Differences in perceptions and knowledge of crop diseases constitute a major obstacle in farmer–researcher cooperation, which is necessary for sustainable disease management. Farmers’ perceptions and management of crop diseases in the northern Ethiopian Regional State of Tigrai were investigated in order to harness their knowledge in the participatory development of integrated disease management (IDM) strategies. Knowledge of disease etiology and epidemiology, cultivar resistance, and reasons for the cultivation of susceptible cultivars were investigated in (...) a total of 12 tabias (towns) in ten weredas (districts). Perception of diseases involved both scientific and spiritual conceptual frameworks. Of the more than 30 crop diseases recorded on the major crops in the region, only rusts and powdery mildews (locally called humodia) and a few root rots were considered by farmers to be important. Farmers’ awareness of other diseases was extremely low; some highly damaging but less conspicuous diseases, such as faba bean chocolate spot and chickpea ascochyta blight (also called humodia), were not regarded by farmers as disease but as problems caused primarily by excessive soil moisture. Considering that some of these “unrecognized” diseases can cause complete yield loss and genetic erosion in epiphytotic years, there is an urgent need for bringing together farmers’ and scientists’ knowledge to complement each other. Even when farmers had access to disease-resistant or disease-tolerant cultivars, they grew susceptible local varieties because of multiple criteria including earliness, good yield in years with low humodia severity, suitability for home consumption, market demand/quality, and low soil fertility and land management requirements. Farmer innovation and knowledge were evident in their use of diverse disease control measures, but these were a mixture of the “useful and the useless.” Our findings stress the necessity for extension workers and researchers to understand and improve farmers’ knowledge of crop diseases, and farmers’ ability to observe and experiment, through the Farmer Field School or a similar experiential learning approach. These insights about farmers’ knowledge of crop diseases provide a basis for further collaborative maintenance of crop genetic diversity, development of germplasm, and IPM-related research in Africa. (shrink)

Nearly all contemporary people subsist on cultivated plants, most of which are vulnerable to diseases. Yet, there have been few studies of what traditional people know – and do not know – about crop disease. Agricultural scientists in general are becoming aware of the potential contribution of social scientists and farmers in developing integrated management of crop diseases. The International Potato Center (CIP) has focused on stimulating farmer-scientist collaboration in developing management of late blight, a major (...) fungal disease of potatoes and other plants. Understanding farmers' knowledge of this and other plant diseases is an important element in furthering such collaboration. Although not all agricultural scientists recognize the value of social science, this literature search shows that some agricultural scientists now actively collaborate with farmers, in ways that cross the boundary into social science research. During this search, much of the work we found was written by plant pathologists and entomologists. We found over fifty publications on farmer knowledge of crop disease, and we have annotated the material that we thought most relevant to farmer- scientist collaboration for research of crop diseases, especially late blight. (shrink)

IntroductionThe Managing Cancer and Living Meaningfully therapy for patients with advanced cancer was tested against a supportive psycho-oncological counseling intervention in a randomized controlled trial. We investigated whether CALM was delivered as intended ; whether CALM therapists with less experience in psycho-oncological care show higher adherence scores; and whether potential overlapping treatment elements between CALM and SPI can be identified.MethodsTwo trained and blinded raters assessed on 19 items four subscales of the Treatment Integrity Scale covering treatment domains of CALM. A (...) random sample of 150 audio recordings were rated on a three-point Likert scale with 1 = “adherent to some extent,” 2 = “adherent to a sufficient extent,” 3 = “very adherent.”ResultsAll 19 treatment elements were applied, but in various frequencies. CALM therapists most frequently explored symptoms and/or relationship to health care providers and allowed expression of sadness and anxiety about the progression of disease. The exploration of CALM treatment element SC_1 was most frequently implemented in a satisfactory or excellent manner, whereas the treatment element SMP_4: Therapist promotes acknowledgment that some life goals may no longer be achievable was not implemented in a satisfactory manner. In terms of treatment differentiation, no treatment elements could be identified which were applied significantly more often by CALM therapists than by SPI therapists.ConclusionResults verify the application of CALM treatment domains. However, CALM therapists’ adherence scores indicated manual deviations. Furthermore, raters were not able to significantly distinguish CALM from SPI, implying that overlapping treatment elements were delivered to patients. (shrink)

Globally, chronic disease and conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression and cancer are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Why, then, are public health efforts and programs aimed at preventing chronic disease so difficult to implement and maintain? Also, why is primary care—the key medical specialty for helping persons with chronic disease manage their illnesses—in decline? Public health suffers from its often being socially controversial, personally intrusive, irritating to many powerful corporate interests, and structurally (...) designed to be largely invisible and, as a result, taken for granted. Primary care struggles from low reimbursements, relative to specialists, excessive paperwork and time demands that are unattractive to medical students. Our paper concludes with a discussion of why the need for more aggressive public health and redesigned primary care is great, will grow substantially in the near future, and yet will continue to struggle with funding and public popularity. (shrink)

Ageing populations and rising rates of chronic disease globally have shifted key elements of disease management to ideas of integrated care and self‐management. The associated policies and programmes often focus on intervention and support beyond the sites of the hospital and clinic. These shifts have significantly impacted the delivery and practice of nursing for both nurses and the clients with whom they work. This article argues that Foucault's comments on space, place and heterotopia (1986) are (...) useful in exploring these changes from a philosophical perspective, to draw out the complexity of these programmes and add texture to discussions on the ways these shifts to localisation and the dominant discourses of self‐management and responsibility have reconfigured nursing practices. The theoretical discussion is augmented with illustrations from an Australian integrated health care programme. (shrink)

Self‐management is often presented as a panacea for chronic disease care. It plays an important role at the policy level and increasingly guides the delivery of health care services. Self‐management approaches to care are founded on traditional individualistic views of autonomy in which the patient is understood as being independent, rational, self‐interested, and self‐governing. This conceptualization of autonomy has been challenged, particularly by feminist scholars. In this paper I review predominant critiques of self‐management and the traditional (...) individualistic view of autonomy. I propose that a relational approach to autonomy, which is premised on social embeddedness and attends to social, political, and material conditions, is a more sound conception of autonomy capable of taking into consideration the complexities of illness experiences. I suggest that integrating a relational perspective of autonomy into self‐management will be valuable in guiding its progression and elaborate ways in which self‐management research and practice could benefit from incorporating a relational approach to autonomy. (shrink)

The coronavirus disease 2019 has taken the world by surprise and has impacted the lives of many, including the business sector and its stakeholders. Although studies investigating the impact of COVID-19 on the organizational structure, job design, and employee well-being have been on the rise, fewer studies examined the role of leadership and what it takes to be an effective leader during such times. This study integrates social cognitive theory and conservation of resources theory to argue for the importance (...) of adaptive personality in the emergence of effective leaders during crisis times, utilizing the crisis of COVID-19 as the context for the study. We argue that managers with an adaptive personality tend to have increased self-efficacy levels to lead during a crisis, resulting in increased motivation to lead during the COVID-19 crisis. Furthermore, managers with increased motivation to lead during the COVID-19 crisis are argued to have enhanced adaptive performance, thereby suggesting a serial mediation model where crisis leader self-efficacy and motivation to lead during the COVID-19 crisis act as explanatory mechanisms of the relationship between the adaptive personality and performance of the manager. In order to test our hypotheses, we collected data from 116 full-time managers in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 crisis and used hierarchical linear regression as the method of analysis. The findings support all of the hypotheses. A discussion of the results, contributions, limitations, and future directions is included. (shrink)

This paper presents the foundation upon which the contemporary knowledge of body integrity dysphoria (BID) is built. According to the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases, 11th edition (ICD-11), the main feature of BID is an intense and persistent desire to become physically disabled in a significant way. Three putative aetiologies that are considered to explain the insurgence of the condition are discussed: neurological, psychological and postmodern theories. The concept of bodily representation within the medical context is highlighted, with (...) the concept of dysphoria, which was brought to the fore with the introduction of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), and the ICD-11. Contemporary issues of “justice” are addressed to identify ethically relevant distinctions between BID and sex reassignment surgery. It is argued that there is no ethically relevant difference between the BID actor’s desire for invasive surgical intervention and the wish of gender dysphoric individuals to undergo sex reassignment surgery procedures. Some BID actors self-mutilate, and this presents medical professionals with difficult choices regarding whether or not to intervene in order to satisfy the BID patient’s desire. Both abstention and intervention may lead to severe ethical complications for doctors and patients despite the positive outcomes in terms of quality of life for BID individuals who manage to undergo such procedures. (shrink)

The traditional contrast between naturalist and normativist disease concepts fails to capture the most salient features of the health concepts debate. By using health concepts as a window on background notions of medical science and ethics, I show how Christopher Boorse (an influential naturalist) and Lennart Nordenfelt (an influential normativist) actually share deep assumptions about the character of medicine. Their disease concepts attempt, in different ways, to shore up the same medical model. For both, health concepts function like (...) demarcation criteria in the philosophy of science: they mark off the jurisdiction of medical science, and protect it from an inappropriate intrusion of socioeconomic factors, which threaten the integrity of modern medicine. These views are challenged by new developments in healthcare such as managed care and total quality review. To frame the health concepts debate in a way that better captures the issues integral to these new developments, I advance a new way of reading the distinction between weak and strong normativists. Strong normativists are skeptical of the demarcation project, think facts and values cannot be disentangled, and hold that socioeconomic conditions unavoidably influence how pathology is understood. The new health concepts debate should be framed as one between weak and strong normativists, and it concerns how we should respond to the current developments in health care. (shrink)

The quest for integrity in business is not only a reaction against malfeasance in business and associated calls for reform, but also a result of changes and new demands in the global business environment as well as the latest economic crisis. Among the sources of these new demands are the expectations of stakeholders that corporations and their leaders will take more active roles as citizens within society and in the fight against some of the most pressing problems in the world, (...) such as poverty, environmental degradation, defending human rights, corruption, and pandemic diseases. This topical and much needed book constitutes an important part of the debate on the best practices for ensuring integrity in an organizational context. (shrink)

Cardiovascular disease is a major complication of type 2 diabetes mellitus. In addition to traditional risk factors, psychological determinants play an important role in CVD risk. This study applied Deep Neural Network to develop a CVD risk prediction model and explored the bio-psycho-social contributors to the CVD risk among patients with T2DM. From 2017 to 2020, 834 patients with T2DM were recruited from the Department of Endocrinology, Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, China. In this cross-sectional study, the patients' (...) bio-psycho-social information was collected through clinical examinations and questionnaires. The dataset was randomly split into a 75% train set and a 25% test set. DNN was implemented at the best performance on the train set and applied on the test set. The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to evaluate the model performance. Of participants, 272 were diagnosed with CVD. The developed ensemble model for CVD risk achieved an area under curve score of 0.91, accuracy of 87.50%, sensitivity of 88.06%, and specificity of 87.23%. Among patients with T2DM, the top five predictors in the CVD risk model were body mass index, anxiety, depression, total cholesterol, and systolic blood pressure. In summary, machine learning models can provide an automated identification mechanism for patients at CVD risk. Integrated treatment measures should be taken in health management, including clinical care, mental health improvement, and health behavior promotion. (shrink)

Our study in China of two Integrated Pest Management (IPM) training programs for farmers shows that one is more effective than the other in reducing pesticide applications as well as in imparting to farmers an understanding of the rice ecosystem. The two training programs are based upon two different paradigms of IPM. This article uses a triangulated method of measuring concept attainment among farmer trainees in China as one measure of the effectiveness of training. Concepts of insect ecology (...) brought about by training, as well as persistence of concepts one year after training, are measured. This information is compared to farmer data on pesticide applications and yields in order to determine the comparative effectiveness of two models of IPM farmer training in Sichuan Province. Results indicate that the Farmer Field School (FFS) model of training, based upon a new Ecology-Based IPM paradigm, is more effective than the 3 Pests 3 Diseases (3P3D) model based upon an older Economic Threshold IPM paradigm. Crop yield results and pesticide applications by farmers after training are also used to indicate which of these paradigms of insect pest control is more effective, hence scientifically accurate. (shrink)

In the last decades it has become clear that medicine must find some way to combine its scientific and humanistic sides. In other words, an adequate notion of medicine requires an integrative position that mediates between the analytic-reductionist and the normative-holistic tendencies we find therein. This is especially important as these different styles of reasoning separate “illness” (something perceived and managed by the whole individual in concert with their environment) and “disease” (a “mechanical failure” of a biological element within (...) the body). While the demand for an integrative view has typically been motivated by ethical concerns, we claim that it is also motivated, perhaps even more fundamentally, by epistemological and methodological reasons. Evidence-based bio-medicine employs experimental and statistical techniques which eliminate important differences in the ways that conscious humans evaluate, live with, and react to disease and illness. However, it is precisely these experiences that underpin the concepts and norms of bio-medicine. Humanistic disciplines, on the other hand, have the resources to investigate these experiences in an intersubjectively testable way. Medicine, therefore, cannot afford to ignore its nature as a human science; it must be concerned not only with disease and illness, but also with the ways in which patients as persons respond to malady. Insofar as attitudes and expectations influence the criteria of illness and disease, they must be studied as part of the genuine subject matter of medicine as a human science. In general, we urge that this is a necessary step to overcome today's trend to split evidence-based and clinical medicine. (shrink)

Scientific advances in health care have been disproportionately distributed across social strata. Disease burden is also disproportionately distributed, with marginalized groups having the highest risk of poor health outcomes. Social determinants are thought to influence health care delivery and the management of chronic diseases among marginalized groups, but the current conceptualization of social determinants lacks a critical focus on the experiences of people within their environment. The purpose of this article was to integrate the literature on marginalization and (...) situate the concept in the framework of social determinants of health. We demonstrate that social position links marginalization and social determinants of health. This perspective provides a critical lens to assess the societal power dynamics that influence the construction of the socio‐environmental factors affecting health. Linking marginalization with social determinants of health can improve our understanding of the inequities in health care delivery and the disparities in chronic disease burden among vulnerable groups. (shrink)

Epidemics, the medical historian Charles Rosenberg argued, typically have four Acts, as in a play. In Act I, which he termed ‘Progressive revelation’, ‘merchants’, ‘municipal authorities’ and ‘the complacency of ordinary men and women’, alike are reluctant to acknowledge an epidemic because of its threat to their ‘economic and institutional interests’ and to ‘their accustomed way of doing things’: gradually however, ‘inexorably accumulating deaths and sicknesses’ bring ‘ultimate, if unwilling, recognition’. In Act II, ‘Managing randomness’, ‘collective agreement’ is sought on (...) an ‘explanatory framework’ to manage the epidemic’s ‘dismaying arbitrariness’. Such frameworks, in previous centuries mainly religious, are now more ‘secular and mechanistic’, but again also moral and social: explanation for example of the ‘differential susceptibility of particular individuals’ is sought in terms of ‘risk-enhancing behaviour’ and ‘style of life’, but also of environmental and social factors, such as ‘residence and occupation’, providing ‘a vehicle for social criticism as well as a rationale for social control’. In Act III, ‘Negotiating public response’, pressure is generated for ‘decisive and visible community response’, often taking the form of ‘collective rites integrating cognitive and emotional elements’. Such rites, including not only ‘the imposition of a quarantine’ and ‘procedures to cleanse and disinfect’, but also religious, or now more often moral or social rituals, afford ‘the reassurance of familiar frames of explanation and logically consequent policies that provide both meaning and the promise of efficacy’. Finally, In Act IV, ‘Subsidence and retrospection’, ‘incidence of the disease gradually declines’, and questions are raised ‘for retrospective moral judgement’ about ‘what “lasting impact” particular incidents have had and what “lessons” have been learnt. Have the dead died in vain? Has a heedless society reverted to its accustomed ways of doing things as soon as denial became once more a …. (shrink)

Every civilization has its own worldview that determines its approaches towards subjects such as human beings, nature and God. Most modern humans have tried to control all nature as property. Nature, therefore, was considered as the booty, which should have been used entirely. Now, the modern perspective has revealed problems including emerging and dangerous diseases, resistant bacteria, and extinction of many animals, global warming, climate change; air, sound and light pollution, and so on. The problem is that human beings cannot (...) continue these attitudes as a viable survival strategy. In this paper, using conceptual analysis, we try to explain the epistemic gap regarding the positions of humankind and nature which happened after modernism and then present the image which Ibn ‘Arabī, a traditional sage and philosopher depicted for the integrated world. He developed a comprehensive perspective of the world, considering it as a manifestation of an Existence. He considered humans as the God’s vice-regent who must manage the earth and keep the creatures as God's representative. (shrink)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the most deadly and costly chronic diseases in the world characterized by many breathing problems. The management of COPD and the prevention of exacerbations are a priority goals to improve the quality of life in patients affected by this illness. In addition, it is also crucial to improve the patients’ adherence to care which, in turn, depends on their knowledge and understanding of some factors such as the prescribed medical treatment, (...) changes in dailylife, and the process of breathing. In turn, the adherence to care leads to greater autonomy for the patient who is thus able to better manage his illness. Here we presented the application of the Model IARA in patients affected by COPD in order to achieve their autonomy in illness management which, in turn, leads to a better quality of life. IARA is an intervention program which improve the awareness and knowledge of patients with respect to both the disease and symptoms through health education. Moreover, through IARA the patients are encouraged to become more actively involved in COPD care process, also regarding drug therapy adherence. Using St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire combined with qualitative analysis, we demonstrated that IARA could be considered a useful approach in COPD management. (shrink)

Given the omnipresence and profoundness of the ongoing pandemic from the Coronavirus disease 2019, its potential spread can be minimized through social distancing. However, this practice causes increasing difficulties and undesirability of traditional transactions or interactions. Accordingly, various manufacturing firms around the world have become more committed not only to accelerating the development of digital technologies, but also to integrating them with existing processes. In this study, we address an important issue of how manufacturing firms can adapt to the (...) ever-changing volatility and unpredictable global business environment, and achieve sustainable growth by developing a strong supply chain management capability. Two specific interrelated research questions are considered: How do supply chain management capabilities contribute to firm environmental performance; and What are the sources of such capabilities? In so doing, we integrate various forms of digital innovation into a supply chain management capability logic to explore their antecedents and consequences. By using survey data from 272 manufacturing firms in China, we examine the relationship between three key forms of digital innovation and firm environmental performance. Results show that digital product, platform, and service innovations all have positive contributions to supply chain management capability. In turn, supply chain management capabilities have a partial mediating effect between digital product innovation and firm environmental performance, but a full mediating effect between digital platform and service innovations and firm environmental performance. (shrink)

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has severely damaged the global industrial supply chain and accelerated the digital transformation of the global economy. In such rapidly changing environments, multinational corporations should encourage employees to be more innovative in various fields than ever before. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees have become psychologically anxious, their working conditions have deteriorated, and they are in danger of losing their jobs. In this study, we aim to address the question of whether servant (...) leadership facilitates the innovative behavior of employees working in emerging-market MNCs when servant leadership is adopted within the firms. In addition, we explore the mediating roles of work–life balance and psychological stability perceived by employees, and the moderating role of organizational climate in the relationship between servant leadership and MNC employees' innovative behavior. In doing so, we collected data from a sample of 307 Chinese employees who are employed by five different Chinese MNCs from the Internet, information technology, electronics, and e-commerce industries. Based on a sample of survey data collected from employees of Chinese MNCs, we empirically test these ideas by specifically examining how servant leadership may shape the innovation behavior of employees in these MNCs. The results suggest that servant leadership positively influences employees' innovative behavior, and that the contribution of servant leadership to employees' innovative behavior is mediated by work–life balance and psychological stability as well as moderated by the degree of organizational climate. Moreover, the different organizational climates of these MNC employees are also expected to significantly shape the relationship between servant leadership and employees' innovative behavior. This study enriches our understanding of the importance of servant leadership in driving the innovative behaviors of employees in emerging-market MNCs and provides new insights into the mechanisms through which emerging-market MNCs can motivate their employees to be more innovative in their jobs. Thus, this study contributes to the research on human resource management by offering important implications vis-à-vis how MNCs manage their employees more effectively in addressing and responding to the dramatically changing global landscape in the post COVID-19 era. (shrink)

Australia and Thailand have made great progress in partnering with NGOs to respond to HIV/AIDS through the protection of human rights. Unquestionably, the Australian experience is more advanced. However, it is important to note that Australia’s political institutions and traditions were able to empower and accept an NGO movement of this nature almost from the start of disease identification.Thailand did not have this advantage, having only moved toward political institutions that are open to public opinion and civil society’s input (...) within the last 15 years.In spite of their varied histories, both countries eventually traveled down similar paths. In Australia, HIV/AIDS NGOs moved rapidly forward from being standard-setting, fact-finding, and advocacy organizations to becoming capable of creating new HIV/AIDS umbrella organizations and influencing existing governmental organizations on HIV/AIDS human rights issues. Indeed, by the close of the 1980s, NGOs had established themselves firmly in all of these roles. The fact that Australia still struggles with addressing an emerging epidemic among indigenous people is more a sign that the movement has thus far been incomplete than that it is faltering or ineffective. Additionally, now that NGOs are actively working through AFAO on behalf of indigenous peoples, it is likely that there will finally be more movement on human rights and H1V/AIDS issues for this group. However, sex tourism and the illegal trafficking of women and children for purposes of prostitution continue to require ongoing proactive management by the partnership before they become a serious epidemic threat.Thailand’s situation is somewhat different from that of Australia. The HIV/AIDS NGO community has grown since the epidemic exploded in the 1990s, but the organizations themselves continue to have limited power, While they have been an important voice in human rights standard-setting, fact-finding and advocacy regarding HIV/AIDS, they remain unable to fully influence the governmental organizations that ultimately make and implement human rights policies in these areas. As the NGO experience in general is new to Thai politics, continuing human rights abuses are a sign of the miles left to travel on this road rather than an indicator that the road needs to be abandoned.Regardless of their differing experiences with creating HIV/AIDS partnerships, it is impossible to say that either effort has failed to use this mechanism successfully to at least begin seriously addressing HIV/AIDS human rights issues. What can be said is that each partnership can be placed at a differing point on a continuum of effectiveness that ultimately concludes with a fully integrated partnership capable of fundamentally influencing a country’s HIV/AIDS human rights policies on an ongoing basis. (shrink)

The promises of precision medicine are often heralded in the medical and lay literature, but routine integration of genomics in clinical practice is still limited. While the “last mile” infrastructure to bring genomics to the bedside has been demonstrated in some healthcare settings, a number of challenges remain — both in the receptivity of today's health system and in its technical and educational readiness to respond to this evolution in care. To improve the impact of genomics on health and (...) class='Hi'>disease management, we will need to integrate both new knowledge and new care processes into existing workflows. This change will be onerous and time-consuming, but hopefully valuable to the provision of high quality, economically feasible care worldwide. (shrink)

The humanitarian idea underlying this article is to attempt an epidemiological interpretation of the classic Hippocratic triad "Medicine consists of three elements: the disease, the patient and the doctor". In the XIII century, the Syrian doctor Abul-Faraj in his saying: "Look, there are three of us – you, me, and the disease. If you are on my side, it will be easier for the two of us to defeat her. But, if you go over to her side, I (...) alone will not be able to defeat you both" deciphered the magical meaning of these words. For centuries, the fundamental integrity of this formula has been an ethical and professional guarantee of the success of each patient's treatment and the prospect of building a personalized healthcare system. In this particular article, we have searched for new content of three key elements of the textbook aphorism in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. An understanding of the role of the doctor – "I" as the whole complex of efforts aimed at fighting the pandemic. Patient status "You" means the whole society during a pandemic, and even is as a long-term message for the physical, mental, social and geopolitical health of future generations. The meaning of "Disease" should be understood from the perspective of the problems of the entire health system and logistical ignorance, which has become an obstacle to achieving ethical integrity in managing epidemic challenges. The paper shows how adherence to the ethical principles of social responsibility, trust, and solidarity should become the moral accompaniment of the entire complex of sanitary, anti-epidemic, economic, legal, and social technologies that can ensure success in the fight against the pandemic and prevent the development of unjustified risks. (shrink)

The key concept in Business Ethics has changed from ‘corporate social responsibility’ to ‘integrated risk‐management’. This change, first wrought by American laws, has been extended to other countries through globalization. The most important laws concern corruption, anti‐trust, consumer safety, environmental protection and insider‐trading. The ‘Federal Corporate Sentencing Guidelines’ have particularly been helpful in identifying and valuing business risks. The author proposes a ‘next‐generation’ Business Ethics integrating personal, professional and organizational ethics in the context of an institutionalized, country‐sensitive ‘corporate (...) culture’. (shrink)

BackgroundBreast cancer patients are at elevated risk of depression during treatment, thus provoking the chance of poor clinical outcomes. This retrospective cohort study aimed to investigate whether integrating Chinese herbal medicines citation into conventional cancer therapy could decrease the risk of depression in the long-term breast cancer survivors.MethodsA cohort of patients aged 20–70 years and with newly diagnosed breast cancer during 2000–2008 was identified from a nationwide claims database. In this study, we focused solely on survivors of breast cancer at (...) least1 year after diagnosis. After one-to-one matching for age, sex, and baseline comorbidities, breast cancer patients who received and did not receive CHM treatment were enrolled. The incidence rate and hazard ratio citation for depression between the two groups was estimated at the end of 2012. A Cox proportional hazard model was constructed to examine the impact of the CHM use on the risk of depression.ResultsDuring the study period, the incidence rate of depression was significantly lower in the treated cohort than in the untreated cohort [8.57 compared with 11.01 per 1,000 person-years citation], and the adjusted HR remained significant at 0.74 in a Cox proportional hazards regression model. The corresponding risk further decreasing to 43% among those using CHM for more than 1 year.ConclusionFinding from this investigation indicated that the lower risk of depression observed in breast cancer patients treated with CHM, suggesting that CHM treatment should be considered for disease management toward breast cancer. Yet, the optimal administered dose should be determined in further clinical trials. (shrink)

The key concept in Business Ethics has changed from ‘corporate social responsibility’ to ‘integrated risk‐management’. This change, first wrought by American laws, has been extended to other countries through globalization. The most important laws concern corruption, anti‐trust, consumer safety, environmental protection and insider‐trading. The ‘Federal Corporate Sentencing Guidelines’ have particularly been helpful in identifying and valuing business risks. The author proposes a ‘next‐generation’ Business Ethics integrating personal, professional and organizational ethics in the context of an institutionalized, country‐sensitive ‘corporate (...) culture’. (shrink)

In the management academic research, academic advancement, job security, and the securing of research funds at one’s university are judged mainly by one’s output of publications in high impact journals. With bogus resumes filled with published journal articles, universities and other allied institutions are keen to recruit or sustain the appointment of such academics. This often places undue pressure on aspiring academics and on those already recruited to engage in research misconduct which often leads to research integrity. This structured (...) review focuses on the ethics and integrity of management research through an analysis of retracted articles published from 2005 to 2016. The study employs a structured literature review methodology whereby retracted articles published between 2005 and 2016 in the field of management science were found using Crossref and Google Scholar. The searched articles were then streamlined by selecting articles based on their relevance and content in accordance with the inclusion criteria. Based on the analysed retracted articles, the study shows evidence of ethical misconduct among researchers of management science. Such misconduct includes data falsification, the duplication of submitted articles, plagiarism, data irregularity and incomplete citation practices. Interestingly, the analysed results indicate that the field of knowledge management includes the highest number of retracted articles, with plagiarism constituting the most significant ethical issue. Furthermore, the findings of this study show that ethical misconduct is not restricted to a particular geographic location; it occurs in numerous countries. In turn, avenues of further study on research misconduct in management research are proposed. (shrink)

A number of experiences have demonstrated how digital solutions are effective in improving quality of life (QoL) and health outcomes for older adults. Smart Health Age-Friendly Environments (SHAFE) is a new concept introduced in Europe since 2017 that combines the concept of Age-Friendly Environments with Information Technologies, supported by health and community care to improve the health and disease management of older adults and during the life-course. This chapter aims to provide an initial overview of the experiences available (...) not only in Europe, based on the research work of the participants of the International Interdisciplinary Network on Health and Well-being in an Age-Friendly Digital World (NET4Age-Friendly), which could be of interest to preventive, health and social authorities. The chapter reports good practices, pain points, and bottlenecks that may require a collaborative, interdisciplinary research approach to facilitate the transformations towards smart, sustainable, health and age-friendly cities and communities. (shrink)

The article maintains that chronic fatigue syndrome can be properly understood only by taking an integrated perspective in which evolutionary, developmental and ecological aspects are considered. The integrative approach, supplemented by a complexity theory and psychoneuroimmunological research, is capable of explaining why there are so few structural aberrations to be found in chronic fatigue syndrome and why specific treatment is so difficult to establish. A major outcome of the investigation, that all individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome are diseased in (...) their own way, emphasises the need to study the development of personalised life histories. It also highlights an ethical dimension; personalised disease defies essentialist thinking on patient management. Another major outcome, which follows from the developmental systems perspective, is the dissolution of ontological mind-body dualism. This in turn allows for a methodological complementation of the biological and phenomenological approaches to knowledge. New research strategies that may help to resolve chronic fatigue syndrome, grounded in the revised perspective on individual development, are suggested. (shrink)

The concept of professional autonomy has figured prominently in literature that addresses nursing's project of professionalization. Nursing's capacity to determine the nature and scope of its practice is related in important ways to the location of practice. Within highly structured environments such as acute‐care hospitals, nurses' professional autonomy has frequently been contested yet is often implicated by nursing's elite as a necessary condition in the construction of quality work environments. Professional concerns and management practices related to retaining experienced nurses (...) to support sustainability in healthcare delivery systems' impact on the ability of nurses to practice autonomously. Our paper focuses on the emerging field of practice of chronic disease management. We describe the complex relationships negotiated by a nurse in a theoretically autonomous practice setting as she seeks to fulfil both the requirements of a research protocol designed by physician experts representing the specialty of renal medicine, and her professional obligations to respond to the expressed needs of patients with early‐stage renal disease. We utilize a case study approach to explore particular contemporary concerns that nurses in practice confront as they attempt to accomplish professional relationships with patients central to achieving prescribed medical outcomes where nursing practice, as an element of the achievement of those outcomes, is constituted as absent or unacknowledged by the medical researchers leading the project. Implications for nursing's discourses on the professional project of autonomy will be discussed. (shrink)

Integrated pest management has emerged as an important means of managing agricultural pests. Since the mid-1980s, the emphasis in IPM has shifted toward biologically-intensive and participatory research and extension approaches. Finding better means for solving pest problems is high on the agenda for most farmers, and farmers often have significant pest management knowledge and interest in IPM experimentation. This paper describes an approach to participatory IPM research that is being implemented by the IPM Collaborative Research Support Program (...) (IPM CSRP). The approach emphasizes on-farm research with an extrapolation domain beyond the single farm, and in some cases beyond the local region or country. It considers many factors beyond the farm and research station that influence the generation and adoption of IPM technologies and strategies. It emphasizes linkages among farmers, scientists, consumers, bankers, marketers/processors, and policy makers in IPM research priority setting, conduct, and evaluation. The interdisciplinary approach described in the paper is illustrated with a case study from the Philippines. Lessons and conclusions draw on its recent application in other sites as well. (shrink)

Perceived behavioral integrity involves the employee’s perception of the alignment of the manager’s words and deeds. This meta-analysis examined the relationship between perceived behavioral integrity of managers and the employee attitudes of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, satisfaction with the leader and affect toward the organization. Results indicate a strong positive relationship overall (average r = 0.48, p<0.01). With only 12 studies included, exploration of moderators was limited, but preliminary analysis suggested that the gender of the employees and the number of (...) levels between the employee and the manager are potential moderators of the relationship. In the current sample of studies, country where the research was conducted did not seem to have any moderating effects. In addition to suggesting further investigation of potential moderators, we call for research that examines the relationship between behavioral integrity and outcomes that include individual behavior and organizational performance. (shrink)

Background: Dignity, an abstract and complex concept, is an essential part of humanity and an underlying guiding principle in healthcare. Previous literature indicates dignity is compromised in people with dementia (PwD), but those PwD maintain the capacity to live with dignity with appropriate external support. Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRDs) lead to progressive functional decline and increased vulnerability and dependence, leading to heightened risks of PwD receiving inappropriate or insufficient care that diminishes dignity. Considering the increased disease (...) prevalence and the continuously escalating costs of dementia care, establishing a productive value-based guideline may prevent suffering, maximize dignity, and thus promote quality of life (QoL). Aim: The goal of this project is to identify actionable targets for integrating dignity harmoniously and practically into care planning and management for PwD. Research Design: We conducted a concept analysis using Walker and Avant’s eight-step process. A comprehensive literature search was conducted (PubMed and CINAHL) with the keywords “dignity,” “dementia,” “Alzheimer’s disease,” and “dementia care.” Results: A total of 42 out of 4910 publications were included. The concept of dignity in PwD is operationalized as the promotion of worthiness and the accordance of respect that allows the presence and expression of a person’s sense of self, regardless of physical, mental, or cognitive health. The concept has two subdimensions: absolute dignity which encompasses the inherent self and relative dignity characterized by its dynamic reflective nature. Worthiness and respect are the two main attributes, while autonomy is an underlying component of dignity. Specific antecedents of dignity in PwD are empowerment, non-maleficence, and adaptive environmental scaffolding. As a consequence of facilitating dignity in PwD, QoL may be enhanced. Conclusion: As a foundational and necessary humanistic value, incorporating dignity into dementia care can lead to efficient and effective care that optimizes QoL in PwD throughout their disease progression. (shrink)

This article makes a strong case in favour of linking spirituality to management education. The author has used his experiences as a teacher of management studies, as well as the knowledge that he has gathered as a seeker in search of self–revelation to locate the role and signifi cance of spirituality in the managerial context. The analytic–driven search for information and knowledge, the intellect–driven explanations of context and an exposure to lifeskills linked to emotional intelligence are traditional, albeit (...) insuffi cient, inputs to management education. Such an education is incapable of developing well–rounded individuals capable of handling paradoxes, confl icts and something that managers traditionally have very low tolerance for—ambiguity. This necessitates the inclusion of spiritual intelligence described by the author as a search for inner unfoldment, making the transition from self–consciousness to consciousness of the Self. The article draws heavily on the Advaita–Vedanta tradition of Sanatana Dharma to delineate the tools and processes that are integral to the craft of a practicing manager. The act of managing is perceived as a battle where the three armours of analytical, emotional and spiritual intelligence are to be simultaneously deployed by global managers to negotiate the grey and ambiguous waters of global business. It is spiritual intelligence that enables the manager to awaken the fi rm to its true potential, address questions of philosophy and awaken the fi rm to its larger role in terms of corporate social responsibility. (shrink)

Suicide is amongst the top ten causes of death for all age groups in most countries of the world. It is the second most important cause of death in the younger age group (15-19 yrs.) , second only to vehicular accidents. Attempted suicides are ten times the successful suicide figures, and 1-2% attempted suicides become successful suicides every year. Male sex, widowhood, single or divorced marital status, addiction to alcohol ordrugs, concomitant chronic physical or mental illness, past suicidal attempt, adverse (...) life events, staying in lodging homes or staying alone, or in areas with a changing population, all these conditions predispose people to suicides. The key factor probably is social isolation. An important WHO Study established that out of a total of 6003 suicides, 98% had a psychiatric disorder. Hence mental health professionals have an important role to play in the prevention and management of suicide. Moreover, social disintegration also increases suicides, as was witnessed in the Baltic States following collapse of the Soviet Union. Hence, reducing social isolation, preventing social disintegration and treating mental disorders is the three pronged attack that must be the crux of any public health programme to reduce/prevent suicide. This requires an integrated effort on the part of mental health professionals (including crisis intervention and medication/psychotherapy), governmental measures to tackle poverty and unemployment, and social attempts to reorient value systems and prevent sudden disintegration of norms and mores. Suicide prevention and control is thus a movement which involves the state, professionals, NGOs, volunteers and an enlightened public. Further, the Global Burden of Diseases Study has projected a rise of more than 50% in mental disorders by the year 2020 (from 9.7% in 1990to 15% in 2020). And one third of this rise will be due to Major Depression. One of the prominent causes of preventable mortality is suicidal attempts made by patients of Major Depression. Therefore facilities to tackle this condition need to be set up globally on a warfooting by governments, NGOs and health care delivery systems, if morbidity and mortality of the world population has to be seriously controlled . The need, first of all, is to identify suicide prevention as public health policy, just as we think in terms of Malaria or Polio eradication, or have achieved smallpox eradication. (shrink)

Risk, ethics and compliance requirements are a daily reality for most organisations. Regulators and stakeholders (including employees) demand more of most organisations, from equality, to anti-corruption, to supply chain ethics. Start-ups stutter and unicorns crash to earth when they get risk wrong. What should be done? Where should you start? How can risk management enable, not hinder, the organization's strategic goals? This book answers these questions -- rightsizing risk for every organization -- using frontline-tested tools, tips, and techniques. Whether (...) you're a purpose-driven changemaker or just struggling to comply with a seemingly unending stream of regulation, we will make risk work for you. (shrink)

Patient self-management of disease is increasingly supported by technologies that can monitor a wide range of behavioural and biomedical parameters. Incorporated into everyday devices such as cell phones and clothes, these technologies become integral to the psychosocial aspects of everyday life. Many technologies are likely to be marketed directly to families with ill members, and families may enlist the support of clinicians in shaping use. Current ethical frameworks are mainly conceptualised from the perspective of caregivers, researchers, developers and (...) regulators in order to ensure the ethics of their own practices. This paper focuses on families as autonomous decision-makers outside the regulated context of healthcare. We discuss some morally relevant issues facing families in their decisions to monitor the health-related behaviours of loved ones. An example – remote parental monitoring of adolescent blood glucose – is presented and discussed through the lens of two contrasting accounts of ethics; one reflecting the predominant focus on health outcomes within the health technology assessment (HTA) framework and the other that attends to the broader sociocultural contexts shaping technologies and their implications. Issues discussed include the focus of assessments, informed consent and child assent, and family co-creation of system characteristics and implications. The parents’ decisions to remotely monitor their child has relational implications that are likely to influence conflict levels and thus also health outcomes. Current efforts to better integrate outcome assessments with social and ethical assessments are particularly relevant for informed decision-making about health monitoring technologies in families. (shrink)

Despite their shared origins, medicine and dentistry are not always two sides of the same coin. There is a long history in medical philosophy of defining disease and various medical models have come into existence. Hitherto, little philosophical and phenomenological work has been done considering dental caries and periodontitis as examples of disease and illness. A philosophical methodology is employed to explore how we might define dental caries and periodontitis using classical medical models of disease – the (...) naturalistic and normativist. We identify shared threads and highlight how the features of these highly prevalent dental diseases prevent them fitting in either definition. The article describes phenomenology and the current thought around the phenomenology of illness, exploring how and why these dental illnesses might integrate into a phenomenological model. We discover that there are some features particular to dental caries and periodontitis: ubiquity, preventability and hyper-monitorablility. Understanding the differences that these dental diseases have compared to many other classically studied diseases leads us to ethical questions concerning how we might manage those who have symptoms and seek treatment. As dental caries and periodontitis are common, preventable and hyper-monitorable, it is suggested that these features affect the phenomenology of these illnesses. For example, if we experience dental illness when we have consciously made decisions that have led to it, do we experience them differently to those rarer illnesses that we cannot expect? Other diseases share these features are discussed. This paper highlights the central differences between the classical philosophical notion of disease in medicine and the dental examples of caries and periodontitis. It suggests that a philosophical method of conceptualising medical illness - phenomenology - should not be applied to these dental illnesses without thought. A phenomenological analysis of any dental illness is yet to be done and this paper highlights why a separate strand of phenomenology should be explored, instead of employing those that are extant. The article concludes with suggestions for further research into the nascent field of the phenomenology of dental illness and aims to act as a springboard to expose the dental sphere to this philosophical method of analysis. (shrink)

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology is a consortium that comprises leading informaticians, biologists, clinicians, and ontologists, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap, to develop innovative technology and methods that allow scientists to record, manage, and disseminate biomedical information and knowledge in machine-processable form. The goals of the Center are (1) to help unify the divergent and isolated efforts in ontology development by promoting high quality open-source, standards-based tools to create, manage, and use ontologies, (2) to create (...) new software tools so that scientists can use ontologies to annotate and analyze biomedical data, (3) to provide a national resource for the ongoing evaluation, integration, and evolution of biomedical ontologies and associated tools and theories in the context of driving biomedical projects (DBPs), and (4) to disseminate the tools and resources of the Center and to identify, evaluate, and communicate best practices of ontology development to the biomedical community. Through the research activities within the Center, collaborations with the DBPs, and interactions with the biomedical community, our goal is to help scientists to work more effectively in the e-science paradigm, enhancing experiment design, experiment execution, data analysis, information synthesis, hypothesis generation and testing, and understand human disease. (shrink)