Moving Forward with Self-Compassion: An Examination of Self-Compassion, Social Anxiety, and Post-Event Processing

Post-event processing (PEP) refers to a negative and prolonged rumination following anxiety-inducing social situations and is posited to maintain social anxiety. Because PEP is characterized by thoughts that are judgmental, recurring, and preoccupying, those who engage in PEP appear to lack self-compassion. Self-compassion can be conceptualized as a supportive and open attitude toward negative experiences, with the recognition that these experiences are universal. The purpose of the present research was to examine self-compassion in the context of PEP. In the first manuscript, we found support across two, separate samples (N = 156 undergraduates; N = 150 individuals from the community seeking self-help for social anxiety and shyness) for the negative relationship between self-compassion and PEP. In the second manuscript (N = 98 socially anxious undergraduates), we found that those assigned to a self-compassion condition following a speech experienced less PEP one day later, compared to those in both the negative rumination and writing control conditions. In the third manuscript (N = 66 undergraduates), we found that negative, compared to positive, speech feedback heightened PEP when dispositional self-compassion was low, but not when it was high. Taken together, these findings suggest that self-compassion is relevant to PEP, can be induced as a means of limiting PEP, and continues to buffer against PEP amongst those high on the trait, even after receiving negative performance feedback. Given these findings, clinicians may consider self-compassion as part of treatment protocols for social anxiety and PEP

Towards knower awareness in chemistry and chemistry education

Education Policy Studie

Synthesis of triazole-linked 2-trichloromethylquinazolines and exploration of their efficacy against P. falciparum

Using 2-trichloromethylquinazoline as scaffold, seven novel triazole-linked compounds have been synthesized using CuAAC chemistry. The in vitrobiological activity of four of the compounds on the Plasmodium falciparumchloroquine-sensitive strain NF54 was then determined. The compounds which were tested showed moderate activity with 1.45 /iM as the lowest inhibitory concentration

Temporal variations in meibomian gland structure—A pilot study

Purpose: To investigate whether there is a measurable change in meibomian gland morphological characteristics over the course of a day (12h) and over a month.Methods: The study enrolled 15 participants who attended a total of 11 study visits spanning a 5-week period. To assess diurnal changes in meibomian glands, seven visits were conducted on a single day, each 2h apart. For monthly assessment, participants attended an additional visit at the same time of the day every week for three consecutive weeks. Meibography using the LipiView® II system was performed at each visit, and meibomian gland morphological parameters were calculated using custom semi-automated software. Specifically, six central glands were analysed for gland length ratio, gland width, gland area, gland intensity and gland tortuosity.Results: The average meibomian gland morphological metrics did not exhibit significant changes during the course of a day or over a month. Nonetheless, certain individual gland metrics demonstrated notable variation over time, both diurnally and monthly. Specifically, meibomian gland length ratio, area, width and tortuosity exhibited significant changes both diurnally and monthly when assessed on a gland-by-gland basis.Conclusions: Meibomian glands demonstrated measurable structural change over short periods of time (hours and days). These results have implications for innovation in gland imaging and for developing precision monitoring of gland structure to assess meibomian gland  health more accurately

Investigating the veracity of self-reported post-traumatic growth: a profile analysis approach

Research into posttraumatic growth—positive psychological change that people report in their relationships, priorities in life, and self-perception after experiences of adversity—has been severely critiqued. We investigated the degree to which community members’ friends and relatives corroborated targets’ self-perceived positive and negative changes as measured by the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory-42. We found corroboration only for negative changes when we examined overall (averaged) scores. However, using a profile analysis procedure, we found significant participant–informant agreement on the domains of change that had relatively higher scores in the target’s profile and those that had relatively lower scores. Our results demonstrate that informants were able to observe that targets had changed and were sensitive to the idiosyncratic ways in which these changes had manifested in targets’ behavior

Examining the functional utility of personal growth initiative in a war-affected Sri Lankan Tamil sample

The present study explored personal growth initiative (PGI;Robitschek, 1998)—the extent a person is motivated to and actively sets goals towards achieving self-improvement—and its relationship to functional impairment and life satisfaction among a war-affected Sri Lankan sample. 200 war-affected Tamil individuals in Sri Lanka completed measures of PGI, wartime experiences, functional impairment, and life satisfaction. Two hierarchical regressions were conducted examining current life satisfaction and degree of functional impairment. After controlling for depression and wartime experiences, PGI was positively associated with life satisfaction. However, no association was observed between PGI and reduced functional impairment. In contrast to other contexts of ethnopolitical violence, PGI was associated with subjective well-being, but not improved functioning. These results have implications for potential utilityof PGI across different contexts of ethnopolitical warfare

Dynamics of the attractive 1D Bose gas: analytical treatment from integrability

The physics of the attractive one-dimensional Bose gas (Lieb-Liniger model) is investigated with techniques based on the integrability of the system. Combining a knowledge of particle quasi-momenta to exponential precision in the system size with determinant representations of matrix elements of local operators coming from the Algebraic Bethe Ansatz, we obtain rather general analytical results for the zero-temperature dynamical correlation functions of the density and field operators. Our results thus provide quantitative predictions for possible future experiments in atomic gases or optical waveguides.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figure

DNA profiles generated from a range of touched sample types

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This author accepted manuscript is made available following 12 month embargo from date of publication (June 2018) in accordance with the publisher’s archiving policy.Direct PCR from touch DNA has a range of potential applications in the field of forensic investigation for exhibit examination that, under standard extraction methods, rarely produce informative DNA profiles. Previous studies from ‘touch DNA’ have focussed on fingermarks created under laboratory conditions. Here we report on successful STR DNA profiling from a range of touched items. Direct PCR, with no increase in cycle number, was performed after eight different sample types, typical of those submitted for forensic investigation, were handled by volunteers for a maximum of 15 s to deposit trace amounts of their DNA. Amplifications were performed using either GlobalFiler® or Identifiler® Plus following manufacturer’s instructions. These two kits were chosen deliberately as many laboratories worldwide have adopted and validated them in their workflow, thus allowing for direct PCR to be incorporated within their practises easily. It was found that informative STR profiles were obtained from all eight substrates using both STR kits. Identifiler® Plus out-performed GlobalFiler® in terms of the percentage of alleles amplified using the direct PCR approach. Both generated informative profiles from all items and all individuals, at different rates, with Identifiler® Plus being informative in a larger percentage of samples. GlobalFiler® produced profiles with an average of 60% ± 24% (36 ± 15 alleles) alleles present while Identifiler® Plus produced profiles with an average of 96% ± 4% (31 ± 1 alleles) alleles present. A comparison was made between the direct PCR approach and subjecting touched samples to a standard DNA extraction process, both using Identifiler®. An average of 4% of profiles were informative for samples that underwent extraction with 100% being informative from the same subset of samples amplified by direct PCR. Our findings further demonstrate the success of direct PCR to enhance the STR DNA profiles from touch DNA. Further, Identifiler® Plus was found to generate informative profiles more often than GlobalFiler®. Direct PCR is fast, simple, and non-destructive of evidence with the ability to generate informative genetic data where standard methods are likely to fail