The role of early adversity and cognitive vulnerability in postnatal stress and depression

The purpose of the present study was to examine vulnerability factors in expecting parents that might lead to mental illness in the perinatal period. Specifically, we studied how parental early adversity, attentional bias to infant faces, repetitive negative thinking, and demographic factors, were associated with pre- and postnatal depressive symptoms and parenting stress. Participants were expecting parents taking part in the Northern Babies Longitudinal Study, where assessments were made both pre- and postnatally. Assessments included both questionnaires and cognitive tasks. About half of the participants received the Newborn Behavior Observation (NBO)-intervention after birth, between pre- and postnatal assessments. Results show that repetitive negative thinking was a significant predictor of both depressive symptoms and parenting stress, while education, social support, and parity came out as protective factors, especially in mothers. Parental early adversity had an indirect effect on postnatal depressive symptoms and parenting stress, mediated by prenatal and postnatal depressive symptoms, respectively. The NBO intervention did not affect the results, signifying the importance of early childhood adverse events and negative thinking on parents' postnatal adjustment and mood, even when an intervention is provided. In conclusion, repetitive negative thinking is a significant vulnerability factor independent of the presence of depressive symptoms, and health professionals must be aware of parents’ thinking style both during pregnancy and after birth.

Scientific Attitude of Young Children through Literature and Project-Based Learning Organization

Young children’s scientific attitude is a basic norm of human kind to cultivated actual learning which has been an expected to be a curious, motivated, generous and responsible person. The study aims to investigate scientific attitude of young children through literature-based and project-based learning organization (LPBL). Participants were 25 of young children, age 5-6 years from Mahasarakham University Demonstration School (Elementary), Thailand. The duration of experiment was 8 weeks, 4 days a week and 90 minutes per day that was 32 times. The research instruments were 32 LPBL learning plans, learning behavior observation forms, scientific attitude inventory, and debriefing focuses group interviews. The statistics used in the study were average and standard deviation. The results showed that young children have scientific attitudes was at high level by means of LPBL learning organization. The qualitative data supported that they express scientific attitude accordance with nature of learning.

Salivary Chromogranin A (CgA) Response to the Noradrenaline Transporter Blocker Atomoxetine in Dogs

Since salivary chromogranin A (CgA) is one of the known sympathetic adrenomedullar system (SAM) stress markers in humans and pigs, this study aimed to investigate whether salivary CgA in dogs reflects SAM activation. Our hypothesis was that salivary CgA would increase when central noradrenaline was pharmacologically induced. A selective noradrenaline transporter blocker, atomoxetine, was orally administered without causing any aversive responses in nine laboratory dogs to see if it would increase salivary CgA. Three treatment groups (i.e., atomoxetine, placebo, and pre-administration of a selective alpha-2 adrenoreceptor agonist (dexmedetomidine) followed by atomoxetine) were prepared with a randomized crossover design. Saliva sample collection, heart rate measurement and behavior observation were performed at Time 0 (baseline) and at 30, 60, 90 and 150 min after each treatment administration. The results demonstrated that salivary CgA significantly increased at 90 and 150 min in the atomoxetine treatment (p < 0.05), whereas it was not observed in the other two treatments. The present study showed that salivary CgA was increased by atomoxetine-induced SAM activation. However, this increase was blocked if dexmedetomidine was pre-administered. Overall, the results indicate that salivary CgA is a potential candidate for SAM-mediated stress markers in dogs. Further study to determine the dynamics of salivary CgA will be helpful in its practical use.

Development of a Team Role Behavior Observation Tool: Insights and Considerations for Future Research

Today’s workforce is dependent on teams. Organizations are interested in positively influencing antecedents to team effectiveness such as team composition. While many factors have been studied thoroughly concerning team composition and effectiveness, team roles have not received comparable attention. Team roles refer to groups of generalizable, goal-directed behaviors that support team performance. Current team role assessments are reliant on surveys and peer ratings. To explore avenues that would enable comparisons between survey-based measures of team roles with benchmarks of observable behavior, we developed a behavior observation tool based on a team role taxonomy known as Team Role Experience and Orientation (TREO). We present the first iteration of this tool based on our review of team role literature, results of an inter-rater reliability assessment, and discuss its potential impact concerning future research and organizational utility. More work is needed to develop a construct-valid behavioral team role assessment.

Development of a Team Role Behavior Observation Tool: Insights and Considerations for Future Research

Today’s workforce is dependent on teams. Organizations are interested in positively influencing antecedents to team effectiveness such as team composition. While many factors have been studied thoroughly concerning team composition and effectiveness, team roles have not received comparable attention. Team roles refer to groups of generalizable, goal-directed behaviors that support team performance. Current team role assessments are reliant on surveys and peer ratings. To explore avenues that would enable comparisons between survey-based measures of team roles with benchmarks of observable behavior, we developed a behavior observation tool based on a team role taxonomy known as Team Role Experience and Orientation (TREO). We present the first iteration of this tool based on our review of team role literature, results of an inter-rater reliability assessment, and discuss its potential impact concerning future research and organizational utility. More work is needed to develop a construct-valid behavioral team role assessment.

The tardigrade Hypsibius exemplaris has the active mitochondrial alternative oxidase that could be studied at animal organismal level

Mitochondrial alternative oxidase (AOX) is predicted to be present in mitochondria of several invertebrate taxa including tardigrades. Independently of the reason concerning the enzyme occurrence in animal mitochondria, expression of AOX in human mitochondria is regarded as a potential therapeutic strategy. Till now, relevant data were obtained due to heterologous AOX expression in cells and animals without natively expressed AOX. Application of animals natively expressing AOX could importantly contribute to the research. Thus, we decided to investigate AOX activity in intact specimens of the tardigrade Hypsibius exemplaris. We observed that H. exemplaris specimens’ tolerance to the blockage of the mitochondrial respiratory chain (MRC) cytochrome pathway was diminished in the presence of AOX inhibitor and the inhibitor-sensitive respiration enabled the tardigrade respiration under condition of the blockage. Importantly, these observations correlated with relevant changes of the mitochondrial inner membrane potential (Δψ) detected in intact animals. Moreover, detection of AOX at protein level required the MRC cytochrome pathway blockage. Overall, we demonstrated that AOX activity in tardigrades can be monitored by the animals’ behavior observation as well as by measurement of intact specimens’ whole-body respiration and Δψ. Furthermore, it is also possible to check the impact of the MRC cytochrome pathway blockage on AOX level as well as AOX inhibition in the absence of the blockage on animal functioning. Thus, H. exemplaris could be consider as a whole-animal model suitable to study AOX.