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Health is one of the most basic human rights. Self-medication not only results in many risks, complications and mortalities but also remains a massive economic burden on governments’ pharmaceutical budgets, insurance companies and the general population. The importance of self-medication as one of the worldwide health problems, this paper aims to investigate the extent of this problem and related factors in Sanandaj, Iran in 2018.

This cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted on 838 people who referred to pharmacies in Sanandaj, Iran in 2018. The subjects were selected in 10 pharmacies, 84 in each, randomly. A self-constructed questionnaire was used to collect information about demographic features, prevalence and reasons for self-medication. The data was analyzed statistically by SPSS software.

The results show a high prevalence of self-medication, 73.70 per cent among people who referred to the pharmacies in Sanandaj during 2018. There was a significant correlation between self-medication and occupation, education level, age groups, chronic disease, smoking or reasons to refer to pharmacies (p < 0.05). Analgesics, antibiotics; non-steroid anti-inflammatory, cold and gastrointestinal medicines were the most commonly used medicines by the subjects. People with headache, cold, infection, stomach pain, toothache and dysmenorrhea were more likely to act self-medication than people with other complaints. Among people who do self-medication, (85.60 per cent) had already experienced satisfactory results after using medicines. Mild symptoms of the disease (74.11 per cent), availability of medicines (72.98 per cent) and easy access to medicine supplies in pharmacies (71.35 per cent) are other reasons for self-medication.

In general, the study had some limitations. One of the limitations was related to the research period i.e. spring and summer. So, it is suggested to conduct studies in other seasons, too. Furthermore, as the time of self-medication was the past three months, there was a probability of recall bias.

The prevalence of self-medication in Sanandaj is high and alarming, implementing educational programs about this issue is extremely required. Health policymakers should take all necessary steps to tackle self-medication efficiently.

This paper aims to optimally plan distributed generation (DG) and capacitor in distribution network by optimizing multiple conflicting operational objectives simultaneously so as to achieve enhanced operation of distribution system. The multi-objective optimization problem comprises three important objective functions such as minimization of total active power loss (P^loss_total), reduction of voltage deviation and balancing of current through feeder sections.

In this study, a hybrid configuration of weight improved particle swarm optimization (WIPSO) and gravitational search algorithm (GSA) called hybrid WIPSO-GSA algorithm is proposed in multi-objective problem domain. To solve multi-objective optimization problem, the proposed hybrid WIPSO-GSA algorithm is integrated with two components. The first component is fixed-sized archive that is responsible for storing a set of non-dominated pareto optimal solutions and the second component is a leader selection strategy that helps to update and identify the best compromised solution from the archive.

The proposed methodology is tested on standard 33-bus and Indian 85-bus distribution systems. The results attained using proposed multi-objective hybrid WIPSO-GSA algorithm provides potential technical and economic benefits and its best compromised solution outperforms other commonly used multi-objective techniques, thereby making it highly suitable for solving multi-objective problems.

A novel multi-objective hybrid WIPSO-GSA algorithm is proposed for optimal DG and capacitor planning in radial distribution network. The results demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed technique in improved distribution system planning and operation and also in achieving better optimized results than other existing multi-objective optimization techniques.

Financial flexibility, investment efficiency and effective corporate governance mechanisms have been issues of concern to stakeholders. Yet, little empirical evidence on the combined moderating effects investment efficiency and corporate governance mechanisms on the nexus between financial flexibility and firm performance. This study aims to address this gap and extend the extant literature by examining the moderating effects of corporate governance and investment efficiency on the nexus between financial flexibility and financial performance.

The empirical study is based on progression analysis using a sample of 13,865 US listed companies selected from BoardEx (WRDS) for the period (2010–2022) with 89,198 firm-year observations.

Findings of this study indicate that financial flexibility improves firm value as well as accounting performance. Furthermore, the results reveal that both investment efficiency and corporate governance moderate the effect of financial flexibility on firm performance. The authors complement and extend the literature on the optimal investment strategies domain by showing that the combined impact of corporate governance mechanisms and investment efficiency strengthens the nexus between financial flexibility and firm performance.

Key limitations of this study due to the characteristics of the sample selection: country-specific context and proxies used by this study.

Findings of this study have managerial and theoretical implications for firms’ boardrooms, institutional and individual investors, regulators, academics and other stakeholders regarding behavioural aspects of investment decision-making.

The authors’ novel contribution to the extant literature is articulated by the conceptual framework underlying this study and by the new evidence regarding exploring the combined effect of corporate governance mechanisms on nexus between financial flexibility and companies’ performance.

This study aims to analyze a conspicuous corpus of literature related to the field of technology-based intensive care research and to develop an architecture model of the future smart intensive care unit (ICU).

Papers related to the topics of electronic health record (EHR), big data, data flow and clinical decision support in ICUs were investigated. These concepts have been analyzed in combination with secondary use of data, prediction models, data standardization and interoperability challenges. Based on the findings, an architecture model evaluated using MIMIC III is proposed.

Research identified issues regarding implementation of systems, data sources, interoperability, management of big data and free text produced in ICUs and lack of accuracy of prediction models. ICU should be treated as part of a greater system, able to intercommunicate with other entities.

The research examines the current needs of ICUs in interoperability and data management. As environment changes dynamically, continuous assessment and evaluation of the model with other ICU databases is required.

The proposed model improves ICUs interoperability in national health system, ICU staff intercommunication, remote access and decision support. Its modular approach ensures that ICUs can have their own particularities and specialisms while ICU functions provide ongoing expertise and training to upgrade its staff.

This paper delineates a literature review on fire-induced progressive collapse on structures and the effect of high temperature on structures and elements. After the occurrences of fire in the World Trade Center in the USA, the researchers started concentrating on the progressive collapse that happens due to high temperature. Currently, most of the researchers are working on fire-induced progressive collapse on structures using high-temperature behavior on materials which are used for construction. The researchers have been doing an intensive study to find a better strategy to prevent the building from structural fire damage or collapse with available codes and guidelines throughout the world. This paper aims to provide a better understanding and analytical solutions on the basis of the recent works done by researchers in fire-induced progressive collapse and methods adopted to find the collapse mechanism.

This paper is written by studying different literature papers of 109 related to progressive collapse on structures and fire-induced progressive collapse.

The behavior of structures due to high temperature and collapse conditions due to fire in different scenarios is identified.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how the structure can withstand high-temperature conditions in our day-to-day lives.

This paper aims to improve the performance and speed of artificial neural network (ANN)‐ball‐bearing fault detection expert systems by eliminating unimportant inputs and changing the ANN structure.

An algorithm is used to select the best subset of features to boost the success of detecting healthy and faulty ball. Some of the important parameters of the ANN are also optimized to make the classifier achieve the maximum performance.

It was found that better accuracy can be obtained for ANN with fewer inputs.

The method can be used for other machinery condition‐monitoring systems which are based on ANN.

The results are useful for bearing fault detection systems designers and quality check centers in bearing manufacturing companies.

The algorithm used in this research is faster than in previous studies. Changing ANN parameters improved the results. The system was examined using experimental data of ball‐bearings.

The distributed generation (DG) proper placement is an extremely rebellious concern for attaining their extreme potential profits. This paper aims to propose the application of the communal spider optimization algorithm (CSOA) to the performance model of the wind turbine unit (WTU) and photovoltaic (PV) array locating method. It also involves the power loss reduction and voltage stability improvement of the ring main distribution system (DS).

This paper replicates the efficiency of WTU and PV array enactment models in the placement of DG. The effectiveness of the voltage stability factor considered in computing the voltage stability levels of buses in the DS is studied.

The voltage stability levels are augmented, and total losses are diminished for the taken bus system. The accomplished outcomes exposed the number of PV arrays accompanied by the optimal bus location for various penetration situations.

The optimal placement and sizing of wind- and solar-based DGs are tested on the 15- and 69-test bus system.

Moreover, the projected CSOA algorithm outperforms the PSOA, IAPSOA, BBO, ACO and BSO optimization techniques.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of postbiotics and the use of postbiotics to increase the shelf life and quality of food.

In this review paper, all articles from five electronic databases containing Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus and Science Direct were considered and selected according to the purpose of the study.

In addition to improving food safety and increasing its shelf life, natural food preservation using biological preservatives also has a positive effect on improving consumer health. As a result, protection using natural antioxidants and antimicrobial agents seems essential. Postbiotics, having favorable characteristics such as nontoxicity, long shelf life and ease of standardization and transportation, are known as suitable antioxidant and antimicrobial, and there is an interest in making antioxidant and antimicrobial active films containing postbiotics to delay spoilage, increase the shelf life of perishable foods without changing their sensory characteristics.

Postbiotic refers to all soluble factors that are either secreted from living probiotic cells or released after cell lysis. These compounds include enzymes, peptides, polysaccharides, organic acids, teichoic acids and cell surface proteins, and their effects have been proven to improve some human and animal diseases. Probiotic bacteria must survive unfavorable conditions such as processing, storage, distribution, preparation and the digestive system to exert their health-giving effects, whereas their metabolites (postbiotics) have overcome these adverse conditions well and may be a good substitute for probiotics.

Development of thin film sensors with pH function for noninvasive real-time monitoring of spoilage of packed seafood such as fish, crab and shrimp are described in this study. It is also the purpose of this study to enhance the leaching resistance of the sensors by using a suitable strategy and to quantitatively correlate the sensor’s halochromism with the total volatile amine.

To prepare halochromic sensors with better leaching resistance, biocompatible materials such as starch, agar, polyvinyl alcohol and cellulose acetate along with a halochromic dye were used to prepare the thin film sensors. These thin films were evaluated for monitoring the spoilage of packed seafood at room temperature, 4°C and −2°C up to 30 days. The halochromic sensors were characterized using UV-visible and FT-IR spectroscopy.

CIELab analyses of the halochromism of the thin film sensors revealed that the color changes exhibited by the sensors in response to the spoilage of seafood are visually distinguishable. Further, the halochromic response of the thin films was directly proportional to the amount of total volatile base nitrogen that evolved from the packed seafood. Excellent leaching resistance was observed for the developed thin film sensors. The halochromic property of the sensors is reversible and thus the sensors are recyclable. Besides, the thin film sensors exhibited significant biodegradability.

This study provides insights for use of different biocompatible polymers for obtaining enhanced leaching resistance in halochromic sensors. Further, the color changes exhibited by the sensors are in line with the total volatile amines evolved from the packed seafood. These results highlight the importance of the developed halochromic thin film sensors for real-time monitoring of the spoilage of packed seafood.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate antimicrobial activity of chitosan incorporated with lemon and oregano essential oils on broiler breast meat during refrigerated storage.

In this experimental study, antibacterial effect of lemon and oregano essential oils was measured using the microdilution method for four foodborne pathogenic bacteria. The effect of 0.5, 1 and 2 per cent (Wt./Vol.) essential oils with chitosan 2 per cent on microbial quality of broiler breast meat (slaughter age: 42 days), up to 9 days’ storage time in 4 ± 1°C temperature was evaluated. Also, organoleptic characteristics of meat samples in certain storage time were examined.

The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) for lemon and oregano essential oils ranged between 1.41 and 11.25 and 2.81 and 22.5 mg/mL, respectively. In the treatment groups, A decrease in total mesophilic bacterial count (TMBC) was observed up to sixth day, but TMBC increased on the ninth day. Decrease in lactic acid bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae, mold and yeast in the treatment groups was observed compared with the control group up to the ninth day (p < 0.01). Overall, chicken meat containing 1 per cent lemon essential oil with chitosan had a greater acceptance rate (p < 0.01).

In recent years, active packaging containing essential oils have been used to maintain the quality and increase the shelf life of various types of meat, chicken, fish, shrimp, fruits, etc. Therefore, it can be suggested that using chitosan in combination with the aforementioned essential oils in combination might increase shelf life of chicken meat during refrigerated storage.