China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Unintentional and Deliberate Methods of Attaining Mystical States
Published in Andrew C. Papanicolaou, A Scientific Assessment of the Validity of Mystical Experiences, 2021
According to Plotinus' ontology, the ultimate reality is the Monad, the “One” which is immovable, much like Aristotle's “First Cause”, immutable and eternal. From it emanates Nous or “Mind at large”23 out of which emanate, in turn, the individual souls and all else that constitutes the familiar world. The Nous, then, that manifests itself as particular individual souls and as the rest of the entities that comprise the universe, is considered by Plotinus as a mental, not as a physical entity. As for the emanations, they are not meant as effects but as manifestations of the immutable One, much like the light rays of the sun are not effects caused by the sun but manifestations of the energy of the sun. Thus the Nous and the souls are integral parts or aspects of the One—a notion that the aspiring mystic verifies by “viewing” directly that unity or by recognizing it in the context of the mystical state.
Narrating experiences of dementia
Published in Rebecca A. Bitenc, Reconsidering Dementia Narratives, 2019
In particular, the documentary opens up the possibility of representing instances of embodied communication; at issue are various forms of nonverbal communication, such as touch, gesture, facial expressions, and posture as well as the role of body movement and tone of voice in nonverbal and verbal humour. What I am calling embodied communication also includes aspects of the voice of the person, such as modulation, tone, and intonation, i.e., what linguists call paralinguistic features of communicative acts—features that help constitute the meaning of an utterance in ways that go beyond its semantic content. Documentary film provides the perhaps unique possibility, within dementia life writing, of exploring how people with dementia continue to express themselves through vocal modulations and bodily movements. As the forms of embodied communication just mentioned provide an important means of gaining access to Gretel’s state of mind, a large part of this analysis will be devoted to the way the documentary represents and reflects on these means of communication.
Cadmium: Uses, Occurrence, and Intake
Published in Lars Friberg, Tord Kjellström, Carl-Gustaf Elinder, Gunnar F. Nordberg, Cadmium and Health: A Toxicological and Epidemiological Appraisal, 2019
In Cadmium in the Environment, Friberg et al.62 wrote that “available data suggest that, on average, 50 μg Cd per day may be ingested in most countries, with probable variations from 25 to 75 μg/day.” Today, these figures appear to be an overestimation of the situation in most countries. When more recent and reliable estimates are considered, it is clear that the daily intake of cadmium in the U.S., in most European countries, and in New Zealand is 10 to 25 μg/day. These are mean values, and it should be kept in mind that large individual variations do occur due to different dietary habits and age-dependent changes in energy intake. The highest daily intake of cadmium is likely to occur among teenagers since they have the highest energy intake.124 Estimates of the daily intake of cadmium from areas regarded as nonpolluted in Japan are usually higher than those reported elsewhere in the world. Some of these areas were rural control areas in epidemiological studies102 and values obtained may not be typical for the average Japanese person, whose cadmium intake is probably around 35 to 50 μg/day (Table 7).
Impacts of COVID-19 on contraceptive and abortion services in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review
Published in Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, 2022
Chelsea B. Polis, Ann Biddlecom, Susheela Singh, Boniface Ayanbekongshie Ushie, Lori Rosman, Abdulmumin Saad
It is important to bear in mind that large gaps existed in meeting SRH service needs prior to the pandemic. In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately 218 million women of reproductive age in LMICs wanted to avoid a pregnancy but were not using a modern contraceptive method.93 Unintended pregnancy rates were higher in low- and middle-income countries (respectively, 93 and 66 unintended pregnancies per 1000 reproductive-aged women per year) compared with high-income countries (34 per 1000).94 Women in poorer countries were also less likely to have a safe and legal abortion or to receive high-quality postabortion care (PAC) when needed.95 COVID-19-related disruptions in access to and/or use of reproductive health services increased the overall magnitude of pre-existing gaps in LMICs at least in the short term, and may have exacerbated existing inequalities (including gender inequalities) given what we know from past pandemics.9,10
Machine learning for predicting cardiac events: what does the future hold?
Published in Expert Review of Cardiovascular Therapy, 2020
Brijesh Patel, Partho Sengupta
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is well known to be independently associated with thromboembolic events such as stroke [33]. In the SMART (The Stroke and Monitoring for PAF in Real Time) study, AF was detected in 1 out of 9 cryptogenic stroke patients with a 30-day event monitor [34]. This finding means that AF can be transient and clinically unknown unless patients are monitored for a long time. However, the goal should be to identify patients who are likely to develop AF so that they are promptly treated. With this question in mind, a large study involving 180,000 patients in normal sinus rhythm (SR) was carried out by Attia and colleagues [35]. The authors developed a convolutional neural network (CNN) using AI-enabled EKGs to predict AF in patients in sinus rhythm. For this study, both AF and atrial flutter (AFL) were labeled as AF. More than 450,000 EKGs from 126,526 patients, 64,340 EKGs from 18,116 patients, and 130,802 EKGs from 36,280 patients were used for training, internal validation and testing, respectively. The model predicted AF from a single EKG with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.89 (0.86–0.88) and 0.90 (0.90–0.91) when the EKGs with the highest risk score were used. The sensitivity and specificity of the model were 79% and 79.5%, respectively. Since AF affects many individuals and such data can influence treatment, validation using an external dataset and optimization of the model is necessary.
What could gene therapies learn from orphan drugs’ post-regulatory approval access in the EU?
Published in Expert Opinion on Orphan Drugs, 2019
Georgi Iskrov, Georgi Vasilev, Rumen Stefanov
Globally, health authorities are under pressure due to constantly increasing spending. Adding expensive GTMPs to already resource-constrained health systems could create a perfect storm for regulators and payers [35]. Even though some gene therapies may produce significant cost-offsets by replacing existing expensive treatments, there is a need for policy developments to create sustainable mechanisms for pricing and paying for these health technologies [10,12,36]. A more flexible, value-based decision-making process, together with considerations of money back guarantees, risk-sharing schemes and staging of payments have been suggested as a way to cover GTMPs [34,35]. Performance-based arrangements are progressively used to regulate and balance the access to innovative therapies against the health system’s priorities and resources [37]. Price, level and type of coverage are tied to performance measures of clinical or intermediate endpoints related to patient’s quality or quantity of life [38]. Real-world data on therapeutic outcomes are subsequently a must [39,40]. Having in mind the large extent of uncertainty around GTMPs, these medicinal products seem to be an ideal candidate for performance-based coverage. In this context, parties would have to reach a consensus on what would be defined as a treatment success and a treatment failure. This could be especially controversial for patients, for whom the therapeutic response cannot justify the high costs, but it is their only treatment option available [12].