Long-chain primary alcohols in <i>Momordica cochinchinensis</i> Spreng leaf surface waxes

<div>Abstract<p>The chloroform extracts of young, mature and senescent <i>Momordica cochinchinensis</i> Spreng (Cucurbitaceae) leaves containing a layer of epicuticular waxes were analysed by thin-layer chromatography, gas chromatography and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The young and mature leaves indicated the presence of 14 individual long-chain primary alcohols, accounting for 2643.33 ± 68.88 and 3350 ± 88.88 μg/100 g, respectively; whereas 15 individual primary alcohols were detected in senescent leaves representing 3013.33 ± 105.25 μg/100 g (mean ± standard error). The predominant primary alcohol was 1-octadecanol in mature and senescent leaves representing 1224.65 ± 24.47 and 2299.41 ± 66.22 μg/100 g, respectively; whereas 1-nonacosanol was dominant accounting for 653.38 ± 12.62 μg/100 g in young leaves. 1-tridecanol was least abundant in young leaves (30.46 ± 1.63 μg/100 g); whereas 1-tetradecanol was least abundant in mature and senescent leaves, accounting for 35.42 ± 1.42 and 8.87 ± 0.83 μg/100 g, respectively.</p></div

Image1_Digital hypertension management: clinical and cost outcomes of a pilot implementation of the OMRON hypertension management platform.pdf

ImportanceHome monitoring of blood pressure (BP) in hypertensive patients can improve outcomes, but challenges to both patient compliance and the effective transmission of home BP readings to physicians can limit the extent to which physicians can use this information to improve care. The OMRON Hypertension Management Platform (OMRON HMP) pairs a home BP cuff with a digital product that tracks data, provides reminders to improve patient compliance, and provides a streamlined source of information to physicians.ObjectiveThe primary objective of the quality improvement (QI) project was to test the hypothesis that use of the OMRON HMP could reduce the number and cost of hypertension related claims, relative to a retrospectively matched cohort of insured members. A secondary objective was to demonstrate improvement in control of BP among patients.DesignEligible members were recruited to the QI project between December 1, 2018 and December 30, 2020 and data collected for six months following recruitment. All members received the OMRON HMP intervention.SettingEnrollment and data collection were coordinated on-site at selected PCP partner providers in Western Pennsylvania. Eligible members were identified from insurance claims data as those receiving care for primary hypertension from participating primary care physicians and/or cardiologists.ParticipantsEligible members were between the ages of 35 and 85, with a diagnosis of primary hypertension. The retrospective cohort was selected from electronic medical records of Highmark-insured patients with hypertension who received care at Allegheny Health Network (AHN), a subsidiary of Highmark Health. Members were matched on baseline BP and lipid measures, age, smoking status, diabetes status, race and sex.InterventionDaily home BP readings were recorded by the OMRON HMP app. Patient data was reviewed by clinical staff on a weekly basis and treatment plans could be adjusted in response to this data.ResultsOMRON HMP users showed a significant increase in the number and cost of hypertension-related claims, contrary to the hypothesis, but did display improvements in control of BP.Conclusions and RelevanceThe use of a digital platform to facilitate at-home BP monitoring appeared to improve BP control but led to increased hypertension-related costs in the short-term.</p

Table2_Digital hypertension management: clinical and cost outcomes of a pilot implementation of the OMRON hypertension management platform.docx

ImportanceHome monitoring of blood pressure (BP) in hypertensive patients can improve outcomes, but challenges to both patient compliance and the effective transmission of home BP readings to physicians can limit the extent to which physicians can use this information to improve care. The OMRON Hypertension Management Platform (OMRON HMP) pairs a home BP cuff with a digital product that tracks data, provides reminders to improve patient compliance, and provides a streamlined source of information to physicians.ObjectiveThe primary objective of the quality improvement (QI) project was to test the hypothesis that use of the OMRON HMP could reduce the number and cost of hypertension related claims, relative to a retrospectively matched cohort of insured members. A secondary objective was to demonstrate improvement in control of BP among patients.DesignEligible members were recruited to the QI project between December 1, 2018 and December 30, 2020 and data collected for six months following recruitment. All members received the OMRON HMP intervention.SettingEnrollment and data collection were coordinated on-site at selected PCP partner providers in Western Pennsylvania. Eligible members were identified from insurance claims data as those receiving care for primary hypertension from participating primary care physicians and/or cardiologists.ParticipantsEligible members were between the ages of 35 and 85, with a diagnosis of primary hypertension. The retrospective cohort was selected from electronic medical records of Highmark-insured patients with hypertension who received care at Allegheny Health Network (AHN), a subsidiary of Highmark Health. Members were matched on baseline BP and lipid measures, age, smoking status, diabetes status, race and sex.InterventionDaily home BP readings were recorded by the OMRON HMP app. Patient data was reviewed by clinical staff on a weekly basis and treatment plans could be adjusted in response to this data.ResultsOMRON HMP users showed a significant increase in the number and cost of hypertension-related claims, contrary to the hypothesis, but did display improvements in control of BP.Conclusions and RelevanceThe use of a digital platform to facilitate at-home BP monitoring appeared to improve BP control but led to increased hypertension-related costs in the short-term.</p

Table1_Digital hypertension management: clinical and cost outcomes of a pilot implementation of the OMRON hypertension management platform.docx

ImportanceHome monitoring of blood pressure (BP) in hypertensive patients can improve outcomes, but challenges to both patient compliance and the effective transmission of home BP readings to physicians can limit the extent to which physicians can use this information to improve care. The OMRON Hypertension Management Platform (OMRON HMP) pairs a home BP cuff with a digital product that tracks data, provides reminders to improve patient compliance, and provides a streamlined source of information to physicians.ObjectiveThe primary objective of the quality improvement (QI) project was to test the hypothesis that use of the OMRON HMP could reduce the number and cost of hypertension related claims, relative to a retrospectively matched cohort of insured members. A secondary objective was to demonstrate improvement in control of BP among patients.DesignEligible members were recruited to the QI project between December 1, 2018 and December 30, 2020 and data collected for six months following recruitment. All members received the OMRON HMP intervention.SettingEnrollment and data collection were coordinated on-site at selected PCP partner providers in Western Pennsylvania. Eligible members were identified from insurance claims data as those receiving care for primary hypertension from participating primary care physicians and/or cardiologists.ParticipantsEligible members were between the ages of 35 and 85, with a diagnosis of primary hypertension. The retrospective cohort was selected from electronic medical records of Highmark-insured patients with hypertension who received care at Allegheny Health Network (AHN), a subsidiary of Highmark Health. Members were matched on baseline BP and lipid measures, age, smoking status, diabetes status, race and sex.InterventionDaily home BP readings were recorded by the OMRON HMP app. Patient data was reviewed by clinical staff on a weekly basis and treatment plans could be adjusted in response to this data.ResultsOMRON HMP users showed a significant increase in the number and cost of hypertension-related claims, contrary to the hypothesis, but did display improvements in control of BP.Conclusions and RelevanceThe use of a digital platform to facilitate at-home BP monitoring appeared to improve BP control but led to increased hypertension-related costs in the short-term.</p

Defect-Induced Strain-Tunable Photoluminescence in AgScP2_2S6_6

Metal thiophosphates (MTPs) are a large family of 2D materials that exhibit large structural and chemical diversity. They also show promise for applications in energy harvesting and photodetection. Strain and defect engineering have previously been demonstrated as useful mechanisms to tune several properties of MTPs such as resistivity, magnetic state, and electronic band gap. However, the effect of these stimuli on engineering tunable light emission in MTPs remains unexplored. Here, we show experimentally that structural defects in metal thiophosphate AgScP$_2$S$_6$ are prominent in exhibiting photoluminescence, which is likely driven by the defect-state-to-conduction-band transitions and can be further tuned by temperature-induced strain gradients

An evolutionary analysis identifies a conserved pentapeptide stretch containing the two essential lysine residues for rice L-<i>myo</i>-inositol 1-phosphate synthase catalytic activity

<div><p>A molecular evolutionary analysis of a well conserved protein helps to determine the essential amino acids in the core catalytic region. Based on the chemical properties of amino acid residues, phylogenetic analysis of a total of 172 homologous sequences of a highly conserved enzyme, L-<i>myo</i>-inositol 1-phosphate synthase or MIPS from evolutionarily diverse organisms was performed. This study revealed the presence of six phylogenetically conserved blocks, out of which four embrace the catalytic core of the functional protein. Further, specific amino acid modifications targeting the lysine residues, known to be important for MIPS catalysis, were performed at the catalytic site of a MIPS from monocotyledonous model plant, <i>Oryza sativa</i> (<i>Os</i>MIPS1). Following this study, <i>Os</i>MIPS mutants with deletion or replacement of lysine residues in the conserved blocks were made. Based on the enzyme kinetics performed on the deletion/replacement mutants, phylogenetic and structural comparison with the already established crystal structures from non-plant sources, an evolutionarily conserved peptide stretch was identified at the active pocket which contains the two most important lysine residues essential for catalytic activity.</p></div

Construction of <i>Os</i>MIPS deletion/substitution mutants.

<p>(A) Sequence alignment comparison study of <i>Os</i>MIPS, <i>Sc</i>MIPS and <i>Af</i>MIPS through MultAlin. Yellow arrow signifies the NAD-binding residues; red oval signifies the substrate binding residues in <i>Sc</i>MIPS; and black triangle active site residues in <i>Af</i>MIPS. Numbering of amino acids presented at the bottom line is with respect to <i>Sc</i>MIPS sequence and numbering of amino acids presented at the top line is with respect to <i>Af</i>MIPS sequence. (B) Diagrammatic representation of the generated site-specific deletion mutants of <i>Os</i>MIPS. Black arrows point to the amino acid residue (in red font) has been deleted and/or replaced by alanine from the wild-type <i>Os</i>MIPS following the procedure described in Materials and Methods section. The box represents the “core catalytic domain” and the four evolutionarily conserved blocks within the catalytic site are underlined.</p

Evolutionary relationships of taxa for all 172 MIPS sequences.

<p>Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes have a well-defined boundary. Eukaryotic sequences have been denoted by shaded zone. The evolutionary history was inferred using the Neighbor-Joining method [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0185351#pone.0185351.ref032" target="_blank">32</a>]. The optimal tree with the sum of branch length = 18.55289526 is shown. The tree is drawn to scale, with branch lengths in the same units as those of the evolutionary distances used to infer the phylogenetic tree. The evolutionary distances were computed using the Poisson correction method [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0185351#pone.0185351.ref033" target="_blank">33</a>] and are in the units of the number of amino acid substitutions per site. The analysis involved 172 amino acid sequences. All positions containing gaps and missing data were eliminated. There were a total of 222 positions in the final dataset. Evolutionary analyses were conducted in MEGA5 [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0185351#pone.0185351.ref018" target="_blank">18</a>].</p

Primers designed for <i>Os</i>MIPS mutations where each of the mentioned amino acid residues were either deleted or replaced by alanine.

<p>Primers designed for <i>Os</i>MIPS mutations where each of the mentioned amino acid residues were either deleted or replaced by alanine.</p

Comparison of enzyme activity of wild <i>Os</i>MIPS protein and its mutants.

<p>(A) Residual MIPS activity of deletion mutants with respect to the wild type enzyme <i>Os</i>MIPS. Black arrows indicate the four lysine deletion mutants having least enzyme activity. (B) Residual MIPS activity of deletion and replacement mutants of lysine residues within the catalytic domain represented as KΔ and K/A, respectively. ΔKEISK represents the pentapeptide (inset) deletion mutant while K355A, K359A represents double substitution at positions 355 and 359 of <i>Os</i>MIPS. (C) Km and (D) Vmax values for the substrate, G6P and cofactor, NAD, as calculated from Lineweaver-Burk plot.</p