Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are significant pollutants found in petroleum products. There is ample literature on the biodegradation of PAHs containing less than five rings, but little has been done on those with more than five rings. Coronene (CRN), a seven-ring-containing PAH, has only been shown to be degraded by one bacterial strain. In this study, a bacterial strain 10SCRN4D was isolated through enrichment in the presence of CRN and 10% NaCl (w/v). Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene identified the strain as Halomonas caseinilytica. The strain was able to degrade CRN in media containing 16.5–165 μM CRN with a doubling time of 9–16 hours and grew in a wide range of salinity (0.5–10%, w/v) and temperature (30–50°C) with optimum conditions of pH 7, salinity 0.5%–10% (w/v), and temperature 37°C. Over 20 days, almost 35% of 16.5 μM CRN was degraded, reaching 76% degradation after 80 days as measured by gas chromatography. The strain was also able to degrade smaller molecular weight PAHs such as benzo[a]pyrene, pyrene, and phenanthrene. This is the first report of Halomonas caseinilytica degrading CRN as the sole carbon source in high salinity, and thus highlights the potential of this strain in bioremediation.

The aim of the study was to assess the profile of EC (elemental carbon) and OC (organic carbon) temperature fractions in PM1 and PM2.5 samples and in wet deposition samples (material collected on a filter). The research was conducted at the urban background station in Zabrze (southern Poland) in the period of Oct 2020–Oct 2021. PM samples were collected with high-volume samplers; the automatic precipitation collector NSA 181 by Eigenbrodt was used to collect the deposition samples. Concentrations of EC and OC were determined using thermal-optical method (carbon analyzer from Sunset Laboratory Inc., “eusaar_2” protocol). Regardless of the type of research material, organic carbon constituted the dominant part of the carbonaceous matter, and this dominance was more visible in the non-heating season. The profile of temperature fractions of OC and EC was clearly different for dust washed out by precipitation. Noteworthy is a much lower content of pyrolytic carbon (PC) in OC, which can be explained by the fact that PC is most often combined with the water soluble organic carbon. In addition, a high proportion of the OC3 fraction was observed, followed by OC4, which may indicate that these fractions are of a more regional origin. With regard to the EC fractions, the differences are less visible and concern, in particular, the higher share of EC4 and the lower EC2. The obtained results may be a valuable source of information about the actual status of the carbonaceous matter and its transformation in the atmosphere. Introduction The deterioration of air quality and the increase in damage to ecosystems caused by the emission and subsequent deposition of particulate matter (PM) are currently among the main environmental problems (EEA 2022; Michalski & Pecyna-Utylska 2022). Among the various chemical species, carbonaceous matter is often the dominant part of the PM mass (Chow et al. 2015). The proportion of carbon compounds is generally higher in the finer fractions, accounting for an average of 20-60% of PM2.5 (particles with aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 μm) (Li et al. 2018). This share varies considerably in different regions of the world – generally higher values have been found in locations strongly influenced by anthropogenic emission sources, such as: road traffic, industrial plants, and fossil fuels combustion in households (Reizer and Juda-Rezler, 2016).

This paper investigates attachment themes in the life history narratives of professional orchestral musicians and their relationship with music performance anxiety (MPA). Narrative accounts derived from open -ended in -depth interviews of ten professional musicians were analysed from an attachment perspective using content and thematic analysis. We hypothesized that the performance setting re -triggers unprocessed feelings related to early attachment experiences, especially when traumatic, and that defensive manoeuvres against their re -emergence into consciousness are activated. The interviews identified early relational trauma as a relevant etiological factor in the MPA -symptomatic of the musicians studied. A case is made for the addition of an attachment -informed life -course model rather than a purely symptomatic approach to understanding and treating severe MPA and other intra -personal psychodynamics of performing musicians.

Research shows that positive affective displays in customer service interactions are positively related to customers’ perception of overall service quality. Consequently, the way customer service employees manage their feelings is seen as an important aspect of providing their services. In most service contexts, employees are expected to express positive emotions, e.g., be cheerful and suppress negative emotions, such as resentment. Emotional labor is regarded as a type of impression management, because it involves deliberate effort undertaken by service workers in order to adhere to organizational display rules when dealing with customers. Surface acting is an emotional labor strategy and consists of managing observable emotional expression without modifying underlying genuine feelings (service with a fake smile). Research shows that surface acting is positively related to employee burnout. The present study (N=180) was designed to examine the effects of surface acting on emotional exhaustion while controlling for employees’ trait emotional intelligence. The results demonstrated that employees who declared greater use of surface acting during their interactions with customers reported more symptoms of emotional exhaustion. As predicted, however, this effect was observed only among employees low in trait emotional intelligence. The discussion encompasses the implications these results may have for managing emotional expression in public performance that may result in reducing performance anxiety.

Learned helplessness is often studied as a consequence of repetitive failure in a performance domain and is usually associated with the experience of uncontrollability over future outcomes. The premise of this review article is first to establish initial support towards the notion of learned helplessness seen in the context of sports performance. Furthermore, the role of performance anxiety and maladaptive perfectionism will be introduced to strengthen the idea that thinking traits impact motor performance especially when these traits moderate the effects of consecutive failure experience. Finally the paper will focus on a typical profile of an athlete who would be susceptible to choking under pressure as an outcome of perceived uncontrollability and performance anxiety. Burnout and potential interventions will be discussed later.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to discuss exposure to stress and the incidence of occupational burnout among oncology nurses.

Methods: To study the discussed issue, we analyzed six full-text research papers which were searchable by EBSCO and met all required criteria (words included in the abstract, English publication, size of the study group).

Results: Exposure to chronic occupational stress may lead to developing burnout syndrome. Social service professionals are especially affected as they are expected to be emotionally engaged in their jobs, which particularly applies to such health care professionals as nurses, psychologists, police officers and social workers. Because of occupational burnout work efficiency may deteriorate. Oncology nurses are among the most affected nurse groups in terms of exposure to the risk of burnout.

Conclusions: Oncology nurses as well as other oncology workers exhibit an increased risk and a higher grade of burnout. Psychological training sessions are available which effectively prevent and alleviate the effects of burnout.

Perception takes into account the costs and benefits of possible interpretations of incoming sensory data. This should be especially pertinent for threat recognition, where minimising the costs associated with missing a real threat is of primary importance. We tested whether recognition of threats has special characteristics that adapt this process to the task it fulfils. Participants were presented with images of threats and visually matched neutral stimuli, distorted by varying levels of noise. We found threat superiority effect and liberal response bias. Moreover, increasing the level of noise degraded the recognition of the neutral images to higher extent than the threatening images. To summarise, recognising threats is special, in that it is more resistant to noise and decline in stimulus quality, suggesting that threat recognition is a fast ‘all or nothing’ process, in which threat presence is either confirmed or negated.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the importance of social bonds for our ability to cope with traumatizing incidents. It is theorized that the dysfunctions related to trauma, such as alexithymia and dissociation can be linked to certain parental attitudes towards a child in an early developmental stages together with characteristics of the trauma itself, namely the identity of the perpetrator, understood as his or her social closeness to the victim.

Participants: A total number of 60 participants, selected randomly from a population, psychiatric hospital patients as well as psychotherapy centers were tested using four questionnaires (TAS-26, PSD, CES, PBI).

Results: The analyses revealed that high alexithymia levels are related to demanding attitude of the caregivers, whereas dissociation is more common in people who remember their parents as inconsequent and emotionally labile. Findings related to the connection between the identity of a perpetrator of the trauma and the sequelae showed that the dissociation levels were significantly higher in victims who suffered abuse from the hands of family member or friends than those who were harmed by unknown people.

Personality, demographics and art experience proved to play an important role in reactions to visual art. Nevertheless, research attempts that take into account all those factors when determining predictors of aesthetic responses to different artistic styles are quite rare. The study presented here investigates predictors of aesthetic experience across figurative, abstract and contemporary paintings in individuals with varying expertise.

Students enrolled in Sport, Humanities and the Arts programmes (N = 181) declared their art exposure and filled out personality measures (Big Five, alexithymia, need for closure). Next participants evaluated three paintings using a tool constructed by the authors to track various dimensions of aesthetic reactions (i.e. negative/positive affective responses, self-references, explicit knowledge and perceived mastery of the artwork).

Reactions to figurative painting depended mostly on formal knowledge about arts, not personality traits. Aesthetic perception of abstract art rely not only on art exposure, but also on some individual characteristics (openness to experience, tolerance of ambiguity and ability to identify one’s own emotions and track their source). Reception of contemporary art was predicted mostly by art exposure variables and in the case of negative emotionality by ability to identify one’s own emotions and track their source.

Both formal art education and art experience were stronger predictors of aesthetic responses than personality traits, for all art styles and dimensions of aesthetic experience. Personality predictors were significant mostly for abstract art. Personal interest in the arts seems to be as good predictor of aesthetic reactions as formal expertise.

Investigating human emotions empirically is still considered to be challenging, mostly due to the questionable validity of the results obtained when employing individual types of measures. Among the most frequently used methods to study emotional reactions are self-report, autonomic, neurophysiological, and behavioral measures. Importantly, previous studies on emotional responding have rarely triangulated the aforementioned research methods. In this paper we discuss main methodological considerations related to the use of physiological and self-report measures in emotion studies, based on our previous research on the processing of emotionally-laden narratives in the native and non-native language, where we employed the SUPIN S30 questionnaire as a self-report tool, and galvanic skin response (GSR) as a physiological measure (Jankowiak & Korpal, 2018). The findings revealed a more pronounced reaction to stimuli presented in the native relative to the non-native language, which was however reflected only in GSR patterns. The lack of correlation between GSR and SUPIN scores might have resulted from a number of methodological considerations, such as social desirability bias, sensitive questions, lack of emotional self-awareness, compromised ecological validity, and laboratory anxiety, all of which are thoroughly discussed in the article.

Objectives: Relapse is very much associated with the management of disorder during the treatment, but also many other factors could trigger it. The aim of this study was to explore classes and patterns of relapse risk in patients with schizophrenia of Razi Hospital. Methods: Using random sampling techniques, we recruited 300 participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia in Razi hospital of Tehran (Iran) between January and May 2017 in a cross -sectional survey. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to establish a baseline model of risk profiles and to identify the optimal number of latent classes, and we used ordinal regression to identify factors associated with class membership. Results: Three classes of multiple relapse risk were identified. LCA showed that, overall, 52%, 22% and 26% of participants with schizophrenia were divided into class 1, class 2 and class 3, respectively. Compared to members in the lowest -risk class (reference group), the highest -risk class members had higher odds of being the age of disorder onset under 25 (OR = 1.4; CI: 1.42–2.33). Participants with schizophrenia who were unemployed were more likely to categorize in the highest -risk class than members of the low -risk class (OR = 2.5; CI: 1.44–4.1). Also, female patients were more likely to belong to members of the high -risk class than members of the low -risk class (OR = 2.22; CI: 1.74–7.64). Conclusion: These findings emphasize the importance of having targeted prevention programs for all domains of Age of onset, female and unemployed related. So, current study suggested that interventions should focus on these risk factors. Furthermore, Increasing the Job opportunities for participants with schizophrenia is warranted so as to prevent of schizophrenia disorder.

Theory and practice of sport psychology suggest that emotional and behavioral states of anxiety and aggression both affect athletic performance. The aim of the present study was the investigation of possible differentiation among water -polo male and female players according to their anxiety, anger and aggression levels. The sample consisted of 225 players (120 men, 105 women), between the ages of 17–39 years old. They completed the Greek versions of the: (a) CSAI -2, and (b) CAAS instruments. Results revealed differences among almost all questionnaire variables, between sport (athletic) experience’ groups. Finally, male athletes of the 2nd national division identified greater levels of anger and aggression in comparison to all other division groups. Overall, results shine some light on facets that play an important role and can affect the athletic performance of water -polo players.

Consumer ethnocentrism is a concept defined as a consequent and conscious preference for local products over foreign, usually measured by using CETSCALE (Shimp & Sharma, 1987). Besides its popularity, this scale is criticized because of its too strong a normative and ideological character. We assume that consumer ethnocentrism also has a psychological aspect – it can be more automatic, sometimes unconscious, and also based on social identification mechanisms. To investigate these assumptions, we conducted three studies. The first one (N = 590), which was conducted in Poland, validated a new tool to measure consumer ethnocentrism: SCONET – a 6 -item scale, and its relation to brand preference (BPM). Moreover, we used Cameron’s social identification scale (Cameron, 2004). The analysis showed that social identification with one’s own group does not directly explain the choice of foreign vs. local products (BPM) but this relationship is moderated by consumer ethnocentrism (measured by SCONET). The second study, conducted in Poland on a representative nationwide sample (N = 1002), confirmed that SCONET is a single -factor scale with good statistical parameters (confirmatory factor analysis). The third study, conducted in Indonesia (N = 323), was a cross -cultural validation of the SCONET scale and explored the relationship found in study 1 in other cultures. The results confirmed the relationship between SCONET, social identity, and brand preference (BPM) that was found in Poland.

The present study aims to scrutinize teacher motivation in relation to two individual level predictors, namely, self -efficacy and burnout among English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers. To this end, 142 English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers were selected from various English language institutes of Mashhad and Tehran, two cities in Iran. They were requested to complete three questionnaires: the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale, and the Work Tasks Motivation Scale for Teachers. The findings obtained via SEM revealed that the proposed model had a good fit with the empirical data. In particular, it was found that job motivation contributed significantly to burnout depletion. It was also revealed that self -efficacy positively predicted job motivation, and burnout negatively influenced self -efficacy. However, self -efficacy surpassed motivation in predicting EFL instructors’ burnout. Results were discussed from both theoretical standpoints as well as previous empirical findings. Finally, implications were presented.

The objective of the study was the comparative analysis of areas of Internet behavior (use of Internet, relations and Internet Addiction) with regards to gender in seven years’ perspective. The study was conducted in two stages (2005 and 2012) among Polish students (N = 452). Results showed significant gender differences in the use of Internet. The use of Internet is no longer predictor of Internet Addiction in both men and women. The higher number of contacts limited to Internet was a predictor of Internet Addiction in both men and women, but lower self -esteem in women only. Men were more prone to Internet Addiction in comparison with women and this tendency is on the rise.

Decisions involving comparisons of Arabic number digits often exhibit an interference between the physical size of the digit and the implied numerical magnitude, a phenomenon called the size-congruity effect. Related research over the past four decades has yielded two competing models of the phenomenon: an early interaction account, where interference between numerical and physical magnitude occurs at an early encoding stage, and a late interaction account, where the interference occurs downstream as response competition during the decision process. In the present study, we asked participants to compare the physical sizes of pairs of Arabic digits. We fit the resulting response time distributions with a shifted Wald model, a single boundary accumulator model, which gave us estimates of information accumulation rate (drift rate), response threshold, and nondecision time. We found that incongruity between physical size and numerical magnitude affected the decision-related estimates of drift rate and response threshold. Further, a Bayesian analysis confirmed a null effect of congruity on nondecision time. These results indicate that the observed interference originates from decision-related processes, lending further support for a late interaction account of the size-congruity effect.