scholarly journals Uncertainty in Pandemic Times

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liliana Lorettu ◽  
Davide Piu ◽  
Saverio Bellizzi

The Covid-19 pandemic has burst upon us as a general test for humanity, for which we were woefully unprepared. We all faced the pandemic with little knowledge and no experience. It is the first pandemic of our lives. Over this period, we have seen a range of conflicting statements, positions and behaviours. On occasion, the scientific community and health professionals have failed to speak with a single voice to convey the urgency of the situation, as their views got lost and scattered in rivulets of opposing theories ranging from denying to ringing the alarm. So many elements were in place for the ‘perfect storm’ to get unleashed … and it did. And as the pandemic wreaked its havoc, many health workers have paid a high price for their selfless dedication and professionalism. We have worked in the absence of clear-cut guidelines, in situations where even the cornerstones of medical ethics have faltered. On the other hand, the fruitful aspects of uncertainty also emerged.

1970 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Vikram Patel

hetan Bhagat is one of the most influential fiction writers of contemporary Indian English literature. Postmodern subjects like youth aspirations, love, sex, marriage, urban middle class sensibilities, and issues related to corruption, politics, education and their impact on the contemporary Indian society are recurrently reflected thematic concerns in his fictions. In all his fictions, he has mostly depicted the contemporary urban social milieu of Indian society. Though the fictions of Chetan Bhagat are romantic in nature, contemporary Indian society and its major issues are the chief of the concerns of all his fictions. He has focused on the contemporary issues of middle class family in his fictional works. All of the chief protagonists of his works are sensitive youth and they do not compromise with the prevalent situations of society. Most of the characters are like caricatures that represent one or the other vice or virtue of the contemporary Indian society. The author has a mastery to convince the reader about the prevalent condition of society so that one can easily reproduce in mind, a clear cut image of contemporary Indian society. The present article is a sincere endeavor to present the detailed literary analysis of the select fictions of Chetan Bhagat keeping in mind how the contemporary Indian society has been replicated in the fictions.


Author(s):  
I. Kukhtevich

Functional autonomic disorders occupy a significant part in the practice of neurologists and professionals of other specialties as well. However, there is no generally accepted classification of such disorders. In this paper the authors tried to show that functional autonomic pathology corresponds to the concept of somatoform disorders combining syndromes manifested by visceral, borderline psychopathological, neurological symptoms that do not have an organic basis. The relevance of the problem of somatoform disorders is that on the one hand many health professionals are not familiar enough with manifestations of borderline neuropsychiatric disorders, often forming functional autonomic disorders, and on the other hand they overestimate somatoform symptoms that are similar to somatic diseases.


Author(s):  
Angèle Flora Mendy

By examining policies of recruiting non-EU/EEA health workers and how ethical considerations are taken into account when employing non-EU/EEA nurses in the United Kingdom, France, and Switzerland, this chapter intends to show that the use of the so-called ‘ethical’ argument to convince national public opinion of the relevance of restrictive recruitment policies is recent (since the 1990s). The analysis highlights the fact that in addition to the institutional legacies, qualification and skills—through the process of their recognition—play an important role in the opening or restriction of the labour market to health professionals from the Global South. The legacy of the past also largely determines the place offered to non-EU/EEA health professionals in the different health systems of host countries.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-29
Author(s):  
Laura Lea ◽  
Sue Holttum ◽  
Victoria Butters ◽  
Diana Byrne ◽  
Helen Cable ◽  
...  

PurposeThe 2014/2015 UK requirement for involvement of service users and carers in training mental health professionals has prompted the authors to review the work of involvement in clinical psychology training in the university programme. Have the voices of service users and carers been heard? The paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe authors update the paper of 2011 in which the authors described the challenges of inclusion and the specific approaches the authors take to involvement. The authors do this in the context of the recent change to UK standards for service user and carer involvement, and recent developments in relation to partnership working and co-production in mental healthcare. The authors describe the work carried out by the authors – members of a service user involvement group at a UK university – to ensure the voices of people affected by mental health difficulties are included in all aspects of training.FindingsCareful work and the need for dedicated time is required to enable inclusive, effective and comprehensive participation in a mental health training programme. It is apparent that there is a group of service users whose voice is less heard: those who are training to be mental health workers.Social implicationsFor some people, involvement has increased. Trainee mental health professionals’ own experience of distress may need more recognition and valuing.Originality/valueThe authors are in a unique position to review a service-user-led project, which has run for 12 years, whose aim has been to embed involvement in training. The authors can identify both achievements and challenges.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 298
Author(s):  
Teny M. John ◽  
Ceena N. Jacob ◽  
Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis

Mucormycosis (MCR) has been increasingly described in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) but the epidemiological factors, presentation, diagnostic certainty, and outcome of such patients are not well described. We review the published COVID-19-associated mucormycosis (CAMCR) cases (total 41) to identify risk factors, clinical features, and outcomes. CAMCR was typically seen in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) (94%) especially the ones with poorly controlled DM (67%) and severe or critical COVID-19 (95%). Its presentation was typical of MCR seen in diabetic patients (mostly rhino-orbital and rhino-orbital-cerebral presentation). In sharp contrast to reported COVID-associated aspergillosis (CAPA) cases, nearly all CAMCR infections were proven (93%). Treating physicians should have a high suspicion for CAMCR in patients with uncontrolled diabetes mellitus and severe COVID-19 presenting with rhino-orbital or rhino-cerebral syndromes. CAMR is the convergence of two storms, one of DM and the other of COVID-19.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anup Karan ◽  
Himanshu Negandhi ◽  
Suhaib Hussain ◽  
Tomas Zapata ◽  
Dilip Mairembam ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Investment in human resources for health not only strengthens the health system, but also generates employment and contributes to economic growth. India can gain from enhanced investment in health workforce in multiple ways. This study in addition to presenting updated estimates on size and composition of health workforce, identifies areas of investment in health workforce in India. Methods We analyzed two sources of data: (i) National Health Workforce Account (NHWA) 2018 and (ii) Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017–2018 of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). Using the two sources, we collated comparable estimates of different categories of health workers in India, density of health workforce and skill-mix at the all India and state levels. Results The study estimated (from NHWA 2018) a total stock of 5.76 million health workers which included allopathic doctors (1.16 million), nurses/midwives (2.34 million), pharmacist (1.20 million), dentists (0.27 million), and traditional medical practitioner (AYUSH 0.79 million). However, the active health workforce size estimated (NSSO 2017–2018) is much lower (3.12 million) with allopathic doctors and nurses/midwives estimated as 0.80 million and 1.40 million, respectively. Stock density of doctor and nurses/midwives are 8.8 and 17.7, respectively, per 10,000 persons as per NHWA. However, active health workers’ density (estimated from NSSO) of doctor and nurses/midwives are estimated to be 6.1 and 10.6, respectively. The numbers further drop to 5.0 and 6.0, respectively, after accounting for the adequate qualifications. All these estimates are well below the WHO threshold of 44.5 doctor, nurses and midwives per 10,000 population. The results reflected highly skewed distribution of health workforce across states, rural–urban and public–private sectors. A substantial proportion of active health worker were found not adequately qualified on the one hand and on the other more than 20% of qualified health professionals are not active in labor markets. Conclusion India needs to invest in HRH for increasing the number of active health workers and also improve the skill-mix which requires investment in professional colleges and technical education. India also needs encouraging qualified health professionals to join the labor markets and additional trainings and skill building for already working but inadequately qualified health workers.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 1826
Author(s):  
Mihaela Girtan ◽  
Antje Wittenberg ◽  
Maria Luisa Grilli ◽  
Daniel P. S. de Oliveira ◽  
Chiara Giosuè ◽  
...  

This editorial reports on a thorough analysis of the abundance and scarcity distribution of chemical elements and the minerals they form in the Earth, Sun, and Universe in connection with their number of neutrons and binding energy per nucleon. On one hand, understanding the elements’ formation and their specific properties related to their electronic and nucleonic structure may lead to understanding whether future solutions to replace certain elements or materials for specific technical applications are realistic. On the other hand, finding solutions to the critical availability of some of these elements is an urgent need. Even the analysis of the availability of scarce minerals from European Union sources leads to the suggestion that a wide-ranging approach is essential. These two fundamental assumptions represent also the logical approach that led the European Commission to ask for a multi-disciplinary effort from the scientific community to tackle the challenge of Critical Raw Materials. This editorial is also the story of one of the first fulcrum around which a wide network of material scientists gathered thanks to the support of the funding organization for research and innovation networks, COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 681-693
Author(s):  
Ariel Furstenberg

AbstractThis article proposes to narrow the gap between the space of reasons and the space of causes. By articulating the standard phenomenology of reasons and causes, we investigate the cases in which the clear-cut divide between reasons and causes starts to break down. Thus, substituting the simple picture of the relationship between the space of reasons and the space of causes with an inverted and complex one, in which reasons can have a causal-like phenomenology and causes can have a reason-like phenomenology. This is attained by focusing on “swift reasoned actions” on the one hand, and on “causal noisy brain mechanisms” on the other hand. In the final part of the article, I show how an analogous move, that of narrowing the gap between one’s normative framework and the space of reasons, can be seen as an extension of narrowing the gap between the space of causes and the space of reasons.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 1980
Author(s):  
Mariarita Laforgia ◽  
Carmelo Laface ◽  
Concetta Calabrò ◽  
Simona Ferraiuolo ◽  
Valentina Ungaro ◽  
...  

Peripheral neurologic complications are frequent adverse events during oncologic treatments and often lead to dose reduction, administration delays with time elongation of the therapeutic plan and, not least, worsening of patients’ quality of life. Experience skills are required to recognize symptoms and clinical evidences and the collaboration between different health professionals, in particular oncologists and hospital pharmacists, grants a correct management of this undesirable occurrence. Some classes of drugs (platinates, vinca alkaloids, taxanes) typically develop this kind of side effect, but the genesis of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy is not linked to a single mechanism. This paper aims from one side at summarizing and explaining all the scattering mechanisms of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy through a detailed literature revision, on the other side at finding new approaches to possible treatments, in order to facilitate the collaboration between oncologists, hematologists and hospital pharmacists.


1994 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Itzhak Montag ◽  
Joseph Levin

Two studies of the Revised NEO‐Personality Inventory (NEO‐PI‐R) conducted on two different applicant samples (one consisting of 539 female subjects and the other consisting of 396 male subjects) are reported. Factor analysis of the female sample yielded a five‐factor solution, highly congruent with the factors presented by Costa, McCrae and Dye (1991). Results of the male data were less clear‐cut, yielding four to five factors which were moderately congruent with the American data. The combined male and female sample showed again high congruence coefficients. Various minor deviations in the location of the facet variables are discussed.


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