Search results for "Positive"
showing 10 items of 1875 documents
Chemical Composition of Two Different Lavender Essential Oils and Their Effect on Facial Skin Microbiota
2019
Lavender oil is one of the most valuable aromatherapy oils, its anti-bacterial and anti-fungal activities can be explained by main components such as linalool, linalyl acetate, lavandulol, geraniol, or eucalyptol. The aim of the study was to assess the anti-microbial effects of two different lavender oils on a mixed microbiota from facial skin. The commercial lavender oil and essential lavender oil from the Crimean Peninsula, whose chemical composition and activity are yet to be published, were used. Both oils were analysed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry. The composition and properties of studied oils were significantly different. The commercial ETJA lavender oil contain…
Relationship between Prosocial Behaviours and Addiction Problems: A Systematic Review.
2022
The relationship of addiction problems with other pathologies or with different problematic factors has often been studied by psychology. Positive psychology is also currently approaching to these problems and their relationship with positive factors, such as prosocial behaviours. The purpose of this research is to carry out a systematic review of the scientific literature that has studied this relationship from 1900 to 2020. After the screening process with the inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 15 articles were selected. The main characteristics found in this relationship and the problems or limitations of investigations that have found relationships other than the mainstream, w…
Species-specific genes under selection characterize the co-evolution of slavemaker and host lifestyles.
2017
Background The transition to a parasitic lifestyle entails comprehensive changes to the selective regime. In parasites, genes encoding for traits that facilitate host detection, exploitation and transmission should be under selection. Slavemaking ants are social parasites that exploit the altruistic behaviour of their hosts by stealing heterospecific host brood during raids, which afterwards serve as slaves in slavemaker nests. Here we search for evidence of selection in the transcriptomes of three slavemaker species and three closely related hosts. We expected selection on genes underlying recognition and raiding or defense behaviour. Analyses of selective forces in species with a slavemak…
Online Intercultural Dialogue: “Failed” Communication in a Telecollaboration Project
2021
Over the past two decades, the development of computer-mediated communication technologies has modified human communication. Increasingly, representatives from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds are disposed to a constant negotiation of meanings. The main purpose of this study is to carry out a linguistically grounded analysis of the intercultural dialogue during online asynchronous written exchanges between Latvian and Cypriot students.Based on the politeness theory of Brown and Levinson (1987), which implies that all adult members of society are endowed with two universal aspects: “positive face” and “negative face”, and using the methods of content analysis and discourse analysi…
Persuasive presuppositions in OECD and EU higher education policy documents
2008
The article analyses presuppositions in higher education policy documents of the OECD and the European Union from the point of view of their persuasiveness. Presuppositions set the assumed common ground, which in turn sets the frame of interpretation of texts. However, by presenting something as common ground, presuppositions also shape our views of the reality. Used in this way, presuppositions can be used to present contested views, which would be open to criticism if they were asserted explicitly. The analysis does not evaluate the actual success of persuasion, but rather how policy documents are construed in a persuasive way.
Bridging Skill and Task-Oriented Reading
2015
Some individual difference factors are more strongly correlated with performance on postreading questions when the text is not available than when it is. The present study explores if similar interactions occur with bridging skill, which refers to a reader's propensity to establish connections between explicit text during reading. Undergraduates read science texts using two research tools. The Reading Strategy-Assessment Tool provided a measure of bridging skill. Texts and postreading questions were presented in Read&Answer, and the availability of the text while answering was manipulated. Contrary to prior research, bridging skill was comparably correlated with performance in both availabi…
Positive Technologies for Understanding and Promoting Positive Emotions
2017
AbstractInformation and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become increasingly present in our lives, and their use has spread considerably. This paper presents a review of the way ICTs can help practitioners and researchers to study, promote, and train positive emotions. It is framed within the field of Positive Technologies: the applied scientific approach to the study of the use of technology to improve the quality of personal experience, with the goal of increasing wellbeing. First, the article presents an introduction to the topic of technologies and positive emotions. Then, it describes how ICTs can aid in monitoring, assessing, promoting, modifying, and training positive emotions.…
Gram-positive bacteria on grass pollen exhibit adjuvant activity inducing inflammatory T cell responses.
2011
BACKGROUND: Recently, it has been established that pollen grains contain Th2-enhancing activities besides allergens. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyse whether pollen carry additional adjuvant factors like microbes and what immunological effects they may exert. METHODS: Timothy pollen grains were collected and disseminated on agar plates, and the growing microorganisms were cultivated and defined. Furthermore, the immunologic effects of microbial products on DC and T cell responses were analysed. RESULTS: A complex mixture of bacteria and moulds was detected on grass pollen. Besides Gram-negative bacteria that are known to favour Th1-directed immune responses, moulds were ident…
Interaction of TLR2 and TLR4 ligands with the N-terminal domain of Gp96 amplifies innate and adaptive immune responses.
2006
Activation of dendritic cells by ligands for Toll-like receptors (TLR) is a crucial event in the initiation of innate and adaptive immune responses. Several classes of TLR ligands have been identified that interact with distinct members of the TLR-family. TLR4 ligands include lipopolysaccharide derived from different Gram-negative bacteria and viral proteins. Recent reports have demonstrated the TLR-mediated activation of dendritic cells by heat shock proteins (HSPs). However, doubts were raised as to what extent this effect was due to lipopolysaccharide contaminations of the HSP preparations. We re-examined this phenomenon using Gp96 or its N-terminal domain, nominally endotoxin-free (0.5 …
Oral lichen planus, hepatitis C virus, and HIV: no association in a cohort study from an area of high hepatitis C virus endemicity
2004
Abstract Objectives We sought to assess the age-specific prevalence of oral lichen planus (OLP) in Mediterranean patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) and to evaluate the features of OLP in relation to sex, smoking, HCV genotype, HIV-1 coinfection, and antiviral treatments. Methods In all, 178 anti-HCV-positive adults (60 women and 118 men; age range 20-66 years) recruited from two cohorts (104 HIV-negative patients and 74 patients with HIV coinfection) underwent oral examination. Results Overall prevalence of OLP was 2.8% (5 of 178) (male/female ratio 0.2; odds ratio=0.119; 95% confidence interval=0.013-1.106), only among HIV-negative participants, always in the reticular pattern, …