When Feeling Mixed Can Be Meaningful: The Relation Between Mixed Emotions and Eudaimonic Well-Being

Whilst positive emotions benefit well-being, the role of other more complex emotional experiences for well-being is less well understood. This research therefore investigated the relationship between mixed emotions and eudaimonic well-being. A cross-sectional study (Study 1; N = 429) first demonstrated (using structural equation modelling) that mixed emotions are related to the presence of goal conflict. Importantly, it was also found that mixed emotions are positively related to eudaimonic well-being, and that one potential mechanism linking mixed emotions and eudaimonic well-being is via the search for meaning in life. Study 2 (N = 52) implemented a quasi-experiment regarding a naturally occurring meaningful life event (i.e., graduation day) and again demonstrated that mixed emotions are associated with a greater level of eudaimonic well-being. Implications of these findings include the importance of mixed emotions in the search for meaning in life, and the role of mixed emotions in goal conflict resolution

Space Weather Products at the Community Coordinated Modeling Center

The Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) is a US inter-agency activity aiming at research in support of the generation of advanced space weather models. As one of its main functions, the CCMC provides to researchers the use of space science models, even if they are not model owners themselves. The second CCMC activity is to support Space Weather forecasting at national Space Weather Forecasting Centers. This second activity involves model evaluations, model transitions to operations, and the development of space weather forecasting tools. Owing to the pace of development in the science community, new model capabilities emerge frequently. Consequently, space weather products and tools involve not only increased validity, but often entirely new capabilities. This presentation will review the present state of space weather tools as well as point out emerging future capabilities

Individual differences in mixed emotions moderate the negative consequences of goal conflict on life purpose

Pursuing two incompatible goals (goal conflict) is commonly viewed as pernicious for individual well-being. Recent research has also shown that sometimes goal conflict instigates the experience of mixed emotions (co-activation of positive and negative emotions), and in turn, mixed emotions has been linked to some beneficial outcomes, including self-control and eudaimonic well-being. In the present study we formulated mixed emotions as an individual difference, and hypothesized that individual differences in mixed emotions can moderate the relationship between goal conflict and life purpose, a dimension of eudaimonic well-being. A sample of 73 individuals participated in an experience sampling study, producing over 2500 observations. Moderation analysis using multilevel modeling showed that goal conflict was negatively related to life-purpose, but more importantly this effect was qualified by a significant cross-level interaction, such that the negative effect of goal conflict on life purpose was weaker for individuals who commonly experienced greater mixed emotions. Given that conflicting goals are commonplace, experiencing mixed emotions may be beneficial for individuals

Silver linings in the face of temptations: how mixed emotions promote self-control efforts in response to goal conflict

Choosing between conflicting goals is a frequent yet difficult problem, especially when temptations are involved because self-control effort is required to overcome them. This study investigated whether experiencing mixed emotions in response to goal conflict can facilitate the necessary self-control effort needed to resist temptations. A sample of 73 individuals participated in an intensive longitudinal study, completing several measures 4 times a day during ten consecutive days, producing over 2500 observations. Results derived from using multilevel structural equation modeling confirmed that mixed emotions mediated the relationship between perceived goal conflict and intentions to resist temptations, over and above the influence of single positive emotions or negative emotions, and trait levels of self-control. Implication of these findings for collaboration and the impact of mixed emotions in more general social dilemmas are explored

Impaired Regulation Post-stroke of Motor Unit Firing Behavior during Volitional Relaxation of Knee Extensor Torque Assessed Using High Density Surface EMG Decomposition

The purpose of this study was to use high density surface EMG recordings to quantify stroke-related abnormalities in motor unit firing behavior during repeated sub-maximal knee extensor contractions. A high density surface EMG system (sEMG) was used to record and extract single motor unit firing behavior in the vastus lateralis muscle of 6 individuals with chronic stroke and 8 controls during repeated sub-maximal isometric knee extension contractions. Paretic motor unit firing rates were increased with subsequent contractions (6.19±0.35 pps vs 7.89±0.66 pps,

Expanded gluten-free extrudates made from rice grits and bandinha (bean) flour mixes: main quality properties.

The effect of extrusion operating conditions on main quality properties of gluten-free expanded snack-type products, developed from rice grits and bandinha flour formulations, was studied. The protein content in the extrudate varied from 9.44 to 14.74 g/100 g for formulations containing 13 and 47% bandinha flour, respectively, processed at 85C and 15% feed moisture. Apparent density and the radial expansion index of the extrudate were significantly (P < 0.05) affected by bean flour content, moisture content, temperature and the interaction between moisture content × temperature. The most suitable extrusion conditions were 30 g/100 g bean flour content, 14 g/100 g moisture content and 80C die temperature, which resulted in a product with a high radial expansion index and crude protein of 9.5 and 13 g/100 g, respectively, and a low apparent density of 0.20 g/cm3

Investigating goal conflict as a source of mixed emotions

This research investigated whether (1) the experience of mixed emotions is a consequence of activating conflicting goals and (2) mixed emotions are distinct from emotional conflict. A preliminary experiment (Study 1, N = 35) showed that an elicited goal conflict predicted more mixed emotions than a condition where the same goals were not in conflict. The second experiment was based on naturally occurring goal activation (Study 2, N = 57). This illustrated that mixed emotions were experienced more following conflicting goals compared with a facilitating goals condition—on both a direct self-report measure of mixed emotions and a minimum index measure. The results also showed that mixed emotions were different to emotional conflict. Overall, goal conflict was found to be a source of mixed emotions, and it is feasible that such states have a role in resolving personal dilemmas

Comparison of chemical compounds associated with sclerites from healthy and diseased sea fan corals (Gorgonia ventalina)

© The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in PeerJ 5 (2017): e3677, doi:10.7717/peerj.3677.The roles of gorgonian sclerites as structural components and predator deterrents have been widely studied. Yet their role as barriers against microbes has only recently been investigated, and even less is known about the diversity and roles of the chemical compounds associated with sclerites. Here, we examine the semi-volatile organic compound fraction (SVOCs) associated with sclerites from healthy and diseased Gorgonia ventalina sea fan corals to understand their possible role as a stress response or in defense of infection. We also measured the oxidative potential of compounds from diseased and healthy G. ventalina colonies. The results showed that sclerites harbor a great diversity of SVOCs. Overall, 70 compounds were identified, the majority of which are novel with unknown biological roles. The majority of SVOCs identified exhibit multiple immune-related roles including antimicrobial and radical scavenging functions. The free radical activity assays further confirmed the anti-oxidative potential of some these compounds. The anti-oxidative activity was, nonetheless, similar across sclerites regardless of the health condition of the colony, although sclerites from diseased sea fans display slightly higher anti-oxidative activity than the healthy ones. Sclerites harbor great SVOCs diversity, the majority of which are novel to sea fans or any other corals. Yet the scientific literature consulted showed that the roles of compounds found in sclerites vary from antioxidant to antimicrobial compounds. However, this study fell short in determine the origin of the SVOCs identified, undermining our capacity to determine the biological roles of the SVOCs on sclerites and sea fans.This work was supported by the Puerto Rico Center for Environmental Neuroscience (PRCEN) through an NSF Centers of Research Excellent in Science and Technology (CREST) award, number HRD-1137725

Evaluation of an automated safety surveillance system using risk adjusted sequential probability ratio testing

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Automated adverse outcome surveillance tools and methods have potential utility in quality improvement and medical product surveillance activities. Their use for assessing hospital performance on the basis of patient outcomes has received little attention. We compared risk-adjusted sequential probability ratio testing (RA-SPRT) implemented in an automated tool to Massachusetts public reports of 30-day mortality after isolated coronary artery bypass graft surgery.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 23,020 isolated adult coronary artery bypass surgery admissions performed in Massachusetts hospitals between January 1, 2002 and September 30, 2007 were retrospectively re-evaluated. The RA-SPRT method was implemented within an automated surveillance tool to identify hospital outliers in yearly increments. We used an overall type I error rate of 0.05, an overall type II error rate of 0.10, and a threshold that signaled if the odds of dying 30-days after surgery was at least twice than expected. Annual hospital outlier status, based on the state-reported classification, was considered the gold standard. An event was defined as at least one occurrence of a higher-than-expected hospital mortality rate during a given year.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We examined a total of 83 hospital-year observations. The RA-SPRT method alerted 6 events among three hospitals for 30-day mortality compared with 5 events among two hospitals using the state public reports, yielding a sensitivity of 100% (5/5) and specificity of 98.8% (79/80).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The automated RA-SPRT method performed well, detecting all of the true institutional outliers with a small false positive alerting rate. Such a system could provide confidential automated notification to local institutions in advance of public reporting providing opportunities for earlier quality improvement interventions.</p