We previously identified in laboratory mice an inactive state being awake with eyes open motionless within the home cage; inactive but awake, ‘IBA’ sharing etiological factors and symptoms with human ...clinical depression. We further test the hypothesis that greater time spent displaying IBA indicates a depression-like state in mice by investigating whether the antidepressant Venlafaxine, environmental enrichment, and their combination, alleviate IBA. Seventy-two C57BL/6J and 72 DBA/2J female mice were pseudo-randomly housed post-weaning in mixed strain-pairs in non-enriched (NE; 48 pairs) or in environmentally enriched (EE; 24 pairs) cages. After 34 days, half of the mice housed in NE cages were either relocated to EE cages or left in NE cages. For each of these conditions, half of the mice drank either a placebo or the antidepressant Venlafaxine (10 mg/kg). The 48 mice housed in EE cages were all relocated to NE cages and allocated to either the placebo (n = 24) or Venlafaxine (n = 24). IBA data were collected prior to and after environmental adjustment by trained observers blind to the pharmacological and environmental adjustment treatments. Data were analyzed using GLM models. NE cages triggered more IBA than EE cages (Likelihood-Ratio-Test Chi23 = 53.501, p < 0.0001). Venlafaxine and environmental enrichment appeared equally effective at reducing IBA (LRT Chi23 = 18.262, p < 0.001), and combining these approaches did not magnify their effects. Enrichment removal triggered IBA increase (LRT Chi21 = 23.050, p < 0.001), but Venlafaxine did not overcome the increase in IBA resulting from enrichment loss (LTR Chi21 = 0.081, p = 0.775). Theoretical implications for putative depression-like states in mice, and further research directions, are discussed.
•Standard laboratory cages trigger time spent inactive but awake ‘IBA’ in mice.•Antidepressant Venlafaxine (chronic) and environmental enrichment reduce IBA levels.•Combining Venlafaxine and environmental enrichment did not magnify their effects.•The hypothesis that greater IBA levels reflect depression-like states is supported.•Future research directions to demonstrate this further are discussed.
Despite the significant global impact of oil spills on the environment, little is known about the effects of oil spills on animals in terrestrial ecosystems, particularly in desert environments. In ...contaminated areas, habitat selection can be a crucial behavior determining individuals survival as well as a potential indicator of an ecosystem’s condition. This is especially relevant for ground-dwelling insects, whose close interactions with the soil make them valuable bioindicators of soil quality.
This study aimed to determine the long and short-term effects of oil spills on the microhabitat selection behavior of ground-dwelling insects in a hyper-arid desert. Soil samples were collected from a nature reserve that experienced two oil spills, one in 1975 and another in 2014. We conducted microhabitat selection experiments in laboratory conditions using the ground-dwelling
Mesostena angustata
beetles and
Myrmeleon hyalinus
antlion larvae.
When given a choice between clean soil (control) and soil contaminated in 2014, both beetles and antlions selected the clean soil, with antlions exhibiting reduced movements and no pit-trap digging in contaminated soil. Surprisingly, both beetles and antlions selected the soil contaminated in 1975 over other soil types. However, the antlions kept relocating their pit-falls traps in the 1975 polluted soil, which may indicate they perceived this soil as less suitable for pit digging. When given a choice between three types of soil, the beetles clearly preferred dark, oil-contaminated soils and avoided the clean soil.
Our study highlights the complex and varied effects of oil spills on microhabitat selection behavior in ground-dwelling insects, indicating the importance of considering long-term effects in future restoration efforts.
Implications for insect conservation
: This study shows that oil contamination impacts ground dwelling insects behavior even more than four decades after an oil spill. The attraction of both insect species to the contaminated soil from 1975 may be an indication of an ecological trap for these species in the field. We conclude in this study that the habitat selection behavior of the antlion larvae may be a good behavioral indicator for habitat restoration purposes.
Regulatory affairs professionals play pivotal roles in ensuring healthcare products adhere to regulations and in gaining regulatory approval for product manufacture and sales. To do this, they must ...understand the science and technology connected with a product, the company's business goals, and, most importantly, the nuances of national and international regulations and guidances connected to the product. But although they perform complicated work connected to the entire product development lifecycle, surveys have indicated only 14% of regulatory professionals come to the field with a degree related to the work and for more than half, regulatory work is a "second career." The net result is a heterogeneous professional population that must learn complex, detailed work on the fly in as short a time as possible. Without a structure to guide development, these expectations are a challenge for someone new to the field, that person's supervisor, and for training developers. Various non-profit groups have created competency models to provide this structure, but because competencies only identify traits demonstrated by high-performing professionals, not the specific tasks associated with individual roles, these models have had limited impact on the profession. Identifying and structuring actionable tasks based on a competency model would increase the model's utility, dissemination, and usage. Entrustable professional activities might provide the methodology for doing so.
Objective: The authors investigated behavioral indicators of pathological gambling in a college student sample. Participants and Methods: The authors administered a diagnostic interview for ...pathological gambling to 159 college students, who also completed a demographic questionnaire, and a self-report measure of psychological distress. Results: Consistent patterns of gambling behavior associated with pathological gambling included gambling more than 1.2 times per month, gambling more than 2.1 hours per month, intending to wager more than 6.1% of monthly income, and wagering more than 10.5% of monthly income. In addition, the combination of psychological distress, gambling frequency, and a history of parental gambling problems was significantly associated with pathological gambling in college students. Conclusions: These findings suggest initial markers of problematic gambling behavior in a college sample that may be used in assessment, prevention, and intervention.
Rare, elusive predators offer few sightings, hindering research with small sample sizes and lack of experimentation. While predators may be elusive, their prey are more readily observed. Prey respond ...to the presence of a predator, and these fear responses may have population- and community-level consequences. Anti-predator behaviors, such as vigilance, allow us to sidestep the difficulty of direct field studies of large predators by studying them indirectly. Here we used a behavioral indicator, the vigilance behavior of the Himalayan tahr, the snow leopard's main local prey, to reveal the distribution and habitat use of snow leopards in the Mt. Everest region of Nepal. We combined techniques of conventional field biology with concepts of foraging theory to study prey behavior in order to obtain insights into the predator's ecology. The Himalayan tahr's vigilance behavior correlates with the distribution of snow leopard signs. Tahr actually led us to six sightings of snow leopards. We conclude that behavioral indicators provided by prey offer a valuable tool for studying and monitoring stealthy and rare carnivores.
We developed a simple behavioral indicator of prey patch conditions in diving animals. This indicator is a proportion of observed patch residence time to the "standard" residence time (POS). The ...standard residence time was defined as an optimal patch residence time maximizing the proportion of bottom time to the duration of dive cycle. We quantified the relationship between the POS and the prey richness index calculated from the number and size of prey-like objects on recorded still images from an animal-borne digital camera logger, and found significantly positive correlation between them. We found a similar positive correlation between the POS and a behavioral index (index of patch quality) developed previously in diving animals. These suggest that the POS is indeed a behavioral index of prey patch condition. Although this behavioral indicator was developed and tested in the context of foraging ecology of diving animals, this indicator can be applied to other central place foraging animals.
The purpose of this study was to develop safety competences, a set of behavioral indicators of each competence and measuringmethods of behavioral indicators for preventing human error of nuclear ...power plants(NPPs). The safety competences and behavioral indicators were derived from the five steps consisted of derivation of preliminary competence items through literature review, content analysis, interview(FGI, BEI), examination of content validity and decision making of final indicators. The results showed that 13 core safety competences and 35 behavior indicators were derived finally. In addition, the methods of measuring safety competences or behavioral indicators such as Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS), Behavior Observation Scale (BOS) were developed and suggested.
Anomia and Discrimination Legge, Sandra; Heitmeyer, Wilhelm
Methods, Theories, and Empirical Applications in the Social Sciences
Book Chapter
Societies today are affected more than ever by acceleration processes, by an increase in pace and loss of time that threatens to blur the clarity of existing social norms and value systems. According ...to Thome and Birkel (2007), the phenomena of acceleration and loss of rules and boundaries encourage demoralization processes, for morality not only sets boundaries, it is also founded on them. It is these boundaries whose integrity and existence are threatened by the proliferation of options in a constantly changing material, symbolic, and social environment (Thome and Birkel, 2007, pp. 39–43; see also Durkheim, 1983). This impedes the process of building stable identities (Rosa, 2005). Individuals increasingly find themselves compelled to adapt to changing circumstances, and this can result in an identity-threatening loss of normative orientation or control in a given situation. Following Durkheim, this state can be termed anomia, or individual disorientation.
This chapter reviews both literature and theory related to the identification and articulation of graduate attributes and competencies that are relevant to engineering education. Such attributes and ...competencies form the basis for Quality Assurance in engineering education. This chapter includes but looks beyond the sources that are normally reviewed in creating statements on graduate attributes. The review was part of the work done in developing the taxonomy of engineering competencies. Given its somewhat unique genesis, context, and perspective, this particular taxonomy provides an interesting case study of how literature, theory, and research-based evidence can be combined to form statements of graduate attributes for a specific educational discipline.
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