Anxiety is a complex phenomenon: Its eliciting stimuli and circumstances, component behaviors, and functional consequences are only slowly coming to be understood. Here, we examine defense systems from field studies; laboratory studies focusing on experimental analyses of behavior; and, the fear conditioning literature, with a focus on the role of uncertainty in promoting an anxiety pattern that involves high rates of stimulus generalization and resistance to extinction. Respectively, these different areas provide information on evolved elicitors of defense (field studies); outline a defense system focused on obtaining information about uncertain threat (ethoexperimental analyses); and, provide a simple, well-researched, easily measured paradigm for analysis of nonassociative stress-enhanced fear conditioning (the SEFL). Results suggest that all of these-each of which is responsive to uncertainty-play multiple and interactive roles in anxiety. Brain system findings for some relevant models are reviewed, with suggestions that further analyses of current models may be capable of providing a great deal of additional information about these complex interactions and their underlying biology.

Pathogenic microorganisms released onto the soil from point or diffuse sources represent a public health concern. They can be transported by rainwater that infiltrates into subsoil and reach the groundwater where they can survive for a long time and contaminate drinking water sources. As part of the SCA.Re.S. (Evaluation of Health Risk Related to the Discharge of Wastewater on the Soil) project, we reviewed a selection of field-scale studies that investigated the factors that influenced the fate of microorganisms that were transported from the ground surface to the groundwater. A total of 24 studies published between 2003 and 2022 were included in the review. These studies were selected from the PubMed and Web of Science databases. Microbial contamination of groundwater depends on complex interactions between human activities responsible for the release of contaminants onto the soil, and a range of environmental and biological factors, including the geological, hydraulic, and moisture characteristics of the media traversed by the water, and the characteristics and the viability of the microorganisms, which in turn depend on the environmental conditions and presence of predatory species. Enterococci appeared to be more resistant in the underground environment than thermotolerant coliforms and were suggested as a better indicator for detecting microbial contamination of groundwater.

New transfer coefficient (TC) values were derived for vineyard workers handling treated grapevines during harvesting and crop maintenance activities. Re-entry exposure and dislodgeable foliar residue (DFR) studies were performed in Europe, covering hand harvesting, pruning/training, pruning/tying and pruning/shoot lifting. Foliar applications of fungicides (iprovalicarb, dimethomorph, dithianon, pyrimethanil and fenbuconazole) were made and 73 workers at 16 sites were monitored over one working day. Exposure was measured on inner and outer dosimeters, face/neck wipes and hand washes. In concurrent DFR studies, leaf punches were taken at each site during the time of worker re-entry. Potential exposure values correlated well with DFR values. TC values were derived for various re-entry activities for potential and actual exposure, with and without gloves. The harvesting task resulted in lower TC values than the other crop maintenance tasks. Additional TC values reflecting the use of protective gloves can be derived from the results. The TC values are much lower than current European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) default values. This project addresses a data gap identified by EFSA for specific EU TC values to permit more realistic and reliable re-entry worker exposure estimates for grapes.

The large-scale adoption of occupational exoskeletons (OEs) will only happen if clear evidence of effectiveness of the devices is available. Performing product-specific field validation studies would allow the stakeholders and decision-makers (e.g., employers, ergonomists, health, and safety departments) to assess OEs\' effectiveness in their specific work contexts and with experienced workers, who could further provide useful insights on practical issues related to exoskeleton daily use. This paper reviews present-day scientific methods for assessing the effectiveness of OEs in laboratory and field studies, and presents the vision of the authors on a roadmap that could lead to large-scale adoption of this technology. The analysis of the state-of-the-art shows methodological differences between laboratory and field studies. While the former are more extensively reported in scientific papers, they exhibit limited generalizability of the findings to real-world scenarios. On the contrary, field studies are limited in sample sizes and frequently focused only on subjective metrics. We propose a roadmap to promote large-scale knowledge-based adoption of OEs. It details that the analysis of the costs and benefits of this technology should be communicated to all stakeholders to facilitate informed decision making, so that each stakeholder can develop their specific role regarding this innovation. Large-scale field studies can help identify and monitor the possible side-effects related to exoskeleton use in real work situations, as well as provide a comprehensive scientific knowledge base to support the revision of ergonomics risk-assessment methods, safety standards and regulations, and the definition of guidelines and practices for the selection and use of OEs.

Usage of electronic gaming machines (EGMs) and on-line gambling is strongly associated with gambling-related harm. Player-tracking systems can monitor a gambler\'s activity across multiple sessions and/or operators, providing a clearer picture of the person\'s risk of harm with respect to these gambling formats and enabling harm reduction efforts. The Finnish and Norwegian state monopolies have player-tracking systems in place, while the United Kingdom is implementing an operator-led system called \'single customer view\' for on-line gambling, and Australian states are proposing similar \'player cards\' for land-based EGMs.
Player tracking can advance harm reduction efforts in three ways. First, player tracking improves our understanding of gambling-related harm by providing data on how the population gambles, which can potentially be linked with operator, government and/or prevalence data sets. Secondly, player tracking can be used to implement harm reduction measures such as expenditure limits, self-exclusion and age verification. Thirdly, player tracking can provide a platform to evaluate harm reduction measures via gold-standard field trials. These potential benefits need to be weighed against various practical and ethical issues.
The potential benefits of player-tracking systems would be maximized via systems administered independently of the gambling industry and implemented universally across all gambling in a given jurisdiction.

Marine oil spills have devastating environmental impacts and extrapolation of experimental fate and impact data from the lab to the field remains challenging due to the lack of comparable field data. In this work we compared two field systems used to study in situ oil depletion with emphasis on biodegradation and associated microbial communities. The systems were based on (i) oil impregnated clay beads and (ii) hydrophobic Fluortex adsorbents coated with thin oil films. The bacterial communities associated with the two systems displayed similar compositions of dominant bacterial taxa. Initial abundances of Oceanospirillales were observed in both systems with later emergences of Flavobacteriales, Alteromonadales and Rhodobacterales. Depletion of oil compounds was significantly faster in the Fluortex system and most likely related to the greater bioavailability of oil compounds as compared to the clay bead system.

Tele-operated collaborative robots are used by many children for academic learning. However, as child-directed play is important for social-emotional learning, it is also important to understand how robots can facilitate play. In this article, we present findings from an analysis of a national, multi-year case study, where we explore how 53 children in grades K-12 (n = 53) used robots for self-directed play activities. The contributions of this article are as follows. First, we present empirical data on novel play scenarios that remote children created using their tele-operated robots. These play scenarios emerged in five categories of play: physical, verbal, visual, extracurricular, and wished-for play. Second, we identify two unique themes that emerged from the data-robot-mediated play as a foundational support of general friendships and as a foundational support of self-expression and identity. Third, our work found that robot-mediated play provided benefits similar to in-person play. Findings from our work will inform novel robot and HRI design for tele-operated and social robots that facilitate self-directed play. Findings will also inform future interdisciplinary studies on robot-mediated play.

Plants interact with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and in doing so, change transcript levels of many miRNAs and their targets. However, the identity of an Argonaute (AGO) that modulates this interaction remains unknown, including in Nicotiana attenuata. We examined how the silencing of NaAGO1/2/4/7/and 10 by RNAi influenced plant-competitive ability under low-P conditions when they interact with AMF. Furthermore, the roles of seven miRNAs, predicted to regulate signaling and phosphate homeostasis, were evaluated by transient overexpression. Only NaAGO7 silencing by RNAi (irAGO7) significantly reduced the competitive ability under P-limited conditions, without changes in leaf or root development, or juvenile-to-adult phase transitions. In plants growing competitively in the glasshouse, irAGO7 roots were over-colonized with AMF, but they accumulated significantly less phosphate and the expression of their AMF-specific transporters was deregulated. Furthermore, the AMF-induced miRNA levels were inversely regulated with the abundance of their target transcripts. miRNA overexpression consistently decreased plant fitness, with four of seven-tested miRNAs reducing mycorrhization rates, and two increasing mycorrhization rates. Overexpression of Na-miR473 and Na-miRNA-PN59 downregulated targets in GA, ethylene, and fatty acid metabolism pathways. We infer that AGO7 optimizes competitive ability and colonization by regulating miRNA levels and signaling pathways during a plant\'s interaction with AMF.

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Model species (e.g., granivorous gamebirds, waterfowl, passerines, domesticated rodents) have been used for decades in guideline laboratory tests to generate survival, growth, and reproductive data for prospective ecological risk assessments (ERAs) for birds and mammals, while officially adopted risk assessment schemes for amphibians and reptiles do not exist. There are recognized shortcomings of current in vivo methods as well as uncertainty around the extent to which species with different life histories (e.g., terrestrial amphibians, reptiles, bats) than these commonly used models are protected by existing ERA frameworks. Approaches other than validating additional animal models for testing are being developed, but the incorporation of such new approach methodologies (NAMs) into risk assessment frameworks will require robust validations against in vivo responses. This takes time, and the ability to extrapolate findings from nonanimal studies to organism- and population-level effects in terrestrial wildlife remains weak. Failure to adequately anticipate and predict hazards could have economic and potentially even legal consequences for regulators and product registrants. In order to be able to use fewer animals or replace them altogether in the long term, vertebrate use and whole organism data will be needed to provide data for NAM validation in the short term. Therefore, it is worth investing resources for potential updates to existing standard test guidelines used in the laboratory as well as addressing the need for clear guidance on the conduct of field studies. Herein, we review the potential for improving standard in vivo test methods and for advancing the use of field studies in wildlife risk assessment, as these tools will be needed in the foreseeable future. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2024;20:699-724. © 2023 His Majesty the King in Right of Canada and The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.