Effective Use of Meditation as an Intervention to Cardiovascular Disease

Attention has long been paid to the mysterious nature of the mind’s impact on physiologic function. This has been central to medicine whether disseminated as anecdotal and cliché in nature or founded in science. Interest has been increasing as patients and providers alike become fascinated with integration of western and eastern approaches to medicine. Diet and exercise are consistent components of clinician mantra. Recently though, integrated terms like mindful meditation, yoga, and spiritual healing are growing in popularity and reframing lifestyle change interventions. These terms will be collectively referred to as mind-body exercises (MBE), unless any distinction is necessary. Heart disease has been the leading cause of death for nearly one hundred years in the United States despite large efforts from healthcare providers to educate, prevent, and treat cardiovascular diseases (CVD).1,2 Diet and exercise have been implemented as first line therapy to improve cardiovascular health, prevent CVD, treat hypertension, and improve blood cholesterol values. The second approach is utilizing an arsenal of medications with varying efficacy and side effect profiles. As alternative medicine has become more popular, patients are becoming increasingly skeptical of these medications. At the same time compelling evidence for non-pharmaceutical options outside of dietary modification and physical fitness is growing. Studies show a strong link between MBE and improving cardiovascular measures. The goal of this literature review is to elucidate what parameters are most susceptible to MBEs, how those parameters can be modified to reduce CVD risk, and how the knowledgeable clinician can utilize MBEs to optimize patient-centered care. This review will demonstrate a judicious clinical approach to interpreting current recommendations for treating CVD patients and understanding what about the current model can be improved upon and what patient demographics should be considered when prescribing MBE

CRUDE OIL PRICE SHOCKS AND GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT

This study uses ordinary least squares estimation to test multivariate models in order to find out whether or not crude oil price shocks are contractionary and negatively impact the macroeconomy. Variables are annual and pertain to different aspects of crude oil and how they affect real gross domestic product (GDP). It is predicted that increases in domestic and imported crude oil prices negatively affect real GDP by decreasing not only energy consumption but the consumption of other goods and services as well. It is found that the initial hypothesis is partially correct. While increases in imported oil prices do decrease real GDP, increases in domestic oil prices actually increase real GDP. Additionally, as predicted, consumption other than energy is affected by crude oil price shocks and causes real GDP to contract.Economics, Department o

Why Improved Maize (Zea mays) Varieties are Utopias in the Highlands of Central Mexico

El obetivo de este trabajo consiste en el estudio de la adopción de variedades mejoradas de maíz en los Valles alto de México a través de los resultados del Programa Especial de Producción de Maíz del Estado de México (PEPMA). El trabajo comprende dos fases: el análisis estadístico de los datos del PEPMA y dos encuestas, seguidad por un trabajo de campo con entrevistas abiertas a los agricultores participantes de la población de San Pedro la Concepción en el Valle de Toluca. Los resultados muestran que la gran mayoría de agricultores continúa sembrando sus semillas autóctonas, los híbridos o las variedades mejoradas no son opciones técnicas reales en tanto que ellas no se desmpeñan bien en las condiciones de la zona de estudio.El obetivo de este trabajo consiste en el estudio de la adopción de variedades mejoradas de maíz en los Valles alto de México a través de los resultados del Programa Especial de Producción de Maíz del Estado de México (PEPMA). El trabajo comprende dos fases: el análisis estadístico de los datos del PEPMA y dos encuestas, seguidad por un trabajo de campo con entrevistas abiertas a los agricultores participantes de la población de San Pedro la Concepción en el Valle de Toluca. Los resultados muestran que la gran mayoría de agricultores continúa sembrando sus semillas autóctonas, los híbridos o las variedades mejoradas no son opciones técnicas reales en tanto que ellas no se desmpeñan bien en las condiciones de la zona de estudio

Roborodentia Robot

This report provides details on the design and implementation of a robot for the Spring 2015 Roborodentia competition. The system is described from a software perspective, a hardware perspective, and a mechanical design perspective

Pautas para una propuesta didáctica sobre el patrimonio cultural de la comarca de Playa de Santiago

Playa de Santiago es conocido como un importante núcleo poblacional ubicado en el litoral sur de la isla de La Gomera, este núcleo poblacional es reconocido como una comarca que se extiende en los límites de dos municipios. Esta comarca empieza a desarrollarse a finales del siglo XIX como asentamiento humano estable, en los inicios del siglo XX la llegada de dos empresas las cuales importan un modelo capitalista que se centra en la explotación de los sectores agrícola y pesquero cambian el devenir económico, social, cultural y poblacional de la comarca, desarrollándose esta por medio de este modelo hasta su decadencia a mediados de la década de los 70. Siendo en esta época cuando la comarca empieza a girar el devenir de su actividad económica hacia el sector terciario, concretamente el turismo, el cuál ha sido la fuente principal de ingresos, y por ende, de desarrollo de la comarca hasta la actualidad. Por lo tanto, pretenderemos realizar una investigación educativa que se centra en saber si tanto alumnado como docente de la comarca conoce el patrimonio del lugar y las causas de por qué lo conoce o por qué no.Playa de Santiago is known as an important population center located on the southern coast of the island of La Gomera, this population center is recognized as a region that extends within the limits of two municipalities. This region begins to develop at the end of the 19th century as a stable human settlement, at the beginning of the 20th century the settlement of two companies which import a capitalist model that focuses on the exploitation of the agricultural and fishing sectors change the economic, social evolution , cultural and population of the region, this being developed by means of this model until its decline in the mid-1970s. Being at this time when the region begins to turn the memory of its economic activity towards the tertiary sector, specifically the tourism, the state has been the main source of income, and therefore, development of the region until today. Therefore, we intend to carry out an educational investigation that focuses on knowing if both students and teachers in the region know the heritage of the place and the causes of why they know it or why not

Competing scales for measuring the perceived quality: a comparison between the Servqual and RSQ

Não há dúvida sobre a importância da qualidade de serviços como fator de sucesso empresarial, mas mensurar essa qualidade tem se mostrado um desafio quando se consideram diferentes contextos. Diante disso, o objetivo deste estudo foi testar duas escalas de mensuração da qualidade percebida de serviços. A comparação entre a escala Service Quality (Servqual) e a Retail Service Quality (RSQ), deu-se por meio de survey junto a 351 respondentes e utilizou como ambiente de pesquisa uma rede de home centers com lojas localizadas na cidade de São Paulo. Para analisar os dados obtidos, foram utilizadas as técnicas multivariadas de análise fatorial exploratória e confirmatória. Como resultado, as duas escalas demonstraram níveis aceitáveis de confiabilidade e validade. Entretanto, no teste de validade nomológica, a escala RSQ mostrou-se superior à escala Servqual, uma vez que a primeira foi capaz de explicar 43% da lealdade em relação ao varejista, enquanto a segunda explicou apenas 11%.There is no doubt about the importance of service quality as a factor of businesses' success, but to measure this quality has proved to be a challenge when one considers different environmental contexts. Given this, the main goal of this paper was to test two measurement scales of perceived service quality. The comparison between Service Quality scale (Servqual) and Retail Service Quality (RSQ) was conducted by means of a survey with 351 participants, clients of a home center stores chain located in the city of São Paulo. The data were analyzed using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. As a result, both scales demonstrated acceptable levels of reliability and validity. However, the RSQ demonstrated a better performance in the nomological test since it was able to explain 43% of the loyalty towards the retailer, while the Servqual scale explained only 11%

Image-Guided High-Dose Rate Intracavitary Brachytherapy in the Treatment of Medically Inoperable Early-Stage Endometrioid Type Endometrial Adenocarcinoma

To report the experience with high dose rate, image guided intracavitary brachytherapy in the treatment of medically inoperable, early stage endometrial cancer. Poster presented at: American Brachytherapy Society Annual Meeting April 20-22, 2017 in Boston MA

Multiscale expansion and integrability properties of the lattice potential KdV equation

We apply the discrete multiscale expansion to the Lax pair and to the first few symmetries of the lattice potential Korteweg-de Vries equation. From these calculations we show that, like the lowest order secularity conditions give a nonlinear Schroedinger equation, the Lax pair gives at the same order the Zakharov and Shabat spectral problem and the symmetries the hierarchy of point and generalized symmetries of the nonlinear Schroedinger equation.Comment: 10 pages, contribution to the proceedings of the NEEDS 2007 Conferenc