Role play as a teaching method to improve student learning experience of a bachelor degree programme in a transnational context: an action research study

Role play provides additional learning opportunity to students by interacting with other students in classrooms. Modes of delivery in modules for a bachelor degree programme at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool (XJTLU) (a transnational education (TNE) provider) are mainly teacher-led lectures and seminars. Intuitive proactive approach was used in my action research. The modified role play method by Kodotchigova was used. After the role play, a survey with open-ended questions (modified from XJTLU Student Module Feedback Questionnaire) was used to collect the perceptions of students of the role play on their learning experience. A total of 25 students aged ≥18 years (20 females and 5 males) consented to participate. There were 80% of the students who reported that role play helped them to learn and 72% of the students reported that role play stimulated their interest in the module’s subject. In conclusion, role play was a very useful teaching strategy to help students to demonstrate the practical use and apply to real life situations after learning different theoretical perspectives. However, role play might not be suitable to all students because some students might prefer to have it mixed with other teaching strategies in classrooms, particularly in a TNE context

Low-level seaweed supplementation improves iodine status in iodine-insufficient women

Iodine insufficiency is now a prominent issue in the UK and other European countries due to low intakes of dairy products and seafood (especially where iodine fortification is not in place). In the present study, we tested a commercially available encapsulated edible seaweed (Napiers Hebridean Seagreens® Ascophyllum nodosumspecies) for its acceptability to consumers and iodine bioavailability and investigated the impact of a 2-week daily seaweed supplementation on iodine concentrations and thyroid function. Healthy non-pregnant women of childbearing age, self-reporting low dairy product and seafood consumption, with no history of thyroid or gastrointestinal disease were recruited. Seaweed iodine (712 μg, in 1 g seaweed) was modestly bioavailable at 33 (interquartile range (IQR) 28–46) % of the ingested iodine dose compared with 59 (IQR 46–74) % of iodine from the KI supplement (n 22). After supplement ingestion (2 weeks, 0•5 g seaweed daily, <i>n</i> 42), urinary iodine excretion increased from 78 (IQR 39–114) to 140 (IQR 103–195) μg/l (<i>P</i>< 0•001). The concentrations of thyroid-stimulating hormone increased from 1•5 (IQR 1•2–2•2) to 2•1 (IQR 1•3–2•9) mIU/l (<i>P</i>< 0•001), with two participants having concentrations exceeding the normal range after supplement ingestion (but normal free thyroxine concentrations). There was no change in the concentrations of other thyroid hormones after supplement ingestion. The seaweed was palatable and acceptable to consumers as a whole food or as a food ingredient and effective as a source of iodine in an iodine-insufficient population. In conclusion, seaweed inclusion in staple foods would serve as an alternative to fortification of salt or other foods with KI

Corrigendum: Food Allergy and Helicobacter pylori Infection: A Systematic Review

Introduction: Based on the hygiene hypothesis, a low prevalence of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection may explain the recent high prevalence of allergic diseases including food allergy. However, there are very few studies that investigate the relationship between H. pylori and food allergy. Summary: We searched for PubMed, Ovid Medline and the Cochrane library for relevant articles published in English from inception to November 2015. The inverse relationship between H. pylori and food allergy remains unproven because of contradictory and limited evidence at the moment. Likewise, only limited studies have examined the relationship between CagA; one of H. pylori virulence factor and food allergy. On the other hand, in vitro evidence seems to point out a role of H. pylori in the causation of food allergy. The inconsistent results from epidemiological data may be due to small sample size, heterogeneous populations and unstandardised methods or food allergens

Trajectory patterns of macronutrient intake and their associations with obesity, diabetes, and all-cause mortality: A longitudinal analysis over 25 years

Over the past decades, China has been undergoing rapid economic growth, which may have significantly influenced the dietary patterns and health status of the Chinese population. Our study aimed to assess the associations of potential macronutrient trajectory patterns with chronic diseases and all-cause mortality using the latent class trajectory model (LCTM) and the longitudinal data of the China Health and Nutrition Survey obtained between 1991 and 2015. A 24-hour diet recall was used to assess the dietary intake. The Poisson regression model was employed to investigate the correlations between trajectory patterns and chronic diseases and all-cause mortality. A total of 8115 participants were included in the final analysis. We explored four and three trajectory patterns for male and female populations, respectively. We found that a decreasing very high-carbohydrate trajectory together with a U-shape protein trajectory was associated with a higher risk of diabetes in the male population (odds ratio (OR): 2.23; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.31–3.77). A similar pattern for moderate protein intake was also associated with the risk of diabetes in the female population (OR: 1.82; 95% CI: 1.18–2.79). In addition, we show that a decreasing low-carbohydrate trajectory and an increasing high-fat trajectory were associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality (OR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.60–0.96) and a higher risk of obesity (OR: 1.24; 95% CI: 1.05–1.47) in males. Our results shed light on some salient nutritional problems in China, particularly the dual challenges of undernutrition and overnutrition

Editorial: Exploring sustainable strategies for active compounds from low-quality crops: Extraction, package, and development

With the explosive growth of the global population and the rapid development of agriculture and food technology, people have shown a huge demand for high-quality and diverse food (Tripathi et al., 2019), followed by the rapid development and expansion of the food processing industry. However, this also raises new problems. To pursue products with higher nutritional value on the basis of ensuring cost stability and work efficiency, food enterprises will produce a series of low-quality by-products in each link of the food industry. They directly waste numerous low-quality raw materials, and of course, numerous nutrients contained in them can also be wasted (Spiker et al., 2017). Considering the large global population base, how to realize the value-added of low-quality crops has become a hot topic in recent years (AliAkbari et al., 2021). In view of this, many researchers have put forward some ideas, such as using low-value crops as biomass energy (Jin et al., 2018; Ganesh et al., 2022), developing New foods (Ganesh et al., 2022), using advanced processing technology to produce high value-added products (Kewuyemi et al., 2022) and improving the extraction process of active substances (Putnik et al., 2018) etc. One strategy we have noticed is to extract and utilize the nutrient-active substances contained in these low-quality crops (Kita et al., 2023), to realize the reuse of extracted materials. In the future, we can not only realize the value-added of low-quality crops, but also use these extracted active substances to develop more functional foods to meet the needs of consumers, and even try to solve some technical problems faced by the current food industry to obtain products with higher market value. This paper analyzes the content of the four latest related studies to gain insight into the significance of these research results for the food processing industry and functional food development, and to provide theoretical guidance for future research directions

Pregnant women at risk for iodine deficiency but adequate iodine intake in school-aged children of Zhejiang Province, China

The median urinary iodine concentration (UIC) of school-aged children has been commonly used as a surrogate to assess iodine status of a population including pregnant women. However, pregnant women have higher iodine requirements than children due to increased production of thyroid hormones. The aim of the study was to evaluate the iodine status of pregnant women and children as well as their household salt iodine concentration (SIC) in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Eligible pregnant women and children from all six counties of Quzhou in 2021 were recruited into the study. They were asked to complete a socio-demographic questionnaire and provide both a spot urine and a household table salt sample for the determination of UIC and SIC. A total of 629 pregnant women (mean age and gestation weeks of 29.6 years and 21.6 weeks, respectively) and 1273 school-aged children (mean age of 9 years and 49.8% of them were females) were included in the study. The overall median UIC of pregnant women and children in our sample was 127 (82, 193) μg/L and 222 (147, 327) μg/L, respectively, indicating sufficient iodine status in children but a risk of mild-to-moderate iodine deficiency in pregnant women. Distribution of iodine nutrition in children varied significantly according to their sex and age (P < 0.05). The rate of adequately household iodised salt samples (18–33 mg/kg) provided by pregnant women and children was 92.4% and 90.6%, respectively. In conclusion, our results indicated a risk of insufficient iodine status in pregnant population of China, but iodine sufficiency in school-aged children. Our data also suggested that median UIC of children may not be used as a surrogate to assess iodine status in pregnant women

Risk factors on healthcare-associated infections among tuberculosis hospitalized patients in China from 2001 to 2020: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: China has been still suffering from high burden attributable to tuberculosis (TB) and healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). TB patients are at high risk to get HAIs. Evidence-based guidelines or regulations to constrain the rising HAIs among TB hospitalized patients are needed in China. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to investigate the risk factors associated with HAIs among TB hospitalized patients in Chinese hospitals. Methods: Medline, EMBASE and Chinese Journals Online databases were searched. The search was limited to studies published from January 1st 2001 to December 31st 2020. Meta-analyses of ORs of the risk factors between patients with HAIs and patients without HAIs among TB hospitalized patients were estimated. Heterogeneity among studies was assessed based on the τ ^ 2 and I2 statistics to select the meta-analysis model. Review Manager 5.3 was employed and P < 0.05 was considered as statistical significance. Results: 851 records were filtered from the databases, of which 11 studies were included in the quantitative meta-analysis. A total of 11,922TB patients were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis, of which 1133 were diagnosed as having HAIs. Age older than 60 years (OR: 2.89 [2.01–4.15]), complications (OR: 3.28 [2.10–5.13]), diabetes mellitus (OR: 1.63 [1.22–2.19]), invasive procedure (OR: 3.80 [2.25–6.42]), longer than 15 hospitalization days (OR: 2.09 [1.64–2.64]), secondary tuberculosis (OR: 2.25 [1.48–3.42]), smoking (OR: 1.40[1.02–1.93]), underlying disease (OR: 2.66 [1.53–4.62]), and use of antibiotics (OR: 2.77 [2.35–3.27]) were the main risk factors associated with HAIs among TB hospitalized patients with a statistical significance (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Age older than 60 years, presence of complications, presence of diabetes mellitus, invasive procedure, longer than 15 hospitalization days, secondary tuberculosis, smoking, presence of underlying disease, and use of antibiotics were the main risk factors which had a negative impact on HAIs among TB hospitalized patients in Chinese hospitals. These findings provided evidence for policy makers and hospital managers to make effective infection prevention and control measures to constrain the rising HAIs. It is also required that more cost-effective infection prevention and control measures should be widely applied in routinely medical treatment and clinical management to reduce the occurrence of HAIs among TB hospitalized patients

Low Iodine Nutrition Knowledge in Chinese Breastfeeding Women despite Adequate Iodine Status

There has been a scarcity of evidence about iodine nutrition knowledge among women during pregnancy and lactation. The aim of this study was to determine women’s iodine knowledge and the relationship between knowledge and iodine status during pregnancy and lactation. Women were recruited from a hospital in the western part of China in the third trimester of pregnancy and followed until the end of the first week of lactation. The women’s iodine status was measured by their urinary iodine concentration (UIC) and an iodine-specific, validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Iodine nutrition knowledge was assessed using an iodine nutrition knowledge questionnaire. A total of 200 women (mean age of 29.0 ± 4.2 years) completed the whole study. The majority of the women did not consume enough iodine during both pregnancy and lactation (231.89 vs. 237.26 µg/day). The overall mean iodine knowledge scores in our sample of women during pregnancy and lactation were 4.77 and 4.87, indicating low iodine knowledge. The use of iodized salt and a higher education level were significantly associated with an increased iodine knowledge score. In conclusion, this study reported poor iodine nutrition knowledge in women, highlighting a public health concern. Therefore, the iodine knowledge of women should be improved, possibly via maternal health campaigns to avoid the consequences of iodine deficiency disorders in newborns.</jats:p

Ethnopharmacological Approaches for Therapy of Jaundice: Part I

Jaundice is a very common symptom especially in the developing countries. It is associated with several hepatic diseases which are still major causes of death. There are many different approaches to jaundice treatment and the growing number of ethnomedicinal studies shows the plant pharmacology as very promising direction. Many medicinal plants are used for the treatment of jaundice, however a comprehensive review on this subject has not been published. The use of medicinal plants in drug discovery is highly emphasized (based on their traditional and safe uses in different folk medicine systems from ancient times). Many sophisticated analytical techniques are emerging in the pharmaceutical field to validate and discover new biologically active chemical entities derived from plants. Here, we aim to classify and categorize medicinal plants relevant for the treatment of jaundice according to their origin, geographical location, and usage. Our search included various databases like Pubmed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar. Keywords and phrases used for these searches included: “jaundice,” “hyperbilirubinemia,” “serum glutamate,” “bilirubin,” “Ayurveda.” The first part of the review focuses on the variety of medicinal plant used for the treatment of jaundice (a total of 207 medicinal plants). In the second part, possible mechanisms of action of biologically active secondary metabolites of plants from five families for jaundice treatment are discussed