Effects of empathic paraphrasing – extrinsic emotion regulation in social conflict

In the present study, we investigated the effects of empathic paraphrasing as an extrinsic emotion regulation technique in social conflict. We hypothesized that negative emotions elicited by social conflict can be regulated extrinsically in a conversation by a listener following the narrator’s perspective and verbally expressing cognitive empathy. Twenty participants were interviewed on an ongoing or recently self-experienced social conflict. The interviewer utilized 10 standardized open questions inviting participants to describe their perception of the conflict. After each of the 10 descriptions, the interviewer responded by either paraphrasing or taking notes (control condition). Valence ratings pertaining to the current emotional state were assessed during the interview along with psychophysiological and voice recordings. Participants reported feeling less negative after hearing the interviewer paraphrase what they had said. In addition, we found a lower sound intensity of participants’ voices when answering to questions following a paraphrase. At the physiological level, skin conductance response, as well as heart rate, were higher during paraphrasing than during taking notes, while blood volume pulse amplitude was lower during paraphrasing, indicating higher autonomic arousal. The results show that demonstrating cognitive empathy through paraphrasing can extrinsically regulate negative emotion on a short-term basis. Paraphrasing led to enhanced autonomic activation in recipients, while at the same time influencing emotional valence in the direction of feeling better. A possible explanation for these results is that being treated in an empathic manner may stimulate a more intense emotion processing helping to transform and resolve the conflict

Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative and exclusive breastfeeding during hospital stay

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding during maternity hospital stay (outcome) and to analyze the association between delivery in a Baby-Friendly Hospital (BFH) and the outcome. The hypothesis is that accreditation to this program improves exclusive breastfeeding during maternity hospital stay. Exclusive breastfeeding is essential in reducing neonatal morbidity and mortality. METHODS: This study is based on secondary data collected by the “Birth in Brazil: National Survey into Labour and Birth”, a population-based study, conducted with 21,086 postpartum women, from February 1, 2011, to October 31, 2012, in 266 hospitals from all five Brazilian regions. Face-to-face interviews were conducted mostly within the first 24 hours after birth, regarding individual and gestational characteristics, prenatal care, delivery, newborn’s characteristics, and breastfeeding at birth. A theoretical model was created, allocating the exposure variables in three levels based on their proximity to the outcome. This hierarchical conceptual model was applied to perform a multiple logistic regression (with 95%CI and p < 0.05). RESULTS: In this study, 76.0% of the babies were exclusively breastfed from birth until the interview. Babies born in public (AOR = 1.73; 95%CI: 1.10–2.87), mixed (AOR = 2.48; 95%CI: 1.35–4.53) and private (AOR = 5.54; 95%CI: 2.38–12.45) BFHs were more likely to be exclusively breastfed during maternity hospital stay than those born in non–BFHs, as well as those born by vaginal birth (AOR = 2.16; 95%CI: 1.79–2.61), with adolescent mothers (AOR = 1.83; 95%CI: 1.47–2.26) or adults up to 34 years old (AOR =1 .31; 95%CI: 1.13–1.52), primiparous women (AOR = 1.51; 95%CI: 1.34–1.70), and mothers living in the Northern region of Brazil (AOR = 1.99; 95%CI: 1.14–3.49). CONCLUSIONS: The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative promotes exclusive breastfeeding during hospital stay regarding individual and hospital differences

Environmentally independent selection for hybrids between divergent freshwater stickleback lineages in semi-natural ponds.

Hybridization following secondary contact of genetically divergent populations can influence the range expansion of invasive species, though specific outcomes depend on the environmental dependence of hybrid fitness. Here, using two genetically and ecologically divergent threespine stickleback lineages that differ in their history of freshwater colonization, we estimate fitness variation of parental lineages and hybrids in semi-natural freshwater ponds with contrasting histories of nutrient loading. In our experiment, we found that fish from the older freshwater lineage (Lake Geneva) and hybrids outperformed fish from the younger freshwater lineage (Lake Constance) in terms of both growth and survival, regardless of the environmental context of our ponds. Across all ponds, hybrids exhibited the highest survival. Although wild-caught adult populations differed in their functional and defence morphology, it is unclear which of these traits underlie the fitness differences observed among juveniles in our experiment. Overall, our work suggests that when hybrid fitness is insensitive to environmental conditions, as observed here, introgression may promote population expansion into unoccupied habitats and accelerate invasion success

Talking about emotion: prosody and skin conductance indicate emotion regulation

Talking about emotion and putting feelings into words has been hypothesized to regulate emotion in psychotherapy as well as in everyday conversation. However, the exact dynamics of how different strategies of verbalization regulate emotion and how these strategies are reflected in characteristics of the voice has received little scientific attention. In the present study, we showed emotional pictures to 30 participants and asked them to verbally admit or deny an emotional experience or a neutral fact concerning the picture in a simulated conversation. We used a 2 × 2 factorial design manipulating the focus (on emotion or facts) as well as the congruency (admitting or denying) of the verbal expression. Analyses of skin conductance response (SCR) and voice during the verbalization conditions revealed a main effect of the factor focus. SCR and pitch of the voice were lower during emotion compared to fact verbalization, indicating lower autonomic arousal. In contradiction to these physiological parameters, participants reported that fact verbalization was more effective in down-regulating their emotion than emotion verbalization. These subjective ratings, however, were in line with voice parameters associated with emotional valence. That is, voice intensity showed that fact verbalization reduced negative valence more than emotion verbalization. In sum, the results of our study provide evidence that emotion verbalization as compared to fact verbalization is an effective emotion regulation strategy. Moreover, based on the results of our study we propose that different verbalization strategies influence valence and arousal aspects of emotion selectively

A continuous fish fossil record reveals key insights into adaptive radiation.

Adaptive radiations have been instrumental in generating a considerable amount of life's diversity. Ecological opportunity is thought to be a prerequisite for adaptive radiation1, but little is known about the relative importance of species' ecological versatility versus effects of arrival order in determining which lineage radiates2. Palaeontological records that could help answer this are scarce. In Lake Victoria, a large adaptive radiation of cichlid fishes evolved in an exceptionally short and recent time interval3. We present a rich continuous fossil record extracted from a series of long sediment cores along an onshore-offshore gradient. We reconstruct the temporal sequence of events in the assembly of the fish community from thousands of tooth fossils. We reveal arrival order, relative abundance and habitat occupation of all major fish lineages in the system. We show that all major taxa arrived simultaneously as soon as the modern lake began to form. There is no evidence of the radiating haplochromine cichlid lineage arriving before others, nor of their numerical dominance upon colonization; therefore, there is no support for ecological priority effects. However, although many taxa colonized the lake early and several became abundant, only cichlids persisted in the new deep and open-water habitats once these emerged. Because these habitat gradients are also known to have played a major role in speciation, our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that ecological versatility was key to adaptive radiation, not priority by arrival order nor initial numerical dominance

Guidelines and framework to assess the feasibility of starting pre-emptive risk assessment of classical biological control agents

Non-native invasive arthropod species threaten biodiversity and food security worldwide, resulting in substantial economic, environmental, social and cultural costs. Classical biological control (CBC) is regarded as a cost-effective component of integrated pest management programmes to manage invasive arthropod pests sustainably. However, CBC programmes are traditionally conducted once a pest has established in a new environment, and invariably all research needed to achieve approval to release a biological control agent can take several years. During that time, adverse impacts of the pest accelerate. A pre-emptive biocontrol approach will provide the opportunity to develop CBC for invasive pests before they arrive in the country at risk of introduction and therefore enhance preparedness. A critical aspect of this approach is that risk assessment is carried out in advance of the arrival of the pest. Implementing pre-emptive biocontrol risk assessment means that natural enemies can be selected, screened in containment or abroad and potentially pre-approved prior to a pest establishing in the country at risk, thus improving CBC effectiveness. However, such an approach may not always be feasible. This contribution defines the fundamental prerequisites, principles, and objectives of pre-emptive biocontrol risk assessment. A set of guidelines and a decision framework were developed, which can be used to assess the feasibility of conducting a pre-emptive risk assessment for candidate biological control agents against high-risk arthropod pest

The European Reference Genome Atlas: piloting a decentralised approach to equitable biodiversity genomics

A genomic database of all Earth’s eukaryotic species could contribute to many scientific discoveries; however, only a tiny fraction of species have genomic information available. In 2018, scientists across the world united under the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), aiming to produce a database of high-quality reference genomes containing all ~1.5 million recognized eukaryotic species. As the European node of the EBP, the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) sought to implement a new decentralised, equitable and inclusive model for producing reference genomes. For this, ERGA launched a Pilot Project establishing the first distributed reference genome production infrastructure and testing it on 98 eukaryotic species from 33 European countries. Here we outline the infrastructure and explore its effectiveness for scaling high-quality reference genome production, whilst considering equity and inclusion. The outcomes and lessons learned provide a solid foundation for ERGA while offering key learnings to other transnational, national genomic resource projects and the EBP.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The European Reference Genome Atlas: piloting a decentralised approach to equitable biodiversity genomics.

ABSTRACT: A global genome database of all of Earth’s species diversity could be a treasure trove of scientific discoveries. However, regardless of the major advances in genome sequencing technologies, only a tiny fraction of species have genomic information available. To contribute to a more complete planetary genomic database, scientists and institutions across the world have united under the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), which plans to sequence and assemble high-quality reference genomes for all ∼1.5 million recognized eukaryotic species through a stepwise phased approach. As the initiative transitions into Phase II, where 150,000 species are to be sequenced in just four years, worldwide participation in the project will be fundamental to success. As the European node of the EBP, the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA) seeks to implement a new decentralised, accessible, equitable and inclusive model for producing high-quality reference genomes, which will inform EBP as it scales. To embark on this mission, ERGA launched a Pilot Project to establish a network across Europe to develop and test the first infrastructure of its kind for the coordinated and distributed reference genome production on 98 European eukaryotic species from sample providers across 33 European countries. Here we outline the process and challenges faced during the development of a pilot infrastructure for the production of reference genome resources, and explore the effectiveness of this approach in terms of high-quality reference genome production, considering also equity and inclusion. The outcomes and lessons learned during this pilot provide a solid foundation for ERGA while offering key learnings to other transnational and national genomic resource projects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Emotionale Effekte und neuronale Korrelate von empathischem Paraphrasieren in sozialen Konfliktsituationen

The present thesis investigates the emotional effects as well as psycho- physiological and neural correlates of empathic and unempathic social response, with a focus on empathic paraphrasing in social conflict situations. Empathy has as yet almost exclusively been studied referring to the empathic experience of the sender (the person feeling empathy), neglecting the side of the recipient of empathic behavior. This omission seems unfortunate given that empathic social response, especially in the form of empathic paraphrasing, is a prevalent professional intervention technique in psychotherapy, counseling, and conflict resolution. It seems expedient to test the effects of a technique so widely used, so that it can be applied in a goal-oriented way. Three consecutive studies explored the effects of empathic and unempathic social response on the feelings and emotions of the participants. In the first study, a behavioral pilot, participants were interviewed on a real-life social conflict and offered empathic paraphrases alternated with a neutral control condition. The second study provided first insight into neural correlates and furthermore compared the effects of emotionally vs. cognitively empathic response utilizing a controlled experimental setting. Finally, in the third study, participants were again interviewed on a real-life social conflict, this time inside the MRI scanner. All three studies revealed a positive short- term effect of both cognitively and emotionally empathic social response on emotional valence. Psychophysiological measures indicated that this positive influence on valence was accompanied by increased physiological arousal. Functional magnetic resonance imaging captured neural activation in fronto- parietal networks for the processing of empathic, and in fronto-temporal networks for the processing of unempathic social response. The results show that professional intervention techniques such as paraphrasing, which demonstrate cognitive empathy only, without expressing sympathy or personal concern, can be effective in down-regulating negative feelings and emotions in difficult situations. Besides conflict resolution, counseling, and psychotherapy, this has implications for all professions dealing with highly escalated negative emotions on a regular basis, such as judges, lawyers, and physicians. Offering emotional empathy can be at odds with role expectations directed at these professions. However, cognitive empathy in the form of paraphrasing is almost always acceptable and, as shown in this thesis, also effective.Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht die emotionalen Effekte sowie die psycho-physiologischen und neuronalen Korrelate von empathischem und unempathischem verbalen Sozialverhalten, mit Fokus auf empathischem Paraphrasieren in sozialen Konfliktsituationen. Empathie wurde bisher beinahe ausschliesslich mit Blick auf den Sender (die Person, welche die Empathie empfindet) erforscht, wobei die Seite des Empfängers der empathischen Reaktion vernachlässigt wurde. Angesichts der Prävalenz von Empathiebasierten Interventionstechniken, insbesondere des empathischen Paraphrasierens, in Psychotherapie, Beratung und professioneller Konfliktlösung, sollte diese Forschungslücke geschlossen werden. Es scheint angezeigt, die Effekte einer derart verbreiteten Technik zu bestimmen, um einen zielgerichteten Einsatz derselben sicherstellen zu können. Drei aufeinander aufbauende Studien untersuchten die Effekte von empathischen und unempathischen sozialen Reaktionen auf die Gefühle und Emotionen der Studienteilnehmer_innen. In der ersten Studie, einem Verhaltenspiloten, wurden die Studienteilnehmer_innen zu einem reellen persönlichen Konflikt befragt und abwechselnd mit empathischen Paraphrasen und einer neutralen Kontrollbedingung konfrontiert. Die zweite Studie gab über einen kontrollierten experimentellen Rahmen erste Einblicke in die entsprechenden neuronalen Korrelate und verglich die Effekte von kognitiv vs. emotional empathischen sozialen Reaktionen. In der dritten Studie schliesslich wurden die Teilnehmer_innen erneut zu einem reellen persönlichen Konflikt befragt, dieses Mal innerhalb des MRT Scanners. Alle drei Studien ergaben einen positiven kurzfristigen Einfluss von sowohl emotional als auch kognitiv empathischen sozialen Reaktionen auf emotionale Valenz. Psychophysiologische Messungen zeigten, dass dieser positive Valenzeffekt von erhöhter autonomer Aktivierung begleitet wurde. Funktionelle Magnetresonanztomografie wies auf Aktivierungen in fronto-parietalen Netzwerken für die Verarbeitung empathischer Reaktionen, und in fronto- temporalen Netzwerken für die Verarbeitung unempathischer Reaktionen hin. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass professionelle Interventionstechniken wie Paraphrasieren, weder Sympathie noch persönliche Betroffenheit ausdrückend, in der extrinsischen Regulation negativer Gefühle und Emotionen effektiv sein können. Neben Psychotherapie, Beratung und professioneller Konfliktbearbeitung hat dies auch Implikationen für sämtliche Berufsgruppen, die regelmäßig mit hoch eskalierten negativen Emotionen konfrontiert sind, z.B. Richter_innen, Anwält_innen oder Ärzt_innen. Klient_innen gegenüber emotionale Empathie zu zeigen kann sich unter Umständen mit den Rollenerwartungen an diese Berufsgruppen beißen. Kognitiv empathische Verhaltensweisen wie z.B. Paraphrasieren sind jedoch fast immer sozial akzeptiert und, wie in dieser Dissertation gezeigt, ebenfalls effektiv in der Deeskalation negativer Gefühle und Emotionen

Fatores associados ao aleitamento cruzado em duas cidades do Sudeste do Brasil

Resumo: O objetivo foi estimar a prevalência de aleitamento cruzado em duas cidades brasileiras e analisar os fatores associados à prática. Estudo transversal aninhado a uma coorte de gestantes recrutadas nas unidades públicas de saúde que ofereciam atendimento pré-natal em duas cidades de médio porte do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: da Região Metropolitana e da Região Serrana, conduzido entre 2008 e 2010. O presente trabalho inclui todas as mulheres entrevistadas aos seis meses de vida de seus bebês. Razões de prevalência ajustadas foram obtidas por modelo de regressão de Poisson e as variáveis de exposição que alcançaram p ≤ 0,05 compuseram o modelo final. O aleitamento cruzado foi praticado por 43,4% das mães na região metropolitana e por 34,5% delas na Região Serrana. O baixo nível socioeconômico esteve associado ao aleitamento cruzado nas duas cidades. Além disso, na Região Serrana foram associados diretamente ao desfecho ser mãe adolescente, ter escolaridade igual ou inferior ao Ensino Fundamental completo e ter realizado menos de seis consultas pré-natais. Na Região Metropolitana, além do nível socioeconômico, apenas a multiparidade foi associada (inversamente) ao aleitamento cruzado. O aleitamento cruzado, embora contraindicado pelo Ministério da Saúde, apresentou alta prevalência entre as mães entrevistadas e foi mais praticado pelas populações mais vulneráveis