Behavioral Modulation Research Articles

Lead to transform a successful organizational change

Study Level/Applicability This case aims to assist students to learn about leadership theory and leadership effectiveness in terms of organizational change. It is best suited for undergraduate courses in leadership development, organizational behavior and specific teaching modules in Master in Business Administration courses. Subject area Leadership and leadership effectiveness; organizational change. Case overview This case is about a decade (2010–2020) of a transformation journey of the School of Business at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU). Dr Durnin has been the first female Dean of School of Business in Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) who made this transformation possible and continuing on. With listening ears and a supportive heart, Dr Durnin first moved faculty and staff members out of a “sick” office building and then created a supportive and collaborative culture to build the consensus among faculty and staff members to change for good. It has been her personalized influence, charisma and extraordinary upward negotiation that lead the School to shape its collective effort toward a multi-year Association to Advance Collegiate School of Business accreditation process since 2014. When dealing the uncertainty caused by the 2020 global pandemic, her autonomy-supportive approach once again connected people meaningfully together to excel the challenges brought by COVID-19 pandemic. Expected learning outcomes This case provides an example of female leader in higher education to illustrate a successful transformational leadership (TFL) example in the USA, as well as its implications on gender issues and leadership effectiveness. Upon completing the analysis of this case, students should be able to: – understand the TFL concepts, theory and its behavioral implications on gender and leadership effectiveness; and – assess and evaluate effectiveness of TFL styles in organizations. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or e-mail support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 6: Human resources. Keywords Transformational leadership, Organizational change, Gender and leadership effectiveness

Potential for Behavioural Pressure Modulation at the Upper Oesophageal Sphincter in Healthy Swallowing.

Supratentorial structures are known to be involved in the neural control of swallowing, thus the potential for volitional manipulation of pharyngeal swallowing is of rehabilitative interest. The extent of volitional control of the upper oesophageal sphincter (UOS) during swallowing remains unclear. Prior research has shown that the UOS opening duration can be volitionally prolonged during execution of the Mendelsohn manoeuvre, which does not change the UOS opening time in isolation but the swallowing response in its entirety. This study explored the capacity of healthy adults to increase the period of pressure drop in the region of the UOS (UOS-Pdrop) during swallowing, through volitional UOS pressure modulation in the absence of altered pharyngeal pressure. The period of UOS-Pdrop was used as a proxy of UOS opening duration that is associated with a pressure decrease at the region of the UOS. Six healthy adults were seen 45min daily for 2 weeks and for one follow-up session. During training, high-resolution manometry contour plots were provided for visual biofeedback. Participants were asked to maximally prolong the blue period on the monitor (period of UOS-Pdrop) without altering swallowing biomechanics. Performance was assessed prior to training start and following training. There was evidence within the first session for task-specific volitional prolongation of the period of UOS-Pdrop during swallowing with biofeedback; however, performance was not enhanced with further training. This may suggest that the amount to which the period of UOS-Pdrop may be prolonged is restricted in healthy individuals. The findings of this study indicate a potential of healthy adults to volitionally prolong UOS opening duration as measured by the period of pressure drop at the region of the UOS. Further research is indicated to evaluate purposeful pressure modulation intra-swallow in patient populations with UOS dysfunction to clarify if the specificity of behavioural treatment may be increased.

Visual and movement memories steer foraging bumblebees along habitual routes.

One persistent question in animal navigation is how animals follow habitual routes between their home and a food source. Our current understanding of insect navigation suggests an interplay between visual memories, collision avoidance and path integration, the continuous integration of distance and direction travelled. However, these behavioural modules have to be continuously updated with instantaneous visual information. In order to alleviate this need, the insect could learn and replicate habitual movements ('movement memories') around objects (e.g. a bent trajectory around an object) to reach its destination. We investigated whether bumblebees, Bombus terrestris, learn and use movement memories en route to their home. Using a novel experimental paradigm, we habituated bumblebees to establish a habitual route in a flight tunnel containing 'invisible' obstacles. We then confronted them with conflicting cues leading to different choice directions depending on whether they rely on movement or visual memories. The results suggest that they use movement memories to navigate, but also rely on visual memories to solve conflicting situations. We investigated whether the observed behaviour was due to other guidance systems, such as path integration or optic flow-based flight control, and found that neither of these systems was sufficient to explain the behaviour.

Bene"fit" Assessment in Pollination Coevolution: Mechanistic Perspectives on Hummingbird Bill-Flower Matching.

One of the reasons why flowering plants became the most diverse group of land plants is their association with animals to reproduce. The earliest examples of this mutualism involved insects foraging for food from plants and, in the process, pollinating them. Vertebrates are latecomers to these mutualisms, but birds, in particular, present a wide variety of nectar-feeding clades that have adapted to solve similar challenges. Such challenges include surviving on small caloric rewards widely scattered across the landscape, matching their foraging strategy to nectar replenishment rate, and efficiently collecting this liquid food from well-protected chambers deep inside flowers. One particular set of convergent traits among plants and their bird pollinators has been especially well studied: the match between the shape and size of bird bills and ornithophilous flowers. Focusing on a highly specialized group, hummingbirds, we examine the expected benefits from bill-flower matching, with a strong focus on the benefits to the hummingbird and how to quantify them. Explanations for the coevolution of bill-flower matching include (1) that the evolution of traits by bird-pollinated plants, such as long and thin corollas, prevents less efficient pollinators (e.g., insects) from accessing the nectar and (2) that increased matching, as a result of reciprocal adaptation, benefits both the bird (nectar extraction efficiency) and the plant (pollen transfer). In addition to nectar-feeding, we discuss how interference and exploitative competition also play a significant role in the evolution and maintenance of trait matching. We present hummingbird-plant interactions as a model system to understand how trait matching evolves and how pollinator behavior can modify expectations based solely on morphological matching, and discuss the implications of this behavioral modulation for the maintenance of specialization. While this perspective piece directly concerns hummingbird-plant interactions, the implications are much broader. Functional trait matching is likely common in coevolutionary interactions (e.g., in predator-prey interactions), yet the physical mechanisms underlying trait matching are understudied and rarely quantified. We summarize existing methods and present novel approaches that can be used to quantify key benefits to interacting partners in a variety of ecological systems.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae boulardii CNCM I-1079 supplementation in finishing male pigs helps to cope with heat stress through feeding behaviour and gut microbiota modulation.

Pigs subjected to heat stress (HS) decrease their feed intake and growth. The objectives of the experiment were to determine the effects of live yeast (LY) supplementation (Saccharomyces cerevisiae var boulardii CNCM I-1079) on feeding behaviour, energy metabolism and faecal microbiota composition of finishing boars (n 10) housed in a respiration chamber at thermoneutrality (7 d at 22°C) or during HS (seven plus six days at 28°C). Dietary LY supplementation increased DM intake (P = 0·01) whatever the ambient temperature, whereas HS decreased feed intake whatever the dietary supplementation (P = 0·01). Dietary LY supplementation increased the number of meals (P = 0·02). Energy retention was higher with dietary LY supplementation (P < 0·01) but decreased during HS (P < 0·01). The skin temperature of the supplemented pigs was lower at thermoneutrality and increased during HS to a lesser extent than that of non-supplemented pigs (P < 0·01). Faecal microbiota composition was determined using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Treponema, Christensenellaceae R-7, Ruminococcaceae UCG-002, Rikenellaceae RC9, Clostridium sensu stricto 1 and Romboutsia genera and some bacteria belonging to Alloprevotella, Oxalobacter and Anaeroplasma genera were more abundant under HS. LY supplementation attenuated HS effects on Romboutsia abundance, while decreasing the abundance of some bacteria from Ruminoccocus, Coprococcus, Peptococcus and Oxalobacter genera and increasing the abundance of beneficial bacteria from Lactococcus and Subdoligranulum genera. Our results suggest that higher level of the keystone species Ruminococcus bromii at thermoneutrality may be one of the causes for higher energy retention observed under subsequent HS.

Oxytocin and vasopressin: Signalling, behavioural modulation and potential therapeutic effects.

Oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) are endogenous ligands for OT and AVP receptors in the brain and in the peripheral system. Several studies demonstrate that OT and AVP have opposite roles in modulating stress, anxiety and social behaviours. Interestingly, both peptides and their receptors exhibit high sequence homology which could account for the biased signalling interaction of the peptides with OT and AVP receptors. However, how and under which conditions this crosstalk occurs in vivo remains unclear. In this review we shed light on the complexity of the roles of OT and AVP, by focusing on their signalling and behavioural differences and exploring the crosstalk between the receptor systems. Moreover, we discuss the potential of OT and AVP receptors as therapeutic targets to treat human disorders, such as autism, schizophrenia and drug abuse. LINKED ARTICLES: This article is part of a themed issue on Building Bridges in Neuropharmacology. To view the other articles in this section visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v179.8/issuetoc.

Marijuana use among US adults with cancer: Findings from the 2018-2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

12088 Background: Cancer survivors experiencing adverse effects from their cancer and treatment report decreased symptom burden with marijuana use. An increasing number of U.S. states have legalized marijuana use for both medical and recreational purposes. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of current marijuana use and to identify the factors associated with its use among US adults with cancer living in 17 U.S. states and territories. Methods: Data from the 2018-2019 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Marijuana Use module were analyzed. In 2018, 13 states (California, Florida, Idaho, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wyoming) and 2 territories (Guam and Puerto Rico) participated in the optional marijuana use module. In 2019, 12 states (California, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming) and 1 territory (Guam) participated in the optional marijuana use module. The analytic sample included 13,174 adults with cancer. The analysis was weighted to account for BRFSS’s complex survey design. The primary outcome was current marijuana use (in the past 30-days). Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify demographic, socioeconomic, clinical, and behavioral factors associated with marijuana use among US adults with cancer. Results: Overall, 9.2% of adult cancer survivors (n = 13,174; weighted 5.7 million; 37.9% men) reported marijuana recently current use, 51.3% of whom used it for medical reasons only, with 65.2% reporting smoking as the main method of administration. Adult cancer survivors were significantly more like to use marijuana if they were younger (odds ratio [OR] for 55-64 versus 18-44 years old: 0.60; 95% CI: 0.38-0.93; P &lt; 0.01); male (OR for female versus male: 0.65; 95% CI: 0.48-0.87; P &lt; 0.01); non-Hispanic Black race/ethnicity (OR: 2.00; 95% CI: 1.21-3.33; P &lt; 0.01); having depression (OR: 1.58; 95% CI: 1.17-2.14; P &lt; 0.01) and current (OR: 3.23; 95% CI: 2.20-4.74; P &lt; 0.01) or former tobacco smoker (OR: 2.40; 95% CI: 1.70-3.38; P &lt; 0.01) and binge drinker (OR: 2.25; 95% CI: 1.53-3.29; P &lt; 0.01). Conclusions: Among a large cohort of US adults with cancer, marijuana use was commonly reported and certain subgroups were at higher risk for marijuana use. Health professionals should identify the risk factors for elevated marijuana use, especially as more states legalize medical and recreational marijuana use despite uncertain health risks.

Receiving advice from a health professional and action taken to reduce dietary sodium intake among adults.

Population reductions in Na intake could prevent hypertension, and current guidelines recommend that clinicians advise patients to reduce intake. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of taking action and receiving advice from a health professional to reduce Na intake in ten US jurisdictions, including the first-ever data in New York state and Guam. Weighted prevalence and 95 % CI overall and by location, demographic group, health status and receipt of provider advice using self-reported data from the 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System optional Na module. Seven states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. Adults aged ≥ 18 years. Overall, 53·6 % (95 % CI 52·7, 54·5) of adults reported taking action to reduce Na intake, including 54·8 % (95 % CI 52·8, 56·7) in New York and 61·2 % (95 % CI 57·6, 64·7) in Guam. Prevalence varied by demographic and health characteristic and was higher among adults who reported having hypertension (72·5 %; 95 % CI 71·2, 73·7) v. those who did not report having hypertension (43·9 %; 95 % CI 42·7, 45·0). Among those who reported receiving Na reduction advice from a health professional, 82·6 % (95 % CI 81·3, 83·9) reported action v. 44·4 % (95 % CI 43·4, 45·5) among those who did not receive advice. However, only 24·0 % (95 % CI 23·3, 24·7) of adults reported receiving advice from a health professional to reduce Na intake. The majority of adults report taking action to reduce Na intake. Results highlight an opportunity to increase Na reduction advice from health professionals during clinical visits to better align with existing guidelines.

Progress on Computational Ethology

Animal behavior, mostly controlled by the central brain, has been studied in natural environments and controlled laboratory settings. In the early 20th century, researchers studied behavior in natural environments to reveal how it is built from components and organized over time in response to stimuli. In the laboratory settings, researchers study the ability of brain to generate behaviors in response to rewards and punishments. However, there are limitations in quantifying animal behaviors in these two approaches. Recent advances and breakthroughs in computer science provide an important opportunity for overcoming these limitations of behavioral studies. In this review, we focus on an emerging new discipline called “Computational Ethology”, which uses a wide variety of techniques, including computer vision and machine learning, to measure and analyze the patterns of animal behaviors. Computational Ethology allows quantitative analyses of animal behaviors with high efficiency, and has made significant progress in recent years towards a better understanding of behaviors as well as their underlying neural mechanism. Over the last decade, with the application of artificial intelligence in animal behavior study, numerous methods have been developed to automatically quantify animal behavior, including automatic tracking of movements. Classical computer vision methods estimate centroids and ellipses of animals, which reflect the locomotion and orientation, respectively. This estimation was then extended to multiple animals. Nevertheless, non-locomotion information of animal pose cannot be reliably captured. To solve this problem, deep learning-based pose estimation of behaviors in the laboratory setting has been developed for various animal species. In this review, we present a pipeline of collecting and analyzing behavioral data. High-dimensional raw behavioral data are first subjected to dimension reduction. The low-dimensional data are then segmented and analyzed by supervised classification or unsupervised clustering in order to produce behavioral modules. After this, transition probabilities between behavioral modules over time are calculated to elucidate the pattern of behaviors. We also review the application of artificial intelligence to analyze behaviors for diagnosing and evaluating neuropsychiatric diseases and discuss the opportunities and challenges in Computational Ethology. Computational Ethology, a result of substantial interdisciplinary research of neuroscience, psychology, physics, computer science, and ethology has great potential towards a deeper understanding of the nature of animal behaviors. Nevertheless, it is still in its infancy and many questions remain to be explored. This review provides a summary as well as a reference resource for this new yet rapidly advancing discipline. We hope that this review will be informative and useful for a wide interdisciplinary scientific community studying animal behaviors and artificial intelligence.

The Effects of COVID‐19 Pandemic Lockdown on Medical Students’ Academic Performance and Stress Levels Based on their Gender and Age

The COVID‐19 academic interruption caused emergency pedagogical transformation of medical school curricula in the Spring of 2020 when the country went into lockdown. This transformation included changes in students’ contact hours, the use of technologies in classroom and laboratories, and the implementation of active self‐directed learning. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of these pedagogical changes on students’ academic and mental states. To achieve this goal, we proposed two questions: First question was to examine whether there was a difference between male and female students’ exam grades in the brain and behavior module during the COVID‐19 lockdown. In the second question, we examined whether there was a difference between students’ stress level in all age groups (22‐24), (25‐28) and 29 and above during the pandemic lockdown.This study employed a between‐subject design and utilized convenience sampling technique to include 79 first‐year medical students. The present study included the following variables: students module final exam grades, students’ perception about their stress levels during COVID‐19 and their age groups (22‐24), (25‐28) and 29 and above. We first used a comparison design between male and female students’ academic performance during COVID‐19. Further, we used a comparison design to compare between students’ stress level in all age groups (22‐24), (25‐28) and 29 and above during the pandemic lockdown.In the first question, the result of the one‐way between subject's ANOVA found that there was no statistically significant difference between male and female student’ grades in the brain and behavior module during the pandemic lockdown. These findings suggest that both male and female students were able to overcome many of the challenges triggered by the COVID‐19 in the learning environment and succeed in this module. In the second question, the one‐way between subject's ANOVA found that there was no statistically significant difference between students’ stress level in all age groups (22‐24), (25‐28) and 29 and above during the pandemic lockdown. These findings suggest that students in all ages felt the same level of stress during the COVID‐19 lockdown.We concluded that there was no difference in students’ final grades during pandemic, regardless of their gender, where all students maintained a high level of academic success. Additionally, students in all age groups were subjected to the same level of stress during COVID‐19. With the faculty help and guidance, students were able to adjust and counterbalance the missing elements of the face‐to‐face instruction during COVID‐19.

The Effect of Feed Characteristics on Particles Breakage and Weakening Behavior in High Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR)

ABSTRACT High Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR) is a high-energy efficiency device that has the ability to weaken the particle. This leads to lower energy consumption at subsequent grinding stages. Currently, no commonly used standard indices exist for predicting breakage, and weakening behavior of particles by HPGR. Accordingly, the current study mainly aimed at investigating the relationship between the common grindability/mechanical characteristics of rock (including work index, Brazilian tensile strength, elasticity module, and uniaxial compressive strength) and the breakage and weakening behaviors of HPGR products. For this purpose, six samples (pure calcite, pure magnetite, pure quartz, marmarite rock, travertine rock, and copper ore) with identical particle size distribution were comminuted by HPGR at three pressure force levels of 2.5, 4.5, and 7.5 MPa. Then, the breakage behavior of the samples was evaluated based on the size reduction ratio, followed by studying the weakening of particles by measuring changes in the fundamental breakage and deformation characteristics (mass-specific fracture energy and stiffness) by Impact Load Cell (ILC). The results revealed an excellent relationship between the breakage behavior of particles and their Brazilian tensile strength, as well as their weakening behavior and elasticity module. For particles with a higher module of elasticity (resistivity toward deformation), energy would be consumed for the formation of cracks and subsequently, particle weakening. In the case of particles with a lower module of elasticity, energy is probably dissipated as particle deformation, resulting in more cake formation and less weakening in particles.

MHealth to reduce HIV-related stigma among youth in the United States: a scoping review.

Multiple intersecting stigmas and discrimination related to sex, gender, HIV, and race/ethnicity may challenge HIV prevention and treatment service utilization, particularly among youth. This scoping review describes recent and ongoing innovative mobile health (mHealth) interventions among youth in the United States that aim to reduce stigma as an outcome or as part of the intervention model. To identify examples of stigma-mitigation via mHealth, we searched peer-reviewed published literature using keyword strategies related to mHealth, HIV, stigma, and youth (ages 10 to 29). We identified eleven articles that met our inclusion criteria, including three describing data from two randomized controlled trials (RCTs), five describing pilot studies, one describing the process evaluation of an ongoing intervention, one describing formative work for intervention development, and one published study protocol for an ongoing intervention. We review these articles, grouped by HIV prevention and care continuum stages, and describe the mHealth approach used, including telehealth, simulation video games, motion comics, smartphone applications (apps), social media forums, online video campaigns, video vignettes, and a computerized behavioral learning module. Four studies focused on preventing primary acquisition through individual-level behavior change (e.g., reducing condomless anal intercourse), three focused on increasing HIV testing, three focused on linking to prevention services [e.g., pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP)] and one focused on promoting adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART). Our review did not identify any published studies using mHealth with a primary aim to reduce stigma as a way to improve care engagement and increase viral suppression among youth in the United States. Additional RCTs and implementation studies examining the effectiveness of mHealth stigma-reduction interventions on HIV-related outcomes are needed to end the HIV epidemic among youth. mHealth offers unique advantages to address the complex intersecting stigma barriers along the HIV continuum to improve HIV-related outcomes for youth.

Experience in the use of transcranial micro polarization in children with autism spectrum disorders

Introduction. Autism is a disorder characterized by social interaction disorders, social-emotional reciprocity, responses to other people’s emotions, social use of speech skills, lack of modulations of behavior under the social situation, and limited interest stereotypes. The comprehensive approach using medical and psychological correction with physical methods of influence provides the best result in treating and rehabilitating children with autism. The original study examined the effects of transcranial micro polarization (TCMP) on the dynamics of autistic disorders. TCMP is a modern treatment method consisting of a directed polarizing impact of a low-power DC on specific brain areas. Materials and methods. There were observed 25 children aged from 2 years five months to 6 years with varying degrees of severity of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). For the study, three groups were identified according to the corresponding clinical diagnoses: Childhood autism, Atypical autism, and Other general developmental disorders. The vast majority of children from the first two groups had an intellectual disability of varying severity. The TCMP method was used to assess the technique’s effectiveness, the CARS diagnostic scale and the ATEK test. Results. At the end of the course, with the use of TCMP in all the analyzed groups, there was a shift towards a milder degree of autistic disorders. The most significant positive effect was recorded in children with mild forms of autism in the group of other general developmental disorders due to the initially higher level of development in this group. Conclusion. The results obtained demonstrate the effectiveness of TCMP in ASD children. According to the results of the study, the positive effect of this method was revealed in the form of reducing the severity of autistic disorders.

Rapid Behavioral Health Assessment Post-disaster: Developing and Validating a Brief, Structured Module.

To develop and validate a brief, structured, behavioral health module for use by local public health practitioners to rapidly assess behavioral health needs in disaster settings. Data were collected through in-person, telephone, and web-based interviews of 101 individuals affected by Hurricanes Katrina (n = 44) and Sandy (n = 57) in New Orleans and New Jersey in April and May 2018, respectively. Questions included in the core module were selected based on convergent validity, internal consistency reliability, test–retest reliability across administration modes, principal component analysis (PCA), question comprehension, efficiency, accessibility, and use in population-based surveys. Almost all scales showed excellent internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha, 0.79–0.92), convergent validity (r > 0.61), and test–retest reliability (in-person vs. telephone, intra-class coefficient, ICC, 0.75–1.00; in-person vs. web-based ICC, 0.73–0.97). PCA of the behavioral health scales yielded two components to include in the module—mental health and substance use. The core module has 26 questions—including self-reported general health (1 question); symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety (Primary Care PTSD Screen, Patient Health Questionnaire-4; 8 questions); drinking and other substance use (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Concise, AUDIT-C; Drug Abuse Screening Test, DAST-10; stand-alone question regarding increased substance use since disaster; 14 questions); prior mental health conditions, treatment, and treatment disruption (3 questions)—and can be administered in 5–10 minutes through any mode. This flexible module allows practitioners to quickly evaluate behavioral health needs, effectively allocate resources, and appropriately target interventions to help promote recovery of disaster-affected communities.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10900-021-00966-5.

Prelicensure Nursing Students' COVID-19 Attitude Impact on Nursing Career Decision during Pandemic Threat in Taiwan: A Cross-Sectional Study.

The COVID-19 pandemic may cause a nursing shortage. Prelicensure nursing students who are exposed to high-stress COVID-19 events are related to defective career decision-making. This study validated the COVID-19 attitude scale and clarified how their attitudes about COVID-19 affected their behavioral intentions toward career decision-making. We conducted a cross-sectional study and recruited a convenience sample of 362 prelicensure nursing students from Northern and Central Taiwan. Two measurements were applied, including the Nursing Students Career Decision-making instrument and COVID-19 attitude scale. We used AMOS (version 22.0) to perform a confirmatory factor analysis. The Cronbach α of the COVID-19 attitude scale was 0.74 and consisted of four factors. The most positive attitude was the nursing belief factor, and the least positive factor was emotional burden. Prelicensure nursing students’ COVID-19 attitudes were significantly positively associated with their career decision-making attitudes and perceived control (ß = 0.41 and ß = 0.40, respectively; p < 0.001). All the key latent variables explained significantly 23% of the variance in the career decision-making behavioral intentions module. In conclusion, the COVID-19 attitude scale is valid. Although the prelicensure nursing students’ COVID-19 attitudes had no direct effect on career decision-making intentions, they had a direct effect on career decision-making attitudes and the perceived control.

Virtual Surfaces and Attitude Aware Planning and Behaviours for Negative Obstacle Navigation

This letter presents an autonomous navigation system for ground robots traversing aggressive unstructured terrain through a cohesive arrangement of mapping, deliberative planning and reactive behaviour modules. All systems are aware of terrain slope, visibility and vehicle orientation, enabling robots to recognize, plan and react around unobserved areas and overcome negative obstacles, slopes, steps, overhangs and narrow passageways. This is one of pioneer works to explicitly and simultaneously couple mapping, planning and reactive components in dealing with negative obstacles. The system was deployed on three heterogeneous ground robots for the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, and we present results in Urban and Cave environments, along with simulated scenarios, that demonstrate this approach.

Behavioural plasticity in a native species may be related to foraging resilience in the presence of an aggressive invader.

Competition between invasive and native species can result in the exploitation of resources by the invader, reducing foraging rates of natives. However, it is increasingly recognized that multiple factors can enhance the resilience of native species competing for limiting resources with invaders. Although extensively studied in terrestrial species, little research has focused on behavioural plasticity in aquatic ecosystems and how this influences native species resilience. Here, we examined the role of behavioural plasticity in interactions between a native Australian fish, Pseudomugil signifer, and a widespread invasive fish, Gambusia holbrooki. To determine whether P. signifer displays behavioural plasticity that may mitigate competition with G. holbrooki, we first quantified social behaviours (aggression, submission and affiliation) and shoal cohesion for each species in single- and mixed-species groups. Second, we compared the feeding rates of both species in these groups to ascertain if any modulation of social behaviours and cohesion related to foraging success. We found that aggressive and submissive behaviours of G. holbrooki and P. signifer showed plasticity in the presence of heterospecifics, but social affiliation, shoaling and, most importantly, foraging, remained inflexible. This variation in the degree of plasticity highlights the complexity of the behavioural response of a native species and suggests that both behavioural modulation and consistency may be related to sustaining foraging efficiency in the presence of an invader.

Visuo-Motor Feedback Modulates Neural Activities in the Medulla of the Honeybee, Apis mellifera.

Behavioral and internal-state modulation of sensory processing has been described in several organisms. In insects, visual neurons in the optic lobe are modulated by locomotion, but the degree to which visual-motor feedback modulates these neurons remains unclear. Moreover, it also remains unknown whether self-generated and externally generated visual motion are processed differently. Here, we implemented a virtual reality system that allowed fine-scale control over visual stimulation in relation to animal motion, in combination with multichannel recording of neural activity in the medulla of a female honeybee (Apis mellifera). We found that this activity was modulated by locomotion, although, in most cases, only when the bee had behavioral control over the visual stimulus (i.e., in a closed-loop system). Moreover, closed-loop control modulated a third of the recorded neurons, and the application of octopamine (OA) evoked similar changes in neural responses that were observed in a closed loop. Additionally, in a subset of modulated neurons, fixation on a visual stimulus was preceded by an increase in firing rate. To further explore the relationship between neuromodulation and adaptive control of the visual environment of the bee, we modified motor gain sensitivity while locally injecting an OA receptor antagonist into the medulla. Whereas female honeybees were tuned to a motor gain of -2 to 2 (between the heading of the bee and its visual feedback), local disruption of the OA pathway in the medulla abolished this tuning, resulting in similar low levels of response across levels of motor gain. Our results show that behavioral control modulates neural activity in the medulla and ultimately impacts behavior.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT When moving, an animal generates the motion of the visual scene over its retina. We asked whether self-generated and externally generated optic flow are processed differently in the insect medulla. Our results show that closed-loop control of the visual stimulus modulates neural activity as early as the medulla and ultimately impacts behavior. Moreover, blocking octopaminergic modulation further disrupted object-tracking responses. Our results suggest that the medulla is an important site for context-dependent processing of visual information and that placing the animal in a closed-loop environment may be essential to understanding its visual cognition and processing.

Mass Spectrometry Quantification, Localization, and Discovery of Feeding-Related Neuropeptides in Cancer borealis.

The crab Cancer borealis nervous system is an important model for understanding neural circuit dynamics and modulation, but the identity of neuromodulatory substances and their influence on circuit dynamics in this system remains incomplete, particularly with respect to behavioral state-dependent modulation. Therefore, we used a multifaceted mass spectrometry (MS) method to identify neuropeptides that differentiate the unfed and fed states. Duplex stable isotope labeling revealed that the abundance of 80 of 278 identified neuropeptides was distinct in ganglia and/or neurohemal tissue from fed vs unfed animals. MS imaging revealed that an additional 7 and 11 neuropeptides exhibited altered spatial distributions in the brain and the neuroendocrine pericardial organs (POs), respectively, during these two feeding states. Furthermore, de novo sequencing yielded 69 newly identified putative neuropeptides that may influence feeding state-related neuromodulation. Two of these latter neuropeptides were determined to be upregulated in PO tissue from fed crabs, and one of these two peptides influenced heartbeat in ex vivo preparations. Overall, the results presented here identify a cohort of neuropeptides that are poised to influence feeding-related behaviors, providing valuable opportunities for future functional studies.

Impact of COMT val158met on tDCS-induced cognitive enhancement in older adults

BackgroundPrevious studies suggest that genetic polymorphisms and aging modulate inter-individual variability in brain stimulation-induced plasticity. However, the relationship between genetic polymorphisms and behavioral modulation through transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in older adults remains poorly understood. ObjectiveLink individual tDCS responsiveness, operationalized as performance difference between tDCS and sham condition, to common genetic polymorphisms in healthy older adults. Methods106 healthy older participants from five tDCS-studies were re-invited to donate blood for genotyping of apoliproprotein E (APOE: ε4 carriers and ε4 non-carriers), catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT: val/val, val/met, met/met), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF: val/val, val/met, met/met) and KIdney/BRAin encoding gene (KIBRA: C/C, C/T, T/T). Studies had assessed cognitive performance during tDCS and sham in cross-over designs. We now asked whether the tDCS responsiveness was related to the four genotypes using a linear regression models. ResultsWe found that tDCS responsiveness was significantly associated with COMT polymorphism; i.e., COMT val carriers (compared to met/met) showed higher tDCS responsiveness. No other significant associations emerged. ConclusionUsing data from five brain stimulation studies conducted in our group, we showed that only individual variation of COMT genotypes modulated behavioral response to tDCS. These findings contribute to the understanding of inherent factors that explain inter-individual variability in functional tDCS effects in older adults, and might help to better stratify participants for future clinical trials.