Explore the vast range of titles available.

National levels of personal health-care access and quality can be approximated by measuring mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal in the presence of effective medical care (ie, amenable mortality). Previous analyses of mortality amenable to health care only focused on high-income countries and faced several methodological challenges. In the present analysis, we use the highly standardised cause of death and risk factor estimates generated through the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) to improve and expand the quantification of personal health-care access and quality for 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2015. We mapped the most widely used list of causes amenable to personal health care developed by Nolte and McKee to 32 GBD causes. We accounted for variations in cause of death certification and misclassifications through the extensive data standardisation processes and redistribution algorithms developed for GBD. To isolate the effects of personal health-care access and quality, we risk-standardised cause-specific mortality rates for each geography-year by removing the joint effects of local environmental and behavioural risks, and adding back the global levels of risk exposure as estimated for GBD 2015. We employed principal component analysis to create a single, interpretable summary measure–the Healthcare Quality and Access (HAQ) Index–on a scale of 0 to 100. The HAQ Index showed strong convergence validity as compared with other health-system indicators, including health expenditure per capita (r=0·88), an index of 11 universal health coverage interventions (r=0·83), and human resources for health per 1000 (r=0·77). We used free disposal hull analysis with bootstrapping to produce a frontier based on the relationship between the HAQ Index and the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a measure of overall development consisting of income per capita, average years of education, and total fertility rates. This frontier allowed us to better quantify the maximum levels of personal health-care access and quality achieved across the development spectrum, and pinpoint geographies where gaps between observed and potential levels have narrowed or widened over time. Between 1990 and 2015, nearly all countries and territories saw their HAQ Index values improve; nonetheless, the difference between the highest and lowest observed HAQ Index was larger in 2015 than in 1990, ranging from 28·6 to 94·6. Of 195 geographies, 167 had statistically significant increases in HAQ Index levels since 1990, with South Korea, Turkey, Peru, China, and the Maldives recording among the largest gains by 2015. Performance on the HAQ Index and individual causes showed distinct patterns by region and level of development, yet substantial heterogeneities emerged for several causes, including cancers in highest-SDI countries; chronic kidney disease, diabetes, diarrhoeal diseases, and lower respiratory infections among middle-SDI countries; and measles and tetanus among lowest-SDI countries. While the global HAQ Index average rose from 40·7 (95% uncertainty interval, 39·0–42·8) in 1990 to 53·7 (52·2–55·4) in 2015, far less progress occurred in narrowing the gap between observed HAQ Index values and maximum levels achieved; at the global level, the difference between the observed and frontier HAQ Index only decreased from 21·2 in 1990 to 20·1 in 2015. If every country and territory had achieved the highest observed HAQ Index by their corresponding level of SDI, the global average would have been 73·8 in 2015. Several countries, particularly in eastern and western sub-Saharan Africa, reached HAQ Index values similar to or beyond their development levels, whereas others, namely in southern sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and south Asia, lagged behind what geographies of similar development attained between 1990 and 2015. This novel extension of the GBD Study shows the untapped potential for personal health-care access and quality improvement across the development spectrum. Amid substantive advances in personal health care at the national level, heterogeneous patterns for individual causes in given countries or territories suggest that few places have consistently achieved optimal health-care access and quality across health-system functions and therapeutic areas. This is especially evident in middle-SDI countries, many of which have recently undergone or are currently experiencing epidemiological transitions. The HAQ Index, if paired with other measures of health-system characteristics such as intervention coverage, could provide a robust avenue for tracking progress on universal health coverage and identifying local priorities for strengthening personal health-care quality and access throughout the world. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

As poverty and unemployment remain widespread in Ethiopia, the number of women who travel to the Gulf States in search of employment continues to rise. Often, when they face problems, these women cannot rely on protection from local authorities or the Ethiopian government; rather, to ensure their security and success while in the Gulf, they invest money in obtaining divine protection. This article, which discusses rituals involving gift giving and the transmission of baraka, focuses on a self-sanctified Muslim leader who has adapted existing ritual practices to meet female migrants' needs. We examine how established, customary spiritual relationships have been transformed in a way that addresses these women's hopes and fears. We explore how these changing practices address each party's interests: the women see them as a source of security and prosperity, and they provide the religious leader with a sustainable source of wealth.

Springs are the gifts of nature on the earth as they contribute about eighty essential nutrients that are involved in more than 7000 enzymatic processes in the human body. European balneologists have recommended spring mineral waters for different therapeutic applications. In the present investigation, Aab - e - Shifa (Punjab Pakistan) spring water was analyzed due to its therapeutic behavior in the healing of various skin diseases via atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). It was found that besides other important minerals (Ca, Mg, K, and Na), the spring water contains the most significant antioxidant, i.e., Zn which is probably one of the major features of the curative behavior of Aab - e - Shifa . Other trace elements (Cr, Cd, Ni, Mn, Fe, and Cu) were also found to be present in the spring water under the permissible limits of various national and international organizations.

Background: Habbe Shifa (HS) is an important pharmacopoeial Unani formulation, which is used in the treatment of Humma (fever), Iya (fatigue), Tashannuje rewi (pulmonary spasm) and Zeequn Nafas (asthma) and opium deaddiction. Aim: The physico-chemical standards of HS were established in the present study. Materials and Methods: HS was prepared with ingredients of particle size 150 μm (100 mesh sieve), 5% w/w Gum Acacia mucilage was used as binder, dried at a temperature 90°C for 120 min and finally evaluated for different physico-chemical parameters to develop standards for HS. Results and Conclusion: Physico-chemical standards of HS were observed as characteristic brown colour, spherical shape, hard in texture, odourless and bitter in taste; average weight 242.95 ± 1.53 mg; diameter 7.33 ± 0.16 mm; hardness 3.5 ± 0.00 kg/cm; friability 0.02 ± 0.003%; pH value in 1% and 10% aqueous solution 6.22 ± 0.06 and 5.39 ± 0.008 respectively; percentage loss of weight on drying at 105°C 6.63 ± 0.12%; total ash, acid insoluble ash and water soluble ash 5.33 ± 0.16, 0.95 ± 0.05 and 1 ± 0.00% respectively and total alkaloid 0.65 ± 0.01% and R f values in the thin layer chromatography in ethanolic extract in hexane: Acetone (7.6:2.4) solvent system were 0.25, 0.78 and in hexane: Diethyl ether (4:6) solvent system were 0.58, 0.89. The results obtained for the various physico-chemical tests of lab sample of HS may be taken as standard parameter for future reference and help in setting up regulatory limit to assure the quality of Unani medicine.

It is difficult to trace the range of available divinatory numbers from the statistics of digital hexagrams. Now, however, we have definite proofs about the numerical ranges of Shifa （a new unearthed divination method） and about the Dayan divination method （the orthodox divination method of Zhouyi）. As Shifa is closely related to Guicang （Reverting to the Hidden, Yi of Shang dynasty）, SEVEN could be the key divinatory number in analyzing the numerical range of Guicang. Therefore, relationships among number groups of different divination methods could be distinct. The annotation ＂It is divined by the fixity of SEVEN and EIGHT of Yi in Xia and Shang dynasties＂ implies that Jia Gongyan （a famous confucian of the Tang dynasty） had misused the Dayan divination method. It could be certified by the odd-even analysis of Guicang of Qin Bamboo Slip Manuscripts. This study also reveals that the divinatory numbers of unearthed dice correspond to Shifa rather than the original report.

This brief article has two aims: (1) to present a description and comprehensive enumeration of the manuscripts of Avicennas Shifāʾ that had an affiliation with India; and (2) to draw some conclusions about the legacy of this text in India on the basis of the evidence of the manuscripts. The first task is accomplished in section I and the second in section II. In summary, the evidence suggests that it was mainly the Logic and Physics sections of the work that interested Indian scholars, who may well have conceived of the two parts as philosophically complementary. The work seems to have been of interest among Shī'ī north Indian scholars of the late seventeenth century, i.e. prior to the emergence of the Niẓāmī curriculum, though interest in it among the nineteenth century Khayrābādī scholars is also attested. Given that marginal notes are limited and, where available, they are generally of a lexicographical nature in the hand of the scribe of the matn, it is likely that the work was used mainly as a supplement to other texts and was not of interest in itself.

The Latin translation of the Physics of the Shifāʾ shows interesting readings that are unconfirmed or only partially confirmed by the Arabic editions and their apparatus of variants. This applies both to the 12th century Toledo and the 13th century Burgos translations. Due to the 'de verbo ad verbum' style of both translations, one easily can reconstruct the Arabic text read by the Latin translator. By way of several concrete examples it is shown how one discovers on occasion interesting variants which deserve to be taken seriously into consideration in the still lacking critical edition of the Arabic text. La traduction latine de la Physique du Shifāʾ offre des lectures intéressantes qui ne sont pas, ou, au mieux, faiblement attestées dans les éditions arabes et leur apparat critique des variantes. Cela vaut autant pour la traduction du douzième siècle effectuée à Tolède que pour celle de Burgos, réalisée un siècle plus tard. Grâce au procédé utilisé de traduction, à savoir 'de verbo ad verbum,' on peut reconstruire le texte précis lu par le traducteur latin. Ainsi est mise en évidence, à travers quelques exemples significatifs, l'importance particulière de la traduction latine médiévale pour l'établissement d'une édition critique du texte arabe.

Indirect sources of the text of Avicenna's Shifāʾ include the medieval Latin translations, parallel passages in other works by Avicenna, lemmata in subsequent Shifāʾ commentaries, and verbatim quotations in later authors' works. Future editors of the Shifāʾ can consult these indirect sources in order to uncover and resolve major textual discrepancies. The present article reviews one such textual discrepancy in light of a sample of direct and indirect witnesses to the tradition of the Shifāʾ. Some tentative conclusions are drawn about the use of different types of indirect sources, and about the relative priority of each type.

[Shifa Khatun], Mintus younger brother Ruhul Amin, 16, and mother Amena Begum, 60, were also attacked and injured by [Shafique] when they tried to save [Mintu]. They were admitted to Bogra Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital.