An Investigation of Mood and Executive Functioning Effects of Brief Auditory and Visual Mindfulness Meditations in Patients with Schizophrenia

Brief meditations led by audio versus visual stimuli can lead to differential effects on mood and cognition in healthy people. We examine whether similar effects were evident amongst schizophrenia patients. Forty-three patients underwent either 30-min image- (e.g. a mountain stream; n = 15) or audio-led (e.g. running water; n = 15) meditations or waited 30 min without instructions (n = 13). Prior to and following the meditation/wait, participants completed a self-report measure of positive and negative affect and the Trail Making Test to measure attentional shifting abilities. Participants who underwent a visual-led meditation were significantly more positive than those who underwent an audio-led meditation or if they did not meditate. Irrespective of meditation modality, participants showed significant improvement in attentional shifting abilities. Brief meditative practice amongst patients with schizophrenia may have immediate effects on mood and cognition. Future research must explore these effects in larger mindfulness programmes and with longer follow-up assessments.</p

Resolving The Moth at Millimeter Wavelengths

HD 61005, also known as "The Moth," is one of only a handful of debris disks that exhibit swept-back "wings" thought to be caused by interaction with the ambient interstellar medium (ISM). We present 1.3 mm Submillimeter Array (SMA) observations of the debris disk around HD 61005 at a spatial resolution of 1.9 arcsec that resolve the emission from large grains for the first time. The disk exhibits a double-peaked morphology at millimeter wavelengths, consistent with an optically thin ring viewed close to edge-on. To investigate the disk structure and the properties of the dust grains we simultaneously model the spatially resolved 1.3 mm visibilities and the unresolved spectral energy distribution. The temperatures indicated by the SED are consistent with expected temperatures for grains close to the blowout size located at radii commensurate with the millimeter and scattered light data. We also perform a visibility-domain analysis of the spatial distribution of millimeter-wavelength flux, incorporating constraints on the disk geometry from scattered light imaging, and find suggestive evidence of wavelength-dependent structure. The millimeter-wavelength emission apparently originates predominantly from the thin ring component rather than tracing the "wings" observed in scattered light. The implied segregation of large dust grains in the ring is consistent with an ISM-driven origin for the scattered light wings.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Efectos moduladores de la personalidad y la valoración subjetiva en la respuesta autonómica ante una tarea de hablar en público

El objetivo de este estudio fue examinar en una muestra de 16 mujeres, el efecto los de rasgos de personalidad y la valoración subjetiva ante un estresor social de laboratorio (hablar en público) en la respuesta cardiovascular y electrodérmica. Se midieron las respuestas de conductancia de la piel, la frecuencia cardiaca (FC) y el volumen del pulso periférico (VPP) durante un periodo de descanso, preparación, tarea y recuperación ante un discurso académico. Los sujetos fueron clasificados según sus puntuaciones altas o bajas en el cuestionario de personalidad EPQ, el STAI y en las medidas subjetivas. Los sujetos mostraron un aumento de la activación fisiológica significativo durante las fases de preparación y ejecución del discurso, esta activación estuvo modulada por las variables de personalidad y la valoración subjetiva. Los sujetos más extrovertidos mostraron mayor frecuencia de respuestas electrodérmicas (RED) a lo largo de todo el registro. Los sujetos que percibieron la tarea como más difícil mostraron los valores más altos en frecuencia cardiaca. Por último, aquéllos que percibieron un mayor estrés y esfuerzo mostraron un porcentaje de cambio mayor en volumen de pulso. Estos resultados apoyan el uso de la tarea de hablar en público como un buen estresor de laboratorio y la importancia de la experiencia subjetiva y los rasgos de personalidad del individuo como variables que modulan dicha respuesta

Mental health, substance abuse, prison victimization and suicide attempts amongst incarcerated women

Worldwide, incarcerated women are known to suffer adverse experiences that might increase the risk of suicide attempts during incarceration. The present investigation examines the prevalence of suicide attempts amongst incarcerated women in Spain and the factors associated with this. Between January and March of 2017 a total of 174 women, enrolled from two prisons in the southeast of Spain, completed anonymous self-report measures of demographic variables, penitentiary and sentence-related variables, mental distress (including depression, anxiety and stress), perceived social support, substance use (including alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, amphetamine, heroin and hallucinogens), prison victimization (property, verbal, physical and sexual victimization) and suicide attempts. Overall, 15.5 percent of women reported they had attempted suicide during their current incarceration. Compared with women who did not report suicide attempts, multivariate analysis showed that women reporting suicide attempts were more likely to report lower education levels, in-prison substance use, victimization and higher levels of mental distress. In order to prevent suicide amongst incarcerated women, victimization in all its forms, emotional distress and drug abuse in women with lower education levels, should be considered highly targetable variables.</p

Avaliação de agroecossistemas em propriedades de produção orgânica no município de Jaguariúna, SP, através de indicadores de sustentabilidade.

A extensão universitária pode dar grande contribuição ao processo de transição da agricultura convencional para modelos de agricultura de base ecológica, que buscam o desenvolvimento sustentável e incorporam princípios e técnicas da Agroecologia. Neste contexto, duas ferramentas vêm sendo associadas com grande eficiência: as metodologias participativas e o uso de indicadores de sustentabilidade. Este trabalho avaliou a sustentabilidade de duas propriedades orgânicas no município de Jaguariúna, através de indicadores construídos e avaliados participativamente. A metodologia empregada permitiu avaliar o estado de cada unidade produtiva, além de classificar a fase de transição agroecológica destas, estabelecendo os gargalos para a sustentabilidade e gerando discussões sobre alternativas que podem embasar seu gerenciamento

A multi-method comparison of autobiographical memory impairments amongst younger and older adults

Objectives: Research indicates that, compared to younger adults, older adults have difficulty recalling memories of specific past events (those lasting less than 24 h) and this difficulty is associated with depression. These studies are largely confined to a single measure of specific memory recall and there are conflicting findings when alternative measures are used. This investigation provides the first comparison of memory specificity between younger and older adults using several different measures.Method: Older (n = 105) and younger (n = 88) adults completed the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT), Autobiographical Memory Interview (AMI) and Sentence Completion for Events from the Past Test (SCEPT) and the number of specific memories was quantified for each measure. Participants also completed the Beck Depression Inventory Version II (BDI-II).Results: Compared to younger adults, older adults recalled fewer specific memories in the AMT and more specific memories in the AMI. This latter effect was particularly pronounced for memories related to childhood. There was no group difference in responses in the SCEPT. There was no evidence of an association between memory specificity and depression for any of the measures.Conclusion: Older adults have difficulty retrieving specific memories after cuing by nouns and adjectives, as in the AMT, but they have enhanced recall of specific memories after cuing by life periods, as in the AMI, and this is particularly true of memories related to childhood. Individual differences in memory specificity are not related to depression symptoms in healthy samples