Search Results (377)

There has been a recent increase in the use of social media platforms (SMPs), as well as a large increase in scientific journals and academic article publications. We need to study if and how much academics, scholars and researchers trust SMPs as sources, i.e., citations, for writing their research articles. The purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between SMPs and bibliographic article citations for ten years between 2010 and 2019, with 31 December marking the official identification of COVID-19, a milestone that affected the whole world, including academic publishing. By using a citation retrieval tool written in Java, the citations referring to the URLs of 6432 articles from 14 Q1 open access education journals ranked by the SCImago platform were extracted. The retrieved URLs were stored in a relational database, preprocessed and cleaned, and analyzed using SQL queries to identify and quantify citations originating from SMPs. The findings showed that there were 112 instances, which corresponds to 1.8% of the articles, of an SMP post being used as a citation. Out of the 17 SMPs checked, eight were used, with the most popular being YouTube, having a percentage of 68% of the aforementioned 112 citations, followed by Twitter (now X) with approximately 13.5% and then by Facebook with around 7%. Most of these in-text citations were found at the Introduction and the Design/Methodology sections of the papers. Other important findings of this study were that about 2% of the URL citations referred to blogs and wikis and that one in 100 articles used Wikipedia in the bibliography. Also, for a 26-year period from 1999 to 2024, it was observed that the number of journals increased by 82.8%, while the number of open access journals showed an impressive 552.14% increase. The findings of this study could lead to changes in the metadata design of bibliographic databases, like the way of searching them, and to a review of the life cycle duration of sustainable access to the content of the cited SMPs. Full article

Background/Objectives: Conventional pharmacotherapy for the most prevalent human diseases still has limited efficacy. Natural medicines are recognized for their therapeutic efficacy and low side effects. Tamarindus indica is a tropical tree of the Fabaceae family, valued for its multiple uses and the nutritional properties of its fruits. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the nutraceutical value of T. indica, focusing on its phytochemical composition and main health benefits. Methods: For this purpose, a bibliography search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, and ScienceDirect databases, including all articles published between 2000 and December 2025. Results: The T. indica fruit contains different phytochemical compounds, such as flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids, and saponins, with therapeutic potential. These compounds exert free radical scavenging activity, improve antioxidant and detoxification enzyme activities, exert antimicrobial effects, attenuate the activation of pro-inflammatory mediators, and regulate the expression of lipid metabolism genes. Conclusions: This article presents an integrated analysis summarizing the phytochemical characteristics, mode of action, medical utility, and safe use of T. indica, thereby contributing to a greater understanding of its potential health benefits. Full article

Background/Objectives: Recent reports on the co-occurrence of allergies and endometriosis have provided grounds for expanding research in this area, suggesting that diagnostics should be extended to women with endometriosis. However, numerous studies on nutrients and antioxidants do not specify the type of diet that supports the treatment process. In our review, we focus on the types of food elimination and dietary approaches that have been used. Methods: This systematic review was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines. We searched the EMBASE, PUBMED and SCOPUS databases, as well as the bibliographies of research papers and reviews, including the latest reports from June 2025. The search keywords were “endometriosis” and “type of diet”, “nutrition”, “food products”, “nutrients”, “elimination diet”, and “allergies”. Results: Excluding coexisting allergies and introducing an anti-inflammatory diet low in animal products, limiting butter and margarine, and eliminating fried foods and refined simple sugars may be the best solution to help treat endometriosis. Conclusions: Personalised nutritional counselling for patients with endometriosis is particularly helpful and necessary, as there is no single elimination diet that can be recommended for all patients with endometriosis. The first step should be an anti-inflammatory diet, such as the Mediterranean diet or the MIND diet (Mediterranean-DASH diet intervention for neurological delay), followed by more in-depth allergy screening. The phenotypic diversity of this group of patients may require the use of a low-FODMAP (fermentable oligo-, di-, monosaccharides and polyols), low-nickel, gluten-free or other elimination diet. Full article

The study of astromaterials, including meteorites, provides essential insights into the origin and evolution of the Solar System. Their scientific value relies not only on analytical investigations but also on rigorous documentation and long-term preservation. In this context, standardized cataloging systems are not merely administrative acts but fundamental tools for ensuring data accessibility, safeguarding collection integrity, and facilitating knowledge dissemination within the planetary science community. Importantly, most meteorites are preserved in museum collections, making these institutions central to their conservation and study. This contribution examines the BN-PL (Beni Naturalistici–Planetologia) Italian national cataloging standard, developed by the Central Institute for Cataloging and Documentation (ICCD) under the Ministry of Culture. Specifically designed for meteorite museum collections, BNPL forms part of a legally recognized, interoperable, and open-access system. The standard comprises over 21 thematic sections, covering classification, sample availability, provenance, acquisition, analytical data, conservation policies, exhibition records, and bibliography. Each entry is complemented by high-resolution images and multimedia documentation, supporting both research and public engagement. This work outlines the state of cataloging Italian meteorite museum collections using BNPL, highlighting its strengths and limitations, while also considering the potential development of the standard for cataloging astromaterials within the national heritage framework. Full article

The AlimurgITA portal is a user-friendly and effective tool for researching Wild Edible Plants (WEPs). It provides valuable information on alimurgic plant species, aiding conservation and potential applications (agricultural, food, etc.). Users can interact with authors to report errors and contribute to the knowledge base regarding local uses. The authors will update the site every six months to include new data. Currently, the online database contains data on 1116 taxa used in 20 Italian regions: updated scientific name and link to the site Acta Plantarum, family, main synonyms, common name in Italian and regional dialect, chorotype, life form, a map showing the regions where it is known to be used, the part used, how it is used, and the bibliography. From the home page, you can search for taxa by scientific name, and there are pages dedicated to summaries of the entries: scientific name, family, chorotype, life form, method of use, and part used. Additionally, within the FuD WE PIC Project, the AlimurgITA entity list is being integrated with Italian vegetation data from the European Vegetation Archive to model WEPs richness, identify diversity hotspots, and explore the relationship between WEPs diversity and habitat types. Full article

Purpose: Nurse professionals often practice rectal stimulation in a hospital setting to help premature or full-term babies evacuate or to avoid abdominal pain caused by gas colic. Paediatricians also recommend this technique to newborn caregivers, who can carry it out independently at home. To the best of our knowledge, there are no established national guidelines on how to implement this technique safely or what the clinical/care indications are for its use. Our purpose is to synthesise the evidence on the nursing practice of rectal stimulation in preterm and full-term newborns. Methods: A narrative literature review was conducted. A search was conducted across six databases in February, followed by a manual review of the included studies’ bibliographies, and another search in October 2023. The search strategy identified studies published without date limits. The articles were screened according to the inclusion criteria. Results: Sixty-two articles were retrieved. Following the screening process, only two articles were selected for inclusion in the final synthesis. Both studies evaluated the effects of enemas and/or rectal stimulation on feeding tolerance and bowel habits in preterm newborns. Even if both studies included information on when rectal stimulation in preterm newborns is indicated and how it is conducted, they are insufficient to provide a clear statement for nursing practice. Conclusions: Nowadays, nurses perform rectal stimulation and teach it to caregivers of newborns without shared international or national guidelines or procedures focused on patient safety. It is desirable to conduct scientific studies to inform nursing practice and enhance the quality of nursing care delivered. This review also highlights a critical gap in evidence regarding the use of rectal stimulation in full-term newborns and in community settings. Full article

Background/Objectives: Acquired brain injuries (ABIs), such as stroke, are a major cause of disability globally and frequently affect functional cognition. Functional cognition is the ability to use cognitive processes including memory, attention, and executive functioning to perform daily tasks. When these processes are disrupted, it affects the individual in their participation, independence, and quality of life; it also places a significant burden on family members who often become primary caregivers. The aim of this review is to summarize evidence-based strategies to enhance functional cognition following strokes in an attempt to decrease the caregiver burden and improve both patients and their caregivers’ quality of life. Methods: This review summarizes and interprets findings using an annotated bibliography review and systematic search strategy to gather the most effective and relevant evidence-based interventions for those with ABIs and strokes experiencing memory, attention, and executive dysfunction. Studies outlining adaptive and compensatory interventions were included. Results: Evidence suggests compensatory strategies including environmental and external memory aids, structured routine, technological interventions, metacognitive strategies, as well as attention processing, strategy, and visual imagery training. These tactics demonstrate improvement in functional cognition domains of memory, (particularly prospective memory, i.e., remembering to perform future tasks), attention, and executive functioning after stroke and other ABIs. Conclusions: Effective intervention strategies can help individuals’ post-stroke become more independent in their participation and activities of daily living, leading to decreased caregiver burden and improvements in functional independence and quality of life in both patients and their caregivers. It is suggested that caregivers use these evidence-based approaches in their residential environments. Full article

Infrared–visible (IR–VIS) image fusion is becoming central to unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) perception, enabling robust operation across day–night cycles, backlighting, haze or smoke, and large viewpoint or scale changes. However, for practical applications some challenges still remain: visible images are illumination-sensitive; infrared imagery suffers thermal crossover and weak texture; motion and parallax cause cross-modal misalignment; UAV scenes contain many small or fast targets; and onboard platforms face strict latency, power, and bandwidth budgets. Given these UAV-specific challenges and constraints, we provide a UAV-centric synthesis of IR–VIS fusion. We: (i) propose a taxonomy linking data compatibility, fusion mechanisms, and task adaptivity; (ii) critically review learning-based methods—including autoencoders, CNNs, GANs, Transformers, and emerging paradigms; (iii) compare explicit/implicit registration strategies and general-purpose fusion frameworks; and (iv) consolidate datasets and evaluation metrics to reveal UAV-specific gaps. We further identify open challenges in benchmarking, metrics, lightweight design, and integration with downstream detection, segmentation, and tracking, offering guidance for real-world deployment. A continuously updated bibliography and resources are provided and discussed in the main text. Full article

Fractional calculus provides powerful tools for modeling nonlocality, dissipative systems, and, when defined in the time representation, provides an interesting memory effect in mathematical physics. In this paper, we review four standard fractional approaches: the Riemann–Liouville, Gerasimov–Caputo, Grünwald–Letnikov, and Riesz formulations. We present their definitions, basic properties, Weyl–Marchaud, and physical interpretations. We also give a brief review of related operators that have been used recently in applications but have received less attention in the physical literature: the fractional Laplacian, conformable derivatives, and the Fractional Action-Like Variational Approach (FALVA) for variational principles with fractional action weights. Our emphasis is on how these operators are, and can be, applied in physical problems rather than on exhaustive coverage of the field. This review is intended as an accessible introduction for physicists working in diverse areas interested in fractional calculus and fractional methods. For deeper technical or domain-specific treatments, readers are encouraged to consult the works in the corresponding fields, for which the bibliography suggests a starting point. Full article

This paper aims to outline a framework based on John Dewey and his ideas relating to the topic of habit formation and change. The approach utilised in this article can best be described as a semi-systematic reading and is based on 884 extracts taken from his bibliography. Tendencies that were observed in this material include a distinction between flexible and inflexible habits, and how habit formation and change can be explained by central variables like valuation, experience, and conditions. Full article

The Society of Jesus is a clerical religious order, but it has incorporated non-sacred members, in different degrees of membership, although not from the beginning. The priests professed members constitute the nucleus of the Society of Jesus, and in concentric circles are the formed coadjutors (spiritual coadjutors, the priests, and temporal coadjutors or brothers, the non-priests), the approved scholastics and the novices. In this article, we present the historical juridical framework of the temporal coadjutors, since they have been and are an important part of the history and life of the Society of Jesus, although they are not sufficiently well known because they are less visible. We study the origin of this grade among the Jesuits, its incorporation and legislation, as well as its subsequent evolution. We have gone through the founding and regulatory documents of the Society of Jesus and the rather scarce bibliography. There has been a great evolution in the profile of the temporal coadjutor since the 20th century in practice, that we briefly describe, but not so much in the legal profile. This publication is a preview of a larger research project on the Jesuit brothers, which is still in progress. Full article

Objective: This narrative review aims to summarize current evidence on the epidemiology, risk factors, clinical patterns, and therapeutic strategies for urinary incontinence in menopausal women. Background: Urinary incontinence (UI) is a common, multifactorial condition that disproportionately affects women, with prevalence rising during pregnancy and post menopause. While stress urinary incontinence (SUI) predominates in younger and early postmenopausal women, urgency urinary incontinence (UUI) and mixed urinary incontinence (MUI) become increasingly prevalent with age and duration following menopause. Additional determinants, such as obesity, comorbidities, polypharmacy, and menopausal symptoms, burden further contribute to symptom severity and persistence. Materials and Methods: For the materials and methods, we used over 150 specialized studies and meta-analyses published in the specialized literature on this subject, of which 99 are mentioned in the bibliography of this narrative review. These materials are some of the most significant and up-to-date that address this complex topic. Content: This narrative review discusses the impact of menopause-related hormonal decline on the genitourinary tract, highlighting the role of estrogen deficiency in genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM). It addresses distinct patterns of UI across life stages, including pregnancy and the early and late postmenopause periods, and explores modifiable risk factors such as body mass index. Specific attention is given to nocturnal incontinence, medication-related effects, and coital incontinence, which significantly impair sexual health and quality of life. Therapeutic strategies are presented in a stepwise manner: conservative measures (pelvic floor muscle training), hormonal approaches (local vaginal estrogen), combination regimens, and surgical interventions, including midurethral slings, colposuspension, bulking agents, and neuromodulatory techniques. Future perspectives: Emerging modalities such as balneotherapy and energy-based therapies show promise but require further investigation. Conclusions: Urinary incontinence in menopausal women is best addressed through an individualized, multimodal approach that integrates conservative, hormonal, minimally invasive, and surgical options. Combination therapies demonstrate superior efficacy in addressing both continence and GSM-related symptoms. Future research should refine patient selection, optimize multimodal treatment algorithms, and prioritize long-term outcomes and quality-of-life measures in clinical decision-making. Full article

The topic of the present study is the aerodynamic performance of a Natural Laminar Flow (NLF) wing for UAVs at low speed. The basis is a thoroughly tested NLF airfoil in the wind tunnel of NASA which is well-customized for light aircrafts. The aim of this work is the numerical verification that a typical wing design (tapered with moderate aspect ratio and wash-out), being constructed out of aerodynamically highly efficient NLF airfoils during cruise, can deliver high aerodynamic loading under minimal freestream turbulence as well as realistic atmospheric conditions of intermediate turbulence. Thus, high mission flexibility is achieved, e.g., short take off/landing capabilities on the deck of ship where moderate air turbulence is prevalent. Special attention is paid to the effect of the Wing Tip Vortex (WTV) under minimal inflow turbulence regimes. The flight conditions are take off or landing at moderate Reynolds number, i.e., one to two millions. The numerical simulation is based on an open source CFD code and parallel processing on a High Performance Computing (HPC) platform. The aim is the identification of both mean flow and turbulent structures around the wing and subsequently the formation of the wing tip vortex. Due to the purely three-dimensional character of the flow, the turbulence is resolved with advanced modeling, i.e., the Improved Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (IDDES) which is well-customized to switch modes between Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (DDES) and Wall-Modeled Large Eddy Simulation (WMLES), thus increasing the accuracy in the shear layer regions, the tip vortex and the wake, while at the same time keeping the computational cost at reasonable levels. IDDES also has the capability to resolve the transition of the boundary layer from laminar to turbulent, at least with engineering accuracy; thus, it serves as a high-fidelity turbulence model in this work. The study comprises an initial benchmarking of the code against wind tunnel measurements of the airfoil and verifies the adequacy of mesh density that is used for the simulation around the wing. Subsequently, the wing is positioned at near-stall conditions so that the aerodynamic loading, the kinematics of the flow and the turbulence regime in the wing vicinity, the wake and far downstream can be estimated. In terms of the kinematics of the WTV, a thorough examination is attempted which comprises its inception, i.e., the detachment of the boundary layer on the cut-off wing tip, the roll-up of the shear layer to form the wake and the motion of the wake downstream. Moreover, the effect of inflow turbulence of moderate intensity is investigated that verifies the bibliography with regard to the performance degradation of static airfoils in a turbulent atmospheric regime. Full article

This work is framed as an application of static and small exponential random graph models for complex networks in multiple layers. This document revisits the small network and exhibits its potential. Examining the bibliography reveals considerable interest in large and dynamic complex networks. This research examines the application of small networks (50,000 population) for analyzing global commerce, conducting a comparative graph structure of the tariffs, and importing multilayer networks. The authors created and described the scenario where the readers can compare the graph models visually, at a glance. The proposed methodology represents a significant contribution, providing detailed descriptions and instructions, thereby ensuring the operational effectiveness of the application. The method is organized into five distinct blocks (Bn) and an accompanying appendix containing reproduction notes. Each block encompasses a primary task and associated sub-tasks, articulated through a hierarchical series of steps. The most challenging mathematical aspects of a small network analysis pertain to modeling and sample selection (sel_p). This document describes several modeling tasks that confirm that sel_p = 10 is the best option, including modeling the edges and the convergence and covariance model parameters, modeling the node factor by vertex names, Pearson residual distributions, goodness of fit, and more. This method establishes a foundation for addressing the intricate questions derived from the established hypotheses. It provides eight model specifications and a detailed description. Given the scope of this investigation, a historical examination of the relationships between different network actors is deemed essential, providing context for the study of actors engaged in global trade. Various analytical perspectives (six), encompassing degree analyses, diameter and edges, hubs and authority, co-citation and cliques in mutual and collapse approaches, k-core, and clustering, facilitate the identification of the specific roles played by actors within the importation network in comparison to the tariff network. This study focuses on the Latin American and Caribbean region. Full article

Various scientific disciplines (economics, geography, sociology, urban planning, and environmental sciences) have analysed industrialization processes in peri-urban environments. This has given rise to a wide and diverse bibliography on which this bibliometric study, using the most advanced computer tools, offers a comprehensive overview that helps to structure existing knowledge. To this end, the Web of Science and Scopus databases were used, which, after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria and detecting duplicate works, identified a total of 626 documents involving 1484 authors. The results identify two basic lines of research, each relating to the processes of urbanization and industrialization. They also show that, since the approval of the SDGs by the UN in 2015, studies on industrialization in peri-urban environments have been growing significantly. Chinese scientific output stands out among the proliferation of these works. This study also offers a dynamic view of the lines of work that could experience greater future development and that are associated with the challenges inherent in the processes of urbanization and industrialization. Among the former are problems arising from migration or access to housing; among the latter are the challenges of land use transformation, environmental problems, and those linked to inequality. Full article