Spirituality: its relevance and purpose for clinical nursing in a new millennium

? Nurses often make a link between spirituality and religion. This is evidenced in nursing documents when comments about the patient’s religious faith are placed in the space devoted to spirituality. ? While religion may inform and offer direction to an individual’s spirituality the two concepts are not the same. In terms of analogy, hydrogen and oxygen combine to make water although each brings its own defining characteristics to balance the chemical equation. ? Thus, there may be a synergy and symbiosis between religion and spirituality but the essence of each remains unique; indeed, a person’s spirituality can thrive irrespective of religious creed – orthodox or otherwise. ? In this paper, we will develop a narrative that articulates and offers the defining characteristics of spirituality. This will be coupled with a framework that seeks to explain the workings and dynamics of spirituality in clinical nursing.     

Secretin,its discovery,and the introduction of the hormone concept

The English physician E. H. Starling discovered in collaboration with the physiologist W. M. Bayliss secretin, the first hormone, in 1902. Three years later they introduced the hormone concept with recognition of chemical regulation, early regulatory physiology took a major step forward. The isolation and subsequent synthesis of secretin in the 1960s prepared the way for immunological techniques. Radioimmuno assays in the 1970s enabled demonstration of a direct endocrine role of secretin. Cloning and molecular hybridisation in the 1990s identified production site structure, precursor and evolutionary relation to other gastrointestinal peptides and to the secretin receptor. Although secretin was the first substance to be established as a hormone, even today our understanding is far from complete.     

Secretin, its discovery, and the introduction of the hormone concept

The English physician E. H. Starling discovered in collaboration with the physiologist W. M. Bayliss secretin, the first hormone, in 1902. Three years later they introduced the hormone concept with recognition of chemical regulation, early regulatory physiology took a major step forward. The isolation and subsequent synthesis of secretin in the 1960s prepared the way for immunological techniques. Radioimmuno assays in the 1970s enabled demonstration of a direct endocrine role of secretin. Cloning and molecular hybridisation in the 1990s identified production site structure, precursor and evolutionary relation to other gastrointestinal peptides and to the secretin receptor. Although secretin was the first substance to be established as a hormone, even today our understanding is far from complete.     

Henry E. Sigerist's concept of the purpose of medical historical work and his relationship to Vienna

The correspondence of Henry Sigerist with Max Neuberger and Erna Lesky, as yet unpublished, in conjunction with adequate quotations from their publications gives a clear insight into Sigerist's concept of the aims of medical historical work.     

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis: a brief review on its concept

Since the first report by Ludwig, considerable progress has been made in the understanding of NASH and it is not currently considered as a merely benign clinical entity, but is rather thought as a common disease with a variety of clinical sequelae including liver cirrhosis and even hepatocellular carcinoma. Thus, NASH is considered as a type of a larger spectrum of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) that is a consequence of insulin resistance and other underlining factors with histological findings ranging from fatty change alone to fat plus inflammation, to fat plus ballooning degeneration, and to fat plus alcoholic hepatitis-like lesions including Mallory body and fibrosis, the latter two categories being considered as NASH. In this brief review article, particular emphasis has been paid to the clinical entity, namely cryptogenic cirrhosis in relation to the pathogenesis of NASH.     

"Non-ulcerative dyspepsia": its concept, clinical aspects, diagnosis and treatment

A conception of ++non-ulcerative dyspepsia is suggested. Relevant symptoms and their pathogenetic mechanisms are outlined. Basing on clinical aspects, separate forms of the syndrome, therapeutic and diagnostic approaches to each of the forms with special emphasis on pilot chemotherapy are considered.     

Radiological protection: its concept and principles

Main concepts and principles of radiation protection system are reviewed. Especially, the concept of LNT model and its background are discussed. Also, the major principles, i.e., (i) justification, (ii) optimization, and (iii) the application of dose limits, are reviewed with emphasis on the existing situation, which is mostly related to the current situation in Fukushima.