Comparing Two Surgical Outcomes: Minithoracotomy or Full Sternotomy in Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Surgery

Cardiovascular diseases and heart-related conditions can be life-threatening; however, some cardiovascular conditions can be managed with open heart surgery. Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is the most common type of heart surgery performed on adults. There are two different surgical procedures to correct cardiac defects: mini-thoracotomy and full sternotomy. Mini thoracotomy approach has been shown to reduce complications, such as pneumonia, excessive blood loss, and infection in mitral valve repair surgeries. However, little research has been done to compare these two surgical approaches performed for patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Specifically, there is inadequate data to compare these two surgical approaches in relation to length of stay and duration of ventilator use. The purpose of this study was to compare the surgical outcomes of mini-thoracotomy and full sternotomy in patients undergoing CABG surgeries. A retrospective chart review was conducted from an archival data (2010 to 2016) in patients undergoing CABG surgeries with either a mini-thoracotomy or full sternotomy approach. Included were patients with coronary artery blockages who required CABG surgeries. A one-way ANOVA and independent sample t-test were used for statistical analysis. Results showed that, there was no significant difference in days of hospitalization in those receiving mini-thoracotomy (M= 10.75, SD=10.25) as compared to those who receiving full- sternotomy (M=11.91, SD= 10.03), F (1,537) = 1.17, p = .23.There was no significant difference in number of hours of ventilation time for mini thoracotomy (M= 13.62, SD= 17.58) and full sternotomy (M= 22.33, SD= 95.96), F (1,537) = .90, p=.34. As the length of hospitalization and duration of ventilation did not differ in both surgical approaches, we can conclude that mini-thoracotomy was very comparable to full-sternotomy in these two areas for patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting

Investigation of the biosynthesis of exopolysaccharides within the biofilm matrix of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiea : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Genetics at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

Polysaccharides are highly abundant natural biopolymers, which have biologically significant structural functions in living organisms. Various polysaccharides, with specific physicochemical properties, contribute to biofilm formation; defined as cell aggregations surrounded by extracellular polymeric substances. They are also important in the context of bacterial pathogenesis, while some have been harnessed for industrial and biomedical applications due to their unique chemical compositions and properties. In present study, we aimed at studying biofilm formation by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and P. syringae pv. actinidiae, respectively known as human and plant pathogens. In this context we focused on the production of exopolysaccharides, which predominantly constitute the biofilm matrix of these pathogenic bacteria. Here, we uncovered that the polysaccharide isolated from P. syringae pv. actinidiae biofilm mainly consists of rhamnose, fucose and glucose and it was cautiously introduced as a novel polysaccharide. In the context of disease control, and developing a management program, we provided some evidences for the effectiveness of chlorine dioxide and kasugamycin in the control of the bacteria living in both biofilm and planktonic modes. Furthermore, we investigated alginate biosynthesis as major polysaccharide contributing to mucoid biofilm formation by P. aeruginosa. We generated various mutants producing a variety of alginates with different chemical compositions. Also, this enabled us to analyse functional relationships of protein subunits involved in multiple steps of alginate biosynthesis including alginate polymerization, modification and secretion. We present evidence that while alginate unravelled that while alginate is polymerised and translocated across the membrane by a multiprotein complex, acetylation and epimerisation events positively and negatively correlated with the polymerization of the alginate or molecular mass, respectively. Analysis of the biofilms showed that biofilm architecture and cell-to-cell interactions were differently impacted by various compositions of the alginates. Also, this study provided insights into the c-di-GMP mediated activation of alginate polymerization upon binding to c-di-GMP as well as assigning functional roles to Alg8 and Alg44 including their subcellular localization and distribution. Here, we also used current knowledge of the alginate biosynthesis pathway to assess the production of alginate from biotechnologically accepted heterologous hosts including Escherichia coli and Bacillus megaterium strains. Primarily, we evaluated the production and functionality of the minimal protein requirements in nonpathogenic heterologous hosts, required for producing alginate precursor, and proceeding into polymerization and secretion steps. Overall, we concluded that polysaccharides play a major role in the formation of bacterial biofilms while chemical composition is a key determinant for biofilm architecture and development. This contribution to understanding the biosynthesis of bacterial polysaccharides and their properties could provide the necessary knowledge not only for developing novel therapeutics, but also for harnessing such biopolymers for various industrial applications and production via biotechnological procedures

Gendering global governance

In this article I map out the major debates on global governance and the feminist critiques of the mainstream interventions in these debates. I argue that the shift from government to governance is a response to the needs of a gendered global capitalist economy and is shaped by struggles, both discursive and material, against the unfolding consequences of globalization. I suggest feminist interrogations of the concept, processes, practices and mechanisms of governance and the insights that develop from them should be centrally incorporated into critical revisionist and radical discourses of and against the concept of global governance. However, I also examine the challenges that the concept of global governance poses for feminist political practice, which are both of scholarship and of activism as feminists struggle to address the possibilities and politics of alternatives to the current regimes of governance. I conclude by suggesting that feminist political practice needs to focus on the politics of redistribution in the context of global governance

On the Separation of Lossy Source-Network Coding and Channel Coding in Wireline Networks

This paper proves the separation between source-network coding and channel coding in networks of noisy, discrete, memoryless channels. We show that the set of achievable distortion matrices in delivering a family of dependent sources across such a network equals the set of achievable distortion matrices for delivering the same sources across a distinct network which is built by replacing each channel by a noiseless, point-to-point bit-pipe of the corresponding capacity. Thus a code that applies source-network coding across links that are made almost lossless through the application of independent channel coding across each link asymptotically achieves the optimal performance across the network as a whole.Comment: 5 pages, to appear in the proceedings of 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT