Phenomenological approach is one of the leading approaches in the practice of qualitative psychological research. Two perspectives can be distinguished in it: descriptive phenomenology and ...interpretive phenomenology. A researcher intending to apply a phenomenological strategy is expected to be able to practice the phenomenological attitude, which plays a key role both in the process of data collection and analysis. This article focuses on the field of descriptive phenomenology based on E. Husserl’s philosophy and represented by A. Giorgi and F. Wertz in the context of phenomenological psychology. The purpose of the article is to reveal the essential characteristics of the phenomenological attitude, to unfold theoretical emphases and to provide certain practical insights for those researchers who decided to conduct a descriptive phenomenological study. Literature analysis is used to achieve the goal. The phenomenological attitude is described using two contexts – E. Husserl’s phenomenological philosophy and the phenomenological psychology based on its assumptions – briefly presenting both, revealing their connections and distinguishing features.
This paper presents a phenomenological study that reveals how psychologists studying for a diploma in existential psychotherapy, in Lithuania, experience personally significant learning from a client ...in a therapeutic relationship. The structure of such experience is described and discussed in the context of existential-phenomenological practice and a broader psychotherapy research.
The purpose of this work is to investigate how members of a psychotherapeutic group experience and understand the phenomenon of self-disclosure, what is a conception of the self-disclosure and what ...is the dynamics of the process of self-disclosure in a psychotherapy group.
Šiame magistro darbe buvo tiriamas atsiskleidimo fenomenas psichoterapinėje grupėje. Atsiskleidimas atlieka svarbų vaidmenį psichoterapinės grupės darbe, o grupės terapeuto sugebėjimas paskatinti ...grupės narių atsiskleidimą yra įgūdis, kurį būtina įvaldyti norint sėkmingai vesti psichoterapines grupes. Teorinėje darbo dalyje apibrėžiama atsiskleidimo sąvoka, o psichoterapinė grupė, kurioje yra tiriamas atsiskleidimo fenomenas, yra pristatyta kaip platesnio tarpasmeninių santykių konteksto dalis. Išskirtos atsiskleidimo rūšys, o taip pat pristatyti atsiskleidimo ypatumai egzistencinio patyrimo, susitikimų ir geštaltinės terapijos grupėse. Šio magistro darbo tikslas – išaiškinti, kaip atsiskleidimo fenomenas yra patiriamas ir suvokiamas konkrečioje psichoterapinėje grupėje, kas įeina į atsiskleidimo sampratą, ir kokia yra atsiskleidimo proceso psichoterapinėje grupėje dinamika. Tyrime buvo naudojamas fokusinių grupių metodas. Fokusinė grupė – tai kokybinių duomenų rinkimo būdas, kuris numato diskusiją, vykstančią nedidelėje grupėje žmonių ir sufokusuotą ties tam tikra, iš anksto apibrėžta tema. Fokusinės grupės buvo organizuojamos trumpalaikių psichoterapinių grupių kontekste. Fokusinės grupės vykdavo pagal iš anksto parengtą darbo tvarkaraštį, į kurį įėjo klausimai apie dalyvių atsiskleidimo psichoterapinėje grupėje patyrimą. Fokusinėse grupėse dalyvavo 23 žmonės – 4 vyrai ir 19 moterų; iš viso buvo surengtos 3 fokusinės grupės. Fokusines grupes vedė moderatorius – šio darbo... toliau žr. visą tekstą
The phenomenon of self-disclosure in a psychotherapy group was studied in this master’s degree work. Self-disclosure plays an important role in group psychotherapy, whereas the ability of group psychotherapist to encourage the self-disclosure of group members is a skill, which is necessary to acquire for the successful group guidance. In the introductory part of this work the notion of self-disclosure is defined, and a psychotherapy group itself is presented as a part of the broader context of interpersonal relationship. The types of self-disclosure are abstracted; also the peculiarities of self-disclosure in existential, encounter and gestalt therapy groups are presented. The aim of this work is to explore in what way the phenomenon of self-disclosure is perceived and experienced in a concrete psychotherapy group, what is the content of the conception of self-disclosure, and what is the dynamics of the process of self-disclosure in a psychotherapy group. The method of focus groups was used in this research. Focus group is a way of collecting qualitative data, and this involves engaging a small number of people in an informal group discussion, focused on a particular topic. Focus groups were organized in the context of short-term psychotherapy groups. Focus group schedule was devised, which included the questions about the members’ experience of self-disclosure in a psychotherapy group. 23 participants took part in focus groups – 4 men and 19 women; all in all 3 focus groups... to full text
As an oncogene, myelocytomatosis oncogene (MYC) is implicated in the concept of “oncogene addiction,” where switching off the oncogene leads to the cell cycle arrest and cell differentiation. ...However, recent data suggest that MYC also controls the establishment of the tumour microenvironment and that “oncogene addiction” actually has a strong immune background. Evaluation of the MYC role in the immunoediting process led to the speculation that cancer just uses and distorts the physiological mechanism by which MYC normally prevents rapidly proliferating cells from the elicitation of an autoimmune response. Concordantly, elevated levels of MYC and induction of immunosuppressive molecules are observed during the processes of growth and development, tissue repair, placenta development, and so forth, implying that MYC may be involved in saving regular physiologically proliferating cells from the immune system attack. Even more, a growing body of evidence suggests MYC involvement in the shaping of the adaptive immune response, immunological memory development, and establishment of immunotolerance. This paper offers an overview of MYC actions in the context of modulation of the immune response in pathological and physiological conditions. The determination of such a new role for a well‐known oncogene opens new perspectives in biomedicine, and consequently, in the treatment of various pathological conditions.
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Recent data suggest that MYC controls the establishment of the tumour microenvironment and that “oncogene addiction” actually has a strong immune background. Evaluation of the MYC role in the immunoediting process led to the speculation that cancer just uses and distorts the physiological mechanism by which MYC normally prevents rapidly proliferating cells from the elicitation of an autoimmune response. A growing body of evidence suggests MYC involvement in the shaping of the adaptive immune response, immunological memory development, and establishment of immunotolerance.
MYC is well known as a potent oncogene involved in regulating cell cycle and metabolism. Augmented MYC expression leads to cell cycle dysregulation, intense cell proliferation, and carcinogenesis. ...Surprisingly, its increased expression in neurons does not induce their proliferation, but leads to neuronal cell death and consequent development of a neurodegenerative phenotype. Interestingly, while cancer and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease are placed at the opposite sides of cell division spectrum, both start with cell cycle dysregulation and stimulation of proliferation. It seems that MYC action directed toward neuron cell proliferation and neural tissue repair collides with evolutional loss of regenerative capacity of CNS neurons in order to strengthen synaptic structure, to protect our cognitive abilities and therefore character. Accordingly, there are abundant mechanisms that block its expression and action specifically in the brain. Moreover, while MYC expression in brain neurons during neurodegenerative processes is related to their death, there are obvious evidences that MYC action after physical injury is beneficial in case of peripheral nerve recovery. MYC might be a useful tool to repair brain cells upon development of neurodegenerative disease or CNS trauma, including stroke and traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, as even imperfect axonal growth and regeneration strategies will likely be of profound benefit. Understanding complex control of MYC action in the brain might have important therapeutic significance, but also it may contribute to the comprehension of development of neurodegenerative diseases.
The effect of the protein environment on the formation and stabilization of an elusive catalytically active polyoxometalate (POM) species, K6Hf(α2‐P2W17O61) (1), is reported. In the co‐crystal of hen ...egg‐white lysozyme (HEWL) with 1, the catalytically active monomeric species is observed, originating from the dimeric 1:2 POM form, while it is intrinsically unstable under physiological pH conditions. The protein‐assisted dissociation of the dimeric POM was rationalized by means of DFT calculations. The dissociation process is unfavorable in bulk water, but becomes favorable in the protein–POM complex due to the low dielectric response at the protein surface. The crystal structure shows that the monomeric form is stabilized by electrostatic and water‐mediated hydrogen bonding interactions with the protein. It interacts at three distinct sites, close to the aspartate‐containing hydrolysis sites, demonstrating high selectivity towards peptide bonds containing this residue.
In the co‐crystal of hen egg‐white lysozyme with K6Hf(α2‐P2W17O61), the catalytically active monomeric species is observed, originating from the dimeric 1:2 polyoxometalate form, whereas at physiological pH this species is intrinsically unstable. Through DFT calculations, a new mechanism of dissociation is proposed: protein‐assisted dissociation of metal‐substituted polyoxometalates.
Ectopic lymphoid structures (ELS) or tertiary lymphoid organs are structures with the organization similar to the one of secondary lymphoid organs, formed in non-lymphoid tissues. They are considered ...to be an important site for the lymphocytic physiological and pathological role in conditions such are chronic infections, autoimmune diseases, cancer, and allograft rejection. Although similar to the secondary lymphoid tissues, the initiation of ELS formation is not preprogramed and requires chronic inflammation, expression of homeostatic chemokines, and lymphotoxin beta receptor activation. Importantly, while ELS formation may be considered beneficiary in antimicrobial and antitumor immunity, the persistence of these active lymphoid structures within the tissue increase the chance for development of autoimmunity and lymphoma. This paper is providing an overview of biological mechanisms involved in ELS formation, as well as the overview of the pathophysiological role of these structures. In addition, the paper discusses the possibility to therapeutically target ELS formation, bearing in mind their bivalent nature and role in different pathophysiological conditions.
Although attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder, its aetiology remains unclear. We aimed to establish a relationship between ADHD diagnosis and serum ...levels of glucose, free thyroxine (FT4), and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) in primary school aged boys.
In a cross-sectional study, we enrolled 133 participants aged 6.5-12.5 years, 67 of whom met DSM-5 criteria for ADHD and 66 healthy age-matched boys. The ADHDT test (ADHDT) was used to assess ADHD symptoms and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Revised was used to exclude participants with cognitive deficits. The ADHD participants were tested using the Iowa Conners' Teacher Rating Scale.
The ADHD participants had lower glucose levels, higher TSH values, and significantly lower FT4 values than the control group. The multiple logistic regression analysis showed that TSH is a parameter that is 2.7% more likely to occur in the ADHD group. We found a significant correlation between the TSH level and the symptoms of hyperactivity (r = 0.318, p = 0.009) and impulsivity (r = 0.275, p = 0.024) as well as between the glucose level and the symptoms of hyperactivity (r = 0.312, p = 0.010).
Certain ADHD symptoms may correlate with certain hormonal patterns. Our results suggest that the likelihood of suffering from ADHD was lower when FT4 levels were elevated. One biochemical parameter that was significantly and independently associated with the diagnosis of ADHD was the serum TSH level.
On June 26, 2018, at its VI session in 2018, the Ethics Committee of the Institute for Mental Health in Belgrade, Serbia, has considered and unanimously approved the conduct of the research, under the number 1704/1.
Blockchains (BCs) are distributed database systems, popular for their innovative, unsupervised maintenance process. They use a so-called consensus protocol to prevent inference by any third party of ...absolute trust. Security, privacy, consistency, and energy consumption have been identified as the main issues involved in BC maintenance. According to the recent literature, some of these issues can be formulated as combinatorial optimization (CO) problems, and this fact motivated us to consider incorporating CO approaches into a BC. In this paper, we propose the new combinatorial optimization consensus protocol (COCP) based on the proof-of-useful-work (PoUW) concept that assumes solving instances of real-life CO problems. Due to the complexity of the underlying CO problems, we have developed various types of heuristic methods, which are utilized in the COCP. Most of these methods are problem-dependent stochastic heuristic or metaheuristic methods. As is the case with the majority of consensus protocols, PoUW exhibits the property of asymmetry. It is difficult to find a solution for the considered CO problem; however, once a solution is found, its verification is straightforward. We present here a BC framework combining the two above-mentioned fields of research: BC and CO. This framework consists of improvements aiming towards developing the COCP of the PoUW type. The main advantage of this consensus protocol is the efficient utilization of computing resources (by exploring them for finding solutions of real-life CO problem instances), and the provision of a broad range of incentives for the various BC participants. We enumerate the potential benefits of the COCP with respect to its practical impacts and savings in power consumption, describing in detail an illustrative example based on part of the real-life BC network. In addition, we identify several challenges that should be resolved in order to implement a useful, secure, and efficient PoUW consensus protocol.
