Decoding the trends and the emerging research directions of E-commerce and tourism in the light of Resource Dependence Theory: A bibliometric analysis.

E-commerce and tourism have all seen a lot of growth and development recently in both business and academia. The tourism sector has significantly changed because of the growth of e-commerce platforms, as more and more consumers buy their rooms and tickets online. The academics conducted further research to understand the impact of e-commerce platforms on the tourism industry, leading to the development of these two specific fields' body of literature. A bibliometric review was carried out to draw the trends of the research conducted to date in the field of e-commerce and tourism. Thus, it is possible to have a general overview of the literature for academics to intent to conducting future research. Employing bibliometric analysis with Biblimetrix software on 456 publications from the Web of Science database covering the years from 2000 to 2022, this study identifies predominant themes and research trends in the field. The terms "e-commerce" and "tourism" were used as keywords. During the analysis, six research questions were answered and results were combined with Resource Dependence Theory. Australia and China which are the first two countries in terms of citations. China is the outstanding country for author collaborations. Co-citation network analysis identified four clusters, namely management, model, satisfaction, and quality. Publications with keyword "communication", "enterprises", "application" and "rural" are in a decrease after 2015. Finally, future research directions were proposed.

The clinical, functional, and radiological effect of long-term used immunosuppressive therapy for post-COVID-19 interstitial lung disease.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Persistent interstitial lung disease (ILD) after COVID-19 infection can lead to severe loss of respiratory function and a decrease in the quality of life. There is no consensus regarding the treatment of post-COVID-19-ILD. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of immunosuppressive treatment for this group of patients. METHODS: This retrospective observational study included patients diagnosed with post-COVID-19-ILD from 2021 to 2022. Patients who had pulmonary symptoms, required prolonged oxygen therapy, and/or had restrictive pulmonary function test (PFT) and/or DLCO <80%, with diffuse parenchymal involvement on high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT), were given immunosuppressive treatment with methylprednisolone and/or mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and followed up for 6 months. RESULTS: Among the 48 patients, 35 were treated. Two patients were excluded due to discontinued treatment and passed away before the study period ended. Of 33 cases, 21 (66.6%) were treated with methylprednisolone, 11 (33%) with methylprednisolone + MMF, and 1 (0.4%) with MMF alone. Comparing baseline and 6th-month data revealed significant improvement in mMRC score, saturation (SpO2), FVC, FVC%, FEV%, and DLCO% values (p<0.005). While regression was observed in all radiologic findings, regression in ground glass and reticulation was statistically significant (p<0.005). When the 1st and 6th-month data were compared, a significant increase was observed in SpO2 and DLCO% values (p=0.016) and there was a significant regression in reticulation radiologically (p=0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Long-term immunosuppressive therapy may be preferred in proper cases of post-COVID-19-ILD as an effective and safe treatment option that improves the quality of life, respiratory parameters, and radiologic findings.

Serum Specific Antibodies Do Not Seem to Have an Additional Role in the Diagnosis of Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to investigate the contribution of serum IgG testing to the history of exposure in the diagnosis of fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis. METHODS: A single-center, retrospective, cross-sectional study including 63 patients pathologically diagnosed with fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis in line with the guidelines of the American Thoracic Society. Descriptive statistics were presented and Kappa statistic was performed to evaluate the compatibility between panel and the history of exposure. RESULTS: The median age was 63 (22-81) years and 34 (54%) were male. Forty-six patients (73%) had a positive history of exposure. Thirty-nine patients (61.9%) had a positive HP/Avian panel. The most common exposure agent was mold (34.9%), followed by parakeet (31.7%). The antibody detected the most was penicillium chrysogenum lgG (36.5%), followed by aspergillus fumigatus (31.8%). There was no compatibility between HP/Avian panel and history of exposure (kappa coefficient= 0.18, p= 0.14). When the exposure was only assessed based on the history, 4 (6.35%) patients were diagnosed as fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis with low confidence, 6 (9.52%) with moderate confidence, 11 (17.46%) with high confidence and 42 (66.67%) with definite confidence; whereas 4 (6.35%) patients were diagnosed as fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis with low confidence, 6 (9.52%) with moderate confidence, 9 (14.29%) patients with high confidence and 44 (69.84%) patients with definite confidence if exposure was evaluated with history and/or panel. CONCLUSIONS: Serum specific precipitating antibody panel does not seem to provide additional value to the history of exposure in the diagnosis of fibrotic hypersensitivity pneumonitis.

Protective efficacy of pirfenidone in rats with pulmonary fibrosis induced by bleomycin.

BACKGROUND: Bleomycin causes increased production of reactive oxygen species, leads to pulmonary toxicity, fibroblast activation, and fibrosis. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the protective effect of pirfenidone on bleomycin-induced lung toxicity in rats. METHODS: Twenty-eight adult rats were randomly divided into 3 groups; Bleomycin (B group, n=10), Bleomycin and Pirfenidone (B-PND group, n=13), and the control group (n=5). The bleomycin regimen was administered for 9 weeks. Pirfenidone was administered at 100 mg/kg daily. Total antioxidant level (TAS), total oxidant level (TOS), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), transforming growth factor (TGF-ß1), matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2), plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI) levels were studied. Histopathologically, sections were stained with Hematoxylin-eosin and Masson-trichrome for grading-scoring according to the Ashcroft score. RESULTS: Stage 3 fibrosis was observed in 50% of the B group rats, stage 3 and higher fibrosis was never detected in the B-PND group and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.003). When evaluating tissue inflammation, the inflammation was higher in the B-PND group than in the other groups (p<0.001). Pleuritis was detected in all rats in group B, while was not observed in B-PND and control group (p<0.001). The TAS level was found to be significantly higher in group B than in group B-PND (p=0.034), while no difference was found between TOS, TNF-α, MMP-2, PAI, TGF-ß1. CONCLUSIONS: Pirfenidone had a statistically significant protective effect in bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis and pleuritis in rats.  Despite the presence of inflammation in the tissue, no significant changes were observed in inflammation markers in the peripheral blood. Novel serum biomarkers are needed to indicate the presence of inflammation and fibrosis in the lung.