Reward and aversion encoding in the lateral habenula for innate and learned behaviours

Throughout life, individuals experience a vast array of positive and aversive events that trigger adaptive behavioural responses. These events are often unpredicted and engage actions that are likely anchored on innate behavioural programs expressed by each individual member of virtually all animal species. In a second step, environmental cues, that are initially neutral, acquire value through the association with external sensory stimuli, and become instrumental to predict upcoming positive or negative events. This process ultimately prompts learned goal-directed actions allowing the pursuit of rewarding experience or the avoidance of a danger. Both innate and learned behavioural programs are evolutionarily conserved and fundamental for survival. Among the brain structures participating in the encoding of positive/negative stimuli and contributing to innate and learned behaviours is the epithalamic lateral habenula (LHb). The LHb provides top-down control of monoaminergic systems, responds to unexpected appetitive/aversive stimuli as well as external cues that predict the upcoming rewards or punishments. Accordingly, the LHb controls a number of behaviours that are innate (originating from unpredicted stimuli), and learned (stemming from predictive cues). In this review, we will discuss the progresses that rodent’s experimental work made in identifying how LHb activity governs these vital processes, and we will provide a view on how these findings integrate within a complex circuit connectivity.

Focus on One or More? Cultural Similarities and Differences in How Parents Talk About Social Events to Preschool Children

How parents talk about social events shapes their children’s understanding of the social world and themselves. In this study, we show that parents in a society that more strongly values individualism (the United States) and one that more strongly values collectivism (Japan) differ in how they talk about negative social events, but not positive ones. An animal puppet show presented positive social events (e.g., giving a gift) and negative social events (e.g., knocking over another puppet’s block tower). All shows contained two puppets, an actor and a recipient of the event. We asked parents to talk to their 3- and 4-years old children about these events. A total of 26 parent–child dyads from the United States (M = 41.92 months) and Japan (M = 42.77 months) participated. The principal dependent measure was how much parent talk referred to the actor of each type of social event. There were no cultural differences observed in positive events – both the United States and Japanese parents discussed actors more than recipients. However, there were cultural differences observed in negative events – the United States parents talked mostly about the actor but Japanese parents talked equally about the actor and the recipient of the event. The potential influences of these differences on early cognitive and social development are discussed.

Good is stronger than bad for eudaimonic well-being

Perceived changes in basic beliefs and growth related to life events were examined in three studies. A representative sample (N = 885), a sample of students and their families (N = 291) and a sample of students (N = 245) responded with a list of positive and negative life events, a scale of changes in basic beliefs and a post-traumatic growth scale. Positive events were strongly associated with changes in basic beliefs, while only weak associations were found for negative events. In addition, negative changes in basic beliefs were associated with growth only in negative life events and positive changes in basic beliefs were generally associated with growth.

The Use of Rumination and Reappraisal in Adolescents Daily Life: Links to Affect and Emotion Regulation Style

This study explored the association between temperament—i.e., positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA)—and emotion regulation (ER), and what momentary factors influence the selection of rumination or reappraisal during adolescents’ daily life. The type of social situation in which negative events occurred, the self-rated degrees of discomfort, the types of predominant emotions experienced, and the use of reappraisal and rumination were assessed at 24 different times with an ecological momentary assessment approach given to 71 adolescents. PA, NA, and ER style were evaluated using self-reports. Bivariate Pearson correlations analysis revealed that NA and negative ER style correlated positively with the rumination use whereas PA correlated negatively with the rumination use. Negative ER style moderated the relationship between NA and the frequency with which rumination was used. The moderated function of positive ER style could not be tested due to its lack of association with the rumination use. Adolescents selected rumination more often during family-related events and when experiencing depression-like emotions. No interaction effects were shown between negative ER style and the momentary factors related with the type of social situation and the type of prevailing emotion during negative event. No associations between study variables and reappraisal were found. This study provides a better understanding of ER patterns in adolescence.

Autonomous Corrosion and Scale Management in Electric Submersible Pump Wells

Producers find a considerable amount of their operating expense (OPEX) comes from managing risks associated with corrosion and scale. Monitoring and chemical adjustment workflows are typically manual, and performed at low frequencies, leading to delays in event detection. As a result, the potential for negative events such as production shutdowns and well failures increase. This project's scope integrates chemistry domain experience with edge analytics, machine learning models, and intelligent equipment, to transform manual processes into an autonomous solution. The goal is to optimize operations, reduce well failures and workover costs, and maximize production. This solution is currently deployed in an oilfield, that has been historically challenged with a high number of electric submersible pump (ESP) failures due to corrosion and scale that resulted in significant production losses and unforeseen workover costs. The designed digital architecture supports autonomous management of scale and corrosion through remote monitoring and automated chemical injection. Real-time data is acquired from connected equipment, processed in an edge device running artificial intelligence, and autonomously sent to chemical pumps. Data from sensors, connected devices, and models are visualized in cloud applications, or integrated into existing client systems for end user analysis and full visibility of the entire process. The results show highly accurate models, precise chemical injection, and a reduction of well failures.

Critical Events as Factors Shaping Life Experiences

The article presents the life story of an elderly woman, the sense of the quality of her life, the critical events that shaped her life, and the lessons learned from her experiences. The study adopted a biographical paradigm, which explains the importance of individual biographies in the education process and indicates the need to study the history of life as a source of knowledge about man and his learning. The main aim of the undertaken research was to recognise the meanings that the respondent gives to critical events in shaping the quality of her life. The biographical method was used, and, within it, an autobiographical narrative interview. The most significant events assessed as positive were the births of her children. The negative events were in particular: the deaths of close ones, a failed marriage and an accident. In coping with suffering, the woman was helped by: help from others, faith, strength, optimism, activity, activities for the benefit of others, and her value system. Lessons emerged from the subject’s history, helpful in her life, which can also inspire others. The narrator tried to live in harmony with her conscience and the accepted principles, which gave her satisfaction. Biographical research has an educational function. Life stories can teach what is important in life, what is worth living for, and they can lead to reflections.

Robustness of Supersaturated Design to Study the Causes of Medical Errors

Background. In the modern contemporary, there are obvious demands for accurate interpretations of the worldwide problem, which is medication errors (MEs) due to various serious negative events that effect patient health. Most parts of the world considered health as significant issue for centuries. Recently, investigators have examined the effects of writing physician orders from the nurse’s viewpoint and represent that 100% of ambiguous writing of doctor orders related directly to MEs. Objective. The aim of our work is to investigate the major causes of (MEs) in the Saudi Arabia population from multiple aspects. Methods. An online review gave quantitative information from 450 members. Respondents were heedlessly parceled into two conditions (Yes+, No−) and mentioned to respond to one of two plans of the explanations behind the medical errors. Fourteen determining factors in the predesign have been chosen. Entire data were collected relevant to the study purpose and the content of the questionnaire written suitably to the participants with no ambiguous terms to analyze obtained data accurately using supersaturated plans and regression methods utilizing the SPSS program to decide the real causes of the medical errors. Results. The findings indicated that often failures in the care process can be traced back to poor documentation and a lack or inadequacy of procedures; the limitations of integrated health systems between the doctor and pharmacists, human problems when standards of care, policies, processes, or procedures are not properly or effectively followed, inadequate use of technology in healthcare facilities, and unclear line of prescription from the doctor are factors that contributed to the medical errors. Conclusion. The Saudi Arabian government needs to foster a functional arrangement to examine these reasons for medical errors and make a move. Future investigations could break down the information utilizing edge plans technique.