A phenomenological study of clients’ experiences of ‘lightness’ and ‘aliveness’ in psychotherapy within the context of Vajrayana cross-cultural therapeutic practices.

This thesis aligns itself with a critical tradition that asserts that current mental health assessment and treatment has its basis in symptom classification and quantification methods, which in turn have roots in the empirical traditions of modernity, in the demands and discourses of capitalism (Foucault 1961) and in Cartesian dualism. This critique further asserts that such embedded epistemologically-grounded practices have an initial impact on a client’s sense of personal agency as their own experiential sense of self, the potentially fluid, idiosyncratic nature of learning from their life journey as embodied beings, is negated. I would like to create and research a treatment model from a different ontological and epistemological base which represents more of an open enquiry into the embodied totality of the client’s experience and sense of self, drawing from Gendlin’s Focusing model of experiencing and defining the self from within, and on Vajrayana Buddhist practices. Therefore the aims of the study were:- 1. To describe an innovative model of conducting psychotherapy that combines a Western approach (Gendlin's Focusing) with Tibetan Vajrayana practices of transformation. 2. By means of a phenomenological research method, to clarify the essential structure of two pivotal experiences relevant to clients' experiences of change in this form of therapy: 'experiential lightness' and 'experiential aliveness'. 3. To answer the following three research questions that are enabled by pursuing the above two aims: a) What is the phenomenon of ‘lightness’ and ‘aliveness’ as experienced in psychotherapy and how does it impact upon process and outcome? b) Can Vajrayana Buddhist practices be effectively integrated into Western Psychotherapy? c) What happens when Gendlin's Focusing is combined with adapted Vajrayana practices? Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenological method was utilised with eight of my own psychotherapy clients who had experienced Vajrayana adapted practices and Focusing in therapy. Retrospective interviews were used to explore the experience near question: “Can you describe any moments you have had in therapy in which you felt an increased sense of ‘aliveness’ or ‘lightness’ which began to change your sense of self...you may want to use your own words for this ... but any experience in therapy which energised you and led to a shift in your sense of who you are. If so, can we begin by describing this experience as fully as possible.” The interviews took place a minimum of two months after participants had finished therapy at a College of Further Education. Five key constituents were illuminated by participants’ descriptions of lightness and aliveness. These were 1) freedom from the experience of heaviness as pain 2) freedom as independence 3) a sense of the opening up of possibilities 4) the integration of freedom and possibility into one’s life 5) pathways to lightness and aliveness. This study concludes that exploring the phenomena of ‘lightness’ and ‘aliveness’ has revealed that identity has roots in transpersonal experiencing. This presents an argument for an epistemological and ontological framework within the psychological therapies which is capable of encompassing this domain. In delineating the phenomenon of ‘lightness’ and ‘aliveness’ and its outcomes for my clients, I argue that this study also makes an innovative contribution to the cultural integration of Western and Eastern models of suffering and their resolution

Healthy Parks Healthy People: Evaluating and Improving Park Service Efforts to Promote Tourists Health and Well-being Introduction

Both Parks Victoria, AUS and the United States National Park Service (USNPS) focus on promoting human health and well-being while sustaining environmental well-being. This has been fostered by the agencies through the “Healthy Parks Healthy People” program, in which Parks Victoria and the USNPS are global leaders as well as agency collaborators. Given global concerns regarding health and well-being (human and environmental) this movement is crucial. However, in order for parks and associated tourism providers to implement effective health strategies, we must understand what a “healthy park” is, how evidence is being promoted to existing and potential tourists, and what lessons can be learned from these agencies to facilitate these benefits globally in other settings. This research examines these questions across both agencies through content analyses, interviews, and assessments of tourism use trends. Results inform global park tourism planning and promotion efforts to improve social and ecological

Chronic Beryllium Disease and Sensitization at a Beryllium Processing Facility

We conducted a medical screening for beryllium disease of 577 former workers from a beryllium processing facility. The screening included a medical and work history questionnaire, a chest radiograph, and blood lymphocyte proliferation testing for beryllium. A task exposure and a job exposure matrix were constructed to examine the association between exposure to beryllium and the development of beryllium disease. More than 90% of the cohort completed the questionnaire, and 74% completed the blood and radiograph component of the screening. Forty-four (7.6%) individuals had definite or probable chronic beryllium disease (CBD), and another 40 (7.0%) were sensitized to beryllium. The prevalence of CBD and sensitization in our cohort was greater than the prevalence reported in studies of other beryllium-exposed cohorts. Various exposure measures evaluated included duration; first decade worked; last decade worked; cumulative, mean, and highest job; and highest task exposure to beryllium (to both soluble and nonsoluble forms). Soluble cumulative and mean exposure levels were lower in individuals with CBD. Sensitized individuals had shorter duration of exposure, began work later, last worked longer ago, and had lower cumulative and peak exposures and lower nonsoluble cumulative and mean exposures. A possible explanation for the exposure–response findings of our study may be an interaction between genetic predisposition and a decreased permanence of soluble beryllium in the body. Both CBD and sensitization occurred in former workers whose mean daily working lifetime average exposures were lower than the current allowable Occupational Safety and Health Administration workplace air level of 2 μg/m(3) and the Department of Energy guideline of 0.2 μg/m(3)

Review: The Newsletter of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, volume 16, issue 1

Contents include: Editors\u27 Note; Kirk Watson\u27s List for Making a Cool City; Remembering the Collaboration Project: Texts for an Untitled Bird Play; Mix Tape: A Collaboration; An Untitled Piece; Untitled Baseball Play; Elliott Hayes Remarks 2005; A Newbie at LMDA Conference \u2705, reconstructed journal entries with mostly unforced bildungsroman narrative structure; What\u27s So Great About New Plays? A position paper on the focus on new plays in the field of dramaturgy with three responses; New Plays in Canada, What\u27s So Great About New Plays--A Thought or Seven; Thoughts on New Plays from an Elliott Hayes Award Acceptance Speech. Issue editors: D.J. Hopkins, Shelley Orr, Madeleine Oldhamhttps://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/lmdareview/1032/thumbnail.jp

Reduction in renal ACE2 expression in subtotal nephrectomy in rats is ameliorated with ACE inhibition

Alterations within the RAS (renin–angiotensin system) are pivotal for the development of renal disease. ACE2 (angiotensin-converting enzyme 2) is expressed in the kidney and converts the vasoconstrictor AngII (angiotensin II) into Ang-(1–7), a peptide with vasodilatory and anti-fibrotic actions. Although the expression of ACE2 in the diabetic kidney has been well studied, little is known about its expression in non-diabetic renal disease. In the present study, we assessed ACE2 in rats with acute kidney injury induced by STNx (subtotal nephrectomy). STNx and Control rats received vehicle or ramipril (1 mg·kg−1 of body weight·day−1), and renal ACE, ACE2 and mas receptor gene and protein expression were measured 10 days later. STNx rats were characterized by polyuria, proteinuria, hypertension and elevated plasma ACE2 activity (all P<0.01) and plasma Ang-(1–7) (P<0.05) compared with Control rats. There was increased cortical ACE binding and medullary mas receptor expression (P<0.05), but reduced cortical and medullary ACE2 activity in the remnant kidney (P<0.05 and P<0.001 respectively) compared with Control rats. In STNx rats, ramipril reduced blood pressure (P<0.01), polyuria (P<0.05) and plasma ACE2 (P<0.01), increased plasma Ang-(1–7) (P<0.001), and inhibited renal ACE (P<0.001). Ramipril increased both cortical and medullary ACE2 activity (P<0.01), but reduced medullary mas receptor expression (P<0.05). In conclusion, our results show that ACE2 activity is reduced in kidney injury and that ACE inhibition produced beneficial effects in association with increased renal ACE2 activity. As ACE2 both degrades AngII and generates the vasodilator Ang-(1–7), a decrease in renal ACE2 activity, as observed in the present study, has the potential to contribute to the progression of kidney disease

Crop Updates 2009 - Cereals

This session covers twenty seven papers from different authors: PLENARY 1. Building soil carbon for productivity and implications for carbon accounting, Jeff Baldock, CSIRO Land and Water, Adelaide, SA 2. Fact or Fiction: Who is telling the truth and how to tell the difference, Doug Edmeades, agKnowledge Ltd, Hamilton 3. Four decades of crop sequence trials in Western Australia, Mark Seymour,Department of Agriculture and Food BREAK CROPS 4. 2008 Break Crops survey Report, Paul Carmody,Development Officer, Department of Agriculture and Food 5. Attitudes of Western Australian wheatbelt growers to ‘Break Crops’, Paul Carmody and Ian Pritchard, Development Officers, Department of Agriculture and Food 6. The value of organic nitrogen from lupins, Alan Meldrum, Pulse Australia 7.The area of break crops on farm: What farmers are doing compared to estimates based on maximising profit, Michael Robertson and Roger Lawes,CSIRO Floreat, Rob Sands,FARMANCO Farm Consultants, Peter White,Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, Felicity Byrne and Andrew Bathgate,Farming Systems Analysis CROP SPECIFIC Breeding 8. Identification of WALAB2014 as a potential albus lupin variety for northern agricultural region of Western Australia, Kedar Adhikari, Department of Agriculture and Food 9. Enhancement of black spot resistance in field pea, Kedar Adhikari, Tanveer Khan, Stuart Morgan and Alan Harris, Department of Agriculture and Food 10. Desi chickpea breeding: Evaluation of advanced line, Khan, TN1, Harris, A1, Gaur, P2, Siddique, KHM3, Clarke, H4, Turner, NC4, MacLeod, W1, Morgan, S1 1Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, 2International Crop Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), 3The University of Western Australia, 4Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture 11. Pulse Breeding Australia-Australian Field Pea Improvement Program (AFPIP), Ian Pritchard1, Chris Veitch1, Stuart Morgan1, Alan Harris1 and Tony Leonforte 2 1 Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, 2 Department off Primary Industries, Victoria Disease 12. Interaction between wheat varieties and fungicides to control stripe rust for grain and quality, Kith Jayasena, Geoff Thomas, Rob Loughman, Kazue Tanaka and Bill MacLeod, Department of Agriculture and Food 13. Findings of canola disease survey 2008 and its implications for better disease management in 2009, Ravjit Khangura, WJ MacLeod, P White, P Carmody and M Amjad, Department of Agriculture and Food 14. Combating wheat leaf diseases using genome sequencing and functional genomics, Richard Oliver, Australian Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens, Murdoch University 15. Distribution and survival of wheat curl mite (Aceria tosichella), vector of Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus, in the WA grainbelt during 2008, Dusty Severtson, Peter Mangano, John Botha and Brenda Coutts, Department of Agriculture and Food 16. Partial resistance to Stagonspora (Septoria) Partial resistance to Stagonospora (Septoria) nodorum blotch and response to fungicide in a severe epidemic scenario, Manisha Shankar1, Richard Oliver2, Kasia Rybak2and Rob Loughman1 1Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, 2Australian Centre for Necrotrophic Fungal Pathogens, Murdoch University, Western Australia 17. Black pod syndrome in lupins can be reduced by regular insecticide sprays, Peter White and Michael Baker,Department of Agriculture and Food Variety performance 18. Incorporating new herbicide tolerant juncea canola into low rainfall cropping systems in Western Australia, Mohammad Amjad, Department of Agriculture and Food 19. Varietal differences in germ end staining of barley, Andrea Hills,Department of Agriculture and Food 20. Wheat variety performance in the Central Agricultural Region in 2008, Shahajahan Miyan, Department of Agriculture and Food 21. Barley variety identification using DNA fingerprinting, Peter Portmann, Agriconnect, Perth WA Dr Nicole Rice, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW Prof Robert Henry, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW 22. Forecast disease resistance profile for the Western Australian barley crop over the next three years, Jeff J. Russell, Department of Agriculture and Food 23. Malting barley varieties differ in their flowering date and their response to changes in sowing date, BH Paynter and Jeff J. Russell,Department of Agriculture and Food 24. Market development for new barley varieties, Linda Price,Barley Australia 25. Response of wheat varieties to sowing time at Mt Barker, Katanning and Newdegate in 2008, Brenda Shackley and Vicki Scanlan,Department of Agriculture and Food 26. Flowering dates of wheat varieties in 2008 at three locations in Western Australia, Darshan Sharma, Brenda Shackley and Christine Zaicou-Kunesch, Department of Agriculture and Food 27. Agronomic responses of new wheat varieties in the norther agricultural region in 2008, Christine Zaicou-Kunesch, Department of Agriculture and Foo

Extracellular Administration of BCL2 Protein Reduces Apoptosis and Improves Survival in a Murine Model of Sepsis

Severe sepsis and septic shock are major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In experimental sepsis there is prominent apoptosis of various cell types, and genetic manipulation of death and survival pathways has been shown to modulate organ injury and survival.We investigated the effect of extracellular administration of two anti-apoptotic members of the BCL2 (B-cell lymphoma 2) family of intracellular regulators of cell death in a murine model of sepsis induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). We show that intraperitoneal injection of picomole range doses of recombinant human (rh) BCL2 or rhBCL2A1 protein markedly improved survival as assessed by surrogate markers of death. Treatment with rhBCL2 or rhBCL2A1 protein significantly reduced the number of apoptotic cells in the intestine and heart following CLP, and this was accompanied by increased expression of endogenous mouse BCL2 protein. Further, mice treated with rhBCL2A1 protein showed an increase in the total number of neutrophils in the peritoneum following CLP with reduced neutrophil apoptosis. Finally, although neither BCL2 nor BCL2A1 are a direct TLR2 ligand, TLR2-null mice were not protected by rhBCL2A1 protein, indicating that TLR2 signaling was required for the protective activity of extracellularly adminsitered BCL2A1 protein in vivo.Treatment with rhBCL2A1 or rhBCL2 protein protects mice from sepsis by reducing apoptosis in multiple target tissues, demonstrating an unexpected, potent activity of extracellularly administered BCL2 BH4-domain proteins

Long-term genetic consequences of mammal reintroductions into an Australian conservation reserve

Available online 05 January 2018Reintroduction programs aim to restore self-sustaining populations of threatened species to their historic range. However, demographic restoration may not reflect genetic restoration, which is necessary for the long-term persistence of populations. Four threatened Australian mammals, the greater stick-nest rat (Leporillus conditor), greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis), burrowing bettong (Bettongia lesueur) and western barred bandicoot (Perameles bougainville), were reintroduced at Arid Recovery Reserve in northern South Australia over the last 18 years. These reintroductions have been deemed successful based on population growth and persistence, however the genetic consequences of the reintroductions are not known. We generated large single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) datasets for each species currently at Arid Recovery and compared them to samples collected from founders. We found that average genetic diversity in all populations at the Arid Recovery Reserve are close to, or exceeding, the levels measured in the founders. Increased genetic diversity in two species was achieved by admixing slightly diverged and inbred source populations. Our results suggest that genetic diversity in translocated populations can be improved or maintained over relatively long time frames, even in small conservation reserves, and highlight the power of admixture as a tool for conservation management.Lauren C. White, Katherine E. Moseby, Vicki A. Thomson, Stephen C. Donnellan, Jeremy J. Austi

Challenges and opportunities for conducting a vaccine trial during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented challenges for healthcare systems worldwide. It has also stimulated research in a wide range of areas including rapid diagnostics, novel therapeutics, use of technology to track patients and vaccine development. Here, we describe our experience of rapidly setting up and delivering a novel COVID-19 vaccine trial, using clinical and research staff and facilities in three National Health Service Trusts in Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom. We encountered and overcame a number of challenges including differences in organisational structures, research facilities available, staff experience and skills, information technology and communications infrastructure, and research training and assessment procedures. We overcame these by setting up a project team that included key members from all three organisations that met at least daily by teleconference. This group together worked to identify the best practices and procedures and to harmonise and cascade these to the wider trial team. This enabled us to set up the trial within 25 days and to recruit and vaccinate the participants within a further 23 days. The lessons learned from our experiences could be used to inform the conduct of clinical trials during a future infectious disease pandemic or public health emergency

Home and Online Management and Evaluation of Blood Pressure (HOME BP) using a digital intervention in poorly controlled hypertension: randomised controlled trial

Objective: The HOME BP (Home and Online Management and Evaluation of Blood Pressure) trial aimed to test a digital intervention for hypertension management in primary care by combining self-monitoring of blood pressure with guided self-management. Design: Unmasked randomised controlled trial with automated ascertainment of primary endpoint. Setting: 76 general practices in the United Kingdom. Participants: 622 people with treated but poorly controlled hypertension (&gt;140/90 mm Hg) and access to the internet. Interventions: Participants were randomised by using a minimisation algorithm to self-monitoring of blood pressure with a digital intervention (305 participants) or usual care (routine hypertension care, with appointments and drug changes made at the discretion of the general practitioner; 317 participants). The digital intervention provided feedback of blood pressure results to patients and professionals with optional lifestyle advice and motivational support. Target blood pressure for hypertension, diabetes, and people aged 80 or older followed UK national guidelines. Main outcome measures: The primary outcome was the difference in systolic blood pressure (mean of second and third readings) after one year, adjusted for baseline blood pressure, blood pressure target, age, and practice, with multiple imputation for missing values. Results: After one year, data were available from 552 participants (88.6%) with imputation for the remaining 70 participants (11.4%). Mean blood pressure dropped from 151.7/86.4 to 138.4/80.2 mm Hg in the intervention group and from 151.6/85.3 to 141.8/79.8 mm Hg in the usual care group, giving a mean difference in systolic blood pressure of −3.4 mm Hg (95% confidence interval −6.1 to −0.8 mm Hg) and a mean difference in diastolic blood pressure of −0.5 mm Hg (−1.9 to 0.9 mm Hg). Results were comparable in the complete case analysis and adverse effects were similar between groups. Within trial costs showed an incremental cost effectiveness ratio of £11 ($15, €12; 95% confidence interval £6 to £29) per mm Hg reduction. Conclusions: The HOME BP digital intervention for the management of hypertension by using self-monitored blood pressure led to better control of systolic blood pressure after one year than usual care, with low incremental costs. Implementation in primary care will require integration into clinical workflows and consideration of people who are digitally excluded. Trial registration: ISRCTN13790648