A high-carbohydrate diet induces greater inflammation than a high-fat diet in mouse skeletal muscle

We previously reported that both the high-carbohydrate diet (HCD) and high-fat diet (HFD) given for two months promote lipid deposition and inflammation in the liver and brain of mice. The results obtained indicate a tissue-specific response to both diets. Herein, we compared the effects of HCD and HFD on fatty acid (FA) composition and inflammation in the gastrocnemius muscle. Male Swiss mice were fed with HCD or HFD for 1 or 2 months. Saturated FA (SFA), monounsaturated FA (MUFA), n-3 polyunsaturated FA (n-3 PUFA), and n-6 PUFA were quantified. The activities of stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 (SCD-1), Δ-6 desaturase (D6D), elongase 6, and de novo lipogenesis (DNL) were estimated. As for indicators of the inflammatory tissue state, we measured myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity and gene expression of F4/80, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin (IL)-4, IL-6, and IL-10. The HCD led to a lower deposition of SFA, MUFA, n-3 PUFA, and n-6 PUFA compared to HFD. However, the HCD increased arachidonic acid levels, SFA/n-3 PUFA ratio, DNL, SCD-1, D6D, and MPO activities, and expression of IL-6, contrasting with the general idea that increased lipid deposition is associated with more intense inflammation. The HCD was more potent to induce skeletal muscle inflammation than the HFD, regardless of the lower lipid accumulation.

Hospital Efficiency: Concept, Measurement Techniques and Review of Hospital Efficiency Studies

In a time of rising demands on hospital reimbursement levels, focus on efficient operations is becoming more imperative. In health care systems, the measurement of efficiency is usually the first step in auditing individual performance of production units, e.g. hospitals, health centers, etc. It constitutes the rational framework for the distribution of human and other resources between and within health care facilities. The term efficiency is broadly used in economics and refers to the best utilization of resources in production. Typical example of efficiency is technical efficiency, referring to the effective use of resources in producing outputs. In the Farrell framework, a hospital is judged to be technically efficient if it is operating on the best practice production frontier in its hospital industry. In general, there are two main frontier methods in measuring efficiency. The first is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a linear programming method which enables the measurement of efficiency consistent with the theoretically based concept of production efficiency. DEA typically examines the relationship between inputs to a production process and the outputs of that process. The second technique for assessing efficiency that is employed is Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). This is an econometric technique to estimate a conventional function; with the difference being that efficiency is measured using the residuals from the estimated equation. The error term is therefore divided into a stochastic error term and a systematic inefficiency term.

Disrupting sfa1 Gene to Enhance Biosynthesis of Ethanol in Saccharomyces cerevisiae / 微生物学通报

The sfa1 gene encoded a bifunctional enzyme with the activities of both alcohol dehydrogenase and glutathione-dependent formaldehyde dehydrogenase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.The gene disruption cassette produced by PCR using the same long oligonucleotides which comprise 19 or 22 nucleotides complementary to sequences in the templates(pUG6 and pUG66 marker plasmid)at 3' end and 45 nucleotides at 5' end that annealed to sites upstream or downstream of the genomic target sequence to be deleted.After two linear disruption cassettes with a Cre/loxP mediated marker were transformed into the cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae YS-1,the positive transformants were checked by PCR to correct the integration of the cassette and concurrent deletion of the chromosomal target sequence.Once correctly integrated into the genome,the select marker can be efficiently rescued by transformating the plasmid pSH47 into YS-1 and inducing the Cre expression with a Cre/loxP-mediated marker removal procedure.The expression of the Cre recombinase finally resulted in the removal of the marker gene,leaving behind a single loxP site at the chromosomal locus.The diploid mutant YS-1-sfa1 was generated,which could enhance the output of ethanol with 8.0% by shaking culture in flask compared with the original strain YS-1.