Y-Shaped Tendon Graft-A Technique in the Reconstruction of Posttraumatic Chronic Boutonniere Deformity.

PURPOSE: Current reconstruction strategies for chronic posttraumatic boutonniere deformities have variable outcomes and are prone to complications. This study aimed to describe the clinical outcomes of a Y-shaped tendon graft technique. METHODS: In this retrospective case study, we reviewed the files of 18 patients treated with the Y-shaped tendon graft between January 2010 and January 2017. The technique involves release of the central slip, lateral bands, and transverse retinacular ligaments at the proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint, total excision of scar tissue in the central slip and at the insertion site, and construction of 3 1.5-mm unicortical holes at the base of the middle phalanx, through which a Y-shaped graft of the palmaris longus is inserted to reconstruct the central slip and stabilize the lateral bands in a dorsal position. Clinical evaluations included measuring the active range of motion in the PIP joint and distal interphalangeal (DIP) joint, grip strength, Souter score, and the Quick Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand (QuickDASH) score. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 36.1 years, and 12 of the 18 patients were men. The average follow-up period was 23 months (range, 13-38 months). The preoperative PIP joint extension deficit was 48.0° ± 5.0° compared with 10.9° ± 9.3° after surgery. The preoperative DIP joint active flexion was 34.4° ± 8.0° compared with 71.4° ± 8.6° after surgery The outcomes based on the Souter score were 11 excellent, 5 good, and 2 poor. The QuickDASH score was 17.7 ± 6.4 before surgery and 11.2 ± 7.2 after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: The Y-shaped tendon graft can be a useful procedure for the correction of chronic boutonniere deformity; in our patient series, this provided good or excellent results in 16 of 18 patients. TYPE OF STUDY/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic IV.

[Community Structure of Microorganisms and Its Seasonal Variation in Beihai Lake].

Water samples were collected in summer, autumn, winter, and spring in Beihai Lake for the analysis of water quality and microbial community structure. It was found that the water quality in summer and autumn was worse than in winter and spring, and TN and TP were the most important factors affecting the water quality. The microbial community structure was investigated using MiSeq high-throughput sequencing. It was found that the phyla Cyanobacteria, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes were abundant in all the samples, whereas their relative abundances differed among the four seasons. In summer and autumn, the microbial diversities were higher, and the phylum Cyanobacteria was most abundant, with the genus Synechococcus dominant. In winter, the phylum Proteobacteria was dominant. In spring, Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes were abundant, accounting for 51.5%-64.3% of the bacterial community. The redundancy analysis (RDA) results showed that the microbial communities were mostly affected by water temperature in Beihai Lake. Overall, the water quality of Beihai Lake was qualified for the use of landscape water. However, the abundance of Synechococcus in summer may lead to algal blooms. Thus, it is necessary to strengthen the monitoring and estimation of water quality in Beihai Lake.

[Impact on the microbial community of municipal sewage in the anammox system during the cooling process].

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation is an important part of the biological nitrogen removal process, and the performance of the process is determined by the microbial community structure. Low-temperature anaerobic ammonium oxidation technology has good prospects for saving a lot of energy, and anaerobic ammonium oxidation bacteria play a vital role in the removal of total nitrogen from waste water. To explore the microbial community structure changes of anammox reactor in sewage treatment during the cooling process (from 30 degrees C to 20 degrees), the total amount of the microbial, the quantity of anaerobic ammonium oxidation and the change of functional microbial community were investigated in a sewage treatment process using the phospholipid fatty acid method (PLFA), quantitative PCR and the clone library of bacterial 16S rRNA. The PLFAs results showed that the total amount of microbial was first decreased and then gradually increased with the running time, when the temperature dropped from 30 degrees C to 20 degrees C, and the NH4+ -N content in the effluent of the system was decreased. The quantitative PCR results showed that 16S rRNA gene copies of anammox bacteria increased from 1.19 x 10(8) copies x mL(-1) to 1.86 x 10(8) copies x mL(-1) in the wastewater. The PCR-DGGE results showed that when the temperature decreased, the anammox bacteria were further enriched. A shift of anammox bacteria community from single Candidatus Kuenenia sp. to a combination of Candidatus Brocadia sp. and Candidatus Kuenenia sp. was observed.

Simultaneous determination of 24 antidepressant drugs and their metabolites in wastewater by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Antidepressants are a new kind of pollutants being increasingly found in wastewater. In this study, a fast and sensitive ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for the analysis of 24 antidepressant drugs and six of their metabolites in wastewater. This is the first time that the antidepressant residues in wastewater of Beijing (China) were systematically reported. A solid-phase extraction process was performed with 3 M cation disk, followed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry measurements. The chromatographic separation and mass parameters were optimized in order to achieve suitable retention time and good resolution for analytes. All compounds were satisfactorily determined in one single injection within 20 min. The limit of quantification (LOQ), linearity, and extraction recovery were validated. The LOQ for analytes were ranged from 0.02 to 0.51 ng/mL. The determination coefficients were more than 0.99 within the tested concentration range (0.1-25 ng/mL), and the recovery rate for each target compound was ranged from 81.2% to 118% at 1 ng/mL. This new developed method was successfully applied to analysis the samples collected from Beijing municipal wastewater treatment plants. At least ten target antidepressants were found in all samples and the highest mean concentration of desmethylvenlafaxin was up to 415.6 ng/L.

[Comparison between transgenic insect-resistant cotton expressing Cry1Ac protein and its parental variety in rhizospheric fungal diversity].

The dynamics of rhizospheric fungal diversity and biomass at different sampling stages associated with two transgenic insectresistant cottons expressing Cry1Ac protein and their control varieties were studied under greenhouse conditions, followed by PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (Q-PCR), in order to evaluate the ecological security of planting transgenic cotton expressing Cry1Ac protein. The results indicated that the fungal superior bands in rhizosphere of transgenic Bt cotton were similar with that of control cotton at four sampling stages, the more obvious difference in the blurred bands among transgenic Bt cotton, JM20 and SHIYUAN321 was detected. The rhizospheric fungal biomass of transgenic Bt cotton SGK321 was significantly lower than that of its parental control cotton at seedling stage, while the slight decrease in fungal biomass of transgenic Bt cotton XP188 was detected at boll forming stage, the ill-defined decrease, even growing tendency in two transgenic Bt cottons was detected at other stages. However, the difference of rhizospheric fungal community compositions and biomass was not only existed between transgenic cotton and its control, but also between SHIYUAN321 and JM20, and the same phenomenon was also detected between transgenic Bt cotton SGK321 and XP188. Hence, Bt protein is not the only incentive resulting in the difference in fungal community composition and diversity, the decrease in biomass between transgenic cotton and untransgenic cotton, different cotton varieties has an effect on them.

[Comparing microbial community of high ammonia wastewater and municipal sewage in a partial nitrification system].

Nitritation is an important part of the biological nitrogen removal process, and the performance of the process was determined by the microbial community structure. To explore the microbial adaptability to different sewage, the microbial diversity and the amount of bacteria were investigated in a high ammonia wastewater treatment process and a sewage treatment process using the clone library of bacterial 16S rDNA, the phospholipid fatty acid method (PLFA) and the quantitative PCR. The clone library results showed that there was a significantly difference in bacterial community structure of these two processes, although the dominant bacteria belong to the Proteobacteria and Bacteroidete, there were more clusters in the sewage treatment process. The PLFAs results showed that the microbial diversity index and the evenness index of the high ammonium wastewater treatment process were significantly low. The quantitative PCR results showed that amounts of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) in the high ammonium wastewater treatment process were higher than these in sewage treatment process. The copy number of AOB was higher than the copy number of NOB in the high ammonia wastewater treatment process by three orders magnitude. The copy number of AOB was higher than the copy number of NOB in sewage treatment process by two orders of magnitude.

[Research on algal diversity in Zoige Alpine Wetland].

Water samples were collected in summer and winter in Zoige Alpine Wetland. Both the traditional cultivable and microscopic method and modern molecular approach were used to reveal the algal diversity in the wetland. For the samples collected in summer, single-cell Chlorophyta was cultured, isolated and identified. The results showed that there were at least four kinds of Chlorophyta, which were Chlorella vulgaris Beij., Planktosphaeria gelatinosa G. M. Smith, Scenedesmus abundans Kirchne and Scenedesmus bijuga Turp. They all belonged to Chlorococcales. The dominant species was Chlorella vulgaris Beij., which had been purified. For the samples collected in winter, the microscopic results showed that the dominant populations were diatoms, which is in accordance with the principle that the dominant populations of algae are diatoms in low-temperature seasons. Cyanobacterial 16S rRNA gene clone library showed that the dominant group was Bacillaripiophyta (35.3%). And Cyanobacteria contained the orders of Chroococcales (5.9%), Nostocales (11.8%), Osillatoriales (11.8%) and Unclassified Cyanobacteria (35.3%). There were some clones related to those from frigid habitats, such as Leptolyngbya-related clones.

Treatment of dairy wastewater by two-stage membrane operation with ultrafiltration and nanofiltration.

Treatment of dairy wastewater by a two-stage membrane process with ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) was investigated. The results showed that the flux of UF was higher at pH = 4.6 than that at pH = 8 because the resistance of the fouling membrane was lower at the isoelectric point of protein (pH = 4.6) in UF operation. Protein rejection exceeded 99% by UF + NF operation. Lactose rejections were 98.5 and 54% for UF + NF90 and UF + NF270 respectively. Experiments on membrane cleaning showed that the fouling layer of UF and NF was mainly protein and casein which could be removed by aqueous NaOH with pH = 10. The result of long-term experiments showed that the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of NF90 permeates was below 70 mg/L consistently and the wastewater could be concentrated to 24% by a two-stage membrane process.

[Optimization of two-dimensional electrophoresis conditions for proteomics of Issatchenkia orientalis in degrading dyes].

Total protein of the yeast Issatchenkia orientalis was extracted and separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) before and after the dye Reactive Brilliant Red K-2BP was degraded by this yeast, respectively. Different protein extraction methods, different volumes of sample loaded and different staining techniques were tested and compared for the 2-DE. Among three different protein extraction methods, the final protein concentrations of 3.4 mg/mL, 1.8 mg/mL and 5.6 mg/mL were obtained by single ultrasonication, ultrasonication-TCA/acetone,and ultrasonication-ammonium sulfate precipitation, respectively. The best electrophoresis pattern could be gotten by loading 150 microg protein samples from the method of ultrasonication-ammonium sulfate precipitation, using IPG strips of pH 4-7 for the first dimensional electrophoresis and staining with silver nitrate. This electrophoresis pattern had high resolution and good repetition. It was detected to have 730 +/- 30 protein points by preliminary image analysis. This research results provided a technical support for screening dye-degrading enzymes from the yeast of I. orientalis.

[Effect of abamectin insecticide on the microbial community in broccoli phyllosphere].

The indigenous microbial communities within the plant phyllosphere are highly diverse and include many different species of bacteria, filamentous fungi, yeasts and algae which play important ecological roles. This study was the first attempt to assess the impact of abamectin treatments on microbial communities of broccoli phyllosphere using two culture-independent techniques of phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA) and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP). Results showed that low concentration of abamectin treatments did not affect the microbial biomass and microbial community structure of broccoli phyllosphere significantly. However, high concentration of abamectin treatments significantly change the microbial community structure including a decrease of total and bacterial biomass, and a decrease in the ratio of Gram-positive bacteria to Gram-negative bacteria, but did not change the fungal biomass. Moreover, PLFA suggested that the number of unsaturated and cyclopropane phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs: 16: 1omega9t, 18: 1omega7, cy17:0 and cy19:0) increased with high concentration abamectin treatment, while the saturated PLFAs i15:0, a15:0, i16:0 and a17:0 decreased. The appearance terminal restriction fragments (T-RFs: 58, 96, 236 and 420 bp) indicated that some bacteria might play a significant role in abamectin degradation in broccoli phylosphere, while the disappeared T-RFs (51, 89, 99, 338, 66, 223 and 482 bp) implied some other bacteria might potentially serve as microbial indicator of abamectin exposure.

Three di-O-caffeoylquinic acid derivatives from the heads of Cynara scolymus L.

Three di-O-caffeoylquinic acid derivatives were isolated from the ethanol extracts of the heads of Cynara scolymus L. Their structures were elucidated based on spectra analyses.

[Biosorption of Ag+ by heavy metals hyperresistant Bacillus cereus strain HQ-1].

A newly isolated Bacillus cereus strain HQ-1 was found to possess high capability to absorb silver ions. The study showed that the biosorption process could be described well by pseudo-second-order kinetic model and Freundlich isotherm model. Higher cell concentration was favorable to the biosorption. Temperature's effect on the biosorption was not obvious. The oxygenous and nitrogenous functional groups on the cell wall played a very important role in the process of biosorption. Microdeposits were formed by interaction between silver ions and biopolymers from the cell wall (such as polysaccharides, proteins and some hydrolysis).

A novel acidophile community populating waste ore deposits at an acid mine drainage site.

Waste ore samples (pH 3.0) were collected at an acid mine drainage (AMD) site in Anhui, China. The present acidophilic microbial community in the waste ore was studied with 16S rRNA gene clone library and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Eighteen different clones were identified and affiliated with Actinobacteria, low G + C Gram-positives, Thermomicrobia, Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, candidate division TM7, and Planctomycetes. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed a diversity of acidophiles in the samples that were mostly novel. It is unexpected that the moderately thermophilic acidophiles were abundant in the acidic ecosystem and may play a great role in the generation of AMD. The result of DGGE was consistent with that of clone library analysis. These findings help in the better understanding of the generation mechanism of AMD and in developing a more efficient method to control AMD.

Bacterial diversity in soils around a lead and zinc mine.

Five samples of soil collected from a lead and zinc mine were used to assess the effect of combined contamination of heavy metals on soil bacterial communities using a polyphasic approach including characterization of isolates by culture method, community level catabolic profiling in BIOLOG GN microplates, and genetic community fingerprinting by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of 16S rDNA fragments amplified by PCR from community DNA (PCR-DGGE). The structure of the bacterial community was affected to a certain extent by heavy metals. The PCR-DGGE analysis of 16S rRNA genes showed that there were significant differences in the structure of the microbial community among the soil samples, which were related to the contamination levels. The number of bacteria and the number of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) bands in the soils increased with increasing distance from the lead and zinc mine tailing, whereas the concentration of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) was decreased. Heavily polluted soils could be characterized by a community that differs from those of lightly polluted soils in richness and structure of dominating bacterial populations. The clustering analysis of the DGGE profiles showed that the bacteria in all the five samples of soil belonged to three clusters. The data from the BIOLOG analysis also showed the same result. This study showed that heavy metal contamination decreased both the biomass and diversity of the bacterial community in soil.

[Isolation, molecular characterization and resistance mechanism study on a cadmium hyperresistant Bacillus cereus].

A Gram-positive, aerobic, motile, spore-forming bacterium was isolated from a Pb-Zn mine tailing at suburb of Beijing City. The bacterial strain isolated could resist cadmium efficiently and it was able to grow well on media plates containing 1 000 mg/L cadmium. The DNA G + C content were found to be 60%. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene revealed that this isolate was a member of the genus Bacillus. Two growth curves about this strain were drawn on media with and without cadmium. This strain harbors a plasmid putatively bearing essential cadmium resistant genes as demonstrated by a plasmid elimination experiment. The results of this study indicate that this strain has a better potential for cadmium resistance compared to other reports. The physiological characterization of the isolates also indicates the possible application of this strain for bioremediation of sites contaminated with cadmium.

[Biodiversity of acidophiles in the sediment at an acid mine drainage site].

A sediment sample was collected at an acid mine drainage site in Anhui. The acidophiles composition and community structure in the sediment was studied with 16S rDNA clone library and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). The results indicated that the acidophiles in the sediment were novel compared with the data in GenBank. The acidophiles affiliated with Acidobacteria, beta/gamma-Proteobacteria, delta-Proteobacteria, Nitrospira, Candidate Division TM7, low G + C Gram-positive. delta-Proteobacteria were major group in this acidic ecosystem. The research of aicdophiles community in sediment can help us develop high efficient method to treat acid mine drainage (AMD).

Screening and identification of the levoglucosan kinase gene (lgk) from Aspergillus niger by LC-ESI-MS/MS and RT-PCR.

A protein of 75,000 Daltons with levoglucosan kinase activity was purified from Aspergillus niger. After in-gel digestion by trypsin, a 14-mer peptide was sequenced and analyzed by LC-ESI-MS/MS. Using a primer derived from the 14-mer peptide in combination with Oligo-(dT)18, a cDNA fragment was obtained by RT-PCR. A search of the GenBank database indicated that the protein had not been identified before. A similar protein named hypothetical protein FG07802.1 (EAA77996.1) was found to exist in Gibberella zeae by Blastx search. Using a primer derived from the protein, a cDNA fragment of second RT-PCR was cloned into plasmid pAJ401, which was transformed to Saccharomyces cerevisiae H158 and expressed. Two positive levoglucosan assimilating recombinants were selected. The lgk gene was screened and identified.

Changes in soil microbial community structure associated with two types of genetically engineered plants analyzing by PLFA.

With the rapid expansion of GEPs(genetically engineered plants), people are more and more concerned about the ecological risks brought by their release. Assessing the effect of GEPs on soil microbial ecology is indispensable to study their ecological risks. In our study, the phospholipids fatty acid ( PLFA) method was used to analyze the microbial community of soil samples collected from fields with two types of GEPs-Bt transgenic corn and PVY ( potato virus Y) cell protein gene transgenic potato. The principal components analysis (PCA) showed all controls were on the right of related GEPs samples along the PC1 (the first principal component) axis, which means a decrease of fungi in soils with genetically engineered crop since most of PLFAs that are strongly positively correlated with PC1 represent fungi. For samples collected from Bt transgenic cornfield, the ratios of gram-positive to gram-negative bacteria were less than those of controls. For samples of transgenic potato field, these ratios were lower than those of controls when soils were collected from deep layer (20-40 cm), but were higher when soils collected from surface layer(0-20 cm). For soils collected from 0-20 cm, the ratios of fungi to bacteria for all GEPs samples were at the same level. So were such rations for all controls. Changes of soil microbial community in two types of GEPs fields were detected in our study, but the causes and more information still needs further study.

Diversity surveys of soil bacterial community by cultivation--based methods and molecular fingerprinting techniques.

By combining the cultivation methods with molecular fingerprinting techniques, the diversity surveys of soil bacterial community in 13 areas of China were carried out. The cultivable heterotrophic diversity was investigated by colony morphology on solid LB medium. Genetic diversity was measured as bands on denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis(DGGE) by the extraction and purification of the total soil DNA, and amplification of bacterial 16S rDNA fragments by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The Shannon-Wiener indices of diversity (H), richness (S) and evenness (E(H)) were employed to estimate the diversity of soil bacterial community. The results showed that there was an obvious diversification existed in soil from the different areas. However, the genetic diversity estimated by PCR-DGGE can provide more comprehensive information on bacterial community than the cultivation-based methods. Therefore, it is suggested to combine the traditional methods with genetic fingerprinting techniques to survey and estimate soil bacterial diversity.

[Characterization of inductive synthesis of levoglucosan kinase by a combined strategy of enzymological and fast atom bombardment mass spectrometric analysis].

Levoglucosan is the main product derived from pyrolysis of cellulose. A mutant Aspergillus niger CBX-209 could grow on levoglucosan well fermenting it into citric acid with a yield comparable to that on glucose. Levoglucosan hydrolase was absent by measuring glucose formation with the glucose oxidase and peroxidase coupling system. Cell extracts were partly purified by ammonium sulfate fractionation and ion-exchange chromatograph. Direct formation of glucose 6-phosphate from levoglucosan in the presence of ATP and MgCl2 was observed when it was reacted with partly purified enzyme by a combined strategy of enzymological and fast atom bombardment mass spectrometric analysis. These data showed that the mutant used a novel enzyme, levoglucosan kinase, to convert levoglucosan into glucose 6-phosphate. Levoglucosan kinase was an inductive enzyme.