An Exploratory Model of Play

Play is defined as a state of experience in which the actor's ability to act matches the requirements for action in his environment. It differs from anxiety, in which the requirements outnumber the ability, and from boredom, in which the requirements are too few for the ability level of the actor. Games are reviewed with illustrations from a cross-cultural context of traditional and modern societies. It is suggested that games of skill, strategy, and chance all share structural characteristics that allow the player to limit his experiences so as to maximize the play experience as defined. Further theoretical implications are drawn from the model in terms of the relationship of individuals and the social system.     

Go,Dog, Go: Maze Training AIBO vs. a Live Dog,An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in interaction and attribution when participants directed either a robotic dog (AIBO) or a live dog. Twenty-nine participants (20 female, 9 male) directed one of the two entities, a live dog or AIBO, through a complex maze from a remote location by providing voice commands. Participants were given identical feedback regarding the entity's performance during the maze task. While directing the dog or AIBO through the maze, participants rated their own moods. Following the maze task, participants rated the dog or AIBO on a variety of attributes. Vocal data were analyzed for content and fundamental frequency. Results indicate that although vocal content and mood ratings did not differ when participants interacted with the dog versus AIBO, fundamental frequency was higher when participants talked to the dog rather than the AIBO. The dog and AIBO were also rated differently on several attributes after the maze task. Overall, the results suggest that human responses during interactions with live and robotic animals can be superficially similar, yet distinctly different when examined at a deeper level.     

试论我国犬类宠物种质资源的现状与保护利用

本文概述了犬类宠物资源保护利用的重要性,指出犬是最主要的宠物种类,犬与人类关系密不可分,保护犬类资源对于促进生态文明,构建和谐社会意义重大。阐述了当前我国犬类宠物资源保护与利用现状,对我国犬类种质资源的种类、分布、基因资源构成及我国犬类遗传资源调查研究和保护利用所取得的成效。指出了当前我国犬类宠物资源保护和利用方面存在的主要问题,包括犬类遗传资源流失,缺乏对资源的全面系统调查,没有统一的育种规划和选育目标,犬种资源保护和利用措施不明确,保种与选育关系不协调,规章制度不健全等问题。提出了加强犬类种质资源保护和利用的建议和措施。包括提高思想认识,广泛宣传犬类宠物资源保护的重要意义,积极开展犬类资源普查,摸清家底,健全规章依法管理,加大对犬类宠物资源科研工作力度,制订育种规划目标和加大资源保护工作的投入六个方面的建议和措施。     

The Effect of a Real Dog,Toy Dog and Friendly Person on Insecurely Attached Children During a Stressful Task: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

The regulation of stress by an attachment figure is a key feature of attachment relationships. Previous research suggests that in some cases animal companionship may be regarded as an attachment relationship. This may be particularly important for persons with an insecure or disorganized attachment pattern who may find it more difficult than securely attached individuals to accept social support from humans. In our study, we investigated whether 31 boys (aged 7–12 years) with insecure/disorganized attachment would profit more from the presence of a dog (n = 11) than of a friendly human (n = 11) or a toy dog (n = 9) as support during a socially stressful situation (Trier Social Stress Test for Children, TSST-C). Stress levels were assessed via salivary cortisol recorded five times before, during, and after the TSST-C. The behavior of the children was coded from video recordings. Self-reported stress levels did not significantly differ between the groups before and after the TSST-C. Salivary cortisol, however, was significantly lower in the real dog condition than in the other two conditions (Kruskal-Wallis H test on area under the curve increase (AUCi): χ² = 15.17, df = 2, p = 0.001). Also, the more the children stroked the dog, the less pronounced was their stress reaction (r_s = ?0.818, p = 0.002). Our data suggest an important role of physical contact in the stress reducing effect. We conclude that the children investigated profited more from interacting with a friendly dog than with either a human or a toy dog in a stressful situation. We discuss the relevance of our findings for animal-assisted interventions.     

犬脊髓损伤治疗动物模型

目的　建立犬脊髓损伤治疗动物模型 ,为实验研究提供直接的病例材料。方法　人工损伤犬脊髓 ,使用直流电场刺激使脊髓损伤恢复。结果　人工犬脊髓损伤模型建立 ,直流电场刺激治疗可恢复神经功能。结论直流电场刺激在不同时期对犬脊髓再生及功能恢复均有明显促进作用 ,能促进脊髓再生 ,使脊髓通路更快更完善的建立     

School start time influences melatonin and cortisol levels in children and adolescents – a community-based study

School start time influences sleep parameters. Differences between circadian sleep parameters on weekends and weekdays have been associated with obesity, sleep, and psychiatric disorders. Moreover, circadian rhythm dysregulation affects the secretion of some hormones, such as melatonin and cortisol. In the current study, we investigate the effect of school start time on cortisol and melatonin levels in a community sample of Brazilian children and adolescents. This was a cross-sectional study of 454 students (mean age, 12.81 ± 2.56 years; 58.6% female). From this sample, 80 participants were randomly selected for saliva collection to measure melatonin and cortisol levels. Circadian sleep parameters were assessed by self-reported sleep and wake up schedules and the Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire. The outcomes, salivary melatonin and cortisol levels, were measured in morning, afternoon and night saliva samples, and behavior problems were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The main results revealed that morning school start time decreased the secretion of melatonin. Morning melatonin levels were significantly positively correlated with the sleep midpoint on weekdays and on weekends. Afternoon melatonin levels were positively correlated with the sleep midpoint on weekends in the morning school students. Conversely, in the afternoon school students, night melatonin levels were negatively correlated with the sleep midpoint on weekdays. Cortisol secretion did not correlate with circadian sleep parameters in any of the school time groups. In conclusion, school start time influences melatonin secretion, which correlated with circadian sleep parameters. This correlation depends on the presence of psychiatric symptoms. Our findings emphasize the importance of drawing attention to the influence of school start time on the circadian rhythm of children and adolescents.     

Animal Activity and Visitor Learning at the Zoo

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effect animal activity had on information visitors attended to at three bear exhibits. Attention was used as an indirect measure of what information visitors are consciously processing, or learning. It was hypothesized that visitors would be more likely to attend to specific information about animal behavior when bears were active rather than when inactive or out of sight. Visitor conversations were recorded during observations of polar, sloth and spectacled bears. Conversation was coded according to its content (animal-directed, human-focused, behavior, other) and to the corresponding behavior of the bear (active, inactive, pacing, not visible). The energy level of the activity was also considered. The hypothesis was supported for the polar bears, but less so for the other two bears. Behavior conversation was highest and human-directed conversation was lowest in the presence of highly animated polar bears. Behavior content was limited in the presence of the less animated sloth and spectacled bears. However, it was still significantly less frequent, and human content more frequent, when the sloth and spectacled bears were pacing and/or not visible. Therefore, what visitors attended to was influenced by what the bears were doing. The findings suggest that animated activity (rather than the more broadly defined ‘activity’) elicits the most visitor attention to behavior, and this in turn potentially facilitates visitor learning.     

犬心肌细胞分离方法的改良

目的:建立高效可靠的成年犬心肌细胞分离方法,获得高产量与高质量的心肌细胞,以便进行犬心肌细胞收缩功能的研究.方法:采用改良的Langendorff灌流胶原酶消化法分离得到左心室心肌细胞.荧光显微镜观察细胞生长状态和形态并利用单细胞收缩动态边缘检测系统测定心肌细胞收缩功能的改变.结果:结果显示,与传统方法相比,即刻分离的心肌细胞状态良好,复钙后的心肌细胞成活率达到70％-80％,转染重组腺病毒β2-EGFP培养48 h,心肌细胞成活率为60％-70％.给予持续电场刺激,心肌细胞可以保持收缩节律和幅度稳定30 min以上.结论:该方法操作简单,分离的活细胞产量高,质量好,节约实验成本和时间,为心血管相关研究提供良好的细胞模型.     

Using Hypnotic Suggestion to Model Loss of Control and Awareness of Movements: An Exploratory fMRI Study

The feeling of voluntary control and awareness of movement is fundamental to our notions of selfhood and responsibility for actions, yet can be lost in neuropsychiatric syndromes (e.g. delusions of control, non-epileptic seizures) and culturally influenced dissociative states (e.g. attributions of spirit possession). The brain processes involved remain poorly understood. We used suggestion and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate loss of control and awareness of right hand movements in 15 highly hypnotically suggestible subjects. Loss of perceived control of movements was associated with reduced connectivity between supplementary motor area (SMA) and motor regions. Reduced awareness of involuntary movements was associated with less activation in parietal cortices (BA 7, BA 40) and insula. Collectively these results suggest that the sense of voluntary control of movement may critically depend on the functional coupling of SMA with motor systems, and provide a potential neural basis for the narrowing of awareness reported in pathological and culturally influenced dissociative phenomena.     

成年犬股骨微波灭活骨缺损模型的建立

目的　建立成年犬股骨微波灭活骨缺损的实验动物模型 ,为骨缺损修复的研究提供实验依据。方法应用自行研制的骨肿瘤微波治疗仪 ,以 1 5kHz频率、70W功率加热至 5 0～ 5 5℃ ,维持 2 0min ,造成犬股骨中段不同大小的骨缺损。结果　在保持犬股骨连续性的前提下 ,长度 1 5cm的骨缺损 9个月时有 1 2被新生骨填充 ,长度2 5cm和 3 5cm的骨缺损 9个月时无愈合倾向 ,但后者骨折的发生率高。结论　成年犬股骨微波高温造成的骨缺损 ,长 2 5cm、宽 1 0cm 9个月不能自愈 ,适宜于各种骨修复材料的填充 ,是理想的实验模型     

Posttraumatic Headache: An Exploratory Treatment Study

Fourteen patients with posttraumatic headache (PTHA) were treated with a comprehensive treatment package targeting headache symptoms along with associated posttraumatic stress symptoms. Treatment consisted of some or all of the following depending on headache features: thermal biofeedback, electromyography biofeedback targeting the forehead and/or neck muscles, progressive muscle relaxation, education and cognitive–behavioral therapy. Mean improvement for the treatment group was 21%, whereas mean improvement for the wait-list group was –14% indicating a worsening of headache; however, the difference between groups was not statistically significant. There was a significant between groups difference on headache-free days. Within group results were modest with 29% mean improvement by the end of treatment. The reduction in headache index was significant. Minor reductions in psychopathology, most notably anxiety, were found after treatment. This study confirmed the treatment difficulties seen in this understudied population of headache sufferers, but offered hope for symptom relief.     

Companion Animals in Obituaries: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

The benefits of human–animal interaction have been discussed extensively in the literature. In this paper we take a slightly different strategy in documenting that some humans acknowledge the importance of pets by actually referring to them in human obituaries. We begin with a brief overview of the human obituary, followed by the potential for pets as fictive kin to be named as survivors in obituaries. A bi-national, exploratory, content analysis of companion animal (CA)-related content in published newspaper obituaries is reported. The two criteria for inclusion were that a pet or pet survivors be named in the obituary or that donations be made to a pet-related charity. Of the 11,818 obituaries in three newspapers over a three-month period, 260 (2.2%) met one or both of these criteria. Five themes emerged within obituaries containing CA data. First, the word “pet” was rarely used. CAs were typically listed as survivors along with human family members. Second, terms of endearment were consistently used to describe animal companions left behind. Third, some family members, who likely crafted these last statements about their loved ones, engaged in a personification of (and projections onto) the animals left behind. Fourth, there was variation in the roles played by each person with their animal companion. And fifth, donations were made to a wide variety of animal charities. The possibility of CAs as fictive kin is explored, in addition to a call for further study.     

An Exploratory Framework for the Empirical Measurement of Resilience

Deliberate progress towards the goal of long-term sustainability depends on understanding the dynamics of linked social and ecological systems. The concept of social-ecological resilience holds promise for interdisciplinary syntheses. Resilience is a multifaceted concept that as yet has not been directly operationalized, particularly in systems for which our ignorance is such that detailed, parameter-rich simulation models are difficult to develop. We present an exploratory framework as a step towards the operationalization of resilience for empirical studies. We equate resilience with the ability of a system to maintain its identity, where system identity is defined as a property of key components and relationships (networks) and their continuity through space and time. Innovation and memory are also fundamental to understanding identity and resilience. By parsing our systems into the elements that we subjectively consider essential to identity, we obtain a small set of specific focal variables that reflect changes in identity. By assessing the potential for changes in identity under specified drivers and perturbations, in combination with a scenario-based approach to considering alternative futures, we obtain a surrogate measure of the current resilience of our study system as the likelihood of a change in system identity under clearly specified conditions, assumptions, drivers and perturbations. Although the details of individual case studies differ, the concept of identity provides a level of generality that can be used to compare measure of resilience across cases. Our approach will also yield insights into the mechanisms of change and the potential consequences of different policy and management decisions, providing a level of decision support for each case study area.     

The spitting behavior of two species of spitting cobras

Spitting cobras defend themselves by spitting their venom in the face of a harasser. Although it is common belief that spitting cobras direct their venom at the eyes of an aggressor, this has never been investigated. Here, we show that the spitting act of cobras (Naja nigricollis and N. pallida) can readily be triggered by a moving human face or by a moving real size photo of a human face. In contrast, a stationary human face (real or photo) or a moving or stationary human hand does not trigger the spitting act. If threatened, spitting cobras aim their venom, ejected either in two distinct jets (N. pallida) or in a fine spray (N. nigricollis), either between the eyes or at one eye. In both cobra species investigated, the width and height of the area hit by the venom was independent of eye distance (test range 5.5 cm and 11 cm). During the spitting act the cobras performed fast undulating head movements that lead to a larger distribution of their venom. This behavior increases the probability that at least one eye of the aggressor is hit. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at     

An Exploratory Study of Air Quality Near Natural Gas Operations

This exploratory study was designed to assess air quality in a rural western Colorado area where residences and gas wells co-exist. Sampling was conducted before, during, and after drilling and hydraulic fracturing of a new natural gas well pad. Weekly air sampling for 1 year revealed that the number of non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) and their concentrations were highest during the initial drilling phase and did not increase during hydraulic fracturing in this closed-loop system. Methylene chloride, a toxic solvent not reported in products used in drilling or hydraulic fracturing, was detected 73% of the time; several times in high concentrations. A literature search of the health effects of the NMHCs revealed that many had multiple health effects, including 30 that affect the endocrine system, which is susceptible to chemical impacts at very low concentrations, far less than government safety standards. Selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were at concentrations greater than those at which prenatally exposed children in urban studies had lower developmental and IQ scores. The human and environmental health impacts of the NMHCs, which are ozone precursors, should be examined further given that the natural gas industry is now operating in close proximity to human residences and public lands.     

Intra- and interspecific cohabitation of scorpions in the field and the effect of density, food, and shelter on their interactions

Scorpion cohabitation was studied qualitatively and quantitatively for several years in the field and in controlled experimental conditions in the laboratory. In the field, several cases were recorded of scorpions sharing the same shelter, either intra- or interspecifically. Intraspecific cohabitation was more prevalent than interspecific cohabitation. Among the five scorpion species studied here, Compsobuthus werneri judaicus shows the highest degree of sociality and aggregates both intra- and interspecifically. Leiurus quinquestriatus was never observed to cohabit interspecifically. Both Buthotus judaicus and C. werneri judaicus shared shelters with other scorpions more frequently during the wet season, whereas Nebo hierichonticus and Scorpio maurus fuscus cohabitated more often during the dry season. Under controlled laboratory conditions, density and availability of either food or shelter appear to be significant in facilitating cohabitation, even in the more aggressive species. Received: April 28, 1999 / Accepted: July 30, 1999     

牙科焦虑症治疗方法综述

牙科焦虑症主要是对疼痛的恐惧、对未知的恐惧、对机体受到伤害的恐惧等因素导致的焦虑症状。临床中80%的口腔疾病患者都对治疗心存恐惧,因此在很大程度上不能配合医生的治疗甚至逃避治疗。随着生活水平的不断提高,人们要求在舒适的心理环境中接受治疗,因此牙科焦虑症就成为口腔医护工作者必须面对的问题。治疗牙科焦虑症的方法主要分为行为学,药理学和有机放松法三个大类,在实际使用的过程当中往往是各种方法配合使用,而不是单一使用。随着人们研究的逐步深入,提出的具体治疗方法也越来越多,本文就牙科焦虑症目前所使用的治疗方法做详细的介绍及分类,帮助口腔医护工作人员理清治疗思路,为正确的诊断、干预和治疗牙科焦虑症提供治疗方法。     

Animal Hoarding in Victoria,Australia: An Exploratory Study

Animal hoarding not only presents significant welfare issues for the animals involved, but also for the hoarders and people in the surrounding community. Existing studies on the issue have primarily been undertaken in the USA and little is known about animal hoarding in other countries, including Australia. It has been estimated that the per-capita prevalence of animal hoarding in Victoria, Australia, is similar to that in the USA, but in order to design effective intervention strategies, the extent of the issue and its characteristics need to be identified. This study analyzes data from 22 recent cases of animal hoarding from a number of agencies in Victoria. The demographics and living conditions of animal hoarders in Victoria and the USA were found to be similar. In contrast, the animals involved in hoarding cases in Victoria were in a better condition than the animals in the USA, with behavioral issues being the leading animal welfare concern in Australia. Behavioral problems resulted in euthanasia of the animals in 45% of the cases studied. All of the agencies included in this study call for a greater involvement or support from human mental health services to fully address the root of the problem. The information from this study can be used to help identify groups at risk to develop effective and appropriate means of prevention of, and intervention in, animal hoarding cases.