Emotional experiences and psychological well-being in 51 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic presents challenges to psychological well-being, but how can we predict when people suffer or cope during sustained stress? Here, we test the prediction that specific types of momentary emotional experiences are differently linked to psychological well-being during the pandemic. Study 1 used survey data collected from 24,221 participants in 51 countries during the COVID-19 outbreak. We show that, across countries, well-being is linked to individuals' recent emotional experiences, including calm, hope, anxiety, loneliness, and sadness. Consistent results are found in two age, sex, and ethnicity-representative samples in the United Kingdom (n = 971) and the United States (n = 961) with preregistered analyses (Study 2). A prospective 30-day daily diary study conducted in the United Kingdom (n = 110) confirms the key role of these five emotions and demonstrates that emotional experiences precede changes in well-being (Study 3). Our findings highlight differential relationships between specific types of momentary emotional experiences and well-being and point to the cultivation of calm and hope as candidate routes for well-being interventions during periods of sustained stress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Topical Application of Siberian Pine Essential Oil Formulations Enhance Diabetic Wound Healing.

This study aimed to develop novel topical formulations based on a natural component (0.5% of Siberian pine essential oil) and to assess its wound-healing capacity through macroscopic, histopathological, and biochemical examination. The phytochemical profile of Pinus sibirica essential oil (PSEO) and rheological analysis and safety potential of formulations were determined. The wound-healing effect was evaluated on an excision wound model in diabetic Wistar albino rats randomly divided into the following groups topically treated with (1) untreated, (2) 1% silver sulfadiazine, (3) ointment base, (4) gel base, (5) PSEO ointment, and (6) PSEO gel. Formulations containing PSEO were stable and safe for skin application. Three weeks of treatment with both PSEO formulations (ointment and gel) led to a significant reduction in wound size (98.14% and 96.28%, respectively) and a remarkably higher level of total hydroxyproline content (9.69 µg/mg and 7.26 µg/mg dry tissue, respectively) relative to the control group (65.97%; 1.81 µg/mg dry tissue). These findings were in correlation with histopathological results. Topically applied PSEO formulations were associated with a significant reduction in most of the measured pro-oxidants and enhanced activity of the antioxidant defense system enzymes (p < 0.05). Our findings showed that gel and ointment with PSEO demonstrated significant wound-repairing capabilities in the excision wound model.

First report of Aspergillus welwitschiae causing maize ear rot in Serbia.

In recent years, countries in Southeast Europe are facing climate changes characterized by extreme hot weather, which contribute to the increased frequency of Aspergillus species. Because of these changes, Aspergillus parasiticus was isolated, for the first time, from maize grain in Serbia (Nikolic et al, 2018). The presence of black powdery mycelia on maize ears indicated occurrence of species of the genus Aspergillus section Nigri, which led to the need for detailed identification of these fungi. Disease incidence ranged from 10 and 15% in August 2013. Maize ears with black powdery symptoms were collected from field in Zemun Polje, Serbia. Symptomatic kernels were surface sterilized with 1% sodium hypochlorite solution for 3 min, rinsed three times with sterilized water, then incubated at 25°C in the dark for 7 days on potato dextrose agar (PDA). Twenty isolates were identified as genus Aspergillus section Nigri. Monospore cultures formed black cottony colonies with a yellowish border on PDA. The average colony diameter was 50 mm. In order to reliably identify, isolates were transferred to Malt Extract agar (MEA) and Czapek Yeast Autolysate agar (CYA) (Samson et al, 2014). On CYA fungal colonies consisted of a white mycelium, covered by a layer of black conidiophores. On MEA fungal colonies were dense, black, with yellowish border. The reverse side was colorless to pale yellow, with a yellow ring in the middle. The average size of conidia was 4.3 µm. The conidia were globose to sub-globose, smooth to roughened, which coincides with previous research (Silva et al, 2020). Given that the fungi Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus welwitschiae are morphologically indistinguishable (Susca et al, 2016), species level identification was completed by analysis of a partial sequence of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region (ITS1/ITS4 primers) and calmodulin gene (CMD5/CMD6 primers) (Samson et al., 2014). The sequences were compared with the sequences of A. welwitschiae strains registered in the GenBank database based on nucleotide similarity, and results showed 99,64 and 100% similarity with ITS (OL711714) and calmodulin (KX894585), respectively. The sequence was deposited in GenBank with accession numbers OQ456471 (ITS) and OQ426518 (calmodulin). We also confirmed the presence of this species with specific primers (AWEL1/AWEL2) designed by Susca et al. 2020. Pathogenicity test was performed in Zemun Polje on the same maize hybrid from which the fungal species was isolated. Using artificial inoculations by the injecting conidial suspension into the silk channel, three days after 50% of plants reached the silking stage. Twenty ears were inoculated with each isolate, in four replicates (Reid et al, 1996). Inoculum was prepared from 7-day-old colonies on PDA, and 2 ml of a conidial suspension (1×106 spores/ml) was used. Control plants were inoculated with sterile water. All inoculated ears showed symptoms, similar to those from field infections. Control ears were symptomless. The fungus was reisolated and was morphologically identical to the original isolates, thus completing Koch's postulates. Based on molecular, morphological and pathogenic properties, the isolates were identified as A. welwitschiae. This is the first report of A. welwitschiae as the causal agent of black maize ear rot not only in Serbia, but also in the other countries of the Western Balkans. Given that the fungus A. welwitschiae synthesizes both ochratoxin A (OTA) (Battilani et al, 2006) and fumonisin (FB) (Frisvad et al, 2011), further studies should be focused on assessment its aggressiveness and toxicological profile.

Parental socialization of guilt and shame in early childhood.

Self-conscious emotions emerge early in human development and they help children navigate social relationships. Little is known about the socialization of self-conscious emotions in early childhood. We theorized that parental mental state language use and warmth would be important for young children's self-conscious emotions and their consequent prosocial behaviors. Ninety-eight children residing in the Netherlands (52% girls) aged 2-5 (M = 48.66 months, SD = 13.50 months) visited the research lab with one parent. First, we observed parental mental state language and warmth. Afterward, children were led to believe that they caused a mishap (i.e., accidentally breaking the experimenter's favorite toy) to evoke their guilt and shame, which we micro-coded. In subsequent tasks, we observed children's helping behaviors toward the experimenter. We found that the combination of frequent parental mental state language and high warmth was associated with children's quicker helping to the previously harmed experimenter across toddlerhood and early childhood. More guilt was related to more helping whereas more shame-like avoidance was related to less helping. Our findings based on the sample of Dutch parents and children suggest that, parental frequent mental state talk, in combination with high warmth, may promote children's ability to repair social relationships and behave prosocially after mishaps.

Facial mimicry and metacognitive judgments in emotion recognition are distinctly modulated by social anxiety and autistic traits.

Facial mimicry as well as the accurate assessment of one's performance when judging others' emotional expressions have been suggested to inform successful emotion recognition. Differences in the integration of these two information sources might explain alterations in the perception of others' emotions in individuals with Social Anxiety Disorder and individuals on the autism spectrum. Using a non-clinical sample (N = 57), we examined the role of social anxiety and autistic traits in the link between facial mimicry, or confidence in one's performance, and emotion recognition. While participants were presented with videos of spontaneous emotional facial expressions, we measured their facial muscle activity, asked them to label the expressions and indicate their confidence in accurately labelling the expressions. Our results showed that confidence in emotion recognition was lower with higher social anxiety traits even though actual recognition was not related to social anxiety traits. Higher autistic traits, in contrast, were associated with worse recognition, and a weakened link between facial mimicry and performance. Consequently, high social anxiety traits might not affect emotion recognition itself, but the top-down evaluation of own abilities in emotion recognition contexts. High autistic traits, in contrast, may be related to lower integration of sensorimotor simulations, which promote emotion recognition.

Fearful apes, happy apes: Is fearfulness associated with uniquely human cooperation?

In the fearful ape hypothesis, Grossmann argues that heightened fearfulness increases human-unique cooperation. We suggest that this conclusion, however, may be premature. In particular, we question Grossmann's singling out of fear as the affective trait that enhances cooperative care. Additionally, we problematize the extent to which heightened fearfulness in humans, and its association with human-unique cooperation, are supported empirically.

Autistic traits and self-conscious emotions in early childhood.

Self-conscious emotions arise from evaluating the self through the eyes of others. Given that children with autistic traits may experience difficulties with understanding others' minds, they might show less attuned self-conscious emotions. Two-to-five-year-old children's (N = 98, Mage  = 48.54 months, 50% girls, 92% White) self-conscious emotions (guilt, embarrassment, and shame-like avoidance) were observed after children "broke" the experimenter's favorite toy. Data were collected from March 2018 till June 2019. Children with more autistic traits showed less theory of mind (ToM), and more shame-like avoidance, but associations were not mediated by ToM. This provides initial evidence that children with more autistic traits may show disturbances in some but not all self-conscious emotions, which could hinder their social functioning.

Awe Sparks Prosociality in Children.

Rooted in the novel and the mysterious, awe is a common experience in childhood, but research is almost silent with respect to the import of this emotion for children. Awe makes individuals feel small, thereby shifting their attention to the social world. Here, we studied the effects of art-elicited awe on children's prosocial behavior toward an out-group and its unique physiological correlates. In two preregistered studies (Study 1: N = 159, Study 2: N = 353), children between 8 and 13 years old viewed movie clips that elicited awe, joy, or a neutral (control) response. Children who watched the awe-eliciting clip were more likely to spend their time on an effortful task (Study 1) and to donate their experimental earnings (Studies 1 and 2), all toward benefiting refugees. They also exhibited increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia, an index of parasympathetic nervous system activation associated with social engagement. We discuss implications for fostering prosociality by reimagining children's environments to inspire awe at a critical age.

The Effect of Machine Learning Algorithms on the Prediction of Layer-by-Layer Coating Properties.

Layer-by-layer film (LbL) coatings made of polyelectrolytes are a powerful tool for surface modification, including the applications in the biomedical field, for food packaging, and in many electrochemical systems. However, despite the number of publications related to LbL assembly, predicting LbL coating properties represents quite a challenge, can take a long time, and be very costly. Machine learning (ML) methodologies that are now emerging can accelerate and improve new coating development and potentially revolutionize the field. Recently, we have demonstrated a preliminary ML-based model for coating thickness prediction. In this paper, we compared several ML algorithms for optimizing a methodology for coating thickness prediction, namely, linear regression, Support Vector Regressor, Random Forest Regressor, and Extra Tree Regressor. The current research has shown that learning algorithms are effective in predicting the coating output value, with the Extra Tree Regressor algorithm demonstrating superior predictive performance, when used in combination with optimized hyperparameters and with missing data imputation. The best predictors of the coating thickness were determined, and they can be later used to accurately predict coating thickness, avoiding measurement of multiple parameters. The development of optimized methodologies will ensure different reliable predictive models for coating property/function relations. As a continuation, the methodology can be adapted and used for predicting the outputs connected to antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral properties in order to be able to respond to actual biomedical problems such as antibiotic resistance, implant rejection, or COVID-19 outbreak.

Relationship between mentalizing and teacher burnout: A cross sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Teaching is considered a high-risk profession due to the high impact of occupational risk factors which can endanger educators' mental health and lead to burnout syndrome. This study aimed to examine whether the capacity for mentalizing in teachers explains the degree of their burnout syndrome. The expectation was that a low capacity for mentalizing increases the degree of burnout. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 823 teachers. The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey was used to examine the burnout syndrome. The capacity for mentalizing was examined using hypomentalizing and hypermentalizing scales from the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire. RESULTS: The expectation that a low capacity for mentalizing increases teachers' burnout confirms the finding that hypomentalizing is a positive predictor of their emotional exhaustion as a dimension of burnout (ß = 0.09; p < 0.01). Unexpectedly, hypomentalizing proved to be a positive predictor of personal accomplishment (ß = 0.09; p < 0.05), which indicates that with a lower capacity for mentalizing, teachers experience greater personal accomplishment. Also, hypermantalizing was a negative predictor of emotional exhaustion (ß = -0.17; p < 0.01) and depersonalization (ß = -0.31; p < 0.01), and a positive predictor of personal accomplishment (ß = 0.30; p < 0.01). The findings showed that with higher socioeconomic status, with marriage and having children, the burnout of teachers is lower, as expected. CONCLUSIONS: Capacity for mentalizing and burnout syndrome in teachers are interrelated phenomena. With a good capacity for mentalizing, emotional exhaustion and burnout in teachers are reduced. Knowledge and skills that enable a good capacity for mentalizing should be included in educational and teacher training programs.

Mothers' and fathers' mind-mindedness in infancy and toddlerhood predict their children's self-regulation at preschool age.

The ability to regulate one's emotions and behaviors is essential for adaptive functioning in society. We investigated whether parental mind-mindedness-parents' tendency to treat their children as mental agents-in infancy and toddlerhood predicts school-age children's self-regulation. The sample consisted of 125 mostly Dutch and White families. We assessed mothers' and fathers' appropriate and nonattuned mind-related comments during free play with their 12- and 30-month-old child (70 girls and 55 boys). We measured children's physiological, temperamental, and behavioral self-regulation when children were 4 1/2 years old. Fathers' appropriate mind-related comments predicted children's higher temperamental and behavioral self-regulation and mothers' and fathers' nonattuned mind-related comments predicted children's lower physiological and temperamental self-regulation. Our findings emphasize the importance of both parents' mind-mindedness in children's socioemotional development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Early physiological indicators of narcissism and self-esteem in children.

A common belief is that narcissism is a manifestation of high self-esteem. Here, we argue that self-esteem and narcissism are fundamentally distinct and have unique early physiological indicators. We hypothesized that children predisposed to narcissism would show elevated, whereas children predisposed to high self-esteem would show lowered, physiological arousal in social-evaluative contexts. We tested this in a prospective study including 113 children, who were first assessed at age 4.5, a critical age when children begin evaluating themselves through others' eyes. At age 4.5, children sang a song in front of an audience while being videotaped. Children's physiological arousal (skin conductance, heart rate, and heart rate variability) was assessed while children anticipated, performed, and recovered from the singing task. At age 7.5, children's narcissism and self-esteem levels were assessed. Consistent with our predictions, children predisposed to higher narcissism levels showed elevated skin conductance levels during anticipation. Their skin conductance levels further rose during performance (but less so than for other children) and failed to return to baseline during recovery. By contrast, children predisposed to higher self-esteem levels showed lowered skin conductance levels throughout the procedure. The effects emerged for skin conductance but not heart rate or heart rate variability, suggesting that arousal was sympathetically driven. Effects were larger and more robust for self-esteem than for narcissism. Together, these findings uncover distinct physiological indicators of narcissism and self-esteem: Narcissism is predicted by indicators reflecting early social-evaluative concerns, whereas self-esteem is predicted by indicators reflecting an early sense of comfort in social-evaluative contexts.

Can third-party observers detect attraction in others based on subtle nonverbal cues?

In a series of three studies, we examined whether third-party observers can detect attraction in others based on subtle nonverbal cues. We employed video segments of dates collected from a speed-dating experiment, in which daters went on a brief (approx. 4 min) blind-date and indicated whether they would like to go on another date with their brief interaction partner or not. We asked participants to view these stimuli and indicate whether or not each couple member is attracted to their partner. Our results show that participants could not reliably detect attraction, and this ability was not influenced by the age of the observer, video segment location (beginning or middle of the date), video duration, or general emotion recognition capacity. Contrary to previous research findings, our findings suggest that third-party observers cannot reliably detect attraction in others. However, there was one exception: Recognition rose above chance level when the daters were both interested in their partners compared to when they were not interested. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-02927-0.

Fluorescence spectroscopy and multispectral imaging for fingerprinting of aflatoxin-B1 contaminated (Zea mays L.) seeds: a preliminary study.

Cereal seeds safety may be compromised by the presence of toxic contaminants, such as aflatoxins. Besides being carcinogenic, they have other adverse health effects on humans and animals. In this preliminary study, we used two non-invasive optical techniques, optical fiber fluorescence spectroscopy and multispectral imaging (MSI), for discrimination of maize seeds naturally contaminated with aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) from the uncontaminated seeds. The AFB1-contaminated seeds exhibited a red shift of the emission maximum position compared to the control samples. Using linear discrimination analysis to analyse fluorescence data, classification accuracy of 100% was obtained to discriminate uncontaminated and AFB1-contaminated seeds. The MSI analysis combined with a normalized canonical discriminant analysis, provided spectral and spatial patterns of the analysed seeds. The AFB1-contaminated seeds showed a 7.9 to 9.6-fold increase in the seed reflectance in the VIS region, and 10.4 and 12.2-fold increase in the NIR spectral region, compared with the uncontaminated seeds. Thus the MSI method classified successfully contaminated from uncontaminated seeds with high accuracy. The results may have an impact on development of spectroscopic non-invasive methods for detection of AFs presence in seeds, providing valuable information for the assessment of seed adulteration in the field of food forensics and food safety.

Reading Your Emotions in My Physiology? Reliable Emotion Interpretations in Absence of a Robust Physiological Resonance.

Affective states are expressed in an individual's physical appearance, ranging from facial expressions and body postures, to indicators of physiological arousal (e.g., a blush). Confirming the claimed communicative function of these markers, humans are capable of distinguishing between a variety of discrete emotion displays. In an attempt to explain the underlying mechanism, characteristic bodily changes within the observer, including physiological arousal and mimicry, have been suggested to facilitate the interpretation of an expression. The current study aims to create a holistic picture of emotion perception by (1) using three different sources of emotional information (prototypical facial expressions, bodily expressions, and subtle facial cues) and (2) measuring changes in multiple physiological signals (facial electromyography, skin conductance level, skin temperature, and pupil size). While participants clearly discriminated between perceived emotional expressions, there was no overall 1-1 correspondence with their physiological responses. Some specific but robust effects were observed. Angry facial expressions were consistently responded to with a peak in skin conductance level. Furthermore, sad body expressions were associated with a drop in skin temperature. In addition to being the best recognized expression, viewing happy faces elicited congruent facial muscle responses, which supports the potential role of embodied simulation in emotion recognition. Lastly, tears were not only rated as highly emotional intense but also evoked a peak in skin conductance level in the observer. The absence of distinct physiological responses to other expressions could be explained by the lacking functionality of affect sharing in a non-interactive experimental context. Consequentially, emotional alignment in body and mind might especially take place in real social situations, which should be considered in future research. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-021-00083-5.

Aetiology of shame and its association with adolescent depression and anxiety: results from a prospective twin and sibling study.

BACKGROUND: Shame is considered a maladaptive self-conscious emotion that commonly co-occurs alongside depression and anxiety. Little is known, however, about the aetiology of shame and its associations with depression and anxiety. We estimated, for the first time, genetic and environmental influences on shame and on its associations with depression and anxiety in adolescence. METHODS: The sample was twin and sibling pairs from the Genesis 1219 Study (Time 1, N = 2,685; males 42.8%, Mage = 14.95, SD = 1.67, age range: 12-21; Time 2, N = 1618; males 39.7%, Mage = 16.97, SD = 1.64, age range: 14-23). Participants completed validated questionnaires to measure shame (at Time 1), depression and anxiety (at Times 1 and 2). RESULTS: Shame was moderately to strongly associated with concurrent depression and anxiety. Prospectively, shame was significantly associated with an increase in depression, but not anxiety. Genetic analyses revealed that shame was moderately heritable with substantial nonshared environmental influence. The associations between shame and concurrent depression and anxiety were primarily accounted for by overlapping genetic influences. Prospectively, the association between shame and later depression was primarily accounted for by genetic and nonshared environmental influences shared with earlier depression. The unique association between shame and later depression was mostly explained by common nonshared environmental influences. CONCLUSIONS: The findings offer novel evidence regarding aetiology of shame-although moderately heritable, shame in adolescents may also result from nonshared environmental factors. Genetic and nonshared environmental influences contribute to the co-occurrence of shame with depression and anxiety.

Toxigenic Species Aspergillus parasiticus Originating from Maize Kernels Grown in Serbia.

In Serbia, aspergillus ear rot caused by the disease pathogen Aspergillus parasiticus (A. parasiticus) was first detected in 2012 under both field and storage conditions. Global climate shifts, primarily warming, favour the contamination of maize with aflatoxins in temperate climates, including Serbia. A five-year study (2012-2016) comprising of 46 A. parasiticus strains isolated from maize kernels was performed to observe the morphological, molecular, pathogenic, and toxigenic traits of this pathogen. The HPLC method was applied to evaluate mycotoxin concentrations in this causal agent. The A. parasiticus isolates synthesised mainly aflatoxin AFB1 (84.78%). The percentage of isolates synthesising aflatoxin AFG1 (15.22%) was considerably lower. Furthermore, the concentration of AFG1 was higher than that of AFB1 in eight isolates. The polyphase approach, used to characterise isolates, showed that they were A. parasiticus species. This identification was verified by the multiplex RLFP-PCR detection method with the use of restriction enzymes. These results form an excellent baseline for further studies with the aim of application in the production, processing, and storage of cereal grains and seeds, and in technological processes to ensure the safe production of food and feed.

An In-Silico Corrosion Model for Biomedical Applications for Coupling With In-Vitro Biocompatibility Tests for Estimation of Long-Term Effects.

The release of metal particles and ions due to wear and corrosion is one of the main underlying reasons for the long-term complications of implantable metallic implants. The rather short-term focus of the established in-vitro biocompatibility tests cannot take into account such effects. Corrosion behavior of metallic implants mostly investigated in in-vitro body-like environments for long time periods and their coupling with long-term in-vitro experiments are not practical. Mathematical modeling and modeling the corrosion mechanisms of metals and alloys is receiving a considerable attention to make predictions in particular for long term applications by decreasing the required experimental duration. By using such in-silico approaches, the corrosion conditions for later stages can be mimicked immediately in in-vitro experiments. For this end, we have developed a mathematical model for multi-pit corrosion based on Cellular Automata (CA). The model consists of two sub-models, corrosion initialization and corrosion progression, each driven by a set of rules. The model takes into account several environmental factors (pH, temperature, potential difference, etc.), as well as stochastic component, present in phenomena such as corrosion. The selection of NiTi was based on the risk of Ni release from the implant surface as it leads to immune reactions. We have also performed experiments with Nickel Titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloys. The images both from simulation and experiments can be analyzed using a set of statistical methods, also investigated in this paper (mean corrosion, standard deviation, entropy etc.). For more widespread implementation, both simulation model, as well as analysis of output images are implemented as a web tool. Described methodology could be applied to any metal provided that the parameters for the model are available. Such tool can help biomedical researchers to test their new metallic implant systems at different time points with respect to ion release and corrosion and couple the obtained information directly with in-vitro tests.