bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Neuronal correlates of intensification and acceptance of symptoms during exposure therapy in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder
Authors: Karch Susanne , Maywald Maximilian , Schwartz Caroline , Heil Clara , Neumüller Jakob , Keeser Daniel , Garcia Sarah , Tschentscher Nadja , Pogarell Oliver , Paolini Marco , Voderholzer Ulrich 
Published: February 2024

IntroductionCognitive behaviour therapy with exposure and response prevention is efficient in treating patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Nevertheless, it would be helpful for many patients to complement the therapeutic treatment with acceptance strategies to further increase the therapeutic benefit. The aim of the present study was to examine neurobiological responses to acceptance and intensification strategies during symptom provocation alongside the psychotherapeutic process.MethodA total of 23 patients diagnosed with OCD (subtype: washing/contamination fear) was instructed to utilise either an acceptance strategy (ACS) or an intensification strategy (INS) to cope with their emotional and cognitive reactions to personalised symptom-triggering and neutral pictures. Fourteen patients participated twice: at the beginning [T1] and at the end [T2] of an inpatient multimodal treatment including cognitive behaviour therapy with response prevention to assess functional variations.ResultsFor the contrast of T1 and T2, ACS showed increased brain activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), left caudate body, and posterior cingulate gyrus (PCC). They also showed decreased activity in the left anterior insula. INS showed decreased activation in right lingual gyrus and right caudate body. At T2, ACS showed increased activation compared to INS in the left cerebrum: IFG, caudate nucleus, middle and superior temporal gyrus, and PCC/cuneus. For the comparison of T1 and T2, the ACS revealed increased brain activity in the left IFG, left caudate body, and right inferior parietal lobe. It showed decreased activity in the left anterior insula. The INS revealed decreased activity in right lingual gyrus and right caudate body.The psychometric questionnaires suggested that patients were able to reduce obsession, compulsion, and depression symptoms. Furthermore, patients rated the ACS as more useful for themselves compared with the INS.ConclusionThe increased left IFG activity using ACS (T1 vs. T2) could be interpreted as a better inhibitory top-down process, while the increased PCC response might be due to a better reappraisal strategy after therapy. ACS seems to mobilise neuronal activations under therapy, especially in the left hemisphere. Both strategies showed reductions in emotional networks as a neuronal correlate of therapy success. Overall, ACS may be more efficient than INS, as rated by the patients and as in accordance with neurobiological findings.
Maternal autistic traits and anxiety in children with typical development in Chinese families: a moderated mediation model of mothers’ negative emotional expressions and child gender
Authors: Gu Jiyou , Li Tiantian , Dong Huiqin 
Published: February 2024

BackgroundPrior studies have focused on the effects of maternal autistic traits on children with autism, but little attention has been paid to the effects of maternal autistic traits on typically developing children, while the mechanisms of the effects are not clear.ObjectiveGiven that, a moderated mediation model was conducted to examine the association between maternal autistic traits and typically developing children’s anxiety and the underlying mechanisms.Methods and resultsParticipants were 648 mother–child dyads in which these children had no autistic siblings. Mothers reported their autistic traits and negative emotional expressions in the family and children’s anxiety. The results indicated that children’s anxiety was predicted by maternal autistic traits. Mediating analysis revealed that mothers’ negative emotional expressions partially mediated the association between their autistic traits and children’s anxiety. The findings also indicated that child gender moderated the relationship between maternal emotional expressions and children’s anxiety. Specifically, anxiety in girls was more strongly predicted by negative emotional expressions from their mothers than in boys.ConclusionThese results have important theoretical and practical implications for reducing the adverse effect of maternal autistic traits on children’s anxiety, especially for girls. The present study also reveals that maternal negative emotional expression is an important mechanism. Causal conclusions cannot be drawn based on cross-sectional research design, so it is necessary to conduct longitudinal studies in the future.
Effect of empowerment: how and when do high-involvement work practices influence elder employees’ innovative performance?
Authors: Jiang Daokui , Zhang Yiting , Zhu Honghong , Wang Xiaoyu 
Published: February 2024

IntroductionIn today’s fast-paced business environment, innovation from elder employees is increasingly vital to organizations. High-involvement work practices that emphasize engagement and empowerment have a significant impact on the innovation performance of these employees, harnessing their wealth of experience and fostering organizational growth. However, most of the current research on innovation performance focuses on the single factor of the individual or the organization, and most of them focus on the linear relationship; research on the factor of human resource practices, in particular high-involvement work practices, is inadequate.MethodsBased on social exchange theory, this paper uses structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the impact of high-involvement work practices on elder workers’ innovation performance using 278 valid samples from three time points, and the non-linear effects of exploratory and exploitative innovation on elder workers’ innovation performance.Results(1) There is no significant relationship between high-involvement work practices and elder employees’ innovation performance. (2) Exploratory innovation has a significant U-shaped relationship with innovation performance, i.e., as the level of exploratory innovation increases, the innovation performance of elder employees first decreases and then increases. There is a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between exploitative innovation and innovation performance, i.e., as the level of exploitative innovation increases, innovation performance first increases and then decreases. High-involvement work practices have a U-shaped effect on elder employees’ innovation performance through exploitative innovation. (3) Transformational leadership moderates the direct effects of high-involvement on exploratory innovation and elder employees’ innovation performance, and transformational leadership moderates the U-shaped effect of high-involvement work practices on elder employees’ innovation performance through exploratory innovation.DiscussionThe conclusion is helpful for organizations to enhance elder employees’ innovation performance by enriching high-involvement work practices.
Effects of linguistic context and noise type on speech comprehension
Authors: Fitzgerald Laura P. , DeDe Gayle , Shen Jing 
Published: February 2024

IntroductionUnderstanding speech in background noise is an effortful endeavor. When acoustic challenges arise, linguistic context may help us fill in perceptual gaps. However, more knowledge is needed regarding how different types of background noise affect our ability to construct meaning from perceptually complex speech input. Additionally, there is limited evidence regarding whether perceptual complexity (e.g., informational masking) and linguistic complexity (e.g., occurrence of contextually incongruous words) interact during processing of speech material that is longer and more complex than a single sentence. Our first research objective was to determine whether comprehension of spoken sentence pairs is impacted by the informational masking from a speech masker. Our second objective was to identify whether there is an interaction between perceptual and linguistic complexity during speech processing.MethodsWe used multiple measures including comprehension accuracy, reaction time, and processing effort (as indicated by task-evoked pupil response), making comparisons across three different levels of linguistic complexity in two different noise conditions. Context conditions varied by final word, with each sentence pair ending with an expected exemplar (EE), within-category violation (WV), or between-category violation (BV). Forty young adults with typical hearing performed a speech comprehension in noise task over three visits. Each participant heard sentence pairs presented in either multi-talker babble or spectrally shaped steady-state noise (SSN), with the same noise condition across all three visits.ResultsWe observed an effect of context but not noise on accuracy. Further, we observed an interaction of noise and context in peak pupil dilation data. Specifically, the context effect was modulated by noise type: context facilitated processing only in the more perceptually complex babble noise condition.DiscussionThese findings suggest that when perceptual complexity arises, listeners make use of the linguistic context to facilitate comprehension of speech obscured by background noise. Our results extend existing accounts of speech processing in noise by demonstrating how perceptual and linguistic complexity affect our ability to engage in higher-level processes, such as construction of meaning from speech segments that are longer than a single sentence.
Effects of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation and exploration of brain network mechanisms in children with high−functioning autism spectrum disorder: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
Authors: Sun Ke , Li Ying , Zhai Zhenhang , Yin Heqing , Liang Shuli , Zhai Feng , Cui Yonghua , Zhang Guojun 
Published: February 2024

BackgroundAutism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a collection of neurodevelopmental diseases characterized by poor social interaction and communication, a limited range of interests, and stereotyped behavior. High-functioning autism (HFA) indicates a subgroup of individuals with autism who possess cognitive and/or language skills that are within the average to above-normal range for their age. Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) holds promise in children with HFA. However, few studies have used randomized controlled trials to validate the effectiveness of taVNS. Therefore, in this study, we intend to provide a study protocol to examine the therapeutic effects of taVNS in individuals diagnosed with HFA and to investigate the process of brain network remodeling in individuals with ASD using functional imaging techniques to observe alterations in large-scale neural networks.Methods and designWe planned to employ a randomized, double-blind experimental design, including 40 children receiving sham stimulation and 40 children receiving real stimulation. We will assess clinical scales and perform functional imaging examinations before and after the stimulation. Additionally, we will include age- and gender-matched healthy children as controls and conduct functional imaging examinations. We plan first to observe the therapeutic effects of taVNS. Furthermore, we will observe the impact of taVNS stimulation on the brain network.DiscussiontaVNS was a low-risk, easy-to-administer, low-cost, and portable option to modulate the vagus system. taVNS may improve the social performance of HFA. Changes in the network properties of the large-scale brain network may be related to the efficacy of taVNS.Clinical trial registrationhttp://www.chictr.org.cn, identifier ChiCTR2300074035.
Neighborhood-level sleep health and childhood opportunities
Authors: Gorovoy Suzanne , Phan Sydney , Begay Tommy K. , Valencia Dora , Hale Lauren , Robbins Rebecca , Killgore William D. S. , Williamson Ariel A. , Grandner Michael 
Published: February 2024

ObjectivesRegional sleep differences may reflect other important indicators of health and well-being. Examining sleep health at the regional level can help inform policies to improve population health. We examined the relationship between neighborhood-level adult sleep health (modeled in this study via adult sleep duration) and other health metrics and multiple indicators of child-relevant opportunity.MethodsData were obtained from the “500 Cities” data collected by the CDC, including the proportion of the adult population in each tract that report obtaining at least 7 h of sleep. The Child Opportunity Index (COI) provides indices for “education,” “health and environment,” and “social and economic” domains, as well as a global score. When data were merged, 27,130 census tracts were included. Linear regression analyses examined COI associated with the proportion of the adult population obtaining 7 h of sleep.ResultsAdult sleep duration was associated with global COI, such that for each additional percent of the population that obtains ≥ 7 h of sleep, COI increases by 3.6 points (95%CI[3.57, 3.64]). Each component of COI was separately related to adult sleep duration. All associations were attenuated but significant in adjusted analyses. In stepwise analyses, sleep health via adult sleep duration emerged as the strongest correlate of global COI, accounting for 57.2% of the variance (p &lt; 0.0001). Similarly, when stepwise analyses examined each component of COI as dependent variable, sleep health consistently emerged as the most substantial correlate (all p &lt; 0.0001).ConclusionCommunity levels of sufficient sleep are associated with greater childhood opportunities, which itself is robustly associated with a wide range of health and economic outcomes. Future work can examine whether this association can develop into scalable interventions.
Urban environment influences on stress, autonomic reactivity and circadian rhythm: protocol for an ambulatory study of mental health and sleep
Authors: Montanari Andrea , Wang Limin , Birenboim Amit , Chaix Basile 
Published: February 2024

IntroductionConverging evidence suggests that urban living is associated with an increased likelihood of developing mental health and sleep problems. Although these aspects have been investigated in separate streams of research, stress, autonomic reactivity and circadian misalignment can be hypothesized to play a prominent role in the causal pathways underlining the complex relationship between the urban environment and these two health dimensions. This study aims at quantifying the momentary impact of environmental stressors on increased autonomic reactivity and circadian rhythm, and thereby on mood and anxiety symptoms and sleep quality in the context of everyday urban living.MethodThe present article reports the protocol for a feasibility study that aims at assessing the daily environmental and mobility exposures of 40 participants from the urban area of Jerusalem over 7 days. Every participant will carry a set of wearable sensors while being tracked through space and time with GPS receivers. Skin conductance and heart rate variability will be tracked to monitor participants' stress responses and autonomic reactivity, whereas electroencephalographic signal will be used for sleep quality tracking. Light exposure, actigraphy and skin temperature will be used for ambulatory circadian monitoring. Geographically explicit ecological momentary assessment (GEMA) will be used to assess participants' perception of the environment, mood and anxiety symptoms, sleep quality and vitality. For each outcome variable (sleep quality and mental health), hierarchical mixed models including random effects at the individual level will be used. In a separate analysis, to control for potential unobserved individual-level confounders, a fixed effect at the individual level will be specified for case-crossover analyses (comparing each participant to oneself).ConclusionRecent developments in wearable sensing methods, as employed in our study or with even more advanced methods reviewed in the Discussion, make it possible to gather information on the functioning of neuro-endocrine and circadian systems in a real-world context as a way to investigate the complex interactions between environmental exposures, behavior and health. Our work aims to provide evidence on the health effects of urban stressors and circadian disruptors to inspire potential interventions, municipal policies and urban planning schemes aimed at addressing those factors.
Prevalence of smoking habits, attitudes and knowledge on counteractive strategies among a sample of healthcare employees: results of the smoking-free health environments project in the province of Palermo, Italy
Authors: Costantino Claudio , Bonaccorso Nicole , Minutolo Giuseppa , Sciortino Martina , Ripoli Giovanna , Berardi Marco , Gallo Maurizio , Nastasi Stefania , Serra Stefano , Trapani Elisa , Busalacchi Eugenio , Ficano Provvidenza , Siciliano Salvatore , Immordino Palmira , Mazzucco Walter , Restivo Vincenzo , Vitale Francesco , Casuccio Alessandra 
Published: February 2024

IntroductionTobacco use is responsible for over 7 million deaths annually, making smoking the leading cause of preventable mortality globally. Over the last two decades in Italy, the prevalence of smoking among physicians has consistently decreased, while it remains higher and is gradually decreasing among non-physician healthcare workers. The aim of this study was to investigate the Prevalence of smoking habits, attitudes, and knowledge on counteractive strategies among employees in the Primary Healthcare Facilities in the Province of Palermo, Italy.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted between June 2020 and December 2020 through a previously validated anonymous questionnaire structured in four sections including 34 items. Data were analyzed using Stata/MP 12.1 statistical software.ResultsOverall, 2,645 participants answered the questionnaire. The prevalence of either current or former smokers was 18.6%. Based on the multivariable analysis conducted, a significantly higher frequency of current smokers was observed among male participants (AdjOR: 1.29; CI95%: 1.02–1.64) and those belonging to the Surgical Unit (AdjOR: 1.92; CI95%: 1.27–2.90). Conversely, the prevalence of current smokers was significantly lower among those with at least one child (AdjOR: 0.67; CI95%: 0.49–0.91), with an educational qualification equal to or greater than a graduation degree (AdjOR: 0.56; CI95%: 0.43–0.73), those who considered second-hand smoke harmful (AdjOR: 0.06; CI95%: 0.008–0.60), those who had observed smoking or detected the smell of smoke in their workplace (AdjOR: 0.64; CI95%: 0.45–0.91). Furthermore, the prevalence of current smokers was significantly lower among participants who believed that healthcare professionals could play a crucial role in influencing their patients’ lifestyles (AdjOR: 0.67; CI95%: 0.50–0.90) and among those who recommend their patients to quit smoking (AdjOR: 0.35; CI95%: 0.24–0.51).DiscussionThe results of the current research demonstrate that, despite the decline in smoking prevalence among physicians, the rate of smokers among healthcare facility employees remains unacceptably high. This underscores the need to re-evaluate current anti-tobacco strategies in the workplace.
Local government bodies as subjects of public policy of national memory in Ukraine
Authors: Vlasenko Svitlana 
Published: February 2024

The purpose of the article is to clarify the role of local self-government bodies in the formation and implementation of the public policy of national memory in Ukraine.
The source base of the research was made up of the Constitution of Ukraine, laws of Ukraine and other normative acts of higher state authorities and local self-government bodies. The methodological basis was made up of general scientific and special research methods: induction and deduction, systematization and generalization, logical and structural-functional analysis, formal-legal, etc.
The article examines the peculiarities of the functioning of the public administration system in the field of national memory and the place of local self-government bodies in it as subjects of public policy. The regulatory and legal support for the activities of local self-government bodies, relations with state authorities, distribution of powers, decision-making mechanisms, forms of participation in political processes and public affairs management, etc. are analyzed. The current state of ensuring the formation and implementation of the public policy of national memory at the local and regional levels by local self-government bodies is revealed, the main directions of this policy in the conditions of a full-scale Russian war are analyzed.
As a result of the research work, a conclusion was made about the important role of local self-government bodies in the formation and implementation of the public policy of national memory at the local and regional levels. It was determined that Ukraine operates an extensive system of public administration, which ensures the solution of important social problems and the satisfaction of urgent public needs in the field of national memory. It has been proven that socio-political processes in the field of national memory, in conditions of full-scale war and threats to territorial integrity, play a particularly important role in the establishment of Ukrainian civic identity and are an integral component of ensuring Ukraine's national security.
Historical preconditions of democratic changes in the context of the formation and development of Ukrainian statehood
Authors: Sokirko Mikhail 
Published: February 2024

The article examines the democratic origins of the social and state system in different historical periods. Important state-building legal sources are considered: Magdeburg law, Lithuanian statutes, the Constitution of Philip Orlyk, which had a decisive influence on the establishment of the foundations of the republican democratic state governed by the rule of law. The order of origin and acceptance of the privileges of the Magdeburg law by the cities of Ukraine is clarified. The democratic principles of the state and local system in different periods from the times of Kievan Rus, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, to the Cossack state were revealed. The peculiarities of the administrative-territorial system during the stay of the Ukrainian lands as part of the Russian Empire, as well as the centralized system of the Soviet period, are considered.
The role of civic self-government as the basis of local government, the process of change of power as the basis of democracy is defined. It is proved that Ukrainian statehood has democratic foundations and roots, including due to the influence of the Western political and legal space. In this regard, systemic changes, especially at the local government level, are aimed at restoring and reviving lost democratic roots and building a developed local government system.