A study of a couple with type 2 diabetes: dyadic adjustment and psychological morbidity

Objective: this study assessed dyadic adjustment and psychological morbidity in type 2 diabetic patients and their partners, focusing on the role of gender. Methods: 214 diabetic patients and their partners participated in the cross-sectional study and were assessed on psychological morbidity (HADS) and marital adjustment (RDAS). Data was analyzed using dyadic analysis, a statistical process that studies the patient/partner dyads simultaneously. Results: results revealed that the negative relationship between dyadic adjustment and psychological morbidity in female patients was stronger than in male diabetic patients or in partners of male diabetic patients. On the other hand, the relationship between dyadic adjustment and psychological morbidity in partners of diabetic men was stronger than the same relationship in partners of diabetic women. Conclusion: since gender is a moderator, it is important to attend to the different needs of female and male patients and the education of diabetic patients should be centered on the patient/partner dyad.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Use of metabolomics for the chemotaxonomy of legume-associated Ascochyta and allied genera

Chemotaxonomy and the comparative analysis of metabolic features of fungi have the potential to provide valuable information relating to ecology and evolution, but have not been fully explored in fungal biology. Here, we investigated the chemical diversity of legume-associated Ascochyta and Phoma species and the possible use of a metabolomics approach using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for their classification. The metabolic features of 45 strains including 11 known species isolated from various legumes were extracted, and the datasets were analyzed using chemometrics methods such as principal component and hierarchical clustering analyses. We found a high degree of intra-species consistency in metabolic profiles, but inter-species diversity was high. Molecular phylogenies of the legume-associated Ascochyta/Phoma species were estimated using sequence data from three protein-coding genes and the five major chemical groups that were detected in the hierarchical clustering analysis were mapped to the phylogeny. Clusters based on similarity of metabolic features were largely congruent with the species phylogeny. These results indicated that evolutionarily distinct fungal lineages have diversified their metabolic capacities as they have evolved independently. This whole metabolomics approach may be an effective tool for chemotaxonomy of fungal taxa lacking information on their metabolic content