scholarly journals iMONDRIAN: A Visual Tool to Annotate and Query Scientific Databases

Author(s):  
Floris Geerts ◽  
Anastasios Kementsietsidis ◽  
Diego Milano

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Calapai ◽  
Epifanio Mondello ◽  
Carmen Mannucci ◽  
Emanuela Elisa Sorbara ◽  
Sebastiano Gangemi ◽  
...  

Background: Pain is a common symptom in oncologic patients and its management is generally guided by pain individually perceived by patients and expressed through self-reported scales. However, the utility of these tools is limited because strongly dependent on patients’ opinions. For this reason, more objective instruments are desirable. Objective: In this overview scientific articles indicating potential markers to be used for pain management in cancer were collected and discussed. Methods: research was performed on principal electronic scientific databases by using the words “pain”, “cancer”, “markers” as “biomarkers” as the main keywords, and findings describing potential biomarkers for the management of cancer pain were reported. Results: Studies on pain markers not specific for cancer typology (inflammatory, genetic, markers predicting response to analgesic drugs, neuroimaging markers) and pain markers for specific types of cancer (bone cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, head and neck cancer, prostate cancer, cancer in pediatrics) are presented and commented. Conclusion: This overview supports the view of the involvement of inflammatory mediators in the mechanisms underlying cancer pain. Up today only a few data from research on markers can help in the management of pain, except for pro-inflammatory cytokines and other inflammatory indexes such as C-reactive protein (CRP). However, biomarkers are a promising strategy useful to predict pain intensity and to purchase objective quantification of analgesic response in guiding decisions on individual-tailored treatments in cancer patients.



Author(s):  
Antica Barua ◽  
Muhammad Shaiful Alam ◽  
Md. Junaid ◽  
Yeasmin Akter ◽  
Syeda Samira Afrose ◽  
...  

Background: Enhydra fluctuans Lour, a tropical herb, commonly known as helencha or harkuch, belonging to family Asteraceae, and is an edible semi-aquatic herbaceous vegetable plant with serrate leaves, grows commonly in different parts of the world. Enhydra fluctuans possesses potential pharmacological role against inflammation, cancer, diarrhea, microbial infection, diabetes, and so on. Aim of the review: This review aims to provide the most current information on the botanical characterization, distribution, traditional uses, chemical constituents, as well as the pharmacological activities of Enhydra fluctuans Lour. Materials and methods: The recently updated information on Enhydra fluctuans was gathered from scientific journals, books, and worldwide accepted scientific databases via a library and electronic search (PubMed, Elsevier, Google Scholar, Springer, Scopus, Web of Science, Wiley online library. All of the full-text articles and abstracts related to Enhydra were screened. The most important and relevant articles were carefully chosen for study in this review. Results: Crude extracts and isolated compounds of Enhydra fluctuans Lour has been reported pharmacologically active against cytoprotective, analgesic and anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anticancer, anti-diarrhoeal, antihelmintic, CNS depressant, hepatoprotective, thrombolytic, antidiabetic, anti-oxidant, phagocytic and cytotoxic, and neuroprotective potential activities. Discussion: Phytochemical analysis from different studies has reported Germacranolide, Sesquiterpene lactone, Flavonoid, Essential oil, Steroid, Diterpenoid, Melampolide, Sesquiterpene lactone, Isoflavone glycoside as major compounds of Enhydra fluctuans Lour. Conclusions: However, more research is important to explore the mode of action of bioactive components of the plant and its therapeutic capabilities.



2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 496-517
Author(s):  
Yangcheng Liu ◽  
Wei Liu ◽  
Jiaqi Wang ◽  
Yang Liu ◽  
Changlan Chen ◽  
...  

Patrinia scabiosaefolia Fisch. Trev. and Patrinia villosa (Thunb.) Juss, are two species of Patrinia recorded in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia with the same Chinese name “Baijiangcao” and similar therapeutic effect in traditional Chinese medicine. The present article is the first comprehensive review on the chemical composition and pharmacological activities of these herbs. In this review, data on chemical constituents and pharmacological profile of the two herbs are provided. This review discusses all the classes of the 223 compounds (phenylpropanoids, flavonoids, terpenes, saponins and volatile components, etc.) detected in the two herbs providing information on the current state of knowledge of the phytochemicals present in them. In the past three years, our research group has isolated and identified about more than 100 ingredients from the two herbs. Therefore, we published a systematic review of our research papers and studies on the two herbs were carried out using resources such as classic books about Chinese herbal medicine and scientific databases including Pubmed, Web of Science, SciFinder, CNKI. etc. The present review discusses the most thoroughly studied pharmacological activities (antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antimicrobial, antitumor and antiviral activities) of the two herbs. This comprehensive review will be informative for scientists searching for new properties of these herbs and will be important and significant for the discovery of bioactive compounds from the two herbs and in complete utilization of Patrinia scabiosaefolia Fisch. ex Trev. and Patrinia villosa (Thunb.) Juss.



2020 ◽  
Vol 06 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ravindra Verma ◽  
Vaibhav Misra ◽  
Dileep Tiwari ◽  
Prakash S. Bisen

Introduction: Many environmental risk factors are associated with some form of chronic inflammation. The spread of COVID-19 across the world has impacted every one of us. The first case of coronavirus was reported on 30 January 2020 in India originating from China. Study Area: India has a tremendous capacity to deal with the coronavirus outbreak because of its high immunity and climatic conditions. Maintaining social distancing and hand washing is not a sufficient step for preventing COVID-19. Indian system of traditional medicine has a potential worth to enhance immunity, which can resist a novel coronavirus. Material & Methods: A detailed study was carried out by analyzing national and international scientific databases (PubMed, SciFinder, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science, Mendeley), thesis, and recognized books. Only Indian herbs with high immunity resistant power were analyzed. Epidemiologic studies with information on COVID-19 risk factors and precautions also considered for study purposes. Results: Some herbs like Ocimum tenuiflorum (Tulsi), Glycyrrhiza glabra (Liquorice), Curcuma domestica Vahl (Turmeric), Tinospora cordifolia (Giloy), Withania somnifera (Ashwagandha), Cinnamon (Dalchini), Shoot of Triticumaestivum Linn. (Wheatgrass), Andrographis paniculata (Kalmegh), can help in boosting immunity for COVID-19 disease. Discussion: Despite the shreds of evidence for the efficacy of these herbs in treating coronavirus induced infections; the proper dose with ideal timing for such interventions needs to verify in clinical trials. Researchers must have to take the privilege to explore the potential of herbs to reduce such epidemics of environmental threats.



Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 656
Author(s):  
Vladimir Bulatnikov ◽  
Cristinel Petrişor Constantin

This paper aims at finding the most dominant ideas about the marketing of healthcare systems highlighted in the mainstream literature, with a focus on Russia and Romania. To reach this goal, a systematic analysis of literature was conducted and various competitive advantages and disadvantages of the medical models that require special attention from the governments are considered. In this respect we examined 106 papers published during 2006 to 2020 found on four scientific databases. They were selected using inclusion and exclusion criteria according to PRISMA methodology. The main findings of the research consist of the opportunity to use marketing tools in order to improve the quality of healthcare systems in the named countries. Thus, using market orientation, the managers of healthcare systems could stimulate the innovation, the efficiency of funds allocation and the quality of medical services. The results will lead to a better quality of population life and to an increasing of life expectancy. As this paper reviews some articles from Russian literature, it can add a new perspective to the topic. These outcomes have implications for government, business environment, and academia, which should cooperate in order to develop the healthcare system using marketing strategies.





Data ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Helder F. Castro ◽  
Jaime S. Cardoso ◽  
Maria T. Andrade

The ever-growing capabilities of computers have enabled pursuing Computer Vision through Machine Learning (i.e., MLCV). ML tools require large amounts of information to learn from (ML datasets). These are costly to produce but have received reduced attention regarding standardization. This prevents the cooperative production and exploitation of these resources, impedes countless synergies, and hinders ML research. No global view exists of the MLCV dataset tissue. Acquiring it is fundamental to enable standardization. We provide an extensive survey of the evolution and current state of MLCV datasets (1994 to 2019) for a set of specific CV areas as well as a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the results. Data were gathered from online scientific databases (e.g., Google Scholar, CiteSeerX). We reveal the heterogeneous plethora that comprises the MLCV dataset tissue; their continuous growth in volume and complexity; the specificities of the evolution of their media and metadata components regarding a range of aspects; and that MLCV progress requires the construction of a global standardized (structuring, manipulating, and sharing) MLCV “library”. Accordingly, we formulate a novel interpretation of this dataset collective as a global tissue of synthetic cognitive visual memories and define the immediately necessary steps to advance its standardization and integration.



Author(s):  
Federico Ricci ◽  
Giulia Bravo ◽  
Alberto Modenese ◽  
Fabrizio De Pasquale ◽  
Davide Ferrari ◽  
...  

We developed a visual tool to assess risk perception for a sample of male construction workers (forty Italian and twenty-eight immigrant workers), just before and after a sixteen-hour training course. The questionnaire included photographs of real construction sites, and workers were instructed to select pictograms representing the occupational risks present in each photograph. Points were awarded for correctly identifying any risks that were present, and points were deducted for failing to identify risks that were present or identifying risks that were not present. We found: (1) Before the course, risk perception was significantly lower in immigrants compared to Italians ( p < .001); (2) risk perception improved significantly ( p < .001) among all workers tested; and (3) after the training, the difference in risk perception between Italians and immigrants was no longer statistically significant ( p = .1086). Although the sample size was relatively small, the results suggest that the training is effective and may reduce the degree to which cultural and linguistic barriers hinder risk perception. Moreover, the use of images and pictograms instead of words to evaluate risk perception could also be applied to nonconstruction workplaces.



Author(s):  
Hamidreza Ardalani ◽  
Fatemeh Hejazi Amiri ◽  
Amin Hadipanah ◽  
Kenneth T. Kongstad

Abstract Background Medicinal plants are used to treat various disorders, including diabetes, globally in a range of formulations. While attention has mainly been on the aerial plant parts, there are only a few review studies to date that are focused on the natural constituents present in the plant roots with health benefits. Thus, the present study was performed to review in vivo studies investigating the antidiabetic potential of the natural compounds in plant roots. Methods We sorted relevant data in 2001–2019 from scientific databases and search engines, including Web of Knowledge, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Medline, Reaxys, and Google Scholar. The class of phytochemicals, plant families, major compounds, active constituents, effective dosages, type of extracts, time of experiments, and type of diabetic induction were described. Results In our literature review, we found 104 plants with determined antidiabetic activity in their root extracts. The biosynthesis pathways and mechanism of actions of the most frequent class of compounds were also proposed. The results of this review indicated that flavonoids, phenolic compounds, alkaloids, and phytosteroids are the most abundant natural compounds in plant roots with antidiabetic activity. Phytochemicals in plant roots possess different mechanisms of action to control diabetes, including inhibition of α-amylase and α-glucosidase enzymes, oxidative stress reduction, secretion of insulin, improvement of diabetic retinopathy/nephropathy, slow the starch digestion, and contribution against hyperglycemia. Conclusion This review concludes that plant roots are a promising source of bioactive compounds which can be explored to develop against diabetes and diabetes-related complications. Graphical abstract



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