Mindfulness training improves quality of life and reduces depression and anxiety symptoms among police officers : results from the POLICE study : a multicenter randomized controlled trial

Background: Police officers’ high-stress levels and its deleterious consequences are raising awareness to an epidemic of mental health problems and quality of life (QoL) impairment. There is a growing evidence that mindfulness-based interventions are efficacious to promote mental health and well-being among high-stress occupations. Methods: The POLICE study is amulticenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) with three assessment points (baseline, post-intervention, and 6-month follow-up) where police officers were randomized to mindfulness-based health promotion (MBHP) (n = 88) or a waiting list (n = 82). This article focuses on QoL, depression and anxiety symptoms, and religiosity outcomes. Mechanisms of change and MBHP feasibility were evaluated. Results: Significant group × time interaction was found for QoL, depression and anxiety symptoms, and non-organizational religiosity. Between-group analysis showed that MBHP group exhibited greater improvements in QoL, and depression and anxiety symptoms at both post-intervention (QoL d = 0.69 to 1.01; depression d = 0.97; anxiety d = 0.73) and 6-month follow-up (QoL d = 0.41 to 0.74; depression d = 0.60; anxiety d = 0.51), in addition to increasing non-organizational religiosity at post-intervention (d = 0.31). Changes on self-compassion mediated the relationship between group and pre-to-post changes for all QoL domains and facets. Group effect on QoL overall health facet at post-intervention was moderated by mindfulness trait and spirituality changes. Conclusion: MBHP is feasible and efficacious to improve QoL, and depression and anxiety symptoms among Brazilian officers. Results were maintained after 6 months. MBHP increased non-organizational religiosity, although the effect was not sustained 6 months later. To our knowledge, this is the first mindfulness-based intervention RCT to empirically demonstrate these effects among police officers. Self-compassion, mindfulness trait, and spirituality mechanisms of change are examined

Inconsistent strategies to spin up models in CMIP5: implications for ocean biogeochemical model performance assessment

International audienceDuring the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project (CMIP5) substantial efforts were made to systematically assess the skill of Earth system models. One goal was to check how realistically representative marine biogeochemical tracer distributions could be reproduced by models. In routine assessments model historical hind-casts were compared with available modern biogeochemi-cal observations. However, these assessments considered neither how close modeled biogeochemical reservoirs were to equilibrium nor the sensitivity of model performance to initial conditions or to the spin-up protocols. Here, we explore how the large diversity in spin-up protocols used for marine biogeochemistry in CMIP5 Earth system models (ESMs) contributes to model-to-model differences in the simulated fields. We take advantage of a 500-year spin-up simulation of IPSL-CM5A-LR to quantify the influence of the spin-up protocol on model ability to reproduce relevant data fields. Amplification of biases in selected biogeochemical fields (O2, NO3, Alk-DIC) is assessed as a function of spin-up duration. We demonstrate that a relationship between spin-up duration and assessment metrics emerges from our model results and holds when confronted with a larger ensemble of CMIP5 models. This shows that drift has implications for performance assessment in addition to possibly aliasing estimates of climate change impact. Our study suggests that differences in spin-up protocols could explain a substantial part of model disparities, constituting a source of model-to-model uncertainty

AtlantECO Deliverable 2.1: AtlantECO-BASE1

This deliverable reports on Task 2.2 ‘Assembly of observations about microbiomes, plastics, the plastisphere and carbon fluxes’. It used protocols established in task 2.1 ‘Definition of common standards for the assembly of spatially explicit data’ to compile, quality-control and grid existing high-quality observations into a knowledge base of observations (D2.1). Data included into AtlantECO-BASE1 consisted of contributions from the five following data sources and tasks: Task 2.2.1 ‘Microbiome data from traditional microscopy (presence-absence, abundance and biomass)’, Task 2.2.2 ‘Microbiome data from state-of-the-art optical/imaging analysis’, Task 2.2.3 ‘Microbiome and plastisphere data from state-of-the-art genetic analyses’, Task 2.2.4 ‘Nano-, micro and macroplastics data from state-of-the-art sampling methods’, and Task 2.2.5 ‘Carbon flux data from estimated from high resolution bio-optical sensors’. Additional data contributions and mapping efforts from other partners and work packages (Task 2.3) are also included. A comprehensive list and description of all data sets collected can be found in the Appendix Tables to this document

Global-Scale Climate Genomics Describes Modulations in Plankton Composition and Gene Expression that Structure the Sunlit Ocean

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Global-Scale Climate Genomics Describes Modulations in Plankton Composition and Gene Expression that Structure the Sunlit Ocean

International audienc

Global-Scale Climate Genomics Describes Modulations in Plankton Composition and Gene Expression that Structure the Sunlit Ocean

International audienc

Short-term dissolution response of pelagic carbonate sediments to the invasion of anthropogenic CO₂: A model study.

International audienceThis study addresses the potential for and the quantification of dissolution of marine calcium carbonate (CaCO3) sediments occurring on century timescales in response to the invasion of anthropogenic CO2. It presents results obtained with the global biogeochemical model PISCES interactively coupled to a global sediment model. The latter represents the principal reactions involved in early diagenesis of biogenic opal, CaCO3, and organic matter. The model reproduces observed distributions of core top CaCO3 content and bottom water carbonate chemistry (e.g., [CO3 2−]). Starting from the climatological state, a model experiment is carried out according to the standard CMIP scenario of atmospheric pCO2 increasing at a rate of 1% per year from 286 to 1144 ppm over a 140 year time period. The invasion of anthropogenic CO2 results in a strong decrease in bottom water [CO3 2−] reaching −100 μM in areas of deep water formation in the North Atlantic and mode and intermediate water formation in the Southern Hemisphere. The concomitant decrease in calcite saturation state of bottom waters drives the dissolution of CaCO3. The absolute CaCO3 content averaged over the top first centimeter decreases by up to 6%, while the change in advection calculated at the base of the bioturbated layer (10 cm) is indicative of net erosion. The predicted changes in bottom water chemistry are discussed in terms of their potential impact on benthic communities

Global-Scale Climate Genomics Describes Modulations in Plankton Composition and Gene Expression that Structure the Sunlit Ocean

International audienc

Global-Scale Climate Genomics Describes Modulations in Plankton Composition and Gene Expression that Structure the Sunlit Ocean

International audienc