1,026 research outputs found
Two meta-analyses of noncontact healing studies
Reviews of empirical work on the efficacy of noncontact healing have found that interceding on behalf of patients through prayer or by adopting various practices that incorporate an intention to heal can have some positive effect upon their wellbeing. However, reviewers have also raised concerns about study quality and the diversity of healing approaches adopted, which makes the findings difficult to interpret. Some of these concerns can be addressed by adopting a standardised approach based on the double-blind randomised controlled clinical trial, and a recent review restricted to such studies has reported a combined effect size of .40 (p < .001). However, the studies in this review involve human participants for whom there can be no guarantee that control patients are not beneficiaries of healing intentions from friends, family or their own religious groups. We proposed to address this by reviewing healing studies that involved biological systems other than âwholeâ humans (i.e. to include animal and plant work but also work involving human biological matter such as blood samples or cell cultures), which are less susceptible to placebo and expectancy effects and also allow for more circumscribed outcome measures. Secondly, doubts have been cast concerning the legitimacy of some of the work included in previous reviews so we planned to conduct an updated review that excluded that work. For phase 1, 49 non-whole human studies from 34 papers were eligible for review. The combined effect size weighted by sample size yielded a highly significant r of .258. However the effect sizes in the database were heterogeneous, and outcomes correlated with blind ratings of study quality. When restricted to studies that met minimum quality thresholds, the remaining 22 studies gave a reduced but still significant weighted r of .115. For phase 2, 57 whole human studies across 56 papers were eligible for review. When combined, these studies yielded a small effect size of r = .203 that was also significant. This database was also heterogeneous, and outcomes were correlated with methodological quality ratings. However, when restricted to studies that met threshold quality levels the weighted effect size for the 27 surviving studies increased to r = .224. Taken together these results suggest that subjects in the active condition exhibit a significant improvement in wellbeing relative to control subjects under circumstances that do not seem to be susceptible to placebo and expectancy effects. Findings with the whole human database gave a smaller mean effect size but this was still significant and suggests that the effect is not dependent upon the previous inclusion of suspect studies and is robust enough to accommodate some high profile failures to replicate. Both databases show problems with heterogeneity and with study quality and recommendations are made for necessary standards for future replication attempts
A survey of dissociation, boundary-thinness, and psychological wellbeing in spiritualist mental mediumship
Exploring the meaning in meaningful coincidences: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of synchronicity in therapy
Synchronicity experiences (SEs) are defined as psychologically meaningful connections between inner events (e.g., thought, dream or vision) and one or more external events occurring simultaneously or at a future point in time. There has been limited systematic research that has investigated the phenomenology of SEs in therapy. This study aimed to redress this by exploring the process and nature of such experiences from the perspective of the practitioner. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA; Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009) was used to interview a purposive sample of nine practitioners who reported SEs in their therapeutic sessions. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with three counsellors, three psychologists and three psychotherapists, and focused on how participants make sense of their experiences of synchronicity in therapy. Three superordinate themes were identified: Sense of connectedness, therapeutic process, and professional issues. Findings suggest that SEs can serve to strengthen the therapeutic relationship and are perceived as useful harbingers of information about the therapeutic process, as well as being a means of overcoming communication difficulties, as they are seen to provide insights into the clientâs experiencing of themselves and others, regardless of whether or not the SE is acknowledged by the client or disclosed by the therapist
Simulations of core convection in rotating A-type stars: Differential rotation and overshooting
We present the results of 3--D simulations of core convection within A-type
stars of 2 solar masses, at a range of rotation rates. We consider the inner
30% by radius of such stars, thereby encompassing the convective core and some
of the surrounding radiative envelope. We utilize our anelastic spherical
harmonic (ASH) code, which solves the compressible Navier-Stokes equations in
the anelastic approximation, to examine highly nonlinear flows that can span
multiple scale heights. The cores of these stars are found to rotate
differentially, with central cylindrical regions of strikingly slow rotation
achieved in our simulations of stars whose convective Rossby number (R_{oc}) is
less than unity. Such differential rotation results from the redistribution of
angular momentum by the nonlinear convection that strongly senses the overall
rotation of the star. Penetrative convective motions extend into the overlying
radiative zone, yielding a prolate shape (aligned with the rotation axis) to
the central region in which nearly adiabatic stratification is achieved. This
is further surrounded by a region of overshooting motions, the extent of which
is greater at the equator than at the poles, yielding an overall spherical
shape to the domain experiencing at least some convective mixing. We assess the
overshooting achieved as the stability of the radiative exterior is varied, and
the weak circulations that result in that exterior. The convective plumes serve
to excite gravity waves in the radiative envelope, ranging from localized
ripples of many scales to some remarkable global resonances.Comment: 48 pages, 16 figures, some color. Accepted to Astrophys. J. Color
figures compressed with appreciable loss of quality; a PDF of the paper with
better figures is available at
http://lcd-www.colorado.edu/~brownim/core_convectsep24.pd
Transpersonal perspectives of spiritual experiences in epilepsy
Insight into the phenomenology of spiritual experiences of those with epilepsy offers a move away from current reductive explanations. This research will offer a voice for an often ignored and stigmatised group, aiming to understand their attribution of spirituality to experiences of auras. Connections with other altered states of consciousness will explore whether epileptic experiences of spirituality can be placed within a wider context of well-being and the human condition
Signal transduction and activator of transcription-3 (STAT3) in patients with colorectal cancer: associations with the phenotypic features of the tumour and host
Purpose: In patients with colorectal cancer (CRC), a high-density local inflammatory infiltrate response is associated with improved survival, whereas elevated systemic inflammatory responses are associated with poor survival. One potential unifying mechanism is the IL-6/JAK/STAT3 pathway. The present study examines the relationship between tumour total STAT3 and phosphorylated STAT3Tyr705 (pSTAT3) expression, host inflammatory responses and survival in patients undergoing resection of stage I-III CRC. Experimental Design: Immunohistochemical assessment of STAT3/pSTAT3 expression was performed using a tissue microarray and tumour cell expression divided into tertiles using the weighted histoscore. The relationship between STAT3/pSTAT3 expression and local inflammatory (CD3+, CD8+, CD45R0+, FOXP3+ T-cell density and Klintrup-MĂ€kinen grade) and systemic inflammatory responses and cancer-specific survival were examined. Results: 196 patients were included in the analysis. Cytoplasmic and nuclear STAT3 expression strongly correlated (r=0.363, P<0.001); nuclear STAT3 and pSTAT3 expression weakly correlated (r=0.130, P=0.068). Cytoplasmic STAT3 was inversely associated with the density of CD3+ (P=0.012), CD8+ (P=0.003) and FOXP3+ T-lymphocytes (P=0.002) within the cancer cell nests and was associated with an elevated systemic inflammatory response as measured by modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS2: 19% vs. 4%, P=0.004). The combination of nuclear STAT3/pSTAT3 stratified five-year survival from 81% to 62% (P=0.012), however was not associated with survival independent of venous invasion, tumour perforation or tumour budding. Conclusion In patients undergoing CRC resection, STAT3 expression was associated with adverse host inflammatory responses and reduced survival. Up-regulation of tumour STAT3 may be an important mechanism whereby the tumour deregulates local and systemic inflammatory responses
The CoRoT target HD175726: an active star with weak solar-like oscillations
Context. The CoRoT short runs give us the opportunity to observe a large
variety of late-type stars through their solar-like oscillations. We report
observations of the star HD175726 that lasted for 27 days during the first
short run of the mission. The time series reveals a high-activity signal and
the power spectrum presents an excess due to solar-like oscillations with a low
signal-to-noise ratio. Aims. Our aim is to identify the most efficient tools to
extract as much information as possible from the power density spectrum.
Methods. The most productive method appears to be the autocorrelation of the
time series, calculated as the spectrum of the filtered spectrum. This method
is efficient, very rapid computationally, and will be useful for the analysis
of other targets, observed with CoRoT or with forthcoming missions such as
Kepler and Plato. Results. The mean large separation has been measured to be
97.2+-0.5 microHz, slightly below the expected value determined from solar
scaling laws.We also show strong evidence for variation of the large separation
with frequency. The bolometric mode amplitude is only 1.7+-0.25 ppm for radial
modes, which is 1.7 times less than expected. Due to the low signal-to-noise
ratio, mode identification is not possible for the available data set of
HD175726. Conclusions. This study shows the possibility of extracting a seismic
signal despite a signal-to-noise ratio of only 0.37. The observation of such a
target shows the efficiency of the CoRoT data, and the potential benefit of
longer observing runs.Comment: 8 pages. Accepted in A&
Global asteroseismic properties of solar-like oscillations observed by Kepler : A comparison of complementary analysis methods
We present the asteroseismic analysis of 1948 F-, G- and K-type main-sequence
and subgiant stars observed by the NASA {\em Kepler Mission}. We detect and
characterise solar-like oscillations in 642 of these stars. This represents the
largest cohort of main-sequence and subgiant solar-like oscillators observed to
date. The photometric observations are analysed using the methods developed by
nine independent research teams. The results are combined to validate the
determined global asteroseismic parameters and calculate the relative precision
by which the parameters can be obtained. We correlate the relative number of
detected solar-like oscillators with stellar parameters from the {\em Kepler
Input Catalog} and find a deficiency for stars with effective temperatures in
the range \,K and a drop-off in
detected oscillations in stars approaching the red edge of the classical
instability strip. We compare the power-law relationships between the frequency
of peak power, , the mean large frequency separation,
, and the maximum mode amplitude, , and show that
there are significant method-dependent differences in the results obtained.
This illustrates the need for multiple complementary analysis methods to be
used to assess the robustness and reproducibility of results derived from
global asteroseismic parameters.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Societ
The Relation between Physical and Gravitational Geometry
The appearance of two geometries in one and the same gravitational theory is
familiar. Usually, as in the Brans-Dicke theory or in string theory, these are
conformally related Riemannian geometries. Is this the most general relation
between the two geometries allowed by physics ? We study this question by
supposing that the physical geometry on which matter dynamics take place could
be Finslerian rather than just Riemannian. An appeal to the weak equivalence
principle and causality then leads us the conclusion that the Finsler geometry
has to reduce to a Riemann geometry whose metric - the physical metric - is
related to the gravitational metric by a generalization of the conformal
transformation.Comment: 15 pages, Te
Simulations of Oscillation Modes of the Solar Convection Zone
We use the three-dimensional hydrodynamic code of Stein and Nordlund to
realistically simulate the upper layers of the solar convection zone in order
to study physical characteristics of solar oscillations. Our first result is
that the properties of oscillation modes in the simulation closely match the
observed properties. Recent observations from SOHO/MDI and GONG have confirmed
the asymmetry of solar oscillation line profiles, initially discovered by
Duvall et al. In this paper we compare the line profiles in the power spectra
of the Doppler velocity and continuum intensity oscillations from the SOHO/MDI
observations with the simulation. We also compare the phase differences between
the velocity and intensity data. We have found that the simulated line profiles
are asymmetric and have the same asymmetry reversal between velocity and
intensity as observed. The phase difference between the velocity and intensity
signals is negative at low frequencies and jumps in the vicinity of modes as is
also observed. Thus, our numerical model reproduces the basic observed
properties of solar oscillations, and allows us to study the physical
properties which are not observed.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
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