Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for psycho-oncology patients: an exploratory study.

OBJECTIVES: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a group-based intervention similar to mindfulness-based stress reduction, but which includes cognitive therapy techniques. This study investigates its usefulness in the treatment of depressive, anxiety and stress/distress symptoms in cancer patients referred to a psycho-oncology service. It also examines whether effect on depression is mediated by self-compassion. METHOD: In phase 1 of this study, 16 cancer patients with mild/moderate psychological distress were randomised to MBCT (n=8) or treatment as usual (TAU; n=8), and assessed pre- and post-treatment. Analysis of variance was performed to examine the effect of treatment on anxiety and depression. In phase 2, the TAU group received the intervention, and results of pre- and post-MBCT assessments were combined with those receiving MBCT in phase 1. Finally, both groups were followed up at 3 months. RESULTS: In phase 1, the MBCT group had a significant improvement in mindfulness and a decrease in anxiety. Statistically significant improvements in both depression and anxiety were found at 3 month follow-up. Self-compassion appeared to mediate the effect on anxiety/depression. CONCLUSION: This small pilot study suggests that MBCT may have a beneficial effect on psychological variables often adversely affected in cancer in a heterogeneous cancer population.

Flux through the tetrahydrodipicolinate succinylase pathway is dispensable for L-lysine production in Corynebacterium glutamicum.

The N-succinyl-LL-diaminopimelate desuccinylase gene (dapE) in the four-step succinylase branch of the L-lysine biosynthetic pathway of Corynebacterium glutamicum was disrupted via marker-exchange mutagenesis to create a mutant strain that uses only the one-step meso-diaminopimelate dehydrogenase branch to overproduce lysine. This mutant strain grew and utilized glucose from minimal medium at the same rate as the parental strain. In addition, the dapE- strain produced lysine at the same rate as its parent strain. Transformation of the parental and dapE- strains with the amplified meso-diaminopimelate dehydrogenase gene (ddh) on a plasmid did not affect lysine production in either strain, despite an eightfold amplification of the activity of the enzyme. These results indicate that the four-step succinylase pathway is dispensable for lysine overproduction in shake-flask culture. In addition, the one-step meso-diaminopimelate dehydrogenase pathway does not limit lysine flux in Corynebacterium under these conditions.

Relational spectral features for place of articulation in nasal consonants.

Much recent research on acoustic cues for consonants' places of articulation has focused upon the nature of the rapid spectral changes that take place between signal portions corresponding to consonantal closure and adjacent vowels. The study reported here builds on the foundation laid by earlier studies that have explored techniques for representing spectral change and for classifying place of articulation of nasal consonants using features extracted from rapid spectral changes that take place over murmur-to-vowel transitions. A new procedure is reported that avoids the use of predetermined absolute frequency bands in deriving parameters of spectral change in nasals. In experiments using the speech of 20 female and 20 male talkers, in a variety of physical and perceptual spectral scalings, application of the new procedure results in 77% correct classification of place of articulation of syllable-initial nasals and 51% correct classification of place of articulation of syllable-final nasals (for which there is a three-way contrast). Tested on the same data, a technique using predetermined absolute frequency bands produced 72% correct classification of syllable-initial nasals.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the investigation of civil aviation and transportation accidents.

This article is a lucid account of the mission and activities of the National Transportation Safety Board. The concept of the Go-Team or ready team of specialists available on a 3-hour basis to accident scenes is described, as is the Human Factors Investigation. General aviation accident investigations are also discussed.

Joint Committee on Aviation Pathology: VIII. Medical investigator preparedness for aircraft accident investigation.

The statutory authority and responsibility of the National Transportation Safety Board in the investigation and determination of the probable cause of aviation accidents is described. The Independent Safety Board Act of 1974 acknowledges the importance of obtaining data regarding trauma sustained in an accident by survivors, as well as those persons injured fatally. Information regarding occupant injuries, coupled with extensive examination of the aircraft wreckage, is necessary in order to identify hazards which inflicted the injuries. The human factors investigator is responsible for reporting the facts, conditions, and circumstances relating to first, the accident causation and, second, the injury causation. These two areas, of necessity, rely quite heavily upon the postmortem examination and laboratory analyses of the cras victims. The Safety Board's investigation must determine if a crewmember suffered from a preexisting disease, whether the crew had ingested drugs contraindicated with their flying duties, as well as a description of all injuries and all toxicological and histological findings for crew and passengers. During Safety Board investigations conducted in densely populated cites, over oceans, and in remote areas, both in the United States and overseas, many situations have developed which have caused musch investigative effort due to less than complete postmortem examinations. These situations, in most instances, could have been averted by advance planning by local authorities.