Search Results (15)

Background and objectives: Drunkorexia is a novel alcohol-related disorder prevalent among adolescents and young adults. Extensive research on the causes and their relationship is lacking. Identifying these aspects could improve early detection and management by healthcare professionals. The aim of this review was to identify the influencing factors of drunkorexia in adolescents and young adults, as well as the main opportunities for action by health professionals. Methods: A scoping review was conducted in June and July 2024 using three databases (Pubmed, Scopus, and Web of Science). A search and review protocol were established and registered in PROSPERO. The research questions were formulated in Patient, Concept, Context (PCC) formats for an adequate literature review. Original articles from January 2008 to July 2024 were included. Reviews, meta-analyses, and doctoral theses or academic texts were excluded. In the screening phase, a methodological assessment was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute’s (JBI) critical appraisal tools to support study eligibility. Depending on the study design, different checklists were used, and cross-sectional studies that received scores of 4/8 or higher, quasi-experimental designs that obtained 5/9 or higher, and qualitative research that obtained 5/10 or higher were accepted. Results: A total of 1502 studies were initially found. After applying the inclusion/exclusion criteria, 20 studies were selected. Complications of emotion regulation, both positive and negative metacognitive beliefs, inability to effectively manage stress and anxiety, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, self-discipline and self-control, or differences in social expectations are predisposing factors for drunkorexia. The management of malnutrition and dehydration is an opportunity for clinical professionals to address this problem. In addition, mental health issues can provide another opportunity to manage heavy alcohol consumption. Conclusions: Drunkorexia must be recognized as a new disease to be addressed from a multidisciplinary perspective. In this way, increasing research on this trend would support prevention and intervention strategies. The use of digital platforms is essential for raising social awareness of this negative habit. Full article

Partner selection can be studied from different disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, and economics. However, linguistic perspectives have been neglected. That is why we need an interdisciplinary approach that includes language. The present article investigates how important the vocabulary size of a potential partner is for marital choice. Our theoretical framework is mainly that of biological markets which are still being widely used. This framework assumes that human decisions are made on a rational basis, e.g., about the characteristics that a potential partner brings into a marriage such as economic assets (wealth, education), psychological traits (intelligence, kindness, fairness), or signs that show physical and mental health. Partner selection takes place on a biological market where assets are displayed and are part of the negotiation for the best partner. We argue that vocabulary knowledge is such an asset, which is acquired through lengthy and costly education and distinguishes potential partners (or their parents) who can afford the accumulation of this form of human capital. Markets are not fully transparent and our knowledge about a potential partner might be incomplete or even distorted through false information or even cheating as one can clearly see from advertisements in online dating. However, we cannot pretend, at least not over a longer period of time, to know words that are not at our disposal. This present study is based on data from 83 couples after more than 15 years of marriage. Their vocabulary scores correlate highly and it is possible that this correlation is the result of accommodation through marriage. However, through partialling out statistically the years of marriage we conclude that the vocabulary size of each partner was an important factor already right at the beginning of their relationship. Those with higher human capital in vocabulary attract similar partners, and this holds for males and females as well as vice versa. Our participants are all Turkish–English sequential bilinguals and the question is whether it is vocabulary knowledge in the first or the second language that plays a crucial role in partner selection. Our results show that both languages are important. We argue that it is not knowledge of words at the surface level but that it is knowledge of conceptual concepts underlying both languages that serve as a display of human capital on the biological market of partner selection. Full article

Maritime security is currently a buzzword in international relations. The popularity of the term reflects an emerging consensus across the international community recognizing increasing challenges to world oceans and helps to rally support for serious efforts to cope with these challenges. However, the term is highly contested with regard to its conceptual meaning and empirical implications. The discipline of security studies provides a critical perspective revealing the state-centered ontology embedded in many of the discussions of maritime security. The complicated and intertwining nature of maritime threats in today’s world oceans demands a systematic analytical framework to comprehend and address them, a framework that moves beyond statist ontology, military means, and zero-sum mentality to a people-centered, diversified toolkit and positive-sum mentality and opens space for a common, cooperative, and comprehensive security agenda. The evolving discourse on human security and sustainable development sheds light on a possible path to approach such an agenda in an effective and sustainable manner. It has also enlightened the mandates of major international institutions and a lot of states practices in the pursuit of maritime security. Against this background, this article aims to explore the conception of maritime security and provide an analytical framework for analyzing and guiding maritime security practices and explores a feasible path towards realizing sustainable maritime security that can meet the diversified challenges emerging in global maritime space today. To this end, the article draws on the discipline of security studies over the past few decades so as to structure a rigorous analytical tool for engaging maritime security as a theoretical concept and a set of policy objectives. Applying this framework to state practices, this article discusses the case of China, examining, on the one hand, China’s understanding of maritime security and related policy practices and, on the other hand, exploring the value of the proposed policy framework as serving the foundation for bridging disagreements, forging consensus, and coordinating policy actions in the pursuit of sustained security and development in the maritime domain. Full article

Extensive literature reports an increase in physical disorders (pain, pathologies, dysfunctions) and mental malaise/uneasiness (stress, burnout) affecting dental professionals in relation to fast and pressing rhythms of work, long working hours, increasingly demanding patients, ever-evolving technologies, etc. This project has been conceived to bring the science of yoga around the world to dental professionals as a preventive (occupational) medicine and to provide knowledge and means for self-care. Yoga is a concentrative self-discipline of the mind, senses, and physical body, that requires regular daily exercise (or meditation), attention, intention, and disciplined action. M&M: The study aimed to design a Yoga protocol specifically devised for dental professionals (dentists, dental hygienists, and dental assistants) including positions (āsana) to be practiced/used in the dental office. The protocol is targeted for the upper body, namely neck, upper back, chest, shoulder girdle, and wrists, being areas greatly affected by work-related musculoskeletal disorders. This paper represents a yoga-based guideline for the self-cure of musculoskeletal disorders among dental professionals. Results: The protocol includes both sitting (Upavistha position) and standing (Utthana or Sama position) āsana, with twisting (Parivrtta), side bending (Parsva), flexion and forward bending (Pashima), and extension and arching (Purva) āsana to mobilize and decompress, and to provide nourishment and oxygen to the musculo-articular system. The paper delivers different concepts and theories developed and deepened by the authors and introduces and spreads yoga as a medical science among dental professionals for the prevention and treatment of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. We articulate notions ranging from stretching out using the vinyāsa method (breath-driven movement) and inward-focused attention to contemplative/concentrative science, interoceptive attention, self-awareness, the mind–body connection, and receptive attitude. The theory of “muscles are bone ties” is coined and delivered with regard to tensegrity musculoskeletal fascial structures connecting, pulling together, and nearing the bone segments where they are anchored. The paper describes over 60 āsana envisaged to be performed on dental stools or using the walls of a dental office or a dental unit chair. A detailed guideline on the work-related disorders that can find relief with the protocol is provided, including the description of breath control for the practice of āsana in vinyāsa. The foundations of the technique reside in the Iyengar Yoga method and Parināma Yoga method. Conclusions: This paper represents a guideline for self-cure in the prevention or treatment of musculoskeletal disorders affecting dental professionals. Yoga is a powerful concentrative self-discipline able to provide physical and mental well-being, representing great help and support in daily life and business for dental professionals. Yógāsana restores retracted and stiff muscles, giving relief to the strained and tired limbs of dental professionals. Yoga is not intended for flexible or physically performing persons but for people who decide to take care of themselves. The practice of specific āsana represents a powerful tool for the prevention or treatment of MSDs related to poor posture, forward head, chronic neck tension (and related headache), depressed chest, compressive disorders on wrists and shoulders as carpal tunnel, impingement syndromes, outlet syndrome, subacromial pain syndrome and spinal disc pathologies. Yoga, as an integrative science in medicine and public health, represents a powerful tool for the prevention and treatment of occupational musculoskeletal disorders and an extraordinary path for the self-care of dental professionals, sitting job workers, and healthcare providers suffering from occupational biomechanical stresses and awkward postures. Full article

The development of the concept of mental discipline can be understood from three clues, as a puritanical phenomenon, as a phenomenon rooted in the classics, and, on the other hand, as one rooted in faculty psychology. The aim of this research is to explore whether there has been a fracture in the evolution of the concept of mental discipline and explain how and why it evolved in three stages. Centered on three figures, Timothy Dwight, William Torrey Harris, and Irving Babbitt, it can be found that mental discipline evolved into three contexts during its development. Harris’s ideas, to a large extent, reflected his absorption of the ideas of Hegelianism and the transcendental philosophy of Kant, and they also included Unitarianism. Babbitt hoped to solve the problem of how the general will formed by the individual of modern society not only guaranteed the public interest but also avoided excessively eroded individual spiritual freedom. Babbitt’s issue horizon was similar to that of Harris, but they slightly differed. A brief overview of the research may imply that, using the perspective of intellectual history, mental discipline is no longer regarded as a static and continuous ideal but as a concept embedded in different contexts and facing different issue horizons. Full article

This article will explore the expressivity and tractability of vividness, as viewed from the interdisciplinary perspective of the cognitive sciences, including the sub-disciplines of artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and phenomenology. Following the precursor work by Benussi in experimental phenomenology, seminal papers by David Marks in psychology and, later, Hector Levesque in computer science, a substantial part of the discussion has been around a symbolic approach to the concept of vividness. At the same time, a similar concept linked to semantic memory, imagery, and mental models has had a long history in cognitive psychology, with new emerging links to cognitive neuroscience. More recently, there is a push towards neural-symbolic representations which allows room for the integration of brain models of vividness to a symbolic concept of vividness. Such works lead to question the phenomenology of vividness in the context of consciousness, and the related ethical concerns. The purpose of this paper is to review the state of the art, advances, and further potential developments of artificial-human vividness while laying the ground for a shared conceptual platform for dialogue, communication, and debate across all the relevant sub-disciplines. Within such context, an important goal of the paper is to define the crucial role of vividness in grounding simulation and modeling within the psychology (and neuroscience) of human reasoning. Full article

It is imperative to construct high-level, innovative and challenging courses in the teaching of colleges and universities. It is also of great significance to explore innovative teaching methods for improving students’ learning effect. In this paper, the course “Civil Engineering Construction” of a civil engineering major is taken as a reform example. In this teaching-innovation mode, guided by students’ moral education and students’ achievements, and the course platform is built in order to achieve the education concept of sustainable development and cultivate applied talents who can solve complex problems in civil engineering. In teaching practice, “Dual Platforms”, which combines course teaching platform and virtual simulation platform, is built mainly to expand the learning approaches. The “Three Educations” mode, which combines on-site education, classroom education, and mental health education, is established to improve the comprehensive quality of students. Comprehensive academic evaluation is carried out through “Four Reports”, including an open assignment report, special technical study report, BIM (building information modeling) technical work report, and final comprehensive written test report. Through studying this course, students not only master the knowledge of civil engineering construction, but also acquire knowledge-innovation ability, such as thesis publication, patent writing, discipline competition, and cultivating the craftsman spirit and social responsibility to abide by professional ethics in future work. This teaching innovation mode has been implemented for 12 years and achieved excellent results in cultivating students’ intelligent ability for sustainable development. It has been promoted in 14 courses, and has certain reference significance for engineering-course teaching. Full article

In the face of current turbulent times including climate emergencies, species extinction, the erosion of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism—in short, a suffering world—the authors of this paper propose that education needs to be centrally an activist effort dedicated to healing and repairing the increasingly wounded and damaged world. To this end, this paper explores Buddhism as an educational program that centralizes a healing curriculum based on the understanding that healing comes from waking up from the delusion of possessive individualism (ego-selves) that gives rise to neoliberal capitalist societies. This delusion is the existential home of suffering. Waking up requires the disciplined effort of seeing through and past individualism to the workings of mutual causality within a universe of interconnection (Interbeing), such as ours. The mindfulness (sati) practice that the historical Buddha taught is such a form of mental discipline. Through the agentic cultivation of sati and subsequent remembrance of our inherent Interbeing, we can rediscover and rekindle the inherently enlightened mind of bodhicitta. This paper explores various psychological, sociocultural, ideological, and relational conditionings that act as barriers to seriously practicing mindfulness, including the currently popular conceptions of mindfulness in North America. While acknowledging that successful practice takes setting up the right conditions, our paper also delves into helpful and supportive conditions for mindfulness practice for activists, namely, ethical motivation and contemplative/healing emotions such as the Four Immeasurables. Full article

The various mental health disciplines (e.g., counseling, psychology, social work) all mandate competence in working with clients from diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds. However, there is growing evidence that practitioners feel ill-equipped to meet the needs of their religiously- and spiritually-diverse clients. Furthermore, formal education on religion and spirituality remains optional within coursework. Research on religion and spirituality is also noted for its reductionism to observable outcomes, leaving much of its nuance uncovered. This paper will utilize philosophies of secularism and explore the concepts of disenchantment, buffering, and coercion, to help illuminate why our contemporary society and our disciplines struggle with this incongruence between stated values and implementation. Case vignettes and recommendations will be provided to help practitioners and educators. Full article

Within the disciplines of modern medicine, P4 medicine is emerging as a new field which focuses on the whole patient. The development of Ayurgenomics could greatly enrich P4 medicine by providing a clear theoretical understanding of the whole patient and a practical application of ancient and modern preventative and therapeutic practices to improve mental and physical health. One of the most difficult challenges today is understanding the ancient concepts of Ayurveda in terms of modern science. To date, a number of researchers have attempted this task, of which one of the most successful outcomes is the creation of the new field of Ayurgenomics. Ayurgenomics integrates concepts in Ayurveda, such as Prakriti, with modern genetics research. It correlates the combination of three doshas, Vata, Pitta and Kapha, with the expression of specific genes and physiological characteristics. It also helps to interpret Ayurveda as an ancient science of epigenetics which assesses the current state of the doshas, and uses specific personalized diet and lifestyle recommendations to improve a patient’s health. This review provides a current update of this emerging field. Full article

We performed a bibliometric analysis of the peer-reviewed literature on vividness between 1900 and 2019 indexed by the Web of Science and compared it with the same analysis of publications on consciousness and mental imagery. While we observed a similarity between the citation growth rates for publications about each of these three subjects, our analysis shows that these concepts rarely overlap (co-occur) in the literature, revealing a surprising paucity of research about these concepts taken together. A disciplinary analysis shows that the field of Psychology dominates the topic of vividness, even though the total number of publications containing that term is small and the concept occurs in several other disciplines such as Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. The present findings suggest that without a coherent unitary framework for the use of vividness in research, important opportunities for advancing the field might be missed. In contrast, we suggest that an evidence-based framework (such as the bibliometric analytic methods as exemplified here) will help to guide research from all disciplines that are concerned with vividness and help to resolve the challenge of epistemic incommensurability amongst published research in multidisciplinary fields. Full article

This study investigates how students and researchers shape their knowledge and perception of educational topics. The mindset or forma mentis of 159 Italian high school students and of 59 international researchers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) are reconstructed through forma mentis networks, i.e., cognitive networks of concepts connected by free associations and enriched with sentiment labels. The layout of conceptual associations between positively/negatively/neutrally perceived concepts is informative on how people build their own mental constructs or beliefs about specific topics. Researchers displayed mixed positive/neutral mental representations of “teacher”, “student” and, “scientist”. Students’ conceptual associations of “scientist” were highly positive and largely non-stereotypical, although links about the “mad scientist” stereotype persisted. Students perceived “teacher” as a complex figure, associated with positive aspects like mentoring/knowledge transmission but also to negative sides revolving around testing and grading. “School” elicited stronger differences between the two groups. In the students’ mindset, “school” was surrounded by a negative emotional aura or set of associations, indicating an anxious perception of the school setting, mixing scholastic concepts, anxiety-eliciting words, STEM disciplines like maths and physics, and exam-related notions. Researchers’ positive stance of “school” included concepts of fun, friendship, and personal growth instead. Along the perspective of Education Research, the above results are discussed as quantitative evidence for test- and STEM anxiety co-occurring in the way Italian students perceive education places and their actors. Detecting these patterns in student populations through forma mentis networks offers new, simple to gather yet detailed knowledge for future data-informed intervention policies and action research. Full article

Overweight and obesity have become a serious health problem globally due to its significant role in increased morbidity and mortality. The treatments for this health issue are various such as lifestyle modifications, pharmacological therapies, and surgery. However, little is known about the productivity, workflow, topics, and landscape research of all the papers mentioning the intervention and treatment for children with obesity. A total of 20,925 publications from the Web of Science database mentioning interventions and treatment in reducing the burden of childhood overweight and obesity on physical health, mental health, and society published in the period from 1991 to 2018 were in the analysis. We used Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) for identifying the topics and a dendrogram for research disciplines. We found that the number of papers related to multilevel interventions such as family-based, school-based, and community-based is increasing. The number of papers mentioning interventions aimed at children and adolescents with overweight or obesity is not high in poor-resource settings or countries compared to the growth in the prevalence of overweight and obesity among youth due to cultural concepts or nutrition transition. Therefore, there is a need for support from developed countries to control the rising rates of overweight and obesity. Full article

Three disciplines address the codified forms and rules of human thought and reasoning: logic, available since antiquity; dialectics as a process of logical reasoning; and semiotics which focuses on the epistemological properties of the extant domain. However, both the paradigmatic-historical model of knowledge and the logical-semiotic model of thought tend to incorrectly emphasize the separation and differences between the respective domains vs. their overlap and interactions. We propose a sublation of linguistic logics of objects and static forms by a dynamic logic of real physical-mental processes designated as the Logic in Reality (LIR). In our generalized logical theory, dialectics and semiotics are recovered from reductionist interpretations and reunited in a new synthetic paradigm centered on meaning and its communication. Our theory constitutes a meta-thesis composed of elements from science, logic and philosophy. We apply the theory to gain new insights into the structure and role of semiosis, information and communication and propose the concept of ‘ontolon’ to define the element of reasoning as a real dynamic process. It is part of a project within natural philosophy, which will address broader aspects of the dynamics of the growth of civilizations and their potential implications for the information society. Full article

The term planetary health—denoting the interdependence between human health and place at all scales—emerged from the environmental and preventive health movements of the 1970–80s; in 1980, Friends of the Earth expanded the World Health Organization definition of health, stating: “health is a state of complete physical, mental, social and ecological well-being and not merely the absence of disease—personal health involvesplanetary health”. Planetary health is not a new discipline; it is an extension of a concept understood by our ancestors, and remains the vocation of multiple disciplines. Planetary health, inseparably bonded to human health, is formally defined by the inVIVO Planetary Health network as the interdependent vitality of all natural and anthropogenic ecosystems (social, political and otherwise). Here, we provide the historical background and philosophies that have guided the network, and summarize the major themes that emerged at the 7th inVIVO meeting in Canmore, Alberta, Canada. We also provide the Canmore Declaration, a Statement of Principles for Planetary Health. This consensus statement, framed by representative participants, expands upon the 1986 Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and affirms the urgent need to consider the health of people, places and the planet as indistinguishable. Full article