English Research Articles Research Articles

The impact of pandemics on healthcare providers' workloads: A scoping review.

To review and synthesize available evidence exploring the impact of pandemics on direct healthcare providers' workloads in the acute care setting. Scoping review. A review of English research articles published up to August 2022 that examined the impact of pandemics on healthcare providers' workloads was undertaken. Studies were identified by searching four electronic databases: Medline (EBSCO), CINAHL (EBSCO), Web of Science and PsychInfo (EBSCO). Fifty-five studies met the inclusion criteria. The review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses Scoping Review checklist. Healthcare workers experience an increase in workload pressures during a pandemic. This included patients requiring more care, undertaking non-normal work activities, increase in work content including changes to documentation, increase in demand and skills required, an increase in overtime and hours of work per week and higher patient-to-nurse ratios. The review also highlighted changes to the work environment and worsened work environments, including staffing shortages. Focused efforts from health organizations to prioritize supportive conditions, policies focused on improved work environments, staffing adequacy and fair and reasonable workloads will enhance retention of the current workforce and future planning for pandemics. Understanding workload challenges faced by frontline health professionals during the pandemic can improve planning, including policies and procedures, and resource allocation for future pandemic or emergency situations. In addition, extended periods of high workloads can impact staff retention. As many countries return to life after COVID-19, it is important that healthcare organizations examine staff pressures and identify ways to support staff moving forward. This will be vital for the future sustainability of the workforce. No patient or public contribution.

Lexical verbs of hedging in English research articles by native and non-native speakers

This study aims to compare verb variation and the functions of hedges used in English scientific research articles written by English native speakers (NS) and non-native speakers from Indonesia (NNS). The data were collected from a corpus of 30 international journal articles. The analysis was conducted quantitatively using a normalization system and statistical tests to determine the frequency and distribution of lexical verbs and qualitatively using Palmer’s (2001) and Hyland’s (1996) hedging model to identify the forms and specific functions of the hedges. The findings demonstrate that both NS and NNS used speculative, deductive, quotative, and sensorial verbs as hedges. However, NS used speculative and sensorial verbs more frequently, while NNS used deductive and quotative verbs more frequently. Statistically, the frequency and distribution of hedges in the two categories of writers were not significantly different. Both NS and NNS tend to use lexical verbs to protect themselves as writers by limiting personal commitments and to protect their readers by anticipating rejection based on subjectivity. These findings contribute to the understanding of hedging use in academic writing by NNS from Indonesia and provide implications for English language teaching and learning.

CiteSpace knowledge map analysis of Angong Niuhuang Pills in recent twenty years

Angong Niuhuang Pills, a classical formula in traditional Chinese medicine, are lauded as one of the "three treasures of febrile diseases" and have been widely used in the treatment of diverse disorders with definite efficacy. However, there is still a lack of bibliometric analysis of research progress and development trend regarding Angong Niuhuang Pills. Research articles on Angong Niuhuang Pills in China and abroad(2000-2022) were retrieved from CNKI and Web of Science. CiteSpace 6.1 was used to visualize the key contents of the research articles. In addition, the research status of Angong Niuhuang Pills was analyzed by information extraction to allow insight into the research trends and hotspots about Angong Niuhuang Pills. A total of 460 Chinese articles and 41 English articles were included. Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and Sun Yat-Sen University were the research institutions that have published the largest amount of research articles in Chinese and English. The keyword analysis showed that the Chinese articles focused on cerebral hemorrhage, stroke, neurological function, coma, cerebral infarction, craniocerebral injury, and clinical application, while the English articles focused on the mechanisms of cerebral ischemia, stroke, heavy metal, blood-brain barrier, and oxidative stress. Stroke, blood-brain barrier, and oxidative stress were presumably the research hotspots in the future. At present, the research on Angong Niuhuang Pills is still in the developing stage. It is necessary to highlight the in-depth research on the active components and mechanism of action and carry out large-scale randomized controlled clinical trials to provide references for the further development and application of Angong Niuhuang Pills.

Linking Artificial Light at Night with Human Health via a Multi-Component Framework: A Systematic Evidence Map

The effects of artificial light at night (ALAN) on human health have drawn increased attention in the last two decades. Numerous studies have discussed the effects of ALAN on human health on diverse topics. A broader scope of how ALAN may affect human health is thus urgently needed. This paper depicts a systematic evidence map in a multi-component framework to link ALAN with human health through a comprehensive literature review of English research articles in the past two decades. A three-phase systematic review was conducted after a generalized search of relevant articles from three publication databases, namely Scopus, the Web of Science, and PubMed. In total, 552 research articles were found in four categories and on numerous topics within our framework. We cataloged the evidence that shows direct and indirect as well as positive and negative effects of ALAN on human physical and mental health. We also summarized the studies that consider ALAN as a social determinant of human health. Based on our framework and the systematic evidence map, we also suggest several promising directions for future studies, including method design, co-exposure and exposome studies, and social and environmental justice.

Interactional Metadiscourse Markers in English Research Article Abstracts Written by Non-Native Authors: A Corpus-Based Contrastive Study

Abstracts in research articles play a crucial role in settling the impact of academic articles. However, despite the abundance of research on academic discourse, variation in its linguistic features among scholars from different academic cultures seems to have remained untouched. This corpus linguistics study presents a comparative analysis of interactional metadiscourse markers in 96 research article abstracts written in English by both Russian and Spanish scholars in the field of linguistics. The study is based on the assumption that the distribution of interactional metadiscourse devices is different in the abstracts produced by each group of scholars. This is because Spanish academic discourse has been influenced by the growing expansion of Anglophone academic conventions to a larger extent. The theoretical basis of the study is Hyland’s (2005) taxonomy of interactional metadiscourse markers, which offers a pragmatically-grounded method for studying different types of such markers in academic discourse. Findings revealed that Spanish scholars leave more traces of themselves in their writing and take far more explicitly involved positions than Russian scholars. These findings carry pedagogical implications for academic writing course designers and instructors and can enhance non-native English writers’ knowledge of culture-specific and international academic writing conventions in the discipline.

A Multidimensional Comparative Analysis of MENA and International English Research Article Abstracts in Applied Linguistics

By implementing Biber’s multidimensional analysis (MDA), the present study explored the linguistic co-occurrence patterns of English research article abstracts written by native speakers of Arabic authors residing in the Arab World and international authors from different contexts. The study analyzed three specialized corpora of 300 English abstracts in the field of applied linguistics. Each corpus comprised 100 abstracts named as Middle Eastern Arabs, North African Arabs (MENA), and international authors. Several linguistic features were extracted and tagged using Nini’s Multidimensional Analysis Tagger (MAT). Then, six dimensions representing several communicative functions were identified after conducting factor analysis. Overall, the study showed that the MENA Arabs abstracts tended to be more evaluative and currently information-focused, while the international abstracts showed more informational density features and narrative style. Finally, the study suggests pedagogical implications for raising the international community’s awareness of writing abstracts with linguistic features.

Clausal or Phrasal: Variability of Lexical Bundles in L1 and Turkish L2 English Research Articles

Clausal or Phrasal: Variability of Lexical Bundles in L1 and Turkish L2 English Research Articles

A narrative review of sperm selection technology for assisted reproduction techniques.

In-vitro fertilization (IVF) with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) has become increasingly prevalent even in cases without significant male factor infertility; however, stagnant live-birth rates, both nationally and internationally, have driven more research into sperm selection. To date, nothing has replaced swim-up and density-gradient preparation methods and therefore we sought to review the state of the science. A PubMed search was performed between years of 1989 and 2024 for English research articles reporting data on sperm selection technology in assisted reproductive technology. IVF with ICSI is increasingly prevalent even in men with normal semen parameters. Despite technologic advances and widespread use, reproductive outcomes with ICSI have been stagnant. This market for opportunity growth has allowed for sperm selection techniques to grow exponentially with heterogeneity in utilization and a paucity of positive reproductive outcomes. Swim-up and density-gradient centrifugation remain the most utilized sperm selection techniques. Various future technologies show promise including epigenetics, sperm biomarkers and a potential role of artificial intelligence; however, more research is needed. Given unchanged IVF success rates, sperm selection technologies hold promise to improve reproductive outcomes beyond traditional ICSI. At present, no technique has shown superiority to swim up and density centrifugation.

Assessing the writing quality of English research articles based on absolute and relative measures of syntactic complexity

Prediction of writing quality based on various linguistic features has greatly supported writing assessment in academic contexts. Research article (RA) is an important academic genre widely taught and assessed in EAP (English for Academic Purposes) writing courses, but there is little research exploring the assessment of RA writing quality on the basis of linguistic features, which may have the potential to assist teachers’ evaluation of students’ RA drafts. The present study aims to explore whether features of syntactic complexity can effectively predict RA writing quality. To represent syntactic complexity as a multidimensional construct, we employed traditional absolute measures and the newly proposed relative measures related to the use of verb argument constructions (VACs). Robust predictors of writing quality were identified at both the whole RA level and the part-genre level. It is found that VAC-based measures are more useful for indexing the writing quality of RAs at whole text level, while absolute measures have a stronger predictive power at part-genre level. Our research also shows that the relationships between writing quality and syntactic complexity are subject to part-genre variation. Implications for language teaching and assessment in the EAP context are discussed.

영어학 학술논문의 영문초록에 나타난 언어적 특성 비교: 영어 비원어민(한국인)과 원어민을 중심으로

The recent studies on English abstracts have been analyzed focusing on the rhetorical move structure and some linguistic features of MA theses and PhD dissertations. However, little research has been conducted to explore the linguistic features of English research articles. This study aims to investigate the linguistic features in English abstracts between Korean non-native speakers of English (NNS) and native speakers of English (NS). A corpus consisting of 100 abstracts (50 abstracts each) is analyzed at the word, phrase, sentence and discourse levels. The results show that i) English native speakers have a higher TTR than non-native speakers on lexical diversity and density, which means the former uses more various lexical items than the latter, ii) on the phrase level, high frequent n-grams occur in the introductory part of the abstracts of non-native speakers and in the conclusion part of the native speakers, and iii) on the sentence level and above, all the scores of text readability are higher in NS texts than NNS ones, which means the latter texts are more difficult to understand than the forner.

Analysis of Interactional Markers in the Methodology Sections of Research Articles Across Englishes and Disciplines

A cornucopia of research has been conducted on the use of metadiscourse across disciplines and languages. Still, this present study is the first to identify and analyse how metadiscourse markers (MDMs) help realize the functions of moves and steps in the Methods sections of research articles (RAs) across disciplines and Englishes. The present study is an investigation of the distribution of MDMs in the formulation of moves and steps in the Methods section of social science, business, and linguistics RAs written by American English (the inner circle), Philippine English (outer circle), and Chinese English (expanding circle) RA writers. Utilizing a qualitative-quantitative mixed methodology, it shows that engagement markers are the most frequently used interactional markers, that culture and discipline are two variables that account for the variations in MDMs use, that soft disciplines like humanities and social sciences seem to demand more writer accountability to assertions made, and that both the outer and the expanding circles of Englishes sometimes behave like the inner circle English with pronounced similarities and differences in the utilization of MDMs. Instructional implications were suggested based on the findings of the present study.

Efficacy of hormone therapy on stretched penile length in micropenis: A systematic review

Background: While there have been clinical studies to prove the efficacy of testosterone in increasing the stretched penile size in cases of micropenis, giving various results, attempts to summarize them have been scant. Objectives: This systematic review summarizes the efficacy of testosterone in the treatment of micropenis. Materials and methods: This systematic review sought original English research articles in which patients with isolated micropenis were administered testosterone to increase their stretched penile length in PubMed, Scopus, and ProQuest. Search keywords were “micropenis” and “hormone”. We then assessed the selected articles using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Checklist for Case Series. Results: Of the 1,181 articles, 8 articles (n = 171) met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review. Assessment of the articles showed that various hormones are used in the treatment of micropenis. Discussion: Various hormones, mainly testosterone, are effective in treating micropenis. It is found that testosterone, especially topical testosterone, can increase stretched penile length 2 until 3 times the pre-treatment length in 3 months of treatment. However, other hormone treatments can also increase stretched penile length, but its effect is not as significant as testosterone. Dual hormone therapy is also used for micropenis and other hormone deficiencies to increase the efficacy of the results. Conclusions: Hormone therapy is effective in increasing the stretched penile size in cases of micropenis. The use of hormones needs to be tailored to each patient to ensure optimal result.

Comparing the Move Structure and Thematic Progression Pattern of Chinese and Native Speakers’ English Research Article Abstracts (RAA)—A Corpus Based Study of Aeronautics RAA

Abstract reflects the main content of a research article. Linguists have made great efforts to analyze the structure of abstracts by using genre analysis. However, there have been little quantitative studies to compare Chinese scholars RA’s English abstract with that of the native speakers in the field of aeronautics. In particular, few studies have focused on analyzing them by means of combing the theory of genre analysis and thematic progression. This study analyzed the move structure and thematic progression pattern of 60 English abstracts selected from two aeronautics journals respectively (AIAA, CJA). Of the 60 English abstracts, 30 are written by Chinese scholars and 30 by native speakers. The results show that the frequency, order of moves, and the choice of thematic progression patterns in each move differ a lot in the two corpora. This study will not only enrich the empirical study of abstract analysis but also have some implications for academic paper writing, publishing, and teaching.

Effectiveness of virtual reality intervention on reducing the pain, anxiety and fear of needle-related procedures in paediatric patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

To evaluate the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) intervention in the management of pain, anxiety and fear in paediatric patients undergoing needle-related procedures. A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). A librarian-designed search of the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, CINAHL, CBM, CNKI, and Wanfang databases was conducted to identify research articles in English or Chinese on RCTs up to February 28, 2022. Two researchers independently screened eligible articles. The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews was used to assess the risk of bias in the included studies. A fixed- or random-effects meta-analysis model was used to determine the pooled mean difference based on the results of the heterogeneity test. A total of 2269 articles were initially screened. The meta-analysis included data from 27 studies representing 2224 participants. Compared with the non-VR group, the VR intervention group significantly reduced pain, anxiety, and fear in paediatric patients who underwent puncture-related procedures. Subgroup analysis showed that VR has advantages over conventional and other distraction methods. Paediatric patients undergoing needle-related procedures would benefit from VR interventions for pain, anxiety and fear management. VR intervention has the potential to reduce pain, anxiety and fear in paediatric patients undergoing puncture-related procedures. Future clinical interventions could incorporate VR into puncture procedures as an effective method to reduce negative emotions in children eligible for VR distractions. Our paper is a systematic review and meta-analysis and such details don't apply to our work.

Writer responsibility across sections of research articles: Recycling of directional determinants by English and Iranian academics

Motivated by the assumption that the recycling of directional determinants (DDs) (the research purposes, hypotheses, questions) across English research articles (RAs) is evidence of the writer's responsibility, this study sought to investigate any potential differences between English and Iranian researchers in the recycling of DDs throughout RA sections. To this end, 600 empirical RAs representing six soft science disciplines from 2006 to 2018 were chosen, 300 of which were authored by English L1 scholars and another 300 by Iranian researchers. The quantitative analysis revealed similarities between the two groups of scholars, with the DD recycling appearing more frequently in the Discussion section than in other sections, and in Economics than in other disciplines. In the qualitative phase, the two groups of authors' common rationales for the DD recycling, including editorial policy, RA length, English academic writing conventions, and reader guidance were determined. However, only two reasons were identified in novice Iranian researchers' responses: redundancy and English academic writing conventions. This implies that EAP writing course designers need to provide more explicit teaching materials to help novice non-English L1 researchers find out how the DD recycling in each RA section directs the writing of that section and contributes to text coherence.

Contamination by Listeria monocytogenes in Latin American Meat Products and its Consequences

Background and Objective: Listeria monocytogenes is one of the most important bacteria in food technology, causing listeriosis, a disease with high mortality rates, especially in developing countries. Thus, the objective of this review was to gather recent work on the presence of L. monocytogenes in meat and meat products in Latin America, in addition to pointing out control methods and resistance genes that can be disseminated. Methods: Original research articles in Portuguese, Spanish and English published since 2017 were selected, reporting the presence of L. monocytogenes in meat and meat products in Latin American countries. Articles were also reviewed on innovative methods for controlling the bacteria in food, such as intelligent packaging and the use of essential oils, and on resistance genes found in L. monocytogenes, pointing out the possible implications of this occurrence. Results and conclusion: Some negligence was observed in determining the prevalence of this bacterium in several countries in Latin America. Although studies on L. monocytogenes have been found in milk and dairy products, demonstrating the existence of the necessary structure and knowledge for research development, studies on meat and meat products have not been found in most countries. In control methods developed against L. monocytogenes, the versatility of the approaches used stands out, enabling their use in different types of meat products, according to their technological characteristics. Several resistance genes have been determined to be possibly disseminated by L. monocytogenes, which adds more importance to the establishment of methods for its control.

Syntactic structure and rhetorical combinations of Iranian English research article titles in medicine and applied linguistics: A cross-disciplinary study

This corpus-based cross-disciplinary study investigated the syntactic structures and rhetorical combinations of 200 research article titles in two disciplines, namely, medicine (100) and applied linguistics (100). The RA titles were selected from four reputable Iranian English journals. The authors were all Iranian researchers in these two disciplines. The titles were analyzed in light of Dietz taxonomy. First, the frequencies and percentages of each syntactic and rhetorical construction occurrence have been calculated. Next, the authors performed a t-test regarding title length and the chi-square test to decide whether syntactic or rhetorical construction is a discipline-specific convention. The findings revealed thatmedical titles were longer than the linguistic ones. The frequency and percentage of both single- and multi-unit RA titles were essentially the same in both disciplines. Concerning the syntactic components of single-unit RA titles, the most frequently used structure was the nominal construction, followed by verbal and prepositional ones. The most recurrent syntactic components of the nominal structure in both disciplines were post- and pre-modified, with medical titles overtaking the linguistic titles in all nominal categories. In terms of verbal constructions, the dominant structure in medicine was the full sentence, and in applied linguistics, gerund phrases. Regarding the rhetorical components of multi-unit RA titles, medical titles took precedence over the linguistic titles in using the topic method. The topic scope and topic description organization are mostly reported in applied linguistics titles. In this study, however, two new rhetorical combinations were identified. The chi-square test results only confirmed the verbal structures of single-unit and the rhetorical combinations of multi-unit RA titles as distinctive features for each discipline.

Needs Analysis of Chilean Students of Dentistry for Dental English Course Development

The purpose of the study is to determine the necessity for a Dental English course in the dentistry degree program at the Universidad Autónoma de Chile. To achieve this objective, the target needs analysis instrument developed by Hutchinson and Water (1987) was adapted and distributed to 91 dentistry students and 35 of their teachers in order to determine the students' necessities, lacks, wants, expectations, preferred style of learning and teaching, and interest in the English for Dentistry course. For the quantitative data analysis, descriptive statistics were utilized, while thematic analysis was adopted for the qualitative data analysis. The results indicated the perceived importance of English is related to studying dentistry in their program and practicing dentistry in their future careers as dentists, the sense of lack is demonstrated in the inadequacy of English learning courses in their program curriculum as well as their current low level of English proficiency, and the need to focus on reading, writing, and vocabulary skills in order to write and read research articles in English. The study recommends implementation of a comprehensive branch of English language instruction that include English for General Purposes and English for Specific Purposes, such as English for Dentistry, English for Dental Consultation, and English for Writing Research Articles.

High use of direct questions and relative absence of promotional intention in Japanese peer-reviewed research article introductions compared to their English counterparts

This study aims to describe the rhetorical features of Japanese and English research article introductions (RAIs) in the discipline of Japanese Literature. The analysis revealed that significantly more Japanese RAIs used question-raising to establish research niches. Notably, half of the Japanese RAIs that used question raising did not use other Move 2 steps. One-third of the Japanese RAIs used gap indication. These findings suggest not only that establishing a clear niche is relatively unimportant in Japanese RAIs but also that question-raising serves as an effective rhetorical strategy that meets the audience's expectations. Semantic feature analysis further revealed that the Japanese RAIs were less likely to rely on epistemology, not creating a research space in previous studies. In contrast, the English RAIs were characterized by promotional features such as significantly higher centrality claims. Nevertheless, the overall macro-rhetorical structures between the two datasets were similar. This study found no evidence that Japanese RAIs delay the presentation of research and purpose, contrary to previous reports on other Japanese written genres; however, the Japanese RAIs tended to not detail their research. It was concluded that the Japanese and the English RAIs were organized in a way to satisfy local and international audiences’ expectations, respectively.

Objectifying Science: Impersonalization in English Research Articles From Different Disciplines

English academic writing has often been characterized as being direct, accurate, and objective. One way of achieving objectivity is through the use of a communicative strategy called impersonalization. The present research examines linguistic devices that academic writers have at their disposal to avoid explicit reference, especially to themselves, and to detach themselves from the information they convey. It also addresses the question of whether this impersonalization strategy is expressed differently across different disciplines. For these purposes, a corpus of 45 primary empirical research articles from the fields of linguistics, medicine, and natural sciences were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively with the help of corpus linguistic method. The results of the research showed that impersonalization in English research articles could be expressed through the use of agentless passive constructions and impersonal constructions. The results indicate that English academic discourse is marked by the use of agentless passive constructions (199.17 tokens per 10.000 words) to express impersonalization, which was primarily used to serve as writer-oriented hedging functions. The study also revealed highly significant differences in the use of impersonalization in linguistics, medicine and natural sciences. This seems to suggest that impersonalization in English academic discourse is expressed differently in different fields of study.