Potential Aboriginal-Occupation-Induced Dune Activity, Elbow Sand Hills, Northern Great Plains, Canada

Geomorphological and archeological evidence indicates potential linkages between Plains aboriginal occupation and dune activity in the Elbow Sand Hills of southern Saskatchewan, Canada. Vegetation encroachment has rapidly outpaced migration of an active dune complex over the last 65 years. Optical ages of stabilized dune remnants indicate that dune activity predates Euro-Canadian settlement (ca. AD 1900). Early Euro-Canadian explorers observed local occupation and exploitation of the sand hills by aboriginal groups for herding and impounding bison. Mapping of archeological sites in relation to physiography reveals that sand dunes, in close proximity to permanent water resources, were preferred areas of occupation. Collectively, these results support the hypothesis that aboriginal occupation disturbance may have perpetuated dune activity in the Elbow Sand Hills until the late 19th century, and that Euro-Canadian settlement and land use emphasizing conservation may have encouraged recent stabilization. We propose that similar aboriginal occupation disturbances may have been responsible for perpetuating dune activity in other dune fields in the Great Plains. To this end, climatic variability should not be considered exclusive of other drivers of dune activity in semivegetated inland dune fields of the Great Plains

Metacognitive beliefs predict test anxiety and examination performance

Test anxiety is common among university students and impairs examination performance. Existing interventions for test anxiety are not particularly effective. Prior to developing an effective intervention, the key psychological beliefs that predict test anxiety need to be identified. Two transdiagnostic models, the intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and Self-Regulatory Executive Function (S-REF) models, propose different beliefs that result in emotional disorder, with beliefs about uncertainty emphasized in the IU model, and metacognitive beliefs emphasized in S-REF model. This study examines if IU and metacognitive beliefs predict test anxiety, and, if the relationship between these beliefs and examination performance is mediated by test anxiety. Undergraduates (n = 134) completed self-report questionnaires at two time points, approximately 3 months apart. At Time 1, during term time, participants completed questionnaires measuring their IU and metacognitive beliefs. At Time 2, participants completed a measure of “state” test anxiety immediately before their examination. IU and metacognitive beliefs were significantly positively correlated with test anxiety, but regression analyses found only the metacognitive belief domain “negative beliefs about the uncontrollability and danger of worry” predicted test anxiety. The relationship between “negative beliefs about the uncontrollability and danger of worry” and examination performance was mediated by the worry dimension of test anxiety. Overall, “negative beliefs about the uncontrollability and danger of worry” appear key to test anxiety. Modification of these metacognitive beliefs in the context of a well-being or study skills program for students could reduce test anxiety and ultimately improve academic performance.</jats:p

A systematic review of the quality of randomized controlled trials of psychological treatments for emotional distress in breast cancer

Objective: Meta-analyses of trials of psychological treatments for emotional distress in breast cancer (BCa) conclude that efficacious treatments exist. Subsequently, their implementation in routine care is widely promoted by health policy. However, the methodological quality of these trials has not been systematically evaluated. The present review investigates this issue. Method: A systematic search identified randomized controlled trials of psychological treatments for emotional distress in BCa. The Psychotherapy Outcome Study Methodology Rating Form was used to assess the quality of trials. Generic design elements, including representativeness of sample, control of concomitant treatments, reporting clinical significance outcomes, and design elements specific to psychotherapy trials, including manualisation, therapist training, and therapist adherence and competence were evaluated. Results: 91 trials were eligible. Overall, methodological quality was low. Generic design elements were limited in most trials: 15% specified as an inclusion criterion that participants were distressed; 10% controlled for concomitant treatments; and 11% reported the clinical significance of findings. Design elements specific to psychotherapy trials were also implemented poorly: 51% used treatment manuals; 8% used certified trained therapists; and monitoring of adherence and competence occurred in 15% and 4%, respectively. Conclusion: The methodological quality of psychological treatment trials for emotional distress in BCa is improving. However, if relevant health policies are to be adequately empirically informed, trials of greater methodological rigour are essential. Trials should include participants with clinical levels of distress, control for concomitant treatments and report the clinical significance of findings. Trialists must also consider the specific requirements of psychotherapy trials

Consistent phenological shifts in the making of a biodiversity hotspot: the Cape flora

Background The best documented survival responses of organisms to past climate change on short (glacial-interglacial) timescales are distributional shifts. Despite ample evidence on such timescales for local adaptations of populations at specific sites, the long-term impacts of such changes on evolutionary significant units in response to past climatic change have been little documented. Here we use phylogenies to reconstruct changes in distribution and flowering ecology of the Cape flora - South Africa's biodiversity hotspot - through a period of past (Neogene and Quaternary) changes in the seasonality of rainfall over a timescale of several million years. Results Forty-three distributional and phenological shifts consistent with past climatic change occur across the flora, and a comparable number of clades underwent adaptive changes in their flowering phenology (9 clades; half of the clades investigated) as underwent distributional shifts (12 clades; two thirds of the clades investigated). Of extant Cape angiosperm species, 14-41% have been contributed by lineages that show distributional shifts consistent with past climate change, yet a similar proportion (14-55%) arose from lineages that shifted flowering phenology. Conclusions Adaptive changes in ecology at the scale we uncover in the Cape and consistent with past climatic change have not been documented for other floras. Shifts in climate tolerance appear to have been more important in this flora than is currently appreciated, and lineages that underwent such shifts went on to contribute a high proportion of the flora's extant species diversity. That shifts in phenology, on an evolutionary timescale and on such a scale, have not yet been detected for other floras is likely a result of the method used; shifts in flowering phenology cannot be detected in the fossil record

An integrative study of motivation and goal regulation processes in subclinical anxiety, depression and hypomania

Research has implicated motivation and goal regulation in susceptibility to mood disorders. We studied for the first time key facets of motivation and goal regulation concurrently in relation to affective symptoms. The cross-national sample comprised 510 university students from the United States (n = 279) and United Kingdom (n = 231). Participants completed self-report measures of motivation, conditional goal setting, urgency, depression, anxiety, and mania risk. Structural Equation Modeling results found that behavioral activation system scores correlated negatively with depression and positively with mania risk, but were unrelated to anxiety. High conditional goal setting correlated uniquely with higher depression but not to anxiety or mania risk. Urgency correlated with higher anxiety, depression, and mania risk. Behavioral inhibition system scores correlated negatively with mania risk but unexpectedly did not correlate with anxiety in the multivariate model. The behavioral activation, behavioral inhibition, conditional goal setting, and urgency results showed shared and distinct patterns of relationships with depression, anxiety and mania risk. Our findings indicate unique and common risk vulnerabilities in depressive, anxious, and manic syndromes and extend an integrative knowledge of these syndromes in relation to goal regulation

A national-scale assessment of climate change impacts on species: assessing the balance of risks and opportunities for multiple taxa

It is important for conservationists to be able to assess the risks that climate change poses to species, in order to inform decision making. Using standardised and repeatable methods, we present a national-scale assessment of the risks of range loss and opportunities for range expansion, that climate change could pose for over 3,000 plants and animals that occur in England. A basic risk assessment that compared projected future changes in potential range with recently observed changes classified 21% of species as being at high risk and 6% at medium risk of range loss under a B1 climate change scenario. A greater number of species were classified as having a medium (16%) or high (38%) opportunity to potentially expand their distribution. A more comprehensive assessment, incorporating additional ecological information, including potentially confounding and exacerbating factors, was applied to 402 species, of which 35 % were at risk of range loss and 42 % may expand their range extent. This study covers a temperate region with a significant proportion of species at their poleward range limit. The balance of risks and opportunities from climate change may be different elsewhere. The outcome of both risk assessments varied between taxonomic groups, with bryophytes and vascular plants containing the greatest proportion of species at risk from climate change. Upland habitats contained more species at risk than other habitats. Whilst the overall pattern was clear, confidence was generally low for individual assessments, with the exception of well-studied taxa such as birds. In response to climate change, nature conservation needs to plan for changing species distributions and increasing uncertainty of the future