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Causes

Research ethics. Why handbooks and guidelines don’t help.

Posted by Heather Yoeli

If you had asked me, before I began my PhD, to define research ethics, I’d have told you that ethics is about morals and values, about how and why we conceptualise, construct or differentiate right and wrong and about what we do with our judgments or perceptions of right and wrong – and that research ethics is thereby about how we promote the personhood and dignity and human rights of our subjects, and about how we know that what we’re doing isn’t going to harm them. I was idealistic, principled, and, fresh from a Religious Studies degree, prone to expressing my every academic thought in an 85-word sentence, and prone to using too many commas. These days, I’d define research ethics more succinctly, and less naively: it’s about placating the insurance companies by assuring your host institution that you won’t do anything that’d get them sued, and it’s about following the rules.

Within health academia, the contemporary drive towards research ethics developed primarily in response to the horrific atrocities committed during the clinical and epidemiological ‘research’ undertaken by Nazi doctors in the World War II concentration camps. In 1947, the Nuremberg Code was published, and in 1964, the Helsinki Declaration, most recently updated in 2008. Both of these documents provide clear standards and principles designed for researchers to interpret and apply with regard to their own contexts and situations, but never a how-to guide to manage every conceivable scenario. In conceptual terms, this is known as teleological ethics: advocating doing what is right, however this is to be achieved. But many people criticise teleological methods for their inherent lack of common-sense safeguards. For example, it’s great that the Helsinki Declaration tells us (Section A5) that we have a particular duty to those underrepresented in research, but how far can I go and what can I do to find the underrepresented of Cowgate?

Josef Mengele: one of the leading Nazi doctors in the medical research programme at Auschwitz

Within the UK academic community, research governance has appropriated responsibility for ethics, ensuring that every university, NHS Trust and Local Authority produces a detailed handbook of rules mandating what researchers should do in absolutely any situation they may encounter. In conceptual terms, they provide a deontological ethic: stipulating that the rules are followed, because rules are rules and the organisational insurance provider has set their premium on the understanding that the rules will be followed.

The problem, however, with such a deontological minutiae of rules is that it reduces research ethics to a vast set of forms to be completed and a prescribed sequence of actions to be completed. By depriving researchers of the capacity to think for themselves about what might be right or fair or appropriate in their own particular study, such handbooks prevent researchers from using their creativity to respond innovatively to the most vulnerable of participants.

Throughout the history of research, ethics has been an evolving, changing discipline, always discussing responding to the new challenges it is posed. A few years back we were considering whether it was ethical to accept typewritten student essays (in case somebody else had written it) and a few years before that we were considering whether it was ethical to accept women into medical schools (because the academic pressure might disrupt their menstrual cycles). Today we’re considering gene therapy and social networking, and the lesson from the history of ethics is that the generation below us will see no problem whatsoever with mitochondrial gene transplants or Facebooking study participants – assuming, of course, that mitochondrial disease and social media still exist. But when all of our ‘ethics’ comes distilled in a university or NHS-approved directive of ordinances simply to follow, and when we know that we’ll never get our proposal agreed without doing exactly what we’re told, it can be hard to innovate, or even to think. For example, I know that I should anonymise all data (Northumbria University Research Ethics and Governance Handbook, p.20), but am I not permitted to make an exception for the participant who says she will consent to participation only if I agree her real name when quoting from our conversations in my PhD thesis?

Or, to put it more succinctly, we’re all spending too little time thinking about how we can do the very best for our research participants because we’re all wasting too much energy poring through the rulebooks and filling in the forms.

Am I right? And if so, what does it mean that I’m right? And if I’m wrong, what do you mean? Discuss.

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Besides being used in various dishes, Cabbage also provides many health benefits. In fact, cabbage is rich in phytonutrients and other vitamins such as vitamin A, C and K. These are all natural antioxidants that help prevent cancer and heart disease, prevents free radicals. Cabbage is also a good source of dietary fiber, providing nearly 15 percent of the recommended daily intake. Fiber is very

On potty training a black swan. Exploring the limits of the evidence base in public health

Posted by Heather Yoeli

In recent years public health has been trying to make itself more evidence-based, which is probably why policy making, commissioning and service providing organisations seem to be listening to and funding research centres such as Fuse at the moment. Evidence is an epistemology, a theory of knowledge. Evidence is the main epistemology which science believes in.

The primacy of evidence was first asserted by the eighteenth century philosophers Locke and Hume, who created empiricism as the theory that our only way of knowing anything is to see, hear, smell, touch or taste it. Empiricism has developed into the methodology of twentieth century scientific research by Popper, with the aid of a few black swans along the way. The processes and protocols for creating evidence bases from scientific research continue to evolve, with new mechanisms for ensuring rigour, validity and trustworthiness of peer review developing in response to new challenges.

At this present moment, however, one of the greatest challenges in my life is in trying to persuade my daughter (as many twee American parenting websites would put it) ‘to go potty in the bathroom’. As a research scientist I have sought help from the evidence-based publication Poo Goes to Pooland. Poo Goes to Pooland was written out of the doctoral research of local psychologist Tamsin Black, and is the of Poo, who is lonely and unhappy in a child’s bottom and wants to go home his mummy in Pooland, and about how Pooland is down the toilet and we can all send our poos there too. For clever empiricists, however, Poo Goes to Pooland has one inherent problem, and my daughter noticed it before me, asking ‘but Mummy how do we know that Pooland is down the toilet? How do we know that Pooland isn’t on the floor or in my knickers? Can you not pwove it?’ I can’t pwove it. She’s right. And she’s too bright to be fobbed off by my attempts to show her Poo’s Mummy peeping out from behind the U-bend, either…

And so, the need to locate Pooland reveals the limits of empiricism and the drawbacks of evidence-based methodology. I have therefore been attempting to use some alternative epistemologies to persuade her;

1. The rationalist method (Descartes, Leibniz etc): We can’t prove that Pooland is down the toilet but we can theorise that it’s there. Thousands of toddlers have successfully used Poo Goes to Pooland to teach them to poo in the toilet, so Pooland must be down there somewhere.

2. The psychoanalytic method (Jung, Klein etc): It’s a category error to demand proof. Poo Goes to Pooland is a story, a piece of literature. Pooland is a metaphor created to teach us where to poo, not a real place.

3. The ontological method (Anselm, Heidegger etc): We don’t need to prove it as such. Few of the millions of people who believe in God value any attempt to verify his existence, because even by believing something to be there we can create its existence for ourselves. Pooland is.

There are alternatives, then, to the empiricist epistemology of the evidence base. But I can report that none of them are working either; my daughter is still not going potty in the bathroom.

There are, of course, evidence-based alternatives to the Poo Goes to Pooland method. And even within evidence-based potty training practice, evidence bases can produce many approaches;

4. The medical approach: Stop thinking about Pooland for just a minute. Is there something making it sore for you to poo on the toilet?

5. The behavioural approach: It doesn’t matter where Pooland is. Just sit calmly on the toilet reading The Lorax until you poo and you’ll get a Peppa Pig sticker on your chart.

6. The hermeneutic approach: Let’s talk about Pooland, shall we? Let’s chat about poo and toilets for a bit…

So far, none of these are working either. And then, as is usually the case in most areas of public health, epistemologies get tangled up with ideologies and politics;

7. The communist/kibbutz method: All of you together, arrange your potties into a neat line and sit and poo together. Nobody moves until everyone poos. (Just to clarify, I haven’t tried this)

8. The authoritarian method: You will poo where I tell you because I am your parent. End of. (Again, to clarify, I’m not going there.)

9. The attachment-parenting approach: If we keep breastfeeding, co-sleeping and home-educating you for long enough and relax, you’ll poo in the toilet eventually, even if it takes a few more years.

So… it’s all providing a brilliant introduction to epistemology; fascinating insight into the range of ways we can think about what we know, and daughter is having a fantastic time intellectually out-manoeuvring me. But she’s still not going potty in the bathroom, so all further ideas (and/or donations of Ecover) are most welcome.

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Many benefits can be obtained from the star fruit. Star fruit (Averrhoa Carambola) has efficacy as an antipyretic and expectorant, so it can be used for treating coughs in children. The fruits that contain lots of vitamin C has its benefits as anti inflammation, analgesic, and a diuretic, so it is good for healing coughs, ulcers, sore throat, a fever, to overcome the problem of diabetes, and

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Apple Health Benefits And Nutrition Fact

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With the vitamins, minerals and other elements in the apple, making it

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There are various way to get rid of scabies. Scabies is an itchy skin condition caused small animals (mite) called Sarcoptes scabiei. These mites dig holes in the skin and cause intense itching in the area. Itching to be stronger especially when you sleep. Scabies is contagious and spreads rapidly through physical contact. Although drugs are given to kill of small animals, you will still

Health Benefits and Nutrition Fact of Candlenut

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The herb known by western society as the Candleberry, Indian Walnut and

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Soursop (Anona muricata Linn) This plant from tropical

Ignoring the ‘experts’ and sticking with the hard to follow guidance as a mom

Posted by Liane Azevedo

Being a Mom has changed my research interests. Now, every time I see something related to physical activity, diet or even sleeping behaviour in early childhood it grabs my attention.

However, I must confess that it is not always easy to follow the public health recommendations that are set for moms on how we should raise our children. More important, I think, is to fight against the pressure that you receive from family, friends and sometimes complete strangers to follow their guidance.

For me this started with breastfeeding. Being born in Brazil where breastfeeding is the rule rather than exception, I have never considered any other option. However, I must say this hasn’t been an easy process. I faced several challenges including mastitis, bleeding, and the fact that my son woke every hour during the night to breastfeed. As soon as I mentioned these problems to other people the first advice I received was, “Give him a bottle.” But I don't want to give him a bottle. Then you’re told that your milk must be weak, which is why he is waking up every hour and so on... (Note: my son was born on the 50th percentile and after 4 months he was on the 90th just with breastfeeding). 

Pieter de Hooch: Mother nursing her child, c1674 

People appear to want to impart their ‘expertise’ on every phase of his development. They say: “Why did you let your child feed himself? Now he is a fussy eater and look at the mess he does! Look at my son he is 2 and I still feed him and he is not a fussy eater”. Then when it comes to sleep they suggest the use of techniques such as ’control crying’, in which you let your child cry until he/she settles down. Being a very soft mom (I know I will pay for this later in his teenage years), I can’t cope with this idea. Luckily, I found some scientific evidence to support my decision (you can always find what you want to, when you search for it). According to this paper “Leaving an infant unattended and in distress, advocated by many clinicians, is not the only efficacious method by which sleep consolidation can be achieved and may not be either necessary, ethical or biologically sound.” It basically says that crying is the way a child communicates with its parents and by ignoring it, you will be blocking this communication. So, that will do as justification for me.

This all reminds me of a presentation I saw recently at the North East Physical Activity Forum, with the intriguing title: “Why we should shut up about the long-term benefits of physical activity”. Although the presenter didn’t give any scientific evidence to her comments, the main message was that long-term benefits of physical activity cannot persuade people to start physical activity. So, we should advocate the short-term benefits such as “have more energy”, “sleep better”, “meet people”, and “reduce anxieties, worries and depression”. I don’t necessarily agree with her comments, probably because I work in this field and the long-term benefits strike me more than the short ones. But this might be worth investigating. However, if I decided to look for the short term-benefits on how to raise my child, I would probably be doing everything against the recommendations. Don’t breastfeed, let him cry himself to sleep, and leave him in front of the TV so you can have your own time. I’ve learnt that sometimes you need to stick with hard to follow guidance to see the benefits which, might take a while to show but, are much more important than the immediate comfort that you would probably get from not following them.

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Health Benefits And Negative Side Effect Of Fish Oil

Research shows many benefits of fish oil for health, but the scientific evidence shows greatest benefit fish oil is for heart health. Compared to other animal fats, fatty fish (better known as fish oil) is very low in cholesterol. It is very beneficial to health because of excess cholesterol can cause health problems. Increasing public awareness of the need good nutrition to support health has

Why blog?

Posted by Jean Adams

It seems an odd thing to write a blog post about the value of blogging. I mean, if you’re reading this blog, it suggests you place some sort of value on the medium. Or maybe, you don’t really but you came to my presentation today on blogging and felt some vague compulsion/interest in following up the link on the handout just this once, seeing as it was such a funky little handout.

What is a blog? What’s it for?

If this really is your first visit to a blog, let me tell you a bit about it and show you around. 

Blogs (a contraction of web logs) are web-sites, or parts of web-sites, that are designed to be regularly updated with new content, including text, images, audio and video content. Entries, or ‘posts’, are presented in reverse chronological order with the most recent first. By providing a facility for readers to comment, and writers to respond to readers’ comments, blogs provide a forum for interactive discussion. Blogs can be single or multi-author and about anything and everything.

This page is mostly text. But we try to include either still or video images with every post. If you scroll down a bit, you’ll find previous posts. And even older ones if you scroll right to the bottom and click ‘older posts’.

Don't say  I didn't prepare - the natty little handout you would have got if you'd come to my presentation

You can see that posts are written by a variety of different people – this is a multi-author blog. Anyone affiliated with Fuse can post and we also accept guest posts from people not affiliated. At the bottom of each post, there’s a little note highlighting either that there are currently ‘no comments’ or maybe ’23 comments’. We haven’t quite cracked the ‘interactive discussion’ bit here, but if you’d like to help overcome that you just need to click on the ‘no comments’ link and let rip. This is the internet, so we use links within posts to source material, or more information on various concepts, rather than a list of references at the bottom of posts.

To the right of the main text, you can see some other stuff introducing the blog and what it’s about, listing previous posts, and bigging up our besties. There's also some Twitter and social network sharing stuff there. We publicise the blog primarily through Twitter. If you're new to blogs, a good way to find out about new posts is to follow me (@jeanmadams) or @fuse_online on Twitter.

The majority of mainstream science communication follows a formal, and often highly structured, format. In contrast, blogs allow scientists and researchers to be both authoritative and informal. In blogs the personality of a researcher can shine through in a way that it rarely does in peer-reviewed publications and traditional science journalism. For this reason, science blogs have been proposed as “one way to demythologize science”.

Fuse is a Public Health Research Centre of Excellence that brings together academics and researchers from five universities in the North East of England. One of Fuse’s key aims is to engage with those working in public health policy and practice across the region (policy and practice ‘partners’) to conduct research with and for these groups, and to ensure translation of research findings into policy and practice.

We set up the Fuse Blog because, although awareness of Fuse seemed high locally, understanding of what exactly it does and how, appeared limited. We were also concerned about a feeling that Fuse researchers were perceived by policy and practice partners as a bit far removed from the real world, up in their ivory towers. Finally, we wanted a method to build some sort of community across a research centre that is located in five different universities at some geographical distance from each other.

To achieve these things, posts tend to be about the day-to-day realities of doing public health research, written in a way that hopefully makes us look human. But we also sometimes post what might be considered lay summaries of our research findings and accessible discussions of recent research developments.

Why should I bother blogging?

I asked my Twitter followers why they blogged. These are some of the responses I got:

I think that the reasons that a researcher might want to blog can be broken into three areas: personal, professional and organisational.

From a personal point of view, I quite enjoy blogging. Like Bronia, I like having an opportunity to write about the things that matter to be but that I can’t put in academic papers. It can be quite cathartic. I also like the people that I’ve met – both in person, and virtually – through blogging. I’m quite a shy person underneath, so this medium suits me well.

Professionally, Sherry and Lynne cover some of the important points. Blogging is a form of engagement that allows researchers to speak to people they often can’t access through traditional dissemination routes, about things those routes don’t generally cover. On the blog, I am Jean. It’s fine for Jean to discuss the everyday realities of doing public health research and to chat about her research. Most other public places I go in a professional capacity, I am Dr Adams. From her you get cautious interpretation of her latest peer-reviewed findings.

This sort of engagement ticks boxes in terms of communicating the method of science. But it is also considered a moral duty by some: if the public fund our research through government agencies, don’t we have a duty to tell them about it in a way they might understand?

As Lynne says, blogging is also a good way to get into writing – a skill that every researcher needs. It’s quick (we normally say 5-800words for a post, but this one is rapidly breaking the rules, but I’m the editor, so that’s fine) and it doesn’t have to be perfect (I seem to have identified a number of post-publication typos...).

Organisationally, the most important thing that the Fuse blog might have done is make us a bit more democratic. Our posts tend to be written by early career researchers who often don’t speak up in other forums. As one professor eloquently put it, the blog gives a voice to those who are too often voiceless in our organisation.

In turn, this gives a good impression of Fuse to the outside world: we’re the sort of organisation who aren’t afraid to let our early career staff and students speak out and we support them to do that. The blog also means we have a constantly updated web presence. It says: we are flourishing.

But…what about all the bad stuff?

Obviously you should be aware of the risks of anything before you start. Simon Wren-Lewis from Oxford University offers sound responses to many of the risks you might think blogging has, from not having enough time, to not having anything to say. With a multi-author blog like the Fuse blog we easily absorb many of these. Matt Might from the University of Utah also offers some good tips on low-effort blog post strategies – if you’re going to write a presentation for a departmental seminar on blogging, write a blog post about it.

With a central editor (me) who scrutinises all posts before they go live we also add an additional layer of checking to the ‘read it again in the morning’ strategy used by Wren-Lewis. We err on the side of caution and if there’s anything I think you might live to regret posting, I’ll talk to you about it. But that rarely happens – researchers live and breathe confidentiality and professionalism.

No…I meant: what will people think?

Well, what do you think? Do you think that researchers and academics writing about their day-to-day working lives in non-peer-reviewed publications is ‘vulgar’? Do you think Athene Donald, professor of physics at Cambridge University and Fellow of the Royal Society is ‘showing off’ in her blog? Do you think Trish Greenhalgh, professor of primary health care at Queen Mary, who contributes to many multi-author blogs has ‘too much time on her hands’? Most people probably think the same way you do.

If you’ve written a post or want to chat about ideas for posts, get in touch.

How To Get Rid Of Stress In a Healthy Way

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The symptoms of stress:

     Became irritable and angry with friends, family and

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Tips To Get Rid of Dry Scalp:

Keeping your scalp to stay healthy is

Thesis looming

Guest post by Sadie Boniface

I knew it was coming. I am envisaging months of isolation. I remember the long hours I spent at the Robinson Library when I wrote my Masters dissertation (supervised by Martin and Jean). But that was only for two months, and I have budgeted nine for this. A word limit of 15,000 cannot be compared with one of 100,000.

Yes, I am on the cusp of starting what every PhD student dreads: the writing-up phase.

I will survive

In preparation, I did a swift ‘audit’ of all the work I’ve done so far towards my PhD, which is on under-reporting of alcohol consumption in England. This includes my upgrade report and presentation, conference papers, journal articles (at various stages of completion), along with personal notes and musings. This has boosted my confidence. I didn’t quite realise it before, but I have done lots of work already. My thesis is going to write itself! As my opposite desk neighbour and I keep saying to each other: ‘it’s going to be fine’.

Doing this allowed me to put together a chapter outline. ‘Excellent!’ I thought once I had finished, pleased to see a structure I can dissect into manageable chunks. Eight chapters, each with all their relevant little sub-sections. And my supervisor said the outline was good. This is going to be easy.

Despite my deliberate optimism, truthfully, I know it won’t be easy (and perhaps that’s why I’m procrastinating by writing my first blog post). Writing up has a reputation for being difficult. Google “PhD write up” and the three of the top ten hits are about how to survive the writing-up process. Books have whole chapters dedicated to it. The focus is on coping and perseverance. When I speak to fellow students in my Department who are in the writing up phase they seem numb. The thesis takes over. It is almost as if pulling together the threads of the previous two-to-five years - to weave the tapestry that is the thesis – is best done robotically, not by hand.

Due to make this transition to automaton myself, I am anxious about how I am going to manage. I experience a definite slump in productivity when I am working on the same thing day after day. Without a doubt the part of my PhD I have enjoyed the most so far has been the process of collecting data for two of my four studies. I really like getting out and speaking to members of the public. Without this interaction, I expect time to pass more slowly. It’s looking like a long nine months.

This is partly why* I have taken on additional commitments. I am tutoring schoolchildren with the aim of widening access to top universities, and I will also soon be helping to collect data for a large new study. I hope that the extra experience I’m getting will make me more employable. I’m also hopeful that this time away from working on my thesis will give me space to reflect, allowing me to come back to it with ‘new eyes’. Ultimately, I expect these breaks to improve my writing.

Juggling writing up with other (unrelated) work is going to be a challenge. I’m not sure when or how I’ll know if I’ve got the balance right. My PhD is undoubtedly my priority, but perhaps it will be a mistake not to focus my attention fully on my thesis. I am determined to hand in by the time my funding runs out. Whether I will or not, only time will tell. With luck, I might be able to spare an afternoon to share my experience of the writing up process on this blog in a few months’ time.

If you are doing a PhD, do you have similar fears about writing up? If you have a PhD, how did you ‘survive’ the write up? What tips would you give to PhD students to help them write their theses?


*another contributor is the unfortunate fact that my MRC doctoral training grant studentship stipend has been frozen since 2010!

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Benefits Of Ginseng For Health And Beauty

Ginseng is a herb that has many benefits and has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years. Not only in the east, ginseng has also been widely adopted in many western countries due to a variety of health benefits. Ginseng is often used in traditional medicine, especially in China. The roots of this plant can improve blood flow and increase the production of red blood cells, and aid

Winter is coming? Surviving the final months of a PhD

Posted by Amy O'Donnell

At the end of 2012, I officially stopped being a full-time funded PhD student, and re-entered the world of the tax-paying worker (staying here at Newcastle University – thanks for having me!). In theory, of course, this means I should be about to submit my leather bound, gold embossed thesis to some lucky examiners. Sadly, I’m not quite there (although, come April, a couple of eminent academics should beware of the ominous thud through their letterbox).

Apparently, these final months of frantic write-up will be quite the endurance test: the tough hardship of George R.R. Martin’s never-ending winter compared to those halcyon summer days of first and second year studentdom. I’ve been warned that I will basically have to give my children up for adoption, withdraw from polite society and hole myself up in some ivory tower for the interim (which is starting to feel like a pledge to the Night’s Watch but I’ll put the poorly-disguised Game of Thrones references aside for a moment).

 Sorry, one more totally undisguised Game of Thrones reference

In some ways, these warnings are starting to come true. I can’t remember the last weekend I didn’t do at least a day’s work and my school runs are down to the absolute bare minimum (I almost forgot Children in Need costumes!!!). I am constantly thinking about deadlines, drafts and discussion sections (sometimes way too early in the morning for my liking). And yet, I’m not even remotely hating any of this. Far from it. I can honestly say I’m loving my PhD more than ever and, if anything, dreading the whole adventure coming to an end. It’s all finally (mostly) making sense, and of all the elements that comprise the mysterious business of research, writing is definitely my favourite. I’ve also been getting ‘out there’ more, including being lucky enough to enjoy a fantastic conference trip to Barcelona, emboldened by a sense of possibly having something to say at long last.

Of course, the ‘party’ is far from over. About 30,000 words away from being over to be precise, and I intend to enjoy everyone one of them. Returning to Game of Thrones, I read somewhere that there are around 1,500,000 words in the five tomes of the Song of Ice and Fire series so far, and I’ve read and enjoyed most of them. Much like the PhD, all its left me with is a desperate need to see how things finish. So on that note, I’ll leave the final word to the marvellous George R.R. Martin: 

“Some battles are won with swords and spears, others with quills and ravens.”

How To Get Rid Of Wrinkles On the Face With Natural Ways

Many women are looking for ways to get rid of wrinkles on the face. Wrinkles on the face is a symptom of aging which is very disturbing appearance. Many ways you can do to get a clean skin, free of wrinkles and blemishes. However you should be careful to choose which way you want to use. Because if you choose the wrong skin care, your face instead become damaged. Better you choose treatment as

Health Benefits of Ginger And Nutrition Fact

Ginger is a spice and medicinal plants that rich in benefits. Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is a rhizomes plant, which are very popular as a spice and medicinal materials. Having a dominant spicy flavor due ketone compound, named zingeron. with the taste a lot of people use it as a drink to warm the body.







There are 3 kinds of ginger, big white ginger, small white ginger, and red ginger.

How To Get Rid of Toenail Fungus

There are several ways to get rid of toenail fungus. Nail fungus is a fungal infection of one or more of the nail. Nail fungal infection may begin as a white or yellow spot under the nail or nail tip. Nail fungus can spread deeper into the nail, it may cause blackened nails, thickened, and the edges were destroyed, and can be painful.







Nail fungus (onychomycosis or tinea unguium) most

Turmeric Health Benefits, Nutrient Content, And Side Effects

There are many benefits of turmeric for our health. The use of turmeric as a medicine to cure a number of diseases has also been used since ancient times. Along with the development of science and technology, some benefits of turmeric as one of the medicinal plants are many found.




Turmeric Benefits




Curcumin, a poly-phenolic compound is the principal pigment that imparts deep orange color

How To Get Rid Of Varicose Veins

Many women are looking for ways to get rid of varicose veins. Experience varicose veins disease, it is very embarrassing and make less confident. Varicose veins are not just a matter of aesthetics, but also can lead to other serious problems such as leg swelling, skin color changes, bleeding, blood clots, and pus.







Varicose Vein Causes

Varicose veins occur in the veins which carry blood

Health Benefits And Nutrition Fact of Honey

Honey is rich in benefits for health. Various benefits of honey have been known for a long time, even before confirmed through scientific research. In India, honey has been used for 4,000 years to improve eyesight, lose weight, cure impotence, urinary tract disorders, bronchial asthma, diarrhea, and nausea.







Honey comes from the nectar of flowers, collected, converted and tied with

Some top tips on publishing from some editors of top journals

Posted by Jean Adams

I was recently asked to take part in a panel discussion on publishing for the UK Society of Behavioural Medicine's Early Career Network.

Also on the panel were: Professors Paul Aveyard (senior editor of Addiction, and an editor of the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Review Group), Ronan O'Carroll (associate editor of Health Psychology and British Journal of Health Psychology, member of the editorial boards of Psychology & Health, British Journal of Clinical Psychology and Journal of Behavioral Medicine) and David French (associate editor of British Journal of Health Psychology and Psychology & Health, member of the editorial board of Annals of Behavioral Medicine).

I was the token non-male, non-professor on a panel of rather eminent male professors. So whilst they poured forth of their wisdom on publishing, I took notes. With their permission, I've tried to summarise some of the top tips on publishing research of some of the top UK editors of behavioural medicine journals.

Calvin & Hobbes on writing

1. The best way to write a paper is to write a paper. Stop procrastinating and get something, anything, down on paper. Don't expect your first draft to be any good. Writing is mostly about editing and re-editing.

2. Know what your paper is about before you start. One suggestion was to write a structured abstract first to force yourself to condense your work and thoughts into 2-300 clear words.

3. Be clear about the "so what" factor. The editors were particularly scathing about wishy-washy, discussion section stalwarts such as "more research is needed". They wanted to see clear statements about the implications of results and suggestions for exactly what further research is needed.

4. Make sure your work is internally consistent. Don't be afraid to revert to the old skool approach of saying what you're going to do (aims and methods), doing it (results), and then saying you've done it (discussion). This structure of covertly repeating yourself helps keep everyone focused.

5. Learn to deal with rejection. Someone pointed out that the best journals reject more than 80% of the stuff they're sent. Even the next tier of merely 'good' journals still reject at least 50% of submissions. So everyone (even eminent professors) have papers rejected on a fairly regular basis. Don't take it personally and be open with your colleagues about the experience. Focus on what you might be able to learn from any feedback you receive and get on with getting your manuscript ready for the next submission

6. Seek constructive criticism from colleagues before submitting. Don't just find someone who'll say your paper is lovely. Find someone who'll give you substantive comments on how you could improve it.

7. Don't annoy the reviewers. Reviewers are busy researchers and academics - just like you. Bad writing, poor grammar, and non-standard formatting all have the potential to put them in a bad mood with almost inevitable negative effects on the review they write about your manuscript.

8. Focus on what's generalisable about your work and don't get bogged down in local details. There was a strong feeling that to be published in an international journal, work has to be internationally relevant. If you performed your work in Huddersfield, make clear that this setting was merely an exemplar for proving a more widely applicable point.

9. There were fairly mixed feelings on the importance of cover letters. There was much more clarity on the importance of getting the response to reviewers letter right. Ensuring this letter is polite was seen as crucial. One editor admitted that he often writes a fairly sweary first draft of this to vent his rage, before editing to make it more presentable.

10. Don't be a slave to the impact factor. Whilst high impact papers are definitely considered important, one editor also stressed the importance of a journal's standing within its field. So a fairly low impact factor journal that is the best within its field is likely to be considered better than a similar impact factor journal that is mid-ranked in its field. Others felt that, especially for an early career researcher, being able to show that you can write and publish by having a reasonable number of publications on your CV, is arguably more important than having a few papers in very high ranking journals.

11. Don't be afraid to take a punt. Everyone agreed that editors and reviewers can be unpredictable. It is a system based on opinion, so one person might have a very different opinion of your paper than another. Don't automatically think your paper is only worthy of the Journal of Universal Rejection if JAMA turn you down. There are many options in between and another very good journal might still be interested, even if JAMA isn't.

12. Consider making informal per-submission enquiries. This was not something that anyone in the room had substantial experience of, but one member of the panel had once emailed a senior editor with a structured abstract to ask if he would consider the paper for his journal. The answer was no, but at least the response was provided quickly and without any messing around with reformatting references and completing online submission forms.

Health Benefits And Nutrition Fact of Strawberry

Many benefits can be obtained from the strawberries. Strawberry is a fruit that is rich in water and low energy (only 35 kcal in 100 g), while the fiber content is very high for a small strawberry and beautiful. The nutritional content is very good for curing several diseases.







Strawberries have the Latin name Fragaria chiloensis L. can be found in almost every country. Strawberry not only

How To Get Rid of Throat Mucus or Phlegm Naturally

There are several ways to get rid of throat mucus or phlegm. You are probably familiar with that disturbing feeling of having mucus in your throat, which can make breathing extremely difficult. Mucus or phlegm in the throat can be uncomfortable and cause bad breath or other health problems.






Phlegm or mucus is thick jelly like fluid different color from throat cough. However, mucus is part

Mango Health Benefits And Nutritional Value

Mango has a myriad of benefits that are good for the health of our bodies, can treat diseases such as cancer, helps digestion because it is rich in fiber and many more benefits and efficacy that we can get by eating mangoes every day. Mangoes classified as rich fruit beta-carotene and vitamin A. As a provider of vitamin A. Because rich in beta-carotene and vitamin A, eating mangoes can also

How To Get Rid of Shin Splints

There are several ways to get rid of shin splints. Shin splints is pain along the shinbone (tibia), the large bone in the front of the lower leg. Medically known as medial tibial stress syndrome, shin splints occur during physical activity and result from too much force being placed on your shinbone and connective tissues that attach your muscles to the bone. Shin splints are common in runners

Coriander Health Benefits And Nutrition Value

Although more commonly used in cooking ingredient, coriander actually has many health benefits. Coriander is indeed known for its efficacy in healthy digestion. Coriander has the Latin name Coriandrum sativum L. Coriander is one of the spices that very well known in the world. The aroma and taste of coriander is very distinctive and can flavor dishes, but not too sharp on the tongue.

Benefit of Baking Soda For Health, Beauty, And Household Purposes

Baking soda has health benefits, for beauty and for household purposes. So far we only know the baking soda as a cooking ingredient for cake batter. In fact, baking soda also has other uses and can be a 'savior' in an emergency.







It is interesting to consider for those who like the super low-cost natural remedies. Baking soda or sodium bicarbonate, is a staple in the kitchen that works for

My Big Fat-and-Caffeinated New Year’s Resolution

Posted by Heather Yoeli

I need a coffee. I can’t write without coffee. Happy New Year. May 2013 be a year of love and blessings and decaffeination for you and all those whom you love. And please excuse the very inept deployment of the subjunctive in the previous sentence. I need a coffee, you see...

I’m sure I’m not the only one within Fuse to have made a New Year’s Resolution. I imagine that I’m not the only one within Fuse to have made a health-related behaviour-changing type New Year’s Resolution either. I am (deep breath) going to make fewer – alrightalright NO - trips to the friendly new espresso machine located at the local garage and I am (even deeper breath) going to put the money saved towards one of those cringworthily excruciating-sounding Mummy-and-Tot Dance Classes, through which I will instil in my progeny an enthusiasm (grit teeth) for exercise. And I’m wondering what New Year’s Resolutions others might have, and how forthcoming they might be in sharing them with a blog…

My vice. This is a caffeine molecule, apparently. Chemistry was never my strongest suit, so I’ll take its word for it.

Within most areas of health, healthcare and health sciences, there exists an ethos which says that professionals and researchers should distance themselves from their area of practice or study. If, for example, you’re a doctor or a PhD student with diabetes or bipolar disorder, it’s nobody else’s business at all and they can piss off if they ask you anything about it. You don’t go there because to do so would be unprofessional or self-indulgent or irrelevant or burdensome to others, in essence a transgression of Western society’s Cartesian boundary of subject/object, body/mind, Self/Other. In other words, our personal lives need neither to be affected by nor to affect anything we do to pay the bills. It’s all a stress-management technique or a coping mechanism or a survival strategy, and one with which few would disagree.

Within public health, however, ethical challenges emerge from attempts to uphold such distinctions. Even those of us who subscribe to the most deterministic and we’re-all-merely-victims-of-our-social-environment woolly leftie-isms would concede that we all exercise some level of choice regarding our health behaviour: we decide, for example, how much (if any) chardonnay we drink, how frequently (if ever) we disinfect our chopping boards and whether (if female) we turn up for smear test appointments. Merely by virtue of possessing some level of personal autonomy and merely by living in a country offering virtually universal health services, we are all patients (or service users, clients or consumers) of public health. And some of the choices we make with regard to our health will be visible or apparent to those with whom we’re working.

Within qualitative service evaluation literature produced on public health interventions in the Cowgate community, smoking is a case in point. Davies (1998) does not mince her words:

… some families spend a third of their income on cigarettes. The smoking message is one that the midwives repeat over and over again, and everyone, including social workers, seems to ignore it... 

Stacy (1988) puts it a little more discreetly:

Staff should decide whether to make reduction in smoking one of the objectives in their health promotion work.

In other words, if we can’t give up smoking why should they want to?

And if I’m wasting £2.30 a day on un-recycled paper cups of over-caffeinated beverages funding a monolithic rainforest-destroying global multinational, how can I think with any integrity about questions of ethics and sustainability with public health? I’m really [expletive redacted after long tea-fuelled discussion with editor] going to have to do this. Aren’t it?

So, before I put the kettle on for camomile tea in a vain attempt to assuage the shakings and cravings of my coffee withdrawal, would anyone else like to share what they’re resolving to do to address their own un-public health-worthy little vices? What’s your New Year’s Resolution, and why?

Nutrition Value And 15 Health Benefits Of Broccoli

Broccoli has long been known as one of the vegetables that are healthy because of the various benefits and nutritional value in it. Broccoli not only contain antioxidants including vitamin C, broccoli is also a natural source of folic acid. Intake of folic acid helps prevent heart disease. Green vegetables and also potentially protect against the development of cancer.






Broccoli is one of

How To Get Rid Of Eczema (Naturally And Modern Ways)

Eczema is a common skin disease and cause intense itching and a burning sensation on exposed skin. But there are some ways to get rid of eczema. eczema or more commonly known with dermatitis that is inflammation of the skin due to a hypersensitivity reaction (exaggerated response) against allergens (triggers allergic reactions) from the outside (exogenous) or from the patient's body (endogenous)

Health Benefits And Nutrition Value of Dragon Fruit

There are many health benefits of dragon fruit. Dragon fruit is a beautiful fruit with an intense color and shape, the flowers were breathtaking. Like blooms at night, this fruit also called Moonflower, Queen of the night, and the Lady of the Night. Usually the fruit is dark red, it can also be found in yellow or pink.



Dragon fruit was originally known as pitaya. This night-flowering cactus

How To Get Rid Of Toothache

Many people are looking for ways to get rid of a toothache. Toothache will make us very sick and uncomfortable. Toothache is pain in the teeth. Toothache is caused by problems in the teeth and the jaw, such as dental caries, gingivitis or jaw disease, and many more. Toothache is a symptom of heart disease, such as angina. Toothache can lead to heart disease and stroke.






Tips To Get Rid of

12 Healthy Foods For Healthy Teeth and Gum

You probably never thinking that the food you eat will affect dental health. To fight toothache and kill bacteria, some foods have an important role. Research also shows that having a healthy mouth may help prevent heart disease, stroke, preterm labor, and a host of other diseases.







Tooth decay is one of the most common dental problems. There is no age limit for this disease. This can

How To Get Rid Of Vertigo

There are a few tips to get rid of vertigo. Vertigo is a symptom of a medical condition characterized by the sensation of an unwanted headache. Vertigo makes the body feel pulled from one side to the other and is often aggravated by a spinning sensation.



Stress is not considered as a cause of vertigo, but vertigo can cause stress, and stress can worsen the condition of vertigo. A study

Health Benefits And Nutrition Fact Of Asparagus

Asparagus save a lot of health benefits for the body. These vegetables are rich in antioxidants and is believed to protect the body from cancer. Asparagus contains a lot of nutrients, high in fiber, folate, vitamin A, C, E and K, and chromium, and minerals that enhance the ability of insulin to transport glucose from the bloodstream into the cells. It is a very rich source of glutathione, a

How To Get Rid Of Stomach Acid Naturally

If you suffer from burning pain, bloating, and discomfort caused by stomach acid, then of course hoping get a drug that can work quickly to get rid of it. Using drugs that can be obtained on the open market and prescription medications can help relieve discomfort due to increase stomach acid. But these drugs would also carry a variety of unwanted side effects.







If we discuss the best

How To Get Rid Of Baggy Eyes

There are some natural ways to get rid of baggy eyes. Eye bags are often called panda eyes. Baggy eyes, dark circles, wrinkles under the eyes, or eye drops, a sign that the skin is experiencing the aging process. Therefore, do not wonder if someone could look older than her actual age because of this problem.







Eye bags characterized with the skin under the eyes are down, thus forming a

How To Get Rid Of Mosquito Naturally And Safely

Besides giving coolness, certain plants are able to help get rid of mosquitoes, especially on the outside of the house. This method may be effective to try. The use of anti-mosquito, either smeared or sprayed on the skin may be more preferred because it effectively repel mosquitoes. But, products made ​​from chemicals in general are toxic, can cause skin irritation, and leave the smell.

Health Benefits And Source of Vitamin C

As the water-soluble vitamins, vitamin C has many important roles in warding off many diseases. Vitamin C or ascorbic acid, commonly known by this has a significant role in the formation of collagen which helps boost the immune system and helps the absorption of iron.







In fact, several studies have shown the benefits of vitamin C in lowering cholesterol levels and produce certain chemicals

8 Drugs That Should be Avoided Given to Babies

Consult a doctor before giving medicine to infants and toddlers. The immune system that still weak, it makes the baby more vulnerable to germs that cause disease. Even so, parents should be careful in giving medicines to them, even a relatively natural medicine or herbal. 






Your toddler is often susceptible to colds and coughs. But giving cough and cold medicines in children under 6 years