Religion,spirituality & chronic illness: A scoping review and implications for health care practitioners

ABSTRACT

While the influence of institutional religion has decreased over the last 40–50 years, research suggests that a substantial proportion of those not attending religious services continue to engage in religious and spiritual practices on their own and refer to religion as a very important aspect in their lives, and as linked to more positive health outcomes, particularly for those living with chronic conditions. This article provides a scoping review to not only highlight the research that views religion and spirituality as valuable tools for coping with chronic illness conditions, but also to highlight research that explores those who may experience some religious/spiritual doubts or a gradual loss of religiosity or spirituality with the diagnosis of chronic conditions. Regardless of a clinician’s beliefs, the authors argue that some awareness training of the value of religion and spirituality for some patients, can be beneficial. In a society facing an increasing plurality of faiths, this is deemed to be an invaluable discussion. In the end, clinical implications will be discussed.     

Effects of Positive and Negative Feedback Sequence on Work Performance and Emotional Responses

Performance feedback has been broadly used within Organizational Behavior Management. However, the specifics regarding the most effective type of feedback still merits careful investigation, including the use of positive and negative sequences of feedback. The current study randomly assigned participants to receive one of the following sequences: (a) positive-positive feedback, (b) positive-negative feedback, (c) negative-positive feedback, and (d) negative-negative feedback. Uniform feedback delivery resulted in higher performance, although inconsistent feedback resulted in lessened negative emotional responses. Recommendations on whether to deliver positive or negative feedback in isolation or combination may depend upon the outcomes currently being prioritized by the organization.     

家庭问题:儒家多元主义与奥林匹克精神

在不同传统的对话中,我们发现:在儒家强调个人智慧和社会智性(即"内圣外王")的培育与西方持久地关注正直和有原则的生活(两者也许以康德的不受个人情感影响的理性概念和对"道德律"的服从为代表)之间存在着十分明显的差异.如果用中国的语言来说.这种差异可以概括为"礼"与"法"之间的差异、尊重家庭和社区关系的道德生活与遵循义的道德责任之间的差异.尽管这些背道而驰的哲学叙述在着重点上有着深刻的差异.但是,它们应该在对话中聚合在一起,从而给我们提供潜在而大量的互补,这种互补挑战一种假设:中国或西方每一方都是自足的.     

THE EROSION IN EUROPEAN MANUFACTURING

The competitiveness of Western European manufacturing is slowly being eroded away and European firms must act decisively to halt this decline. Costs in Europe are high and getting higher. Productivity is not keeping pace. European manufacturers have adopted some of the ideas that have proved useful to manufacturers elsewhere around the globe, but they need to do more. Many European countries remain net exporters of direct investment. If the erosion is to be halted, European manufacturers must address overcapacity, particularly among the many small factories there, inappropriate plant locations, and company organizations that foster too much country-specific independence.     

Treatment policy estimands for recurrent event data using data collected after cessation of randomised treatment

In the past, many clinical trials have withdrawn subjects from the study when they prematurely stopped their randomised treatment and have therefore only collected ‘on‐treatment’ data. Thus, analyses addressing a treatment policy estimand have been restricted to imputing missing data under assumptions drawn from these data only. Many confirmatory trials are now continuing to collect data from subjects in a study even after they have prematurely discontinued study treatment as this event is irrelevant for the purposes of a treatment policy estimand. However, despite efforts to keep subjects in a trial, some will still choose to withdraw. Recent publications for sensitivity analyses of recurrent event data have focused on the reference‐based imputation methods commonly applied to continuous outcomes, where imputation for the missing data for one treatment arm is based on the observed outcomes in another arm. However, the existence of data from subjects who have prematurely discontinued treatment but remained in the study has now raised the opportunity to use this ‘off‐treatment’ data to impute the missing data for subjects who withdraw, potentially allowing more plausible assumptions for the missing post‐study‐withdrawal data than reference‐based approaches. In this paper, we introduce a new imputation method for recurrent event data in which the missing post‐study‐withdrawal event rate for a particular subject is assumed to reflect that observed from subjects during the off‐treatment period. The method is illustrated in a trial in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) where the primary endpoint was the rate of exacerbations, analysed using a negative binomial model.     

Among Brothers and Strangers: Identities in Displacement in Iraq

Through analysis of primary qualitative data collected in Nineveh, Kirkuk, and Sulaimaniya Governorates in Iraq, this article seeks to explore the rapidly shifting and fragmenting identity dynamics at play in the emerging aftermath of ISIS and the impact that this conflict – and previous legacies of violence and repression – has had on relationships within and between groups, and between groups and the state. Communities increasingly position themselves against one another in relation to vindication of rights and protection. This zero‐sum stance comes from a history of mismanagement of communities and their respective grievances by the state and international partners. Formal acknowledgement of suffering across groups by the state may serve as a first step to break this cycle of negation toward one of inclusion, in the midst of mass displacement and emerging population returns.     

Undoing Islamophobia: Awareness of Orientalism in Social Work

Islamophobia describes the racism, exploitation, and violence experienced by Arabs, individuals of Arab descent, and Muslims. Although social workers are meant to challenge social injustice, social work codes of ethics and the literature are without guidance for unlearning Islamophobia. Arguing that one’s ability to interrupt Islamophobia is strengthened by an understanding of the historical record and theoretical tenets of Orientalism, we offer social workers explicit linkages between Orientalism and Islamophobia and engage with the idea of Islamo-racism. In this article, we attend to the ways in which Orientalism is used to “other” individuals while strengthening white hegemony, and we link those processes with Islamophobia and Islamo-racism. We conclude with some strategies derived from postcolonial theory to disrupt Islamophobia.     

超越世界汉学的哲学黯淡--对莫卡德的一个回应

莫卡德是他所谓的“阅读”行为的倡导者,追求一种对特定文本中特定段落的直接、可持续的阅读方式。在我们的“哲学文本”和几种“哲学翻译”实践中,为了证明这种实践的正当性,我们不但不会排除对这些经典复杂的从文学、历史、语文学,尤其是最近兴起的考古学角度进行的阐释,我们甚至还要充分利用以上的诸种方法。之所以这样是因为我们希望尽可能地领会这些文本最为广博的涵义,以此消弭因我们自身学科或哲学观点带来的限制性的影响。我们借此希望能够推翻哲学界中未予宣布的一种假说———一种危险的倾向于种族主义的假说———这种假说将地理学中的规则,而非哲学规则当作它排斥他者的标准,以此来“忽略”非盎格鲁-欧洲的哲学叙事。与莫卡德不同,我们将永远也不会默许将中国的哲学归结为“思想”而非真正哲学的论断。我们认为最优秀的哲学阅读方式———分析性的、美国式的以及欧洲大陆式的———不但不会使我们贬低这些文本,反而只会丰富我们对它们的阐释。     

Service Businesses and Productivity*

The records of superior performance of selected service firms over many years suggest that they may be more productive than others. This article uses the Theory of Swift, Even Flow to explain why that might be true. In the process, this article improves Schmenner's 1986 service process matrix. The redefinition of the axes of this matrix and of the resulting diagonal leads to enhanced understanding of productivity for service operations and helps to explain how some leading service companies have been able to sustain their competitive positions for decades.     

The age-varying effects of adolescent stress on impulsivity and sensation seeking

Adolescence is defined in part by heightened exposure and sensitivity to stressors. In a longitudinal cohort of youth at risk for substance use problems, we examined the age-varying relationship between stress exposure and traits that are central to the dual systems model. The positive associations between stress exposure, impulsivity, sensation seeking varied as function of age. Specifically, the influence of stress exposure on impulsivity strengthened during early adolescence and remained stable into early adulthood, while the influence of stress exposure on sensation seeking strengthened from early- to mid-adolescence and weakened thereafter. These findings suggest that the maturational imbalance between the capacity to regulate impulsive tendencies and sensation seeking may be exaggerated for youth who are exposed to a high number of stressors.