Understanding the needs of Mena public transport customers: culture of service and gender responsive recommendations

Fast population growth, urban sprawl and the raise in households’ motorization observed in all major cities of the Middle-East and North-Africa (MENA) region, are constantly challenging public transport providers who seek to handle efficiently the continuously rising travel demand. Most of the MENA cities suffer from traffic congestion that not only impacts the quality of life of MENA citizens, but also their access to job opportunities, health services, and social and political participation. Alongside the development of public transport network, it is crucial to encourage urban dwellers to reduce their dependence on personal cars, use public transport, and develop soft mobility skills. Therefore, operators and service providers need to define customer-centric strategy and build a culture of service excellence in line with their customers’expectations. In cooperation with academic partners, the UITP MENA Centre for Transport Excellence launched the User-Oriented Public Transport research project with the aim to understand the perceptions of female and male users and non-users about public transport services in five MENA cities: Algiers, Amman, Beirut, Casablanca and Muscat. The methodological framework was built around the five dimensions of the user’s needs pyramid: safety, security, ease-to-use, comfort and experience. Based on the quantitative analysis of data collected from 984 respondents and the qualitative analysis of 49 women’s testimonies collected during the focus groups, recommendations were made to encourage culture of service and gender mainstreaming in public transport development in the region

Crowdfunding in Africa: Opportunities and Challenges

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Effects of Short-Term Continuous Montmorency Tart Cherry Juice Supplementation in Participants with Metabolic Syndrome

© 2020 Springer-Verlag. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02355-5Purpose: Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) augments the incidence of cardiovascular disease by two-fold and type II diabetes mellitus by five-fold. Montmorency tart cherries are rich in phytochemicals shown to improve biomarkers related to cardio-metabolic health in humans. This study aimed to examine cardio-metabolic responses after 7-days Montmorency tart cherry juice (MTCJ) supplementation and also acute on short-term supplementation responses to a single bolus, in humans with MetS. Methods: In a randomised, single-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial, 12 participants with MetS (50 ± 10 years; 6M/6F), consumed MTCJ or placebo (PLA) for 7 days. Blood-based and functional cardio-metabolic biomarkers were measured pre- and post-supplementation, and acute responses measured pre-bolus and up to 5 h post-bolus on the 7th day. Results: 24-h ambulatory systolic (P = 0.016), diastolic (P = 0.009) blood pressure and mean arterial pressure (P = 0.041) were significantly lower after 7-days MTCJ supplementation compared to PLA. Glucose (P = 0.038), total cholesterol (P = 0.036), LDL (P = 0.023) concentrations, total cholesterol:HDL ratio (P = 0.004) and respiratory exchange ratio values (P = 0.009) were significantly lower after 6-days MTCJ consumption compared to PLA. Conclusions: This study revealed for the first time in humans that MTCJ significantly improved 24-h BP, fasting glucose, total cholesterol and total cholesterol:HDL ratio, and also lowered resting respiratory exchange ratio compared to a control group. Responses demonstrated clinically relevant improvements on aspects of cardio-metabolic function, emphasising the potential efficacy of MTCJ in preventing further cardio-metabolic dysregulation in participants with MetS. Registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03619941).Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Berberine, a popular dietary supplement for human and animal health: Quantitative research literature analysis a review

Berberine is an alkaloid with a wide range of reported beneficial health effects. The current work provides an extensive literature analysis on berberine. Bibliometric data were identified by means of the search string TOPIC=(berberin* OR umbellatine*), which yielded 5,547 publications indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection electronic database. The VOSviewer software generated bubble maps to visualize semantic terms with citation results. The ratio of original articles to reviews was 13.6:1. The literature has been growing more quickly since the 2010s. Major contributing countries were China, the United States, India, Japan, and South Korea. Most of the publications appeared in journals specialized in pharmacology pharmacy, biochemistry molecular biology, chemistry, and plant science. Some of the frequently mentioned chemicals/chemical classes were alkaloid, palmatine, jatrorrhizine, coptisine, isoquinoline, and sanguinarine. The prevalent medical conditions under investigation included Alzheimers disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity.Acknowledge the support by the Polish KNOW (LeadingNational Research Centre) Scientific Consortium “Healthy Animal-Safe Food,” decision of Ministry of Science and Higher Education No. 05-1/KNOW2/2015 and the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund (Homing/2017-4/41). Antoni Sureda has been supported by the Institute of Health Carlos III (Project CIBEROBN CB12/03/30038). Joanna Feder-Kubis was financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education for the Faculty of Chemistry of Wrocław University of Science and Technology.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The evidence of health benefits and food applications of Thymus vulgaris L

Background: T. vulgaris, commonly known as the thyme, is an aromatic plant belonging to the Lauraceae family. Six different chemotypes were described for T. vulgaris. The chemotypes are named after its dominant monoterpene: geraniol (G), a-terpineol (A), thuyanol-4 (U), linalool (L), carvacrol (C), and thymol (T).Scope and approach: For this review, an extensive bibliographic research on Thymus vulgaris was carried out, including its main components both nutrients and bioactives. Botanical description, distribution and cultivation were also addressed as well as uses in folk medicine. Particular attention was given to biological activities, clinical studies, possible limitations and potential applications.Key findings and conclusions: T. vulgaris L. is used as food and for medicinal purposes and it has a great economic importance due to its composition on monoterpene derivatives including p-cymene, thymol and carvacrol. The value of T. vulgaris has been recognized by the pharmaceutical industry, because it proved to have hepatoprotective properties and to have effectiveness as expectorant agent, anti-acne agent, and as fungicidal and antiviral drug. It has been also recognized by the industries of pests' repellents, foods, food packaging and cosmetics. This vast number of industrial applications is mainly due to its antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and anticancer effects

Genus Blepharis (Acanthaceae): A review of ethnomedicinally used species, and their phytochemistry and pharmacological activities.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE:Blepharis is an Afro-Asiatic genus belonging to the family Acanthaceae. It comprises 126 species that occur in arid and semi-arid habitats. Some species of Blepharis are used in traditional medicines in different countries mainly for their anti-inflammatory, would healing activities along with treatment of gastrointestinal disorders and bone fractures. AIM OF THE REVIEW:The present review aims to collate and analyze the available data and information on distribution, traditional uses, chemical constituents and pharmacological activities of Blepharis. METHODS:Scientific information of genus Blepharis was retrieved from the online bibliographic databases like MEDLINE/PubMed, SciFinder, Web of Science and Google Scholar and secondary resources including books and proceedings. RESULTS:Seven species of Blepharis were found to be reported frequently as useful in folklore in Asian and African countries. B. maderaspatensis was found to be widely used in Indian traditional medicines whereas the B. ciliaris and B. edulis were common in folklore of Egypt, Jordan, and Arabia. Active phytochemicals of Blepharis are flavonoids from B. ciliaris, alkaloids from B. sindica, phenolic acid derivatives, and phytosterols, and derivatives of hydroxamic acids from B. edulis resulted in possessing diverse biological properties such as anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer. CONCLUSION:Various species of Blepharis were found to be used in traditional medicine systems in African and Asian countries. Few of these species were studied for their bioactive chemical constituents however the activity guided isolation studies are not performed. Similarly, detailed pharmacological studies in animal models to explore their mechanism of action are also not reported. Future studies should focus on these aspects related to the medicinally used species of Blepharis. The detailed and comprehensive comparative analysis presented here gives valuable information of the currently used Blepharis species and pave the way to investigate other useful species of Blepharis pertaining to ethnobotany, phytochemistry and discovery of new drugs

Inhibitory effects of plant extracts and in Silico screening of the bioactive compounds against α-glucosidase

α-glucosidase is a primary carbohydrate digestive enzyme, present in the brush border of the small intestine that acts on the 1–4 associated α-glucose residues and could play an effective role in overall glycemic control. Barberis lyceum and Fagonia cretica extracts are traditionally being used as antidiabetic. In the present study, ethanolic and methanolic extracts of B. lyceum and F. cretica were tested against α-glucosidase. Furthermore, the isolated phytochemicals of these plants were screened computationally for the evaluation of active compounds. An in vitro assay, the Ethanol and methanol-based extracts of B. lyceum and F. cretica for α-glucosidase inhibitory potential at a concentration range of 7.81–1000 µg/ml was used. The α-glucosidase inhibitory effect of extracts was compared based on their resulting IC50 values. The result showed that the extracts showed potent inhibitory activity against alpha-glucosidase. Methanolic extract of B. lyceum with an IC50 value of 34.99 µg/ml was the most potentextract. The rest of the extracts showed moderate inhibitory activity with anIC50 value in the range of 48.17 µg/ml, to 66.53 µg/ml. The reported compounds were docked against α-glucosidase along with standard inhibitor (acarbose) to check the inhibitory potential of these compounds using computational tools. Among the 38 phytochemicals, phytic acid and sindamine showed remarkable interaction with α-glucosidase active site residues with docking score -20.0204 and -18.2239 respectively, while quercetin and palmatine-CHCl3 showed comparable docking score -14.7862 and -14.1882 respectively with the standard acarbose having docking score -15.5940 against α-glucosidase. We further validate our results in vitro by using. We concluded from the results that phytochemical extracted from medicinal plants show good potency and however in future in vivo studies are needed to cure diabetes mellitus