ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION WHEN YOU ARE STUDYING

DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY ON CAMPUS Depression and anxiety on college campuses have risen to epidemic proportions. There are a variety of suspected causes for the alarming trend, which is supported by numerous studies, including a February 2010 Healthy Minds Study finding that 20 percent of BU students surveyed fit the criteria for anxiety or depression. Today we begin a three-part series examining depression and anxiety among BU students. Part one offers an overview and a look at what’s behind the increase and who is most at risk. In part two, we show the faces of depression and anxiety through a series of candid interviews with students. The series concludes with information on how to get help, what that help involves, and how some students suffering from depression and anxiety—treatable conditions—have found hope, and a way out. Carrie Landa scans her weekly schedule and shakes her head. The computer screen is a mélange of colors, each with a meaning. Light green signals an open spot for new patient intakes at Student Health Services Behavioral Medicine, where she works as a staff psychologist. Turquoise is for emergency appointments. Gray floats as lunch (or more space to cram in work). And cream reveals open slots for patient counseling. There is no cream; the inn is full. This is why: one of every three college students nationally, according to recent surveys, has sought mental health counseling. At BU, one of five undergraduate and graduate students surveyed screened positive for depression or anxiety. About a quarter of that group report that they have seriously contemplated suicide. “I started here in 2009 and before that everybody had said this time of year, after spring break, is the worst,” Landa says. “This year we’re all saying this is the worst it’s ever been.” In just 10 years, the number of students receiving services at Behavioral Medicine has more than doubled, to 10,523 last year. Landa estimates that figure will jump again this year, by 2,000 students, with the overwhelming majority treated for depression and anxiety. There is also unsurprising evidence that far more students need mental health services than have sought care. The 2010 Healthy Minds Study, an annual national online survey of college students about mental health issues by the University of Michigan, reveals that 36 percent of the 1,400 BU student respondents thought they needed mental health help during the previous year. Yet less than two thirds of those said they sought help. During this year’s National Depression Screening Day, 30 percent of the 216 BU students who came to the free screening offered by Behavioral Medicine staff were referred to treatment. Last year, 64 students showed up for the screening, and the referral rate was also 30 percent. College years have long been a time of psychological stresses. As academic pressures rise and fall, so do anxiety levels. Roommate and relationship problems, homesickness, and adjustment to college life plague students now as before. And the college years are when most people question and explore who they are—which can be both exciting and unsettling. But those situations don’t explain the sudden surge of students seeking help for depression and anxiety. Why is this generation, now more than ever, in need of help? The answer, according to mental health professionals, reflects what is ailing society in general. Margaret Ross, the director of Behavioral Medicine at BU, says American culture has changed dramatically since she started counseling students decades ago. “All the technology has made it different growing up,” Ross says. “Parents have micromanaged the lives of their children. They do everything on computer. They don’t have the common sense that people in the past may have had in knowing when they need help.” The global economic slump has taken its toll as well, Ross says. Students worry that there won’t be jobs when they graduate. Parents have had to dig deeper into their pockets to finance a college education, some taking out a second mortgage, and that knowledge wears on students, who feel pressure to enter a field that is hiring instead of one they like. Dori Hutchinson, director of services at BU’s Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, speaks often with students struggling with the choice of passion versus profession. “Somewhere along the line as they mature,” she says, “they’re recognizing that this is not who I am but this is what I’m supposed to be. And so that discordance can be really painful for kids.” Hutchinson sees how students feel pressure to succeed even before they enter college. They come to BU with “this headset that Bs are not good enough,” she says. “It’s driven by this collective anxiety that we have in our world these days that you have to be good at everything you do.” Parents also hover over their children too closely, she says. “We parent differently and we protect our kids from a lot of normal disappointments in the name of getting a leg up. They get to college and their parents aren’t here to do that anymore. There are kids who can’t decide what to choose to eat. That creates anxiety.” Landa sees another culprit in the mix: Facebook. The social media website is a tool students use constantly to interact with friends, all the while comparing how their virtual lives measure up (or don’t) to those of others. “There is a very big need for immediacy in our culture and almost an intolerance of things that are uncomfortable or bad,” she says. She also says that in recent years more students arrive at college already in treatment for depression, anxiety, or personality disorders. “We do have students here ill enough that 20 to 30 years ago they wouldn’t have been coming to college,” Landa says. “They are showing up here and succeeding here, but still needing the support that we offer.” That is where Hutchinson and her colleagues can step in. At the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation, staff members help students learn how to manage the responsibilities and pressures of schoolwork and social life. “We do whatever it takes to help them stay here at the University,” Hutchinson says. At BU, a broad cross-section of students makes use of mental health services—from freshmen to U.S. military veterans—but some groups are more at risk for developing depression or anxiety. Among them are minority and international students, those who identify as LGBTQ, athletes, and students involved in Greek life, according to University mental health professionals. “Any time you feel ostracized, not in the mainstream, or discriminated against, I think that can create some depression,” says David Seeman, a senior staff psychologist at Behavioral Medicine. International students can have a tough time adjusting simultaneously to college life and to a new culture. Their support network of friends and family is thousands of miles away, and their home culture may frown on seeking help for mental health problems.

READING COMPREHENSION LINK

if you want to find the asnwers to the text on dirty britain as well as other texts for listening comp here is the link http://www.usingenglish.com/comprehension/29.html gOOD LUck ALEX AND YAMILA

READING COMPREHENSION FOR C.A.E.

READING COMPREHENSION FOR C.A.E. 

 Dirty Britain 

 Instructions: Read through the text, answer the questions that follow, then click on 'Grade Me!' to view your score. 

Before the grass has thickened on the roadside verges and leaves have started growing on the trees is a perfect time to look around and see just how dirty Britain has become. The pavements are stained with chewing gum that has been spat out and the gutters are full of discarded fast food cartons. Years ago I remember travelling abroad and being saddened by the plastic bags, discarded bottles and soiled nappies at the edge of every road. Nowadays, Britain seems to look at least as bad. What has gone wrong? The problem is that the rubbish created by our increasingly mobile lives lasts a lot longer than before. If it is not cleared up and properly thrown away, it stays in the undergrowth for years; a semi-permanent reminder of what a tatty little country we have now. Firstly, it is estimated that 10 billion plastic bags have been given to shoppers. These will take anything from 100 to 1,000 years to rot. However, it is not as if there is no solution to this. A few years ago, the Irish government introduced a tax on non-recyclable carrier bags and in three months reduced their use by 90%. When he was a minister, Michael Meacher attempted to introduce a similar arrangement in Britain. The plastics industry protested, of course. However, they need not have bothered; the idea was killed before it could draw breath, leaving supermarkets free to give away plastic bags. What is clearly necessary right now is some sort of combined initiative, both individual and collective, before it is too late. The alternative is to continue sliding downhill until we have a country that looks like a vast municipal rubbish tip. We may well be at the tipping point. Yet we know that people respond to their environment. If things around them are clean and tidy, people behave cleanly and tidily. If they are surrounded by squalor, they behave squalidly. Now, much of Britain looks pretty squalid. What will it look like in five years? 

 Questions 

Q1 - The writer says that it is a good time to see Britain before the trees have leaves because 

Britain looks perfect. 

you can see Britain at its dirtiest. 

you can see how dirty Britain is now. 

the grass has thickened on the verges. 

 Q2 - According to the writer, things used to be 

 worse abroad.

 the same abroad. 

 better abroad. 

 worse, but now things are better abroad.

 Q3 - For the writer, the problem is that 

rubbish is not cleared up. 

rubbish lasts longer than it used to. 

our society is increasingly mobile. 

Britain is a tatty country.

 Q4 - Michael Meacher followed the Irish example 

with a tax on plastic bags. 

tried to follow the Irish example with a tax on plastic bags. 

made no attempt to follow the Irish example with a tax on plastic bags. 

had problems with the plastics industry who weren't bothered about the tax. 

 Q5 - The writer thinks 

it is too late to do anything. 

we are at the tipping point. 

there is no alternative. 

we need to work together to solve the problem. 

 Q6 - The writer thinks that 

people are squalid. 

people behave according to what they see around them. 

people are clean and tidy. 

people are like a vast municipal rubbish tip.

READING COMPREHENSION FOR F.C.

The Man Booker PrizeInstructions: Read through the text, answer the questions that follow, then click on 'Grade Me!' to view your score The Man Booker Prize The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is awarded every year for a novel written by a writer from the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland and it aims to represent the very best in contemporary fiction. The prize was originally called the Booker-McConnell Prize, which was the name of the company that sponsored it, though it was better-known as simply the ‘Booker Prize’. In 2002, the Man Group became the sponsor and they chose the new name, keeping ‘Booker’. Publishers can submit books for consideration for the prize, but the judges can also ask for books to be submitted they think should be included. Firstly, the Advisory Committee give advice if there have been any changes to the rules for the prize and selects the people who will judge the books. The judging panel changes every year and usually a person is only a judge once. Great efforts are made to ensure that the judging panel is balanced in terms of gender and professions within the industry, so that a writer, a critic, an editor and an academic are chosen along with a well-known person from wider society. However, when the panel of judges has been finalized, they are left to make their own decisions without any further involvement or interference from the prize sponsor. The Man Booker judges include critics, writers and academics to maintain the consistent quality of the prize and its influence is such that the winner will almost certainly see the sales increase considerably , in addition to the £50,000 that comes with the prize. Questions Q1 - The Republic of Ireland is in the Commonwealth. is not in the Commonwealth. can't enter the Man Booker Prize. joined the Booker prize in 2002. Q2 - The Man group was forced to keep the name 'Booker'. decided to include the name 'Booker'. decided to keep the name 'Booker-McConnell'. decided to use only the name 'Booker'. Q3 - Books can be submitted by publishers. by writers. by judges. by the sponsors. Q4 - Who advises on changes to the rules? The sponsors The judging panel The advisory panel Publishers Q5 - The judging panel doesn't include women. includes only women. is only chosen from representatives of the industry. includes someone from outside the industry. Q6 - The sponsors of the prize are involved in choosing the winner. are involved in choosing the judges. are not involved at all. choose the academic for the panel of judges. Q7 - The consistent quality of the prize is guaranteed by the prize money. is guaranteed by the gender of the judges. is guaranteed by the make-up of the panel of judges. is guaranteed by the increase in sales of the winner.

POLAR VORTEX

Polar vortex: temperatures drop below freezing in all 50 US states• Rare nationwide chill will persist for at least another day • Cutting winds and blizzards posing the most danger Share 1058 inShare.9Email Joanna Walters in New York The Guardian, Tuesday 7 January 2014 23.15 GMT Jump to comments (…) At least six deaths have been reported across the country due to the polar air mass sweeping over North America, producing the coldest temperatures in two decades Temperatures in all 50 US states dipped below freezing on Tuesday in a rare nationwide chill that will keep a grip on much of the country for at least another day, with cutting winds and blizzards posing the most danger. Florida, a state that normally basks in its reputation as a warm winter escape, experienced unusually low temperatures. In the midwest, northeast and eastern Canada, it was dangerous to venture outside. At some point on Tuesday, at least one location in each of the 50 US states recorded temperatures below freezing, with the highest point on Hawaii, Mauna Kea, recording a temperature of 21F (-6C). The so-called polar vortex that funnelled an Arctic low pressure system into the upper US this week swung south and east on Tuesday. Polar conditions settled over two-thirds of the US. It was colder in the southern state of Georgia than Alaska as Atlanta plunged to 6F (-14C) – the lowest temperature since 1966 – while Anchorage, Alaska, recorded 27F (-3C) . Wind chills were recorded around -60F in parts of Michigan, Minnesota, Montana and New Hampshire. In northern Illinois, 500 Amtrak passengers spent the night on board three trains stranded in snow. The trains – the Southwest Chief from Los Angeles, the Illinois Zephyr from Quincy and the California Zephyr from the San Francisco Bay area – got stuck after 3pm Monday in blowing, drifting snow and ice that made the tracks impassable. The passengers were being bussed to their destinations on Tuesday. The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for Western New York state, particularly along a line from Buffalo to Batavia. Accumulations of up to two feet were predicted. “Dangerously cold wind chills will pose a risk for frost bite and hypothermia for anyone outside for even very short periods of time. This is a life- threatening cold for those not in shelter,” the NWS said. A “weather whiplash” sent temperatures in New York plunging 50 degrees fahrenheit. At lunchtime on Monday, it was 55F (13C) in Central Park; 24 hours later it was 5F (-15C). Authorities around the country have so far reported at least 14 weather-related deaths since last Friday, mostly resulting from traffic accidents. It was so cold in Kentucky on Monday that an escaped prisoner turned himself in. Robert Vick, 42, escaped from a minimum-security prison on Sunday, the Associated Press reported, but as temperatures dropped through the floor on Monday he walked into a motel and asked the clerk to call the police so he could escape the freezing air. Lexington police said Vick was checked by paramedics and returned to Blackburn correctional complex. Authorities at Toronto airport halted flights at Pearson international airport on Tuesday morning because the extreme cold was causing equipment to freeze. In all, more than 3,700 flights were canceled by late Monday afternoon, following a weekend of travel disruption across the US and southern Canada. Across the region, airline officials said de-icing fluid was freezing, fuel was pumping sluggishly, and ramp workers were having difficulty loading and unloading luggage. JetBlue Airways stopped all scheduled flights to and from New York and Boston on Monday. Southwest ground to a halt in Chicago earlier in the day, but by the evening, flights resumed in "a trickle", a spokesman said. Residents of south-east states were shocked to find the temperatures so low. “This is severely cold for these parts, a rare event,” said Brian Lynn, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Georgia. Farther south in Pensacola, Florida – a Gulf Coast city better known for its white sand beaches than frost – streets normally filled with joggers, bikers and people walking dogs were deserted on Tuesday. Monica Anderson and Tommy Howard jumped up and down and blew on their hands while they waited for a bus, struggling to stay warm. Anderson said she couldn't recall it ever being so cold. "I'm not used to it. It is best just to stay inside until it gets better," said Anderson, who had to get out for an early morning appointment with her doctor. Citrus growers in Florida reported that so far the low temperatures had not lasted long enough to spoil their fruit crops – and a sharp drop followed by a rise on the thermometer could even make the current orange crop sweeter. The Tennessee Valley Authority, the biggest public utility in the South, said preliminary figures showed demand for electricity Tuesday morning reached the second-highest winter peak in the history of the Depression-era TVA. PJM Interconnection, which operates the power grid that supplies more than 61 million people in the mid-Atlantic states, the midwest and south, asked users to conserve electricity because of the cold.

POWER OUTAGES - BLACKOUTS

Power cuts are becoming more and more frequent. Large-scale, supraregional blackouts are increasingly a realistic scenario. Even small outages can have disastrous effects on unprepared businesses. Download PDF 769.27 KB Energy Risks - the dangers of power cuts and blackouts Many companies are unprepared for business disruptions caused by power blackouts, and are often unaware of the true costs and impact that they can have on their operations. While the majority of power failures from national grids last only a few hours, some blackouts can last days or even weeks, completely shutting down production at companies and critical infrastructures such as telecommunication networks, financial services, water supplies and hospitals. Furthermore, it is likely that power blackouts will become more frequent owing to the lack of incentives to invest in aged national grid infrastructures in Europe and the US, as well as the fact that energy from decentralized, “volatile” renewable sources is not well aligned to work on electricity grids that were designed 50 or 60 years ago. Also, as more and more grids are interconnected, a blackout in one region can trigger a domino effect that could result in supra-regional blackouts. Heightened risk from terrorism, cyber attacks and solar flares also highlights how vulnerable the world’s energy grids are to systemic failure. Research shows that the financial impacts of even a small power cut can be catastrophic. Analyses from blackout events in the US show that a 30-minute power cut results in an average loss of US$15,709 for medium and large industrial clients, and nearly US$94,000 for an eight-hour interruption. Even short blackouts – which occur several times a year in the US – add up to an annual estimated economic loss of between US$104 and US$164 billion. Power outage risks frequent in emerging markets Larry Hunter, Risk Engineer at Allianz Global Corpo rate & Specialty (AGCS) in Houston, says that “while organizations may feel that the likelihood of power outages is beyond their control, they should still assess the impact that an electrical blackout could have on their operations and important machinery, so that they can review and determine whether they have the right controls in place to help mitigate the risk.” The most frequent brownouts (reduction in the volt age) and blackouts occur in emerging economies which have typically underinvested in their energy infrastructures, and which are also prone to serious weather and natural hazards. For example, Latin America has one of the lowest number of power outages, but they last the longest on average. South Asia, on the other hand, has the highest number of power outages per year, although they usually last only a few hours, the effects are sharply felt. For example, a 12-hour power cut in India in 2001 cut off electricity to 226 million people, caused chaos on the rail system and paralyzed major utilities and hospitals. Some countries are trying to address the immediate failings in their national grids by asking consumers to use less electricity. Following a series of power blackouts in September 2011 due to a heat wave, South Korea’s government unveiled a set of measures aimed at alleviating pressure on the national grid, including a 10 percent demand cut for large manufacturers and caps on maximum temperatures for commercial buildings and on the use of neon signs. Other countries are facing the problem of trying to meet energy demands while changing their fuel source. In the US, for instance, a proposal to force California’s two nuclear power plants – which generate 16 percent of the state’s electricity – to shut down immediately when the Nuclear Waste Act of 2012 becomes law, would cause rolling blackouts, spikes in electricity rates and billions of dollars in economic losses each year, according to the state’s nonpartisan analyst, the Legislative Analyst’s Office, in November. Germany is planning to close down all its nuclear reactors by 2022. At present, atomic energy accounts for around a quarter of the country’s power supply, but the government hopes that renewable energies will account for 35 percent of national power by 2020. However, the transition is unlikely to be smooth: Germany’s network regulator, known as the Bundesnetzagentur, believes that the exit from nuclear power will increase blackout risk, particularly in Southern Germany which relies heavily on nuclear power, has comparatively high industrial energy demand and is already prone to grid instability.

FOR PUBLIC TRANSLATORS actus reus and sleepwalking

Actus Reus & Voluntariness According to the criminal law, a crime requires voluntariness or, in other words, a muscular contraction that is willed. Only fully willed actions can incur criminal liability, and without voluntariness no actus reus - and so also no crime - can be said to occur. For example, if Al hits Ed after being insulted, then the action is clearly voluntary and willed, and Ed could bring aggravated assault charges against Al. However, if the two men are in a vehicle which swerves suddenly, involuntarily causing Al's outstretched arm to strike Ed's nose, then no actus reus is present and Ed will probably have to take care of his own hospital bill. Likewise, if Sue takes Al's arm and throws it in Ed's face, it will probably be ruled that Al committed no actus reus (the guilty action came from Sue, it would seem). Actus reus still exists if the defendant is threatened or in some other way coerced into performing a criminal action. If Dan intimidates Chris into robbing convenience store with the threat of death, Chris could argue that criminal intent (mens rea) was absent and the act was performed under duress; the action was voluntary, however, and so actus reus is present. On the other hand, if Chris was sleepwalking when he robbed the convenience store, it might be argued, with the automatism defense, that his actions were completely involuntary and that no actus reus occurred. Sometimes criminal offenses that occur while the defendant is suffering an epileptic fit (a decidedly involuntary affliction) can merit the automatism defense. A person suffering from an epileptic fit is not acting voluntarily, and cannot, strictly speaking, incur criminal liability for what his body does during the fit. However, if the defendant places himself in a potentially dangerous situation - for example, behind the wheel - while reasonably suspecting he might suffer a fit he can still be found liable for criminal offenses under the precept of "should have known better." He voluntarily placed himself in a situation dangerous to himself and others. Similarly, if the defendant voluntarily allowed herself to be hypnotized before committing a crime, she could still be held liable for her actions. It is absolutely essential for the actus reus requirement that the defendant's actions were voluntary and willed, including voluntarily placing himself in a situation where he might involuntarily cause harm. No matter how strongly an injured party may object to it, it is absolutely against the principles of the United States criminal law system to punish people for actions that they did not intend and could not have foreseen. Scott Falater admits that in January 1997 he stabbed his wife forty-four times and drowned her in the swimming pool at their Arizona home. 1 Police struggled to find a motive for the crime. 2 Falater claims to have no recollection of the murder and believes he is not culpable for the crime because he was asleep when he killed his wife. 3 At Falater's trial, an expert in sleep disorders testified that Falater's defense that he was sleepwalking during the killing was possible. 4 Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism, is a sleep disorder in which sleepers rise from their beds and perform various tasks while still asleep. 5 Occasionally, sleepwalkers commit crimes. 6 Scott Falater is not the first criminal defendant to raise sleepwalking in defense of his actions. 7 The defense of sleepwalking is rarely asserted, and there exists little case law on the subject, leaving courts and criminal defendants little or no precedent as guidance for applying the defense. 8 There has been inconsistency among courts faced with sleepwalking defenses; there are currently three different sleepwalking defenses and no objective criteria for evaluating a defendant's claim of sleep-walking. 9 Criminal defendants raising the defense of sleepwalking face the possibility of arbitrary and unprecedented judicial decisions due to a lack of statutory, common-law, and scholarly precedent on the sleepwalking defense. 10

how to ruin your career with twitter or facbk

How To Ruin Your Career Using Twitter And Facebook By Amanda C. Haury on July 25, 2012 A A A Filed Under: Corporate Culture, Social Media, Twitter In today's technologically savvy age, much of our affairs are handled online. Social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter have taken the Internet by storm. These sites make it easier to connect with friends, family and colleagues, but there is a dark side to social networking that needs to be taken into consideration. Facebook and Twitter can act as a mouthpiece and, depending on how long your friend list is or how many followers you have, you could be speaking to a very large audience. While many people use social networking casually, it is important to take care with what you post on Facebook and other social networking websites, as it can adversely affect your employment status. Here is a look at some social media practices that can get you into hot water at work. SEE: 4 Companies Behind The Social Media Curtain Inappropriate Photographs You may want to scrutinize any photographs you post to a social networking site before presenting them to the public. Racy or inappropriate photographs could cost you the job that you are applying for if the hiring manager views your social networking activity. The practice of employers checking potential employee's Facebook page for inappropriate photographs has come under major scrutiny. Employers scrutinize photographs on social networking websites because it can give them a glimpse into potential job candidates that they wouldn't see otherwise. A candidate with an unsavory social networking presence is considered a major turn-off to hiring managers. Sharing Protected Information One of the easiest ways to get into trouble at work due to your social networking activity is to share protected employer information with your list of friends or followers. Many people use social networking sites to vent, which often includes spouting off frustrations about their jobs. Unfortunately, if your complaint exposes protected company information, you can easily lose your job. Inflammatory Social Networking Posts Inflammatory posts on social networking sites that target your company, co-workers or your boss can be highly detrimental to your employment status. Slate.com recently released an article that highlights cases where employees were fired for criticizing a co-worker on a social networking website. In some cases, employers discovered the information on their own. In other cases, fellow co-workers brought the issue to the attention of a supervisor. This practice is called infringement against employee harassment regulations, and it can most certainly cost you your job. The First Amendment Won't Save You While the first amendment of the United States Bill of Rights prevents government officials and agencies from stripping you of your right to free speech, it does not apply to private employers. Unfortunately, the things you say on social networking websites can actually be detrimental to your job if you speak of your employer in an bad light, break privacy rules or even if you offend another co-worker with a derogatory post. SEE: Job Applicant Privacy And Social Media The Bottom Line Although social networking is supposed to be fun, we live in an age where we have to be conscientious of what we say at all times. This is especially true if you are friends with work colleagues on social networking websites. Although you are cordial or friendly with these individuals at work, it doesn't mean that he or she wouldn't report you to a member of upper management should one of your posts offend him or her. When it comes to job security, it is wise to consider keeping complaints about your job, company or co-workers offline and out of a public forum. by Amanda C. Haury --------------------------------------------------------------------------------