Effect of Brief Biofeedback via a Smartphone App on Stress Recovery: Randomized Experimental Study.

BACKGROUND:Smartphones are often vilified for negatively influencing well-being and contributing to stress. However, these devices may, in fact, be useful in times of stress and, in particular, aid in stress recovery. Mobile apps that deliver evidence-based techniques for stress reduction, such as heart rate variability biofeedback (HRVB) training, hold promise as convenient, accessible, and effective stress-reducing tools. Numerous mobile health apps that may potentially aid in stress recovery are available, but very few have demonstrated that they can influence health-related physiological stress parameters (eg, salivary biomarkers of stress). The ability to recover swiftly from stress and reduce physiological arousal is particularly important for long-term health, and thus, it is imperative that evidence is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of stress-reducing mobile health apps in this context. OBJECTIVE:The purpose of this research was to investigate the physiological and psychological effects of using a smartphone app for HRVB training following a stressful experience. The efficacy of the gamified Breather component of the Happify mobile health app was examined in an experimental setting. METHODS:In this study, participants (N=140) underwent a laboratory stressor and were randomly assigned to recover in one of three ways: with no phone present, with a phone present, with the HRBV game. Those in the no phone condition had no access to their phone. Those in the phone present condition had their phone but did not use it. Those in the HRVB game condition used the serious game Breather on the Happify app. Stress recovery was assessed via repeated measures of salivary alpha amylase, cortisol, and self-reported acute stress (on a 1-100 scale). RESULTS:Participants in the HRVB game condition had significantly lower levels of salivary alpha amylase during recovery than participants in the other conditions (F2,133=3.78, P=.03). There were no significant differences among the conditions during recovery for salivary cortisol levels or self-reported stress. CONCLUSIONS:These results show that engaging in a brief HRVB training session on a smartphone reduces levels of salivary alpha amylase following a stressful experience, providing preliminary evidence for the effectiveness of Breather in improving physiological stress recovery. Given the known ties between stress recovery and future well-being, this study provides a possible mechanism by which gamified biofeedback apps may lead to better health

An Anatomical, Biochemical, Biophysical and Quantum Basis for the Unconscious Mind

This article suggests that it may now be possible to develop some theoretical and experimental bases for organic substructures involved in psychological phenomena including the unconscious. Our inquiry arose from mutual interest in the mechanisms involved in peak athletic and artistic performances and in deep therapeutic encounters. We are referring to a state of consciousness is often described by performers as “the zone.” This is a state in which individuals or groups function at an extraordinary level of perception and coordination; or a state in which therapists develop a deep connection with their clients’ repressed feelings or traumatic memories. Here we suggest possible mechanisms for Freud’s “conversion disorders” based on the concept that there are two or more interconnected systems that can sense and respond to the environment and that can also convert repressed emotions into chronic muscle tension or other somatic issues. One connection between sensation and action is the well-established neurophysiological mechanism and another involves semiconduction through the living matrix. This is one type of “hardware” system that functions more or less in parallel to the nervous system and possibly in concert with the “wetware” or biochemical systems described by Dennis Bray (2009). It is proposed that one aspect of the unconscious —its capacity to absorb and process vast amounts of sensory information—involves rapid signal processing through a combination of ultra-fast biological processes that are present in all cells and tissues, including but not limited to neurons. Semi-conduction, wetware, electromagneticphotonic communications and quantum coherence are examples of such processes

Direct force-measuring transducer used in blood pressure research

Direct force measuring transducer acts as an arterial tonometer, gives a direct readout to instrumentation, and is unaffected by ambient noise. It uses a semiconductor strain gage which is deflected by pressure pulses in the artery. The deflection changes the resistance of the gage and alters the voltage reading on the associated instrumentation

Electronic Properties of CdS/CdTe Solar Cells as Influenced by a Buffer Layer

We considered modification of the defect density of states in CdTe as influenced by a buffer layer in ZnO(ZnS, SnSe)/CdS/CdTe solar cells. Compared to the solar cells employing ZnO buffer layers, implementation of ZnSe and ZnS resulted in the lower net ionized acceptor concentration and the energy shift of the dominant deep trap levels to the midgap of CdTe. The results clearly indicated that the same defect was responsible for the inefficient doping and the formation of recombination centers in CdTe. This observation can be explained taking into account the effect of strain on the electronic properties of the grain boundary interface states in polycrystalline CdTe. In the conditions of strain, interaction of chlorine with the grain boundary point defects can be altered

Interpersonal prosodic correlation in frontotemporal dementia.

Communication accommodation describes how individuals adjust their communicative style to that of their conversational partner. We predicted that interpersonal prosodic correlation related to pitch and timing would be decreased in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). We predicted that the interpersonal correlation in a timing measure and a pitch measure would be increased in right temporal FTD (rtFTD) due to sparing of the neural substrate for speech timing and pitch modulation but loss of social semantics. We found no significant effects in bvFTD, but conversations including rtFTD demonstrated higher interpersonal correlations in speech rate than healthy controls

Technology for automated analysis of maize pollen used as a marker for mutation: 1. Flow-through systems.

Maize pollen is used as a monitor for environmental pollutants. Mutant pollen grains (induced by environmental pollutants) are detectable above a background frequency of 5 or less in 10(5). To enumerate a satisfactory number of mutant grains, it is necessary to count 10(6) grains in a sample, a laborious, time-consuming process which should be amenable to automated analysis techniques. High resolution image analysis technology has been used in the morphologic assessment of rare cells in a sample, provided a suitable training set could be devised to instruct the computer on the characteristics of the rare cells. On the other hand, flow cytometry uses primarily cytochemical means for detection and has been shown to detect rare events. Hence, the two technologies, which may be viewed as complementary, are suitable for the task. Alternatively, a hybrid technology employing both cell sorter and image analysis techniques may be extremely desirable for this problem. The potential for archival storage of analyzed samples is very attractive when considering the possibility of an adversary relationship between a putative regulator and polluter