scholarly journals The Mechanics of Social Interactions Between Cats and Their Owners

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis C. Turner

This is a mini review that summarizes what is known from quantitative observational studies of social interactions between domestic cats and humans in both laboratory colonies and the home setting. Only results from data that have been statistically analyzed are included; hypotheses still to be tested will be declared as such. In some cases, the observational data have been combined with independently collected subjective assessments by the owners of the animals' character and owner personality traits to help interpret the data. Further some relevant experimental studies are also included. All social interactions between cats and humans that are discussed below assume that the animals were socialized to people as kittens, the first topic of this review. Such socialized cats show what might be called “friendliness to humans,” which in turn affects human attachment to the cat. The visual and acoustic behavioral elements used to communicate and interact with other cats can be perceived by people and are also employed by the cats when interacting with them. The initiation, and the initiator of social interactions between cats and humans have been shown to influence both the duration of the interaction bout and total interaction time in the relationship. Compliance with the interactional “wishes” of the partner is positively correlated between the cats and the humans over all human-cat dyads examined. Cats do not spontaneously prefer one gender or age cohort of people, but the humans in those cohorts behave differently to the cats causing the latter to react differentially. The dyadic interaction structure has also been shown to differ between women and men and between older and younger adults. Nevertheless, cats—merely their presence but of course their behavior—can affect human moods and human mood differences have been shown to affect the behavior of the cats. Finally, differences have been found between interactions with purebred and non-purebred cats and between younger and older cats.

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierpaolo Dondio ◽  
Viacheslav Gusev ◽  
Mariana Rocha

In this paper, we meta-analyse the empirical evidence about the effectiveness of game-based interventions to reduce students' level of math anxiety. After performing a search for randomised controlled studies relevant to game-based intervention for math anxiety, 16 experimental studies with a total of 686 participants described in 11 peer-review articles met the selection criteria.A random-effects meta-analysis indicated a small and non-significant reduction of math anxiety (mean effect size ES=-0.32, CI=[-0.64,0.01]). The results were moderated by several factors: non-digital games were more effective, while digital games had a negligible mean effect size of $ES=-0.13$, $CI=[-0.33,0.08]$. The effect size was moderated also by the total duration of the intervention, to the advantage of longer interventions, and by the type of gameplay: games had a greater effect on math anxiety reduction when they promoted collaborative and social interactions. Such features were only present in non-digital games, while all the digital games analysed were single-player. In the final section of the paper, we discuss future possible research directions. The weak results obtained indicated the need to develop and test games explicitly designed for math anxious students. This will require the investigation of the relationship between game features and math anxiety through the analysis of the behaviour of anxious and non-anxious students at play. Among the features that an anxiety-aware game could employ, we suggest collaborative gameplay, social interactions, adaptability, features promoting intrinsic motivation and real-time measurements of math anxiety.


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaotong Ji ◽  
Yingying Zhang ◽  
Guangke Li ◽  
Nan Sang

Recently, numerous studies have found that particulate matter (PM) exposure is correlated with increased hospitalization and mortality from heart failure (HF). In addition to problems with circulation, HF patients often display high expression of cytokines in the failing heart. Thus, as a recurring heart problem, HF is thought to be a disorder characterized in part by the inflammatory response. In this review, we intend to discuss the relationship between PM exposure and HF that is based on inflammatory mechanism and to provide a comprehensive, updated evaluation of the related studies. Epidemiological studies on PM-induced heart diseases are focused on high concentrations of PM, high pollutant load exposure in winter, or susceptible groups with heart diseases, etc. Furthermore, it appears that the relationship between fine or ultrafine PM and HF is stronger than that between HF and coarse PM. However, fewer studies paid attention to PM components. As for experimental studies, it is worth noting that coarse PM may indirectly promote the inflammatory response in the heart through systematic circulation of cytokines produced primarily in the lungs, while ultrafine PM and its components can enter circulation and further induce inflammation directly in the heart. In terms of PM exposure and enhanced inflammation during the pathogenesis of HF, this article reviews the following mechanisms: hemodynamics, oxidative stress, Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and epigenetic regulation. However, many problems are still unsolved, and future work will be needed to clarify the complex biologic mechanisms and to identify the specific components of PM responsible for adverse effects on heart health.


1997 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 181-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katsuhisa Kawashima ◽  
Tomomi Yamada

The densification of water-saturated firn, which had formed just above the firn-ice transition in the wet-snow zone of temperate glaciers, was investigated by compression tests under pressures ranging from 0.036 to 0.173 MPa, with special reference to the relationship between densification rate, time and pressure. At each test, the logarithm of the densification rate was proportional to the logarithm of the time, and its proportionality constant increased exponentially with increasing pressure. The time necessary for ice formation in the firn aquifer was calculated using the empirical formula obtained from the tests. Consequently, the necessary time decreased exponentially as the pressure increased, which shows that the transformation from firn in ice can be completed within the period when the firn aquifer exists, if the overburden pressure acting on the water-saturated firn is above 0.12–0.14 MPa. This critical value of pressure was in good agreement with the overburden pressure obtained from depth–density curves of temperate glaciers. It was concluded that the depth of firn–ice transition was self-balanced by the overburden pressure to result in the concentration between 20 and 30 m.


Author(s):  
Donghui Zhang ◽  
Ruijie Liu

Abstract Orienteering has gradually changed from a professional sport to a civilian sport. Especially in recent years, orienteering has been widely popularized. Many colleges and universities in China have also set up this course. With the improvement of people’s living conditions, orienteering has really become a leisure sport in modern people’s life. The reduced difficulty of sports enables more people to participate, but it also exposes a series of problems. As the existing positioning technology is relatively backward, the progress in personnel tracking, emergency services, and other aspects is slow. To solve these problems, a new intelligent orienteering application system is developed based on the Internet of things. ZigBee network architecture is adopted in the system. ZigBee is the mainstream scheme in the current wireless sensor network technology, which has many advantages such as convenient carrying, low power consumption, and signal stability. Due to the complex communication environment in mobile signal, the collected information is processed by signal amplification and signal anti-interference technology. By adding anti-interference devices, video isolators and other devices, the signal is guaranteed to the maximum extent. In order to verify the actual effect of this system, through a number of experimental studies including the relationship between error and traffic radius and the relationship between coverage and the number of anchor nodes, the data shows that the scheme studied in this paper has a greater improvement in comprehensive performance than the traditional scheme, significantly improving the accuracy and coverage. Especially the coverage is close to 100% in the simulation experiment. This research has achieved good results and can be widely used in orienteering training and competition.


Author(s):  
Carlos Salavera ◽  
Pablo Usán

This study examines the relationship between social skills and happiness in 1st-year Teaching School students, as well as possible gender differences. The sample comprised 243 Teaching School students (Primary Education) in Zaragoza, including 110 men (45.27%) and 133 women (54.73%), aged 18–25 (average age 20.23 years; s.d. = 1.586). In order to analyse the relationship between social skills and subjective happiness, the Scale of Social Skills and Subjective Happiness Scale were used. While men scored higher in all social skills-related factors, women scored higher in all factors related to happiness. The study shows that factors such as self-expression in social settings and the ability to say no and cut off social interactions have a direct and significant effect on happiness among men, while self-expression in social settings and the ability to express anger led to a higher perception of happiness among women. Similarly, situations such as asking for and defending rights have an indirect and significant effect in men, reducing their levels of happiness. In the case of women, no social skills factors were found that led to lower happiness. It may be concluded that significant gender differences exist, although broader and lateral studies are needed in order to examine the relationship between gender identities, social skills and subjective happiness more in depth, and thus, understand the effect of these constructs in the development of personality.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
YASUHIRO OZURU ◽  
DAVID BOWIE ◽  
GIULIA KAUFMAN

abstractThree quasi-experimental studies were conducted to investigate the relationship between the evaluative (i.e., agree/true) and the meta-cognitive (i.e., understand) response, and to determine which type of response people are more likely to provide when responding to one-sentence assertive statements. In Studies 1 and 2, participants performed two separate tasks in which they were asked to indicate the levels of: (i) understanding and (ii) agreement / perceived truthfulness of 126 one-sentence statements. The results indicated that participants were likely to provide a negative evaluative response (i.e., disagree/false) to a statement that they did not understand. In Study 3, participants were asked to evaluate the same 126 statements and choose between four response options: agree, disagree, understand, do not understand. The results indicated that people are more likely provide an evaluative response regardless of the understandability of a statement. The results of these studies are discussed in relation to (i) pragmatic perspective of how people infer speakers’ meaning, and (ii) cognitive processes underlying evaluative and meta-cognitive response.


2021 ◽  
pp. 50-57
Author(s):  
A. N. Kireev ◽  
M. A. Kireeva

The article provides a review and analysis of the defect identification method for determining the size of discontinuities when diagnosing various machine parts and units by the manual ultrasonic method. This method makes it possible to determine the equivalent size of discontinuities of various types without using standard samples of an enterprise: point planar and volumetric; extended planar and volumetric. The method is based on the use of the relationship between the amplitude and time characteristics of the echo signal from the discontinuity and the backside signal in the object being diagnosed and the equivalent size of the discontinuity. The article presents the mathematical apparatus for the implementation of this method. Also presented is a software product that allows you to automate calculations when using this defect identification method. The article contains experimental studies of the method for determining the equivalent dimensions of discontinuities of various types, which have shown its high reliability. The maximum value of the relative error in determining the equivalent size of a point planar discontinuity was 2.867 %. The maximum value of the relative error in determining the equivalent size of a point volumetric discontinuity was 1.986 %. The maximum value of the relative error in determining the transverse equivalent size of an extended planar discontinuity was 0.667 %. The maximum value of the relative error in determining the transverse equivalent size of an extended volumetric discontinuity was 1.95 %.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-67
Author(s):  
Sergey Polyakov ◽  
V. Akimov ◽  
A. Polukazakov ◽  
Vladimir Zolnikov ◽  
P. Enin

The article deals with the issues of modeling and management of life support systems of a residential building. The resulting model of the liquid level in the tank allows you to establish the relationship between the level and the flow rate of the liquid. The results of the selection and justification of the fluid level control structure are presented. An algorithm that implements the operation of a virtual object is given. The structure of the automatic control system (ACS) of the liquid level is technically implemented in an open type. The results confirming the achievability of the proposed structural changes are obtained. The results of experimental studies are presented. The choice and justification of the method of controlling the heating system and the liquid level in the tank are considered. Programs for managing subsystems of a residential building in Assembly language, C++, and ladder diagrams are presented. A model for controlling the liquid level in a Multisim environment is proposed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-160
Author(s):  
Paweł Lorkowski ◽  
Bronisław Gosowski

Abstract The paper presents experimental and numerical studies to determine the equivalent second moment of area of the uniform torsion of the two-chord steel single laced members. The members are used as poles of railway traction network gates, and steel columns of framed buildings as well. The stiffness of uniform torsion of this kind of columns allows to the determine the critical loads of the spatial stability. The experimental studies have been realized on a single - span members with rotation arrested at their ends, loaded by a torque applied at the mid-span. The relationship between angle of rotation of the considered cross-section and the torque has been determined. Appropriate numerical model was created in the ABAQUS program, based on the finite element method. A very good compatibility has been observed between experimental and numerical studies. The equivalent second moment of area of the uniform torsion for analysed members has been determined by comparing the experimental and analytical results to those obtained from differential equation of non-uniform torsion, based on Vlasov’s theory. Additionally, the parametric analyses of similar members subjected to the uniform torsion, for the richer range of cross-sections have been carried out by the means of SOFiSTiK program. The purpose of the latter was determining parametrical formulas for calculation of the second moment of area of uniform torsion.


Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Szcześniak ◽  
Grażyna Bielecka ◽  
Iga Bajkowska ◽  
Anna Czaprowska ◽  
Daria Madej

An extensive review of the psychological literature shows that interactions between religious/spiritual (R/S) struggles and other aspects of human functioning are complex and affected by “third” factors. Still, we have only a few studies that confirm R/S struggles as a source of well-being and indicate the ways in which it happens. In the present study, we aimed to verify whether the relationship between R/S struggles and life satisfaction was mediated by dispositional gratitude that seems to offer protection in times of adversity and turmoil. The sample consisted of 440 Roman Catholics (331 women) from Poland aged between 18 and 40. We applied the Religious Comfort and Strain Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the Gratitude Questionnaire. In line with our hypotheses, it was confirmed that respondents with higher life satisfaction were more likely to display a higher sense of trust in God. They also declared a lower fear/guilt and perception of God as abandoning people. Gratitude correlated positively and significantly with religious comfort, and negatively with emotions towards God and social interactions surrounding religion. Moreover, it can be affirmed that dispositional gratitude mediated the relationship between three of four dimensions of religious strain and life satisfaction: religious comfort, negative emotions towards God, and negative social interactions surrounding religion.


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