Unhealthy behaviors associated with mental health disorders: a systematic comparative review of diet quality, sedentary behavior, and cannabis and tobacco use

Background: There are well-established literatures documenting the associations between mental disorders and unhealthy behaviors such as poor diet quality, sedentary behavior, and cannabis and tobacco use. Few studies have attempted to understand the respective findings in light of each other, however. Objective: The purpose of this review was to assemble comparable data for each behavior-disorder association and assess the associations in terms of their overall strength. The review aimed to include a representative, but not exhaustive, range of studies that would allow for explorative comparisons. Methods: Eligible studies were identified via Pubmed searches and citation searching, restricted to publications no older than 2015 written in English. To obtain comparable data, only studies that reported findings as odds ratios were included, and risk of bias related to study samples, behavioral measurement disparities, and control variables was assessed via sensitivity analyses. Findings for each disorder were compared on the basis of different measures of central tendency. Results: From 3,682 records, 294 studies were included. The review found evidence of associations between each of the four unhealthy behaviors and psychosis, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), while personality disorder was only investigated in relation to cannabis and tobacco use. In overall comparison, the associations were generally of similar strength, and only the association between cannabis use and personality disorder was exceptional in terms of being significantly stronger than its counterparts across disorders and across behaviors. Analyses of bias risk identified some influence from behavioral measurement disparities and lack of adequate statistical control, but findings were generally robust across a range of sensitivity analyses. Conclusion: This explorative and comparative review found that poor diet quality, sedentary behavior, and cannabis and tobacco use are about equally strongly associated with a range of different mental disorders. Given the general nature of these associations, we should probably understand them to reflect a general and shared etiology. However, the findings in this review should be regarded as tentative until confirmed by more comprehensive investigations.publishedVersio

The international regime of drug control may violate the human right to life and security

Critics of the international regime of drug control have often pointed to its criminogenic effects, maintaining that drug criminalization gives rise to a profitable illicit drugs market which in turn sustains organized crime networks. Here I will expand upon this critique to argue that the violent crime resulting from the drug criminalization regime may constitute a violation of the human right to life and security. To support this argument, I will discuss the extent to which policy makers and the citizens who empower them may stand morally responsible for unintended but foreseeable consequences of the policies they implement. I will note that a north-south imbalance is at play: while the Global North has been the driving force behind the criminalization regime, the violent criminality entailed by the regime of drug control has impacted the Global South most strongly.publishedVersio

Service in a Cultural Immersion Setting: Student Teachers Evaluate A Sense of Community

Classroom demographics in K-12 schools in the U.S. show that students of color represent an increased percentage of those enrolled. and that the number of students whose families are in poverty is on the rise. Yet teaching is a profession long dominated by middle-class individuals of European ancestry. The recruitment of teachers from diverse backgrounds is paramount, but teacher education must also prepare new professionals to meet the needs of students whose backgrounds might be different from their own. Cultural immersion and community-based service learning are two strategies for enhancing multicultural education for preservice teachers. This is a qualitative case study of three Indiana University student teachers in a cultural immersion project on the Navajo Indian Reservation. The study focuses on the student teachers\u27 experiences of community life in their Dine host towns and of a service-learning component required in the American Indian Reservation Project (AIRP). Through interviews, observation, facilitated group discussion, and academic reports, the researcher explores a range of motivations, aspirations, assumptions, and concerns Project participants have in regard to living and working in a culture different from their own. Specific attention is given to the student teachers\u27 community service work and the sense each participant makes of local activities, public interactions, and the dynamics of a service relationship. This study analyzes the objectives of cultural immersion and community service learning and proposes structures for thematic inquiry in the AIRP. The researcher builds on the work of Boyle-Baise and Sleeter (2000). applying their model of community-based service learning to a setting of cultural immersion. It concludes that a curriculum of inquiry and reflection surrounding participation in public life supports the goals of multicultural teacher education and facilitates increased personal. cultural, and professional competence among preservice teachers

Entheogenic Spirituality: Characteristics of Spiritually Motivated Psychedelics Use

Investigations of the use of psychedelic or entheogenic drugs in spiritual contexts have focused on mystical experience. Arguing that entheogenic spirituality should be understood more broadly, this study recruited 319 individuals into an online survey. Respondents were predominantly from western countries, but reported a connection to an eclectic range of religious and spiritual traditions, with Buddhism as the largest religion. About half of the respondents reported having a meditation practice, and the most endorsed motivations for entheogen use related to personal growth and spirituality. For spiritually motivated respondents, entheogenic experiences were most commonly characterized by feelings of joy, peace, and love, by insight into oneself and one’s relations, and by improved connections with nature and with other people. Spiritually affiliated participants were more likely to report mystical experiences involving ego dissolution and contact or unity experiences and reported more positive long-term consequences from entheogen use. The study affirms the existence of a movement of spiritually motivated entheogen users that requires further investigation.acceptedVersio

The ethics of drug criminalization

Filosofi mastergradsoppgaveFILO350MAHF-FIL

Entheogenic Spirituality

Avhandlingen presenterer og diskuterer ulike studier i det jeg har kalt enteogen spiritualitet. Slik disse studiene har forstått saken, handler enteogen spiritualitet om bruk av rusmidler som LSD, psilocybin, DMT, MDMA og cannabis i uformelle sammenhenger men med spirituell hensikt. Enteogene opplevelser er knyttet til innsikt, positivitet og forbedrete relasjoner, samt noen ganger til ego-oppløsning og en følelse av kontakt med transcendente størrelser. Den innledende oversikts-artikkelen i avhandlingen diskuterer hvordan disse studiene bidrar til en forbedret forståelse av hva religion er, samt av forholdet mellom religion og makt. Som en i hovedsak ikke-institusjonell form for religion bryter enteogen spiritualitet med forståelsen av religion som et institusjonelt fenomen, men denne formen for spiritualitet kan dog forstås i relasjon til diskurs, praksis, samfunn og opplevelse. Siden enteogener tilsynelatende er meget effektive i å indusere spirituelle opplevelser og slike opplevelser kan fungere som en kilde til spirituell autoritet, argumenterer jeg for at enteogen spiritualitet kan utfordre etablerte religioners (i hovedsak) institusjonelt baserte autoritet, og dermed også deres makt. Denne posisjonen som en potensiell kilde til motmakt overfor etablerte religioner kan hjelpe oss å forstå hvorfor enteogen spiritualitet er den eneste storskala spirituelle bevegelse i den moderne verden som er forbudt etter internasjonal lov.This dissertation presents and discusses a range of articles related to studies in entheogenic spirituality. As these studies have understood the matter, entheogenic spirituality is a phenomenon involving the use of entheogenic drugs – LSD, psilocybin, DMT, MDMA, and cannabis – in informal settings for spiritual purposes. It is connected to entheogenic experience, but also to the integration of experience for purposes of personal growth. The most common characteristics for entheogenic experiences were connected to insight, positive feelings, and improved connections to other people and to nature. Experiences with mystical-type characteristics such as ego dissolution and unification with transcendent forces were important to many spiritual entheogen users, but not to everybody, and rarely to spiritual cannabis users. The individual articles relate the specific findings they discuss to extant research, although most of this research has been performed by academics working in fields outside the Study of Religions. There is also a small but growing literature on entheogenic spirituality by scholars of religion, however, and the overview article discusses how my research relates to this literature. In addition, it discusses the issue of how entheogenic spirituality challenges our understanding of religion in an overall sense, and particularly from the perspective on the relationship between religion and power. As a largely non-institutionalized form of religion, entheogenic spirituality does not conform to an understanding of religion as involving institutions. Nevertheless, it can be understood in relation to discourse, practice, community, and experience as a form of institution-less religion. Since entheogens are apparently highly efficacious means of inducing experiences with mystical-type characteristics, furthermore, and since such characteristics may serve as a basis for claims to spiritual authority, entheogenic spirituality has the apparent capacity to challenge the authority and power of religious institutions. The overview article discusses how a power-centric perspective on religion may help us understand both the position of entheogenic spirituality in modern western societies and the position of studies in entheogenic spirituality in the modern academy

Entrepreneurship education through sustainability orientation – exploring a project initiating and structuring industry mentors

Entrepreneurship education (EE) is about developing students’ ability to create economic, social, or cultural value. For sustainable development and achieving the SDGs, collaboration and new alliances will be of key importance. Collaboration can drive and enable innovative practices that bring benefits to the environment, society and organizations. A fully circular economy (CE), aiming to keep resources in economic cycles as long as possible, is required according to the European Green deal. In this paper the connection between sustainability, collaboration, and mentoring in entrepreneurship education has been strengthened. Two theoretical positions have been selected: (1) Entrepreneurship, sustainability and collaboration; and (2) Entrepreneurship education anchored in experiential learning and collaborative orientation in universities’ Third Mission. EE and entrepreneurial pedagogy lay out student centered principles for experiential learning, aiming to develop students’ creativity, opportunity orientation and innovation skills. Mentoring is an experiential learning concept, regarded as fruitful in higher education and widely used in the business industry. Student teams are often challenged with real-world problems. We explore a collaborative project initiating and structuring industry mentors. The educational setting is two courses at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) with partially common educational activities. The course challenges come from organizations in the region and are rooted in sustainability and CE. During 2019 industry mentors were assessed in a pilot-project and implemented after proving the viability of the idea. Initiating industry mentors shows positive outcome, and the three main findings are: (1) Industry mentors seems to cover an important function and role the professors do not cover; (2) Engaging industry mentors confirms the perceived need for structure and a collaboration network; and (3) Applying industry mentor service can lead to more outward and practice-oriented professors and university. Sustainability orientation and external collaboration by industry mentors’ entails promising possibilities for experiential learning, knowledge development, networking, value creation, and educational re-directing in line with the Third Mission of Higher Education (HEI). A deeper understanding of entrepreneurial mentoring and the role of industry mentors is achieved. There is a need for further empirical examination.publishedVersio

Arena Lettmetall

Rapporten er en evaluering av Arena Lettmetall, som har vært et utviklingsprosjekt i tilknytning til lettmetallindustrien på Raufoss-Gjøvik-Toten i perioden 2004-2006. Prosjektet har vært en viktig katalysator for mange aktiviteter i miljøet, og har også bidratt til å utvikle flere nye elementer i det regionale innovasjonssystemet. Delprosjektene vil i fortsettelsen i hovedsak bli videreført av TotAl eller NCE-Raufoss. Tilknyttet prosjekt Verdiskaping i innlandet - VS2010 200

Student peer mentoring in an entrepreneurship course

Innovation and entrepreneurship are two important drivers for growth, productivity and to welfare development. Companies, organizations, and governments increasingly focus on these topics, and academia has a central role in the Triple helix. Entrepreneurship education is considered an important contributor towards beforementioned goals. Active- and experiential learning has proven a wide range of benefits in entrepreneurship education, with more guidance. Student peer mentoring is regarded as an effective intervention to establish goal-oriented success and retention of students. By combining these two concepts, we try to create an educational setting for effective “real life” entrepreneurial learning through projects. The aim of this paper is to (1) Briefly describe the pedagogical design and the project introducing student peer mentoring in an entrepreneurship course; and (2) Study students’ experience and the change in academic results introducing student peer mentor services. This paper has an explorative design, and we conduct a comparative case study. The course is ING101 Technology Management, Economics, and Innovation (ING101) at Western Norway University for Applied Science (HVL). ING101 is for non-business students at the undergraduate level. The main tasks for student peer mentors are to facilitate student’s team-processes and academic work with a demanding semester-assignment where they create a business plan. Using student peer mentors in ING101 shows results. Firstly, students monitored by the student mentors, covers a role the lecturer does not cover due to (1) Age difference, and (2) Lecturer will grade the students and students may be reluctant to ask questions. Secondly, the use of student peer mentors has resulted in decreased reported workload and increased mastery. Thirdly, the average grade performance seems to have improved. These findings may be helpful for future empirical studies of mentoring in entrepreneurship education and serve as a guide for other who experiment and implement different mentoring styles in innovation and entrepreneurship courses.publishedVersio

Optimalization of ventilation and underfloor heating in small bathrooms

Skrevet i samarbeid med SINTEFKrav, veiledninger og anbefalinger til avtrekk på bad finnes i alle de nordiske landene, men oppgitte avtrekksmengder er sprikende, og opphavet til disse virker å være usikkert. En vurdering av dagens anbefalinger syntes av den grunn å være nødvendig. I denne oppgaven studeres påvirkningsgraden av uttørkingstid og muggvekstforhold basert på ulike avtrekksmengder og gulvtemperaturer for å finne optimale kombinasjoner med avtrekk og gulvvarme på bad. I oppgaven ble det benyttet både konstruerte forsøk og feltmålinger til å vurdere ulike avtrekksmengder og gulvtemperaturer, samt kombinasjoner av disse. I de konstruerte forsøkene ble 36-, 54- og 72 m3/h benyttet som avtrekksmengder, og 22°C og 26°C benyttet som settpunkt på varmekabler i standardiserte dusjsekvenser. Det ble i de konstruerte forsøkene målt relativ fuktighet og temperatur over de 23 timene etter hver dusjsekvens, samt at dusjsonen ble termografert med time-lapse i enkelte forsøk. I tillegg ble vannmettede klosser plassert ut på gulv for å vurdere uttørkingsgraden av tre ved ulike forsøksparametere og kombinasjoner. For feltmålinger ble måleutstyr utplassert i to bad i et studentkollektiv, der relativ fuktighet og temperatur ble målt over én uke. Et av badene hadde høy varme i gulv og 36 m3/h avtrekksmengde, mens det andre badet hadde middels varme i gulv og 54 m3/h avtrekksmengde. For både konstruerte forsøk og feltmålinger ble det gjort en analyse av muggvekstvilkår for hvert aktuelle forsøk. Resultatene viser at høyere avtrekksmengder gir raskere uttørkingstid målt i avtrekket. Basert på termografering og målinger i dusjsonen gir høy gulvvarme opp mot 3 ganger raskere uttørking sammenlignet med lav gulvvarme. Det fremkommer også at forskjellen i uttørkingstid er større når man øker ventilasjonsmengden fra 36 til 54 m3/h, enn fra 54 til 72 m3/h. I de konstruerte forsøkene fremkommer det ved analyse av muggvekstvilkår at både 54 og 72 m3/h i avtrekksvolum gir mindre tid med gunstige muggvekstvilkår enn 36 m3/h. I feltmålingene ble det ikke registrert gunstige muggvekstvilkår på badet med 54 m3/h avtrekksmengde, mens det for badet med 36 m3/h avtrekksmengde ble registrert gunstige muggvekstvilkår i 15 minutter gjennom måleuken. For små bad med varmekabler og uten tilstøtende yttervegger, kan det utifra resultatene se ut til at 54 m3/h er en fornuftig konstant avtrekksmengde som sikrer badet mot muggvekst uten unødig energiforbruk. Resultatene indikerer ellers at avtrekksmengden er den viktigste faktoren for å raskt tømme badet for vanndamp, mens gulvvarmen er viktigst for å fjerne fritt vann på gulv og vann i gulvsjiktet.Requirements, guidelines, and recommendations for exhaust in bathrooms are found in all the Nordic countries, but the stated exhaust volumes differ, and the origin of these seems to be uncertain. The degree of impact of drying time and mold growth conditions is therefore assessed based on different exhaust volumes and floor temperatures in this thesis to find optimal combinations of exhaust and underfloor heating. In this thesis, both constructed experiments and field experiments were used to assess different exhaust volumes and floor temperatures, as well as combinations of these. In the constructed experiments, 36-, 54- and 72 m3/h were used as exhaust volumes, and 22 °C and 26 °C were used as setpoints of the heated floor in standardized shower sequences. In the constructed experiments, relative humidity and temperature were measured over the 23 hours after each shower sequence, and the shower zone was thermographed with time-lapse in certain experiments. In addition, water-saturated wooden bricks were placed on the floor to assess the degree of drying of wood by various experimental parameters and combinations. In the field experiments, measuring equipment was placed in two bathrooms in a student home, where relative humidity and temperature were measured through one week. One of the bathrooms had high floor heating and 36 m3/h exhaust volume, while the other bathroom had medium floor heating and 54 m3/h exhaust volume. For both constructed experiments and field measurements, an analysis of mold growth conditions was performed for each experiment. The results show that higher exhaust volumes result in faster drying time measured in the exhaust. Based on thermography and measurements in the shower zone, high underfloor heating gives up to 3 times faster drying out compared to low underfloor heating. It also appears that the difference in drying time is greater when increasing the amount of ventilation from 36 to 54 m3/h, than from 54 to 72 m3/h. In the constructed experiments, it emerges by analyzing mold growth conditions that both 54 and 72 m3/h of exhaust volume gives less time with favorable mold growth conditions than 36 m3/h. In the field measurements, no favorable mold growth conditions were registered in the bathroom with 54 m3/h exhaust volume, while for the bathroom with 36 m3/h exhaust volume, favorable mold growth conditions were registered for 15 minutes during the measured week. In small bathrooms with underfloor heating and without adjacent outer walls, it may appear from the results that 54 m3/h is a reasonable amount of exhaust that secures the bathroom against mold growth without unnecessary energy consumption. The results also indicates that the amount of exhaust is the most important factor for quickly emptying the bathroom of water vapor, while the floor heating is most important for removing free water on the floor and water in the flooring.M-B