VAGINAL HYSTERECTOMY FOR PATIENTS WITH MODERATELY ENLARGED UTERUS OF BENIGN LESIONS

Objective To evaluate the possibility of vaginal hysterectomy for patients with moderately enlarged uterus of benign lesions. Methods One hundred and seventeen women with benign uterine diseases underwent vaginal hysterectomy. These patients were divided into two groups according to uterine weight. Group Ⅰ contained 60 patients with uterine enlargement to a weight of 200 to 750 g, and group Ⅱ contained 57 patients with uterine weight of less than 200 g. Uterine morcellation was performed in some cases. The peri-operative data in both groups were analyzed. Results In group Ⅰ, 59 cases underwent transvaginal hysterectomy successfully, except 1 case con-verted to abdominal operation and the uterine morcellation was performed in 21 women. In group Ⅱ, all patients successfully underwent transvaginal hysterectomy without any assistance of special technique. The mean uterine weight of group Ⅰ was significantly heavier than that of group Ⅱ(280.18 ± 100.40 g vs 146.48 ± 35.19 g). The mean operating time was significantly longer for group Ⅰ than that for group Ⅱ(83.93 ± 26.26 minutes vs 35.22 ± 20.55 minutes). There were no significant differences in blood loss and complications between groupⅠ and group Ⅱ. There was no injury of urinary bladder or rectum, and no vaginal vault infection. Conclusions Vaginal hysterectomy of moderately enlarged uterus can be safely and effectively performed by experienced operators. In some cases, in order to reduce the uterine volume, uterine mor-cellation should be used to shorten operative time, reduce the bleeding, and lower the postoperative complications.

South Africa＇s Nuclear Forensics Response Plan Step 1 - in Support of Nuclear Security Investigations

In South Africa, the nuclear forensics approach and its functions hosted and managed by Necsa, in support of any nuclear security investigations, start from the incident scene when the nuclear or radioactive material （that is out of regulatory control） is being handled and handed over to Necsa Emergency Control Centre by the South African law enforcement agencies in the presence of NOMS Department official. The main objective of this approach is to increase the credibility status of the chain of custody on the handling of the material during incident （crime） scene management process （for both nuclear forensics and traditional forensic evidence collection） and its transportation from the scene to the suitable storage facility at Necsa. Aspects to be looked into during the response process include interactions between law enforcement agencies, Necsa relevant departments and the National Nuclear Regulator of South Africa. This paper focuses on the entire whole response process and associated prior arrangements, in order to show and provide a set of requirements attached to the material, the scope of critical relevant technical and law enforcement information that to be acquired by all parties involving and participating in the nuclear/radiological incident or event response process before the material is authorized for storage at a suitably qualified Necsa＇s nuclear forensics, which is dedicated storage facility on Pelindaba site.

Effect of Zhu-yuan decoction in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis after functional endoscopic sinus surgery

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effectiveness and safety of Zhu-yuan decoction(ZYD) in patients after functional endoscopic sinus surgery(FESS).METHODS: A total of 85 patients were randomized into two groups: 44 were treated with intranasal corticosteroids(INC), and 41 were given Chinese herbal medicine(CHM). Patients with chronic rhinosinusitis(CRS) who underwent FESS were prospectively enrolled in the study. Before surgery, they were evaluated by visual analog scale(VAS), nasal endoscopy, computed tomography(CT), and routine blood test. After surgery, they were randomized to take ZYD or INC for 12 weeks and revaluated by VAS; nasal endoscopy at 4, 8, and 12 weeks;and CT at 12 weeks after surgery.RESULTS: In the both groups, VAS and endoscopyscores decreased significantly at 4, 8, and 12 weeks,and CT scores after treatment declined at 12 weeks compared with baseline scores. No significant differences were observed with regard to postoperative VAS, endoscopy, or CT scores between groups.ZYD, combined with surgery, can reduce VAS, nasal endoscopy, and CT scores and has the same efficacy and safety profile as INC in post-FESS management.No fatalities or major adverse events occurred in either group.CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that ZYD has similar effects and safety profiles in patients after FESS compared with INC.

Progress in advanced methodology development for food-safetyinspection

Food safety is of great concern worldwide,directly related to human health through diet.Multifarious food contaminants could cause severe public health hazards,such as gastrointestinal,neurological,immunological diseases,and even cancers,thus food safety has always been a hot-button issue.Development of rapid,accurate,and non-destructive methods is required to ensure food safety for human consumption.In this review,we summarize the main factors threatening food safety,such as foodborne pathogens,toxins,residues,and adulteration as well as the corresponding food safety inspection methods,focusing on the up-to-date progress.Due to the merits of increasing sensitivity,specificity and convenience,those methods will take food detection and analysis into a new era.

Formal verification of safety protocol in train control system

In order to satisfy the safety-critical requirements,the train control system(TCS) often employs a layered safety communication protocol to provide reliable services.However,both description and verification of the safety protocols may be formidable due to the system complexity.In this paper,interface automata(IA) are used to describe the safety service interface behaviors of safety communication protocol.A formal verification method is proposed to describe the safety communication protocols using IA and translate IA model into PROMELA model so that the protocols can be verified by the model checker SPIN.A case study of using this method to describe and verify a safety communication protocol is included.The verification results illustrate that the proposed method is effective to describe the safety protocols and verify deadlocks,livelocks and several mandatory consistency properties.A prototype of safety protocols is also developed based on the presented formally verifying method.

Ontology-Driven Discovering Model for Geographical Information Services

This paper proposes an ontology-driven discovering model for the geographical information services to improve their recall ratio and precision ratio. This model uses the geographical information service ontology. In this paper, first we study the multilevel matching arithmetic of geographical information services. This arithmetic is used for filtering and matching the services in the service register center according to the similarity between services selected and services requested from the definition of the function similarity and credit standing similarity. The matching arithmetic, geographical information service ontology and semantic description constitute the discovering model. Finally, we test and analyze the model from the recall ratio, precision ratio, responsivity and load balance. The result indicates that the ontology-driven discovering model is excellent in recall ratio and precision ratio, and can maintain the dynamic load balance of service copy.