012), and greater age (p = 0.002) were significantly associated with increased labral tear size. CONCLUSIONS Greater age, male gender, increased BMI and increased alpha angle were associated with more advanced acetabular chondromalacia. Additionally, greater age, increased LCEA, and increased alpha angle was associated with larger labral tear size. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE IV.Bacillus licheniformis is an important industrial microorganism that can utilize a wide range of biomass. However, the lack of expression elements in B. licheniformis, especially regulated promoters, significantly restricts its applications. In this study, two promoters involved in the sugar alcohol uptake pathway, PmtlA and PmtlR, were characterized and developed as regulated promoters for expression. The results showed that mannitol, mannose, sorbitol, sorbose, and arabinose can act as inducers to activate expression from PmtlA at different levels. The induction by sorbitol was the strongest, and the optimal induction conditions were 15 g/L sorbitol during mid-logarithmic growth at 28 °C. In this work, the palindrome-like sequence 'TTGTCA-cacggctcc-TGCCAA' in PmtlA was identified as the binding site of the MtlR protein. This study helps to enrich the known inducible expression systems in B. licheniformis.Ergosterol is an important fungal-specific biomarker, but its use for fungal biomass estimation is still varied. It is important to distinguish between free and esterified ergosterols, which are mainly located on the plasma membrane and the cytosolic lipid particles, respectively. The present study analyzes free and esterified ergosterol contents in (1) the fifty-nine strains of culturable fungi isolated from mangrove soil, (2) the broken spores of the fungus Ganoderma lucidum stored in capsule for more than 12 years, and (3) the mangrove soil and nearby campus wood soil samples by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results show that the contents of free and esterified ergosterols varied greatly in fifty-nine strains of fungi after 5 days of growth, indicating the diversity of ergosterol composition in fungi. The average contents of free and total ergosterols from the fifty-nine strains of fungi are 4.4 ± 1.5 mg/g and 6.1 ± 1.9 mg/g dry mycelia, respectively, with an average ergosterol esterifgosterols should be analyzed for fungal biomass estimation. When the ergosterol esterification rates in soils are higher, free ergosterol might be a better marker for fungal biomass. It is speculated that the ergosterol esterification rate in soils might contain some important information, such as the age of old-growth forests over time scales of centuries to millennia, besides the senescence degree of fungal mycelia in soils. KEY POINTS • Fungi might be divided into two classes depending on ergosterol esterification rates. • Ergosterol esterification rate of broken spores stored for long time raised evidently. • Both free and esterified ergosterols should be analyzed for fungal biomass estimate. • Free ergosterol is a better marker for fungal biomass with a high esterification rate.Propionic acid (PA) is widely used in the food, agricultural, and pharmaceutical industries. Since the petrochemical PA is unsustainable, biological production of PA from renewable substrates is gaining attention. In this study, we engineered the strain Pseudomonas putida KT2440 to transform L-threonine to PA with only CO2 released as by-product. The cell factory was created by chromosomal incorporation of heterologous L-threonine deaminase, permease, and acyl-CoA thioesterase, deletion of branch pathways as well as overproduction of the endogenous branched-chain alpha-keto acid dehydrogenase complex. The final engineered strain could produce 399 mM PA from 400 mM L-threonine in a batch biotransformation process, with a molar yield of 99.8% under the optimized conditions in 48 h. The PA titer further reached to 50.3 g/L (679 mM) with a productivity of 0.6 g/L/h in a fed-batch conversion process. No obvious by-products, such as acetate and succinate, were detected in the broth, which would significantly facilitate downstream purification steps. Thus, this study offers an alternative route for biological production of PA.Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neurotoxicity (CIPN) is a severe and long-lasting side effect of anticancer therapy, which can severely impair patients' quality of life. It is a sensory and length-dependent neuropathy, which predominantly affects large myelinated fibers. Easy and reliable monitoring of CIPN in patients is still an unmet clinical need. Since increasing clinical evidence supports the potential use of neurofilament light chain (NfL) as a biomarker of axonal injury, in this study we measured serum NfL levels in animals chronically treated with cisplatin (CDDP) and paclitaxel (PTX), two antineoplastic drugs with different neuronal targets. Wistar rats were treated with CDDP (2 mg/kg i.p. twice/week for 4 weeks) or PTX (10 mg/kg i.v. once/week for 4 weeks). Repeated serum NfL quantification was obtained using the Single Molecule Array (Simoa) technology. The onset and progression of peripheral neurotoxicity were evaluated through neurophysiology, morphological assessments and intraepidermal nerve fibers density quantification. Our results showed that serum NfL measurements correlated with the severity of axonal damage. In fact, both treatments induced serum NfL increase, but higher levels were evidenced in PTX-treated animals, compared with CDDP-treated rats, affected by a milder neurotoxicity. Notably, also the timing of the NfL level increase was associated with the severity of morphological and functional alterations of axonal structure. Therefore, NfL could be a useful biomarker for axonal damage in order to follow the onset and severity of axonal degeneration and possibly limit the occurrence of serious PNS disease.BACKGROUND Due to the necessity for lifelong treatment, high costs for the healthcare system and changes in role expectations of patients towards physicians, multiple sclerosis (MS) is an important topic in healthcare research. OBJECTIVE The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the current study situation in Germany in 2020 on utilization of outpatient medical resources and shared decision making in patients with MS. MATERIAL AND METHODS For this review a literature search was carried out in PubMed and other extended sources in order to identify and present relevant publications. RESULTS There are only a few studies on the utilization of outpatient medical resources by patients with MS in Germany. The highest values for utilization were found for general practitioners, family physicians and neurologists whereas urologists were less frequently involved. The values for the utilization of services provided by physiotherapists greatly differed between the studies. RAD001 purchase Several studies using different approaches to shared decision making in Germany were identified and summarized.RAD001 purchase
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