The Role of Visiting Professionals in Peacebuilding

Seeking to inform the peace-through-tourism scholarly debate, this chapter revisits this complex relationship from the angle of peacebuilding professionals. International peacebuilding settings habitually welcome peace professionals as visiting contributors, consultants, and freelancers. These visiting peacebuilders are characterised by a form of geographical hybridity that identifies them as a distinct audience in international peacebuilding and a niche audience of international travellers. In order to examine their role and contribution in international peacebuilding, the present study employs a qualitative methodological approach that combines historical narrative and field interviews to the case of the Cyprus peacebuilding discourse. This chapter argues that visiting peacebuilders have a significant role in formulating optimal encounters between peacebuilder audiences and in increasing the effectiveness of international peacebuilding projects

Smoking and Pulmonary Fibrosis: Novel Insights

The relationship between smoking and pulmonary fibrosis is under debate and intense investigation. The aim of this paper is to review the existing literature and identify further areas of research interest. Recently the negative influence of cigarette smoking on IPF outcome was highlighted, as non-smokers exhibit a better survival than ex-smokers and combined current- and ex-smokers. In patients with non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP), a high prevalence of emphysema was recently demonstrated, providing an indirect support for a smoking pathogenetic hypothesis in NSIP. The coexistence of pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema has been extensively described in a syndrome termed combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema (CPFE). Connective tissue disorders (CTDs) are a group of autoimmune diseases which affect the lung, as one of the most common and severe manifestations. However, the relationship between smoking and autoimmune disorders is still conflicting. Rheumatoid arthritis results from the interaction between genetic and environmental factors, while the best established environmental factor is tobacco smoking. Smoking has also a negative impact on the response of the RA patients to treatment. The aforementioned smoking-related implications give rise to further research questions and certainly provide one more important reason for physicians to advocate smoking cessation and smoke-free environment

Visiting the “enemy”: visitation in politically unstable destinations

Purpose This study aims to examine the factors shaping the intentions of people to visit a hostile outgroup. Design/methodology/approach An exploratory, qualitative research approach was followed. Specifically, 77 semi-structured interviews with citizens of the divided island of Cyprus were conducted. Findings This study identifies several categories of visitors and non-visitors, depicted along a continuum, and concludes that there is a multiplicity of factors in the socio-political environment which influence the travel intentions of people. Originality/value This study not only imparts insights into the way travel decision-making evolves in politically unstable situations but also serves as a stepping stone towards understanding the conditions under which reconciliation between hostile nations may be encouraged by travel

Pharmacological treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: from the past to the future

During the past decade important progress has been made regarding the pathogenesis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), which is the most devastating form of idiopathic interstitial pneumonia with a median survival of 3 years. The knowledge gained has been used to design multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled trials in order to investigate agents with different mechanisms of action. Encouraging results have led to licensing of the first IPF-specific drug, pirfenidone. However, the road to successful treatment is still long. The main aim for the future should be the careful design of clinical trials, by choosing the most clinically meaningful end-point and keeping in mind that combination of various agents may be more effective. This approach has been used in the treatment of lung cancer with which IPF presents many similarities

Detection of herpes simplex virus Type-1 in patients with fibrotic lung diseases

The current study intends to investigate i) the incidence of herpes viruses including Herpes Simplex Virus type-1 (HSV-1), Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Human Herpes Virus -6, -7, -8 (HHV6, HHV7, HHV8) in two biological samples, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and lung tissue biopsy, in different forms of pulmonary fibrosis, and ii) the induction of molecular pathways involved in fibrosis by herpesvirus infection in primary cell cultures. PCR was employed for the detection of CMV, HHV6-8 and HSV-1 DNA in lung specimens (4 controls and 11 IPF specimens) and BALF pellet [6 controls and 20 fibrotic Idiopathic Intestitial Pneumonias (f-IIPs) samples: 13 idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and 7 nonspecific idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (NSIP)] samples. Among all herpesviruses tested, HSV-1 was detected in 1/11 (9%) specimens from IPF lung tissue and in 2/20 (10%) samples of f-IIPs BALF whereas the control group was negative. Primary cell cultures from BALF of patients with IPF and healthy controls were infected in vitro with wild-type HSV-1 virus and Real Time PCR was employed for the detection of gene transcription of specific axes implicated in lung fibrosis. Primary cell cultures were permissive to HSV-1, resulting in an upregulation of the fibrotic growth factors TGFβ1 and FGF, the angiogenetic markers SDF1a, SDF1b, VEGF, FGF and the regulators of tissue wound healing MMP9 and CCR7. Downregulation was noted for the CXCR4 and MMP2 genes, while a different response has been detected in healthy donors regarding the expression of the aforementioned markers. These results implicate for the first time the HSV-1 with Fibrotic Idiopathic Interstitial Pneumonias since the virus presented similar incidence in two different biological samples

Clinical highlights: messages from Munich

This article reviews a selection of presentations in the area of clinical problems that were presented at the 2014 European Respiratory Society International Congress in Munich, Germany. We review the most recent and relevant topics of interest in the area of clinical respiratory medicine, encompassing novel reports and studies that are of particular interest to healthcare professionals. Topics ranging from basic science to translation research are presented and discussed in the context of the most up-to-date literature. In particular, the reviewed topics deal with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (pathogenesis and therapy), advances in functional chest imaging, interventional pulmonology, pulmonary rehabilitation, and chronic care