Case-Matched Comparison of Functional and Quality of Life Outcomes of Local Excision and Total Mesorectal Excision Following Chemoradiotherapy for Rectal Cancer.

Background: Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by radical surgery is the standard curative treatment for mid- to low-rectal cancer. However, the combination of these treatments may affect patients' GI and genitourinary functions and their quality of life. In the cases of good clinical response to neoadjuvant treatment, local excision is a rectal sparing strategy that would limit these side effects.

Sex expression and reproductive biology in a tree species, Fraxinus excelsior L.

We investigated Fraxinus excelsior breeding system using field data collected in a natural population and in a seed orchard. First, we attested functional trioecy (co-occurrence of males, hermaphrodites and females), with males producing pollen, hermaphrodites producing both pollen and seeds simultaneously, and females producing seeds. Second, we found that the reproductive system of F.

Maternal inheritance of a chloroplast microsatellite marker in controlled hybrids between Fraxinus excelsior and Fraxinus angustifolia.

Restriction fragment length polymorphism, polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism and simple sequence repeat (SSR or microsatellites) analyses were performed to detect chloroplast DNA polymorphisms between two ash species, Fraxinus excelsior and F. angustifolia. Only one SSR locus was found to be polymorphic, confirming the very close relatedness of these species.

A generalized heterozygote deficiency assessed with microsatellites in French common ash populations.

Common ash is a temperate forest tree with a colonizing behaviour, a discontinuous spatial distribution and a peculiar and poorly known mating system. Microsatellite markers were used to study the genetic structure in natural populations of common ash. Twelve populations located in northeastern France were analysed at five loci.

Dispersal and metapopulation viability in a heterogeneous landscape.

Conditions of persistence or extinction of a metapopulation of a colonizing annual species are studied in a heterogeneous landscape, a mixture of two elementary landscapes. An elementary landscape is a landscape whose age-structure is described by only one transition matrix, giving the probability for a site to be disturbed, or to follow the process of succession. We first provide an analytical study of the range of dispersal rates that allow metapopulation persistence in an elementary landscape.