Prospective comparative study of ultramini percutaneous nephrolithotomy and retrograde intrarenal surgery in treatment of moderate-sized renal lower caliceal calculi / 中华泌尿外科杂志

Objective To compare the effectiveness and safety of ultramini percutaneous nephrolithotomy (UMP) and retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) in treatment of moderate-sized (about 1-2 cm) renal lower caliceal calculi.Methods From March 2015 to December 2016,patients in our hospital scheduled for surgery due to renal lower caliceal calculi with the greatest diameter of 10-22 mm were prospectively analyzed.Patients were randomized into two groups according to the random number table.Group UMP's operational channel was only F14 and the nephroscope's diameter was 1 mm.200 μm holmium laser lithotripsy was used to break the stones which was rushed out by eddy cuurent.In Group RIRS,all patients needed placing a F6 double J stent preoperatively for two weeks.A flexible ureteroscope sheath required imbedding intraoperatively.The stones were smashed by 200 μm holmium laser lithotripsy through the WOLF flexible ureteroscope.The intraoperative and postoperative datas including stone-free status and the complications were compared.Results 100 patients were enrolled in the study 50 patients in Group UMP,28 were male and 22 were female,mean age was 43.4 ± 7.9 years old.Mean stone size was 14.5 ±3.0 mm(range 10-22 mm).Among them,18 cases were complicated with mild and moderate hydronephrosis.The other 50 cases were allocated to Group RIRS,including 31 males and 19 females.Their mean age was 44.5 ± 8.3 years old and mean stone size was 13.7 ± 3.1 mm (range 10-21 mm).Among them,16 cases were complicated with mild and moderate hydronephrosis.No statistically significant difference were seen between the two groups (P ＞ 0.05).After three months' follow-up,one-time stone free rate(SFR) of UMP group was 94.0％ (47/50),which was significantly more superior than the 72.0％ (36/50) of the RIRS group(P ＜ 0.05).The intraoperative decrease in hemoglobin were (7.8 ± 3.3) g/L vs.(3.1 ± 3.4) g/L,and operating time(26.5 ± 6.1) min vs.(43.3 ± 6.3) min.Significant differences were also seen between the two groups(P ＜0.05).There was more blood loss and less operating time in the group of UMP.The hospital stay,delayed hemorrhage and postoperative fever between the UMP and RIRS groups were (4.3±1.3)d vs.(3.24 ± 1.21)d,8.0％ (4/50)vs.0(0/50),16.0％ (8/50)vs.12.0％ (6/50) respectively.No significant differences were seen (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusions Both UMP and RIRS procedures are effective and safe in the treatment of moderate-sized renal lower caliceal calculi.Compared with RIRS,UMP may be more effective and has less operating time,however wtih more intraoperative blood loss.

Dynamical information encoding in neural adaptation.

Adaptation refers to the general phenomenon that a neural system dynamically adjusts its response property according to the statistics of external inputs. In response to a prolonged constant stimulation, neuronal firing rates always first increase dramatically at the onset of the stimulation; and afterwards, they decrease rapidly to a low level close to background activity. This attenuation of neural activity seems to be contradictory to our experience that we can still sense the stimulus after the neural system is adapted. Thus, it prompts a question: where is the stimulus information encoded during the adaptation? Here, we investigate a computational model in which the neural system employs a dynamical encoding strategy during the neural adaptation: at the early stage of the adaptation, the stimulus information is mainly encoded in the strong independent firings; and as time goes on, the information is shifted into the weak but concerted responses of neurons. We find that short-term plasticity, a general feature of synapses, provides a natural mechanism to achieve this goal. Furthermore, we demonstrate that with balanced excitatory and inhibitory inputs, this correlation-based information can be read out efficiently. The implications of this study on our understanding of neural information encoding are discussed.

Short-term efficacy comparison of laparoscopic versus open transabdominal intersphincteric resection for low rectal cancer / 中华胃肠外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To compare the short-term efficacy of laparoscopic and open transabdominal intersphincteric resection (ISR) for low rectal cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Clinicopathological data of 246 patients with low rectal cancer undergoing transabdominal ISR in our department from January 2005 to January 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. According to gender, age, ASA score, neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy or not, pathological T stage, pathologic N stage, and tumor differentiation, propensity score matching was performed by R plug-in(version 2.8.1). Finally, 74 cases treated by laparoscopic transabdominal ISR(laparoscopic group) and 74 cases by open transabdominal ISR(open group) were enrolled. Short-term efficacy and anal function were compared between two groups.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>No perioperative death was found in the two groups. Compared to open group, laparoscopic group had longer operation time [(236±45) minutes vs. (200±46) minutes, P=0.000], less median blood loss [50(10 to 200) ml vs. 100(20 to 400) ml, P=0.000] and shorter hospital stay [(7.8±2.4) days vs. (10.5±6.9) days, P=0.002]. Laparoscopic group and open group had similar morbidity of total complication [17.6%(13/74) vs. 28.4%(21/74), P=0.118]. Incidence of pneumonia was significantly lower in laparoscopic group [4.1%(3/74) vs. 13.5%(10/74), P=0.042), while incidence of anastomotic leakage and stenosis, and complication grading were not significantly different between the two groups (all P>0.05). During a mean follow-up of 52.0 months, anal function analysis was performed in 102 patients with stoma closure and the result showed that the ratio of patients with good continence was 87.1%(54/62) and 87.5%(35/40) in laparoscopic and open group respectively (P=0.066).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Laparoscopic transabdominal ISR is safe and feasible, which is minimally invasive with fast recovery, and is worth clinical application.</p>

High-throughput pyrosequencing of the complete chloroplast genome of Magnolia officinalis and its application in species identification / 药学学报

Chloroplast genome sequences have comprehensive application prospects in DNA barcoding and chloroplast engineering in traditional Chinese medicine. The complete chloroplast genome of Magnolia officinalis sequenced by high-throughput pyrosequencing and a sequencing procedure was established. Fourteen contigs were obtained after de nove assembly. The sequencing percent of coverage was 99.99%. The chloroplast genome is 160 183 bp in size, and has a typical quadripartite structure with the large (LSC, 88 210 bp) and small copy (SSC, 18 843 bp) regions separated by two copies of an inverted repeat (IRs, 26 565 bp each). chloroplast genes were successfully annotated, of which 17 genes located in each IR region. The chloroplast genome features in Magnolia officinalis are nearly identical to those from other Magnoliid chloroplast genomes. Phylogenetic analyses were performed based on 81 shared coding-genes for a total of 9 Magnolia samples of 5 closely related species. Results showed that distinguishing among species was generally straightforward at the species and population level. This study confirmed the effectiveness of our chloroplast genome sequencing procedure. The chloroplast genome can provide distinguishing differences to help identify Magnolia officinalis and its closely related plants.