Heal Her, I Beseech You: Modern Epidemiology and Prayer for Recovery

Evidence accumulates in the medical literature that studies conducted in accordance with current clinical epidemiologic research standards support the hypothesis that religious factors can improve health and accelerate the recovery from disease. The most recently published results from randomized trials on the therapeutic efficacy of intercessoiy prayer are reviewed and discussed in this essay. The author concludes that research ethics can and should include the study of the therapeutic efficacy of prayer to gather the best possible evidence for further research and, most importantly, for the patients\' benefit

The Healing Powers of Water: Myth, Mechanism, or Metaphor?

The author presents epidemiologic evidence supporting the notion of water as an important factor in disease transmission and causation. In the disease process itself, water probably plays a minor medical role, but it has major subjective importance. Secondly, he argues that water is a strong symbol for the life cycle and the process of re-creation. The meaning that water gains as a potential contributor to the healing process needs to be examined more systematically. Thirdly, his hypotheses are that water is a carrier of both therapeutic mechanism and meaning, and that the importance of mechanism to cure is secondary to the importance of meaning to healing. One reason for this might be that one of water\'s metaphoric facets is that it provides a symbolic link between the human and the divine

How do medical researchers make causal inferences?

Bradford Hill (1965) highlighted nine aspects of the complex evidential situation a medical researcher faces when determining whether a causal relation exists between a disease and various conditions associated with it. These aspects are widely cited in the literature on epidemiological inference as justifying an inference to a causal claim, but the epistemological basis of the Hill aspects is not understood. We offer an explanatory coherentist interpretation, explicated by Thagard's ECHO model of explanatory coherence. The ECHO model captures the complexity of epidemiological inference and provides a tractable model for inferring disease causation. We apply this model to three cases: the inference of a causal connection between the Zika virus and birth defects, the classic inference that smoking causes cancer, and John Snow’s inference about the cause of cholera

Power-Based Direction-of-Arrival Estimation Using a Single Multi-Mode Antenna

Phased antenna arrays are widely used for direction-of-arrival (DoA) estimation. For low-cost applications, signal power or received signal strength indicator (RSSI) based approaches can be an alternative. However, they usually require multiple antennas, a single antenna that can be rotated, or switchable antenna beams. In this paper we show how a multi-mode antenna (MMA) can be used for power-based DoA estimation. Only a single MMA is needed and neither rotation nor switching of antenna beams is required. We derive an estimation scheme as well as theoretical bounds and validate them through simulations. It is found that power-based DoA estimation with an MMA is feasible and accurate

Der Baron von Neuhoff als Romanheld bei Christian August Vulpius : die Konzeption des Abenteurertums in "Theodor König der Korsen" (1801)

Der folgende Beitrag handelt nicht eigentlich über Theodor von Neuhoff (1694 bis 1756), jenen Sproß einer westfälischen Adelsfamilie, der sich in den Aufstand der Bevölkerung Korsikas gegen die Republik Genua verwickeln ließ, 1736 als Theodor I. zum König gewählt und gekrönt wurde und, nach Jahren scheiternd, bis kurz vor seinem Tod in einem Londoner Schuldgefängnis leben mußte. Dieser Mann, den so unterschiedliche Literaten wie Voltaire, Karl August Varnhagen von Ense und Theodor Heuss – um nur je einen Namen pro Jahrhundert anzuführen – als einen ›Abenteurer‹ entweder verspottet (Voltaire) oder mit Sympathie gezeichnet haben (Varnhagen und Heuss), hat nicht nur die Historiographen, sondern auch die Romanciers und Librettisten inspiriert. Der folgende Beitrag handelt über eben diese Fiktionen, zu denen die Lebensgeschichte des Barons und Königs schon im 18. Jahrhundert (und übrigens noch jüngst in einem deutschen Roman) Anlaß gegeben hat.1 Er beginnt mit zwei knappen Abschnitten über Neuhoffs fiktionale Existenz vor dem Zugriff von Christian August Vulpius auf den Stoff (Abschnitt 1) und über die Semantik des Abenteuerlichen in Nachschlagewerken des späten 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhunderts (Abschnitt 2). Die Analyse von Theodor König der Korsen unter der im Titel formulierten Fragestellung macht naturgemäß den Hauptteil aus (Abschnitte 3 und 4). Abgeschlossen werden Analyse und Beitrag durch eine Deutung der von Vulpius in den Roman eingefügten Figur des Ewigen Juden (Abschnitt 5)

Goethes "Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten" als Essay über die Gattung der Prosaerzählung im 18. Jahrhundert

Daß die Deutung eines Textes meist vor einem anderen Text erfolgt, den der Deutende schon verstanden hat, dieses Phänomen (von der hermeneutischen Konstellation, daß immer auf einen Fragehorizont hin gedeutet wird, klar zu unterscheiden) läßt sich in der schmalen Forschungsgeschichte zu Goethes »Unterhaltungen« darum besonders gut erkennen, weil die »Unterhaltungen deutscher Ausgewanderten« selbst bei denen, die sie schätzen, als ein Werk geringeren Gewichts gelten und also der Anlehnung auf jeden Fall bedürfen

The Frontier nursing service as an agent of change

The purpose of this dissertation was to analyze the influence of the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) on the area in which it operated. Mary Breckinridge founded the FNS in 1925 to demonstrate a method of delivering health care in an isolated rural area. She selected Leslie County in southeast Kentucky for its locale because of its isolation; there were no roads in the county and no licensed physicians. The FNS program centered on nurse-midwives who provided health care from decentralized district clinics so situated that no family was more than an hour\u27s horseback or jeep ride away. A hospital and physician backstopped the district midwives. Apparently FNS did an excellent job of delivering health care. There have been no maternal deaths since 1952 and its infant mortality and communicable disease rates have been low. Presumably because of its emphasis on home health care, typical hospital stays have been shorter than the national average. FNS appears to have had little impact outside of the immediate field of health. The nurses were well accepted and their advice followed on such matters as child care. But they were unable to persuade their patients to build latrines or otherwise improve sanitation. Government programs and improved communications seem to have been the chief stimuli for change in the field s of economics, education and sanitation. Breckinridge urged her nurses to avoid discussing and becoming involved in politics, religion or moonshining. FNS was, accordingly, no threat to the local power structure which may be one reason it was so well accepted. It also may explain why FNS had so little impact outside of the field of health

Monte Carlo Study of the Inflation-Deflation Transition in a Fluid Membrane

We study the conformation and scaling properties of a self-avoiding fluid membrane, subject to an osmotic pressure $p$, by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Using finite size scaling methods in combination with a histogram reweighting techniques we find that the surface undergoes an abrupt conformational transition at a critical pressure $p^\ast$, from low pressure deflated configurations with a branched polymer characteristics to a high pressure inflated phase, in agreement with previous findings \cite{gompper,baum}. The transition pressure $p^{\ast}$ scales with the system size as $p^\ast \propto N^{-\alpha}$, with $\alpha = 0.69 \pm 0.01$. Below $p^\ast$ the enclosed volume scales as $V \propto N$, in accordance with the self-avoiding branched polymer structure, and for $p\searrow p^{\ast}$ our data are consistent with the finite size scaling form $V \propto N^{\beta_{+}}$, where $\beta_{+} = 1.43 \pm 0.04$. Also the finite size scaling behavior of the radii of gyration and the compressibility moduli are obtained. Some of the observed exponents and the mechanism behind the conformational collapse are interpreted in terms of a Flory theory.Comment: 20 pages + postscript-file, Latex + Postscript, IFA Report No. 94/1