Japan’s Nuclear Hedge: Beyond "Allergy" and Breakout

This chapter examines the future of Japan’s hedged dependence on U.S. extended deterrence and encourages more imaginative thinking about potential outcomes and strategic implications as the second nuclear age unfolds

Harm reduction as a strategy for supporting people who self-harm on mental health wards : the views and experiences of practitioners

BACKGROUND: Harm reduction has had positive outcomes for people using sexual health and substance misuse services. Clinical guidance recommends these approaches may be appropriately adopted by mental health practitioners when managing some people who self-harm. There has, however, been very little research in this area. METHODS: We explored practitioners' views of harm reduction as a strategy for supporting people who self-harm. The Self Harm Antipathy Scale (SHAS) was administered to a random sample of 395 mental health practitioners working on 31 wards in England, semi-structured interviews were then conducted with 18 survey respondents. RESULTS: Practitioners who had implemented the approach reported positive outcomes including a reduction in incidence and severity of self-harm and a perceived increase in empowerment of service users. Practitioners with no experience of using harm reduction were concerned that self-harm would increase in severity, and were unsure how to assess and manage risk in people under a harm reduction care plan. Some fundamentally disagreed with the principle of harm reduction for self-harm because it challenged their core beliefs about the morality of self-harm, or the ethical and potential legal ramifications of allowing individuals to harm themselves. LIMITATIONS: This study was conducted solely with practitioners working on inpatient units. The majority of staff interviewed had no experience of harm reduction and so their concerns may not reflect challenges encountered by practitioners in clinical practice. CONCLUSIONS: Harm reduction is being used to support people who self-harm within inpatient psychiatry and some practitioners report potential benefits of this approach. However, this raises particularly complex practical, ethical and legal issues and further research is needed to assess the safety, acceptability and efficacy of the approach

A cannabigerol-rich Cannabis sativa extract, devoid of ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol, elicits hyperphagia in rats

Objective: Non-psychoactive phytocannabinoids (pCBs) from Cannabis sativa may represent novel therapeutic options for cachexia due to their pleiotropic pharmacological activities, including appetite stimulation. We have recently shown that purified cannabigerol (CBG) is a novel appetite stimulant in rats. As standardised extracts from Cannabis chemotypes dominant in one pCB (botanical drug substances (BDS)) often show greater efficacy and/or potency than purified pCBs, we investigated the effects of a CBG-rich BDS, devoid of psychoactive ∆9-THC, on feeding behaviour. Methods: Following a 2 hour pre-feed satiation procedure, 16 male Lister-hooded rats were administered CBG-BDS (at 30-240 mg/kg) or vehicle. Food intake, meal pattern microstructure and locomotor activity were recorded over 2 hours. Results: Total food intake was increased by 120 and 240mg/kg CBG-BDS vs vehicle (1.53g and 1.36g, respectively, vs 0.56g; p<0.05 and p<0.01). Latency to feeding onset was dose-dependently decreased by all doses (p<0.05-0.01), and 120 and 240mg/kg doses increased both the number of meals consumed (p<0.01) and cumulative size of the first 2 meals (p<0.05 and p<.0.01). No significant effect was observed on ambulatory activity or rearing behaviour. Conclusions: CBG-BDS is a novel appetite stimulant, which may have greater potency than purified CBG, despite the absence of ∆9-THC in the extract

Intellectual Property and Public Health – A White Paper

On October 26, 2012, the University of Akron School of Law’s Center for Intellectual Property and Technology hosted its Sixth Annual IP Scholars Forum. In attendance were thirteen legal scholars with expertise and an interest in IP and public health who met to discuss problems and potential solutions at the intersection of these fields. This report summarizes this discussion by describing the problems raised, areas of agreement and disagreement between the participants, suggestions and solutions made by participants and the subsequent evaluations of these suggestions and solutions. Led by the moderator, participants at the Forum focused generally on three broad questions. First, are there alternatives to either the patent system or specific patent doctrines that can provide or help provide sufficient incentives for health-related innovation? Second, is health information being used proprietarily and if so, is this type of protection appropriate? Third, does IP conflict with other non-IP values that are important in health and how does or can IP law help resolve these conflicts? This report addresses each of these questions in turn

The Drug Testing Project in International Sports: Dilemmas in an Expanding Regulatory Regime

Over the past two decades testing for performance enhancing drugs has become central to the legitimacy of international sport. A constant battle exists between athletes and coaches seeking to enhance performance at almost any cost and sporting authorities that deem the use of performance enhancing drugs illegal. As more methods of enhancement are discovered, the list of banned substances continues to grow, making enforcement more complex. Recently various sporting bodies, realizing that competition testing is ineffective in detecting the most commonly used drugs, have begun monitoring elite athletes year round and testing them around the world on short notice. For the sports drug testing project to succeed, it will have to achieve a level of international cooperation and institution-building far beyond that which has so far been accomplished. This Article addresses some of the obstacles to an expanding international regulatory regime

Factors Used to Determine the Teaching Load for Chairs in Public Community Colleges

After a 10 minute presentation of a recently completed national study of the practices used by public community colleges to determine chair teaching load, attendees will be provided a framework and procedure for determining chair teaching load on their campus, and will then engage in a spirited but structured discussion of the factors to be considered and a process for assigning weights to each

Intellectual Property and Public Health – A White Paper

On October 26, 2012, the University of Akron School of Law’s Center for Intellectual Property and Technology hosted its Sixth Annual IP Scholars Forum. In attendance were thirteen legal scholars with expertise and an interest in IP and public health who met to discuss problems and potential solutions at the intersection of these fields. This report summarizes this discussion by describing the problems raised, areas of agreement and disagreement between the participants, suggestions and solutions made by participants and the subsequent evaluations of these suggestions and solutions. Led by the moderator, participants at the Forum focused generally on three broad questions. First, are there alternatives to either the patent system or specific patent doctrines that can provide or help provide sufficient incentives for health-related innovation? Second, is health information being used proprietarily and if so, is this type of protection appropriate? Third, does IP conflict with other non-IP values that are important in health and how does or can IP law help resolve these conflicts? This report addresses each of these questions in turn

Digital Innovation for Financial Services Organizations: A Preliminary Consideration of Lines of Action for Organizational Practices

As respond rapidly enough. Traditional, pre-digital organizations are structured around practices in silos that enforce rules and legacy processes which result in “speedbumps” to digital innovation by slowing work and customer reaction times. Companies who have become reliant on digital innovation to improve service, such as financial services organizations, and do not adjust their organizational practices to respond to process changes may cease to exist. When considering digital innovation, a key challenge is a low level and fragmented understanding of organizational practices, even though there is an increasing number of documented benefits of transforming organizational practices. There is, therefore, a need for research to better understand organizational practices when considering digital innovation. This study responds to this call through a meta‐aggregative approach to synthesize organizational practices associated with digital transformation when considering digital innovations. The meta-aggregative approach extracted recurring practices as lines of action guided by the Technology, Organization and Environment framework from which thirteen lines of action were identified. These lines of action provide recurring organizational practices affecting digital innovation in the financial services industry that affect digital innovation

Evaluation of the primary school teacher induction training program in Belize

Scope and Method of Study:The purpose of the evaluation study was to determine the effectiveness of the Belize Primary School Teacher Induction Program through the perceptions of three participant groups; newly qualified teachers, their mentors, and their principals. Evaluation methods were used, including a researcher developed survey.Findings and Conclusions:The findings indicated the induction training program was widely accepted as an effective program by its stakeholders. Teachers reported the program assisted in preparing teachers for classroom teaching. The evaluation identified the mentorship component as one of the weaknesses of the program. By developing a mentorship workshop, mentors will gain the skills and knowledge needed to better support the newly qualified teachers