Contemplative positive psychology: Introducing mindfulness into positive psychology

A pesar de que mindfulness está integrado en muchos manuales de psicología positiva como una técnica “positiva”, apenas se han desarrollado las implicaciones que tiene su uso ni se ha investigado la relación entre mindfulness y bienestar humano. Analizar las principales potencialidades de los dos ámbitos, las posibilidades de integración, así como las posibles contradicciones entre sus mensajes, es fundamental de cara a establecer puentes. Mindfulness es más que una técnica de meditación, lleva implícitos una serie de valores y condicionantes éticos que se adecuan en buena medida con los presupuestos que se proponen desde la psicología positiva, como el desarrollo de la amabilidad, la compasión, y las emociones positivas. El objetivo de este artículo es presentar por un lado aspectos comunes y similitudes, y por otro lado diferencias entre mindfulness y la psicología positiva. También se presentarán los principales estudios que han investigado el papel que tiene mindfulness y las prácticas contemplativas sobre el bienestar humano. Finalmente se discutirá y plantearán futuras líneas de investigación e intervención para acercar ambas propuestas. Although mindfulness is included in many positive psychology manuals as a “positive” technique, the implications of its use have scarcely been developed and the relationship between mindfulness and human well-being has barely been researched. Analyzing the main strengths of the two fields, the possibilities for their integration and the potential contradictions between their messages is essential in order to establish connections. Mindfulness is more than a meditation technique. It has implicit within it a set of values and ethical conditions that coincide to a great extent with the proposed assumptions from positive psychology, such as the development of kindness, compassion, and positive emotions. The aim of this paper is to present, on the one hand, the commonalities and similarities, and on the other, the differences between mindfulness and positive psychology. We also present the main studies that have investigated the role of mindfulness and contemplative practices on human well-being. Finally future research will be discussed and intervention suggested in order to bring the two proposals together

Physiological stress of intracellular Shigella flexneri visualized with a metabolic sensor fused to a surface-reporter system

AbstractWhen deleted of its N-terminal signal-reception domain, the broad host range σ54-dependent transcriptional regulator XylR, along with its cognate promoter Pu, becomes a sensor of the metabolic stress of the carrier bacteria. We have employed a surface reporter system to visualize the physiological status of intracellular Shigella flexneri during infection of Henle 407 cells in culture. To this end, the xylRΔA gene has been engineered adjacent to a bicistronic transcriptional fusion of Pu to a lamB variant tagged with a short viral sequence (cor) and β-galactosidase (lacZ). The accessibility of the cor epitope to the externalmost medium and the expression of Pu in the bacterial population was confirmed, respectively, with immunomagnetic beads and the sorting of Escherichia coli cells treated with a fluorescent antibody. Intracellular Shigella cells expressed the Pu–lamB/cor–lacZ reporter at high levels, suggesting that infectious cells endure a considerable metabolic constraint during the invasion process

Clinical audit of multidisciplinary care at a medium-sized hospital in Spain

Background. Multidisciplinary care is a key enabler in the provision of high quality care for cancer patients. Despite compelling evidence supporting their benefit to patients and for providers, multidisciplinary cancer conferences (MCC) are not universally occurring. Team composition of MCC reflects the multidisciplinary nature of the body. Lack of nursing input can have a negative impact on team decision making. The objective of this study was to evaluate multidisciplinary care and adherence to national recommendations at a medium-sized hospital through a clinical audit of cancer conferences and clinical records. Methods. A total of 77 multidisciplinary cancer conferences were visited and 496 electronic health records were reviewed. The regularity of meetings and multidisciplinary attendance were evaluated. Each electronic health record was checked to verify documented prospective discussion before any treatment was started. Results. Nine multidisciplinary teams meet on a weekly or biweekly basis at the hospital with an average number of ten people and six different specialties represented. Average duration of meetings was 46.8 min. Though most patients (64.5%) were discussed at some point at the relevant cancer conference, only 40% had a documented multidisciplinary team discussion prior to the first treatment. Pathological stage (pTNM) was documented in 53.6% of clinical records. Conclusions. Nursing representatives should be included as usual attendees at cancer conferences. Prospective discussion of all cancer cases should be encouraged. Use of checklists and systematic collection of key information, specifically cancer staging, could improve clinical documentation in the electronic clinical record

Compassion-based meditation quality practice and its impact on the positive attitudes toward others

Objectives: The authors report on the initial development and validation of the Compassion Practice Quality Scale (CPQS), a measure to assess the quality of compassion-based meditation (CBM). It is conceptualized and operationalized via two factors measuring mental imagery and somatic perception/response. Methods: The total sample was composed of 205 university students who underwent a CBM and completed pre-test/post-test assessment of compassion and related constructs. Results from a series of preliminary psychometric analyses of the CPQS were examined, including factor analysis, internal consistency, and convergent/discriminant validity. Results: The data supported a 12-item and 10-item (without reference to gestures and self-instructions) CPQS of which imagery and somatic perception emerged as two significant reliable subscales, with Cronbach’s alpha values of.90 and.88 respectively. Practice quality factors assessed by the CPQS correlated in expected ways with fear of compassion, imagery variables, and self-criticism, as well as predicted compassion outcome (i.e., feeling positive attitudes toward others). Conclusions: Our findings contribute to identifying two key components of high-quality meditation in CBM (i.e., mental imagery and somatic perception/response) for use in pedagogical development and further research and to offer a reliable self-report measure to assess them for the first time. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

Relationship between meditative practice and self-reported mindfulness: The MINDSENS composite index

Mindfulness has been described as an inherent human capability that can be learned and trained, and its improvement has been associated with better health outcomes in both medicine and psychology. Although the role of practice is central to most mindfulness programs, practice-related improvements in mindfulness skills is not consistently reported and little is known about how the characteristics of meditative practice affect different components of mindfulness. The present study explores the role of practice parameters on self-reported mindfulness skills. A total of 670 voluntary participants with and without previous meditation experience (n = 384 and n = 286, respectively) responded to an internet-based survey on various aspects of their meditative practice (type of meditation, length of session, frequency, and lifetime practice). Participants also completed the Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), and the Experiences Questionnaire (EQ). The group with meditation experience obtained significantly higher scores on all facets of FFMQ and EQ questionnaires compared to the group without experience. However different effect sizes were observed, with stronger effects for the Observing and Non-Reactivity facets of the FFMQ, moderate effects for Decentering in EQ, and a weak effect for Non-judging, Describing, and Acting with awareness on the FFMQ. Our results indicate that not all practice variables are equally relevant in terms of developing mindfulness skills. Frequency and lifetime practice - but not session length or meditation type - were associated with higher mindfulness skills. Given that these 6 mindfulness aspects show variable sensitivity to practice, we created a composite index (MINDSENS) consisting of those items from FFMQ and EQ that showed the strongest response to practice. The MINDSENS index was able to correctly discriminate daily meditators from non-meditators in 82.3% of cases. These findings may contribute to the understanding of the development of mindfulness skills and support trainers and researchers in improving mindfulness-oriented practices and programs

Energy shortage failure prediction in photovoltaic standalone installations by using machine learning techniques

The use of energy storage systems in standalone photovoltaic installations is essential to supply energy demands, independently of solar generation. Accurate prediction of the battery state is critical for the safe, durable, and reliable operation of systems in this type of installations. In this study, an installation located in the area of Aragon (Spain) has been considered. Two methods, based on different types of Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN), are proposed to predict the battery voltage of the installation two days ahead. Specifically, the Nonlinear Auto Regressive with Exogenous Input (NARX) network and the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network are studied and compared. The implemented algorithms process battery voltage, temperature and current waveforms; and rely on the selection of different future scenarios based on weather forecasting to estimate the future voltage of the battery. The proposed methodology is capable of predicting the voltage with a Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) error of 1.2 V for batteries of 48 V, in critical situations where the installation is running out of energy. The study contributes to the ongoing research of developing preventive control systems that help reduce costs and improve the performance of remote energy storage systems based on renewable energies with a positive outcome

Analysis of Li-ion battery degradation using self-organizing maps

This paper proposes a new methodology to identify the different degradation processes of Li-Ion battery cells. The goal of this study is to determine if different degradation factors can be separated by waveform analysis from aged cells with similar remaining capacity. In contrast to other works, the proposed method identifies the past operating conditions in the cell, regardless of the actual State of Health. The methodology is based on a data-driven approach by using a SOM (Self-organizing map), an unsupervised neural network. To verify the hypothesis a SOM has been trained with laboratory data from whole data cycles, to classify cells concerning their degradation path and according to their discharge voltage patterns. Additionally, this new methodology based on the SOM allows discriminating groups of cells with different cycling conditions (based on depth of discharge, ambient temperature and discharge current). This research line is very promising for classification of used cells, not only depending on their current static parameters (capacity, impedance), but also the battery use in their past life. This will allow making predictions of the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of a battery with greater precision

Genetic relationships within and among Iberian fescues (Festuca L.) based on PCR-amplified markers

The genus Festuca comprises approximately 450 species and is widely distributed around the world. The Iberian Penninsula, with more than 100 taxa colonizing very diverse habitats, is one of its main centers of diversification. This study was conducted to assess molecular genetic variation and genetic relatedness among 91 populations of 31 taxa of Iberian fescues, based on several molecular markers (random amplified polymorphic DNA, amplified fragment length polymorphisms, and trnL sequences). The analyses showed the paraphyletic origin of the broad-leaved (subgenus Festuca, sections Scariosae and Subbulbosae, and subgenus Schedonorus) and the fine-leaved fescues (subgenus Festuca, sections Aulaxyper, Eskia, and Festuca). Schedonorus showed a weak relationship with Lolium rigidum and appeared to be the most recent of the broad-leaved clade. Section Eskia was the most ancient and Festuca the most recent of the fine-leaved clade. Festuca and Aulaxyper were the most related sections, in concordance with their taxonomic affinities. All taxa grouped into their sections, except F. ampla and F. capillifolia (section Festuca), which appeared to be more closely related to Aulaxyper and to a new independent section, respectively. Most populations clustered at the species level, but some subspecies and varieties mixed their populations. This study demonstrated the value in combining different molecular markers to uncover hidden genetic relationships between populations of Festuca

Las formulaciones emulsionables de Dimetildisulfuro (DMDS) y sus mezclas con cloropicrina como alternativas al bromuro de metilo

Desde hace mucho tiempo se sabe que plantas de los géneros Allium sp. y Brassica sp. poseen una cierta capacidad antimicrobiana. Este poder ha sido explicado por la presencia de radicales sulfuro de alilo y sulfuro de metilo derivados de sulfóxido de LCisteina existente en los ajos y las brasicas. Una de las sustancias más interesantes es el Disulfuro de dimetilo (DMDS) que es un importante compuesto de los Allium sp., especialmente del ajo. Aunque sus propiedades fumigantes se conocen desde hace poco tiempo, el DMDS se viene utilizando desde hace mucho en la industria petroquímica e incluso como agente de aromas por su fuerte olor a ajo. El DMDS es un fumigante de amplio espectro con efectos nematicida, fungicida insecticida y herbicida, que ejerce su acción a nivel de respiración mitocondrial bloqueando la actividad citocromo oxidasa de las células. Los efectos nematicidas se han podido comprobar contra Heterodera sp. y Meloidogyne sp., mediante aplicación en preplantación. Se le reconoce eficacia contra hongos del suelo como Sclerotium rolfsii, Rhizoctonia solani, Phytophthora cactorum pero no tan efectivo contra Macrophomina phaseolina y solo parcialmente contra Sclerotinia scleritiorum. Desde el año 2003 al 2007 hemos venido estudiando sus efectos como alternativa al bromuro de metilo en el cultivo de pimiento en las zonas del Bajo Segura (SURINVER, Pilar de la Horadada, Alicante) y en La Canal de Navarrès (VALSUR, SAT Bolbaite, Valencia) usando formulaciones emulsionables aplicadas con el riego localizado, tanto sólo como mezclado con diversas proporciones de cloropicrina (50%; 33%), con objeto de mejorar su eficacia fungicida. El DMDS sólo, a dosis elevadas (105 g/m2), tiene una capacidad herbicida notable; a menor dosis, sus mezclas con cloropicrina poseen un excelente efecto fumigante que mejora cuando se aplica bajo plástico VIF. El efecto fungicida también mejora ostensiblemente. Una vez depurada la técnica de aplicación la calidad y producción de pimiento es comparable a la obtenida con los tratamientos tradicionales con bromuro de metilo

El enfoque de aprendizaje en alumnos de máster: análisis del cuestionario R-SPQ-2F en tres cursos académicos

[ES] El enfoque de aprendizaje de los estudiantes es variable dependiendo de factores personales y situacionales del estudiante. Aunque hay distintas clasificaciones, los enfoques profundo y superficial aparecen como los más comunes. En el presente estudio se ha utilizado el cuestionario R-SPQ-2F en alumnos de una asignatura de segundo curso de máster durante tres cursos académicos consecutivos. El resultado muestra que los alumnos manifiestan un mayor enfoque profundo que superficial y el cuestionario es valido en el contexto educativo realizado. El género de los estudiantes no fue un factor diferencial, pero sí el curso analizado indciando que había variabilidad entre los estudiantes participantes entre cursos. La motivación intrínseca de los estudiantes y la metodología usada en la asignatura parecen los factores más influyentes en favorecer el aprendizaje profundo de los estudiantes.[EN] Students' approach to learning is variable depending on the student's personal and situational factors. Although there are different classifications, deep and superficial approaches appear as the most common. In this study, the R-SPQ-2F questionnaire has been used in students of a second master's year for three consecutive academic courses. The result showed that students present a greater deep approach than superficial and the questionnaire is valid in the educational context conducted. The gender of the students was not a differential factor, but the course analyzed indicated that there was variability among participating students between courses. The intrinsic motivation of the students and the methodology used in the subject seemed the most influential factors in promoting the deep learning of the students.Leiva-Brondo, M.; Cebolla-Cornejo, J.; Peiró, R.; Pérez-De-Castro, A. (2021). El enfoque de aprendizaje en alumnos de máster: análisis del cuestionario R-SPQ-2F en tres cursos académicos. En IN-RED 2020: VI Congreso de Innovación Educativa y Docencia en Red. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 910-918. https://doi.org/10.4995/INRED2020.2020.11992OCS91091