BACKGROUND: Patients with Sjögren's syndrome, like other patients with autoimmune disorders, display dysregulation in the function of their immune system. Fas and Fas Ligand (FasL) are among the dysregulated proteins. METHODS: We studied Fas and FasL on IL-2Rα+ cells and in serum of patients with Sjögren's syndrome (n = 16) and healthy individuals (n = 16); both from same ethnic and geographical background. We used flow cytometry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent for this purpose. We also measured the expression of Bcl-2 and Bax by reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) and percentage of apoptotic and dead cells using Annexin V and 7-AAD staining in lymphocytes. RESULTS: FasL was increased in patients' T and B cells while Fas was increased in patients' monocytes, T and B cells. No signs of increased apoptosis were found. sFas and sFasL in patients' serum were increased, although the increase in sFasL was not significant. We suspect an effect of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory therapy on B cells, explaining the decrease of the percentage Fas+ B cells found within our samples. In healthy individuals, there was a noticeable pattern in the expression of FasL which mutually correlated to populations of mononuclear cells; this correlation was absent in the patients with Sjögren's syndrome. CONCLUSIONS: Mononuclear cells expressing IL-2Rα+ had upregulated Fas in Sjögren's syndrome. However, the rate of apoptosis based on Annexin V staining and the Bcl-2/Bax expression was not observed in mononuclear cells. We suspect a functional role of abnormal levels of Fas and FasL which has not been cleared yet.
Life in societies has evolved as a response of organisms to environmental conditions. Dominance hierarchy forms an inner structure of a society which allows society members to stay together without repeated fighting. Access to resources is provided by hierarchical status. In the absence of resources, the lowest ranking individuals are the most at risk. Certain patterns of dominance hierarchy persist in modern people in Euro-American societies. Moreover, special patterns have occurred, such as parallel membership in various subgroups, voluntary access to some of the subgroups, reverse hierarchy, and tendencies towards equality. In spite of these changes, hierarchy still influences the life of an individual. The probability of survival, reproduction, communication and transfer of information may serve as examples. Both high hierarchical disparity and isolation cause stress and health problems. Feelings of guilt, fear, and stress can be used as markers of a harmful disparity. Warning signs include the lack of supportive interpersonal relationships, prestige, social norms, and cultural products that could mitigate the hierarchical difference. In this review, we address the principles and functioning of dominance hierarchy, describe the structure of hierarchy in modern societies, and explain how the rank of the individual is determined and shapes the life of a person. We briefly summarize the basic patterns of dominant and submissive behaviour. The rank of the individual is predictable and so is the behaviour connected to his/her rank. This allows us to predict where particular aid and attention are required.
- MeSH
- interpersonální vztahy MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- rozmnožování * MeSH
- sociální dominance * MeSH
- sociální hierarchie MeSH
- strach MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- mužské pohlaví MeSH
- ženské pohlaví MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- přehledy MeSH
The presented study examines the ability of 265 children aged 4-12 years to correctly assign contextual cues and inner state values to a set of audio and audio-visual recordings of dog vocalizations and behaviors in different situations. Participants were asked to mark which situation each recording captured, what inner state of the dog it showed, and what inner state a human would feel in the same situation. Recognition of the inner state of dogs was affected by the age of the child when evaluating the audio recordings (P < 0.001), and such a tendency was revealed in evaluating the audiovisual materials (P = 0.08). The inner state of dog evaluation was associated with both the situation assessment (P < 0.01) and human inner state (P < 0.001) in the case of audio recordings, but it was only correlated with situation assessment in audio-visual recordings (P < 0.01). The contextual situations were recognized by the participants only in the audio materials, with "stranger" being the best recognized situation, while "play" was the least recognized. Overall, children aged 4-5 years showed a limited ability to understand dog signals compared to children aged 6-12 years, who were successful in recognizing the dogs' stimuli more than 80% of the time. Therefore, children younger than 6 years of age require increased supervision when interacting with dogs.
- MeSH
- dítě MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- pochopení MeSH
- podněty MeSH
- předškolní dítě MeSH
- psi * MeSH
- vokalizace zvířat * MeSH
- zvířata MeSH
- Check Tag
- dítě MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mužské pohlaví MeSH
- předškolní dítě MeSH
- psi * MeSH
- ženské pohlaví MeSH
- zvířata MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- práce podpořená grantem MeSH
OBJECTIVE: Sexual arousal by dominance and submissiveness was long considered a mental disorder. The origin of this sexual preference has not been clearly explained. This study scrutinizes the hypothesis that sexual arousal by hierarchical disparity is a manifestation of mating strategy by comparing number of offspring and self-reported attractiveness of the study participants. METHODS: Our data were obtained from the general population via e-mail questionnaire (n=673, age 25-34 years and 35-44 years). RESULTS: Sexually dominant men aged 35-44 years had more biological male children. Both the sexually dominant men aged 35-44 years and sexually submissive women aged 35-44 years perceived themselves as being more attractive. THE MAIN FINDINGS: Here we show that sexual arousal by dominance and submissiveness confers an increased capacity to pass on genes in the general population. CONCLUSION: We suggest that sexual arousal by dominance is likely to be the means by which the mating strategy is accomplished. Sexual arousal by dominance and submissiveness is a manifestation of mating strategy because such a behaviour results in an increased reproductive success and thus may lead to the preferential selection of individuals who prefer sexual arousal by hierarchical disparity. This fact explains why the high number of people is excited by sexual fantasies and activities connected to hierarchical disparity. This finding might open up novel insights into some reproductive medicine issues, as well as into such field as partnership therapy and partner violence.
- MeSH
- dominance a subordinace * MeSH
- dospělí MeSH
- emoce fyziologie MeSH
- libido fyziologie MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- rozmnožování fyziologie MeSH
- sebepojetí * MeSH
- sexuální chování fyziologie MeSH
- sexuální faktory MeSH
- Check Tag
- dospělí MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mužské pohlaví MeSH
- ženské pohlaví MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
OBJECTIVES: Equality between partners is considering a feature of the functional partnerships in westernized societies. However, the evolutionary consequences of how in-pair hierarchy influences reproduction are less known. Attraction of some high-ranking women towards low-ranking men represents a puzzle. METHODS: Young urban adults (120 men, 171 women) filled out a questionnaire focused on their sexual preference for higher or lower ranking partners, their future in-pair hierarchy, and hierarchy between their parents. RESULTS: Human pairs with a hierarchic disparity between partners conceive more offspring than pairs of equally-ranking individuals, who, in turn, conceive more offspring than pairs of two dominating partners. Importantly, the higher reproductive success of hierarchically disparate pairs holds, regardless of which sex, male or female, is the dominant one. In addition, the subjects preferring hierarchy disparity in partnerships were with greater probability sexually aroused by such disparity, suggesting that both the partnership preference and the triggers of sexual arousal may reflect a mating strategy. CONCLUSION: These results challenge the frequently held belief in within-pair equality as a trademark of functional partnerships. It rather appears that existence of some disparity improves within-pair cohesion, facilitating both cooperation between partners and improving the pairs' ability to face societal challenges. The parallel existence of submissivity-dominance hierarchies within human sexes allows for the parallel existence of alternative reproductive strategies, and may form a background for the diversity of mating systems observed in human societies. Arousal of overemphasized dominance/submissiveness may explain sadomasochistic sex, still little understood from the evolutionary psychology point of view.
- MeSH
- dominance a subordinace * MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- masochismus psychologie MeSH
- městské obyvatelstvo * MeSH
- mladiství MeSH
- mladý dospělý MeSH
- průzkumy a dotazníky MeSH
- rozmnožování * MeSH
- sadismus psychologie MeSH
- sexuální chování psychologie MeSH
- sexuální partneři psychologie MeSH
- výběrové chování MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- mladiství MeSH
- mladý dospělý MeSH
- mužské pohlaví MeSH
- ženské pohlaví MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- práce podpořená grantem MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Evropa MeSH
When practiced consensually, sadomasochistic sex is being increasingly accepted as an alternative sexuality. Here I suggest the possible evolutionary roots of the preferences, draw distinctions between violent, abusive and "healthy" practitioners' partnership, provide clear behavioural markers of the respective situations, and underline some specific problems connected to this sexual preference. Some of the problems are well-known in the community of its practitioners, although they have not yet been described in medical nor scientific sources.
OBJECTIVES: We theorize that sexual arousal by dominance and submission may be connected to a reproduction strategy respecting a reached social dominance rank (a common reproduction strategy in socially living mammals), while the preference for "bondage" may be derived from an opportunistic strategy when being unable to compete for hierarchic rank (an alternative reproductive strategy that co-occurs frequently with the above-named main strategy). The answers to questions dealing with hierarchy in character should correlate exclusively with sexual arousal connected to any kind of expression of a hierarchy, but not with bondage. DESIGN AND SETTINGS: The data were obtained from young adults (157 males and 183 females aged 18-20, with mean 18.4 years) via questionnaires. Results: Seven out of eight questions dealing with hierarchy correlated with sexual arousal by dominance and submission in men (Spearman's r=0.169-0.313; p<0.05 - p<0.001), two questions correlated with sexual arousal by dominance and submission in women (Spearman's r=0.32-0.166, p<0.001, p<0.05). THE MAIN FINDINGS: The questions dealing with hierarchy correlated with sexual arousal by dominance and submission while no answers correlated with bondage, neither in men nor in women. CONCLUSION: The preference for sexual arousal by dominance and submission may be connected to strategy respecting rank, while the preference for "bondage" may be derived from an opportunistic strategy that may be essential for possible partner problems solution. From the evolutionary biology point of view, these patterns of sadomasochistic sex appear as adaptive rather than as pathology.
- MeSH
- adaptace psychologická fyziologie MeSH
- biologická evoluce * MeSH
- dominance a subordinace * MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- masochismus patofyziologie psychologie MeSH
- mladiství MeSH
- mladý dospělý MeSH
- průzkumy a dotazníky MeSH
- sadismus patofyziologie psychologie MeSH
- sexuální chování fyziologie psychologie MeSH
- sociální chování MeSH
- sociální hierarchie MeSH
- Check Tag
- lidé MeSH
- mladiství MeSH
- mladý dospělý MeSH
- mužské pohlaví MeSH
- ženské pohlaví MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- práce podpořená grantem MeSH
Pornography continues to be a contentious matter with those on the one side arguing it detrimental to society while others argue it is pleasurable to many and a feature of free speech. The advent of the Internet with the ready availability of sexually explicit materials thereon particularly has seemed to raise questions of its influence. Following the effects of a new law in the Czech Republic that allowed pornography to a society previously having forbidden it allowed us to monitor the change in sex related crime that followed the change. As found in all other countries in which the phenomenon has been studied, rape and other sex crimes did not increase. Of particular note is that this country, like Denmark and Japan, had a prolonged interval during which possession of child pornography was not illegal and, like those other countries, showed a significant decrease in the incidence of child sex abuse.
- MeSH
- dítě MeSH
- dospělí MeSH
- erotika zákonodárství a právo MeSH
- hromadné sdělovací prostředky MeSH
- internet statistika a číselné údaje MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- postoj ke zdraví MeSH
- právní vědy MeSH
- sexuální chování statistika a číselné údaje MeSH
- sexuální delikty zákonodárství a právo statistika a číselné údaje MeSH
- sociální percepce * MeSH
- veřejné mínění * MeSH
- zločin statistika a číselné údaje MeSH
- Check Tag
- dítě MeSH
- dospělí MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mužské pohlaví MeSH
- ženské pohlaví MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- práce podpořená grantem MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Česká republika MeSH
Článek podává přehled rizikových (dále jen R faktory) a protektivních faktorů (dále jen P faktory), které vybraná současná odborná literatura označuje jako relevantní při posuzování situace ohroženého dítěte, resp. rodiny. Přehled zahrnuje nejen poznatky společenskovědních disciplín, ale také poznatky z etologie člověka. Autoři předpokládají, že přehled bude užitečný pro profesionály, kteří hodnotí situaci dítěte a rodiny, plánují služby pro děti a rodiny a také tyto služby poskytují.
BACKGROUND: High hierarchical status is associated with increased reproduction success in mammals. However the subordinate males are not totally eliminated from reproduction due to mate choice and alternative male strategies. Thus; the sexual arousal by higher-ranking or lower-ranking partner in humans may represent a proximate mechanism for realizing a reproductive strategy. AIM: To evaluate possible connection between mating strategy and sexual arousal by lower-ranking and higher-ranking partner. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Markers of possible reproductive success (the number and gender of relatives and self-reported attractiveness) were evaluated by questionnaire-based study on students (110 men and 195 women, aged 19 to 29, mean age 22.5 +/- 2.10SD). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The correlation between markers of reproductive success and the sexual arousal by lower- and higher-ranking partner. RESULTS: Arousal by lower-ranking partner correlated positively with proportion of males in relatives (Spearman's r, males: 0.219*; females: 0.161*) and with self-reported attractiveness (males: r = 0.223*); arousal by higher-ranking partner correlated positively with self-attractiveness (females: r = 0.191*). DISCUSSION: We found markers of reproductive success despite of reduced number of offspring in nowadays population. CONCLUSION: The sexual arousal by lower- and/or higher-ranking partner appears to be a manifestation of a successful reproductive strategy, e.g. behavior connected to natural human behavior. Moreover, the sexual arousal by overemphasized hierarchy (e.g. dominant-slave play) considered to be a part of sadomasochistic sex (or so called BDSM) may represent an over emphasised manifestation of this reproductive strategy. *P < 0.05.
- MeSH
- dospělí MeSH
- libido MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mladý dospělý MeSH
- průzkumy a dotazníky MeSH
- reprodukční chování psychologie MeSH
- sebepojetí MeSH
- sexuální chování psychologie MeSH
- sociální dominance MeSH
- sociální žádoucnost MeSH
- společenská třída MeSH
- Check Tag
- dospělí MeSH
- lidé MeSH
- mladý dospělý MeSH
- mužské pohlaví MeSH
- ženské pohlaví MeSH
- Publikační typ
- časopisecké články MeSH
- práce podpořená grantem MeSH
- Geografické názvy
- Česká republika MeSH
