Summary
Traditionally, pain relief for abdominal surgery has centred on epidural analgesia, but transversus abdominis plane block is increasingly being used. Our aim was to compare the analgesic ...efficacy and the side‐effect profile of transversus abdominis plane block with epidural analgesia in a systematic review with meta‐analysis and trial sequential analysis. After a systematic search of the electronic databases, we identified 18 randomised controlled trials with 1220 patients. Confirmed by trial sequential analysis, our first co‐primary outcome, postoperative pain score at rest at 12 h, was decreased by a mean difference (95%CI) of 0.69 (0.12–1.27; p = 0.02) with epidural analgesia compared with transversus abdominis plane block, with the quality of evidence graded as low. No difference was found for the second co‐primary outcome, postoperative pain score at rest at 24 h, with the quality of evidence rated as very low. Relative to transversus abdominis plane block, epidural analgesia further reduced the need for intravenous morphine‐equivalent consumption during the 0–24 h interval by a mean difference (95%CI) of 5.91 mg (2.34–9.49; p = 0.001) at the expense of an increased incidence of hypotension at 72 h, with a risk ratio (95%CI) of 5.88 (2.08–16.67; p < 0.001). Our meta‐analysis was limited by detection and performance bias, significant statistical heterogeneity and publication bias. In view of the minimal clinically important difference in postoperative pain scores, epidural analgesia was interpreted to not be clinically different to transversus abdominis plane block after abdominal surgery. With transversus abdominis plane block, the increase in intravenous morphine‐equivalent consumption at 24 h should be balanced against the decreased risk of hypotension at 72 h. In choosing between epidural analgesia and transversus abdominis plane block, potential benefits should be balanced against the reported risk of harm, although the confidence in the evidence varied, underlining the uncertainty in our estimates.
Lanthanides such as europium with more accessible divalent states are useful for studying redox stability afforded by macrocyclic organic ligands. Substituted cryptands, such as 2.2.2B cryptand, that ...increase the oxidative stability of divalent europium also provide coordination environments that support synthetic alterations of Eu(II) cryptate complexes. Two single crystal structures were obtained containing nine-coordinate Eu(II) 2.2.2B cryptate complexes that differ by a single coordination site, the occupation of which is dictated by changes in reaction conditions. A crystal structure containing a Eu(2.2.2B)Cl + complex is obtained from a methanol–THF solvent mixture, while a methanol–acetonitrile solvent mixture affords a Eu(2.2.2B)(CH3OH)2+ complex. While both crystals exhibit the typical blue emission observed in most Eu(II) containing compounds as a result of 4f 65d 1 to 4f 7 transitions, computational results show that the substitution of a Cl– anion in the place of a methanol molecule causes mixing of the 5d excited states in the Eu(II) 2.2.2B cryptate complex. Additionally, magnetism studies reveal the identity of the capping ligand in the Eu(II) 2.2.2B cryptate complex may also lead to exchange between Eu(II) metal centers facilitated by π-stacking interactions within the structure, slightly altering the anticipated magnetic moment. The synthetic control present in these systems makes them interesting candidates for studying less stable divalent lanthanides and the effects of precise modifications of the electronic structures of low valent lanthanide elements.
Key message
Mating designs determine the realized additive genetic variance in a population sample. Deflated or inflated variances can lead to reduced or overly optimistic assessment of future ...selection gains.
The additive genetic variance
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A
inherent to a breeding population is a major determinant of short- and long-term genetic gain. When estimated from experimental data, it is not only the additive variances at individual loci (QTL) but also covariances between QTL pairs that contribute to estimates of
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. Thus, estimates of
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depend on the genetic structure of the data source and vary between population samples. Here, we provide a theoretical framework for calculating the expectation and variance of
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from genotypic data of a given population sample. In addition, we simulated breeding populations derived from different numbers of parents (
P
= 2, 4, 8, 16) and crossed according to three different mating designs (disjoint, factorial and half-diallel crosses). We calculated the variance of
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and of the parameter
b
reflecting the covariance component in
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A
,
standardized by the genic variance. Our results show that mating designs resulting in large biparental families derived from few disjoint crosses carry a high risk of generating progenies exhibiting strong covariances between QTL pairs on different chromosomes. We discuss the consequences of the resulting deflated or inflated
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estimates for phenotypic and genome-based selection as well as for applying the usefulness criterion in selection. We show that already one round of recombination can effectively break negative and positive covariances between QTL pairs induced by the mating design. We suggest to obtain reliable estimates of
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and its components in a population sample by applying statistical methods differing in their treatment of QTL covariances.
Summary
Intravenous magnesium has been reported to improve postoperative pain; however, the evidence is inconsistent. The objective of this quantitative systematic review is to evaluate whether or ...not the peri‐operative administration of intravenous magnesium can reduce postoperative pain. Twenty‐five trials comparing magnesium with placebo were identified. Independent of the mode of administration (bolus or continuous infusion), peri‐operative magnesium reduced cumulative intravenous morphine consumption by 24.4% (mean difference: 7.6 mg, 95% CI −9.5 to −5.8 mg; p < 0.00001) at 24 h postoperatively. Numeric pain scores at rest and on movement at 24 h postoperatively were reduced by 4.2 (95% CI −6.3 to −2.1; p < 0.0001) and 9.2 (95% CI −16.1 to −2.3; p = 0.009) out of 100, respectively. We conclude that peri‐operative intravenous magnesium reduces opioid consumption, and to a lesser extent, pain scores, in the first 24 h postoperatively, without any reported serious adverse effects.
Intense structuring of plant breeding populations challenges the design of the training set (TS) in genomic selection (GS). An important open question is how the TS should be constructed from ...multiple related or unrelated small biparental families to predict progeny from individual crosses. Here, we used a set of five interconnected maize (Zea mays L.) populations of doubled-haploid (DH) lines derived from four parents to systematically investigate how the composition of the TS affects the prediction accuracy for lines from individual crosses. A total of 635 DH lines genotyped with 16,741 polymorphic SNPs were evaluated for five traits including Gibberella ear rot severity and three kernel yield component traits. The populations showed a genomic similarity pattern, which reflects the crossing scheme with a clear separation of full sibs, half sibs, and unrelated groups. Prediction accuracies within full-sib families of DH lines followed closely theoretical expectations, accounting for the influence of sample size and heritability of the trait. Prediction accuracies declined by 42% if full-sib DH lines were replaced by half-sib DH lines, but statistically significantly better results could be achieved if half-sib DH lines were available from both instead of only one parent of the validation population. Once both parents of the validation population were represented in the TS, including more crosses with a constant TS size did not increase accuracies. Unrelated crosses showing opposite linkage phases with the validation population resulted in negative or reduced prediction accuracies, if used alone or in combination with related families, respectively. We suggest identifying and excluding such crosses from the TS. Moreover, the observed variability among populations and traits suggests that these uncertainties must be taken into account in models optimizing the allocation of resources in GS.
Summary
Perineural dexamethasone has a ceiling dose of 4 mg for prolongation of analgesia duration after injection of long‐acting local anaesthetic for peripheral nerve block, but evidence for doses ...< 4 mg is lacking. This randomised controlled triple‐blind trial tested the hypothesis that increasing doses of perineural dexamethasone between 1 mg and 4 mg would prolong the duration of analgesia in a dose‐dependent manner. Eighty ASA physical status 1–2 patients scheduled for shoulder arthroscopy under general anaesthesia with ultrasound‐guided interscalene brachial plexus block were randomly allocated to receive saline (control), dexamethasone 1 mg, 2 mg, 3 mg and 4 mg, together with 20 ml ropivacaine 0.5%. Postoperative analgesia consisted of paracetamol, diclofenac and oxycodone on request, using a pre‐defined protocol. The primary outcome was the duration of analgesia, defined as the time between the block procedure and the first analgesic request. Secondary outcomes included rest and dynamic pain scores, and analgesic consumption at 2 h, 24 h and 48 h postoperatively. An analysis of the dose–response relationship was performed using multiple comparison procedure‐modelling. The median (IQR range) duration of analgesia was significantly prolonged in a dose‐dependent manner: control 685 (590–860 453–1272) min; 1 mg 835 (740–1110 450–1375) min; 2 mg 904 (710–1130 525–1365) min; 3 mg 965 (875–1025 730–1390) min; 4 mg 1023 (838–1239 518–1500) min (p = 0.03). There were no significant differences between the secondary outcomes. Perineural administration of dexamethasone with doses between 1 mg and 4 mg, combined with ropivacaine for interscalene brachial plexus block, prolongs duration of analgesia in a dose‐dependent manner.
KEY MESSAGE : We developed a universally applicable planning tool for optimizing the allocation of resources for one cycle of genomic selection in a biparental population. The framework combines ...selection theory with constraint numerical optimization and considers genotype × environment interactions. Genomic selection (GS) is increasingly implemented in plant breeding programs to increase selection gain but little is known how to optimally allocate the resources under a given budget. We investigated this problem with model calculations by combining quantitative genetic selection theory with constraint numerical optimization. We assumed one selection cycle where both the training and prediction sets comprised double haploid (DH) lines from the same biparental population. Grain yield for testcrosses of maize DH lines was used as a model trait but all parameters can be adjusted in a freely available software implementation. An extension of the expected selection accuracy given by Daetwyler et al. (2008) was developed to correctly balance between the number of environments for phenotyping the training set and its population size in the presence of genotype × environment interactions. Under small budget, genotyping costs mainly determine whether GS is superior over phenotypic selection. With increasing budget, flexibility in resource allocation increases greatly but selection gain leveled off quickly requiring balancing the number of populations with the budget spent for each population. The use of an index combining phenotypic and GS predicted values in the training set was especially beneficial under limited resources and large genotype × environment interactions. Once a sufficiently high selection accuracy is achieved in the prediction set, further selection gain can be achieved most efficiently by massively expanding its size. Thus, with increasing budget, reducing the costs for producing a DH line becomes increasingly crucial for successfully exploiting the benefits of GS.
Identifying high performing hybrids is an essential part of every maize breeding program. Genomic prediction of maize hybrid performance allows to identify promising hybrids, when they themselves or ...other hybrids produced from their parents were not tested in field trials. Using simulations, we investigated the effects of marker density (10, 1, 0.3 marker per mega base pair, Mbp
−1
), convergent or divergent parental populations, number of parents tested in other combinations (2, 1, 0), genetic model (including population-specific and/or dominance marker effects or not), and estimation method (GBLUP or BayesB) on the prediction accuracy. We based our simulations on marker genotypes of Central European flint and dent inbred lines from an ongoing maize breeding program. To simulate convergent or divergent parent populations, we generated phenotypes by assigning QTL to markers with similar or very different allele frequencies in both pools, respectively. Prediction accuracies increased with marker density and number of parents tested and were higher under divergent compared with convergent parental populations. Modeling marker effects as population-specific slightly improved prediction accuracy under lower marker densities (1 and 0.3 Mbp
−1
). This indicated that modeling marker effects as population-specific will be most beneficial under low linkage disequilibrium. Incorporating dominance effects improved prediction accuracies considerably for convergent parent populations, where dominance results in major contributions of SCA effects to the genetic variance among inter-population hybrids. While the general trends regarding the effects of the aforementioned influence factors on prediction accuracy were similar for GBLUP and BayesB, the latter method produced significantly higher accuracies for models incorporating dominance.
Summary
Caesarean section is associated with moderate‐to‐severe postoperative pain, which can influence postoperative recovery and patient satisfaction as well as breastfeeding success and ...mother‐child bonding. The aim of this systematic review was to update the available literature and develop recommendations for optimal pain management after elective caesarean section under neuraxial anaesthesia. A systematic review utilising procedure‐specific postoperative pain management (PROSPECT) methodology was undertaken. Randomised controlled trials published in the English language between 1 May 2014 and 22 October 2020 evaluating the effects of analgesic, anaesthetic and surgical interventions were retrieved from MEDLINE, Embase and Cochrane databases. Studies evaluating pain management for emergency or unplanned operative deliveries or caesarean section performed under general anaesthesia were excluded. A total of 145 studies met the inclusion criteria. For patients undergoing elective caesarean section performed under neuraxial anaesthesia, recommendations include intrathecal morphine 50–100 µg or diamorphine 300 µg administered pre‐operatively; paracetamol; non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs; and intravenous dexamethasone administered after delivery. If intrathecal opioid was not administered, single‐injection local anaesthetic wound infiltration; continuous wound local anaesthetic infusion; and/or fascial plane blocks such as transversus abdominis plane or quadratus lumborum blocks are recommended. The postoperative regimen should include regular paracetamol and non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs with opioids used for rescue. The surgical technique should include a Joel‐Cohen incision; non‐closure of the peritoneum; and abdominal binders. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation could be used as analgesic adjunct. Some of the interventions, although effective, carry risks, and consequentially were omitted from the recommendations. Some interventions were not recommended due to insufficient, inconsistent or lack of evidence. Of note, these recommendations may not be applicable to unplanned deliveries or caesarean section performed under general anaesthesia.
Domestication and Breeding of Jatropha curcas L Montes, Juan M.; Melchinger, Albrecht E.
Trends in plant science,
December 2016, 2016-Dec, 2016-12-00, 20161201, Letnik:
21, Številka:
12
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Jatropha curcas L. (jatropha) has a high, untapped potential to contribute towards sustainable production of food and bioenergy, rehabilitation of degraded land, and reduction of atmospheric carbon ...dioxide. Tremendous progress in jatropha domestication and breeding has been achieved during the past decade. This review: (i) summarizes current knowledge about the domestication and breeding of jatropha; (ii) identifies and prioritizes areas for further research; and (iii) proposes strategies to exploit the full genetic potential of this plant species. Altogether, the outlook is promising for accelerating the domestication of jatropha by applying modern scientific methods and novel technologies developed in plant breeding.
Jatropha curcas L. (jatropha) is a perennial undomesticated plant species with a high, untapped potential for sustainable production of food and bioenergy in the tropics and subtropics.
The most attractive characteristics of this plant are its ability to survive under extreme conditions of drought and heat, successful cultivation in degraded soils, production of high-quality oil and protein in seeds, broad adaptation, short generation interval, and large genetic variation.
Tremendous progress in jatropha domestication and breeding has been achieved during the past decade.
Currently, the challenge is to transform jatropha into a competitive crop by applying cutting-edge plant breeding technologies.
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