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Data regarding diabetic foot ulcers in patients after solid organ transplantation, particularly kidney transplantation, are limited. Chronic immunosuppression may be associated with impaired wound healing and a higher risk of amputations. In this study, we characterised the clinical presentation and outcomes of patients after kidney transplantation admitted to the diabetic foot unit, compared to non-kidney-transplant patients.Data on the baseline characteristics, clinical presentation, and outcomes of all patients admitted to the diabetic foot unit of a large tertiary centre between the years 2014 and 2019 were collected. The most recent admission of each patient was considered. Primary outcomes were major amputations and 1 year mortality rate.During the study period, 537 patients were hospitalised, 18 of them were receiving immunosuppressive therapy due to kidney transplantation. Baseline characteristics of the patients were broadly similar, except that smoking was reported by 22.0% of the non-transplant patients and by none of the post-transplant patients (p = 0.01). Post-transplant patients tended to be younger (59.4 ± 11.1 vs. 65.3 ± 12.2; p = 0.07), were more likely to have type-1 diabetes (16.7% vs. 5.2%; p = 0.07) and had lower glucose levels upon admission (9.4 ± 4.3 vs. 12.0 ± 6.4 mmol/L; p = 0.07). Overall, 30% of the patients underwent major amputation, in-patient mortality rate was 9.3%, and 1 year mortality rate was 27.2%. Rates were similar in the post-transplant versus the non-post-transplant patients (p = 0.83, 1.00, 0.59, respectively).Post-transplant patients did not incur worse outcomes in spite of immunosuppressive therapy. Limb salvage efforts should be pursued in these patients similar to the overall population.

Thermoplastic, polysaccharide-based plastics are environmentally friendly. However, typical shortcomings include lack of water resistance and poor mechanical properties. Nanocomposite manufacturing using pure, highly linear, polysaccharides can overcome such limitations. Cast nanocomposites were fabricated with plant engineered pure amylose (AM), produced in bulk quantity in transgenic barley grain, and cellulose nanofibers (CNF), extracted from agrowaste sugar beet pulp. Morphology, crystallinity, chemical heterogeneity, mechanics, dynamic mechanical, gas and water permeability, and contact angle of the films were investigated. Blending CNF into the AM matrix significantly enhanced the crystallinity, mechanical properties and permeability, whereas glycerol increased elongation at break, mainly by plasticizing the AM. There was significant phase separation between AM and CNF. Dynamic plasticizing and anti-plasticizing effects of both CNF and glycerol were demonstrated by NMR demonstrating high molecular order, but also non-crystalline, and evenly distributed 20 nm-sized glycerol domains. This study demonstrates a new lead in functional polysaccharide-based bioplastic systems.

The objective of this study was to investigate the factors influencing Israeli teachers who participated in the national ‘Laptop for Every Teacher’ program (LET) three-year technology integration program. We assert that although there are several variables influencing the success of such an extensive ICT integration program as the LET program, school management attitude is crucial, and a key factor for the program’s success. The results of the analysis indicate that the variance in attitudes toward technology use is explained by support from management, technology use before the training, and seniority in teaching. Two main conclusions are drawn: A top–down initiative forcing the school administration to participate in a long-term process aiming at changing the school’s culture cannot succeed without engaging the principals into the program and advancing them to technological leaders. Additionally, without the schools’ administration support, teachers are more likely to continue teaching in the method with which they are most familiar.

Covering: Up to 2019Phenolic cross-links and phenolic inter-unit linkages result from the oxidative coupling of two hydroxycinnamates or two molecules of tyrosine. Free dimers of hydroxycinnamates, lignans, play important roles in plant defence. Cross-linking of bound phenolics in the plant cell wall affects cell expansion, wall strength, digestibility, degradability, and pathogen resistance. Cross-links mediated by phenolic substituents are particularly important as they confer strength to the wall via the formation of new covalent bonds, and by excluding water from it. Four biopolymer classes are known to be involved in the formation of phenolic cross-links: lignins, extensins, glucuronoarabinoxylans, and side-chains of rhamnogalacturonan-I. Lignins and extensins are ubiquitous in streptophytes whereas aromatic substituents on xylan and pectic side-chains are commonly assumed to be particular features of Poales sensu lato and core Caryophyllales, respectively. Cross-linking of phenolic moieties proceeds via radical formation, is catalyzed by peroxidases and laccases, and involves monolignols, tyrosine in extensins, and ferulate esters on xylan and pectin. Ferulate substituents, on xylan in particular, are thought to be nucleation points for lignin polymerization and are, therefore, of paramount importance to wall architecture in grasses and for the development of technology for wall disassembly, e.g. for the use of grass biomass for production of 2nd generation biofuels. This review summarizes current knowledge on the intra- and extracellular acylation of polysaccharides, and inter- and intra-molecular cross-linking of different constituents. Enzyme mediated lignan in vitro synthesis for pharmaceutical uses are covered as are industrial exploitation of mutant and transgenic approaches to control cell wall cross-linking.

Corn bran is a major agro-industrial byproduct from corn starch processing. The bran is particularly rich in highly substituted feruloylated glucuronoarabinoxylan (FGAX). Yet, due to its recalcitrance to biocatalytic degradation, corn bran FGAX is currently not utilized in biorefinery processes. Here, we report selective enzymatic extraction of both single, and double-stranded high-molecular-weight FGAX molecules from corn bran using a bacterial, glucuronoyl-specific glycoside hydrolase family 30 endo-1,4-β-xylanase (EC 3.2.1.8) from Dickeya chrysanthemi (DcXyn30). The enzymatic extraction using DcXyn30 was optimized with respect to temperature, pH, and time to maximize yields of high-molecular-weight polysaccharides. Examination of the enzymatically extracted FGAX using SEC, HPAEC, LC-MS, and NMR analysis (after acid or alkaline hydrolysis) revealed that both single-stranded and double-stranded FGAX were extracted, since diferulate-linkages were present in the extracted FGAX. Furthermore, the NMR-analysis indicated presence of 1,5-linked arabinan dimers suggesting that some of the xylopyranosyl residues in the extracted FGAX contained arabinofuranosyl-arabinofuranosyl substitutions in addition to a significant amount of classical doubly-arabinose substitutions. Laccase treatment of the extracted FGAX produced strong hydrogels via oxidative, covalent feruloyl-cross-linking. At pH 6.5 the Myceliophthora thermophila derived laccase produced significantly faster cross-linking kinetics than the laccase from Pleurotus ostreatus as measured rheologically. The data reveal novel insight into corn bran FGAX chemistry and provide a new direction for enzyme-assisted upgrading of corn bran for valuable functional hydrogel applications.

Photobiocatalysis holds great promise toward the development of sustainable and environmentally friendly processes, harnessing light to drive biocatalytic reactions. However, photobiocatalysis at the interface of insoluble substrates, such as cellulose, has not been studied in much detail. In this context, the catalytic enhancement of lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) by light is of great interest to the biorefinery field due to their capacity to oxidatively cleave such recalcitrant polysaccharides which can facilitate the degradation of lignocellulose. It has previously been reported that light-driven LPMO reactions have a huge catalytic potential, but effective continuous illumination in reactors may be challenging. Therefore, we investigated the impact of intermittent illumination. We show that illumination intervals as short as 1 s/min enable LPMO catalysis on phosphoric acid-swollen cellulose (PASC) to the same level as continuous illumination. Additionally, time-resolved measurements indicate that reductant depletion, and not enzyme inactivation, limits light-driven LPMO reactions. This study shows that a 60-fold reduction in illumination time enhances LPMO catalysis while protecting reaction elements, e.g. the reductant. Most importantly, the significant enhancement of LPMO catalysis with minimal and intermittent illumination is promising toward an application of photobiocatalytic depolymerization of lignocellulose where shading and light scattering minimize light availability and continuity., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published