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This study aims to report the phytochemical screening and anti-diarrhoea properties of methanol extract of Diodia sarmentosa Swartz (DSS) leave (at 200, 400 and 600 mg/kg) in albino rats.

Three types of diarrhoea models (castor oil-induced diarrhoea, castor oil-induced gastrointestinal motility and castor oil-induced enteropooling), as well as an assay for serum and faecal electrolyte concentrations, were used. Acute toxicity study and phytochemical screening of the extract were carried out using standard techniques.

The percentage inhibition of diarrhoea by DSS 200, 400 and 600 mg/kg was obtained as 25.7%, 55% and 84.6%, respectively, compared with loperamide that had 87.6% inhibition. DSS dose dependently modulated the number and frequency of defecation, the weight of the faeces of the diarrhoea rats, the distance that was travelled by charcoal meal, mean differences in the full lengths of the intestines and the distance travelled by charcoal meal, weight and volume of intestinal contents, serum and faecal concentrations of potassium, sodium, chloride, magnesium, bicarbonate, iron and zinc relative to the negative control and in a manner akin to loperamide (for the extract at 600 mg/kg). DSS or loperamide attenuated the loss of calcium in the faeces of the rats. DSS possesses anti-diarrhoea properties, which may be attributed to the phytochemicals in it. Finally, the study showed the safety in the usage of DSS.

DSS exerted its anti-diarrhoea action in castor oil-induced diarrhoea rats, by modulating their intestinal secretory and motile activity in a manner akin to loperamide (for DSS at 600 mg/kg).

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper identifies and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material, in the area of library instruction and information literacy.

The paper provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information in the paper may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

This paper describes how two academic health science librarians exposed graduate students to health literacy concepts in a graduate-level nutrition course. This paper aims to present an easy method for librarians to expose students in the health professions to concepts of health literacy.

The Information and Health Literacy course is an online course co-taught by nutrition faculty and librarians at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. The librarian-led one-week health literacy module begins with readings that define health literacy and continues with two online discussion board activities. One activity is identifying an example of low health literacy in their personal or professional lives, and the other is using criteria from the readings in their analysis of a consumer health website.

Students often comment that prior to taking this course, they had not considered how patients might think about and understand their own health care, but they will now take it into account going forward. Many students also felt that the assignment made them view Web resources for patients differently and with a more critical eye.

Those in allied health professions like registered dietitians often have direct contact with patients and have the ability to make a significant impact. If students are exposed to health literacy concepts through online activities within the curriculum, they may be more aware of this important concept when working with patients in the future.

This research indicates females with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have a diverse clinical presentation compared to males. Furthermore, females with ASD are often diagnosed later and typically experience greater levels of mental health difficulties. Evidence suggests that clinic-based verbal interventions for ASD have limited efficacy; therefore, alternative therapies, such as equine-assisted therapies (EATs), are gaining recognition. The purpose of this study was to directly explore the experiences of females with an ASD who have undertaken EAT.

Five female participants with a diagnosis of ASD were recruited from two equine therapy centres. Participants were aged between 15 and 30 years and undertook semi-structured interviews, which were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Three superordinate themes emerged: the difficult experience of the social world, the process of EAT and the emotional impact of horses.

Directly exploring the experiences of females with ASD highlights benefits from engaging therapeutically with horses, building confidence and independence to transferring this into more effective social communication with other people. Offering emotion-focused therapeutic complementary interventions for females with ASD should be forefronted to help remediate the impact of difficult and sometimes traumatic earlier experiences in the social world. This requires increased funding for EAT, combined with larger-scale research projects to evaluate this.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on natural food additives identified in the drumstick (Moringa Oleifera) and their probable application as novel ingredients in the development of functional food products. This plant additive has attracted interest as one of the prominent candidates for the purpose of improving processing, quality and the safety of various livestock foods such as meat, milk, fish and their products. The search of natural food additives for the processing and preservation of high-quality, ready-to-eat products has notably increased due to the adverse effects of chemical additives on human health.

Traditionally, Moringa is a pan-tropical plant species, which is well-known for its nutritional and medicinal properties in human nutrition. Its leaves, seeds, flowers, pods (fruit), bark and roots are extremely valuable sources of nutrition for people of all ages. Moringa is nowadays also considered as an important source of nutraceuticals which may find wide application in the food industry. These nutraceuticals have a positive impact on the body’s function or condition by affecting the digestive, endocrine, cardiovascular, immune and nervous systems, and it may ultimately influence health.

Several additives that are released in vitro or in vivo from various parts of Moringa have been attributed to different health effects, including antimicrobial properties, antioxidant activities, anti-tumour, anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer, anti-atherosclerotic, anti-convulsant activities and there is enhancement of nutritional and organoleptic attributes of various livestock foods. Extensive research has been undertaken to identify and characterize these additives as a new source of biologically active ingredients for the development of functional foods with specific benefits for human health.

This paper focuses on the properties, utilization and scope of Moringa Oleifera in livestock products, all of which indicate that its effective utilization is the need of the hour.

In the USA, there has recently been an unprecedented convergence of complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) with mainstream biomedical care. This confluence may lead to a deeply rooted philosophical conflict. This qualitative study works to identify factors that health-care leaders can use, which will build a pathway to greater integrative practice between medical doctors and CAM practitioners – from parallel existence to partnership – by examining the tensions between biomedical medicine and naturopathic medicine. The purpose of this study is to offer short-term suggestions for partnership and long-term recommendations for better understanding.

An original qualitative study using semi-structured with CAM practitioners and biomedical practitioners.

Areas of conflict that are preventing synergy are identified and a pathway for health-care leaders to follow to create greater integration and partnerships is suggested.

This is a qualitative and exploratory study that has significant limitations on generalizability.

This study suggest steps that both types of health-care practitioners can take to increase their success at working together on an individual level, a group level, an organizational level and on an industry-wide basis, as well as provide a specific pathway to create greater integrative practice for health-care leaders.

The results indicate that stronger partnerships between different types of medical practitioners increase patient choice, patient satisfaction and outcomes.

Increasing interested in CAM modalities is driving more contact between CAM practitioners and biomedical practitioners. This contact is best established in partnership between practitioners rather than in parallel. This original research outlines the sources of conflict and provides recommendations for encouraging greater synergy.

During recent years, web technologies and mass media have become prevalent in the context of medicine and health. Two examples of important web technologies used in health are news media and patient forums. Both have a significant role in shaping patients' perspective and behaviour in relation to health and illness, as well as the way that they might choose or change their treatment. In this paper, the authors investigated the application of web technologies using the data analysis approach. The authors did this analysis from the point of view of topics being discussed and disseminated via patients and journalists in breast and lung cancer. The study also investigated the (dis)alignment amongst these two groups and scientists in terms of topics.

Three data sets comprised documents published between 2014 and 2018 obtained from ProQuest and Web of Science Medline databases, alongside data from three major patient forums on breast and lung cancer. The analysis and visualisation in this paper have been done using the udpipe, igraph R packages and VOSviewer.

The study’s findings showed that in general scientists focussed more on prognosis and treatment of cancer, whereas patients and journalists focussed more on detection, prevention and role of social and emotional support. The only exception was for news coverage of lung cancer where the largest cluster was related to treatment, research in cancer treatment and therapies. However, when comparing coverage by scientists and journalists in terms of treatment, the focus of news articles in both cancer types was mainly on chemotherapy and complimentary therapies. Finally, topics such as lifestyle or pain management were only discussed by breast cancer patients.

The results obtained from this study may provide valuable insights into topics of interest for each group of scientists, journalist and patients as well as (dis)alignment among them in terms of topics. These findings are important as scientific research is heavily dependent on communication, and research does not exist in a bubble. Scientists and journalists can gain insights from patients' experiences and needs, which in turn may help them to have a more holistic and realistic view.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-06-2020-0228