• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.25-33
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• 2009

An ethno-medical investigation was carried out to understand the use of plants in indigenous health care practice of the Hajong tribe community in North Eastern Bangladesh. The study of ethnobotany relating to any tribe is in itself a very intricate or long-winded process. The present study was done through structured questionnaires in consultations with the tribal practitioners and has resulted in the documentation of 25 plant species belonging to 21 families including herbs (36%), shrubs (32%), trees (28%) and climber (4%) were frequently used by the Hajong tribe for curing 27 ailments. For curing ailments, the use of aboveground plant parts was higher (86.67%) than the underground plant parts (13.33%). Leaf was used in the majority of cases for medicinal preparation (13 species), followed by fruits (7 species), root/rhizome (4 species), whole plant (3 species) and besides these, seed, latex and bark were used one species each, respectively. The study thus underlines the potentials of the ethnobotanical research and the need for the documentation of indigenous healthcare knowledge pertaining to the medicinal plant utilization for the greater benefit of mankind.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.75-97
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• 2019

The growing importance of biological resources as sovereign rights to healthcare, energy, and food has sparked international discussions on Genetic Resources (GRs) and Traditional Knowledge (TK). As the bio-industry continues to grow, research and development utilizing patented biological resources are advocated. Currently, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is actively discussing GRs and TK, and an effective response to national interest has been sought. Of late, there have been growing disputes over issues like ownership, control, and access and benefit-sharing between indigenous peoples and users of GRs and TK resources. Resolution of disputes concerning GRs and TK are thus becoming critical not only to stakeholders such as the indigenous peoples and corporations, but also to third-party users. Due to the weakness of the current IP and court system however, such disputes are not addressed adequately. This paper will address the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), which is an out-of-court dispute resolution system, on conflicting issues regarding GRs and TK. It will consider the WIPO as a forum for ADR and ADR for GRs and TK disputes and it will seek both parties in the dispute to benefit from the use of the ADR process.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.293-302
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• 2016

The use of folk medicine has been widely embraced in many developed countries under the name of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine (TCAM) and is now becoming the mainstream in the UK and the rest of Europe, as well as in North America and Australia. Diversity, easy accessibility, broad continuity, relatively low cost, base levels of technological inputs, fewer side effects, and growing economic importance are some of the positive features of folk medicine. In this framework, a critical need exists to introduce the practice of folk medicine into public healthcare if the goal of reformed access to healthcare facilities is to be achieved. The amount of information available to public health practitioners about traditional medicine concepts and the utilization of that information are inadequate and pose many problems for the delivery of primary healthcare globally. Different societies have evolved various forms of indigenous perceptions that are captured under the broad concept of folk medicine, e.g., Persian, Chinese, Grecian, and African folk medicines, which explain the lack of universally accepted definitions of terms. Thus, the exchange of information on the diverse forms of folk medicine needs to be facilitated. Various concepts of Wind are found in books on traditional medicine, and many of those go beyond the boundaries established in old manuscripts and are not easily understood. This study intends to provide information, context, and guidance for the collection of all important information on the different concepts of Wind and for their simplification. This new vision for understanding earlier Chinese medicine will benefit public health specialists, traditional and complementary medicine practitioners, and those who are interested in historical medicine by providing a theoretical basis for the traditional medicines and the acupuncture that is used to eliminate Wind in order to treat various diseases.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.7-16
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• 2010

The cultural assets of the palaces royal tombs remains institution expanded the convenient facilities for the disabled that can help the disabled to watch, to propel the convenient facility expanding business according to the condition of each facility. However, there has been limitations for the disabled facility users in viewing the cultural assets, as the facilities were not installed or were not installed properly. Due to the uniform installation of the convenient facilities that did not consider the features of the cultural assets, the conservation value of the cultural assets have been depreciated and the convenient use standards of the facility users such as the disabled were simultaneously unsatisfactory. Thus, this study maintains the pre-existing value of the palaces royal tombs remains institution that is the Korean indigenous traditional heritage, and uses a part of the improvement model development study on the palaces royal tombs remains institution of the disabled convenience enhancement to understand the current convenient facility installation and relevant services to find the restricted factors in using the facilities and the main problems. The problems were categorized into 13 types of questions, using the repeated problems occurred within the investigated facilities to look at the actual condition of the facilities, which showed that the facilities were in adequate in the aspects of convenient facility installation and relevant service.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.599-602
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• 2013

A male patient with neurocysticercosis was identified in Montai Village, Xay District, Oudomxay Province, Lao PDR in February 2004. He had a history of diagnosis for neurocysticercosis by a CT scan in Thailand after an onset of epileptic seizure in 1993. A pig in the same district was found to contain Taenia solium metacestodes (=cysticerci); the slaughtered pig body contained more than 2,000 cysticerci. In addition to morphological identification, molecular identification was also performed on the cysticerci by DNA sequencing analysis of the mitochondrial cox1 gene; they were confirmed as T. solium metacestodes. The patient is regarded as an indigenous case of neurocysticercosis infected in an endemic focus of T. solium taeniasis/cysticercosis in Oudomxay Province, Lao PDR.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.60-66
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• 2012

Human skin is the first line of defense for the protection of the internal organs of the body from different stimuli. Ultraviolet B (UVB) irradiation induces skin damage and inflammation through the secretion of various cytokines, which are immune regulators produced by cells. To prevent the initiation of skin inflammation, keratinocytes that have been irreversibly damaged by radiation must be removed through the apoptotic mechanism. Ixeris dentata (family: Asteraceae) is a perennial medicinal herb indigenous to Korea. It has been used in Korea, China, and Japan to treat in digestion, pneumonia, diabetes, hepatitis, and tumors. To gain insight into the anti-inflammatory effects of I. dentata, we examined its influence on UVB-induced pro-inflammatory cytokine production in human keratinocytes (HaCaT cells), by observing cells that were stimulated with UVB in the presence or absence of I. dentata. In the present study, pro-inflammatory cytokine production was determined by performing enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, and western blot analysis to measure the activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPKs). I. dentata inhibited UVBinduced production of the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-6 in a dose-dependent manner. Further, I. dentata inhibited the UVB-induced expression of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2. Furthermore, I. dentata inhibited the phosphorylation of c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase and p38 MAPKs, suggesting that it inhibits the secretion of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and IL-8, and COX-2 expression, by blocking MAPK phosphorylation. These results suggest that I. dentate can potentially protect against UVB-induced skin inflammation.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.17
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• pp.7967-7973
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• 2015

Background: The abrupt rise of colorectal cancer in developing countries is raising concern in healthcare settings. Studies on assessing relationships with modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors in the Pakistani population have been limited. The present investigation was designed to examine associations of dietary practices, addictive behavior and bowel habits in developing colorectal cancer (CRC) among patients in a low-resource setup. Materials and Methods: An age-gender matched case control study was conducted from October 2011 to July 2015 in Karachi, Pakistan. Cases were from the surgical oncology department of a public sector tertiary care hospital, while their two pair-matched controls were recruited from the general population. A structured questionnaire was used which included questions related to demographic characteristics, family history, dietary patterns, addictive behavior and bowel habits. Results: A family history of cancer was associated with a 2.2 fold higher chance of developing CRC. Weight loss reduced the likelihood 7.6 times. Refraining from a high fat diet and consuming more vegetables showed protective effects for CRC. The risk of CRC was more than twice among smokers and those who consumed Asian specific addictive products as compared to those who avoid using these addictions (ORsmoking: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.08 - 4.17, ORpan: 2.92, 95% CI: 1.6 - 5.33, ORgutka: 2.13, 95% CI: 1.14 - 3.97). Use of NSAID attenuated risk of CRC up to 86% (OR: 0.14, 95% CI: 0.07 - 0.31). Conclusions: Most of the findings showed concordance with the literature elucidating protective effects of consuming vegetables and low fat diet while documenting adverse associations with family history, weight loss, constipation and hematochezia. Moreover, this study highlighted Asian specific indigenous addictive products as important factors. Further studies are needed to validate the findings produced by this research.