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BackgroundIn recent years, the rapid development of mobile medical technology has provided multiple ways for the long-term management of chronic diseases, especially diabetes. As a new type of management model, smartphone apps are global, convenient, cheap, and interactive. Although apps were proved to be more effective at glycemic control, compared with traditional computer- and Web-based telemedicine technologies, how to gain a further and sustained improvement is still being explored. ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an app-based interactive management model by a professional health care team on glycemic control in Chinese patients with poorly controlled diabetes. MethodsThis study was a 6-month long, single-center, prospective randomized controlled trial. A total of 276 type 1 or type 2 diabetes patients were enrolled and randomized to the control group (group A), app self-management group (group B), and app interactive management group (group C) in a 1:1:1 ratio. The primary outcome was the change in glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) level. Missing data were handled by multiple imputation. ResultsAt months 3 and 6, all 3 groups showed significant decreases in HbA1c levels (all P.05). Multivariate line regression analyses also showed that the app interactive management group was associated with the larger reduction of HbA1c compared with groups A and B at both months 3 and 6 (all P>.05). In addition, the app interactive management group had better control of triglyceride and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels at both months 3 and 6 compared with baseline (both P

An extraction and purification method for soluble polyphenol oxidase (sPPO) and membrane-bound polyphenol oxidases (mPPO) from Agaricus bisporus was developed involving temperature-induced phase partitioning, fractional precipitation with ammonium sulfate, and DEAE anion exchange chromatography. The purity, molecular mass and enzymatic reaction kinetics of purified PPO were investigated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), Native-PAGE and Michaelis-Menten equation. The specific activities of sPPO and mPPO toward catechol were 6 912.88 and 19 092.94 U/mg, and increased by 12.20 and 10.86 times, respectively, compared with that of crude PPO. The results of enzymatic reaction kinetics showed that the catalytic activities of sPPO and mPPO toward different substrates were greatly different and were higher toward catechol. mPPO had a stronger affinity to the substrate catechol and a higher reaction rate than sPPO. The optimum pH and temperature for both PPO enzymes were 6.8 and 30 ℃, respectively. This study may lay a foundation for future research on mass spectrometry identification and enzymatic properties two forms of PPOs from A. bisporu and inhibition of enzymatic browning caused by PPO.

Biochar has attracted much attention in the field of geo-environmental engineering as a carbon-neutral alternative for soil amendment. In this study, the effects of biochar dosage, type, and particle size on the permeability and physical properties of compacted silty clay were investigated. And the prediction model of permeability coefficient of biochar-amended soil (BAS) was established. Based on the microscopy test results, the influence mechanism of biochar on the permeability of compacted soil was analyzed. Results revealed that adding different biochar types affected the consistency limits, specific gravity, and compaction curves of soil obviously. As the biochar content increased, the permeability coefficient of compacted BAS initially decreased before increasing. The permeability coefficient of compacted BAS with peanut-shell biochar was much higher than with other biochar types. Additionally, reducing the particle size of biochar can effectively decrease the permeability coefficient of BAS due to the pore-filling effect. Microscopy test results show that the permeability coefficient of BAS is affected by both the most probable pore size and the main-peak area of the pore-size distribution curve. Results suggest that controlling the biochar content at 5% and reducing the particle size of biochar are more beneficial to improve the impermeability of compacted BAS. Key words: biochar-amended soil, physical properties, permeability coefficient, microporous structure, influence mechanism Le biochar a attire beaucoup d'attention dans le domaine du genie geo-environnemental en tant qu'alternative neutre en carbone pour l'amendement des sols. Dans cette etude, les effets du dosage, du type et de la taille des particules de biochar sur la permeabilite et les proprietes physiques de l'argile limoneuse compactee ont ete etudies. Et le modele de prediction du coefficient de permeabilite du sol amende au biochar (BAS) a ete etabli. Sur la base des resultats des tests microscopiques, le mecanisme d'influence du biochar sur la permeabilite du sol compacte a ete analyse. Les resultats ont revele que l'ajout de differents types de biochar a affecte les limites de consistance, la gravite specifique et les courbes de compactage du sol evidemment. Avec l'augmentation de la teneur en biochar, le coefficient de permeabilite du BAS compacte a d'abord diminue avant d'augmenter. Le coefficient de permeabilite du BAS compacte avec du biochar de coquille d'arachide etait beaucoup plus eleve qu'avec les autres types de biochar. En outre, la reduction de la taille des particules de biochar peut diminuer efficacement le coefficient de permeabilite du BAS en raison de l'effet de remplissage des pores. Les resultats des essais microscopiques montrent que le coefficient de permeabilite du BAS depend a la fois de la taille de pore la plus probable et de l'aire du pic principal de la courbe de distribution de la taille des pores. Les resultats suggerent que le controle de la teneur en biochar a 5 % et la reduction de la taille des particules de biochar sont plus benefiques pour ameliorer l'impermeabilite des BAS compactes. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles : sol amende au biochar, proprietes physiques, coefficient de permeabilite, structure microporeuse, mecanisme d'influence, 1. Introduction In many countries, sanitary landfilling remains the main method for the harmless treatment of municipal solid waste (Zhu et al. 2021). However, landfills function like huge biochemical reactors, [...]

Pleiotropy, the phenomenon in which a single gene influences multiple traits, is a fundamental concept in genetics. However, the evolutionary mechanisms underlying pleiotropy require further investigation. In this study, we conducted parallel gene knockouts targeting 100 transcription factors in 2 strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We systematically examined and quantified the pleiotropic effects of these knockouts on gene expression levels for each transcription factor. Our results showed that the knockout of a single gene generally affected the expression levels of multiple genes in both strains, indicating various degrees of pleiotropic effects. Strikingly, the pleiotropic effects of the knockouts change rapidly between strains in different genetic backgrounds, and ∼85% of them were nonconserved. Further analysis revealed that the conserved effects tended to be functionally associated with the deleted transcription factors, while the nonconserved effects appeared to be more ad hoc responses. In addition, we measured 184 yeast cell morphological traits in these knockouts and found consistent patterns. In order to investigate the evolutionary processes underlying pleiotropy, we examined the pleiotropic effects of standing genetic variations in a population consisting of ∼1,000 hybrid progenies of the 2 strains. We observed that newly evolved expression quantitative trait loci impacted the expression of a greater number of genes than did old expression quantitative trait loci, suggesting that natural selection is gradually eliminating maladaptive or slightly deleterious pleiotropic responses. Overall, our results show that, although being prevalent for new mutations, the majority of pleiotropic effects observed are evolutionarily transient, which explains how evolution proceeds despite complicated pleiotropic effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]