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Thursday, February 28, 2013

Nearly 1 in 4 women newly diagnosed with breast cancer

Public release date: 28-Feb-2013
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Contact: Stephanie Berger
sb2247@columbia.edu
212-305-4372
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

A study by researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, has found that nearly one in four women (23 percent) newly diagnosed with breast cancer reported symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) shortly after diagnosis, with increased risk among black and Asian women. The research has been e-published ahead of print in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

"This study is one of the first to evaluate the course of PTSD after a diagnosis of breast cancer," said lead author Alfred I. Neugut, MD, PhD, the Myron M. Studner Professor of Cancer Research, professor of medicine and epidemiology, at Columbia University's College of Physicians & Surgeons and Mailman School of Public Health, and a member of the HICCC.

"We analyzed interview responses from more than 1,100 women," said Dr. Neugut. "During the first two to three months after diagnosis, nearly a quarter of them met the criteria for PTSD, although the symptoms declined over the next three months. Younger women were more likely to develop symptoms of PTSD, and data suggest Asian and black women are at a more than 50 percent higher risk than white women."

The 1,139 research participants were part of the Breast Cancer Quality of Care Study (BQUAL). Between 2006 and 2010, women with newly diagnosed breast cancer, stages I to III, over the age of 20 were recruited from NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City; the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit; and Kaiser-Permanente in Northern California. Each participant completed three phone interviews. The first was two to three months after diagnosis and before the third chemotherapy cycle, if the patient was receiving chemotherapy. The second interview was four months after diagnosis, and the third was six months after diagnosis.

"The ultimate outcome of this research is to find ways to improve the quality of patients' lives," said Dr. Neugut, who is also an oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia. "If we can identify potential risk factors for PTSD, when women are diagnosed with breast cancer, we could provide early prevention and intervention to minimize PTSD symptoms. This approach might also have an indirect impact on the observed racial disparity in breast cancer survival."

The research team believes that these findings may apply to patients with other cancer diagnoses as well. Dr. Neugut noted that in previous research, symptoms of PTSD have been reported following prostate cancer and lymphoma diagnoses.

###

The paper is titled "Racial Disparities in Posttraumatic Stress after Diagnosis of Localized Breast Cancer: The BQUAL Study." Additional contributors are Neomi Vin-Raviv, Grace Clarke Hillyer, Dawn Hershman, Sandro Galea, Nicole Leoce, and Wei-Yann Tsai (CUMC); Dana Bovbjerg (University of Pittsburgh); Lawrence Kushi, and Candyce Kroenke (Kaiser-Permanente); Lois Lamerato (Henry Ford Health System); Christine Ambrosone (Roswell Park Cancer Institute); Heiddis Valdimarsdottir, and Lina Jandorf (Mt. Sinai); and Jeanne Mandelblatt (Georgetown). In addition to Dr. Neugut, Drs. Hershman and Tsai are members of the HICCC.

The study was supported by the Department of Defense, the National Cancer Institute, Breast Cancer Foundation and Environmental Health Foundation fellowship (grant numbers: NCI R01 (CA100598), NCI R01 (CA124924 and 127617), U10 (CA84131) and KO5 (CA96940).

The authors declare no financial or other conflicts of interest.

The Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center encompasses pre-clinical and clinical research, treatment, prevention, and population-based education efforts in cancer. The Cancer Center was initially funded by the NCI in 1972 and became a National Cancer Institute (NCI)designated comprehensive cancer center in 1979. Cancer Center researchers and physicians are dedicated to understanding the biology of cancer and to applying that knowledge to the design of cancer therapies and prevention strategies that reduce its incidence and progression and improve the quality of the lives of those affected by cancer. For more information, visit www.hiccc.columbia.edu.

Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, pre-clinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Established in 1767, Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons was the first institution in the United States to grant the MD degree and is among the most selective medical schools in the country. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest in the United States. Its physicians treat patients at multiple locations throughout the tri-state area, including the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia campus in Washington Heights, the new ColumbiaDoctors Midtown location at 51 W. 51st St. in Manhattan, and the new ColumbiaDoctors Riverdale practice. For more information, visit www.cumc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org.

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Nearly 1 in 4 women newly diagnosed with breast cancer Public release date: 28-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Stephanie Berger
sb2247@columbia.edu
212-305-4372
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

A study by researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, has found that nearly one in four women (23 percent) newly diagnosed with breast cancer reported symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) shortly after diagnosis, with increased risk among black and Asian women. The research has been e-published ahead of print in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

"This study is one of the first to evaluate the course of PTSD after a diagnosis of breast cancer," said lead author Alfred I. Neugut, MD, PhD, the Myron M. Studner Professor of Cancer Research, professor of medicine and epidemiology, at Columbia University's College of Physicians & Surgeons and Mailman School of Public Health, and a member of the HICCC.

"We analyzed interview responses from more than 1,100 women," said Dr. Neugut. "During the first two to three months after diagnosis, nearly a quarter of them met the criteria for PTSD, although the symptoms declined over the next three months. Younger women were more likely to develop symptoms of PTSD, and data suggest Asian and black women are at a more than 50 percent higher risk than white women."

The 1,139 research participants were part of the Breast Cancer Quality of Care Study (BQUAL). Between 2006 and 2010, women with newly diagnosed breast cancer, stages I to III, over the age of 20 were recruited from NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City; the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit; and Kaiser-Permanente in Northern California. Each participant completed three phone interviews. The first was two to three months after diagnosis and before the third chemotherapy cycle, if the patient was receiving chemotherapy. The second interview was four months after diagnosis, and the third was six months after diagnosis.

"The ultimate outcome of this research is to find ways to improve the quality of patients' lives," said Dr. Neugut, who is also an oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia. "If we can identify potential risk factors for PTSD, when women are diagnosed with breast cancer, we could provide early prevention and intervention to minimize PTSD symptoms. This approach might also have an indirect impact on the observed racial disparity in breast cancer survival."

The research team believes that these findings may apply to patients with other cancer diagnoses as well. Dr. Neugut noted that in previous research, symptoms of PTSD have been reported following prostate cancer and lymphoma diagnoses.

###

The paper is titled "Racial Disparities in Posttraumatic Stress after Diagnosis of Localized Breast Cancer: The BQUAL Study." Additional contributors are Neomi Vin-Raviv, Grace Clarke Hillyer, Dawn Hershman, Sandro Galea, Nicole Leoce, and Wei-Yann Tsai (CUMC); Dana Bovbjerg (University of Pittsburgh); Lawrence Kushi, and Candyce Kroenke (Kaiser-Permanente); Lois Lamerato (Henry Ford Health System); Christine Ambrosone (Roswell Park Cancer Institute); Heiddis Valdimarsdottir, and Lina Jandorf (Mt. Sinai); and Jeanne Mandelblatt (Georgetown). In addition to Dr. Neugut, Drs. Hershman and Tsai are members of the HICCC.

The study was supported by the Department of Defense, the National Cancer Institute, Breast Cancer Foundation and Environmental Health Foundation fellowship (grant numbers: NCI R01 (CA100598), NCI R01 (CA124924 and 127617), U10 (CA84131) and KO5 (CA96940).

The authors declare no financial or other conflicts of interest.

The Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center encompasses pre-clinical and clinical research, treatment, prevention, and population-based education efforts in cancer. The Cancer Center was initially funded by the NCI in 1972 and became a National Cancer Institute (NCI)designated comprehensive cancer center in 1979. Cancer Center researchers and physicians are dedicated to understanding the biology of cancer and to applying that knowledge to the design of cancer therapies and prevention strategies that reduce its incidence and progression and improve the quality of the lives of those affected by cancer. For more information, visit www.hiccc.columbia.edu.

Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, pre-clinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Established in 1767, Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons was the first institution in the United States to grant the MD degree and is among the most selective medical schools in the country. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest in the United States. Its physicians treat patients at multiple locations throughout the tri-state area, including the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia campus in Washington Heights, the new ColumbiaDoctors Midtown location at 51 W. 51st St. in Manhattan, and the new ColumbiaDoctors Riverdale practice. For more information, visit www.cumc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org.

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/cums-noi022813.php
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Pope legacy: Teacher who returned to church roots

FILE - This Sept. 6, 2006 file photo shows Pope Benedict XVI wearing a "saturno hat", inspired by the ringed planet Saturn, to shield himself from the sun as he waves to the crowd of faithful prior to his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito, files)

FILE - This Nov. 3, 2006 file photo shows Pope Benedict XVI's hand as he waves to faithful from his car at the end of his visit at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, files)

FILE - Pope Benedict XVI greets the crowd from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, in this April 19, 2005, file photo. Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, who chose the name of Pope Benedict XVI, became the 265th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis/file)

Pope Benedict XVI waves to faithful during his final general audience in St.Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Pope Benedict XVI has recalled moments of "joy and light" during his papacy but also times of great difficulty in an emotional, final general audience in St. Peter's Square before retiring. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Faithful are reflected in the roof of Pope Benedict XVI's pope-mobile as he arrives to celebrate his last general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Benedict XVI basked in an emotional sendoff Wednesday at his final general audience in St. Peter's Square, recalling moments of "joy and light" during his papacy but also times of great difficulty. He also thanked his flock for respecting his decision to retire. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? On Monday, April 4, 2005, a priest walked up to the Renaissance palazzo housing the Vatican's doctrine department and asked the doorman to call the official in charge: It was the first day of business after Pope John Paul II had died, and the cleric wanted to get back to work.

The office's No. 2, Archbishop Angelo Amato, answered the phone and was stunned. This was no ordinary priest. It was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, his boss, who under the Vatican's arcane rules had technically lost his job when John Paul died.

"It tells me of the great humility of the man, the great sense of duty, but also the great awareness that we are here to do a job," said Bishop Charles Scicluna, who worked with Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI, inside the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In resigning, Scicluna said, Benedict is showing the same sense of humility, duty and service as he did after the Catholic Church lost its last pope.

"He has done his job."

___

When Benedict flies off into retirement by helicopter on Thursday, he will leave behind a church in crisis ? one beset by sex scandal, internal divisions and dwindling numbers.

But the 85-year-old pope can count on a solid legacy: While his very resignation was his most significant act, Benedict ? in a quieter way ? also set the church back on a conservative, tradition-minded path.

He was guided by the firm conviction that many of the ills afflicting the church could be traced to a misreading of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

He insisted that the 1962-65 meetings that brought the church into the modern era were not a radical break from the past, as portrayed by many liberals, but rather a continuation of the best traditions of the 2,000-year-old church.

Benedict was the teacher pope, a theology professor who turned his Wednesday general audiences into master classes about the Catholic faith and the history, saints and sinners that contributed to it.

In his teachings, he sought to boil Christianity down to its essential core. He didn't produce volumes of encyclicals like his predecessor, just three: on charity, hope and love. (He penned a fourth, on faith, but retired before finishing it.)

Considered by many to be the greatest living theologian, he authored more than 65 books, stretching from the classic "Introduction to Christianity" in 1968 to the final installment of his triptych on "Jesus of Nazareth" last year ? considered by some to be his most important contribution to the church. In between he produced the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" ? essentially a how-to guide to being a Catholic.

Benedict spent the bulk of his early career in the classroom, as a student and then professor of dogma and fundamental theology at universities in Bonn, Muenster, Tuebingen and Regensburg, Germany.

"His classrooms were crowded," recalled the Rev. Joseph Fessio, a theology student of Ratzinger's at the University of Regensburg from 1972-74, and now the English-language publisher of his books.

"I don't recall him having notes," Fessio said. "He would stand at the front of the class, and he wasn't looking at you, not with eye contact, but he was looking over you, almost meditating."

It's a style that he's kept for 40 years.

"If you hear him give a sermon, he's speaking not from notes, but you can write it down and print it," Fessio said. "Every comma is there. Every pause."

___

Benedict never wanted to be pope and he didn't take easily to the rigors of the job. Elected April 19, 2005, after one of the shortest conclaves in history, Benedict was, at 78, the oldest pope elected in 275 years and the first German in nearly a millennium.

At first he was stiff.

Giovanni Maria Vian, editor of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, recalled that in the early days Benedict used to greet crowds with an awkward victory gesture "as if he were an athlete."

"At some point someone told him that wasn't a very papal gesture," Vian said. Benedict changed course, opting for an open-armed embrace or an almost effeminate twinkling of his fingers on an outstretched hand as a way of connecting with the crowd.

"No one is born a pope," Vian said. "You have to learn to be a pope."

And slowly Benedict learned.

Crowds accustomed to a quarter-century of superstar John Paul II, grew to embrace the soft-spoken, scholarly Benedict, who had an uncanny knack for being able to absorb different points of view and pull them together in a coherent whole.

He traveled, though less extensively than John Paul, and presided over Masses that were heavy on Latin, Gregorian chant and the silk brocaded vestments of his pre-Vatican II predecessors.

Benedict seemed genuinely surprised by the warm reception he received ? as well as the harsh criticism when things went wrong, as they did when he lifted the excommunication of a bishop who turned out to be a Holocaust-denier.

For a theologian who for decades had worked toward reconciliation between Catholics and Jews, the outrage was fierce and painful.

Benedict was also burdened by what he called the "filth" of the church: the sins and crimes of its priests.

As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Benedict saw first-hand the scope of sex abuse as early as the 1980s, when he tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Vatican legal department to let him remove abusive priests quickly.

But it was 2001 before he finally stepped in, ordering all abuse cases sent to his office for review.

"We used to discuss the cases on Fridays; he used to call it the Friday penance," recalled Scicluna, who was Ratzinger's sex crimes prosecutor from 2002-2012.

Still, to this day, Benedict hasn't sanctioned a single bishop for covering up abuse.

"Unfortunately, Pope Benedict's legacy in the abuse crisis is one of mistaken emphases, missed opportunities, and gestures at the margin, rather than changes at the center," said Terrence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org, an online resource of abuse documentation.

He praised Benedict for meeting with victims, and acknowledged the strides the Vatican made under his leadership. But, he said Benedict ignored the problem for too long, "prioritizing concerns about dissent over the massive evidence of abuse that was pouring into his office."

"He acted as no other pope has done when pressed or forced, but his papacy has been reactive on this central issue," McKiernan said in an email.

Benedict also gets poor grades from liberal Catholics, who felt abandoned by a pope who seemed to roll back the clock on the modernizing reforms of Vatican II and launched a crackdown on American nuns, deemed to have strayed too far from his doctrinal orthodoxy.

Some priests are now living in open rebellion with church teaching, calling for a rethink on everything from homosexuality to women's ordination to priestly celibacy.

"As Roman Catholics worldwide prepare for the conclave, we are reminded that the current system remains an 'old boys club' and does not allow for women's voices to participate in the decision of the next leader of our church," said Erin Saiz Hanna, head of the Women's Ordination Conference, a group that ordains women in defiance of church teaching.

The group plans to raise pink smoke during the conclave "as a prayerful reminder of the voices of the church that go unheard."

___

But Benedict won't be around at the Vatican to see it. His work is done. "Mission Accomplished," Vian said.

And as the pope told 150,000 people in his final speech as pope: "To love the church is to have the courage to make difficult, painful choices, always keeping in mind the good of the church, not oneself."

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-02-28-Vatican-Pope's%20Legacy/id-547a873066384d7980445b2b5022414a

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Violence Against Women Act passed by House, sent to Obama for signature (Washington Post)

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Study reveals stem cells in a human parasite

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

From the point of view of its ultimate (human) host, the parasitic flatworm Schistosoma mansoni has a gruesome way of life. It hatches in feces-tainted water, grows into a larva in the body of a snail and then burrows through human skin to take up residence in the veins. Once there, it grows into an adult, mates and, if it's female, starts laying eggs. It can remain in the body for decades.

A new study offers insight into the cellular operations that give this flatworm its extraordinary staying power. The researchers, from the University of Illinois, demonstrated for the first time that S. mansoni harbors adult, non-sexual stem cells that can migrate to various parts of its body and replenish tissues. Their report appears in the journal Nature.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 230 million people are in need of treatment for Schistosoma infections every year. Most live in impoverished areas with little or no access to clean water. Infection with the worm (also known as a blood fluke) can lead to damaging inflammation spurred by the presence of the worm's eggs in human organs and tissues.

"The female lays eggs more or less continuously, on the order of hundreds of eggs per day," said U. of I. cell and developmental biology professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator Phillip Newmark, who led the study with postdoctoral researcher James J. Collins III.

"The eggs that don't get excreted in the feces to continue the life cycle actually become embedded inside host tissues, typically the liver, and those eggs trigger a massive inflammatory response that leads to tissue damage."

Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of infection, in some cases experiencing delays in growth and brain development as a result of chronic inflammation brought on by the parasites.

The new study began with an insight stemming from years of work on a different flatworm, the planarian, in Newmark's lab. Collins thought that schistosomes might make use of the same kinds of stem cells (called neoblasts in planarians) that allow planarians to regenerate new body parts and organs from even tiny fragments of living tissue.

"It just stood to reason that since schistosomes, like planaria, live so long that they must have a comparable type of system," Collins said. "And since these flatworms are related, it made sense that they would have similar types of cells. But it had never been shown."

In a series of experiments, Collins found that the schistosomes were loaded with proliferating cells that looked and behaved like planarian neoblasts, the cells that give them their amazing powers of regeneration. Like neoblasts, the undifferentiated cells in the schistosomes lived in the mesenchyme, a kind of loose connective tissue that surrounds the organs. And like neoblasts, these cells duplicated their DNA and divided to form two "daughter" cells, one of which copied its DNA again, a process that normally precedes cell division.

"Stem cells do two things," Newmark said. "They divide to make more stem cells and they give rise to cells that can differentiate."

Collins had labeled the cells with fluorescent markers. This allowed him to watch how they behaved. He noted that over the course of a few days, some of the labeled cells migrated into the gut or muscle, to become part of those tissues.

"We label the cells when they're born and then we see what they grow up to become," Collins said. "This is not conclusive evidence that these cells are equivalent to the planarian neoblasts, but it is consistent with the hypothesis that they are."

The researchers went deeper, determining which genes were turned on or off, up or down in the proliferating cells as compared with the non-dividing cells. They identified a gene in the proliferating cells that coded for a growth factor receptor very similar to one found in planarians. When the researchers switched off the parasite's ability to make use of this gene (using a technique called RNA interference in worms grown in the lab), the proliferating cells gradually died out.

"We postulated that these cells are important for the longevity of the parasite," Collins said. "Now we can start asking which genes regulate these cells."

"We started with the big question: How does a simple parasite survive in a host for decades?" Newmark said. "That implies that it has ways of repairing and maintaining its tissues. This study gives us insight into the really interesting biology of these parasites, and it may also open up new doors for making that life cycle a lot shorter."

###

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: http://www.uiuc.edu

Thanks to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for this article.

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Jodi Arias Live Blog: Cross-Examination Of Murder Defendant Continues (LIVE UPDATES)

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

The trial of Jodi Ann Arias, which began Jan. 2, is one of the biggest court proceedings to take place since Casey Anthony was acquitted of murdering her child. The 32-year-old photographer is accused of shooting her lover, Travis Alexander, in the face, stabbing him 27 times and slitting his throat from ear to ear in the shower of his Mesa, Ariz., apartment. The case, which has been more than four years in the making, has routinely captured headlines around the world, especially as the details became public.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

September 2006 ? Travis Alexander met Jodi Arias at a conference in Las Vegas. At the time, Alexander was a 30-year-old motivational speaker and legal-insurance salesman. Arias, then 28, was living in Yreka, Calif., and was trying to make it as a saleswoman and an independent photographer. The two had an instant connection and spoke on the phone every day. Court records indicate that the couple exchanged 82,000 emails.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

November 26, 2006 ? Because Alexander was a Mormon, Arias chose to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. February 2, 2007 ? Alexander and Arias began dating. June 29, 2007 ? Alexander and Arias broke up. Although they were no longer dating, the couple maintained a physical relationship. December 2007 ? Alexander began dating another woman. He allegedly told friends that Arias was so jealous that she slashed the tires on his vehicle twice. After those incidents, his new girlfriend received a harassing email from a "John Doe." Alexander suspected that Arias was responsible.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

January 8, 2008 ? Arias, according to prosecutors, sent this text to Alexander: "Ahhh!! I fell asleep! But to answer your question, yes I want to grind you. And I want to be LOUD. And I want to give you a nice, warm 'mouth hug' too. :)" January 18, 2008 ? Arias, according to prosecutors, sent this text to Alexander: "My p---y is SO WET." March 2008 ? Arias and Alexander visited several states together, including Oklahoma and Texas.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

April 2008 - Arias moved from Arizona to California. That same month, Alexander <a href="http://travisalexander.blogspot.com/" target="_hplink">posted a blog entry</a> stating, "This Year will be the Best year of my life. This is the year that will eclipse all others. I will earn more, learn more, travel more, serve more, love more, give more and be more than all the other years of my life combined." April 20, 2008 - Alexander, according to prosecutors, sent this text to Arias: "I am at a night club right now and it helped me to come to the conclusion that you are one of the prettiest girls on the planet." April 21, 2008 - Alexander, according to prosecutors, <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ak0vUAK8UbSndFl4X1V3YkZXazU0X25pQndhNVVmbXc&gid=0" target="_hplink">sent this text</a> to Arias: "Send me a naughty picture."

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

May 10, 2008 - Arias posted the last entry to her <a href="http://jodiarias.blogspot.com/" target="_hplink">online blog</a>. It reads, in part: "I cannot ignore that there is an ever-present yearning and desire that pulses within me. It throbs for gratification and fulfillment." That same day, according to prosecutors, Alexander sent this text to Arias: "Why don't you have him come and f--k you in the woods, I can only imagine you are so worried about me reading. You are paranoid because you have no respect for people privacy and you dare insult me of all people. Someone you should through your actions you hate more than love by denying me a human right of privacy countless times. You have a lot of freaking nerve. We are all not like you in that aspect."

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

May 18, 2008 - Alexander posted the last entry, titled "Why I want to marry a Gold Digger," to <a href="http://travisalexander.blogspot.com/" target="_hplink">his online blog</a>. It reads, in part: "I did a little soul searching and realized that I was lonely ... I realized it was time to adjust my priorities and date with marriage in mind ... This type of dating to me is like a very long job interview and can be exponentially more mentally taxing. Desperately trying to find out if my date has an axe murderer penned up inside of her."

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

May 28, 2008 - Kevin Friedman, a police officer with the Yreka, Calif. Police Department, investigated the reported theft of a .25 caliber gun, $30 in cash, a stereo and a DVD player from Arias' grandparents' home.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

June 2008 - During the first week of June 2008, Alexander told friends that he suspected Arias had hacked into his Facebook account. He allegedly said that he told her to stay out of his life forever. June 2, 2008 - Arias, according to police, picked up a vehicle from Budget Rent-a-Car in Redding, Calif.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

June 4, 2008 - Arias allegedly went to Alexander's home in Mesa, Ariz. That same afternoon the last outgoing call was made from Alexander's phone.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

June 5, 2008 - Arias went to visit Ryan Burns, a once-budding love interest and co-worker at PrePaid Legal Services, at his home in West Jordan, Utah. June 7, 2008 - Arias, according to police, returned her rental car to Budget Rent-a-Car in Redding.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

June 9, 2008 - Alexander's friends, concerned because they had not heard from him for several days, went to his home in the 11,400 block of East Queensborough Ave. and found him dead inside his standup shower. A state of advanced decomposition suggested that he had been dead for several days. Large amounts of blood were discovered throughout the master bathroom, including on the floors, walls and sink area. It was ultimately determined that Alexander had been shot in the right brow with a .25-caliber gun -- the bullet was found lodged in his left cheek -- and that he had been stabbed 27 times. Someone had also cut his throat from ear to ear.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

Investigators found several vital clues inside Alexander's bedroom and bathroom. A spent .25-caliber shell casing was located on the floor near the sink, and a hair and a small latent print in blood were found near the entrance to the bathroom hall. Also, a digital camera was found in the washing machine in the downstairs laundry room. The camera appeared to have been run through the wash cycle.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

When questioned by police, Alexander's friends and family members indicated that Arias should be questioned. "[Arias] was totally obsessed with him," Alexander's close friend <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/29/jodi-arias_n_1174274.html" target="_hplink">Sky Hughes told The Huffington Post</a>. "She wouldn't let him go. Whenever he would try to sever all ties, she would threaten to kill herself ... He would tell her he didn't want anything to do with her, and she would show up at his house. We knew it was her. We didn't want it to be her, but [we] just knew it was."

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

June 13, 2008 - Arias posted a photo gallery on her MySpace page titled "In Loving Memory of Travis."

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

June 17, 2008 - Arias went to the Mesa Police Headquarters and was voluntarily fingerprinted. She also gave investigators a sample of her saliva for DNA testing. While waiting for the lab test results to come back, investigators were notified that several shocking images, some of which had been deleted, were recovered from the memory card of the camera found in Alexander's washing machine. The deleted pictures were of Alexander, naked in the shower, just before his death. He appeared to be posing in some of the photographs. However, other photos, which were dark and grainy, "were of a subject on the floor of the bathroom bleeding profusely," police said.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

Six other photos, time-stamped that same day, allegedly showed Arias on Alexander's bed. According to police, "all were nude pictures," and in some she was in "provocative sexual poses." Based on the photos, an investigator wrote: "Jodi was lying about not seeing Travis since April of 2008. This also proves that Jodi was the last person I can prove had contact with Travis prior to his death."

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

June 19, 2008 - Police contacted Arias and questioned her about Alexander's murder. "Jodi stated she last saw Travis in April of 2008," a police officer wrote in a document to establish probable cause. "She admitted they had been seeing each other as boyfriend and girlfriend for over five months but had officially broken up in June of 2007, after some jealously issues on the part of both of them. After they broke up, they continued to have a sexual relationship, but kept it quiet from people they knew. She said she last spoke to Travis on Tuesday 6-03-08."

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

June 19, 2008 - At 10:54 p.m., Arias posted this message to her <a href="http://www.myspace.com/jodiarias" target="_hplink">MySpace page</a>: "misses Travis. See you soon, my friend, but not soon enough."

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

June 21, 2008 - Travis Alexander was <a href="http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/pe/obituary.aspx?n=Travis-Alexander&pid=111722519#fbLoggedOut" target="_hplink">laid to rest</a> in Olivewood Memorial Park in Riverside, Calif.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

June 26, 2008 - Investigators were notified that hair and a bloody print found inside Alexander's home belonged to Arias. DNA typing results also indicated that the bloody print was a mixture of Arias' and Alexander's DNA. The same day, Arias attended a memorial service for Alexander.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

July 9, 2008 - Arias celebrated her 29th birthday. That same day, a grand jury in California indicted her on first-degree murder charges in the death of Alexander. July 15, 2008 - Mesa police detectives and Siskiyou County sheriff's deputies arrested Arias at her Northern California home. Arias was booked in the Siskiyou County Jail on suspicion of first-degree murder.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

Following Arias' arrest, she was questioned by Mesa detective Esteban Flores. Flores initially focused the interrogation on the .25 caliber handgun that was stolen from her grandparents' home days before the slaying of Travis Alexander. "We're just playing games here ... That gun was in your possession ... What did you do with the gun?" Flores asked, after Arias expressed shock that Alexander had been shot with a .25 caliber automatic handgun. "I don't have a gun ... I've never seen it ... I don't even know what a .25 looks like," Arias said on the video. Arias denied killing Alexander and said, "If I was going to ever try to kill somebody, I would use gloves. I have plenty of them."

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

July 16, 2008 - A second interrogation is conducted of Arias, during which she changed her initial story. She now admitted being at Alexander's home when he was murdered but denied she was involved in the killing. She said two intruders ? white Americans with beanies covering their faces ? came into the bathroom while Alexander was in the shower. "I don't believe you," the detective told Arias. "I was hoping for the truth. This is not the truth, Jodi ? this doesn't make any sense ? You did it, and there's nothing you can say that will change my mind at this point. This is an elaborate story that doesn't make any sense. Maybe you are just cold and calculated."

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

September 5, 2008 ? Arias was <a href="http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=955858" target="_hplink">extradited to Arizona</a>. September 9, 2008 ? A public defender was assigned to represent Arias. September 11, 2008 ? Arias entered a not-guilty plea at her arraignment.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

September 12, 2008 - In a <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/09/13/20080913murdersuspect-speaks0913.html" target="_hplink">jailhouse interview with The Arizona Republic</a>, Arias denied killing Alexander but refused to discuss how she would refute the DNA and photographic evidence that police claimed linked her to the crime. "God knows I'm innocent. I know I'm innocent," said Arias. "I had nothing to do with his murder. I would never hurt him. He was my friend."

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

September 24, 2008 ? Arias was <a href="http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/play/702858/local_murder_suspect_reveals_shocking_new_details_on_nat_l_tv" target="_hplink">interviewed by the TV show "Inside Edition"</a> and said publicly for the first time that she was present when Alexander was attacked by two intruders.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

October 31, 2008 - The Maricopa County Attorney's Office filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Arias. The notice, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, accused Arias of committing first-degree murder "in an especially cruel, heinous or depraved manner."

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

June 23, 2009 ? Following her arrest, Arias expanded on her second story about the day of Alexander's death. <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50139320n" target="_hplink">In an interview with "48 Hours,"</a> she admitted that she was present when he was murdered, but she said that his death occurred during a home invasion. Arias reported that the two were having fun playing with his new camera when things took a sudden turn. "I heard a really loud pop. And the next thing I remember, I was lying next to the bathtub and Travis was screaming," Arias told "48 Hours." "At that point, I sort of was just trying to come around and kind of orientate myself to what was going on," she continued. "And I looked up and I just -- I saw two other individuals in the bathroom. And they were both coming toward us." The intruders, whom she described as a man and a woman dressed in black, were armed with a knife and a gun. At one point, she said, the man pointed the gun at her, but she was miraculously spared. "He pulled the trigger. And nothing happened with the gun. And so I just grabbed my purse, which was on the floor at that point, and I ran down the stairs and out of there and I left [Travis] there ... I pushed past him and -- and his gun. And I just didn't look back." Arias said that she kept driving and never called the police. "It was -- I was terrified. And I was scared for my life. And I think there was a naive belief that I could pretend like it didn't really happen," Arias said.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

December 2010 ? Arias <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/27/joe-arpaio-inmate-caroling-contest_n_801519.html" target="_hplink">beat out 50 other inmates to win an "American Idol"-style caroling contest for inmates </a>held by "America's Toughest Sheriff," Joe Arpaio, at the Maricopa County jail. Her prize was a Christmas stocking full of goodies and a turkey dinner for herself and her cellmates.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

August 8, 2011 - Arias told Judge Sherry Stephens of Maricopa County Superior Court that she wanted to represent herself. Stephens granted the request but had Arias' public defenders, Victoria Washington and Kirk Nurmi, remain on as advisory counsel. August 16, 2011 ? A request to admit letters that Arias claimed Alexander sent her prior to his death was denied. In the letters, Alexander allegedly admitted to being a pedophile. Prosecutor Juan Martinez told the court that the letters were tested and found to be forgeries. After the ruling, Arias told Judge Stephens that she was "over her head." The judge then reinstated her defense counsel.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

Arias' third story about Alexander's death was detailed in court documents as part of the request that she made to admit electronic copies of Alexander's alleged letters. "Defendant had previously attributed the crime to intruders. She now argues that all of the letters must be admitted to support her domestic violence defense," prosecutors wrote in a motion to preclude the letters. "Defendant argues that the letters are relevant to her claim of self-defense and that she was a victim of previous 'sexual and physical abuse' by Mr. Alexander." Arias, according to prosecutors, claimed that Alexander "became angry when she dropped his camera" and that she was forced to kill him in self-defense.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

December 16, 2011 ? Washington filed a motion to withdraw from Arias' defense. December 21, 2011 ? Washington's motion was granted. December 27, 2011 - Arias' younger sister, Angela Arias, said that her sister's statements during the "48 Hours" interview were lies and that Alexander's death was an act of self-defense on her sister's part during an incidence of domestic violence. "She was not under oath when she spoke on TV and yes, she lied," Angela Arias wrote on Facebook after The Huffington Post sent her a request for comment. "But, it was because she was so in love with that man she did not want people to know what a monster he really was. She wanted everyone to believe that he was as amazing as they thought he was ... My sister is innocent of the crime they are accusing her of ... She did kill Travis but it was not in cold blood, it was not for revenge, it was because she was afraid for her life."

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

January 2012 - Jennifer Willmott, a death penalty-qualified defense attorney, was assigned to represent Arias.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

February 9, 2012 - Judge Stephens <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/10/jodi-arias-death-penalty_n_1269216.html" target="_hplink">denied a motion</a> by Arias' defense lawyers to remove the death penalty as a punishment option. The defense argued that Arias should not face death because she had not planned to kill Alexander. His death was an act of self-defense, her attorneys argued. December 10, 2012 - <a href="http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/12/17/jodi-arias-travis-alexander-murder-trial-jury-selection-questionnaire" target="_hplink">Jury selection for Arias' trial began</a>. The court summoned 375 potential jurors. December 20, 2012 - A panel of 12 jurors and six alternates -- seven women and 11 men -- <a href="http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_southeast_valley/mesa/Jodi-Arias-trial-Jury-seated-in-murder-trial-of-Valley-woman-accused-of-murdering-boyfriend" target="_hplink">were sworn in for Jodi Arias' trial</a>.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

January 2, 2013 - Opening arguments began in Arias' trial. Maricopa County Prosecutor Juan Martinez cited the various stories that Arias had told law enforcement before she finally settled on a self-defense motive. Martinez described Alexander's murder as violent and said there were three different ways Alexander could have received a death blow: He was shot, he was stabbed in the heart, and his throat was slit from ear to ear. Alexander also had defensive wounds on his hands, according to Martinez. In wrapping up his opening argument, Martinez played part of a media interview conducted after Arias' arrest, in which she said, "Mark my words, no jury will convict me." Martinez asked the jury to mark Arias' words and concluded his opening statement. During the defense team's opening argument, lawyer Jennifer Willmott acknowledged that Arias had killed Alexander, but said that the key questions is what motivated her to do it. Willmott alleged Alexander had pressured Arias into having vaginal, anal and oral sex with him. Willmott also said she planned to call to the stand an expert who would testify about how Arias' relationship with Alexander fit the mold of domestic violence. Willmott concluded her opening argument by saying that Alexander had become enraged when Arias dropped his camera and that she had had to defend herself or she would not be alive today.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

At the close of the opening arguments, the prosecution called their first witness, Maria Hall, to the stand. Hall testified she had attended church with Alexander and had gone on a few dates with him. Hall said she felt safe in Alexander's company and never saw his temper.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

Prosecutors then called their next witness, Sterling Williams. A patrol officer with the Mesa Police Department, Williams described what he witnessed when he responded to the crime scene, as well as the condition of Alexander's body. Shortly afterward, court was recessed for the day.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

January 3, 2013 ? At the start of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/03/jodi-arias-trial-updates-day-2_n_2403886.html" target="_hplink">day two of Arias' murder trial</a>, the prosecution called Esteban Flores, a Mesa homicide detective to the stand. Flores had investigated the crime scene and mentioned a phone call he had with Arias on June 10, 2008. The prosecution then played an audio recording of the conversation in court. During the recorded call, Arias described herself as a good friend of Alexander's and said she wanted to help police in any way that she could. She told Flores she had heard that Alexander had passed away and that there was a lot of blood at the crime scene. She asked what type of weapon was used or recovered at the scene, but Flores told her he was unable to discuss that information with her. Asked about her relationship with Alexander, Arias said that they had not dated long. "We dated for like five months, and we broke up and actually did not see each other for quite a bit," Arias said. "[We] tried to remain friends, more like buddies. We were intimate but I would not say romantic as far as a relationship goes." In regard to the couple's breakup, Arias said she had a suspicion Alexander was cheating on her. She said she could not trust him and claimed he would get "upset real easily." During the phone interview, Flores told Arias that Alexander's friends had alleged that she had hacked into Alexander's email. Arias denied the allegation. "People felt you were taking advantage of him or hanging out when you weren't wanted," Flores said. Arias dismissed the opinion of Alexander's friends and said she felt they talked about her because she was an ex-girlfriend. "We need to know who had some type of beef with him or why they would want to do this to him. It was an angry situation. Somebody went in there to hurt him, and they did ?- hurt him really bad," Flores said at one point in the recording. Arias said Alexander was quite strong and she could not understand how anyone could overpower him. She also said she was concerned because "he never locked his doors." When the recording ended in the courtroom, Martinez turned the witness over to defense attorney Kirk Nurmi for cross-examination.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

Nurmi asked Flores if he had ever seen a picture of a French maid outfit that Alexander allegedly wanted Arias to wear when she would clean his home. Flores testified that Arias told him she had cleaned Alexander's house, but said he had never seen a picture of the French maid outfit. The defense attorney then questioned Flores about emails Alexander allegedly sent to Arias. Nurmi asked Flores if Alexander had called Arias names in the emails, like "slut" and "whore." Martinez objected, citing hearsay and speculation, but Judge Stephens allowed the question. Flores then confirmed that Alexander had sent messages to Arias calling her those names. After a short recess, Flores read from a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/03/jodi-arias-trial-sex_n_2405515.html" target="_hplink">Facebook message that he said Alexander sent to Arias</a>. "I was nothing more than a dildo with a heartbeat for you," the message read.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

Later, a fingerprint examiner with the Mesa police, Heather Connor, took the stand and unveiled evidence found at the crime scene. Forensic teams took a total of three days to complete processing the scene at Alexander's house and found evidence in his washing machine, Connor said. The contents included clothing and a broken digital camera, which contained a SIM card. The clothing items, as well as a towel, appeared to have bleach stains, she said. Shortly afterward, court was recessed until January 8.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

January 8, 2013 ? Connor, the Mesa Police Department fingerprint examiner, continued her testimony on day three. Connor took the court through photos of Alexander's hallway, master bedroom and bathroom. The jury was also shown a photo of a bloody handprint on a wall. Prosecutors said the handprint contained a mixture of Alexander's and Arias' DNA. When Connor finished her testimony, the prosecution called Dr. Kevin Horn, of the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's office, to the stand.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

Dr. Kevin Horn <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/08/jodi-arias-trial-travis-alexander-graphic-details_n_2435100.html" target="_hplink">described how Alexander was stabbed 27 times</a>, shot in the right brow with a .25-caliber gun, and nearly decapitated when his throat, voice box and arteries were cut. As Horn spoke, jurors looked at photos of the dead man, whose body, Horn said, was decomposing and starting to mummify by the time it was found. According to Horn, Alexander's stab wounds were very deep and inflicted with major force. It was, Horn testified, impossible to determine if Alexander was dead before he was shot due to the amount of decomposition. The cause of death was excessive blood loss from the victim's body, he said, and Alexander had multiple self-defense wounds to his palms and fingers.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

Elizabeth Northcutt, a forensic firearms examiner with the Mesa police, was called to the stand next. Northcutt testified that she had examined a cartridge casing found at the crime scene and identified it as a Winchester .25-caliber casing. She said she also examined the bullet removed from Alexander's cheek. During cross-examination, Northcutt said she was not able to match the casing or the bullet to a specific gun because no weapon has been recovered. Shortly afterward, court was recessed for the evening.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

January 9, 2013 ? Ryan Burns, a once-budding love interest of Arias' and her co-worker at PrePaid Legal Services, was <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/09/jodi-arias-trial-ryan-burns_n_2442048.html" target="_hplink">called to the stand by prosecutors on day four</a> of the trial. Burns testified he had a heated make-out session with Arias just a day after Alexander was murdered. "We were talking and we kissed ... Every time we started kissing, it got a little more escalated," Burns said. He said that the couple never removed their clothes during the encounter and that he "never touched her breasts or anything." Burns testified that he first met Arias at a PrePaid Legal convention in Oklahoma in April 2008. A few weeks after that initial meeting, Burns and Arias were chatting on the phone three to five times a week. Toward the end of May 2008, he and Arias had made plans for her to visit his home in West Jordan, Utah, Burns testified.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

According to Burns, Arias was several hours late arriving at his home on June 5, 2008. She told him that she had gotten lost and had stopped to rest. Arias had apparently dyed hair since the last time he had met with her and had cuts on her hands when she arrived, Burns said. "She had two small bandages on a couple of her fingers," he testified. Arias explained away the injuries by saying that while working at a Margaritaville restaurant, she had broken a glass and cut her finger, Burns said. The prosecution questioned Burns about Arias' strength. Burns said she was fit and had "close to a six-pack." "[She's] a lot stronger than she looks," Burns testified.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

Burns was followed on the stand by two latent-print examiners for Mesa police, Maureen Smith and Kevin Biggs. The two witnesses described taking Arias' fingerprints and a DNA sample.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

Latent-print examiner Heather Connor was called back to the stand to testify about a palm impression found on a wall at the crime scene, as well as items recovered from the drying machine inside Alexander's apartment and a bloody carpet stain.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

Police detective Esteban Flores was also called back to the stand during day four. A recording of a June 25, 2008, phone interview he conducted with Arias was played for the court. During the interview, Arias told Flores she was afraid of guns. "That is one of the things I am scared of. [Guns and] public speaking," Arias said. "That was one of the things [Alexander] was trying to get me to do -- get out of my comfort zone." Arias' comments about guns arose during a discussion with Flores about the trip she took to visit Burns in Utah on June 5, 2008. Arias said she slept in her car during the lengthy drive from Yreka, Calif., to West Jordan, Utah. "I am not shy about sleeping in my car," Arias told the detective. Flores mentioned the practice could be dangerous and suggested she needed protection. "I was thinking of that," Aria said before <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/09/jodi-arias-gun_n_2443588.html" target="_hplink">detailing her fear of guns</a>. But, she added, "Handguns are expensive [and] not in my price range." After discussing her thoughts on guns, Arias said she wanted to know if Alexander had cashed a check for $200 that she had given him for a car payment before he died. She said she had emailed his sister to ask about the check and to offer her condolences after she found out about Alexander's death. His sister had never replied, Arias told the detective. Court was adjourned for the day shortly after that excerpt of the audio recording was played.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

January 10, 2013 ? Day five of Arias' trial began with testimony by Nathaniel Mendes, a former detective with the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office in California. Mendes testified that there is no restaurant called Margaritaville in Yreka -- a fact that suggested Arias had lied about her place of employment, which undermined her explanation of how she had injured her fingers around the time Alexander was murdered. Mendes also testified about receipts found in Arias' bedroom, which show that she had rented a car in Redding, Calif., on June 2, 2008, and returned it six days later, after she put 2,834 miles on the car.

Key Dates In The Jodi Arias Case

Lisa Perry, a forensic scientist for Mesa police, was called to testify after Mendes. Perry said that over two days at the crime scene, she had collected blood evidence for DNA analysis. She spent a significant amount of time on the stand detailing the blood splatter and stains that were found throughout Alexander's apartment. She also testified that a .25-caliber bullet casing was lying in a pool of congealed blood, suggesting that the bullet inside the casing had been fired after the blood was on the floor.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/jodi-arias-cross-examination-day-three_n_2765536.html

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Persistent negative attitude can undo effectiveness of exposure therapy for phobias

Public release date: 26-Feb-2013
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Contact: Russell Fazio
Fazio.11@osu.edu
614-688-5408
Ohio State University

COLUMBUS, Ohio Because confronting fear won't always make it go away, researchers suggest that people with phobias must alter memory-driven negative attitudes about feared objects or events to achieve a more lasting recovery from what scares them the most.

Ohio State University psychology researchers determined that people who retained negative attitudes about public speaking after exposure therapy were more likely to experience a return of their fear a month later than were people whose attitudes were less negative. The fear returned among those with unchanged attitudes even if they showed improvement during the treatment.

The scientists also developed a way to evaluate attitudes immediately after the completion of exposure therapy. The tool both confirms their argument that persistent negative attitudes can undo therapy's effects and offers clinicians a way to assess whether a few more sessions of treatment might be in order.

It is well known among psychologists that the return of fear is common in the months after exposure therapy for people with phobias. The Ohio State scientists say this could be because the treatment tends to focus on building skills to fight the fear. What sometimes remains unaddressed is the automatic negative attitude that plagues the average person with a phobia.

These attitudes are based on such a powerful association between a feared object say, a spider and a negative feeling about the species so strong that a person with a phobia can't see or even think about a spider without experiencing that automatic negative reaction, which leads to avoidance behavior.

"In exposure therapy, people can learn some skills to control the negativity and fear that got automatically activated and be able to perform well despite that activation. But if that's all that happens, then the person may still very likely have a problem because there will be situations where their confidence will end up being eroded, they won't be able to manage their fear and they will have a failure experience," said Russell Fazio, professor of psychology at Ohio State and a senior author of the study.

"The other thing treatment can do is actually change the likelihood that that negativity or fear is automatically activated when one is placed in that situation. We argue that treatment will provide more persistent improvement if it succeeds in changing that attitude representation.

"Overall, we'd like to see if clinicians can get people to view success in therapy not as a limited experience, but instead as an opportunity to really learn something about themselves. To the extent that we promote that generalization, we're going to promote attitude change," he said.

Phobias affect nearly 9 percent of American adults, or about 20 million people, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

The research is published in a recent issue of the journal Behaviour Research and Therapy.

The study involved 40 adults ranging in age from 18 to 46 years who met criteria for social anxiety disorder in the context of public speaking. Fazio and colleagues measured their fear and attitudes with a variety of questionnaires, and also recorded participants' heart rate and subjective units of distress, a rating scale from no anxiety to extreme anxiety, while they were delivering a speech at various time points in the study.

In the treatment, each participant was given three minutes to prepare a five-minute speech on two topics selected at random. They delivered the speeches without notes before a small live audience and in front of a video camera. The overall treatment included an initial discussion about public speaking anxiety and four of these exposure trials.

Participants also completed the critical assessment tool, called the Personalized Implicit Association Test, before and after treatment. The test was modified specifically for this study based on Fazio's longstanding research program on these kinds of automatic evaluations.

Essentially, the test measured the ease with which participants could associate "public speaking" with "things I like" versus "things I don't like." Researchers used the test to gauge any change in the attitude about public speaking as a result of the exposure trials. The advantage of the measurement approach, Fazio said, is that it provides a snapshot of individuals' attitudes toward public speaking without requiring them to assess and report their feelings.

Statistical analysis showed that on average, all participants' fear was reduced after completion of the treatment based on numerous measures. But one month later, an average of 49.2 percent of participants had experienced a return of their fear and results of the association test showed that people with persistent negative attitudes were the ones whose fear of public speaking returned.

Two measures in particular were traced to participants whose attitudes remained negative heart rate and anticipatory anxiety. Both measures were more likely to be elevated at the one-month follow-up in participants whose post-treatment association tests indicated that they still felt negative about public speaking.

Why is such an assessment beneficial? Fazio noted that people who devote time to a treatment program want to believe it's working. They also tend to want to please their therapists.

"There is a lot of pressure to believe and to report that it is going well," Fazio said. "Another part is people are not very well calibrated at reporting the extent to which they've improved. So there's value in having another way of getting inside the person's head."

What this study does not reveal, however, is who is more likely to retain the automatic negative attitude and whose attitude is more likely to change as a function of treatment.

Exposure therapy is considered effective because it forces people with phobias to stop avoiding what they fear and allows them to learn that they can encounter what they fear and survive. Fazio and colleagues hope to extend this work by developing supplemental components in exposure therapy that would more explicitly attack the activation of negative attitudes.

###
This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Co-authors include Michael Vasey, Casaundra Harbaugh, Adam Buffington and Christopher Jones, all of Ohio State's Department of Psychology.

Contact: Russell Fazio, (614) 688-5408; Fazio.11@osu.edu

Written by Emily Caldwell, (614) 292-8310; Caldwell.151@osu.edu

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Persistent negative attitude can undo effectiveness of exposure therapy for phobias Public release date: 26-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Russell Fazio
Fazio.11@osu.edu
614-688-5408
Ohio State University

COLUMBUS, Ohio Because confronting fear won't always make it go away, researchers suggest that people with phobias must alter memory-driven negative attitudes about feared objects or events to achieve a more lasting recovery from what scares them the most.

Ohio State University psychology researchers determined that people who retained negative attitudes about public speaking after exposure therapy were more likely to experience a return of their fear a month later than were people whose attitudes were less negative. The fear returned among those with unchanged attitudes even if they showed improvement during the treatment.

The scientists also developed a way to evaluate attitudes immediately after the completion of exposure therapy. The tool both confirms their argument that persistent negative attitudes can undo therapy's effects and offers clinicians a way to assess whether a few more sessions of treatment might be in order.

It is well known among psychologists that the return of fear is common in the months after exposure therapy for people with phobias. The Ohio State scientists say this could be because the treatment tends to focus on building skills to fight the fear. What sometimes remains unaddressed is the automatic negative attitude that plagues the average person with a phobia.

These attitudes are based on such a powerful association between a feared object say, a spider and a negative feeling about the species so strong that a person with a phobia can't see or even think about a spider without experiencing that automatic negative reaction, which leads to avoidance behavior.

"In exposure therapy, people can learn some skills to control the negativity and fear that got automatically activated and be able to perform well despite that activation. But if that's all that happens, then the person may still very likely have a problem because there will be situations where their confidence will end up being eroded, they won't be able to manage their fear and they will have a failure experience," said Russell Fazio, professor of psychology at Ohio State and a senior author of the study.

"The other thing treatment can do is actually change the likelihood that that negativity or fear is automatically activated when one is placed in that situation. We argue that treatment will provide more persistent improvement if it succeeds in changing that attitude representation.

"Overall, we'd like to see if clinicians can get people to view success in therapy not as a limited experience, but instead as an opportunity to really learn something about themselves. To the extent that we promote that generalization, we're going to promote attitude change," he said.

Phobias affect nearly 9 percent of American adults, or about 20 million people, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

The research is published in a recent issue of the journal Behaviour Research and Therapy.

The study involved 40 adults ranging in age from 18 to 46 years who met criteria for social anxiety disorder in the context of public speaking. Fazio and colleagues measured their fear and attitudes with a variety of questionnaires, and also recorded participants' heart rate and subjective units of distress, a rating scale from no anxiety to extreme anxiety, while they were delivering a speech at various time points in the study.

In the treatment, each participant was given three minutes to prepare a five-minute speech on two topics selected at random. They delivered the speeches without notes before a small live audience and in front of a video camera. The overall treatment included an initial discussion about public speaking anxiety and four of these exposure trials.

Participants also completed the critical assessment tool, called the Personalized Implicit Association Test, before and after treatment. The test was modified specifically for this study based on Fazio's longstanding research program on these kinds of automatic evaluations.

Essentially, the test measured the ease with which participants could associate "public speaking" with "things I like" versus "things I don't like." Researchers used the test to gauge any change in the attitude about public speaking as a result of the exposure trials. The advantage of the measurement approach, Fazio said, is that it provides a snapshot of individuals' attitudes toward public speaking without requiring them to assess and report their feelings.

Statistical analysis showed that on average, all participants' fear was reduced after completion of the treatment based on numerous measures. But one month later, an average of 49.2 percent of participants had experienced a return of their fear and results of the association test showed that people with persistent negative attitudes were the ones whose fear of public speaking returned.

Two measures in particular were traced to participants whose attitudes remained negative heart rate and anticipatory anxiety. Both measures were more likely to be elevated at the one-month follow-up in participants whose post-treatment association tests indicated that they still felt negative about public speaking.

Why is such an assessment beneficial? Fazio noted that people who devote time to a treatment program want to believe it's working. They also tend to want to please their therapists.

"There is a lot of pressure to believe and to report that it is going well," Fazio said. "Another part is people are not very well calibrated at reporting the extent to which they've improved. So there's value in having another way of getting inside the person's head."

What this study does not reveal, however, is who is more likely to retain the automatic negative attitude and whose attitude is more likely to change as a function of treatment.

Exposure therapy is considered effective because it forces people with phobias to stop avoiding what they fear and allows them to learn that they can encounter what they fear and survive. Fazio and colleagues hope to extend this work by developing supplemental components in exposure therapy that would more explicitly attack the activation of negative attitudes.

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This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Co-authors include Michael Vasey, Casaundra Harbaugh, Adam Buffington and Christopher Jones, all of Ohio State's Department of Psychology.

Contact: Russell Fazio, (614) 688-5408; Fazio.11@osu.edu

Written by Emily Caldwell, (614) 292-8310; Caldwell.151@osu.edu

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/osu-pna022613.php
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

SK Telecom's Atti learning robot hands-on (video)

SK Telecom was at Mobile World Conference last year with some early concepts of a learning robot -- aka, angry Beaker with a top hat -- which seems to have led to this year's final product: Atti. Atti is Korean for buddy or friend and judging by how he (or she?) and Brad got along we'd suggest robo is aptly named. Using a phone snapped into the top of the head, the robot reacts to your interaction with it via camera and a wand attachment that sits in Atti's hand while not in use. Educational games are another focus here using Qualcomm's Vuforia tech allowing youngsters to point the handset at printed words and get tips on pronunciation, multimedia examples and the like.

Atti was developed with the help of the Utah State University to help develop the edutainment content and expects to see this hit retail in overseas markets sometime in the first half of the year. Unfortunately we didn't have any preschoolers on hand so we used our own Brad Molen to put Atti through its paces. The end result? Brad nails a high score and gets a star. Video and gallery are just below the fold.

Gallery: SK Telecom's Atti learning robot hands-on (video)