Video assisted thoracic surgery for treatment of pneumothorax and lung resections: systematic review of randomised clinical trials

<b>Objectives</b> To determine if video assisted thoracic surgery is associated with better clinical outcomes than thoracotomy for three common procedures: surgery for pneumothorax, minor resections, and lobectomy. <b>Design</b> Systematic review of randomised clinical trials. <b>Data sources</b> Medline, Embase, Cochrane database of systematic reviews, Cochrane controlled trials register. Reference lists of relevant articles and reviews. <b>Methods</b> Criteria for inclusion were random allocation of patients and no concurrent use of another experimental medication or device. At least two authors performed and confirmed data abstraction and analyses. Information on quality of trials, demographics, frequency of the events, and numbers randomised were collected. <b>Results</b> 12 trials randomised 670 patients. Video assisted thoracic surgery was associated with shorter length of stay (reduction ranged from 1.0 to 4.2 days) and less pain or use of pain medication than thoracotomy in the five out of seven trials in which the technique was used for pneumothorax or minor lung resection. In the treatment of pneumothorax, video assisted thoracic surgery was associated with substantially fewer recurrences than pleural drainage in two trials (from 20 to 53 events prevented per 100 treated patients). No substantial advantages were observed for video assisted thoracic surgery in lobectomies. <b>Conclusions</b> Video assisted thoracic surgery is associated with better outcomes and seems to have a complication profile comparable with that of thoracotomy for the treatment of pneumothorax and minor resections. As for lobectomy, further studies are needed to determine how it compares with thoracotomy

Increasing weaning age of piglets from 4 to 7 weeks reduces stress, increases post-weaning feed intake but does not improve intestinal functionality

This study tested the hypothesis that late weaning and the availability of creep feed during the suckling period compared with early weaning, improves feed intake, decreases stress and improves the integrity of the intestinal tract. In this study with 160 piglets of 16 litters, late weaning at 7 weeks of age was compared with early weaning at 4 weeks, with or without creep feeding during the suckling period, on post-weaning feed intake, plasma cortisol (as an indicator of stress) and plasma intestinal fatty acid binding protein (I-FABP; a marker for mild intestinal injury) concentrations, intestinal morphology, intestinal (macro)molecular permeability and intestinal fluid absorption as indicators of small intestinal integrity. Post-weaning feed intake was similar in piglets weaned at 4 weeks and offered creep feed or not, but higher (P <0.001) in piglets weaned at 7 weeks with a higher (P <0.05) intake for piglets offered creep feed compared with piglets from whom creep feed was witheld. Plasma cortisol response at the day of weaning was lower in piglets weaned at 7 weeks compared with piglets weaned at 4 weeks, and creep feed did not affect cortisol concentration. Plasma I-FABP concentration was not affected by the age of weaning and creep feeding. Intestinal (macro)molecular permeability was not affected by the age of weaning and creep feeding. Both in uninfected and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli-infected small intestinal segments net fluid absorption was not affected by the age of weaning or creep feeding. Creep feeding, but not the age of weaning, resulted in higher villi and increased crypt depth. In conclusion, weaning at 7 weeks of age in combination with creep feeding improves post-weaning feed intake and reduces weaning stress but does not improve functional characteristics of the small intestinal mucos

Accounting standaarden als governance mechanisme

Binnen ondernemingen worden diverse maatregelen genomen ten einde het behoorlijk bestuur en de rapportering naar de belangenpartijen te verbeteren. Er wordt echter vaak vergeten dat de kwaliteit van de informatie die een investeerder krijgt, ook mede bepaald wordt door de gebruikte boekhoudstandaard. In deze studie worden de twee boekhoudstandaarden, die wedijveren om de status van wereldstandaard met elkaar vergeleken. De resultaten tonen aan dat financiële informatie een hogere informatiewaarde heeft wanneer ze opgesteld is volgens USGAAP dan IFRS. Dit kan mogelijk verklaard worden door de kenmerken van de standaarden op zich, de institutionele omgeving en de afwezigheid van één toezichtsorgaan voor IFRS, zoals de SEC voor USGAAP.

Beastly Bureaucracy\u27 Animal Traceability, Identification and Labeling in EU Law

This contribution discusses animal traceability, identification and labeling requirements in European Union (EU) law. The requirements are lex specialis to more general requirements in EU food law. The aim is to set out this body of EU law and provide some understanding regarding its background. Along with the article by Margaret Rosso Grossman, it enables the reader to compare the EU system to the United States system

Surface acoustic wave modulation of single photon emission from GaN/InGaN nanowire quantum dots

On-chip quantum information processing requires controllable quantum light sources that can be operated on-demand at high-speeds and with the possibility of in-situ control of the photon emission wavelength and its optical polarization properties. Here, we report on the dynamic control of the optical emission from core-shell GaN/InGaN nanowire (NW) heterostructures using radio frequency surface acoustic waves (SAWs). The SAWs are excited on the surface of a piezoelectric lithium niobate crystal equipped with a SAW delay line onto which the NWs were mechanically transferred. Luminescent quantum dot (QD)-like exciton localization centers induced by compositional fluctuations within the InGaN nanoshell were identified using stroboscopic micro-photoluminescence (micro-PL) spectroscopy. They exhibit narrow and almost fully linearly polarized emission lines in the micro-PL spectra and a pronounced anti-bunching signature of single photon emission in the photon correlation experiments. When the nanowire is perturbed by the propagating SAW, the embedded QD is periodically strained and its excitonic transitions are modulated by the acousto-mechanical coupling, giving rise to a spectral fine-tuning within a ~1.5 meV bandwidth at the acoustic frequency of ~330 MHz. This outcome can be further combined with spectral detection filtering for temporal control of the emitted photons. The effect of the SAW piezoelectric field on the QD charge population and on the optical polarization degree is also observed. The advantage of the acousto-optoelectric over other control schemes is that it allows in-situ manipulation of the optical emission properties over a wide frequency range (up to GHz frequencies).Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1902.0791

Actuele ontwikkeling van resultaten en inkomens in de land- en tuinbouw in 2009

Dit rapport geeft zicht op het economisch resultaat van agrarische bedrijfstypen en van de gehele land- en tuinbouw. Voor diverse typen worden ramingen van de resultaten in 2009 gepresenteerd. Daarnaast wordt een analyse gegeven van de uitkomsten van groepen bedrijven uit het Bedrijven-Informatienet tot 2008. Zo worden van bedrijven in de veehouderij, akkerbouw en tuinbouw de opbrengsten, kosten, rentabiliteit en inkomen gepresenteerd. Ook wordt van enkele bedrijfstypen de spreiding in de inkomens en de ontwikkeling van vermogen en investeringen uiteengezet. Voor de gehele land- en tuinbouw wordt voor 2009 de productiewaarde, de netto toegevoegde waarde en het inkomen geraamd

Actuele ontwikkeling van resultaten en inkomens in de land- en tuinbouw in 2011

De Nederlandse land- en tuinbouw behaalt in 2011 een lager inkomensresultaat dan in voorgaand jaar. Binnen de agrarische sector zijn de verschillen dit jaar erg groot

Over den bouw en de periodieke ontwikkeling der bloemknoppen bij Coffea-soorten

In regions with abundant rainfall coffee shows a flowering rhythm quite different from that in regions with distinct dry and wet periods. Some species and varieties flower only on the first-year wood, other ones also on the older wood. In some flowering lasts much of the year, other bloom heavily for only a short time. To find whether these differences already appear in the origin of the flowers, descriptions were made of the morphology and development of the branch system, the inflorescence and the flower with Coffea canephora P. var. robusta Linden and C. macrochlamys K. Sch. var. excelsa A. Chev., and besides of the structure of the inflorescence of C. arabica L. The structure of the inflorescence of Coffea L. was shown to derive from the structure of the vegetative parts of the plant. Eight stages could be distinguished in the development of the vegetative points of third degree into flowers.Between the periodicity of floral initiation on primary side-branches of some Coffea L. spp. and the periodicity of wet and dry periods, different relations were found for different species and varieties, but in the second half of a dry period flowers never arose. Constantly wet regions gave robust plants with few flowers and so smaller yields than regions with periodic drought giving thinner plants with many flowers. Much useful literature on flowering was reviewed

Simulating the impact of centralization of prostate cancer surgery services on travel burden and equity in the English National Health Service: A national population based model for health service re-design.

INTRODUCTION: There is limited evidence on the impact of centralization of cancer treatment services on patient travel burden and access to treatment. Using prostate cancer surgery as an example, this national study analysis aims to simulate the effect of different centralization scenarios on the number of center closures, patient travel times, and equity in access. METHODS: We used patient-level data on all men (n = 19,256) undergoing radical prostatectomy in the English National Health Service between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2014, and considered three scenarios for centralization of prostate cancer surgery services A: procedure volume, B: availability of specialized services, and C: optimization of capacity. The probability of patients travelling to each of the remaining centers in the choice set was predicted using a conditional logit model, based on preferences revealed through actual hospital selections. Multivariable linear regression analysed the impact on travel time according to patient characteristics. RESULTS: Scenarios A, B, and C resulted in the closure of 28, 24, and 37 of the 65 radical prostatectomy centers, respectively, affecting 3993 (21%), 5763 (30%), and 7896 (41%) of the men in the study. Despite similar numbers of center closures the expected average increase on travel time was very different for scenario B (+15 minutes) and A (+28 minutes). A distance minimization approach, assigning patients to their next nearest center, with patient preferences not considered, estimated a lower impact on travel burden in all scenarios. The additional travel burden on older, sicker, less affluent patients was evident, but where significant, the absolute difference was very small. CONCLUSION: The study provides an innovative simulation approach using national patient-level datasets, patient preferences based on actual hospital selections, and personal characteristics to inform health service planning. With this approach, we demonstrated for prostate cancer surgery that three different centralization scenarios would lead to similar number of center closures but to different increases in patient travel time, whilst all having a minimal impact on equity