Response: Rights as Trumps of What?

Background: Smartphone technology presents a novel and promising opportunity to extend the reach of psychotherapeutic interventions by moving selected parts of the therapy into the real-life situations causing distress. This randomised controlled trial will investigate the effects of a transdiagnostic, Internet-administered cognitive behavioural (iCBT) self-help program for anxiety, supplemented with a smartphone application. The effect of added therapist support will also be studied. Methods/Design: One hundred and fifty participants meeting diagnostic criteria for social anxiety disorder and/or panic disorder will be evenly randomised to either one of three study groups: 1, smartphone-supplemented iCBT with therapist support; 2, smartphone-supplemented iCBT without therapist support; or 3, an active waiting list control group with delayed treatment. Primary outcome measure will be the Generalised Anxiety Disorder 7-item self-rating scale. Secondary measures include other anxiety, depression and quality of life measures. In addition to pre- and post-treatment measurements, the study includes two mid-treatment (days 24 and 48) and two follow-up assessments (12 and 36 months) to assess rapid and long-term effects. Discussion: To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the effectiveness of smartphone-supplemented iCBT for anxiety disorders. Hence, the findings from this trial will constitute great advancements in the burgeoning and promising field of smartphone-administered psychological interventions. Limitations are discussed

Structural and functional brain connectivity abnormalities associated with adolescent conduct disorder in females

Background: Antisocial behavior (ASB) in childhood and adolescence is indexed by the diagnosis of conduct disorder (CD) and is associated with high rates of comorbid mental disorders, such as anxiety, depression, alcohol and drug dependence, as well as maltreatment. Elevated levels of psychopathic traits further complicate the clinical picture of adolescents with CD. Those who persist with severe ASB into adulthood will meet criteria for antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). Others will continue to display less severe ASB, and thereby not meet the diagnostic criteria for ASPD, but will experience a wide range of adverse outcomes, including persisting comorbid mental disorders and impaired psychosocial adjustment. Many studies have explored neural abnormalities associated with ASB, yet there are several key gaps in the extant literature: (I) Females with ASB have rarely been studied. (II) There has been no study of adult women who presented CD as adolescents, but who did not progress to ASPD. (III) Past studies have typically excluded CD participants with comorbid disorders (making them unrepresentative of clinical cases) or failed to take account of these disorders when examining neural correlates of ASB. (IV) No study has taken account of childhood maltreatment. (IV) There has been no study of associations of brain connectivity and subsyndromal psychopathic traits in females. Method: Three groups of young adult women, aged on average 24 years, completed clinical assessments and magnetic resonance imaging: women who consulted for substance misuse as adolescents and who were enrolled in a longitudinal study (n=44), sisters of ex-clients also enrolled in the longitudinal study (n=31), and newly recruited healthy women (n=24). Clinical data (diagnoses, psychopathic traits and other measures) from past waves and the current wave of data collection were used to characterize participants. Measures of brain structural connectivity (integrity of white matter tracts connecting specific regions) and functional connectivity (correlated resting-state activity between regions and Graph Theory topology) were investigated in four studies. Results: The women who had presented CD in adolescence presented high levels of lifetime comorbid anxiety and depression disorders, alcohol and drug dependence, childhood maltreatment, higher levels of psychopathic traits than in the general population, and poor psychosocial functioning and more aggressive behavior than the healthy women. Three main findings emerged: (1) CD prior to age 15 was associated with abnormalities of white matter integrity in adulthood despite low rates of progression to ASPD (Study I and II). These abnormalities were similar to those reported in previous studies featuring male or mixed-sex samples with CD and/or ASPD. (2) Most of the differences in white matter integrity between young adult women with a history of CD and healthy peers were explained by comorbid lifetime mental disorders and maltreatment (Study I and II). (3) Psychopathic traits were associated with unique structural and functional connectivity abnormalities (Study III and IV). Conclusions: We show for the first time that young women who presented CD as adolescents were characterized by structural connectivity abnormalities, despite not presenting ASPD but showing several indices of ASB. Even subsyndromal psychopathic traits presented by these women had unique connectivity correlates. Our findings emphasize the importance of treating CD in adolescence, as well as the comorbid mental disorders, and assessing and stopping maltreatment, so as to ensure a healthy transition to adulthood. Future studies investigating the neural correlates of CD, ASB in general, and psychopathic traits, need to take account of comorbid disorders and maltreatment

Attitudes Toward and Familiarity With Virtual Reality Therapy Among Practicing Cognitive Behavior Therapists: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study in the Era of Consumer VR Platforms

Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) is an efficacious treatment for fear and anxiety and has the potential to solve both logistic issues for therapists and be used for scalable self-help interventions. However, VRET has yet to see large-scale implementation in clinical settings or as a consumer product, and past research suggests that while therapists may acknowledge the many advantages of VRET, they view the technology as technically inaccessible and expensive. We reasoned that after the 2016 release of several consumer virtual reality (VR) platforms and associated public acquaintance with VR, therapists’ concerns about VRET may have evolved. The present study surveyed attitudes toward and familiarity with VR and VRET among practicing cognitive behavior therapists (n = 185) attending a conference. Results showed that therapists had an overall positive attitude toward VRET (pros rated higher than cons) and viewed VR as applicable to conditions other than anxiety. Unlike in earlier research, high financial costs and technical difficulties were no longer top-rated negative aspects. Average negative attitude was a larger negative predictor of self-rated likelihood of future use than positive attitude was a positive predictor and partially mediated the positive association between VRET knowledge and likelihood of future use, suggesting that promotional efforts should focus on addressing concerns. We conclude that therapist’s attitudes toward VRET appear to have evolved in recent years, and no longer appear to constitute a major barrier to implementing the next generation of VR technology in regular clinical practice

Depolarization of Electronic Spin Qubits Confined in Semiconductor Quantum Dots

Quantum dots are arguably the best interface between matter spin qubits and flying photonic qubits. Using quantum dot devices to produce joint spin-photonic states requires the electronic spin qubits to be stored for extended times. Therefore, the study of the coherence of spins of various quantum dot confined charge carriers is important both scientifically and technologically. In this study we report on spin relaxation measurements performed on five different forms of electronic spin qubits confined in the very same quantum dot. In particular, we use all optical techniques to measure the spin relaxation of the confined heavy hole and that of the dark exciton - a long lived electron-heavy hole pair with parallel spins. Our measured results for the spin relaxation of the electron, the heavy-hole, the dark exciton, the negative and the positive trions, in the absence of externally applied magnetic field, are in agreement with a central spin theory which attributes the dephasing of the carriers' spin to their hyperfine interactions with the nuclear spins of the atoms forming the quantum dots. We demonstrate that the heavy hole dephases much slower than the electron. We also show, both experimentally and theoretically, that the dark exciton dephases slower than the heavy hole, due to the electron-hole exchange interaction, which partially protects its spin state from dephasing.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

The Potential of Consumer-Targeted Virtual Reality Relaxation Applications: Descriptive Usage, Uptake and Application Performance Statistics for a First-Generation Application

Virtual Reality (VR) technology can be used to create immersive environments that promote relaxation and distraction, yet it is only with the recent advent of consumer VR platforms that such applications have the potential for widespread dissemination, particularly in the form of consumer-targeted self-help applications available at regular digital marketplaces. If widely distributed and used as intended, such applications have the potential to make a much-needed impact on public mental health. In this study, we report real-world aggregated uptake, usage and application performance statistics from a first-generation consumer-targeted VR relaxation application which has been publicly available for almost 2 years. While a total of 40,000 unique users signals an impressive dissemination potential, average session duration was lower than expected, and the data suggests a low number of recurrent users. Usage of headphones and auxiliary input devices was relatively low, and some application performance issues were evident (e.g., lower than intended framerate and occurrence of overheating). These findings have important implications for the design of the future VR relaxation applications, revealing primarily that user engagement needs to be addressed in the early stage of development by including features that promote prolonged and recurrent use (e.g., gamification elements)

Introducing the dilemma of societal alignment for inclusive and responsible research and innovation

© 2018 The Author(s).In this discussion paper, we outline and reflect on some of the key challenges that influence the development and uptake of more inclusive and responsible forms of research and innovation. Taking these challenges together, we invoke Collingridge’s famous dilemma of social control of technology to introduce a complementary dilemma that of ‘societal alignment’ in the governance of science, technology and innovation. Considerations of social alignment are scattered and overlooked among some communities in the field of science, technology and innovation policy. By starting to unpack this dilemma, we outline an agenda for further consideration of social alignment in the study of responsible research and innovation.Ribeiro and Shapira acknowledge support from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [grant number BB/M017702/1] (Manchester Synthetic Biology Research Centre for Fine and Speciality Chemicals). Jarmai acknowledges support from Horizon 2020 Framework Programme project ‘COMPASS – Evidence and opportunities for responsible innovation in SMEs’ [grant agreement number 710543]. Bürer and Lindner acknowledge support from project ‘MoRRI – Monitoring the evolution and benefits of RRI was funded by the European Commission’ [grant number RTD-B6-PP-00964-2013] for funding part of the research

The dilemma of societal alignment in responsible research and innovation

Resumen del trabajo presentado en la XVI Triple Helix Conference, celebrada en Manchester (Inglaterra) del 05 al 08 de septiembre de 2018.Around four decades ago, David Collingridge put forward a dilemma that has been widely adoptedamongst the technology assessment (TA), and later, responsible research and innovation (RRI) communities. The so-called Collingridge dilemma has permeated discussions on the governance of science, technology and innovation, enclosing an enormous challenge: that of anticipating their potential consequences and controlling emerging technologies. In this paper, we outline and reflect on some of the key challenges that influence the development and uptake of more inclusive and responsible forms of science, technology and innovation. Our analysis draws on a large body of empirical and theoretical research done by the different authors to reflect on challenges emerging from the complex and diverse organisational characteristics of universities, the enactment of responsibility in the private sector, the emergence of bottom-up, grassroots innovation and the hidden dimensions of sustainability, equity and transdisciplinarity. Taking these together, we paraphrase Collingridge¿s famous dilemma of social control of technology to introduce a complementary dilemma which might be useful in the study of RRI, that of `societal alignment¿ in science, technology and innovation. The dilemma of social alignment differs from that of control in at least five dimensions: a) the epistemic communities involved, b) governance mechanisms, c) `nature¿ of the problem, d) backward or forward looking focus and e) scale and scope of sociotechnical systems. By starting to unpack this concept, we outline an agenda that remains scattered and overlooked among some communities in the field of the governance of research and innovation

Integrating Virtual Realities and Psychotherapy: SWOT Analysis on VR and MR Based Treatments of Anxiety and Stress-related Disorders

The use of virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) technology in clinical psychology is growing. Efficacious VR-based treatments for a variety of disorders have been developed. However, the field of technology-assisted psychotherapy is constantly changing with the advancement in technology. Factors such as interdisciplinary collaboration, consumer familiarity and adoption of VR products, and progress in clinical science all need to be taken into consideration when integrating virtual technologies into psychotherapies. We aim to present an overview of current expert opinions on the use of virtual technologies in the treatment of anxiety and stress-related disorders. An anonymous survey was distributed to a select group of researchers and clinicians, using an analytic framework known as Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT). Overall, the respondents had an optimistic outlook regarding the current use as well as future development and implementation of technology-assisted interventions. VR and MR psychotherapies offer distinct advantages that can overcome shortcomings associated with traditional therapy. The respondents acknowledged and discussed current limitations of VR and MR psychotherapies. They recommended consolidation of existing knowledge and encouraged standardisation in both theory and practice. Continued research is needed to leverage the strengths of VR and MR to develop better treatments

Area of ischemia assessed by physicians and software packages from myocardial perfusion scintigrams.

The European Society of Cardiology recommends that patients with >10% area of ischemia should receive revascularization. We investigated inter-observer variability for the extent of ischemic defects reported by different physicians and by different software tools, and if inter-observer variability was reduced when the physicians were provided with a computerized suggestion of the defects

Upper limb activity in myoelectric prosthesis users is biased towards the intact limb and appears unrelated to goal-directed task performance

Studies of the effectiveness of prosthetic hands involve assessing user performance on functional tasks in the lab/clinic, sometimes combined with self-report of real-world use. In this paper we compare real-world upper limb activity between a group of 20 myoelectric prosthesis users and 20 anatomically intact adults. Activity was measured from wrist-worn accelerometers over a 7-day period. The temporal patterns in upper limb activity are presented and the balance of activity between the two limbs quantified. We also evaluated the prosthesis users’ performance on a goal-directed task, characterised using measures including task success rate, completion time, gaze behaviour patterns, and kinematics (e.g. variability and patterns in hand aperture). Prosthesis users were heavily reliant on their intact limb during everyday life, in contrast to anatomically intact adults who demonstrated similar reliance on both upper limbs. There was no significant correlation between the amount of time a prosthesis was worn and reliance on the intact limb, and there was no significant correlation between either of these measures and any of the assessed kinematic and gaze-related measures of performance. We found participants who had been prescribed a prosthesis for longer to demonstrate more symmetry in their overall upper limb activity, although this was not reflected in the symmetry of unilateral limb use. With the exception of previously published case studies, this is the first report of real world upper limb activity in myoelectric prosthesis users and confirms the widely held belief that users are heavily reliant on their intact limb