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<p>This dictionary contains no words already in ZHANG (<em>Bod rgya tshig mdzod chen mo / Zang Han Da Cidian [Great Tibetan Chinese Dictionary]</em>) it therefore serves as a supplement to it. Words have been collected from the two newspapers: <em>The Tibet Daily</em> and <em>The Lhasa Evening News</em>, many quotations are provided but there are unfortntley not cited. This oversight drastically comprmises the long term value of this work. The editor mentions that in earlier drafts Chinese equivalents and Tibetan definitions were also given. It is a shame he did not keep them for the final version. A better quality lexicon along similar lines is SEDLÁČEK, Kamil (<em>Tibetan Newspaper Reader</em>). (Nathan Hill 2007-12-13, revised by Bill McGrath 2008-01-03)</p>
<p>An English-Tibetan-Sanskrit dictionary. (Michael Walter and Manfred Taube 2006-05-15, revised by Bill McGrath 2008-01-03)</p>
In this podcast, the Executive Director of the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia David Germano promotes a broad and generous definition of contemplation to honor different higher educational contexts (academic, residential, personal). He and host Paul Swanson discuss the implications of increased societal interest in contemplative practices and the relationship between resilience and contemplation. Germano describes how to create embodied, engaged learning experiences in large student classes of up to 200 students and provides examples of initiatives in education, medicine, engineering, business, arts, and sciences.
Background:Trait mindfulness is a multifaceted construct, although its association with measures of personality and individual differences remains poorly understood. Given that guided mindfulness meditations (MM) frequently involve focused imagery and are typically experienced as pleasant, we predicted that visual and embodied imagery vividness would mediate the association between mindful observing traits and pleasant experiences in response to guided MM. Study objectives and methods:137 undergraduate students and 371 participants from Amazon's MTurk web service completed questionnaire measures of mindfulness traits and multisensory imagery vividness. They then completed an 8-10min MM involving guided imagery of visualizing and embodying the positive characteristics of natural objects (a mountain, sun, or tree). Participants rated the level of imagery vividness they experienced in the visual and embodied modalities as well as their emotional responses to the MM. Results:Mindful “observing” correlated with increased imagery vividness, both in response to standardized questionnaire and a guided MM. As predicted, vividness of visual and particularly embodied imagery mediated the association between trait mindful observing and experienced pleasantness in response to the MM. Conclusions:Individual differences in vividness of visual and embodied imagery are a construct of relevance to understanding mindfulness both as a state and trait.
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<p>This article looks at Tsongkhapa's writings on the Buddhist understanding of <em>kunẓob denpa</em> (kun-rdzob bden-pa), or conventional truth. (Mark Premo-Hopkins 2004-04-20)</p>
BACKGROUND:Depression is a common and distressing mental health problem that is responsible for significant individual disability and cost to society. Medication and psychological therapies are effective for treating depression and maintenance anti-depressants (m-ADM) can prevent relapse. However, individuals with depression often express a wish for psychological help that can help them recover from depression in the long-term. A recently developed treatment, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), shows potential as a brief group program for people with recurring depression.This trial asks the policy research question; is MBCT with support to taper/discontinue antidepressant medication (MBCT-TS) superior to m-ADM in terms of: a primary outcome of preventing depressive relapse/recurrence over 24 months; and secondary outcomes of (a) depression free days, (b) residual depressive symptoms, (c) antidepressant medication (ADM) usage, (d) psychiatric and medical co-morbidity, (e) quality of life, and (f) cost effectiveness? An explanatory research question also asks whether an increase in mindfulness skills is the key mechanism of change.The design is a single-blind, parallel randomized controlled trial examining MBCT-TS versus m-ADM with an embedded process study. To answer the main policy research question the proposed trial compares MBCT-TS with m-ADM for patients with recurrent depression. Four hundred and twenty patients with recurrent major depressive disorder in full or partial remission will be recruited through primary care.
RESULTS:
Depressive relapse/recurrence over two years is the primary outcome variable. Analyses will be conducted following CONSORT standards and overseen by the trial's Data Monitoring and Safety Committee. Initial analyses will be conducted on an intention-to-treat basis, with subsequent analyses being per protocol. The explanatory question will be addressed in two mutually informative ways: quantitative measurement of potential mediating variables pre- and post-treatment and a qualitative study of service users' views and experiences.
CONCLUSIONS:
If the results of our exploratory trial are extended to this definitive trial, MBCT-TS will be established as an alternative approach to maintenance antidepressants for people with a history of recurrent depression. The process studies will provide evidence about the effective components which can be used to improve MBCT and inform theory as well as other therapeutic approaches.
Teaching social-emotional skills to secondary students has been linked to higher student achievement, more positive student motivation and more socially acceptable classroom behaviors (Elias & Arnold, 2006; Weissburg et al., 2003; Kress et al., 2004). Much of the current literature on social-emotional learning (SEL) focuses on research. This piece provides educators with a plan for teaching key social and emotional skills in secondary mathematics classrooms using three key "entry points": (1) the redefining of "lesson planning," (2) the establishment of an SEL-conducive climate, and (3) the inclusion of student refection and self-assessment.
Given today's hurried and stressful heathcare system, nurses need mechanisms to take care of themselves, promote their own wellness, and build resilience in managing sick patients. Yoga is one such mechanism; it can decrease anxiety and improve sleep and quality of life. In this pilot study, nine nurses participated in 6 weekly sessions of yoga nidra. Measures of sleep, stress, and muscle fatigue were obtained to determine whether yoga had a positive impact upon quality of life and stress. Although based on a small sample of nurses, results indicated positive findings for both perceived stress level and muscle fatigue. This pilot study demonstrated the potential benefit of yoga in stress reduction, muscle tension, and self-care in nurses.
Given today's hurried and stressful heathcare system, nurses need mechanisms to take care of themselves, promote their own wellness, and build resilience in managing sick patients. Yoga is one such mechanism; it can decrease anxiety and improve sleep and quality of life. In this pilot study, nine nurses participated in 6 weekly sessions of yoga nidra. Measures of sleep, stress, and muscle fatigue were obtained to determine whether yoga had a positive impact upon quality of life and stress. Although based on a small sample of nurses, results indicated positive findings for both perceived stress level and muscle fatigue. This pilot study demonstrated the potential benefit of yoga in stress reduction, muscle tension, and self-care in nurses.
This article describes and presents initial empirical tests of a theory that links values, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior within a preference construction framework that emphasizes the activation of personal environmental norms. Environmental concern is related to egoistic, social-altruistic, and biospheric value orientations and also to beliefs about the consequences of environmental changes for valued objects. Two studies generally support the hypothesized relationships and demonstrate links to the broader theory of values. However, the biospheric value orientation postulated in the theoretical literature on environmentalism does not differentiate from social-altruism in a general population sample. Results are discussed in terms of value change, the role of social structural factors (including gender) in environmentalism, theories of risk perception, and the mobilization strategies of social movements, including environmental justice movements.
Ecosystems are capital assets: When properly managed, they yield a flow of vital goods and services. Relative to other forms of capital, however, ecosystems are poorly understood, scarcely monitored, and--in many important cases--undergoing rapid degradation. The process of economic valuation could greatly improve stewardship. This potential is now being realized with innovative financial instruments and institutional arrangements.
We used measures of regional brain electrical activity to show that not all smiles are the same. Only one form of smiling produced the physiological pattern associated with enjoyment. Our finding helps to explain why investigators who treated all smiles as the same found smiles to be ubiquitous, occurring when people are unhappy as well as happy. Also, our finding that voluntarily making two different kinds of smiles generated the same two patterns of regional brain activity as was found when these smiles occur involuntarily suggests that it is possible to generate deliberately some of the physiological change which occurs during spontaneous positive affect.
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Mycologist Paul Stamets lists 6 ways the mycelium fungus can help save the universe: cleaning polluted soil, making insecticides, treating smallpox and even flu viruses.
ObjectiveCognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) have shown to be effective interventions for treating depressive symptoms in patients with diabetes. However, little is known about which intervention works best for whom (i.e., moderators of efficacy). The aim of this study was to identify variables that differentially predicted response to either CBT or MBCT (i.e., prescriptive predictors).
Methods
The sample consisted of 91 adult outpatients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and comorbid depressive symptoms (i.e., BDI-II ≥ 14) who were randomized to either individual 8-week CBT (n = 45) or individual 8-week MBCT (n = 46). Patients were followed for a year and depressive symptoms were measured at pre-treatment, post-treatment, and at 9-months follow-up. The predictive effect of demographics, depression related characteristics, and disease specific characteristics on change in depressive symptoms was assessed by means of hierarchical regression analyses.
Results
Analyses showed that education was the only factor that differentially predicted a decrease in depressive symptoms directly after the interventions. At post-treatment, individuals with higher educational attainment responded better to MBCT, as compared to CBT. Yet, this effect was not apparent at 9-months follow-up.
Conclusions
This study did not identify variables that robustly differentially predicted treatment effectiveness of CBT and MBCT, indicating that both CBT and MBCT are accessible interventions that are effective for treating depressive symptoms in broad populations with diabetes. More research is needed to guide patient-treatment matching in clinical practice.
We evaluate the boundary of the Anthropocene geological time interval as an epoch, since it is useful to have a consistent temporal definition for this increasingly used unit, whether the presently informal term is eventually formalized or not. Of the three main levels suggested – an ‘early Anthropocene’ level some thousands of years ago; the beginning of the Industrial Revolution at ∼1800 CE (Common Era); and the ‘Great Acceleration’ of the mid-twentieth century – current evidence suggests that the last of these has the most pronounced and globally synchronous signal. A boundary at this time need not have a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP or ‘golden spike’) but can be defined by a Global Standard Stratigraphic Age (GSSA), i.e. a point in time of the human calendar. We propose an appropriate boundary level here to be the time of the world's first nuclear bomb explosion, on July 16th 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico; additional bombs were detonated at the average rate of one every 9.6 days until 1988 with attendant worldwide fallout easily identifiable in the chemostratigraphic record. Hence, Anthropocene deposits would be those that may include the globally distributed primary artificial radionuclide signal, while also being recognized using a wide range of other stratigraphic criteria. This suggestion for the Holocene–Anthropocene boundary may ultimately be superseded, as the Anthropocene is only in its early phases, but it should remain practical and effective for use by at least the current generation of scientists.
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