Utility of cognitive behavioral therapy to reduce pain in children with sickle cell disease

A clinical decision report appraising: Schatz J, Schlenz AM, McClellan CB, et al. Changes in coping, pain, and activity after cognitive-behavioral training. The Clinical Journal of Pain 2015;31(6):536-47 https://doi.org/10.1097/ajp.0000000000000183 for a child with sickle cell disease

From the production of rules to seed production: global intellectual property and local knowledge.

This paper analyzes the links and overlappings between traditional knowledge and biodiversity in the context of ecological family farming in southern Brazil. The data presented are part of an ethnographic study carried out among a network of ecological farmers, Ecovida, in the west of Santa Catarina state. The current global patent regime, most prominently the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), has had direct effects on seed production and agricultural food crops. In a scenario of increasing creation of patents, patent regulations, provisions on cultivars (plant varieties and seed breeding) and a number of other global trade control mechanisms, family farmers and other related social actors have rejected the multilateral development agencies' notion of life as "resource". This study has a two-fold aim: first, it approaches the international context of the intellectual property regime on biodiversity and knowledge production; second, it examines the actions taken by farmers participating in the Ecovida network toward creating alternative ways of managing knowledge to produce "free" seeds. As an outcome, there is a parallel political action of criticism and resistance to the current narrowing of agriculture's genetic base, and organized efforts to multiply seeds, know-how and knowledge through networks, banks and centers of agro-biodiversity. Our central argument is that all these social actors - who make up the so-called ecological network and who seek, in their activities, to carry on the multiplication and variability of seeds and promote the diversity of knowledge to produce diverse seeds - are also creating collective strategies of social resistance vis-à-vis the prevailing global modes of controlling knowledge, seeds and food production

Different disgust domains specifically relate to mental and contact contamination fear in obsessive–compulsive disorder: evidence from a path analytic model in an Italian clinical sample

Both contact contamination (CC) and mental contamination (MC) fears – which combined represent the most common manifestation of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) - have been widely associated with disgust propensity (DP). However, extant research explored this relationship using measures assessing only pathogen-related disgust, not taking into account the potential role played by sexual and moral disgust, despite literature about MC suggesting that this might be particularly relevant. In Study 1 the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Three Domains of Disgust Scale (TDDS) were assessed in a large Italian community sample. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the three-factor structure of the TDDS. The scale also showed good internal consistency and construct validity. In Study 2, the differential patterns of relationships between CC and MC and the three disgust domains were explored in an Italian clinical OCD sample using a path analytic approach. The TDDS-Pathogen subscale was a unique predictor of CC while the TDDS-Sexual subscale was a unique predictor of MC, after controlling for anxiety and depression. Surprisingly, the TDDS-Moral subscale was not a predictor of either domain of contamination fear. Limitations and clinical implications are discussed

Specific Aspects of the WTO Negotiation Process: Problems and Solutions

This article discusses the reasons for the multiple failures in the negotiations at WTO ministerial conferences. It identifies those aspects that need to be reviewed and changed in order to facilitate such negotiations. In particular, the organizational aspects are analyzed, including strategies for achieving a stronger consensus before the conferences, liberalizing the decision-making process at the conferences and ensuring the participation of developing countries. The feasibility of a package review at negotiations is also examined. The article argues that new issues on which the likelihood of consensus is low must be excluded from the WTO agenda because they not only overload the agenda but hinder the approval of any decisions. It also provides recommendations on negotiation tactics for participating countries

“Água é vida”: política, memória e experiência nos conflitos em torno da mineração em Cajamarca, Peru

Neste artigo analisamos como se constitui a defesa da vida e das águas em conflitos socioambientais na região de Cajamarca, norte do Peru. A disputa por água tem se tornado nos últimos anos uma questão central da vida das pessoas em uma região que é foco de exploração mineradora e para a qual se utilizam discursos e apelos para evocar os benefícios quanto ao desenvolvimento que ela pode realizar. Ao longo de pesquisa etnográfica se testemunhou o esforço de pessoas e coletivos para defender as águas dos rios, das lagoas e dos canais de irrigação nos Andes em paralelo ao modo como defendem a vida. Ao fazê-lo, articulam memórias, aprendizagens locais e experiências coletivas para romper com os papeis que a ordem política convencional lhes destinou, constituindo criativamente modos próprios de pensar e pôr em prática projetos de vida e resistir à opulência das empresas mineradoras ou às autoridades estatais.In this article we analyze the defense of life and water in social and environmental conflicts in the region of Cajamarca, northern Peru. In recent years the contention over water has become a central issue in people's lives in a region whose main focus is mining exploration and for which discourses and appeals are used to evoke the benefits of development that it can bring about. Through ethnographic research, we witnessed the efforts of people and collectives to defend the waters of rivers, lagoons and irrigation channels in the Andes in parallel to the way they defend life. In doing so, they articulate memories, local knowledge and collective experiences to disrupt the roles that the conventional political order has assigned to them. They creatively enact their own ways of thinking and articulate life projects, resisting to the opulence of mining companies or state authorities

Reducing contamination by exposure plus safety behaviour

Background and objectives: It has been proposed that the judicious use of safety behaviour can facilitate improvements in the acceptability of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). It was decided to explore the possibility of facilitating CBT by introducing a form of safety behaviour.We sought to assess the degree to which Exposure plus Safety Behaviour (E þ SB) is an effective intervention for contamination fears. Methods: A comparison was made between the effects of a control condition (Exposure and Response Prevention; ERP) and an experimental condition (Exposure plus Safety Behaviour; E þ SB) in which each exposure to a contaminant was followed by the use of a hygienic wipe in a sample of (n ¼ 80) undergraduate students. In session one, each participant touched a confirmed contaminant 20 times. After each exposure participants were asked to report their feelings of contamination, fear, disgust, and danger. In the second session, two weeks later, the same procedure was carried out for a further 16 trials. Results: The ERP and the E þ SB conditions both produced large, significant and stable reductions in contamination. Significant reductions in fear, danger and disgust were also reported in both conditions. Limitations: The treatment was provided to an analogue sample and over two sessions. Conclusions: The use of hygienic wipes, the safety behaviour used in this experiment, did not preclude significant reductions in contamination, disgust, fear and danger. If it is replicated and extended over a longer time-frame, this finding may enable practitioners to enhance the acceptability of cognitive behavioural treatments and boost their effectiveness

Nas teias da economia:: o papel das redes sociais e da reciprocidade nos processos locais de desenvolvimento

O trabalho aborda o tema das redes sociais de trabalho sob o ângulo das relações de reciprocidade. A partir de um estudo de caso no município de Veranópolis, Rio Grande do Sul, o artigo procura compreender a importância das relações de reciprocidade para a constituição de redes de trabalho ligadas a comerciantes, a indústrias de fusão de aços e a indústrias de calçados e artigos esportivos. Pretende-se demonstrar que, apesar de uma origem social comum, as diferentes redes de trabalho apresentam distintas características no que diz respeito a formas de trabalho, modo de operação e regulação da concorrência entre os empreendimentos. No caso estudado, o conjunto de relações em rede é responsável pelo dinamismo do mercado de trabalho e pela diferenciação da economia local, uma vez que articula os atores que compõem o tecido social e exerce efeitos relevantes para o desenvolvimento do território como um todo

Cognitive-behavior therapy for compulsive checking in OCD

There is substantial evidence for the effectiveness of psychological treatments for OCD, and various approaches have been widely recommended. These approaches tend to be characterized by exposure and response prevention (ERP) and also tend to be applied equally to all forms of OCD. Patients/clients (and some therapists) often find ERP to be a difficult treatment, and both dropout and refusal rates are unacceptably high. Based on specific cognitive conceptualizations of different manifestations of OCD, new and refined cognitive treatment methods are now available. The present article describes a specific cognitively based approach to the treatment of compulsive checking

Phenytoin-sodium induced gingival overgrowth

Magister Chirurgiae Dentium (MChD)Epilepsy is a fairly common condition and the anti-convulsant drug, phenytoin sodium, has been used in its treatment for over 40 years. Shortly after its introduction, the side-effect of gingival overgrowth was re'{XJrted and has been the subject o t of mw h research. Epidemiological studies showed that; gingival overgrowth developed in approximately half the patients treated with this drug, possibly indicating an individual patient susceptibility to this effect of the drug

WEST, Paige. 2006. Conservation is our government now: the politics of ecology in Papua New Guinea. Durham and London: Duke University Press.

Resenha do livro Conservation is our government now: the politics of ecology in Papua New Guinea, de Paige West, publicado em 2006