Linear preservers of polynomial numerical hulls of matrices

The final publication is available at Elsevier via https://doi.org/10.1016/j.laa.2019.03.029. © 2019. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Let Mn be the algebra of all n × n complex matrices, 1 ≤ k ≤ n − 1 be an integer, and φ : Mn −→ Mn be a linear operator. In this paper, it is shown that φ preserves the polynomial numerical hull of order k if and only if there exists a unitary matrix U ∈ Mn such that either φ(A)=U∗AU forallA∈Mn,orφ(A)=U∗AtU forallA∈Mn.Research supported in part by Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran. Research supported in part by NSERC (Canada)

Herbal-based drugs for dry eye; treatment and adverse reaction

33-40Dry eye syndrome is one of the most common types of eye diseases. Due to the significant prevalence of the disease, there is an important need for treatment of dry eye in a simple but efficient way. Artificial tears are the most common agents used for treating dry eye but are not very useful. In recent years, the use of herbal remedies has attracted much attention, because the process of producing most herbal remedies is simple, inexpensive and has fewer side effects. In many clinical studies, the potential interactions between medicines and herbs have been demonstrated. According to reports, some herbal products have the potential to be used for the treatment of dry eye while the use of certain products can lead to this syndrome. In this review, we have listed some of the herbal drugs and components which can prevent or treat the dry eye or cause it

Health-related quality of life in diabetic patients and controls without diabetes in refugee camps in the Gaza strip: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Prevalence of diabetes mellitus is increasing in developed and developing countries. Diabetes is known to strongly affect the health-related quality of life (HRQOL). HRQOL is also influenced by living conditions. We analysed the effects of having diabetes on HRQOL under the living conditions in refugee camps in the Gaza strip. METHODS: We studied a sample of 197 diabetic patients who were recruited from three refugee camps in the Gaza strip and 197 age- and sex-matched controls living in the same camps. To assess HRQOL, we used the World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) including four domains (physical health, psychological, social relations and environment). Domain scores were compared for cases (diabetic patients) and controls (persons without diabetes) and the impact of socio-economic factors was evaluated in both groups. RESULTS: All domains were strongly reduced in diabetic patients as compared to controls, with stronger effects in physical health (36.7 vs. 75.9 points of the 0–100 score) and psychological domains (34.8 vs. 70.0) and weaker effects in social relationships (52.4 vs. 71.4) and environment domains (23.4 vs. 36.2). The impact of diabetes on HRQOL was especially severe among females and older subjects (above 50 years). Low socioeconomic status had a strong negative impact on HRQOL in the younger age group (<50 years). CONCLUSION: HRQOL is strongly reduced in diabetic patients living in refugee camps in the Gaza strip. Women and older patients are especially affected

Rapid Detection of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa by PCR Method Using Specific Primers of Quorum Sensing LasI gene

Abstract Background & aim: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic nosocomial pathogen that due to having intrinsic and acquired resistance to common antibiotics, mortality due to infections is very common. Therefore, early and accurate identification of bacteria could be effective in controlling infections and deaths. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of a rapid method with high sensitivity and specificity based on polymerase chain reaction using gene-specific primers quorum sensing LasI system for detection of bacteria. Methods: In this study, the comparison between the results of culture and PCR for the diagnosis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in clinical samples and other bacterial species were carried out. 40 strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from isolated clinical specimens were identified and confirmed by biochemical tests. LasI gene specific primers were designed using bioinformatics analysis. Sequence of this gene was amplified techniques after extraction of bacterial genome. The specificity of PCR tests with DNA from of different species, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumonia, Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae were evaluated. A different dilution of the bacterial genome of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was used in PCR to evaluate the sensitivity of primer. Data were analyzed by t-test Results: The results indicated that the PCR test result was positive for all strains of P. aeruginosa isolates however, PCR test results were negative for the four other bacteria. Even at 10-5 Pseudomonas aeruginosa genome concentration, PCR test was positive for all isolated strains Conclusion: This study showed that the primers designed for detection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa using PCR, had higher sensitivity and specificity compared to previous methods. Keywords: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, PCR, Quorum sensing, Las

"Behavior, Metabolic Control and Health-related Quality of Life in Diabetic Patients at Bandar Abbas Diabetic Clinic"

Diabetes is a chronic disease of lifelong duration, and its management requires a fundamental change in the patient’s lifestyle. The aims of this study were to determine behaviors of diabetic patients in relation to management of their disease, assess metabolic control and health-related quality of life of them. The target population was type 2 diabetic patients and a cross-sectional approach was used. We studied 80 randomly chosen patients. To determine behaviors of patients, data was collected using an interview schedule. Metabolic control was assessed by measuring glycosylated hemoglobin (HBA1c), and health-related quality of life was measured by means of WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire. The majority of patients had good compliance with adherence to the prescribed medicines (65% always and 35%often) and foot care practices (82.5%). However, only 6.3% of them administered self-monitoring blood glucose and 38.8% complied with dietary regimen always. Among smokers, 13.8% stopped smoking after being diagnosed with the disease. The mean HBA1c in the whole patient group was 9.25 ± 1.06 and it ranged from 6.9 to 12.9 and only 2.5% of them had optimum control. The mean rating of health-related quality of life in all scales varied between 55.67 and 63.75(maximum score: 100). The highest rated mean score was for physical health and the lowest was for psychological. It is recommended that every effort be made to initiate and promote behavioral change and improve metabolic control in diabetic patients. To achieve this, an appropriate patient’s education program should be planned and future research is needed to reveal determinants of compliance behavior and factors associated with metabolic control and health-related quality of life in diabetic patients