State anxiety modulates the return of fear

Current treatments for anxiety disorders are effective but limited by the high frequency of clinical relapse. Processes underlying relapse are thought to be experimentally modeled in fear conditioning experiments with return fear (ROF) inductions. Thereby reinstatement-induced ROF might be considered a model to study mechanisms underlying adversity-induced relapse. Previous studies have reported differential ROF (i.e. specific for the danger stimulus) but also generalized ROF (i.e. for safe and danger stimuli), but reasons for these divergent findings are not clear yet. Hence, the response pattern (i.e. differential or generalized) following reinstatement may be of importance for the prediction of risk or resilience for ROF. The aim of this study was to investigate state anxiety as a potential individual difference factor contributing to differentiability or generalization of return of fear. Thirty-six participants underwent instructed fear expression, extinction and ROF induction through reinstatement while physiological (skin conductance response, fear potentiated startle) and subjective measures of fear and US expectancy were acquired. Our data show that, as expected, high state anxious individuals show deficits in SCR discrimination between dangerous and safe cues after reinstatement induced ROF (i.e. generalization) as compared to low state anxious individuals. The ability to maintain discrimination under aversive circumstances is negatively associated with pathological anxiety and predictive of resilient responding while excessive generalization is a hallmark of anxiety disorders. Therefore, we suggest that experimentally induced ROF might prove useful in predicting relapse risk in clinical settings and might have implications for possible interventions for relapse prevention

Understanding the truth about subjectivity

Results of two experiments show children’s understanding of diversity in personal preference is incomplete. Despite acknowledging diversity, in Experiment 1(N=108), 6- and 8-year-old children were less likely than adults to see preference as a legitimate basis for personal tastes and more likely to say a single truth could be found about a matter of taste. In Experiment 2 (N=96), 7- and 9-year-olds were less likely than 11- and 13-yearolds to say a dispute about a matter of preference might not be resolved. These data suggest that acceptance of the possibility of diversity does not indicate an adult-like understanding of subjectivity. An understanding of the relative emphasis placed on objective and subjective factors in different contexts continues to develop into adolescence

Transition from antibunching to bunching in cavity QED

The photon statistics of the light emitted from an atomic ensemble into a single field mode of an optical cavity is investigated as a function of the number of atoms. The light is produced in a Raman transition driven by a pump laser and the cavity vacuum [M.Hennrich et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 4672 (2000)], and a recycling laser is employed to repeat this process continuously. For weak driving, a smooth transition from antibunching to bunching is found for about one intra-cavity atom. Remarkably, the bunching peak develops within the antibunching dip. For saturated driving and a growing number of atoms, the bunching amplitude decreases and the bunching duration increases, indicating the onset of Raman lasing.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Electroweak Sudakov Logarithms and Real Gauge-Boson Radiation in the TeV Region

Electroweak radiative corrections give rise to large negative, double-logarithmically enhanced corrections in the TeV region. These are partly compensated by real radiation and, moreover, affected by selecting isospin-noninvariant external states. We investigate the impact of real gauge boson radiation more quantitatively by considering different restricted final state configurations. We consider successively a massive abelian gauge theory, a spontaneously broken SU(2) theory and the electroweak Standard Model. We find that details of the choice of the phase space cuts, in particular whether a fraction of collinear and soft radiation is included, have a strong impact on the relative amount of real and virtual corrections.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure

Defending divine unity in the Muslim milieu: the Trinitarian and Christological formulations of Abū al-Faraj ‘Abd Allāh Ibn al-Ṭayyib and Iliyyā of Nisibis

This research examines two prominent theologians of the Assyrian Church of the East who responded to Islam’s perennial objections to the Christian Trinity and Christology. The theologians in question are Abū al-Faraj ʽAbd Allāh Ibn al-Ṭayyib (d. 1043/434) and Bishop Iliyyā of Nisibis (d. 1046/437). Both men were characterized by a remarkable literary production marking them out among the intellectual elite of their day as polymaths. The research discusses the two theologians as examples of Christian theological response in the Arab Muslim milieu. Ibn al-Ṭayyib, though recognized as an exegete, has not been noted for his contribution to Muslim-Christian discourse. The thesis identifies his response in his theological treatises. Though he did not engage with a specific dialogue partner nor even mention Islam explicitly, the questions he considered correspond unmistakably to the themes of the Muslim-Christian interface. The research features this implicit defence of divine unity in Ibn al-Ṭayyib’s theological formulations. Iliyyā of Nisibis, on the other hand, enjoyed a productive dialogue with the Shi’īte Vizier (Minister of State) of the Marwanid Dynasty (located in eastern Syria and Western Turkey today). The research highlights the ‘agnostic inquisitiveness’ of Abū al-Qāsim in tandem with the tawḥīd rhetoric of Iliyyā which occasioned one of the most promising examples of Muslim-Christian discourse of the medieval period known as The Sessions. Other works of Iliyyā are also considered. Both theologians dealt with critical questions posed by Muslim intellectuals concerning the Christian definition of divine unity in light of their Trinitarian and Christological formulations. The Christians claim divine unity (tawḥīd) as a correct descriptor of their view as they seek to secure the inclusion of their community in the fold of monotheism. Key questions include the definition of the Trinitarian hypostases and their relation to the divine essence (How can God be one and three?). The nature of the union of divinity and humanity in Christ is equally critical given that Muslims viewed the incarnation as an egregious example of shirk (associating the Creator with the created — polytheism). The two theologians borrowed from and developed the theological constructs of their predecessors as demonstrated by the thesis. Other topics include: the shaping of theological constructs by the Muslim milieu, lexical amendments due to Arabic and Islamic terminology, the duality of the hypostases in Christ proffered by the Church of the East (‘Nestorian’) and social and political implications of Christian adherence to divine unity. The research concludes with a discussion of implications of divine Trinitarian unity in today’s Arab Muslim world