Human functions

The first commercial buildings, built in about 2000 B.C.E., were simple structures that represented the beginnings of architecture—a scries of columns, walls, and roofs. Columns represented the upright human stance, walls represented human territoriality, and roofs both kept the rain out and created a crown, or head, for the structure. Walls also represented a separation between the plant and animal world and the human world. The walls of a courtyard formed a human space that became the city. Although the form of buildings has evolved over time, buildings today fundamentally provide these same basic human functions artistic expression, separation, definition, and shelter. 

They are essential not because they are the only amino adds required for human functioning, but because they are essential in the diet of file human spedes. 

Human functioning the dual-interaction model. (From Smith, B.D., Effects of acute and habitual caffeine ingestion in physiology and behavior Tests of a biobehavioral arousal theory. Special issue Caffeine Research, Pharmacopsychoecologia, 7(2), 151-167, 1994. With permission.)... 

Streufert S, Pogash R, Miller J, Gingrich D, Landis R, Lonardi L, Severs W, Roache JD. (1995). Effects of caffeine deprivation on complex human functioning. Psychopharmacology (Berlin). 118(4) 377-84. Stricherz ME, Pratt P. (1976). Betel quid and reaction time. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 4(5) 627-28. Subarnas A, Oshima Y, Sidik, Ohizumi Y. (1992). An antidepressant principle of Lobelia inflata L. (Campanulaceae). J Pharm Sci. 81(7) 620-21. 

Medical devices, in general, are human-made structures or machines that function inside or outside the body and have a role in human functioning either in sensing or manipulating a physiological variable. If they are implanted in a host, they may be a temporary or a permanent device. 

The growing availability of computerized predictive modeling and data management systems in the field is providing helpful new tools to aid control under these more difficult operating conditions. Nevertheless, interpreting data and providing suitable practical recommendations for corrective action still remain essentially a human function. 

The ethical implications also cannot be ignored. Any research that uses human volunteers must examine its motives and methods to make certain that human beings are not being manipulated like objects for purposes they do not understand or share. But in research with powerful mental chemicals that may influence the most cherished human functions and values, the ethical problem is even more acute. The mystical experience, historically, has filled man with wondrous awe... 

The effects of psychedelics can be described at all levels of human functioning. On a physiological level, because comparatively small doses of LSD, for instance, produce relatively large effects on behavior, and because these effects last long beyond the time during which traces of them can be found in the body by any known methods, important questions about the nature of neural enzymes are raised, about their role in the ecology of the body, about the half lives of their components, and about how they interact to mediate our functioning. The fact that chemical interaction lies at the core of... 

Any human function, as generally elicited, can be performed more effectively. This amounts to an acknowledgement that we do not function at our full capacity. 

In general, a medical device is defined as follows a medical device is an implant and equipment to be used either to achieve disease diagnosis, medical treatment, or disease prevention for human and animals, or to influence the physical structure and function of human and animals. Medical devices for humans may also be classified based on whether and how long the device is in contact with tissue or cells and on the degree of disjunction induced by the device when in a disabling situation. The term covers various categories, such as scissors and tweezers, with small risk to human function, to central venous catheters, artificial dialysis (human kidney), and pacemakers, with high risk to human function. 

Brod SA. Unregulated inflammation shortens human functional longevity. Inflamm Res 2000 49 561-570. 

Demment, M.W., Allen, L.H. 2003. Animal source foods to improve micronutrient nutrition and human function in developing countries. J. Nutr. 133, Suppl. 2 3875S 1062S. 

III. Biopsychiatric treatments exert their therapeutic effect by impairing higher human functions, including emotional responsiveness, social sensitivity, self-awareness or self-insight, autonomy, and self-determination. More drastic effects include apathy, euphoria and mania,1 and lobotomy-like indifference. 

Keep in mind that if you or I as therapists cannot seem to help some of our patients, the alternative answer is not drugs. The alternative could be another therapist or no therapy at all. No treatment at all is better than being subjected to toxic chemicals that cross the blood-brain barrier and interfere with higher human functions. With a clear brain and mind, people can take advantage of all the healing opportunities afforded by life, from support groups and workshops to community activities and religious worship. 

Beard, R.R., and N.W.Grandstaff. 1975. Carbon monoxide and human functions. Pp. 1—27 in Environmental Science Research, Vol. 5. Behavioral Toxicology, B.Weiss and V.G.Laties, eds. New York Plenum Press. 

Using these theories about human functioning in work environments and the concepts of power and authority addressed basically, we can now explore a few organizational designs that have arisen in the past century. 

There are target organ effects for which a substance/mixture may not meet the criteria to be classified in Categories 1 or 2 indicated above. These are effects which adversely alter human function for a short duration after exposure and from which humans may recover in a reasonable period without leaving significant alteration of structure or fimction. This category only includes narcotic effects and respiratory tract irritation. Substances/mixtures may be classified specifically for these effects as discussed in 3.8.2.2. 

At one time, wakefulness was considered as the active state and sleep as the passive state of all human functions. Today both wakefulness and sleep are considered to be active processes, with wakefulness and sleep being at two ends of a continuum. 

Another approach used to infer human functional significance from animal data is to focus on conserved pathways between species. There is experimental evidence to show that innate immunity is conserved across nematodes,... 

Gilad Y, Lancet D (2003) Population differences in the human functional olfactory repertoire. Mol Biol Evol 20 307-314... 

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