Perceptions of Health Warning Labels on Cigarette Packages: A Study of Bangladesh Smokers

Health warnings on cigarette packages are among the major sources of information on the negative consequences of smoking. Such labels are especially important for developing countries as there are large populations of smokers in those countries. Effective tobacco warning labels could help reduce tobacco use among smokers and improve their health. The objective of the study is to identify the effects of tobacco warning labels on cigarette packages among adult smokers in Bangladesh, one of the most populous developing countries. Our research indicates that most smokers understand the harmfulness of smoking, more than 90% of them have knowledge about health-related illnesses caused by smoking, and package labels are the second most cited information source after mass media. However, the effectiveness of the warning labels is somewhat lacking. The findings have implications about improving warning labels for the purpose of reducing smoking habits in developing countries

Characterisation of human saliva as a platform for oral dissolution medium development

Human saliva is a biological fluid of great importance in the field of dissolution testing. However, until now, no consensus has been reached on its key characteristics relevant to dissolution testing. As a result, it is difficult to select or develop an in vitro dissolution medium to best represent human saliva. In this study, the pH, buffer capacity, surface tension, viscosity and flow rate of both unstimulated (US) and stimulated (SS) human saliva were investigated in order to provide a platform of reference for future dissolution studies using simulated salivary fluids. Age and gender related differences in a sample size of 30 participants for each parameter were investigated. Significant differences were established between US and SS for all characteristics except surface tension. Therefore, the requirement for using two simulated salivary fluids should be considered when developing an oral dissolution model

Spellbound: the Process of Adaptation

Writers write in many forms and, while most specialize in one form or another, there are those that move back and forth through multiple formats. Screenwriters are a special breed who are expected to write new material, adaptations and specs. As a screenwriter the pressure is on being able to write in someone else’s voice while still expressing your own. Unfortunately, the process of adaptation is a cloudy one. It is expected that a writer can alternate between forms by nature and not through education. The purpose of this thesis is to approach the adaptation process through a combination of experience and research in an effort to clarify this process. For this thesis I have undertaken the process of adaptation by translating a story idea into both a novel and screenplay. The story of Spellbound centers on a detective in a steampunk universe who is capable of using magic and is attempting to solve the murder of her sister. It presents fantasy themes and emotional conflict that were challenging to convey in each format. The result is an understanding of techniques used by both novelists and screenwriters to adapt an idea into multiple formats

(Re-)visions of transcendence : theological responses to the late-modern eclipse of transcendence in the thought of Robert W. Jenson and Alexander Schmemann

This thesis investigates the significance of the Church's experience of transcendence in the theologies of Robert W. Jenson (b. 1930) and Alexander Schmemann (1921-1983). Both theologians emphasize the indispensable role of eschatology for Christian theology, but they offer strikingly different accounts of what that means. Following an introductory chapter, the first half of the thesis (chapters 2-4) clarifies the loss of transcendence by following Jenson's and Schmemann's respective theological diagnoses of the chief problems facing the Church in the late-modern West. Jenson argues that a long hidden error in the ontology of the doctrine of God is the underlying cause of the nihilism pervading Western culture. Schmemann perceives secularism as the pervasive cultural backdrop to Christian faith in the West, identifying the betrayal of the Orthodox Church's liturgical experience of the Kingdom of God as the chief culprit. By placing their critiques in dialog with one another I further trace the mutually diagnosed problem of the Church's debilitated eschatology to underlying problems in received ontologies of transcendence. The second half of the thesis (chapters 5-7) explores Jenson's and Schmemann's theological proposals for rehabilitating eschatology. Jenson revises the ontology of God to more adequately fit the God identified by the gospel. His narratival ontology enables him to conceptualize God's transcendence in terms of triune faithfulness through time rather than in metaphysical immunity to time. Schmemann retrieves a symbolic ontology in order to affirm the sacramentality of the world by which God's transcendence can be mystically experienced in the Church's liturgical worship. I argue that Jenson's theological rejection of timelessness rests upon historicist assumptions which Schmemann's eschatological theory has resources to withstand and that, furthermore, theology should preserve apophatic humility rooted in the aseity of God rather than historicize the doctrine of God as Jenson proposes