Objective To analyze copy number variance (CNV) in whole genome by using gene chip technology, and to screen the radiosensitivity associated genes on esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods The patients with ESCC who received radiotherapy alone in Anyang Tumor Hospital from December 2013 to August 2016 were selected, and biopsy paraffin samples were preserved in the center of pathology. The patients were divided into radiosensitivity group (group S) and radio-resistance group (group R). DNA was extracted from these paraffin samples in both groups. Whole human genome CNV was detected by using genechip from OncoScan Array platform designed by Affymetrix company, and the differences of gene segments were screened in the two groups. Results Nineteen samples of ESCC patients were collected to extract DNA in this study. To balance pair analysis in the two groups, 10 samples were selected from the qualified patients, including 5 cases in group S and 5 cases in group R respectively. There were no statistical differences in gender, age, lesion site, lesion length, radiation dose of the two groups (all P> 0.05). Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) was the main type of CNV. The analysis results showed that LOH in q24.32-q24.33 of chromosome 10 and LOH in q21.2-q21.31 of chromosome 18 had high frequencies (100 ％) in group R, however, none were detected in group S. LOH in q27-q28.1 of chromosome 4 had a high frequency (80％) in group S , however, none were detected in group R. Conclusion LOH in 10q/18q is related to radio-resistance in ESCC, and LOH in 4p is associated with radiosensitivity in ESCC.

Balance impairment is a common complication after stroke, which often leads to difficulty in walking function recovery and high risk of fall, seriously affecting the independent activity ability and quality of life of stroke patients. Accurate assessment of balance is conducive to better formulation of rehabilitation plans, evaluation of rehabilitation effects, and guidance of safer daily living activities of stroke patients. This article reviews the research progress of various methods for accurate assessment of balance function in patients with stroke.

Objective:To observe any effect of dynamic motor instability training on the balance and postural control of stroke survivors.Methods:Forty stroke survivors with poor balance were randomly divided into a control group and an observation group, each of 20. In addition to routine rehabilitation, the observation group was given 20 minutes of dynamic motor instability training, 5 days a week for 8 weeks, while the control group underwent routine rehabilitation for the same length of time. Before and after the intervention, surface electromyogram of the rectus femoris, biceps femoris, and erector spinae were recorded during perturbation. Activation time and the intensity of the anticipatory and complementary postural adjustments (APAs and CPAs) were also observed. Balance and lower limb motor functioning were assessed using the Berg balance scale (BBS), the Fugl-Meyer lower extremity assessment (FMA-LE), and GaitWatch analysis.Results:After the treatment the average activation time of the rectus femoris, biceps femoris in the affected side and those of the biceps femoris [(-84.31±5.74)s] and erector spinae in the intact side in APAs were all significantly shorter in the observation group than in the control group, while the average activation intensity of the rectus femoris and erector spinae was significantly greater. There was no significant difference in the activation intensity of each muscle group in CPAs after the treatment. After the intervention the average BBS score, FMA-LE score, stride length and walking speed of the observation group all were significantly better than the control group′s averages.Conclusions:Supplementing traditional rehabilitation training with dynamic motor instability training can further improve the posture control of stroke survivors and promote recovery of their balance and walking ability.

Objective:To compare the prognosis of fluoroucil combined with cisplatin and paclitaxel combined with cisplatin regimens with concurrent radiotherapy in treatment of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.Methods:A total of 120 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma who were admitted to Anyang Tumor Hospital of Henan Province from December 2012 to November 2018 were randomly divided into group A and group B by using a random number generator. Group A was given cisplatin combined with 5-fluorouracil, and group B was given cisplatin combined with paclitaxel. Both groups had the same radiotherapy regimen, and both used intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Completions of 50 Gy radiotherapy and at least one cycle of chemotherapy were considered to be in line with the plan. Survival data was analyzed in the term of intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) set.Results:Of the 120 patients, 114 patients were treated and the adverse reactions could be evaluated, including 55 cases in group A and 59 cases in group B. The incidence of grade Ⅲ-Ⅳ leukopenia in group B was higher than that in group A [49.2% (29/59) vs. 25.5% (14/55)], and the difference was statistically significant ( χ2 = 6.805, P = 0.012), and there were no statistical differences in the other adverse reactions between the two groups (All P > 0.05). A total of 113 cases can be analyzed for survival. According to ITT analysis, the median progression-free survival (PFS) time in group A and group B was 28.0 months (95% CI 15.5-34.5 months) and 27.0 months (95% CI 17.0-41.0 months), the median overall survival (OS) time was 28.0 months (95% CI 15.8-34.2 months) and not reached, the differences were not statistically significant (both P > 0.05). According to PP analysis, the median PFS time in group A and group B was 28.0 months (95% CI 15.8-34.2 months) and 29.0 months (95% CI 14.9-45.1 months), the median OS time in group A and group B was 28.0 months (95% CI 3.7-52.3 months) and not reached, the differences were not statistically significant (both P > 0.05). Conclusions:The fluorouracil combined with cisplatin regimen and paclitaxel combined with cisplatin regimen with concurrent radiotherapy have similar PFS and OS time in treatment of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, the adverse reactions are different, but they are all tolerable. In individualized clinical practice, the toxicities and costs of the two regimens can be comprehensively considered.

Objective:To observe any effects of contralateral repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the swallowing motor cortex on the swallowing and brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEPs) of stroke survivors with dysphagia.Methods:A total of 83 stroke survivors with dysphagia were randomly divided into an ipsilesional stimulation group ( n=22), a contralesional stimulation group ( n=21), a bilateral stimulation group ( n=20), and a control group ( n=20). In addition to their conventional dysphagia training, those in the three stimulation groups received 3Hz rTMS while the control group was given fake stimulation. The treatment was administered daily for 20 minutes, 6 days a week, for 5 consecutive weeks. Before and after the treatment, swallowing function was assessed videofluoroscopically and using the Dysphagia Outcome and Severity Scale (DOSS). The oral and pharyngeal stages of swallowing were evaluated using the videofluoroscopic dysphagia scale (VDS). Brain stem conduction was assessed using BAEPs. Results:After treatment the average DOSS scores of all 4 groups were significantly better than before the treatment. The average DOSS scores of the contralesional and bilateral sti-mulation groups were then significantly better than those of the other two groups. The sub-item and total VDS scores of all 4 groups had decreased significantly, but the average score of the bilateral stimulation group was significantly lower than the control group′s average. Ipsilesional stimulation significantly improved the VDS sub-item scores for the triggering of pharyngeal swallowing, laryngeal elevation, and pharyngeal transit time compared with the control group. In the contralesional stimulation group the average total score and the VDS sub-item scores for apraxia, premature bolus loss, oral transit times, the triggering of pharyngeal swallowing, vallecular residue, laryngeal elevation, coating on the pharyngeal wall, and pharyngeal transit time were significantly lower than those of the control group, on average. After the treatment the latencies of BAEP waves I, III and V and the I-III, III-V and I-V interpeak intervals had decreased significantly in all four groups, but the average latencies and intervals of the bilateral and contralesional groups were significantly shorter than those of the control group. The latencies and intervals of the bilateral stimulation group were then significantly shorter than those in the ipsilesional stimulation group on average. The average latency of wave V in the bilateral stimulation group (6.53±0.73ms) was significantly shorter than that in the contralesional stimulation group after the treatment.Conclusion:Bilateral rTMS over the swallowing motor cortex combined with conventional dysphagia training can significantly improve the swallowing of dysphagic stroke survivors.

Higher alcohols that contain more than two carbon atoms have better fuel properties than ethanol, making them important supplements and alternatives to fossil fuels. Using microbes to produce higher alcohols from renewable biomass can alleviate the current energy and environmental crises, and has become a major future direction for green biomanufacturing. Since natural microbes can only produce a few higher alcohols in small amounts, it is necessary to reconstruct the synthetic pathways for higher alcohols in model industrial strains through metabolic engineering and synthetic biology to overcome the metabolic bottlenecks. A series of milestones have been accomplished in past decades. The authors of this review have witnessed the entire journey of this field from its first success to the leaping development. On the 30th anniversary of the founding of the discipline of metabolic engineering, this review dates back to the great milestones in achieving heterologous production of higher alcohols in non-native strains. The design and optimization of high alcohol biosynthetic pathways, the expansion of feedstock, the engineering of host strains and the industrialization process are summarized. This review aims to draw further attention to microbial synthesis of higher alcohols, inspire the development of novel techniques and strategies of metabolic engineering, and promote the innovation and upgrade of China's biofuel industry.
Alcohols ; Biofuels ; Biosynthetic Pathways ; Ethanol ; Metabolic Engineering ; Synthetic Biology

BACKGROUND: Human neutrophil lipocalin (HNL) has been used extensively to differentiate acute bacterial infection from febrile diseases as a biomarker to reflect the activation of the neutrophil. The serum HNL levels in the adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) patients with and without infection, as well as the healthy controls (HCs), were analyzed statistically in this study to evaluate the value of HNL for the diagnosis of AOSD. METHODS: A total of 129 AOSD patients were enrolled, from whom blood samples were drawn and the AOSD diagnosis was confirmed through the review of the medical records, where the systemic score, demographic characteristics, clinical manifestations, and laboratory parameters were also collected for the patients; in addition, a total of 40 HCs were recruited among the blood donors from the healthcare center with the relevant information collected. The HNL test was done for the blood samples with the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and the analyses were done for the correlations of HNL with clinical manifestations and diagnostic effectiveness. RESULTS: The serum HNL increased significantly in the patients with only AOSD as compared with that in the HCs (139.76 ± 8.99 ng/mL vs . 55.92 ± 6.12 ng/mL; P  < 0.001). The serum HNL level was correlated with the white blood cell (WBC) count ( r  = 0.335, P  < 0.001), neutrophil count ( r  = 0.334, P  < 0.001), erythrocyte sedimentation rate ( r  = 0.241, P  = 0.022), C-reactive protein ( r  = 0.442, P  < 0.0001), and systemic score ( r  = 0.343, P  < 0.0001) in the AOSD patients significantly. Patients with fever, leukocytosis ≥15,000/mm 3 , and myalgia in the HNL-positive group were observed relatively more than those in the HNL-negative group ( P  = 0.009, P  = 0.023, and P  = 0.007, respectively). HNL was a more sensitive indicator than ferritin and C-reactive protein (CRP) to differentiate the AOSD patients with bacterial infection from AOSD-only patients, and the Youden index was 0.6 for HNL and 0.29 for CRP. CONCLUSION Serum HNL can be used as a biomarker for the diagnosis of the AOSD, and HNL is also observed to be associated with the disease activity.
Adult ; Humans ; Still's Disease, Adult-Onset/diagnosis* ; C-Reactive Protein/metabolism* ; Neutrophils/metabolism* ; Clinical Relevance ; Biomarkers ; Bacterial Infections

Objective : To investigate the correlation between nocturnal sleep duration combined with snoring in the first trimester of pregnancyand small for gestational age(SGA) ，large for gestational age(LGA) ． Methods : Multi- variate Logistic regression model was used to analyze the association between nocturnal sleep duration ，snoring， their combined effects and SGA，LGA. Results : Compared to nocturnal sleep duration 7 to 9 h in the first trimester of pregnancy，sleep duration＜7 h was positively correlated with SGA in male newborn( OR = 4. 22，95% CI : 1. 69 - 10. 52) ; After stratified by snoring，the sleep duration of snoring women＜7 h was positively correlated with SGA ( OR = 5. 68，95% CI : 1. 02－31. 51) ，and the sleep duration of non-snoring women＜7 h was positively correlated with LGA ( OR = 2. 10，95% CI : 1. 16 －3. 81) ． Conclusion Sleep duration＜7 h in the first trimester of preg- nancy is a risk factor for SGA and LGA，and snoring may enhance the association between sleep duration＜7 h in the first trimester of pregnancy and SGA．Pregnant women should keep adequate nocturnal sleep duration to reduce the risk of abnormal neonatal weight.