The effects of bariatric surgery on cardiac function: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Obesity is associated with alterations in cardiac structure and haemodynamics leading to cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. Culminating evidence suggests improvement of cardiac structure and function following bariatric surgery. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of bariatric surgery on cardiac structure and function in patients before and after bariatric surgery. METHODS: Systematic review and meta-analysis of studies reporting pre- and postoperative cardiac structure and function parameters on cardiac imaging in patients undergoing bariatric surgery. RESULTS: Eighty studies of 3332 patients were included. Bariatric surgery is associated with a statistically significant improvement in cardiac geometry and function including a decrease of 12.2% (95% CI 0.096-0.149; p < 0.001) in left ventricular (LV) mass index, an increase of 0.155 (95% CI 0.106-0.205; p < 0.001) in E/A ratio, a decrease of 2.012 mm (95% CI 1.356-2.699; p < 0.001) in left atrial diameter, a decrease of 1.16 mm (95% CI 0.62-1.69; p < 0.001) in LV diastolic dimension, and an increase of 1.636% (95% CI 0.706-2.566; p < 0.001) in LV ejection fraction after surgery. CONCLUSION: Bariatric surgery led to reverse remodelling and improvement in cardiac geometry and function driven by metabolic and haemodynamic factors.

Long-term oncological outcomes of 3D versus 2D laparoscopic gastrectomy for gastric cancer: a randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy (LG) is rapidly gaining popularity owing to its minimal invasiveness. Previous studies have found that compared with two-dimensional (2D)-LG, three-dimensional (3D)-LG showed better short-term outcomes. However, the long-term oncological outcomes in patients with locally resectable gastric cancer (GC) remain controversial. METHODS: In this noninferiority, open-label, randomized clinical trial, a total of 438 eligible GC participants were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to either 3D-LG or 2D-LG from January 2015 to April 2016. The primary endpoint was operating time, while the secondary endpoints included 5-year overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and recurrence pattern. RESULTS: Data from 401 participants were included in the per-protocol analysis, with 204 patients in the 3D group and 197 patients in the 2D group. The 5-year OS and DFS rates were comparable between the 3D and 2D groups (5-year OS: 70.6% vs. 71.1%, Log-rank P = 0.743; 5-year DFS: 68.1% vs. 69.0%, log-rank P = 0.712). No significant differences were observed between the 3D and 2D groups in the 5-year recurrence rate (28.9% vs. 28.9%, P = 0.958) or recurrence time (mean time, 22.6 vs. 20.5 months, P = 0.412). Further stratified analysis based on the type of gastrectomy, postoperative pathological staging, and preoperative BMI showed that the 5-year OS, DFS, and recurrence rates of the 3D group in each subgroup were similar to those of the 2D group (all P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: For patients with locally resectable GC, 3D-LG performed by experienced surgeons in high-volume professional institutions can achieve long-term oncological outcomes comparable to those of 2D-LG. REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02327481 ( http://clinicaltrials.gov ).

Robot-assisted versus laparoscopic-assisted gastrectomy among malnourished patients with gastric cancer based on textbook outcome.

BACKGROUND: Textbook outcome (TO) has been widely employed as a comprehensive indicator to assess the short-term prognosis of patients with cancer. Preoperative malnutrition is a potential risk factor for adverse surgical outcomes in patients with gastric cancer (GC). This study aimed to compare the TO between robotic-assisted gastrectomy (RAG) and laparoscopic-assisted gastrectomy (LAG) in malnourished patients with GC. METHODS: According to the diagnostic consensus of malnutrition proposed by Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) and Nutrition Risk Index (NRI), 895 malnourished patients with GC who underwent RAG (n = 115) or LAG (n = 780) at a tertiary referral hospital between January 2016 and May 2021 were included in the propensity score matching (PSM, 1:2) analysis. RESULTS: After PSM, no significant differences in clinicopathological characteristics were observed between the RAG (n = 97) and LAG (n = 194) groups. The RAG group had significantly higher operative time and lymph nodes harvested, as well as significantly lower blood loss and hospital stay time compared to the LAG group. More patients in the RAG achieved TO. Logistic regression analysis revealed that RAG was an independent protective factor for achieving TO. There were more adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) cycles in the RAG group than in the LAG group. After one year of surgery, a higher percentage of patients (36.7% vs. 22.8%; P < 0.05) in the RAG group recovered from malnutrition compared to the LAG group. CONCLUSIONS: For malnourished patients with GC, RAG performed by experienced surgeons can achieved a higher rate of TO than those of LAG, which directly contributed to better AC compliance and a faster restoration of nutritional status.

Patient-Reported Outcomes of Individuals with Gastric Cancer Undergoing Totally Laparoscopic Versus Laparoscopic-Assisted Total Gastrectomy: A Real-World, Propensity Score-Matching Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: Totally laparoscopic total gastrectomy (TLTG) and laparoscopic-assisted total gastrectomy (LATG) are two types of minimally invasive radical gastrectomy procedures to treat gastric cancer (GC). This study compared the long-term prognosis and postoperative health-related quality of life (HRQoL) between TLTG and LATG. METHODS: A total of 106 patients who underwent TLTG and 1,076 patients who underwent LATG at the Union Hospital of Fujian Medical University (Fuzhou, China) between January 2014 and April 2018 were included in the propensity score matching (PSM, 1:2). Patient-reported outcomes at 3, 6, and 12 months after gastrectomy were analyzed. The questionnaire referred to the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) 30-item core QoL (QLQ-C30)and the GC module (QLQ-STO22) questionnaire. RESULTS: After PSM, there were no significant differences in clinicopathological characteristics between the TLTG (n = 104) and the LATG groups (n = 208). Operative time and volume of blood loss were significantly lower in the TLTG group than in the LATG group. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed similar 3-year survival rates between the TLTG and LATG groups (83.7 vs. 80.3%, respectively; P = 0.462). Tolerance to nonliquid diet, decrease in body weight, and albumin levels were also significantly lower in the TLTG group than in the LATG group (all P < 0.05). The HRQoL scale demonstrated that the overall score in the TLTG group was better than that in the LATG group at 3, 6, and 12 months after gastrectomy (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with GC undergoing TLTG reported better HRQoL and experienced faster recovery of social function than those undergoing LATG, although the two groups demonstrated similar short-term outcomes and long-term prognosis.

Skin-specific mechanisms of body fluid regulation in hypertension.

Increasing evidence suggests excess skin Na+ accumulation in hypertension; however, the role of skin-specific mechanisms of local Na+/water regulation remains unclear. We investigated the association between measures of sweat and trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL) with Na+ content in the skin ([Na+]skin) and clinical characteristics in consecutive hypertensive patients. We obtained an iontophoretic pilocarpine-induced sweat sample, a skin punch biopsy for chemical analysis, and measures of TEWL from the upper limbs. Serum vascular endothelial growth factor-c (VEGF-c) and a reflectance measure of haemoglobin skin content served as surrogates of skin microvasculature. In our cohort (n = 90; age 21-86 years; females = 49%), sweat composition was independent of sex and BMI. Sweat Na+ concentration ([Na+]sweat) inversely correlated with [K+]sweat and was higher in patients on ACEIs/ARBs (P < 0.05). A positive association was found between [Na+]sweat and [Na+]skin, independent of sex, BMI, estimated Na+ intake and use of ACEi/ARBs (Padjusted = 0.025); both closely correlated with age (P < 0.01). Office DBP, but not SBP, inversely correlated with [Na+]sweat independent of other confounders (Padjusted = 0.03). Total sweat volume and Na+ loss were lower in patients with uncontrolled office BP (Padjusted < 0.005 for both); sweat volume also positively correlated with serum VEGF-c and TEWL. Lower TEWL was paralleled by lower skin haemoglobin content, which increased less after vasodilatory pilocarpine stimulation when BMI was higher (P = 0.010). In conclusion, measures of Na+ and water handling/regulation in the skin were associated with relevant clinical characteristics, systemic Na+ status and blood pressure values, suggesting a potential role of the skin in body-fluid homeostasis and therapeutic targeting of hypertension.

Fault logic and data-driven model for operation reliability analysis of the flap deflection angle.

To effectively perform the reliability analysis of the flap deflection angle, the reliability analysis framework is developed by introducing fault logic and a data-driven model. Herein, the fault logic analysis is used to study the fault mechanism and filter out the characteristic fault parameters that can be used to collect input data for data-driven modelling; the data-driven modelling is employed to establish a reliability analysis model with a small amount of input data. Under this proposed framework, the improved dung beetle optimization algorithm for back propagation (IDBO-BP) method is developed to perform the reliability modelling of the flap deflection angle. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, we study the fault logic of flap symmetry and establish a surrogate model of flap deflection based on the fault parameters and the IDBO-BP algorithm. According to the predicted results of the flap deflection angle, the reliability model based on the fault mechanism can reflect the actual flap motion. At the same time, the proposed IDBO-BP algorithm has excellent modelling and simulation property by comparing with other optimization algorithms. Thus, the efforts of this study provide a new solution to the problem of reliable analysis with uncertain fault parameters. This article is part of the theme issue 'Physics-informed machine learning and its structural integrity applications (Part 1)'.

Reciprocity between lymphadenectomy quality and adjuvant chemotherapy compliance in gastric cancer: post hoc analysis of two randomized controlled trials.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of intraoperative lymph node (LN) dissection and postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy on the overall survival (OS) of gastric cancer (GC) patients and their reciprocity. METHODS: LN noncompliance was defined as the absence of more than one LN station, as described in the protocol for D2 lymphadenectomy in the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association. The definition of adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) noncompliance was that the chemotherapy planned dose does not meet the requirements. RESULTS: Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that the OS of patients with major LN noncompliance was significantly lower than that of patients with nonmajor LN noncompliance, and the OS of AC noncompliance patients was significantly lower than that of AC compliance patients. If there was nonmajor LN noncompliance during surgery, the OS of patients with AC compliance was significantly higher than that of patients with AC noncompliance (P = 0.035). In the case of major LN noncompliance during surgery, there was no statistically significant difference in OS between those with AC compliance and those with AC noncompliance (P = 0.682). Multivariate Cox regression analysis including AC noncompliance indicated that major LN noncompliance was an independent prognostic factor for poor OS (P = 0.012), while AC noncompliance was not an independent prognostic factor for OS (P = 0.609). CONCLUSION: Adequate lymph node dissection and adjuvant chemotherapy are both key steps to improve the awful prognosis of GC patients. Adjuvant chemotherapy may fail to remedy the poor prognosis caused by major LN noncompliance.

Intragenic heterochromatin-mediated alternative polyadenylation modulates miRNA and pollen development in rice.

Despite a much higher proportion of intragenic heterochromatin-containing genes in crop genomes, the importance of intragenic heterochromatin in crop development remains unclear. Intragenic heterochromatin can be recognised by a protein complex, ASI1-AIPP1-EDM2 (AAE) complex, to regulate alternative polyadenylation. Here, we investigated the impact of rice ASI1 on global poly(A) site usage through poly(A) sequencing and ASI1-dependent regulation on rice development. We found that OsASI1 is essential for rice pollen development and flowering. OsASI1 dysfunction has an important impact on global poly(A) site usage, which is closely related to heterochromatin marks. Intriguingly, OsASI1 interacts with the intronic heterochromatin of OsXRNL, a nuclear XRN family exonuclease gene involved in the processing of an miRNA precursor, to promote the processing of full-length OsXRNL and regulate miRNA abundance. We found that OsASI1-mediated regulation of pollen development partially depends on OsXRNL. Finally, we characterised the rice AAE complex and its involvement in alternative polyadenylation and pollen development. Our findings help to elucidate an epigenetic mechanism governing miRNA abundance and rice development, and provide a valuable resource for studying the epigenetic mechanisms of many important processes in crops.

Career choice and influential factors among medical students majoring in psychiatry in China.

BACKGROUND: The undergraduate program of psychiatry has been widely established in recent years to improve the education and recruitment of psychiatrists in China. We aim to investigate the career choice of medical students majoring in psychiatry in China and the influential factors. METHOD: This multicenter study was conducted in 26 medical schools in China from May to October of 2019. Participants included 4610 medical students majoring in psychiatry and 3857 medical students majoring in clinical medicine. Multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate the influential factors of students' choices of psychiatry at matriculation and as a career. RESULTS: 44.08% of psychiatry majored students gave psychiatry as a first choice at matriculation, and 56.67% of them would choose psychiatry as a career, which was in sharp contrast to the proportion of clinical medicine majored students who would choose psychiatry as a career (0.69%). Personal interest (59.61%), suggestions from family members (27.96%), and experiencing mental problems (23.19%) were main reasons for choosing psychiatry major at matriculation. Personal interest (odds ratio [OR] = 2.12, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.87-2.40), experiencing a psychiatry clerkship (OR = 1.99, 95% CI = 1.28-3.08), being female (OR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.30-1.68), experiencing mental problems (OR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.28-1.56), and suggestions from family members (OR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.08-1.46) correlated positively with students' choice of psychiatry as career. Students who lacked psychiatry knowledge (OR = 0.49, 95% CI = 0.29-0.85) or chose psychiatry because of lower admission scores (OR = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.63-0.97) were less likely to choose psychiatry as a career. CONCLUSION: More than half of psychiatry majored medical school students planned to choose psychiatry as their career, whereas very few students in the clinic medicine major would make this choice. Increasing students' interest in psychiatry, strengthening psychiatry clerkships, and popularizing psychiatric knowledge are modifiable factors to increase the psychiatry career intention. The extent to which medical students' attitudes toward psychiatry can be changed through medical school education and greater exposure to psychiatry will need further investigation.

Construction of Function-Oriented Core-Shell Nanostructures in Hydrogen-Bonded Organic Frameworks for Near-Infrared-Responsive Bacterial Inhibition.

Exploration of effective ways to integrate various functional species into hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs) is critically important for their applications but highly challenging. In this study, according to the "bottle-around-ship" strategy, core-shell heterostructure of upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) and HOFs was fabricated for the first time via a ligand-grafting stepwise method. The UCNPs "core" can effectively upconvert near-infrared (NIR) irradiation (980 nm) into visible light (540 nm and 653 nm), which further excites the perylenediimide-based HOF "shell" through resonance energy transfer. In this way, the nanocomposite inherits the high porosity, excellent photothermal and photodynamic efficiency, NIR photoresponse from two parent materials, achieving intriguing NIR-responsive bacterial inhibition toward Escherichia coli. This study may shed light on the design of functional HOF-based composite materials, not only enriching the HOF library but also broadening the horizon of their potential applications.

Embryonic and early larval development of two marine angelfish, Centropyge bicolor and Centropyge bispinosa.

Marine angelfish (family: Pomacanthidae) are among the most sought-after fish species in the saltwater aquarium trade. However, there is a lack of information in the literature on their early ontogeny. The objective of this study was to describe the embryonic and early larval development of two dwarf angelfish, the bicolour angelfish, Centropyge bicolor and the coral beauty angelfish, Centropyge bispinosa. The eggs of these two species were obtained from spontaneous spawning of the broodstock fish in captivity and incubated at 26.0 ± 0.2°C throughout the study. Fertilized eggs (n = 15) of both species are transparent, pelagic and spherical; the mean diameters of the eggs were measured at 703.6 ± 7.8 µm for C. bicolor and 627.6 ± 7.8 µm for C. bispinosa. The eggs of both species possessed a narrow perivitelline space, smooth and thin chorion, a homogenous and non-segmented yolk as well as a single oil globule. Overall, the observed embryonic development pattern of C. bicolor and C. bispinosa was very similar, and the main difference was the embryonic pigmentation pattern, which only became evident close to hatching. Larvae of both species started hatching at 13 h 30 min after fertilization, and the larval characteristics of both species also showed high levels of similarities. However, the mouth opening time for C. bicolor was 72 h after hatching (AH) and 96 AH for C. bispinosa. In general, the observed early ontogeny of C. bicolor and C. bispinosa also resembled that of other Centropyge species documented in the literature.

Effect of cold plasma on maintaining the quality of chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus): biochemical and sensory attributes.

BACKGROUND: Atmospheric cold plasma (ACP) has emerged as a potential alternative to traditional methods for non-thermal food decontamination. However, few data are available about ACP treatment for seafood. In this study, dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) was applied to generate CP, and the aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of DBD-ACP on improving the quality of chub mackerel on the basis of chemical, microbial and sensory characteristics. RESULTS: The effect of DBD-ACP on the quality of chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus) during storage was examined. Results revealed that the optimal voltage level and exposure time of this treatment were 60 kV and 60 s respectively, and such conditions exhibited excellent inactivation efficacy and weak influence on proximate chemical compositions. Variations in total viable count (TVC), sensory scores and total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) indicated that ACP treatment extended the shelf life of chub mackerel to 14 days, whereas samples without this treatment exceeded the limits of the three parameters after 6 days. The slow development rates of peroxide value (PV) and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) value implied that lipid oxidation was also effectively retarded by ACP exposure. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed that CP could effectively delay the degradation of myofibrillar proteins and enhance the stability of tissue structures. CONCLUSION: The excellent antimicrobial efficacy of ACP treatment makes it a potential and promising alternative to other seafood preservation technology. This is the first report on the application of ACP to seafood, which is essential to perishable food storage. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Natural variation at qHd1 affects heading date acceleration at high temperatures with pleiotropism for yield traits in rice.

BACKGROUND: Rice is highly sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Recently, the frequent occurrence of high temperature stress has heavily influenced rice production. Proper heading date in specific environmental conditions could ensure high grain yield. Rice heading greatly depends on the accurate measurement of environmental changes, particularly in day length and temperature. In contrary to the detailed understanding of the photoperiod pathway, little has been known about how temperature regulates the genetic control of rice heading. RESULTS: Near isogenic lines that were segregated for qHd1, were developed from a cross between indica rice varieties Zhenshan 97 (ZS97) and Milyang 46 (MY46). Using a five sowing-date experiment in the paddy field, we observed the involvement of qHd1 in temperature responses. With the gradual increase of temperature from Trial I to V, heading date of MY46 homozygotes continued to decrease for about 5 d per trial from 76 to 58 d, while that of ZS97 homozygotes was promoted at the same rate from Trial I to III and then stabilized at 69 d. This thermal response was confirmed in a temperature-gradient experiment conducted in the phytotron. It is also found that tolerance of the ZS97 allele to heading acceleration at high temperature was associated with higher grain weight that resulted in higher grain yield. Then, by qRT-PCR and RNA-seq, we found the pathway OsMADS51-Ehd1-RFT1/Hd3a underlying the qHd1-mediated floral response to temperature. By sequence comparison, OsMADS51 for qHd1 displayed a 9.5-kb insertion in the 1st intron of the ZS97 allele compared to the MY46 allele. Furthermore, this large insertion is commonly found in major early-season indica rice varieties, but not in the middle- and late-season ones, which corresponds to the requirement for high-temperature tolerance during the heading and grain-filling stages of early-season rice. CONCLUSIONS: Beneficial alleles at qHd1 confer tolerance to high temperatures at the heading and grain-filling stages, playing a significant role in the eco-geographical adaptation of early-season indica rice during modern breeding. These results, together with the underlying OsMADS51-Ehd1-RFT1/Hd3a floral pathway, provide valuable information for better understanding the molecular mechanism of temperature responsive regulation of heading date and yield traits in rice.

Correction to: Environmental biodegradation of haloarchaea-produced poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) in activated sludge.

The published online version contains mistake in the funding information. Instead of 30370096, it should have been 31370096.

Enhanced photocatalytic degradation of atrazine by platinized titanium dioxide under 352 nm irradiation.

Simply coating 1 wt.% of platinum on titanium dioxide (TiO2) surface resulted in simple preparation of platinized TiO2 (Pt-TiO2). This study demonstrated the photodegradation of atrazine (ATZ) using either Pt-TiO2 or TiO2 as a photocatalyst under 352 nm light irradiation. The Pt-TiO2-catalyzed ATZ degradation reached 76% in 3 hours without adding H2O2 solution or aeration, which was more than 10% higher than the TiO2-catalyzed reaction. The decomposition product of Pt-TiO2-catalyzed ATZ degradation was mainly cyanuric acid. Thus, Pt-TiO2 as an effective photocatalyst has three main advantages in the photodegradation of ATZ under 352 nm irradiation. First, the coated Pt can facilitate the generation of appropriate amounts of OH radicals, so it can prevent the formation of over-oxidized TiO2. Second, aeration was not needed. Third, the excited electrons were mainly uni-directionally transferred to the catalyst surface to avoid recombination of electron-hole pairs.

Dissection of the qTGW1.1 region into two tightly-linked minor QTLs having stable effects for grain weight in rice.

BACKGROUND: Most agronomical traits of crop species are complex traits controlled by multiple genes and affected by environmental factors. While considerable efforts have been made to fine-map and clone major quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for yield-related traits in rice, it is not until recently that the attention has been paid to minor QTLs. Following previous dissection of QTLs for grain weight and grain size in a 12-Mb interval on the long arm of chromosome 1 in rice, this study targeted at one putative QTL region for a more precise mapping and for analyzing the genotype-by-environment interaction of minor QTLs. RESULTS: Four BC2F10 plants of the indica rice cross ZS97///ZS97//ZS97/MY46 were selected. They carried overlapped heterozygous segments that jointly covered the entire putative region for qTGW1.1 detected previously. Four sets of near isogenic lines (NILs) were developed from selfing progenies of the four plants. Each NIL set consisted of 32 ZS97 homozygous lines and 32 MY46 homozygous lines that differed in the corresponding heterozygous region. They were grown in two locations having distinct ecological conditions and measured for 1000-grain weight, grain length and grain width. Two QTLs were separated in an 835.2-kb interval flanked by DNA markers Wn28447 and RM11569. They both showed consistent effects across the two environments. The qTGW1.1a located within the 120.4-kb interval Wn28447 - RM11543 significantly affect all the three traits with the enhancing allele derived from ZS97, showing a stronger influence on grain weight than on grain length and width. The qTGW1.1b located in the 521.8-kb interval RM11554 - RM11569 significantly affect grain weight and length with the enhancing allele derived from MY46, having a stronger influence on grain length than on grain weight. Consistent performance of the two QTLs was confirmed in a validation experiment using five NIL-F2 populations segregated for either qTGW1.1a or qTGW1.1b. CONCLUSION: Separation of closely-linked QTLs having small effects is achievable in the absence of major-QTL segregation. Minor QTLs for complex traits could act consistently in diverse environments, offering the potential of pyramiding beneficial alleles of multiple minor QTLs through marker-assisted selection.

Environmental biodegradation of haloarchaea-produced poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) in activated sludge.

Novel poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBHV) copolymers produced by haloarchaea are excellent candidate biomaterials. However, there is no report hitherto focusing on the biodegradation of PHBHV synthesized by haloarchaea. In this study, an environmental biodegradation of haloarchaea-produced PHBHV films, with 10~60 mol% 3-hydroxyvalerate (3HV) composition and different microchemical structures, was studied in nutrition-depleted activated sludge. The changes in mass, molar mass, chemical composition, thermal properties, and surface morphology were monitored. The mass and molar mass of each film decreased significantly, while the PHA monomer composition remained unchanged with time. Interestingly, the sample of random copolymer PHBHV-2 (R-PHBHV-2) (3HV, 30 mol%) had the lowest crystallinity and was degraded faster than R-PHBHV-3 containing the highest 3HV content or the higher-order copolymer PHBHV-1 (O-PHBHV-1) possessing the highest surface roughness. The order of biodegradation rate was in the opposite trend to the degree of crystallizability of the films. Meanwhile, thermal degradation temperature of most films decreased after biodegradation. Additionally, the surface erosion of films was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. The dominant bacteria probably responsible for the degradation process were identified in the activated sludge. It was inferred that the degradation rate of haloarchaea-produced PHBHV films mainly depended on sample crystallinity, which was determined by monomer composition and microchemical structure and in turn strongly influenced surface morphology.

Fine mapping of qHd1, a minor heading date QTL with pleiotropism for yield traits in rice (Oryza sativa L.).

KEY MESSAGE: A minor QTL for heading date located on the long arm of rice chromosome 1 was delimitated to a 95.0-kb region using near isogenic lines with sequential segregating regions. Heading date and grain yield are two key factors determining the commercial potential of a rice variety. In this study, rice populations with sequential segregating regions were developed and used for mapping a minor QTL for heading date, qHd1. A total of 18 populations in six advanced generations through BC2F6 to BC2F11 were derived from a single BC2F3 plant of the indica rice cross Zhenshan 97 (ZS97)///ZS97//ZS97/Milyang 46. The QTL was delimitated to a 95.0-kb region flanked by RM12102 and RM12108 in the terminal region of the long arm of chromosome 1. Results also showed that qHd1 was not involved in the photoperiodic response, having an additive effect ranging from 2.4 d to 2.9 d observed in near isogenic lines grown in the paddy field and under the controlled conditions of either short day or long day. The QTL had pleiotropic effects on yield traits, with the ZS97 allele delaying heading and increasing the number of spikelets per panicle, the number of grains per panicle and grain yield per plant. The candidate region contains ten annotated genes including two genes with functional information related to the control of heading date. These results lay a foundation for the cloning of qHd1. In addition, this kind of minor QTLs could be of great significance in rice breeding for allowing minor adjustment of heading date and yield traits.

Development and Evaluation of a Quality Assessment Tool for Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy Videos: A Review and Comparison of Academic and Online Video Resources.

BACKGROUND: Video recording of surgical procedures is increasing in popularity. They are presented in various platforms, many of which are not peer-reviewed. Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) videos are widely available; however, there is limited evidence supporting the use of reporting guidelines when uploading LSG videos to create a valuable educational video. We aimed to determine the variations and establish the quality of published LSG videos, in both peer-reviewed literature and on YouTube, using a newly designed checklist to improve the quality and enhance the transparency of video reporting. METHODS: A quality assessment tool was designed by using existing research and society guidelines, such as the Bariatric Metabolic Surgery Standardization (BMSS). A systematic review using PRISMA guidelines was performed on MEDLINE and EMBASE databases to identify video case reports (academic videos) and a similar search was performed on the commercial YouTube platform (commercial videos) simultaneously. All videos displaying LSG were reviewed and scored using the quality assessment tool. Academic and commercial videos were subsequently compared and an evidence-based checklist was created. RESULTS: A total of 93 LSG recordings including 26 academic and 67 commercial videos were reviewed. Mean score of the checklist was 5/11 and 4/11 for videos published in articles and YouTube, respectively. Academic videos had higher rates of describing instruments used, such as orogastric tube (P < 0.001) and stapler information (P = 0.04). Fifty-four percent of academic videos described short-term patient outcomes, while not reported in commercial videos (P < 0.001). Sleeve resection status was not universally reported. CONCLUSIONS: Videos published in the academic literature are describing steps in greater detail with more emphasis on specific technical elements and patient outcomes and thus have a higher educational value. A new quality assessment tool has been proposed for video reporting guidelines to improve the reliability and value of published video research.