10,235 research outputs found
Traditional Herbal Medicine in Mesoamerica: Toward Its Evidence Base for Improving Universal Health Coverage
The quality of health care in Mesoamerica is influenced by its rich cultural diversity and characterized by social inequalities. Especially indigenous and rural communities confront diverse barriers to accessing formal health services, leading to often conflicting plurimedical systems. Fostering integrative medicine is a fundamental pillar for achieving universal health coverage (UHC) for marginalized populations. Recent developments toward health sovereignty in the region are concerned with assessing the role of traditional medicines, and particularly herbal medicines, to foster accessible and culturally pertinent healthcare provision models. In Mesoamerica, as in most regions of the world, a wealth of information on traditional and complementary medicine has been recorded. Yet these data are often scattered, making it difficult for policy makers to regulate and integrate traditionally used botanical products into primary health care. This critical review is based on a quantitative analysis of 28 survey papers focusing on the traditional use of botanical drugs in Mesoamerica used for the compilation of the “Mesoamerican Medicinal Plant Database” (MAMPDB), which includes a total of 12,537 use-records for 2188 plant taxa. Our approach presents a fundamental step toward UHC by presenting a pharmacological and toxicological review of the cross-culturally salient plant taxa and associated botanical drugs used in traditional medicine in Mesoamerica. Especially for native herbal drugs, data about safety and effectiveness are limited. Commonly used cross-culturally salient botanical drugs, which are considered safe but for which data on effectiveness is lacking constitute ideal candidates for treatment outcome studies
Green Health in Guatemala - How can we build mutual trust and partnerships for developing local medicines’ evidence-base and potential?
The implementation of access and benefit-sharing (ABS) protocols and especially the Nagoya Protocol has created new hurdles for collaborations around Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and international collaborations. Overall, these frameworks push for the development of novel collaborative North-South agendas in order to improve the fair distribution of benefits. The Green Health project (Guatemala) aims to implement a culturally pertinent and mutually accepted framework for sustainable use, access and benefit-sharing (ABS) of traditional medicinal plants. It involves developing a consensus among indigenous groups, government officials, industry, and academia. We describe steps undertaken to design and implement an intercultural transdisciplinary process that promotes trust building and advances herbal medicine research in a respectful and innovative way. This involves joint definition of goals and methods. The consortium co-researched Q’eqchi’ Maya traditional medicine, collected voucher specimens of medicinal plants with traditional healers, identified their taxa, and later developed a literature-based evaluation identifying species for potential product development. No samples for further research and development are collected. By applying the emic-etic concept, the project was able to understand the main drivers of each stakeholder and the associated obstacles for reaching an ABS agreement. This results in the emergence of potential new drivers for developing evidence-based herbal medicine from the perspective of academia, policy and cooperation and grass-roots indigenous movements
Leptogenesis and Low-energy Observables
We relate leptogenesis in a class of theories to low-energy experimental
observables: quark and lepton masses and mixings. With reasonable assumptions
motivated by grand unification, one can show that the CP-asymmetry parameter
takes a universal form. Furthermore the dilution mass is related to the light
neutrino masses. Overall, these models offer a natural explanation for a lepton
asymmetry in the early universe.Comment: 10 pages, revised discussion on light neutrino masse
Transport Properties through Double Barrier Structure in Graphene
The mode-dependent transmission of relativistic ballistic massless Dirac
fermion through a graphene based double barrier structure is being investigated
for various barrier parameters. We compare our results with already published
work and point out the relevance of these findings to a systematic study of the
transport properties in double barrier structures. An interesting situation
arises when we set the potential in the leads to zero, then our 2D problem
reduces effectively to a 1D massive Dirac equation with an effective mass
proportional to the quantized wave number along the transverse direction.
Furthermore we have shown that the minimal conductivity and maximal Fano factor
remain insensitive to the ratio between the two potentials V_2/V_1=\alpha.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, clarifications and reference added, misprints
corrected. Version to appear in JLT
Numerical Approaches to Spacetime Singularities
This Living Review updates a previous version which its itself an update of a
review article. Numerical exploration of the properties of singularities could,
in principle, yield detailed understanding of their nature in physically
realistic cases. Examples of numerical investigations into the formation of
naked singularities, critical behavior in collapse, passage through the Cauchy
horizon, chaos of the Mixmaster singularity, and singularities in spatially
inhomogeneous cosmologies are discussed.Comment: 51 pages, 6 figures may be found in online version: Living Rev.
Relativity 2002-1 at www.livingreviews.or
Relativistic Hartree-Bogoliubov description of ground-state properties of Ni and Sn isotopes
The Relativistic Hartree Bogoliubov (RHB) theory is applied in the
description of ground-state properties of Ni and Sn isotopes. The NL3 parameter
set is used for the effective mean-field Lagrangian, and pairing correlations
are described by the pairing part of the finite range Gogny interaction D1S.
Fully self-consistent RHB solutions are calculated for the Ni () and Sn () isotopes. Binding energies, neutron separation
energies, and proton and neutron radii are compared with experimental
data. The model predicts a reduction of the spin-orbit potential with the
increase of the number of neutrons. The resulting energy splittings between
spin-orbit partners are discussed, as well as pairing properties calculated
with the finite range effective interaction in the channel.Comment: 11 pages, RevTex, 12 p.s figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
A New Parameterization for the Lagrangian Density of Relativistic Mean Field Theory
A new parameterization for an effective non-linear Lagrangian density of
relativistic mean field (RMF) theory is proposed, which is able to provide an
excellent description not only for the properties of stable nuclei but also for
those far from the valley of beta-stability. In addition recently measured
superdeformed mimima in the Hg-region are reproduced with high accuracy.Comment: 8 pages, Latex, 1 ps figur
Gas and dust properties in the afterglow spectra of GRB 050730
We present early WHT ISIS optical spectroscopy of the afterglow of gamma-ray
burst GRB 050730. The spectrum shows a DLA system with the highest measured
hydrogen column to date: N(HI) = 22.1 +/- 0.1 at the third-highest GRB redshift
z = 3.968. Our analysis of the Swift XRT X-ray observations of the early
afterglow show X-ray flares accompanied by decreasing X-ray absorption. From
both the optical and the X-ray spectra we constrain the dust and gas properties
of the host galaxy. We find the host to be a low metallicity galaxy, with low
dust content. Much of the X-ray absorbing gas is situated close to the GRB,
whilst the HI absorption causing the DLA is most likely located further out.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for A&A Letter
Identifying the Higgs Boson in Electron--Photon Collisions
We analyze the production and detection of the Higgs boson in the next
generation of linear colliders operating in the mode. In
particular, we study the production mechanism , where one photon is generated via the laser
backscattering mechanism, while the other is radiated via the usual
bremsstrahlung process. We show that this is the most important mechanism for
Higgs boson production in a GeV collider for
M_H\raisebox{-.4ex}{\rlap{\sim}} \raisebox{.4ex}{>}140 GeV. We also study
the signals and backgrounds for detection of the Higgs in the different decay
channels, , , and , and suggest kinematical cuts to
improve the signature of an intermediate mass Higgs boson.Comment: (REVTEX 2.0, 12 pages and 9 figures available upon request, Preprint
MAD/PH/753
Leptogenesis and low energy observables in left-right symmetric models
In the context of left-right symmetric models we study the connection of
leptogenesis and low energy parameters such as neutrinoless double beta decay
and leptonic CP violation. Upon imposition of a unitarity constraint, the
neutrino parameters are significantly restricted and the Majorana phases are
determined within a narrow range, depending on the kind of solar solution. One
of the Majorana phases gets determined to a good accuracy and thereby the
second phase can be probed from the results of neutrinoless double beta decay
experiments. We examine the contributions of the solar and atmospheric mass
squared differences to the asymmetry and find that in general the solar scale
dominates. In order to let the atmospheric scale dominate, some finetuning
between one of the Majorana phases and the Dirac CP phase is required. In this
case, one of the Majorana phases is determined by the amount of CP violation in
oscillation experiments.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures. Matches version to appear in PR
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