Purpose Although a large number of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstructions are performed annually, there remains a considerable amount of controversy over whether an autograft or an allograft should be used. The aim of this meta-analysis was to compare the clinical outcomes of allograft and autograft in primary ACL reconstruction. Methods The authors systematically searched electronic databases to identify prospective studies which compared allografts with autografts for primary ACL reconstruction. The results of the eligible studies were analysed in terms of instrumented laxity measurements, Lachman test, Pivot Shift test, objective International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) Scores, Lysholm Scores, Tegner Scores, and clinical failures. Study quality was assessed and relevant data were extracted independently by two reviewers. A random effect model was used to pool the data. Statistical heterogeneity between trials was evaluated by the chi-square and I-square tests. Results Nine studies, with 410 patients in the autograft and 408 patients in the allograft group, met the inclusion criteria. Five studies compared bone-patellar tendon-bone (BPTB) grafts, and four compared soft-tissue grafts. Four studies were randomized controlled trials, and five were prospective cohort studies. The results of the meta-analysis showed that there were no significant differences between allograft and autograft on all the outcomes in terms of instrumented laxity measurements (P 00.59), Lachman test (P 00.41), Pivot

No abstract

The findings of the study may help optimize the initiation timing of LIPUS for T-B healing.

Systematic review, Level IV.

Ammonium transporter (AMT)-mediated acquisition of ammonium nitrogen from soils is essential for the nitrogen demand of plants, especially for those plants growing in flooded or acidic soils where ammonium is dominant. Recent advances show that AMTs additionally participate in many other physiological processes such as transporting ammonium from symbiotic fungi to plants, transporting ammonium from roots to shoots, transferring ammonium in leaves and reproductive organs, or facilitating resistance to plant diseases via ammonium transport. Besides being a transporter, several AMTs are required for the root development upon ammonium exposure. To avoid the adverse effects of inadequate or excessive intake of ammonium nitrogen on plant growth and development, activities of AMTs are fine-tuned not only at the transcriptional level by the participation of at least four transcription factors, but also at protein level by phosphorylation, pH, endocytosis, and heterotrimerization. Despite these progresses, it is worth noting that stronger growth inhibition, not facilitation, unfortunately occurs when AMT overexpression lines are exposed to optimal or slightly excessive ammonium. This implies that a long road remains towards overcoming potential limiting factors and achieving AMT-facilitated yield increase to accomplish the goal of persistent yield increase under the present high nitrogen input mode in agriculture.

Cucumber Fusarium wilt, induced by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cucumerinum (FOC), causes severe losses in cucumber yield and quality. Nitrogen (N), as the most important mineral nutrient for plants, plays a critical role in plant–pathogen interactions. Hydroponic assays were conducted to investigate the effects of different N forms (NH4+ vs. NO3‒) and supply levels (low, 1 mM; high, 5 mM) on cucumber Fusarium wilt. The NO3‒-fed cucumber plants were more tolerant to Fusarium wilt compared with NH4+-fed plants, and accompanied by lower leaf temperature after FOC infection. The disease index decreased as the NO3‒ supply increased but increased with the NH4+ level supplied. Although the FOC grew better under high NO3− in vitro, FOC colonization and fusaric acid (FA) production decreased in cucumber plants under high NO3− supply, associated with lower leaf membrane injury. There was a positive correlation between the FA content and the FOC number or relative membrane injury. After the exogenous application of FA, less FA accumulated in the leaves under NO3− feeding, accompanied with a lower leaf membrane injury. In conclusion, higher NO3− supply protected cucumber plants against Fusarium wilt by suppressing FOC colonization and FA production in plants, and increasing the plant tolerance to FA.

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of low‐intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) treatment initiating after inflammation stage on the process of bone‐tendon junction (BTJ) healing in a rabbit model. Thirty‐six rabbits undergoing partial patellectomy were randomly divided into two groups: control and LIPUS. The period of initial inflammatory stage is 2 weeks. So LIPUS treatment was initiated at postoperative week 2 and continued until the patella‐patellar tendon (PPT) complexes were harvested at postoperative weeks 4, 8, and 16. At each time point, the PPT complexes were harvested for qRT‐PCR, histology, radiographs, synchroton radiation micro computed tomography (SR‐µCT), and biomechanical testing. The qRT‐PCR results showed that LIPUS treatment beginning at postoperative week 2 played an anti‐inflammatory role in BTJ healing. Histologically, the LIPUS group showed more advanced remodeling of the lamellar bone and marrow cavity than the control group. The area and length of the new bone in the LIPUS group were significantly greater than the control group at postoperative weeks 8 and 16. SR‐µCT demonstrated that new bone formation and remodeling in the LIPUS group were more advanced than the control group. Biomechanical test results demonstrated that the failure load, ultimate strength and energy at failure were significantly higher than those of the control group. In conclusion, LIPUS treatment beginning at postoperative week 2 was able to accelerate bone formation during the bone‐tendon junction healing process and significantly improved the healing quality of BTJ injury. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Orthopaedic Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the Orthopaedic Research Society.

BackgroundIturin A is a potential lipopeptide antibiotic produced by Bacillus subtilis. Optimization of iturin A yield by adding various concentrations of asparagine (Asn), glutamic acid (Glu) and proline (Pro) during the fed-batch fermentation process was studied using an artificial neural network-genetic algorithm (ANN-GA) and uniform design (UD). Here, ANN-GA based on the UD data was used for the first time to analyze the fed-batch fermentation process. The ANN-GA and UD methodologies were compared based on their fitting ability, prediction and generalization capacity and sensitivity analysis.ResultsThe ANN model based on the UD data performed well on minimal statistical designed experimental number and the optimum iturin A yield was 13364.5 ± 271.3 U/mL compared with a yield of 9929.0 ± 280.9 U/mL for the control (batch fermentation without adding the amino acids). The root-mean-square-error for the ANN model with the training set and test set was 4.84 and 273.58 respectively, which was more than two times better than that for the UD model (32.21 and 483.12). The correlation coefficient for the ANN model with training and test sets was 100% and 92.62%, respectively (compared with 99.86% and 78.58% for UD). The error% for ANN with the training and test sets was 0.093 and 2.19 respectively (compared with 0.26 and 4.15 for UD). The sensitivity analysis of both methods showed the comparable results. The predictive error of the optimal iturin A yield for ANN-GA and UD was 0.8% and 2.17%, respectively.ConclusionsThe satisfactory fitting and predicting accuracy of ANN indicated that ANN worked well with the UD data. Through ANN-GA, the iturin A yield was significantly increased by 34.6%. The fitness, prediction, and generalization capacities of the ANN model were better than those of the UD model. Further, although UD could get the insight information between variables directly, ANN was also demonstrated to be efficient in the sensitivity analysis. The results of these comparisons indicated that ANN could be a better alternative way for fermentation optimization with limited number of experiments.