Illness representation of COVID-19 affected public's support and anticipated panic regarding the living with the virus policy: a cross-sectional study in a Chinese general population.

Background: There is a global trend for countries to adopt the Living with the Virus (LWV) policy regarding COVID-19. Little is known about the public's supportiveness and emotional responses (e.g., anticipated panic) related to this policy. Such responses may be associated with illness representations of COVID-19 (i.e., how people think and feel about COVID-19). This novel topic was investigated in this study to facilitate policy-making and health communication. Methods: A random, population-based telephone survey interviewed 500 adults aged ≥18 of the Hong Kong general adult population from March to April 2022. Results: The prevalence of the public's support and anticipated panic regarding the LWV policy, which were negatively correlated with each other, was 39.6 and 24.2%, respectively. The illness representation constructs of consequences, timeline, identity, illness concern, and emotional representations were negatively associated with supportiveness and positively associated with anticipated panic regarding the LWV policy. Illness coherence was significantly associated with policy support but not with anticipated panic. The associations between personal control/treatment control and supportiveness/anticipated panic were statistically non-significant. Moderation analyses showed that the above significant associations were invariant between those with and without previous COVID-19 infection. Conclusion: Policymakers need to be sensitized about the public's supportive/unsupportive attitude and potential worry (panic) when adopting the LWV policy. Such attitudes/emotional responses may be affected by people's illness representations of COVID-19. In general, those who found COVID-19 involving a milder nature and less negative emotions would be more supportive and anticipated less panic under the LWV policy.

In situ psycho-cognitive assessments support self-determined urban green exercise time.

Prescribed nature walks frequently yield improvements to mood and cognition as observed in experimental studies. Research that uses real life settings such as self-determined time exercising outdoors for restorative health benefits may more accurately elicit effects than time-specified study protocols. This study examined in situ psycho-cognitive outcomes of routine walks in urban greenspace to test the concept that self-set exposure duration and not context alone is related to magnitude of psycho-cognitive benefit. Pre-post measurements taken on a diverse participant pool of individuals walking in urban parks and recruited on random days over a two-week period found significant associations between outdoor activity duration and cognitive and mood improvements. Greater outdoor walking duration linearly predicted stronger processing speeds but non-linearly in tests of other cognitive domains. Results of fixed effects model for mean mood change following green exercise show outdoor walking influenced mood change at highest levels of significance, even after accounting for individual level variability in duration. Mood improved for all durations of outdoor walking under a random effects model with high significance. Untethering fixed intervals of outdoor exercise from formal study design revealed briefer but more frequent nature engagement aligned with nature affinity. The influence of unmeasured factors, e.g., nature affinity or restorative conditioning, for prescriptive durations of urban green exercise merits further investigation toward designing wellbeing interventions directed at specific urban populations.

Bayesian hierarchical response time modelling-A tutorial.

Response time modelling is developing rapidly in the field of psychometrics, and its use is growing in psychology. In most applications, component models for response times are modelled jointly with component models for responses, thereby stabilizing estimation of item response theory model parameters and enabling research on a variety of novel substantive research questions. Bayesian estimation techniques facilitate estimation of response time models. Implementations of these models in standard statistical software, however, are still sparse. In this accessible tutorial, we discuss one of the most common response time models-the lognormal response time model-embedded in the hierarchical framework by van der Linden (2007). We provide detailed guidance on how to specify and estimate this model in a Bayesian hierarchical context. One of the strengths of the presented model is its flexibility, which makes it possible to adapt and extend the model according to researchers' needs and hypotheses on response behaviour. We illustrate this based on three recent model extensions: (a) application to non-cognitive data incorporating the distance-difficulty hypothesis, (b) modelling conditional dependencies between response times and responses, and (c) identifying differences in response behaviour via mixture modelling. This tutorial aims to provide a better understanding of the use and utility of response time models, showcases how these models can easily be adapted and extended, and contributes to a growing need for these models to answer novel substantive research questions in both non-cognitive and cognitive contexts.

Análisis de las respuestas cognitivas relacionadas con el diagnóstico de cáncer en pacientes mexicanos / Cognitive response related to cancer diagnosis in Mexican patients

Resumen La evaluación subjetiva ha sido descripta como una variable mediadora para la respuesta emocional. Se presenta con diferentes contenidos y estilos. El estilo cognitivo se refiere a la manera en que se piensa sobre el estresor, por ejemplo: la rumiación (pensamientos intrusivos, repetitivos, que generan malestar emocional), la evitación (intentos por no pensar en el estresor) y el compromiso cognitivo (enfocados en búsqueda de sentido o solución). En base a esta respuesta emocional, se busca explorar y describir los pensamientos relacionados con el cáncer en un grupo de diez pacientes con la enfermedad. En un estudio cualitativo, se les pidió a diez pacientes con cáncer que indicaran los cinco pensamientos más frecuentes desde su diagnóstico. Se analizó el contenido mediante la técnica top down (teoría a contenido) y, a partir de los estilos de respuestas cognitivas, se clasificó el contenido de los pensamientos reportados por estilo de pensamiento (rumiación, compromiso cognitivo o evitación), por temporalidad (pasado, presente y futuro) y por valencia (positiva o negativa). Posteriormente, se hizo el análisis bottom up (contenido a teoría). Se hicieron tablas cruzadas para identificar los contenidos según el estilo de pensamiento, la temporalidad y la valencia. En los pensamientos con estilo rumiativo, el enfoque temporal se dirigía en su mayoría al futuro y al pasado, mientras que el compromiso cognitivo se enfocaba en el presente. Esta diferencia fue estadísticamente significativa mediante una prueba de chi cuadrado. Dentro de los temas relacionados con la incertidumbre, se refirieron a la muerte, al pronóstico de la enfermedad, a la respuesta de la familia y a las finanzas (en el futuro) y a las causas y culpa (en el pasado).

Abstract Cancer has been defined by the World Health Organization as "a disease caused by abnormal cells growing uncontrollably in the body, going beyond their usual boundaries, invading adjoining parts of the body and spreading to other organs". Being diagnosed with cancer has been described as an experience with diverse emotional reactions and difficulties in adaptation, having psychological consequences, being most common depression, anxiety and psychological distress; but also, some patients present positive consequences after having a cancer diagnosis, such as post traumatic growth, which includes positive changes presented after the disease experience. Subjective appraisal about cancer has been defined as a mediating variable for the emotional response presented after a stressor, such as cancer diagnosis, treatment, or important changes during disease process (initiating and finalizing treatment, presenting relapse or remission, as well as when having control studies). The subjective appraisal can be presented with different thought content and styles. Thought style is referred as the way thoughts about the stressor are presented, it has been classified as rumination (thoughts that are intrusive and repetitive that also increase psychological distress), cognitive engagement (thoughts associated with problem solving and meaning finding) or avoidance (aiming to stop thinking about stressor or feeling associated with it). Depending on the thought style presented at a stressor, could be the emotional response (anxiety, depression, distress, post-traumatic growth). The aim of the present study was to describe the thoughts (style, content, valence and temporality) related to cancer diagnosis in a group of ten oncologic patients. To identify if differences between thought style, valence and temporality were presented. The study design is qualitative from a phenomenological point of view. Ten oncologic (different cancer type, clinical stage and treatment) patients were asked to write the five more frequent thoughts since their cancer diagnosis. Each thought was classified by: thought style, valence, and temporality (top-down, classifying the thoughts according to theory). The same thoughts were also classified in semantic units (bottom-up, classifying the thoughts according to their own contents), generating concerns from the content. Cross tabs were made to identify contents and temporality for thought style and valence, which were analyzed by chi square to identify differences between thought style, temporality and valence. The most common thought style was cognitive engagement, followed by rumination (almost same frequency). On what respects to thought style and temporality, rumination was more focused on past (causes and attributions of cancer) and future (uncertainty about death and treatment effectiveness); meanwhile, cognitive engagement was focused on present (to enjoy present moment and focus on daily actions). Chi square was made to identify if this difference was significant, showing temporality was significantly different in cognitive engagement and rumination. The concerns identified in study participants were uncertainty about future and disease, family (communication and wellness of the family), finances (due to expensive treatments), causes and guilt about having cancer. Thoughts that were more centered in present, were more likely to be associated with cognitive engagement. Cognitive engagement has been described previously as an important variable associated with post traumatic growth. Thoughts centered in the past and present were more associated with rumination. Rumination has been associated with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Because of mediating role of thought style in disease adaptation, emotional response to the disease, and the relation of this adaptation with the perception of quality of life in cancer patients, the design of psychological interventions aiming on promoting cognitive engagement by problem solving skills, meaning finding, and focusing on present could be a research line derived from present studies results.

Ethnic Differences in Environmental Restoration: Arab and Jewish Women in Israel.

Throughout the last few decades, plenty of attention has been paid to restorative environments that positively affect human psychological health. These studies show that restorative environments affect human beings emotionally, physiologically, and cognitively. Some studies focus on the cognitive effects of exposure to restorative environments. A widely used index that measures the cognitive response is the Perceived Restoration Potential Scale (PRS). Most studies employing the PRS have examined differences in human cognitive response between types of urban environments mainly urban versus green ones. We use Hartig's questionnaire to expose differences between types of urban environments and ethnic groups. Variances between Arab and Jewish women were calculated in four environments: home; park; residential and central city environments. The effect of intervening variables such as exposure to thermal, noise, social and CO loads and social discomfort were tested. We find that dissimilar to urban typical built-up environments, green areas are highly restorative. Furthermore, differences in the restorativeness of different urban environments are low though significant. These differences depend on their function, aesthetic qualities, and amount of greenery. Ethno-national differences appear to affect the experience of restoration. While both ethnic related groups experienced a tremendous sense of restoration in parks, Jewish women enjoyed slightly higher levels of restoration mainly at home and in residential environments compared to Arab women who experienced higher sense of restorativness in central city environments. Jewish women experienced higher sense of being away and fascination. From the intervening variables, social discomfort explained 68 percent of the experience of restoration, noise explained 49 percent, thermal load explained 43 percent and ethnicity 14 percent of the variance in PRS.

Diseño y análisis de propiedades psicométricas del Inventario de Estilos de Pensamiento en Respuesta al Cáncer (IEPRaC) / Design and psychometric properties analysis of the Thought Style in Response to Cancer Inventory (IEPRaC)

Una de las variables que ha sido definida como mediadora para la respuesta emocional ante el cáncer es el estilo de pensamiento. En contextos patológicos (por ejemplo, rumiación en depresión), y también en contextos normativos, se ha sugerido que el estilo de pensamiento puede predecir el ajuste ante un estresor. Existen instrumentos para evaluar de manera independiente los estilos de pensamiento (rumiación, evitación experiencial), pero ninguno está adaptado para población oncológica y ninguno incluye los tres estilos de pensamiento (rumiación, evitación y compromiso cognitivo). Objetivo: diseñar y estudiar las propiedades psicométricas de un instrumento que mida estilos de pensamiento en respuesta al diagnóstico oncológico. Método: Estudio instrumental, dividido en dos fases: la primera, elaboración de reactivos y jueceo de expertos y la segunda, análisis de propiedades psicométricas. Resultados: La versión final cuenta 15 ítems. La estructura interna resultó de tres factores, obtenidos a partir de un Análisis Factorial Exploratorio y corroborada mediante un Análisis Factorial Confirmatorio. Los valores de alfa de cronbach de las escalas resultaron adecuadas: la de Rumiación resultó de 0,87, la de Compromiso cognitivo de , 0,82 y de 0,72 la de evitación. Todos los ítems cuentan con evidencias de validez de contenido y propiedades psicométricas satisfactorias. La escala de Compromiso cognitivo fue la que obtuvo la puntuación media mayor y la de Rumiación mostró la menor. Conclusión: El Inventario de Estilos de Pensamiento en Respuesta al Cáncer (IEPRaC) cuenta con adecuadas propiedades psicométricas para ser utilizado en población oncológica mexicana (AU)

Thought style has been defined as one of the mediating variables to emotional response at a cancer diagnosis. It has been reported in pathological contexts (rumination in depression), but also in normative ones, it has been suggested that thought styles can predict adjustment to a stressor. There are measurement scales used to assess thought style independently (rumination, experiential avoidance), but none of them is adapted for oncologic population and none of them include all three thought styles. Aim: To design and assess psychometric properties of a scale of thought styles in response to a cancer diagnosis. Method: Instrumental Study, divided in two phases: the first, item elaboration and expert judge; the second, psychometric properties analysis. Results: Final version counts with 15 items. Intern Structure resulted in three factors, obtained by an Exploratory Factorial Analysis and corroborated by a Confirmatory Factorial Analisis. Cronbach’s alphas for the subscales resulted appropriate: for rumination 0.87, for cognitive engagement 0.82 and 0.72 for avoidance. All items have evidence for content validity and adequate psychometric properties. Results of Cognitive Engagement subscale had the higher mean and Rumination subscale was the lowest. Conclusion: Thought style in response to a cancer diagnosis scale (IERPaC) has adequate psychometric properties to be used in Mexican oncologic patients (AU)

The Effects of Earthquake Experience on Disaster Education for Children and Teens.

The purpose of this study is to examine the factors of disaster experience that impact the effectiveness of disaster education on school students (children and teens). Following the magnitude 5.4 Pohang earthquake in 2017, Pohang City Hall conducted a school earthquake disaster education program over a period of four months (August to November) in 2018. Professors and graduate students from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology taught around 5000 middle and high school students, while also conducting surveys. The experiences of the Pohang earthquake were analyzed and divided into cognitive responses and emotional responses. Students who felt activated emotional responses, surprise and fear, but not joy, tended to have more effective educational experiences. On the other hand, unpleasant emotional reactions, such as anger and sadness, had a negative effect on educational effectiveness. The cognitive response, which is perceived intensity in this research, did not impact educational effectiveness significantly. These results imply that the emotional responses of students are more important than their cognitive responses in providing a disaster education program. This means that even though an earthquake may be small in magnitude and may not cause physical damage, we still need to provide immediate disaster education to the children and teens if they are surprised and afraid of future disasters.

Impact of Weekly Physical Activity on Stress Response: An Experimental Study.

The aim of this research is focused on analyzing the alteration of the psychophysiological and cognitive response to an objective computerized stress test (Determination Test - DT-, Vienna test System®), when the behavioral response is controlled. The sample used was sports science students (N = 22), with a mean age of 22.82 (Mage = 22.82; SD years = 3.67; MPhysicalActivity hours/Week = 7.77; SD hours/week = 3.32) A quasi-experimental design was used in which the response of each participant to the DT test was evaluated. The variable "number of hours of physical activity per week" and the variable "level of behavioral response to stress" were controlled. Before and after this test, the following parameters were measured: activation and central fatigue (Critical Flicker Fusion Threshold (CFF Critical flicker fusion ascending and Critical flicker fusion descending; DC potential), and perceived exertion (Central Rating of Perceived Exertion and Peripheral Rating of Perceived Exertion). Significant differences were found in all of the measures indicated. The usefulness of this protocol and the measures used to analyze the stress response capacity of the study subjects are discussed.

Cognitive performance during gait is worsened by overground but enhanced by treadmill walking.

PURPOSE: Walking is an attention-demanding task that affects and is affected by cognitive performance. Since treadmill walking (TW) assists gait automaticity, we have hypothesized that TW affects cognitive performance to a smaller extent than overground walking (OW). METHODS: Thirty young adults were recruited. Each subject walked overground over a 20-meter straight hallway at three different speeds (slow, normal and fast). Each task was repeated 3 times under Single Task (OW-ST) and Dual Task (OW-DT) condition, in a randomized sequence. DT was a serial subtraction by 7 starting from a different number (> 100) in each trial. Afterwards, each subject walked on the treadmill at the same three speeds as during OW-ST, while performing the dual task (TW-DT). The correct cognitive response (CCR), calculated from the number of correct responses and mistakes, was compared between rest, OW-DT and TW-DT. Dual-task cost (DTC) was calculated for speed and for CCR. RESULTS: Backward counting diminished normal and fast OW-DT speed by about 15 %. Slow OW-DT speed was not significantly reduced. In turn, OW affected the cognitive performance. DTC for speed during OW-DT increased during normal and fast speed. CCR significantly decreased, more at slower OW-DT speed. Conversely, CCR was not worsened by TW-DT. CCR did not decline at slow TW-DT speed and improved significantly from slow and normal to fast speeds. DTC for CCR resulted smaller in TW-DT than OW-DT. CONCLUSIONS: Decline in the cognitive performance during OW-DT is more prominent at slow speed, in keeping with higher demand of attentional resources for this unusual locomotor behaviour. Conversely, motorized TW improves the cognitive performance likely because it reduces the attentional cost of walking. Gait training by TW might improve automaticity in patients with movement disorders.

Acceptability of tropical fruit pulps enriched with vegetal/microbial protein sources: viscosity, importance of nutritional information and changes on sensory analysis for different age groups.

The combination of products traditionally consumed with other components with the alleged classification of functional food has become a continuous reality, if not a necessity. This article investigated the supplementation of tropical fruit pulps (acerola-Malpighia emarginata, guava-Psidium guajava, passion fruit-Passiflora edulis and mandarin-Citrus reticulata), with 5-10% (m/V) on vegetal/microbial protein sources (soy protein, beer yeast and bee pollen). Viscosity and colour analysis were carried out and differences between fruit pulp with no addition and those supplemented were verified, with a specific importance to soy protein, which increased 5-10 times pulps viscosity, while the remaining supplemented formulations, 1.5-3 times. Between the sensory factors (colour, flavour, aroma and appearance), flavour significantly influenced the acceptance of the product (p < 0.05). The nutritional information provided to tasters, as well as to specific age groups (children, elderly and youngsters/adults), significantly increased the product's acceptance; with values ranging between 70 and 80% in some cases, demonstrating the importance of cognitive response on those factors.

Galantamine plasma concentration and cognitive response in Alzheimer's disease.

BACKGROUND: Galantamine has been approved for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, there are few studies which have reported the association between cognitive responses and galantamine plasma concentration. The aim of this study was to determine the correlation between galantamine plasma concentration and the subsequent cognitive response following treatment in AD patients. METHODS: AD sufferers who continuously took 8 mg/d galantamine for at least 6 months without previous exposure to other kinds of AChEI such as donepezil, rivastigmine, or memantine were included in this cohort study. The assessments included the Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE), Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR) and the Cognitive Assessment Screening Instrument (CASI). Each subdomain of the CASI assessment was conducted at baseline and after 6 months of galantamine. The plasma concentrations of galantamine were measured by capillary electrophoresis after 6 months of the treatment. Logistic regression was performed to adjust for age, gender, apolipoprotein E ε4 genotype status, and baseline score to investigate the association between galantamine plasma concentrations and the cognitive response. RESULTS: The total sample consisted of 33 clinically diagnosed AD patients taking galantamine 8 mg/d for 6 months. There was no linear correlation between galantamine concentration and cognitive response in patients. However, 22 patients were responsive to the treatment in the long-term memory domain. In CASI subset domain, concentration improved during the 6 months follow up. CONCLUSIONS: In the limited samples study, galantamine mostly benefitted the cognitive domain of long-term memory. The benefits were not related to the galantamine plasma concentration. Objective intra-individual evaluation of therapeutic response should be encouraged.

A study for establishing cognitive response model for patients suffering conflicts with nurses based on grounded theory / 中国实用护理杂志

Objective To explore and construct the cognitive response model for patients suffering conflicts with nurses, and to provide guidance cues for the prevention and treatment of nurse-patient conflict. Methods According to the grounded theory approach devoloped by Strauss, a total of 9 patients were observed and interviewed in a semi-structured way, and the collected data was analysed to extract the cognitive response theme. Results A cognitive response model for patients with nurse-patient conflicts was established, which included three phases, i.e., the demands of expectations, the emotional catharsis, and the introspection of right and wrong. Conclusion The established congnitive response model confirmes the relationships among environmental factors, patients′ cognitive processes, and patients′reponse, and can be used to prevent and deal with the conflicts between patients and nurses.

A study for establishing cognitive response model for patients suffering conflicts with nurses based on grounded theory / 中国实用护理杂志

Objective@#To explore and construct the cognitive response model for patients suffering conflicts with nurses, and to provide guidance cues for the prevention and treatment of nurse-patient conflict.@*Methods@#According to the grounded theory approach devoloped by Strauss, a total of 9 patients were observed and interviewed in a semi-structured way, and the collected data was analysed to extract the cognitive response theme.@*Results@#A cognitive response model for patients with nurse-patient conflicts was established, which included three phases, i.e., the demands of expectations, the emotional catharsis, and the introspection of right and wrong.@*Conclusion@#The established congnitive response model confirmes the relationships among environmental factors, patients′ cognitive processes, and patients′ reponse, and can be used to prevent and deal with the conflicts between patients and nurses.

Effect of sevoflurane and halothane anesthesia on cognitive function and immune function in young rats.

In the current study, we scrutinized the effect of sevoflurane and halothane on cognitive and immune function in young rats. The rats were divided into following groups: sevoflurane, halothane and sevoflurane + halothane groups, respectively. The rats were regularly treated with the pre-determined treatment. We also scrutinized the serum proinflammatory cytokines including IL-10, IL-4 and IL-2; brain level IL-1ß; hippocampal neuronal apoptosis concentration were estimated. The water maze test was performed in rats for the estimation of cognitive ability. During the water maze test, on the 1st day the sevoflurane group showed the latency; sevoflurane and sevoflurane + halothane group demonstrated the declined latency gradually as compared to the control group rats after the 3 days. The latency of the control, halothane, sevoflurane + halothane group rats showed the reduced latency and also showed the reduced crossing circle times. The hippocampal neuron apoptosis was significantly increased in halothane and sevoflurane + halothane group as compared to control group rats, respectively. Control group rats demonstrated the increased neuron apoptosis. The proinflammatory cytokines including IL-10 and IL-4 was significantly higher in sevoflurane, halothane and sevoflurane + halothane group rats after anesthesia and the whole brain IL-1ß was significantly decrease in the sevoflurane, halothane and sevoflurane + halothane as compared to control group. Sevoflurane can inhibit the anesthesia effect of halothane on the immune and cognitive function of rats.

Effect of Genetic Polymorphisms (SNPs) in CHRNA7 Gene on Response to Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors (AChEI) in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease.

BACKGROUND: Cholinergic transmission loss is one of the major features in Alzheimer&#039;s Disease (AD). Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEI) are moderately active in AD. α7nAChR (alpha-7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor), encoded by CHRNA7 (Nicotinic Cholinergic Receptor Alpha-7 gene), is involved in the cholinergic neurotransmission and AD pathogenesis. α7nAChR is a putative receptor of amyloid beta (Aß). The complex α7nAChR-Aß is found in neuritic plaques and AD cortical neurons. In normal physiologic conditions, α7nAChR-Aß interaction leads to receptor activation. Genetic polymorphisms (SNPs) of CHRNA7 and/or CHRFAM7A (fusion gene containing CHRNA7 partial duplication) may be a possible susceptibility trait to dementia, potentially useful to identify high risk or responder individuals. CHRFAM7A-2-bp deletion or CHRNA7 SNPs (rs1514246, rs2337506, rs8027814) seem protective factors in different forms of dementia including AD. OBJECTIVE: Correlation between(SNPs) of CHRNA7 and/or CHRFAM7A and cholinesterase inhibitors in AD. METHODS: Literature review. RESULTS: Among the leading AD therapeutics, Donepezil (DP) and galantamine (AChEI) induce upregulation of α7nAChR protein levels, protecting neurons from degeneration. Patients carrying rs8024987 (C/G) or rs6494223 (C/T) respond better to AChEI. In the caucasic population rs6494223 TT subjects are 7-15% of the total. α7nAChR upregulation induced by DP is higher in lymphocytes from TT subjects than in CC or CT as well as calcium uptake. CONCLUSION: The correlation between genetic and functionality data may have an impact on several aspects of disease presentation and therapy, helping in prediction pattern of AD presentation and treatment efficacy. As a consequence it may lead to better patients quality of life and longer periods of self- sufficiency. Moreover, it may contribute to clarify AChEI mechanisms of action.

Cognitive responses to hypobaric hypoxia: implications for aviation training.

The aim of this narrative review is to provide an overview on cognitive responses to hypobaric hypoxia and to show relevant implications for aviation training. A principal element of hypoxia-awareness training is the intentional evocation of hypoxia symptoms during specific training sessions within a safe and controlled environment. Repetitive training should enable pilots to learn and recognize their personal hypoxia symptoms. A time span of 3-6 years is generally considered suitable to refresh knowledge of the more subtle and early symptoms especially. Currently, there are two different technical approaches available to induce hypoxia during training: hypobaric chamber training and reduced-oxygen breathing devices. Hypoxia training for aircrew is extremely important and effective, and the hypoxia symptoms should be emphasized clearly to aircrews. The use of tight-fitting masks, leak checks, and equipment checks should be taught to all aircrew and reinforced regularly. It is noteworthy that there are major differences in the required quality and quantity of hypoxia training for both military and civilian pilots.

A psychometric evaluation of the Swedish version of the Responses to Positive Affect questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: Previous research mainly focused on responses to negative affect in relation to depression, and less on responses to positive affect. Cognitive responses to positive affect are interesting in the context of emotion regulation and emotion disorders: positive rumination is associated to hypomania risk and bipolar disorder. There is to date no questionnaire in Swedish that captures the phenomena of cognitive response styles. AIMS: The aim of this study was to investigate the replicability of the Responses to Positive Affect questionnaire (RPA) in a newly translated Swedish version and to test its psychometric properties. METHODS: Swedish undergraduates (n = 111) completed a set of self-report questionnaires in a fixed order. RESULTS: The hypothesized three-factor model was largely replicated in the subscales Self-focused positive rumination, Emotion-focused positive rumination and Dampening. The two positive rumination subscales were strongly associated with each other and current positive affect. The subscales showed acceptable convergent and incremental validity with concurrent measures of depression, hypomania, anxiety, repetitive negative thinking, and positive and negative affect. The model explained 25% of the variance in hypomania, but fell short in the explanation of depression. CONCLUSIONS: The Swedish version of the RPA shows satisfactory reliability and initial findings from a student sample indicate that it is a valid measure comparable with the original RPA questionnaire. RESULTS give emphasis to the importance of further exploration of cognitive response styles in relation to psychopathology.

Enhancing children's vegetable consumption using vegetable-promoting picture books. The impact of interactive shared reading and character-product congruence.

The present study investigated whether and how a picture book promoting carrots can increase young children's carrot consumption. One hundred and four children (aged 4-6years) participated in shared reading sessions using the book on five consecutive days in school. These children were assigned randomly to one of four experimental conditions. In a 2×2 between-subjects design, the reading style and character in the book were manipulated. The reading style was either passive (listening to the story) or interactive (also answering questions about the story). The character in the book fitted either conceptually well with carrots (a rabbit) or not (a turtle). Compared to a baseline group of 56 children who were not exposed to the book, the children in the experimental groups consumed almost twice as much carrots (in proportion to other foods consumed), F(1,159)=7.08, p<.01. Results suggest that picture books are particularly effective when children are actively involved, answering questions about the story. Young children seem to enjoy this interactive shared reading style, triggering positive feelings that increase children's liking and consumption of the healthy food promoted in the book.