Comparing enhanced versus standard Diabetes Prevention Program among indigenous adults in an urban setting: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Indigenous people in the United States are at high risk for diabetes. Psychosocial stressors like historical trauma may impede success in diabetes prevention programs. METHODS: A comparative effectiveness trial compared a culturally tailored diabetes prevention program (standard group) with an enhanced one that addressed psychosocial stressors (enhanced group) in 2015 to 2017. Participants were 207 Indigenous adults with a body mass index (BMI) of ≥30 and one additional criterion of metabolic syndrome, and were randomized to the standard or enhanced group. Both groups received a culturally tailored behavioral diabetes prevention program. Strategies to address psychosocial stressors were provided to the enhanced group only. Change in BMI over 12 months was the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes included change in quality of life, and clinical, behavioral, and psychosocial measures at 6 and 12 months. RESULTS: The two groups did not significantly differ in BMI change at 12 months. The two groups also did not differ in any secondary outcomes at 6 or 12 months, with the exception of unhealthy food consumption; the standard group reported a larger mean decrease (95% CI) in consumption of unhealthy food compared with the enhanced group (- 4.6 [- 6.8, - 2.5] vs. -0.7 [- 2.9, 1.4], p = 0.01). At 6 months, significant improvements in weight and the physical component of the quality of life measure were observed for both groups compared with their baseline level. Compared with baseline, at 12 months, the standard group showed significant improvement in BMI (mean [95% CI], - 0.5 [- 1.0, - 0.1]) and the enhanced group showed significant improvement in the physical component of the quality of life (2.9 [0.7, 5.2]). CONCLUSIONS: Adding strategies to address psychosocial barriers to a culturally tailored diabetes prevention program was not successful for improving weight loss among urban Indigenous adults. TRIAL REGISTRATION: (if applicable): NCT02266576. Registered October 17, 2014 on clinicaltrials.gov. The trial was prospectively registered.

[Effects of salt and drought stresses on rhizosphere soil bacterial community structure and peanut yield]. / å¹²æ—±ä¸Žç›èƒè¿«å¯¹èŠ±ç”Ÿæ ¹é™ åœŸå£¤ç»†èŒç¾¤è½ç»“æž„å’ŒèŠ±ç”Ÿäº§é‡çš„å½±å“.

A pot experiment with Huayu 25 as experimental material was conducted, with treatments of drought and salt stresses. The effects of drought and salt stresses at the flowering stage on the plant morphology, pod yield, and soil bacterial community structure in the rhizosphere were examined. The results showed that Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Saccharibacteria, Chloroflexi, Cyanobacteria, and Acidobacteria were the dominant phyla in the rhizosphere soil of peanut. Compared with that under normal conditions, the relative abundance of Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria dramatically decreased, while that of Cyanobacteria evidently increased in drought-treated and salt-treated soil. Moreover, the variation of Cyanobacteria abundance caused by combined drought and salt stresses was stronger than that caused by single drought or salt stress. Functional meta-genomic profiling indicated that a series of sequences related to signaling transduction, defense mechanism and post-translational modification, protein turnover, chaperones were enriched in rhizosphere soil under stressed conditions, which might have implications for plant survival and stress tolerance. Drought and salt stress affectedpeanut growth and reduced pod yield. Results from this study would present reference on the future improvement of stress tolerance of peanuts via modifying soil microbial community.

An in situ SERS study of ionic transport and the Joule heating effect in plasmonic nanopores.

Understanding the ionic transport behaviour as well as temperature change caused by the Joule heating effect is important for the application of plasmonic nanopores. To explore the basic properties of ionic transport through nanopores, we assemble gold nanoparticles on the tip of a glass nanopipette to form a hydrophilic gold porous structure (hydro-GPS) that exhibits high Raman activity.

[Effects of water stress and nitrogen fertilization on peanut root morphological development and leaf physiological activities].

Taking 'Huayu 22' peanut as test material, effect of soil water content and nitrogen fertilization on the leaf physiological activities and root morphological characteristics of peanut plants were analyzed. Two levels of soil water condition were: (1) well-watered condition and (2) moderate water stress, and three levels of nitrogen were: (1) none nitrogen (N0), (2) moderate nitrogen (N1, 90 kg · hm(-2)) and (3) high nitrogen (N2, 180 kg · hm(-2)). The results showed that N1 significantly increased the peanut yield under two water conditions, but showed no significant effect on harvest index compared with N0. Under water stress condition, N1 had no significant effects on total root biomass and total root length, but the total root surface area was remarkably increased. The nitrogen fertilization significantly increased the root length and root surface area in 20-40 cm soil layer, and N2 significantly increased the root biomass and root surface area in the soil layer below 40 cm. The application of nitrogen remarkably increased CAT and POD activities in leaf, while MDA content was decreased with the increase of nitrogen level. Under well-watered condition, the root biomass, root length and root surface area in the soil layer below 40 cm and total root surface area were significantly reduced by nitrogen application, however, only N1 could increase leaf protective enzyme activities. Correlation analysis showed that the root length in 20-40 cm soil layer and SOD, CAT, POD activities in leaf were highly significantly related with peanut yield.

Isolation and characterization of drought-responsive genes from peanut roots by suppression subtractive hybridization

Background Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important economic and oilseed crop. Long-term rainless conditions and seasonal droughts can limit peanut yields and were conducive to preharvest aflatoxin contamination. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which peanut responds and adapts to water limited conditions, we isolated and characterized several drought-induced genes from peanut roots using a suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) technique. Results RNA was extracted from peanut roots subjected to a water stress treatment (45% field capacity) and from control plants (75% field capacity), and used to generate an SSH cDNA library. A total of 111 non-redundant sequences were obtained, with 80 unique transcripts showing homology to known genes and 31 clones with no similarity to either hypothetical or known proteins. GO and KEGG analyses of these differentially expressed ESTs indicated that drought-related responses in peanut could mainly be attributed to genes involved in cellular structure and metabolism. In addition, we examined the expression patterns of seven differentially expressed candidate genes using real-time reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR) and confirmed that all were up-regulated in roots in response to drought stress, but to differing extents. Conclusions We successfully constructed an SSH cDNA library in peanut roots and identified several drought-related genes. Our results serve as a foundation for future studies into the elucidation of the drought stress response mechanisms of peanut.