Dispositional Mindfulness,Psychological Distress,and Posttraumatic Growth in Cancer Patients

Cancer has different psychological and physical outcomes. The present study was conducted to examine psychological distress, posttraumatic growth, and dispositional mindfulness in cancer patients. A total of 109 cancer patients entered the research. The Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21), and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) were used for data collection. The regression analysis revealed that dispositional mindfulness can be a significant predictor of psychological distress and posttraumatic growth in cancer patients. The results also showed that mindfulness is related significantly to psychological outcomes and adaptation in cancer patients and should be further addressed in cancer treatment.     

Post-training reversible inactivation of the rat's basolateral amygdala interferes with hippocampus-dependent place avoidance memory in a time-dependent manner

In this study, tetrodotoxin (TTX) inactivation was employed to evaluate the involvement of the rat's basolateral amygdala (BLA) in hippocampus-dependent spatial memory using a place avoidance learning task. Rats were trained in single 30 min session to avoid a 60 degrees segment of the stable circular (80-cm diameter) arena, entering which was punished by a mild shock. Bilateral injections of TTX or saline were made either immediately, 1 or 2h after training. Retention was tested 24h later in a 30 min extinction session. Retention was impaired when both BLA inactivated immediately or 1h after training, but not 2h after training. These data indicate that activity in the BLA, at least 60 min after training, is necessary for the post-training processing of a hippocampus-dependent place avoidance memory.     

Expatriate and Indigenous Managers' Work Loyalty and Attitude Toward Risk

Work loyalty and attitude toward risk of expatriate and indigenous managers in the United Arab Emirates were investigated. The results indicated that foreign expatriates scored relatively higher than Arab expatriates and indigenous managers on personal loyalty and attitude toward risk. Foreign expatriates did show less attachment than their counterparts to organizational loyalty.     

Effects of Comt Genotype on Behavioral Symptomatology in the 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome

The 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (DiGeorge/velocardiofacial syndrome) is associated with elevated rates of psychosis, and is also characterized by severe attentional difficulties and executive dysfunction. Behavioral manifestations of this syndrome could result from haploinsufficiency of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene, located within the 22q11 region. The goal of the present study was to examine COMT genotype in relation to behavioral symptomatology in this syndrome. Val^158/108Met was genotyped in 38 patients (16 Met/-, 22 Val/-) with confirmed 22q11.2 deletions who had received the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) as part of a comprehensive evaluation. Results indicated that the Val genotype was associated with significantly greater internalizing and externalizing behavioral symptomatology in children with 22q11.2 deletions. Val allele status was associated with a greater-than-four-fold increase in risk for clinically significant behavior problems in children with this syndrome. These data are consistent with previous findings of increased psychopathology associated with the Val genotype in normal individuals and suggest that a functional genetic polymorphism in the 22q11 region may influence behavior in individuals with COMT haploinsufficiency.     

Atlantis: a time‐value model in e‐commerce

This paper presents a model for resolving two main issues of time in e‐commerce. The first issue is the time value of e‐commerce that represents the value of each moment of the commerce time from the perspective of buyers and sellers. Buyers and sellers can use this model to calculate the time value at each moment of time and accordingly decide whether it is profitable to buy or sell at that moment. The second issue is to allow buyers or sellers to increase their savings or decrease their costs by changing each of the factors governing the time value model of the concerned e‐commerce. We present relevant model specifically for Amazon e‐commerce to present a proof of concept of our proposed models.     

Does probability weighting matter in probability elicitation?

One of the most widely used methods for probability encoding in decision analysis uses binary comparisons (choices) between two lotteries: one that depends on the values of the random variable of interest and another that is contingent on an external reference chance device (typically a probability wheel). This note investigates the degree to which differences in probability weighting functions between the two types of events could affect the practice of subjective probability encoding. We develop a general methodology to investigate this question and illustrate it with two popular probability weighting functions over the range of parameters reported in the literature. We use this methodology to (a) alert decision analysts and researchers to the possibility of reversals, (b) identify the circumstances under which overt preferences for one lottery over the other are not affected by the weighting function, (c) document the magnitude of the differences between choices based on probabilities and their corresponding weighting functions, and (d) offer practical recommendations for probability elicitation.     

Designs for studying the effectiveness of long-term psychoanalytic treatments: balancing level of evidence and acceptability to patients

Long-Term Psychoanalytic Treatments (LTPT) include both long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy (LTPP) and psychoanalysis (PsAn). Current opinion seems to be that there is some evidence for the effectiveness of LTPP, but none for that of PsAn. This may be due in part to researchers not balancing the level of evidence of randomized controlled studies (RCTs), cohort studies, and pre-post studies with patients' acceptance of these various research designs used in studying the effectiveness of LTPT. After a review of the merits of eight possible control conditions for LTPT in RCTs and cohort studies, and a consideration of the limitations and merits of pre-post studies, it was found that RCTs pair high levels of evidence with limited degrees of patient acceptance, especially where PsAn is concerned. Cohort studies appear to provide at most a moderate level of evidence. Their acceptability is hardly better than that of RCTs, as it depends on the acceptability of control conditions similar to those of RCTs. The acceptability of pre-post studies is much better, but they can provide, at most, a moderate level of evidence. Apart from randomization, they can meet all methodological criteria for high-quality research (often they do not, but there are ways to correct this). In summary, in the long-term treatment of complex mental disorders with LTPT, RCTs often pair a high level of evidence with limited patient acceptance of the method. Compared to RCTs, cohort studies show a lower level of evidence without much gain in acceptability. Pre-post studies pair the highest level of acceptability with the lowest level of evidence of the three designs. Limited acceptability is not to be confused with no acceptability, nor moderate level of evidence with none.