The purpose of this article is to synthesize the existing research on classwide social, emotional, and behavioral programs for kindergarten students. The researchers identified 26 studies in peer-reviewed journals and dissertation databases to review. Each study was examined and coded in terms of study characteristics, strength of evidence, and quality of evidence. The interventions represented in the studies were grouped into four categories: social-emotional learning, behavioral, coping skills, and other. The studies of behavioral interventions demonstrated the strongest effects on increasing prosocial behavior and decreasing antisocial behavior. These studies also included the highest quality of research. The social-emotional learning intervention studies consistently demonstrated weaker effects and lower quality research. The remaining categories included too few studies to draw meaningful conclusions. Implications for practice and future research regarding classwide kindergarten social, emotional, and behavioral interventions are discussed.
Trophic rewilding is an ecological restoration strategy that uses species introductions to restore top-down trophic interactions and associated trophic cascades to promote self-regulating biodiverse ecosystems. Given the importance of large animals in trophic cascades and their widespread losses and resulting trophic downgrading, it often focuses on restoring functional megafaunas. Trophic rewilding is increasingly being implemented for conservation, but remains controversial. Here, we provide a synthesis of its current scientific basis, highlighting trophic cascades as the key conceptual framework, discussing the main lessons learned from ongoing rewilding projects, systematically reviewing the current literature, and highlighting unintentional rewilding and spontaneous wildlife comebacks as underused sources of information. Together, these lines of evidence show that trophic cascades may be restored via species reintroductions and ecological replacements. It is clear, however, that megafauna effects may be affected by poorly understood trophic complexity effects and interactions with landscape settings, human activities, and other factors. Unfortunately, empirical research on trophic rewilding is still rare, fragmented, and geographically biased, with the literature dominated by essays and opinion pieces. We highlight the need for applied programs to include hypothesis testing and science-based monitoring, and outline priorities for future research, notably assessing the role of trophic complexity, interplay with landscape settings, land use, and climate change, as well as developing the global scope for rewilding and tools to optimize benefits and reduce human-wildlife conflicts. Finally, we recommend developing a decision framework for species selection, building on functional and phylogenetic information and with attention to the potential contribution from synthetic biology.
Objective: To address the mechanisms underlying hatha yoga's potential stress-reduction benefits, we compared inflammatory and endocrine responses of novice and expert yoga practitioners before, during, and after a restorative hatha yoga session, as well as in two control conditions. Stressors before each of the three conditions provided data on the extent to which yoga speeded an individual's physiological recovery. Methods: A total of 50 healthy women (mean age, 41.32 years; range, 30-65 years), 25 novices and 25 experts, were exposed to each of the conditions (yoga, movement control, and passive-video control) during three separate visits. Results: The yoga session boosted participants' positive affect compared with the control conditions, but no overall differences in inflammatory or endocrine responses were unique to the yoga session. Importantly, even though novices and experts did not differ on key dimensions, including age, abdominal adiposity, and cardiorespiratory fitness, novices' serum interleukin (IL)-6 levels were 41% higher than those of experts across sessions, and the odds of a novice having detectable C-reactive protein (CRP) were 4.75 times as high as that of an expert. Differences in stress responses between experts and novices provided one plausible mechanism for their divergent serum IL-6 data; experts produced less lipopolysaccharide-stimulated IL-6 in response to the stressor than novices, and IL-6 promotes CRP production. Conclusion: The ability to minimize inflammatory responses to stressful encounters influences the burden that stressors place on an individual. If yoga dampens or limits stress-related changes, then regular practice could have substantial health benefits. Copyright © 2010 by the American Psychosomatic Society.
"What would you say to a tension-releasing massage, a rejuvenating facial or a soak in the healing waters of a thermal spring? Delicious, healthy cuisine and a lovely and comfortable room in which to relax at night? Mmmmmmmm ... we thought so. Now the question is: which spa to choose? With TASCHEN's "Favourite Spas" Angelika Taschen saves you the agony of choice and presents a selection of the most inviting destinations worldwide for the perfect spa holiday. Her journey takes us to heavenly oases such as the historical Padaste Manor on the island of Muhu on Estonia's west coast; the spa of the Grand Hotel Kronenhof at 5,900 feet, which delivers a picture book mountain view; to the Buddha-Bar Spa at the Hilton Evian-les-Bains in the classical French health resort, that combines treatments inspired by Tibetan medicine with modern east-meets-west design and the Shibui Spa in Robert De Niro's Greenwich Hotel, housed in a 250-year-old Japanese farmhouse relocated to New York. Further dream destinations include the fantastic Oriental Spa at The Landmark Mandarin Oriental with its panoramic view of the Hong Kong skyline, and the Verana Day Spa, tucked away on the Mexican Pacific coast south of Puerto Vallarta, that is only accessible by boat."--Publisher's description.
Medical students are a population at risk for the development of stress-related risk states (e.g. burnout) and manifest mental disorders (e.g. depression). Still the learning of coping mechanisms against stress is not an integral part of the medical curriculum. In a pilot study we developed an elective course for learning relaxation techniques (Relacs) which was geared to the clinical practice of autogenic training (AT) with psychiatric patients. The course focussed on an innovative and mostly communicative transfer of knowledge about AT, progressive muscle relaxation and medical hypnosis and stressed the principle of repeated and supervised exercises in small student groups alongside self-administered exercise. 42 students took part in this course and showed a very high acceptance for the topic and positive evaluation. Moreover, we found a distinct improvement of the participants’ mental parameters (burnout, anxiety) and a good knowledge about the course’s contents within the final exams at the end of the semester. The structure and realisation of the course is easily adaptable and very effective regarding the improvement of the students’ mental health. Due to our results and the commonly known prevalence of stress-related disorders in medical students we postulate the integration of courses on relaxation strategies in the medical curriculum.
<b>Publisher's Description:</b> The papers in this volume all result from field work in the Indian Himalayas and the TAR conducted by the Interdisciplinary Research Unit, Austrian Science Fund. While the research goals were established within the framework of transdisciplinary research, each scholar approaches scientific problems according to the methodologies associated with their respective disciplines: philology, philosophy, history, art history, linguistics, and anthropology.<br>In the contribution published here, Steinkellner, Klimburg-Salter, Widorn, and Jahoda explicate the structure, methods, and advantages of transdisciplinary research. Lasic and Tauscher analyse two different philosophical questions on the basis of manuscripts from Tabo (Spiti) and Gondhla (Lahaul). Pasang Wangdu, Tropper and Ponweiser each examine a Buddhist monument from a different perspective: Keru (TAR), Wanla (Ladakh), and Tabo. Papa-Kalantari and Hein discuss respectively an iconographic problem and oral traditions from Spiti and upper Kinnaur.
<b>Publisher's Description</b>: Since the occupation of Tibet by the Peoples Republic of China in 1959, former border principalities and feudatories of the former realm of the Dalai Lama have broken away and have developed sociopolitical and economic bonds with other states. Sikkim, Bhutan, Ladakh, and the Tibeto-Burman speaking regions of Burma, Nepal, and others have all developed strong ethnic identities apart from Tibet. Eleven well-known scholars working in these borderlands of Tibet present in this volume aspects of their current historical, linguistic, and ethnographic research. Originally presented at the Oxford University meeting of the International Association of Tibetan Studies in 2003, the volume provides a unique panoply of cultural diversity within the contemporary Tibeto-Burman speaking world. Illustrated, with introduction.
<b>Publisher's Description:</b> Collectively, the papers of this volume reveal the cultural dynamism of Tibet in the period between 900 and 1400CE, when the fundamental contours of Tibetan Buddhism were still fluid and highly contested.<br>The papers address a spectrum of issues in Tibetan religion and literature, ranging in time and space from the far eastern oasis of Dunhuang in the tenth century through 'high classical' developments in Central Tibet in the early fifteenth century. It is divided into four parts, addressing respectively literary and religious issues in tenth-century Dunhuang, the textual history of the Old Tantric Canon (Rnying ma'i rgyud 'bum), the development of Tibetan religious literature in the new translation period, and the history and transmission of several influential systems of esoteric Buddhism.
The ten papers presented in this eighth volume of the Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the IATS, 2000, provide examples of the colourful and lively range of Tibetan self-expressions that exist within the modern homeland and in exile. The scholars here represent the fields of anthropology, sociology, literary studies, history, and political science. Four papers are based in studies in the modern Tibet Autonomous Region, five are grounded in the Tibetan diaspora, and one deals with both classical Tibetan history and current affairs. The mass representation of Tibetan self, delivered through various literary vehicles, by linguistic competence, body decoration, landscape, or individual deportment, constitutes the basic theme of this collection. The volume is useful for any student of Tibet and those interested in the process of identity formation and presentation. (from the Publisher's website)
Although the systematic study of meditation is still in its infancy, research has provided evidence for meditation-induced improvements in psychological and physiological well-being. Moreover, meditation practice has been shown not only to benefit higher-order cognitive functions but also to alter brain activity. Nevertheless, little is known about possible links to brain structure. Using high-resolution MRI data of 44 subjects, we set out to examine the underlying anatomical correlates of long-term meditation with different regional specificity (i.e., global, regional, and local). For this purpose, we applied voxel-based morphometry in association with a recently validated automated parcellation approach. We detected significantly larger gray matter volumes in meditators in the right orbito-frontal cortex (as well as in the right thalamus and left inferior temporal gyrus when co-varying for age and/or lowering applied statistical thresholds). In addition, meditators showed significantly larger volumes of the right hippocampus. Both orbito-frontal and hippocampal regions have been implicated in emotional regulation and response control. Thus, larger volumes in these regions might account for meditators' singular abilities and habits to cultivate positive emotions, retain emotional stability, and engage in mindful behavior. We further suggest that these regional alterations in brain structures constitute part of the underlying neurological correlate of long-term meditation independent of a specific style and practice. Future longitudinal analyses are necessary to establish the presence and direction of a causal link between meditation practice and brain anatomy.
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OBJECTIVE: Nearly 38% of U.S. adults use complementary and alternative medicine approaches to manage physical conditions (e.g., chronic pain, arthritis, cancer, heart disease, and high blood pressure) and psychological or emotional health concerns (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression). Research evidence has accumulated for yoga as an effective treatment approach for these conditions. Further, yoga has increased in popularity among healthcare providers and the general population. Given these trends, this study explored perceptions about yoga as a viable complementary treatment to which health professions students would refer patients.PARTICIPANTS: More than 1500 students enrolled in health professions programs at a Pacific Northwest school were enrolled; data were obtained from 478 respondents.
DESIGN: The study assessed willingness to refer patients to yoga as a complementary and alternative medicine for 27 symptoms (identified in the literature as having evidence for yoga's utility), which were subsequently grouped into skeletal, physical, and psychological on the basis of factor analysis. Responses were assessed using a mixed-model analysis of variance with health profession and yoga practitioner as between-subjects variables and symptoms as a within-subjects factor.
RESULTS: In descending order of likelihood to refer patients to yoga were students in occupational therapy, physician assistant program, psychology, physical therapy, pharmacy, dental hygiene, speech and audiology, and optometry. All groups perceived yoga's greatest utility for skeletal symptoms, followed by psychological and physical symptoms. Findings also revealed a significant positive relationship between level of personal yoga practice and willingness to refer patients to yoga.
CONCLUSIONS: Although students expressed some openness to referring patients to yoga, ratings of appropriateness were not accurately aligned with extant evidence base. Personal experience seemed to be a salient factor for accepting yoga as a referral target. These findings suggest the importance of developing strategies to make health professionals more aware of the merits of yoga, regardless of whether they themselves are yoga practitioners.
OBJECTIVES: Affective neuroscience research that investigates core symptoms of pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) may be effective in differentiating PBD phenotypes. The current study used affect-modulated startle to examine potential differences in reactivity to emotional stimuli (reward and punishment) in narrow and broad phenotype PBD and controls.
METHODS: Thirty children meeting DSM-IV bipolar disorder criteria (i.e. narrow phenotype PBD with defined manic episodes with elevated/expansive mood), 19 children meeting criteria for severe mood dysregulation (i.e. broad phenotype with chronic irritability, hyper-reactivity, and hyperarousal), and 19 controls completed a lottery startle paradigm involving reward (money) and punishment (loud noise). Startle probes were presented during anticipation of the emotional stimulus, immediately following the presentation of the stimulus, or during return to baseline following the stimulus.
RESULTS: By self-report, patients and controls found the putative punishment to be preferable to the neutral condition. In the reward condition, patient samples reported greater arousal than did controls, but no between-group differences were found on the magnitude of startle response during the reward, punishment, or neutral conditions.
CONCLUSIONS: The failure to find differences in affect-modulated startle between control children and those with narrow or broad PBD phenotypes speaks to the methodological challenges associated with studying reward mechanisms in PBD. Alternative paradigms that focus on different aspects of reward mechanisms are discussed.
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While extant research suggests that holding biospheric values may foster environmentally friendly behavior, we need to learn more about the development of such values at an individual level. Our conceptual framework proposes that individual environmental identity could play a role in the formation of a biospheric value orientation. We conducted two cross-sectional surveys (N = 494, N = 107) and a quasi-experimental study (N = 271) in the US and Europe and with demographically different samples to investigate this conceptual linkage. Our findings show that stronger (vs. weaker) self-nature connections in individuals are related to stronger (vs. weaker) biospheric value orientations, which in turn are associated with various forms of sustainable behavior. Our research links two major literature streams in environmental psychology (i.e., research on self-nature connections and biospheric values) by proposing a developmental account of the relations between environmental identity and relevant values.
Yoga has been found effective in the treatment of chronic low back pain. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of lyengar yoga in chronic neck pain by means of a randomized clinical trial. Seventy-seven patients (aged 47.9 +/- 7.9, 67 female) with chronic neck pain who scored >40 mm on a 100-mm visual analog scale (VAS) were randomized to a 9-week lyengar yoga program with weekly 90-minute classes (n = 38) or to a self-care/exercise program (n = 38). Patients were examined at baseline and after 4 and 10 weeks. The primary outcome measure was change of mean pain at rest (VAS) from baseline to week 10. Secondary outcomes included pain at motion, functional disability, quality of life (QOL), and psychological outcomes. Twelve patients in the yoga group and 11 patients in the self-care/exercise group were lost to follow-up, with higher study nonadherence in the self-care group (5 versus 10 patients). Mean pain at rest was reduced from 44.3 +/- 20.1 to 13.0 +/- 11.6 at week 10 by yoga and from 41.9 +/- 21.9 to 34.4 +/- 21.1 by self-care/exercise (group difference: -20.1, 95% confidence interval: -30.0, -10.1; P < .001). Pain at motion was reduced from 53.4 18.5 to 22.4 +/- 18.7 at week 10 by yoga and from 49.4 +/- 22.8 to 39.9 +/- 21.5 by self-care/exercise (group difference: -18.7, 95% confidence interval: -29.3, -8.1; P < .001). Significant treatment effects of yoga were also found for pain-related apprehension, disability, QOL, and psychological outcomes. Sensitivity analyses suggested minimal influence of dropout rates. Both programs were well tolerated. In this preliminary trial, yoga appears to be an effective treatment in chronic neck pain with possible additional effects on psychological well-being and QOL. The effectiveness of yoga in chronic neck pain should be further tested by comparative effectiveness studies with longer observation periods. Perspective: This article presents the results of a randomized controlled trial on the clinical effects of a 9-week yoga program or self-care exercise in patients with chronic neck pain. Yoga led to superior pain relief and functional improvements and might be a useful treatment option for chronic neck pain. (C) 2012 by the American Pain Society
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