Mindfulness and spirituality: Therapeutic perspectives

Social aspects that relate to beliefs and spirituality are subjects of the soul and mind, material to be studied out of the materialistic world. They transcend the body and nest in the experiences of the soul. Nonetheless, taught by mindfulness, a practice that stems from eastern spirituality the religious and/or the spiritual are experiences lived through the body. We conducted a pilot cross-sectional study to test the hypothesis that mindfulness correlates with spiritual beliefs. The results provide insight on the potential impact of mindfulness interventions in patients that value spirituality and metacognitive beliefs in the psychotherapeutic process. These preliminary findings provide a potential insight into the possible mechanisms underlying the application of mindfulness in psychotherapy

Influence of atmospheric vapour pressure deficit on ozone responses of snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) genotypes

Environmental conditions influence plant responses to ozone (O3), but few studies have evaluated individual factors directly. In this study, the effect of O3 at high and low atmospheric vapour pressure deficit (VPD) was evaluated in two genotypes of snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) (R123 and S156) used as O3 bioindicator plants. Plants were grown in outdoor controlled-environment chambers in charcoal-filtered air containing 0 or 60 nl l−1 O3 (12 h average) at two VPDs (1.26 and 1.96 kPa) and sampled for biomass, leaf area, daily water loss, and seed yield. VPD clearly influenced O3 effects. At low VPD, O3 reduced biomass, leaf area, and seed yield substantially in both genotypes, while at high VPD, O3 had no significant effect on these components. In clean air, high VPD reduced biomass and yield by similar fractions in both genotypes compared with low VPD. Data suggest that a stomatal response to VPD per se may be lacking in both genotypes and it is hypothesized that the high VPD resulted in unsustainable transpiration and water deficits that resulted in reduced growth and yield. High VPD- and water-stress-induced stomatal responses may have reduced the O3 flux into the leaves, which contributed to a higher yield compared to the low VPD treatment in both genotypes. At low VPD, transpiration increased in the O3 treatment relative to the clean air treatment, suggesting that whole-plant conductance was increased by O3 exposure. Ozone-related biomass reductions at low VPD were proportionally higher in S156 than in R123, indicating that differential O3 sensitivity of these bioindicator plants remained evident when environmental conditions were conducive for O3 effects. Assessments of potential O3 impacts on vegetation should incorporate interacting factors such as VPD

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Nuclear variants of bone morphogenetic proteins

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) contribute to many different aspects of development including mesoderm formation, heart development, neurogenesis, skeletal development, and axis formation. They have previously been recognized only as secreted growth factors, but the present study detected Bmp2, Bmp4, and Gdf5/CDMP1 in the nuclei of cultured cells using immunocytochemistry and immunoblotting of nuclear extracts.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In all three proteins, a bipartite nuclear localization signal (NLS) was found to overlap the site at which the proproteins are cleaved to release the mature growth factors from the propeptides. Mutational analyses indicated that the nuclear variants of these three proteins are produced by initiating translation from downstream alternative start codons. The resulting proteins lack N-terminal signal peptides and are therefore translated in the cytoplasm rather than the endoplasmic reticulum, thus avoiding proteolytic processing in the secretory pathway. Instead, the uncleaved proteins (designated nBmp2, nBmp4, and nGdf5) containing the intact NLSs are translocated to the nucleus. Immunostaining of endogenous nBmp2 in cultured cells demonstrated that the amount of nBmp2 as well as its nuclear/cytoplasmic distribution differs between cells that are in M-phase versus other phases of the cell cycle.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The observation that nBmp2 localization varies throughout the cell cycle, as well as the conservation of a nuclear localization mechanism among three different BMP family members, suggests that these novel nuclear variants of BMP family proteins play an important functional role in the cell.</p

Quantum Theory and Time Asymmetry

The relation between quantum measurement and thermodynamically irreversible processes is investigated. The reduction of the state vector is fundamentally asymmetric in time and shows an observer-relatedness which may explain the double interpretation of the state vector as a representation of physical states as well as of information about them. The concept of relevance being used in all statistical theories of irreversible thermodynamics is shown to be based on the same observer-relatedness. Quantum theories of irreversible processes implicitly use an objectivized process of state vector reduction. The conditions for the reduction are discussed, and I speculate that the final (subjective) observer system might even be carried by a spacetime point.Comment: Latex version of a paper published in 1979 (with minor revisions), 18 page

The articulation of enkinaesthetic entanglement

In this article I present an argument for the necessary co-articulation of meaning within our felt enkinaesthetic engagement with our world. The argument will be developed through a series of stages, the first of which will be an elaboration of the notion of articulation of and through the body. This will be followed by an examination of enkinaesthetic experiential entanglement and the role it plays in rendering our world meaningful and our actions values-realising. At this stage I will begin to extend Husserl’s notion of intentional transgression to the enkinaesthetic sphere of lived experience, and in support of this claim I will examine the theoretical and practical work of osteopathic manual listening [Gens &amp; Roche 2014] and the ‘felt sense’ in focusing [Gendlin] which makes possible a shift from a somatic articulation to a semantic, and potentially conceptual, one. Throughout, my position will be compatible with Merleau-Ponty’s claim that “Whenever I try to understand myself, the whole fabric of the perceptible world comes too, and with it comes the others who are caught in it.” [Merleau-Ponty 1964a, p.15]

Systematic changes of the Nb-Sn reaction with time, temperature and alloying in Restacked-Rod-Process (RRP) Nb3Sn strands

Reaction heat treatments spanning 605 to 750 C and 24 to {approx}400 hours were applied to several sets of RRP strands. Magnetization and transport measurements were used to track the changes of superconducting properties and the amounts of Nb{sub 3}Sn formed. The experiments showed that temperature increases of 15 C produced equivalent properties in half the time within the temperature range 620-680 C. This result was the same whether Ta or Ti was used to alloy the Nb{sub 3}Sn. The bulk pinning force Fp for Ta-alloyed wires displayed a significant drop for temperatures outside the range above, due to tin gradients at low temperatures and grain growth at high temperatures. The F{sub p} drop at high reaction temperatures prevents wire technology from taking advantage of significantly higher Kramer-plot intercept H{sub K} for high-temperature reactions. On the other hand, Ti alloying provides a quick and potent means to increase H{sub K} at reaction temperatures for which F{sub p} remains high

Emergency care of esophageal foreign body impactions: timing, treatment modalities, and resource utilization: Emergency care of EFBI

Esophageal foreign body impaction (EFBI) often requires urgent evaluation and treatment, but characteristics of ED care such as timing of presentation and therapeutic procedures and costs of care are unknown. We aimed to study healthcare utilization for patients with EFBI presenting to the Emergency Department (ED). Cases of EFBI from 2002 to 2009 were identified by querying three different databases from the University of North Carolina Hospitals for all records with ICD-9 CM code 935.1: “foreign body in the esophagus.” Charts were reviewed to confirm EFBI and extract pertinent data related to the ED visit, including time of presentation, length of ED stay, medications administered, type of procedure performed and characteristics of procedures, and time to therapeutic procedure. Hospital charges for EFBI encounters and consult fees were determined from the Physicians’ Fee Reference 2010, and were compiled to estimate costs. Of the 548 cases of EFBI identified, 351 subjects (64%) presented to the ED. A total of 118 (34%) patients received a medication to treat EFBI, which was only effective in 8% of those patients. 290 (83%) subjects underwent a procedure including EGD (65%) or ENT-performed laryngoscopy/esophagoscopy (40%). Admission to the hospital occurred in 162 (46%) of cases. There was no relationship between ED arrival time and time-to-procedure or total time in ED. There was also no significant relationship between delivery of ED medications and likelihood of undergoing a procedure, or between ED arrival time and delivery of medications. The charges associated with a typical EFBI episode ranged from $2,284–6,218. In conclusion, the majority of patients with EFBI at our institution present to the ED. Medical management was largely ineffective. A therapeutic procedure was required to clear the EFBI in most patients. Time of ED arrival made no difference in time-to-procedure, indicating that GI and ENT specialists recognize the urgency of treating EFBI regardless of time of day

Polymer depletion interaction between two parallel repulsive walls

The depletion interaction between two parallel repulsive walls confining a dilute solution of long and flexible polymer chains is studied by field-theoretic methods. Special attention is paid to self-avoidance between chain monomers relevant for polymers in a good solvent. Our direct approach avoids the mapping of the actual polymer chains on effective hard or soft spheres. We compare our results with recent Monte Carlo simulations [A. Milchev and K. Binder, Eur. Phys. J. B 3, 477 (1998)] and with experimental results for the depletion interaction between a spherical colloidal particle and a planar wall in a dilute solution of nonionic polymers [D. Rudhardt, C. Bechinger, and P. Leiderer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1330 (1998)].Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures. Final version as publishe

Cognitive loading affects motor awareness and movement kinematics but not locomotor trajectories during goal-directed walking in a virtual reality environment.

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of cognitive loading on movement kinematics and trajectory formation during goal-directed walking in a virtual reality (VR) environment. The secondary objective was to measure how participants corrected their trajectories for perturbed feedback and how participants' awareness of such perturbations changed under cognitive loading. We asked 14 healthy young adults to walk towards four different target locations in a VR environment while their movements were tracked and played back in real-time on a large projection screen. In 75% of all trials we introduced angular deviations of ±5° to ±30° between the veridical walking trajectory and the visual feedback. Participants performed a second experimental block under cognitive load (serial-7 subtraction, counter-balanced across participants). We measured walking kinematics (joint-angles, velocity profiles) and motor performance (end-point-compensation, trajectory-deviations). Motor awareness was determined by asking participants to rate the veracity of the feedback after every trial. In-line with previous findings in natural settings, participants displayed stereotypical walking trajectories in a VR environment. Our results extend these findings as they demonstrate that taxing cognitive resources did not affect trajectory formation and deviations although it interfered with the participants' movement kinematics, in particular walking velocity. Additionally, we report that motor awareness was selectively impaired by the secondary task in trials with high perceptual uncertainty. Compared with data on eye and arm movements our findings lend support to the hypothesis that the central nervous system (CNS) uses common mechanisms to govern goal-directed movements, including locomotion. We discuss our results with respect to the use of VR methods in gait control and rehabilitation