Studies on chimeric plants of the grapevine (Vitis vinifera L., cultivar Bolgar)

Chimeric grapevines have been established in the cultivar Bolgar as a result of the natural mutation process. Part of these grapevines is diploid, while the other part of the same plants is a di-tetraploid periclinal chimera of the 2-4 type. Yield and quality of grapes are the lowest in the cases when the fruit-bearing shoots are formed on the chimeric part.Étude sur les plantes chimériques de la vigne (Vitis vinifera L., variété Bolgar)Chez la variété Bolgar on a découvert des vignes chimériques - résultat de mutations naturelles. Une partie de ces vignes est diploide, une autre représente une chimère périclinale di-tétraploide du type 2-4. Quand les sections fruitières sont formées sur la partie chimérique, les caractéristiques du rendement et de la qualité du raisin sont les plus basses

Elastic seton procedure for surgical treatment of anorectal fistulas

The anorectal fistula is a disease requiring careful assessment of the local signs and precise localization of the fistula channel. The Seton procedure for treatment of the fistula-in-ano we apply only for the management of trans- or extrasphincteric anorectal fistula. 152 patients with high trans- or extrasphincteric fistula-in-ano were operated. Men were 123/80.92%/, women-29/19.08%/. In 70 /46.05%/ fistula were extrasphincteric, while in 82/53.95%/ they were transsphincteric. Ba sic step is to identify the internal opening of the fistula channel following Goodsal`s rule. The Seton is trespassed through the internal opening and we tight it moderately. Every next tightening is performed at 3 days intervals. Recurrences ware registered in the first 6 months in 8 patients/5.26%/. We conclude that that seton procedure for treatment of trans- and extrasphincteric fistula is an easy to learn and practice radical one stage surgical method with a cure rate of nearly 95%. Elastic Seton ligation technique is a modification of the known from ancient times conventional ligation procedure. The following procedure is an effective method for difficult and high fistula-in-ano

Clinical and diagnostic assessment of Goodsall`s rule in anorectal fistulas

The exact identification of the internal opening in the surgical treatment of anorectal fistulae is of basic importance for their radical treatment. The rule of Goodsall enables identification of the internal opening. 184 patients with anorectal fistulae have been studied (145 male è 39 female). According to the type of the fistulae patients were distributed as follows: 86(46.74%) with transsphincteric, 57(30.98%) with extrasphincteric and 41(22.28%) with intrasphincteric. Most of them 126(68.48%) have had posterior external opening, while 58(31.52%) had anterior external opening. The internal opening has been identified in 169(91.85%) cases. The Goodsall`s rule was observed in 131(77.51%) Exception of this rule was registered in 38 patients - 20 cases with transsphincteric fistulae, 12 with extrasphincteric, 5 with re current fistulae and 1 with intersphincteric. 87.30%(110/126) of the posterior anorectal fistulae fulfilled the rule of Goodsall, while the anterior ones this rule was observed in 33/58(56.90%). From the cases with intersphincteric fistulae in 97.56 % there is match with the rule of Goodsall. The Goodsall`s rule predicts the position of the internal opening, according to the localization of the external opening. Exceptions of this rule were in the anterior fistulae and lying more than 3 cm from the anus /sensitivity of 56.90 %/. The Goodsall`s rule demonstrates highest informativity in posterior fistulae/sensitivity was 87.30 %/

Current problems on operative strategy for complicated colon diverticular disease

Perforation of complicated diverticular disease of the colon with generalized peritonitis is common life-threatening emergency requiring surgical intervention. Although the absolute prevalence of perforated diverticulitis complicated by generalized peritonitis is low, its importance lies in the signifcant postoperative mortality, ranging from 4-26%, regardless of selected surgical strategy. The optimal treatment for perforated diverticulitis has been always a matter of debate, changing the ‘‘gold standard`` several times in the last decades. Primary resection has become the standard practice, but fear of anastomotic leakage of ten deterred many surgeons from performing primary anastomosis. Therefore, for many surgeons Hartmann`s procedure has remained the favored option. We share our 10 years de part mental experience in complicated diverticular disease of the colon studying 146 cases with diverticular disease treated in our clinic between 2000-2010. The indications for operation were diverticulitis complications - perforation, obstructiuon and bleeding, demonstrated on clinically by generalized peritonitis - 21, acute obstruction - 4 and rectorrhagia - 2. Operation was performed in 29 patients in urgent setting. Primary resection with anastomosis was done in 12 patients (41.38%). Manual anastomoses were performed in 4 cases, while mechanical anastomoses with staplers were accomplished in 8 cases. In 6/50%/ of the latter we used our standardized technique for linear stapler latero-lateral/functional end-to-end anastomosis, formerly implemented by as for colonic cancer resections and anastomoses. We had have 2 /6.9%/ anastomosis dehiscenses. Hartmann`s procedure was per formed in 17 patients (58.62%).We did not have any complications or death with standardized stapler resections and anastomoses. Hospital operative mortality was 13.79% /4 cases/. We advocate the primary anastomosis as the standard procedure, especially for older patients. Using a standardized technique with linear stapler for primary colon resection and anastomosis in complicated diverticular disease we favor the patient`s outcome with safety, efficiency and effectiveness

Autologous blood donation in elective surgery of colorectal cancer - is it possible?

Reports from recent studies indicate a causal relationship between all transfusion, infectious complications and recurrent disease in surgical patients. The aim of the presented study is to elucidate the possibilities and indications for autologous haemotransfusion in the elective surgery of the colorectal cancer. Retrospective analysis was per formed over 724 electively operated patients with colorectal cancer. The prospective part includes observation of 20 radically operated patients. In these patients autologous haemotransfusion was per - formed. As indications for autologous haemotransfusion we consider age up to 80 years, hemoglobin levels at least 130 g/l, plasma protein > 65 g/l, body weight > 50 kg, good general condition and absence of decompensated cardiovascular or endocrine dis eases. In two patients with hemoglobin level between 90 - 110 g/l we per formed stimulation by means of Erythropoietin. According to retrospective data ad mission hemoglobin levels varies from 54 g/l to 175 g/l (mean 119 g/l ± 22, 6). From all electively operated patients 33, 9% had hemoglobin values over 130 g/l. The frequency of post-operative infectious complications increases from 9.1% in non-transfused patients to 38,7 % in patients with more than 4 units of allogenic blood trans fused. The prospective part of the study is designed to establish feasibility of the autologous haemotransfusion in clinical practice. The fall of hemoglobin values on the next day after donation varies from 11g/l to 19g/l (mean 15.5 g/l ± 2,19). Erythropoietin stimulation was not found to increase hemoglobin values significantly. There were no complications in the post-operative period in autologous haemotransfusion group with exception of one superficial wound infection. Autologous haemotransfusion is feasible in approximately 1/3 of electively operated patients with colorectal cancer with no ad verse effects or post-operative complications. It de creases the necessity of allogenic bioproducts and hence the risks related. Autologous haemotransfusion is easy to perform and propose ben e fits both from medical and logistic nature. Concerning to stimulation with Erythropoetin in our opinion it is without proven short term efficacy in general surgery so far

Conformal invariance: from Weyl to SO(2,d)

The present work deals with two different but subtilely related kinds of conformal mappings: Weyl rescaling in $d>2$ dimensional spaces and SO(2,d) transformations. We express how the difference between the two can be compensated by diffeomorphic transformations. This is well known in the framework of String Theory but in the particular case of $d=2$ spaces. Indeed, the Polyakov formalism describes world-sheets in terms of two-dimensional conformal field theory. On the other hand, B. Zumino had shown that a classical four-dimensional Weyl-invariant field theory restricted to live in Minkowski space leads to an SO(2,4)-invariant field theory. We extend Zumino's result to relate Weyl and SO(2,d) symmetries in arbitrary conformally flat spaces (CFS). This allows us to assert that a classical $SO(2,d)$-invariant field does not distinguish, at least locally, between two different $d$-dimensional CFSs.Comment: 5 pages, no figures. There are slight modifications to match with the published versio

Four Dimensional CFT Models with Rational Correlation Functions

Recently established rationality of correlation functions in a globally conformal invariant quantum field theory satisfying Wightman axioms is used to construct a family of soluble models in 4-dimensional Minkowski space-time. We consider in detail a model of a neutral scalar field $\phi$ of dimension 2. It depends on a positive real parameter c, an analogue of the Virasoro central charge, and admits for all (finite) c an infinite number of conserved symmetric tensor currents. The operator product algebra of $\phi$ is shown to coincide with a simpler one, generated by a bilocal scalar field $V(x_1,x_2)$ of dimension (1,1). The modes of V together with the unit operator span an infinite dimensional Lie algebra $L_V$ whose vacuum (i.e. zero energy lowest weight) representations only depend on the central charge c. Wightman positivity (i.e. unitarity of the representations of $L_V$) is proven to be equivalent to $c \in N$.Comment: 28 pages, LATEX, amsfonts, latexsym. Proposition 2.3, and Conjecture in Sec. 6 are revised. Minor errors are correcte

Assessing Competition in the Bulgarian Insurance Industry: A Panzar-Rosse Approach

The study assesses the competitive behavior in the Bulgarian general insurance industry by applying an empirical methodology developed by Panzar and Rosse (1987). Based on company data from insurers' balance sheets and profit and loss accounts for the period between 2005 and 2014 a reduced-form revenue equation is estimated. The information about the insurers' competitive behavior is provided by the sum of the estimated factor price elasticities, which constitute the so called H-statistic. The fixed effects panel estimation shows that the hypotheses of monopoly or collusive behavior cannot be rejected. These findings suggest that the Bulgarian insurance market is far from being perfectly competitive and may require further actions to promote its competitive development. Keywords: Market Structure, General Insurance, Panzar-Rosse Model JEL Classifications: G22, L13, L4

Ground-based optical transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-1b

Time-series spectrophotometric studies of exoplanets during transit using ground-based facilities are a promising approach to characterize their atmospheric compositions. We aim to investigate the transit spectrum of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-1b. We compare our results to those obtained at similar wavelengths by previous space-based observations. We observed two transits of HAT-P-1b with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) instrument on the Gemini North telescope using two instrument modes covering the 320 - 800 nm and 520 - 950 nm wavelength ranges. We used time-series spectrophotometry to construct transit light curves in individual wavelength bins and measure the transit depths in each bin. We accounted for systematic effects. We addressed potential photometric variability due to magnetic spots in the planet's host star with long-term photometric monitoring. We find that the resulting transit spectrum is consistent with previous Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations. We compare our observations to transit spectroscopy models that marginally favor a clear atmosphere. However, the observations are also consistent with a flat spectrum, indicating high-altitude clouds. We do not detect the Na resonance absorption line (589 nm), and our observations do not have sufficient precision to study the resonance line of K at 770 nm. We show that even a single Gemini/GMOS transit can provide constraining power on the properties of the atmosphere of HAT-P-1b to a level comparable to that of HST transit studies in the optical when the observing conditions and target and reference star combination are suitable. Our 520 - 950 nm observations reach a precision comparable to that of HST transit spectra in a similar wavelength range of the same hot Jupiter, HAT-P-1b. However, our GMOS transit between 320 - 800 nm suffers from strong systematic effects and yields larger uncertainties.Comment: A&A, accepted, 16 pages, 8 figures, 5 table