Intra-varietal diversity in landrace and modern variety of rice and buckwheat

The increased intra-varietal diversity has been considered as coping mechanism against unpredictable environmental factors in crop production. Relatively the risk of crop failure is minimum in landraces than in modern variety mainly because of homogenous population in modern variety. The diversity was estimated and compared between landrace and modern variety of rice and common buckwheat in both quantitative and qualitative traits. Three landraces and three modern varieties of rice were used as self-pollinated crop and experiment was conducted in Jumla. Common buckwheat was used as cross pollinated crop in Kabre consisted of nine landraces and one modern variety. These two experiments were unreplicated and variation was measured at population level. Standard deviation, coefficient of variation and Shannon’ diversity index were estimated and variation between landraces and modern varieties was tested using F-test. Dendogram was drawn considering all observed traits for both the crops. In case of rice, variation was higher in landraces than in modern varieties for most of the traits. Variation for majority of the traits was also higher in landraces than in modern varieties of common buckwheat. This higher level of intra-varietal diversity in landraces of both crops might be the major phenomenon to have increased capacity to cope with different environmental stresses. The level of variation in both landraces and modern varieties is trait specific, in some traits, landraces showed higher intra-varietal diversity. The higher level of intra-varietal diversity should be considered for resilient production system and favorable policy environment should be created to promote the use of such diversity

Selective cutoff reporting in studies of the accuracy of the Patient Health Questionnaire‐9 and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale: comparison of results based on published cutoffs versus all cutoffs using individual participant data meta‐analysis

Objectives Selectively reported results from only well-performing cutoffs in diagnostic accuracy studies may bias estimates in meta-analyses. We investigated cutoff reporting patterns for the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9; standard cutoff 10) and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS; no standard cutoff, commonly used 10–13) and compared accuracy estimates based on published cutoffs versus all cutoffs. Methods We conducted bivariate random effects meta-analyses using individual participant data to compare accuracy from published versus all cutoffs. Results For the PHQ-9 (30 studies, N = 11,773), published results underestimated sensitivity for cutoffs below 10 (median difference: −0.06) and overestimated for cutoffs above 10 (median difference: 0.07). EPDS (19 studies, N = 3637) sensitivity estimates from published results were similar for cutoffs below 10 (median difference: 0.00) but higher for cutoffs above 13 (median difference: 0.14). Specificity estimates from published and all cutoffs were similar for both tools. The mean cutoff of all reported cutoffs in PHQ-9 studies with optimal cutoff below 10 was 8.8 compared to 11.8 for those with optimal cutoffs above 10. Mean for EPDS studies with optimal cutoffs below 10 was 9.9 compared to 11.8 for those with optimal cutoffs greater than 10. Conclusion Selective cutoff reporting was more pronounced for the PHQ-9 than EPDS

Intrathecal morphine does not prevent chronic postsurgical pain after elective Caesarean delivery: a randomised controlled trial

Background: Morphine is frequently added to spinal anaesthesia for Caesarean delivery. We aimed to determine whetherintrathecal morphine for spinal anaesthesia decreases the risk of chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP).Methods: In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 290 healthy parturients undergoing electiveCaesarean delivery were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive either intrathecal morphine 100 mg (n 145) or normalsaline (control; n 145) as a part of spinal anaesthesia. Anaesthetic care and postoperative pain management werestandardised in all patients. The primary outcome was the incidence of CPSP at 3 months. Secondary outcomes includedCPSP at 6 months, pain severity, and pain interference, measured by the Brief Pain Inventory questionnaire using an 11-point numeric rating scale, at 3 and 6 months after the surgery.Results: Two hundred and seventy-six patients completed the 3-month follow-up, 139 in the morphine group and 137 inthe placebo group. The incidences of CPSP at 3 months were 19% (27 of 139) in the morphine group and 18% (25 of 137) inthe placebo group (odds ratio, 1.08; 95% confidence interval, 0.59e1.97; P 0.803). At 6 months, CPSP was present in 23 of139 (16%) morphine group patients compared with 19 of 137 (14%) in the placebo group (odds ratio, 1.23; 95% confidenceinterval, 0.63e2.38; P 0.536). Brief Pain Inventory questionnaire scores for pain severity and pain interference at 3 and 6months were similar between groups.Conclusions: Administration of morphine 100 mg as a component of spinal anaesthesia for elective Caesarean deliveryfailed to reduce the incidence of chronic pain at 3 and 6 months after surgery.Perioperative Medicine: Efficacy, Safety and Outcome (Anesthesiology/Intensive Care

Planck early results. II. The thermal performance of Planck

The performance of the Planck instruments in space is enabled by their low operating temperatures, 20 K for LFI and 0.1 K for HFI, achieved through a combination of passive radiative cooling and three active mechanical coolers. The scientific requirement for very broad frequency coverage led to two detector technologies with widely different temperature and cooling needs. Active coolers could satisfy these needs; a helium cryostat, as used by previous cryogenic space missions (IRAS, COBE, ISO, Spitzer, AKARI), could not. Radiative cooling is provided by three V-groove radiators and a large telescope baffle. The active coolers are a hydrogen sorption cooler (<20 K), a 4He Joule-Thomson cooler (4.7 K), and a 3He-4He dilution cooler (1.4 K and 0.1 K). The flight system was at ambient temperature at launch and cooled in space to operating conditions. The HFI bolometer plate reached 93 mK on 3 July 2009, 50 days after launch. The solar panel always faces the Sun, shadowing the rest of Planck, and operates at a mean temperature of 384 K. At the other end of the spacecraft, the telescope baffle operates at 42.3 K and the telescope primary mirror operates at 35.9 K. The temperatures of key parts of the instruments are stabilized by both active and passive methods. Temperature fluctuations are driven by changes in the distance from the Sun, sorption cooler cycling and fluctuations in gas-liquid flow, and fluctuations in cosmic ray flux on the dilution and bolometer plates. These fluctuations do not compromise the science data

Search for leptophobic Z ' bosons decaying into four-lepton final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Search for black holes and other new phenomena in high-multiplicity final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe

Search for high-mass diphoton resonances in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV and combination with 8 TeV search

Peer reviewe

Search for heavy resonances decaying into a vector boson and a Higgs boson in final states with charged leptons, neutrinos, and b quarks

Peer reviewe