O altruísmo é um importante constructo comportamental envolvido nas relações sociais; mesmo que aparentemente não haja ganho imediato em ações altruístas, o objetivo de favorecer o progresso do grupo e da sociedade resulta no beneficiamento do próprio agente. Objetivos são mais facilmente alcançados com a ajuda de outros, ao mesmo tempo que há melhora na qualidade das relações sociais. Alguns fatores influenciam o comportamento altruísta, o estresse é um deles; a indução aguda de estresse pode ser eficiente em verificar comportamentos a curto prazo em laboratório, apesar de não haver consenso de que maneira este modifica as intenções de ajuda e o comportamento prósocial. O estresse também pode influenciar a maneira como avaliamos a distribuição de dinheiro ou bens feita por outrem: percepção de justiça. O Jogo do Ditador mostrase eficiente para analisar altruísmo e percepção de justiça, assim como o cortisol salivar se mostra capaz em auxiliar a análise do estresse agudo. Este trabalho avaliou em 94 estudantes universitários, de diversos cursos da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, se a indução de estresse agudo via tarefa de estresse social (T rier Social Stress Task ) relacionase a comportamentos altruístas e maior avaliação negativa para divisões injustas de dinheiro em dois jogos do ditador computadorizados a interação em ambos foi com desconhecidos. Os grupos foram divididos em dois sexos e em duas condições: experimental estresse e controle placebo. O dinheiro fictício usado para jogar foi ganho em uma tarefa de planejamento, executada em seguida da indução de estresse. Este foi mensurado por duas medidas fisiológicas: batimentos cardíacos e coleta de saliva para análise de cortisol; e por resposta de autoavaliação de ansiedade; as sessões duraram 60 minutos. Não foram encontradas correlações entre medidas fisiológicas e tomada de decisão egoísta, entretanto, encontrouse diferenças estatísticas significativas comportamentais entre os grupos: mulheres do grupo de controle são mais altruístas, quando dividem montantes mais altos de dinheiro; o grupo experimental avaliou como mais injustas ofertas egoístas (menor parte para ele(a)) do montante mais baixo e também como menos injustas ofertas altruístas (maior parte para ele(a)) do montante mais alto; os grupos também diferiram significativamente na oferta de divisão feita a desconhecidos; ademais, o grupo experimental levou mais tempo para iniciar a tarefa de planejamento do que o controle para ambos sexos. Concluise que medidas fisiológicas não se relacionam aos resultados pósestresse, porém diferenças comportamentais podem ser analisadas. Inferese que mulheres tem comportamentos mais altruístas por influência cultural. Percepção de justiça aumentada, comportamento egoísta e aumento do tempo de preparação na tarefa de planejamento podem ser o resultado do aumento da carga cognitiva por efeito da indução de estresse. / Altruism is an important behavioral construct in social relations; even though it appears to be no immediate gain in selfless actions. The purpose of promoting the group's and society’s progress results in the agent's own benefit. Goals are more easily achieved with the help of others, while there is improvement in the quality of social relations. Some factors have influence in altruistic behavior, stress is one of them; inducing acute stress can be effective in checking behaviors in imediate reaction in the laboratory, although there is no consensus on how this modifies intentions to help others and prosocial behavior. Stress can also influence how we evaluate the distribution of cash or goods made by others: perception of justice. The Dictator Game proves efficient to analize altruism and sense of justice, and salivary cortisol has shown able to assist in the analysis of acute stress. This study evaluated the impact of acute stress induction on 94 university students of different graduation courses of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Acute stress was induced via social stress task (Trier Social Stress Task) to identify if it relates to altruistic behavior and the negative assessment to unfair money distribution in two computerized dictator games. The subjects in both games were unknown to each other. Subjects were divided by sex and than two groups: experimental stress condition and control placebo condition. The fictitious money used to play was won in a planning task, followed by the stress induction. The impact was measured by two physiological metrics: heart rate and saliva collection for cortisol analysis; and the selfassessment test of anxiety. Each individual sessions lasted 60 minutes. Correlations between physiological measurements and the making of selfish decision were not found. However, significant statistical behaviors differences were found between: the control group of women who were more altruistic when dividing larger amounts of money; t he experimental group evaluated selfish money offers as more unfair in the lower cash amount experiment (lower share for him/her). We also found as less unfair the altruistic offers made on the experiment’s larger cash amount (highest share for him/her). The groups also differ significantly in the division of money made to unknown individuals; in addition, the experimental group took longer to start the planning task than the control group for both sexes. We conclude that physiological measures are not related to poststress results, but behavioral differences can be analyzed. It appears that women tend to be more altruistic because of cultural influence. Increased perception of justice, selfish behavior and longer time taking to plan the planning task can be the result of increased cognitive overload as a result of induction of stress.

O altruísmo é um importante constructo comportamental envolvido nas relações sociais; mesmo que aparentemente não haja ganho imediato em ações altruístas, o objetivo de favorecer o progresso do grupo e da sociedade resulta no beneficiamento do próprio agente. Objetivos são mais facilmente alcançados com a ajuda de outros, ao mesmo tempo que há melhora na qualidade das relações sociais. Alguns fatores influenciam o comportamento altruísta, o estresse é um deles; a indução aguda de estresse pode ser eficiente em verificar comportamentos a curto prazo em laboratório, apesar de não haver consenso de que maneira este modifica as intenções de ajuda e o comportamento prósocial. O estresse também pode influenciar a maneira como avaliamos a distribuição de dinheiro ou bens feita por outrem: percepção de justiça. O Jogo do Ditador mostrase eficiente para analisar altruísmo e percepção de justiça, assim como o cortisol salivar se mostra capaz em auxiliar a análise do estresse agudo. Este trabalho avaliou em 94 estudantes universitários, de diversos cursos da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, se a indução de estresse agudo via tarefa de estresse social (T rier Social Stress Task ) relacionase a comportamentos altruístas e maior avaliação negativa para divisões injustas de dinheiro em dois jogos do ditador computadorizados a interação em ambos foi com desconhecidos. Os grupos foram divididos em dois sexos e em duas condições: experimental estresse e controle placebo. O dinheiro fictício usado para jogar foi ganho em uma tarefa de planejamento, executada em seguida da indução de estresse. Este foi mensurado por duas medidas fisiológicas: batimentos cardíacos e coleta de saliva para análise de cortisol; e por resposta de autoavaliação de ansiedade; as sessões duraram 60 minutos. Não foram encontradas correlações entre medidas fisiológicas e tomada de decisão egoísta, entretanto, encontrouse diferenças estatísticas significativas comportamentais entre os grupos: mulheres do grupo de controle são mais altruístas, quando dividem montantes mais altos de dinheiro; o grupo experimental avaliou como mais injustas ofertas egoístas (menor parte para ele(a)) do montante mais baixo e também como menos injustas ofertas altruístas (maior parte para ele(a)) do montante mais alto; os grupos também diferiram significativamente na oferta de divisão feita a desconhecidos; ademais, o grupo experimental levou mais tempo para iniciar a tarefa de planejamento do que o controle para ambos sexos. Concluise que medidas fisiológicas não se relacionam aos resultados pósestresse, porém diferenças comportamentais podem ser analisadas. Inferese que mulheres tem comportamentos mais altruístas por influência cultural. Percepção de justiça aumentada, comportamento egoísta e aumento do tempo de preparação na tarefa de planejamento podem ser o resultado do aumento da carga cognitiva por efeito da indução de estresse. / Altruism is an important behavioral construct in social relations; even though it appears to be no immediate gain in selfless actions. The purpose of promoting the group's and society’s progress results in the agent's own benefit. Goals are more easily achieved with the help of others, while there is improvement in the quality of social relations. Some factors have influence in altruistic behavior, stress is one of them; inducing acute stress can be effective in checking behaviors in imediate reaction in the laboratory, although there is no consensus on how this modifies intentions to help others and prosocial behavior. Stress can also influence how we evaluate the distribution of cash or goods made by others: perception of justice. The Dictator Game proves efficient to analize altruism and sense of justice, and salivary cortisol has shown able to assist in the analysis of acute stress. This study evaluated the impact of acute stress induction on 94 university students of different graduation courses of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Acute stress was induced via social stress task (Trier Social Stress Task) to identify if it relates to altruistic behavior and the negative assessment to unfair money distribution in two computerized dictator games. The subjects in both games were unknown to each other. Subjects were divided by sex and than two groups: experimental stress condition and control placebo condition. The fictitious money used to play was won in a planning task, followed by the stress induction. The impact was measured by two physiological metrics: heart rate and saliva collection for cortisol analysis; and the selfassessment test of anxiety. Each individual sessions lasted 60 minutes. Correlations between physiological measurements and the making of selfish decision were not found. However, significant statistical behaviors differences were found between: the control group of women who were more altruistic when dividing larger amounts of money; t he experimental group evaluated selfish money offers as more unfair in the lower cash amount experiment (lower share for him/her). We also found as less unfair the altruistic offers made on the experiment’s larger cash amount (highest share for him/her). The groups also differ significantly in the division of money made to unknown individuals; in addition, the experimental group took longer to start the planning task than the control group for both sexes. We conclude that physiological measures are not related to poststress results, but behavioral differences can be analyzed. It appears that women tend to be more altruistic because of cultural influence. Increased perception of justice, selfish behavior and longer time taking to plan the planning task can be the result of increased cognitive overload as a result of induction of stress.

O altruísmo é um importante constructo comportamental envolvido nas relações sociais; mesmo que aparentemente não haja ganho imediato em ações altruístas, o objetivo de favorecer o progresso do grupo e da sociedade resulta no beneficiamento do próprio agente. Objetivos são mais facilmente alcançados com a ajuda de outros, ao mesmo tempo que há melhora na qualidade das relações sociais. Alguns fatores influenciam o comportamento altruísta, o estresse é um deles; a indução aguda de estresse pode ser eficiente em verificar comportamentos a curto prazo em laboratório, apesar de não haver consenso de que maneira este modifica as intenções de ajuda e o comportamento prósocial. O estresse também pode influenciar a maneira como avaliamos a distribuição de dinheiro ou bens feita por outrem: percepção de justiça. O Jogo do Ditador mostrase eficiente para analisar altruísmo e percepção de justiça, assim como o cortisol salivar se mostra capaz em auxiliar a análise do estresse agudo. Este trabalho avaliou em 94 estudantes universitários, de diversos cursos da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, se a indução de estresse agudo via tarefa de estresse social (T rier Social Stress Task ) relacionase a comportamentos altruístas e maior avaliação negativa para divisões injustas de dinheiro em dois jogos do ditador computadorizados a interação em ambos foi com desconhecidos. Os grupos foram divididos em dois sexos e em duas condições: experimental estresse e controle placebo. O dinheiro fictício usado para jogar foi ganho em uma tarefa de planejamento, executada em seguida da indução de estresse. Este foi mensurado por duas medidas fisiológicas: batimentos cardíacos e coleta de saliva para análise de cortisol; e por resposta de autoavaliação de ansiedade; as sessões duraram 60 minutos. Não foram encontradas correlações entre medidas fisiológicas e tomada de decisão egoísta, entretanto, encontrouse diferenças estatísticas significativas comportamentais entre os grupos: mulheres do grupo de controle são mais altruístas, quando dividem montantes mais altos de dinheiro; o grupo experimental avaliou como mais injustas ofertas egoístas (menor parte para ele(a)) do montante mais baixo e também como menos injustas ofertas altruístas (maior parte para ele(a)) do montante mais alto; os grupos também diferiram significativamente na oferta de divisão feita a desconhecidos; ademais, o grupo experimental levou mais tempo para iniciar a tarefa de planejamento do que o controle para ambos sexos. Concluise que medidas fisiológicas não se relacionam aos resultados pósestresse, porém diferenças comportamentais podem ser analisadas. Inferese que mulheres tem comportamentos mais altruístas por influência cultural. Percepção de justiça aumentada, comportamento egoísta e aumento do tempo de preparação na tarefa de planejamento podem ser o resultado do aumento da carga cognitiva por efeito da indução de estresse. / Altruism is an important behavioral construct in social relations; even though it appears to be no immediate gain in selfless actions. The purpose of promoting the group's and society’s progress results in the agent's own benefit. Goals are more easily achieved with the help of others, while there is improvement in the quality of social relations. Some factors have influence in altruistic behavior, stress is one of them; inducing acute stress can be effective in checking behaviors in imediate reaction in the laboratory, although there is no consensus on how this modifies intentions to help others and prosocial behavior. Stress can also influence how we evaluate the distribution of cash or goods made by others: perception of justice. The Dictator Game proves efficient to analize altruism and sense of justice, and salivary cortisol has shown able to assist in the analysis of acute stress. This study evaluated the impact of acute stress induction on 94 university students of different graduation courses of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Acute stress was induced via social stress task (Trier Social Stress Task) to identify if it relates to altruistic behavior and the negative assessment to unfair money distribution in two computerized dictator games. The subjects in both games were unknown to each other. Subjects were divided by sex and than two groups: experimental stress condition and control placebo condition. The fictitious money used to play was won in a planning task, followed by the stress induction. The impact was measured by two physiological metrics: heart rate and saliva collection for cortisol analysis; and the selfassessment test of anxiety. Each individual sessions lasted 60 minutes. Correlations between physiological measurements and the making of selfish decision were not found. However, significant statistical behaviors differences were found between: the control group of women who were more altruistic when dividing larger amounts of money; t he experimental group evaluated selfish money offers as more unfair in the lower cash amount experiment (lower share for him/her). We also found as less unfair the altruistic offers made on the experiment’s larger cash amount (highest share for him/her). The groups also differ significantly in the division of money made to unknown individuals; in addition, the experimental group took longer to start the planning task than the control group for both sexes. We conclude that physiological measures are not related to poststress results, but behavioral differences can be analyzed. It appears that women tend to be more altruistic because of cultural influence. Increased perception of justice, selfish behavior and longer time taking to plan the planning task can be the result of increased cognitive overload as a result of induction of stress.

This investigation utilized data from a previous laboratory-based study to examine the interactive contributions of trait involuntary stress responses (ISRs, e.g., rumination) and perceived familial social support (SS) on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA; as indexed via salivary cortisol) response to acute stress in a sample of 128 adolescent girls ages 12 to 16. Participants completed a modified Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), and physiologic stress response was indexed via six salivary cortisol samples. Dimensions of ISRs and familial social support were entered into regression models to predict total cortisol circulation defined by area under the curve with respect to ground (AUCG; Pruessner et al., 2003) following the TSST. Neither ISRs or SS were associated with cortisol AUCG, nor was there an interactive effect of SS on relationships between ISRs and AUCG. Implications of present results and methodological recommendations for future investigations are discussed. This may be the first investigation to consider the interactive effects of ISRs and social support on adolescent girls' HPA responses. Greater understanding of these factors in this understudied demographic will improve translational science as well as inform risk assessment and intervention development.

The main objective of this diploma thesis is to analyse the tourism safety situation and the CzechTourism hypothesis: "Czech Republic is a safe destination" for a visit. It is focused on tourism safety and security questions and its main forms, various international safety analysis and reports with emphasis on the situation in Czech Republic. The study of CzechTourism is analysed by means of a direct survey among foreigners and its results lead to the potential development of tourism safety situation in Czech Republic. Finally, the evolution of a situation in Czech Republic is observed according to the different tourism and peace indicators and the direct dependence "safe country / number of arrivals" is investigated.

Moderne Theorien der Verhaltenskontrolle unterscheiden zwei Systeme, wobei das Handeln gesunder Individuen von beiden geprägt ist: Das retrospektiv agierende habituelle, sog. modellfreie Verhalten zeichnet sich durch Wiederholung zuvor belohnter Entscheidungen aus. Es passt sich nur langsam an möglicherweise veränderte Umweltbedingungen an. Die verstärkte Nutzung des habituellen Systems gilt als assoziiert mit verschiedenen psychischen Erkrankungen. Dem gegenüber steht das zielgerichtete, sog. modellbasierte Verhalten, das sich durch vorausschauende Entscheidungen auszeichnet. Hierbei werden die möglichen Konsequenzen einer Handlung berücksichtigt, um ein gewünschtes Ergebnis zu erreichen. Dazu wird ein „mentales“ Modell der Umwelt- bedingungen erstellt. In einer Verhaltensstudie mit 39 Versuchspersonen wurde untersucht, ob biopsychologischer Stress zu einer Reduktion von modellbasiertem hin zu mehr modellfreiem Verhalten führt. Dazu absolvierten 39 Versuchspersonen eine sequentielle Entscheidungsaufgabe, nachdem sie psychosozialem Stress ausgesetzt wurden. Subjektive und physiologische Stress-Parameter wurden über das Experiment hinweg wiederholt erhoben. Ein direkter Effekt von akutem Stress auf das Gleichgewicht modellfreien vs. modellbasierten Verhaltens konnte nicht beobachtet werden. Allerdings zeigten diejenigen Versuchspersonen, die in den letzten zwei Jahren eine hohe Anzahl an stressbehafteten Lebensereignissen aufwiesen (chronischer Stress), signifikant weniger modellbasiertes Verhalten nach der Exposition von akutem Stress als in der Kontrollbedingung. Darüber hinaus korrelierte physiologische Stressreaktivität (stressbedingte Cortisol- Ausschüttung) negativ mit modellbasiertem Entscheidungsverhalten, während subjektive Stressreaktivität (basierend auf Fragebögen) positiv mit modellbasiertem Verhalten assoziiert war. Der in der Forschung beschriebene Einfluss von akutem und chronischem Stress auf die Entstehung und Aufrechterhaltung psychischer Erkrankungen könnte demnach teilweise über ein solches Ungleichgewicht der beiden Entscheidungsstrategien vermittelt sein.

Stress has been widely shown to directly influence people’s emotional and behavioral processing as well as their underlying biological systems. This project examined physiological and behavioral responses as indicators of stress and coping in the context of a psychosocial stressor in a controlled laboratory setting. We examined the association between indicators of behavioral coping and underlying physiological reactivity within participants while experiencing stress. Participants included 68 emerging adults. Physiological measures include autonomic biomarkers (e.g., heart-rate, skin conductance) at rest and during the stressor while behavioral indicators that were coded include acute verbal and non-verbal actions exhibited by participants during the stressor. Results supported the efficacy of a modified social stressor at eliciting stress responding in participants. In addition, behavioral coping was found to be associated with autonomic responding to the stressor. Exploring these associations has important implications for understanding the interaction between biological and behavioral responding to stress.

No description available.

In the first study, three different transport systems for bacteria were evaluated. The CLSI M40-A guideline was used to monitor the maintenance of both mono- and polymicrobial samples during a simulated transportation at room temperature that lasted 0-48 h. All systems were able to maintain the viability of all organisms for 24 h, but none of them could support all tested species after 48 h.  The most difficult species to recover was Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and in polymicrobial samples overgrowth was an observed problem. The aim of the second study was to study the presence of TSST-1 and three other important toxin genes in invasive isolates of Staphylococcus aureus collected during the years 2000-2012 at two tertiary hospitals. The genes encoding the staphylococcal toxins were detected by PCR, and whole-genome sequencing was used for analyzing the genetic relatedness between isolates. The results showed that the most common toxin was TSST-1, and isolates positive for this toxin exhibited a clear clonality independent of year and hospital. The typical patient was a male aged 55-74 years and with a bone or a joint infection. The third study was a clinical study of the effect of silver-based wound dressings on the bacterial flora in chronic leg ulcers. Phenotypic and genetic silver-resistance were investigated before and after topical silver treatment, by determining the silver nitrate MICs and by detecting sil genes with PCR. The silver-based dressings had a limited effect on primary wound pathogens, and the activity of silver nitrate on S. aureus was mainly bacteriostatic. A silver-resistant Enterobacter cloacae strain was identified after only three weeks of treatment, and cephalosporin-resistant members of the Enterobacteriaceae family were relatively prone to developed silver-resistance after silver exposure in vitro. The last study was undertaken in order to develop an easy-to-use method for simulating the laundering process of hospital textiles, and apply the method when evaluating the decontaminating efficacy of two different washing temperatures. The laundering process took place at professional laundries, and Enterococcus faecium was used as a bioindicator. The results showed that a lowering of the washing temperature from 70°C to 60°C did not affect the decontamination efficacy; the washing cycle alone reduced the number of bacteria with 3-5 log10 CFU, whereas the following tumble drying reduced the bacterial numbers with another 3-4 log10 CFU, yielding the same final result independent of the washing temperature. To ensure that sufficient textile hygiene is maintained, the whole laundering process needs to be monitored. The general conclusion is that all developmental work in the bacterial field requires time and a large strain collection.

Over the years stress has been a term lacking one clear and specific definition. In general, the term stress has been used mostly as an explanation of a response or reaction to a stressor. A stressor can be of both physiological and behavioral character. The experience of stress can occur both due to a real or a perceived stressor. In this literature review, the concept of stress is viewed with insights from biological, psychological, and social perspectives. The stress response is described biologically with the central nervous system (CNS), the brain, and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Social and psychological stress are concepts related to how stress is perceived by the mind and due to social surroundings which is described in relation to social support, self-efficacy, the locus of control and cognitive appraisal. Dealing with stress can be done through coping which refers to the individual capacity to handle a stressor and has generally been divided into two categories, active/passive coping and problem-focused/emotion-focused coping. Depending on the individual resources to cope with a stressor and the ability to decrease the stress response when needed, the long-term effects of stress can therefore vary between individuals. It has been found that positive coping (known as reducing stress) can increase the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) volume and decrease anxiety and depression. The prefrontal cortex (PFC), the hippocampus, and the amygdala are closely linked to the ACC and affect emotions, learning, and memory related to the stress response.