Behavioral Reactions Research Articles

TEST ANXIETY AMONG SCHOOL STUDENTS APPEARING FOR PUBLIC EXAM AT A GOVT HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL, MADURAI

Test anxiety is a type of performance anxiety that can affect people of all ages, including adolescents. It is characterized by psychological, physiological, and behavioural reactions related to concerns about obtaining a negative result in an evaluative situation. The study aims to measure the level of exam anxiety among school student and to find out the association or difference between independent variables and test anxietyvariable. The sample size of the study is 50 students appearing for the public exam. The researcher used descriptive research design. Westside Test anxiety tool with good reliability and validity was used.Fifty students from 10th, 11th and 12th std were the samples for the study using stratified proportionate random sampling. Findings show that 37% of respondent hadmoderate high level of test anxiety. ‘t’ test result shows that there is statistically significant difference between female and male students with regard to their test anxiety. Chi-square result shows that there is no association between the type of family and level of test anxiety. The researcher suggests anxiety reduction strategies that will not impair the test performance rather reduce the test anxiety.

Insight into the scaling behavior of capacitive deionization for the removal of multiple cation components in the single-pass mode

Capacitive deionization (CDI) can effectively remove various ions in seawater and brackish water. However, due to the complex cation components in natural water, the desalination stability of CDI is challenged by cation scaling. In this study, the scaling behavior of CDI for the removal of multiple cation components in the single-pass mode was investigated. Three feed solutions containing various compositions (FS1 for Na+, FS2 for Na+/Ca2+/Mg2+, and FS3 for Na+/Ca/Mg2+/Fe3+) were tested. The results showed that the desalination stability was affected by cation components. Especially, the salt adsorption capacity for FS3 dramatically decreased from 7.16 to 3.53 mg/g over multiple cycles. Characterization demonstrated that the scaling of Ca and Mg for FS2 was slight while the scaling of Fe for FS3 was noticeable. Additionally, compared to FS2 scale, Fe significantly aggravated the scaling of Ca and Mg. The severe scaling behavior led to a decrease in specific capacitance, and an increase in charge transfer resistance and ion diffusion resistance of CDI electrodes. Finally, the correlation between scaling behavior and Faradaic reactions was comprehensively explored. The study provides insight into the scaling behavior of CDI, which is crucial for desalination stability in actual operation.

Distance examination of livestock with drones - an effective method for assessing health and welfare.

Distance examination is an important part of veterinary investigation into ruminant herd health and welfare. The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) explored the use of drones to conduct assessments of the health and welfare status of sheep and cattle. Three methods of distance examination were compared comprising observations; from a vehicle, a "micro" category drone and a "very small" category drone. The disturbance and behavioural reactions caused by the methods were compared. Assessments of adverse health and welfare conditions by each method were compared to observations made at yarding. The preferred method was the use of the very small drone which had the best sensitivity for detection of conditions potentially associated with adverse health or welfare and the best optics at a distance that did not disturb the animals. The optics of the very small drone enabled distance examination without disturbance in both cattle and sheep. Cattle were more sensitive to the presence of the drones than sheep. The micro drone was unable to approach cattle close enough to allow undisturbed distance examination. All methods had similar specificity, however, sensitivity varied markedly. The very small drone had the best sensitivity 86% which was statistically greater than the micro drone (44%, P = 0.05) and better than the vehicle observations, which had sensitivity of 77% (not statistically significant). The selection of an appropriate drone model is essential for accurate distance examination. Distance examination of livestock with drones of suitable optic quality and resolution represents an effective method for assessing animal health and welfare.

Pollution risk and life insurance decisions: Microgeographic evidence from the United Kingdom.

Recent research documents that exposure to air pollution can trigger various behavioral reactions. This article presents novel empirical evidence on the causal effect of pollution risk on life insurance decisions. We create a unique dataset by linking microgeographic air quality information to the confidential UK Wealth and Assets Survey. We identify an inverse N-shape relationship between pollution risk and life insurance adoption by exploiting the orthogonal variations in meteorological conditions. Over a given range above a threshold of exposure, rising pollution is associated with rising demand for life insurance, whereas at lower than the threshold levels of pollution, higher exposure risk reduces demand for insurance. Our findings indicate-for the first time-a nonlinear relationship between local pollution risk and life insurance demand.

Two polygenic mouse models of major depressive disorders identify TMEM161B as a potential biomarker of disease in humans.

Treatments are only partially effective in major depressive disorders (MDD) but no biomarker exists to predict symptom improvement in patients. Animal models are essential tools in the development of antidepressant medications, but while recent genetic studies have demonstrated the polygenic contribution to MDD, current models are limited to either mimic the effect of a single gene or environmental factor. We developed in the past a model of depressive-like behaviors in mice (H/Rouen), using selective breeding based on behavioral reaction after an acute mild stress in the tail suspension test. Here, we propose a new mouse model of depression (H-TST) generated from a more complex genetic background and based on the same selection process. We first demonstrated that H/Rouen and H-TST mice had similar phenotypes and were more sensitive to glutamate-related antidepressant medications than selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. We then conducted an exome sequencing on the two mouse models and showed that they had damaging variants in 174 identical genes, which have also been associated with MDD in humans. Among these genes, we showed a higher expression level of Tmem161b in brain and blood of our two mouse models. Changes in TMEM161B expression level was also observed in blood of MDD patients when compared with controls, and after 8-week treatment with duloxetine, mainly in good responders to treatment. Altogether, our results introduce H/Rouen and H-TST as the two first polygenic animal models of MDD and demonstrate their ability to identify biomarkers of the disease and to develop rapid and effective antidepressant medications.

Prospective study of predictors for anxiety, depression, and somatization in a sample of 1807 cancer patients

In cancer patients, psychological distress, which encompasses anxiety, depression, and somatization, arises from the complex interplay of emotional and behavioral reactions to the diagnosis and treatment, significantly influencing their functionality and quality of life. The aim was to investigate factors associated with psychological distress in cancer patients. This prospective and multicenter study, conducted by the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM), included two cohorts of patients with cancer (localized resected or advanced unresectable). They completed surveys assessing psychological distress (BSI-18) before and after cancer treatment and coping (MINI-MAC) and spirituality (FACIT-sp) prior to therapy. A multivariable logistic regression analysis and a Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were conducted. Between 2019 and 2022, 1807 patients were evaluated, mostly women (54%), average age 64 years. The most frequent cancers were colorectal (30%), breast (25%) and lung (18%). Men had lower levels of anxiety and depression (OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.52–0.84; OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.56–0.93). Colorectal cancer patients experienced less anxiety (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.43–0.92), depression (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.37–0.81), and somatization (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.42–0.83). Patients with localized cancer and spiritual beliefs had reduced psychological distress, whereas those with anxious preoccupation had higher level. SEM revealed a relationship between psychological distress and coping strategies, emphasizing how baseline anxious preoccupation exacerbates post-treatment distress. This study suggests that age, sex, extension and location of cancer, coping and spirituality influence psychological distress in cancer patients.

Mental health in rock climbing

Introduction
 Rock climbing is an increasingly popular sport in the alpine region. It consists of different disciplines such as sport climbing, trad climbing or bouldering. Besides the professionally organized Olympic disciplines of indoor lead/speed climbing and bouldering, there is a large number of athletes who participate in advanced outdoor climbing without professional supervision. Due to this, rock climbing is associated with specific risks and heterogenous attitudes towards risk-taking and management of emotional reactions such as fear. Rock climbing also contains some risk factors for mental health problems, such as the importance of the athlete’s weight and the possibility of traumatic situations.
 Methods
 We systematically reviewed the current literature using the keywords “rock climbing» and eating disorder, depression, drugs, anxiety disorder, psychosis, bipolar disorder, ADHD, personality traits, and psychology.
 Results
 From the initial findings, we included 29 papers in the review.
 Discussion
 We found that rock climbers are at increased risk for eating disorders. Furthermore, there was a surprisingly high number of athletes who practiced the sport while under the influence of drugs. Several models of risk-taking behavior and neurobiological stress reactions are discussed. Finally, rock climbers showed some risk of becoming addicted to the sport.
 Conclusion:
 There is a lack of evidence regarding the prevalence and risk factors of psychiatric diagnoses in rock climbers. Further research is needed to support these athletes.

Examining interactions of illness perceptions, avoidance behavior and patient status in predicting quality of life among people with irritable bowel syndrome

ABSTRACT Background: Illness perceptions (IPs) and avoidance behavior both predict quality of life (QoL) in people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). This study examined whether the effects of IPs on QoL are mediated by avoidance behaviors, and whether this mediation is moderated by participant treatment-seeking status. Methods: People with self-reported IBS (n = 253) answered a survey assessing QoL, IPs, avoidance behaviors, and treatment-seeking status. Moderated-mediation analyses investigated the paths from IPs through avoidance behaviors to QoL, with treatment-seeking status entered as a moderator. Results: The final moderated mediation model included the IPs consequences, timeline and emotional representations as independent variables and avoidance behavior and depressive reactions as mediators. This model explained 68.6% of the variance in QoL. Among treatment-seeking participants five significant mediation effects were found, whereas only one significant mediation effect was found among participants who did not report seeking treatment. Conclusions: IPs seem to drive avoidant behavioral responses to IBS symptoms, which in turn predict reductions in QoL. These relationships seem more pronounced among people who seek treatment for their symptoms. In practice, health care practitioners might help improve the QoL of people with IBS by preventing or remedying the development of negative IPs and avoidance behaviors.

Topologically engineering of π-conjugated macrocycles: Tunable emission and photochemical reaction toward multi-cyclic polymers

The topology of conjugated macrocycles had significant impacts on their photo-physical and photo-chemical properties. Herein, a series of π-conjugated macrocycles with diverse topology were synthesized via intramolecular McMurry coupling. Their chemical structure and macrocyclic topology were unambiguously confirmed via NMR, MALDI-TOF mass spectra, crystal analysis and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Depending on the structural topology and structural rigidity, these cyclic compounds display obviously distinctive emission behavior and photochemical reactions in the solution and in the solid state. Monocyclic phenylene vinylene macrocycle (denoted as MST) exhibiting aggregation-induced emission behavior, was more vulnerable to photo-cyclization in solution and triplet sensitizer promoted photo-dimerization due to lower strain and more flourishing intramolecular motions. After UV light irradiation, relatively more flexible MST could yield the anti-dimer via triplet excimer on the HOPG surface confirmed by STM investigation. By contrast, highly constrained bicyclic analogue (named as DMTPE) with central tetraphenylethene core, displayed high emission quantum yields of 68% both in solution and in the solid state, and was relatively inert to photochemical reactions and yield syn-dimer on the surface via singlet excimer involved [2 + 2] photo-dimerization. Based on the solution-mediated photo-polymerization of MST moiety, multicyclic porous carbon-rich ribbon connected with four-membered ring was successfully constructed and validated via STM imaging.

Maternal childhood trauma and toddlers’ behavioural and endocrine reactions to a crying baby doll

BackgroundChildhood trauma can have long-term consequences for survivors, but also for survivors’ children. Children of childhood trauma survivors are more likely to develop aggressive and antisocial behaviour problems, indicating that parents’ childhood trauma may affect children’s social development. Less is known, however, about how maternal childhood trauma may affect positive aspects of children’s social behaviour, like their empathic and prosocial responses to witnessing others’ distress. Additionally, some studies suggest that maternal childhood trauma may also affect children’s physiology, particularly their endocrine responses to (dis)stress. We therefore examined the link between maternal childhood trauma experiences and children’s behavioural and endocrine responses to witnessing distress in others. MethodsWe recruited 75 mothers with 12-24 month-old toddlers. Mothers’ childhood trauma experiences was assessed and toddlers were exposed to a realistic-looking, crying baby doll, to assess their levels of distress, empathic concern for, and prosocial behaviour towards the doll. Saliva samples were taken two times prior to and one time 25minutes after exposing children to the crying doll, to assess toddlers’ baseline and reactivity cortisol concentrations in response to the crying doll. ResultsData analysis is still ongoing. The results contribute to understanding whether maternal childhood trauma can affect children’s behavioural and endocrine responses to others’ distress. ConclusionTo the best of our knowledge, this is the first study examining whether maternal childhood trauma can affect children’s responses – both behavioural and endocrine – to others’ distress. Our study may contribute to understand the intergenerational effects of childhood trauma on child social development.

Daily-level associations between posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and reactions to retrieving positive autobiographical memories

Trauma survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) report difficulties accessing and describing positive memories. To understand these patterns, we examined daily-level relations of PTSD symptoms with affective, cognitive (dwelling/rumination; pushing memory out of one’s mind; suppression; avoidance; distraction; thinking about something else; remembering negative or positive memories/events; negative or positive thoughts; accepting or disapproving memory; reinterpreting memory), and behavioral (using alcohol/drugs; smoking cigarettes; cravings for or seeking out cigarettes/alcohol/drugs; craving, seeking out, or consuming large amounts of food; dissociation; engaging in risky behaviors; sharing memories; interference with ongoing task; arousal) reactions to retrieving positive memories. Eighty-eight trauma survivors (Mage= 39.89 years; 59.1% female) completed 7 daily measures of PTSD and reactions to retrieving positive memories. Days with more PTSD severity were associated with higher odds of same-day suppression, avoidance, distraction, thinking about something else, smoking cigarettes, craving substances, craving, seeking out, or consuming large amounts of food, dissociation, remembering negative memories/events/thoughts, engaging in risky behaviors, interference with ongoing tasks, and arousal (ORs=1.10–1.22); and greater negative affect (β = 0.27). Supplemental lagged analyses indicated some associations between previous-day reactions to positive memory retrieval and next-day PTSD severity and vice versa. Trauma survivors with PTSD symptoms report negative and avoidance-oriented reactions to retrieving positive memories.

학령기 경계선 지적 기능을 가진 자녀의 문제행동에 대한 부모 인식과 지원 요구

This study sought to examine the characteristics and forms of problem behavior in children with borderline intelligence and explore how parents can learn to recognize and deal with it. For this purpose, in-depth interviews were conducted with mothers of children with borderline intelligence, and the results were finally organized into 4 major categories and 10 subcategories as follows: 1) Characteristics and difficulties of the child, 2) Problem behavior Coping and reaction of parents and people around them, 3) Parents' concerns and difficulties, 4) Requests and suggestions. Through this study, the difficulties faced by parents of children with borderline intelligence as well as challenges and solutions for education and support for children with borderline intelligence were discussed, and the need for related follow-up research was confirmed.

Healthy and Happy? An Ethical Investigation of Emotion Recognition and Regulation Technologies (ERR) within Ambient Assisted Living (AAL)

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) refers to technologies that track daily activities of persons in need of care to enhance their autonomy and minimise their need for assistance. New technological developments show an increasing effort to integrate automated emotion recognition and regulation (ERR) into AAL systems. These technologies aim to recognise emotions via different sensors and, eventually, to regulate emotions defined as “negative” via different forms of intervention. Although these technologies are already implemented in other areas, AAL stands out by its tendency to enable an inconspicuous 24-hour surveillance in the private living space of users who rely on the technology to maintain a certain degree of independence in their daily activities. The combination of both technologies represents a new dimension of emotion recognition in a potentially vulnerable group of users. Our paper aims to provide an ethical contextualisation of the novel combination of both technologies. We discuss different concepts of emotions, namely Basic Emotion Theory (BET) and the Circumplex Model of Affect (CMA), that form the basis of ERR and provide an overview over the current technological developments in AAL. We highlight four ethical issues that specifically arise in the context of ERR in AAL systems, namely concerns regarding (1) the reductionist view of emotions, (2) solutionism as an underlying assumption of these technologies, (3) the privacy and autonomy of users and their emotions, (4) the tendency of machine learning techniques to normalise and generalise human behaviour and emotional reactions.

ПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ ПОВЕДЕНИЯ И ФИЗИОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ РЕАКЦИИ ДЕТЕЙ ПРИ ПОЖАРЕ

The article presents an analysis of the psychological characteristics of behavior and physiological reactions of children in a fire. Statistics on the number of fires and deaths of children from them in the Russian Federation are given. Some signs of post-traumatic stress disorder in children arising after a fire are considered. It is determined that the main causes of death of children are their careless behavior and inability to act correctly in case of fire. It is proposed to pay more attention to preventive work on teaching children fire safety rules, with the mandatory inclusion of practical classes on fire actions in the programs of children's institutions

Distinctive Characteristics of Destructive Conflicts Among Students

The paper considers the concept of "destructive conflict" and its significant characteristics; the causes and consequences of the emergence of destructive conflicts in student age are studied; the interrelation of personal features of students with behavioral reactions in a destructive conflict is analyzed.Conflicts are constantly present in relationships between people and play a key role in the life of a person, family, team, state, society and the person as a whole. The student society also cannot do without conflicts, as many different problems arise in it. Student problems are very diverse and large-scale, and most of all they are associated with the educational process and the individual and personal characteristics of a person. During the educational process, students need to adequately assess both their level of stress resistance and the degree of severity of personality conflict. Students need to learn how to effectively use various ways to overcome conflict behavior, to be able to detect and understand conflictogens that can lead to conflict escalation.The purpose of the psychological research presented in the work was a multidimensional study of the features of the course of destructive conflicts in the student environment.The scientific article presents the results of a study of such characteristics as character accentuations; aggressiveness; tactics of behavior in the conflict. Thanks to the conducted psychological experiment, interconnected sets were identified, including both personal characteristics and styles of behavior in conflict. These parameters were calculated using the computer program STATISTICA 13.5.0.17.The work used such methodological approaches as axiological, humanistically oriented, systemic. Scientific methods of psychological research were: organizational methods; theoretical analysis of literary sources on the research problem; empirical methods: observation, psychodiagnostic methods.

Effects of repeated intramuscular injections on sow behaviour reactions and stress-related saliva biomarkers – A pilot study

Medicating large production animals, such as sows, individually can be challenging, especially when repeated treatments are needed. Intramuscular (i.m.) injections have been shown to be aversive, and an increased reaction could be expected over consecutive days of injections. The aim of this pilot study was to assess if daily repeated i.m. injections cause sows to react differently with time and if injection stress is reflected in increased stress- and pain-related saliva biomarkers. Additionally, the aim was to assess if oxytocin was related to the behaviour reaction of sows during injections. In total 37 sows were allocated randomly into four treatment groups: 1. Sham-injected (SHAM: 9 sows), 2. Control (CON: 11 sows), 3. Penicillin (PEN: 9 sows) and 4. Tetracyclin (TET: 8 sows). The reaction of the sows to injections over three days was subjectively assessed by two observers. Further, SHAM and TET sows were saliva sampled for stress-related biomarkers before and after injections. Treatment (p < 0.001) influenced the medication reaction. Pairwise comparisons showed that the reaction to SHAM treatment was less compared to CON (p = 0.002) and PEN treatments (p < 0.001), while reactions to SHAM did not differ from TET (p > 0.1). Reaction to PEN was higher than that to TET (p = 0.01), while PEN and CON did not differ from each other (p > 0.1). Day tended to affect medication reaction (p = 0.08). The reaction to all other treatments decreased numerically from day 1 to day 3, while this was not the case for the TET treatment. Changes in biomarkers were subtle. Oxytocin tended to increase after TET injection on day 3 (p = 0.05). For the SHAM treatment, some of the biomarkers (chromogranin A, alpha-amylase activity and total esterase activity) showed significant or numerically decreasing trends in POST vs PRE-treatment samples on both days. The oxytocin level before injections was higher in sows that did not react to the medication at all than in sows that showed any kind of reaction (p = 0.008). In conclusion, sows appeared to habituate to the handling and injection, depending on the level of discomfort caused by the injectable substance. Further, the results suggest a potential role of oxytocin in decreasing aversive reactions in sows to human handling.

Assessment of Native Lithuanian Horses for Therapeutic Riding Purposes

ABSTRACT Hippotherapy is considered as a beneficial field of activity for Žemaitukas, a Lithuanian native horse breed. The aim of this study is to analyze the suitability of Žemaitukas breed horses for hippotherapy by using a set of tests based on the temperament, behavioral reactions, and zoometric measurements. Results of these tests inform whether the future use of Lithuanian native horses in hippotherapy can ensure their welfare. In total, 32 horses were evaluated. Twenty-nine of the evaluated horses were horses of the Žemaitukas breed that had never been used for hippotherapy, the others were hippotherapy horses representing different breeds, which were considered the control group. As expected, control hippotherapy horses scored better in many tests, thus confirming the suitability of these tests for the evaluation of horses for hippotrapeutic use. Žemaitukas breed horses scored an average of 15.9% less points for the test of temperament and 21.3% less points for “Hippo-test” compared with the hippotherapy horses. Nevertheless, the results suggest that Žemaitukas breed horses could be used in hippotherapy after special training courses.

Cross-talk between immunity and behavior: insights from entomopathogenic fungi and their insect hosts.

Insects are one of the most successful animals in nature, and entomopathogenic fungi play a significant role in the natural epizootic control of insect populations in many ecosystems. The interaction between insects and entomopathogenic fungi has continuously coevolved over hundreds of millions of years. Many components of the insect innate immune responses against fungal infection are conserved across phyla. Additionally, behavioral responses, which include avoidance, grooming, and/or modulation of body temperature, have been recognized as important mechanisms for opposing fungal pathogens. In an effort to investigate possible cross-talk and mediating mechanisms between these fundamental biological processes, recent studies have integrated and/or explored immune and behavioral responses. Current information indicates that during discrete stages of fungal infection, several insect behavioral and immune responses are altered simultaneously, suggesting important connections between the two systems. This review synthesizes recent advances in our understanding of the physiological and molecular aspects influencing cross-talk between behavioral and innate immune antifungal reactions, including chemical perception and olfactory pathways.

Top-down modulation of DLPFC in visual search: a study based on fMRI and TMS.

Effective visual search is essential for daily life, and attention orientation as well as inhibition of return play a significant role in visual search. Researches have established the involvement of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in cognitive control during selective attention. However, neural evidence regarding dorsolateral prefrontal cortex modulates inhibition of return in visual search is still insufficient. In this study, we employed event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging and dynamic causal modeling to develop modulation models for two types of visual search tasks. In the region of interest analyses, we found that the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal junction were selectively activated in the main effect of search type. Dynamic causal modeling results indicated that temporoparietal junction received sensory inputs and only dorsolateral prefrontal cortex →temporoparietal junction connection was modulated in serial search. Such neural modulation presents a significant positive correlation with behavioral reaction time. Furthermore, theta burst stimulation via transcranial magnetic stimulation was utilized to modulate the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex region, resulting in the disappearance of the inhibition of return effect during serial search after receiving continuous theta burst stimulation. Our findings provide a new line of causal evidence that the top-down modulation by dorsolateral prefrontal cortex influences the inhibition of return effect during serial search possibly through the retention of inhibitory tagging via working memory storage.

A Multistage‐Responsive Antibody‐Delivery Strategy to Improve Immunotherapy for NSCLC Brain Metastasis by Ultrasensitive Releasing and Tumor‐Anchoring

AbstractImmune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy has emerged as a promising approach in clinical oncology. For brain metastases, the presence of the robust blood–brain barrier (BBB) and potential immune‐related adverse events (irAEs) pose significant challenges. Here, a multistage‐responsive antibody‐delivery strategy is developed for non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) brain metastases, with the ultra‐pH sensitivity borate bonds. The antibody‐delivery nanoformulation (MB‐aPDL1) is able to maintain the “silent state” in health tissue, cross the BBB/BTB by the GLUT1‐mediated transcytosis, release the functionalized aPDL1 responsively, and promote the aPDL1 tumor‐anchoring. In the in vivo tumor region, the MB‐aPDL1 rapidly releases the activated BPA6‐aPDL1, which successfully anchors to the tumor cells and improves the efficiency of ICB therapy. The two in vivo ICB therapy studies show a significant tumor growth inhibition from the MB‐aPDL1 with an encouraging cure rate of 20% for the NSCLC brain metastases, due to enhanced immune response in tumor, commendably with less behavioral adverse reactions and liver damage. Taken together, this antibody‐delivery strategy holds substantial potential for application in clinical treatment of brain metastases.