A Study of the Impact of Individual Psychotherapy on the Emotional Relationships between the Counselors and Their Mothers under the Framework of Chinese Family Ethics

[[abstract]]The object of this research is to study changes in the emotional relationship between the counselor and his/her mother and impact as a result of individual psychotherapy observed among the participating counselors. Also, I intend to understand the integration of the altered relationship into the context of Chinese family and culture. Furthermore, in this cultural context, the outcome of the study of mother-daughter relationship is compared to the concept of Attachment theory to find commonality and specificity between them. Finally, a Chinese model of counseling and psychotherapy localization is discussed. Grounded theory was chosen as the method used in this research and fourteen counselors participated in semi-structured, in-depth interviews; the qualitative data analysis software Nvivo 8 was selected to help manage and analyze the data. The results are summarized as follows: 1) nine positive categories and fourteen negative categories of emotional experience in relationship between mother and counselor were identified; 2) there were eleven categories of mother-counselor relationship changed through individual psychotherapy; 3) there were great flexibility and variation found in the structure of individual psychotherapy treatment; 4) nine positive and five negative categories of emotional experience in the subjects’ relationships with their therapists were identified; 5) while changes in six categories were found in relationship between subjects and their therapists, they were either influenced by the subjects’ own subjective feelings or their genuine feelings toward the therapist; 6) five patterns of relational change between the subjects and their mothers or their therapists were identified; 7) the former relationships at the young age among counselor and caretakers other than his/her mother influenced the relationship between counselor and his/her mother; 8) in most cases, the relationships among the counselor and other people had improved after the counselor received individual psychotherapy; 9) although the counselors’ relationships with those other than their mothers, such as their caretakers from early years, intimate partners, and peers, consist of both positive and negative emotional categories; their relationships with authoritative figures mostly contain only the negative emotional categories; 10) the subjects obtained twelve points of understanding and experience in their counseling profession from individual psychotherapy; 11) prior to receiving individual psychotherapy, two dimensions of the Chinese ego were defined. The first ego was the personal ego, and the second ego focused on relationship, the relationship ego. Within these two dimensional Chinese egos, fourteen subsequent characteristics were identified in this research; 12) as to the integration of social status, home education and reverent, loyal to parents or elders, within traditional Chinese family ethics, we found twenty-one items could be integrated harmoniously, twenty-two items integrated partially, while twenty-five items could not be integrated at all; 13) following individual psychotherapy, twelve changes in personal ego and ten changes in relationship ego were found; 14) comparing between the results of this research and the concept of Attachment theory and treatment, we found ten similar findings and twelve other findings from this research with extended meanings and applications. Based on the results and discussion of this research, the researcher has proposed three suggestions concerning the study of counseling; counselor education, professional training, also clinical work of counseling and psychotherapy.

Conformational analysis of a seven-membered ring azasugar, (3R,4R,6S)-trihydroxyazepane: Comparison of GIAO calculation and experimental NMR spectra on 13C chemical shifts

[[abstract]]DFT/B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) calculation of the relative stable conformations of (3R,4R,6S)-trihydroxyazepane are presented. The GIAO/DFT/OPBE, GIAO/DFT/B3LYP and GIAO/HF single point calculations with 6-311++G(d,p), 6-311+G(2d,p), cc-pVDZ and cc-pVTZ basis sets of (3R,4R,6S)-trihydroxyazepane were conducted to generate their 13C NMR chemical shifts. According to calculation results, 14 (3R,4R,6S)-trihydroxyazepane with optimized structure were generated. There were three conformers which contain the intramolecular hydrogen bonding exhibit a lowest electronic energies and TCN1(eq) was the most stable conformer than others. Boltzmann weighting factor analysis exhibits that TCN1(eq), TCN3(eq) and TCN5(eq) dominate a major contribution among the 14 conformers. The individual calculated NMR results of TCN1(eq), TCN3(eq) and TCN5(eq) represents a quite close correlation with experimental data. Moreover, the experimental 13C NMR chemical shifts gave only the average contribution of all conformers. In our investigation, the calculated 13C NMR chemical shifts of mixture (3R,4R,6S)-trihydroxyazepane exhibit a good agreement with the experimental NMR data. Calculated NMR results of mixture (3R,4R,6S)-trihydroxyazepane conformers display a remarkable MAE and RMS improvement over that of each individual conformer. A good calculation method and basis set choice to evaluate the theoretical chemical shifts for these conformers is HF/cc-pVTZ.[[journaltype]]國外[[incitationindex]]SCI[[ispeerreviewed]]Y[[booktype]]紙本[[countrycodes]]NL

Bone Marrow Stromal Antigen 2 Is a Novel Plasma Biomarker and Prognosticator for Colorectal Carcinoma: A Secretome-Based Verification Study

Background. The cancer cell secretome has been recognized as a valuable reservoir for identifying novel serum/plasma biomarkers for different cancers, including colorectal cancer (CRC). This study aimed to verify four CRC cell-secreted proteins (tumor-associated calcium signal transducer 2/trophoblast cell surface antigen 2 (TACSTD2/TROP2), tetraspanin-6 (TSPAN6), bone marrow stromal antigen 2 (BST2), and tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 16 (NGFR)) as potential plasma CRC biomarkers. Methods. The study population comprises 152 CRC patients and 152 controls. Target protein levels in plasma and tissue samples were assessed by ELISA and immunohistochemistry, respectively. Results. Among the four candidate proteins examined by ELISA in a small sample set, only BST2 showed significantly elevated plasma levels in CRC patients versus controls. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed the overexpression of BST2 in CRC tissues, and higher BST2 expression levels correlated with poorer 5-year survival (46.47% versus 65.57%; p=0.044). Further verification confirmed the elevated plasma BST2 levels in CRC patients (2.35 ± 0.13 ng/mL) versus controls (1.04 ± 0.03 ng/mL) (p<0.01), with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) being 0.858 comparable to that of CEA (0.867). Conclusion. BST2, a membrane protein selectively detected in CRC cell secretome, may be a novel plasma biomarker and prognosticator for CRC

TDP-43 interacts with amyloid-β, inhibits fibrillization, and worsens pathology in a model of Alzheimer’s disease

TDP-43 inclusions are found in many Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients presenting faster disease progression and greater brain atrophy. Previously, we showed full-length TDP-43 forms spherical oligomers and perturbs amyloid-β (Aβ) fibrillization. To elucidate the role of TDP-43 in AD, here, we examined the effect of TDP-43 in Aβ aggregation and the attributed toxicity in mouse models. We found TDP-43 inhibited Aβ fibrillization at initial and oligomeric stages. Aβ fibrillization was delayed specifically in the presence of N-terminal domain containing TDP-43 variants, while C-terminal TDP-43 was not essential for Aβ interaction. TDP-43 significantly enhanced Aβ's ability to impair long-term potentiation and, upon intrahippocampal injection, caused spatial memory deficit. Following injection to AD transgenic mice, TDP-43 induced inflammation, interacted with Aβ, and exacerbated AD-like pathology. TDP-43 oligomers mostly colocalized with intracellular Aβ in the brain of AD patients. We conclude that TDP-43 inhibits Aβ fibrillization through its interaction with Aβ and exacerbates AD pathology

A pilot-study to assess the feasibility and acceptability of an Internet-based cognitive-behavior group therapy using video conference for patients with coronary artery heart disease.

BackgroundMany patients with coronary artery heart disease are unable to access traditional psychosocial rehabilitation conducted face to face due to excessive travel distance. Therefore, this study developed and assessed the feasibility and acceptability of an 8-week Internet-based cognitive-behavior group therapy program, described the patterns of use and measured change in risk factors.MethodsThis study adopted an online video conference system, JointNet, to maintain group interaction functions similar to face to face groups online, and also built an self-learning platform to deliver psychoeducation content and cognitive-behavior therapy related materials and homework. Forty-three out-patients were recruited in the pilot study, who then chose to participate in either the Internet-based cognitive-behavior group therapy or face to face group based on their preference. Fourteen patients were assigned to the waiting-list control.ResultsSeventeen participants (17/43 = 39.5%) chose the Internet-based cognitive-behavior group therapy program. Among them, thirteen participants (13/17 = 76.5%) finished the program and were more male (92.3% vs. 50%), employed (53.8% vs. 35.3%), and had longer education duration (13.9 vs. 12.5 years) than the counterparts of the face to face group. Furthermore, they were highly motivated with average number of log-ins (66.5 time), website surfing time (950.94 min), reading frequency (78.15 time) and reading time (355.90 min) for the self-learning platform during eight weeks; and also highly satisfied (97%) with visiting the self-learning platform and video conferences. The treatment effectiveness of Internet-based cognitive-behavior group therapy was comparable with face to face one in reducing anxiety, hostility, respiration rate, and in improving vasodilation but not depression compared with the waiting-list control.ConclusionThese results indicated that the Internet-based group therapy program using video conference is feasible and acceptable for the psychosocial rehabilitation of patients with coronary artery heart disease, and provides an alternative for patients who are unable to obtain conventional psychosocial rehabilitation conducted face to face

Flexible Textile-Based Pressure Sensing System Applied in the Operating Room for Pressure Injury Monitoring of Cardiac Operation Patients

Pressure injury is the most important issue facing paralysis patients and the elderly, especially in long-term care or nursing. A new interfacial pressure sensing system combined with a flexible textile-based pressure sensor array and a real-time readout system improved by the Kalman filter is proposed to monitor interfacial pressure progress in the cardiac operation. With the design of the Kalman filter and parameter optimization, noise immunity can be improved by approximately 72%. Additionally, cardiac operation patients were selected to test this developed system for the direct correlation between pressure injury and interfacial pressure for the first time. The pressure progress of the operation time was recorded and presented with the visible data by time- and 2-dimension-dependent characteristics. In the data for 47 cardiac operation patients, an extreme body mass index (BMI) and significantly increased pressure after 2 h are the top 2 factors associated with the occurrence of pressure injury. This methodology can be used to prevent high interfacial pressure in high-risk patients before and during operation. It can be suggested that this system, integrated with air mattresses, can improve the quality of care and reduce the burden of the workforce and medical cost, especially for pressure injury