Relationship Among Religious Orientation,Individual Attributes,and Presence of People in Urban Public Space

Journal of Religion and Health - The purpose of this paper is to study the rate of presence in an urban space and how it is related to people’s intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientations...     

Spiritual Health and Outcomes in Muslim ICU Patients: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Study

The aim of the present study is to describe how religiosity and spirituality affect the psychiatric morbidity of Muslim intensive care unit (ICU) patients. We conducted a prospective nationwide cross-sectional study of ICU patients discharged from 45 medical centers spanning 31 proivinces in Iran. Adults (age ≥ 18 years) admitted to the ICU and treated with invasive mechanical ventilation were eligible. Nine validated survey tools were administered to detect direct and indirect associations between spiritual health (SH) and depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic disorder. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Impact of Event Scale—Revised (IES-R), Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome 14 question (PTSS-14) quality-of-life (QoL), and quality of patient to physician or nurse communication (PP-QoC and PN-QoC) scales were modeled through two mediators by structural equation modeling (SEM). Sex, ICU type, LOS, and APACHE II score were added in the independent variable list. 338 eligible patients were discharged from the ICUs during the study period. 56 were excluded (clinical status), and 282 were administered the survey. 278 returned it, with 272 complete and 6 partial responses. SH displayed no direct or indirect association to QoL. SH was indirectly associated with decreased depression and anxiety (B = ? 0.081, p < 0.05) via PP-QoC mediator. Both direct and indirect positive associations were observed between SH and IES-R (B = 0.293, p < 0.05; via PP-QoC) and PTSS-14 scores (B = 0.267, p < 0.001; via PP-QoC). Medical ICU location was associated with decreased PTSS-14 scores via the same mediator. In this survey of Muslim ICU patients treated with invasive mechanical ventilation, SH correlated with decreased depression and anxiety, but paradoxically increased post-traumatic stress. The most influential mediator was patient–physician quality-of-communication.     

Context As a Critical Dimension of Multicultural Counseling: Articulating Personal,Professional, and Institutional Competence

Multicultural counseling standards and competencies (D. W. Sue, P. Arredondo, & R. J. McDavis, 1992) were established to provide consistency and ethical guidelines for practitioners, educators, and organizations. Although there has been general acceptance of this model, the current conceptualization risks superficial interpretation and limited implementation. This article describes a model that addresses the complexity of multicultural competence. The Multicultural Counseling Competency Assessment and Planning Model (MCCAP) enhances the D. W. Sue et al. model by integrating personal, professional, and institutional contexts as critical elements in multicultural competence. The MCCAP model suggests that the complexity of change includes three domains: affective, cognitive, and behavioral learning and competence. The resulting framework integrates self‐assessment and strategic planning to assist counselors, psychologists, and educators in a more complete application of multicultural counseling standards. Las normas de competencia multicultural en la consejería (D. W. Sue, P. Arredondo, & R. J. McDavis, 1992) fueron establecidas para proveer consistencia y guías éticas para consejeros, educadores, y organizaciones. Aunque ha habido aceptación de este modelo por lo general, la conceptualización presente corre el riesgo de ser interpretada superficialmente y de ser implementada incompletamente. Este artículo describe un modelo que trata la complexidad de la competencia multicultural. El Modelo de Evaluación y Planeación de Competencia de Consejería Multicultural (Multicultural Counseling Competency Assessment and Planning Model ‐MCCAP) aumenta sobre el modelo de D. W. Sue et al., al integrar los contextos personales, e institucionales como elementos críticos en la competencia multicultural. Además, el modelo (MCCAP) sugiere que el cambio es complejo y ocurre en très dominios: el afectivo, cognitivo, y de comportamiento, en el aprendizaje de las competencias. El resultato es una estructura que intégra la evaluación personal, planes y estrategias para ayudar a consejeros, psicólogos y educadores en una aplicación mas completa de las normas de consejería multicultural.     

Word associations contribute to machine learning in automatic scoring of degree of emotional tones in dream reports

Scientific study of dreams requires the most objective methods to reliably analyze dream content. In this context, artificial intelligence should prove useful for an automatic and non subjective scoring technique. Past research has utilized word search and emotional affiliation methods, to model and automatically match human judges’ scoring of dream report’s negative emotional tone. The current study added word associations to improve the model’s accuracy. Word associations were established using words’ frequency of co-occurrence with their defining words as found in a dictionary and an encyclopedia. It was hypothesized that this addition would facilitate the machine learning model and improve its predictability beyond those of previous models. With a sample of 458 dreams, this model demonstrated an improvement in accuracy from 59% to 63% (kappa = .485) on the negative emotional tone scale, and for the first time reached an accuracy of 77% (kappa = .520) on the positive scale.     

Activation of cannabinoid CB1 receptors in the central amygdala impairs inhibitory avoidance memory consolidation via NMDA receptors

In the present study, we investigated the influence of bilateral intra-central amygdala (intra-CeA) microinjections of N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor agents on amnesia induced by a cannabinoid CB1 receptor agonist, arachydonilcyclopropylamide (ACPA). This study used a step-through inhibitory (passive) avoidance task to assess memory in adult male Wistar rats. The results showed that intra-CeA administration of ACPA (2 ng/rat) immediately after training decreased inhibitory avoidance (IA) memory consolidation as evidenced by a decrease in step-through latency on the test day, which was suggestive of drug-induced amnesia. Post-training intra-CeA microinjections of NMDA (0.0001, 0.001 and 0.01 μg/rat) did not affect IA memory consolidation. However co-administration of NMDA with ACPA (2 ng/rat) prevented the impairment of IA memory consolidation that was induced by ACPA. Although post-training intra-CeA administration of the NMDA receptor antagonist, d-(−)-2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid (d-AP5; 0.01, 0.05 and 0.1 μg/rat) alone had no effect, its co-administration with an ineffective dose of ACPA (1 ng/rat) impaired IA memory consolidation. Post-training intra-CeA microinjection of an ineffective dose of d-AP5 (0.01 μg/rat) prevented an NMDA response to the impaired effect of ACPA. These results suggest that amnesia induced by intra-CeA administration of ACPA is at least partly mediated through an NMDA receptor mechanism in the Ce-A.     

The effects of marital status on episodic and semantic memory in healthy middle-aged and old individuals

The present study examined the influences of marital status on different episodic and semantic memory tasks. A total of 1882 adult men and women participated in a longitudinal project (Betula) on memory, health and aging. The participants were grouped into two age cohorts, 35-60 and 65-85, and studied over a period of 5 years. Episodic memory tasks concerned recognition and recall, whereas semantic memory tasks concerned knowledge and fluency. The results showed, after controlling for education, some diseases, chronological age and leisure activity as covariates, that there were significant differences between married and single individuals in episodic memory, but not in semantic memory. Married people showed significantly better memory performances than singles in both subsystems of episodic memory, that is, recall and recognition. Also, the rate of decline in episodic memory was significantly larger for singles and widowed than other groups over the 5-year time period in both age groups. The findings demonstrate that the positive relation found between marriage and health can be extended to the relation between marriage and cognitive performance. This effect might be explained by the role played by cognitive stimulation in memory and cognition.     

An Investigation of the Associations Between Contingent Self-Worth and Aspirations Among Iranian University Students

This study investigated the novel associations between intrinsic and extrinsic aspirations and internal and external domains of contingent self-worth among a sample of 502 Iranian university students. We found a meaningful pattern showing that intrinsic aspirations were positively associated with internal domains, whereas extrinsic aspirations were positively associated with external domains. Our survey data also suggested that the factor structure of the Aspiration Index, as well as the factor structure of the Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale in our Iranian sample were consistent with factor structures of foreign samples. Finally, the types of aspirations and domains of contingencies of self-worth meaningfully predicted variables related to well-being, confirming previous research. We discuss the nature of the associations between the aspirations and the domains of contingent self-worth.     

Pragmatism,Bohr, and the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

In this article, we argue that although Bohr's version of the Copenhagen interpretation is in line with several key elements of logical positivism, pragmatism is the closest approximation to a classification of the Copenhagen interpretation, whether or not pragmatists directly influenced the key figures of the interpretation. Pragmatism already encompasses important elements of operationalism and logical positivism, especially the liberalized Carnapian reading of logical positivism. We suggest that some elements of the Copenhagen interpretation, which are in line with logical positivism, are also supported by pragmatism. Some of these elements are empirical realism, fallibilism, holism, and instrumentalism. However, pragmatism goes beyond logical positivism in espousing some other key elements of the Copenhagen interpretation, though imperfectly, such as the correspondence principle, complementarity, and indeterminism.