The effect of perceived global stress and altruism on prosocial driving behavior, yielding behavior, and yielding attitude

Traffic accidents are mainly caused by driver-to-pedestrian collisions or driver-to-driver collisions. Prosocial driving behavior indicates that drivers exhibit altruistic behavior toward other drivers on roads. Yielding behavior demonstrates that drivers grant the right of passage to pedestrians at unsignalized crossings, while yielding attitude presents the subjective emotional and cognitive inclination to yield to pedestrians at unsignalized crossings. This study aims to explore the effect of altruism and drivers’ perceived stress on prosocial driving behavior, yielding behavior, and yielding attitude. In addition, we endeavor to explore the effect of stress on prosocial driving behavior exhibiting an inverted “U-type” curve as Yerkes-Dodson’s law suggests and test the moderating role of perceived stress on altruism and prosocial driving behavior/yielding behavior/yielding attitude. Using a survey method, we asked 454 participants to complete an altruism scale from the IPIT measuring altruism, a Perceived Stress Scale-10 measuring drivers’ perceived stress, a prosocial driving scale from the PADI measuring prosocial driving behavior, and items on yielding behavior and yielding attitude. Then, a correlational matrix, a hierarchical multiple nonparametric regression analysis, and a moderating analysis of perceived stress were employed in sequence to reach our objective. The hierarchical multiple nonparametric regression analysis showed that altruism positively predicts yielding attitude (F = 41.56, p z = 8.46, p F = 110.66, p F = 7.63, p F = 0.51, p > 0.05) or yielding behavior (z = 0.12, p > 0.05), which exhibits an inverted “U-type” curve. Moderating analyses showed that stress only moderates the relationship between altruism and yielding attitude (B = −0.24, t = −2.62, p  Altruism is positively related to prosocial driving behavior, yielding behavior, and yielding attitude. Stress influences prosocial driving behavior only and exhibits an inverted “U-type” curve. Stress does not directly influence the yielding behavior. Instead, stress moderates the relationship between altruism and yielding attitude only and may further increase the possibility of yielding behavior.</p

The spleen microbiota of small wild mammals reveals distinct patterns with tick-borne bacteria

<div><p>Background</p><p>Wild mammals serve as reservoirs for a variety of microbes and play an important role in the enzootic cycles of these microbes. Some of them are vector-borne bacteria in the genera <i>Anaplasma</i>, <i>Ehrlichia</i> and <i>Rickettsia</i> of the order Rickettsiales, which can cause febrile illnesses in human beings as well as animals. <i>Anaplasma</i> spp., <i>Ehrlichia</i> spp. and many spotted fever group (SFG) <i>Rickettsia</i> spp. are transmitted to mammalian hosts by tick vectors during blood meals. As a powerful sequencing method, the next generation sequencing can reveal the complexity of bacterial communities in humans and animals. Compared with limited studies on blood microbiota, however, much fewer studies have been carried out on spleen microbiota, which is very scarce in wild mammals. Chongming Island is the third biggest island in China. It was unclear whether there were any vector-borne bacteria in Chongming Island. In the present study, we explored the bacterial microbiota in the spleens of wild mice and shrews from the rural areas of Chongming Island and investigated the prevalence of vector-borne bacteria.</p><p>Methodology/Principal findings</p><p>Genomic DNAs were extracted from the spleen samples of 35 mice and shrews. The 16S rDNA V3-V4 regions of the DNA extracts were amplified by PCR and subjected to the 16S rDNA-targeted metagenomic sequencing on an Illumina MiSeq platform. All the 35 spleen samples obtained data with sufficient coverage (99.7–99.9%) for analysis. More than 1,300,000 sequences were obtained after quality control and classified into a total of 1,967 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) clustered at 97% similarity. The two most abundant bacterial phyla were Firmicutes and Proteobacteria according to the analysis of rarefied sequences. Among the bacterial communities detected in this study, <i>Anaplasma</i>, <i>Rickettsia</i> and <i>Coxiella</i> were adjacently clustered by hierarchical analysis. Significant differences in many bacterial features between <i>Anaplasma</i>-positive and <i>Anaplasma</i>-negative samples were identified by LEfSe analysis and Wilcoxon rank-sum test, suggesting that the <i>Anaplasma</i>-infection of small wild mammals was associated with a specific pattern of spleen microbiota.</p><p>Conclusions/Significance</p><p>Our study has comprehensively characterized the complex bacterial profiles in the spleens of wild mice and shrews from Chongming Island, Shanghai city. This work has revealed distinct spleen bacterial communities associated with tick-borne bacteria in wild animals. The detection of tick-borne bacteria highlights the risk of contracting pathogens with public health importance upon tick-exposure in the studied areas.</p></div

Histogram of the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) scores.

<p>Differentially abundant bacterial features enriched in <i>Anaplasma</i>-positive and <i>Anaplasma</i>-negative samples, respectively. The absolute values of LDA scores were > 2 (p < 0.05). A: <i>Anaplasma</i>-positive, in red; N_A: <i>Anaplasma</i>-negative, in green.</p

The detection of vector-borne bacteria, <i>Anaplasma</i>, <i>Ehrlichia</i>, <i>Rickettsia</i>, <i>Coxiella</i> and <i>Bartonella</i>, in the spleen samples of 35 small wild mammals from Chongming Island, Shanghai city.

<p>The detection of vector-borne bacteria, <i>Anaplasma</i>, <i>Ehrlichia</i>, <i>Rickettsia</i>, <i>Coxiella</i> and <i>Bartonella</i>, in the spleen samples of 35 small wild mammals from Chongming Island, Shanghai city.</p

Hierarchical cluster tree.

<p><i>Anaplasma</i>-positive and <i>Anaplasma</i>-negative samples were hierarchically clustered using UPGMA algorithm based on Bray-Curtis distances. A: <i>Anaplasma</i>-positive, in red; N_A: <i>Anaplasma</i>-negative, in green.</p

Spleen microbiota compositions at phylum level.

<p>Color-coded bar plot showing the proportion of different bacterial phyla present in 35 mouse and shrew samples from Chongming Island, Shanghai city. The 4 shrew samples were marked with *, and the left 31 samples were mice; Samples marked with + were <i>Anaplasma</i>-positive.</p

Diversities in the spleen microbiota of 35 mice and shrews.

<p>Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) plots of the spleen microbiota based on the Bray-Curtis metrics considering animal genders, types, geographic sites or infection with <i>Anaplasma</i>. (A), male versus female groups. (B), mouse versus shrew groups. (C), different geographic site groups. (D), <i>Anaplasma</i>-positive versus <i>Anaplasma</i>-negative groups. F: female; M: male. Mi: mice; Sh: shrews. A: <i>Anaplasma</i>-positive; N_A: <i>Anaplasma</i>-negative.</p

Wilcoxon rank-sum test.

<p>Differentially abundant phyla enriched in <i>Anaplasma</i>-positive and <i>Anaplasma</i>-negative samples, respectively, analyzed by Wilcoxon rank-sum test (p < 0.05; q< 0.01). A: <i>Anaplasma</i>-positive, in green; N_A: <i>Anaplasma</i>-negative, in yellow.</p

Differentially abundant bacterial taxa in the spleen microbiota between <i>Anaplasma</i>-positive and <i>Anaplasma</i>-negative samples identified by LEfSe analysis.

<p>Cladogram showed the highly represented taxa in <i>Anaplasma</i>-positive and <i>Anaplasma</i>-negative samples, respectively. A: <i>Anaplasma</i>-positive, in red; N_A: <i>Anaplasma</i>-negative, in green.</p

The joint effect of personality traits and perceived stress on pedestrian behavior in a Chinese sample

<div><p>While improper pedestrian behavior has become an important factor related to road traffic fatalities, especially in developing countries, the effects of personality traits and/or stress on pedestrian behavior have been rarely reported. The current study explored the joint effects of five personality traits (i.e., extraversion, openness, neuroticism, normlessness and altruism) and global perceived stress (measured with the Perceived Stress Scale-10) on pedestrian behavior (measured with the Pedestrian Behavior Scale) in 311 Chinese individuals. Results showed that altruism, neuroticism and openness significantly affected different pedestrian behavior dimensions, while global perceived stress also significantly and positively predicted positive behavior. Moreover, the effect of neuroticism on positive behavior was fully mediated by stress. Some explanations and implications are provided in the discussion section.</p></div