Being in a crowd bonds people via physiological synchrony.

Collective events can generate intense emotions, shape group identities, and forge strong bonds. Do these effects extend to remote participation, and what are the psychological mechanisms underpinning their social power? We monitored psycho-physiological activity among groups of basketball fans who either attended games in-person (in a stadium) or watched games live on television in small groups. In-person attendance was associated with greater synchronicity in autonomic nervous system activation at the group level, which resulted in more transformative experiences and contributed to stronger identity fusion. Our findings suggest that the social effects of sports depend substantially on the inter-personal dynamics unfolding among fans, rather than being prompted simply by watching the game itself. Given the increasing prevalence of virtual experiences, this has potentially wide-reaching implications for many domains of collective human interaction.

Social overcrowding impacts gut microbiota, promoting stress, inflammation, and dysglycemia.

An array of chronic inflammatory diseases, including metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes, are thought to be promoted by disturbance of the intestinal microbiota. Such diseases disproportionately impact low-income communities, which are frequently afflicted by chronic stress and increased density housing. Hence, we hypothesized that overcrowded housing might promote stress, microbiota dysbiosis, inflammation, and, consequently, metabolic diseases. We tested this hypothesis in a tractable murine model of social overcrowding (SOC), in which mice were housed at twice normal density. SOC moderately impacted behavior in some widely used assays (Open Field, Elevated Plus Maze and Light/Dark tests) and resulted in a stark increase in corticosterone levels. Such indices of stress were associated with mild chronic gut inflammation, hyperglycemia, elevations in colonic cytokines, and alterations in gut microbiota composition. All of these consequences of SOC were eliminated by broad spectrum antibiotics, while some (inflammation and hyperglycemia) were transmitted by microbiota transplantation from SOC mice to germfree mice housed at normal density. Altogether, these results suggest a central role for intestinal microbiota in driving stress, inflammation, and chronic diseases that are promoted by overcrowded housing.

A high-density crowd state judgment model based on entropy theory.

A high-density crowd state is prone to cause large-scale crowd stampede accidents that seriously threaten the people's security and property. The key to preventing crowd congestion is to accurately predict the location and time of crowd events, particularly when there is a high density of people. In this paper, the entropy theory is used to characterize the state of a crowded system. The theoretical entropy Sr and the actual entropy S of the crowd system are obtained according to the area occupied by the different crowd state The maximum entropy value and the actual entropy value under different conditions of the system are compared to judge the state of crowded extent. The results show that the model is practical and effective. According to the situation of the crowd, different management and evacuation measures are considered to prevent the occurrence of crowd accidents.

The Efficacy of Lavender Aromatherapy in Reducing the Overcrowding-Related Anxiety in Health Care Workers.

In general, emergency departments (EDs) are stressful workplaces with excessive workloads and time pressures. Crowding, which is an important problem worldwide disrupting ED functions, leads further increases in the stressors which health care workers are exposed to. Long-term exposure to stressors can lead to anxiety in health care workers. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of aromatherapy on crowding-related anxiety in ED health care workers. Crowding was measured simultaneously with the National Emergency Department Overcrowding Scale objectively and the Health Care Workers' Crowding Perception Evaluation Form subjectively. The state-trait anxiety level was measured at each crowding level according to the health care workers' perception. When perceived crowding was at severely overcrowding level, lavender oil aromatherapy was applied. Anxiety level was measured before and after aromatherapy. Aromatherapy was repeated 3 times on different days. A significant positive correlation was found between state anxiety level and perceived crowding (r = 0.415, p < 0.001). Aromatherapy was found to have a significant correlation in reducing the overcrowding-related anxiety in health care workers (p < 0.05). This study showed that there is a significant correlation between anxiety level and perceived crowding, and aromatherapy is related to a decrease in overcrowding-related anxiety. In EDs, lavender oil aromatherapy can be used as a complementary method in reducing the overcrowding-related anxiety. But further researches are needed to verify that aromatherapy has a causative effect on reducing overcrowding-related anxiety.

Lost in the crowd: Imagining walking in synchrony with a crowd increases affiliation and deindividuation.

Moving in time with others-interpersonal coordination-increases affiliation, helping behaviours and gives rise to a host of other prosocial outcomes. Recent research suggests that merely imagining coordination may lead to similar social effects. In the present study, participants were asked to imagine walking with a crowd in a coordinated (versus uncoordinated) way to explore the effects of imagined coordination on individuals' perceptions of themselves and the crowd. Imagined coordination led to greater levels of deindividuation and affiliation. That is, participants were less likely to report seeing themselves as unique individuals, instead viewing themselves as a part of a group (deindividuation) and more likely to report a sense of emotional closeness (affiliation) with the imagined group. Deindividuation partially mediated the effect of imagined coordination on affiliation. This work establishes that imagined synchrony can be employed online to foster prosocial attitudes towards groups of people, and that a process of deindividuation might mediate this effect.

[Impact of the lockdown on children and families: a survey of family pediatricians within a community.] / Impatto del lockdown sui bambini e sulle famiglie: un'indagine dei pediatri di famiglia all'interno di una comunità.

OBJECTIVES: The recent lockdown, resulting from the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, has had a strong social and psychological impact on the most fragile individuals and family structures. In the present work we investigated the experience of families without specific elements of social or health vulnerability during the quarantine period that occurred in the spring of 2020. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between May and July 2020, 22 primary care pediatricians belonging to AUSL Romagna administered to a number of families a questionnaire to detect changes that occurred, during the lockdown, in family environment, school attendance and personal attitudes. RESULTS: A total of 721 questionnaires were collected, analyzing the associations between variables relating to home environment, daily rhythms, school and warning signs in relation to the age of children. As a result of the lockdown, family habits changed in 31% of cases, with a greater presence of the reference figure in 68% of these. Three out of four families reported they had sufficient domestic spaces, and nine out of ten had access to an outdoor, private or condominium space. Daily rhythms were preserved in 56.7% of cases; mood disorders appeared in 30% of adolescent children, followed by sleep, appetite and psychosomatic disorders. One in three children has made progress in terms of evolution and behavior, and one in 5 children has seen their relationships improve. The overall resilience of families during the lockdown period was considered good in 66.3%, sufficient in 31.3% and not satisfactory in only 2.4% of cases. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that, in the interviewed families, the simultaneous presence of adults and children at home has generally intensified. Families refer, on the whole, a positive and resilient behavior in the lockdown period, even if initial emotional problems are reported in one out of three children-adolescents. The ability to maintain a family organized structure seems to be partially compromised. Forced cohabitation leads to competition for the same resources of time and space and affects the entire family unit. The school institution emerges as a protective factor for children, young people and also for the well-being of families themselves.

Characteristic time in highly motivated movements of children and adults through bottlenecks.

Current codes for fire protection of buildings are mainly based on the movement of adults and neglect the movement characteristic of pre-school children. Having a profound comprehension of the difference between children and adults passing bottlenecks is of great help to improve the safety levels of preschool children. This paper presents an experimental study on the bottleneck flow of pre-school children in a room. The movement characteristics of children's and adults' bottleneck flow are investigated with two macroscopic properties: density and speed profiles as well as microscopic characteristic time: motion activation time, relaxation time, exit travel time and time gap. Arch-like density distributions are observed both for highly motivated children and adults, while the distance between the peak density region and the exit location is shorter for children and longer for adults. Children's movement is less flexible manifested as longer motion activation time and longer relaxation time compared to that of adults. The findings from this study could enhance the understanding of crowd dynamics among the children population and provide supports for the scientific building design for children's facilities.

Stress Impairs Skin Barrier Function and Induces α2-3 Linked N-Acetylneuraminic Acid and Core 1 O-Glycans on Skin Mucins in Atlantic Salmon, Salmo salar.

The skin barrier consists of mucus, primarily comprising highly glycosylated mucins, and the epithelium. Host mucin glycosylation governs interactions with pathogens and stress is associated with impaired epithelial barrier function. We characterized Atlantic salmon skin barrier function during chronic stress (high density) and mucin O-glycosylation changes in response to acute and chronic stress. Fish held at low (LD: 14-30 kg/m3) and high densities (HD: 50-80 kg/m3) were subjected to acute stress 24 h before sampling at 17 and 21 weeks after start of the experiment. Blood parameters indicated primary and secondary stress responses at both sampling points. At the second sampling, skin barrier function towards molecules was reduced in the HD compared to the LD group (Papp mannitol; p < 0.01). Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry revealed 81 O-glycan structures from the skin. Fish subjected to both chronic and acute stress had an increased proportion of large O-glycan structures. Overall, four of the O-glycan changes have potential as indicators of stress, especially for the combined chronic and acute stress. Stress thus impairs skin barrier function and induces glycosylation changes, which have potential to both affect interactions with pathogens and serve as stress indicators.

Enforcement may crowd out voluntary support for COVID-19 policies, especially where trust in government is weak and in a liberal society.

Effective states govern by some combination of enforcement and voluntary compliance. To contain the COVID-19 pandemic, a critical decision is the extent to which policy makers rely on voluntary as opposed to enforced compliance, and nations vary along this dimension. While enforcement may secure higher compliance, there is experimental and other evidence that it may also crowd out voluntary motivation. How does enforcement affect citizens' support for anti-COVID-19 policies? A survey conducted with 4,799 respondents toward the end of the first lockdown in Germany suggests that a substantial share of the population will support measures more under voluntary than under enforced implementation. Negative responses to enforcement-termed control aversion-vary across the nature of the policy intervention (e.g., they are rare for masks and frequent for vaccination and a cell-phone tracing app). Control aversion is less common among those with greater trust in the government and the information it provides, and among those who were brought up under the coercive regime of East Germany. Taking account of the likely effectiveness of enforcement and the extent to which near-universal compliance is crucial, the differing degrees of opposition to enforcement across policies suggest that for some anti-COVID-19 policies an enforced mandate would be unwise, while for others it would be essential. Similar reasoning may also be relevant for policies to address future pandemics and other societal challenges like climate change.

Compression asphyxia and other clinicopathological findings from the Hillsborough Stadium disaster.

Ninety-six people died following a crowd crush at the Hillsborough Football Stadium, Sheffield, UK in 1989. The cause of death in nearly all cases was compression asphyxia. The clinical and pathological features of deaths encountered in crowds are discussed with a particular focus on the Hillsborough disaster.

High housing density increases stress hormone- or disease-associated fecal microbiota in male Brandt's voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii).

Density-dependence is an important mechanism in the population regulation of small mammals. Stressors induced by high-density (e.g., crowding and aggression) can cause physiological and neurological disorders, and are hypothesized to be associated with alterations in gut microbiota, which may in turn reduce the fitness of animals by increasing stress- or disease-associated microbes. In this study, we examined the effects of housing density on the hormone levels, immunity, and composition of gut microbiota in male Brandt's voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii) by conducting two specific housing density experiments with or without physical contact between voles. Voles in high density groups exhibited higher serum corticosterone (CORT), serotonin (5-HT), and immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels, as well as higher testosterone (T) levels only in the experiment with physical contact. Meanwhile, high-density treatments induced significant changes in the composition of gut microbiota by increasing disease-associated microbes. The levels of hormones and immunity (i.e., CORT, 5-HT, and IgG) elevated by the high density treatment were significantly correlated with some specific microbes. These results imply that high-density-induced stress may shape the fitness of animals under natural conditions by altering their gut microbiota. Our study provides novel insights into the potential roles of gut microbiota in the density-dependent population regulation of small rodents as well as the potential mechanisms underlying psychological disorders in humans and animals under crowded conditions.

Reevaluating the sensory recruitment model by manipulating crowding in visual working memory representations.

The prominent sensory recruitment model argues that visual working memory (WM) is maintained via representations in the same early visual cortex brain regions that initially encode sensory stimuli, either in the identical neural populations as perceptual representations or in distinct neural populations. While recent research seems to reject the former (strong) sensory recruitment model, the latter (flexible) account remains plausible. Moreover, this flexibility could explain a recent result of high theoretical impact (Harrison & Bays, The Journal of Neuroscience, 38 (12), 3116-3123, 2018) - a failure to observe interactions between items held in visual WM - that has been taken to reject the sensory recruitment model. Harrison and Bays (The Journal of Neuroscience, 38 (12), 3116-3123, 2018) tested the sensory recruitment model by comparing the precision of memoranda in radially and tangentially oriented memory arrays. Because perceptual visual crowding effects are greater in radial than tangential arrays, they reasoned that a failure to observe such anisotropy in WM would reject the sensory recruitment model. In the present Registered Report or Replication, we replicated their study with greater sensitivity and extended their task by controlling a potential strategic confound. Specifically, participants might remap memory items to new locations, reducing interactions between proximal memoranda. To combat remapping, we cued participants to report either a memory item or its precise location - with this report cue presented only after a memory maintenance period. Our results suggest that, similar to visual perceptual crowding, location-bound visual memoranda interact with one another when remapping is prevented. Thus, our results support at least a flexible form of the sensory recruitment model.

The Discharge Lounge: A Patient Flow Process Solution.

BACKGROUND: Patient flow, from emergency department admission through to discharge, influences hospital overcrowding. We aimed to improve patient flow by increasing discharge lounge (DL) usage. LOCAL PROBLEM: Patients need to receive a continuum of nursing care to encourage compliance with follow-up care after discharge from the acute care setting. METHODS: Baseline data revealed inefficient use of the DL. We targeted the medical-surgical unit with the lowest DL use and trialed interventions over sequential Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles. INTERVENTIONS: After surveying the nursing staff, we assessed the influence of 3 interventions on DL usage: educating staff on patient eligibility, engaging a recruitment scout, and displaying a visual cue notifying staff when a patient's discharge order was written. RESULTS: The unit's average DL use increased from 18% to 36%, while hospital overcrowding and discharge turnaround time decreased. CONCLUSION: The DL is an effective tool to improve patient flow and decrease hospital overcrowding.

Spatial contextual effects in primary visual cortex limit feature representation under crowding.

Crowding is a profound loss of discriminability of visual features, when a target stimulus is surrounded by distractors. Numerous studies of human perception have characterized how crowding depends on the properties of a visual display. Yet, there is limited understanding of how and where stimulus information is lost in the visual system under crowding. Here, we show that macaque monkeys exhibit perceptual crowding for target orientation that is similar to humans. We then record from neuronal populations in monkey primary visual cortex (V1). These populations show an appreciable loss of information about target orientation in the presence of distractors, due both to divisive and additive modulation of responses to targets by distractors. Our results show that spatial contextual effects in V1 limit the discriminability of visual features and can contribute substantively to crowding.

Constrained Linear Movement Model (CALM): Simulation of passenger movement in airplanes.

Pedestrian dynamics models the walking movement of individuals in a crowd. It has recently been used in the analysis of procedures to reduce the risk of disease spread in airplanes, relying on the SPED model. This is a social force model inspired by molecular dynamics; pedestrians are treated as point particles, and their trajectories are determined in a simulation. A parameter sweep is performed to address uncertainties in human behavior, which requires a large number of simulations. The SPED model's slow speed is a bottleneck to performing a large parameter sweep. This is a severe impediment to delivering real-time results, which are often required in the course of decision meetings, especially during emergencies. We propose a new model, called CALM, to remove this limitation. It is designed to simulate a crowd's movement in constrained linear passageways, such as inside an aircraft. We show that CALM yields realistic results while improving performance by two orders of magnitude over the SPED model.

The effect of group size, age and handling frequency on inter-male aggression in CD 1 mice.

Aggression in male mice often leads to injury and death, making social housing difficult. We tested whether (1) small group size, (2) early age of allocation to a group decreases aggression and 3) manipulation increases aggression in male mice. A 14wk study was performed to assess the following conditions in male CD-1/ICR mice: group size (1, 2, or 3), age at grouping (5 or 7wks), and manipulation (daily scruffing or minimal weekly handling). Wounds, body weights, food consumption, nest scores, sucrose consumption, fecal corticosterone and blood for hematology were collected. At the end of the study, mice were euthanized and pelted to assess wounding with the pelt aggression lesion scale (PALS). No signs of acute or chronic stress were observed in any of the groups. Trio housed mice showed less bite wounds than pair housed mice. In general, mice in larger groups ate less but weighed more. Individually housed mice, however, had high nest scores, low body weights, and increased sucrose and food consumption. These results suggest that even when nesting material is provided, individual mice may be experiencing thermal stress. Based on this data, CD-1 mice can successfully be housed for up to 14wks and groups of 3 may be the best for reducing even minor levels of aggression (i.e. wounding).

The Inpatient Discharge Lounge as a Potential Mechanism to Mitigate Emergency Department Boarding and Crowding.

Delayed access to inpatient beds for admitted patients contributes significantly to emergency department (ED) boarding and crowding, which have been associated with deleterious patient safety effects. To expedite inpatient bed availability, some hospitals have implemented discharge lounges, allowing discharged patients to depart their inpatient rooms while awaiting completion of the discharge process or transportation. This conceptual article synthesizes the evidence related to discharge lounge implementation practices and outcomes. Using a conceptual synthesis approach, we reviewed the medical and gray literature related to discharge lounges by querying PubMed, Google Scholar, and Google and undertaking backward reference searching. We screened for articles either providing detailed accounts of discharge lounge implementations or offering conceptual analysis on the subject. Most of the evidence we identified was in the gray literature, with only 3 peer-reviewed articles focusing on discharge lounge implementations. Articles generally encompassed single-site descriptive case studies or expert opinions. Significant heterogeneity exists in discharge lounge objectives, features, and apparent influence on patient flow. Although common barriers to discharge lounge performance have been documented, including underuse and care team objections, limited generalizable solutions are offered. Overall, discharge lounges are widely endorsed as a mechanism to accelerate access to inpatient beds, yet the limited available evidence indicates wide variation in design and performance. Further rigorous investigation is required to identify the circumstances under which discharge lounges should be deployed, and how discharge lounges should be designed to maximize their effect on hospitalwide patient flow, ED boarding and crowding, and other targeted outcomes.

The impact of public transport on the health of work commuters: a systematic review.

Although the public transport (PT) commute can form a substantial part of the working day, there is a significant gap in our understanding of how it influences health of those who engage in it. The purpose of this systematic review was to therefore generate evidence from 1972 about the extent to which the PT commute (involving train, bus, subway, tram, or metro) impacts on the mental health, physical health and well-being of the working people. We identified 47 studies in English worldwide involving an empirical quantitative focus which met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 23 studies involved over 500 participants. Although initial multi-modal comparisons showed impact on sickness rate, self-rated health complaints, perceived stress level and reduction in sleep, a more homogeneous analysis of rail commuters showed elevation in salivary cortisol, perceived stress, and affective reactions to crowding. Findings also revealed a bias towards use of endogenous self-report measures. On this basis, we argue that it would be of benefit to test theoretical models to account for more objective measures of job and commuting stress. Recommendations were made for flexible working agendas.

Behavioral and physiological responses to stocking density in sea bream (Sparus aurata): Do coping styles matter?

Stocking density is considered a stress factor for fish and is therefore one of the numerous concerns about fish welfare in an aquaculture context. Stress coping styles (SCS) are defined as a coherent set of individual physiological and behavioral differences in stress responses that are consistent across time and context and appear to be promising for improving fish welfare in aquaculture. The aim of the present study was to describe the physiological and zootechnical performances of gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) at different stocking densities (low density, LD: 15 kg/m3 and high density, HD: 30 kg/m3), depending on individual SCS. To do so, the fish SCS were first screened by measuring boldness (prior to the experiment). Three consecutive samplings were performed over the experiment to measure several blood parameters, including hematocrit (Hct), red blood cell count (RBCC), hemoglobin (Hb), cortisol, adrenalin, noradrenalin, glucose, lactate, and lysozyme, to infer the consequence of the SCS profile on the welfare condition in response to stocking density. Finally, swimming activity was recorded in a subsample of individuals (9 BOLD and 9 SHY individuals per density), and BOLD individuals displayed higher swimming activity than SHY ones at HD, while the opposite pattern was observed at LD. According to principal component analysis, physiological parameters are linked to the SCS profile, mostly at the beginning of the experiment, while density effects on physiology remain during the entire experiment duration. In conclusion, regarding all the variables observed, fish SCS appeared to be promising criteria to select the most adaptive individuals relating to rearing conditions and therefore improve welfare.