of phages.A detailed review of the various mechanisms of phage lysis and different proteins associated with the process will help researchers understand the phage biology and their life cycle in different bacteria.The recent increase in the number of multidrug-resistant(MDR)strains of bacteria and the usual long-term nature of new drug development has encouraged scientists to look for alternative strategies like phage therapy and the discovery of new lysis mechanisms.Understanding the lysis mechanism in the Mu-like phages could be exploited to develop alternative therapeutics to kill drug-resistant pathogenic bacteria.In this review article,we have analyzed the phage Mu-mediated host lysis system,which is unknown till now,and our analysis indicates a possibility of the existence of a new lysis mechanism operating in Mu.

Supplementation of L-ascorbic acid improves the in vitro development of buffalo(Bubalus bubalis)embryos and alters the expression of apoptosis-related genes

Objective:To study the effect of L-ascorbic acid supplementation on the in vitro development of buffalo embryos and evaluate the relative mRNA abundance of some pro-apoptotic,anti-apoptotic,and embryonic development-related genes.Methods:In experiment 1,we evaluated the effect of the addition of 0(control),50,and 100μM L-ascorbic acid to the in vitro maturation medium on the developmental competence in terms of blastocyst rate and relative mRNA abundance of some pro-apoptotic(BAX,BID),anti-apoptotic(BCL-XL,MCL1),and embryonic development(GDF9,BMP15)related genes.Based on the results,we chose 50μM as the suitable dose of L-ascorbic acid for the subsequent experiments.We further evaluated the blastocyst rates following the addition of 50μM L-ascorbic acid to the in vitro culture medium(experiment 2),and in vitro maturation and in vitro culture media(experiment 3).In all three experiments,the maturation and culture media devoid of L-ascorbic acid served as the control group.Results:The blastocyst rate after adding 50μM L-ascorbic acid to the in vitro maturation medium was significantly higher than the control group(P<0.05),whereas 100μM L-ascorbic acid exhibited a negative effect on the blastocyst rate.The blastocyst rates for embryos cultured in 50μM L-ascorbic acid in the in vitro culture medium alone and both in vitro maturation and in vitro culture media were significantly higher than their corresponding control groups(P<0.05).The relative mRNA abundance of BAX significantly decreased in blastocysts produced after the addition of 50μM L-ascorbic acid as compared with the control group(P<0.05),whereas,for MCL1,it significantly decreased in blastocysts produced after the addition of 100μM L-ascorbic acid(P<0.05).Conclusions:The supplementation of 50μM L-ascorbic acid to in vitro maturation and in vitro culture media supports in vitro embryonic development in buffaloes by improving developmental competence and altering the expression of apoptosis-related genes.

Leaf Colour Chart vis-a-vis Nitrogen Management in Different Rice Genotypes

A field trial comprising 3 rice varieties (NDR-359, Sarju 52, HUBR 2-1) and 4 LCC scores (≤ 2, ≤ 3, ≤ 4, ≤ 5) along with the recommended dose of N was conducted in a split plot design to calibrate the LCC for nitrogen requirement of rice. Maximum grain yields of NDR-359, Sarju 52 at LCC ≤ 5 and HUBR 2-1 at LCC ≤ 4 were found to be 47.10, 40.66 and 36.04 q/ha respectively. The critical LCC score for real time nitrogen requirement for NDR 359 and Sarju 52 was found to be ≤ 5, while for HUBR 2-1 it was ≤ 4. Agronomic and recovery efficiency of nitrogen also followed the same trend. In the functional relationship between SPAD value and LCC score, while it was linear in NDR-359 and Sarju 52, for HUBR 2-1 it was quadratic. Further a positive correlation between SPAD values and LCC score was observed in all the 3 varieties.

Handwritten Character Recognition Using Multiresolution Technique and Euclidean Distance Metric

In the present paper, the problem of handwritten character recognition has been tackled with multiresolution technique using discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and Euclidean distance metric (EDM). The technique has been tested and found to be more accurate and faster. Characters is classified into 26 pattern classes based on appropriate properties. Features of the handwritten character images are extracted by DWT used with appropriate level of multiresolution technique, and then each pattern class is characterized by a mean vector. Distances from input pattern vector to all the mean vectors are computed by EDM. Minimum distance determines the class membership of input pattern vector. The proposed method provides good recognition accuracy of 90% for handwritten characters even with fewer samples.

First results on ^(76)Ge neutrinoless double beta decay from CDEX-1 experiment

We report the first results on ^(76)Ge neutrinoless double beta decay from stage one of the China dark-matter experiment(CDEX).A p-type point-contact high-purity germanium detector with a mass of 994 g has been installed to detect neutrinoless double beta decay events, as well as to directly detect dark matter particles. An exposure of 304 kg d has been analyzed over a wide spectral band from 500 keV to 3 MeV. The average event rate obtained was about 0.012 counts per keV per kg per day over the 2.039 MeV energy range. The half-life of ^(76)Ge neutrinoless double beta decay derived based on this result is T^(0ν)1/2>6.4×10^(22) yr(90% C.L.). An upper limit on the effective Majorana-neutrino mass of 5.0 eV has been achieved.

CDEX-1 1 kg point-contact germanium detector for low mass dark matter searches

The CDEX collaboration has been established for direct detection of light dark matter particles, using ultra-low energy threshold point-contact p-type germanium detectors, in China JinPing underground Laboratory （CJPL）. The first 1 kg point-contact germanium detector with a sub-keV energy threshold has been tested in a passive shielding system located in CJPL. The outputs from both the point-contact P＋ electrode and the outside N＋ electrode make it possible to scan the lower energy range of less than 1 keV and at the same time to detect the higher energy range up to 3 MeV. The outputs from both P＋ and N＋ electrode may also provide a more powerful method for signal discrimination for dark matter experiment. Some key parameters, including energy resolution, dead time, decay times of internal X-rays, and system stability, have been tested and measured. The results show that the 1 kg point-contact germanium detector, together with its shielding system and electronics, can run smoothly with good performances. This detector system will be deployed for dark matter search experiments.

Limits on light WIMPs with a 1 kg-scale germanium detector at 160 eVee physics threshold at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory

We report results of a search for light weakly interacting massive particle（WIMP） dark matter from the CDEX-1 experiment at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory（CJPL）. Constraints on WIMP-nucleon spin-independent（SI） and spin-dependent（SD） couplings are derived with a physics threshold of 160 eVee, from an exposure of 737.1 kg-days. The SI and SD limits extend the lower reach of light WIMPs to 2 GeV and improve over our earlier bounds at WIMP mass less than 6 GeV.

Product and Commutators of Pseudo-differential Operators Involving Fourier–Jacobi Transform

The purpose of this paper is to define a new symbol classand discuss the theory of two different pseudo-differential operators(p.d.o.)involving Fourier–Jacobi transform associated with a single symbol in.We also derive boundedness results for p.d.o.’s in Sobolev type space.Anewpseudo-differential operator is developed using the product of symbols.Finally,norm inequality for commutators between two pseudo-differential operators is obtained.