Exploring the potential of natural extracts for pharmaceutical applications in the treatment of different diseases is an emerging field of medical research, owing to the tremendous advantages that they can offer. These include compound sustainability due to the natural origin and virtually unlimited availability. In addition, they contribute to promoting the countries in which they are extracted and manufactured. For this reason, wild active compounds derived from plants are attracting increasing interest due to their beneficial properties. Among them, Avicennia marina has been recently recognized as a potential source of natural substances with therapeutic activities for anti-cancer treatment. A. marina beneficially supplies different chemical compounds, including cyclic triterpenoids, flavonoids, iridoids, naphtaquinones, polyphenols, polysaccharides, and steroids, most of them exhibiting potent antitumor activity. The in vivo and in vitro studies on different models of solid tumors demonstrated its dose-dependent activity. Moreover, the possibility to formulate the A. marina extracted molecules in nanoparticles allowed researchers to ameliorate the therapeutic outcome of treatments exploiting improved selectivity toward cancer cells, thus reducing the side effects due to nonspecific spread.

In this study, the direct effect of environmental uncertainty on competitive advantage and its indirect effect through the sequential mediator variables of supply chain integration and supply chain agility were investigated. The sample of the study consists of company managers operating in the manufacturing sector in Turkey. An online survey was sent to company managers through connections established on LinkedIn and an analysis was carried out with the data collected from 414 participants. As a result of the analysis, it has been determined that environmental uncertainty has a direct, significant and positive effect on competitive advantage. In addition, the results of the research show that supply chain integration and supply chain agility have a partial mediating role in the relationship between environmental uncertainty and competitive advantage. According to the results of this study, in conditions of high environmental uncertainty, companies can increase their supply chain agility capabilities by establishing a more integrated structure with their supply chain partners, and thus gain a unique competitive advantage over their competitors. It has been observed that the relationships between the concepts, which are the subject of the study, have been investigated separately in different studies in the literature. This study will contribute to the literature by investigating the relationships between concepts in a holistic way.

Purpose: The main intention of this paper is to understand humanistic leadership through an eminent leader representing the United Arab Emirates (UAE) culture. The authors identified a prominent humanistic leader of a well-known private university in Dubai as an example, analyzing his leadership approach from a humanistic lens and demonstrating humanistic leadership characteristics linked to the cultural roots.Design/methodology/approach: This paper is designed as a single case to examine how humanistic leadership behaviors and practices are applied in an organization and how they are connected to the UAE culture. The leader and his seven followers are interviewed by using semi-structured forms, and inductive conventional content analysis was utilized to identify common themes and concepts related to humanistic leadership traits in the UAE.Findings: The paper highlights ten themes named humility, respect, care, fairness, transparency, well-being orientation, generosity, family focus and will with humanistic determination. These themes coincide with the various well-accepted humanistic literature theories and are also aligned with salient Islamic values and the existing humanistic leadership theories. A humanistic leadership description is provided to show the implications to the UAE context.Research limitations/implications: This study only focuses on a single higher education institution, and further studies need to be conducted to reach a generalization.Practical implications: The paper offers an alternative humanistic leadership for government departments, semi private and private companies to create an organizational culture where those values are flourished and creating an awareness in youth leadership programs to include humanistic leadership principles that will eventually increase social welfare.Originality/value: This study provides an insight into humanistic leadership phenomenon by giving a contextual example from the UAE. As there has been no attempt to link humanistic leadership to the UAE culture, the findings of this paper will contribute to cross-cultural leadership research.

This paper investigates the county-specific environmental factors that a private hospital needs to consider when entering the medical tourism market by using a strategic marketing road map. A qualitative research was conducted, and primary data were collected from the 2 directors and 12 medical professionals in a case hospital. The results show that government support, infrastructure, economic factors such as cost, capacity, and human resources orientation are the main factors affecting the development of medical tourism for a private hospital.