The prevalence of cyber bullying in higher education in the UK

Empirical findings have demonstrated that cyber bullying in schools is a growing problem, but it is not clear whether the phenomenon exists in the higher education context in UK. An explorative study of two hundred and nineteen undergraduate and postgraduate students was conducted to examine cyber bullying in UK universities. It was found that close to 25% of students were cyber victims, while about 15% were cyber perpetrators during their studies. When sex was taken into account, no differences in victimization and/or perpetration were identified. Furthermore,possible associations between past experiences of school bullying and current higher education cyber bullying were investigated. The relationship between traditional school bullying and cyber bullying at university was found with cyber bullying or cyber victimization behaviour continuing in the higher education context. This concurs with current perpetrator/victim research findings within the school context (Smith et al., 2003). Data of students’ internet usage and online behaviour are also presented and implications for interventions in higher education are discussed

Psychological effects on surgical stress and recovery

The role of psychological factors in recovery from surgery is not fully understood. Studies which examined surgical stress and psychological intervention were reviewed in chapters one and two, while methods of assessing surgical stress were discussed in chapter three. Studies of psychological and neuroendocrine parameters were undertaken in patients undergoing minor and major abdominal/perineal surgery. The study in chapter four examined the possible relationship between state anxiety and emotional and physical recovery from both minor and major surgery. State anxiety was found to be related to a poorer recovery while arousal was associated with a better outcome. The effectiveness of relaxation training given pre- operatively, in attenuating the stress response to major surgery and in reducing post operative discomfort was examined in chapter five. The results suggest that the relaxation training improves surgical patients' rate of recovery. The study in chapter six looked at the effects of relaxation training on endocrine responses and recovery from both major and minor surgery. The results show cortisol and adrenaline responses. They also show that patients who had minor surgery and had listened to the relaxation tape had higher levels of adrenaline and cortisol during surgery than the control group. This result was not found in patients who had major surgery. Patients who had major surgery and relaxation training were however, discharged 3 days earlier than those in the control group. The final study in chapter seven tested the ability of a different psychological intervention (relaxation with imagery) to influence the endocrine responses to and recovery from minor surgery. The results show that patients who received relaxation with imagery displayed higher levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline but lower cortisol levels, and their blood pressure and heart rate declined more than the control group. It is concluded that pre-operative psychological intervention influenced recovery from surgery. The most effective type of intervention has been to provide patients with instruction in some form of cognitive strategy for managing physical or emotional distress associated with surgery and hospitalization. The results are discussed in relation to the literature reviewed on physiological stress, psychoendocrinology and anxiety. Janis theory of the "work of worry" - The in this thesis and is discussed as a conceptual framework for health psychology. Implications are drawn for the role of health psychology in designing health care delivery systems

Effective discrimination of flavours and tastes of Chinese traditional fish soups made from different regions of the silver carp using an electronic nose and electronic tongue

Silver carp is a one of the most important freshwater fish species in China, and is popular when making soup in the Chinese dietary culture. In order to investigate the profile of fish soup tastes and flavours cooked using different regions of the same fish, the silver carp was cut into four different regions: head, back, abdomen, and tail. The differences in taste and flavour of the four kinds of homemade fish soup were investigated by an electronic nose and electronic tongue. The basic chemical components of the different fish regions and the SDS-PAGE profile of the fish soup samples were investigated. Two chemometrics methods (principal component analysis and discriminant factor analysis) were used to classify the odour and taste of the fish soup samples. The results showed that the electronic tongue and nose performed outstandingly in discriminating the four fish soups even though the samples were made from different regions of the same fish. The taste and flavour information of different regions of the silver carp fish could provide the theoretical basis for food intensive processing

Effects of anesthesia on conventional and speckle tracking echocardiographic parameters in a mouse model of pressure overload

Genetically‑modified mice are widely applied in cardiovascular studies as model organisms. Echocardiography is a key tool for evaluating cardiac and hemodynamic functions in mice. The present study aimed to examine the effects of isoflurane (ISF) on conventional and speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) parameters under healthy and pathological conditions using a murine model of pressure overload. In addition, the optimal dose of ISF in the process of echocardiographic measurement, with minimum cardiac contraction depression, was investigated. Conventional echocardiographic and STE examinations were performed on 38 adult C57BL/6 male mice. The mice were divided into the following three groups: The sham (n=15); mild thoracic aortic banding (TAB; n=15); and severe TAB (n=8) groups. ISF was administered under deep anesthesia (DA; 1‑2% ISF), light anesthesia (LA; 0.5‑1% ISF) and immediately prior to the mice waking up (awake; 0‑0.5% ISF). Conventional echocardiographic parameters were preserved within the sham and mild TAB groups (P>0.05 for each parameter) under LA and awake conditions. However, under DA conditions, the majority of these parameters were reduced compared with the LA and awake conditions (P<0.05). In the severe TAB group, conventional echocardiographic parameters remained constant under LA, DA and awake conditions. STE parameters in the groups remained similar between the LA and awake conditions, but were significantly reduced under DA conditions. Therefore, conventional echocardiography and STE may be performed using LA induced with low doses of ISF, under various pathological conditions without affecting cardiac function

Sex and ethnic differences in global psychological distress before couple therapy

First stand: A couples’ distress is associated with their inability to effectively communicate and successfully resolve problems. But are there any differences in levels of psychological distress between men and women of different ethnic backgrounds? This study offers a quantitative account of the effect of sex and ethnicity on the levels of psychological distress in heterosexual couples

Cell-type-specific whole-brain direct inputs to the anterior and posterior piriform cortex

The piriform cortex (PC) is a key region in the brain that is involved in both processing and coding of olfactory information. It is implicated in various brain disorders, such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease and autism. The PC consists of anterior (APC) and posterior (PPC) parts, which are largely different both in their anatomy and functions. However, the monosynaptic input networks to specific neural populations within APC and PPC remain poorly understood. Here, we mapped the whole-brain monosynaptic inputs to the two major neural populations, the excitatory glutamatergic principal neurons and the inhibitory γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic interneurons within the APC and PPC using the rabies virus-mediated retrograde trans-synaptic tracing system. We found that for both types of neurons, APC and PPC share some similarities in input networks, with dominant inputs originating from the olfactory areas (OLF), followed by the isocortex, hippocampal formation (HPF), cortical subplate (CTXsp), cerebral nuclei (CNU) and interbrain (IB), whereas the midbrain (MB) and hindbrain (HB) were either blank or sporadically labeled. However, APC and PPC also showed distinct features in their input distribution patterns. For both types of neurons, the APC was innervated more heavily by bilateral OLF and cortical areas compared to the PPC; whereas the input proportions from the HPF to the PPC were higher than to the APC. Overall, our results revealed that monosynaptic input networks to both excitatory and inhibitory neural populations of different PC subdivisions, may provide the structural architecture for revealing the diverse functions of the PC

A comprehensive investigation on the interaction between jaceosidin, baicalein and lipoxygenase: Multi-spectroscopic analysis and computational study

Lipoxygenase (LOX) has the harmful effect of accelerating lipid oxidation, and polyphenols have the inhibitory effect on lipoxygenase. However, there were rare researches investigated on the interactions between polyphenols and LOX. In this study, the binding mechanisms between polyphenols (Jaceosidin-JSD and baicalein-BCL) and LOX were investigated by multi-spectroscopic analysis and computational study. Both JSD and BCL binding to LOX resulted in static fluorescence quenching, and the complexes of JSD-LOX and BCL-LOX were built at a molar ratio of 1:1, respectively. The binding constants of LOX-JSD (72.18 × 105 L/mol at 298 K) and LOX-BCL (12.43 × 105 L/mol at 298 K) indicated that LOX had stronger binding affinity to JSD compared to BCL. Compared with BCL-LOX, the JSD-LOX system formed more hydrogen bonds which ensured a stronger bond between JSD and LOX. The studies in molecular dynamics also demonstrated that the JSD-LOX complex is more stable, and the addition of JSD is more conducive to the complex formation. The current study provides some new insights for the study on the inhibition of lipid oxidation and affords a new strategy for the discovery of novel food preservatives

Cerebral oxygen desaturation occurs frequently in patients with hypertension undergoing major abdominal surgery

Hypertensive patients are more likely to experience latent cerebral ischemia causing regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO2) decrease during general anesthesia. The aim of this prospective observational study was to assess the incidence of decreased rSO2 in hypertensive patients undergoing major abdominal surgery and the perioperative factors affecting this change in rSO2. A total of 41 hypertensive patients were enrolled and stratified according to their hypertension as controlled and uncontrolled. The intraoperative rSO2 and physiological data were routinely collected. The Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) was used to test cognitive function before surgery and after 4 days. Cerebral desaturation was defined as a decrease in rSO2 of more than 20% of the baseline value. There were 20 patients (49%) suffering intraoperative cerebral desaturation classified into cerebral desaturation group (group D) and those 21 without intraoperative desaturation classified into normal group (group N). The area under the curve below 90 and 80% of baseline (AUCrSO2 <90% of baseline and AUCrSO2 <80% of baseline) was lower in patients of group N (2752.4 ± 1453.3 min% and 0.0 min%) than in patients of group D (6264.9 ± 1832.3 min% and 4486.5 ± 1664.9 min%, P < 0.001). Comparing the two groups, the number of uncontrolled hypertensive individuals in group D (12/20) was significantly more than group N (4/21) (P = 0.007). A significant correlation was observed between relative decrease in MAP and relative decrease in rSO2 (r2 = 0.495, P < 0.001). Moreover, nine patients (45%) in group D occurred early postoperative cognitive function decline were more than three patients (14.3%) in group N (P = 0.031). This pilot study showed a large proportion of hypertensive patient experienced cerebral desaturation during major abdominal surgery and uncontrolled hypertension predisposed to this desaturation. NCT02147275 (registered at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov)

Effects of propofol and sevoflurane on social and anxiety-related behaviours in sleep-deprived rats

Background Sleep disorders can profoundly affect neurological function. We investigated changes in social and anxiety-related brain functional connectivity induced by sleep deprivation, and the potential therapeutic effects of the general anaesthetics propofol and sevoflurane in rats. Methods Twelve-week-old male Sprague–Dawley rats were subjected to sleep deprivation for 20 h per day (from 14:00 to 10:00 the next day) for 4 consecutive weeks. They were free from sleep deprivation for the remaining 4 h during which they received propofol (40 mg kg–1 i.p.) or sevoflurane (2% for 2 h) per day or no treatment. These cohorts were instrumented for EEG/EMG recordings on days 2, 14, and 28. Different cohorts were used for open field and three-chambered social behavioural tests, functional MRI, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and positron emission tomography imaging 48 h after 4 weeks of sleep deprivation. Results Propofol protected against sleep deprivation-induced anxiety behaviours with more time (44.7 [8.9] s vs 24.2 [4.1] s for the sleep-deprivation controls; P<0.001) spent in the central area of the open field test and improved social preference index by 30% (all P<0.01). Compared with the sleep-deprived rats, propofol treatment enhanced overall functional connectivity by 74% (P<0.05) and overall glucose metabolism by 30% (P<0.01), and improved glutamate kinetics by 20% (P<0.05). In contrast, these effects were not found after sevoflurane treatment. Conclusions Unlike sevoflurane, propofol reduced sleep deprivation-induced social and anxiety-related behaviours. Propofol might be superior to sevoflurane for patients with sleep disorders who receive anaesthesia, which should be studied in clinical studies

Studies on the Binding Interactions of Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) Myosin with Chlorogenic Acid and Rosmarinic Acid

There are many polyphenols used for the preservation of fish, but the interaction mechanism between polyphenols and fish protein is rarely reported. In the present study, the interactions between two kinds of polyphenols (chlorogenic acid (CGA) and rosmarinic acid (RA)) and the myosin of grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) were explored using multi-spectroscopic techniques. Both CGA and RA were found to be involved in reducing the intrinsic fluorescence and surface hydrophobicity of myosin and increasing the UV absorption intensity. This indicates that interactions between CGA, RA, and myosin ultimately result in the formation of polyphenol-myosin complexes. The binding process of CGA and RA for the formation of the complex was spontaneous. The main binding forces between RA and myosin are hydrogen bonding and van der Waals forces, whereas hydrophobic interactions were observed between CGA and myosin. The results of circular dichroism (CD) showed that the presence of CGA and RA increased the content of myosin alpha-helix. CGA and RA caused myosin aggregation which reduced the corresponding solution dispersibility. CGA and RA protected the myosin sulfhydryl groups and reduced the degree of their oxidation. Furthermore, the complexes formed by the combination of myosin, CGA, and RA exhibited the strongest synergistic antioxidant properties than any one of them. The findings of the present study provide insights into our understanding of the mechanism of interactions between myosin and polyphenols which could provide information on the application of polyphenols in preserving aquatic products