For energy security, air pollution concerns, coupled with the desire to sustain the agricultural sector and revitalize the rural economy, many countries have applied ethanol as oxygenate or fuel to supplement or replace gasoline in transportation sector. Because of abundant feedstock resources and effective reduction of green-house-gas emissions, the cellulosic ethanol has attracted great attention. With a couple of pioneers beginning to produce this biofuel from biomass in commercial quantities around the world, it is necessary to solve engineering problems and complete the economic assessment in 2015-2016, gradually enter the commercialization stage. To avoid "competing for food with humans and competing for land with food", the 1st generation fuel ethanol will gradually transit to the 2nd generation cellulosic ethanol. Based on the overview of cellulosic ethanol industrialization from domestic and abroad in recent years, the main engineering application problems encountered in pretreatment, enzymes and enzymatic hydrolysis, pentose/hexose co-fermentation strains and processes, equipment were discussed from chemical engineering and biotechnology perspective. The development direction of cellulosic ethanol technology in China was addressed.
Biofuels ; Biomass ; Biotechnology ; Cellulose ; chemistry ; Chemical Engineering ; China ; Ethanol ; chemistry ; Fermentation ; Hydrolysis

Multi-target drugs attract increasing attentions for the therapy of complicated neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, a computer-assisted strategy was applied to search for multi-target compounds by the pharmacophore matching. This strategy has been successfully used to design dual-target inhibitor models against both the acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1). Based on two pharmacophore models matching and physicochemical properties filtering, one hit was identified which could inhibit AChE with IC50 value of (0.337 +/- 0.052) micromol x L(-1) and PARP-1 by 24.6% at 1 micromol x L(-1).
Acetylcholinesterase ; metabolism ; Cholinesterase Inhibitors ; pharmacology ; Computer-Aided Design ; Drug Discovery ; methods ; Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerase Inhibitors

The potential biodegradation of crude oil was assessed based on the development of a fermentative process with a strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa which produced 15.4 g/L rhamnolipids when cultured in a basal mineral medium using glycerol as a sole carbon source. However, neither cell growth nor rhamnolipid production was observed in the comparative culture system using crude oil as the sole carbon source instead. As rhamnolipid, an effective biosurfactant, has been reported to stimulate the biodegradation of hydrocarbons, 1 g/L glycerol or 0.22 g/L rhamnolipid was initially added into the medium to facilitate the biodegradation of crude oil. In both situations, more than 58% of crude oil was degraded and further converted into accumulated cell biomass and rhamnolipids. These results suggest that Pseudomonas aeruginosa could degrade most of crude oil with direct or indirect addition of rhamnolipid. And this conclusion was further supported by another adsorption experiment, where the adsorption capacity of crude oil by killed cell biomass was negligible in comparison with the biologic activities of live cell biomass.
Biodegradation, Environmental ; Cell Culture Techniques ; methods ; Cell Proliferation ; drug effects ; Glycolipids ; pharmacology ; Petroleum ; metabolism ; microbiology ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa ; drug effects ; growth & development ; metabolism ; Water Pollutants, Chemical ; metabolism ; Water Purification ; methods

Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is synthesized and secreted by the anterior pituitary, which binds to its receptors expressed on the membrane of Sertoli cells in the testis to bring about spermatogenesis. With the development of DNA sequencing technology, FSH SNPs rs10835638 and FSHR SNPs rs6165, rs6166, and rs1394205 were detected, which might directly affect the expression of FSH and activity of FSHR, resulting in male spermatogenic dysfunction. This review focuses on the relationship of FSH and FSHR gene polymorphisms with male infertility.
Follicle Stimulating Hormone ; genetics ; Humans ; Infertility, Male ; genetics ; Male ; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ; Receptors, FSH ; genetics ; Sertoli Cells ; Spermatogenesis ; Testis

Objective To explore whether dynamic contrast-enhanced MRA (DCE MRA) can provide an effective assessment of renal vascular in living donors before transplantation.Methods Thirty five healthy living renal donor candidates were scanned on MR system before transplantation.After injection of Gd-DTPA 1 ml in vein, a test-bolus scan was used to get the time delay of Gd-DTPA reaching renal artery.Then, a 3D T1-weighted fast low-angle shot sequence (3D FLASH) was performed in the coronal plane.The 3D FLASH scan would repeat four times with an inter-phase of 10 seconds.Thus, the imaging of the renal arterial, venous and collecting systems were got.Two radiologists observed renal arteries and veins on original imaging and MIP reconstructed imaging.The quality of MR angiography was evaluated on a fivepoint scale and the vascular anatomy or variations of the arterial and venous systems were recorded, using intraoperative findings as a standard of reference.Results The quality for all MRA was good or very good for the most of living renal donors.Among 70 renals, several variations of vascular were found, including 5 left accessory artery, 9 right accessory artery, 3 left proximal arterial branch and 6 right proximal arterial branch.Among 70 renal veins, 1 right accessory veins and 2 left varieocele were observed.One small accessory artery of right kidney was missed with DCE MRA, but identified by operation.Conclusion DCE MRA was noninvasive tool for evaluation of the renal vasculature and variations with high accuracy.It would be a good modality in preoperative evaluation of living renal donors.

BACKGROUND: For treatment of femoral neck fracture, all therapies with the exception of joint replacement encounter the problems including slow healing, poor prognosis, various complications, and unable to bear weight for long time. Fracture hip supporting joint (FHSJ) is a novel unlimited hip support implement that possesses the double functions of fracture fixation and joint supporting and can be used to prevent and treat the complications of femoral neck fracture in young people.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the mechanical effects of FHSJ on treatment of femoral neck fracture.METHODS: Three types of two-dimensional finite element models were constructed by AutoCAD: normal hip (group A), femoral neck fracture fixed with two screws (group B), and femoral neck fracture fixed with two screws and FHSJ (group C). The grids of two-dimensional four nodal point elements were divided by ANSYS (PLANE82). Under the identical condition, the calculations were performed respectively.RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The stress peak value of femoral head weight-bearing zone was 1.029 and 1.63 MPa in group A and group B, respectively, and that in the group C was 0.1-0.4 MPa. The stress peak value of the screws was 37.186 and 7.474 MPa in the group B and group C, respectively. These results indicate that FHSJ installation based on fixation of multiple screws could promote the recovery of femoral head and neck, which exhibits promising prospects in treatment of femoral neck fracture in young people.

Objective To identify the risk factors of delirium in ICU by Meta-analysis. Methods Quality of the studies was assessed in terms of study design, definitions of main variables, statistics, and bias control. Analysis of sensitivity and heterogeneity were performed and cumulative effects were calculated using either fixed or random effects models by RevMan 4.2.Results Ten studies met all inclusive and exclusive criteria. Simple sizes range from 100 to 3308. Twenty-one risk factors of delirium in ICU were involved, but only alcohol abuse, respiratory disease, infection, APACHE Ⅱ,elevated level of serum urea nitrogen, hyponatremia, hyperbilirubinemia and using sedatives were identified as having a cumulative effect on delirium in ICU. Conclusions Infection, abnormality or disturbance of metabolism and intoxication or acute withdrawal from drug or alcohol are independent predictors of delirium in ICU, while advanced age and hypoxemia, which are commonly considered as independent risk factors of delirium in ICU, are still inconclusive.

Computer tomography scanning was performed in 16 patients with mandibular angle hypertrophy before and after surgery. The imaging data of patients were recorded in three-dimensional reconstruction software (Mimics 10.0), and found the most appropriate surgery plan through simulating different surgical procedures. The geometry character indexes of the face were compared between before and after surgery, and then the results were analyzed. We got intuitive, accurate three-dimensional reconstruction graphs, simulation of surgery procedures, and calculation of difference in the geometry character index of face in all cases. The bone width of mandibular angle shortened (7.69?.89) mm; the soft tissue width of mandibular angle shortened (5.13?.19) mm; the both gonial angle increased (5.68?.43)?and (5.91?.66)? respectively. Applied to actual surgery procedure,the operation time shortened and precision of operation was improved. Results demonstrated that Computer three-dimensional reconstruction and computer simulation techniques is beneficial to reveal the variational regularity of bone and soft tissue, which is a good aided method in stimulation of surgery and choice of surgery plan.

OBJECTIVETo investigate mutations of ABCD1 gene in X- linked adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) patients in China.

METHODSPolymerase chain reaction and DNA direct sequencing were employed to analyze the 10 exons of ABCD1 gene in 25 ALD patients.

RESULTSSeventeen mutations in different exons (except exons 4, 9 and 10) were identified in 18 of 25 patients. Most of the mutations were missense mutations, including R182P, G266R, H283D, S404P, N509I, R518G, L520Q, Q556R, S606L and R617C, four (H283D, S40 4P, N509I, R518G) of 10 missense mutations were novel. Also identified were 3 nonsense mutations (W132X, W242X, W595X), 1 dinucleotides deletion mutation (1414 del AG) resulting in frameshift, and 1 base pair deletion at splice acceptor site (IVS5-6 del C). Two synonymous mutations (L516L and V349V) appeared simultaneously in 2 unrelated patients, and no other mutations could be found with them in all 10 exons screened.

CONCLUSIONThere were no hot spot mutations in ABCD1 gene in China. Mutations in gene were found over 70% of patients with ALD in China. The ABCD1 gene mutations identified revealed no obvious correlation between the type of mutation and phenotype.

ATP Binding Cassette Transporter, Sub-Family D, Member 1 ; ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters ; genetics ; Adrenoleukodystrophy ; genetics ; pathology ; Age of Onset ; Base Sequence ; China ; Codon, Nonsense ; DNA ; chemistry ; genetics ; DNA Mutational Analysis ; Humans ; Male ; Mutation ; Mutation, Missense

Aged ; Cell Differentiation ; Humans ; Male ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neurosecretory Systems ; pathology ; Prostate-Specific Antigen ; blood ; Prostatic Neoplasms ; blood ; pathology