Ireland--The Healing Process

As you are aware, the quarrel on our island has gone on for several centuries. Looking at the example of the conflict in Ireland, there are two mentalities in our quarrel - the Nationalist and the Unionist. The real political challenge to the Unionist mindset occurred when Nationalist Ireland essentially said: Look, your objective is an honorable objective, the protection and preservation of your identity. Geography, history, and the size of the Unionist tradition guarantee that the problem cannot be solved without them, nor against them. If we can leave aside our quarrel while we work together in our common interest, spilling our sweat and not our blood, we will break down the barriers of centuries, too, and the new Ireland will evolve based on agreement and respect for difference, just as the rest of the European Union has managed to achieve over the years--the healing process. That is the philosophy that I hope, at last, is going to emerge in your neighboring island of Ireland. I look forward to our island being the bridge between the United States of America and the United States of Europe

Multi-function based modeling of 3D heterogeneous wound scaffolds for improved wound healing

This paper presents a new multi-function based modeling of 3D heterogeneous porous wound scaffolds to improve wound healing process for complex deep acute or chronic wounds. An imaging-based approach is developed to extract 3D wound geometry and recognize wound features. Linear healing fashion of the wound margin towards the wound center is mimicked. Blending process is thus applied to the extracted geometry to partition the scaffold into a number of uniformly gradient healing regions. Computer models of 3D engineered porous wound scaffolds are then developed for solid freeform modeling and fabrication. Spatial variation over biomaterial and loaded bio-molecule concentration is developed based on wound healing requirements. Release of bio-molecules over the uniform healing regions is controlled by varying their amount and entrapping biomaterial concentration. Thus, localized controlled release is developed to improve wound healing. A prototype multi-syringe single nozzle deposition system is used to fabricate a sample scaffold. Proposed methodology is implemented and illustrative examples are presented in this paper

Dynamic changes in connexin expression correlate with key events in the wound healing process.

Wound healing is a complex process requiring communication for the precise co-ordination of different cell types. The role of extracellular communication through growth factors in the wound healing process has been extensively documented, but the role of direct intercellular communication via gap junctions has scarcely been investigated. We have examined the dynamics of gap junction protein (Connexins 26, 30, 31.1 and 43) expression in the murine epidermis and dermis during wound healing, and we show that connexin expression is extremely plastic between 6 hours and 12 days post-wounding. The immediate response (6 h) to wounding is to downregulate all connexins in the epidermis, but thereafter the expression profile of each connexin changes dramatically. Here, we correlate the changing patterns of connexin expression with key events in the wound healing process

Healing Emotions Through Philosophical Thinking

Manifesting in diverse forms, mental and emotional health problems within the contemporary society have proven challenging to current biomedical healing practice and thereby remain a significant threat to individuals’ welfare. Considering the complexity of human emotions, ailing members of the society remain susceptible to adverse health implications accountable to poor emotional wellbeing. Spawning across diverse cultures with further support from narrative and explorative philosophies, the presence of body, spirit, and mind remains acknowledged as a fundamental foundation of human beings. The study adopts a theoretical approach to research and subjects base eligible base literature to the Creswell data spiral for addressing the primary research problems. Through a concrete inclusion criterion, a total of 46 studies and corporate reports are explicitly explored within the exploration. The organization of information under themes indicates the imperative role of a myriad of holistic healing approaches in appraising the emotional and psychological welfare of individuals. Findings indicate that the adoption of philosophical reasoning remains critical in capacitating of hurt individuals to use their natural body resources in healing. Philosophical perspective allows for inner integration, balance and synchrony with nature such that the healing process emanates from within and further accentuates to natural healing. In essence, the integration of the mind, body and spirit holds the capacity to appraise the natural healing process in the quest to improve an individual’s welfare. Future explorations should concern with the integration of the holistic approaches within the contemporary medical practice for proximal health benefits

Using honey to heal diabetic foot ulcers

Diabetic ulcers seem to be arrested in the inflammatory/proliferative stage of the healing process, allowing infection and inflammation to preclude healing. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have become a major cause of infections, including diabetic foot infections. It is proposed here that the modern developments of an ancient and traditional treatment for wounds, dressing them with honey, provide the solution to the problem of getting diabetic ulcers to move on from the arrested state of healing. Honeys selected to have a high level of antibacterial activity have been shown to be very effective against antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria in laboratory and clinical studies. The potent anti-inflammatory action of honey is also likely to play an important part in overcoming the impediment to healing that inflammation causes in diabetic ulcers, as is the antioxidant activity of honey. The action of honey in promotion of tissue regeneration through stimulation of angiogenesis and the growth of fibroblasts and epithelial cells, and its insulin-mimetic effect, would also be of benefit in stimulating the healing of diabetic ulcers. The availability of honey-impregnated dressings which conveniently hold honey in place on ulcers has provided a means of rapidly debriding ulcers and removing the bacterial burden so that good healing rates can be achieved with neuropathic ulcers. With ischemic ulcers, where healing cannot occur because of lack of tissue viability, these honey dressings keep the ulcers clean and prevent infection occurring

Crack healing in cementitious materials including test methods

If concrete is crack free, deleterious substances can be avoided entering the body of the material, that may corrode the rebar or encourage freeze/thaw damage. This paper examines a self healing system of cementitious materials. Microbial induced calcite precipitation was used to heal cracks in concrete with calcite using bacillus bacteria in alkaline conditions to generate a calcite filling material. Self healing of cracked prisms was determined using a water flow and absorption test and the results were expressed to record the healing as a percentage. The findings of the tests showed that a significant degree of self healing had taken place after 56 days after inducing a crack to the concrete prisms and the water flow test was appropriate to determine the degree of self healing taking place. Limitations of this process are such that the process requires a biological laboratory to create the spore impregnated aggregate. Once the aggregate is prepared, the batching process is essentially the same as any normal concrete. A practical use of this system could be developed using cover panels of self healing material to act as permanent formwork, thus placing the healing ingredients where they are needed at a minimum cost. The system has huge potential for the creation of a self repairing sustainable infrastructure

Macrophage centripetal migration drives spontaneous healing process after spinal cord injury.

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) brings numerous inflammatory cells, including macrophages, from the circulating blood to lesions, but pathophysiological impact resulting from spatiotemporal dynamics of macrophages is unknown. Here, we show that macrophages centripetally migrate toward the lesion epicenter after infiltrating into the wide range of spinal cord, depending on the gradient of chemoattractant C5a. However, macrophages lacking interferon regulatory factor 8 (IRF8) cannot migrate toward the epicenter and remain widely scattered in the injured cord with profound axonal loss and little remyelination, resulting in a poor functional outcome after SCI. Time-lapse imaging and P2X/YRs blockade revealed that macrophage migration via IRF8 was caused by purinergic receptors involved in the C5a-directed migration. Conversely, pharmacological promotion of IRF8 activation facilitated macrophage centripetal movement, thereby improving the SCI recovery. Our findings reveal the importance of macrophage centripetal migration via IRF8, providing a novel therapeutic target for central nervous system injury

Statistical Learning in Automated Troubleshooting: Application to LTE Interference Mitigation

This paper presents a method for automated healing as part of off-line automated troubleshooting. The method combines statistical learning with constraint optimization. The automated healing aims at locally optimizing radio resource management (RRM) or system parameters of cells with poor performance in an iterative manner. The statistical learning processes the data using Logistic Regression (LR) to extract closed form (functional) relations between Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Radio Resource Management (RRM) parameters. These functional relations are then processed by an optimization engine which proposes new parameter values. The advantage of the proposed formulation is the small number of iterations required by the automated healing method to converge, making it suitable for off-line implementation. The proposed method is applied to heal an Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (ICIC) process in a 3G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network which is based on soft-frequency reuse scheme. Numerical simulations illustrate the benefits of the proposed approach.Comment: IEEE Transactions On Vehicular Technology 2010 IEEE transactions on vehicular technolog