RESUMO
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Agricultural crop databases maintained in gene banks of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) are valuable sources of information for breeders. These databases provide comparative phenotypic and genotypic information that can help elucidate functional aspects of plant and agricultural biology. To facilitate data sharing within and between these databases and the retrieval of information, the crop ontology (CO) database was designed to provide controlled vocabulary sets for several economically important plant species. METHODOLOGY: Existing public ontologies and equivalent catalogues of concepts covering the range of crop science information and descriptors for crops and crop-related traits were collected from breeders, physiologists, agronomists, and researchers in the CGIAR consortium. For each crop, relationships between terms were identified and crop-specific trait ontologies were constructed following the Open Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) format standard using the OBO-Edit tool. All terms within an ontology were assigned a globally unique CO term identifier. PRINCIPAL RESULTS: The CO currently comprises crop-specific traits for chickpea (Cicer arietinum), maize (Zea mays), potato (Solanum tuberosum), rice (Oryza sativa), sorghum (Sorghum spp.) and wheat (Triticum spp.). Several plant-structure and anatomy-related terms for banana (Musa spp.), wheat and maize are also included. In addition, multi-crop passport terms are included as controlled vocabularies for sharing information on germplasm. Two web-based online resources were built to make these COs available to the scientific community: the 'CO Lookup Service' for browsing the CO; and the 'Crops Terminizer', an ontology text mark-up tool. CONCLUSIONS: The controlled vocabularies of the CO are being used to curate several CGIAR centres' agronomic databases. The use of ontology terms to describe agronomic phenotypes and the accurate mapping of these descriptions into databases will be important steps in comparative phenotypic and genotypic studies across species and gene-discovery experiments.
RESUMO
Since its introduction by Hartrampf et al, the TRAM flap has proven to be a superior method of breast reconstruction in comparison to other techniques. This versatile flap provides a large quantity of autologous tissue, a lasting realistic breast mound in terms of ptosis, texture and symmetry. A retrospective study of cases of breast reconstruction using the pedicled TRAM flap was performed to identify outcomes and to justify or abandon the use of this procedure as a consistent reconstructive modality in breast construction. We reviewed 20 consecutive cases between July 1993 and December 1997 which were performed at two New York City Teaching Hospitals by one surgeon with residents assisting. There were 18 single pedicle flaps, 3 double pedicle and one bilateral TRAM flap. Fifteen flaps were delayed reconstructions while 5 patients had immediate reconstruction. The age range was form 28 to 63 years, the average being 43.7 years. The average follow up was 24.28 months. In all patients a modified radical mastectomy was performed by an oncologic surgeon, whose primary aim was complete tumor extirpation. In 3 patients there was a need for adjuvant chemotherapy, and this was usually administered 3 weeks after the mastectomy and reconstruction. In no instance was adjuvant chemotherapy delayed because of the reconstruction procedure. The average operating time was 4.5 hours for a single-pedicle TRAM and 6 hours for a bipedicle TRAM. There were complications in eight cases: 2 seromas; 3 with partial flap loss (2 were allowed to heal by secondary intention and one will require a latissimus dorsi flap for revision); 2 hernias treated with prosthetic mesh; and one umbilical loss. There was no perioperative mortality and the average hospitalization was 5 days for a single pedicle and 6.5 for bipedicle TRAM. There have been 2 deaths subsequently: one patient with cerebral metastases, one year after the procedure, and another with complications of lung cancer 3 months after surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy. We concluded that the pedicle TRAM flap is a reliable method of breast reconstruction with a predictable and satisfactory outcome and with minor complications it strict patient selection is observed. The resultant breast mound is uniformly accepted by the reconstructive surgeon and, most importantly, the patient, who has lost a significant part to cancer.(AU)