Effectiveness of traditional meditation retreats: A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: An increasing number of studies are investigating traditional meditation retreats. Very little, however, is known about their effectiveness. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of meditation retreats on improving psychological outcomes in general population. DATA SOURCES: A systematic review of studies published in journals or as dissertations in PSYCINFO, PUBMED, CINAHL or Web of Science from the first available date until October 22, 2016. REVIEW METHODS: A total of 20 papers (21 studies, N = 2912) were included. RESULTS: Effect-size estimates of outcomes combined suggested that traditional meditation retreats are moderately effective in pre-post analyses (n = 19; Hedge's g = 0.45; 95% CI [0.35, 0.54], p < 0.00001) and in analyses comparing retreats to controls (n = 14; Hedge's g = 0.49; 95% CI [0.36, 0.61], p < 0.00001). Results were maintained at follow-up. No differences were observed between meditation styles. Results suggested large effects on measures of anxiety, depression and stress, and moderate effects on measures of emotional regulation and quality of life. As to potential mechanisms of actions, results showed large effects on measures of mindfulness and compassion, and moderate effects on measures of acceptance. In addition, changes in mindfulness levels strongly moderated clinical effect sizes. However, heterogeneity was significant among trials, probably due to differences in study designs, types and duration of the retreats and assessed outcomes, limiting therefore the implications of the results. CONCLUSION: Meditation retreats are moderately to largely effective in reducing depression, anxiety, stress and in ameliorating the quality of life of participants

Gallot-Tanno Theorem for closed incomplete pseudo-Riemannian manifolds and applications

We extend the Gallot-Tanno Theorem to closed pseudo-Riemannian manifolds. It is done by showing that if the cone over a manifold admits a parallel symmetric $(0,2)-$tensor then it is Riemannian. Applications of this result to the existence of metrics with distinct Levi-Civita connections but having the same unparametrized geodesics and to the projective Obata conjecture are given. We also apply our result to show that the holonomy group of a closed $(O(p+1,q),S^{p,q})$-manifold does not preserve any nondegenerate splitting of $\R^{p+1,q}$.Comment: minor correction

Adaptive time-lapse optimized survey design for electrical resistivity tomography monitoring

Adaptive optimal experimental design methods use previous data and results to guide the choice and design of future experiments. This paper describes the formulation of an adaptive survey design technique to produce optimal resistivity imaging surveys for time-lapse geoelectrical monitoring experiments. These survey designs are time-dependent and, compared to dipole–dipole or static optimized surveys that do not change over time, focus a greater degree of the image resolution on regions of the subsurface that are actively changing. The adaptive optimization method is validated using a controlled laboratory monitoring experiment comprising a well-defined cylindrical target moving along a trajectory that changes its depth and lateral position. The algorithm is implemented on a standard PC in conjunction with a modified automated multichannel resistivity imaging system. Data acquisition using the adaptive survey designs requires no more time or power than with comparable standard surveys, and the algorithm processing takes place while the system batteries recharge. The results show that adaptively designed optimal surveys yield a quantitative increase in image quality over and above that produced by using standard dipole–dipole or static (time–independent) optimized surveys

Fitness Cost of Resistance to Bt Cotton Linked with Increased Gossypol Content in Pink Bollworm Larvae

Fitness costs of resistance to Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crops occur in the absence of Bt toxins, when individuals with resistance alleles are less fit than individuals without resistance alleles. As costs of Bt resistance are common, refuges of non-Bt host plants can delay resistance not only by providing susceptible individuals to mate with resistant individuals, but also by selecting against resistance. Because costs typically vary across host plants, refuges with host plants that magnify costs or make them less recessive could enhance resistance management. Limited understanding of the physiological mechanisms causing fitness costs, however, hampers attempts to increase costs. In several major cotton pests including pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella), resistance to Cry1Ac cotton is associated with mutations altering cadherin proteins that bind this toxin in susceptible larvae. Here we report that the concentration of gossypol, a cotton defensive chemical, was higher in pink bollworm larvae with cadherin resistance alleles than in larvae lacking such alleles. Adding gossypol to the larval diet decreased larval weight and survival, and increased the fitness cost affecting larval growth, but not survival. Across cadherin genotypes, the cost affecting larval growth increased as the gossypol concentration of larvae increased. These results suggest that increased accumulation of plant defensive chemicals may contribute to fitness costs associated with resistance to Bt toxins

Adaptive time-lapse optimized survey design for electrical resistivity tomography monitoring

Adaptive optimal experimental design methods use previous data and results to guide the choice and design of future experiments. This paper describes the formulation of an adaptive survey design technique to produce optimal resistivity imaging surveys for time-lapse geoelectrical monitoring experiments. These survey designs are time-dependent and, compared to dipole-dipole or static optimized surveys that do not change over time, focus a greater degree of the image resolution on regions of the subsurface that are actively changing. The adaptive optimization method is validated using a controlled laboratory monitoring experiment comprising a well-defined cylindrical target moving along a trajectory that changes its depth and lateral position. The algorithm is implemented on a standard PC in conjunction with a modified automated multichannel resistivity imaging system. Data acquisition using the adaptive survey designs requires no more time or power than with comparable standard surveys, and the algorithm processing takes place while the system batteries recharge. The results show that adaptively designed optimal surveys yield a quantitative increase in image quality over and above that produced by using standard dipole-dipole or static (time-independent) optimized survey

Biological validation of coenzyme Q redox state by HPLC-EC measurement: relationship between coenzyme Q redox state and coenzyme Q content in rat tissues

AbstractThe properties of coenzymes Q (CoQ9 and CoQ10) are closely linked to their redox state (CoQox/total CoQ)×100. In this work, CoQ redox state was biologically validated by high performance liquid chromatography-electrochemical measurement after modulation of mitochondrial electron flow of cultured cells by molecules increasing (rotenone, carbonyl cyanide chlorophenylhydrazone) or decreasing (antimycin) CoQ oxidation. The tissue specificity of CoQ redox state and content were investigated in control and hypoxic rats. In control rats, there was a strong negative linear regression between tissular CoQ redox state and CoQ content. Hypoxia increased CoQ9 redox state and decreased CoQ9 content in a negative linear relationship in the different tissues, except the heart and lung. This result demonstrates that, under conditions of mitochondrial impairment, CoQ redox control is tissue-specific

The persistence landscape and some of its properties

Persistence landscapes map persistence diagrams into a function space, which may often be taken to be a Banach space or even a Hilbert space. In the latter case, it is a feature map and there is an associated kernel. The main advantage of this summary is that it allows one to apply tools from statistics and machine learning. Furthermore, the mapping from persistence diagrams to persistence landscapes is stable and invertible. We introduce a weighted version of the persistence landscape and define a one-parameter family of Poisson-weighted persistence landscape kernels that may be useful for learning. We also demonstrate some additional properties of the persistence landscape. First, the persistence landscape may be viewed as a tropical rational function. Second, in many cases it is possible to exactly reconstruct all of the component persistence diagrams from an average persistence landscape. It follows that the persistence landscape kernel is characteristic for certain generic empirical measures. Finally, the persistence landscape distance may be arbitrarily small compared to the interleaving distance.Comment: 18 pages, to appear in the Proceedings of the 2018 Abel Symposiu

Similar Genetic Basis of Resistance to Bt Toxin Cry1Ac in Boll-Selected and Diet-Selected Strains of Pink Bollworm

Genetically engineered cotton and corn plants producing insecticidal Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins kill some key insect pests. Yet, evolution of resistance by pests threatens long-term insect control by these transgenic Bt crops. We compared the genetic basis of resistance to Bt toxin Cry1Ac in two independently derived, laboratory-selected strains of a major cotton pest, the pink bollworm (Pectinophora gossypiella [Saunders]). The Arizona pooled resistant strain (AZP-R) was started with pink bollworm from 10 field populations and selected with Cry1Ac in diet. The Bt4R resistant strain was started with a long-term susceptible laboratory strain and selected first with Bt cotton bolls and later with Cry1Ac in diet. Previous work showed that AZP-R had three recessive mutations (r1, r2, and r3) in the pink bollworm cadherin gene (PgCad1) linked with resistance to Cry1Ac and Bt cotton producing Cry1Ac. Here we report that inheritance of resistance to a diagnostic concentration of Cry1Ac was recessive in Bt4R. In interstrain complementation tests for allelism, F1 progeny from crosses between AZP-R and Bt4R were resistant to Cry1Ac, indicating a shared resistance locus in the two strains. Molecular analysis of the Bt4R cadherin gene identified a novel 15-bp deletion (r4) predicted to cause the loss of five amino acids upstream of the Cry1Ac-binding region of the cadherin protein. Four recessive mutations in PgCad1 are now implicated in resistance in five different strains, showing that mutations in cadherin are the primary mechanism of resistance to Cry1Ac in laboratory-selected strains of pink bollworm from Arizona