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Now showing 1 - 10 of 35
  • Review
    Citation - WoS: 35
    Citation - Scopus: 38
    Aptamer Hybrid Nanocomplexes as Targeting Components for Antibiotic/Gene Delivery Systems and Diagnostics: a Review
    (Dove Medical Press Ltd, 2020) Rabiee, Navid; Ahmadi, Sepideh; Arab, Zeynab; Bagherzadeh, Mojtaba; Safarkhani, Moein; Nasseri, Behzad; Tayebi, Lobat; Rabiee, Mohammad; Tahriri, Mohammadreza
    With the passage of time and more advanced societies, there is a greater emergence and incidence of disease and necessity for improved treatments. In this respect, nowadays, aptamers, with their better efficiency at diagnosing and treating diseases than antibodies, are at the center of attention. Here, in this review, we first investigate aptamer function in various fields (such as the detection and remedy of pathogens, modification of nanoparticles, antibiotic delivery and gene delivery). Then, we present aptamer-conjugated nanocomplexes as the main and efficient factor in gene delivery. Finally, we focus on the targeted co-delivery of genes and drugs by nanocomplexes, as a new exciting approach for cancer treatment in the decades ahead to meet our growing societal needs.
  • Review
    Citation - WoS: 90
    Citation - Scopus: 105
    Recommendations for Head and Neck Surgical Oncology Practice in a Setting of Acute Severe Resource Constraint During the Covid-19 Pandemic: an International Consensus
    (Elsevier Science inc, 2020) Mehanna, Hisham; Hardman, John C.; Shenson, Jared A.; Abou-Foul, Ahmad K.; Topf, Michael C.; AlFalasi, Mohammad; Holsinger, F. Christopher
    The speed and scale of the global COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented pressures on health services worldwide, requiring new methods of service delivery during the health crisis. In the setting of severe resource constraint and high risk of infection to patients and clinicians, there is an urgent need to identify consensus statements on head and neck surgical oncology practice. We completed a modified Delphi consensus process of three rounds with 40 international experts in head and neck cancer surgical, radiation, and medical oncology, representing 35 international professional societies and national clinical trial groups. Endorsed by 39 societies and professional bodies, these consensus practice recommendations aim to decrease inconsistency of practice, reduce uncertainty in care, and provide reassurance for clinicians worldwide for head and neck surgical oncology in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the setting of acute severe resource constraint and high risk of infection to patients and staff.
  • Review
    Citation - WoS: 3
    Citation - Scopus: 9
    An Empirical Evaluation of Software Quality Assurance Practices and Challenges in a Developing Country: a Comparison of Nigeria and Turkey
    (Springer international Publishing Ag, 2016) Sowunmi, Olaperi Yeside; Mısra, Sanjay; Misra, Sanjay; Fernandez-Sanz, Luis; Crawford, Broderick; Soto, Ricardo; Mısra, Sanjay; Computer Engineering; Computer Engineering
    Background: The importance of quality assurance in the software development process cannot be overemphasized because its adoption results in high reliability and easy maintenance of the software system and other software products. Software quality assurance includes different activities such as quality control, quality management, quality standards, quality planning, process standardization and improvement amongst others. The aim of this work is to further investigate the software quality assurance practices of practitioners in Nigeria. While our previous work covered areas on quality planning, adherence to standardized processes and the inherent challenges, this work has been extended to include quality control, software process improvement and international quality standard organization membership. It also makes comparison based on a similar study carried out in Turkey. The goal is to generate more robust findings that can properly support decision making by the software community. The qualitative research approach, specifically, the use of questionnaire research instruments was applied to acquire data from software practitioners. Results: In addition to the previous results, it was observed that quality assurance practices are quite neglected and this can be the cause of low patronage. Moreover, software practitioners are neither aware of international standards organizations or the required process improvement techniques; as such their claimed standards are not aligned to those of accredited bodies, and are only limited to their local experience and knowledge, which makes it questionable. The comparison with Turkey also yielded similar findings, making the results typical of developing countries. The research instrument used was tested for internal consistency using the Cronbach's alpha, and it was proved reliable. Conclusion: For the software industry in developing countries to grow strong and be a viable source of external revenue, software assurance practices have to be taken seriously because its effect is evident in the final product. Moreover, quality frameworks and tools which require minimum time and cost are highly needed in these countries.
  • Review
    Citation - WoS: 10
    Citation - Scopus: 10
    Latest Developments in Engineered Skeletal Muscle Tissues for Drug Discovery and Development
    (Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2023) Ostrovidov, Serge; Ramalingam, Murugan; Bae, Hojae; Orive, Gorka; Fujie, Toshinori; Shi, Xuetao; Kaji, Hirokazu
    IntroductionWith the advances in skeletal muscle tissue engineering, new platforms have arisen with important applications in biology studies, disease modeling, and drug testing. Current developments highlight the quest for engineering skeletal muscle tissues with higher complexity . These new human skeletal muscle tissue models will be powerful tools for drug discovery and development and disease modeling.Areas coveredThe authors review the latest advances in in vitro models of engineered skeletal muscle tissues used for testing drugs with a focus on the use of four main cell culture techniques: Cell cultures in well plates, in microfluidics, in organoids, and in bioprinted constructs. Additional information is provided on the satellite cell niche.Expert opinionIn recent years, more sophisticated in vitro models of skeletal muscle tissues have been fabricated. Important developments have been made in stem cell research and in the engineering of human skeletal muscle tissue. Some platforms have already started to be used for drug testing, notably those based on the parameters of hypertrophy/atrophy and the contractibility of myotubes. More developments are expected through the use of multicellular types and multi-materials as matrices . The validation and use of these models in drug testing should now increase.
  • Review
    Citation - WoS: 7
    Citation - Scopus: 9
    A Survey of Covid-19 Diagnosis Using Routine Blood Tests With the Aid of Artificial Intelligence Techniques
    (Mdpi, 2023) Habashi, Soheila Abbasi; Koyuncu, Murat; Alizadehsani, Roohallah; Abbasi Habashi, Soheila
    Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), causing a disease called COVID-19, is a class of acute respiratory syndrome that has considerably affected the global economy and healthcare system. This virus is diagnosed using a traditional technique known as the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test. However, RT-PCR customarily outputs a lot of false-negative and incorrect results. Current works indicate that COVID-19 can also be diagnosed using imaging resolutions, including CT scans, X-rays, and blood tests. Nevertheless, X-rays and CT scans cannot always be used for patient screening because of high costs, radiation doses, and an insufficient number of devices. Therefore, there is a requirement for a less expensive and faster diagnostic model to recognize the positive and negative cases of COVID-19. Blood tests are easily performed and cost less than RT-PCR and imaging tests. Since biochemical parameters in routine blood tests vary during the COVID-19 infection, they may supply physicians with exact information about the diagnosis of COVID-19. This study reviewed some newly emerging artificial intelligence (AI)-based methods to diagnose COVID-19 using routine blood tests. We gathered information about research resources and inspected 92 articles that were carefully chosen from a variety of publishers, such as IEEE, Springer, Elsevier, and MDPI. Then, these 92 studies are classified into two tables which contain articles that use machine Learning and deep Learning models to diagnose COVID-19 while using routine blood test datasets. In these studies, for diagnosing COVID-19, Random Forest and logistic regression are the most widely used machine learning methods and the most widely used performance metrics are accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and AUC. Finally, we conclude by discussing and analyzing these studies which use machine learning and deep learning models and routine blood test datasets for COVID-19 detection. This survey can be the starting point for a novice-/beginner-level researcher to perform on COVID-19 classification.
  • Review
    Citation - WoS: 23
    Controlled Gene Delivery Systems: Nanomaterials and Chemical Approaches
    (Amer Scientific Publishers, 2020) Ahmadi, Sepideh; Rabiee, Navid; Fatahi, Yousef; Bagherzadeh, Mojtaba; Gachpazan, Meysam; Baheiraei, Nafiseh; Hamblin, Michael R.
    Successful gene therapy depends on the design of effective gene delivery systems. A gene delivery system is considered a powerful tool for the release of genetic material within cells resulting in a change in cell functions and protein production. The release of genes in a controlled manner by using appropriate carriers facilitates their release without side effects and increases the expression of genes at the released site. It is expected that significant changes in the combination of several genes and drugs can be provided by developing treatment systems sensitive to different stimuli such as redox potential, pH variations, temperature gradients, light irradiation, and enzyme activity. The most important advantages for the release of genes and stimuli-responsive therapeutics include delivering vectors locally, reducing side effects and causing no toxicity to distant tissues while at the same time reducing the immune response to the vectors. In this review, we aim to discuss different types of gene carriers involved in the controlled transfer of nucleic acids (non-viral inorganic and organic nanoparticles (NPs) and virus-like particles (VLPs)) as well as the simultaneous transfer of several genes and/or drugs into cells or different tissues, providing for an efficient and safe treatment of numerous diseases.
  • Review
    Citation - WoS: 7
    Citation - Scopus: 8
    Stereotactic Radiosurgery After Subtotal Resection of Critically-Located Grade I Meningioma: a Single-Center Experience and Review of Literature
    (Turkish Neurosurgical Soc, 2021) Karaaslan, Burak; Celtikci, Emrah; Bulduk, Erkut Baha; Borcek, Alp Ozgun; Kurt, Gokhan; Kaymaz, Memduh; Emmez, Hakan
    AIM: To analyze the results of stereotactic radiosurgery in 295 patients with residual Grade I meningiomas located at parasellar region, petroclival region, cerebellopontine angle and parasagittal region. MATERIAL and METHODS: A total of 295 patients with Grade 1 residual Meningiomas (197 women, 98 men), who were treated by adjuvant radiosurgery in Gazi University Gamma Knife Center between 2004-2015 were analyzed. WHO Grade 2 and 3 meningiomas were not included in our study. Minimum radiological follow-up was 24 months. The median follow-up was 54 months. The tumor volume, location, treatment dose, morbidity, progression free survival and tumor control rate were analyzed. RESULTS: The median tumor volume was 5.2 cm(3) (0.04-39.7), median age was 50 (20-80), median dose was 14 Gy and tumor control rate was 94.5% (stationary in 85.0%, volume reduction in 9.5%). Increase in tumor volume was seen in 16 patients (5.5%) and re-operation was performed in 5 of them (1.6%). Stereotactic radiosurgery was performed again for 8 patients (2.7%).The location of the tumors was as follows: 39.3% parasellar region, 20% cerebellopontine angle, 13.6% petroclival and 27.1% was parasagittal, falcine or convexity. Major morbidities were detected in 6 (2%) patients. Minor morbidities were detected in 18 (6.1%) patients. CONCLUSION: Stereotactic radiosurgery is an effective and safe treatment modality for residual Grade I meningiomas.
  • Review
    Citation - WoS: 16
    Citation - Scopus: 20
    Assessing the Coverage of E-Health Services in Sub-Saharan Africa a Systematic Review and Analysis
    (Georg Thieme verlag Kg, 2017) Adeloye, Davies; Adigun, Taiwo; Misra, Sanjay; Omoregbe, Nicholas
    Background: E-Health has attracted growing interests globally. The relative lack of facilities, skills, funds and information on existing e-Health initiatives has affected progress on e-Health in Africa. Objectives: To review publicly available literature on e-Health in sub-Saharan Africa (sSA) towards providing information on existing and ongoing e-Health initiatives in the region. Methods: Searches of relevant literature were conducted on Medline, EMBASE and Global Health, with search dates set from 1990 to 2016. We included studies on e-Health initiatives (prototypes, designs, or completed projects) targeting population groups in sSA. Results: Our search returned 2322 hits, with 26 studies retained. Included studies were conducted in 14 countries across the four sub-regions in sSA (Central, East, South and West) and spreading over a 12-year period, 2002-2014. Six types of e-Health interventions were reported, with 17 studies (65%) based on telemedicine, followed by mHealth with 5 studies (19%). Other e-Health types include expert system, electronic medical records, e-mails, and online health module. Specific medical specialties covered include dermatology (19%), pathology (12%) and radiology (8%). Successes were 'widely reported' (representing 50% overall acceptance or positive feedbacks in a study) in 10 studies (38%). The prominent challenges reported were technical problems, poor inter net and connectivity, participants' selection biases, contextual issues, and lack of funds. Conclusion: E-Health is evolving in sSA, but with poorly published evidence. While we call for more quality research in the region, it is also important that population-wide policies and on-going e-Health initiatives are contextually feasible, acceptable, and sustainable.
  • Review
    Citation - WoS: 75
    Citation - Scopus: 120
    Hybrid Blockchain Platforms for the Internet of Things (iot): a Systematic Literature Review
    (Mdpi, 2022) Alkhateeb, Ahmed; Catal, Cagatay; Kar, Gorkem; Mishra, Alok
    In recent years, research into blockchain technology and the Internet of Things (IoT) has grown rapidly due to an increase in media coverage. Many different blockchain applications and platforms have been developed for different purposes, such as food safety monitoring, cryptocurrency exchange, and secure medical data sharing. However, blockchain platforms cannot store all the generated data. Therefore, they are supported with data warehouses, which in turn is called a hybrid blockchain platform. While several systems have been developed based on this idea, a current state-of-the-art systematic overview on the use of hybrid blockchain platforms is lacking. Therefore, a systematic literature review (SLR) study has been carried out by us to investigate the motivations for adopting them, the domains at which they were used, the adopted technologies that made this integration effective, and, finally, the challenges and possible solutions. This study shows that security, transparency, and efficiency are the top three motivations for adopting these platforms. The energy, agriculture, health, construction, manufacturing, and supply chain domains are the top domains. The most adopted technologies are cloud computing, fog computing, telecommunications, and edge computing. While there are several benefits of using hybrid blockchains, there are also several challenges reported in this study.
  • Review
    Citation - WoS: 6
    Citation - Scopus: 9
    Monkeypox: a Comprehensive Review of Virology, Epidemiology, Transmission, Diagnosis, Prevention, Treatment, and Artificial Intelligence Applications
    (Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, 2024) Rahmani,E.; Bayat,Z.; Farrokhi,M.; Karimian,S.; Zahedpasha,R.; Sabzehie,H.; Farrokhi,M.
    Monkeypox (Mpox), an uncommon zoonotic Orthopoxvirus, is commonly manifested by blisters on the skin and has a mortality rate of approximately 0-10%. Approximately two decades after the cessation of global smallpox vaccination, the number of confirmed cases of Mpox has been growing, making it the most common Orthopoxvirus infection. Therefore, in this narrative review, we aimed to shed light on recent advancements in the pathophysiology, transmission routes, epidemiology, manifestations, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of Mpox, as well as the application of artificial intelligence (AI) methods for predicting this disease. The clinical manifestations of Mpox, including the onset of symptoms and dermatologic characteristics, are similar to those of the infamous smallpox, but Mpox is clinically milder. Notably, a key difference between smallpox and Mpox is the high prevalence of lymphadenopathy. Human-to-human, animal-to-human, and animal-to-animal transmission are the three main pathways of Mpox spread that must be considered for effective prevention, particularly during outbreaks. PCR testing, as the preferred method for diagnosing Mpox infection, can enhance early detection of new cases and thereby improve infection control measures. JYNNEOS and ACAM2000 are among the vaccines most commonly recommended for the prevention of Mpox. Brincidofovir, Cidofovir, and Tecovirimat are the primary treatments for Mpox cases. Similar to other viral infections, the best approach to managing Mpox is prevention. This can, in part, be achieved through measures such as reducing contact with individuals displaying symptoms, maintaining personal safety, and adhering to practices commonly used to prevent sexually transmitted infections. © This open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 3.0 License (CC BY-NC 3.0).