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Introduction and Hypothesis: The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is, looking at different care settings, to examine prevalence rates of psychological distress-level comorbidities in female interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) patients, their impact on Quality of Life (QoL), and the correlation between such comorbidities and symptom severity., Methods: A systematic literature search according to PRISMA guidelines was conducted in PubMed, PsycInfo, Web of Science, Science Direct, and Google Scholar., Results: Twenty-nine studies were found that met inclusion criteria. Prevalence rates of depression and anxiety are higher in IC/BPS patients compared to the general population; however, due to a wide array of measurements, statistical comparisons between care settings were only possible in two cases showing mixed results. No studies meeting inclusion criteria exist that examine PTSD and borderline personality disorder, though rates of past traumatic experiences seem to be higher in patients than in healthy controls. Psychological comorbidities of the distress category, especially depression, are found in most studies to be related to symptom severity, also yielding statistically significant associations., Conclusions: While there is still need for studies focused on some of the comorbidities as well as on different care settings, the data already show that psychological comorbidities of the distress category play an important role in IC/BPS patients regarding suffering, QoL, and symptom severity, thus emphasizing the need for highly specialized interdisciplinary treatment., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Due to a legislative amendment in Austria to determine breath alcohol (BrAC) instead of blood alcohol (BAC) in connection with traffic offences, many results of blood alcohol calculations were simply converted using distinct conversion factors. In Austria, the transformation of BAC to BrAC was carried out by using a factor of 1:2000, which, however, is commonly known to be too low. Noticing the great demand for a calculation method that is not exclusively based on blood alcohol, a formula for calculating breath alcohol based on blood alcohol was published in 1989, but in which the body surface area (BSA) was considered the most important influencing variable. In order to refine this new method, a liquor intake experiment was conducted combined with measurements of total body water (TBW) as an additional variable, using hand to foot bioelectrical impedance assessment (BIA). The test group comprised 37 men and 40 women to evaluate the accuracy of TBW and BSA as an individual parameter for alcohol concentration. The correlation coefficient of BrAC with TBW was constantly higher than with BSA (maximum = 0.921 at 1 h and 45 min after cessation of alcohol intake). These results are valid for both men and women as well as in a gender independent calculation. Hence, for an accurate back calculation of BrAC adjusted values of eliminations rates had to be found. This study describes mean elimination rates of BrAC for both men (0.065 ± 0.011 mg/L h -1 ) and women (0.074 ± 0.017 mg/L h -1 ). As previously shown women displayed a significantly higher elimination rate than men (p = 0.006).

Information about novel environments or foods can be gathered via individual or social learning. Whereas individual learning is assumed to be more costly and less effective than social learning, it also yields more detailed information. Juveniles are often found to be more explorative than adults. Still under the protection of their parents, this allows them to sample their environment in preparation for later in life. We tested individual and social learning in jackdaws (Corvus monedula) of different age groups in a semi-natural group setting. Juvenile and adult jackdaws differed in their learning propensity. Juveniles spent more time at the test apparatus, were more explorative, and caused the apparatus to open. Almost all the openings at the apparatus matched the demonstrated method. As more observers became available, the juveniles could observe each other. Individuals preferentially watched successful conspecifics and those they could scrounge food from. Lower-ranking individuals tended to watch higher ranking ones; higher ranking individuals preferentially watched conspecifics of similar rank. The control group did not manipulate the apparatus. Due to the lack of this baseline, it was difficult to determine for certain whether the opening technique was acquired via individual or social learning. We conclude that if social learning played a role, the underlying mechanism was most likely local or stimulus enhancement. It is, however, more parsimonious to assume that juveniles were more explorative than adults, and that their opening technique was potentially easier to acquire than the one demonstrated to adults.

In group-living animals, it is adaptive to recognize conspecifics on the basis of familiarity or group membership as it allows association with preferred social partners and avoidance of competitors. However, animals do not only associate with conspecifics but also with heterospecifics, for example in mixed-species flocks. Consequently, between-species recognition, based either on familiarity or even individual recognition, is likely to be beneficial. The extent to which animals can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar heterospecifics is currently unclear. In the present study, we investigated the ability of eight carrion crows to differentiate between the voices and calls of familiar and unfamiliar humans and jackdaws. The crows responded significantly more often to unfamiliar than familiar human playbacks and, conversely, responded more to familiar than unfamiliar jackdaw calls. Our results provide the first evidence that birds can discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar heterospecific individuals using auditory stimuli.