Effects of stress during commercial hatching on growth, egg production and feather pecking in laying hens

Every year, billions of egg layer chicks around the world are hatched under highly stressful, industrial circumstances. Here, it is investigated how the stressful procedure in the commercial hatchery, including incubation, hatching, processing, and transport affects the chicks with regards to traits relevant for the egg production industry. These traits were compared to those of a control group hatched in a small incubator and handled gently och quietly in a quiet room without any processing and transport. The chicks were weighed at hatch and at eight additional time points: 4 days, 1 week (w), 2 w, 3 w, 5 w, 8 w, 20 w and 25 w of age. Feather pecking was studied at 15 w of age and damages to the feathers and injuries on the comb and wattle were assessed at 25 w of age. From 19 w of age, eggs were collected on three days per week, counted and weighed. Chicks from a commercial hatchery had a lower hatch weight than control chicks (p<0.001). At 20 w of age, the weight of the commercial hatched chicks was still numerically lower, although this did not reach statistical significance. Commercially hatched chicks tended to show more feather pecking behaviour at 15 w of age compared to control chicks (p<0.1), although feather condition at 25 w of age showed the opposite pattern. Regarding production, commercially hatched chickens laid fewer (p<0.05) and smaller (p<0.05) eggs than chicks hatched and handled under calm circumstances. From this experiment, it is concluded that the stressful experience in the commercial hatchery has an overall negative effect on traits relevant for the industry.

Preventing exclusion: the role of therapists and parents in the inclusion of a disabled child in the education system

Choosing an educational system for a disabled child already at the stage of pre-school education is a difficult and stressful experience for parents, which regardless of the final decision, raises many doubts. Certain questions arise: ‘where there is a place in the education system for the child with a disability certificate?’, ‘where the child can develop best?’, but also ‘where the child simply feels happy and does not experience exclusion?’. Many things depend on the level of the child’s disability, on key choices made by parents, and on the quality of cooperation, both in the three-way parent-therapist-child relationship, but also in the two-way parent-child and therapist-child relationships. Parents more and more often make decisions about inclusive education, where a child can develop amongst non-disabled peers. This article focuses primarily on the role of parents and therapists in the process of including a disabled child in the education system, the potential of cooperation, but also the fears, difficulties and expectations accompanying both sides.

New Metabolic, Digestive, and Oxidative Stress-Related Manifestations Associated with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) represents a pressing and generally invalidating syndrome that is triggered by a terrifying or stressful experience, relying on recurrently reliving the traumatic event feelings associated to it, which is subsequently linked to ongoing activations of stress-related neurobiological pathways and is often associated with neurodegeneration. In this paper, we examine what lies beneath this disorder, reviewing evidence that connects PTSD with a wide array of mechanisms and its intertwined pathways that can lead to the decompensation of different pathologies, such as cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal ailments, autoimmune disorders, and endocrine diseases. Also, the significance of the oxidative stress in this frame of reference is debated. Thus, knowing and identifying the main features of the distressing experience, the circumstances around it, as well as the neuropsychological and emotional characteristics of people prone to develop PTSD after going through disturbing incidents can offer an opportunity to anticipate the development of potential destructive consequences in several psychological dimensions: cognitive, affective, relational, behavioral, and somatic. We can also observe more closely the intricate connections of the disorder to other pathologies and their underlying mechanisms such as inflammation, oxidative stress, bacterial overgrowth syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, metabolic disorders, oxytocin, and cortisol in order to understand it better and to optimize the course of treatment and its management. The complex foundation PTSD possesses is supported by the existing clinical, preclinical, and experimental data encompassed in the current review. Different biological systems and processes such as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, sympathetic nervous system, oxidative stress, inflammation, and microbiome suffer modifications and changes when it comes to PTSD; that is why targeted therapies exert tremendous alleviations of symptoms in patients diagnosed with this disorder. Therefore, this implies that PTSD is not restricted to the psychiatric domain and should be viewed as a systemic condition.

Literature Review : Terapi Bermain Clay dalam Menurunkan Respon Kecemasan pada Anak Usia Prasekolah Akibat Hospitalisasi

Hospitalization is a stase of crisis in child encounters since they are confined in unfamiliar place which sick or injured persons are given medical or surgical treatment. Hence, Hospitalization may cause anxiety and stressful experience for both the child and the parent. One of the methods to reduce anxiety is playing clay. The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of clay therapy in reducing anxiety among hospitalized children. This study is a literature review by finding research articles on Google Scholar. Three papers with 89 total respondents were analyzed in this study. The result showed that before the clay play therapy, the level of anxiety encompassed: no anxiety 1 (1.1%), mild anxiety 15 (16.85%), moderate anxiety 15 (16.85%), severe anxiety 26 (29.2%), and panic 32 (36%). In comparison, the level of anxiety after playing clay therapy was no anxiety 18 (20.2%), mild anxiety 16 (18.0%), moderate anxiety 29 (32.6%), severe anxiety 22 (24,7%), and panic 4 (4,5%). The findings in this review concluded that clay play therapy might effectively reduce anxiety among hospitalized preschool-aged children. Suggestions for healthcare providers are to implement therapy with clay to reduce anxiety due to hospitalization.Keywords:Hospitalization; anxiety; play therapy:clay AbstrakHospitalisasi ini merupakan suatu keadaan krisis pada anak, saat anak sakit dan dirawat di rumah sakit. Perawatan di rumah sakit merupakan pengalaman yang penuh stres, baik bagi anak maupun orang tua. Pengalaman yang sering dialami oleh anak selama menjalani hospitalisasi adalah kecemasan. Salah satu upaya dalam menurunkan kecemasan adalah terapi bermain clay pada anak usia prasekolah yang mengalami kecemasan akibat hospitalisasi. Tujuan dari penulisan ini adalah untuk mengetahui perbedaan tingkat kecemasan pada anak usia prasekolah yang mengalami hospitalisasi sebelum dan sesudah dilakukan terapi bermain clay. Metode penulisan mengguakan literature review dari tiga artikel penelitian yang diambil dari google scholar. Subjek penelitian adalah anak usia prasekolah yang mengalami kecemasan minimal ringan. Tingkat kecemaasan sebelum dilakukan tindakan terapi bermain claydengan 89 responden yaitu kriteria tidak cemas 1 (1,1%), cemas ringan 15 (16,85%), cemas sedang 15 (16,85%), cemas berat 26 (29,2%), dan cemas sangat berat 32 (36%). Tingkat kecemasan setelah dilakukan terapi bermain clay yaitu tidak cemas 18 (20,2%), cemas ringan 16 (18,0%), cemas sedang 29 (32,6%), cemas berat 22 (24,7%) dan cemas sangat berat 4 (4,5). Kesimpulan dari hasil literature review ini yaitu terapi bermain clay dalam menurunkan tingkat kecemasan pada anak usia prasekolah yang mengalami hospitalisasi dengan p value 0,000. Saran bagi tenaga kesehatan untuk dapat menerapkan terapi bermain clay sebagai salah satu intervensi dalam menurunkan tingkat kecemasan pada anak usia prasekolah akibat hospitalisasi.Kata kunci:Hospitalisasi; kecemasan; terapi bermain clay

98 Takotsubo syndrome in COVID-19 era: is psycological distress the key?

Covid-19 pandemic, starting from Wuhan, China has spread all over the word and Italy was one of the most affected countries, especially in Lombardy, where, on 20 February the first case was confirmed. Italian Government ordered a national lockdown on the 9 March 2020, forcing the population to severe restrictive isolation measures. The burden on mental health of the medical emergency related to COVID-19 is progressively been revealed. Takotsubo syndrome (TTS), is estimated to represent 1–3% of patients admitted with suspected STEMI, mostly affecting elderly women with emotional stress and/or acute illness preceding the presentation. Comparing patients hospitalized from February to May 2020 with those of the corresponding period in 2019 we observed a significantly increased number of TTS diagnosis in 2020 (11 patients in 2020 vs. 3 in 2019), especially during the first period of lockdown. The only two males were patients with COVID-19 and were the only two who died in hospital. At psychological examination all patients enrolled report to have lived a particularly stressful experience at IES-R in the last year, without presenting the symptoms of a post-traumatic stress disorder. Most patients were positive to the allostatic overload. Only one patient showed a clinical cut-off for HADS and no one for the fear COVID-19 scale. We finally concluded that subjects with pre-pandemic psychological distress may have experienced additional psychological overload, opening the door to TTS by a series of physiological alterations as the secretion of cortisol and catecholamines, making the subject more vulnerable to the onset of TTS.

Predicting Hair Cortisol and Cortisone Concentration in Postpartum Women through Repeated Measurements of Perceived Stress

To investigate whether hair cortisol (HCC) and hair cortisone (HCNC) can be predicted by repeated stress reports from postpartum women in different mental health conditions (non-depressed, ND, adjustment disorder, AD, postpartum depression, PPD), 240 mothers (mean age 31.8 years; SD = 4.7) were monitored from within 1 to 6 days of childbirth over a period of three months. HCC and HCNC in 3 cm hair samples were assessed via triple mass spectrometry after liquid chromatographic separation. Every second day, participants reported their stress levels online. The summed perceived stress scores were not found to be predictive of HCC. However, perceived stress predicted a decrease in HCNC (rSpearman = –0.153, p = 0.035) and an increase in the HCC/HCNC ratio (rSpearman = 0.304, p < 0.001) in the ND group. With AD in the first few weeks after childbirth, an inverse effect appeared for HCNC (rSpearman = 0.318, p = 0.011), suggesting an overall downregulation of the HPA axis owing to the stressful experience of adjusting to the new situation. No effects were found for mothers developing PPD. The indirect results of HPA-axis activity are better indicators of the experience of psychological stress in postpartum women than the absolute HCC value.

Trauma, Narrative and History: Representation of Traumatic Experience in the Works of Algirdas Landsbergis

The twentieth century witnessed an abundant number of traumatic events related to dark history. Trauma caused by war, occupation, exile, repression, gave rise to migration or mass murder. To rely upon Cathy Caruth (1996: 3), the concept of trauma is understood as a physical wound; however, subsequently in medicine and the literature of psychiatry, especially in Freud’s works, the concept of trauma came to be understood as a psychological wound. In addition, trauma is not only a disturbing or stressful experience that affects an individual physically or psychologically, it may also be based on other factors created by society. Over time the field of trauma in various contexts expanded so that today it is widely used in sociology when analysing historical and cultural events. Cultural traumatic memory is mirrored in trauma fiction that conveys the experience of loss and suffering, there is a space for memories, introspection, recollections, flashbacks and awful remembrances that are colored by pain. Apart from individual, event-based trauma, there is another category of trauma variously called cultural or historical trauma, which affects groups of people. Numerous studies have been conducted on the latter topic, however, trauma and its expression in Lithuanian literature has not yet been sufficiently documented. The aim of this study is to discuss the concepts of cultural and historical trauma and the way trauma is reflected in Algirdas Jeronimas Landsbergis’ works. The authors of the study claim that Landsbergis – one of many Lithuanian writers-in-exile – wrote texts that fill a cultural vacuum and invite a re-discussion of what was most painful in the past.

Modeling Growth and Resilience Among Military Personnel

The prospect that people can be resilient to—or even grow from—a stressful experience is an alluring possibility—especially so for soldiers and veterans. Some have proposed that deploying and military experiences provide soldiers with enduring mental resources and toughness that are protective for the rest of their lives. However, definitive evidence for growth and resilience among military personnel has proved elusive. Part of the unknowns about growth and resilience can be attributable to how people think about and model questions related to growth and resilience. In this chapter, the author provides two empirical examples—changes in depressive symptoms among veterans and changes in character strengths among deploying soldiers—to illustrate how different conceptualizations, methods, and analyses can dramatically change the inferences we make about growth and resilience. The demonstrations provide an increased understanding about methodological flexibility in the study of growth and resilience and some expectations about how and why individuals might change in response to adversity.

Title: “Labels Matter: Is it stress or is it Trauma?”

In neuroscience, the term ‘Stress’ has a negative connotation because of its potential to trigger or exacerbate psychopathologies. Yet in the face of exposure to stress, the more common reaction to stress is resilience, indicating that resilience is the rule and stress-related pathology the exception. This is critical because neural mechanisms associated with stress-related psychopathology are expected to differ significantly from those associated with resilience.Research labels and terminology affect research directions, conclusions drawn from the results, and the way we think about a topic, while choice of labels is often influenced by biases and hidden assumptions. It is therefore important to adopt a terminology that differentiates between stress conditions, leading to different outcomes.Here, we propose to conceptually associate the term ‘stress’/‘stressful experience’ with ‘stress resilience’, while restricting the use of the term ‘trauma’ only in reference to exposures that lead to pathology. We acknowledge that there are as yet no ideal ways for addressing the murkiness of the border between stressful and traumatic experiences. Yet ignoring these differences hampers our ability to elucidate the mechanisms of trauma-related pathologies on the one hand, and of stress resilience on the other. Accordingly, we discuss how to translate such conceptual terminology into research practice.

The phantoms of the opera—Stress offstage and stress onstage

During opera performance singers deliver vocally demanding roles, follow a conductor, portray emotions of a musical work, act, dance, and engage with costumes, sets and props before an audience. Hence, opera performance is a stressful experience. This study examined different types of stress experiences by measuring the trajectories of 10 opera trainees’ heart rate variability (HRV) during two performances, covering onstage and offstage periods. We explored connections between HRV, self-reported stress measures, and expert-rated difficulty of the performed roles. We discovered that opera trainees had lower HRV and thus experienced greater physiological stress, while onstage compared to offstage periods. In contrast, when asked about performance specific stress, opera trainees self-reported that they felt more nervous when they were offstage. This disconnect between physiological measurement and psychological self-assessment suggests that there are two relevant types of stress for opera performance: psychological stress, which is felt more keenly offstage, and physiological stress, which is greater onstage. Patterns of association between HRV and self-reported measures suggest that HRV is linked to general (not performance-specific) stress. Patterns between self-reported measures suggest that music performance anxiety relates to trait anxiety. Our results indicate specific targets for possible interventions for stress management in opera singers.