Evaluation of Preclinical Assays to Investigate an Anthroposophic Pharmaceutical Process Applied to Mistletoe ( Viscum album

Extracts from European mistletoe (Viscum album L.) developed in anthroposophic medicine are based on specific pharmaceutical procedures to enhance remedy efficacy. One such anthroposophic pharmaceutical process was evaluated regarding effects on cancer cell toxicity in vitro and on colchicine tumor formation in Lepidium sativum. Anthroposophically processed Viscum album extract (APVAE) was produced by mixing winter and summer mistletoe extracts in the edge of a high-speed rotating disk and was compared with manually mixed Viscum album extract (VAE). The antiproliferative effect of VAE/APVAE was determined in five cell lines (NCI-H460, DU-145, HCC1143, MV3, and PA-TU-8902) by WST-1 assay in vitro; no difference was found between VAE and APVAE in any cell line tested (P>0.14). Incidence of colchicine tumor formation was assessed by measurement of the root/shoot-ratio of seedlings of Lepidium sativum treated with colchicine as well as VAE, APVAE, or water. Colchicine tumor formation decreased after application of VAE (−5.4% compared to water, P<0.001) and was even stronger by APVAE (−8.8% compared to water, P<0.001). The high-speed mistletoe extract mixing process investigated thus did not influence toxicity against cancer cells but seemed to sustain morphostasis and to enhance resistance against external noxious influences leading to phenomenological malformations

Vad avgör förmågan att anpassa sig till livet i ett annat land? : En studie bland finlandssvenska kvinnor boende i Schweiz

Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka vilken betydelse finlandssvenska kvinnors upplevda nivå av stress, självkänsla och emotion management (att kunna hantera de egna känslorna) hade för deras förmåga att anpassa sig till en ny tillvaro i Schweiz. Utöver detta syftade studien att klargöra vilka överlappningar som fanns mellan self-efficacy och dimensionerna i Black, Mendenhall och Oddou (1991) modellen över internationell anpassning. Fyra olika skalor användes för att undersöka relationen mellan anpassningsförmåga och variablerna ovan. Resultatet baserat på 35 respondenter visade att anpassningsförmåga korrelerade både med självkänsla och self-efficacy (tilltro till sin egen förmåga). Kvinnorna skattade anpassningen till livet i Schweiz som ringa krävande, hade låga stressupplevelser och en god självkänsla. Kvinnornas emotion management, var likaledes god. Resultaten bidrar till en bättre förståelse av anpassningsprocessen i ett annat land än det egna hemlandet för att underlätta omställningen

Considerations of how to conduct meta-analyses in psychological interventions

Clinical or methodological significance of this article: Meta-analysis is a powerful tool for resolving conflicting conjectures or findings while also providing a critical overview of a scientific area

Isotope ratios of H, C, and O in CO2 and H2O of the Martian atmosphere

Stable isotope ratios of H, C, and O are powerful indicators of a wide variety of planetary geophysical processes, and for Mars they reveal the record of loss of its atmosphere and subsequent interactions with its surface such as carbonate formation. We report in situ measurements of the isotopic ratios of D/H and O-18/O-16 in water and C-13/C-12, O-18/O-16, O-17/O-16, and (CO)-C-13-O-18/(CO)-C-12-O-16 in carbon dioxide, made in the martian atmosphere at Gale Crater from the Curiosity rover using the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)'s tunable laser spectrometer (TLS). Comparison between our measurements in the modern atmosphere and those of martian meteorites such as ALH 84001 implies that the martian reservoirs of CO2 and H2O were largely established similar to 4 billion years ago, but that atmospheric loss or surface interaction may be still ongoing