The combination of high atomic number and high oxidation state in UVI materials gives rise to both high X‐ray attenuation efficiency and intense green luminescence originating from ligand‐to‐metal ...charge transfer. These two features suggest that UVI materials might act as superior X‐ray scintillators, but this postulate has remained substantially untested. Now the first observation of intense X‐ray scintillation in a uranyl–organic framework (SCU‐9) that is observable by the naked eye is reported. Combining the advantage in minimizing the non‐radiative relaxation during the X‐ray excitation process over those of inorganic salts of uranium, SCU‐9 exhibits a very efficient X‐ray to green light luminescence conversion. The luminescence intensity shows an essentially linear correlation with the received X‐ray intensity, and is comparable with that of commercially available CsI:Tl. SCU‐9 possesses an improved X‐ray attenuation efficiency (E>20 keV) as well as enhanced radiation resistance and decreased hygroscopy compared to CsI:Tl.
U are scintillating: The observation of intense X‐ray scintillation in a uranyl‐organic framework is reported. Advances are shown in X‐ray attenuation efficiency (E>20 keV) as well as enhanced radiation resistance and decreased hygroscopy when compared to the commercially available scintillator CsI:Tl.
Summary
Regional anaesthesia has undergone several exciting advances in the past few decades. Ultrasound‐guided techniques of peripheral nerve blockade have become the gold standard thanks to the ...associated improvements in efficacy, ease of performance and safety. This has increased the accessibility and utilisation of regional anaesthesia in the anaesthesia community at large and is timely given the mounting evidence for its potential benefits on various patient‐centred outcomes, including major morbidity, cancer recurrence and persistent postoperative pain. Ultrasound guidance has also paved the way for refinement of the technical performance of existing blocks concerning simplicity and safety, as well as the development of new regional anaesthesia techniques. In particular, the emergence of fascial plane blocks has further broadened the application of regional anaesthesia in the management of painful conditions of the thorax and abdomen. The preliminary results of investigations into these fascial plane blocks are promising but require further research to establish their true value and role in clinical care. One of the challenges that remains is how best to prolong regional anaesthesia to maximise its benefits while avoiding undue harm. There is ongoing research into optimising continuous catheter techniques and their management, intravenous and perineural pharmacological adjuncts, and sustained‐release local anaesthetic molecules. Finally, there is a growing appreciation for the critical role that regional anaesthesia can play in an overall multimodal anaesthetic strategy. This is especially pertinent given the current focus on eliminating unnecessary peri‐operative opioid administration.
Key Message
Increased efficiencies achieved in different steps of DH line production offer greater benefits to maize breeding programs.
Doubled haploid (DH) technology has become an integral part of ...many commercial maize breeding programs as DH lines offer several economic, logistic and genetic benefits over conventional inbred lines. Further, new advances in DH technology continue to improve the efficiency of DH line development and fuel its increased adoption in breeding programs worldwide. The established method for maize DH production covered in this review involves in vivo induction of maternal haploids by a male haploid inducer genotype, identification of haploids from diploids at the seed or seedling stage, chromosome doubling of haploid (
D
0
) seedlings and finally, selfing of fertile
D
0
plants. Development of haploid inducers with high haploid induction rates and adaptation to different target environments have facilitated increased adoption of DH technology in the tropics. New marker systems for haploid identification, such as the red root marker and high oil marker, are being increasingly integrated into new haploid inducers and have the potential to make DH technology accessible in germplasm such as some Flint, landrace, or tropical material, where the standard
R1
-
nj
marker is inhibited. Automation holds great promise to further reduce the cost and time in haploid identification. Increasing success rates in chromosome doubling protocols and/or reducing environmental and human toxicity of chromosome doubling protocols, including research on genetic improvement in spontaneous chromosome doubling, have the potential to greatly reduce the production costs per DH line.
Summary
Opioids are administered peri‐operatively for postoperative analgesia, and intra‐operatively to control the sympathetic response to surgical stimuli, frequently as a surrogate for presumed ...pain. However, opioid use during surgery is a matter of dispute in contemporary practice and carries the risk of side‐effects such as postoperative nausea and vomiting. This meta‐analysis investigated whether opioid‐inclusive, compared with opioid‐free anaesthesia, would reduce postoperative pain, without increasing the rate of postoperative nausea and vomiting. The electronic databases Medline and PubMed were searched until June 2018. We included trials investigating pain outcomes and comparing any type of intra‐operative opioid administration with placebo injection or no intra‐operative opioid. Most meta‐analyses were performed using a random effects model. We rated the quality of evidence for each outcome. The primary outcome was pain score at rest (analogue scale, 0–10) at two postoperative hours. Our secondary outcomes included the rate of postoperative nausea and vomiting within the first 24 postoperative hours and length of stay in the recovery area. Twenty‐three randomised controlled trials, including 1304 patients, were identified. Pain scores at rest at two postoperative hours were equivalent in the opioid‐inclusive and opioid‐free groups with a mean difference (95%CI) of 0.2 (−0.2 to 0.5), I2 = 83%, p = 0.38 and a high quality of evidence. Similarly, there was high‐quality evidence that the rate of postoperative nausea and vomiting was reduced in the opioid‐free group, with a risk ratio (95%CI) of 0.77 (0.61–0.97), I2 = 16%, p = 0.03 and high‐quality evidence for a similar length of stay in the recovery area, the mean difference (95%CI) being 0.6 (−8.2 to 9.3), min, I2 = 60%, p = 0.90. As there is strong evidence that opioid‐inclusive anaesthesia does not reduce postoperative pain, but is associated with more postoperative nausea and vomiting, when compared with opioid‐free anaesthesia, we suggest that anaesthetists should reconsider their intra‐operative opioid choices on a case‐by‐case basis.
Precise detection of low‐dose X‐ and γ‐radiations remains a challenge and is particularly important for studying biological effects under low‐dose ionizing radiation, safety control in medical ...radiation treatment, survey of environmental radiation background, and monitoring cosmic radiations. We report here a photoluminescent uranium organic framework, whose photoluminescence intensity can be accurately correlated with the exposure dose of X‐ or γ‐radiations. This allows for precise and instant detection of ionizing radiations down to the level of 10−4 Gy, representing a significant improvement on the detection limit of approximately two orders of magnitude, compared to other chemical dosimeters reported up to now. The electron paramagnetic resonance analysis suggests that with the exposure to radiations, the carbonyl double bonds break affording oxo‐radicals that can be stabilized within the conjugated uranium oxalate‐carboxylate sheet. This gives rise to a substantially enhanced equatorial bonding of the uranyl(VI) ions as elucidated by the single‐crystal structure of the γ‐ray irradiated material, and subsequently leads to a very effective photoluminescence quenching through phonon‐assisted relaxation. The quenched sample can be easily recovered by heating, enabling recycled detection for multiple runs.
A uranium MOF dosimeter: A photoluminescent uranium–organic framework, whose intensity accurately correlates with the exposure dose of X‐ or γ‐radiations, enables the precise and instant detection of ionizing radiations. The detection limit of 10−4 Gy represents an improvement of approximately two orders of magnitude compared to other chemical dosimeters reported up to now.
Key message
Genomic prediction of GCA effects based on model training with full-sib rather than half-sib families yields higher short- and long-term selection gain in reciprocal recurrent genomic ...selection for hybrid breeding, if SCA effects are important.
Reciprocal recurrent genomic selection (RRGS) is a powerful tool for ensuring sustainable selection progress in hybrid breeding. For training the statistical model, one can use half-sib (HS) or full-sib (FS) families produced by inter-population crosses of candidates from the two parent populations. Our objective was to compare HS-RRGS and FS-RRGS for the cumulative selection gain (
Σ
Δ
G
), the genetic, GCA and SCA variances (
σ
G
2
,
σ
gca
2
,
σ
sca
2
) of the hybrid population, and prediction accuracy (
r
gca
) for GCA effects across cycles. Using SNP data from maize and wheat, we simulated RRGS programs over 10 cycles, each consisting of four sub-cycles with genomic selection of
N
e
=
20
out of 950 candidates in each parent population. Scenarios differed for heritability
h
2
and the proportion
τ
=
100
×
σ
sca
2
:
σ
G
2
of traits, training set (TS) size (
N
TS
), and maize vs. wheat. Curves of
Σ
Δ
G
over selection cycles showed no crossing of both methods. If
τ
was high,
Σ
Δ
G
was generally higher for FS-RRGS than HS-RRGS due to higher
r
gca
. In contrast, HS-RRGS was superior or on par with FS-RRGS, if
τ
or
h
2
and
N
TS
were low.
Σ
Δ
G
showed a steeper increase and higher selection limit for scenarios with low
τ
, high
h
2
and large
N
TS
.
σ
gca
2
and even more so
σ
sca
2
decreased rapidly over cycles for both methods due to the high selection intensity and the role of the Bulmer effect for reducing
σ
gca
2
. Since the TS for FS-RRGS can additionally be used for hybrid prediction, we recommend this method for achieving simultaneously the two major goals in hybrid breeding: population improvement and cultivar development.
Perineural dexamethasone has gained popularity in regional anaesthesia to prolong the duration of analgesia, but its advantage over systemic administration is disputed. The objective of this ...meta-analysis was to compare the analgesic efficacy of both routes of administration during peripheral nerve block. The methodology followed the PRISMA statement guidelines. The primary outcome was the duration of analgesia analysed according to the type of local anaesthetic administered (bupivacaine or ropivacaine). Secondary outcomes included cumulative opioid consumption in morphine i.v. equivalents, pain scores, and complication rates (neurological complications, infection, or hyperglycaemia). Eleven controlled trials, including 914 patients, were identified. The duration of analgesia was significantly increased with perineural dexamethasone vs systemic dexamethasone by a mean difference of 3 h 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.4, 4.5 h; P=0.0001. Subgroup analysis revealed that the duration of analgesia was increased by 21% with bupivacaine (mean difference: 4.0 h; 95% CI: 2.8, 5.2 h; P<0.00001) and 12% with ropivacaine (mean difference: 2.0 h; 95% CI: −0.5, 4.5 h; P=0.11). The quality of evidence for our primary outcome was moderate according to the GRADE system. There were no significant differences in other secondary outcomes. No neurological complications or infections were reported. Glucose concentrations were not increased when dexamethasone was injected systemically, but this outcome was reported by only two trials. There is, therefore, moderate evidence that perineural dexamethasone combined with bupivacaine, but not ropivacaine, slightly prolongs the duration of analgesia, without an impact on other pain-related outcomes, when compared with systemic dexamethasone. Injection of perineural dexamethasone should be cautiously balanced in light of the off-label indication for this route of administration.
Summary
Intra‐operative remifentanil is associated with increased postoperative analgesic requirements and opioid consumption. Dexmedetomidine has characteristics suggesting it may substitute for ...intra‐operative remifentanil during general anaesthesia, but existing literature has reported conflicting results. We undertook this meta‐analysis to investigate whether general anaesthesia including dexmedetomidine would result in less postoperative pain than general anaesthesia including remifentanil. The MEDLINE and PubMed electronic databases were searched up to October 2018. Only randomised trials including patients receiving general anaesthesia and comparing dexmedetomidine with remifentanil administration were included. Meta‐analyses were performed mostly employing a random effects model. The primary outcome was pain score at rest (visual analogue scale, 0–10) at two postoperative hours. The secondary outcomes included: pain score at rest at 24 postoperative hours; opioid consumption at 2 and 24 postoperative hours; and rates of hypotension, bradycardia, shivering and postoperative nausea and vomiting. Twenty‐one randomised trials, including 1309 patients, were identified. Pain scores at rest at two postoperative hours were lower in the dexmedetomidine group, with a mean difference (95%CI) of −0.7 (−1.2 to −0.2), I2 = 85%, p = 0.004, and a moderate quality of evidence. Secondary pain outcomes were also significantly better in the dexmedetomidine group. Rates of hypotension, shivering and postoperative nausea and vomiting were at least twice as frequent in patients who received remifentanil. Time to analgesia request was longer, and use of postoperative morphine and rescue analgesia were less, with dexmedetomidine, whereas episodes of bradycardia were similar between groups. There is moderate evidence that intra‐operative dexmedetomidine during general anaesthesia improves pain outcomes during the first 24 postoperative hours, when compared with remifentanil, with fewer side effects.
Maize (Zea mays L.) serves as model plant for heterosis research and is the crop where hybrid breeding was pioneered. We analyzed genomic and phenotypic data of 1254 hybrids of a typical maize hybrid ...breeding program based on the important Dent × Flint heterotic pattern. Our main objectives were to investigate genome properties of the parental lines (e.g., allele frequencies, linkage disequilibrium, and phases) and examine the prospects of genomic prediction of hybrid performance. We found high consistency of linkage phases and large differences in allele frequencies between the Dent and Flint heterotic groups in pericentromeric regions. These results can be explained by the Hill-Robertson effect and support the hypothesis of differential fixation of alleles due to pseudo-overdominance in these regions. In pericentromeric regions we also found indications for consistent marker-QTL linkage between heterotic groups. With prediction methods GBLUP and BayesB, the cross-validation prediction accuracy ranged from 0.75 to 0.92 for grain yield and from 0.59 to 0.95 for grain moisture. The prediction accuracy of untested hybrids was highest, if both parents were parents of other hybrids in the training set, and lowest, if none of them were involved in any training set hybrid. Optimizing the composition of the training set in terms of number of lines and hybrids per line could further increase prediction accuracy. We conclude that genomic prediction facilitates a paradigm shift in hybrid breeding by focusing on the performance of experimental hybrids rather than the performance of parental lines in test crosses.
PDF
