Human Analogue Safe Haven Effect of the Owner : Behavioural and Heart Rate Response to Stressful Social Stimuli in Dogs

The secure base and safe haven effects of the attachment figure are central features of the human attachment theory. Recently, conclusive evidence for human analogue attachment behaviours in dogs has been provided, however, the owner’s security-providing role in danger has not been directly supported. We investigated the relationship between the behavioural and cardiac response in dogs (N = 30) while being approached by a threatening stranger in separation vs. in the presence of the owner, presented in a balanced order. Non-invasive telemetric measures of heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) data during the threatening approaches was compared to periods before and after the encounters. Dogs that showed distress vocalisation during separation (N = 18) and that growled or barked at the stranger during the threatening approach (N = 17) were defined as behaviourally reactive in the given situation. While characteristic stress vocalisations were emitted during separations, the absence of the owner did not have an effect on dogs’ mean HR, but significantly increased the HRV. The threatening approach increased dogs’ mean HR, with a parallel decrease in the HRV, particularly in dogs that were behaviourally reactive to the encounter. Importantly, the HR increase was significantly less pronounced when dogs faced the stranger in the presence of the owner. Moreover, the test order, whether the dog encountered the stranger first with or without its owner, also proved important: HR increase associated with the encounter in separation seemed to be attenuated in dogs that faced the stranger first in the presence of their owner. We provided evidence for human analogue safe haven effect of the owner in a potentially dangerous situation. Similarly to parents of infants, owners can provide a buffer against stress in dogs, which can even reduce the effect of a subsequent encounter with the same threatening stimuli later when the owner is not present

Urban public space s degraded area.

Zgodnie z filozofią sustainable development celem głównym rewitalizacji powinna być poprawa jakości środowiska - zarówno przyrodniczych jak i kulturowych jego właściwości - tak by wspomagać reanimację i dobrą kontynuację trwałego rozwoju. Czytając projekt ustawy (wersja z 22 kwietnia 2015 r.) próbowałem ustalić jakie cele przyświecały autorom. Odniosłem wrażenie, że koncentrują się one głównie wokół zagadnień technicznej modernizacji budynków i są dość odległe od całościowego spojrzenia na chory organizm, który wymaga diagnozy i terapii w formie wieloetapowego i złożonego procesu zmian strukturalnych, funkcjonalnych oraz społecznych. Rewitalizacja to proces zachodzący w konkretnym miejscu. Głównym jego celem powinno być przywrócenie zdolności do trwałego rozwoju miejsca. Plan rewitalizacji zakłada zarządzanie zmianą stanu środowiska przyrodniczego i kulturowego miejsca w celu jego poprawy

Recent advances in neonatal pain research

Pain accompanies most of illnesses. Pain results in from activation of a specific sensory system and is not direct result of an illness. Pain system may be activated early in the fetal development before its projections will penetrate the frontal cortex. Therefore, painful experience may induce,some physiological consequences even it has been not perceived as pain and may lead to the long-lasting and profund consequences. Noxious stimuli applied in the developmental period may exert dramatical effects upon growing children. Human infants and neonatal rats demonstrate hyperresponsivity to nociceptive input that may result in hyperalgesia. After birth, peripheral cutaneous innervation, neuroendocrine,functions and mechanisms of inflammation still undergo developmental changes.The neurotransmitters of the inhibitory descending system (5HT, NE, DA) develop late on postnatally. Progress in research on the developmental aspects of nociceptive transmission is necessary basis for advances in pharmacology of pain and analgesia for fetuses in the last trimester; preterm and term neonate

Relapsing polychondritis

Relapsing polychondritis (RP) is a rare autoimmune disease with recurrent episodes of inflammation of cartilage of the auricular pinna, nose, larynx, trachea and bronchi, as well as involvement of the inner ear, eye, heart, large vessels, kidneys and skin. Clinical presentation is heterogeneous and diagnostics may be difficult. Therapy includes application of glucocorticoids, immunosuppressants, biologics (tocilizumab and TNF-alpha antagonists). Relapsing polychondritis may lead to a life-threatening damage and obturation of the airways as well as valvular defects and aortic aneurysms.