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Background: The aim of this report is to present our experience of the last 5 years with repairs of congenital annular pancreas in neonates to determine the efficacy and outcomes of laparoscopic side‐to‐side duodenoduodenostomy compared to laparoscopic diamond‐shaped anastomosis. Methods: A total of 35 patients with congenital annular pancreas in neonates were operated by laparoscopic procedure at our hospital during January 2015 and September 2020. Twenty patients underwent laparoscopic side‐to‐side duodenoduodenostomy (group A), and 15 patients of the control group underwent laparoscopic diamond‐shaped anastomosis (group B). The clinical data between the two groups were compared. Results: The operative time is 77.5 ± 18.7 min in group A (range 50 ~ 125 min), and 92.5 ± 20.2 min in group B (range 75–155 min) (P = 0.029). Feedings started on postoperative day 4.5 ± 0.9 (range 3–6 days) in group A, whereas 6.5 ± 0.8 (range 4–7 days) in group B (P = 0.013). The cases in group A were discharged uneventfully in a mean of 9.2 ± 2.3 (range 7–15 days) postoperative day, and 11.4 ± 3.7 days (range 8–20 days) in group B (P = 0.041). The cases of group A have been followed up for 33.1 ± 15.4 months (range 3–60 months), group B had been followed up for 32.0 ± 14.0 months (range 6–55 months) (P > 0.05), and all the cases were doing well at the last follow‐up examination. Conclusion: Laparoscopic side‐to‐side duodenoduodenostomy is beneficial to the recovery of intestinal function postoperatively in the neonate with annular pancreas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the brief and incomplete original description of Gangesia pseudobagrae Chen, 1962 (Cestoda: Onchoproteocephalidea) and high morphological similarity to Gangesia oligonchis Roitman & Freze, 1964 parasitising the same host Tachysurus fulvidraco Richardson, the taxonomic validity of G. pseudobagrae in China remains questionable. Therefore, we sampled and identified specimens of Gangesia Woodland, 1924 from the intestine of T. fulvidraco from three lakes in central China. Morphologically, the sampled specimens almost perfectly corresponded both to G. oligonchis and the limited available description of G. pseudobagrae: rostellum-like organ armed with a single complete circle of hooks (24–31 in number); four uniloculate suckers covered with minute hooklets; genital pore irregularly alternated; testes medullary, spherical to oval; ovary medullary, bi-lobed, follicular; cirrus-sac thick-walled and long; uterus medullary. 28S rDNA sequence also exhibited the highest similarity to G. oligonchis (99.4–99.7%). Phylogenetic analysis showed that 11 individuals of Gangesia from the three lakes in China clustered with G. oligonchis from Russia (no sequence of G. pseudobagrae available on GenBank). Based upon the high similarity of morphology and high similarity of 28S rDNA sequences, the specimens of Gangesia from T. fulvidraco in central China were identified as G. oligonchis. Our results indicate that there is only one species of Gangesia in T. fulvidraco from the Palaearctic region, and thereby support the proposed synonymisation of G. pseudobagrae and G. oligonchis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: After observing differences in the number of reproductive complexes per proglottid within the genus Ligula, the genus Digramma was erected. However, the validity of Digramma has been previously questioned due to a low variability in the cox1, nad1 and ITS rDNA sequences between the two genera. We undertook a study to greatly increase the amount of sequence data available for resolution of this question by sequencing and characterizing the complete mitogenomes of Digramma interrupta and Ligula intestinalis. Results: The circular mtDNA molecules of Digramma interrupta and Ligula intestinalis are 13,685 bp and 13,621 bp in size, respectively, both comprising 12 PCGs, 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes, and two mNCRs. Both mitogenomes exhibit the same gene order and share 92.7% nucleotide identity, compared with 85.8–86.5% to the most closely related genus Dibothriocephalus. Each gene fromD. interrupta and L. intestinalis is almost of the same size, and the sequence identity ranges from 87.5% (trnD) to 100% (trnH, trnQ and trnV). NCR2 sequences of D. interrupta and L. intestinalis are 249 bp and 183 bp in length, respectively, which contributes to the main difference in length between their complete mitogenomes. A sliding window analysis of the 12 PCGs and two rRNAs indicated nucleotide diversity to be higher in nad5, nad6, nad2, nad4 and cox3, whereas the most conserved genes were rrnL and rrnS. Lower sequence identity was also found in nad2, nad4, nad5, nad6 and cox3 genes between the two diphyllobothriids. Within the Diphyllobothriidae, phylogenetic analysis indicated Ligula and Digramma to be most closely related to one another, forming a sister group with Dibothriocephalus. Conclusions: Owing to higher nucleotide diversity, the genes nad2, nad4, nad5, nad6 and cox3 should be considered optimal candidates to use as molecular markers for population genetics and species identification between the two closely related species. The phylogenetic results in combination with the comparative analysis of the two mitogenomes, consistently support the congeneric status of L. intestinalis and D. interrupta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: External segmentation and internal proglottization are important evolutionary characters of the Eucestoda. The monozoic caryophyllideans are considered the earliest diverging eucestodes based on partial mitochondrial genes and nuclear rDNA sequences, yet, there are currently no complete mitogenomes available. We have therefore sequenced the complete mitogenomes of three caryophyllideans, as well as the polyzoic Schyzocotyle acheilognathi, explored the phylogenetic relationships of eucestodes and compared the gene arrangements between unsegmented and segmented cestodes. Results: The circular mitogenome of Atractolytocestus huronensis was 15,130 bp, the longest sequence of all the available cestodes, 14,620 bp for Khawia sinensis, 14,011 bp for Breviscolex orientalis and 14,046 bp for Schyzocotyle acheilognathi. The A-T content of the three caryophyllideans was found to be lower than any other published mitogenome. Highly repetitive regions were detected among the non-coding regions (NCRs) of the four cestode species. The evolutionary relationship determined between the five orders (Caryophyllidea, Diphyllobothriidea, Bothriocephalidea, Proteocephalidea and Cyclophyllidea) is consistent with that expected from morphology and the large fragments of mtDNA when reconstructed using all 36 genes. Examination of the 54 mitogenomes from these five orders, revealed a unique arrangement for each order except for the Cyclophyllidea which had two types that were identical to that of the Diphyllobothriidea and the Proteocephalidea. When comparing gene order between the unsegmented and segmented cestodes, the segmented cestodes were found to have the lower similarities due to a long distance transposition event. All rearrangement events between the four arrangement categories took place at the junction of rrnS-tRNAArg (P1) where NCRs are common. Conclusions: Highly repetitive regions are detected among NCRs of the four cestode species. A long distance transposition event is inferred between the unsegmented and segmented cestodes. Gene arrangements of Taeniidae and the rest of the families in the Cyclophyllidea are found be identical to those of the sister order Proteocephalidea and the relatively basal order Diphyllobothriidea, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Particle filters have been successfully employed to track MIMO flat fading channels for wireless communications. However, an optimal importance density cannot be always found to optimize the performance of a particle filter. A suboptimal importance density such as the prior distribution can be used to reduce the complexity of the particle filtering; however, it has a problem of ignoring the current observations. A class of suboptimal particle filters uses the prior distribution as the important density and moves the predicted particles to the low-error region. In addition, particle filters require knowledge of noise processes to estimate the posterior distribution. This paper presents a suboptimal particle filter that overcomes the drawbacks of the prior importance density and the noise uncertainty by utilizing the swarm behavior in the particle propagation. The presented method will be applied to estimate the channel state information and detect the transmitted symbols of a MIMO wireless communication system under Rayleigh flat fading channel. Computer simulation of a 2 ×2 MIMO system is presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed suboptimal particle filter technique. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the spatial ecology of invasive rats ( Rattus spp.) is necessary to inform management actions to reduce their impact on native flora and fauna. This study investigates home range sizes of exotic rats around seabird colonies and urban areas on Christmas Island, where rat predation is suspected to be adversely affecting fledgling success among local seabirds. It was hypothesised that rat home range sizes would be smaller in urban areas owing to more consistent food availability. Home ranges of male rats were significantly larger compared with their female counterparts, with male rats maintaining larger home ranges in urban areas compared with seabird colonies. Conversely, female rats had smaller home ranges in urban areas compared with seabird colonies. Our findings suggest a possible correlation between the spatial distribution of food resources and home range size. Additionally, the spatial distribution of breeding females across the landscape had a significant influence on the home ranges of male rats. These findings have important implications for proposed efforts to manage rat populations on Christmas Island, while also providing valuable information regarding the ecology of invasive rats on tropical islands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The radial–azimuthal instability of a hot two-temperature accretion disc with advection is examined in this paper. We find that the inclusion of very little advection has significant effects on two acoustic modes for a geometrically thin, cooling-dominated two-temperature disc, but has no effect on acoustic modes for a geometrically slim, cooling-dominated two-temperature disc. We also find that, when azimuthal perturbations are considered, the stability properties of the disc are different from those in the pure radial perturbation case. An increase of the azimuthal wavenumber will stabilize the acoustic modes but make the viscous and thermal modes more unstable for a geometrically thin, cooling-dominated two-temperature disc. It makes the thermal mode more unstable and the acoustic mode more stable, but only affects the instability of the viscous mode for short-wavelength perturbations for a geometrically slim, cooling-dominated two-temperature disc. For a geometrically slim, advection-dominated two-temperature disc, the increase of the azimuthal perturbation makes the I- and O-modes more stable and the thermal mode more unstable, but has no effect on the viscous mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]