Avatar therapy for persecutory auditory hallucinations: What is it and how does it work?

We have developed a novel therapy based on a computer program, which enables the patient to create an avatar of the entity, human or non-human, which they believe is persecuting them. The therapist encourages the patient to enter into a dialogue with their avatar, and is able to use the program to change the avatar so that it comes under the patient's control over the course of six 30-min sessions and alters from being abusive to becoming friendly and supportive. The therapy was evaluated in a randomised controlled trial with a partial crossover design. One group went straight into the therapy arm: "immediate therapy". The other continued with standard clinical care for 7 weeks then crossed over into Avatar therapy: "delayed therapy". There was a significant reduction in the frequency and intensity of the voices and in their omnipotence and malevolence. Several individuals had a dramatic response, their voices ceasing completely after a few sessions of the therapy. The average effect size of the therapy was 0.8. We discuss the possible psychological mechanisms for the success of Avatar therapy and the implications for the origins of persecutory voices. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

Historic Churches and Their Hygrothermal Environment: A Review of Criteria Related to Building Fabric, Artefacts, Artwork and Occupants

Regarded as important cultural heritage, historic churches have been utilised over hundreds of years for worship and community benefit. Simple on/off space heating systems are installed in many churches to increase human comfort. However, the conservation of the important historic artefacts and artwork contained within may not have been fully considered. This review attempts to appraise the standards in place for artefacts and artwork. A consensus of 15–25 °C and 40–65% relative humidity is established as safe from the standards reviewed. Consideration is given to the environment within the church to understand if such exacting conditions can be met. The review finds that the conservation and preservation of artefacts and buildings are aligned goals, although striving to meet specified target ranges for artefact types is not fully compatible with historic churches. The stability of the internal environment is clearly an important factor in conservation and benefits human comfort expectations. Churches may contain microclimates throughout the building, complicating the use of target ranges for artefacts, artwork and comfort. The findings of this study can assist historic churches in managing the change, alteration or installation of heating systems

Invasive Plants in U. S. National Wildlife Refuges: A Coordinated Research Project Using Undergraduate Ecology Students

Answering large-scale questions in ecology can involve time-consuming data compilation. We show how networks of undergraduate classes can make these projects more manageable and provide an authentic research experience for students. With this approach, we examined the factors associated with plant species richness in US national wildlife refuges. We found that the richness of harmful invasive plants and the richness of native plants were positively correlated in mainland refuges but negatively correlated in island refuges. Nonnative richness and invasive richness were also positively correlated with colonization pressure as indicated by nonnative richness around each refuge. Associations between refuge characteristics and invasive plants varied substantially among regions, with refuge area and habitat diversity important predictors of invasion in some regions but not in others. Our results serve to identify the refuges that are most susceptible to plant invasion and demonstrate the potential value of a new model for education and research integration

Domesticated Dogs’ (Canis familiaris) Response to Dishonest Human Points

We would like to thank Sherry McClurkin, Robin Reutten, and Chelsea Taglang for their assistance in data collection and participant recruitment for this study. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Shannon M.A. Kundey at Hood College, Department of Psychology, 401 Rosemont Avenue, Room ROS 27, Frederick, MD 21701, U.S.A. ([email protected]).Pointing is a conventional communicative gesture used by humans to direct others’ attention to an environmental feature. Several researchers have argued that pointing becomes so ingrained for humans from a young age that children often have difficulty interpreting the gesture in a novel way. Recent research suggests domestic dogs are also sensitive to human gestures (including points) and proficient in recognizing and acting on humans’ visual attention. We explored the role of pointing in dogs’ choice behavior and whether dogs, like human children, have difficulty interpreting the gesture novelly. In Experiment 1, we explored whether dogs would differentially follow a static human point when it was administered by a familiar or unfamiliar individual and that individual indicated or failed to indicate the correct location of a food reward. The results indicated dogs chose the container specified by the demonstrators’ point in the honest and dishonest condition. Demonstrator familiarity did not alter performance. In Experiment 2, we compared dogs’ propensity to follow a static point versus other cues (momentary point, standing location) when the cue never indicated the correct location of a food reward, which was either visible or hidden during choice. The results suggested dogs did not inhibit their approach to a location indicated by a deceptive static point even when the location of a reward was visibly available during choice. However, dogs used a deceptive momentary point or standing location to locate food in both visible and hidden trials. In Experiment 3, we explored if dogs could overcome their tendency to follow a deceptive static point. These results indicated dogs learned to inhibit their approach to a deceptive static point when the reward was visible during choice. However, when information about the reward’s location was later hidden, dogs reverted to following the demonstrator’s static point

Stigmatisation Processes. The Power of Classifications

This chapter will show a systematic review of the literature about radicalisation. The most of scientific literature and of experimented practices are security-oriented, where psychological contribution only appears as a support in the de-radicalisation processes or as a search for indicators able to detect signs for future deviance and radicalisation. The innovation of the present contribution, which tries to fill this gap, is its psychosocial perspective, focusing on social inclusion and on a proactive approach, and exploring topics concerning group processes and dynamics, social identities and theories on relative deprivation. Authors coming both from European and other international contexts are analysed and discussed, paying particular attention the suggestions of the theoretical perspectives for implementing good practices. The contribution of the Council of Europe in promoting competences for democratic culture has been underlined. The most promising indications have been the reference framework of the PROVA project

The Efficacy of Generating Three Independent Anti-HIV-1 siRNAs from a Single U6 RNA Pol III-Expressed Long Hairpin RNA

RNA Interference (RNAi) effectors have been used to inhibit rogue RNAs in mammalian cells. However, rapidly evolving sequences such as the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) require multiple targeting approaches to prevent the emergence of escape variants. Expressed long hairpin RNAs (lhRNAs) have recently been used as a strategy to produce multiple short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) targeted to highly variant sequences. We aimed to characterize the ability of expressed lhRNAs to generate independent siRNAs that silence three non-contiguous HIV-1 sites by designing lhRNAs comprising different combinations of siRNA-encoding sequences. All lhRNAs were capable of silencing individual target sequences. However, silencing efficiency together with concentrations of individual lhRNA-derived siRNAs diminished from the stem base (first position) towards the loop side of the hairpin. Silencing efficacy against HIV-1 was primarily mediated by siRNA sequences located at the base of the stem. Improvements could be made to first and second position siRNAs by adjusting spacing arrangements at their junction, but silencing of third position siRNAs remained largely ineffective. Although lhRNAs offer advantages for combinatorial RNAi, we show that good silencing efficacy across the span of the lhRNA duplex is difficult to achieve with sequences that encode more than two adjacent independent siRNAs