Looking out for danger: Theoretical and empirical issues in translating human attention bias tasks to assess animal affective states.

Understanding animal emotional (affective) state is highly relevant to various disciplines (e.g., animal welfare, neuroscience, comparative psychology), and has been significantly advanced by translating affect-induced cognitive bias paradigms rooted in human psychology to non-human animal studies.

Do you see what I see? Testing horses' ability to recognise real-life objects from 2D computer projections.

The use of 2-dimensional representations (e.g. photographs or digital images) of real-life physical objects has been an important tool in studies of animal cognition.

Learning from lockdown - Assessing the positive and negative experiences, and coping strategies of researchers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the disruption of nonessential research due to the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers faced unexpected changes in their work and personal life. We assessed what challenges researchers encountered during lockdown and whether gender, career level, discipline, and job-permanency influenced their experiences (negative and positive), thereby collecting empirical material which could provide valuable information for future mentoring/supporting practices. Data were collected between July-August 2020 an online-survey, and answers from 210 respondents (78% female, 21% male, 1% non-disclosed gender) working in Animal Behaviour and Welfare (ABW, 57%), other biological sciences (37%) or social sciences (6%) were analysed.

Biopsychosocial Pain Management and its Effect on Postoperative Opioid Use.

Introduction: Medical use and overuse of opioids have become an increasing problem over the past several decades. Postoperative pain control is the strongest indication for the use of opioid analgesics. Previous studies have demonstrated benefit from complementary and alternative therapy (CAT) for postoperative pain relief.

Measuring affect-related cognitive bias: Do mice in opposite affective states react differently to negative and positive stimuli?

Affect-driven cognitive biases can be used as an indicator of affective (emotional) state. Since humans in negative affective states demonstrate greater responses to negatively-valenced stimuli, we investigated putative affect-related bias in mice by monitoring their response to unexpected, task-irrelevant stimuli of different valence. Thirty-one C57BL/6J and 31 DBA/2J females were individually trained to return to their home-cage in a runway.

Social proximity in dairy calves is affected by differences in pessimism.

Negative social interactions have been extensively studied in dairy cattle, but little is known about the establishment of positive (preferential) relationships. Adult dairy cows are known to spend more time at close proximity to specific social partners, indicating that they establish stronger bonds with these animals, but few studies have explored what happens in socially housed calves. In this study, we explored whether calves that spent their entire life in the same social group established social preferences (i.

Could Greater Time Spent Displaying Waking Inactivity in the Home Environment Be a Marker for a Depression-Like State in the Domestic Dog?

Dogs exposed to aversive events can become inactive and unresponsive and are commonly referred to as being "depressed", but this association remains to be tested. We investigated whether shelter dogs spending greater time inactive "awake but motionless" (ABM) in their home-pen show anhedonia (the core reduction of pleasure reported in depression), as tested by reduced interest in, and consumption of, palatable food (Kong test). We also explored whether dogs being qualitatively perceived by experts as disinterested in the food would spend greater time ABM (experts blind to actual inactivity levels).

A Biopsychosocial Approach to Pain Management.

Introduction: The goal of this project was to implement a biopsychosocial approach to pain management and measure the effects on patient perception of pain. It was hypothesized that the intervention would positively impact patients' perception of pain.

Methods: A validated survey, the Revised American Pain Society Patient Outcome Questionnaire, was administered to patients on the day of discharge from Avera McKennan Hospital Orthopedics Unit 2-East and 2-West following total joint replacement.

Creating a Culture of Mobility: Using Real-Time Assessment to Drive Outcomes.

Background: Recent studies have demonstrated the safety and feasibility of early mobilization of patients in the hospital setting. Promoting early mobility improves patients' ability to perform daily activities and attend to basic needs. It also preserves patients' dignity and independence.

Dairy calves' personality traits predict social proximity and response to an emotional challenge.

The assessment of individual traits requires that tests are reliable (i.e. consistency over time) and externally valid, meaning that they predict future responses in similar contexts (i.

To Group or Not to Group? Good Practice for Housing Male Laboratory Mice.

It is widely recommended to group-house male laboratory mice because they are 'social animals', but male mice do not naturally share territories and aggression can be a serious welfare problem. Even without aggression, not all animals within a group will be in a state of positive welfare. Rather, many male mice may be negatively affected by the stress of repeated social defeat and subordination, raising concerns about welfare and also research validity.

Lateralized behaviour as indicator of affective state in dairy cows.

In humans, there is evidence that sensory processing of novel or threatening stimuli is right hemisphere dominated, especially in people experiencing negative affective states. There is also evidence for similar lateralization in a number of non-human animal species. Here we investigate whether this is also the case in domestic cattle that may experience long-term negative states due to commonly occurring conditions such as lameness.

Factors Affecting Staff Perceptions of Tele-ICU Service in Rural Hospitals.

Introduction: Telemedicine is designed to increase access to specialist care, especially in settings distant from tertiary-care centers. One of the more established telemedicine applications in hospitals is the tele-intensive care unit (tele-ICU). Perceptions of tele-ICU users are not well studied.