Anti-stigmatization and Rebuilding the Human Rights Culture

History has proved and will continue to prove that stigmatization is often the harbinger of tribal vendettas, religious persecution, wars of aggression, and even all disasters and unjust actions in the world The majority of devastating disasters experienced by mankind originate from stigmas While the COVID-19 pandemic rages across the globe, stigmatizing speeches based on ignorance and political agenda have created hatred and torn the anti-epidemic community apart Those speeches trample on dignity, values, conscience, and justice of human beings, and challenge international justice and the universal Declaration of Human rights The human rights culture serves as a critical force for mankind to overcome diseases, wars, terrorism, and disasters To achieve peace and security in the post-epidemic world, people need to constantly reflect on human dignity and values, and to rebuild and promote human rights culture based on these reflections.

The Alzheimer’s Dementia Patients’ Observed Illness Course and Experience in Ghana and Care Lessons to Be Learnt: A Mental Health Professional’s Perspective

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and associated dementia patient numbers continue to increase globally with associated economic costs to healthcare systems. Of note is the increase in numbers in lower and middle-income countries (LMICs) including Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, which already face challenges with their health budgets from communicable and non-communicable diseases. Ghana, an SSA country, faces the problem of healthcare budgetary difficulties and the additional impact of AD as a consequence of increasing population strata of old aged persons (OAPs) due to the demographic transition effect. This article uses examples of known patients’ illness courses to give a perspective on the lived experience of patients with dementia (PWD) in Ghana, living amongst a populace with a culture of stigmatization of PWD, and a relatively fragile public mental health system (PMHS) for those with mental illness, including AD. The lived experience of AD patients is characterised by stigmatisation, discrimination, non-inclusiveness, diminished dignity and human rights abuses in the face of their mental disability, and eventually death. This article is an advocacy article giving voice to the voiceless and all persons suffering from AD and other dementias in Ghana, whilst pleading for a call to action from healthcare professionals and responsible state agencies.

Elevational and temporal patterns of pollination success in distylous and homostylous buckwheats(Fagopyrum)in the Hengduan Mountains

Reproductive strategies of sexually dimorphic plants vary in response to the environment.Here,we ask whether the sexual systems of Fagopyrum species(i.e.,selfing homostylous and out-crossing distylous)represent distinct adaptive strategies to increase reproductive success in changing alpine environments.To answer this question,we determined how spatial and temporal factors(e.g.,elevation and peak flowering time)affect reproductive success(i.e.,stigmatic pollen load)in nine wild Fagopyrum species(seven distylous and two homostylous)among 28 populations along an elevation gradient of 1299-3315 m in the Hengduan Mountains,southwestern China.We also observed pollinators and conducted hundreds of hand pollinations to investigate inter/intra-morph compatibility,self-compatibility and pollen limitation in four Fagopyrum species(two distylous and two homostylous).We found that Fagopyrum species at higher elevation generally had bigger flowers and more stigmatic pollen loads;lateflowering individuals had smaller flowers and lower pollen deposition.Stigmatic pollen deposition was more variable in distylous species than in homostylous species.Although seed set was not pollenlimited in all species,we found that fruit set was much lower in distylous species,which rely on frequent pollinator visits,than in homostylous species capable of autonomous self-pollination.Our findings that pollination success increases at high elevations and decreases during the flowering season suggest that distylous and homostylous species have spatially and temporally distinct reproductive strategies related to environment-dependent pollinator activity.

Stigmatization and Scientific Inquiry in the Tracing of the Origin of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in the United States

The United States was hard hit by the great influenza pandemic of 1918.The national policy of putting the war first,the unprecedented scale of military training,and the worldwide troop movements and engagement created the conditions for the spread of the pandemic and at the same time seriously weakened US preparedness.The unprecedented pandemic threw American society into extreme panic and spawned all kinds of hypotheses about the pandemic’s geographic origin.Some of the press turned scientifically“tracing the flu”into a succession of pejorative geopolitical exonyms,stigmatizing it as“Spanish flu,”“Russian flu,”“German poisoning,”“Chinese plague,”etc.The groundless ascription of a geographic origin to the influenza pandemic was questioned at the time by insightful American medical professionals and even by Chinese medical experts.In the aftermath of the pandemic,tracking its source became a professional issue of pure medical science,with the search for the pathogen of the pandemic becoming a priority.The discovery and genetic sequencing of the 1918 influenza virus by scientists in the US and other countries led to landmark advances in the discovery of the pathogen,so the importance of tracing it back to its place of origin has taken a back seat.Although evidence of the geographic origin of the 1918 influenza pandemic is not conclusive,medical science has developed enough to disprove the ridiculous“geographic tracking”in the US during the pandemic.

Mental and physical symptoms associated with lower social support for patients with hepatitis C

AIM: To systematically examine the impact of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) diagnosis on patients' level of social support in a large-scale study. METHODS: Patients evaluated and treated for HCV in a tertiary referral center were enrolled in a cross-sectional study. Demographic data, functional and emotional status as measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD) and the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP), severity of liver disease, mode of acquisition, and physical and psychiatric comorbidities were collected from patients or abstracted from the medical record. All participants completed a semi-structured interview, addressing questions of social support. RESULTS: A total of 342 patients (mean age 45.2 years; 37% women) were enrolled. Ninety-two (27%) patients described lower levels of support by family and friends. Nearly half of the participants (45%) noted the loss of at least one relationship due to the disease. Fears related to transmitting the disease (25%) were common and often associated with ignorance or even discrimination by others (19%). Nearly one fifth of the patients did not share information about their disease with others to avoid being stigmatized. Lower levels of social support were significantly associated with living alone, being unemployed, being excluded from antiviral therapy, having psychiatric comorbidities, contracting HCV through intravenous drug use, having high levels of anxiety and depression as measured by the HAD and negative mood state as measured by the SIP. Patients reporting lower levels of social support also noted more physical symptoms as measured by the SIP. CONCLUSION: Patients with hepatitis C often face significant social problems, ranging from social isolation to familial stress. The most common concerns reflect a limited insight of patients and their relatives and friends about the disease, the risk factors for its spread, and about potential consequences. Our data suggest that educational interventions targeting support persons and the stressors identified in our findings may lessen or alleviate the social strains patients with hepatitis C experience.

Indigenous Knowledge, Practices, Beliefs and Social Impacts of Porcine Cysticercosis and Epilepsy in Iringa Rural

Porcine Cysticercosis (PCC) and Human Cysticercosis (HCC)/Neurocysticercosis (NCC) are a burden to the community owing to the reduced value of animals, associated costs of treatment, decreased labour productivity and social discrimination. There is limited knowledge on the management and prevention of PCC and epilepsy in Iringa rural. Therefore, the present study aimed at assessing indigenous knowledge, practices, attitudes and social impacts of PCC and epilepsy in Iringa rural district. A total of 588 people participated in the survey whereby 306 were pig farmers, 223 non-pig farmers and 59 families with epileptic individuals. It was found that 49.8% (χ2 = 0.003, DF = 1, p = 0.954) of pig keepers were aware of PCC, whereas the remaining 50.2% were not aware (χ2 = 25.5, DF = 1, p χ2 = 3.814, DF = 1, p = 0.51). People in Iringa rural believe epilepsy is caused by evil spirits, witchcraft and/or inheritance. It was concluded that there was limited knowledge on T. solium cysticercosis and epilepsy. This ignorance is the cause of poor practices, negative beliefs and attitudes that negatively affect the social life of People with Epilepsy (PWE) in communities. This study recommends that health education to raise awareness on cysticercosis/taeniosis and epilepsy should be one of the intervention measures for elimination of cysticercosis and epilepsy in Iringa rural district.

Support and Companionship in Virtual Communities: Establishing a COVID-19 Counseling Network for Soldiers and the Collective Healing Phenomenon

Counseling people,particularly those in the military engaged in group living,who are in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge.Therefore,supporting the people in quarantine who are experiencing psy-chological and interpersonal problems has become a new challenge in military mental health.This study’s primary concern was how to overcome the problems caused by physical quarantine.The study subject was a virtual coun-seling network and its operating experience during the quarantine period in Taiwan amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic.For soldiers who mainly live in groups,this study discussed how the virtual counseling network combined with the existing military support group to determine what influence the network had on peo-ple in quarantine.This study found that this group exhibited four types of experiences:togetherness,empathy,confidence,and belonging and cohesion.Such experiences are beneficial for group healing through mutual sup-port and companionship.Collective cohesion and psychological healing can be achieved through a virtual com-munity.This is worthy of attention,particularly in the pandemic or post-pandemic era.Physical isolation has become a fact of life,and such isolation is not just isolation from disease but also between regional boundaries.Counseling and support systems in virtual space or the operation of virtual teams must be considered for the future.

Thou shalt not get fat: Medical representations and self-images of obesity in a Mediterranean society

This paper examines the link between lipophobia and representations and experiences of obesity in Catalonia (Spain) from two points of view: that of the physicians and other health professionals who diagnose and treat obesity as an illness, and that of their patients, especially those between adolescence and early adulthood. The qualitative data demonstrate that the increasing social rejection of fat people can be traced not only to moralizing discourses on “excessive” food consumption or the commodification of slenderness and health, but also to the recent definition of obesity as a disease. The medicalization of fatness, far from helping to destigmatize obesity, is becoming a way of resignifying it in moral terms. While doctors’ and patients’ perspectives diverge in some ways, they converge in others. In this text, I focus on the points of convergence arguing that biomedical understandings of obesity and overweight are characterized by a profound ambivalence. Young patients are regarded both as innocent victims of a permissive consumer society, and guilty of not following doctors’ orders. Although the family is held accountable for overweight or obesity in children, as young people become more independent, guilt is individualized and environmental causes are limited to inappropriate diet and insufficient exercise. Most narratives of young people with weight problems reflect similar ideas about the causes and the responsibility for obesity. Their acceptance of the basic premise that deviating from weight standards and rules for healthy eating are voluntary actions leads them to lose faith in themselves. The stigmatization of obesity thus becomes a vicious circle: the obese acceptance—even consider normal—the incriminations leveled at them, and blame themselves for their situation and their inability to prevent it.

Psychosocial Experience in Goiter Patients

Introduction: Goiter often poses aesthetic disgrace problem. The psychosocial impacts of goiter, in particular in woman may be significant. Objective: studying the psychological and social impacts of the disease in goiter patients within the African context and their consequences on the treatment. Methods: It was a transversal study that took place from May 1to July 31, 2011 in the Collines and Donga departments situated in the center and the north of Benin. The study consisted of a survey conducted through an individual discussion based on questionnaire submitted to goiter patients who accepted to provide their answers. Results: This survey involved 86 patients of which 83 women and 3 men. Their average age was 43.7 ± 13.41. Goiter was noticeable in the totality of the patients. 68.6% of patients declared that they experienced on daily basis the shame caused by the disease. 66% thought that it was a natural disease;however, 27.9% believed that it was caused by bewitchment or sorcery. 46.5% and 37.2% resorted to modern and indigenous medicine respectively;16.3% made no therapeutic move. Despite the psychosocial impacts of the disease, 50% of the patients rejected surgical intervention possibility. The core motives they raised were lack of financial means (34.8%), disease recurrence fright (23.3%), anesthesia fright (16.3%), and surgical fright (14%). Conclusion: Despite the psychological impacts of the disease, strong resistance exists probably more on cultural aspect than the motives mentioned by thyroidectomy patients.

Media Influence Over the Transformation of Stigma Toward Depression in Japan

in Japan, the number of depression patients has markedly increased over the last 10 years, and depression is now a major social concern. Moreover, there are concerns that patients with depression are not always seeking the treatment they need, in part due to the stigma associated with the illness. Despite of increasing public awareness of depression, the stigma has not lessened, but has changed in form. Previous studies report that depression which was once viewed as a special psychiatric illness is now viewed as a ＂common＂ mental illness. The author, too, believes that the nature of the stigmatization has changed in recent years to become more complex and ultimately continues to present a barrier to treatment for people with depression. This study aims to explore how the stigmatization has changed by examining one specific aspect in society that may have contributed to this change, namely, the media＇s portrayal of depression. The author presents and discusses clear examples of how the Japanese media＇s portrayals of depression have changed, particularly over the last 20 to 30 years, and discusses how media influence could have contributed to the shifts in stigmatization, with reference to labeling theory and growing social isolation.

The Otaku Culture and Its Cultural Ramifications

Just like there are fanatics in sports,music and in all spheres of life,there are individuals obsessed with animation,Japanese comics,video games and the fantasy world.These people,known as the“otaku”or literally translated as“nerds”in English,are the subject of this paper.The article describes the characteristics unique to the“otaku”individuals as well as how they interact inside and outside of their“otaku”world.In the beginning,there seemed nothing wrong with the“otaku”world;it was just a social trend.But during the early 1990’s,when Japan faced its first otaku serial killer,“Otaku”has become a subject of social concern in Japan.College students and young adults are strongly hit by this socio-psychological obsession with the imaginary world,causing real,not imaginary,social problems(Pustz,1999).This paper hopes to find answers to the following questions.What is“otaku”in relation to manga and animation?What are the characteristics of the“otaku”sub-culture?What is the psychological behavior of“otaku”individuals?By tracing the spread of internet cafes,manga and anime,and otaku conventions in Asia and Europe this paper aims to trace the cultural ramifications of Japanese animation overseas.

Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer with Transaxial Ion Reflector

Two variants of application of a transaxial mirror with stigmatic spatial time-of-flight focusing in the time-of-flight mass spectrometer have been considered. In the first variant, the transaxial mirror is used as an ion reflector in the ordinary scheme of the time-of-flight mass reflectron. In the second variant, the transaxial mirror simultaneously fulfills the function of the ion reflector and corrector of aberrations caused by the energy spread of ions in the package, formed by the ion source of the mass reflectron. The expressions defining the conditions of stigmatic spatial time-of-flight focusing in the transaxial mirror and the combined system consisting of an ion source and a mirror have been derived. The relationships between geometrical and electrical parameters of three- and four-electrode transaxial mirrors realizing these conditions have been obtained by numerical calculations.

The Influence of Stigma on People with Mental Illness

People with mental illness have not only struggled with the psychological and physical symptoms of the disease but also suffered from social discrimination and prejudice.[1]This article expresses the negative impact of mental illness stigma on the stigmatized group through the study of previous literature.The purpose of this article is to improve the public’s stereotypes and prejudices of people with mental illness,so as to provide a basis for researchers to identify effective de-stigmatization strategies.

AWG器件设计方法的改进和器件性能分析

采用2点及3点Stigmaticpoints方法设计阵列波导光栅(AWG)器件,对传统的Rowland圆结构设计做了改进。比较分析了传统设计和改进设计AWG器件的像差,讨论了阵列波导的接收孔径及输入光信号的等效高斯光束发散角对AWG器件性能的影响。指出了传统的Rowland圆结构设计在设计高通道数AWG器件时存在的边缘通道性能劣化问题,采用多点Stigmaticpoints方法设计能很好地解决这一问题。

Shortened anther-stigma distance reduces compatible pollination in two distylous Primula species

Aims Distyly has been regarded as an adaptation to improve compatible pollination between two floral morphs with reciprocal herkogamy.The hypothesis that the different positions of anthers and stigmas within flowers as well as their reciprocal position between morphs,reduce the probability of self pollination raised by Darwin has been rarely tested.in this study,we measured stigmatic pollen loads in response to reduced reciprocal herkogamy in two Primula species.Methods To see whether reciprocal herkogamy can increase compatible and/or reduce incompatible pollen deposition,thus promoting compat-ible pollination,we shortened the distance between anthers and stigmas within the flowers by changing the position of the corolla tube,to which the anthers were fused,i.e.reduced herkogamy in natural populations of Primula secundiflora and P.poissonii and quantified stigmatic pollen loads in the field over 2 years.Important Findingsin both species,stigmatic pollen loads were significantly higher in the long-styled(l-morph)than in the short-styled morph(s-morph)in both control and manipulated flowers,but percentage of compatible pollen in s-morph were higher.Flowers manipulated to halve the anther-stigma distance showed a similar pattern for 2 years:total pollen grain counts on stigmas did not differ significantly but compatible pollen grains in l-and s-morphs were significantly decreased in both species.The percentage of compatible pollen loads was decreased by 68.7%in P.secundiflora and 65.3%in P.poissonii in l-morphs,while it decreased by 30.6%and 2.9%in s-morphs,respectively.our manipulation of the relative position of anthers and stigmas in the two distylous species indicated that a lower degree of herkogamy reduced compatible but incompatible pollen transfer was likely to increase.The higher proportion of compatible pollen in the s-morph than in the l-morph in the two Primula species could be attributed to the accessibility of two-level sexual organs,floral orientations and pollinator behaviors.This is a first attempt to manipulate intraflower herkogamy for understanding adaptation of heterostyly,shedding insights into how the reciprocal herkogamy promotes compatible pollination.

Stigmatic exudate in the Annonaceae:Pollinator reward,pollen germination medium or extragynoecial compitum?

Although ＂dry-type＂ stigmas are widely re- garded as ancestral in angiosperms, the early-divergent family Annonaceae has copious stigmatic exudate. We evaluate three putative functions for this exudate： as a nutritive reward for pollinators; as a pollen germination medium; and as an extragynoecial compitum that enables pollen tube growth between carpels. Stigmatic exudate is fructose dominated （72.2%）, but with high levels of glucose and sucrose; the dominance of hexose sugars and the diversity of amino acids observed, including many that are essential for insects, support a nutritive role for pollinators. Sugar concentration in pre-receptive flowers is high （28.2%）, falling during the peak period of stigmatic receptivity （17.4%）, and then rising again toward the end of the pistillate phase （32.9%）. Pollen germination was highest in sugar concentrations 〈2%. Sugar concentrations during the peak pistillate phase therefore provide optimal osmolarity for pollen hydration and germination; subsequent changes in sugar concentration during anthesis reinforce protogyny （in which carpels mature before stamens）, enabling the retention of concentrated exudate into the staminate phase as a pollinator food reward without the possibility of pollen germination. Intercarpellary growth of pollen tubes was confirmed： the exudate therefore also functions as a suprastylar extragynoecial compitum, overcoming the limitations of apocarpy.