Examining mindfulness-based stress reduction: Perceptions from minority older adults residing in a low-income housing facility

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programs are becoming increasingly common, but have not been studied in low income minority older populations. We sought to understand which parts of MBSR were most important to practicing MBSR members of this population, and to understand whether they apply their training to daily challenges.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted three focus groups with 13 current members of an MBSR program. Participants were African American women over the age of 60 in a low-income housing residence. We tape recorded each session and subsequently used inductive content analysis to identify primary themes.</p> <p>Results and discussion</p> <p>Analysis of the focus group responses revealed three primary themes stress management, applying mindfulness, and the social support of the group meditation. The stressors they cited using MBSR with included growing older with physical pain, medical tests, financial strain, and having grandchildren with significant mental, physical, financial or legal hardships. We found that participants particularly used their MBSR training for coping with medical procedures, and managing both depression and anger.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A reflective stationary intervention delivered in-residence could be an ideal mechanism to decrease stress in low-income older adult's lives and improve their health.</p

Charge separation: From the topology of molecular electronic transitions to the dye/semiconductor interfacial energetics and kinetics

Charge separation properties, that is the ability of a chromophore, or a chromophore/semiconductor interface, to separate charges upon light absorption, are crucial characteristics for an efficient photovoltaic device. Starting from this concept, we devote the first part of this book chapter to the topological analysis of molecular electronic transitions induced by photon capture. Such analysis can be either qualitative or quantitative, and is presented here in the framework of the reduced density matrix theory applied to single-reference, multiconfigurational excited states. The qualitative strategies are separated into density-based and wave function-based approaches, while the quantitative methods reported here for analysing the photoinduced charge transfer nature are either fragment-based, global or statistical. In the second part of this chapter we extend the analysis to dye-sensitized metal oxide surface models, discussing interfacial charge separation, energetics and electron injection kinetics from the dye excited state to the semiconductor conduction band states

Search for rare quark-annihilation decays, B --> Ds(*) Phi

We report on searches for B- --> Ds- Phi and B- --> Ds*- Phi. In the context of the Standard Model, these decays are expected to be highly suppressed since they proceed through annihilation of the b and u-bar quarks in the B- meson. Our results are based on 234 million Upsilon(4S) --> B Bbar decays collected with the BABAR detector at SLAC. We find no evidence for these decays, and we set Bayesian 90% confidence level upper limits on the branching fractions BF(B- --> Ds- Phi) Ds*- Phi)<1.2x10^(-5). These results are consistent with Standard Model expectations.Comment: 8 pages, 3 postscript figues, submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Rapid Communications

Revisiting Gender Differences in Somatic Symptoms of Depression: Much Ado about Nothing?

Women have a higher prevalence of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and report more severe depressive symptoms than men. Several studies have suggested that gender differences in depression may occur because women report higher levels of somatic symptoms than men. Those studies, however, have not controlled or matched for non-somatic symptoms. The objective of this study was to examine if women report relatively more somatic symptoms than men matched on cognitive/affective symptoms.Male and female patients receiving treatment for MDD in outpatient psychiatric clinics in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, USA were matched on Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) cognitive/affective symptom scores. Male and female BDI-II somatic symptom scores were compared using independent samples 2-tailed t-tests.Of 472 male and 1,026 female patients, there were 470 male patients (mean age = 40.1 years, SD = 15.1) and 470 female patients (mean age = 43.1 years, SD = 17.2) successfully matched on BDI-II cognitive/affective symptom scores. Somatic symptoms accounted for 35% of total BDI-II scores for male patients versus 38% for matched female patients. Female patients had somatic symptom scores on average 1.3 points higher than males (p<.001), equivalent to 4% of the total BDI-II scores of female patients. Only 5% of male patients and 7% of female patients scored 2 or higher on all BDI-II somatic symptom items.Gender differences in somatic scores were very small. Thus, differences in the experience and reporting of somatic symptoms would not likely explain gender differences in depression rates and symptom severity

The Postpartum Specific Anxiety Scale: development and preliminary validation

Perinatal symptoms of anxiety are increasingly recognised due to their high prevalence and impact. Studies using pregnancy-specific anxiety measures have found that they may predict perinatal outcomes more effectively than general measures. However, no such measure exists to assess anxieties specific to the postpartum. This study aimed to develop and validate a measure (Postpartum Specific Anxiety Scale; PSAS) that accurately represents the specific anxieties faced by postpartum women, using a four-stage methodology: (1) 51 items were generated from interviews conducted with a group of 19 postpartum women at two time points, (2) the scale was reviewed and refined by a diverse expert panel, (3) an online pilot study (n = 146) was conducted to assess comprehensibility and acceptability and (4) an online sample of 1282 mothers of infants up to 6 months old completed the PSAS against a battery of convergent measures. A subsample (n = 262) repeated the PSAS 2 weeks later. The PSAS possessed good face and content validity and was comprehensible and acceptable to postpartum women. PSAS scores were significantly correlated with other measures indicating good convergent validity. Principal component analyses (PCA) revealed a simple four-factor structure. Reliability of the overall scale and individual PSAS factors proved to be good to excellent. A preliminary receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis also suggested that the PSAS may be a useful screening tool. The psychometric evidence suggests that the PSAS is an acceptable, valid, and reliable research tool to assess anxieties, which are specific to the postpartum period. Next steps in the iterative validation process are considered for both research and screening purposes

Heterogeneous Glycation of Cancellous Bone and Its Association with Bone Quality and Fragility

Non-enzymatic glycation (NEG) and enzymatic biochemical processes create crosslinks that modify the extracellular matrix (ECM) and affect the turnover of bone tissue. Because NEG affects turnover and turnover at the local level affects microarchitecture and formation and removal of microdamage, we hypothesized that NEG in cancellous bone is heterogeneous and accounts partly for the contribution of microarchitecture and microdamage on bone fragility. Human trabecular bone cores from 23 donors were subjected to compression tests. Mechanically tested cores as well as an additional 19 cores were stained with lead-uranyl acetate and imaged to determine microarchitecture and measure microdamage. Post-yield mechanical properties were measured and damaged trabeculae were extracted from a subset of specimens and characterized for the morphology of induced microdamage. Tested specimens and extracted trabeculae were quantified for enzymatic and non-enzymatic crosslink content using a colorimetric assay and Ultra-high Performance Liquid Chromatography (UPLC). Results show that an increase in enzymatic crosslinks was beneficial for bone where they were associated with increased toughness and decreased microdamage. Conversely, bone with increased NEG required less strain to reach failure and were less tough. NEG heterogeneously modified trabecular microarchitecture where high amounts of NEG crosslinks were found in trabecular rods and with the mechanically deleterious form of microdamage (linear microcracks). The extent of NEG in tibial cancellous bone was the dominant predictor of bone fragility and was associated with changes in microarchitecture and microdamage

Anti-cancer drug validation: the contribution of tissue engineered models

Abstract Drug toxicity frequently goes concealed until clinical trials stage, which is the most challenging, dangerous and expensive stage of drug development. Both the cultures of cancer cells in traditional 2D assays and animal studies have limitations that cannot ever be unraveled by improvements in drug-testing protocols. A new generation of bioengineered tumors is now emerging in response to these limitations, with potential to transform drug screening by providing predictive models of tumors within their tissue context, for studies of drug safety and efficacy. Considering the NCI60, a panel of 60 cancer cell lines representative of 9 different cancer types: leukemia, lung, colorectal, central nervous system (CNS), melanoma, ovarian, renal, prostate and breast, we propose to review current Bstate of art^ on the 9 cancer types specifically addressing the 3D tissue models that have been developed and used in drug discovery processes as an alternative to complement their studyThis article is a result of the project FROnTHERA (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000023), supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). This article was also supported by the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation HORIZON 2020 (H2020) under grant agreement n° 668983 — FoReCaST. FCT distinction attributed to Joaquim M. Oliveira (IF/00423/2012) and Vitor M. Correlo (IF/01214/2014) under the Investigator FCT program is also greatly acknowledged.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Chemogenomic Analysis of G-Protein Coupled Receptors and Their Ligands Deciphers Locks and Keys Governing Diverse Aspects of Signalling

Understanding the molecular mechanism of signalling in the important super-family of G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) is causally related to questions of how and where these receptors can be activated or inhibited. In this context, it is of great interest to unravel the common molecular features of GPCRs as well as those related to an active or inactive state or to subtype specific G-protein coupling. In our underlying chemogenomics study, we analyse for the first time the statistical link between the properties of G-protein-coupled receptors and GPCR ligands. The technique of mutual information (MI) is able to reveal statistical inter-dependence between variations in amino acid residues on the one hand and variations in ligand molecular descriptors on the other. Although this MI analysis uses novel information that differs from the results of known site-directed mutagenesis studies or published GPCR crystal structures, the method is capable of identifying the well-known common ligand binding region of GPCRs between the upper part of the seven transmembrane helices and the second extracellular loop. The analysis shows amino acid positions that are sensitive to either stimulating (agonistic) or inhibitory (antagonistic) ligand effects or both. It appears that amino acid positions for antagonistic and agonistic effects are both concentrated around the extracellular region, but selective agonistic effects are cumulated between transmembrane helices (TMHs) 2, 3, and ECL2, while selective residues for antagonistic effects are located at the top of helices 5 and 6. Above all, the MI analysis provides detailed indications about amino acids located in the transmembrane region of these receptors that determine G-protein signalling pathway preferences