Information-Energy Equivalence in Qigong: Reviewing Dossey and Schwartz’s “Therapeutic Intent/Healing Bibliography of Research” in Light of Pang Ming’s Three Levels Theory of Matter

The paper “Therapeutic Intent/Healing Bibliography of Research”[1], together with relevant studies involving the effects of external qi healing found on the PubMed database from January 2000 to July 2012, were reviewed from the point of view of therapeutic intent mechanism and healing intent specificity. From an oriental medicine perspective, therapeutic intent is a form of external qi healing. Research into therapeutic intent has met significant resistance, primarily because there is no obvious theoretical model to account for these phenomena. By applying the Three Levels Theory of Matter as proposed by Zhineng Qigong founder, Pang Ming, this article points the way to such a possible mechanis

Blended learning for generation alpha during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the integration of online learning in the secondary education context in an unprecedented manner. Teachers who were accustomed to conducting lessons fully in the classroom had to search for various technology-based alternatives to replace the conventional form of teaching and learning. The purpose of this study was to explore the blending of online and physical learning, also known as “blended learning”, across government secondary schools throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a qualitative study that involved 58 secondary school teachers from 3 districts in Sabah, Malaysia. Focus group interviews were employed to gather data about the use of blended learning among teachers in the districts of Tawau, Kota Kinabalu and Keningau. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings showed that the participants used a variety of online learning applications to deliver content, to provide social and emotional support to the learners and learners’ parents, and to evaluate learner performance. The findings also revealed that in some cases, the teachers had to create physical learning materials for the students. This study revealed the various ways teachers blended online and face-to-face approaches to cater to their learners. The outcomes are valuable for pre-service and inservice teachers who are keen to employ blended learning in the 21st century classroom

Teachers' Beliefs of Coronavirus on Online Learning

The learning and simplification in the 21st century particularly due to covid-19 is a real challenge for each individual teacher. Virtual classroom, multimedia, mobile learning, electronic learning, and cloud technologies as the components of digital learning play a vital role in this century but a sudden shift to totally online learning, instead of real classroom, has triggered teachers to change in their learning and simplification. Hence, this study is carried out to explore teachers’ beliefs of how corona virus impact on online learning. This study applied the qualitative study with 58 informants using the purposive sampling method. Motivation, engagement, social relationships, entertainment, creativity, and virtual experiments are the themes identified from this study. The impact of the coronavirus on online learning has been profound, affecting various aspects of education

Technical and implementational issues of using a video platform (Flip.Com) for online learning for teachers in Keningau, Sabah

The recent Covid-19 health pandemic (2020 – 2022) had caused great concern for educators across the globe. Schools were closed under the Moverment Control Act of each respective country to curb the spread of the virus. School lessons were replaced with online sessions. Purpose: The main purpose of this research is to explore and share teachers’ experience and perceptions for using an online video platform (flip.com) for teaching and learning. Teachers related these experiences via research workshops conducted at the 4 venues in Sabah. Methods: Data were elicited via the reflection notes approach and analyzed qualitatively to support the investigation. The researchers reported findings from selected a sample of 12 informants from the Kota Kinabalu Workshop, Sabah. Results: Eight out of twelve informants registered positive perceptions regarding the usage and suitability of flip.com for nonMathematic subjects while negative comments were for the unsuitability usage for Mathematic, requests for professional development training and some technical issues while implementing the software. Recommendation: The research recommended that in order for an innovation such as flip.com to be accepted teachnologically by fulfilling the perceived usefulness and perceived ease-to-use components of the TAM Model, teachers’ comments on the feature of usefulness, user-friendliness of the interfaces and technicality issues of the software must be considered closely by the software provider

Framing global discourses on non-communicable diseases: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: The choices that policymakers make are shaped by how their problems are framed. At last, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have risen high on the global policy agenda, but there are many disputed issues. First, what are they? Their name refers not to what they are but what they are not. Second, where do their boundaries lie? What diseases are included? Third, should we view their causes as mainly biomedical, behavioural, or social, or a combination? Our failure to resolve these issues has been invoked as a reason for our limited progress in developing and implementing effective remedies. In this scoping review, we ask "What is known from the existing literature about how NCDs are framed in the global policy discourses?" We answer it by reviewing the frames employed in policy and academic discourses. METHODS: We searched nine electronic databases for articles published since inception to 31 May 2019. We also reviewed websites of eight international organisations to identify global NCDs policies. We extracted data and synthesised findings to identify key thematic frames. RESULTS: We included 36 articles and nine policy documents on global NCDs policies. We identified five discursive domains that have been used and where there are differing perspectives. These are: "Expanding the NCDs frame to include mental health and air pollution"; "NCDs and their determinants"; "A rights-based approach to NCDs"; "Approaches to achieving policy coherence in NCDs globally"; and "NCDs as part of Sustainable Socio-economic Development". We further identified 12 frames within the five discursive domains. CONCLUSIONS: This scoping review identifies issues that remain unresolved and points to a need for alignment of perspectives among global health policy actors, as well as synergies with those working on mental health, maternal health, and child health. The current COVID-19 pandemic warrants greater consideration of its impact on global NCDs policies. Future global strategies for NCDs need to consider explicitly how NCDs are framed in a changing global health discourse and ensure adequate alignment with implementation and global health issues. There is a need for global strategies to recognise the pertinent role of actors in shaping policy discourses

Expert Panel Statement on Laparoscopic Living Donor Hepatectomy

Background: With improvements in living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) techniques and the increased experience of surgeons in laparoscopic major liver resection, laparoscopic donor hepatectomy is performed increasingly. Therefore, expert opinion on this procedure is required. Objective: The study aimed to report the current status and summarize the expert opinion on laparoscopic donor hepatectomy. Methods: An expert consensus meeting was held on September 8, 2016, in Seoul, Korea. Results: Laparoscopic donor left lateral sectionectomy could be considered the standard practice in pediatric LDLT. In adult LDLT, laparoscopy-assisted donor hepatectomy or left hepatectomy is potentially the next need, requiring more evidence for becoming standard practice. Laparoscopic donor right hepatectomy is still in the developmental stage, and more supporting evidence is required. Waving the cost consideration, the robotic approach could be a valid alternative for the suitable approaches of laparoscopy. Conclusions: Laparoscopic donor hepatectomy is increasing its role in both pediatric and adult LDLT. However, for major donor hepatectomy, more evidence is needed

DDX3X loss is an adverse prognostic marker in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and is associated with chemoresistance in aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes.

Funder: addenbrooke's charitable trust, cambridge university hospital

Riverine sustainment 2012

Student Integrated ProjectIncludes supplementary materialThis technical report analyzed the Navy's proposed Riverine Force (RF) structure and capabilities for 2012. The Riverine Sustainment 2012 Team (RST) examined the cost and performance of systems of systems which increased RF sustainment in logistically barren environments. RF sustainment was decomposed into its functional areas of supply, repair, and force protection. The functional and physical architectures were developed in parallel and were used to construct an operational architecture for the RF. The RST used mathematical, agent-based and queuing models to analyze various supply, repair and force protection system alternatives. Extraction of modeling data revealed several key insights. Waterborne heavy lift connectors such as the LCU-2000 are vital in the re-supply of the RF when it is operating up river in a non-permissive environment. Airborne heavy lift connectors such as the MV-22 were ineffective and dominated by the waterborne variants in the same environment. Increase in manpower and facilities did appreciable add to the operational availability of the RF. Mean supply response time was the biggest factor effecting operational availability and should be kept below 24 hours to maintain operational availability rates above 80%. Current mortar defenses proposed by the RF are insufficient.N

Nonvirally Modified Autologous Primary Hepatocytes Correct Diabetes and Prevent Target Organ Injury in a Large Preclinical Model

BACKGROUND: Current gene- and cell-based therapies have significant limitations which impede widespread clinical application. Taking diabetes mellitus as a paradigm, we have sought to overcome these limitations by ex vivo electrotransfer of a nonviral insulin expression vector into primary hepatocytes followed by immediate autologous reimplantation in a preclinical model of diabetes. METHODS AND RESULTS: In a single 3-hour procedure, hepatocytes were isolated from a surgically resected liver wedge, electroporated with an insulin expression plasmid ex vivo and reimplanted intraparenchymally under ultrasonic guidance into the liver in each of 10 streptozotocin-induced diabetic Yorkshire pigs. The vector was comprised of a bifunctional, glucose-responsive promoter linked to human insulin cDNA. Ambient glucose concentrations appropriately altered human insulin mRNA expression and C-peptide secretion within minutes in vitro and in vivo. Treated swine showed correction of hyperglycemia, glucose intolerance, dyslipidemia and other metabolic abnormalities for > or = 47 weeks. Metabolic correction correlated significantly with the number of hepatocytes implanted. Importantly, we observed no hypoglycemia even under fasting conditions. Direct intrahepatic implantation of hepatocytes did not alter biochemical indices of liver function or induce abnormal hepatic lobular architecture. About 70% of implanted hepatocytes functionally engrafted, appeared histologically normal, retained vector DNA and expressed human insulin for > or = 47 weeks. Based on structural tissue analyses and transcriptome data, we showed that early correction of diabetes attenuated and even prevented pathological changes in the eye, kidney, liver and aorta. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate that autologous hepatocytes can be efficiently, simply and safely modified by electroporation of a nonviral vector to express, process and secrete insulin durably. This strategy, which achieved significant and sustained therapeutic efficacy in a large preclinical model without adverse effects, warrants consideration for clinical development especially as it could have broader future applications for the treatment of other acquired and inherited diseases for which systemic reconstitution of a specific protein deficiency is critical