scholarly journals Investigating mindfulness influences on cognitive function: On the promise and potential of converging research strategies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanli Lin ◽  
Rongxiang Tang ◽  
Todd Samuel Braver

Research investigating the effects and underlying mechanisms of mindfulness on cognitive functioning has accelerated exponentially over the past two decades. Despite the rapid growth of the literature and its influential role in garnering public interest in mindfulness, inconsistent methods in defining and measuring mindfulness have yielded variable findings, which contribute to the overall dearth of clear generalizable conclusions. The focus of this article is to address the lack of cohesion in the collective methodologies used in this domain, by providing a new perspective grounded in classic cognitive and experimental psychology principles. We leverage the concept of converging operations to demonstrate how seemingly disparate research strategies can be integrated towards a more unified and systematic approach. An organizing taxonomic framework is described to provide useful structure in how mindfulness can be operationalized, measured, and investigated. We illustrate the rationale and core organizing principles of the framework through a selective review of studies on mindfulness and cognitive control. We then demonstrate the utility of the approach by showing how it can be applied to synthesize extant methodologies and guide the development of future research. Specific suggestions and examples pertaining to experimental design and statistical analysis are provided.

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 490-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Amos ◽  
Zairul Nisham Musa ◽  
Cheong Peng Au-Yong

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of facilities management (FM) performance measurement (PM) research within the past two decades to understand existing gaps in FM PM literature. Design/methodology/approach The paper employs a systematic approach to review papers in FM PM published from 1997 to 2017. The articles published in selected peer-reviewed international journals in the last 20 years were collected by conducting literature search in the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The content of the papers were scrutinized to understand the gap in literature. Findings The review depicts a slow pace of FM PM research characterized by diverse and fragmented performance measures, whereas the existing PM frameworks are at the nascent stage. Research limitations/implications The judgments of the paper are based on the 54 papers selected for the critical review and analysis that should be treated as key issues in FM PM research agenda. The review also excludes energy management. Originality/value The paper identifies the gaps in the current PM literature in FM and set propositions for future research which is of utility and relevance to FM researchers more especially on the existing conceptual frameworks. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to conduct a review on FM PM in the extant literature.


Marine Drugs ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 476
Author(s):  
Arijit Mondal ◽  
Sankhadip Bose ◽  
Sabyasachi Banerjee ◽  
Jayanta Kumar Patra ◽  
Jai Malik ◽  
...  

Cancer is at present one of the utmost deadly diseases worldwide. Past efforts in cancer research have focused on natural medicinal products. Over the past decades, a great deal of initiatives was invested towards isolating and identifying new marine metabolites via pharmaceutical companies, and research institutions in general. Secondary marine metabolites are looked at as a favorable source of potentially new pharmaceutically active compounds, having a vast structural diversity and diverse biological activities; therefore, this is an astonishing source of potentially new anticancer therapy. This review contains an extensive critical discussion on the potential of marine microbial compounds and marine microalgae metabolites as anticancer drugs, highlighting their chemical structure and exploring the underlying mechanisms of action. Current limitation, challenges, and future research pathways were also presented.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christi Lockwood ◽  
Simona Giorgi ◽  
Mary Ann Glynn

We review the past quarter century of literature linking language and action in management research published from 1993 through 2017. Different from recent in-depth reviews that focus narrowly on particular forms that words take, we look across these different kinds of word assemblages to uncover broad themes and mechanisms that link words with action outcomes in organizational settings. Classifying common conceptual approaches and prominent outcomes, we systematize and synthesize existing work on how to do things with words, identifying points of tension or contradiction as well as consistencies or overlaps across areas of research and methodologies. In addition, we go beyond typologies of how words are constructed to unearth how words function in the service of action; in so doing, we articulate three underlying mechanisms that connect words to action—resonance, enactment, and power—and discuss each. We end with a discussion of promising avenues for future research.


Author(s):  
Vanitha Sampath ◽  
Grace Rabinowitz ◽  
Mihir Shah ◽  
Surabhi Jain ◽  
Zuzana Diamant ◽  
...  

Vaccines are essential public health tools with a favorable safety profile and prophylactic effectiveness that have historically played significant roles in reducing infectious disease burden in populations, when the majority of individuals are vaccinated. The COVID-19 vaccines are expected to have similar positive impacts on health across the globe. While serious allergic reactions to vaccines are rare, their underlying mechanisms and implications for clinical management should be considered to provide individuals with the safest care possible. In this review, we provide an overview of different types of allergic adverse reactions that can potentially occur after vaccination and individual vaccine components capable of causing the allergic adverse reactions. We present the incidence of allergic adverse reactions during clinical studies and through post-authorization and post-marketing surveillance and provide plausible causes of these reactions based on potential allergenic components present in several common vaccines. Additionally, we review implications for individual diagnosis and management and vaccine manufacturing overall. Finally, we suggest areas for future research.


1992 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 5-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candida G. Brush

The number of women starting and owning their own businesses has grown dramatically over the past decade. Concurrent with this trend, there has been an increase in the number of research studies focusing on or including women business owners in their samples. This paper reviews empirical research studies on women business owners and their ventures, classifies the studies in a framework, and summarizes trends emerging from this research. To guide future research, a new perspective on women-owned businesses is proposed and research questions, methods, and implications are discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 450-455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peggy L. St. Jacques

Memories for events require adopting a particular visual perspective—viewing the past from our own eyes or from an observerlike perspective in which we see ourselves in the memory. The current review synthesizes new behavioral and functional-neuroimaging evidence on the role of visual perspective in reshaping memories and how shifting visual perspective to novel viewpoints relies on similar constructive processes during imagination. Directions for future research are also discussed.


Blood ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 121 (26) ◽  
pp. 5131-5137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret A. Goodell ◽  
Lucy A. Godley

AbstractGenetic analysis of hematologic malignancies over the past 5 years has revealed abundant mutations in epigenetic regulators in all classes of disorders. Here, we summarize the observations made within our review series on the role of epigenetics in hematology. We highlight the clinical implications of mutations in epigenetic regulators and outline what we envision are some of the major areas that merit future research. Recent findings may have immediate prognostic value, but also offer new targets for drug development. However, the pleiotropic action of these regulators indicates caution is warranted and argues for investment in understanding of their underlying mechanisms of action as we proceed to exploit these findings for the benefit of patients.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-249
Author(s):  
Theodor Schnitzler ◽  
Shujaat Mirza ◽  
Markus Dürmuth ◽  
Christina Pöpper

AbstractOver the past decade, research has explored managing the availability of shared personal online data, with particular focus on longitudinal aspects of privacy. Yet, there is no taxonomy that takes user perspective and technical approaches into account. In this work, we systematize research on longitudinal privacy management of publicly shared personal online data from these two perspectives: user studies capturing users’ interactions related to the availability of their online data and technical proposals limiting the availability of data. Following a systematic approach, we derive conflicts between these two sides that have not yet been addressed appropriately, resulting in a list of challenging open problems to be tackled by future research. While limitations of data availability in proposed approaches and real systems are mostly time-based, users’ desired models are rather complex, taking into account content, audience, and the context in which data has been shared. Our systematic evaluation reveals interesting challenges broadly categorized by expiration conditions, data co-ownership, user awareness, and security and trust.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuandani ◽  
Ibrahim Jantan ◽  
Ade Sri Rohani ◽  
Imam Bagus Sumantri

Curcuma species (family: Zingiberaceae) are widely utilized in traditional medicine to treat diverse immune-related disorders. There have been many scientific studies on their immunomodulating effects to support their ethnopharmacological uses. In this review, the efficacy of six Curcuma species, namely, C. longa L., C. zanthorrhiza Roxb., C. mangga Valeton & Zijp, C. aeruginosa Roxb. C. zedoaria (Christm.) Roscoe, and C. amada Roxb., and their bioactive metabolites to modulate the immune system, their mechanistic effects, and their potential to be developed into effective and safe immunomodulatory agents are highlighted. Literature search has been carried out extensively to gather significant findings on immunomodulating activities of these plants. The immunomodulatory effects of Curcuma species were critically analyzed, and future research strategies and appropriate perspectives on the plants as source of new immunomodulators were discussed. Most of the pharmacological investigations to evaluate their immunomodulatory effects were in vivo and in vitro experiments on the crude extracts of the plants. The extracts were not chemically characterized or standardized. Of all the Curcuma species investigated, the immunomodulatory effects of C. longa were the most studied. Most of the bioactive metabolites responsible for the immunomodulating activities were not determined, and mechanistic studies to understand the underlying mechanisms were scanty. There are limited clinical studies to confirm their efficacy in human. Of all the bioactive metabolites, only curcumin is undergoing extensive clinical trials based on its anti-inflammatory properties and main use as an adjuvant for the treatment of cancer. More in-depth studies to understand the underlying mechanisms using experimental in vivo animal models of immune-related disorders and elaborate bioavailability, preclinical pharmacokinetics, and toxicity studies are required before clinical trials can be pursued for development into immunomodulatory agents.


2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karol Ramirez DDS, MSc, PhD

Objective social isolation and perceived social isolation are psychosocial stressors that may impair the normal functioning of the neuroimmune system. Chronic activation of the neuro-immuno-endocrine communication and the consequent loss of homeostasis may lead to the appearance of pathologies and associated mood disorders. For example, alterations in the hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenal axis and sympathetic nervous system dynamics may account for the observed predisposition to inflammatory diseases following chronic social stress. Therefore, it is necessary to further study the underlying mechanisms in social isolation in order to prevent its deleterious effects on health. The objective of this New Perspective article is to supplement the understanding of the neuroimmunological responses to social isolation and provide a basis for future research in this topic. 


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document