Treatment of the Fractional Curve of Adult Scoliosis With Circumferential Minimally Invasive Surgery Versus Traditional, Open Surgery: An Analysis of Surgical Outcomes.

Study Design:Retrospective, multicenter review of adult scoliosis patients with minimum 2-year follow-up. Objective:Because the fractional curve (FC) of adult scoliosis can cause radiculopathy, we evaluated patients treated with either circumferential minimally invasive surgery (cMIS) or open surgery. Methods:A multicenter retrospective adult deformity review was performed. Patients included: age >18 years with FC >10°, ≥3 levels of instrumentation, 2-year follow-up, and one of the following: coronal Cobb angle (CCA) > 20°, pelvic incidence and lumbar lordosis (PI-LL) > 10°, pelvic tilt (PT) > 20°, and sagittal vertical axis (SVA) > 5 cm. Results:The FC was treated in 118 patients, 79 open and 39 cMIS. The FCs had similar coronal Cobb angles preoperative (17° cMIS, 19.6° open) and postoperative (7° cMIS, 8.1° open), but open had more levels treated (12.1 vs 5.7). cMIS patients had greater reduction in VAS leg (6.4 to 1.8) than open (4.3 to 2.5). With propensity matching 40 patients for levels treated (cMIS: 6.6 levels, N = 20; open: 7.3 levels, N = 20), both groups had similar FC correction (18° in both preoperative, 6.9° in cMIS and 8.5° postoperative). Open had more posterior decompressions (80% vs 22.2%, P < .001). Both groups had similar preoperative (Visual Analogue Scale [VAS] leg 6.1 cMIS and 5.4 open) and postoperative (VAS leg 1.6 cMIS and 3.1 open) leg pain. All cMIS patients had interbody grafts; 35% of open did. There was no difference in change of primary CCA, PI-LL, LL, Oswestry Disability Index, or VAS Back. Conclusion:Patients' FCs treated with cMIS had comparable reduction of leg pain compared with those treated with open surgery, despite significantly fewer cMIS patients undergoing direct decompression

Marginal likelihoods in phylogenetics: a review of methods and applications

By providing a framework of accounting for the shared ancestry inherent to all life, phylogenetics is becoming the statistical foundation of biology. The importance of model choice continues to grow as phylogenetic models continue to increase in complexity to better capture micro and macroevolutionary processes. In a Bayesian framework, the marginal likelihood is how data update our prior beliefs about models, which gives us an intuitive measure of comparing model fit that is grounded in probability theory. Given the rapid increase in the number and complexity of phylogenetic models, methods for approximating marginal likelihoods are increasingly important. Here we try to provide an intuitive description of marginal likelihoods and why they are important in Bayesian model testing. We also categorize and review methods for estimating marginal likelihoods of phylogenetic models, highlighting several recent methods that provide well-behaved estimates. Furthermore, we review some empirical studies that demonstrate how marginal likelihoods can be used to learn about models of evolution from biological data. We discuss promising alternatives that can complement marginal likelihoods for Bayesian model choice, including posterior-predictive methods. Using simulations, we find one alternative method based on approximate-Bayesian computation (ABC) to be biased. We conclude by discussing the challenges of Bayesian model choice and future directions that promise to improve the approximation of marginal likelihoods and Bayesian phylogenetics as a whole.Comment: 33 pages, 3 figure

Nematodes of the order Dorylaimida from Andalucia oriental, Spain : the family Tylencholaimellidae Jairajpuri, 1964. Part 1

Le présent article a trait à cinq espèces de nématodes appartenant au genre #Tylencholaimellus Cobb in M. V. Cobb, 1915 collectés dans des sites naturels du sud-est de l'Espagne : #T. auringiensis Peralta & Pena Santiago, 1992, #T. minor n. sp., #T. montanus Thorne, 1939, #T. polonicus Szczygiel, 1962 et #T. striatus Thorne, 1939. A l'exception de #T. auringiensis, toutes les espèces sont décrites et illustrées. #T. minor n. sp. présente les caractéristiques suivantes : petite taille (L = 0,46-0,59 micromètres); région labiale hémisphérique séparée par une constriction; lèvres fusionnées; odontostyle = 11,5-12,5 micromètres; odontophore = 4,5-5,5 micromètres; longueur totale du stylet = 16,5-18 micromètres; bulbe pharyngien = 22-25 micromètres; V = 31,6-36,9; vagin précédé par une cavité en forme d'entonnoir; sac prévulvaire = 47-70 micromètres ou 2,3-3,1 diamètres du corps; queue arrondie-conoïde (15,5-17,5 micromètres, c = 27,3-33,9; c' = 1,0-1,4 chez les femelles et 20-21 micromètres, c = 24,3-28,4, c' = 1,40-1,45 chez les mâles); spicules = 20-21 micromètres; un seul supplément ventro-médian. (Résumé d'auteur

Resource Utilization Due to Breakthrough Pain in Patients With Chronic Painful Conditions

Objectives Primary: To capture healthcare resource consumption and work loss in a population of patients with chronic pain who have pain flares from one or more non-cancer conditions. Secondary: To explore the relationship between anxiety, depression, and pain in this population

John Nathan Cobb (1868–1930): Founding Director of the College of Fisheries, University of Washington, Seattle

John Nathan Cobb (1868–1930) became the founding Director of the College of Fisheries, University of Washington, Seattle, in 1919 without the benefit of a college education. An inquisitive and ambitious man, he began his career in the newspaper business and was introduced to commercial fisheries when he joined the U.S. Fish Commission (USFC) in 1895 as a clerk, and he was soon promoted to a “Field Agent” in the Division of Statistics, Washington, D.C. During the next 17 years, Cobb surveyed commercial fisheries from Maine to Florida, Hawaii, the Pacific Northwest, and Alaska for the USFC and its successor, the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. In 1913, he became editor of the prominent west coast trade magazine, Pacific Fisherman, of Seattle, Wash., where he became known as a leading expert on the fisheries of the Pacific Northwest. He soon joined the campaign, led by his employer, to establish the nation’s first fisheries school at the University of Washington. After a brief interlude (1917–1918) with the Alaska Packers Association in San Francisco, Calif., he was chosen as the School’s founding director in 1919. Reflecting his experience and mindset, as well as the University’s apparent initial desire, Cobb established the College of Fisheries primarily as a training ground for those interested in applied aspects of the commercial fishing industry. Cobb attracted sufficient students, was a vigorous spokesman for the College, and had ambitions plans for expansion of the school’s faculty and facilities. He became aware that the College was not held in high esteem by his faculty colleagues or by the University administration because of the school’s failure to emphasize scholastic achievement, and he attempted to correct this deficiency. Cobb became ill with heart problems in 1929 and died on 13 January 1930. The University soon thereafter dissolved the College and dismissed all but one of its faculty. A Department of Fisheries, in the College of Science, was then established in 1930 and was led by William Francis Thompson (1888–1965), who emphasized basic science and fishery biology. The latter format continues to the present in the Department’s successor, The School of Aquatic Fisheries and Science

Vegetation cycles in a disturbed sequence around the Cobb-Mountain subchron in Catalonia

A 52 m-long lacustrine sequence has been recovered from the basin of Bòbila-Ordis, near Banyoles (N-E Spain). The presence of Early Biharian rodent teeth (Early Pleistocene) and of a c. 9 ka-long palaeomagnetic reversal (Cobb-Mountain subchron) suggests an age centred on 1.2 Ma, making this sequence one of the very few well-dated terrestrial sequences of that age in Europe. The first 22.5 m (with an interglacial character) are very homogenous owing to sedimentation affected by underwater springs. In the middle part of the sequence, palynological analyses, supported by sediment visual description, ostracod and mollusc assemblages, allow the reconstruction of one glacial-interglacial cycle, with vegetation succession. A second incomplete climatic cycle is recorded in the top part, within a shallower lake. These brief interruptions in the two climatic cycles are possibly linked to lake bank collapse caused by Hippopotamus amphibius or faulting linked to karst. The succession is likely to correlate to MIS 36-33. The Bòbila-Ordis lacustrine series (including two other nested lakes) covers altogether some sections of four glacial and four interglacial periods, not all contiguous

Computer-assisted radiographic calculation of spinal curvature in brachycephalic "screw-Tailed" dog breeds with congenital thoracic vertebral malformations: reliability and clinical evaluation

The objectives of this study were: To investigate computer-assisted digital radiographic measurement of Cobb angles in dogs with congenital thoracic vertebral malformations, to determine its intra- and inter-observer reliability and its association with the presence of neurological deficits. Medical records were reviewed (2009–2013) to identify brachycephalic screw-tailed dog breeds with radiographic studies of the thoracic vertebral column and with at least one vertebral malformation present. Twenty-eight dogs were included in the study. The end vertebrae were defined as the cranial end plate of the vertebra cranial to the malformed vertebra and the caudal end plate of the vertebra caudal to the malformed vertebra. Three observers performed the measurements twice. Intraclass correlation coefficients were used to calculate the intra- and inter-observer reliabilities. The intraclass correlation coefficient was excellent for all intra- and inter-observer measurements using this method. There was a significant difference in the kyphotic Cobb angle between dogs with and without associated neurological deficits. The majority of dogs with neurological deficits had a kyphotic Cobb angle higher than 35°. No significant difference in the scoliotic Cobb angle was observed. We concluded that the computer assisted digital radiographic measurement of the Cobb angle for kyphosis and scoliosis is a valid, reproducible and reliable method to quantify the degree of spinal curvature in brachycephalic screw-tailed dog breeds with congenital thoracic vertebral malformations