Avoiding Predators

This chapter describes the behaviour that protects wild fish from predators, the external stimuli that elicit such behaviour, how it is affected by nutrient status and its link with stress physiology. The way antipredator behaviour develops is considered, including how inherited differences and experience influence this process, as are costs of showing effective antipredator behaviour and how these are traded off against its obvious benefits. Although cultured fish are protected against predation, they may still experience encounters with predators and much husbandry practice may be perceived by farmed fish as a potential threat. The problems for production, welfare and the environment caused by antipredator responses in cultured fish are discussed, as are problems arising from the fact that the behaviour of released fish may deviate from that shown by fish reared in nature. Potential solutions to such problems are reviewed, based on selecting appropriate fish for culture and on using husbandry practices that reduce the incidence of antipredator responses and, where fish are cultured for release, that mitigate the effects of domestication and captive rearing. Finally, some ways in which fish farmers can make use of the natural antipredator responses of their fish to improve the effectiveness of farming operations are discussed.

Applying imagined contact to improve physiological responses in anticipation of intergroup interactions and the perceived quality of these interactions

This experiment (N 5 49) is the first to show that imagined contact can bufferanticipatory physiological responses to future interactions, and improve the qualityof these interactions. Participants imagined a positive interaction with a person withschizophrenia, or in a control condition, a person who did not have schizophrenia. They then interacted with a confederate whom they believed had schizophrenia. Participants in the imagined contact condition reported more positive attitudes andless avoidance of people with schizophrenia, displayed smaller anticipatory physio-logical responses, specifically smaller changes in interbeat interval and skin conduct-ance responses, and had a more positive interaction according to the confederate.These findings support applying imagined contact to improve interactions with people with severe mental illnesses.

Neurophobia among general practice trainees: The evidence, perceived causes and solutions

Introduction

As general practice (GP) is the main source of referrals to neurologists, neurology education for GP trainees is important. We investigated the existence of neurophobia, contributing factors and potential prevention strategies among GP trainees.

In a questionnaire survey interest, knowledge, confidence and perceived difficulty in neurology were compared with different medical specialties. Reasons for difficulty with neurology, postgraduate neurology education experience, learning methods and suggested teaching improvements were examined.

Of 205 GP trainees, 118 (58%) completed the questionnaire. Threshold analyses justified categorical intervals for the Likert responses. Trainees recorded poorer knowledge (p < 0.001), less confidence (p < 0.001) and more perceived difficulty (p < 0.001) with neurology than with any other medical specialty. GP trainees had less interest in neurology than any other medical specialty (Duncan test, p < 0.001). There was a similar gradation in difficulty and confidence perception across medical specialties. Hospital and community-based neurology teaching was graded as “poor” or “very poor” by over 60% of GP trainees. There were multiple perceived causes of neurophobia, including neuroanatomy and poor quality teaching. More organised clinical teaching and referral guidance were suggested to address GP neurophobia.

Neurophobia is common among GP trainees in Northern Ireland. GP trainees have clear and largely uniform ideas on improving their neurology education. GP training posts should reflect the importance of neurology within the GP curriculum.

Trust, Satisfaction and Online Repurchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Perceived Effectiveness of E-commerce Institutional Mechanisms

The effects of e-commerce institutional mechanisms on trust and online purchase have traditionally been understood in the initial online purchase context. This study extends this literature by exploring the role of e-commerce institutional mechanisms in the online repurchase context. In doing so, it responds to the emerging call for understanding the institutional context under which customer trust operates in an e-commerce environment. Specifically, this study introduces a key moderator, perceived effectiveness of e-commerce institutional mechanisms (PEEIM), to the relationships between trust, satisfaction, and repurchase intention. Drawing on the theory of organizational trust, and based on a survey of 362 returning online customers, we find that PEEIM negatively moderates the relationship between trust in an online vendor and online customer repurchase intention, as it decreases the importance of trust to promoting repurchase behavior. We also find that PEEIM positively moderates the relationship between customer satisfaction and trust as it enhances the customer’s reliance on past transaction experience with the vendor to reevaluate trust in the vendor. Consistent with the predictions made in the literature, PEEIM does not directly affect trust or repurchase intention. Academic and practical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Genetic assessment of parentage in the caridean rock shrimp Rhynchocinetes typus based on microsatellite markers

Over the past decade, the common rock shrimp, Rhynchocinetes typus H. Milne Edwards, 1837, has been the focus of extensive investigations on mating behaviour. The species is now perceived as a model system for the study of reproductive strategies and sexual conflict in crustaceans displaying external fertilization. Using molecular markers, the current study assesses whether social mating behaviour in common rock shrimp translates into true genetic parentage. In a large mesocosm tank with >200 individuals of both sexes, the analysis of 15 families (22 eggs per female) for three informative microsatellites unambiguously confirmed multiple paternity in 11 instances (73%) involving, in each case, two to four males. Where more than one male was identified siring a particular brood, reproductive skew was apparent towards a single individual. Results suggest that multiple paternity in this species results from subordinate male coercive behaviour, female solicitation of multiple male matings or a combination of both.

The Relationship Between Laughter Intensity and Perceived Humour

There is a long history of recognizing a continuum in social signals of positive affect, with the continuum ranging from mild amusement signals to strong laughter. However there has been little systematic effort to assess what this continuum might mean. We present data that shows that incorporating intensity measures of laughter into laughter research is an important component and that there is a strong relationship between laughter intensity and humour. This may be intuitively obvious but the strength of the relationship suggests that intensity measures should be included in all laughter research.

A Qualitative Exploration of Perceived Key Knowledge and Skills in End-of-Life Care in Dementia Patients among Medical, Nursing, and Pharmacy Students

Background: The steady increase in the number of people living and dying with dementia, coupled with the recent focus on quality of care, has highlighted the importance of dementia training for health care professionals. This exploratory study aimed to discover which skills health care students felt were important in providing quality end-of-life care to dementia patients.

Methods: Ninety-four medicine, nursing, and pharmacy students participated in a larger study using open-ended and closed questions to explore attitudes related to caring for dementia patients at the end of life. This study looks at the student responses to an open-ended question regarding the skills and knowledge they believe are needed to provide end-of-life care to dementia patients. Individual responses were reviewed by the researchers, coded into key issues, and tabulated for frequency of occurrences and group differences.

Results: Several common issues emerged: knowledge, patience, empathy, understanding, family involvement, compassion, medication knowledge, respect/patient autonomy, communication, quality of life, and patient education. Significant differences were observed among the participant groups on the following issues: Patience and understanding (pharmacy students mentioned these issues less frequently than medical and nursing students), compassion (medical students mentioned this issue more frequently than pharmacy students), and medication knowledge (pharmacy students mentioned this issue more frequently than medical and nursing students).

Conclusions: Different health care disciplines (in-training) value different skill sets for the provision of dementia care at the end-of-life. As health care education for dementia patients at the end of life is expanded, it will be important to understand which skills both patients and health care students value.

Caught in a 'spiral': barriers to healthy eating and dietary health promotion needs from the perspective of unemployed young people and their service providers

The number of young people in Europe who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) is increasing. Given that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to have diets of poor nutritional quality, this exploratory study sought to understand barriers and facilitators to healthy eating and dietary health promotion needs of unemployed young people aged 16-20 years. Three focus group discussions were held with young people (n=14). Six individual interviews and one paired interview with service providers (n=7). Data were recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematically content analysed. Themes were then fitted to social cognitive theory (SCT). Despite understanding of the principles of healthy eating, a ‘spiral’ of interrelated social, economic and associated psychological problems was perceived to render food and health of little value and low priority for the young people. The story related by the young people and corroborated by the service providers was of a lack of personal and vicarious experience with food. External, environmental factors such as the proliferation and proximity of fast food outlets and the high perceived cost of ‘healthy’ compared to ‘junk’ food rendered the young people low in self-efficacy and perceived control to make healthier food choices. Agency was instead expressed through consumption of junk food and substance abuse. Both the young people and service providers agreed that for dietary health promotion efforts to succeed, social problems needed addressed and agency encouraged through (individual and collective) active engagement of the young people themselves.

UK publicly funded Clinical Trials Units supported a controlled access approach to share individual participant data but highlighted concerns

OBJECTIVES: Evaluate current data sharing activities of UK publicly funded Clinical Trial Units (CTUs) and identify good practices and barriers.

STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Web-based survey of Directors of 45 UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC)-registered CTUs.

RESULTS: Twenty-three (51%) CTUs responded: Five (22%) of these had an established data sharing policy and eight (35%) specifically requested consent to use patient data beyond the scope of the original trial. Fifteen (65%) CTUs had received requests for data, and seven (30%) had made external requests for data in the previous 12 months. CTUs supported the need for increased data sharing activities although concerns were raised about patient identification, misuse of data, and financial burden. Custodianship of clinical trial data and requirements for a CTU to align its policy to their parent institutes were also raised. No CTUs supported the use of an open access model for data sharing.

CONCLUSION: There is support within the publicly funded UKCRC-registered CTUs for data sharing, but many perceived barriers remain. CTUs are currently using a variety of approaches and procedures for sharing data. This survey has informed further work, including development of guidance for publicly funded CTUs, to promote good practice and facilitate data sharing.

Shape Memory Alloy Features for Seismic Retrofitting of External RC Beam-Column Joint

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) have the ability to undergo large deformations with minimum residual strain and also the extraordinary ability to undergo reversible hysteretic shape change known as the shape memory effect. The shape memory effect of these alloys can be utilised to develop a convenient way of actively confining concrete sections to improve their shear strength, flexural ductility and ultimate strain capacity. Most of the previous work on active confinement of concrete using SMA has been carried out on circular sections. In this study retrofitting strategies for active confinement of non-circular sections have been proposed. The proposed schemes presented in this paper are conceived with an aim to seismically retrofit a beam-column joint in non-seismically designed reinforced concrete buildings.

The complex material behaviour of SMAs depends on number of parameters. Depending upon the alloying elements, SMAs exhibit different behaviour in different conditions and are highly sensitive to variation in temperature, phase in which it is used, loading pattern, strain rate and pre-strain conditions. Therefore, a detailed discussion on the behaviour of SMAs under different thermo-mechanical conditions is presented first in this paper.

A survey of perceived training differences between ophthalmology residents in Hong Kong and China.

Background: To study the differences in ophthalmology resident training between China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).Methods: Training programs were selected from among the largest and best-known teaching hospitals. Ophthalmology residents were sent an anonymous 48-item questionnaire by mail. Work satisfaction, time allocation between training activities and volume of surgery performed were determined.Results: 50/75 residents (66.7 %) from China and 20/26 (76.9 %) from HKSAR completed the survey. Age (28.9 ± 2.5 vs. 30.2 ± 2.9 years, p = 0.15) and number of years in training (3.4 ± 1.6 vs. 2.8 ± 1.5, p = 0.19) were comparable between groups. The number of cataract procedures performed by HKSAR trainees (extra-capsular, median 80.0, quartile range: 30.0, 100.0; phacoemulsification, median: 20.0, quartile range: 0.0, 100.0) exceeded that for Chinese residents (extra-capsular: median = 0, p < 0.0001; phacoemulsification: median = 0, p < 0.0001). Chinese trainees spent more time completing medical charts (>50 % of time on charts: 62.5 % versus 5.3 %, p < 0.0001) and received less supervision (≥90 % of training supervised: 4.4 % versus 65 %, p < 0.0001). Chinese residents were more likely to feel underpaid (96.0 % vs. 31.6 %, p < 0.0001) and hoped their children would not practice medicine (69.4 % vs. 5.0 %, p = 0.0001) compared HKSAR residents.Conclusions: In this study, ophthalmology residents in China report strikingly less surgical experience and supervision, and lower satisfaction than HKSAR residents. The HKSAR model of hands-on resident training might be useful in improving the low cataract surgical rate in China.

A role for local mechanisms in perceived duration of brief visual events

Background: Spatially localized duration compression of a briefly presented moving stimulus following adaptation in the same location is taken as evidence for modality-specific neural timing mechanisms.

Aims: The present study used random dot motion stimuli to investigate where these mechanisms may be located.

Method: Experiment 1 measured duration compression of the test stimulus as a function of adaptor speed and revealed that duration compression is speed tuned. These data were then used to make predictions of duration compression responses for various models which were tested in experiment 2. Here a mixed-speed adaptor stimulus was used with duration compression being measured as a function of the adaptor’s ‘speed notch’ (the removal of a central band from the speed range).

Results: The results were consistent with a local-mean model.

Conclusions: Local-motion mechanisms are involved in duration perception of brief events.