How do impulsivity traits influence problem gambling through gambling motives? The role of perceived gambling risk/benefits.

Although substantial research suggests that motivations have been found to mediate the relationships between impulsivity traits and various forms of substance use, no studies have examined how gambling motives may mediate the relationships between impulsivity traits and problem gambling. The primary purpose of this study was to test an integrative model linking impulsivity traits and gambling problems, evaluating the mediating effects of gambling motives. Participants were 594 students (73% male; mean age =19.92; SD=2.91) enrolled in public high schools or universities. Young people who tend to act rashly in response to extremely positive moods, showed higher enhancement and coping motives, which in turn were positively related to gambling problems. Individuals with higher levels of sensation seeking were more likely to have higher levels of enhancement motives, which in turn were also positively related to gambling problems. The model was examined in several groups, separately for the level of perceived gambling risk/benefits (lower perceived gambling risk, higher perceived gambling risk, lower perceived gambling benefits, and higher perceived gambling benefits). There were significant differences between these groups for this division. These findings suggest that prevention and/or treatment strategies might want to consider the model’s variables, including impulsivity traits and gambling motives, in accordance with individual levels of perceived gambling risk/benefits

Buddhist-Derived Loving-Kindness and Compassion Meditation for the Treatment of Psychopathology: a Systematic Review

Although clinical interest has predominantly focused on mindfulness meditation, interest into the clinical utility of Buddhist-derived loving-kindness meditation (LKM) and compassion meditation (CM) is also growing. This paper follows the PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis) guidelines and provides an evaluative systematic review of LKM and CM intervention studies. Five electronic academic databases were systematically searched to identify all intervention studies assessing changes in the symptom severity of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (text revision fourth edition) Axis I disorders in clinical samples and/or known concomitants thereof in sub-clinical/healthy samples. The comprehensive database search yielded 342 papers and 20 studies (comprising a total of 1,312 participants) were eligible for inclusion. The Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies was then used to assess study quality. Participants demonstrated significant improvements across five psychopathology-relevant outcome domains: (i) positive and negative affect, (ii) psychological distress, (iii) positive thinking, (iv) interpersonal relations, and (v) empathic accuracy. It is concluded that LKM and CM interventions may have utility for treating a variety of psychopathologies. However, to overcome obstacles to clinical integration, a lessons-learned approach is recommended whereby issues encountered during the (ongoing) operationalization of mindfulness interventions are duly considered. In particular, there is a need to establish accurate working definitions for LKM and CM

The Top Ten List of Gravitational Lens Candidates from the HST Medium Deep Survey

A total of 10 good candidates for gravitational lensing have been discovered in the WFPC2 images from the HST Medium Deep Survey (MDS) and archival primary observations. These candidate lenses are unique HST discoveries, i.e. they are faint systems with sub-arcsecond separations between the lensing objects and the lensed source images. Most of them are difficult objects for ground-based spectroscopic confirmation or for measurement of the lens and source redshifts. Seven are ``strong lens'' candidates which appear to have multiple images of the source. Three are cases where the single image of the source galaxy has been significantly distorted into an arc. The first two quadruply lensed candidates were reported in Ratnatunga et al 1995 (ApJL, 453, L5) We report on the subsequent eight candidates and describe them with simple models based on the assumption of singular isothermal potentials. Residuals from the simple models for some of the candidates indicate that a more complex model for the potential will probably be required to explain the full structural detail of the observations once they are confirmed to be lenses. We also discuss the effective survey area which was searched for these candidate lens objects.Comment: 26 pages including 12 figures and 10 tables. AJ Vol. 117, No.

Quantum cohomology of flag manifolds and Toda lattices

We discuss relations of Vafa's quantum cohomology with Floer's homology theory, introduce equivariant quantum cohomology, formulate some conjectures about its general properties and, on the basis of these conjectures, compute quantum cohomology algebras of the flag manifolds. The answer turns out to coincide with the algebra of regular functions on an invariant lagrangian variety of a Toda lattice.Comment: 35 page