Anxiety: An Evolutionary Approach

Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental illnesses, with huge attendant suffering. Current treatments are not universally effective, suggesting that a deeper understanding of the causes of anxiety is needed. To understand anxiety disorders better, it is first necessary to understand the normal anxiety response. This entails considering its evolutionary function as well as the mechanisms underlying it. We argue that the function of the human anxiety response, and homologues in other species, is to prepare the individual to detect and deal with threats. We use a signal detection framework to show that the threshold for expressing the anxiety response ought to vary with the probability of threats occurring, and the individual's vulnerability to them if they do occur. These predictions are consistent with major patterns in the epidemiology of anxiety. Implications for research and treatment are discussed

Snapshot Provisioning of Cloud Application Stacks to Face Traffic Surges

Traffic surges, like the Slashdot effect, occur when a web application is overloaded by a huge number of requests, potentially leading to unavailability. Unfortunately, such traffic variations are generally totally unplanned, of great amplitude, within a very short period, and a variable delay to return to a normal regime. In this report, we introduce PeakForecast as an elastic middleware solution to detect and absorb a traffic surge. In particular, PeakForecast can, from a trace of queries received in the last seconds, minutes or hours, to detect if the underlying system is facing a traffic surge or not, and then estimate the future traffic using a forecast model with an acceptable precision, thereby calculating the number of resources required to absorb the remaining traffic to come. We validate our solution by experimental results demonstrating that it can provide instantaneous elasticity of resources for traffic surges observed on the Japanese version of Wikipedia during the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in March 2011.Les pics de trafic, tels que l'effet Slashdot, apparaissent lorsqu'une application web doit faire face un nombre important de requêtes qui peut potentiellement entraîner une mise hors service de l'application. Malheureusement, de telles variations de traffic sont en général totalement imprévues et d'une grande amplitude, arrivent pendant une très courte période de temps et le retour à un régime normal prend un délai variable. Dans ce rapport, nous présentons PeakForecast qui est une solution intergicielle élastique pour détecter et absorber les pics de trafic. En particulier, PeakForecast peut, à partir des traces de requêtes reçues dans les dernières secondes, minutes ou heures, détecter si le système sous-jacent fait face ou non à un pic de trafic, estimer le trafic futur en utilisant un modèle de prédiction suffisamment précis, et calculer le nombre de ressources nécessaires à l'absorption du trafic restant à venir. Nous validons notre solution avec des résultats expérimentaux qui démontrent qu'elle fournit une élasticité instantanée des ressources pour des pics de trafic qui ont été observés sur la version japonaise de Wikipedia lors de l'accident nucléaire de Fukushima Daiichi en mars 2011

Effective communication in eliciting and responding to suicidal thoughts: a systematic review protocol

Background In the UK, over 6500 people die by suicide each year. In England alone, this is one person every 2 h. Professionals assess risk of suicide in face-to-face contacts with people potentially at risk. The National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide found that most people who took their life were classified as ‘low risk’ in their final contact with mental health services. Training for front-line staff in reducing suicide is a NHS priority. While there is considerable evidence on what to assess when exploring suicidal ideation, there is little evidence on how to ask sensitive questions to effectively identify suicide risk and how to respond in the treatment encounter to reduce patient distress and suicidal ideation. This is critical for identifying risk and putting appropriate care in place. Methods An electronic search will be conducted using MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE and PsycINFO databases. Controlled studies of effectiveness will be identified using a predefined search strategy. The focus will be on suicidal thoughts/feelings rather than self-harm without intent to die. Two authors will independently screen articles using predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria and relevant data will be extracted using the Cochrane Collaboration data extraction form for randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Discrepancies between the two authors will be resolved by consensus or by consulting a third author at all levels of screening. We will assess the quality of evidence as well as risk of bias. A meta-analysis will be conducted if participants, interventions and comparisons are sufficiently similar, and we will perform the meta-analysis using Stata data analysis and statistical software. Discussion The results of this systematic review will be used to guide training and practice for health care professionals

The Supreme Court and the constitutional rights of students : the Burger years, 1969-1986

This study has as its purpose a review and analysis of United States Supreme Court decisions rendered by the Burger Court which address the constitutional rights of American school students. Five major issues are addressed: (1) right to due process, (2) right to free speech, (3) right to religious freedom, (4) right to be protected from illegal searches and seizures, and (5) the right to receive information and ideas

A comparison of drive, cognitive-attentional, and cybernetic models of test anxiety and social facilitation

Twenty high- and twenty low-test-anxious females performed a paired-associates task either alone or in the presence of an evaluative audience. One purpose of the study was to compare predictions generated from Zajonc's drive theory, Wine's cognitive-attentional model, and Carver and Scheier's cybernetic approach. Since the task was primarily composed of items in which the dominant response was initially incorrect, Zajonc's theory hypothesized that the audience would have a negative impact on the performance of both high- and low-test-anxious persons. Wine's analysis indicates that the spectator should have a more beneficial or less detrimental effect on the performance of low- than high- test-anxious individuals. Carver and Scheier's theory contends that the directional effects of an audience depend on expectation level. Since all subjects were led to anticipate success, their cybernetic interpretation predicts that the audience will facilitate the performance of high- as well as low-test-anxious persons

Lifestyles of never married women physical educators in institutions of higher education in the United States

The purpose of this study was to describe the personal and professional lifestyles of never married women physical educators currently teaching in institutions of higher education in the United States. More specifically, the investigation sought to organize questionnaire data in such a way as to obtain two profiles: (1) personal, and (2) professional, of the women studied. The research instrument used in this study was a written, mailed questionnaire, which was developed by the researcher specifically for this study. The questionnaire contained 78 items, 50 of which were devoted to information concerning demographic characteristics, family background, habitation patterns, and social interaction patterns; 28 items focused on information pertinent to academic credentials, academic responsibilities, and professional productivity

Material adaptations

I started the MFA Program thinking a lot about my experiences in America. As a newcomer from Serbia, I have been pondering about the changes that I went through while being here. My cultural, social, and psychological foundations have been shifted ever since I came to America. This has lead me to reflect on my former life back in Serbia through the lenses of memory of people, places, and relationships. This act was what kept me in touch with my roots. My work trajectory revolves around my life adaptation to a new habitat. Through material such as wax and brick, my intent is in ringing together what is fragile, delicate, and ephemeral, with that, which is strong, durable, and unbreakable

Development and Validation of Scores on a Measure of Six Academic Orientations in College Students

This article describes the development and score validation of a 36-item measure of six academic orientations in college students: structure dependence, creative expression, reading for pleasure, academic efficacy, academic apathy, and mistrust of instructors. Results from three studies indicate that the measuring instrument, the Survey of Academic Orientations (SAO), has six factorially distinct scales (Study 1) whose scores are stable across different semesters, yielding test-retest coefficients that range from .63 to .86 (Study 2). Also, each of the six scales relates in expected ways to basic personality traits, yielding validity coefficients of .30 to .69 (Study 3). Scores on the six scales are internally consistent, yielding coefficients alpha that range from .59 to .85 (Studies 1-3). Scale scores and a summative score of all 36 items, called the Adaptiveness index, are examined for their potential in predicting a variety of important student outcomes

The Relations of Learning and Grade Orientations to Academic Performance

This investigation assessed the roles of learning orientation (LO) and grade orientation (GO) in academic performance. Most important, we found that GO was negatively correlated with grade point average (GPA) and General Psychology test scores. Correlations of LO scores with the academic performance measures were not significant. The poor academic performance of students with high GO scores can be partially attributed to lower Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) scores. Even after the effects of SA T were controlled, GO scores were negatively related to G PA and psychology test scores. These findings demonstrate the need for investigations to determine the effects of grading practices on students with high and low grade orientations

LITTLE ALBERT: A Neurologically Impaired Child

Evidence collected by Beck, Levinson, and Irons (2009) indicates that Albert B., the “lost” infant subject of John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner’s (1920) famous condi tioning study, was Douglas Merritte (1919 –1925). Following the finding that Merritte died early with hydrocephalus, questions arose as to whether Douglas’s condition was congenital, rather than acquired in 1922, as cited on his death certificate. This etiology would imply that “Little Albert” was not the “healthy” and “normal” infant described by Watson and numerous secondary sources. Detailed analyses of Watson’s (1923) film footage of Albert suggested substantial behavioral and neurological deficits. The anomalies we observed on film of Albert B. are insufficiently explained by his hospital upbringing but are consistent with findings from newly discovered medical records of Douglas Merritte. These documents revealed that the infant suffered from congenital obstructive hydrocephalus, iatrogenic streptococcal meningitis/ventriculitis, and retinal and optic nerve atrophy. The medical history also indicates that Albert’s sessions with Watson occurred during periods when Douglas’s clinical course was relatively stable. Further inquiries found ample sources of information available to Watson that would have made him aware of Douglas/Albert’s medical condition at the times he tested the baby. Experimental ethics, Watson’s legacy, and the Albert study are discussed in light of these new findings