EVALUATION OF HANDLING EQUIPMENT SOUND PRESSURE LEVELS AS STRESSORS IN BEEF CATTLE

Sound pressure level (SPL) is known to cause stress in cattle but is often overlooked as a potential source of fear for cattle when designing handling equipment. Current literature does not offer guidelines for the design of equipment with regard to SPL. It is, however, recommended that handling equipment should be designed to minimize the SPL during handling. The purpose of this experiment was to measure stress levels in a group of cattle which were subjected to a series of varying sounds in order to determine a design threshold limit for handling equipment. Treatments included two frequencies, 1 kHz and 8 kHz, and three intensities, 40, 80, and 120dB. These treatments were assigned to the cattle using a completely randomized two by three factorial design replicated three times for a total of 18 animals being tested. A computer generated noise at each level was played back to the animals once a week for 6 weeks. Stress levels were measured using both physiological (heart rate and eye temperature) and physical (sudden movement) measures. Experiments yielded mixed results and did not prove that any of the sound pressure levels tested had any great effect on the stress level of the cattle

A confirmatory factor analysis of the Observer Alexithymia Scale in treatment seeking alcohol-dependent patients

Confirmatory factor analyses evaluated the factorial validity of the Observer Alexithymia Scale (OAS) in an alcohol-dependent sample. Observation was conducted by clinical psychologists. All models examined were rejected, given their poor fit. Given the psychometric limitations of the OAS shown in this study, the OAS may not be the most appropriate measure to use early in treatment among alcohol-dependent individuals

A confirmatory factor analysis of the Observer Alexithymia Scale in treatment seeking alcohol-dependent patients

Confirmatory factor analyses evaluated the factorial validity of the Observer Alexithymia Scale (OAS) in an alcohol-dependent sample. Observation was conducted by clinical psychologists. All models examined were rejected, given their poor fit. Given the psychometric limitations of the OAS shown in this study, the OAS may not be the most appropriate measure to use early in treatment among alcohol-dependent individuals

Atomic-scale confinement of optical fields

In the presence of matter there is no fundamental limit preventing confinement of visible light even down to atomic scales. Achieving such confinement and the corresponding intensity enhancement inevitably requires simultaneous control over atomic-scale details of material structures and over the optical modes that such structures support. By means of self-assembly we have obtained side-by-side aligned gold nanorod dimers with robust atomically-defined gaps reaching below 0.5 nm. The existence of atomically-confined light fields in these gaps is demonstrated by observing extreme Coulomb splitting of corresponding symmetric and anti-symmetric dimer eigenmodes of more than 800 meV in white-light scattering experiments. Our results open new perspectives for atomically-resolved spectroscopic imaging, deeply nonlinear optics, ultra-sensing, cavity optomechanics as well as for the realization of novel quantum-optical devices

Alexithymia and mood: Recognition of emotion in self and others

The present study explored relationships between alexithymia—a trait characterized by difficulties identifying and describing feelings and an external thinking style—and negative moods, negative mood regulation expectancies, facial recognition of emotions, emotional empathy, and alcohol consumption. The sample consisted of 102 university (primarily psychology) students (13 men, 89 women) aged 18 to 50 years (M = 22.18 years). Participants completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), Negative Mood Regulation Scale (NMRS), Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21), Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). Results were consistent with previous findings of positive relationships of TAS-20 alexithymia scores with both alcohol use (AUDIT) and negative moods (DASS-21) and a negative relationship with emotional self-regulation as indexed by NMRS. Predicted negative associations of both overall TAS-20 alexithymia scores and the externally oriented thinking (EOT) subscale of the TAS-20 with both RMET facial recognition of emotions and the empathic concern (EC) subscale of the IRI were supported. The mood self-regulation index NMRS fully mediated the relationship between alexithymia and negative moods. Hierarchical linear regressions revealed that, after other relevant variables were controlled for, the EOT subscale of the TAS-20 predicted RMET and EC. The concrete thinking or EOT facet of alexithymia thus appears to be associated with diminished facial recognition of emotions and reduced emotional empathy. The negative moods associated with alexithymia appear to be linked to subjective difficulties in self-regulation of emotions