Clinical Decision Support System for Unani Medicine Practitioners

Like other fields of Traditional Medicines, Unani Medicines have been found as an effective medical practice for ages. It is still widely used in the subcontinent, particularly in Pakistan and India. However, Unani Medicines Practitioners are lacking modern IT applications in their everyday clinical practices. An Online Clinical Decision Support System may address this challenge to assist apprentice Unani Medicines practitioners in their diagnostic processes. The proposed system provides a web-based interface to enter the patient's symptoms, which are then automatically analyzed by our system to generate a list of probable diseases. The system allows practitioners to choose the most likely disease and inform patients about the associated treatment options remotely. The system consists of three modules: an Online Clinical Decision Support System, an Artificial Intelligence Inference Engine, and a comprehensive Unani Medicines Database. The system employs advanced AI techniques such as Decision Trees, Deep Learning, and Natural Language Processing. For system development, the project team used a technology stack that includes React, FastAPI, and MySQL. Data and functionality of the application is exposed using APIs for integration and extension with similar domain applications. The novelty of the project is that it addresses the challenge of diagnosing diseases accurately and efficiently in the context of Unani Medicines principles. By leveraging the power of technology, the proposed Clinical Decision Support System has the potential to ease access to healthcare services and information, reduce cost, boost practitioner and patient satisfaction, improve speed and accuracy of the diagnostic process, and provide effective treatments remotely. The application will be useful for Unani Medicines Practitioners, Patients, Government Drug Regulators, Software Developers, and Medical Researchers.Comment: 59 pages, 11 figures, Computer Science Bachelor's Thesis on use of Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Decision Support System for Unani Medicine

Alternative pharmaceuticals: The technoscientific becomings of Tibetan medicines in-between India and Switzerland

This doctoral dissertation forges and explores connections, flows and frictions between two seemingly unrelated manufacturers of Tibetan medicines: Men-Tsee-Khang, the Tibetan Medical and Astrological Institute in Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh, India), and PADMA AG in Wetzikon (Zürich, Switzerland). Adopting a translocal, multispecies approach by positioning plant-medicines as the central actors in this ethnography, I trace how four plants - aru, ruta, tserngön and bongnak - become part of medicine in and between these two establishments of Sowa Rigpa of similar age and output volume, situated in highly diverse contexts at a stereotypical 'periphery' and 'core' of Western technoscience respectively. Inspired by Science and Technology Studies and by Pordié and Gaudillière's (2014a) 'reformulation regime' of industrial Ayurvedic proprietary products, I analyse the on-going material, technoscientific, and regulatory reformulations of Tibetan materia medica as they are actualised in contemporary recipes based on classical texts. In this thesis, I describe how both PADMA and Men-Tsee-Khang refer to Tibetan medical texts yet also rely on botanical taxonomy for plant identification. Both face the uncertainties of sourcing raw materials in bulk from growers and traders on the Indian market, skilfully mass-produce pills by means of machines for grinding, mixing, sieving and packaging, and depend on in-house laboratory analyses and each-other's expertise in the construction of hybrid 'qualities'. They are also forced to interact with technomedical conceptions of drug safety and toxicity, and with European medicine and food registration legislation to varying degrees. I argue that in performing this series of technoscientific reformulations, Tibetan medicines are becoming 'alternative pharmaceuticals': liminal, paradoxical yet politically subversive things oscillating betwixt and between tradition and modernity, orthodoxy and innovation, East and West. Men-Tsee-Khang and PADMA could thus be interpreted as two possible instantiations of a quasi-industrial techno-Sowa Rigpa, but only if one distinguishes 'Big' from 'Small Alternative' Pharma, and never without leaving crucial contradictions and identity politics behind

Negotiating the Pandemic

This book centers on negotiations around cultural, governmental, and individual constructions of COVID-19. It considers how the coronavirus pandemic has been negotiated in different cultures and countries, with the final part of the volume focusing on South Asia and Pakistan in particular. The chapters include auto-ethnographic accounts and ethnographic explorations that reflect upon experiences of living with the pandemic and its implications for all areas of life. The book explicates people’s dealings with COVID-19 at various levels, situates the spread of rumors, conspiracy theories, and new social rituals within micro- and/or macro-contexts, and describes the interplay between the virus and various institutionalized forms of inequalities and structural vulnerabilities. Bringing together a variety of perspectives, the volume relates to the past, describes the Covidian present, and offers futuristic implications. It enlists distinct imaginaries based on current understandings of an extraordinary challenge that holds significant importance for our human future

Negotiating the Pandemic

This book centers on negotiations around cultural, governmental, and individual constructions of COVID-19. It considers how the coronavirus pandemic has been negotiated in different cultures and countries, with the final part of the volume focusing on South Asia and Pakistan in particular. The chapters include auto-ethnographic accounts and ethnographic explorations that reflect upon experiences of living with the pandemic and its implications for all areas of life. The book explicates people’s dealings with COVID-19 at various levels, situates the spread of rumors, conspiracy theories, and new social rituals within micro- and/or macro-contexts, and describes the interplay between the virus and various institutionalized forms of inequalities and structural vulnerabilities. Bringing together a variety of perspectives, the volume relates to the past, describes the Covidian present, and offers futuristic implications. It enlists distinct imaginaries based on current understandings of an extraordinary challenge that holds significant importance for our human future

Ayurveda in the Age of Biomedicine: Discursive Asymmetries and Counter-Strategies.

Since the beginning of the British colonial enterprise in India the representation of the relationship between Western biomedicine and Ayurveda has been based on a fundamental epistemological asymmetry. However much Ayurveda was represented in Orientalist literature as accurate, poetic, useful, scholarly, or interesting, it could never occupy with authority the privileged place of the scientific that was central to the rhetoric of colonial rationality. In postcolonial India the practice of Ayurveda, its textual and intellectual production, socialization, treatment, public health education, scientific debate, research, and pharmaceutical commerce, all take place in the shadow of this biomedical hegemony. This dissertation analyzes the historical contingencies of this asymmetry, its instantiation in the discursive practices of contemporary Ayurveda practitioners, and the counter-strategies developed and deployed in the context of Ayurveda’s scientific modernization and institutionalization. First, I describe the textual codification of this asymmetrical disciplinary alignment in the genre of British colonial compendia of materia medica, and the efforts of anti-colonial apologists to regiment the two disciplines as separate yet equal approaches to a unified human body, an ideology which I call medical parallelism. Next, I describe the social effects of this ideology at Ayurveda institutions in Kerala, focusing in particular on how Ayurveda’s disciplinary boundaries are organized by practices of pedagogy, displays of expertise, and scientific debate. Lastly, I describe the current transformations of Ayurveda’s disciplinary boundaries through the commodification and globalization of Ayurveda drugs. My analysis throughout the dissertation focuses on the production, ideologization, and institutionalization of discursive action, which I argue, effect the stabilization of the function of linguistic reference as a medium of ideological signs. This stabilization of ideological reference, I argue, is a semiotic condition of the macro-historical processes of Ayurveda’s modernization, institutionalization, and commodification. Thus, this dissertation demonstrates an approach to history that centers on the discourse-pragmatic underpinnings of large-scale social change. In the conclusion of this dissertation I address this discourse-pragmatic analysis of Ayurveda’s postcolonial history to the challenge of formulating a critical discourse of modernity that can account for the diversity of the kinds of experiences and historical processes often glossed as “modernization.”Ph.D.AnthropologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64594/1/wolfgram_1.pd

Clinical Reasoning and Decision-Making in Homeopathy: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine homeopathic practice as a lived phenomenon. This thesis explores the interior of clinical practice. Background: Homeopathy is a globally practiced discipline in the arena of complementary and alternative medicine. Despite sustained practice it is epistemically contentious, yet little is known about the reasoning and decision making practices of its practitioners, what actually happens in practice. Methods: Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, participants were extensively observed, recorded and interviewed. Data were coded, categorised and analysed. Results: Themes representing the sources and forms of reasoning were generated. Practice is underpinned by theory, core texts and clinical authority. Beyond these sources of authority, practice is guided by clinical experience, by praxis and professional wisdom. Clinical reasoning does not exclusively depend on knowledge; it is performed between practitioners and their patients, built upon a therapeutic relationship. Discussion: This thesis enhances knowledge and understanding of clinical reasoning practice. It raises pedagogical and philosophical questions about how clinical practice can be interpreted and understood. It also argues that questions about forms of evidence for disciplines including homeopathy need to consider the diverse goals and preferences of patients and health professionals alike. Conclusions: Research into the lived experience confirms that homeopathic clinical reasoning is highly complex, driven by multiple sources of evidence

Northern Archaeology and Cosmology : A Relational View

The real and imaginary North has fascinated Europeans throughout history, from classical antiquity to the present day. The North has been seen as an exotic and enchanted world of natural and supernatural marvels: a land of light and dark, of northern lights and the midnight sun, of witches and magic, and of riches ranging from amber to oil. Northern lands conflate fantasies and realities in a particularly prominent manner. This book analyses the archaeologies and histories of the northern fringe of Europe, with a focus on animistic-shamanistic cosmologies and the associated human-environment relations from the Neolithic to modern times. It employs rich but poorly known archaeological, historical, ethnographic and folklore materials, combined with cutting-edge theoretical perspectives drawn from relational ontologies and epistemologies, to present a fresh approach on the prehistory and history of a region that is in many ways pivotal to understanding Europe-wide processes, such as Neolithization and modernization. The book engages with northern relational modes of perceiving and engaging with the world on the one hand and the ‘place’ of the North in European culture on the other. It examines the mythical and actual northern worlds which are intertwined in many curious and sometimes surprising ways, contributing to a deep-time understanding of the globally topical issue and conflicting interests in the North, as expressed by debates and controversies around Arctic resources, nature preservation, and indigenous rights.In its analysis of the archaeologies and histories of the northern fringe of Europe, this book provides a focus on animistic–shamanistic cosmologies and the associated human–environment relations from the Neolithic to modern times. The North has fascinated Europeans throughout history, as an enchanted world of natural and supernatural marvels: a land of light and dark, of northern lights and the midnight sun, of witches and magic and of riches ranging from amber to oil. Northern lands conflate fantasies and realities. Rich archaeological, historical, ethnographic and folkloric materials combine in this book with cutting-edge theoretical perspectives drawn from relational ontologies and epistemologies, producing a fresh approach to the prehistory and history of a region that is pivotal to understanding Europe-wide processes, such as Neolithization and modernization. This book examines the mythical and actual northern worlds, with northern relational modes of perceiving and engaging with the world on the one hand and the ‘place’ of the North in European culture on the other. This book is an indispensable read for scholars of archaeology, anthropology, cultural studies and folklore in northern Europe, as well as researchers interested in how the North is intertwined with developments in the broader European and Eurasian world. It provides a deep-time understanding of globally topical issues and conflicting interests, as expressed by debates and controversies around Arctic resources, nature preservation and indigenous rights.Peer reviewe

Northern Archaeology and Cosmology

In its analysis of the archaeologies and histories of the northern fringe of Europe, this book provides a focus on animistic–shamanistic cosmologies and the associated human–environment relations from the Neolithic to modern times. The North has fascinated Europeans throughout history, as an enchanted world of natural and supernatural marvels: a land of light and dark, of northern lights and the midnight sun, of witches and magic and of riches ranging from amber to oil. Northern lands conflate fantasies and realities. Rich archaeological, historical, ethnographic and folkloric materials combine in this book with cutting-edge theoretical perspectives drawn from relational ontologies and epistemologies, producing a fresh approach to the prehistory and history of a region that is pivotal to understanding Europe-wide processes, such as Neolithization and modernization. This book examines the mythical and actual northern worlds, with northern relational modes of perceiving and engaging with the world on the one hand and the ‘place’ of the North in European culture on the other. This book is an indispensable read for scholars of archaeology, anthropology, cultural studies and folklore in northern Europe, as well as researchers interested in how the North is intertwined with developments in the broader European and Eurasian world. It provides a deep-time understanding of globally topical issues and conflicting interests, as expressed by debates and controversies around Arctic resources, nature preservation and indigenous rights

Northern Archaeology and Cosmology

In its analysis of the archaeologies and histories of the northern fringe of Europe, this book provides a focus on animistic–shamanistic cosmologies and the associated human–environment relations from the Neolithic to modern times. The North has fascinated Europeans throughout history, as an enchanted world of natural and supernatural marvels: a land of light and dark, of northern lights and the midnight sun, of witches and magic and of riches ranging from amber to oil. Northern lands conflate fantasies and realities. Rich archaeological, historical, ethnographic and folkloric materials combine in this book with cutting-edge theoretical perspectives drawn from relational ontologies and epistemologies, producing a fresh approach to the prehistory and history of a region that is pivotal to understanding Europe-wide processes, such as Neolithization and modernization. This book examines the mythical and actual northern worlds, with northern relational modes of perceiving and engaging with the world on the one hand and the ‘place’ of the North in European culture on the other. This book is an indispensable read for scholars of archaeology, anthropology, cultural studies and folklore in northern Europe, as well as researchers interested in how the North is intertwined with developments in the broader European and Eurasian world. It provides a deep-time understanding of globally topical issues and conflicting interests, as expressed by debates and controversies around Arctic resources, nature preservation and indigenous rights

Critical point of view: a Wikipedia reader

For millions of internet users around the globe, the search for new knowledge begins with Wikipedia. The encyclopedia’s rapid rise, novel organization, and freely offered content have been marveled at and denounced by a host of commentators. Critical Point of View moves beyond unflagging praise, well-worn facts, and questions about its reliability and accuracy, to unveil the complex, messy, and controversial realities of a distributed knowledge platform. The essays, interviews and artworks brought together in this reader form part of the overarching Critical Point of View research initiative, which began with a conference in Bangalore (January 2010), followed by events in Amsterdam (March 2010) and Leipzig (September 2010). With an emphasis on theoretical reflection, cultural difference and indeed, critique, contributions to this collection ask: What values are embedded in Wikipedia’s software? On what basis are Wikipedia’s claims to neutrality made? How can Wikipedia give voice to those outside the Western tradition of Enlightenment, or even its own administrative hierarchies? Critical Point of View collects original insights on the next generation of wiki-related research, from radical artistic interventions and the significant role of bots to hidden trajectories of encyclopedic knowledge and the politics of agency and exclusion