23,851 research outputs found
Religious leaders\u27 perceptions of advance care planning: a secondary analysis of interviews with Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Sikh and Bahai leaders
Background: International guidance for advance care planning (ACP) supports the integration of spiritual and religious aspects of care within the planning process. Religious leadersâ perspectives could improve how ACP programs respect patientsâ faith backgrounds. This study aimed to examine: (i) how religious leaders understand and consider ACP and its implications, including (ii) how religion affects followersâ approaches to end-of-life care and ACP, and (iii) their implications for healthcare.
Methods: Interview transcripts from a primary qualitative study conducted with religious leaders to inform an ACP website, ACPTalk, were used as data in this study. ACPTalk aims to assist health professionals conduct sensitive conversations with people from different religious backgrounds. A qualitative secondary analysis conducted on the interview transcripts focussed on religious leadersâ statements related to this studyâs aims. Interview transcripts were thematically analysed using an inductive, comparative, and cyclical procedure informed by grounded theory.
Results: Thirty-five religious leaders (26 male; mean 58.6-years-old), from eight Christian and six non-Christian (Jewish, Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Sikh, BahĂĄâĂ) backgrounds were included. Three themes emerged which focussed on: religious leadersâ ACP understanding and experiences; explanations for religious followersâ approaches towards end-of-life care; and health professionalsâ need to enquire about how religion matters. Most leaders had some understanding of ACP and, once fully comprehended, most held ACP in positive regard. Religious followersâ preferences for end-of-life care reflected family and geographical origins, cultural traditions, personal attitudes, and religiosity and faith interpretations. Implications for healthcare included the importance of avoiding generalisations and openness to individualised and/ or standardised religious expressions of oneâs religion.
Conclusions: Knowledge of religious beliefs and values around death and dying could be useful in preparing health professionals for ACP with patients from different religions but equally important is avoidance of assumptions. Community-based initiatives, programs and faith settin
Global Alfven Wave Heating of the Magnetosphere of Young Stars
Excitation of a Global Alfven wave (GAW) is proposed as a viable mechanism to
explain plasma heating in the magnetosphere of young stars. The wave and basic
plasma parameters are compatible with the requirement that the dissipation
length of GAWs be comparable to the distance between the shocked region at the
star's surface and the truncation region in the accretion disk. A two-fluid
magnetohydrodynamic plasma model is used in the analysis. A current carrying
filament along magnetic field lines acts as a waveguide for the GAW. The
current in the filament is driven by plasma waves along the magnetic field
lines and/or by plasma crossing magnetic field lines in the truncated region of
the disk of the accreting plasma. The conversion of a small fraction of the
kinetic energy into GAW energy is sufficient to heat the plasma filament to
observed temperatures.Comment: Submitted to ApJ, aheatf.tex, 2 figure
Recommended from our members
Food System Transformation: Integrating a Political-Economy and Social-Ecological Approach to Regime Shifts.
Sustainably achieving the goal of global food security is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. The current food system is failing to meet the needs of people, and at the same time, is having far-reaching impacts on the environment and undermining human well-being in other important ways. It is increasingly apparent that a deep transformation in the way we produce and consume food is needed in order to ensure a more just and sustainable future. This paper uses the concept of regime shifts to understand key drivers and innovations underlying past disruptions in the food system and to explore how they may help us think about desirable future changes and how we might leverage them. We combine two perspectives on regime shifts-one derived from natural sciences and the other from social sciences-to propose an interpretation of food regimes that draws on innovation theory. We use this conceptualization to discuss three examples of innovations that we argue helped enable critical regime shifts in the global food system in the past: the Haber-Bosch process of nitrogen fixation, the rise of the supermarket, and the call for more transparency in the food system to reconnect consumers with their food. This paper concludes with an exploration of why this combination of conceptual understandings is important across the Global North/ Global South divide, and proposes a new sustainability regime where transformative change is spearheaded by a variety of social-ecological innovations
Physical regularization for the spin-1/2 Aharonov-Bohm problem in conical space
We examine the bound state and scattering problem of a spin-one-half particle
undergone to an Aharonov-Bohm potential in a conical space in the
nonrelativistic limit. The crucial problem of the \delta-function singularity
coming from the Zeeman spin interaction with the magnetic flux tube is solved
through the self-adjoint extension method. Using two different approaches
already known in the literature, both based on the self-adjoint extension
method, we obtain the self-adjoint extension parameter to the bound state and
scattering scenarios in terms of the physics of the problem. It is shown that
such a parameter is the same for both situations. The method is general and is
suitable for any quantum system with a singular Hamiltonian that has bound and
scattering states.Comment: Revtex4, 5 pages, published versio
Behaviour of biofilms formed by Pseudomonas fluorescens under different flow regimes when exposed to surfactants : role of the biofilm mechanical stability
The effectiveness of cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and sodium dodecyl
sulfate (SDS) to control biofilms formed by Pseudomonas fluorescens on stainless steel
slides under laminar and turbulent conditions, using a flow cell reactor, is compared in
this study. The antimicrobial action of the surfactants was evaluated in terms of the
activity of the biofilm, the biofilm mass that remained on the surface after treatment and
the biofilm morphological characteristics. The mechanical stability of the biofilm was
also assessed using a bioreactor rotating device. For comparative purpose, the action of
the surfactants against bacterial suspended cultures was also evaluated. The interference
of proteins (bovine serum albumin-BSA), acting as soil, on the action of the surfactants
was also investigated.
Turbulent P. fluorescens biofilm seemed to be more difficult to inactivate, by CTAB
treatment, than the laminar biofilm. However, the total inactivation of the cells within
the biofilms was not achieved for both types of biofilms. Concerning SDS, higher
concentrations promoted significant biofilm inactivation. Biofilms formed under
turbulent and laminar flow had analogous susceptibility to SDS application. Regarding
biofilm removal, both surfactants appeared to have poor effect, independently of the
flow regime under which biofilms were formed. It was also seen that, the structure of
biofilms was changed after the application of both surfactants. The mechanical stability
of the biofilm was differently conditioned depending on the surfactant used: CTAB
increased the biofilm removal regardless of the concentration tested; whereas, SDS, for
concentrations far from the critical micellar concentration promoted biofilm
strengthening, since the amount of biomass that remained attached to the surface, after
submission to the different shear stresses, increased with SDS application. As
expected, the toxic action of the surfactants was more pronounced in suspended
bacteria, than in biofilms. This toxic action was significantly reduced when BSA was
added to the suspended cultures, emphasizing that these surfactants react strongly with
proteins. From this study, it can be stated that chemical treatment is far from being a
tool that induces massive detachment of P. fluorescens biofilms and even the
synergistic chemical and mechanical treatment did not promoted total biofilm removal,
emphasizing the need of care in choosing the correct procedure for biofilm control and
the recalcitrant properties of biofilms
Influence of wood storage time in the paper properties of Eucalyptus globulus
In this work we studied the effect of moisture and chip pile storage time of Eucalyptus globulus wood, regarding the impact in kraft cooking and papermaking.
Experimentally, chip samples were collected with different storage times (0, 15, 30, 60 and 90 days) from two distinct piles (wet and dry). The cooked chips after disintegration, screening and washing were submitted to a bleaching stage, in ECF sequence following five stages (D0E1D1E2D2). The pulps were beaten in a PFI mill at 1000, 2000 and 3000 revolutions. For the cooking results we observed higher yield and lower alkali consumption for the wet pile chips and lower storage time (15 days).
The results showed that storage time is a significant factor (ANOVA results) for almost paper properties studied and influenced mainly the internal fibre links. For what paper properties are concerned, the difference between piles isnât so evident, the major differences are observed for the lower storage time (15 days)
Non universality of entanglement convertibility
Recently, it has been suggested that operational properties connected to
quantum computation can be alternative indicators of quantum phase transitions.
In this work we systematically study these operational properties in 1D systems
that present phase transitions of different orders. For this purpose, we
evaluate the local convertibility between bipartite ground states. Our results
suggest that the operational properties, related to non-analyticities of the
entanglement spectrum, are good detectors of explicit symmetries of the model,
but not necessarily of phase transitions. We also show that thermodynamically
equivalent phases, such as Luttinger liquids, may display different
convertibility properties depending on the underlying microscopic model.Comment: 5 pages + references, 4 figures - improved versio
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