Building-up new approach tendencies in individuals with high versus low fear of contamination

Tese de mestrado, Neurociências, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Medicina, 2019The daily life of patients with strong fear of contamination – as a sub-type of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) – is impaired by enhanced automatic avoidance tendencies. Standard treatment includes Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy, which is very effortful and results in a high rate of drop-outs. The computerized Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT) might constitute an add-on therapy tool by building-up new connections between contamination-related stimuli (S) and approach reactions (R), that are less dependent on cognitive control. To avoid confounding effects by frequent comorbidities, two groups of healthy participants were pre-selected: 20 subjects with high (HG) and 21 subjects with low fear of contamination (LG) trained to approach contamination-related pictures with a joystick for 5 days in-arow. Analyses were done by fitting a Power Law Curve and applying Mixed-Effects Models. In line with the hypothesis of building-up new S-R connections, the LG mainly speeded-up the beginning of their reactions. In contrast, the HG decreased reaction times mostly after having initiated the response, but showed generally faster initiation times in the beginning, also for the control condition avoid neutral. This hints to heightened cognitive control in the HG throughout the training. In the ratings, specifically the trained pictures became less unpleasant from pre to post training. In a task version, where participants did not directly pay attention to the stimuli, an increase of approach tendencies from pre to post training was observed for the negative images in general, specifically for the LG. Groups did not change their reactions to untrained images of weak and strong content, nor did they differ in a practical test. In the long-term, detailed information on optimal settings are indispensable to establish the AAT training as a powerful add-on therapy in OCD.O dia-a-dia dos pacientes com forte medo de contaminação – um subtipo da Perturbação Obsessivo-Compulsiva (POC) – é afetado por elevadas tendências automáticas de evitamento. O tratamento usual inclui a Terapia de Exposição e Prevenção de Resposta, quer requer muito esforço e tem uma alta taxa de desistências. A Tarefa de Aproximação-Evitamento (TAE) pode ser uma ferramenta de suplemento à terapia ao fortalecer as conexões entre estímulos (E) relacionados com contaminação e reações (R) de aproximação, que são menos dependentes de controlo cognitivo. Para prevenir o efeito de confundidores por comorbidades frequentes, dois grupos de estudantes saudáveis foram pré-selecionados: 20 sujeitos com elevados (GE) e 21 sujeitos com reduzidos (GR) traços de medo de contaminação treinaram a aproximar imagens com conteúdos de contaminação, usando um joystick durante cinco dias consecutivos. As análises foram feitas ao ajustar uma Power Law curve e aplicando Mixed-Effects Models. Em linha com as hipóteses de fortalecimento de novas conexões E-R, o GR tornou-se mais rápido no início das reações. Em contraste, o GE diminui os seus tempos de reação após ter iniciado a resposta, mas demonstrou movimentos de iniciação mais rápidos no início, também para a condição controlo evitamento do neutro. Isto sugere um controlo cognitivo mais elevado pelo GE durante o treino. Nas classificações, as imagens treinadas tornaram-se menos desagradáveis de antes a depois do treino. Na versão de avaliação da tarefa, onde os participantes não prestaram atenção ao conteúdo dos estímulos, observando-se um aumento geral das tendências de aproximação de antes a depois do treino para as imagens negativas, especificamente pelo GE. Ambos os grupos não mudaram as suas reações para imagens não-treinadas de conteúdo fraco e forte, nem diferiam num teste prático. A longo prazo, informações detalhadas das configurações ótimas são indispensáveis para usar os treinos da TAE como suplemento à terapia na POC

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

NEOTROPICAL ALIEN MAMMALS: a data set of occurrence and abundance of alien mammals in the Neotropics

Biological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown. In this data set, we make available occurrence and abundance data on mammal species that (1) transposed a geographical barrier and (2) were voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into the Neotropics. Our data set is composed of 73,738 historical and current georeferenced records on alien mammal species of which around 96% correspond to occurrence data on 77 species belonging to eight orders and 26 families. Data cover 26 continental countries in the Neotropics, ranging from Mexico and its frontier regions (southern Florida and coastal-central Florida in the southeast United States) to Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay, and the 13 countries of Caribbean islands. Our data set also includes neotropical species (e.g., Callithrix sp., Myocastor coypus, Nasua nasua) considered alien in particular areas of Neotropics. The most numerous species in terms of records are from Bos sp. (n = 37,782), Sus scrofa (n = 6,730), and Canis familiaris (n = 10,084); 17 species were represented by only one record (e.g., Syncerus caffer, Cervus timorensis, Cervus unicolor, Canis latrans). Primates have the highest number of species in the data set (n = 20 species), partly because of uncertainties regarding taxonomic identification of the genera Callithrix, which includes the species Callithrix aurita, Callithrix flaviceps, Callithrix geoffroyi, Callithrix jacchus, Callithrix kuhlii, Callithrix penicillata, and their hybrids. This unique data set will be a valuable source of information on invasion risk assessments, biodiversity redistribution and conservation-related research. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this data paper when using the data in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us on how they are using the data