Reminiscences of my life in science

With a great deal of humility I attempt in the following to recall important events in my life and in my scientific career of more than five decades. I am not through yet. I continue to do research though, I admit, not with the energy and fervor I once had. Still, I hope to contribute to science in meaningful ways.

REMINISCENCES OF THE PAST——WORKING FOR CHINA'S FOREIGN TRADE

In December 1958, the China Council forthe Promotion of InternationalTrade(CCPIT) established its PublicityDepartment. Its task was to take over themagazine China’s Foreign Trade, transferredfrom the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Ms. LuJiyin held the post of department head, and Iwas transferred from the post of the ResearchDepartment Commissioner to that of thePublicity Department Commissioner to assisther in her work. The magazine China’s Foreign Tradewas originally established in 1956 by thePropaganda Section under the General Officeof the Ministry of Foreign Trade. It had twoeditions: Chinese and English, under trialpublication. The magazine, sponsored by theMinistry of Foreign Trade was a trialpublication in nature, so when the task

Effects of group reminiscence on elderly depression: A meta-analysis

Background/purpose:The present meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of group reminiscence on depression in elderly patients.Methods:Published and unpublished randomised controlled trials that assessed the effects of group reminiscence on depression in elderly patients were systematically reviewed using multiple electronic databases.Relative risks for dichotomous data and weighted mean differences for continuous data were calculated with 95%confidence intervals.Results:Ten trials were evaluated.Group reminiscence provided significantly greater relief of depressive symptoms than did the control intervention immediately after and 3 months after the intervention(p<0.00001).However,this advantage disappeared 6 months after the intervention(p?0.14).Group reminiscence significantly improved self-esteem and life satisfaction(p<0.01).Conclusion:Group reminiscence was associated with short-term depression relief among elderly patients with depression and effectively improved self-esteem and life satisfaction.Higher-quality large-scale randomised controlled trials are needed to confirm these findings.

Reminiscence of my Sixty-five year Voyage in Astronomy

I returned to China from the United Kingdom in 1953, then worked in Purple Mountain Observatory. It was the early days of new China. The elder generation of astronomers was undertaking an effort of ＂repairing broken and filling defect＂ during those post-war years, and started planning and lay- ing the foundation of modern astronomy. Under their leadership, I started a journey of astronomy whose main task was construction. The journey has been full of twists and turns. As a result of the ＂Great Leap Forward＂ in 1958 and the 1966 launch of the decade-long ＂Cultural Revolution＂ period, the situation of construction in astronomy was similar to that in other sciences, suffering bad effects. Not until the ＂Reform and Opening up＂ period after those events was construction able to continue, and various disciplines and international connections began to open. A ＂passage＂ had gradually developed. In this new circumstance, I kept pursuing the pioneers to explore a forward direction. Looking back today, this journey has been three periods of a four generation relay. This article is divided into three sections that describe my research work in these times that I recall： （1） Looking back at the beginning of the return and tracing the footprints of the founders. （2） Recalling my radio astronomy tour. （3） Retrospection and expectation of LAMOST.

Reminiscence Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Spiritual Well-Being and Self-Esteem of Cancer Patients

The aim of the study was to investigate the potential of Reminiscence Cognitive Behavior Therapy (RCBT) for improvement of spiritual well-being and self-esteem in patients. Five patients received the therapy over three sessions. The patients received RCBT consisting of reminiscence therapy and cognitive behavior therapy. They completed the FACIT-Sp, Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem scale, numeric rating scales for Suffering (from 0 to 6) and Depression (from 0 to 6). The FACIT-Sp scores increased from 19.2 ± 4.6 to 26 ± 1.6 (Z = –1.8, p = 0.078, n = 5), the Self-Esteem scores significantly increased from 40.0 ± 2.5 to 45.2 ± 2.4 (Z = –2.0, p = 0.042), the Suffering scores decreased from 3.6 ± 2.0 to 2.0 (Z = –1.5, p = 0.13), and the Depression scores decreased from 2.8 ± 2.2 to 1.8 ± 0.8 (Z = –0.9, p = 0.357). These results suggest that RCBT can improve the spiritual well-being and self-esteem of cancer patients.

Intoxicated Eyewitnesses: The Effects of Alcohol on Eyewitness Recall across Repeated Interviews

The study evaluated the usefulness of repeat-interviewing of witnesses to crimes who were intoxicated by alcohol at the time of the incident and their first interview, and then re-interviewed when not intoxicated the following day. Sixty young, social drinkers were divided into three groups. One group was given a “placebo” (alcohol-like) beverage, a second was given a “low dose” of alcohol (0.2 g/kg men;0.17 g/kg women), and a third was given a “high dose” of alcohol (0.6 g/kg men;0.52 g/kg women) over a 15 minute period. Twenty minutes later they viewed a 4-minute video of a crime, and afterwards they were given two opportunities to recall everything that they could remember from the incident;the first opportunity was immediately after the event, and the second was 24 hours later. Analyses of the quantity and accuracy of the details recalled revealed no overall increase in the total amount of information recalled between the first and second recall opportunities. However, on average, 18% of the details recalled by participants in the second test were new and accurate. The incidence of contradictions between the first and second recall opportunities was less than 1%. Surprisingly, none of the effects were influenced by alcohol, even at the highest dose. The results imply that 1) memory for at least some incidents observed under the influence of alcohol is resilient even up to relatively high blood-alcohol levels;and 2) the repeated interviewing of witnesses who were intoxicated at the time of the crime can reveal additional, reliable information that is not present at the initial interview, just as is the case for non-intoxicated witnesses.

Pearls of Wisdom: Israeli Elderly Reflect on Their Lives, and Make Suggestions for Future Generations

Reminiscing by older adults can facilitate beneficial outcomes through the preparation for the end of life,the cohesiveness of life narratives,and creation of life meanings.Given this,and the historical challenges of communication between generations,the objective of this study was two-fold:(1)to harness the beneficial role reminiscence can play in the mental health of older adults;(2)to facilitate generational learning by documenting and thematically analyzing the experiences and knowledge of older adults.We hypothesized that our interviews,which had the stated goal of helping younger people navigate life challenges,would not only act as catalyst for the participants to reminisce but also create a corpus of knowledge which could be later distilled into accessible“pearls of wisdom”.The interviews were conducted in Israel with 102 participants who were between 60 and 93 years of age with six questions constructed to promote further commentary.Through the interviews we were successful in producing a large representation of the older adults’experiences and what they believed would be beneficial for the younger generation.Due to the potential benefits for participants and larger communities we recommend this approach be adopted for future studies.

The first protein ever synthesized in vitro—a personal reminiscence of the total synthesis of crystalline insulin

The total synthesis of crystalline bovine insulin started in 1958 was fully accomplished in 1965. This formidable task was a collaboration of the Institute of Biochemistry in Shanghai,