Social environment and reproduction in female European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus): benefits of the presence of litter sisters

The authors investigated in an observational study the consequences of the presence of litter sisters on the social interactions and on reproductive performance of young female European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) from a population living under seminatural conditions. In early winter, when all young females were settled in a social group, they were characterized by the presence or absence of litter sisters in their groups. Females with litter sisters in their groups displayed significantly more positive social interaction with females of their social group compared to females without sisters, whereas this difference was mainly due to the high frequency of positive social interactions among the respective sisters. Such differences between the females of both categories were already apparent during the animals' juvenile phase, before the females integrated into a particular group: females which later had litter sisters in their group showed more positive social behavior than females which later no longer had litter sisters. During their first breeding season, females with litter sisters present generally started to breed earlier by an average of 14 days. A more favorable social environment might have possibly facilitated the earlier onset of breeding in females with present litter sisters by attenuating the negative consequences of stress.     

Personal values and relational models

In this study, the comprehensive value research by Schwartz (e.g. 1992) was linked to Fiske's relational models theory (RMT, e.g. Fiske, 1991). A sample of 297 people answered the personal values questionnaire (PVQ), the modes of relationship questionnaire (MORQ) and the relationship profile scale (RPS) in a web‐based online survey. As hypothesized, the set of 10 values correlated in a systematic manner—according to the circular structure of personal value systems—with both trait‐like construal of and motivational investment in the relational models communal sharing (CS), authority ranking (AR) and market pricing (MP). Further research concerning a person–environment value congruency approach to predict well‐being is suggested combining the two research traditions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Beijing Calling... Mobile Communication in Contemporary China

Subsequently, with the recent wave of industrialization, China has become the “factory” of the globalized world. The modernization of this country, however, is not confined to the provision of production at a low added value: It also entails technological appropriation and innovation. In particular, China represents the biggest world market for mobile phones and will soon dominate the Internet market. In this country, the total number of mobile and fixed-line subscribers exceeds 750 million, and the total number of Internet users is more than 162 million. The present study focuses on how, after a decade of mobile phone use, the inhabitants of Beijing evaluate the changes in the social and communicative sphere as a result of the introduction of the mobile phone. In this paper, we present some results of a quantitative research, specifically focused on mobile communication. Based on face-to-face questionnaires administered to a convenient sample of 487 respondents, this study addresses the following research questions: After a decade of mobile phone use, how do Chinese people perceive the importance of this device? To what extent do the adoption and use of mobile phones increase or decrease social connectivity in contemporary China? To what extent does the use of mobile phones in everyday life enhance or reduce the communications – do they make you feel closer to or more distant from other people? What are the variables that predict users’ attitudes toward mobile phones in China?     

Scham und Berührung

The problem

Are there correlations between shame and touch in healthy persons?

Methods

Data from a questionnaire survey with the Skin Satisfaction Questionnaire (HautZuf) with 140 healthy persons were validated with TAS 26, HADS and the Adult Attachment Scale.

Results

There are significant correlations in the scale shame with all other scales of the used questionnaires TAS-26, AAS and HADS. There was a negative correlation between the scale ?physical closeness“ and ?confidence“ of the AAS, but all other scales correlated positively with the shame scale.

Conclusions

More emotions of shame seem to be present with anxiety, depression and disturbances in the sense of an alexithymia concept. Also high feelings of shame correlated with decreased confidence in the personal environment and greater intolerance for personal nearness. The significant correlations between shame affects and self-touch or touch by partner point to important factors in self-perception also for the psychotherapeutic context.     

Both predator and prey: emotional arousal in threat and reward

This research examined the psychophysiology of emotional arousal anticipatory to potentially aversive and highly pleasant outcomes. Human brain reactions (event-related potentials) and body reactions (heart rate, skin conductance, the probe startle reflex) were assessed along motivational gradients determined by apparent distance from sites of potential punishment or reward. A predator-prey survival context was simulated using cues that signaled possible money rewards or possible losses; the cues appeared to loom progressively closer to the viewer, until a final step when a rapid key response could ensure reward or avoid a punishing loss. The observed anticipatory response patterns of heightened vigilance and physiological mobilization are consistent with the view that the physiology of emotion is founded on action dispositions that evolved in mammals to facilitate survival by dealing with threats or capturing life-sustaining rewards.     

Centrifugal acceleration to 3Gz is related to increased release of stress hormones and decreased mood in men and women

It has been suggested that the central and peripheral neural processes (CPNP) are affected by gravitational changes. Based on the previous experiments during parabolic flights, central and peripheral changes may not only be due to the changed gravitational forces but also due to neuroendocrine reactions related to the psycho-physiological consequences of gravitational changes. The present study focuses on the interaction of neuroendocrine changes and the physical and mental states after acceleration to three-time terrestrial gravity (3Gz). Eleven participants (29.4+/-5.1 [SD] years (male (n=8): 30+/-5.1 years; female (n=3): 27.7+/-2.1 years) underwent a 15 min acceleration to 3Gz in a human centrifuge. Before and after the acceleration to 3Gz circulating stress hormone concentrations (cortisol, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), prolactin, epinephrine, norepinephrine) and perceived physical and mental states were recorded. A second control group of 11 participants underwent the same testing procedure in a laboratory session. Serum cortisol concentration during exposure to the centrifugal acceleration increased by 70%, plasma concentration of ACTH increased threefold, prolactin twofold, epinephrine by 70% and norepinephrine by 45%, whereas the perceived physical well-being decreased. These findings demonstrate that psycho-physiological changes have to be regarded as a relevant factor for the changes in CPNP during phases of hypergravity exposure.     

Visual attention amplifies response priming of pointing movements to color targets

We studied the influence of spatial visual attention on the time course of primed pointing movements. We measured pointing responses to color targets preceded by color stimuli priming either the same response as the target or the opposite response. The effects of visual attention at the prime and target locations were studied by varying both the cue-prime and prime-target intervals when presenting either exogenous attentional cues or, in a separate experiment, endogenous cues whose processing was a precondition for performing the task. Pointing trajectories revealed large priming effects in which pointing responses were first controlled by prime signals and then captured in midflight by target signals. Priming effects were strongly amplified when the relevant prime locations were visually attended at optimal cue-prime SOAs, with attention modulating the entire time course of the primed pointing movements. We propose that visual attention amplifies the earliest waves of visuomotor feedforward information, elicited in turn by primes and by targets.     

Stimulus frequency influences spontaneous perceptual reversals in ambiguous apparent motion

The temporal integration of continuous sensory information into a temporally extended percept becomes evident in spontaneous reversals of ambiguous apparent motion. To study the temporal relation of spontaneous percept reversals and temporal stimulus properties, we systematically varied presentation frequency in an ambiguous-apparent-motion paradigm. Moreover, we triggered percept reversals in a manner that was not consciously perceived by manipulating the duration of single frames. We found that the reversal rate depended on the stimulus frequency (with higher frequencies resulting in faster percept reversals) and that we could externally trigger perceptual reversals. Our findings support the idea that spontaneous reversals of ambiguous apparent motion are influenced by bottom-up effects at early processing levels. The paradigm allows for specific contrasts of spontaneous and externally triggered (but otherwise identical) perceptual reversals and, by this means, for further study of the underlying mechanisms.     

Jugendgewalt als Lebensbewältigungsprozess

Aggression und Gewalt bei Jugendlichen stilisieren sich zum Sinnbild für unsere „kranke Gesellschaft“. Was sich bei jüngeren Jugendlichen noch – oft als Lausbuben-Verhalten bagatellisiertes – Herumschubsen und Rangeln im Pausenhof ?u?ert, tritt in Form von Bullying und Mobbing immer st?rker zutage. Jugendliche, die trinken, stehlen, Drogen zu sich nehmen, Mitschüler oder Gruppenmitglieder bedrohen und Gegenst?nde ?ffentlichen Gutes besch?digen etc., stehen auf der Tagesordnung. Selbst Erpressung von Mitschülern ist kein Einzeldelikt mehr.     

Harbour seals (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Phoca vitulina</Emphasis>) can steer by the stars

Offshore orientation in marine mammals is still a mystery. For visual orientation during night-time foraging and travelling in the open seas, seals cannot rely on distant terrestrial landmarks, and thus might use celestial cues as repeatedly shown for nocturnally migrating birds. Although seals detect enough stars to probably allow for astronavigation, it was unclear whether they can orient by the night sky. The widely accepted cognitive mechanism for bird night-time orientation by celestial cues is a time-independent star compass with learned geometrical star configurations used to pinpoint north as the rotational centre of the starry sky while there is no conclusive evidence for a time-compensated star compass or true star navigation. Here, we present results for two harbour seals orienting in a custom made swimming planetarium. Both seals learned to highly accurately identify a lodestar out of a pseudo-randomly oriented, realistic projection of the northern hemisphere night sky. Providing the first evidence for star orientation capability in a marine mammal, our seals’ outstanding directional precision would allow them to steer by following lodestars of learned star courses, a celestial orientation mechanism that has been known to be used by Polynesian navigators but has not been considered for animals yet.