An integrative review of attention biases and their contribution to treatment for anxiety disorders

Models of exposure therapy, one of the key components of cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders, suggest that attention may play an important role in the extinction of fear and anxiety. Evidence from cognitive research suggests that individual differences may play a causal role in the onset and maintenance of anxiety disorders and so it is also likely to influence treatment. We review the evidence concerning attention and treatment outcomes in anxiety disorders. The evidence reviewed here suggests that that attention biases assessed at pre-treatment might actually predict improved response to treatment, and in particular that prolonged engagement with threat as measured in tasks such as the dot probe is associated with greater reductions in anxious symptoms following treatment. We examine this research within a fear learning framework, considering the possible role of individual differences in attention in the extinction of fear during exposure. Theoretical, experimental and clinical implications are discussed, particularly with reference to the potential for attention bias modification programs in augmenting treatment, and also with reference to how existing research in this area might inform best practice for clinicians.published_or_final_versio

The role of stimulus specificity and attention in the generalization of extinction

Exposure therapy for anxiety is effective but fear can still return afterward. This may be because the stimuli that people are exposed to are dissimilar from the stimuli to which fear was originally acquired. After pairing an animal-like image (A) with a shock stimulus (US), a perceptually similar stimulus (B) was presented without the US in extinction. Participants were then shown A (ABA), a second generalization stimulus (ABC) or B (ABB). Groups ABA and ABC evidenced a return of US expectancy relative to participants who were shown B (ABB). Participants in group ABC who self-reported high levels of attentional control evidenced greater return of expectancy relative to participants low in attentional control. Participants with a high level of attentional control also showed steeper extinction gradients. Attentional control may influence perceptions of similarity and the learning that follows. Making note of such differences may be valuable in exposure treatment for anxiety.postprin

A COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH TO THE TEACIDNG OF LATIN

INTRODUCTION At the University of the Western Cape (UWC) there is a large number of students (about 300) who enrol for the introductory Latin course. Most of these students hope to become lawyers. It is with this in mind that one of the major aims of the UWC Latin course is to enable students to read with comprehension simple Latin texts e.g. 1he Institutes of Gaius, (cf. Kriel 1982). The prescribed handbook is Legal Latin - A Basic Course by Scholtemeijer and Hasse. There are, however, formidable obstacles in the way of enabling students to achieve the aim of reading Latin with confidence. Some of these are constraints faced by most universities, such as not more than 26 weeks of actual teaching time per year, large groups (80-120 students per group), some apathy because Latin is seen as a compulsory requirement, and often a very genuine fear of Latin as a very difficult subject to pass. At UWC yet another factor has become increasingly important over the past few years. A growing percentage of students are studying Latin through the medium of English while English is not their first language. (At the moment we have one: Afrikaans medium group, who are not similarly handicapped). This paper describes how we attempted during 1992 to make learning Latin a meaningful experience for our students; it also draws some conclusions based on the performance of the students and on feedback obtained from them by means of questionnaires about the course. The first section deals with problems generally experienced by students, the second with the methodology adopted to deal with these problems and finally there is an evaluation of the procedure and an indication of the road ahead. Contact time comprised two eighty minute lectures per week dealing with grammar and related experiences, and a weekly tutorial of 40 minutes for which students were divided into groups of approximately 20. There were approximately 15 tutorial groups, and each group maintained their tutor throughout the year. Students were required to write a weekly practical test for which they had to study the grammar and vocabulary introduced during the previous week. They could also practise their vocabulary and paradigms, and later in the year their setwork comprehension, on the CONSENSUS computer programme

Enhancement of bulk second-harmonic generation from silicon nitride films by material composition

We present a comprehensive tensorial characterization of second-harmonic generation from silicon nitride films with varying composition. The samples were fabricated using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, and the material composition was varied by the reactive gas mixture in the process. We found a six-fold enhancement between the lowest and highest second-order susceptibility, with the highest value of approximately 5 pm/V from the most silicon-rich sample. Moreover, the optical losses were found to be sufficiently small (below 6 dB/cm) for applications. The tensorial results show that all samples retain in-plane isotropy independent of silicon content, highlighting the controllability of the fabrication process.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; Re-submitted to Optics Letter

Triple minima in free energy of semiflexible polymers

We study the free energy of the worm-like-chain model, in the constant-extension ensemble, as a function of the stiffness for finite chains of length L. We find that the polymer properties obtained in this ensemble are "qualitatively" different from those obtained using constant-force ensembles. In particular we find that as we change the stiffness parameter, the polymer makes a transition from the flexible to the rigid phase and there is an intermediate regime of parameter values where the free energy has three minima and both phases are stable. This leads to interesting features in the force-extension curves.Comment: Published version, 4 pages, 5 figures, revte

Переклад у концепції національної літератури Івана Франка

Abstract: This paper presents a working model to estimate the solar photovoltaic potential using high- resolution LiDAR data and Geographic Information Systems. This bottom-up approach method has been selected to arrive at the potential as this gives a better estimate than a top-down approach. The novelty of the study lies in estimating the potential at high resolution and classifying the rooftop as suitable or not for solar photovoltaic installations based on factors like irradiation, slope and orientation. The city of Apeldoorn in the Netherlands has been selected as the study area. The model was able to successfully locate suitable sites for photovoltaic installations at rooftop level. In addition, the area feasible for the installations and the potential power output has also been calculated. We conclude that the city has a potential of 319 MWp capacity, which would yield 283.9 GWh/yr in relation to the 304 GWh/yr consumption from residential buildings in the area