bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Exploring the Relationship Between Subjective Ratings of Mindfulness Practices and Outcomes in Patients Participating in an MBSR Program
Authors: Bernardi Nicolò F. , Zhao Qinyi , Dobkin Patricia L 
Published: September 2017

Objectives: The present study explored relationships between outcomes of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program and the importance attributed by patients to the mindfulness practices taught.Methods: Patients with chronic illnesses (46.8% breast cancer; N=126) completed questionnaires pertaining to medical symptoms, stress, and mindfulness, pre- and post-MBSR. At program completion, each patient rated the importance of the mindfulness practices employed. Stepwise linear regression analyses were run to investigate associations between changes in outcome variables and subjective ratings of practice importance.Results: Increases in mindfulness were associated with high ratings of importance for sitting meditation (p LT 0.02) and homework manual (p LT 0.02; Adjusted R2 = 0.10). Decreases in medical symptoms were associated with high ratings for the body scan (p LT 0.01) and small group exercises (p LT 0.01; Adjusted R2 = 0.13). High ratings for the body scan were moderately, albeit significantly, correlated with decreases in perceived stress (p LT 0.01, Adjusted R2 = 0.05). A cluster analysis performed on all 10 of the ratings of practice importance showed that greater importance was associated with better outcomes for all three dependent variables (p LT 0.01). A qualitative examination of patients’ answers to open-ended questions revealed that incorporating mindfulness practices in daily life was a central component of the lifestyle changes experienced during the course of the program.Conclusions: Understanding the mechanisms underlying MBSR’s effectiveness is important as this program becomes recognized as an empirically-supported intervention. These results suggest that specific types of practice (concentration vs. the body scan) are related to distinct outcomes (dispositional mindfulness vs. medical symptoms, respectively). Overall, awareness of the importance of practicing is connected to actual program outcomes.
Person-Centred Dentistry: When Do We Start?
Authors: Apelian Nareg , Vergnes Jean-Noel , Bedos Christophe 
Published: September 2017

Objectives: Although most health professions have adopted person-centred approaches in the last decades, dental professionals still rely on traditional paternalistic models. The objective of this research was to develop a model of person-centred care in dental practice.Methods: Adopting an action-research approach, we started our process by adapting Stewart and colleagues' model of person-centred care to the field of dentistry. We then implemented and tested the new clinical approach in a private dental office of Montreal, Canada. During several months, an academic researcher observed the clinical activities of a dental practitioner, who was also the first researcher. At the end of each appointment, the observer and the practitioner shared their observations about the encounter and evaluated the clinical approach. Both suggested improvements to the model and implemented solutions to the next patients. After 39 rounds of observation-evaluation-improvement, a form of saturation was reached in the development of the clinical approach.Results: The clinical encounter goes through four different stages. The first stage is how the relationship is built through an open dialogue on illness, fears and expectations. The second stage consists in gathering clinical information through examination, tests and questioning. The third stage is a disease-centered presentation of the results of the examination. The final stage is the development of a treatment plan after establishing a common ground through frank discussions and shared decision making. From this approach, a model emerged consisting in a stage of understanding, followed by planning, intervention, then back to understanding. This cycle takes place within the context of a patient-dentist relationship with mutual trust. This relationship, central to the encounter, acknowledges the whole-person dimension and psychosocial context of each party.Conclusions: We hope this model will inspire other professionals and teaching institutions to develop their own approaches by using it as a theoretical framework.
The Caregiver’s Wandering: The Quest for Identity Integration in the Workplace Using Reflection, Talking Circles, and Creative Expression
Authors: Annoual Pascale 
Published: September 2017

These workshops are inspired by the observations of the author in the field of mental health services delivery. The way the caregiver’s role is interpreted is different between the caregiver and the management team - the clinician cannot imagine her professional commitment without considering personal values and motivations, whereas the employer considers personal motivations an impairment to professional effectiveness. This may explain the high rate of burnout for the practitioners working in already stressful conditions in healthcare. Could the reconciliation of personal and professional dimensions prevent this disavowal of human capital? Holistic art therapy proposes to integrate the divide, to repair the rupture often experienced by the caregiver in clinical practice. Furthermore the ethnopsychiatry approach helps to reintegrate bio-psychosocial and spiritual narratives to rebalance the power struggles of workplace which may undermine the professional’s performance and fundamental raison d’être. The caregiver can become whole, balancing interpersonal, interdisciplinary and intercultural dimensions in healthcare practices.
Integral Medicine: Treating the Whole—Patient, Provider, Healthcare System
Authors: Petrie David , Kreisberg Joel , Huffaker Gary , Baron Short Edward , Jarrín Olga 
Published: September 2017

Purpose: Integral Medicine is an approach to health, disease and healing that invites multiple perspectives and modes of inquiry to synergistically support healing for patients, providers and health care systems.Approach: Integral Theory is a framework for organizing information that considers four perspectives essential to view the whole patient simultaneously – any or all of which may illuminate health or illness in a patient, population or system: “Interior-Individual” (mind, psycho-spiritual development, etc.), “Exterior-Individual” (molecules, cells, organs, bodies, etc.), “Interior-Collective” (cultural, ethical practices or norms, etc.), and “Exterior-Collective” (socioeconomic, environmental system, etc.).Major Points: In practice, the application of Integral Theory to patient care can lead to four quadrant diagnosis and therapy for everything from status asthmaticus to chronic fatigue syndrome. When applied to the personal and professional development of providers an Integral Theory framework may improve critical thinking, ethical reasoning, mindfulness and empathy. At the healthcare system design level, patients have better outcomes when cared for by organizations ranked as having better work environments (where nurses report low rates of burnout, adequate time with patients, good relationships with colleagues, and opportunities for advanced training and continuing education).Conclusions: Treating the whole person becomes more than simply including body, mind and spirit. The whole person includes multiple epistemological ways of knowing. Building on Integrative, Alternative, Complementary, Evidence-based Medicine, and Values-based care, Integral Medicine offers a methodology for integrating the “best” of each of these medical methodologies. Integral Theory, in this respect, can act as a meta-theory weaving together many of the converging concepts emerging in the service of whole patient care. Integral methodology also provides a common map/language for knowledge integration/translation and a shared inter-professional approach to whole patient care at the patient, population and health system levels.
Making sense of a diagnosis of incurable cancer: The importance of communication
Authors: Lobb Elizabeth Anne , Lacey Judith , Liauw Winston S , White Lesley E , Hosie Annmarie , Kearsley John H 
Published: September 2017

Purpose: Patients diagnosed with incurable cancer may experience existential distressand difficulty in re-appraising their lives because of uncertainty about the future. Objectives: This study sought to understand how patients living with incurable cancer made sense of their diagnosis, how they prepared for the future and what support they wanted from their health professionals. Subjects: 27 patients were recruited from the oncology and palliative care service at three metropolitan hospitals. Methods: A qualitative research approach was used. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted. Interviews were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Data was analyzed using the constant-comparative method. Results: Participants did not express a need to make sense of their diagnosis nor always ascribe to a particular religious belief; rather, many relied on a personal spirituality or philosophy to bring meaning to their experience. Importance was placed on their doctor keeping up with technology, being honest, and being confident and positive. Conclusion: Participants in this study had incurable cancer but making sense of their current situation was not a conscious priority. For these patients, uncertainty was a positive, as certainty for them indicates death is approaching. What these interviews suggest, from the patient’s perspective, is that there is an implied contract between doctor and patient during this period which involves the doctor managing the flow of difficult information so that the patient can maintain normality for as long as possible. Understanding this helps to explain the difficulty of having advance care planning conversations within this setting, despite the many opportunities that a longer disease trajectory would seem to offer.
Transformative Learning as the Basis for Teaching Healing
Authors: Kearsley John H. 
Published: September 2017

The author describes the nature of transformative education, and highlights the potential importance of its implementation in creating physician-healers and propagating whole person care. The author proposes that teaching courses in healing are integral to the professional identity formation of “doctors as healers”. The teaching of Healing in workshop format for medical students is used as a template to suggest innovative teaching models (after Mezirow, Boyd and Myers, Daloz and Dirkx) which may be used to engender personal transformation in doctors and medical students, many of whom are trained as applied scientists in health.
Who experiences depressive symptoms following mindfulness-based stress reduction and why?
Authors: Dobkin Patricia Lynn , Zhao Qinyi , Monshat Kaveh 
Published: September 2017

Background: A small percentage of patients screen positive for depression following a mindfulness-based program. We identified patient characteristics associated with this outcome in order to understand this phenomenon.Methods: Depressive symptoms, stress, mindfulness, coping with illness and sense of coherence were measured in 126 patients with various medical and psychological conditions pre- and post- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Results: Fewer patients (27% vs. 49%) screened positive for depression post-MBSR. Both pre- and post-MBSR patients who were depressive following MBSR scored lower on meaningfulness, comprehensibility, and manageability (sense of coherence), higher on emotional coping and lower on palliative and distraction coping. Smaller positive changes (e.g. stress) occurred in these patients as well. Viewing life as less meaningful pre-MBSR predicted more symptoms of depression post-MBSR.Conclusions: Patients who suffered depressive symptoms following the program were unable to reappraise their lives in such a way as to become stress resilient.
Emergence of the Epizootic Ulcerative Syndrome in Pond Reared Carp Fish (Cyprinids) and It's Control Measure in Chitwan, Central Nepal
Authors: Rayamajhi Asha , Shrestha Swayam Prakash , Prasad Bhagwat 
Published: September 2017

A survey on epizootic ulcerative syndrome (EUS) was carried in carp fish (cyprinids) reared in ponds during January 2016 to January 2017 at six locations of Chitwan, Nepal. Outbreaks of EUS were observed in 39.6% of the carp during winter. EUS infection was the most for Cirrhinus mrigala (47.3% of the 170 samples) and the least for Labeo rohita (12.3% of the 65 samples). EUS infected fish weighing range between 15g-300g were characterized as extensive deep ulceration on head, dorsal and lateral part of body and at caudal peduncle region. Histopathology examination of affected tissue of skin with adjacent muscles showed mycotic granulomas indicated a positive diagnosis for EUS. Survey results indicate that poor water quality in undrained ponds, uncontrolled entry of flooded water into the pond, runoff water from adjacent paddy field and use of contaminated equipment and seine nets were found to trigger risk for EUS infection in carp pond. Impact assessment of EUS showed that average economic loss due to EUS fish disease was 2257.92 kg/ha/year (33.01%) of the expected production. The highest economic loss of 1432.14 kg/ ha/year (53.53%) was estimated for large farm and lowest loss of 950 kg/ha/year (5%) for medium size farm. The simultaneous application of Ciphalexin in feed at 80mg.kg-1 biomass of fish for 15 consecutive days and two applications of Kohrsolin-TH at 900 ml/ha (1 m pond depth water) at weekly interval was found effective to control EUS infection in carps. The combined efficacy of these two drugs was estimated to be 97.7% control of EUS infection in carp fish. Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 5(3): 313-320
Perspective Response of Climate Change Impacts on Agricultural Crops in Sauraha-Pharsatikar VDC, Rupandehi District, Nepal
Authors: Khanal Kapil , Khanal Subodh , Dhungana Surya Mani 
Published: September 2017

A survey research was conducted in Sauraha-Pharsatikar VDC of the Rupandehi district to study the perspective response of the farming communities on the impacts of the climate change in agricultural crops. Primary information was collected from household survey by administering pre-tested questionnaire and necessary data were collected from National Wheat Research Project (NWRP), Bhairahawa. Several results are obtained on the recall basis of the respondents thus they can not assumed correctly and all the past information provided by the farmers cannot be cross checked due to the lack of sufficient and reliable system for recording and checking. The trend analysis of rainfall data of Bhairahawa of 30 years (1984-2013) showed that the pattern of rainfall was irregular and it was in a decreasing trend by 1.944 mm per year and average maximum temperature has increased by 0.0.15oC and average minimum temperature has increased by 0.0.61oC per year which justifies that the summers are growing hotter and winters are growing warmer. About 52% of the respondents suggested monsoon starts earlier, 85% suggested there is more intense rain during the monsoon and 91.75% suggested drought has increased. 98.33% of the respondents perceived that the summer has become hotter. In general there is increase in the yield of cereal crops whereas the yield of pulses, legumes and vegetables had declined. Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 5(3): 345-355
Quantification of Cry1Ac Protein in Bt Eggplant Fruits
Authors: Khatun M.M. , Hasan M.K. , Jamil M.K. , Khanam D. 
Published: September 2017

The cultivation of genetically engineered crops has been expanded rapidly in worldwide in a very short span of time. Bt eggplant is a transgenic eggplant created by inserting a crystal protein gene Cry1Ac from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. Four Bt eggplant varieties - BARI Bt Eggplant-1, BARI Bt Eggplant-2, BARI Bt Eggplant-3 and BARI Bt Eggplant-4 are started to cultivate in Bangladesh in 2014 as first genetically engineered crop in the country. In the present study, ELISA technique was adopted to quantify the Cry1Ac proteins in the fruits of newly released four Bt eggplant varieties. The expression of Cry1Ac was found among the fruits of the varieties varied from 29.53 to 33.99 µg g-1. Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 5(3): 356-360
Screening, Identification of Alkaline Proteases Producing Fungi from Soil of Different Habitats of Amalner Tahsil [Maharashtra] and Their Applications
Authors: Suryawanshi H.K. , Pandya N.D. 
Published: September 2017

Fungal proteases had wide applications in textile, leather, food and Pharmaceutical industries. As proteases shows proteolytic activity they are helpful in proteinic stain removal hence also used in various commercial detergent industries. For fungal isolation soil samples were collected from different sites of Amalner tahsil. (Maharashtra) e.g. crop fields, near dairy areas, poultry farms etc. Those soil samples showing alkaline pH were selected for isolation of fungi on Potato Dextrose Agar plates. Then among 14 different isolates 2 were selected for their most proteolytic activity after screening on casein agar, skimmed milk agar and gelatine agar. For submerged fermentation, these selected isolates were inoculated in production media in shake flask. After 72 hrs, plate assay was performed by taking crude enzyme after filtration and centrifugation as well as by taking partially purified enzyme.(partial purification done by ammonium sulphate precipitation method). Protease activity assay was performed by agar well diffusion method, as well as blood clot lysis activity and blood stain removal ability of protease obtained from selected isolates was studied.Selected isolates were identified,among them Aspergillus niger gives more proteolytic activity than Trichoderma longibrachiatum. Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 5(3): 397-402
Rivers of God, Rivers of Empire: Climate Extremes, Environmental Transformation and Agroecology in Colonial Mexico
Authors: Skopyk Bradley 
Published: September 2017

Abstract

This paper explores the social-ecological effects of the Little Ice Age (1300-1850) in colonial Central Mexico. Archival research reconstructs the history of climate, soil, water and agriculture in two Central Mexican watersheds: the Zahuapan River in Tlaxcala and the San Juan River in the Teotihuacan Valley. I clarify social-ecological and landscape responses to climate stress, along with changing human resilience/vulnerability to anomalous weather. The methodology is interdisciplinary, comparing natural climate archives (plant and mineral) to historical climate archives (texts and images), examining hydrological and edaphic evidence and contextualising social-ecological change within a framework of indigenous agrarian innovation. Together, this research reveals a critical transition from nature-induced to anthropogenic cataclysms after the Late Maunder Minimum (1684-1713). Before this disjuncture, floods were rare events driven by extraordinary precipitation and without significant hydromorphological change. Afterward, cataclysms were frequent, poorly correlated to precipitation trends and determined by anthropogenic accelerated soil erosion that transformed watersheds. Evidence from both basins demonstrates the rapid onset of deep hillside erosion and valley sedimentation after 1715. I argue that the combined ecological shock of colonialism and climate was mediated by early-colonial indigenous agrosystems, resulting in transformation without lasting degradation. The transformative potential of the Little Ice Age lay dormant until the Late Maunder Minimum intersected with the
metepantli
system, a new agrarian regime based on the cultivation of agave plants in monocropped sloping terraces for the extraction of
pulque
(a beer-like beverage), whose economic wealth belied its impoverished ecology. Not only does this paper challenge - even negate - arguments that link degradation to early-colonial biology, pre-Columbian agriculture or eighteenth-century population growth; it identifies the Late Maunder Minimum as a transformative moment in colonial ecosystems - and, by extension, society - that gave rise to a degraded and devious landscape.
Reorienting World Environmental History: Pedagogy and Scholarship on Cold Places
Authors: Chu Pey-Yi , Stuhl Andrew 
Published: September 2017

Abstract
This article focuses on the teaching of world environmental history and makes a case for dedicating attention to cold places. It draws upon the experiences of the authors in designing and leading undergraduate courses centred on the high-latitude and high-altitude regions of the globe. In class, cold places were presented to students as sites of cultural encounter, windows on the history of science and technology and bridges between histories of industrialisation, empire, and the environment. The article highlights the pedagogical value of specific class materials while providing an overview of literature situated at the nexus of cold places and global environmental history. It closes with reflections on students' responses as well as the contribution that historicising cold places makes to the mission of the environmental humanities.
Carbon Abundances in Starburst Galaxies of the Local Universe
Authors: Peña-Guerrero María A. , Leitherer Claus , Mink Selma de , Wofford Aida , Kewley Lisa 
Published: September 2017

Abstract
The cosmological origin of carbon, the fourth most abundant element in the universe, is not well known and a matter of heavy debate. We investigate the behavior of C/O to O/H in order to constrain the production mechanism of carbon. We measured emission-line intensities in the spectral range from 1600 to 10000 Å on Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) long-slit spectra of 18 starburst galaxies in the local universe. We determined chemical abundances through traditional nebular analysis, and we used a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method to determine where our carbon and oxygen abundances lie in the parameter space. We conclude that our C and O abundance measurements are sensible. We analyzed the behavior of our sample in the [C/O] versus [O/H] diagram with respect to other objects such as DLAs, neutral ISM measurements, and disk and halo stars, finding that each type of object seems to be located in a specific region of the diagram. Our sample shows a steeper C/O versus O/H slope with respect to other samples, suggesting that massive stars contribute more to the production of C than N at higher metallicities, only for objects where massive stars are numerous; otherwise, intermediate-mass stars dominate the C and N production.