Healthy lifestyle habits spanning from preconception to postpartum are considered as a major safeguard for achieving successful pregnancies and for the prevention of gestational diseases. Among preconception priorities established by the World Health Organization (WHO) are healthy diet and nutrition, weight management, physical activity, planned pregnancy and physical, mental and psychosocial health. Most studies covering the topic of healthy pregnancies focus on maternal diet because obesity increases the risks for adverse perinatal outcomes, including gestational diabetes mellitus, large for gestational age newborns, or preeclampsia. Thus, foods rich in vegetables, essential and polyunsaturated fats and fibre-rich carbohydrates should be promoted especially in overweight, obese or diabetic women. An adequate intake of micronutrients (e.g. iron, calcium, folate, vitamin D and carotenoids) is also crucial to support pregnancy and breastfeeding. Moderate physical activity throughout pregnancy improves muscle tone and function, besides decreasing the risk of preeclampsia, gestational diabesity (i.e. diabetes associated with obesity) and postpartum overweight. Intervention studies claim that an average of 30 min of exercise/day contributes to long-term benefits for maternal overall health and wellbeing. Other factors such as microbiome modulation, behavioural strategies (e.g. smoking cessation, anxiety/stress reduction and sleep quality), maternal genetics and age, social class and education might also influence the maternal quality of life. These factors contribute to ensure a healthy pregnancy, or at least to reduce the risk of adverse maternal and foetal outcomes during pregnancy and later in life. Learn more:https://bit.ly/3pUJ6Xb
The incidence of obesity is rising rapidly worldwide with the consequence that more women are entering pregnancy overweight or obese. This leads to an increased incidence of clinical complications during pregnancy and of poor obstetric outcomes. The offspring of obese pregnancies are often macrosomic at birth although there is also a subset of the progeny that are growth-restricted at term. Maternal obesity during pregnancy is also associated with cardiovascular, metabolic and endocrine dysfunction in the offspring later in life. As the interface between the mother and fetus, the placenta has a central role in programming intrauterine development and is known to adapt its phenotype in response to environmental conditions such as maternal undernutrition and hypoxia. However, less is known about placental function in the abnormal metabolic and endocrine environment associated with maternal obesity during pregnancy. This review discusses the placental consequences of maternal obesity induced either naturally or experimentally by increasing maternal nutritional intake and/or changing the dietary composition. It takes a comparative, multi-species approach and focusses on placental size, morphology, nutrient transport, metabolism and endocrine function during the later stages of obese pregnancy. It also examines the interventions that have been made during pregnancy in an attempt to alleviate the more adverse impacts of maternal obesity on placental phenotype. The review highlights the potential role of adaptations in placental phenotype as a contributory factor to the pregnancy complications and changes in fetal growth and development that are associated with maternal obesity. Learn more:https://bit.ly/3pQq2tc
A multidisciplinary research team at Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine has analyzed the prescription pattern of Chinese herbs in the treatment of COVID-19.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been proven effective in the treatment of the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). According to official Chinese news reports, many Chinese patients with COVID-19 benefit from TCM. The key characteristics of Chinese medicine are syndrome differentiation. The courses of COVID-19 can be divided into the early stage, middle stage, severe stage, and recovery stage in TCM theory. The Chinese herbs recommended for these four stages in different TCM syndromes were found in this work.
“In the early stage of COVID-19, most patients have symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat and chills,” said Dr. Liwei Yin, first author of the study and a physician of The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine. “This is the manifestation of heat, cold or dampness in the lungs.” Kuxingren(Semen Armeniacae Amarum), Baidoukou(Amomum kravanh) and Houpo(Magnolia Officinalis Cortex) are the top 3 Chinese herbs used in this stage.
While in the middle stage, most patients have TCM syndrome of plague poison obstructing the lungs. Kuxingren (Semen Armeniacae Amarum), Shigao(Gypsum Fibrosum) and Tinglizi(Descurainiae Semen) are the highest-frequency Chinese herbs used in this stage.
In the severe stage, the most common presenting symptoms were dyspnea and coma. Mechanical ventilator and ECMO are often needed. Renshen(Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma), Fuzi(Aconiti Lateralis Radix Praeparata) and Shanyurou(Fructus Corni) are the top 3 Chinese herbs used in this stage. “Fuzi has the effect of decreasing heart failure, but it also has neurotoxicity and cardiac toxicity,” said Dr Ziping Li, principal author for correspondence of this study and a professor of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. “The combination of Gancao and Ganjiang can regulate the efficacy and toxicity of Fuzi.”
In the recovery stage, patients often have TCM syndromes of Lung-spleen qi deficiency and Qi-yin deficiency. Fuling(Poria), Fabanxia(Pinelliae Rhizoma) and Chenpi(Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium) are the highest-frequency Chinese herbs used in this stage.
“Combination of Chinese herbs can enhance their efficacy and regulate their side effect,” Liwei Yin said. “This work also found the high-frequency herb pairs and potential herbal combinations.”
Hopefully this study provides new ideas for the treatment of COVID-19 and helps to understand the prescription pattern of Chinese medicine. Read Now: https://bit.ly/3jqnC0r
The paper, “Analysis of Chinese herbal formulae recommended for COVID-19 in different schemes in China: A data mining Approach,” is published in the Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening. The paper was co-authored by Ziping Li of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine. This study is financially supported by “Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Combination School in Southern China research room” (No. E43612), Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, China.
Foods for Special Dietary Regimensis an overview of alimentation for people with specific medical conditions. Each of the nine featured chapters describes a recommended diet with special reference to the lifestyle or disease conditions in a specific patient group. The book covers a diverse range of patient groups that have special nutritional requirements including the elderly, athletes, vegetarians, diabetics and phenylketonurics to name a few. Diets for individuals affected by specific diseases such as celiac disease, autism, dyslipidemia, and COVID-19 are also recommended. Readers will gain a broad perspective about special dietary regimens, including information about what works and what does not for different patient groups, and potential avenues of research in this area.
Key Features:
– 9 chapters organized into a simple reader-friendly format
– guidelines for patient groups on lifestyle
– information for patient groups based on different clinically relevant diseases (including COVID-19)
– information about general concepts and clinical research
– references for further reading
Foods for Special Dietary Regimensis a suitable textbook for diploma and training programs in clinical nutrition, diet therapy and allied health services. It also serves as an informative reference for general readers who want to know more about special diets tailored for specific persons.
Bentham Science has entered into a collaboration with Spanish Society of Pharmacology (SEF) for our High Impact journals including Current Neuropharmacology (JCR IF: 7.36), Current Medicinal Chemistry (JCR IF: 4.53), Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry (JCR IF: 3.295), and Current Pharmaceutical Design (JCR IF: 3.116). This collaboration facilitates members of the society to publish their research in Bentham journals with significant concessions.
The SEF was founded in 1972 to bring together all Spanish pharmacologists, in order to facilitate organizing scientific meetings (an annual meeting at the national level) with the aim of promoting scientific and social exchange among Spanish pharmacologists as well as joint meetings with other Pharmacology Societies within the framework of the International Pharmacology Association and the European Pharmacology Association (IUPHAR and EPHAR). The Society represents researchers in national and international organizations, helps networking at scientific and technical meetings, awards scholarships and prizes to stimulate pharmacological research in Spain. In addition, it manages the operation of different working committees reviewing specific issues in pharmacology and allied research.
Bentham Science Publishers is a major international science, technology, and medical publisher, providing academic researchers and industrial professionals with the latest information in diverse fields of science and technology. Our peer-reviewed scholarly journals and books have an ever-increasing readership of millions of researchers worldwide.
Bentham Science currently publishes more than 130 journals in both electronic and printed formats. Our journals cover various disciplines in pharmaceutical research and development, medical subspecialties, engineering, technology, and social sciences. The journals are indexed in recognized indexing agencies and Information on our journals’ indexation, by various indexing agencies, can be viewed at https://benthamscience.com/index.php.
Editor(s): Tahmeena Khan , Abdul Rahman Khan , Saman Raza , Iqbal Azad and Alfred J. Lawrence
Environmental pollution leads to non-communicable diseases which are a result of chronic exposure to toxic pollutants and environmental chemicals. Climate change, global warming, exposure to allergens, radiation, pathogens etc. merely add to the burden. Increased urbanization and industrialization as well as lifestyle changes cause exposure to hazardous pollutants. Today, diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, cancers of the lungs and skin, allergies etc. that have become a severe health risk for humans worldwide, can all be attributed to environmental pollution. Therefore, it has become utmost necessary to restore the environmental balance and also provide remedial measures for associated diseases with the help of latest drug discovery and therapeutic techniques. The first book of the two had introduced and explored the close association and interdependence of medicinal chemistry and environmental chemistry. The present book Medicinal and Environmental Chemistry: Experimental Advances andSimulations further explores the association between these two focal areas, with an aim to provide solutions and curative strategies for the well-being of humans and the environment as a whole. The first chapter of the book is dedicated to air pollution, its causes and health hazards along with general preventive measures. The biochemical aspect of Cytochrome P450 and its association with mitigation strategy upon the exposure of smog on the human body has been explored in the second chapter. The third chapter of the book elaborates the utility of computational modelling for drug discovery and disease progression with respect to COPD. The next two chapters of the book explore water pollution, heavy metal toxicity and remedial measures through chelation therapy and polymeric ceramic composite membrane technology. Experimental techniques like the use of quantification methods for pharmaceuticals and persistent organic pollutants, chemosensors have been dealt with in the following chapters. Nanotechnology is an important field to explore for environment friendly drug discovery and the concept has been explored for the synthesis and use of gold and silver nanoparticles from plant-based sources. Likewise use of bio-isosteric groups in chemical synthesis for effective and improved environmental health has been elaborated in one of the chapters. Antibiotic pollution, its causes and remediation like adjuvant therapy has been explored in the other. An interesting chapter also explains ligand identification for effective drug development through virtual screening, taking the example of COVID-19.
The eleven chapters included in the second part of this book set cover diverse topics, blending the fields of environmental chemistry and medicinal chemistry and have been authored by experts, scientists and academicians from renowned institutions. This part is more specialized in nature, focusing primarily on the effects of air pollution and water contamination on human health. Chapters covering pharmaceutical interventions and pollution control measures, respectively follow these initial topics.
Part II also features specialized topics that aim to address some unique challenges of the above mentioned problems including antibiotic pollution, pharmaceutical analysis of pollutants, chemosensors, biosteric modifications and new drug development strategies against SARS-CoV2.
This reference is an essential source of information for readers and scholars involved in environmental chemistry, pollution management and pharmaceutical chemistry courses at graduate and undergraduate levels. Professionals and students involved in occupational medicine will also benefit from the wide range of topics covered.
Editor:Tahmeena Khan, Abdul Rahman Khan, Saman Raza, Iqbal Azad and Alfred J. Lawrence
This reference is an essential source of information for readers and scholars involved in environmental chemistry, pollution management and pharmaceutical chemistry courses at graduate and undergraduate levels. Professionals and students involved in occupational medicine will also benefit from the wide range of topics covered.
With the rise in environmental pollution and degradation, the ecological balance has been disturbed leading to new diseases and an increase in mortality. The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, being the most recent instance, has caused a great loss of human lives all over the world. To date, no concrete medicinal solution has been formulated to tackle the menace caused by the deadly virus which calls for the exploration of novel remediation strategies which are cost and time effective. There are several factors including climate change, which may facilitate the spread of the virus. Global warming is creating an opportunity for pathogens to get into new hosts. Climate change has deadly consequences including the increased risk of pandemic. Pieces of evidence are also showing that the people who are exposed to poor air quality are more likely to suffer. Therefore it is utmost necessary to understand the environmental chemistry and its role in disease spread to come up with accurate and customized medicinal solutions. This book is intended to introduce the concept of environmental and medicinal chemistry to the readers and the interdependence between the two streams through specialized and dedicated chapters. By exploring the association between these two focal areas, the book aims to provide solutions and curative strategies for the well-being of humans and the environment as a whole. The ten chapters included in this book are focused on diverse topics trying to blend the fields of environmental chemistry and medicinal chemistry and have been authored by renowned scientists and academicians from premier research and academic institutions. The book opens with the first two chapters which introduces medicinal and environmental chemistry and the various opportunities and challenges the two fields offer. The following two chapters are dedicated to persistent organic pollutants and xenoestrogens and the toxicity caused by them along with remedial solutions. Two of the chapters are focused on heavy metal toxicity in diet and plastics and the potent risks associated with it. The last few chapters are dedicated to effective drug designing principles and natural compounds with therapeutic potential. The medicinal perspective is explored for remediation of environmental hazards, ranging from the therapeutic strategies available to the design of new and safer drugs, through experimental and simulation approaches. To further elaborate the importance of safe chemical practice, the concept of green chemistry has also been introduced along with some environment-friendly solvents and drugs to address ecotoxicity. Few chapters have also been dedicated to computational drug designing and in-silico predictions to make futuristic and accurate predictions to assist efficient drug discovery. The book will prove beneficial for academicians, students of environmental chemistry, pharmacy, researchers, scientists, computational chemists, pharmacologists, environmentalists, policymakers and postgraduate students. It would also provide researchers and medicinal chemists, information about the latest research done and the modern techniques used to develop more effective and safer drugs that would not be harmful to the environment. In this way, the proposed book would be highly beneficial to the audience it hopes to cater to.
The ten chapters included the contributions from more than 30 experts, in the first part of this book set cover diverse topics, blending the fields of environmental chemistry and medicinal chemistry and have been authored by experts, scientists and academicians from renowned institutions.
Specialized chapters have been included in the book about persistent organic pollutants, heavy metal and plastic pollutants, the effect of environmental xenoesterogens on human health and the potential of natural curing agents to combat ecotoxicity.
This reference is an essential source of information for readers and scholars involved in environmental chemistry, pollution management and pharmaceutical chemistry courses at graduate and undergraduate levels. Professionals and students involved in occupational medicine will also benefit from the wide range of topics covered.
Audience:
Scholars involved in environmental chemistry, pollution management and pharmaceutical chemistry courses at graduate and undergraduate levels; readers interested in occupational medicine, environmental health and environmental toxicology.
About the Editor:
Dr. Tahmeena Khan is currently working as an Assistant Professor, in the Department of Chemistry, Integral University. A gold medalist in her master’s course, she holds a specialization in Inorganic Chemistry. She specialized in Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Magnetic Resonance Imaging for her M.Phil. and worked on automated 3D structure determination of proteins for dissertation. For her doctoral degree, she worked on mixed ligand-metal and mixed metal-ligand complexes of thiosemicarbazones and their therapeutic properties. She holds thirteen years of teaching experience and has supervised several dissertations of M.Sc. students. She has a number of research papers and chapters to her credit, and has edited conference proceedings. She is also a life member of several academic bodies. Her other areas of interest include computer aided drug designing and environmental contaminants’ assessment and remediation.
Frontiers in Anti-Infective Agents Volume 5 is a collection of notable research efforts, successful anti-infective drug development programmes and a comprehensive overview of the successes and failures of recent clinical trials in this domain. The volume covers interesting topics: 1) the treatment of acute wounds with the vikut® formula, 2) anti-infective treatment of ocular diseases and 3) sars-cov vaccine development and antimicrobial therapy for SARS symptoms. A chapter summarizing recent anti-infective approaches rounds up the contents of this volume.
This volume is a timely reference for postgraduate scholars and researchers seeking updates in specific areas of anti-infective drug development. Allied healthcare professionals (clinical and public healthcare professionals) can also benefit from the information presented within.
Audience:Postgraduate scholars, researchers studying anti-infective drug developments; Allied healthcare professionals involved in the administration of anti-infective agents.
About the Editors:
Parvesh Singh
Dr. Parvesh Singh is an NRF-rated researcher in the School of Chemistry and Physics (SCP) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Durban (South Africa). After completing his Ph.D. degree (Organic Chemistry), in 2006, from the Guru Nanak Dev University (India), Dr. Singh joined a pharmaceutical company (Jubilant Organosys) as a Research Scientist and then moved to South Africa to pursue his Post-doctoral studies at the Durban University of Technology. In 2014, Dr. Singh was appointed as a Senior Lecturer at UKZN and then promoted to Associate Professor in the same institution. Dr. Singh’s research primarily focuses on the synthesis of heterocyclic scaffolds and their biological testing and molecular modelling studies. Dr. Singh is a recipient of a prestigious DST-NRF Free-standing fellowship and has been featured as one of the emerging researchers in South Africa by the National Research Foundation (NRF). He has also been a recipient of top University and College research awards on several occasions. He has co-authored more than 100 research papers in top tier international journals and serving as an editorial board member and ambassador for several reputed publishers.
Vipan Kumar
Dr. Vipan Kumar Ph.D. has been working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, since 2009. He obtained his Ph.D. with Prof. Mohinder P Mahajan in the Department of Applied Chemistry, GNDU. In 2007, he moved to the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa, to pursue his post-doctoral studies with Prof. Kelly Chibale. In 2015, he was awarded a research fellowship from Carl Tryggers research foundation, Sweden to carry out research at University of Umea, Sweden. His research interests include the development of diverse synthetic protocols for the synthesis of novel molecular frameworks targeting tropical infections. He has also been engaged in the utilization of b-lactam synthon protocols for the synthesis of functionally decorated and biologically relevant heterocycles with medicinal potential.
Rajshekhar Karpoormath
Prof. Rajshekhar Karpoormath graduated with his Ph.D. (2013) from the School of Chemistry and Physics, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Durban, South Africa. He is currently an Associate Professor and Academic Leader of Research in the College of Health Sciences, UKZN. He is also a nationally recognized rated researcher by National Research Foundation-South Africa (NRF-SA). Prof Karpoormath started his independent research carrier in 2014 and established a research group, Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry Research Group (SMCRG), at UKZN. Over the years, he has successfully secured several national and institutional grants and has established a well-equipped Drug Discovery Laboratory at UKZN. His research work is focused on target-based drug design and synthesis, Methodology development, and development of nanomaterial-based electrochemical biosensors. Since 2014, his research group has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in international journals, four book chapters, and two patents. He has successfully graduated 23 postgraduate students (12 Ph.Ds. and 11 Masters) since 2014. He is one of the top researchers at UKZN and was the recipient of several awards in recognition of his achievements.
This reference explains hybrid-Trefftz finite element method (FEM). Readers are introduced to the basic concepts and general element formulations of the method. The book consists of two major parts: Part I Trefftz FEM and Part II fundamental solution based FEM. In the first part, Chapter 1 gives an introduction and overview of the hybrid-Trefftz FEM. Followed by topics on non-homogeneous parabolic problems, thermal analysis of composites, and heat conduction in nonlinear functionally graded materials. A brief summary of the fundamental solution based-FEM is also presented followed by a discussion on axisymmetric potential problems and the rotordynamic response of tapered composites. The book is rounded by chapters which cover the n-sided polygonal hybrid finite elements and analysis of piezoelectric resources. It includes solutions to problems in the numerical analysis of different material types and solutions to some problems encountered in civil engineering (seepage, heat transfer, etc).
This reference is suitable for Scholars at graduate and postgraduate levels in mathematics, civil engineering and materials science. Professionals involved in developing analytical tools for materials and construction testing can also benefit from the methods presented in the book.
About the Editor:
Qing-Hua Qin
Dr. Qing-Hua Qin is a Professor at Shenzhen MSU-BIT University. He received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in mechanical engineering from Chang An University and earning his Master of Science degree and PhD degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) in China. Both MS and PhD are in applied mechanics. He has worked in several leading Australian and Chinese institutions and was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II fellowship and professional fellowship at the University of Sydney. He was also awarded a Cheung Kong Professorship at Tianjin University from the Ministry of Education of China. His research is interdisciplinary which spans the fundamentals of solid mechanics, computational engineering, materials engineering, manufacturing and machine learning – to application areas such as functional materials, additive manufacturing, topology optimisation and integrating hybrid finite element methods with machine learning. He has published more than 300 journal papers and 8 English monographs in the field of applied mechanics.
Artificial Intelligence: Models, Algorithms and Applications presents focused information about applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in different areas to solve complex problems. The book presents 8 chapters that demonstrate AI based systems for vessel tracking, mental health assessment, radiology, instrumentation, business intelligence, education and criminology. The book concludes with a chapter on mathematical models of neural networks.
The book is primarily intended for students as it serves as an introductory book about AI applications at undergraduate and graduate levels and as a reference for industry professionals working with AI based systems, Researchers and engineers that are interested in AI and how it may be used to solve concrete problems. The structure of the book is organized as several different topics. We hope that technology developers and companies also find it interesting to be used in industry.
The book focuses on new achievements in AI and how AI may be introduced in different application areas, and how these areas may be changed when AI models and algorithms are used. The aim of this book is to give an introduction to the field of AI, its models and algorithms and how this may be used to solve problems in different application areas.
The editor Terje Solsvik Kristensen is a professor Emeritus of informatics at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences in Bergen, Norway. His main interest is using AI to solve complex problems using machine learning and multi agent systems. His main focus has been in designing algorithms using AI metods and mathematics, for instance the development of algorithms for supervision of autonomous cars in a traffic intersection.
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