Effects of forage supplements on milk production and chemical properties, in vivo digestibility, rumen fermentation and N excretion in dairy cows offered red clover silage and corn silage or dry ground corn

peer-reviewedThis study concerned the effects of partial substitution of clover silage with high starch forages on milk production and chemical composition, in vivo digestibility, rumen fermentation pattern and nitrogen excretion of dairy cows. Sixteen dairy cows were separated into two groups and were assigned to treatments in a two-period crossover design. Two forage supplements were used: corn silage (CS) and dry ground corn (DG). All animals received 4.5 kg of concentrate dry matter per day. Results showed no significant difference between the forage supplements for milk production, while significant differences (P<0.01) were observed for milk fat, milk protein and nitrogen utilisation efficiency (42 v. 4.0 g/kg, 3.5 v. 3.3 g/kg and 222 v. 188 g/kg, respectively, for DG and CS). Faecal N excretion did not differ between forage supplements, but urinary N excretion was higher for CS (P<0.05). No significant differences were observed between treatments for rumen fluid pH or for rumen fluid concentrations of ammonium nitrogen or of acetic, propionic or butyric acids. Dry matter intake and the in vivo digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, acid detergent fibre and neutral detergent fibre were all higher for CS compared with DG.The authors are grateful to the Environmental Office of the Cantabrian Government for funding the project 05-640.02-2174

Organizational power predicts decision making quality

The aim of this study was to analyze the link between power and the quality of decision. Participants were 50 employees from an organizational company, consisting of two groups (High-Power, N=24; Low-Power, N=26) based on the organization's hierarchical power position. To evaluate the quality of the decisions, all participants performed tasks involving choice among several alternatives in two separate moments of the same day: in the morning (at the beginning of the workday) and late afternoon (at the end of the workday). Additional subjective measures (fatigue, alertness, effort) and skin conductance were obtained. Results indicated that having high power in the organization was related to making better decisions, over and above the subjective levels of fatigue, alertness, effort, and physiological arousal. No effects of time-of-day were found on the decision making. Consistent with experimental research, having power facilitated decision-making performance in an organizational context

Human-robot interaction in groups: Methodological and research practices

Understanding the behavioral dynamics that underline human-robot interactions in groups remains one of the core challenges in social robotics research. However, despite a growing interest in this topic, there is still a lack of established and validated measures that allow researchers to analyze human-robot interactions in group scenarios; and very few that have been developed and tested specifically for research conducted in the wild. This is a problem because it hinders the development of general models of human-robot interaction, and makes the comprehension of the inner workings of the relational dynamics between humans and robots, in group contexts, significantly more difficult. In this paper, we aim to provide a reflection on the current state of research on human-robot interaction in small groups, as well as to outline directions for future research with an emphasis on methodological and transversal issues.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Adults’ responses to children’s crying after a moral transgression

This study investigated how adults respond to a moral transgression committed by a child offender, by examining the role of the child’s sex, emotions, and crying behavior when caught committing a moral transgression on adults’ forgiveness, trust, and disciplinary behaviors. An experimental survey manipulated the children’s sex, crying, and their emotional expressions (fear, sadness, shame, and crying). Participants (N = 847) reported how they would feel, their willingness to forgive (immediately and a week after the event) and to trust the child, estimated recidivism, and the use of disciplinary behaviors. Results showed that participants in the crying conditions reported significantly higher levels of intention to trust and forgive the child a week after the event, and a lower estimation of the child committing a similar act in the future than participants in the non-crying conditions (ps < .05). Compared to men, women anticipated higher intentions to forgive (ps < .05), and more inductive behaviors, less overreactivity and warmth removal towards the child (ps < .001). Overall, the results suggest the functional value of crying in children-adults relations and the importance of the gender of both child and adults in a context of a moral transgression committed by a child.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

The effects of hospital clowning on physical and emotional states of pediatric patients during chemotherapy treatment

Background: Pediatric cancer treatments interfere with the patient’s life on physical, psychological, and social levels. Hospital Clowns (HCs) use nonpharmacological techniques to reduce the distress that hospital treatments can cause and increase children’s wellbeing, but few studies have analyzed their effects. Objective: This study examined the HC effects on the physical and emotional responses of pediatric patients during ambulatory chemotherapy. Given the variability in patients’ adjustments to cancer treatment, the role of a child’s age and temperament, and caregiver anxiety was considered in explaining the responses over and beyond the HC effects on patient outcomes. Method: Following a quasi-experimental design, 82 pediatric patients were assigned to one of two conditions: HC intervention versus control group (CG) in two separate trials. Pediatric patients self-reported of physical symptoms (pain, nausea, and fatigue) and emotional states (distress, happiness, and calm) were measured at baseline and post-chemotherapy in both trials. Caregivers provided information on children’s temperament and reported their own anxiety. Marginal Multilevel Modeling was used to examine the effects of the HC interventions on the outcomes by controlling caregiver anxiety, and child age and emotionality. Results: Compared to the CG, patients receiving the HC visit during chemotherapy reported higher levels of calm and happiness, and less fatigue, pain, and distress. HCs did not affect nausea. Conclusions: This study showed the importance of HCs as agents of supportive pediatric care, whose short-term effects during ambulatory chemotherapy seem to contribute to increasing the well-being of pediatric patients.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Men who suffered intimate partner violence: Impressions about existing public campaigns and recommendations for new ones

Over the last decades, the negative effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) directed at men in abusive different-sex and same-sex relationships have been increasingly investigated. Men who are the targets of IPV face many barriers to help-seeking, and to overcome them, public awareness campaigns have been developed. Women who experienced IPV have found campaigns targeting them to be harmful and misleading, and previous research suggests that following the principles of formative evaluation research may improve campaigns’ effectiveness and reduce unwanted negative effects. This article documents the theory-based formative evaluation research conducted with 14 men abused in different-sex and same-sex relationships for the creation of targeted campaigns. Through semi-structured interviews, men were asked about their overall knowledge of campaigns, their thoughts about specific pictorial IPV campaigns, and their suggestions for the development of new campaigns. Thematic analysis and a theoretically grounded coding scheme were used to analyze the content of the interviews with high inter-rater reliability. Overall, our results indicate that most men were not aware of campaigns in Portugal, and their impressions about the ones they recalled were mixed. Most men praised clear messages informing forms of violence, while some responded negatively to the inclusion of words such as “shame” and “victim”, and the depiction of bruises. They also considered that future campaigns targeting men should portray “real people” like them and provide information on self-efficacy, the efficacy of recommended responses, and threat susceptibility. Our findings are consistent with previous evidence with women who experienced IPV but also provide theoretically grounded novel contributions and highlight the importance of considering the population of interest’s insights when developing and testing new campaigns.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Respuestas emocionales-motivacionales de los locales frente a los extranjeros hacia la comida tradicional Y no tradicional

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to study responses to traditional food of a country, focusing on emotion-motivational responses by locals and foreigners. Design/methodology/approach: Through an experimental design study, Portuguese and Foreign participants were exposed to both traditional and nontraditional food pictures of a country and asked to evaluate their emotional and motivational responses while physiological responses of electrodermal activity were continuously recorded. Predisposition factors of body dissatisfaction, food neophobia, and food involvement were also evaluated given their potential role in predicting the responses to the visualization of the food pictures. Findings: This study found that local traditional food received a higher positive evaluation than nontraditional food with locals evaluating it even higher than foreigners. Higher feelings of arousal and desire as well as willingness to try in response to traditional food were also found as well as higher feelings of pleasure by locals. However, interestingly, and contrary to expectations derived from previous literature, emotion-motivational responses were not significantly different between locals and foreigners. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research addressed an identified research gap in the literature, being the first one evaluating the autonomic responses of consumers to traditional food by exploring how local and foreign consumers respond to traditional food versus nontraditional food using psychophysiological measures of emotion.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

YOLO — Your own living object

Creativity is at the core of what it means to be human. It is an intrinsic ability that we all have and influences our well-being self-expression throughout life. However, a decline in creativity abilities occurs in children around the age of 7 years old. Our work aims to contribute to a re-balance of creative levels using social robots. In this video, we describe YOLO, an autonomous robotic toy for children that fosters their creativity during play. This robot is envisioned to be used as a character during storytelling, promoting creative story-lines that might not emerge otherwise.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

O poder organizacional é preditor da qualidade da tomada de decisão

The aim of this study was to analyze the links between power and the quality of decision. Participants were 50 employees from an organizational company, consisting of two groups (High-Power, N=24; Low-Power, N=26) based on the hierarchical power position in the organization. To evaluate the quality of the decisions, all participants performed tasks involving choice among several alternatives in two separated moments of the same day: in the morning (at the beginning of the workday) and late afternoon (at the end of the workday). Additional subjective measures (fatigue, alertness, effort) and skin conductance were obtained. Results indicated that having high power in the organization was related to making better decisions, over and above the subjective levels of fatigue, alertness, effort, and of physiological arousal. No effects of time-of-day were found on the decision making. Consistent with experimental research, having power facilitated decision making performance in an organizational context.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio