Incorporating mindfulness: Questioning capitalism

This paper engages with Buddhist critiques of capitalism and consumerism; and it challenges the capitalist appropriations of Buddhist techniques. We show how Buddhist modernism and Marxism/socialism can align, and how Engaged Buddhism spawns communalism and socially revolutionary impulses for sustainability and ecological responsibility within the framework of Buddhist thought and mindfulness traditions. Our example of the Thai Asoke community exemplifies Buddhist communal mindfulness-in-action, explores successes and idiosyncrasies, and shows how communal principles can operate in such work-based communities

Metaphors of mindfulness

This critical comparison of Morgan’s ‘Images of Organization’ and Hanh’s ‘Work’ considers whether Hanh offers new insights and metaphors. Morgan’s legacy resides not in his images but in showing that the dynamism of organisational theorising requires the generation of new metaphors. His images transfer onto Hanh’s psychology but largely mediate different messages. This study extends Morgan’s imagery and his understanding of the role of metaphor. Morgan’s heterogeneous, archetypal metaphors proliferate epistemologies in order to theorise organisations and broaden possible actions, whilst Hanh’s more specific, vivid, prescriptive, humanistic, homogeneous and extended metaphors explicate mindfulness across epistemological, (inter)ontological and performative dimensions—mediating the message that mindfulness provides psychological insight to human interconnectedness and guides relationships at work. Hanh’s extended metaphors of mindfulness foster a deep psychological and practical understanding of organisational members as ontologically interpenetrated. His mindfulness and metaphors are complementary in that both coherently mediate and realise awareness of this

Inter-(c)are: Höpfl and Hanh’s metaphorical mediation of intercorporeal ethicality

We identify one of Höpfl’s key contributions; her metaphorical mediation of intercorporeal ethicality. Höpfl uses metaphor to communicate an ethics that is not based on cognitive, calculative and theorising rationality but is a state of being ethical that proceeds from the heart and a recognition of interconnected bodies. We direct the research question that emerges from Höpfl’s work towards that of Thich Nhat Hanh, an Engaged Buddhist leader: how does his metaphorical discourse communicate the relationship between mindfulness and intercorporeal ethicality? Our analysis reveals how Hanh employs metaphors to mediate how mindfulness provides insight to our physical interdependence and thereby promotes mutual care: realising our indivisible unity, we care for each other. Key contributions are new theories of embodied ethicality (an ethics based on interconnected bodies) and embodying metaphor (metaphors that communicate the unity, interconnectedness and interdependence of bodies that care for one other)

A Non Mouse-Adapted Dengue Virus Strain as a New Model of Severe Dengue Infection in AG129 Mice

The spread of dengue (DEN) worldwide combined with an increased severity of the DEN-associated clinical outcomes have made this mosquito-borne virus of great global public health importance. Progress in understanding DEN pathogenesis and in developing effective treatments has been hampered by the lack of a suitable small animal model. Most of the DEN clinical isolates and cell culture-passaged DEN virus strains reported so far require either host adaptation, inoculation with a high dose and/or intravenous administration to elicit a virulent phenotype in mice which results, at best, in a productive infection with no, few, or irrelevant disease manifestations, and with mice dying within few days at the peak of viremia. Here we describe a non-mouse-adapted DEN2 virus strain (D2Y98P) that is highly infectious in AG129 mice (lacking interferon-α/β and -γ receptors) upon intraperitoneal administration. Infection with a high dose of D2Y98P induced cytokine storm, massive organ damage, and severe vascular leakage, leading to haemorrhage and rapid death of the animals at the peak of viremia. In contrast, very interestingly and uniquely, infection with a low dose of D2Y98P led to asymptomatic viral dissemination and replication in relevant organs, followed by non-paralytic death of the animals few days after virus clearance, similar to the disease kinetic in humans. Spleen damage, liver dysfunction and increased vascular permeability, but no haemorrhage, were observed in moribund animals, suggesting intact vascular integrity, a cardinal feature in DEN shock syndrome. Infection with D2Y98P thus offers the opportunity to further decipher some of the aspects of dengue pathogenesis and provides a new platform for drug and vaccine testing

Incorporating mindfulness: questioning capitalism

This paper engages with Buddhist critiques of capitalism and consumerism; and it challenges the capitalist appropriations of Buddhist techniques. We show how Buddhist modernism and Marxism/socialism can align, and how Engaged Buddhism spawns communalism and socially revolutionary impulses for sustainability and ecological responsibility within the framework of Buddhist thought and mindfulness traditions. Our case study of the Thai Asoke community exemplifies Buddhist communal mindfulness-in-action, explores successes and idiosyncrasies, and shows how communal principles can operate in such work-based communities

Predictors of children's secondhand smoke exposure at home: a systematic review and narrative synthesis of the evidence

BACKGROUND: Children's exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) has been causally linked to a number of childhood morbidities and mortalities. Over 50% of UK children whose parents are smokers are regularly exposed to SHS at home. No previous review has identified the factors associated with children's SHS exposure in the home. AIM: To identify by systematic review, the factors which are associated with children's SHS exposure in the home, determined by parent or child reports and/or biochemically validated measures including cotinine, carbon monoxide or home air particulate matter. METHODS: Electronic searches of MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, CINAHL and Web of Knowledge to July 2014, and hand searches of reference lists from publications included in the review were conducted. FINDINGS: Forty one studies were included in the review. Parental smoking, low socioeconomic status and being less educated were all frequently and consistently found to be independently associated with children's SHS exposure in the home. Children whose parents held more negative attitudes towards SHS were less likely to be exposed. Associations were strongest for parental cigarette smoking status; compared to children of non-smokers, those whose mothers or both parents smoked were between two and 13 times more likely to be exposed to SHS. CONCLUSION: Multiple factors are associated with child SHS exposure in the home; the best way to reduce child SHS exposure in the home is for smoking parents to quit. If parents are unable or unwilling to stop smoking, they should instigate smoke-free homes. Interventions targeted towards the socially disadvantaged parents aiming to change attitudes to smoking in the presence of children and providing practical support to help parents smoke outside the home may be beneficial

Hens vary their vocal repertoire and structure when anticipating different types of reward

The vocalizations of nonhuman animals are considered potential indicators of motivational or internal state. In many species, different call types, and structural variation within call types, encode information about physical characteristics such as age or sex, or about variable traits such as motivation. Domestic chickens, Gallus gallus, have an elaborate vocal repertoire, enabling investigation into whether reward-related arousal is encoded within their call type and structure. Twelve hens were given a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm using sound cues to signal the availability of two food rewards (mealworms, normal food), one nonfood reward (a container of substrate suitable for dustbathing), and a sound-neutral event (sound cue, no reward). A muted-neutral treatment (no sound cue, no reward) provided a baseline for vocal behaviour. Sound cues preceded a 15 s anticipation period during which vocalizations were recorded. Hens produced a ‘Food call’ (previously defined in other studies) in anticipation of all rewards, including the nonfood reward. ‘Food calls’ and ‘Fast clucks’ were more prevalent in anticipation of rewards, and most prevalent following the cue signalling the dustbathing substrate, suggesting that this reward induced the most arousal in hens. The peak frequency of ‘Food calls’ made in anticipation of the dustbathing substrate was significantly lower than those made in anticipation of food rewards, potentially reflecting differences in arousal. Vocalizations that reliably indicate hens' motivational state could be used as measures of welfare in on-farm assessment situations. Our study is the first to reveal variation in the frequency-related parameters of the ‘Food call’ in different contexts, and to show the prevalence of different call types in reward and nonreward contexts, which may have implications for welfare assessments

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Risk and safety requirements for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in allergology : World Allergy Organization Statement

Peer reviewe