Association between Immediate Postoperative Radiographic Findings and Failed Internal Fixation for Trochanteric Fractures: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Failed internal fixations for trochanteric fractures have a strong negative impact owing to increased postoperative mortality and high medical costs. However, evidence on the prognostic value of postoperative radiographic findings for failed internal fixations is limited. We aimed to clarify the association between comprehensive immediate postoperative radiographic findings and failed internal fixation using relative and absolute risk measures. We followed the meta-analysis of observational studies in epidemiology guidelines and the Cochrane handbook. We searched specific databases in November 2021. The outcomes of interest were failed internal fixation and cut-out. We pooled the odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals using a random-effects model and calculated the number needed to harm for each outcome. Thirty-six studies involving 8938 patients were included. The certainty of evidence in the association between postoperative radiographic findings and failed internal fixation or cut-out was mainly low or very low except for the association between intramedullary malreduction on the anteromedial cortex and failed internal fixation. Moderate certainty of evidence supported that intramedullary malreduction on the anteromedial cortex was associated with failed internal fixation. Most postoperative radiographic findings on immediate postoperative radiographs for trochanteric fractures were uncertain as prognostic factors for failed internal fixations

Efficient anchoring of alien chromosome segments introgressed into bread wheat by new Leymus racemosus genome-based markers

Background: The tertiary gene pool of bread wheat, to which Leymus racemosus belongs, has remained underutilized due to the current limited genomic resources of the species that constitute it. Continuous enrichment of public databases with useful information regarding these species is, therefore, needed to provide insights on their genome structures and aid successful utilization of their genes to develop improved wheat cultivars for effective management of environmental stresses. Results: We generated de novo DNA and mRNA sequence information of L. racemosus and developed 110 polymorphic PCR-based markers from the data, and to complement the PCR markers, DArT-seq genotyping was applied to develop additional 9990 SNP markers. Approximately 52% of all the markers enabled us to clearly genotype 22 wheat-L. racemosus chromosome introgression lines, and L. racemosus chromosome-specific markers were highly efficient in detailed characterization of the translocation and recombination lines analyzed. A further analysis revealed remarkable transferability of the PCR markers to three other important Triticeae perennial species: L. mollis, Psathyrostachys huashanica and Elymus ciliaris, indicating their suitability for characterizing wheat-alien chromosome introgressions carrying chromosomes of these genomes. Conclusion: The efficiency of the markers in characterizing wheat-L. racemosus chromosome introgression lines proves their reliability, and their high transferability further broadens their scope of application. This is the first report on sequencing and development of markers from L. racemosus genome and the application of DArT-seq to develop markers from a perennial wild relative of wheat, marking a paradigm shift from the seeming concentration of the technology on cultivated species. Integration of these markers with appropriate cytogenetic methods would accelerate development and characterization of wheat-alien chromosome introgression lines

cDNA microarray analysis of bovine embryo gene expression profiles during the pre-implantation period

BACKGROUND: After fertilization, embryo development involves differentiation, as well as development of the fetal body and extra-embryonic tissues until the moment of implantation. During this period various cellular and molecular changes take place with a genetic origin, e.g. the elongation of embryonic tissues, cell-cell contact between the mother and the embryo and placentation. To identify genetic profiles and search for new candidate molecules involved during this period, embryonic gene expression was analyzed with a custom designed utero-placental complementary DNA (cDNA) microarray. METHODS: Bovine embryos on days 7, 14 and 21, extra-embryonic membranes on day 28 and fetuses on days 28 were collected to represent early embryo, elongating embryo, pre-implantation embryo, post-implantation extra-embryonic membrane and fetus, respectively. Gene expression at these different time points was analyzed using our cDNA microarray. Two clustering algorithms such as k-means and hierarchical clustering methods identified the expression patterns of differentially expressed genes across pre-implantation period. Novel candidate genes were confirmed by real-time RT-PCR. RESULTS: In total, 1,773 individual genes were analyzed by complete k-means clustering. Comparison of day 7 and day 14 revealed most genes increased during this period, and a small number of genes exhibiting altered expression decreased as gestation progressed. Clustering analysis demonstrated that trophoblast-cell-specific molecules such as placental lactogens (PLs), prolactin-related proteins (PRPs), interferon-tau, and adhesion molecules apparently all play pivotal roles in the preparation needed for implantation, since their expression was remarkably enhanced during the pre-implantation period. The hierarchical clustering analysis and RT-PCR data revealed new functional roles for certain known genes (dickkopf-1, NPM, etc) as well as novel candidate genes (AW464053, AW465434, AW462349, AW485575) related to already established trophoblast-specific genes such as PLs and PRPs. CONCLUSIONS: A large number of genes in extra-embryonic membrane increased up to implantation and these profiles provide information fundamental to an understanding of extra-embryonic membrane differentiation and development. Genes in significant expression suggest novel molecules in trophoblast differentiation

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Introduction of Rock Cutting Machine “2500SM” into Limestone Mining Site and Its Effect

Ube Industries' Isa Cement Factory introduced a rock cutting machine“2500SM”capable of continuous excavation by rotating a drum equipped with a cemented carbide bit from the viewpoint of effective recovery limestoneresources. Because it can excavate with low vibration and low noise, it can reduce the distance from the surrounding private houses that have been secured in consideration of the effect of blasting, and in order not to loosen the excavated surface, the bench angle of the excavated surface is steeply inclined and berm is minimized. It was because it was judged that the minable amount could be expanded by minimizing the berm. In the early stages of the introduction, cutting bits were broken unexpectedly, and the frequency of replacement increased, resulting in a decrease in mining efficiency. In addition, the excavation slope using a rock cutting machine“2500SM” has a smoother surface and no large cracks. In addition, in the evaluation using methods of elastic wave exploration, ground penetrating radar and infrared camera, the slope of excavation is compared with that by blasting. It was confirmed that the soundness was high. The effects of cutting bit improvements was evaluated, the expected excavation area, the soundness and safety of the rock slope, and the expansion of the minable amount that were expected when the rock cutting machine “2500SM” was introduced. In this paper,we repot the evaluation results

L-MolGAN: An improved implicit generative model for large molecular graphs

Deep generative models are used to generate arbitrary molecular structures with the desired chemical properties. MolGAN is a renowned molecular generation models that uses generative adversarial networks (GANs) and reinforcement learning to generate molecular graphs in one shot. MolGAN can effectively generate a small molecular graph with nine or fewer heavy atoms. However, the graphs tend to become disconnected as the molecular size increase. This poses a challenge to drug discovery and material design, where large molecules are potentially inclusive. This study develops an improved MolGAN for large molecule generation (L-MolGAN). In this model, the connectivity of molecular graphs is evaluated by a depth-first search during the model training process. When a disconnected molecular graph is generated, L-MolGAN rewards the graph a zero score. This procedure decreases the number of disconnected graphs, and consequently increases the number of connected molecular graphs. The effectiveness of L-MolGAN is experimentally evaluated. The size and connectivity of the molecular graphs generated with data from the ZINC-250k molecular dataset are confirmed using MolGAN as the baseline model. The model is then optimized for a quantitative estimate of drug-likeness (QED) to generate drug-like molecules. The experimental results indicate that the connectivity measure of generated molecular graphs improved by 1.96 compared with the baseline model at a larger maximum molecular size of 20 atoms. The molecules generated by L-MolGAN are evaluated in terms of multiple chemical properties, QED, synthetic accessibility, and log octanol–water partition coefficient, which are important in drug design. This result confirms that L-MolGAN can generate various drug-like molecules despite being optimized for a single property, i.e., QED. This method will contribute to the efficient discovery of new molecules of larger sizes than those being generated with the existing method.</p