Designed by a partnership of UN agencies, international scientific organizations, and development agencies, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) is the most extensive study ever of the linkages between the world’s ecosystems and human well-being. The goal of the MA is to establish the scientific basis for actions needed to enhance the contribution of ecosystems to human well-being without undermining their long-term productivity. With contributions by more than 500 scientists from 70 countries, the MA has proven to be one of the most important conservation initiatives ever undertaken, and the ecosystem services paradigm on which it is based provides the standard for practice. This manual supplies the specific tools that practitioners of the paradigm need in order to extend their work into the future.The manual is a stand-alone “how to” guide to conducting assessments of the impacts on humans of ecosystem changes. In addition, assessment practitioners who are looking for guidance on particular aspects of the assessment process will find individual chapters of this manual to be useful in advancing their understanding of best practices in ecosystem assessment. The manual builds on the experiences and lessons learned from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment global and sub-global assessment initiatives, with chapters written by well-known participants in those initiatives. It also includes insights and experiences gained from a wider range of ecosystem service-focused assessment activities since the completion of the MA in 2005.
Self-control is an important ability in everyday life, showing associations with health-related outcomes. The aim of the Self-control and Mindfulness within Ambulatorily assessed network Systems across Health-related domains (SMASH) study is twofold: first, the effectiveness of a computer-based mindfulness training will be evaluated in a randomized controlled trial. Second, the SMASH study implements a novel network approach in order to investigate complex temporal interdependencies of self-control networks across several domains.
BackgroundSuicidal ideation (SI) is common in chronic depression, but only limited evidence exists for the assumption that psychological treatments for depression are effective for reducing SI.
Methods
In the present study, the effects of Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT; group version) plus treatment-as-usual (TAU: individual treatment by either a psychiatrist or a licensed psychotherapist, including medication when indicated) and Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP; group version) plus TAU on SI was compared to TAU alone in a prospective, bi-center, randomized controlled trial. The sample consisted of 106 outpatients with chronic depression.
Results
Multivariate regression analyses revealed different results, depending on whether SI was assessed via self-report (Beck Depression Inventory suicide item) or via clinician rating (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale suicide item). Whereas significant reduction of SI emerged when assessed via clinician rating in the MBCT and CBASP group, but not in the TAU group while controlling for changes in depression, there was no significant effect of treatment on SI when assessed via self-report.
Limitations
SI was measured with only two single items.
Conclusions
Because all effects were of small to medium size and were independent of effects from other depression symptoms, the present results warrant the application of such psychotherapeutical treatment strategies like MBCT and CBASP for SI in patients with chronic depression.
IntroductionThe aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on suicidal ideation in an open-label randomised controlled trial of patients with residual depressive symptoms. Furthermore, this study aimed at examining whether an effect of MBCT on suicidal ideation was dependent on a reduction in depression severity, worry and rumination, or an increase in mindfulness.
Methods
One hundred and thirty participants were randomised to a treatment arm (treatment as usual plus MBCT) or a wait list arm. Change in depression, change in worry, change in rumination and change in mindfulness were entered as covariates in a repeated measures ANOVA in order to assess to what degree MBCT-induced changes in suicidal ideation were independent from changes in these parameters.
Results
There was a significant group × time (pre vs. post) interaction on suicidal ideation indicating a significant reduction of suicidal ideation in the MBCT group, but not in the control group. The interaction remained significant after addition of the above covariates. Change in worry was the only covariate associated with change in suicidal ideation, causing a moderate reduction in the interaction effect size.
Conclusions
The results suggest that MBCT may affect suicidal ideation in patients with residual depressive symptoms and that this effect may be mediated, in part, by participants’ enhanced capacity to distance themselves from worrying thoughts.
Background. Researchers aimed at systematically reviewing and meta-analyzing the effectiveness of yoga interventions for fatigue. Methods. PubMed/Medline was searched until January 2012 for controlled clinical studies. Two reviewers independently extracted the data. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed. A meta-analysis was performed. Results. Nineteen clinical studies (total n = 948) were included in this review. Investigated yoga styles included Hatha, Iyengar, Asanas, Patanjali, Sahaja, and Tibetan yoga. Participants were suffering from cancer, multiple sclerosis, dialysis, chronic pancreatitis, fibromyalgia, asthma, or were healthy. Yoga had a small positive effect on fatigue (SMD = 0.27, 59% CI = 0.23-0.31). Seven studies received 4 points on the Jadad score. There were baseline differences in at least 5 studies. Conclusion. Overall, the effects of yoga interventions on fatigue were only small, particularly in cancer patients. Although yoga is generally a safe therapeutic intervention and effective to attenuate other health-related symptoms, this meta-analysis was not able to define the powerful effect of yoga on patients suffering from fatigue. Treatment effects of yoga could be improved in well-designed future studies. According to the GRADE recommendations assessing the overall quality of evidence, there is a moderate effect of the confidence placed in the estimates of the effects discussed here.
In this 6-week prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled and double-blind study, we investigated the effects of a natural herbal remedy based on a recipe from Tibet (Padma® 28), on microvascular endothelial function, heart rate variability and biomarkers of inflammation, clotting and coagulation in 80 coronary artery disease (CAD) patients (age 66 ± 8 years) on guideline-based medication for secondary prevention. We found no significant effects of Padma 28 and conclude that the addition of Padma 28 to guideline-based secondary prevention treatment of CAD did not lead to significant effects on important surrogate markers in elderly male CAD patients.
Neurophenomenological studies seek to utilize first-person self-report to elucidate cognitive processes related to physiological data. Grounded theory offers an approach to the qualitative analysis of self-report, whereby theoretical constructs are derived from empirical data. Here we used grounded theory methodology (GTM) to assess how the first-person experience of meditation relates to neural activity in a core region of the default mode network—the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). We analyzed first-person data consisting of meditators' accounts of their subjective experience during runs of a real time fMRI neurofeedback study of meditation, and third-person data consisting of corresponding feedback graphs of PCC activity during the same runs. We found that for meditators, the subjective experiences of “undistracted awareness” such as “concentration” and “observing sensory experience,” and “effortless doing” such as “observing sensory experience,” “not efforting,” and “contentment,” correspond with PCC deactivation. Further, the subjective experiences of “distracted awareness” such as “distraction” and “interpreting,” and “controlling” such as “efforting” and “discontentment,” correspond with PCC activation. Moreover, we derived several novel hypotheses about how specific qualities of cognitive processes during meditation relate to PCC activity, such as the difference between meditation and “trying to meditate.” These findings offer novel insights into the relationship between meditation and mind wandering or self-related thinking and neural activity in the default mode network, driven by first-person reports.
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<p>This research draws on ideas about emotion-related appraisal tendencies to generate and test novel propositions about intergroup emotions. First, emotion elicited by outgroup category activation can be transferred to an unrelated stimulus (incidental emotion effects). Second, people predisposed toward an emotion are more prejudiced toward groups that are likely to be associated with that emotion. Discussion focuses on the implications of the studies for a more complete understanding of the nature of prejudice, and specifically, the different qualities of prejudice for different target groups.</p>
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ObjectiveTo assess the effects of a 12-week Tai Chi exercise program on sleep using the sleep spectrogram, a method based on a single channel electrocardiogram (ECG)-derived estimation of cardiopulmonary coupling, previously shown to identify stable and unstable sleep states.
Methods
We retrospectively analyzed 24-h continuous ECG data obtained in a clinical trial of Tai Chi exercise in patients with heart failure. Eighteen patients with chronic stable heart failure, left ventricular ejection fraction ⩽40% (mean [±standard deviation] age, 59±14 years, mean baseline ejection fraction 24%±8%, mean) were randomly assigned to receive usual care (N=10), which included pharmacological therapy and dietary and exercise counseling, or 12 weeks of Tai Chi training (N=8) in addition to usual care. Using the ECG-based sleep spectrogram, we compared intervention and control groups by evaluating baseline and 12-week high (stable) and low (unstable) frequency coupling (HFC & LFC, respectively) as a percentage of estimated total sleep time (ETST).
Results
At 12 weeks, those who participated in Tai Chi showed a significant increase in HFC (+0.05±0.10 vs. −0.06±0.09 % ETST, p=0.04) and significant reduction in LFC (−0.09±0.09 vs. +0.13±0.13 % ETST, p<0.01), compared to patients in the control group. Correlations were seen between improved sleep stability and better disease-specific quality of life.
Conclusions
Tai Chi exercise may enhance sleep stability in patients with chronic heart failure. This sleep effect may have a beneficial impact on blood pressure, arrhythmogenesis and quality of life.
The question of how to measure sustainability remains vexing. We approach the problem by noting that most theories of environmental impact assume that exploitation of the environment provides benefits to human well-being. However, this assumption has not been subject to much empirical discipline. We propose a model of Efficient Well-Being (EWEB) inspired by the Stochastic Frontier Production Models commonly used in economics. EWEB assesses a nation-state's efficiency in enhancing human well-being through the use of economic, natural and human resources. This approach shifts attention from the elusive question of whether a nation is sustainable to the more tractable question of how efficient a nation is in producing human well-being. We model human well-being as a function of physical, natural and human capital. In a preliminary test of this approach here we operationalize human well-being as life expectancy, flows of physical capital as gross domestic product per capita, flows of natural capital as the ecological footprint, and human capital as education. Using data from 135 nations, we find that controlling for physical and human capital, exploitation of the environment has no net effect on well-being. This suggests that improvements in well-being may be attainable without adverse effects on the environment. We also find that many nations could substantially improve their efficiency in using human and natural resources to generate well-being.
The present research examined the degree to which facets of trait mindfulness were associated with level and changes in psychological distress in response to a repeated carbon dioxide (CO2) breathing challenge. Undergraduate students (N = 93) completed a self-report measure of mindfulness and underwent two 7.5% CO2 challenges, spaced 1 week apart. Subjective distress, physical/fear symptoms, and threat cognitions were assessed at multiple times throughout each administration. A pattern emerged such that although mindfulness facets were not reliably associated with distress at either administration separately, a low (but not high) level of mindfulness was associated with a significant decrease in distress across administrations, likely indicative of habituation, for the facets Describing (β = − 0.25, p < − 0.01), Acting with Awareness (β = − 0.27, p < .01), and Observing (β = − 0.25, p < 0.01). This suggests that those components of mindfulness tied to noticing/attending to the present moment may at times interfere with typical habituation processes. In contrast, those high in components of mindfulness tied to not evaluating—Non-judging (β = − 0.23, p < 0.01) and Non-reacting (β = − 0.12, p < 0.01)—tended to report less distress, as expected. Findings suggest that the relation between trait mindfulness and stress response is more complex and nuanced than previously thought and that focusing on both mindfulness facets and repeated exposure to stressors may help elucidate this relationship.
BACKGROUND: Meeting projected needs for ethnically diverse nurses depends on a strong pipeline of diverse students within nursing programs. Colleges assume students readily navigate the university; however, this may not be the reality especially among ethnic minority students.PURPOSE: The purpose was to explore the concept of mindfulness among ethnic minority nursing students. Exploring mindfulness, and a lack thereof, may provide strategies for overcoming challenges ethnic minority students experience in prelicensure nursing programs.
METHODS: A qualitative study using thematic analysis of semistructured in-depth interviews was conducted with 20 ethnic minority undergraduate nursing students.
RESULTS: Themes that emerged reveal positive associations of mindfulness and negative implications when there is a lack of mindfulness.
CONCLUSION: Based on the findings from this study, using consistent mindfulness techniques could positively influence coping skills for dealing with the stressors of college, resulting in overall success and retention of ethnic minority and first-generation students in a nursing program.
<p>The article discusses family transitions and the practice of bride-service in the upper Ankhu Khola of Nepal. This article tries to bridge the gap through a theory-driven analysis of change in family-organized cooperative behaviors among the Tamang of a single village. It focuses on the practice of husbands providing labor services to their wives families after marriage. (Rajeev Ranjan Singh 2007-03-02)</p>
<p>A federal court held that a state law requiring one minute of meditation or prayer in the public schools is legal. (IRT)</p>
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<p>The article discusses fertility and its determinants in a Tamang village of north central Nepal. The study is based on the data collected of 150 Tamang women in the village of Timling. The article analyzes the fertility information from these women and an examination of the proximate determinants. It includes a map of Timling and its daughter villages. The study indicates that methodologies designed for application to much larger data sets can be effectively used for community level analysis. (Rajeev Ranjan Singh 2007-02-01)</p>
This study examined neural activation during the experience of compassion, an emotion that orients people toward vulnerable others and prompts caregiving, and pride, a self-focused emotion that signals individual strength and heightened status. Functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI) were acquired as participants viewed 55 s continuous sequences of slides to induce either compassion or pride, presented in alternation with sequences of neutral slides. Emotion self-report data were collected after each slide condition within the fMRI scanner. Compassion induction was associated with activation in the midbrain periaqueductal gray (PAG), a region that is activated during pain and the perception of others’ pain, and that has been implicated in parental nurturance behaviors. Pride induction engaged the posterior medial cortex, a region that has been associated with self-referent processing. Self-reports of compassion experience were correlated with increased activation in a region near the PAG, and in the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). Self-reports of pride experience, in contrast, were correlated with reduced activation in the IFG and the anterior insula. These results provide preliminary evidence towards understanding the neural correlates of important interpersonal dimensions of compassion and pride. Caring (compassion) and self-focus (pride) may represent core appraisals that differentiate the response profiles of many emotions.
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This chapter links the ideas of ecopsychology, phenomenology, reciprocity, and ecology.
A variety of shifts emergent with globalization, which are reflected in part by nascent programs in “Global Public Health,” “Global Health Sciences,” and “Global Health,” are redefining international public health. We explore three of these shifts as a critical discourse and intervention in global health diplomacy: the expansion in non-governmental organization participation in international health programs, the globalization of science and pharmaceutical research, and the use of militarized languages of biosecurity to recast public health programs. Using contemporary anthropological and international health literature, we offer a critical yet hopeful exploration of the implications of these shifts for critical inquiry, health, and the health professions.
Global health diplomacy may be thought of as a political activity that meets the dual goals of improving health while maintaining and strengthening international relations. As diplomacy is frequently referred to as the art and practice of conducting negotiations, the term 'global health diplomacy' aims to capture the multi-level and multi-actor negotiation processes that shape the global policy environment for health. It bridges the commitment to development and the need to define collective action in an interdependent world. This emerging field draws on a broad range of disciplines including international relations, medical anthropology, political science, history, and public health. Therefore it is important to understand some of the historical and conceptual underpinnings of this emerging field. Academic rigor applied to global health diplomacy is a critical leaven in a chaotic global health environment. This paper presents a brief review of the issues that provide a possible focus for future training, research, and service in global health diplomacy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript
<p>Publisher's description: Tsong Khapa’s Great Treatise on the Stages of Mantra (Sngags rim chen mo)—considered by the present Dalai Lama to be one of Tsong Khapa’s two most important books (along with his Lam rim chen mo)—is his masterful synthesis of the principles and practices of all four classes of Tantra, which formed the basis of his innovation in creating the esoteric “Tantric College” institution and curriculum in the early fifteenth century. With detailed reference to hundreds of works from the Tibetan Kangyur and Tengyur, the chapters presented and studied in this volume concern his treatment of the creation stage (bskyed rim) meditations of Unexcelled Yoga Tantra. This includes a detailed analysis emphasizing how and why such creation stage practices—utilizing deity yoga to transform death, the between, and life into the three bodies of buddhahood—are indispensible to creating a foundation for successfully entering the culminal yogic practices of the perfection stage. (A subsequent volume will present the perfection stage chapters of this essential masterwork.) An important work for both scholars and practitioners, this annotated translation is supplemented with extensive support materials. A companion volume of the critically edited Tibetan text—annotated with the found quotes from Tengyur and Kangyur texts in Tibetan (and Sanskrit where available)—also will be published in a limited edition, and as an e-book.</p>
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The burgeoning multidisciplinary field of social and emotional learning now has a comprehensive and definitive handbook covering all aspects of research, practice, and policy. The prominent editors and contributors describe state-of-the-art intervention and prevention programs designed to build students' skills for managing emotions, showing concern for others, making responsible decisions, and forming positive relationships.--From back cover.
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