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The research on the specifics of the sexual culture of young people in Kazakhstan is relevant due to the need for a holistic understanding of modern transformations of values, beliefs, standards, and behavioural patterns in this segment of public life in the country. The purpose of the research was to evaluate a fixation on the behavioural and value-normative characteristics of the sexuality of Kazakhstani youth. Such sociological approaches as structuralism and sociocultural analysis were used as the foundation of the theoretical and methodological research framework. To identify empirical indicators of the sexual culture of Kazakhstani youth, quantitative sociological research was conducted using the questionnaire survey method. As a result of theoretical work, it was identified that sexuality is a socio-cultural construct that includes the standards, values, and behavioural strategies of individuals in the intimate sphere. Within the framework of empirical reconnaissance on the example of Kazakhstani youth, specific substantive features were identified. Firstly, low involvement in sexual practices is recorded within the framework of behavioural patterns. The moderate role of sex in everyday life and average cognitive activity related to intimate experiences are recorded. It should be emphasised that when choosing a sexual partner, young Kazakhs put personal rather than status qualities in the first place. Secondly, in the structure of values, there is a special non-acceptance of abortion and homosexuality compared to European countries. The results of the research have practical significance for educational institutions to adapt and improve sexuality education in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioural observations were used to investigate the temporal dynamics events and associated variation in the daily activities of a sedentary population of mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos) inhabiting an urban park in northern Portugal. Data was collected at Porto City Park from December to April, during the species' courtship and early nesting periods. The most frequent activities for this population were locomotion, resting and feeding. Statistical analysis revealed that male and female behaviours differed significantly throughout the courtship period, as males exhibited more displays and aggressive behaviour while females were more prone to feed in order to meet their increased nutritional and energetic needs. Temporal analyses showed that courtship reached a peak in intensity in February, since it was in this month that the highest values for mating, aggressive behaviour in males and defensive behaviour in females were observed. Behavioural differences were found for this population, with higher feeding rates compared to those of wild populations as well as lower defensive behaviour rates. This paper sheds light on how synanthropized populations, as well as those from Southwestern Europe, show different behavioural responses from other populations. Additional extensive monitoring of population dynamics and factors such as latitudinal differences, habituation to humans and climate change will help to predict future growth and expansion rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Croatian Journal of Education / Hrvatski Časopis za Odgoj i Obrazovanje is the property of Uciteljski Fakultet u Zagrebu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: The usage of commercial probiotic products as alternatives to traditional antibiotics in fish culture is initiated to be a potential factor for Nile tilapia fish's welfare and growth. Aim: The purpose of the current study is to show the influence of commercial probiotics (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens) dietary supplementation at different levels on Nile tilapia welfare and growth. Methods: Apparently healthy fingerlings of Nile Tilapia with a total number of 120 with an average initial weight (26.2±0.3 g) were distributed into 4 groups (each group had 30 fingerlings). The 1st group (G1) was given a basal diet without additional probiotics. While other groups (2nd group (G2), the 3rd group (G3), and the 4th group (G4)) were given basal diets supplemented with different levels of commercial probiotics (1 g, 2 g, and 3 g of probiotics per kilogram of diet) respectively (15 fish in each sub group as replicate), in eight glass aquaria (30×40×100 cm) for 2 months as an experimental period. Results: The results revealed that the probiotic treated groups especially G4 (3 g probiotics /kg diet) showed a marked increase in the following behavioural patterns such as feeding and swimming behaviours, while G2 (1 g probiotic /kg diet) had an increase in the foraging behaviour compared with G1 control group. While surfacing, body care, and aggressive behaviours with its all patterns were the highest in control group (G1) than the all probiotics treated groups. Crossing test showed that fish rose at the probiotic treated groups (G3, and G4) were more active and could achieve the highest growth rates. While, water quality was better in G4 (3 g probiotic /kg diet) than other groups. Moreover, G4 (3g probiotic /kg diet) showed a marked increase in all serum biochemical parameters than the control group (G1). Conclusion: The current study proved that the best level of commercial probiotics (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens) was (3 g probiotic/kg diet) for achieving optimal Nile tilapia fingerlings' growth performance under these experimental conditions. Finally, this work confirms the significance of addition of probiotics as a feed additive to enhance both growth performance and immunity response, improve water quality and achieve welfare of Nile tilapia fingerlings. [Open Vet J 2024; 14(1.000): 360-369]

Worldwide stroke is the second leading cause of death and the third leading cause of death and disability combined. The estimated global economic burden by stroke is over US$891 billion per year. Within three decades (1990–2019), the incidence increased by 70%, deaths by 43%, prevalence by 102%, and DALYs by 143%. Of over 100 million people affected by stroke, about 76% are ischemic stroke (IS) patients recorded worldwide. Contextually, ischemic stroke moves into particular focus of multi-professional groups including researchers, healthcare industry, economists, and policy-makers. Risk factors of ischemic stroke demonstrate sufficient space for cost-effective prevention interventions in primary (suboptimal health) and secondary (clinically manifested collateral disorders contributing to stroke risks) care. These risks are interrelated. For example, sedentary lifestyle and toxic environment both cause mitochondrial stress, systemic low-grade inflammation and accelerated ageing; inflammageing is a low-grade inflammation associated with accelerated ageing and poor stroke outcomes. Stress overload, decreased mitochondrial bioenergetics and hypomagnesaemia are associated with systemic vasospasm and ischemic lesions in heart and brain of all age groups including teenagers. Imbalanced dietary patterns poor in folate but rich in red and processed meat, refined grains, and sugary beverages are associated with hyperhomocysteinaemia, systemic inflammation, small vessel disease, and increased IS risks. Ongoing 3PM research towards vulnerable groups in the population promoted by the European Association for Predictive, Preventive and Personalised Medicine (EPMA) demonstrates promising results for the holistic patient-friendly non-invasive approach utilising tear fluid-based health risk assessment, mitochondria as a vital biosensor and AI-based multi-professional data interpretation as reported here by the EPMA expert group. Collected data demonstrate that IS-relevant risks and corresponding molecular pathways are interrelated. For examples, there is an evident overlap between molecular patterns involved in IS and diabetic retinopathy as an early indicator of IS risk in diabetic patients. Just to exemplify some of them such as the 5-aminolevulinic acid/pathway, which are also characteristic for an altered mitophagy patterns, insomnia, stress regulation and modulation of microbiota-gut-brain crosstalk. Further, ceramides are considered mediators of oxidative stress and inflammation in cardiometabolic disease, negatively affecting mitochondrial respiratory chain function and fission/fusion activity, altered sleep–wake behaviour, vascular stiffness and remodelling. Xanthine/pathway regulation is involved in mitochondrial homeostasis and stress-driven anxiety-like behaviour as well as molecular mechanisms of arterial stiffness. In order to assess individual health risks, an application of machine learning (AI tool) is essential for an accurate data interpretation performed by the multiparametric analysis. Aspects presented in the paper include the needs of young populations and elderly, personalised risk assessment in primary and secondary care, cost-efficacy, application of innovative technologies and screening programmes, advanced education measures for professionals and general population—all are essential pillars for the paradigm change from reactive medical services to 3PM in the overall IS management promoted by the EPMA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The usage of commercial probiotic products as alternatives to traditional antibiotics in fish culture is initiated to be a potential factor for Nile tilapia fish’s welfare and growth. Aim: The purpose of the current study is to show the influence of commercial probiotics (Bacillus amyloliquefaciens) dietary supplementation at different levels on Nile tilapia welfare and growth. Methods: Apparently healthy fingerlings of Nile Tilapia with a total number of 120 with an average initial weight (26.2 ± 0.3 g) were distributed into four groups (each group had 30 fingerlings). The first group (G1) was given a basal diet without additional probiotics, while other groups [second group (G2), the third group (G3), and the fourth group (G4)] were given basal diets supplemented with different levels of commercial probiotics (1 g, 2 g, and 3 g of probiotics per kilogram of diet), respectively (15 fish in each sub group as replicate), in eight glass aquaria (30 × 40 × 100 cm) for 2 months as an experimental period. Results: The results revealed that the probiotic-treated groups especially G4 (3 g probiotics/kg diet) showed a marked increase in the following behavioral patterns such as feeding and swimming behaviors, while G2 (1 g probiotic/kg diet) had an increase in the foraging behavior compared with G1 control group. While surfacing, body care, and aggressive behaviors with all patterns were the highest in the control group (G1) than all probiotics-treated groups. The crossing test showed that fish rose in the probiotic-treated groups (G3 and G4) were more active and could achieve the highest growth rates. While water quality was better in G4 (3 g probiotic /kg diet) than in other groups. Moreover, G4 (3 g probiotic/kg diet) showed a marked increase in all serum biochemical parameters than the control group (G1). Conclusion: The current study proved that the best level of commercial probiotics (B. amyloliquefaciens) was (3 g probiotic/kg diet) for achieving optimal Nile tilapia fingerlings’ growth performance under these experimental conditions. Finally, this work confirms the significance of the addition of probiotics as a feed additive to enhance both growth performance and immunity response, improve water quality, and achieve the welfare of Nile tilapia fingerlings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Cities are information systems by its social and physical components. The data of these components create a wider picture in urban texture than it was designed by planners and designer in urban practices. The idea of collecting the data and composing models of spontaneous actions in urban simulations can add different dimensions to planning ideas in social terms and spatial texture. The issue is to find out how these components can be better related with each other to let citizens be urban planners as well up to some level, and what level that would be. The aim of the project is to bring back the social impact of the whole city as linking the hubs of Karaköy and Kabataş through the waterfront, also reawakening the collective memory of the port, by preserving the texture of warehouses form Ottoman Empire. The final outcome would be understanding how effectively project would be able to create the dynamics that have been proposed, and whether there have been other spontaneous actions thought the designed area.

This contribution explores the evolutionary nature of workspaces in the context of technological and social flexibility. The modular dimension of an office is analysed through a change in spatial solutions considering the influence that socio-cultural transformations have had on management models and design choices. The analysis focuses on the effectiveness of data-driven approaches when used to explore work contexts: data are a useful tool to understand the experiences and perceptions of employees when developing solutions to improve well-being in the workplace. This contribution aims to outline the transformation of an office from a closed and individualistic module to an open and shared system in which data play a fundamental role in defining the future of workspaces. Article info Received: 10/09/2023; Revised: 16/10/2023; Accepted: 22/10/2023

Cities are information systems by its social and physical components. The data of these components create a wider picture in urban texture than it was designed by planners and designer in urban practices. The idea of collecting the data and composing models of spontaneous actions in urban simulations can add different dimensions to planning ideas in social terms and spatial texture. The issue is to find out how these components can be better related with each other to let citizens be urban planners as well up to some level, and what level that would be. The aim of the project is to bring back the social impact of the whole city as linking the hubs of Karaköy and Kabataş through the waterfront, also reawakening the collective memory of the port, by preserving the texture of warehouses form Ottoman Empire. The final outcome would be understanding how effectively project would be able to create the dynamics that have been proposed, and whether there have been other spontaneous actions thought the designed area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research is relevant due to the solution of the scientific and pedagogical problem which is connected with the study of spirituality and the development of an adolescent’s behaviour on its basis. The problem is solved by involving teenagers in mastering behavioural patterns. The article substantiates the conception the study. It consists in understanding the mechanisms of the higher laws of being. In this case not only understanding, but also building one’s life in accordance with these laws and the laws of goodness, leads to the realization of the following idea: the planned things are carried out naturally, which indicates harmonious interaction with the surrounding world. It is noted that spirituality and morality are not identical, but their similarity is determined by the focus on the development and regulation of the relations with the surrounding world “from within”. The purpose of the study is to identify pedagogical tools that contribute to the activated development of adolescents’ consciousness based on spirituality. The research hypothesizes that if we bring teenagers to understanding the fundamentals of the organizing power peculiar to the laws of the universe, and if we equip them with appropriate behavioural patterns, then, as a result of the accumulated experience, teenagers will be able to interact harmoniously with the outside world and to achieve maximum success in everyday life. The sample of the research included teenage schoolchildren (N = 52) (Astrakhan) aged 14–15. The research methods comprise the methodology of ‘Value orientations’ (by M. Rokich), the ‘Unfinished Sentence’ technique, and a clarifying conversation aimed at finding out the peculiarities of understanding spiritual and moral values by adolescents and at identifying their relationships with the surrounding world. Results. On the basis of qualitative changes in the results of the pedagogical experiment, the study proves the significance of involving adolescents in the search for behavioural patterns of harmonious interaction with the outside world. The results also confirm the necessity of such search as a factor of the individual’s spiritual development. Conclusions. The study concludes that the use of the training sessions ‘The Art of Social Communication’ has contributed to the activated involvement of adolescents in the search for behavioural patterns for harmonious interaction with the surrounding world.

Copyright of Agathon: International Journal of Architecture, Art & Design is the property of DEMETRA CE.RI.MED and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract E-learning students have a tendency to get demotivated and easily dropout from online courses. Refining the learners’ involvement and reducing dropout rates in these e-learning based scenarios is the main drive of this study. This study also shares the results obtained and crafts a comparison with new and emerging commercial solutions. In a primary phase, the goal was to center the study and research made (background, state of the art, survey and interviews to uncover motives and behavior patterns). In an additional stage, the development, trails and validation of an operating prototype of an Intelligent Alerting System to grant and evaluate concepts, gather statistical data on its efficiency, explore and detect if course accomplishment rates did actually improve. The results measured the effectiveness of learning (accomplishment and dropout rates) before and after the application of the proposed solution. Finally, some related work is considered, as well as emerging commercial solutions are compared with the proposed solution.

This study evaluated the behavioural responses of male Wistar rats to normal air or cigarette smoke (CS) and compared the effects of curcumin and hesperidin on growth performance. In experiment 1, male rats were randomised into two groups (n = 10): control and CS-exposed groups. During exposure (four weeks), the dietary and behavioural patterns were monitored. In experiment 2, forty-eight rats were distributed across eight groups (n = 6): normal control, CS control, CS + curcumin (10 mg.kg−1), CS + curcumin (20 mg.kg−1), CS + hesperidin (10 mg.kg−1), CS + hesperidin (20 mg.kg−1), curcumin (20 mg.kg−1), and hesperidin (20 mg.kg−1) for 6 weeks. Growth performance (feed intake, weight gain, and feed conversion ratio FCR) were assessed. In the first experiment, there was no significant difference (P > 0.05) in the body weight of the CS-exposed group compared to the normal control, whereas feed intake was significantly (P > 0.05) lower in the CS-group. The time to access feed and water was higher in the CS-group, while other behavioural responses (locomotion, stand upright, climbing, stand and stare, sniffing, sitting, and digging) were significantly reduced (P < 0.05) compared with normal control, especially after two weeks. In the second experiment, weight gain, feed in-take, and FCR were significantly lower in the CS-exposed group compared to the control group, whereas treatment with curcumin and hesperidin, especially at the higher dose (20 mg.kg−1 b. wt.), significantly improved the growth performance of the CS-exposed groups. This study submits that CS exposure negatively impacts on the growth performance and behavioural patterns and demonstrates the potentials of curcumin and hesperidin in addressing these CS-provoked changes.

Simple Summary: An information theory approach provides new methods for experimental studying and analysis of animals' communication and behavioural sequences. One of the main problems in studying animal behaviour at different levels of the organisation, from individual to collective behaviour, is searching for a reliable criterion for evaluating the variability and complexity of patterns. The data-compression method based on ideas of Kolmogorov complexity allows us to spot regularities that are difficult to detect otherwise, and that can influence the complexity of behavioural sequences. The information-theory approach allows for a comparative analysis of ethograms and provides a quantitative way to distinguish between innate and experienced behaviour. This approach is focused on studying natural communications by measuring information transmission rates without attempting to decode signals. It has made it possible, in particular, to discover the existence of a developed symbolic "language" in leader-scouting ant species, based on the ability of these ants to transfer abstract information about remote events. Over the last 40–50 years, ethology has become increasingly quantitative and computational. However, when analysing animal behavioural sequences, researchers often need help finding an adequate model to assess certain characteristics of these sequences while using a relatively small number of parameters. In this review, I demonstrate that the information theory approaches based on Shannon entropy and Kolmogorov complexity can furnish effective tools to analyse and compare animal natural behaviours. In addition to a comparative analysis of stereotypic behavioural sequences, information theory can provide ideas for particular experiments on sophisticated animal communications. In particular, it has made it possible to discover the existence of a developed symbolic "language" in leader-scouting ant species based on the ability of these ants to transfer abstract information about remote events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient collaborative learning relies on productive interaction among learners. Previous studies have suggested that group gender composition might affect the group dynamics. While previous studies have generally focused on the learning performance of different gender groups, relatively little effort has been devoted to scrutinising the learning process. Therefore, this study seeks to further explore students' cognitive processing patterns in the collaborative learning process among different gender groups, namely, five female-only groups (4 female students in each group), five male-only groups (4 male students in each group), and five balanced-gender groups (2 male and 2 female students in each group). This study employed quantitative content analysis and lag sequential analysis to explore students' cognitive processing patterns in a Facebook-based online discussion learning activity. A total of 3230 messages in the online discussion were retrieved and analysed. The results indicate that the female-only groups were the most active groups in terms of the messages generated. By contrast, male-only groups were the least active but exhibited a more diverse discussion pattern. Meanwhile, the balanced-gender groups showed the most diverse cognitive transition patterns. Our findings could serve as a guideline for gender grouping and collaborative learning activity design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whenever people think about something or engage in activities, internal mental processes will be engaged. These processes consist of sensory representations, such as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, which are constantly being used, and they can have an impact on a person's performance. Each person has a preferred representational system they use most when speaking, learning, or communicating, and identifying it can explain a large part of their exhibited behaviours and characteristics. This paper proposes a machine learning-based automated approach to identify the preferred representational system of a person that is used unconsciously. A novel methodology has been used to create a specific labelled conversational dataset, four different machine learning models (support vector machine, logistic regression, random forest, and k-nearest neighbour) have been implemented, and the performance of these models has been evaluated and compared. The results show that the support vector machine model has the best performance for identifying a person's preferred representational system, as it has a better mean accuracy score compared to the other approaches after the performance of 10-fold cross-validation. The automated model proposed here can assist Neuro Linguistic Programming practitioners and psychologists to have a better understanding of their clients' behavioural patterns and the relevant cognitive processes. It can also be used by people and organisations in order to achieve their goals in personal development and management. The two main knowledge contributions in this paper are the creation of the first labelled dataset for representational systems, which is now publicly available, and the use of machine learning techniques for the first time to identify a person's preferred representational system in an automated way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-learning students have a tendency to get demotivated and easily dropout from online courses. Refining the learners' involvement and reducing dropout rates in these e-learning based scenarios is the main drive of this study. This study also shares the results obtained and crafts a comparison with new and emerging commercial solutions. In a primary phase, the goal was to center the study and research made (background, state of the art, survey and interviews to uncover motives and behavior patterns). In an additional stage, the development, trails and validation of an operating prototype of an Intelligent Alerting System to grant and evaluate concepts, gather statistical data on its efficiency, explore and detect if course accomplishment rates did actually improve. The results measured the effectiveness of learning (accomplishment and dropout rates) before and after the application of the proposed solution. Finally, some related work is considered, as well as emerging commercial solutions are compared with the proposed solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our era of big data and information overload, content consumers utilise a variety of sources to meet their data and informational needs for the purpose of acquiring an in-depth perspective on a subject, as each source is focused on specific aspects. The same principle applies to the online social networks (OSNs), as usually, the end-users maintain accounts in multiple OSNs so as to acquire a complete social networking experience, since each OSN has a different philosophy in terms of its services, content, and interaction. Contrary to the current literature, we examine the users' behavioural and disseminated content patterns under the assumption that accounts maintained by users in multiple OSNs are not regarded as distinct accounts, but rather as the same individual with multiple social instances. Our social analysis, enriched with information about the users' social influences, revealed behavioural patterns depending on the examined OSN, its social entities, and the users' exerted influence. Finally, we ranked the examined OSNs based on three types of social characteristics, revealing correlations between the users' behavioural and content patterns, social influences, social entities, and the OSNs themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of qualitative research on the lived experience of managers related to critical moments of practice that arise due to behavioral patterns acquired during childhood that are incompatible with their own mindsets. The research is based on interpretive phenomenological analysis and is enriched at the interpretive level with existential hermeneutic phenomenology perspectives. The article concludes that both childhood experience and adopted parental behavioral patterns that are not in accordance with their own mindset can lead to serious issues in managers' career development. These are typically dysfunctional interpersonal relationships, feelings of failure, and disrupted management activities and processes that affect career plans and personal life. The novelty of our approach lies in the fact that a phenomenological approach can be used not only to analyze traumatic childhood experiences and events, but also to reveal how a common family background can shape future business practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Physical activity has shown association with ventricular arrhythmia, however, the role of specific behavioral patterns over a 24 h cycle remains unknown. Therefore, we aimed to explore associations between physical behavior and appropriate implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy., Methods and Results: We included patients with an ICD at two European sites, who wore wrist-based accelerometers capturing 24 h movement and sleep behaviours for 28 days. Behavioural measures included activity volume, duration and intensity, sleep duration, and efficiency. Participants were followed for 12 months for the outcome of appropriate ICD therapy. Cox proportional hazard models with restricted cubic splines were used for the analysis. Lastly, the predictive capacity was tested. A total of 253 ICD patients were included (mean age 63.5 (±10.2), 48 (19.0%) female). During follow-up, 40 participants (15.8%) received appropriate ICD therapy; 32 anti-tachycardia pacing (ATP) only (12.6%), 5 shock only (2.0%), and 3 combined ATP and shock (1.2%). In the adjusted model, high inactive duration (HR 1.40 (95% 1.10-1.78)), peak walking cadence (HR 1.07 (95% 1.03-1.12)), and total sleep duration (HR 1.50 (1.02-2.22)) were associated with the outcome. The dose-response relationship was U-shaped for inactive duration with a cut-off at 16 h, and linear for peak cadence and sleep. The prediction model reached an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.70 ± 0.03, with highest accuracy in the first months., Conclusion: Wearable-derived 24 h movement and sleep behaviours collected over 28 days were associated with later appropriate ICD therapy risk. Testing of the predictive value of digital biomarkers for enhanced risk stratification of ventricular arrhythmia warrants larger prospective studies., Clinical Trial Registration: National Trial Registration (NL9218, http://onderzoekmetmensen.nl/)., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: R.E.K. reports consultancy fees and research grants from Boston Scientific, Medtronic, and Abbott and has stock options from AtaCor Medical Inc. F.V.Y.T. has grants or contracts from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and Amsterdam Cardiovascular Science and received payment or honoraria from Boston Scientific and Abbott (no personal financial gain). S.Z.D. reports consultancy fees and research grants from Acesion Pharma and Cortrium, and has received payment or honoraria from Bristol, Myers Squibb, Pfizer, and Bayer. P.K.J. reports consultancy fees and research grants from Abbott and Medtronic, payment or honoraria from Abbott and Medtronic, and support for attending meetings and/or travel from Abbott and Medtronic. J.H.S. reports grants or contracts from Medtronic (payed to institution), payment or honoraria from Medtronic, support for attending meetings and/or travel from Abbott and Medtronic, and participation in Advisory Board for Medtronic and Vital Beats. J.L. reports having stock or stock option from Activinsights Ltd. T.O.A. reports having stock or stock options from Vital Beats. D.M.F., M.Z.H.K., N.R., and H.L.T. have nothing to declare., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.)

Predatory hunting is a complex species-typical behaviour involving different skills, some of which may include learning. This research aims to distinguish between rigid and flexible parts in live-insect hunting behaviour in nine herbivorous and granivorous rodent species, and to find out whether there is room for cognition in this activity. In laboratory experiments, all species studied manifest skilful attacks towards insects in a manner that is typical for specialised predators chasing a fleeing prey. Voles demonstrate a "core" and somewhat primitive scheme of a hunting pattern: approaching a potential victim, biting it, and then seizing and handling. Hamsters display the tendency to start their attacks by actions with paws, but they can achieve success only using teeth as well. Gerbils can successfully use both paws and teeth to start the attack, which brings their hunting behaviour closer to that of specialised rodent predators. We revealed variability in the display of hunting in different species, methods of seizing the prey, and the number of attempts to attack an insect before catching it. We found specific flexible fragments within the "bite–grasp–handle" bouts that can be precursors for adaptive phenotypic variations and include some cognitive attributes. We hypothesise that the divergence and specialisation of predatory behaviour in rodents can be based on the natural fragmentation of the original hunting patterns, that is, on the loss or recombination of particular behavioural elements. We consider a possible link between the fragmentation of hunting behaviour and social learning in different classes of animals and conjecture an intriguing correlation between predatory activity, cognitive skills and personal traits in rodents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 40–50 years, ethology has become increasingly quantitative and computational. However, when analysing animal behavioural sequences, researchers often need help finding an adequate model to assess certain characteristics of these sequences while using a relatively small number of parameters. In this review, I demonstrate that the information theory approaches based on Shannon entropy and Kolmogorov complexity can furnish effective tools to analyse and compare animal natural behaviours. In addition to a comparative analysis of stereotypic behavioural sequences, information theory can provide ideas for particular experiments on sophisticated animal communications. In particular, it has made it possible to discover the existence of a developed symbolic “language” in leader-scouting ant species based on the ability of these ants to transfer abstract information about remote events.

Copyright of Transformations in Business & Economics is the property of Vilnius University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Libri & Liberi is the property of Croatian Association of Researchers in Children's Literature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

First two decades of the twenty-first century are characterised by epidemics of non-communicable diseases such as many hundreds of millions of patients diagnosed with cardiovascular diseases and the type 2 diabetes mellitus, breast, lung, liver and prostate malignancies, neurological, sleep, mood and eye disorders, amongst others. Consequent socio-economic burden is tremendous. Unprecedented decrease in age of maladaptive individuals has been reported. The absolute majority of expanding non-communicable disorders carry a chronic character, over a couple of years progressing from reversible suboptimal health conditions to irreversible severe pathologies and cascading collateral complications. The time-frame between onset of SHS and clinical manifestation of associated disorders is the operational area for an application of reliable risk assessment tools and predictive diagnostics followed by the cost-effective targeted prevention and treatments tailored to the person. This article demonstrates advanced strategies in bio/medical sciences and healthcare focused on suboptimal health conditions in the frame-work of Predictive, Preventive and Personalised Medicine (3PM/PPPM). Potential benefits in healthcare systems and for society at large include but are not restricted to an improved life-quality of major populations and socio-economical groups, advanced professionalism of healthcare-givers and sustainable healthcare economy. Amongst others, following medical areas are proposed to strongly benefit from PPPM strategies applied to the identification and treatment of suboptimal health conditions: Stress overload associated pathologies Male and female health Planned pregnancies Periodontal health Eye disorders Inflammatory disorders, wound healing and pain management with associated complications Metabolic disorders and suboptimal body weight Cardiovascular pathologies Cancers Stroke, particularly of unknown aetiology and in young individuals Sleep medicine Sports medicine Improved individual outcomes under pandemic conditions such as COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic-related deaths and severe injuries may affect every person on the roads, whether driving, cycling or walking. Toronto, the largest city in Canada and the fourth largest in North America, aims to eliminate traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries on city streets. The aim of this study is to build a prediction model using data analytics and machine learning techniques that learn from past patterns, providing additional data-driven decision support for strategic planning. A detailed exploratory analysis is presented, investigating the relationship between the variables and factors affecting collisions in Toronto. A learning-based model is proposed to predict the fatalities and severe injuries in traffic collisions through a comparison of two predictive models: Lasso Regression and Random Forest. Exploratory data analysis results reveal both spatio-temporal and behavioural patterns such as the prevalence of collisions in intersections, in the spring and summer and aggressive driving and inattentive behaviours in drivers. The prediction results show that the best predictor of injury severity for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians is Random Forest with an accuracy of 0.80, 0.89, and 0.80, respectively. The proposed methods demonstrate the effectiveness of machine learning application to traffic and collision data, both for exploratory and predictive analytics.

Whenever people think about something or engage in activities, internal mental processes will be engaged. These processes consist of sensory representations, such as visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, which are constantly being used, and they can have an impact on a person’s performance. Each person has a preferred representational system they use most when speaking, learning, or communicating, and identifying it can explain a large part of their exhibited behaviours and characteristics. This paper proposes a machine learning-based automated approach to identify the preferred representational system of a person that is used unconsciously. A novel methodology has been used to create a specific labelled conversational dataset, four different machine learning models (support vector machine, logistic regression, random forest, and k-nearest neighbour) have been implemented, and the performance of these models has been evaluated and compared. The results show that the support vector machine model has the best performance for identifying a person’s preferred representational system, as it has a better mean accuracy score compared to the other approaches after the performance of 10-fold cross-validation. The automated model proposed here can assist Neuro Linguistic Programming practitioners and psychologists to have a better understanding of their clients’ behavioural patterns and the relevant cognitive processes. It can also be used by people and organisations in order to achieve their goals in personal development and management. The two main knowledge contributions in this paper are the creation of the first labelled dataset for representational systems, which is now publicly available, and the use of machine learning techniques for the first time to identify a person’s preferred representational system in an automated way.

Identifying correlates of behavioural patterns are important to target population sub-groups at increased health risk. The aim was to investigate correlates of behavioural patterns comprising four behavioural domains in children. Data were from the HAPPY study when children were 6–8 years (n = 335) and 9–11 years (n = 339). Parents reported correlate and behavioural data (dietary intake, physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep). Behavioural data were additionally captured using accelerometers. Latent profile analysis was used to derive patterns. Patterns were identified as healthy, unhealthy, and mixed at both time points. Multinomial logistic regression tested for associations. Girls were more likely to display healthy patterns at 6–8 years and display unhealthy and mixed patterns at 9–11 years than boys, compared to other patterns at the corresponding ages. Increased risk of displaying the unhealthy pattern with higher age was observed at both timepoints. At 9–11 years, higher parental working hours were associated with lower risk of displaying mixed patterns compared to the healthy pattern. Associations observed revealed girls and older children to be at risk for unhealthy patterns, warranting customisation of health efforts to these groups. The number of behaviours included when deriving patterns and the individual behaviours that dominate each pattern appear to be drivers of the associations for child level, but not for family level, correlates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the results of two surveys conducted by the present authors, this paper examines translators' and interpreters' behaviour in the translation market and factors that influence it in (Slovak) society. In keeping with the familiar fact that not all translators are alike, we believe that empirically measurable factors enable us to observe behavioural patterns among translators and interpreters that are distinguishable along an axis of specialisation and an axis of professionalisation. The authors conducted two separate surveys involving 550 translators and interpreters – including literary translators, court translators and interpreters, translators of technical texts, audiovisual translators, institutional interpreters, and freelance translators – who worked across Slovakia's market spectrum. In the analysis of the survey results, we found that, among other things, the level of professionalisation played a crucial role in translators' decision-making processes within the broader social and professional context. In line with Toury's (1995, 55) definitions of the norm, we hoped to "distinguish regularity of behaviour in recurrent situations of the same type" according to certain factors, including the degree of professionalisation and age, education, and type of translatorial activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sleep quality and duration as well as activity-rest-cycles at individual level are crucial for maintaining physical and mental health. Although several methods do exist to monitor these parameters, optimal approaches are still under consideration and technological development. Wrist actigraphy is a non-invasive electro-physical method validated in the field of chronobiology to record movements and to allow for monitoring human activity-rest-cycles. Based on the continuous recording of motor activity and light exposure, actigraphy provides valuable information about the quality and quantity of the sleep–wake rhythm and about the amount of motor activity at day and night that is highly relevant for predicting a potential disease and its targeted prevention as well as personalisation of medical services provided to individuals in suboptimal health conditions and patients. Being generally used in the field of sleep medicine, actigraphy demonstrates a great potential to be successfully implemented in primary, secondary and tertiary care, psychiatry, oncology, and intensive care, military and sports medicines as well as epidemiological monitoring of behavioural habits as well as well-being medical support, amongst others. Prediction of disease development and individual outcomes: Activity-rest-cycles have been demonstrated to be an important predictor for many diseases including but not restricted to the development of metabolic, psychiatric and malignant pathologies. Moreover, activity-rest-cycles directly impact individual outcomes in corresponding patient cohorts. Targeted prevention: Data acquired by actigraphy are instrumental for the evidence-based targeted prevention by analysing individualised patient profiles including light exposure, sleep duration and quality, activity-rest-cycles, intensity and structure of motion pattern. Personalised therapy: Wrist actigraphic approach is increasingly used in clinical care. Personalised measurements of sedation/agitation rhythms are useful for ICU patients, for evaluation of motor fatigue in oncologic patients, for an individual enhancement of performance in military and sport medicine. In the framework of personalised therapy intervention, patients can be encouraged to optimise their behavioural habits improving recovery and activity patterns. This opens excellent perspectives for the sleep-inducing medication and stimulants replacement as well as for increasing the role of participatory medicine by visualising and encouraging optimal behavioural patterns of the individual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireworms are larvae of click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae) and are well known pests of economic importance. Knowing the species diversity in a particular area is important, as the ecological requirements and consequent management strategies of individual species vary. Morphological identification of wireworms is challenging; separating between individual species is often almost impossible. Molecular methods therefore complement morphological methods. Mitochondrial gene for cytochrome oxidase I is most commonly used for molecular identification of wireworms. In this study we list molecular, morphological and behavioural methods for wireworm identification and also highlight the advantages and disadvantages of these methods. At the end of the article, a simplified morphological identification key for determining economically important wireworm species of the genus Agriotes in Slovenian language is attached.

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Although the almost worldwide distributed wild boar Sus scrofa is a well-studied species, little is known about the behaviour of autochthonous, free living wild boar in a spatiotemporal context which can help to better understand wild boar in conflict terms with humans and to find solutions. The use of camera traps is a favourable and non-invasive method to study them. To observe natural behaviour, 60 camera traps were placed for three months in a state forest of 17.8 km2 in the region of the Luneburg Heath in northern Germany. In this area wild boar, roe deer, red deer, wolves and humans are common. The cameras recorded 20 s length video clips when animals passed the detection zone and could be triggered again immediately afterwards. In total 38 distinct behavioural elements were observed, which were assigned to one of seven behavioural categories. The occurrence of the behavioural categories per day was evaluated to compare their frequencies and see which are more essential than others. Generalised Additive Models were used to analyse the occurrence of each behaviour in relation to habitat and activity time. The results show that essential behavioural categories like foraging behaviour, locomotion and vigilance behaviour occurred more frequently than behaviour that “just” served for the well-being of wild boar. These three behavioural categories could be observed together mostly in the night in broad-leaved forests with a herb layer of 50–100%, comfort behaviour occurred mostly at the ponds in coniferous forest. It is also observable that the behavioural categories foraging and comfort behaviour alternated several times during the night which offers the hypothesis that foraging is mostly followed by comfort behaviour. These findings pave the way towards implementing effective control strategies in the wild and animal welfare in captivity.

Nowadays every provider of critical infrastructure is obliged to use alarm systems - mainly simple surveillance CCTV cameras - to increase security and safety of those objects. Yet such systems have proven ineffectual in preventing security disrupting situations, such as identity theft, as the most they can do is offer evidence to identify perpetrators of criminal acts once they have occurred. To use them for crime prevention, specially trained personnel need to monitor all screens constantly on the look-out for potentially dangerous activity - which is financially and time-consuming and prone to mistakes. This study aims at developing semi-automatic video surveillance technologies, which are able to detect events of changed behaviour of employees in relation to their standard behaviour - this means for example cases of identity theft, possible blackmail of a person, or safety disrupting cases - an employee might be sick or under influence of drugs what may lead to potentially dangerous acts.

In the modern era, there is a growing need for surveillance to ensure the safety and security of the people. Real-time object detection is crucial for many applications such as traffic monitoring, security, search and rescue, vehicle counting, and classroom monitoring. Computer-enabled laboratories are generally equipped with video surveillance cameras in the smart campus. But, from the existing literature, it is observed that the use of video surveillance data obtained from smart campus for any unobtrusive behavioral analysis is seldom performed. Though there are several works on the students' and teachers' behavior recognition from devices such as Kinect and handy cameras, there exists no such work which extracts the video surveillance data and predicts the behavioral patterns of both the students and the teachers in real time. Hence, in this study, we unobtrusively analyze the students' and teachers' behavioral patterns inside a teaching laboratory (which is considered as an indoor scenario of a smart campus). Here, we propose a deep convolution network architecture to classify and recognize an object in the indoor scenario, i.e., the teaching laboratory environment of the smart campus with modified Single-Shot MultiBox Detector approach. We used six different class labels for predicting the behavioral patterns of both the students and the teachers. We created our dataset with six different class labels for training deep learning architecture. The performance evaluation demonstrates that the proposed method performs better with an accuracy of 0.765 for classification and localization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the almost worldwide distributed wild boar Sus scrofa is a well-studied species, little is known about the behaviour of autochthonous, free living wild boar in a spatiotemporal context which can help to better understand wild boar in conflict terms with humans and to find solutions. The use of camera traps is a favourable and non-invasive method to study them. To observe natural behaviour, 60 camera traps were placed for three months in a state forest of 17.8 km² in the region of the Luneburg Heath in northern Germany. In this area wild boar, roe deer, red deer, wolves and humans are common. The cameras recorded 20 s length video clips when animals passed the detection zone and could be triggered again immediately afterwards. In total 38 distinct behavioural elements were observed, which were assigned to one of seven behavioural categories. The occurrence of the behavioural categories per day was evaluated to compare their frequencies and see which are more essential than others. Generalised Additive Models were used to analyse the occurrence of each behaviour in relation to habitat and activity time. The results show that essential behavioural categories like foraging behaviour, locomotion and vigilance behaviour occurred more frequently than behaviour that "just" served for the well-being of wild boar. These three behavioural categories could be observed together mostly in the night in broad-leaved forests with a herb layer of 50-100%, comfort behaviour occurred mostly at the ponds in coniferous forest. It is also observable that the behavioural categories foraging and comfort behaviour alternated several times during the night which offers the hypothesis that foraging is mostly followed by comfort behaviour. These findings pave the way towards implementing effective control strategies in the wild and animal welfare in captivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article captures some significant psycho-social mechanisms in terms of the processes of shaping and crystallizing attitudinal and behavioural patterns, interpreted as forms or arguments for integrating the individual into the social environment. In the first part, we emphasize the deterministic relationship between the attitudinal manifestations and the degree of social integration. In the second part, an explanatory model is being built which aims at the attitudinal complex as a psycho-social phenomenon and which is explained from the perspective of emotional experiences. The material is a theoretical reflexive approach and aims to bring the importance of emotions to the fore in the context of social integration processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence against children is one of the most serious social problems of contemporary society, and the repercussions of this phenomenon are devastating for the development of future adults. The family is the main environment of children’s education and training that provides them with the necessary resources to grow, develop, mature and finally carry on life, and on their future parenting conduct. In the absence of behavioural patterns worth following, children who are victims of domestic violence may perceive aggression as a normality to apply later in their own families. This study includes an extensive analysis of the consequences of domestic violence on the emotional development of children growing up in an abusive environment. The purpose of the investigative approach was to analyse the effects of domestic violence in the training of future adults. The quantitative research consisted in a questionnaire applied to 100 persons from Caraş-Severin county. The aim of the research was to identify the main consequences of domestic violence on children and to observe how adult life suffers. Violence against children is a very complex phenomenon with multiple effects on the development of adult life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]