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We consider the problem of inferring what happened to a person in a social task from momentary facial reactions. To approach this, we introduce several innovations. First, rather than predicting what (observers think) someone feels, we predict objective features of the event that immediately preceded the facial reactions. Second, we draw on appraisal theory, a key psychological theory of emotion, to characterize features of this immediately-preceded event. Specifically, we explore if facial expressions reveal if the event is expected, goal-congruent, and norm-compatible. Finally, we argue that emotional expressivity serves as a better feature for characterizing momentary expressions than traditional facial features. Specifically, we use supervised machine learning to predict third-party judgments of emotional expressivity with high accuracy, and show this model improves inferences about the nature of the event that preceded an emotional reaction. Contrary to common sense, “genuine smiles” failed to predict if an event advanced a person’s goals. Rather, expressions best revealed if an event violated expectations. We discussed the implications of these findings for the interpretation of facial displays and potential limitations that could impact the generality of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construal-level theory emphasizes that representing events at greater spatial, temporal, social, or hypothetical distance results in processing information at high construal levels (more conceptual, abstract). We posit that psychological distance and construal level are somewhat separable constructs, and can have different effects on emotion, and therefore, emotion regulation. We argue that psychological distance influences emotional appraisal, such that increasing distance results in lower emotion intensity, which can be leveraged to down-regulate emotions. However, we consider construal level a mindset, which can occur with either high or low psychological distance. Furthermore, we argue that compared with psychological distance, construal level has a more nuanced relationship with emotion, and changing construal level for the purpose of changing emotion also requires considering the construal level of one's emotion-regulation goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relative to younger adults, older adults have a preference and memory advantage for appeals framed to focus on emotion goals (e.g., loving or caring) or positive outcomes (e.g., benefits of health behaviors). Here we examined whether combining goal (emotion vs. future) and valence framing (positive vs. negative) could optimize older adults' appraisal and memory for health appeals. Sixty younger (ages 18–29) and 60 older (ages 64–87) adults viewed, rated and recalled one of the four versions of a health pamphlet, each with a unique combination of goal and valence framing. The results showed a memory advantage for pamphlets focusing on emotion over future goals in both age groups. Older adults also showed a more favorable appraisal and a weak memory advantage for the positively- and emotion-framed pamphlet, relative to younger adults. Thus combining goal and valence framing could optimize the effectiveness of older adults' health appeal communication.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secrecy is both common and consequential. Recent work suggests that personal experiences with secrets (i.e., mind-wandering to them outside of concealment contexts), rather than concealment (within conversations), can explain the harms of secrecy. Recent work has also demonstrated that secrecy is associated with emotions that center on self-evaluation—shame and guilt. These emotions may help explain the harms of secrecy and provide a point of intervention to improve coping with secrecy. Four studies with 800 participants keeping over 10,500 secrets found that shame surrounding a secret is associated with lower perceived coping efficacy and reduced well-being. Moreover, shifting appraisals away from shame improved perceptions of efficacy in coping with secrets, which was linked with higher well-being. These studies suggest that emotions surrounding secrets can harm well-being and highlight avenues for intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2012, a group of librarians published the “Guidelines for Efficient Archival Processing in the University of California Libraries,” which served as a touchstone for archival staff both within the University of California and beyond in their bid to tackle significant backlogs. Over time language and linked references in the document became outdated; and the recommendations began to feel out of touch with emerging discussions of holistic collection management. This shift in the profession, coupled with the increasing prevalence of born-digital collection materials led a group of UC archivists in 2018 to embark on a two-year-long revision project to make key changes addressing the impact that appraisal, accessioning, and over-collecting have on the existence and growth of backlogs. This webinar will provide an overview of the revisions to the Guidelines for Efficient Archival Processing, making the case for a more holistic approach to collections stewardship that emphasizes the interrelatedness of each stage in the archival lifecycle. Presenters will focus on the process of developing recommendations for born-digital appraisal and accessioning, and provide context on the decision to structure the document in a way that reflects the interconnected nature of born-digital and physical collections care.

Purpose – The main objective of the present study is to explore whether there are variations in the employment of evaluative language resources by male and female writers. More specifically, the study focuses on variations, if any, that can be attributed to difference in gender. Design/methodology/approach – The study compared and contrasted forty recommendation letters written by male academics to the same number of letters written by female recommenders. The study uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Findings – The investigation of three attitudinal resources in letters of recommendations showed that the most employed resource was the judgment sub-system. The appreciation domain was in the second position, and the least frequent was the affect. The results also revealed no statistically significant variations in attitude sub-systems: Affect and appreciation as the writers in both groups (males and females) employed almost the same options in each. In respect with judgment, however, the analysis explored significant differences between the two sets as male academics used more judgment resources than females. Originality/value – The main contributions of this study may be as follows: first, it is one of very few studies drawing on the attitude-category of appraisal system, as an analytical tool to examine gender differences in recommendation letters very particularly on the ones written by non-native speakers of English. Second, the gender factor is central in the genre of the recommendation letters and hence researchers should be cognizant of its role as certain variations might be impacted by it. Third, the lists of tokens can be offered as heuristics for academics to have most common words or phrases to use in their letters. Finally, the findings can hopefully bear some important pedagogical implications, very specifically for novice and non-native academic writers of recommendations letters.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Advanced age is generally associated with improved emotional well-being, but the coronavirus 2019 pandemic unleashed a global stressor that gravely threatened the physical well-being and ostensibly challenged the emotional well-being of older adults disproportionately. The current study investigated differences in emotional experiences and coping strategies between younger and older adults during the pandemic, and whether these differences were accounted for by age differences in appraisal of the pandemic. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We asked younger (n = 181) and older (n = 176) adult participants to report their stress, appraisals of the pandemic, emotions, and the ways in which they were coping with the pandemic. RESULTS: Results indicated that older adults experienced less stress and less negative affect and used greater problem-focused coping and less avoidant coping in response to the pandemic than younger adults. Furthermore, age differences in affect and coping were partially accounted for by age differences in appraisals of the pandemic. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Despite their objectively higher risk of illness and death due to the pandemic, older adults experienced less negative affect and used more agentic coping strategies than younger adults.

Structural balance is a classic property of signed graphs satisfying Heider'sseminal axioms. Mathematical sociologists have studied balance theory since itsinception in the 1040s. Recent research has focused on the development ofdynamic models explaining the emergence of structural balance. In this paper,we introduce a novel class of parsimonious dynamic models for structuralbalance based on an interpersonal influence process. Our proposed models aregradient flows of an energy function, called the dissonance function, whichcaptures the cognitive dissonance arising from violations of Heider's axioms.Thus, we build a new connection with the literature on energy landscapeminimization. This gradient flow characterization allows us to study thetransient and asymptotic behaviors of our model. We provide mathematical andnumerical results describing the critical points of the dissonance function.

Despite the positive aspects of information technology (IT) use, it is common for users to experience negative IT incidents. Examples of negative IT incidents include getting lost in an unfamiliar country due to a dysfunctional map application and missing a monetary insurance benefit due to the failure of an activity tracker application. Such incidents can harm IT providers by giving rise to user dissatisfaction, discontinued use, switching, and negative word-of-mouth. To minimize this harm, it is important to understand how users cope after negative incidents. Specifically, information systems (IS) researchers have called for research that uncovers the complex interplay of IT users’ coping strategies (e.g., users’ coping efforts after employing one strategy and combinations of several consecutive strategies). To address these calls, we conducted a mixed methods study that examined mobile application users’ coping strategies after highly negative incidents. We developed a model that explains how users navigate between problem-focused strategies, emotion-focused strategies, and appraisals. As theoretical contributions, we identify coping sequences and distinct routes from the coping strategies, uncover the role of momentary emotional load, and present IT-specific insights. As practical implications, we identify favorable [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an editorial titled "Perspectives on music and pain: from evidence to theory and application." It discusses the research on the use of music as a non-pharmacological approach to pain management. The editorial highlights the diverse perspectives and disciplines involved in studying music and pain, including music therapy, psychology, neuroscience, and medical specialties. The collection of peer-reviewed articles in this research topic explores the various ways in which music can interfere with pain processing and influence the experience of pain. The articles cover topics such as music therapy, music as a distractor, music selection, and the effects of music on mood and cognitive state. The editorial concludes by suggesting that this research can have an impact on healthcare practitioners, encourage the inclusion of music in pain treatment interventions, and inspire future research in this area. [Extracted from the article]

The most abhorred population group in Africa (and by extension in Namibia) is the LGBTQI community. Non-heterosexuality is largely condemned in most African countries for political, religious, cultural and legal reasons. Couched within Appraisal Theory, the paper examines how linguistic resources are exploited in manners that evince how homophobia is politically and legally framed in two Namibian daily newspapers – The Namibian and New Era. For example, while the world has reacted to the realities of the departure from the traditional binary definitional parameters of sexualities and sexual identities, Namibia still remains largely homophobic, together with at least 47 other African countries still criminalising homosexuality. In 2001, for example, a video documentary quotes the then President of Namibia, Dr Sam Nujoma, expressing the sentiments that “Lesbians and homosexualism, these we condemn – we reject them. In Namibia there will be no lesbian, no homosexualism” (Blecher, 2001). In August 2005, Minister of Home Affairs, Theopolina Mushelenga, publicly denounced the human rights of Namibian gays and lesbians and also asserted that “homosexuals were responsible for the HIV and AIDS pandemic” (Lorway, 2006, p. 436). Homosexuality has generally, thus, been regarded as an uncultural, unAfrican, uncommon and unacceptable phenomenon in Africa, including Namibia. In Namibia, as in other African countries, the penalty for homosexual behaviour is imprisonment. Many Namibian political leaders have publicly expressed that homosexual rights go against the legal, religious and cultural values of the country. There are political and legal imports to the rejection of homosexual behaviour patterns in Namibia as evinced in news reporting cultures. Homosexuality in Namibian political and legal discourses is largely imagined as either an ‘unAfrican’ behaviour or attributed to western influences on Africa. Linguistic expression by many Namibian politicians also evince a revulsion of homosexuality.

Background: The interactive journal club is designed to utilize a new approach in appraising research in order to maximize the benefits of the traditional journal club. In this new approach, the participants are actively involved in a structured process of critical data appraisal rather than just being passive listeners. In this case study, we applied the interactive journal club format and assessed its impact among our endocrinology fellows-in-training. Methods: We conducted four interactive journal club sessions within a four-week span, one per each week via a virtual platform. The 12 participants were the same throughout all sessions. Each session was recorded following informed consent. At the end of all sessions, feedback was obtained, tabulated and compared. Results: Sessions lasted from 59 to 83 minutes (mean, 67.75 minutes). Participants became more active and spontaneous as the sessions progressed. All participants found the format more fun and proactive. This approach allowed more critical thinking and processing of information. Salient features include increased self-esteem and confidence, additional learning from other participants, better retention of information, and utilization in future practice. Conclusions: Traditional approaches are transformed from passive presentations of recent developments in medicine into an interactive discussion while allowing the retention of the spirit and essence of a traditional journal club, as well as exploring new and improved approaches in clinical training and education.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant adverse effects on the mental health of college students around the world. The purpose of the present study was to examine the constructs of Lazarus and Folkman's stress-appraisal-coping theory as predictors of subjective well-being in Chinese college students during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Participants included 244 Chinese college students. The final hierarchical regression model accounted for 71% of the variance in subjective well-being scores, a large effect size. In the final model, positive stress appraisal, hope, core self-evaluations and resilience remain significant after controlling for other variables. Coping flexibility were significant at the zero-order correlation level and at the step, it was entered into the equation. The effect of perceived stress dissipated in the presence of the positive person-environment contextual variables. Findings provide strong empirical support for the use of positive person-environment contextual variables as a stress management and subjective well-being model for college students during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings can be used to guide counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists in college health services in the selection of brief screening psychological instruments and empirically supported psychosocial and counseling interventions to help college students develop character strengths, positive attitudes, and coping skills to effectively cope with COVID-related challenges and stressors and possible future outbreaks of novel contagious diseases and crisis situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enabling people to be socially included is a high-priority goal for many governments but monetised benefit measures applicable to initiatives intended to reduce social exclusion risk are lacking in land use transport, and other, policy arenas. In settings where the decision-making process seeks guidance from cost-benefit analysis, this is likely to disadvantage initiatives intended to reduce exclusion. This is a particular problem for public transport services intended to enable people to access more of the opportunities available in their society ('social transit'). This paper develops a monetised measure of the value of improved mobility as it contributes to reducing risk of social exclusion, showing this to make a material difference to benefit estimates from social transit service improvements. It also develops monetised benefit estimates for some other potential pathways for reducing risk of social exclusion, particularly changes in bridging and bonding social capital, sense of community, subjective wellbeing and neighbourhood disadvantage. The research thus provides an opportunity to significantly strengthen appraisal tools linked to reducing social exclusion, which should encourage more integrated approaches to reducing exclusion and improve implementation prospects for initiatives with that purpose. Reduced social exclusion is a likely outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study characterized depression trajectories during the COVID pandemic and investigated how appraisal and changes in appraisal over time related to these depression trajectories. Methods: This longitudinal study of the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic included 771 people with data at three timepoints over 15.5 months. The depression index was validated using item-response-theory methods and receiver-operating-characteristic curve analysis. The Quality of Life (QOL) Appraisal Profilev2 Short-Form assessed cognitive-appraisal processes. Sequence analysis characterized depression-trajectory groups, and random effects models examined appraisal main effects, appraisal-by-group, and appraisal-by-group-by-time interactions. Results: Sequence analysis generated six trajectory groups: Stably Well (n = 241), Stably Depressed (n = 299), Worsening (n = 79), Improving (n = 83), Fluctuating Pattern 1 (No–Yes–No; n = 41), and Fluctuating Pattern 2 (Yes–No–Yes; n = 28). While all groups engaged in negative appraisal processes when they were depressed, the Stably Depressed group consistently focused on negative aspects of their life. Response-shift effects were revealed such that there were differences in the appraisal-depression relationship over time for standards of comparison and recent changes for the Stably Depressed, and in health goals for those Getting Better. Conclusion: The present work is, to our knowledge, the first study of response-shift effects in depression. During these first 15.5 pandemic months, group differences highlighted the connection between negative appraisals and depression, and response-shift effects in these relationships over time. Egregious life circumstances may play a lesser role for the Stably Depressed but a greater role for people who have transient periods of depression as well as for those with improving trajectories (i.e., endogenous vs. reactive depression). How one thinks about QOL is intrinsically linked to mental health, with clear clinical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students face various demands that can lead to health complaints. Hindering demands appear to be especially harmful. Since the perception of demands differs between persons, their individual appraisal determines stress perception. However, individual appraisal processes are largely neglected in research. Therefore, this study builds on the study demands-resources model in examining the dynamics of students' demand-appraisal processes and their effects on well-being. During ten days in a four-week period, 247 students participated in a diary study. We analyzed our data via multilevel path analysis. Our analyses revealed that the student's appraisal of the same demands varied across days and depended on available resources, i.e., the received support quality on the respective day. Appraising demands as hindering was positively linked to the perception of stress on the same day. Daily perception of stress was positively linked to person-level strain and health complaints after four weeks. The results highlight the importance of assessing the individual appraisal of demands rather than pre-categorizing demands. Furthermore, our findings identify social support as a crucial resource in reducing hindering appraisal; hence, it should be included in student-focused stress-management interventions. Limitations and further implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study examined predictors and mental health consequences of appraisal (threat, support satisfaction) and coping (active, avoidant) in a sample of low‐income women during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). Pre‐COVID‐19 contextual risk and individual resources and COVID‐19‐specific risk factors were examined as predictors of COVID‐19 appraisal and coping, which, in turn, were tested as predictors of changes in depression and anxiety across the pandemic. Pre‐COVID‐19 resilience predicted more active coping, whereas pre‐COVID‐19 anxiety and depression predicted more avoidant coping and lower support satisfaction, respectively. Increases in anxiety were predicted by lower pre‐COVID‐19 self‐compassion and higher concurrent threat appraisal and avoidant coping. Increases in depression were related to lower pre‐COVID‐19 self‐compassion, active coping and support satisfaction, and higher COVID‐19 hardships and health risk. Findings highlight contextual and individual factors and processes that contribute to mental health problems in a vulnerable population during community‐level stressors, with implications for prevention and intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microaggression research has made great strides over the past decade while steadily pushing itself into mainstream psychological science. Yet the field remains firmly situated within the Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic (WEIRD) cultural context. Correspondingly, recurring criticisms against the validity of microaggressions are often rooted in individualist, decontextualized understandings of behavior, and critics' rebuttals are often grounded in a philosophical and reflective understanding of the cultural context. In this article, I put forward that (a) the enactments and appraisals of microaggressions are the behavioral results of the cognitive salience of cultural schemas; (b) cultural schemas are informed by cultural ideologies, underlining their methodological and empirical relevance for future research; and (c) cultures are dynamic by highlighting the effects of geopolitical events on the content of cultural schemas that may moderate the perception and enactment of microaggressions. For these reasons, I argue that a cultural psychology of microaggressions may help to depathologize the individual by situating behavior in its cultural context while at the same time necessitating the inclusion of communities residing in non-WEIRD societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive theories of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) feature appraisal of trauma as a critical factor in the development and maintenance of the disorder. Here we explored appraisals of social trauma (severe rejection or humiliation). Participants were outpatients with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and clinically significant PTSD symptoms (PTSS) after social trauma (n = 15); two clinical control groups of either SAD (n = 32) or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD; n = 13); and a control group with no diagnoses (n = 38). Measures included a clinical interview to assess social trauma and related open-ended appraisals and the Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory (PTCI). Raters blind to group assignment performed content analyses of appraisals. Results showed that the PTSS group scored significantly higher than either clinical group on the PTCI SELF subscale. Only the SELF subscale predicted a diagnosis of both PTSS and SAD. All but one PTSS participant reported primarily negative beliefs about their social trauma, and the most common categories were flawed self and others are critical or cruel. Post-traumatic appraisals implicated in the course of PTSD are significant in how individuals respond to social trauma, with negative self-cognitions linked to both PTSS and SAD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While discourses on terror by the United States and its allies have been the focus of most previous studies, this article investigates discourses produced in the Chinese context. 247 news articles from China Daily and People's Daily were analyzed according to a revised system of attitude within the appraisal framework in systemic functional linguistics (SFL). The findings reveal a correlation between polarity, types of attitude, and social actors being evaluated. Two Them groups, terrorism/terrorists in Xinjiang and Western media and governments, are overwhelmingly evaluated in terms of negative propriety of their behaviors and negative valuation of their things. Two Us groups, China and its people and non-Western countries supporting China, tend to be evaluated through positive valuation of their things, their positive capability, and positive and negative feelings (affect). The West is put in the same category as terrorism, quite contrary to what is commonly seen in the discourses produced by Western media. The attitudinal construction of Them and Us reflects not only the ideological square of negative other-presentation and positive self-presentation, but also the motivations of maintaining domestic stability and proper international relations behind China's war on terror. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to explore employees' appraisals and coping responses to workplace incivility in the foodservice industry. Five group interviews with foodservice workers were conducted. 13 different types of experienced or witnessed incivility were identified. Positive-benign, irrelevant, and negative appraisals were found, as well as four major coping themes. These were active, passive, and proactive coping as well as reappraisal, encompassing twelve forms of coping behaviors. Additionally, workplace incivility was described as a daily stressor which can be expressed as a part of the workplace culture in the foodservice industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extends earlier works that focused on stressor appraisals (stressor as challenge and stressor as hindrance) as mediators of stressors and psychological strains. We also tested whether psychological strains would then affect organisational outcomes. Survey data were gathered from a general sample of 237 full-time employees at three time points. The first time was a screener survey to ensure the study represented full-time working adults. After the screening survey, data on both predictor and criteria were gathered two more times. Time 1 reflects data gathered on role stressors (overload and conflict), appraisals (challenge and hindrance), and psychological strains (anxiety and tedium). Time 2 also included a set of measures targeted toward organisational attitudes (affective organisational commitment, job satisfaction) and outcome (turnover intention). Drawing from the transactional model of stress, we tested a structural equations model to the data and found that stressor appraisals did not mediate the stressor-psychological strain outcome. However, consistent with prior research, psychological strains did mediate the relationship between stressors and organisational outcomes and across all models, psychological strains measured at T1 had the highest goodness of fit. These findings suggest that self-appraisal may not be sufficient to explain the causal mechanism linking stressors to outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study specifically appraised the health-related facilities in public and private secondary Schools in Ile-Ife and the environment. The study employed the descriptive research design. Twenty secondary schools and a total of 600 respondents consisting of 300 public and 300 private secondary schools students were selected for the study using simple random sampling technique, age ranging from 14 to 24 years. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. Simple percentages, frequency count and statistical analysis were used to analyze the data. The results showed that there was no significant relationship between the public and private secondary schools as regards the availability of health-related facilities/equipment, there was a significant difference in the health personnel/sick bay available and a significant difference in the perceived health treats of poor health facilities and equipment in the public and private secondary schools. It is therefore recommended that the three tiers of the government and the school authority should make health-related facilities/equipment, health personnel/sick bay, first aid box with adequate materials available in the study areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Literatura y Lingüística is the property of Universidad Catolica Cardenal Raul Silva Henriquez and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Valori e Valutazioni is the property of Societa Italiana di Estimo e Valutazione (SIEV) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Valori e Valutazioni is the property of Societa Italiana di Estimo e Valutazione (SIEV) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The construction of crisis is realized through the language of those expressing their individual or group perspectives. In 2020, many nations faced multiple crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, which raised questions about how concurrent crises are interpreted and managed. Lebanon is an example of a country that experienced three concurrent crises in 2020: the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic crisis, and the Beirut Port explosion. This study focuses on Lebanon's crises by analyzing ten English-language opinion articles written by authors who view the crises from their own professional, social, or cultural lens. The articles were qualitatively analyzed for instances of attitudinal meaning as presented in the appraisal framework. Four constructions of the crises emerged from the analysis, showing that the effects of the crises are unequal but interconnected, crisis management emphasizes certain stakeholders' interests but not others, and a crisis has the potential to instigate change. Thus, analyzing diverse constructions of crises in the articles shows that they have been simultaneously constructed as victimizing and empowering, thus highlighting the role of power in shaping the effects and management of crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People often encounter highly stressful, emotion-evoking situations. Modeling and predicting people's behavior in such situations, how they cope, is a critical research topic. To that end, we propose a computational model of coping that casts Lazarus's theory of coping into a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) framework. This includes an appraisal process that models the factors leading to stress by assessing a person's relation to the environment and a coping process that models how people seek to reduce stress by directly altering the environment or changing one's beliefs and goals. We evaluated the model's assumptions in the context of a high-stress situation, hurricanes. We collected questionnaire data from major U.S. hurricanes in 2018 to evaluate the model's features for appraisal calculation. We also conducted a series of controlled experiments simulating a hurricane experience to investigate how people change their beliefs and goals to cope with the situation. The results support the model's assumptions showing that the proposed features are significantly associated with the evacuation decisions and people change their beliefs and goals to cope with the situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media platforms such as YouTube have become increasingly popular for language teaching and learning. Despite adequate research on the use of YouTube for educational purposes, it is necessary to explore the verbal and non-verbal features YouTubers deploy, as in Taiwan, to construct online discourse in a multilingual context. Using the Appraisal Theory framework, this study analyses the evaluative practices in three Taiwan-based English-teaching videos. The results reveal that YouTubers made evaluations fairly frequently and used specific multimodal devices for evaluation in language-teaching videos, such as expressions of judgement, disclaim, and focus, and gestures such as beats and pointing. The evaluation was found to serve genre-specific functions, including explaining pedagogical content, making meta-pragmatic comments about language use, marking the opening and closing of the video, and promoting products or services. The findings have implications for research on appraisal, social media pragmatics, and online language teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to recent estimates (Reuters), the cost of implementing the sustainable development goals of Agenda 2030 will be USD 176 trillion. This amount seems unattainable, even when considering the public resources currently available to governments that are part of the United Nations. It is undoubtedly necessary to involve the private financial sector, within the so-called finance for sustainable development. To achieve the SDGs, it may be also necessary to schedule local-level initiatives and actions that consider the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, which can be used to source forms of private finance for sustainable development and contribute to the implementation of the SDGs. Based on these observations, this article deals with the study of clearly defined parameters: (1) the factors that should be considered when assessing the sustainability of a (local) real-estate project and, in particular, of a housing project, in order for the project to be considered sustainable and participate, albeit pro rata, in achieving one (or more) of the eleven SDG sub-goals; and (2) funding opportunities in the world of sustainable-development finance. The specific goal of the research contribution presented in this paper was to use the Delphi method to define a set of local-level evaluation criteria and indicators for real-estate projects, specifically housing projects, with an ESG matrix and in line with some of the SDG 11 targets, considering the Florence Metropolitan Area as a case study. The application of the Delphi method to the case study made it possible to test the usability of this method for the definition of the criteria and indicators, at the local level, for assessing the level of implementation of the SDGs. Specifically, a set of 48 criteria and 74 indicators were defined for assessing the consistency of housing projects with SDG 11 and ESG criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Nightmares are a substantial burden for sleep quality. Previous studies have shown that traumatic experiences can increase the probability of nightmares, and also waking‐life distress can enhance this effect. There is evidence that the intensity of negative dream emotions is more responsible for rating a dream as a nightmare than threatening dream contents. However, there is still a lack of research concerning effects on nightmare distress. We hypothesise that traumatic childhood experiences (such as emotional abuse, obtained by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire), critical life events (obtained by the Social Readjustment Rating Scale) and threatening dream contents are associated with nightmare distress. A sample of N = 103 participants kept a dream diary over 28 consecutive days. About 60% of the sample were frequent nightmare dreamers. The participants recorded their violent dream contents and dream emotions in their diary. To predict nightmare distress, regression models were constructed; nightmare distress was measured with the Nightmare Distress Questionnaire. Results showed that emotional abuse in childhood and critical life events predicted nightmare distress. Moreover, violent dream contents were associated with nightmare distress but, after we controlled for nightmare frequency and the intensity of negative dream emotions, the significant impact of violent dream contents decreased. The results suggest that the emotional appraisal of a dream has a substantial influence on nightmares in addition to traumatic childhood experiences and critical life events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using national data from the National Center for Education Statistics 2011–2012 Schools and Staffing Survey and Common Core of Data, we examined the relationship between K–12 practitioners' risk for stress and the teacher-to-student racial/ethnic congruence. Analyses indicated significant variation in risk for stress by school racial composition and suggested that the likelihood of being categorized as most at-risk for stress is associated with the teacher-to-student racial/ethnic congruence. Findings point to substantial differences in how teachers appraise their environments depending on school context, which has implications for how education stakeholders recruit and prepare classroom practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nigerian universities have been attributed to lack of funds, inadequate infrastructure, improper teaching aids (laboratories, projectors, libraries, and computers) and irregular or lack, thereof, of salary as evidenced in some states in Nigeria. It is of little wonder then that the work performance of academic staff will spiral down particularly in terms of their teaching and supervision, research and publication and their involvement in community development services. This study, therefore, assessed teaching and supervision load of lecturers in some selected universities in Nigeria. Data were obtained using semi-structured questionnaire from nine universities. Through proportional sampling technique, 25% of the academic staff in each university were selected giving a total of 969 as the sample size. Data were analyzed using SPSS. The results showed that teaching and supervision load of the academic staff was quite heavy; hence, concluding that the performance of academic staff in terms of their teaching and supervision in the selected universities is unsatisfactory.