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Future breeding is likely to involve the detection and removal of deleterious alleles, which are mutations that negatively affect crop fitness. However, little is known about the prevalence of such mutations and their effects on phenotypic traits in the context of modern crop breeding. To address this, we examined the number and frequency of deleterious mutations in 350 elite maize inbred lines developed over the past few decades in China and the United States. Our findings reveal an accumulation of weakly deleterious mutations and a decrease in strongly deleterious mutations, indicating the dominant effects of genetic drift and purifying selection for the two types of mutations, respectively. We also discovered that slightly deleterious mutations, when at lower frequencies, were more likely to be heterozygous in the developed hybrids. This is consistent with complementation as a potential explanation for heterosis. Subsequently, we found that deleterious mutations accounted for more of the variation in phenotypic traits than nondeleterious mutations with matched minor allele frequencies, especially for traits related to leaf angle and flowering time. Moreover, we detected fewer deleterious mutations in the promoter and gene body regions of differentially expressed genes across breeding eras than in nondifferentially expressed genes. Overall, our results provide a comprehensive assessment of the prevalence and impact of deleterious mutations in modern maize breeding and establish a useful baseline for future maize improvement efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the interview survey concerning all women of childbearing age currently living in Qi-yi Commune in Shanghai, China. The interview include questions on the knowledge and methods of contraception, age at menarche, age at marriage, and number and date of pregnancies and their outcomes. The data obtained are analyzed according to birth cohorts and cumulative occurrences with both the median and the interquartile range being studied. Accordingly, the result of the survey reveals that there has been a major hike in the age at marriage and major decreases have been seen in overall fertility, total number of children born, and duration of childbearing period.

Background: Intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) dates back to the 1990s and has been successfully applied in neurosurgery but they were low-field iMRI (< 1.0T). This paper reports the clinical experience with a 3T iMRI-integrated neurosurgical suite in Huashan Hospital, Shanghai, China., Methods: From September 2010 through March 2012, 373 consecutive patients underwent neurological surgery under guidance with 3T iMRI. A retrospective analysis was conducted regarding clinical efficiency., Results: All surgery in the 373 patients was safe. The ratio of gross total resection for cerebral gliomas (n = 161) was increased from 55.90% to 87.58%. The ratio of benefit in extent of resection was 39.13%. One hundred and fifty eight of the 161 glioma patients accomplished follow-up at 3 months postoperatively. Twenty of 161 patients (12.42%) suffered from early motor deficit after surgery. Late motor deficit was however observed in five of 158 patients (3.16%). Twenty-one of 161 patients (13.04%) had early speech deficit and late speech deficit was only observed in six of 158 patients (3.80%). The ratio of gross total resection for pituitary adenomas (n = 49) was increased from 77.55% to 85.71%. The ratio of benefit in extent of resection was 10.2%. There were no iMRI-related adverse events even for patients who underwent awake craniotomy., Conclusion: The 3T iMRI integrated neurosurgical suite provides high-quality intraoperative structural and functional imaging for real-time tumor resection control and accurate functional preservation, resulting in an improvement in maximal safe brain surgery.

The half-smooth tongue sole (Cynoglossus semilaevis, hereafter, "tongue sole") is a marine flatfish with great commercial importance for fisheries and aquaculture in China. It has also been a promising model for the study of sex determination mechanisms in fish. Here, we report the construction of a genetic linkage map for the tongue sole, based on 137 markers including 103 AFLP markers, 33 microsatellite markers, and one female-specific DNA marker. Twenty-six linkage groups (LGs) were found. The total map length was 934.6 cM (Kosambi), with an average spacing of 8.4 cM, covering 64.4% of the estimated genome size. Furthermore, a female-specific SCAR marker, CseF-382, was mapped on LG5. This study represents the first genetic linkage map in the tongue sole. This map has great potential in the identification of quantitative traits loci and sex-related genes and marker-assisted selection in the tongue sole. Meanwhile, the new set of polymorphic microsatellite markers developed in this study is not only useful for genetic mapping but also of critical importance for studies on genetic diversity and broodstock management in tongue sole.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to investigate the clustering status of risk factors for young patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and analyse the relationship between risk factors and CAD., Methods: 168 patients with CAD aged under 45 years, 170 age-matched non-CAD individuals (angiographically normal) and 170 patients with CAD aged over 45 years were set as CAD group, control group and reference group, respectively. Plasma levels of lipids, C-reactive protein (CRP), traditional risk factors (hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, diabetes, obesity, smoking) were evaluated., Results: The following results were obtainted: (I) there was a significant difference in gender, proportion of smoking, TC and TG between the CAD group and the control group, and also in gender, smoking, hypertension, diabetes, BMI and blood lipids between the CAD group and the reference group (P < 0.05); (2) there was a significant difference in levels ofTG,TC, HDL-C, LDL-C and BMI (P < 0.05), but no remarkable difference in ApoB/ApoA1 and CRP between the CAD group and the reference group (P > 0.05).There were significant differences in TG, ApoB/ApoA1 and CRP (P < 0.05), but no remarkable difference in other factors between the CAD group and the control group (P > 0.05); (3) logistic regression showed a close relationship between CAD and smoking (OR = 2.5, 95% CI: 1.43-3.98), CRP (OR = 2.71,95% CI: 1.46-5.88),TG (OR = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.25-2.75) and ApoB/ApoA1 (OR = 1.93, 95% CI: 1.14-3.13)., Conclusions: Smoking, CRP, ApoB/ApoA1 ratio and TG are independent risk factors for young patients with CAD.

Background: Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) can inhibit the pro-inflammatory effects of IL-1, which recently has been thought to involve the pathogenesis of alcoholic liver disease (ALD). This study was undertaken to determine whether there is any association between IL-1ra gene polymorphism and ALD in a Chinese population., Methods: The polymorphism of IL-1ra gene intron 2 (VNTR) was assessed in 165 alcoholics (43 alcohol-dependent subjects without liver diseases, 30 patients with alcoholic fatty liver, 61 patients with alcoholic hepatitis and 31 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis) and 65 healthy control subjects by PCR with DNA of peripheral blood mononuclear cells., Results: The rate of IL-1RN*1 carriage was statistically higher in the alcoholics than in the control group (98.79% vs 93.85%, chi2=4.48, P<0.050). And the IL-1RN*1 allele frequency was more common in the alcoholics than in the control group (86.67% vs 76.92%, chi2=6.56, P<0.025). IL-1RN*1 heterozygote was significantly more frequent in the patients with alcoholic hepatitis or those with cirrhosis than in the alcohol-dependent subjects without liver diseases (32.79%, 29.03% vs 9.30%; chi2=7.84, chi2=4.84; P<0.010, P<0.050). The IL-1RN*2 allele frequency in the patients with alcoholic hepatitis and the patients with cirrhosis was also significantly higher than in those alcoholics without liver diseases (13.93%, 17.74% vs 4.65%; chi2=4.79, chi2=6.78; P<0.050, P<0.010). But the frequencies of IL-1RN*1 heterozygote and IL-1RN*2 allele appear to be not different between the patients with alcoholic fatty liver and the alcoholics without liver diseases., Conclusions: IL-1ra gene polymorphism is closely associated with race. IL-1RN*2 allele doesn't influence the susceptibility to ALD, but the gene carriers with ALD have additional risk for aggravation of the illness.

This study was designed to investigate the prevalence of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter calcoaceticus-baumannii complex (Acb complex) and to type carbapenemases. The relatedness of 45 isolates of carbapenem-resistant Acb complex collected from a clinical setting was analysed by PFGE. The carbapenemases produced by these isolates were typed by IEF, a three-dimensional test, 2-mercaptopropanoic acid inhibition assay, PCR and DNA cloning and sequencing. Results showed that all 45 isolates were resistant to multiple antibiotics including meropenem. The resistance rates to cefoperazone/sulbactam and ampicillin/sulbactam were 2.2 and 6.5%, respectively. About 71.7-78.3% of these isolates were intermediately resistant to cefepime, ceftazidime and cefotaxime. Forty-five isolates were classified into type A (98%) and B (2%) based on their PFGE patterns. Most of type A isolates were from the ICU. Type A was the dominant isolate, including subtypes A1 (22%), A2 (71%), A3 (2%) and A4 (2%). Only one isolate, from the haematology department, belonged to type B. Forty-three isolates (96%) were positive for carbapenemase. One isolate had two bands by IEF, the pIs of which were 6.64 and 7.17. The band with the pI of 6.64 was OXA-23. The other 42 isolates produced two bands with pIs of 6.40 and 7.01 which could not be inhibited by clavulanic acid, cloxacillin or 2-mercaptopropanoic acid. It can be concluded that the prevalent carbapenem-resistant Acb complex isolates from this hospital all had similar beta-lactamase patterns.

Aerobically activated sludge processing was carried out to treat terylene artificial silk printing and dyeing wastewater (TPD wastewater) in a lab-scale experiment, focusing on the kinetics of the COD removal. The kinetics parameters determined from experiment were applied to evaluate the biological treatability of wastewater. Experiments showed that COD removal could be divided into two stages, in which the ratio BOD/COD (B/C) was the key factor for stage division. At the rapid-removal stage with B/C>0.1, COD removal could be described by a zero order reaction. At the moderate-removal stage with B/C<0.1, COD removal could be described by a first order reaction. Then Monod equation was introduced to indicate COD removal. The reaction rate constant (K) and half saturation constant (K(S)) were 0.0208-0.0642 L/(gMLSS).h and 0.44-0.59 (gCOD)/L respectively at 20 degrees C-35 degrees C. Activation energy (E(a)) was 6.05 x 10(4) J/mol. By comparison of kinetic parameters, the biological treatability of TPD wastewater was superior to that of traditional textile wastewater. But COD removal from TPD-wastewater was much more difficult than that from domestic and industrial wastewater, such as papermaking, beer, phenol wastewater, etc. The expected effluent quality strongly related to un-biodegradable COD and kinetics rather than total COD. The results provide useful basis for further scaling up and efficient operation of TPD wastewater treatment.

Objective: To describe the brief survey of alcohol intake and the incidence of alcohol liver disease in Zhejiang province., Methods: 18,237 requested persons aged over 18 years were selected by multi-stage stratified cluster sampling in Zhejiang province. Questionnaire about alcohol consumption, hepatic ultrasonic scan and detection of hepatic enzymes and markers of HBV and HCV were carried out. Daily alcohol intake more than 40g (including equal to 40g/d) was essential for the diagnosis of alcoholic liver disease., Results: Among the 18,237 persons (male 12,042, female 6195), the average daily alcohol intake was (17.7 +/- 27.2) g. The incidence of alcoholic liver disease in Zhejiang province was 4.34% (male 6.36%, female 0.36%) in the whole population. Four subtypes were separated as alcoholic cirrhosis, alcoholic fat liver, alcoholic hepatitis and mild alcoholic injury in liver with the corresponding incidence of 0.68%, 0.94%, 1.51% and 1.21% separately., Conclusion: Alcoholic liver disease is found to be a common disease in Zhejiang province, indicating an urgent need for the public education on alcohol abuse and the treatment on related health problems