Fear information and social phobic beliefs in children: a prospective paradigm and preliminary results

This paper presents a first attempt to develop a prospective paradigm to test Rachman’s (Behav. Res. Ther. 15 (1977) 375) theory of fear acquisition for social fears. Following the prospective paradigm for animal fears developed by Field et al. (Behav. Res. Ther. 39 (2001) 1259) an attempt is made to adapt this paradigm to look at the effect of fear information in the development of social fears. A large group of normal children (N=135)who were at an age (10–13 years) at which social concerns are most pertinent were tested using this paradigm. They were given positive, negative or neutral information about three social situations: public speaking, eating in public, and meeting a new group of children. Children’s fear beliefs were measured before and after the information was given and the information was given by a teacher, a same age peer or no information was given (a control). The results indicate that although information can change social fear beliefs it is dependent upon the type of social activity and who provides the information. The implications of these initial results for our understanding of both the role of fear information in the development of social fear beliefs, and the limitations of this current paradigm are discussed

Superluminal Signals: Causal Loop Paradoxes Revisited

Recent results demonstrating superluminal group velocities and tachyonic dispersion relations reopen the question of superluminal signals and causal loop paradoxes. The sense in which superluminal signals are permitted is explained in terms of pulse reshaping, and the self-consistent behavior which prevents causal loop paradoxes is illustrated by an explicit example.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Superluminal optical pulse propagation in nonlinear coherent media

The propagation of light-pulse with negative group-velocity in a nonlinear medium is studied theoretically. We show that the necessary conditions for these effects to be observable are realized in a three-level $\Lambda$-system interacting with a linearly polarized laser beam in the presence of a static magnetic field. In low power regime, when all other nonlinear processes are negligible, the light-induced Zeeman coherence cancels the resonant absorption of the medium almost completely, but preserves the dispersion anomalous and very high. As a result, a superluminal light pulse propagation can be observed in the sense that the peak of the transmitted pulse exits the medium before the peak of the incident pulse enters. There is no violation of causality and energy conservation. Moreover, the superluminal effects are prominently manifested in the reshaping of pulse, which is caused by the intensity-dependent pulse velocity. Unlike the shock wave formation in a nonlinear medium with normal dispersion, here, the self-steepening of the pulse trailing edge takes place due to the fact that the more intense parts of the pulse travel slower. The predicted effect can be easily observed in the well known schemes employed for studying of nonlinear magneto-optical rotation. The upper bound of sample length is found from the criterion that the pulse self-steepening and group-advance time are observable without pulse distortion caused by the group-velocity dispersion.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

A Knob for Changing Light Propagation from Subluminal to Superluminal

We show how the application of a coupling field connecting the two lower metastable states of a lambda-system can produce a variety of new results on the propagation of a weak electromagnetic pulse. In principle the light propagation can be changed from subluminal to superluminal. The negative group index results from the regions of anomalous dispersion and gain in susceptibility.Comment: 6 pages,5 figures, typed in RevTeX, accepted in Phys. Rev.

A Narrative Review of Intensive Group Tobacco Treatment: Clinical, Research, and US Policy Recommendations

Clinical practice guidelines recommend comprehensive treatment for tobacco dependence including pharmacotherapies and behavioral interventions. Group counseling may deliver unique treatment aspects not available with other modalities. This manuscript provides a narrative review of group treatment outcomes from real-world practice settings and complements recent meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Our primary goals were to determine whether group treatments delivered in these settings have yielded similar quit rates compared to individual treatment and to provide recommendations for best practices and policy. Methods: Group treatment was defined as occurring in a clinical or workplace setting (ie, not provided as part of a research study), led by a professionally trained clinician, and offered weekly over several weeks. English language PubMed articles from January 2000 to July 2017 were searched to identify studies that included outcomes from both group and individual treatment offered in real-world settings. Additional data sources meeting our criteria were also included. Reports not using pharmacotherapy and research studies (eg, RCTs) were excluded. The primary outcome was short-term, carbon monoxide (CO)-validated point prevalence abstinence (4-week postquit date). Results: The review included data from 11 observational studies. In all cases, group treatment(s) had higher 4-week CO-validated quit rates (range: 35.5%-67.3%) than individual treatment(s) (range: 18.6%-53.3%). Conclusions: Best practice group treatments for tobacco dependence are generalizable from research to clinical settings and likely to be at least as effective as intensive individual treatment. The added advantages of efficiency and cost-effectiveness can be significant. Group treatment is feasible in various settings with good results. Implications: A major barrier to achieving high rates of tobacco abstinence is under-utilization of evidence-based treatment interventions. This review demonstrates the effectiveness and utility of group treatment for tobacco dependence. Based on the available data described in this narrative review in conjunction with existing RCT data, group treatment for tobacco dependence should be established and available in all behavioral health and medical settings. Group tobacco treatment is now one of the mandated reimbursable tobacco treatment formats within the US health care system, creating enormous opportunities for widespread clinical reach. Finally, comprehensive worksite group programs can further extend impact

Dispersive properties of quasi-phase-matched optical parametric amplifiers

The dispersive properties of non-degenerate optical parametric amplification in quasi-phase-matched (QPM) nonlinear quadratic crystals with an arbitrary grating profile are theoretically investigated in the no-pump-depletion limit. The spectral group delay curve of the amplifier is shown to be univocally determined by its spectral power gain curve through a Hilbert transform. Such a constraint has important implications on the propagation of spectrally-narrow optical pulses through the amplifier. In particular, it is shown that anomalous transit times, corresponding to superluminal or even negative group velocities, are possible near local minima of the spectral gain curve. A possible experimental observation of such effects using a QPM Lithium-Niobate crystal is suggested.Comment: submitted for publicatio

Billing practices among us tobacco use treatment providers

and improving coordination between intensive therapies validated in research and "real-world" logistics.Objectives: The US Affordable Care Act (ACA) now requires almost all health insurance plans to cover tobacco use treatment (TUT), but TUT remains underutilized. Methods: We conducted an anonymous online survey of US TUT providers in 2016 regarding their billing practices. Results: Participants (n131) provided services primarily in medical and behavioral health settings and were from a variety of professions. Most provided intensive individual (>15 minutes per session) and/or group counseling. Although most reported that their organization accepted at least 1 form of insurance, only 34% reported that TUT services were billed, with about equal proportions endorsing billing under their own independent tax ID and "incident to" billing under a supervisor. Half of billers (52%) reported using at least 1 Current Procedural Terminology code. The most common codes were 99406 and 99407, but 18 unique codes were specified. Themes of qualitative responses (n101) included concern about how to initiate and sustain adequate reimbursement, and experiences with billing not being "worth" the time or effort. Conclusions: Overall, results demonstrate a need for providers, administrators, and billing managers to work collaboratively. Even with the ACA mandate, and consistent with prior reports, reimbursement rates may be inadequate for intensive counseling. Areas for advocacy include recognizing that TUT requires similar intensity, expertise, and reimbursement as other substance use disorders and chronic medical conditionsgiving Tobacco Treatment Specialists the ability to bill independentl

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02