Exam anxiety in connection with life orientation in upper secondary education students.

Exam anxiety is beginning to affect an increasing number of students. We sought to examine whether there is an association between exam anxiety and life orientation in secondary school learners. We used the Suinn's Test Anxiety Behavior Scale questionnaire to assess exam anxiety and the Life Orientation Test-Revised questionnaire to determine students' life orientation.

Risk factors for self-reported alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

Background: Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is the most common preventable cause of impaired fetal development. The amount of alcohol consumed by expectant mothers varies by country. Studies on the prevalence of alcohol use among pregnant women in Slovakia and the risk factors linked to alcohol consumption during pregnancy are scarce.

Microplastic pollution calls for urgent investigations in stygobiont habitats: A case study from Classical karst.

Microplastic pollution in karst systems is still poorly studied, despite the presence of protected species and habitats, and important water reserves. Vulnerable key species hosted in these habitats could consume or assimilate microplastics, which can irreversibly damage management efforts, and thus ecosystems functionality. This can be particularly true for subterranean water habitats where microplastic pollution effects on wildlife management programs are not considered.

Expanding ecological assessment by integrating microorganisms into routine freshwater biomonitoring.

Bioindication has become an indispensable part of water quality monitoring in most countries of the world, with the presence and abundance of bioindicator taxa, mostly multicellular eukaryotes, used for biotic indices. In contrast, microbes (bacteria, archaea and protists) are seldom used as bioindicators in routine assessments, although they have been recognized for their importance in environmental processes. Recently, the use of molecular methods has revealed unexpected diversity within known functional groups and novel metabolic pathways that are particularly important in energy and nutrient cycling.