Microbial genome reduction and modification are important strategies for constructing cellular chassis used for synthetic biology. This article summarized the essential genes and the methods to identify them in microorganisms, compared various strategies for microbial genome reduction, and analyzed the characteristics of some microorganisms with the minimized genome. This review shows the important role of genome reduction in constructing cellular chassis.
Genes, Essential ; genetics ; Genetic Engineering ; Genome, Microbial ; genetics ; Synthetic Biology ; methods

OBJECTVEThis study evaluates the expression of interleukin-18 (IL-18) and hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-lα in rat periodontitis model exposed to normoxia and chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) environments. The possible correlation between periodontitis and obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) was also investigated. Methods: Thirty-two Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly assigned into four groups: normoxia control, normoxia periodontitis, hypoxia control, and hypoxia periodontitis groups. The periodontitis models were established by ligating the bilateral maxillary second molars and employing high-carbohydrate diets. Rats in hypoxia control and hypoxia periodontitis groups were exposed to CIH treatment mimicking a moderately severe OSAHS condition. All animals were sacrificed after eight weeks, and the clinical periodontal indexes were detected. The levels of IL-18 and HIF-1α in serum and gingival tissues were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The correlation between attachment loss (AL) and the levels of IL-18 and HIF-lα in hypoxia periodontitis group was evaluated.

RESULTSThe levels of IL-18 and HIF-lα in hypoxia periodontitis group were significantly higher than that in normoxia periodontitis and hypoxia control groups (P<0.05). Furthermore, the levels of IL-18 and HIF-lα in serum (r-0.792, r=0.753, P<0.05) and gingival tissues (r-0.817, r=0.779, P<0.05) were positively correlated with AL.

CONCLUSIONCIH could aggravate the destruction of periodontal tissues, which is correlated with IL-18 and HIF-lα levels.

Animals ; Disease Models, Animal ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Gingiva ; Hypoxia ; Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit ; Interleukin-18 ; Periodontal Index ; Periodontitis ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Serum ; Sleep Apnea, Obstructive

The quality of sleep has a great relationship with health and working efficiency. The result of sleep stage classification is an important indicator to measure the quality of sleep, and it is also an important way to diagnose and treat sleep disorders. In this paper, the method of detrended cross-correlation analysis (DCCA) was used to analyze sleep stage classification, sleep electroencephalograph signals, which were extracted from the MIT-BIH Polysomno graphic Database randomly. The results showed that the average DCCA exponent of the awake period is smaller than that of the first stage of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleeps. It is well concluded that the method of studying the sleep electroencephalograph with this method is of great significance to improve the quality of sleep, to diagnose and to treat sleep disorders.
Electroencephalography ; Humans ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Sleep Stages

When people are walking, they will produce gait signals and different people will produce different gait signals. The research of the gait signal complexity is really of great significance for medicine. By calculating people's gait signal complexity, we can assess a person's health status and thus timely detect and diagnose diseases. In this study, the Jensen-Shannon divergence (JSD), the method of complexity analysis, was used to calculate the complexity of gait signal in the healthy elderly, healthy young people and patients with Parkinson's disease. Then we detected the experimental data by variance detection. The results showed that the difference among the complexity of the three gait signals was great. Through this research, we have got gait signal complexity range of patients with Parkinson's disease, the healthy elderly and healthy young people, respectively, which would provide an important basis for clinical diagnosis.
Aged ; Gait ; Healthy Volunteers ; Humans ; Parkinson Disease ; physiopathology ; Reference Values ; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ; Walking

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of sunitinib as first line treatment in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).Methods A total of 40 patients with mRCC were treated with sunitinib between January 2009 and December 2011,including 27 males and 13 females.The median age was 59 (31-75) years old.All patients received a pathologic diagnosis of renal clear cell carcinomas with radical nephrectomy.All cases were treated with first line therapy.Sunitinib monotherapy was administered in repeated 6-week cycles of daily oral therapy for 4 weeks,followed by 2 weeks off in 34 patients,while another 6 patients received 37.5 mg/d continuously until disease progression or unacceptable toxicities occurred.Overall response rate and safety were evaluated.Results The median follow up was 14 months (range 4-36 months).All patients could be evaluated the efficacy.17.5 ％ (7/40) patients achieved partial responses,77.5 ％ (31/40) atients were in stable and 2 (5.0 ％) patients were with disease progression including 1 death.The objective response rate was 17.5 ％ (7/40),and the disease control rate was 95.0 ％ (38/40).The most common side effects included fatigue 12 cases (30.0 ％),alopecia 3 cases (7.5 ％),thrombocytopenia 23 cases (57.5 ％),thyroid dysfunction 26 cases (65.0 ％),neutropenia 20 cases (50.0 ％),hypertension 18 cases (45.0 ％),hand-foot syndrome 17 cases (42.5 ％) and diarrhea 4 cases (10.0 ％).The major grade 3 adverse events included thrombocytopenia 2 cases (5.0 ％) and edema 1 case (2.5 ％).Most adverse events were ameliorated by treatment interruption.Conclusion Sunitinib has definitive efficacy for patients with mRCC with slight side effects.

Objective To investigate the risk factors and prognosis of pneumonia in elderly patients of cerebral stroke sequelae period.Methods Eighty-eight cases of pneumonia in elderly patients with cerebral stroke sequelae period were selected as stroke group,with non-stroke patients of the same period suffering from pneumonia 1 ∶ 1 matched as control group.The risk factors and prognosis of pneumonia in elderly patients of cerebral stroke sequelae period were analyzed.Results Pneumonia in stroke group was related with hypertension,diabetes,conscious disturbance,bucking or nasogastric feeding,dyscinesia,incision of trachea,multiple organ disfunction syndrome (MODS),hospitalizations,hospital stay and abandon treatment or death (P ＜ 0.05),and not related with smoking,coronary heart disease,kindey dysfunction,malignant tumor,phlegm bacterial culture,hypoxemia and mechanical ventilation was tested by conditioned Logistic regression quantitatively(P＞ 0.05).The independent risk factors for pneumonia in elderly patients of cerebral stroke sequelae period were bucking or nasogastric feeding,and MODS by two-way unconditional Logistic regression.Conclusions Hypertension,diabetes,conscious disturbance,bucking or nasogastric feeding,dyscinesia,incision of trachea,MODS,hospitalizations are risk factors for pneumonia in elderly patients of cerebral stroke sequelae period,and lead to relatively poor prognosis.Three-grade prevention and control of risk factors can improve prognosis.

BACKGROUND:The distance of spinal cord shifting backward after treatment through cervical posterior approach is affected by various factors. In fact, it is a morphological change after spinal cord is affected by external force.
OBJECTIVE:To analyze the influential factors for spinal cord shifting backward after posterior cervical decompression for cervical spondylotic myelopathy.
METHODS:Case data of 70 patients with multi-segmental cervical spondylotic myelopathy undergoing posterior cervical decompression were retrospectively analyzed. According to the different distances of spinal cord shifting backward after treatment, they were divided into three groups:<3 mm group, 3-5 mm group, and>5 mm group. In accordance with Japanese Orthopaedic Association Scores, the degree of cervical curvature and axial symptom index were compared.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:No significant difference in the recovery rate of Japanese Orthopaedic Association Scores was detected among the three groups. No significant difference in cervical curvature was visible among the three groups before and after treatment. The proportion of axial symptom was significantly higher in the patients of>5 mm group than the other two groups after treatment (P<0.05). These results suggested that the distance of spinal cord shifting backward was associated with axial symptom after treatment in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy after posterior cervical decompression.

ObjectiveTo investigate whether brain microbleeds is associated with antiplatelet-related intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). MethodsForty-three patients with antiplatelet-related ICH treated in our hospital from Jun 2005 to Jun 2010 were investigated in this study.Age, sex and hypertension matched controls with non-antiplatelet-related ICH; and without history of ICH on antiplatelet therapy were selected. ResultsMicrobleeds was more frequent in antiplatelet users with ICH than in matched antiplatelet users without ICH(31/43(72. 1％ ) vs 12/57(21.1％ ), x2 =6. 731, P =0. 011 ) and was more frequent in IHC patients with antiplatelet treatment than those with non-antiplatelet treatment (31/43 (72. 1％ ) vs 17/48 (35.4％), P =0. 030). The frequency of lobar microbleeds(27/43, 62. 8％ ) was significant high in antiplatelet-related ICH than that in non antiplatelet-related ICH (19/48, 39. 6％, x2 =4. 019, P =0. 042). The number of microbleeds was associated with the risk of antiplate-related ICH ( OR =1.38 per additional microbleed, 95％ CI 1.07-1.71, t =0. 806, P =0. 021 ). ConclusionBrain microbleeds are associated with antiplatelet-related ICH.

This research adopts both quantitative and qualitative analytical methods to analyze high-frequency medical words, morphemes and clusters, with the aid of corpora and statistical measures. The result of this research can help teachers arrange their teaching according to the difficulty and frequency of the words, morphemes and clusters.For students, they can put more time and effort on these frequently used words, morphemes and clusters, and thus improve learning efficiency.

In recent years,biofeedback combined with nerve electrical stimulation therapy as a kind of new treatment has been generally applied in paediatrics,gastroenterology,proctology and rehabilitation.This paper is to review the application of the therapy in children with fecal incontinence,including its principle,clinical efficacy and prospects.