Culturally tailored lifestyle interventions for the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes in adults of Black African ancestry: a systematic review of tailoring methods and their effectiveness

Objective: To evaluate the cultural tailoring methods used in type 2 diabetes (T2D) prevention and management interventions for populations of Black African ancestry, and to examine their effectiveness on measures of glycaemia. / Design: Three databases were searched in October 2020; eligible studies used a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design to evaluate the effectiveness of culturally tailored lifestyle interventions compared to usual care for the prevention or management of T2D in adults of Black African ancestry. Cultural tailoring methods were evaluated using the Facilitator-Location-Language-Messaging (FiLLM) framework, whereby facilitator, refers to delivery by individuals from the target community, language focuses on using native language or language appropriate to literacy levels, location refers to delivery in meaningful settings, and messaging is tailoring with relevant content and modes of delivery. / Results: Sixteen RCTs were identified, all from USA. The mean age of participants was 55 years, majority female. Six of 15 RCTs reported significant improvements in glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) at 6- and 8-months; one, in prediabetes, reported significantly improved fasting plasma glucose. Diabetes knowledge improvement (5/7 studies) was associated with HbA1c improvement. The majority tailored to location (12/16), facilitators (11/16), messaging (9/16) and language (6/16) domains of FiLLM. Those with ethnically matched facilitators and those which tailored to more than one domain showed the greatest HbA1C benefits. / Conclusion: This evidence supports the effectiveness of culturally tailored lifestyle interventions for T2D management in populations of Black African ancestry, with further RCTs needed to evaluate interventions for T2D prevention and for communities outside of the USA

Isolation and antimicrobial activity of rutin and its derivatives from Ruta chalepensis (Rutaceae) growing in Iraq

Rutin (1), rutin 3'-methyl ether (2), and a new flavonol glycoside, 6-hydroxy-rutin 3',7-dimethyl ether (3), were isolated from the methanol extract of the fruits of Ruta chalepensis, collected from Diyala, Iraq. Their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic analyses, including 1D-, 2D-NMR and HRESIMS. Antimicrobial activity of compounds 1-3 was tested against four Gram +ve and Gram –ve bacterial strains, and the only fungal strain, Candida albicans, using the 96-well based resazurin microtitre assay

Causes of delays in budget absorption as the development of good governance on deconcentration and co-administration task budget (A case study at the work unit of DKP-NTB Province)

The objective of study is to determine the causes of delays in the absorption of De-concentration (Decon) and Co-administration Task (TP) budget at the level of Work Unit. In carrying out its function as an agent of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DKP). The Work Unit has developed operational plan, nevertheless it plan could not be followed up. Such condition surely has consequences on the budget absorption at the Work Unit. This study is a qualitative study using a case study approach. The study uses a holis-tic single case study. The results indicate that there are many obstacles encountered by the Work Unit in carrying out its daily activities related to budget absorption. The obstacles may be from internal factors and external factors. The strong intervention of principal in Decon and TP budget is a key issue of the external factor that makes the Work Unit unable to be consistent to the operational plan drawn up. Besides, the procurement of goods and services through the Procurement Services Unit is also an obstacle for the Work Unit in executing the work using tender mechanism. Other external factors are the mechanisms of Money Supply (UP) and the Change of Money Supply (GUP) that cause the Work Unit to get difficulty in setting up funds for activities. Meanwhile, the internal factors that con-strain the Work Unit are issues concerning Human Resources, Standard Operating Proce-dures and Performance Evaluation that have not been implemented well in the internal Work Unit. The theoretical implication of the study is the dominant intervention of the principal (central government) to the agent (Work Unit) is a resistance to the implementa-tion of the values of effectiveness and efficiency in the concept of good governance

Why honey is effective as a medicine. 1. Its use in modern medicine

Honey has been used as a medicine for thousands of years and its curative properties are well documented. However, modern medicine turned its back on honey and it is only now, with the advent of multi-resistant bacteria, that the antibiotic properties of honey are being rediscovered

Publisher Correction: Notch1 regulates the initiation of metastasis and self-renewal of Group 3 medulloblastoma.

The original version of this Article omitted Suzana A. Kahn, Siddhartha S. Mitra & Samuel H. Cheshier as jointly supervising authors. This has now been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article

Quantum dynamics in strong fluctuating fields

A large number of multifaceted quantum transport processes in molecular systems and physical nanosystems can be treated in terms of quantum relaxation processes which couple to one or several fluctuating environments. A thermal equilibrium environment can conveniently be modelled by a thermal bath of harmonic oscillators. An archetype situation provides a two-state dissipative quantum dynamics, commonly known under the label of a spin-boson dynamics. An interesting and nontrivial physical situation emerges, however, when the quantum dynamics evolves far away from thermal equilibrium. This occurs, for example, when a charge transferring medium possesses nonequilibrium degrees of freedom, or when a strong time-dependent control field is applied externally. Accordingly, certain parameters of underlying quantum subsystem acquire stochastic character. Herein, we review the general theoretical framework which is based on the method of projector operators, yielding the quantum master equations for systems that are exposed to strong external fields. This allows one to investigate on a common basis the influence of nonequilibrium fluctuations and periodic electrical fields on quantum transport processes. Most importantly, such strong fluctuating fields induce a whole variety of nonlinear and nonequilibrium phenomena. A characteristic feature of such dynamics is the absence of thermal (quantum) detailed balance.Comment: review article, Advances in Physics (2005), in pres

Proteomic identification and characterization of hepatic glyoxalase 1 dysregulation in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease worldwide. However, its molecular pathogenesis is incompletely characterized and clinical biomarkers remain scarce. The aims of these experiments were to identify and characterize liver protein alterations in an animal model of early, diet-related, liver injury and to assess novel candidate biomarkers in NAFLD patients. Methods: Liver membrane and cytosolic protein fractions from high fat fed apolipoprotein E knockout (ApoE−/−) animals were analyzed by quantitative proteomics, utilizing isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) combined with nano-liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (nLC-MS/MS). Differential protein expression was confirmed independently by immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry in both murine tissue and biopsies from paediatric NAFLD patients. Candidate biomarkers were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in serum from adult NAFLD patients. Results: Through proteomic profiling, we identified decreased expression of hepatic glyoxalase 1 (GLO1) in a murine model. GLO1 protein expression was also found altered in tissue biopsies from paediatric NAFLD patients. In vitro experiments demonstrated that, in response to lipid loading in hepatocytes, GLO1 is first hyperacetylated then ubiquitinated and degraded, leading to an increase in reactive methylglyoxal. In a cohort of 59 biopsy-confirmed adult NAFLD patients, increased serum levels of the primary methylglyoxal-derived advanced glycation endproduct, hydroimidazolone (MG-H1) were significantly correlated with body mass index (r = 0.520, p < 0.0001). Conclusion: Collectively these results demonstrate the dysregulation of GLO1 in NAFLD and implicate the acetylation-ubquitination degradation pathway as the functional mechanism. Further investigation of the role of GLO1 in the molecular pathogenesis of NAFLD is warranted. Keywords: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Glyoxalase, Methylglyoxal, Proteomics, iTRA

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

Genetic programming of macrophages generates an in vitro model for the human erythroid island niche

In vitro differentiation of red blood cells (RBCs) is a desirable therapy for various disorders. Here the authors develop a culture system using stem cell-derived macrophages to show that inducible expression of a transcription factor, KLF1, enhances RBC production, potentially through the induction of three soluble factors, ANGPTL7, IL33 and SERPINB2