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Abstract Background To investigate the level of knowledge, attitude, and practices about glaucoma and associated factors among primary glaucoma patients in Kunming, China. Methods A hospital-based study was conducted on 93 patients from the First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University. Interviewer-administered questionnaires were used to collect data after written informed consent. Data were analyzed by SPSS 19.0. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to identify factors. A Chi-square test was used to analyze the association between knowledge of glaucoma and medication compliance, Mann–Whitney U test was performed to assess the relationship between knowledge of glaucoma and quality of life in patients with glaucoma. P-value

The bending vibration band structure of phononic crystal (PC) beam is solved by a unified formulation of the modified transfer matrix (MTM) method in this paper. The improvement of MTM method is the introduction of constitutive matrix U and matrix of derivative functions V, which standardizes and simplifies the deduction by the matrix operation. The band structure of an epoxy-aluminum PC Timoshenko beam is calculated by both MTM method and plane wave expansion (PWE) method. The results show that the present MTM method has a great advantage in the precision of the result. In addition, the formulation of transfer matrix derived from Timoshenko beam condition is a general form which is also suitable for other general beam structures just by replacing corresponding matrices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scleroglucan is widely used in the food and chemical industries because of its good rheological property, stability, and emulsification activity. To investigate the influence of different carbon sources on the properties and synthesis of exopolysaccharides (EPS), the three EPSs (GEPS, glucose was used as the carbon source; LEPS, lactose was used as the carbon source; and SEPS, sucrose was used as the carbon source) were determined, respectively. It was found that the yield and viscosity of exopolysaccharides were different. When sucrose and glucose were used as the carbon sources, the viscosity and yield of EPS were both higher than lactose. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that the three EPSs had different morphologies, but the monosaccharide analysis showed that they were all composed of glucose units. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) proved that there were no additional substituents for the three EPSs. Furthermore, the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) results showed that SEPS and LEPS had two fractions. Through the analysis of proteomics data, there were few differences in the metabolic pathways between GEPS and SEPS, but a significant difference between LEPS and SEPS. Our study provides a theoretical basis and reference for understanding the biosynthesis of exopolysaccharides and the development of different types of EPS products.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is often treated with insulin-sensitizing drugs called thiazolidinediones (TZD), which improve insulin resistance and glycemic control. Despite their effectiveness in treating diabetes, these drugs provide little protection from eminent cardiovascular disease associated with diabetes. Here we demonstrate how chiglitazar, a configuration-restricted non-TZD peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) pan agonist with moderate transcription activity, preferentially regulates ANGPTL4 and PDK4, which are involved in glucose and lipid metabolism. CDK5-mediated phosphorylation at serine 273 (S273) is a unique regulatory mechanism reserved for PPARγ, and this event is linked to insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Our data demonstrates that chiglitazar modulates gene expression differently from two TZDs, rosiglitazone and pioglitazone, via its configuration-restricted binding and phosphorylation inhibition of PPARγ. Chiglitazar induced significantly greater expression of ANGPTL4 and PDK4 than rosiglitazone and pioglitazone in different cell models. These increased expressions were dependent on the phosphorylation status of PPARγ at S273. Furthermore, ChIP and AlphaScreen assays showed that phosphorylation at S273 inhibited promoter binding and cofactor recruitment by PPARγ. Based on these results, activities from pan agonist chiglitazar can be an effective part of a long-term therapeutic strategy for treating type 2 diabetes in a more balanced action among its targeted organs.

AIM: To investigate the therapeutic effects of Pranoprofen on tear dynamic abnormity induced by conjunctivochalasis(CCh). METHODS: Seventy cases(70 eyes)whose the main symptoms was epiphora induced by CCh were divided into Ⅱ, Ⅲ and Ⅳ in 3 groups according to Zhang's grading standards, meanwhile, all the patients were treated with the eye drops of Pranoprofen for 2wk. After that, the curative effect of each group was analyzed before and after treatments according to the symptoms, dye disappearance test, bitter taste test and tear break-up time.RESULTS: After 2wk treatment of Pranoprofen, the symptom of patients at grade Ⅰ and Ⅱ improved obviously grade Ⅲ improved more, grade Ⅳ did little. The positive rate of dye disappearance was the highest in grade Ⅱ, the second in grade Ⅲ, and the third in grade Ⅳ. There was significant difference among the 3 groups(PPPP>0.05).CONCLUSION: Pranoprofen has good effects on tear dynamic abnormity induced by grade Ⅱ of cch.