Phytotherapeutic and naturopathic adjuvant therapies in otorhinolaryngology

Phytotherapeutic pharmaceuticals and herbal medicinal products with its roots in classical phytotherapeutic medicine have a well-established role in otolaryngological therapy, especially for diseases of the upper airways and acute and chronic infections. A thorough selection and application could mean huge benefit for the patient, in particular in cases with contraindications, chemo- and antibiotic resistance or patient request. Besides, it might spare other medications. Phytotherapeutic pharmaceuticals must fulfil the same criteria of quality, effectiveness and harmlessness of evidence-based medicine like chemical pharmaceuticals, although they are often prescribed due to its well established or traditional based use. This review focuses on phytotherapeutic therapies well established within the European Community for otolaryngologic disease patterns by referring to clinical studies or meta-analysis

Traversing more than speed bumps: Green politics under authoritarian regimes in Burma and Iran

© 2006 Taylor & FrancisIt is generally assumed that in the era of globalisation politics crosses borders at will. While the borders of some nation-states are mere speed bumps to the rapid movement of transnational capital and other commodities - including ideas - the borders of other nation-states remain less permeable. The success of transnational crossings, or the manifestations thereof, will obviously be determined by national difference (and this cannot be overstated), but also by the type of political regime which governs particular nation-states. This article seeks to redress an imbalance in the literature by seeking to understand how the politics of environmental concern have crossed into the hinterlands of two authoritarian regimes: Burma and Iran. It examines the political challenges faced under repressive regimes and investigates activists' attempts at addressing human and environmental security issues, as well as more narrow, post-materialist green agendas. Green movements under authoritarian regimes are often in the vanguard of democracy movements - clearly visible in the first flush of civil society itself - but in both Burma and Iran the prospects for this outcome are less assured, with the Iranian regime in particular using environmentalism to consolidate existing power structures.Timothy Doyle and Adam Simpso

Fundamental ion cyclotron resonance heating of JET deuterium plasmas

Radio frequency heating of majority ions is of prime importance for understanding the basic role of auxiliary heating in the activated D-T phase of ITER. Majority deuterium ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) experiments at the fundamental cyclotron frequency were performed in JET. In spite of the poor antenna coupling at 25 MHz, this heating scheme proved promising when adopted in combination with D neutral beam injection (NBI). The effect of fundamental ICRH of a D population was clearly demonstrated in these experiments: by adding similar to 25% of heating power the fusion power was increased up to 30-50%, depending on the type of NBI adopted. At this power level, the ion and electron temperatures increased from T-i similar to 4.0 keV and T-e similar to 4.5 keV (NBI-only phase) to T-i similar to 5.5 keV and T-e similar to 5.2 keV (ICRH + NBI phase), respectively. The increase in the neutron yield was stronger when 80 keV rather than 130 keV deuterons were injected in the plasma. It is shown that the neutron rate, the diamagnetic energy and the electron as well as the ion temperature scale roughly linearly with the applied RF power. A synergistic effect of the combined use of ICRF and NBI heating was observed: (i) the number of neutron counts measured by the neutron camera during the combined ICRF + NBI phases of the discharges exceeded the sum of the individual counts of the NBI-only and ICRF-only phases; (ii) a substantial increase in the number of slowing-down beam ions was detected by the time of flight neutron spectrometer when ICRF power was switched on; (iii) a small D subpopulation with energies slightly above the NBI launch energy was detected by the neutral particle analyzer and gamma-ray spectroscopy