Early feeding after free flap reconstruction for oral cancer.

Traditionally, after resection of oral cancer and free flap reconstruction, patients are given nothing by mouth for between 6 and 12 days to allow adequate time for healing and to reduce the risk of dehiscence. To assess the impact of early oral feeding after operation we retrospectively reviewed 10 consecutive patients who had had surgical resection and free flap reconstruction for oral cancer. Details recorded included histopathological findings, stage and site of the primary tumour, and type of reconstruction. Data on the duration of tracheostomy, commencement of clear fluids and diet, complications, and duration of hospital stay, were also recorded. Half of the patients were able to tolerate clear fluids orally by the first postoperatively day and the remaining half by the second. By the fourth day, 8 could manage a pureed diet. There were no complications. A mean duration of hospital stay of 11 days (range 5-16) compared favourably with previous studies. Early oral feeding was not associated with any increased morbidity or adverse outcome. A shorter hospital stay may favour the adoption of an improved recovery programme as seen in other surgical specialties.

Case report: overnight hospital stay for minimally invasive bilateral total hip arthroplasty.

Bilateral total hip arthroplasty was performed on a 58-year-old man. He was successfully discharged home from hospital the following morning, 23 hours post surgery. A direct anterior, minimally invasive approach was used which avoided detachment of hip musculature. Preoperative assessment was carried out, with early multidisciplinary team input. Modified anaesthetic techniques with an ambulatory pain pump were employed. Follow-up in the community was carried out by an outreach team. All these factors were important in a successful early supported discharge. We believe this to be the first such case reported.

Antievolutionism in the Antipodes: from protesting evolution to promoting creationism in New Zealand.

Like other English-speaking peoples around the world, New Zealanders began debating Darwinism in the early 1860s, shortly after the publication of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species. Despite the opposition of some religious and political leaders - and even the odd scientist - biological evolution made deep inroads in a culture that increasingly identified itself as secular. The introduction of pro-evolution curricula and radio broadcasts provoked occasional antievolution outbursts, but creationism remained more an object of ridicule than a threat until the last decades of the twentieth century, when first American and then Australian creationists began fomenting antievolutionism among New Zealanders. Although Stephen Jay Gould assured them in 1986 that they had little to fear from so-called scientific creationism, because it was a 'peculiarly American' phenomenon, scientific creationism by the mid-1990s had captured the allegiance of an estimated five per cent of the country and proved especially attractive to Maori and Pacific Islanders. In 1992 New Zealand creationists formed their own antievolution society, Creation Science (NZ).

The retention of large particles (greater than 2mum) in fibrous filters.

A simple method of testing fibrous filters to obtain the grade efficiency curve in the particle size range 2-22 mum is described. Dust collected by the method has been used to measure the retention efficency of model filters and it is shown that there is a maximun in the grade efficency curve. The influence of relative humidity on filter behaviour has been investigated. It is shown that the efficiency of filtration in high particle inertia systems increases with increasing relative humidity. It is considered that the reason for this is an increase in particle-fiber adhesion force.

Dust loading characteristics of high inertial fibrous filters.

The dust retention efficiency of a model fibrous filter operated in the high inertia regime has been measured over the size range 2-22 micrometer. The results of a program to measure the influence of loading on grade efficiency are reported. It is shown that the efficiency of particle retention increases with loading initially, then falls off as the filter becomes loaded to its maximum capacity. The effect of test dust feed size distribution has also been investigated. Under some circumstances this parameter may have a critical effect on the overall efficiency. The mechanisms responsible for the observed behavior are described and their implications in fibrous filtration discussed.

Similarity of maize and sorghum genomes as revealed by maize RFLP probes.

Densely saturated genetic maps of neutral genetic markers are a prerequisite either for plant breeding programs to improve quantitative traits in crops or for evolutionary studies. cDNA and genomic clones from maize were utilized to initiate the construction of a RFLP linkage map in Sorghum bicolor. To this purpose, an F2 population was produced from starting parental lines IS 18729 (USA) and IS 24756 (Nigeria) that were differentiated with regard to many morphological and agronomical traits. A total of 159 maize clones were hybridized to the genomic DNA of the two parents in order to detect polymorphism: 154 probes hybridized to sorghum and 58 out of these were polymorphic. In almost all of the cases hybridization patterns were similar between maize and sorghum. The analysis of the segregation of 35 polymorphic clones in an F2 population of 149 individuals yielded five linkage groups. The three principal ones recall regions of maize chromosomes 1, 3 and 5: in general, colinearity was maintained. A possible inversion, involving a long region of maize chromosome 3, was detected. Simulations were also performed to empirically obtain a value for the lowest number of individuals of the F2 population needed to obtain the same linkage data.