Relationship between Thought Style, Emotional Response, Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG), and Biomarkers in Cancer Patients.

(1) Introduction: Cancer diagnosis has been related to depression, anxiety, and distress, as well as to post-traumatic growth (PTG). One of the mediating variables for emotional response is thought style (rumination, cognitive avoidance, and cognitive engagement). (2) Aim: To identify the relationship between thought style and emotional responses to cancer. A secondary aim was to identify the relationship between emotional responses and inflammatory immunological biomarkers. (3) Method: A total of 115 patients with cancer were included in the study. Before initiating cancer treatment, patients were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), distress thermometer, and Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI). Patients provided their most recent blood biometry. (4) Results: Rumination correlated with anxiety, depression, and distress. Cognitive avoidance correlated with PTG (-0.240) and distress (-0.209). Cognitive engagement correlated with PTG (0.393). Regarding thought style and biomarkers, a negative correlation was observed for absolute neutrophils with cognitive avoidance (-0.271) and rumination (0.305). Regarding biomarkers and emotional responses, there was a negative correlation between PTG and absolute lymphocytes (-0.291). There was also a correlation between PTG and neutrophils (0.357) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) (0.295). (5) Conclusions: Thought style is related to the emotional response to a cancer diagnosis; rumination is related to depression, distress, and anxiety; and cognitive engagement is related to PTG. PTG is related to inflammation and immunological biomarkers.

Diseño y análisis de propiedades psicométricas del Inventario de Estilos de Pensamiento en Respuesta al Cáncer (IEPRaC) / Design and psychometric properties analysis of the Thought Style in Response to Cancer Inventory (IEPRaC)

Una de las variables que ha sido definida como mediadora para la respuesta emocional ante el cáncer es el estilo de pensamiento. En contextos patológicos (por ejemplo, rumiación en depresión), y también en contextos normativos, se ha sugerido que el estilo de pensamiento puede predecir el ajuste ante un estresor. Existen instrumentos para evaluar de manera independiente los estilos de pensamiento (rumiación, evitación experiencial), pero ninguno está adaptado para población oncológica y ninguno incluye los tres estilos de pensamiento (rumiación, evitación y compromiso cognitivo). Objetivo: diseñar y estudiar las propiedades psicométricas de un instrumento que mida estilos de pensamiento en respuesta al diagnóstico oncológico. Método: Estudio instrumental, dividido en dos fases: la primera, elaboración de reactivos y jueceo de expertos y la segunda, análisis de propiedades psicométricas. Resultados: La versión final cuenta 15 ítems. La estructura interna resultó de tres factores, obtenidos a partir de un Análisis Factorial Exploratorio y corroborada mediante un Análisis Factorial Confirmatorio. Los valores de alfa de cronbach de las escalas resultaron adecuadas: la de Rumiación resultó de 0,87, la de Compromiso cognitivo de , 0,82 y de 0,72 la de evitación. Todos los ítems cuentan con evidencias de validez de contenido y propiedades psicométricas satisfactorias. La escala de Compromiso cognitivo fue la que obtuvo la puntuación media mayor y la de Rumiación mostró la menor. Conclusión: El Inventario de Estilos de Pensamiento en Respuesta al Cáncer (IEPRaC) cuenta con adecuadas propiedades psicométricas para ser utilizado en población oncológica mexicana (AU)

Thought style has been defined as one of the mediating variables to emotional response at a cancer diagnosis. It has been reported in pathological contexts (rumination in depression), but also in normative ones, it has been suggested that thought styles can predict adjustment to a stressor. There are measurement scales used to assess thought style independently (rumination, experiential avoidance), but none of them is adapted for oncologic population and none of them include all three thought styles. Aim: To design and assess psychometric properties of a scale of thought styles in response to a cancer diagnosis. Method: Instrumental Study, divided in two phases: the first, item elaboration and expert judge; the second, psychometric properties analysis. Results: Final version counts with 15 items. Intern Structure resulted in three factors, obtained by an Exploratory Factorial Analysis and corroborated by a Confirmatory Factorial Analisis. Cronbach’s alphas for the subscales resulted appropriate: for rumination 0.87, for cognitive engagement 0.82 and 0.72 for avoidance. All items have evidence for content validity and adequate psychometric properties. Results of Cognitive Engagement subscale had the higher mean and Rumination subscale was the lowest. Conclusion: Thought style in response to a cancer diagnosis scale (IERPaC) has adequate psychometric properties to be used in Mexican oncologic patients (AU)

On the historical significance of Beijerinck and his contagium vivum fluidum for modern virology.

This paper considers the foundational role of the contagium vivum fluidum-first proposed by the Dutch microbiologist Martinus Beijerinck in 1898-in the history of virology, particularly in shaping the modern virus concept, defined in the 1950s. Investigating the cause of mosaic disease of tobacco, previously shown to be an invisible and filterable entity, Beijerinck concluded that it was neither particulate like the bacteria implicated in certain infectious diseases, nor soluble like the toxins and enzymes responsible for symptoms in others. He offered a completely new explanation, proposing that the agent was a "living infectious fluid" whose reproduction was intimately linked to that of its host cell. Difficult to test at the time, the contagium vivum fluidum languished in obscurity for more than three decades. Subsequent advances in technologies prompted virus researchers of the 1930s and 1940s-the first to separate themselves from bacteriologists-to revive the idea. They found in it both the seeds for their emerging virus concept and a way to bring hitherto opposing thought styles about the nature of viruses and life together in consensus. Thus, they resurrected Beijerinck as the founding father, and contagium vivum fluidum as the core concept of their discipline.

When viruses were not in style: parallels in the histories of chicken sarcoma viruses and bacteriophages.

The discovery that cancer may be caused by viruses occurred in the early twentieth century, a time when the very concept of viruses as we understand it today was in a considerable state of flux. Although certain features were agreed upon, viruses, more commonly referred to as 'filterable viruses' were not considered much different from other microbes such as bacteria except for their extremely small size, which rendered them ultramicroscopic and filterable. For a long time, in fact, viruses were defined rather by what they were not and what they could not do, rather than any known properties that set them apart from other microbes. Consequently when Peyton Rous suggested in 1912 that the causative agent of a transmissible sarcoma tumor of chickens was a virus, the medical research community was reluctant to accept his assessment on the grounds that cancer was not infectious and was caused by a physiological change within the cells. This difference in the bacteriological and physiological styles of thinking appears to have been prevalent in the wider research community, for when in 1917 Felix d'Herelle suggested that a transmissible lysis in bacteria, which he called bacteriophagy, was caused by a virus, his ideas were also opposed on similar grounds. It was not until the 1950s when when André Lwoff explained the phenomenon of lysogeny through his prophage hypothesis that the viral identities of the sarcoma-inducing agent and the bacteriophages were accepted. This paper examines the trajectories of the curiously parallel histories of the cancer viruses and highlights the similarities and differences between the ways in which prevailing ideas about the nature of viruses, heredity and infection drove researchers from disparate disciplines and geographic locations to develop their ideas and achieve some consensus about the nature of cancer viruses and bacteriophages.

Percepções de estudantes de medicina veterinária sobre a atuação na área da saúde: um estudo baseado na idéia de "estilo de pensamento" de Ludwik Fleck / Perceptions of veterinary medicine students about acting in the public health area: a study based on Fleck's idea of thought style

Como parte de um estudo de caso, que teve como objeto o curso de medicina veterinária da Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (UDESC), calouros e formandos foram entrevistados com o objetivo de identificar suas impressões sobre as atividades no âmbito da medicina veterinária preventiva e saúde pública. Tendo como referencial o pensamento de Ludwik Fleck, estabeleceu-se uma correspondência entre os diversos campos de atuação na medicina veterinária e estilos de pensamento, utilizando essas categorias como instrumento de análise. Verificou-se que o ensino veterinário conduz à formação de um pensamento que não privilegia concepções com características coletivas e preventivas. No final do artigo, são feitas sugestões ressaltando a importância da integração entre os diversos campos de atuação da profissão na formação profissional com base nas Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional de 1996.

As part of a case study conducted in the undergraduate course of Veterinary Medicine of the State University of Santa Catarina (UDESC), Brazil, freshmen and senior students were interviewed for identifying how they perceive their activities as refers to Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Public Health. Taking the ideas of Ludwik Fleck as a theoretical framework, a correspondence was established among the different fields of activity in Veterinary Medicine and the variations in "thought styles", a key idea in Fleck's epistemology, allowing for the definition of analytical categories. It was verified that the teaching in the field of veterinary medicine leads to a thought style giving little importance to collective and preventive concepts. In the end of the article, we emphasize the importance of integration between the different fields of actions of the profession for a better professional education based on the National Guidelines and Bases for Education of 19965.