Determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in a high infection-rate country: a cross-sectional study in Russia

Background: COVID-19 vaccine development is proceeding at an unprecedented pace. Once COVID-19 vaccines become widely available, it will be necessary to maximize public vaccine acceptance and coverage.Objective: This research aimed to analyze the predictors of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in Russia.Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among Russian adults from September 26th to November 9th, 2020. Predictors of the intent to take up COVID-19 vaccination were explored using logistic regression.Results: Out of 876 participants, 365 (41.7%) would be willing to receive the vaccine if it became available. Acceptance increased for a vaccine with verified safety and effectiveness (63.2%). Intention to receive the COVID-19 vaccine was relatively higher among males (aOR=2.37, 95% CI 1.41-4.00), people with lower monthly income (aOR=2.94, 95%CI 1.32-6.57), and with positive trust in the healthcare system (aOR=2.73, 95% CI 1.76-4.24). The Russian people were more likely to accept the COVID-19 vaccine if they believed that the vaccine reduces the risk of virus infection (aOR=8.80, 95%CI 5.21-14.87) or relieves the complications of the disease (aOR=10.46, 95%CI 6.09-17.96). Other barriers such as being unconcerned about side-effects (aOR=1.65, 95%CI 1.03-2.65) and the effectiveness and safety of the vaccination (aOR=2.55, 95%CI 1.60-4.08), also affected acceptance.Conclusions: The study showed the usefulness of the health belief model constructs in understanding the COVID-19 vaccination acceptance rate in the Russian population. This rate was influenced by sociodemographic and health-related characteristics, and health beliefs. These findings might help guide future efforts for policymakers and stakeholders to improve vaccination rates by enhancing trust in the healthcare system

Simple Aesthetic Sense and Addiction Emerge in Neural Relations of Cost-Benefit Decision in Foraging

Abstract A rudimentary aesthetic sense is found in the stimulus valuations and cost-benefit decisions made by primitive generalist foragers. These are based on factors governing personal economic decisions: incentive, appetite, and learning. We find that the addictive process is an extreme expression of aesthetic dynamics. An interactive, agent-based model, ASIMOV, reproduces a simple aesthetic sense from known neural relations of cost-benefit decision in foraging. In the presence of very high reward, an addiction-like process emerges. A drug-like prey provides extreme reward with no nutritive value, initiating high selectivity and prolonged cravings for drug through reward learning. Varying reward experience, caused by homeostatic changes in the neural circuitry of reward, further establishes the course of addiction, consisting of desensitization, withdrawal, resensitization, and associated changes in nutritional choice and pain sensitivity. These observations are consistent with the early evolution of addiction mechanisms in simple generalist foragers as an aesthetic sense for evaluating prey. ASIMOV is accessible to inspection, modification, and experiment, is adaptable as an educational tool, and provides insight on the possible coevolutionary origins of aesthetics and the addiction process

A peripheral subepithelial network for chemotactile processing in the predatory sea slug Pleurobranchaea californica.

Many soft-bodied animals have extensive peripheral nervous systems (PNS) with significant sensory roles. One such, the sea slug Pleurobranchaea californica, uses PNS computations in its chemotactile oral veil (OV) in prey tracking, averaging olfactory stimuli across the OV to target likely source direction, or "stimulus place". This suggests a peripheral subepithelial network (SeN) interconnecting sensory sites to compute the directional average. We pursued anatomy and connectivity of previously described ciliated putative sensory cells on OV papillae. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirmed paddle-shaped cilia in clusters. Anti-tubulin and phalloidin staining showed connections to branching nervelets and muscle fibers for contraction and expansion of papillae. Ciliary cell processes could not be traced into nerves, consistent with sensory transmission to CNS via secondary afferents. Anti-tyrosine hydroxylase-stained ciliated cells in clusters and revealed an at least partially dopaminergic subepithelial network interconnecting clusters near and distant, connections consistent with PNS averaging of multiple stimulated loci. Other, unidentified, SeN neurotransmitters are likely. Confirming chemotactile functions, perfusible suction electrodes recorded ciliary spiking excited by both mechanical and appetitive chemical stimuli. Stimuli induced sensory nerve spiking like that encoding stimulus place. Sensory nerve spikes and cilia cluster spikes were not identifiable as generated by the same neurons. Ciliary clusters likely drive the sensory nerve spikes via SeN, mediating appetitive and stimulus place codes to CNS. These observations may facilitate future analyses of the PNS in odor discrimination and memory, and also suggest such SeNs as potential evolutionary precursors of CNS place-coding circuitry in the segmented, skeletonized protostomes and deuterostomes

LOVN afferent spikes originate in the subepithelial network.

Orthodromic action potentials originating in papillae were not identifiable in the sensory LOVN. A. A gentle water jet from a Pasteur pipet was applied twice (arrows) at the midline of the isolated oral veil, likely stimulating multiple papillae mechanically. Recordings of a single papilla (upper trace) and the LOVN (lower trace) show typical loosely correlated activities. B. An expanded record of A, showing difficulty in identifying common spikes. Recording sites were separated by ~2 cm of nerve. The record also shows the relatively longer duration spikes of the ciliary clusters relative to nerve. Other parts of the expanded records are available in Supplementary Information. C. Stimulating a single papilla with a suction electrode (0.2 V, 4 msec duration, single stimuli at intervals of 4–10 sec) over 55 trials failed to drive correlated spikes in the LOVN with similar latencies but drove a few larger spikes at long latencies (triangles). Larger trace: Overlays of the 55 trials. Spiking post-stimulus was significant (Wilcoxon Signed Rank test, using right-tailed Z distribution, p = 0.018). Latencies of these large-amplitude spikes were quite variable, as expected if synaptically activated. Smaller dark trace: The average of the 55 trials in which, if present, smaller, orthodromically driven spikes should have additively emerged from the noise but did not.</p

Chemoceptive responses of papillae to betaine perfusion (0.1M trimethylglycine).

A. The record shows the latency from activity induced by perfusion onset to activity induced by betaine stimulation. B. Betaine stimulation (arrowhead) induces spike activity. Shown are 8 recordings of different papillae from 3 different animals. The arrowhead indicates betaine contact with papillae. C. In recordings of B, comparing activity 3 seconds before and after papillar contact, betaine increased spike frequency from an average baseline of 4.04 ± 0.68 (median: 4.00 Hz, standard error: 0.678) to 14.04 ± 1.1 Hz (median: 13.33 Hz, standard error: 1.01) with significant difference (* p < 0.008, Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test).</p

Efferent spikes in papillae from LOVN stimulation.

Shown are 7 of 30 records where two papillae were recorded simultaneously during single LOVN stimuli. Following the stimulus artifacts in mid-traces, single spikes (arrows) appeared in papillae at variable latencies. The spikes in the papillar pair had nearly identical latencies. Spikes sometimes failed in both pairs (record 7), or more often, either failed to appear in the papilla of the upper trace pairs (e.g., record 5) or failed to fully invade (record 6).</p

Sections through oral veil papillae and tentacle stained with anti-tubulin AB (green) and phalloidin (red), showing nerve and muscle structures, respectively.

A: Horizontal section of a papilla at relatively low power. Arrowheads indicate papillar lobules with cilia clusters. B, C: Extensively branching nerves (arrows) approach clusters of cilia (arrowheads, which are also labeled by anti-tubulin AB. D: Higher magnification shows that each cilia cluster (arrowheads) is innervated by a small nerve branch (arrows). Scale bars: A, 500 μm; B, C: 100 μm; D, 50 μm.</p

The perfusion suction electrode allowed local perfusion of chemicals at papillae while maintaining a stable recording.

During recordings solutions could be perfused from the PE 10 tubing into the main body of the electrode while negative pressure in the electrode (and a high shunt resistance) was maintained.</p

Spontaneous spiking activity in a focally recorded cilia cluster and the lack thereof in adjacent skin.

Spontaneous spiking activity in a focally recorded cilia cluster and the lack thereof in adjacent skin.</p