Iranian healthcare professionals' perspectives about factors influencing the use of telemedicine in diabetes management

AIM To identify factors influencing the use of telemedicine in diabetes management from the perspectives of hea-lthcare professionals.METHODS This was a quantitative study that was conducted in 2016. The participants were 240 nurses and 55 physicians from three teaching hospitals as well as from one endocrinology and metabolism research center. No sampling method was used and the data were collected by using a five-point(1 to 5) Likert scale questionnaire, which had 37 questions. Descriptive and inferential statistics(Mann-Whitney U test) were used to analyze the data.RESULTS The findings showed that both physicians(4.06 ± 0.69) and nurses(4.02 ± 0.61) tended to use telemedicine technology for managing diabetes. Overall, the lowest mean value for physicians(3.79 ± 0.82) was related to the compatibility of telemedicine with other clinical activities in diabetes management. For nurses, the lowest mean value pertained to the usefulness of telemedicine in diabetes management(3.99 ± 0.53) and their attitude toward using this technology(3.99 ±0.65).CONCLUSION Although physicians and nurses agreed on using te-lemedicine technology in diabetes management, it is necessary to consider their concerns prior to the im-plementation and deployment of new technologies. This approach will help to improve the level of technology acceptance among the users.

An atypical NLR gene confers bacterial wilt susceptibility in Arabidopsis

Quantitative disease resistance(QDR)remains the most prevalent form of plant resistance in crop fields and wild habitats.Genome-wide association studies(GWAS)have proved to be successful in deciphering the quantitative genetic basis of complex traits such as QDR.To unravel the genetics of QDR to the devastating worldwide bacterial pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum,we performed a GWAS by challenging a highly polymorphic local mapping population of Arabidopsis thaliana with four R.solanacearum type III effector(T3E)mutants,identified as key pathogenicity determinants after a first screen on an A.thaliana core collection of 25 accessions.Although most quantitative trait loci(QTLs)were highly specific to the identity of the T3E mutant(ripAC,ripAG,ripAQ,and ripU),we finely mapped a common QTL located on a cluster of nucleotide-binding domain and leucine-rich repeat(NLR)genes that exhibited structural variation.We functionally validated one of these NLRs as a susceptibility factor in response to R.solanacearum,named it Bacterial Wilt Susceptibility 1(BWS1),and cloned two alleles that conferred contrasting levels of QDR.Further characterization indicated that expression of BWS1 leads to suppression of immunity triggered by different R.solanacearum effectors.In addition,we showed a direct interaction between BWS1 and RipAC T3E,and BWS1 and SUPPRESSOR OF G2 ALLELE OF skp1(SGT1b),the latter interaction being suppressed by RipAC.Together,our results highlight a putative role for BWS1 as a quantitative susceptibility factor directly targeted by the T3E RipAC,mediating negative regulation of the SGT1-dependent immune response.