The Importance of Mindfulness in the Achievement of Optimal Functioning: Conceptualization for Research Development

The concept of ‘optimal functioning’ has emerged as a major line of research development in educational psychology. Optimal functioning, which reflects the paradigm of positive psychology, is concerned with a person’s achievement of maximization in his/her functioning, whether it is mental, cognitive, emotional, or social. This inquiry places strong emphasis on importance of flourishing, happiness, and the proactivity of human endeavors. An important question then for consideration, from this testament, is how researchers optimize the achievement of optimal functioning. We have recently made progress by focusing on empirical research development and methodological conceptualizations into the study of optimization. Our conceptualizations, collectively, contend that there are psychological, educational, and psychosocial variables that operate as sources of ‘energization’, which then stimulate the buoyancy of motivation, personal resolve, effective functioning, strength, and effort expenditure. Energization, in its totality, from our postulation, may then arouse, intensify, and sustain a person’s internal state of functioning. Our cross-institutional, cross-cultural research collaboration (e.g., Australia, Malaysia, and Taiwan), to date, has considered one notably construct that could serve as a source of internal energization for the achievement of functioning: mindfulness. We strongly believe that the totality of mindfulness, positive in nature, could play a central role in the psychological processes of human agency

The Severity of Fatty Liver Disease Relating to Metabolic Abnormalities Independently Predicts Coronary Calcification

Background. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the metabolic disorders presented in liver. The relationship between severity of NAFLD and coronary atherosclerotic burden remains largely unknown. Methods and Materials. We analyzed subjects undergoing coronary calcium score evaluation by computed tomography (MDCT) and fatty liver assessment using abdominal ultrasonography. Framingham risk score (FRS) and metabolic risk score (MRS) were obtained in all subjects. A graded, semiquantitative score was established to quantify the severity of NAFLD. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to depict the association between NAFLD and calcium score. Results. Of all, 342 participants (female: 22.5%, mean age: 48.7 ± 7.0 years) met the sufficient information rendering detailed analysis. The severity of NAFLD was positively associated with MRS (X2 = 6.12, trend P < 0.001) and FRS (X2 = 5.88, trend P < 0.001). After multivariable adjustment for clinical variables and life styles, the existence of moderate to severe NAFLD was independently associated with abnormal calcium score (P < 0.05). Conclusion. The severity of NAFLD correlated well with metabolic abnormality and was independently predict coronary calcification beyond clinical factors. Our data suggests that NAFLD based on ultrasonogram could positively reflect the burden of coronary calcification

Predicting and enhancing students' positive emotions: An empirical study from a Taiwanese sociocultural context

Predicting and enhancing positive emotions, reflecting the tenets of positive psychology, is of considerable importance for educators. Positive emotions may consist of a person's indication of happiness, joy, and love. In school and university settings, as research has shown, positive emotions play a pivotal role in helping students adjust, make friends, and engage in proactive social relationships with others. It is imperative for us to consider the design and development of educational programs that could assist in the facilitation of positive emotions. The present study involved examination of an inquiry into the prediction of positive emotion of university students, via means of data drawn from Taiwan. The main question for consideration is to determine the extent to which both social (e.g., the social milieu) and personal (e.g., personal resolve) influences could predict positive emotions. Structural equation modelling yielded support for our proposed a priori model: (a) the direct predictive effects of the social milieu, personal resolve, relating to others, and academic liking experience, and (b) the potential mediating roles of relating to others, and academic liking experience. Overall, the concept of emotions plays a central role and is accounted for by different types of personal and social contextual influences

Acupuncture Effects on Cardiac Functions Measured by Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging in a Feline Model

The usefulness of acupuncture (AP) as a complementary and/or alternative therapy in animals is well established but more research is needed on its clinical efficacy relative to conventional therapy, and on the underlying mechanisms of the effects of AP. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI), an important tool in monitoring cardiovascular diseases, provides a reliable method to monitor the effects of AP on the cardiovascular system. This controlled experiment monitored the effect electro-acupuncture (EA) at bilateral acupoint Neiguan (PC6) on recovery time after ketamine/xylazine cocktail anesthesia in healthy cats. The CMRI data established the basic feline cardiac function index (CFI), including cardiac output and major vessel velocity. To evaluate the effect of EA on the functions of the autonomic nervous and cardiovascular systems, heart rate, respiration rate, electrocardiogram and pulse rate were also measured. Ketamine/xylazine cocktail anesthesia caused a transient hypertension in the cats; EA inhibited this anesthetic-induced hypertension and shortened the post-anesthesia recovery time. Our data support existing knowledge on the cardiovascular benefits of EA at PC6, and also provide strong evidence for the combination of anesthesia and EA to shorten post-anesthesia recovery time and counter the negative effects of anesthetics on cardiac physiology

Sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and gold nanoparticle immunochromatocgraphic strip for rapid detecting chloramphenicol in food

Antibody specific to chloramphenicol (CAP) was produced from rabbit that had been immunized with CAP‐keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH). Using the antibodies, we established a sensitive direct competitive enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (dcELISA) and a gold nanoparticle immunochromatographic strip (immunostrip) for detection CAP in food samples. In the dcELISA, CAP at levels of 0.15 ng/ml causes 50% inhibition (IC₅₀) of the binding of CAP‐horseradish peroxidase to the antibodies. The overall analytical recoveries of CAP (0.25–100 ng/g) added to the honey or milk samples in the dcELISA were 81.9 and 73.7%, respectively. Onsite determination of CAP was accomplished by immunostrips with a detection limit of 0.5 ng/ml and completed within 10 min. Carefully studying 10 honey and 6 milk samples using the dcELISA and immunostrip indicated that all examined samples were negative for CAP. The presented dcELISA and immunostrip methods are sensitive enough for the rapid determination of CAP in the samples

Respiratory perception measured by cortical neural activations in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder

There has been evidence for the effect of anxiety on the neural processing of respiratory sensation using the respiratory-related evoked potentials (RREP) elicited by inspiratory occlusions. This study tested the RREP elicited by inspiratory occlusions in a group of outpatients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and a group of healthy controls. We hypothesized that the RREP P3 peak would be modulated in the GAD patients. A RREP oddball paradigm of 150-ms inspiratory occlusion protocol was used in 15 GAD patients and 11 healthy adults with normal lung functions. The RREP was recorded with a 40-channel electroencephalography (EEG) system. A minimum of 100 occlusions was collected for data analysis. We found that the averaged P3 latency of the GAD patients was significantly longer than the P3 latency of the healthy controls. In addition, the GAD group showed significantly reduced P3 amplitudes compared to the control group. No group differences in latency and amplitudes were found for earlier RREP components. These results demonstrated that a delayed and reduced attention peak (P3) is present in patients with GAD. This suggests that GAD as a disease state modulates the higher order processing of respiratory perception.publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Respiratory perception measured by cortical neural activations in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder journaltitle: Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resp.2014.09.009 content_type: article copyright: Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.status: publishe

Respiratory Sensory Gating measured by Respiratory-Related Evoked Potentials in Generalized Anxiety Disorder

The perception of respiratory sensations plays an important role both in respiratory diseases and in anxiety disorders. However, little is known about the neural processes underlying respiratory sensory perception, especially in patient groups. Therefore, the present study examined whether patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) would demonstrate altered respiratory sensory gating compared to a healthy control group. Respiratory-related evoked potentials (RREP) were measured in a paired inspiratory occlusion paradigm presenting two brief occlusion stimuli (S1 and S2) within one inspiration. The results showed a significantly greater S2/S1 ratio for the N1 component of the RREP in the GAD group compared to the control group. Our findings suggest altered respiratory sensory processing in patients with GAD, which might contribute to altered perception of respiratory sensations in these patients

Effects of Helmholtz coil magnetic fields on microstructure and mechanical properties for sand-cast A201 Al-Cu alloy

In this report, the effects of magnetic fields by using Helmholtz coils on the microstructures and mechanical properties of sand-casting Al-Cu alloys were firstly investigated. Due to the magnetic field stirring effect during the solidification process, the average grain size of sand-casting A201 ingots decreased, and the uniformity of α -Al grain increased. The grain refinement by the magnetic fields equipped with Helmholtz coils enhanced the mechanical properties of sand-casting A201 ingots, including hardness, yield strength, ultimate tensile strength and elongation. Meanwhile, according to the characterization of x-ray diffraction, preferred orientation (111) planes of α -Al phase was observed as the increase of the magnetic field. The magnetic field of Helmholtz coils provided the Lorenz force to agitate the melt during the solidification of sand-casting Al-Cu ingots, which had influence on the migration of solid-liquid interface and the rotation of the single-crystal nucleus. In summary, an easy and low-cost technique was proposed to improve the mechanical properties of sand-casting A201 alloys

Prognostic nutritional index and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio predict toxicities and prognosis in patients with cervical cancer treated with curative radiochemotherapy

Background: This study aimed to investigate the influence of immunonutritional factors on treatment-related toxicities and survival outcomes in patients with cervical cancer undergoing definitive radiochemotherapy. Methods: Patients with cervical cancer who received curative radiochemotherapy between 2016 and 2021 were retrospectively investigated. Pretreatment prognostic nutritional index (PNI), neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were measured. Survival outcomes, acute and late toxicities were evaluated. Results: Among the 138 patients, those with larger tumor diameters had significantly lower pre-treatment PNI (p = 0.005). Pre-treatment immunonutritional factors were predictive of clinical survival, whereas post-treatment factors did not correlate with prognosis. Patients with low pre-treatment PNI (2.4) had shorter progression-free survival (PFS, HR: 1.86, p = 0.045 for PNI; HR: 3.15, p = 0.002 for NLR) and overall survival (OS, HR: 1.80, p = 0.048 for PNI; HR: 3.83, p = 0.015 for NLR). High pre-treatment NLR was associated with an increased risk of acute diarrhea (p = 0.049) and late severe toxicities (p = 0.046). Combined analysis revealed that pre-treatment good nutritional status and low systemic inflammation were linked to longer PFS (p = 0.007) and OS (p = 0.002), and poor nutritional status and substantial systemic inflammation were associated with higher rates of late severe toxicities (p = 0.036), with higher prognostic value in advanced stage patients. Conclusion: Pretreatment immunonutritional measures serve as quantitative biomarkers for predicting survivals and treatment toxicities in patients with cervical cancer treated with definitive radiochemotherapy