Effects of length of mindfulness practice on mindfulness, depression, anxiety and stress: a randomized controlled experiment

Objectives: Mindfulness-based programs (MBPs) vary in length of mindfulness practices included. It might be expected that longer practice leads to greater benefits in terms of increased mindfulness and decreased psychological distress. However, the evidence for such dose-response effects is mixed and generally does not support such strong causal conclusions given its correlational nature. Therefore, the current study sought to clarify which length of mindfulness practice led to greater benefits using an experimental design. Methods: Participants (N = 71; 71.8% female), who were healthy adults with limited prior mindfulness practice experience, were randomized to either (i) four longer (20-minute) mindfulness practices, (ii) four shorter (5-minute) mindfulness practices or (iii) an audiobook control group. All sessions were held in-person over a two-week period, each group listened to the same total length of material each session, and participants refrained from formal mindfulness practice outside of sessions. Results: Both longer and shorter practice significantly improved trait mindfulness, depression, anxiety, and stress compared to controls. Unexpectedly, shorter practice had a significantly greater effect on trait mindfulness (d = 2.17; p < .001) and stress (d = -1.18; p < .01) than longer practice, with a trend in the same direction for depression and anxiety. Mediation analysis findings were mixed. Conclusions: Even a relatively small amount of mindfulness practice can be beneficial and shorter practices may initially be more helpful for novice practitioners in MBPs with minimal teacher contact. Further research is needed to examine such dose-response effects when teacher involvement is greater and over the longer term

Genetic relatedness of infecting and reinfecting respiratory syncytial virus strains identified in a birth cohort from rural Kenya

Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) reinfects individuals repeatedly. The extent to which this is a consequence of RSV antigenic diversity is unclear. Methods: Six-hundred thirty-five children from rural Kenya were closely monitored for RSV infection from birth through 3 consecutive RSV epidemics. RSV infections were identified by immunofluorescence testing of nasal washing samples collected during acute respiratory illnesses, typed into group A and B, and sequenced in the attachment (G) protein. A positive sample separated from a previous positive by ≥14 days was defined as a reinfection a priori. Results: Phylogenetic analysis was undertaken for 325 (80%) of 409 identified infections, including 53 (64%) of 83 reinfections. Heterologous group reinfections were observed in 28 episodes, and homologous group reinfections were observed in 25 episodes; 10 involved homologous genotypes, 5 showed no amino acid changes, and 3 were separated by 21–24 days and were potentially persistent infections. The temporal distribution of genotypes among reinfections did not differ from that of single infections. Conclusions: The vast majority of infection and reinfection pairs differed by group, genotype, or G amino acid sequence (ie, comprised distinct viruses). The extent to which this is a consequence of immune memory of infection history or prevalent diversity remains unclear

Nuove strategie per il bene collettivo: crowdfunding civico al Parco Uditore di Palermo

Il tema del crowdfunding civico riguarda la partecipazione pubblica alla gestione del territorio. In particolare, la possibilit\ue0 di attuare meccanismi di finanziamento autonomi e autogestiti per la realizzazione di opere pubbliche (seppure di limitata entit\ue0) costringe gli amministratori e i tecnici a confrontarsi con l\u2019avvenuta conquista, da parte della cittadinanza, di una parte del potere decisionale. Quanto \ue8 opportuno che gli esiti della consultazione pubblica abbiano un canale di finanziamento specifico? Quali garanzie del processo partecipativo sono necessarie perch\ue9 le richieste dei cittadini siano coerenti con le linee generali della pianificazione locale e sovralocale, e si possano quindi coordinare e integrare alle azioni della pubblica amministrazione? L\u2019applicazione pratica di questo meccanismo ad un contesto urbano specifico, in questo caso ad un parco urbano della citt\ue0 di Palermo, prova a trovare una risposta a questi e molti altri interrogativi riguardo il crowdfunding civico, che pur essendo un\u2019iniziativa nata dal basso necessita di un team di tecnici che possano coordinare i contributi di tutti al fine di raggiungere l\u2019obiettivo. Il ruolo di tali gestori della campagna di crowdfunding \ue8 complesso: sono esperti di pratiche di partecipazione pubblica e di politiche territoriali, ma devono anche avere notevoli competenze nel campo della comunicazione e del marketing, nonch\ue9 dell\u2019informatica; infine essi sono il soggetto mediatore tra le istanze e le richieste della comunit\ue0 cittadina e le istituzioni che devono supportare/autorizzare in vari modi le iniziative civiche per cui viene attivato il crowdfunding

The level and duration of RSV-specific maternal IgG in infants in Kilifi Kenya

Background Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the major cause of lower respiratory tract infection in infants. The rate of decay of RSV-specific maternal antibodies (RSV-matAb), the factors affecting cord blood levels, and the relationship between these levels and protection from infection are poorly defined. Methods A birth cohort (n = 635) in rural Kenya, was studied intensively to monitor infections and describe age-related serological characteristics. RSV specific IgG antibody (Ab) in serum was measured by the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in cord blood, consecutive samples taken 3 monthly, and in paired acute and convalescent samples. A linear regression model was used to calculate the rate of RSV-matAb decline. The effect of risk factors on cord blood titres was investigated. Results The half-life of matAb in the Kenyan cohort was calculated to be 79 days (95% confidence limits (CL): 76–81 days). Ninety seven percent of infants were born with RSV-matAb. Infants who subsequently experienced an infection in early life had significantly lower cord titres of anti-RSV Ab in comparison to infants who did not have any incident infection in the first 6 months (P = 0.011). RSV infections were shown to have no effect on the rate of decay of RSV-matAb. Conclusion Maternal-specific RSV Ab decline rapidly following birth. However, we provide evidence of protection against severe disease by RSV-matAb during the first 6–7 months. This suggests that boosting maternal-specific Ab by RSV vaccination may be a useful strategy to consider

Fire Weather Index application in north-western Italy

International audiencePiedmont region is located in North-Western Italy and is surrounded by the alpine chain and by the Appennines. The region is covered by a wide extension of forests, mainly in its mountain areas (the forests cover 36% of the regional territory). Forested areas are interested by wildfire events. In the period 1997?2005 Piedmont was interested by an average 387 forest fires per year, covering an average 1926 ha of forest per year. Meteorological conditions like long periods without precipitation contribute to create favourable conditions to forest fire development, while the fire propagation is made easier by the foehn winds, frequently interesting the region in winter and spring particularly. The meteorological danger index FWI (Fire Weather Index) was developed by Van Wagner (1987) for the Canadian Forestry Service, providing a complete description of the behaviour of the different forest components in response to the changing weather conditions. We applied the FWI to the Piedmont region on warning areas previously defined for fire management purposes. The meteorological data-set is based on the data of the very-dense non-GTS network of weather stations managed by Arpa Piemonte. The thresholds for the definition of a danger scenarios system were defined comparing historical FWI data with fires occurred on a 5 years period. The implementation of a prognostic FWI prediction system is planned for the early 2008, involving the use of good forecasts of weather parameters at the station locations obtained by the Multimodel SuperEnsemble post-processing technique

Predicción bayesiana del comportamiento poblacional de Eucalyptus Cladocalyx para características binarias de componentes de florecimiento y supervivencia en zonas áridas de Chile

Mora, F (Mora, Freddyand Perret, S.Los componentes del florecimiento y la supervivencia son importantes caracteristicas para la especie Eucalyptus cladocalyx, en las zonas aridas de Chile. El objetivo del presente estudio fue examinar la variabilidad poblacional en componentes del florecimiento y supervivencia en arboles de ocho anos de edad, cultivados en dos sitios del sur del desierto de Atacama, Chile. Se utilizo un modelo lineal generalizado bayesiano en el analisis de datos, implementado por medio del algoritmo de cadenas de independencia. El criterio de informacion de desvianza (�¢DIC), implementado por medio del algoritmo de Gibbs, evidencio diferencias significativas para el efecto poblacional (�¢DIC>5) en cada variable binaria analizada. El efecto de interaccion poblacion-sitio fue significativo (�¢DIC>5) para las variables presencia/ausencia de maxima intensidad de florecimiento (MI) y presencia/ausencia de flores o yemas florales (FOY) en el inicio de la temporada 2009/2010. Para las variables presencia/ausencia de cualquier evento floral (EF) y supervivencia, la interaccion no fue significativa (�¢DIC5) for population effect, for each binary trait analyzed. The population-site interaction effect was significant (Delta DIC>5) for the variables: presence/absence of maximum flowering intensity (MI) and presence/absence of flowers or flower buds (FOY) in the beginning of growing season 2009/2010. This interaction was not statistically significant (Delta DIC<5) for presence/absence of capsules and/or flower (or buds) (EF) and survival. The results of this study emphasize the importance of the seed source selection. For example, 45% of the trees from Cowell, Australia, evidenced maximum flowering intensity in a determined site, while the trees from Flinders Chase, Australia, evidenced only about 3%. Information generated on inter-population variability could be used to improve traits of interest, although the genotype-environment interaction should be regarded for some flowering components

The decay of interplanetary coronal mass ejections and forbush decrease recovery times

We investigate the relation between Forbush cosmic ray decrease recovery time and coronal mass ejection transit time between the Sun and Earth. We identify 17 Forbush decreases from ground based neutron count rates between 1978 and 2003 that occur during the same phase in the solar cycle and can be associated with single coronal mass ejections (CMEs) in the SOHO LASCO CME Catalog or previously published reports, and with specific interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) crossing the vicinity of Earth. We find an anti-correlation between Forbush recovery times and CME transit time that contradicts the predictions of simple cosmic ray diffusive barrier models. The anti-correlation suggests that the decay rate of ICMEs is anti-correlated with their travel speed. Forbush recovery times range from seven times the transit time for the fastest disturbance to a fifth the Sun-Earth transit time for the slowest. To account for the large range of measured recovery times we infer that the slowest disturbances must decay rapidly with radius whereas the fastest ones must remain strong. The longest recovery times suggest that the fastest disturbances in our sample decayed less rapidly with radius than the ambient solar wind magnetic field strength.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures; added figure and discussion on CME-ICME associations; submitted to JGR, in prin

A broken solar type II radio burst induced by a coronal shock propagating across the streamer boundary

We discuss an intriguing type II radio burst that occurred on 2011 March 27. The dynamic spectrum was featured by a sudden break at about 43 MHz on the well-observed harmonic branch. Before the break, the spectrum drifted gradually with a mean rate of about -0.05 MHz/s. Following the break, the spectrum jumped to lower frequencies. The post-break emission lasted for about three minutes. It consisted of an overall slow drift which appeared to have a few fast drift sub-bands. Simultaneous observations from the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) and the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) were also available and are examined for this event. We suggest that the slow-drift period before the break was generated inside a streamer by a coronal eruption driven shock, and the spectral break as well as the relatively wide spectrum after the break is a consequence of the shock crossing the streamer boundary where density drops abruptly. It is suggested that this type of radio bursts can be taken as a unique diagnostic tool for inferring the coronal density structure, as well as the radio emitting source region.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, accepted by ApJ 201

Current Approaches to Seasonal to Interannual Climate Predictions

This review paper presents an assessment of the current state of knowledge and capability in seasonal climate prediction at the end of the 20th century. The discussion covers the full range of issues involved in climate forecasting, including (1) the theory and empirical evidence for predictability; (2) predictions of surface boundary conditions, such as sea surface temperatures (SSTs) that drive the predictable part of the climate; (3) predictions of the climate; and (4) a brief consideration of the application of climate forecasts. Within this context, the research of the coming decades that seeks to address shortcomings in each area is described