The relationship between self-forgiveness and psychological wellbeing in prison inmates: The mediating role of mindfulness.

Background: Previous research with general population samples has consistently shown that forgiveness and mindfulness facilitate coping with distressing experiences and significantly promote mental health. No study, however, has examined their unique contribution to prisoners' psychological wellbeing nor has considered the different forms of self-forgiveness among prisoners.

Aims: Our aim was to investigate the role of mindfulness in mediating any association between prisoners' self-forgiveness and psychological wellbeing and to test whether any such links are moderated by years spent in prison.

Surface morphology of sound deciduous tooth enamel after application of a photo-absorbing cream and infrared low-level laser irradiation: an in vitro scanning electron microscopy study.

Objectives: The purpose of this descriptive scanning electron microscopic study was to characterize surface alterations in deciduous tooth enamel after in vitro infrared diode laser irradiation, using a photo-absorbing agent alone and also combined with fluoride, before and after laser irradiation.

Background Data: Previous investigations have demonstrated increased enamel caries resistance after laser irradiation.

Methods: Seven extracted or exfoliated primary molar teeth underwent soft tissue débridement and fluoride-free prophylaxis.

[Thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) in clinical practice: effects, technique, complications and suggestions during anticoagulant treatment].

The effects of thoracic peridural analgesia (TEA) on the neuroendocrine response to surgery are well known, but, at the present this technique is not widely used especially in Italy. The aim of this paper is to give information and suggestions on thoracic epidural analgesia in thoracic and cardiac surgery, and to discuss how anticoagulant therapy may interfere on this technique.

Super-normal 201Tl retention in hibernating myocardium: an ex-vivo study using the failing human heart.

Objective: Although the relationship between delayed 201Tl distribution and blood flow in acutely ischemic and infarcted myocardium has been widely explored in the experimental setting, its behaviour in chronically hypoperfused dysfunctioning human myocardium has not yet been evaluated.

Methods: In tissue samples of excised failing hearts taken from ischemic (IHD) patients and idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC) controls, we evaluated the relationship between delayed 201Tl retention (4 h redistribution), blood flow (assessed by means of 99mTc-labelled human albumin microspheres injected during transplantation) and biochemically-assessed fibrosis. 201Tl activity was expressed as the percent of the activity in the region with highest flow and the least fibrosis.

Recent progress in vertebral body section roentgenography in the study of the pathology of the lumbar vertebrae.

The potentialities of vertebral body section roentgenography have recently been enlarged to include the direct study of soft tissues within the vertebral canal. The writers report a series of observations on the pathology of disc protrusion, spinal stenosis and cicatricial stenosis following laminectomy, carried out by means of a third generation scanner, the Somatom SF. This apparatus makes it possible to integrate the data furnished by traditional radiological investigations and by scanners of previous generations, thus demonstrating new aspects of the pathology of the lumbar nerve roots.