The effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction program on the mental health of family caregivers: a randomized controlled trial

<b>Background</b> Caregivers of people with chronic conditions are more likely than non-caregivers to have depression and emotional problems. Few studies have examined the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) in improving their mental well-being. <p></p> <b>Methods</b> Caregivers of persons with chronic conditions who scored 7 or above in the Caregiver Strain Index were randomly assigned to the 8-week MBSR group (n = 70) or the self-help control group (n = 71). Validated instruments were used to assess the changes in depressive and anxiety symptoms, quality of life, self-efficacy, self-compassion and mindfulness. Assessments were conducted at baseline, post-intervention and at the 3-month follow-up. <p></p> <b>Results </b>Compared to the participants in the control group, participants in the MBSR group had a significantly greater decrease in depressive symptoms at post-intervention and at 3 months post-intervention (p < 0.01). The improvement in state anxiety symptoms was significantly greater among participants in the MBSR group than those of the control group at post-intervention (p = 0.007), although this difference was not statistically significant at 3 months post-intervention (p = 0.084). There was also a statistically significant larger increase in self-efficacy (controlling negative thoughts; p = 0.041) and mindfulness (p = 0.001) among participants in the MBSR group at the 3-month follow-up compared to the participants in the control group. No statistically significant group effects (MBSR vs. control) were found in perceived stress, quality of life or self-compassion. <p></p> <b>Conclusions </b>MBSR appears to be a feasible and acceptable intervention to improve mental health among family caregivers with significant care burden, although further studies that include an active control group are needed to make the findings more conclusive

Simulations of cubic-tetragonal ferroelastics

We study domain patterns in cubic-tetragonal ferroelastics by solving numerically equations of motion derived from a Landau model of the phase transition, including dissipative stresses. Our system sizes, of up to 256^3 points, are large enough to reveal many structures observed experimentally. Most patterns found at late stages in the relaxation are multiply banded; all three tetragonal variants appear, but inequivalently. Two of the variants form broad primary bands; the third intrudes into the others to form narrow secondary bands with the hosts. On colliding with walls between the primary variants, the third either terminates or forms a chevron. The multipy banded patterns, with the two domain sizes, the chevrons and the terminations, are seen in the microscopy of zirconia and other cubic-tetragonal ferroelastics. We examine also transient structures obtained much earlier in the relaxation; these show the above features and others also observed in experiment.Comment: 7 pages, 6 colour figures not embedded in text. Major revisions in conten

Tracking Control of Vertical Pneumatic Artificial Muscle System Using PID

The advantages of pneumatic system such as compactness, high power to weight ratio, ease of maintenance, cleanliness and inherent safety led to the development of McKibben muscle and pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM). However, the air compressibility and the lack of damping ability of PAM bring dynamic delay to the pressure response and causes oscillatory motion to occur. It is not easy to realize the motion with high accuracy and high speed due to all the non-linear characteristics of pneumatic system. In this paper, we present a vertical PAM system with a simple PID controller to control the motion of the PAM. The experiment setup is explained and Ziegler Nichols tuning method is used in getting the approximation PID parameters. The effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm is demonstrated through experiments

Existence of inverted profile in chemically responsive molecular pathways in the zebrafish liver

10.1371/journal.pone.0027819PLoS ONE611

Control of immune escaped human papilloma virus is regained after therapeutic vaccination

Experimental cancer immunology and therap

Thermodynamics of charged and rotating black strings

We study thermodynamics of cylindrically symmetric black holes. Uncharged as well as charged and rotating objects have been discussed. We derive surface gravity and hence the Hawking temperature and entropy for all these cases. We correct some results in the literature and present new ones. It is seen that thermodynamically these black configurations behave differently from spherically symmetric objects

Interleukin-7 deficiency in rheumatoid arthritis: consequences for therapy-induced lymphopenia

We previously demonstrated prolonged, profound CD4+ T-lymphopenia in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients following lymphocyte-depleting therapy. Poor reconstitution could result either from reduced de novo T-cell production through the thymus or from poor peripheral expansion of residual T-cells. Interleukin-7 (IL-7) is known to stimulate the thymus to produce new T-cells and to allow circulating mature T-cells to expand, thereby playing a critical role in T-cell homeostasis. In the present study we demonstrated reduced levels of circulating IL-7 in a cross-section of RA patients. IL-7 production by bone marrow stromal cell cultures was also compromised in RA. To investigate whether such an IL-7 deficiency could account for the prolonged lymphopenia observed in RA following therapeutic lymphodepletion, we compared RA patients and patients with solid cancers treated with high-dose chemotherapy and autologous progenitor cell rescue. Chemotherapy rendered all patients similarly lymphopenic, but this was sustained in RA patients at 12 months, as compared with the reconstitution that occurred in cancer patients by 3–4 months. Both cohorts produced naïve T-cells containing T-cell receptor excision circles. The main distinguishing feature between the groups was a failure to expand peripheral T-cells in RA, particularly memory cells during the first 3 months after treatment. Most importantly, there was no increase in serum IL-7 levels in RA, as compared with a fourfold rise in non-RA control individuals at the time of lymphopenia. Our data therefore suggest that RA patients are relatively IL-7 deficient and that this deficiency is likely to be an important contributing factor to poor early T-cell reconstitution in RA following therapeutic lymphodepletion. Furthermore, in RA patients with stable, well controlled disease, IL-7 levels were positively correlated with the T-cell receptor excision circle content of CD4+ T-cells, demonstrating a direct effect of IL-7 on thymic activity in this cohort

Time and Amplitude of Afterpulse Measured with a Large Size Photomultiplier Tube

We have studied the afterpulse of a hemispherical photomultiplier tube for an upcoming reactor neutrino experiment. The timing, the amplitude, and the rate of the afterpulse for a 10 inch photomultiplier tube were measured with a 400 MHz FADC up to 16 \ms time window after the initial signal generated by an LED light pulse. The time and amplitude correlation of the afterpulse shows several distinctive groups. We describe the dependencies of the afterpulse on the applied high voltage and the amplitude of the main light pulse. The present data could shed light upon the general mechanism of the afterpulse.Comment: 11 figure

GATA-2 and GATA-3 regulate trophoblast-specific gene expression in vivo.

We previously demonstrated that the zinc finger transcription factors GATA-2 and GATA-3 are expressed in trophoblast giant cells and that they regulate transcription from the mouse placental lactogen I gene promoter in a transfected trophoblast cell line. We present evidence here that both of these factors regulate transcription of the placental lactogen I gene, as well as the related proliferin gene, in trophoblast giant cells in vivo. Placentas lacking GATA-3 accumulate placental lactogen I and proliferi