Exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic environment and generosity

We report data from an online experiment which allows us to study how generosity changed over a 6-day period during the initial explosive growth of the COVID-19 pandemic in Andalusia, Spain, while the country was under a strict lockdown. Participants ( n = 969) could donate a fraction of a €100 prize to an unknown charity. Our data are particularly rich in the age distribution and we complement them with daily public information about COVID-19-related deaths, infections and hospital admissions. We find correlational evidence that donations decreased in the period under study, particularly among older individuals. Our analysis of the mechanisms behind the detected decrease in generosity suggests that expectations about others' behaviour, perceived mortality risk and (alarming) information play a key—but independent—role for behavioural adaptation. These results indicate that social behaviour is quickly adjusted in response to the pandemic environment, possibly reflecting some form of selective prosociality.

Role of immigrants and muzzle contacts in the uptake of a novel food by wild vervet monkeys

The entry into and uptake of information in social groups is critical for behavioural adaptation by long-lived species in rapidly changing environments. We exposed five groups of wild vervet monkeys to a novel food to investigate innovation of processing and consuming it. We observed whether dispersing males could introduce this innovation into groups and compare uptake between groups. We report that immigrant males innovated in two groups, and an infant innovated in one group. In two other groups, immigrant males imported the innovation from another group. Uptake of the novel food was fastest in groups where immigrant males ate first and younger individuals were most likely to acquire the novel food. We also investigated the role of muzzle contact behaviour in information seeking around the novel food. Muzzle contacts decreased in frequency over repeated exposures to the novel food, were targeted towards knowledgeable adults the most, and juveniles and naïve individuals initiated the most. Knowledgeable adult males were targeted but rarely initiated muzzle contacts, whereas knowledgeable adult females were targeted and initiated them, emphasising an adult sex difference in seeking social information. We highlight the potential of immigrants as vectors of information, enabling rapid behavioural adaptation and population level culture.

APPRAISING INDOOR THERMAL PERCEPTION OF ELDERLY IN HOT CLIMATES: An experimental investigation of free-running residential aged care homes in Colombo

Rapid demographic transition with higher growth in ageing population demonstrate a major societal challenge in South Asia and Sri Lankans will age faster than other developing economies in the region. Climate shocks of people living in economically deprived countries will increase in future and elders are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of temperature extremes. The study experimentally investigated free-running residential care homes in hot climate of Colombo performing simultaneous personal monitoring and questionnaire surveys. Results explicitly prove overheated indoors with less air flow. Majority of elders confirmed thermally unacceptable interiors with warm thermal sensations and low air velocities of 0.1 to 0.29 m/s with predominant preference of more air movement proves inadequate passive airflow. A significant relationship between wind preference and presence of openings of their place of stay were evident. Staying away from a window or door instigated to practice a behavioural adaptation of moving towards transitional areas such as corridors, verandas, and outdoor spaces for more wind sensation. Since ageing is associated with physical inabilities and elders spend their life mostly in indoors, findings emphasize the importance of enhancing passive airflow and application of appropriate design strategies to ensure optimum air velocities and dispersion of airflow within interiors.

Anxiety attenuates learning advantages conferred by statistical stability and induces loss of volatility-attuning in brain activity

Anxiety can alter an individual's perception of their external sensory environment. Previous studies suggest that anxiety can increase the magnitude of neural responses to unexpected (or surprising) stimuli. Additionally, surprise responses are reported to be boosted during stable compared to volatile environments. Few studies, however, have examined how learning is impacted by both threat and volatility. To investigate these effects, we used threat-of-shock to transiently increase subjective anxiety in healthy adults during an auditory oddball task, in which the regularity could be stable or volatile, while undergoing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanning. We then used Bayesian Model Selection (BMS) mapping to pinpoint the brain areas where different models of anxiety displayed the highest evidence. Behaviourally, we found that threat-of-shock eliminated the accuracy advantage conferred by environmental stability over volatility in the task at hand. Neurally, we found that threat-of-shock led to both attenuation and loss of volatility-attuning of neural activity evoked by surprising sounds across most subcortical and limbic brain regions including the thalamus, basal ganglia, claustrum, insula, anterior cingulate, hippocampal gyrus and also the superior temporal gyrus. Conversely, within two small clusters in the left medial frontal gyrus and extrastriate area, threat-of-shock boosted the neural activity (relative to the safe and volatile condition) to the levels observed during the safe and stable condition, while also inducing a loss of volatility-attuning. Taken together, our findings suggest that threat eliminates the learning advantage conferred by statistical stability compared to volatility. Thus, we propose that anxiety disrupts behavioural adaptation to environmental statistics, and that multiple subcortical and limbic regions are implicated in this process.

Seasonal resource categorisation and behavioural adaptation among non-human primates: Implications for hominin carnivory in the Early Pleistocene

Seasonality plays a critical role in determining the yearly dietary variability of many nonhuman primates living in tropical and subtropical environments. Much previous research has emphasised the seasonal importance of both preferred resources—eaten whenever available—and fallback foods—eaten during periods of scarcity to compensate for an insufficient availability of preferred resources. However, previous discussions of this dichotomy have often overlooked why different populations of the same taxon may exhibit a different level of engagement with identical resources, especially those that require some degree of technological investment by virtue of being embedded. Similarly, not enough attention has been given to diachronic trends in the incorporation of novel resources to seasonal consumption patterns among non-human primates.In this paper, we present a framework for understanding the spatio-temporal relationships between preferred and fallback resources in a more systematic way, explicitly through the lens of landscape knowledge and seasonal fluctuations in quality and availability. We argue it is the interplay between resource quality and the available knowledge pertaining to its exploitation that will determine the categorisation of a resource. In this regard, the accumulation of further information through encounter, experimentation, and behavioural (including technological) innovation enables resources with high nutritional potential to attain preferred status. We end with an exploration of the gradual consolidation of the hominin carnivory niche in the Early Pleistocene of East Africa, to demonstrate the utility of our framework—specifically the interplay between seasonality and the concept of landscape knowledge—for understanding behavioural change in the archaeological record.

Risk perception of behavioural adaptation recommendations towards COVID-19 and its related factors in Indonesia

Background: The number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in Indonesia keeps increasing even though the Indonesian government continuously communicates mitigation strategies. This study aimed to- estimate the proportion of risk perception towards COVID-19 behavioural adaptation recommendations and examine its sociodemographic determinants in Indonesia.Methods: An online-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,007 individuals aged 15-60 years old. Our primary outcome was risk perception towards COVID-19 behavioural adaptations. Independent variables included sociodemographic factors such as sex, age, educational level, type of occupation, family size, economic status, and regions. Descriptive statistics, univariate logistic regression, and multiple logistic regression were performed to analyse the data.Results: Around 78% of participants had a high level of risk perception related to COVID-19 behavioural adaptation recommendations. Among the participants, being females (AOR= 2.40; 95% CI: 1.76-3.27) and health professionals (AOR= 1.42; 95% CI: 0.64-1.44) were significantly associated with higher risk perceptions. In contrast, residing in Kalimantan and Sulawesi (AOR= 0.43; 95% CI: 0.23-0.79) and Eastern Indonesia (AOR= 0.43; 95% CI: 0.21-0.88) were significantly associated with lower risk perceptions.Conclusions: Despite the high levels of risk perceptions among the Indonesian population, sociodemographic variations drove the risk perception of behavioural adaptation recommendations concerning COVID-19.

Behavioural adaptation: A review of adaptation to workplace heat exposure of kitchen workers with reference to gender differences in Durban

The article examines the gender disparities as women are at a greater risk to exertional heat illness that may go unreported in the industry, according to several reports. It is important to study the behavioural heat adaptations and prevalent behaviours for workers in order to understand the magnitude of the danger they face. Cooking is considered a safe occupation, but hazards certainly do exist and can represent a risk to the health and safety of the workers. Controls can be established to reduce the risk of illness. To attract and retain workers, the food service business must provide a good quality of life.Contribution: The study suggests how female workers in the catering establishments can adjust their behaviour to improve their experience at work. Are women more vulnerable to environmental parameters? Christian theology provides women equal status with men (Kategile 2020), however there are traces of androcentric aspects within the Bible. Women’s involvement in development is based on the theological premise that true development must have a holistic approach towards human development (Onwunta 2009). However, Sibani (2017) stated that the role of God or a creator of a religion, is always taken by a male and a woman’s place is in the household. The article conducts a comprehensive analysis of the literature on the various behavioural adaptation mechanisms used by kitchen staff to cope with heat exposure at work. Thermal tolerance variations are becoming more pronounced because of ethnicity and cultural differences. Health interventions and enhanced work performance are important objectives of workplace safety. Regulated heat in the workplace can be factored into the theory concerning the relationship between gender differences and contextual components. This would increase female food service workers’ understanding of thermal comfort, which is beneficial to productivity efficiency, worker satisfaction and well-being of workers.

Coping with Environmental Extremes: Population Ecology and Behavioural Adaptation of Erebia pronoe, an Alpine Butterfly Species

A mark-recapture study of the nominotypical Erebia pronoe in the Alps was conducted to survey its ecological demands and characteristics. Population structure analysis revealed a combination of protandry (one-week earlier eclosion of males) and serial eclosion. Significant differences between both sexes were found in population density (males: 580/ha ± 37 SE; females: 241/ha ± 66 SE), sex-ratio (2.4) and behaviour (57.7 vs. 11.9% flying). Both sexes used a wide range of nectar plants (Asteraceae, 77.3%; Dipsacaceae, 12.3%; Gentianaceae, 9.7%). The use of nectar plants shows a non-specific spectrum, which, however, completely avoids overlap with the locally co-occurring species Erebia nivalis. Movement patterns show the establishment of homeranges, which significantly limits the migration potential. Due to its broad ecological niche, E. pronoe will probably be able to react plastically to the consequences of climate change. The formation of high population densities, the unconcerned endangerment status, the unspecific resource spectrum and the sedentary character of the species make E. pronoe a potential indicator of the quality and general resource occurrence of alpine rupicolous grasslands.

The Difficulty in Engaging the Engaged: Administrative Adaptation to the Early Warning System within the UK Houses of Parliament

This article applies a mixed-methods approach through semi-structured interviews and document analysis to provide a comprehensive account of administrative and behavioural adaptation within the UK Houses of Parliament (HoP) to the EU’s subsidiarity monitoring mechanism, the Early Warning System (EWS). The article also tests theoretical assumptions regarding the adaptation and use of the EWS on this basis, confirming that Eurosceptic MPs bolster the use of the EWS and finding that the HoP are an outlier among bicameral legislatures, as the lower chamber was the primary user of the EWS. Overall, results demonstrate that both the House of Commons and the House of Lords treated the EWS as an optional bolt-on when adapting to the mechanism. Furthermore, the EWS did not encourage the HoP to increase engagement with UK devolved legislatures, but the mechanism contributed to the mainstreaming of EU scrutiny in the case of the Welsh and Scottish legislatures.

Distinct regulation of hippocampal neuroplasticity and ciliary genes by corticosteroid receptors

Glucocorticoid hormones (GCs) — acting through hippocampal mineralocorticoid receptors (MRs) and glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) — are critical to physiological regulation and behavioural adaptation. We conducted genome-wide MR and GR ChIP-seq and Ribo-Zero RNA-seq studies on rat hippocampus to elucidate MR- and GR-regulated genes under circadian variation or acute stress. In a subset of genes, these physiological conditions resulted in enhanced MR and/or GR binding to DNA sequences and associated transcriptional changes. Binding of MR at a substantial number of sites however remained unchanged. MR and GR binding occur at overlapping as well as distinct loci. Moreover, although the GC response element (GRE) was the predominant motif, the transcription factor recognition site composition within MR and GR binding peaks show marked differences. Pathway analysis uncovered that MR and GR regulate a substantial number of genes involved in synaptic/neuro-plasticity, cell morphology and development, behavior, and neuropsychiatric disorders. We find that MR, not GR, is the predominant receptor binding to >50 ciliary genes; and that MR function is linked to neuronal differentiation and ciliogenesis in human fetal neuronal progenitor cells. These results show that hippocampal MRs and GRs constitutively and dynamically regulate genomic activities underpinning neuronal plasticity and behavioral adaptation to changing environments.