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1 – 10 of 284Majid Balaei-Kahnamoei, Mohammad Al-Attar, Mahdiyeh Khazaneha, Mahboobeh Raeiszadeh, Samira Ghorbannia-Dellavar, Morteza Bagheri, Ebrahim Salimi-Sabour, Alireza Shahriary and Masoud Arabfard
Acute and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common and progressive lung disease that makes breathing difficult over time and can even lead to death. Despite this…
Abstract
Purpose
Acute and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common and progressive lung disease that makes breathing difficult over time and can even lead to death. Despite this, there is no definitive treatment for it yet. This study aims to evaluate the studies on single and combined herbal interventions affecting COPD.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, all articles published in English up to 2020 were extracted from the Web of Science (WoS) database and collected using Boolean tools based on keywords, titles and abstracts. Finally, the data required for bibliographic analysis, such as the author(s), publication year, academic journal, institution, country of origin, institution, financial institution and keywords were extracted from the database.
Findings
A total of 573 articles were analyzed. The number of papers in the lung disease field showed an upward trend from 1984 to 2021, and there was a surge in paper publications in 2013. China, Korea and Brazil published the highest number of studies on COPD, and Chinese medical universities published the most papers. Three journals that received the highest scores in this study were the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, International Immunopharmacology and Plos One. In the cloud map, expression, activation and expression were the most frequently researched subjects. In the plus and author keywords, acute lung injury was the most commonly used word. Inflammation, expression of various genes, nitric oxide-dependent pathways, NFkappa B, TNFalpha and lipopolysaccharide-dependent pathways were the mechanisms underlying COPD. Scientometric analysis of COPD provides a vision for future research and policymaking.
Originality/value
This study aimed to evaluate the studies on single and combined herbal interventions affecting COPD.
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Anake Pomprapa, Danita Muanghong, Marcus Köny, Steffen Leonhardt, Philipp Pickerodt, Onno Tjarks, David Schwaiberger and Burkhard Lachmann
The purpose of this paper is to develop an automatic control system for mechanical ventilation therapy based on the open lung concept (OLC) using artificial intelligence. In…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop an automatic control system for mechanical ventilation therapy based on the open lung concept (OLC) using artificial intelligence. In addition, mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) is stabilized by means of a decoupling controller with automated noradrenaline (NA) dosage to ensure adequate systemic perfusion during ventilation therapy for patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Design/methodology/approach
The aim is to develop an automatic control system for mechanical ventilation therapy based on the OLC using artificial intelligence. In addition, MAP is stabilized by means of a decoupling controller with automated NA dosage to ensure adequate systemic perfusion during ventilation therapy for patients with ARDS.
Findings
This innovative closed-loop mechanical ventilation system leads to a significant improvement in oxygenation, regulates end-tidal carbon dioxide for appropriate gas exchange and stabilizes MAP to guarantee proper systemic perfusion during the ventilation therapy.
Research limitations/implications
Currently, this automatic ventilation system based on the OLC can only be applied in animal trials; for clinical use, such a system generally requires a mechanical ventilator and sensors with medical approval for humans.
Practical implications
For implementation of a closed-loop ventilation system, reliable signals from the sensors are a prerequisite for successful application.
Originality/value
The experiment with porcine dynamics demonstrates the feasibility and usefulness of this automatic closed-loop ventilation therapy, with hemodynamic control for severe ARDS. Moreover, this pilot study validated a new algorithm for implementation of the OLC, whereby all control objectives are fulfilled during the ventilation therapy with adequate hemodynamic control of patients with ARDS.
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Soraiya Ebrahimpour-Koujan, Amir Ali Sohrabpour, Saeid Safari, Nima Baziar, Shima Hadavi, Laleh Payahoo and Samaneh Shabani
Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is becoming a crucial health problem worldwide. Continued and high-speed mutations of this virus result in the appearance of new…
Abstract
Purpose
Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is becoming a crucial health problem worldwide. Continued and high-speed mutations of this virus result in the appearance of new manifestations, making the control of this disease difficult. It has been shown that well-nourished patients have strong immune systems who mostly have short-term hospitalization compared to others. The purpose of this study is to review the major nutrients involved in the immune system reinforcement and to explain nutritional aspects during the recovery of COVID-19.
Design/methodology/approach
In this review paper, the mechanistic role of nutrients in boosting the immune system and the nutritional aspects during the recovery of COVID-19 patients were discussed. Papers indexed in scientific databases were searched using antioxidants, COVID-19, inflammation, immune system, macronutrient, micronutrient and probiotic as keywords from 2000 to 2022.
Findings
Because of the adverse effects of drugs like thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and hypercholesterolemia, a balanced diet with enough concentrations of energy and macronutrients could increase the patient's durability. The inflammatory cytokines in a vicious cycle delay patients’ rehabilitation. The main mechanistic roles of micronutrients are attributed to the downregulation of virus replication and are involved in energy homeostasis. Dysbiosis is defined as another disturbance among COVID-19 patients, and supplementation with beneficial strains of probiotics helps to exert anti-inflammatory effects in this regard. Being on a well-planned diet with anti-inflammatory properties could reverse cytokine storms as the major feature of COVID-19. Future studies are needed to determine the safe and effective dose of dietary factors to control the COVID-19 patients.
Originality/value
Being on a well-planned diet with anti-inflammatory properties could reverse cytokine storms as the major feature of COVID-19. Future studies are needed to determine the safe and effective dose of dietary factors to control the COVID-19 patients.
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Ji Li, Pradeep Thaker, Deshou Jiang, Qingrong Huang and Chi-Tang Ho
The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the functionalities, safety regulations and product applications of herb Stevia rebaudiana extract. This plant material is…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the functionalities, safety regulations and product applications of herb Stevia rebaudiana extract. This plant material is embedded with multiple functionalities such as antioxidant, antidiabetics, anti-inflammation and antimicrobial. The regulations released from global authorities are covered to ensure the safety premise of stevia. Besides, the product applications of the extract of aerial parts of the herb S. rebaudiana helps us to recognize its value from commercial side.
Design/methodology/approach
Relevant literatures are selected and obtained from main scientific databases such as Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed and trade magazines published between 2000 and 2023. The keywords and their possible combinations such as sweetening, antioxidant, antidiabetics, anti-inflammation, safety and product development were used to ensure the preciseness and completeness of literature searching. Major data such as sweetness, total phenolic content and dose together with latter critical conclusions from searched publications were appropriately used and discussed. In this review, approximately 150 scientific literatures were meticulously ordered and analyzed. In applications, it is the first time that sentiment analysis was used to obtain a market assessment of the stevia-containing products.
Findings
This review paper helps rearrange the scientific affairs of those stevia extract’s functions like sweetening, antioxidant, antidiabetics and inflammation. Sweetness indexes of steviol glycosides were summarized together for comparison while various in vitro and in vivo approaches were reviewed to quantify those functions’ capacities and to depict the related mechanism. The regulation of steviol glycoside compounds such as rebaudioside A was established by global authorities such as US Food and Drug Administration and Joint FAO/World Health Organization Expert Committee to ensure the safety endorsement before commercialization. Then, this study discussed about the market performance of stevia ingredients or products with the self-developed data analytics. This study also investigated the product development progress of stevia-containing food products in the categories of beverage, bakery, dairy and confectionery. Those stevia-containing food consumer goods can be acceptable by certain consumers.
Originality/value
This review paper precisely presents the evidential information about the stevia’s multiple functionalities with mechanisms and global regulation milestones. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is then the first time to probe the stevia-containing products’ market performance through data analytics.
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Sajani Thapa, Satyendra C. Pandey, Swati Panda, Audhesh K. Paswan and Ashish Ghimire
Vaping has become a prominent public health problem that has impacted young adults. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the effects of different intrinsic and…
Abstract
Purpose
Vaping has become a prominent public health problem that has impacted young adults. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the effects of different intrinsic and extrinsic motivations on young adults’ realization of excessive vaping and their intention to quit vaping.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was used to collect data from 232 young vapers (primarily Generation Z and Millennials) to test the hypothesized relationships using a covariance-based structural equation model.
Findings
The findings of this study suggest that “realization of excessive vaping” is negatively associated with “sensation seeking” and positively associated with “deal proneness,” “environmental cues” and “negative repercussion.” The “intention to quit vaping” is negatively associated with “marketing cues” and positively associated with “alternative to smoking” and “environmental cues.” Finally, the “realization of excessive vaping” is positively associated with “intention to quit vaping.”
Originality/value
This study takes a two-dimensional approach to understand the complex motivations behind a relatively new addictive behavior – vaping. It contributes to the literature of addictive behavior, social cognitive theory and theory of planned behavior. Further, it has important implications for public policy and the marketing of addictive products to youths.
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Claudia Lanza, Antonietta Folino, Erika Pasceri and Anna Perri
The aim of this study is a semantic comparative analysis between the current pandemic and the Spanish flu. It is based on a bilingual terminological perspective oriented to…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is a semantic comparative analysis between the current pandemic and the Spanish flu. It is based on a bilingual terminological perspective oriented to evaluate and compare the terms used to describe and communicate the pandemic's issues both to biomedical experts and to a non-specialist public.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis carried out is a terminological comparative investigation performed on two corpora, the first containing scientific English articles, the second Italian national newspapers' issues on two pandemics, the Spanish flu and the current Covid-19 disease, towards the detection of semantic similarities and differences among them through the implementation of computational tasks and corpus linguistics methodologies.
Findings
Given the cross-fielding representativeness of terms, and their relevance within specific historical eras, our study is conducted both on a synchronic and on a diachronic level to discover the common lexical usages in the dissemination of the pandemic issues.
Originality/value
The study presents the extraction of the main representative terms about two pandemics and their usages to share news about their trends among the population and the integration of a topic modeling detection procedure to discover some of the main categories representing the lexicon of the pandemics with reference to a list of classes created by external thesauri and ontologies on pandemics. As a result, a detailed overview of the discrepancies, as well as similarities, retrieved in two historical corpora dealing with a common subject, i.e. the pandemics' terminology, is provided.
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Qi Wang, Pengcheng Zhang, Jianming Wang, Qingliang Chen, Zhijie Lian, Xiuyan Li, Yukuan Sun, Xiaojie Duan, Ziqiang Cui, Benyuan Sun and Huaxiang Wang
Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a technique for reconstructing the conductivity distribution by injecting currents at the boundary of a subject and measuring the…
Abstract
Purpose
Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a technique for reconstructing the conductivity distribution by injecting currents at the boundary of a subject and measuring the resulting changes in voltage. Image reconstruction for EIT is a nonlinear problem. A generalized inverse operator is usually ill-posed and ill-conditioned. Therefore, the solutions for EIT are not unique and highly sensitive to the measurement noise.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper develops a novel image reconstruction algorithm for EIT based on patch-based sparse representation. The sparsifying dictionary optimization and image reconstruction are performed alternately. Two patch-based sparsity, namely, square-patch sparsity and column-patch sparsity, are discussed and compared with the global sparsity.
Findings
Both simulation and experimental results indicate that the patch based sparsity method can improve the quality of image reconstruction and tolerate a relatively high level of noise in the measured voltages.
Originality/value
EIT image is reconstructed based on patch-based sparse representation. Square-patch sparsity and column-patch sparsity are proposed and compared. Sparse dictionary optimization and image reconstruction are performed alternately. The new method tolerates a relatively high level of noise in measured voltages.
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Danladi Chiroma Husaini, Orish Ebere Orisakwe, David Ditaba Mphuthi, Sani Maaji Garba, Cecilia Nwadiuto Obasi and Innocent Ejiofor Nwachukwu
This review aims to provide synoptic documentation on acclaimed anecdotal plant-based remedies used by Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) communities to manage COVID-19. The…
Abstract
Purpose
This review aims to provide synoptic documentation on acclaimed anecdotal plant-based remedies used by Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) communities to manage COVID-19. The theoretical approaches that form the basis for using the anecdotally claimed phytotherapies were reviewed against current scientific evidence.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper plant-based remedies for managing COVID-19 were searched on social and print media to identify testimonies of people from different communities in LAC countries. Information was extracted, evaluated and reviewed against current scientific evidence based on a literature search from databases such as Journal Storage (JSTOR), Excerpta Medica Database (EMBASE), SpringerLink, Scopus, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Google Scholar and Medline to explore the scientific basis for anecdotal claims.
Findings
A total of 23 medicinal plants belonging to 15 families were identified as phytotherapies used in managing COVID-19 in LAC communities.
Originality/value
The plant-based remedies contained valuable phytochemicals scientifically reported for their anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antioxidant and anticancer effects. Anecdotal information helps researchers investigate disease patterns, management and new drug discoveries. The identified acclaimed plant-based remedies are potential candidates for pharmacological evaluations for possible drug discovery for future pandemics.
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Rami A. Ahmed, Patrick G. Hughes, Ambrose H. Wong, Kaley M. Gray, Brad D. Gable, Derek Ballas, Ahmad Khobrani, Robert D. Selley and Colleen McQuown
The purpose of this paper is to provide a consolidated reference for the acute management of selected iatrogenic procedural injuries occurring in the emergency department (ED).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a consolidated reference for the acute management of selected iatrogenic procedural injuries occurring in the emergency department (ED).
Design/methodology/approach
A literature search was performed utilizing PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar for studies through March of 2017 investigating search terms “iatrogenic procedure complications,” “error management” and “procedure complications,” in addition to the search terms reflecting case reports involving the eight below listed procedure complications.
Findings
This may be particularly helpful to academic faculty who supervise physicians in training who present a higher risk to cause such injuries.
Originality/value
Emergent procedures performed in the ED present a higher risk for iatrogenic injury than in more controlled settings. Many physicians are taught error-avoidance rather than how to handle errors when learning procedures. There is currently very limited literature on the error management of iatrogenic procedure complications in the ED.
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Anis Najiha Ahmad, Tajul A. Yang and Wan Nadiah Wan Abdullah
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the perceived knowledge of the general concept of halal food and actual knowledge of halal food principles with emphasis on alcohol…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the perceived knowledge of the general concept of halal food and actual knowledge of halal food principles with emphasis on alcohol (alcoholic drinks and ethanol).
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional descriptive survey, using quantitative research methods, was utilized. A self-administered survey was distributed to 188 undergraduate students of the food technology programme at Universiti Sains Malaysia, and a total of 114 responses were obtained.
Findings
Results indicate that respondents believed that they have above average competence regarding the concept, sources, ingredients, processing and the overall production of halal foods (score: 3.75-4.18). In addition, all of the 114 respondents also agreed that alcoholic drinks are fundamentally prohibited in Islam. However, the survey also revealed that the respondents were less certain about the application of alcohol in halal food production. Respondents’ actual knowledge on these issues was low to average.
Research limitations/implications
This study is limited by its cross-sectional nature. In addition, the research was only conducted on undergraduate-level students of the food technology programme, and therefore, results derived might not be generalized to the other segments of the population. The overall uncertainty and misconception about the application of alcohol in halal food highlights the need to improve the knowledge of these undergraduate students to more than a mere theory of the concepts of halal and haram.
Originality/value
No previous study has been conducted to explore the issue pertaining to alcohol in halal food, and this paper categorically strives to fill this gap.
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