International Study Center Research Articles

Rheumatoid Arthritis: Early diagnosis and treatment outcomes with individualized Homoeopathic medicine: A single blind, simple randomized placebo controlled study

Introduction: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is the most common inflammatory articular disorder. It is a chronic progressive systemic autoimmune disease with hallmark of chronic erosive-polyarthritis. It can be seen in all races with overall prevalence of about 1 percent. Its prevalence in old women is about 5 percent and female to male ratio is 3 to 1 in this disorder with the peak onset age of 50 ± 15 years .The clinical feature of RA is divided to three categories such as Articular, Peri-articular, Extra-articular (systemic). Research Objectives: To study the response of Homoeopathic medicaments in RA with response to change in Disease Activity Scores in 28 joints (DAS28).Methodology: The study was simple randomized and single blind method. The sample size was fixed at 90.Test group 60 i.e. Group - I(Centesimal -30), Group – II( 50 Millesimal -30 ) & Group – III( Control) 30. Duration of study was for two years. It was carried out at International Study & Research Centre on Homoeopathy, Bhubaneswar. There were inclusion & exclusion criteria, treatment plan, follow up with disease activity scores in 28 joints (DAS28) of RA. Results: Were documented before and after with change in RA severity, which was assessed by Disease Activity Scores in 28 joints (DAS28). Before treatment the data were collected as per DAS28 and categorized into low disease activity, moderate disease activity and high disease activity. After intervention as per the “DAS28 improvement over time points” the response was recorded. As per the guidelines above data were interpreted in results.Statistical Analysis: Chi-square test for comparision of centesimal potency and placebo the chi-square equals to 32.593 with 1 degree of freedom. The two tailed P value is less than 0.0001. Hence the result was statistically significant difference (P

L’ISTITUTO DI FARMACOLOGIA DELL’UNIVERSITà DI MILANO DAL 1946 al 1980

The global pandemic of Covid-19 has caused enormous damage to scientific research by dramatically reducing the functionality of the institutions responsible for it and at the same time polarizing many lines of research toward solving the pandemic problems. This situation has similarities with what happened during the Second World War. In that case, the post-war recovery was intense, also bringing many changes in the methodology and motivations of scientific research. In this paper I analyzed, as a model of post-war rebirth, that of the Institute of Pharmacology of the University of Milan that became from a small laboratory a research and teaching institution based on human and scientific concepts that were innovative at the time. Its birth started in the years 1946-47, was favored by the collaboration between private and public institutions (the De Marchi Foundation, the University of Milan and the Municipality of Milan), was build by the scientists as a high-level, broad-based international study center, and formed the basis of a possible example of a university campus. The methodological and conceptual development of a new pharmacology and its growth in researchers and scientific purposes are outlined. The birth from this Institute of the Mario Negri Research Institute, of the School of Pharmacy of the University of Milan, of the Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology Center of the CNR and of the Lombardy Biomedical Library System is briefly described. The different reactions to a global damage brought to science and research in the post-war and post-pandemic periods are discussed.

L’ISTITUTO DI FARMACOLOGIA DELL’UNIVERSITA’ DI MILANO DAL 1946 AL 1980.

The global pandemic of Covid-19 has caused enormous damage to scientific research by dramatically reducing the functionality of the institutions responsible for it and at the same time polarizing many lines of research toward solving the pandemic problems. This situation has similarities with what happened during the Second World War. In that case, the post-war recovery was intense, also bringing many changes in the methodology and motivations of scientific research. In this paper I analyzed, as a model of post-war rebirth, that of the Institute of Pharmacology of the University of Milan that became from a small laboratory a research and teaching institution based on human and scientific concepts that were innovative at the time. Its birth started in the years 1946-47, was favored by the collaboration between private and public institutions (the De Marchi Foundation, the University of Milan and the Municipality of Milan), was build by the scientists as a high-level, broad-based international study center, and formed the basis of a possible example of a university campus. The methodological and conceptual development of a new pharmacology and its growth in researchers and scientific purposes are outlined. The birth from this Institute of the Mario Negri Research Institute, of the School of Pharmacy of the University of Milan, of the Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology Center of the CNR and of the Lombardy Biomedical Library System is briefly described. The different reactions to a global damage brought to science and research in the post-war and post-pandemic periods are discussed.

Effects of individualized homoeopathic medicaments in Psoriasis: A single blind, simple randomized, placebo controlled study

Psoriasis is a non-contagious, chronic skin condition that produces plaques of thickened, scaling skin. It is considered as an incurable, long-term (chronic) inflammatory skin condition. Psoriasis is estimated to affect 2–4% of the population of the western world. Commonly appears for the first time between the ages of 15 and 25 years. In India the prevalence varies from 0.44 to 2.8%.Specific medical signs used for diagnosis are Auspitz's sign, Koebner phenomenon, Candle grease sign with itching, pain localized to papules and plaques. As it was understood to be a chronic, intractable & incurable disease, hence it was felt imperative to carry out a systematic constitutional treatment to validate the observations of earlier Homoeopaths and the subtle homoeopathic philosophy.Research Objectives: Primary objectives were to observe the change in disease severity and change in quality of life of the people. Secondary objective was to ascertain the effect on frequency of relapse and recurrence interval.Methodology: The study was simple randomized and single blind method. The sample size was fixed at 90.Test group 60 i.e. Group – I(Centesimal -30), Group – II(50 Millesimal -30) & Group – III( Control) 30. Duration of study was for two years. It was carried out at International Study & Research Centre on Homoeopathy, Bhubaneswar. There were inclusion & exclusion criteria, treatment plan, follow up with Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI), Psoriasis Disability Index (PDI), Relapse and Recurrence Interval (RRI).Results: Were documented on following points. Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI)/Psoriasis Disability Index (PDI)/ Relapse & Recurrence Interval (RRI). Statistical Analysis: By Kruskul Wallis Test, H0 was rejected. In paired ‘t’ test for PASI, Group – I and II results (P

Gestalt Review: 25 Years

<i>Gestalt Review</i>: 25 Years

Thoughts in the Time of COVID-19

Thoughts in the Time of COVID-19

Gestalt Psychotherapy and Coaching for Relationships

Gestalt Psychotherapy and Coaching for Relationships

Multicenter prospective study on multivariant diagnostics of autoimmune bullous dermatoses using the BIOCHIP technology

Thecurrent standard in the serologic diagnosis of autoimmune bullous diseases (AIBD) is a multistep procedure sequentially applying different assays. In contrast, the BIOCHIP Mosaic technology combines multiple substrates for parallel analysis by indirect immunofluorescence. Sera from 749 consecutive, prospectively recruited patients with direct immunofluorescence-positive AIBD from 13 international study centers were analyzed independently and blinded by using (1) a BIOCHIP Mosaic including primate esophagus, salt-split skin, rat bladder, monkey liver, monkey liver with serosa, recombinant BP180 NC16A, and gliadin GAF3X, as well as HEK293cells expressing recombinant desmoglein 1, desmoglein 3, type VII collagen, and BP230 C-terminus and (2) the conventional multistep approach of the Department of Dermatology, University of Lübeck. In 731 of 749 sera (97.6%), specific autoantibodies could be detected with the BIOCHIP Mosaic, similar to the conventional procedure (725 cases, 96.8%). The Cohen κ for both serologic approaches ranged from 0.84 to 1.00. In 6.5% of sera, differences between the 2 approaches occurred and were mainly attributed to autoantigen fragments not present on the BIOCHIP Mosaic. Laminin 332 and laminin γ1 are not represented on the BIOCHIP Mosaic. The BIOCHIP Mosaic is a standardized time- and serum-saving approach that further facilitates the serologic diagnosis of AIBD.

The Evolution of the Cape Cod Model: Gestalt Conversations Theory and Practice

The Evolution of the Cape Cod Model: Gestalt Conversations Theory and Practice

Introduction

Introduction

12. “The Case of the Castle”: An Application of Experiential Learning at the Bader International Study Center (BISC) in Medical Education

It has been internationally recognized that medical education in higher-education institutions must adapt to equip healthcare professionals with skills that meet the changing demands of patient-cantered care (General Medical Council, 1993). Experiential learning is a teaching strategy based on Kolb’s Learning Theory (KLT) that encourages learners to proactively consolidate information through practical applications, self-directed reflection, and critical appraisal of evidence. Based on a descriptive phenomenological research design, the lived-experiences of both students and faculty at the Bader International Study Center were analyzed qualitatively through observation and interviews, and quantitatively through Likert scale surveys. Conditions identified by previous publications as conducive to experiential learning were tested, and thematic and factor analysis were conducted respectively on subsequent data. Results of the analysis found that students consolidated information best when new knowledge presented built upon their prior understandings of the phenomenon. Thorough understanding of learning goals prior to the experiential learning opportunity encouraged learner ownership, and subsequently facilitated self-directed, professor-facilitated learning. Retention of information was highest when students were presented with reflection assignments that prompted them to critically apply prior knowledge in a low-risk environment. The implications from experiential learning for the advancement of medical education therefore can be summarized in the following points: learner-directed instead of professor-directed PBL scenarios may encourage learner responsibility and increase knowledge retention. Encouraging active reflection and subsequent experimentation through PBL and in realistic ‘life scenarios’ may increase transferability of professional skills as dictated by the General Medical Council.

“On Presence: The Consultant as a Learning Model” and “Presentness and Presence”

Abstract Presence is typically described as the way people carry themselves, thereby informing their ability to have an impact as practitioners. The purpose of this commentary is to look at presence from a contemporary, relational Gestalt perspective: that of the Gestalt Cape Cod Model developed at the Gestalt International Study Center in South Wellfleet, Massachusetts. This expanded understanding posits that presence has a relational aspect, that is, the practitioner's ability to maintain self-awareness as well as maintain awareness of other(s) enables her or him to have the greatest chance to build connection, and thereby to have an influence. The commentator offers a definition of presence from this relational perspective, as well as ideas for how one can enhance and develop presence. Finally, she suggests that developing and embodying an optimistic stance, a key element of the Cape Cod Model, greatly enhances one's presence as a practitioner.

The Comprehensive Management of Watershed and Its Market Present State

When building a resource-saving and environment-friendly society, our country is facing a severe challenge about basin water pollution. With the environmental pollution increasing, and the strengthening of people's environmental protection awareness, watershed pollution has aroused great attention[1]. And it has become an important topic for the International Study Center on Water Environmental Management to control and deal with basin water pollution. The paper introduces the present situation of the watershed environment in China and gives an overview of the comprehensive management approach of watershed, finally points out the market present state of the comprehensive management of watershed.

Clinical Relevance of HLA Antibodies in Kidney Transplantation: Recent Data from the Heidelberg Transplant Center and the Collaborative Transplant Study.

Herein, we summarize our recent findings from the international Collaborative Transplant Study (CTS) and Heidelberg Transplant Center regarding the role of HLA antibodies in kidney transplantation and their application into the clinical routine. Based on the antibody findings from the CTS serum study, an algorithm was developed in 2006 for the transplantation of high-risk sensitized patients at the Heidelberg Transplant Center which includes seven different pre- and posttransplant measures. Using this algorithm, the number of transplantations could be increased in high-risk presensitized patients and the previously existing impact of antibodies on graft survival could greatly be diminished but not totally eliminated. More recent findings led to the hypothesis that T cell help from a preactivated immune system supports the harmful effects of pretransplant donor-specific HLA antibodies that otherwise disappear in many cases after transplantation without any consequence.

An empirically based alternative to DSM-5's disruptive mood dysregulation disorder for ICD-11.

The World Health Organization (WHO)'s priorities for the development of the classification of mental and behavioural disorders in the ICD-11 include increasing its clinical utility in global mental health settings (1) and improving the identification and diagnosis of mental disorders among children and adolescents (2). An issue that has been hotly debated in the area of childhood psychopathology is the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of children with severe irritability and anger (3,4). Although virtually all children display irritable and angry behaviours at times, some children exhibit them more frequently and more intensely, to the extent that they become an impairing form of emotional dysregulation. Recent findings indicate that these children with chronic and severe irritability/anger have not been adequately identified through existing classification systems, are at an increased risk for particular negative outcomes, and have not received appropriate treatment. To the extent that ICD-11 can help clarify the clinical picture of irritability/anger, children and families will benefit from more accurate diagnoses, more useful prognoses, and more effective interventions. This paper provides a brief overview of the issue, followed by several possible options and the current proposal for the classification of childhood irritability/anger in ICD-11. This proposal represents a markedly different – but we believe more scientifically justifiable – solution to the problems in this area than that selected for DSM-5 (5).

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY USE AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF STUDENTS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

The association between ICT diffusion and education is a subject of hot debate in both ICT and educational circles. Stances range from positive enthusiast, to skeptics, to disbelievers vis-a-vis the impact of ICT on students’ achievements. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the presence of any correlation between students’ academic achievements as recorded by Trends in International Mathematics and Science (TIMMS 2011) and the penetration of ICT in their schools and households, with focus primarily on computers and the Internet. The paper relies on the analysis of the data published by the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS 2011), international study center and the international association for the evaluation of educational achievements. Statistical data analysis will be employed to figure out whether there is any correlation between the penetration level of ICT and the students’ score in math and science tests as recorded by the TIMMS 2011 international scale. The analysis conducted within the scope of this research indicates the lack of any association between ICT use and students achievements in math and science subjects. Though the linkage between students’ achievements is not a straightforward issue that can be uncovered via simple regression analysis, however, the results definitely indicate that employment of ICT in both schools and homes is an insignificant factor that can be easily offset by other major factors, like socio-economic conditions, instruction resources, teachers’ capabilities, or cultural factors.

Canada Abroad: an introduction

The six articles immediately following this introduction are based on papers presented at the 'Canada Abroad' conference held at the Bader International Study Centre, or BISC, at Herstmonceux Castle in Sussex, England, in the summer of 2013. For those who don't know about BISC, it's an interna- tional study centre affiliated with Queen's University - not the Belfast institution, but the Canadian one, based in Kingston, Ontario. It offers an opportunit y for Canadian students, mostly from Queen's but also from other Canadian universities, as well as students from a number of other countries (most notably, but not restricted to, China, Japan, Korea and the United States), to spend one or two terms taking university courses at a little piece of Canada nestling in the Sussex countr yside.At the same time, many of the faculty members are themselves represent- atives of Canada ... abroad. Some are at Herstmonceux more or less permanently - Canadian citizens who have, for var ying reasons, gained employment in more-or-less permanent positions in this educational establishment on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Other Canadians abroad here are temporar y visitors, from Queen's or other associated institutions, who spend a term at BISC as visiting professors or visiting fellows, contributing to the teaching and/or research profile of the Centre.The Bader International Study Centre is, in other words, a concrete manifestation of the concept of 'Canada Abroad'. It takes Canadian students and faculty, along with students from elsewhere in the world, and sets them down in foreign parts, forcing them to learn at least something about the world outside that in which they have been born, and often comfortably raised, and rarely challenged with respect to their assumptions, their values and their day-to-day behaviours.Hence, when a number of permanent and visiting faculty members sat down with Bruce Stanley, the new Executive Director of BISC, in the Fall of 2011 to talk about a theme and a title for a conference to be held at Herstmonceux in summer 2013, the notion of 'Canada Abroad', in its multiple manifestations and connotations, was quickly approved. After nearly two years of planning, the conference took place in late July (29 July-1 August) 2013. Over two days of active discussion, plus some necessary and productive social time, 35 papers and two plenar y sessions examined multiple perspectives on the central theme of the conference. Paper presenters and panel participants addressed such issues as Canada's participation in the two World Wars; Canada's changing roles as an actor in international relations; Canadian involvement in international sporting events and the uses of sport in international diplomacy; the changing relationship between foreign policy and the use of Canadian studies as an educational objective supported by the Canadian government; the pedagogical and organisational challenges faced by the faculty and adminis- trators of 'Study Abroad' programmes; Canadian writers or artists whose careers were significantly formed or represented by their time abroad; the role of Canadian arts and culture in forming or changing perceptions of Canada in the outside world.The idea of 'Canada Abroad' makes little sense historically until there developed a concept of 'Canada' as an autonomous actor, independent of its status as British colony. That, of course, was a product of Canada's extraor- dinary contribution to Britain's war effort in the First World War. …

Riga, Liliana. The Bolsheviks and the Russian Empire Smith. Jeremy. Red Nations: The Nationalities Experience in and afer the USSR (review)

REVIEWS 565 pool where Biondich looks for his overarching argument. His model focuses on the long, and frequently ‘abortive’, modernization process undergone by the region, starting from the early national independence wars of the nineteenth century and going all the way to the recent crises in Yugoslavia. Seen through this overstretched, but not unappealing, explanatory framework, the wars of the 1990s were ‘in actual fact the culmination of a process of state-building that had been initiated in the nineteenth century’ (p. 195). The key link here is the slightly vague concept of the ‘modernizing’, ‘nationalizing state’ (pp. vi) and its elites, which opt for violence always as a calculated choice in order to establish and affirm their authority. The book charts how again and again, in conflict after conflict, local actors made specific choices that led to specific forms and acts of violence. Despite its relativizing tendencies, Biondich’s argument leaves Balkan exceptionalism without any oxygen on which to breathe, political choice being the author’s answer to the stereotype of primordial instincts. Although the nebulous spectre of ‘Europe’ is never far away (see p. 156), nonBalkan players have a secondary role in this story. They are present mainly diplomatically, while the foreign occupation regimes of the two World Wars receiveonlyabriefmention.Butthisisanoddomission.Balkanexceptionalism cannot be understood outside the European comparative framework on which it is judged. Nor can a complete analysis of Balkan violence avoid an integrated history of local actions in constant dialogue with the foreign factor, whose interventions have been the catalyst in generating and/or ending the most important violent outbursts in Balkan history. Bader International Study Centre E. Michail Queen’s University, Canada Riga, Liliana. The Bolsheviks and the Russian Empire. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 2012. xiii + 313 pp. Tables. Notes. Appendices. Bibliography. Indexes. £60.00: $99.00. Smith. Jeremy. Red Nations: The Nationalities Experience in and after the USSR. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 2013. xix + 391 pp. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £19.99: $34.99 (paperback). As a graduate student I would quip, ‘parochialists of the world, unite!’ It seems that this was not so wide of the mark, for as Liliana Riga argues, it is in the local context that ‘a revolutionary narrative takes root, embeds itself in particular social locations, or experiences, and then organizationally moves across them’ (p. 21). The most fruitful starting point for understanding imperial Russia and its politics, Bolshevism’s included, is therefore the reality SEER, 92, 3, JULY 2014 566 of empire. In an ambitious move, Riga intends to get ‘right the essence of Bolshevism’ (p. ix) by challenging ‘both the Russianness and the class basis of Bolshevism’s political mobilization’, and offering ‘an account of how a revolutionary class-universalist ideology was materially organized around — and indeed was itself constituted by — socioethnic particularlism’ (p. 4). The method is two-fold. First, there is recourse to sociological theory to understand the sense of grievance that permeated the borderlands. The central idea here is that the: ‘radicalizing political dynamic […] was classically Tocquevillian: the non-Russian Bolsheviks’ radicalism was characterized by the promise of social mobility and access upon assimilation or Russification, but by the reality of ethnopolitical exclusion’ (p. 35). Set against this sense of ethnic alienation, Riga contends that Bolshevism’s ‘Russian-inflected classuniversalism ’ (a key term never properly defined) had a particular appeal: ‘in its secularist and universalist theory of an implied Rossiiskii or imperial state, in its ecumenicalism, and in its seeming indifference to ethnicity’ (p. 7). Second, Riga draws upon the work of Michael Mann to examine the pre-Revolutionary biographies of ninety-three leading Bolsheviks from the years 1917–23 to ‘explore how socioethnic experiences influenced routes to socialist radicalism through an interpretive use of historically situated or embedded biographies’ (p. 13). The biographies are examined in separate chapters around Jewish, Polish and Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Latvian, South Caucasian and Russian Bolsheviks. This is an impressive book that draws upon a very wide range of secondary sources. It is elegant and cohesive, yet there is a suspicion that ‘evidence’ is produced to fit the theory. It is not clear to me, for example, that ethnic ‘identity’ and ethnic...

Development of treatment and clinical results in childhood AML in Austria (1993-2013).

BackgroundSince the early 1990s, three consecutive pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML) trials have been performed in Austria (AML-Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster (BFM) 93, AML-BFM 98, and AML-BFM 2004) in close cooperation with the international BFM study center. Herein, we review the pertinent patient characteristics, therapy, and outcome data.Patients and methodsFrom January 1993 to April 2013, 249 children and adolescents (193 protocol patients) diagnosed with AML were enrolled in the three BFM studies. Patients were mainly treated in one of five pediatric hematology/oncology centers distributed over Austria.ResultsMany characteristics and outcome parameters were not statistically different between the three trials. Almost similar proportions of patients were stratified into two risk groups: standard risk (SR) (approximately 37 % overall) and high-risk (HR) (61 %). MLL rearrangements were found in 23 % of patients overall as the most frequent genetic aberration subtype. Complete remission (CR) was achieved by 84–95 % of patients. The most important type of event was leukemic relapse (5-year cumulative incidence 40 ± 8 %, 21 ± 5 %, and 39 ± 6 %; p = 0.058), with a trend to a higher rate specifically in SR patients of study AML-BFM 2004 compared with AML-BFM 98. Importantly, the frequency of death from causes other than relapse sequelae declined over the years (AML-BFM 93: 5/42 12 %, AML-BFM 98: 5/57 9 %, and AML-BFM 2004: 5/94 5 %). Altogether, event-free survival at 5 years varied insignificantly (48 ± 8 %, 61 ± 7 %, and 50 ± 6 %; p = 0.406). Nevertheless, survival (pSU) apparently improved from BFM 93 to subsequent studies, both overall (57 ± 8 %, 75 ± 6 %, and 62 ± 6 %; p = 0.046) and regarding the HR group (5-year-probability of survival (pSU) 40 ± 10 %, 66 ± 8 %, and 52 ± 8 %; p = 0.039).ConclusionTreatment of pediatric AML in Austria renders survival rates in the range of international best practice. However, unambiguous statistical comparison of treatment periods is eventually hampered by small numbers and inequalities of recruitment. Hence, only internationally collaborative trials will allow developing treatment further to achieve higher cure rates with fewer events.

Linking (Gestalt) Coaching with Philanthropy: “Where Philanthropy IS more than Money”

Abstract This reflection presents how certain Gestalt principles of the Cape Cod Model©—Strategic and Intimate Interactions, Well-Developed Competencies/Less Developed Competencies— advanced at the Gestalt International Study Center (GISC), along with Beisser's (1970) notion of “The Paradoxical Theory of Change,” can be used to frame the behavior within the “asking and giving” culture of philanthropy. These principles, in offering opportunities for change, would improve the experience of the “asker” and the “giver.” Philanthropy is more than the money. A resilient philanthropic culture is generated when people experience the joy and passion of working together in generous support of community.