Spirituality as a determinant of health – a health promotion perspective

Spirituality a recognised dimension of health in the field of health promotion and public health (Scriven, 2010). Good health and wellbeing includes spiritual health and wellbeing. The determinants of health and what should be done to address them to improve health is an important agenda globally. Interestingly however, although spirituality is important to health and wellbeing it does not appear in key models of determinants of health, such as the classic layer diagram of Dahlgren and Whitehead (1993). Nor does spirituality get included in influential frames for discourse. For example, the narrative/metaphor of the river and upstream versus downstream action on health which is central to so much of the language of intervention to improve health (Talley, 2010). The absence of spirituality in the discourses of health determinants and health improvement thus seems a significant omission. The work presented here therefore represents the beginning of a journey of exploration by the author to reflect on and address this conundrum. The early steps of thinking are described, including examination of models of health and wellbeing, and ways in which spirituality could be made integral to, if not central to, considering the origins of health, wellbeing and illness

Herbal medicines for the treatment of functional and inflammatory bowel disorders

In many parts of the world, there continues to be a long-standing tradition of prescribing herbal products for a range of gastrointestinal conditions. Scientific evidence supporting the use of all herbal preparations is imperfect, however, and available studies are plagued by methodological limitations. For functional gastrointestinal disorders, there is limited evidence supporting the use of some well-characterized preparations. A number of herbals have immunomodulatory activity, and in inflammatory bowel disease there are limited positive placebo-controlled trials; other studies used active controls with suboptimal doses of the comparators. Like all drugs, herbals can lead to serious adverse events (eg, hepatic failure). Quality control is a serious issue to consider when prescribing herbal medicines. Many herbal preparations are marketed without evidence for stringent adherence to good manufacturing practice guidelines. Unpredictable environmental conditions may affect the composition and the concentration of the active ingredients of plant extracts. Further, commercial herbal products usually combine a variable plethora of chemical families with possible medicinal utility. While some of these ingredients might be of benefit, the concentration and dose of these constituents needs to be closely monitored. Physicians and regulators need to remain very cautious about the use of herbal remedies. Appropriate scientific evidence for the claimed clinical benefits should become mandatory worldwide, and the standards for production and safety monitoring should comply with established standards for chemically defined products. If these principles were adopted, the full value of herbal remedies may come to light, particularly as the individually bioactive compounds present in these preparations become recognized

Playing Favorites with Shareholders

One of the most vexing historical debates in corporate law concerns whether regulations or markets are better equipped to address managerial agency costs within public corporations. Although corporate law scholars have traditionally favored immutable legal imperatives as an elixir for misaligned incentives,an increasing number of commentators place greater faith in market mechanisms to accomplish the same task. While many such mechanisms operate simultaneously (including markets for output, labor, and capital), perhaps none has received more attention than the oft-celebrated market for corporate control as a means for achieving deterrence. By providing a constant and credible risk of hostile acquisitions, the takeover market creates a powerful incentive for managers to constrain their own rapacity in the interests of self-preservation. Consequently, the argument goes, a principal normative aim of corporate law should be to ensure that the market for corporate control remains active, robust, and competitive

Measuring Successful Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Is “Satisfactory Relief ” Enough?

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75081/1/j.1572-0241.2006.00519.x.pd

Physical Drivers of Phytoplankton Bloom Initiation in the Southern Ocean's Scotia Sea

Abstract: The Scotia Sea is the site of one of the largest spring phytoplankton blooms in the Southern Ocean. Past studies suggest that shelf‐iron inputs are responsible for the high productivity in this region, but the physical mechanisms that initiate and sustain the bloom are not well understood. Analysis of profiling float data from 2002 to 2017 shows that the Scotia Sea has an unusually shallow mixed‐layer depth during the transition from winter to spring, allowing the region to support a bloom earlier in the season than elsewhere in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. We compare these results to the mixed‐layer depth in the 1/6° data‐assimilating Southern Ocean State Estimate and then use the model output to assess the physical balances governing mixed‐layer variability in the region. Results indicate the importance of lateral advection of Weddell Sea surface waters in setting the stratification. A Lagrangian particle release experiment run backward in time suggests that Weddell outflow constitutes 10% of the waters in the upper 200 m of the water column in the bloom region. This dense Weddell water subducts below the surface waters in the Scotia Sea, establishing a sharp subsurface density contrast that cannot be overcome by wintertime convection. Profiling float trajectories are consistent with the formation of Taylor columns over the region's complex bathymetry, which may also contribute to the unique stratification. Furthermore, biogeochemical measurements from 2016 and 2017 bloom events suggest that vertical exchange associated with this Taylor column enhances productivity by delivering nutrients to the euphotic zone

Understanding AM feedstock recyclability using small angle X-ray scattering

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The Effect of Microplastic Fibers on the Freshwater Amphipod, Hyalella Azteca

Microplastics are a growing and persistent contaminant in aquatic ecosystems. There is a wide variety of shapes that MPs can take, with fibers being the most prominently found in marine systems. Few studies have investigated the toxicological implications of MP exposure to freshwater organisms, and none so far has quantified the effect that fibers, as compared to spherical particles, may have on aquatic organisms. A 42-day chronic exposure to polypropylene MP fibers (0 – 22.5 MPs/mL) was conducted in order to investigate potential effects on mortality, growth, reproduction, and egestion times. Significant mortality was only observed at the highest concentration (22.5 MPs/mL). Growth and reproduction is also significantly less than the control at all exposures to MP fibers, with no mating pairs forming at all in concentrations greater than 5.63 MPs/mL. Interestingly, gut clearance times after exposure to MP fibers is also greater at concentrations greater than 5.63 MPs/mL. Delays in reproduction and growth may result from deficiencies in nutrient uptake. This study provides further insight on how the shape of MPs may hold significant implications on their toxicity to aquatic organisms