Rhythm and Safety of Social Engagement: Polyvagal Theory Informed Dance/Movement Therapy

The polyvagal theory has exerted great influence on the field of clinical therapy since the 1990s by proposing an understanding of the psychological expression seen in clients as a reflection of their physiological state of safety or threat of danger. When affect and psychological states are viewed through the lens of the autonomic nervous system directed by neuroception through bidirectional vagal nerve information, therapeutic presence and somatic therapy practices, such as those utilized in the field of dance/movement therapy, become more conceivable as best practices to treat a variety of psychological conditions to include trauma recovery, autism spectrum disorders, and depression. By engaging in dance/movement therapy techniques clients gain body awareness, regain trust in integrating their body’s sensory information through interoception, strengthen affect regulation, express emotions and access implicit memories through non-verbal expression. By activating the reciprocal nature of the social engagement system, clients gain social skills and build on the positive experiences of social engagement. Polyvagal theory provides a consistent measurable foundation from which to practice embodied therapies with a variety of populations

Personal Autonomic Computing Reflex Reactions and Self-Healing

The overall goal of this research is to improve theself-awareness and environment-awareness aspect of personal au-tonomic computing (PAC) to facilitate self-managing capabilitiessuch as self-healing. Personal computing offers unique challengesfor self-management due to its multiequipment, multisituation, andmultiuser nature. The aim is to develop a support architecture formultiplatform working, based on autonomic computing conceptsand techniques. Of particular interest is collaboration among per-sonal systems to take a shared responsibility for self-awareness andenvironment awareness. Concepts mirroring human mechanisms,such as reflex reactions and the use ofvital signsto assess oper-ational health, are used in designing and implementing the PACarchitecture. As proof of concept, this was implemented as a self-healing tool utilizing a pulse monitor and a vital signs health moni-tor within the autonomic manager. This type of functionality opensnew opportunities to provide self-configuring, self-optimizing, andself-protecting, as well as self-healing autonomic capabilities topersonal computing

Self-healing and SDN: bridging the gap

Achieving high programmability has become an essential aim of network research due to the ever-increasing internet traffic. Software-Defined Network (SDN) is an emerging architecture aimed to address this need. However, maintaining accurate knowledge of the network after a failure is one of the largest challenges in the SDN. Motivated by this reality, this paper focuses on the use of self-healing properties to boost the SDN robustness. This approach, unlike traditional schemes, is not based on proactively configuring multiple (and memory-intensive) backup paths in each switch or performing a reactive and time-consuming routing computation at the controller level. Instead, the control paths are quickly recovered by local switch actions and subsequently optimized by global controller knowledge. Obtained results show that the proposed approach recovers the control topology effectively in terms of time and message load over a wide range of generated networks. Consequently, scalability issues of traditional fault recovery strategies are avoided.Postprint (published version

Biologically Inspired Near Extinct System Reconstruction

Recovery software system operations from a state of extensive damage without human intervention is a challenging problem as it may need to be based on a different infrastructure from the one that the system was originally designed for and deployed on (i.e., computational and communication devices) and significant reorganization of system functionalities. In this paper, we introduce a bio-inspired approach for reconstructing nearly extinct complex software systems. Our approach is based on encoding a computational DNA (co-DNA) of a system and computational analogues of biological processes to enable the transmission of co-DNA over computational devices and, through it, the transformation of these devices into system cells that can realise chunks of the system functionality, and spread further its reconstruction process

ETS (Efficient, Transparent, and Secured) Self-healing Service for Pervasive Computing Applications

To ensure smooth functioning of numerous handheld devices anywhere anytime, the importance of self-healing mechanism cannot be overlooked. Incorporation of efficient fault detection and recovery in device itself is the quest for long but there is no existing self-healing scheme for devices running in pervasive computing environments that can be claimed as the ultimate solution. Moreover, the highest degree of transparency, security and privacy attainability should also be maintained. ETS Self-healing service, an integral part of our developing middleware named MARKS (Middleware Adaptability for Resource discovery, Knowledge usability, and Self-healing), holds promise for offering all of those functionalities

How Art Therapy Can Help Survivors of Trauma Access an Embodied Sense of Safety: A Literature Review

Traumatic stress can disrupt systemic rhythms in the brain and body that enable a person to feel safe in the world. Therefore, the initial phase of trauma treatment must focus on establishing an embodied sense of safety. This literature review examined cross-disciplinary data to assess whether art therapy can help trauma survivors access an embodied sense of safety, and if so, what therapeutic mechanisms contribute to its effectiveness. The data indicated that trauma-informed art therapy can support an embodied sense of safety through activating key therapeutic factors that downregulate instinctual defense mechanisms which can occur as a result of traumatic stress. Results revealed seven therapeutic factors that contributed to feelings of safety: therapeutic alliance; group belonging; synchrony with the natural world; affect regulation; sensory integration; a positive emotional state; and a sense of agency. Additionally, the paper outlines specific art therapy interventions that exemplify each therapeutic factor, and mechanisms that can illuminate how these therapeutic factors support an embodied sense of safety

Autonomic Cluster Management System (ACMS): A Demonstration of Autonomic Principles at Work

Cluster computing, whereby a large number of simple processors or nodes are combined together to apparently function as a single powerful computer, has emerged as a research area in its own right. The approach offers a relatively inexpensive means of achieving significant computational capabilities for high-performance computing applications, while simultaneously affording the ability to. increase that capability simply by adding more (inexpensive) processors. However, the task of manually managing and con.guring a cluster quickly becomes impossible as the cluster grows in size. Autonomic computing is a relatively new approach to managing complex systems that can potentially solve many of the problems inherent in cluster management. We describe the development of a prototype Automatic Cluster Management System (ACMS) that exploits autonomic properties in automating cluster management

Healing the Body through Awareness, and Expression: The Polyvagal Theory and the Expressive Arts in Therapy with Women Who Have Been Abused

There are women who are survivors of abuse who aren’t receiving the appropriate therapeutic treatment. These survivors are not healing from their trauma that is held in their bodies. This is a literature review on the polyvagal theory, and the expressive arts in therapy with women who’ve been abused while also integrating intersectionality. The review further explores the most appropriate ways to implement the polyvagal theory in therapy with survivors, as well as the expressive arts. The review explores body-oriented therapeutic interventions as well; Specific interventions include, autonomic art mapping, show and tell, musical mapping, and movement, which the body is the main focus. Emotional and artistic expression helps survivors of abuse cope with the psychological effects that was caused by the abuse. Major search terms used were, polyvagal theory, women, abuse, expressive arts, and body-oriented psychotherapy. Findings from the review revealed three major themes/approaches to be beneficial, which were the body, polyvagal theory, and expressive art therapy. The polyvagal theory and the expressive arts, combined, are a great tool for allowing survivors to be more present in their bodies and to be able to self-regulate, by understanding where they find themselves in their bodies when they are triggered. Conclusions show a potential model of treatment that can be offered for this population

Promoting Recovery in Trauma Affected Children: Developing a School-Based Professional Development Tool for Teacher Awareness and Intervention

The problem of practice addressed in this paper is the need for professional development training in the educational setting on the social, emotional, academic, cognitive, and behavioral needs of students who have experienced a traumatic event. The need identified exists due to the lack of knowledge, interest, and opportunity to partake in professional development training in an effort to understand the impact trauma has on academic achievement and the toll that is placed on the school environment. The purpose of this paper is to review research on childhood trauma, examine the psychological impact on student academic achievement, foster child resiliency, and develop a foundation for effectuating change through a school-based intervention program that concentrates on promoting recovery in affected children. Traumatic events are a very real part of life that becomes a societal problem when a very young mind has to cope with the aftermath of the event. A survey and two interviews were administered to inform the professional development framework of the needs of students and teachers along with research on social-emotional learning, psychological resilience, and recovery methods offering an informative vehicle for change that will significantly impact the child\u27s life. Cultivating Resilience Through The Arms of Academics is a school-based professional development framework designed to educate teaching professionals on the psycho-social needs of trauma affected children while providing systematic interventions designed to help these children with the factors necessary for healing to the extent allowable by the public school system. Schools are targeted to provide the interventions necessary for healing due to their extensive influence on the children they serve. This program will provide children with an emotionally safe environment thus establishing a school climate that is conducive for learning. The interventions in the program promote healing for trauma victims, assist teachers by providing strategies to engage the trauma affected students, and addresses the psycho-social competence and educational performance of all children in the educational population