To which world regions does the valence–dominance model of social perception apply?

Over the past 10 years, Oosterhof and Todorov’s valence–dominance model has emerged as the most prominent account of how people evaluate faces on social dimensions. In this model, two dimensions (valence and dominance) underpin social judgements of faces. Because this model has primarily been developed and tested in Western regions, it is unclear whether these findings apply to other regions. We addressed this question by replicating Oosterhof and Todorov’s methodology across 11 world regions, 41 countries and 11,570 participants. When we used Oosterhof and Todorov’s original analysis strategy, the valence–dominance model generalized across regions. When we used an alternative methodology to allow for correlated dimensions, we observed much less generalization. Collectively, these results suggest that, while the valence–dominance model generalizes very well across regions when dimensions are forced to be orthogonal, regional differences are revealed when we use different extraction methods and correlate and rotate the dimension reduction solution.C.L. was supported by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF VRG13-007); L.M.D. was supported by ERC 647910 (KINSHIP); D.I.B. and N.I. received funding from CONICET, Argentina; L.K., F.K. and Á. Putz were supported by the European Social Fund (EFOP-3.6.1.-16-2016-00004; ‘Comprehensive Development for Implementing Smart Specialization Strategies at the University of Pécs’). K.U. and E. Vergauwe were supported by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (PZ00P1_154911 to E. Vergauwe). T.G. is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). M.A.V. was supported by grants 2016-T1/SOC-1395 (Comunidad de Madrid) and PSI2017-85159-P (AEI/FEDER UE). K.B. was supported by a grant from the National Science Centre, Poland (number 2015/19/D/HS6/00641). J. Bonick and J.W.L. were supported by the Joep Lange Institute. G.B. was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV-17-0418). H.I.J. and E.S. were supported by a French National Research Agency ‘Investissements d’Avenir’ programme grant (ANR-15-IDEX-02). T.D.G. was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. The Raipur Group is thankful to: (1) the University Grants Commission, New Delhi, India for the research grants received through its SAP-DRS (Phase-III) scheme sanctioned to the School of Studies in Life Science; and (2) the Center for Translational Chronobiology at the School of Studies in Life Science, PRSU, Raipur, India for providing logistical support. K. Ask was supported by a small grant from the Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg. Y.Q. was supported by grants from the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (5184035) and CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology. N.A.C. was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (R010138018). We acknowledge the following research assistants: J. Muriithi and J. Ngugi (United States International University Africa); E. Adamo, D. Cafaro, V. Ciambrone, F. Dolce and E. Tolomeo (Magna Græcia University of Catanzaro); E. De Stefano (University of Padova); S. A. Escobar Abadia (University of Lincoln); L. E. Grimstad (Norwegian School of Economics (NHH)); L. C. Zamora (Franklin and Marshall College); R. E. Liang and R. C. Lo (Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman); A. Short and L. Allen (Massey University, New Zealand), A. Ateş, E. Güneş and S. Can Özdemir (Boğaziçi University); I. Pedersen and T. Roos (Åbo Akademi University); N. Paetz (Escuela de Comunicación Mónica Herrera); J. Green (University of Gothenburg); M. Krainz (University of Vienna, Austria); and B. Todorova (University of Vienna, Austria). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.https://www.nature.com/nathumbehav/am2023BiochemistryGeneticsMicrobiology and Plant Patholog

To which world regions does the valence–dominance model of social perception apply?

Over the past 10 years, Oosterhof and Todorov’s valence–dominance model has emerged as the most prominent account of how people evaluate faces on social dimensions. In this model, two dimensions (valence and dominance) underpin social judgements of faces. Because this model has primarily been developed and tested in Western regions, it is unclear whether these findings apply to other regions. We addressed this question by replicating Oosterhof and Todorov’s methodology across 11 world regions, 41 countries and 11,570 participants. When we used Oosterhof and Todorov’s original analysis strategy, the valence–dominance model generalized across regions. When we used an alternative methodology to allow for correlated dimensions, we observed much less generalization. Collectively, these results suggest that, while the valence–dominance model generalizes very well across regions when dimensions are forced to be orthogonal, regional differences are revealed when we use different extraction methods and correlate and rotate the dimension reduction solution

A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world

Improving the analytical performance of a digital microfluidic platform for point-of-care applications

Today, our healthcare system faces some major challenges as the cost of healthcare increases tremendously, the world population continues to grow, the life expectancy increases and the incidence of diseases like cancer and cardiovascular diseases expands. The in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) market is one of the domains of the healthcare system that is driven by these challenges. Supported by the technological advancements in the field of microfluidics, the IVD market aims at meeting these healthcare challenges. Microfluidics deals with the manipulation of small amounts of liquids in the range of pico-to nanoliter volumes through micrometersized structures. Due to their compactness, speed and ease-of-use, microfluidic devices allow to bring diagnostics closer to the patient s bedside (point-of-care testing), thereby greatly accelerating disease diagnosis.One of the recent trends within microfluidics is to discretize the liquid flow. In this type of droplet-based microfluidics, droplets serve as individual reaction vessels that process small volumes, separate interfering species and avoid the loss of analyte trapped inside the droplet. A popular mechanism to individually control each of these droplets is electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD). This results in a flexible digital microfluidic platform that has great potential for point-of-care (POC) applications.However, when the digital microfluidic platform is used for diagnostic applications, it is of utmost importance that the analytical precision and accuracy of the implemented tests are guaranteed. Therefore, the objective of this research was to improve the analytical performance of the digital microfluidic platform for POC applications. To realize this objective, the digital microfluidic platform was optimized and the bio-assays were optimally modified to be implemented in the platform. The first part of this research focused on improving the digital microfluidic platform in terms of device fabrication and droplet manipulations. The second part focused on the implementation of an enzymatic assay and an immunoassay in the digital microfluidic platform to demonstrate its versatility and flexibility.The optimization of the digital microfluidic platform consisted of three topics. First, the microfabrication process of the EWOD chip the central element of the digital microfluidic platform was optimized and an electronic interface with a software program were designed and developed in-house to operate the EWOD chip. Second, the droplet size variability inherently related to droplet manipulations like dispensing and splitting was studied by means of a theoretical sensitivity analysis based on Monte Carlo simulations. To reduce this droplet size variability, a novel software-based approach was developed which optimized easy-to-control actuation parameters. Third, since the immunoassay required the separation and pre-concentration of the target analyte, the elementary droplet toolbox limited to so-called mix, split and react applications was extended with a highly efficient extraction protocol for magnetic particles. This extraction protocol was based on the interplay between electrowetting forces acting on the droplet and magnetic forces acting on the magnetic particles.The second part of this research focused on the implementation of two bio-assays in the digital microfluidic platform: an enzymatic assay and an immunoassay. The enzymatic assay was implemented to quantify D-glucose in human serum. A calibration curve was generated on-chip for D-glucose using solely droplet manipulations to dispense, dilute, mix and measure the amount of D-glucose. A high analytical performance was realized due to the optimized set of actuation parameters as determined in the first part of this work. Furthermore, a standard addition curve for D-glucose in human serum was generated using a heterogeneous enzymatic assay based on enzyme-conjugated magnetic particles, demonstrating the ability of the microfluidic platform to deal with complex samples.To quantify immunoglobulin G (IgG), an immunoassay was implemented in the digital microfluidic platform. The IgG antigen was selectively quantified using antibody-conjugated ferromagnetic particles that enabled an extremely efficient particle washing protocol thereby drastically reducing the amount of washing buffer. This washing protocol was based on the extraction protocol for magnetic particles developed in the first part of this research. Furthermore, the magnetic particles were actively involved during droplet mixing giving the initial impetus towards more sensitive immunoassays.In this research, it was demonstrated that an improved analytical performance was obtained for the digital microfluidic platform by closely investigating the role of easy-to-control actuation parameters and by carefully optimizing the implementation of bio-assays in the platform. Based on the findings of this research, a digital microfluidic device might be envisioned that, in the future, will serve as a multi-format platform for POC testing. This technology will offer the opportunity to simultaneously quantify both genetic and immunologic biomarkers thereby obtaining a biomarker sample card . This type of multi-format testing will enable the physician to more accurately diagnose a disease.status: publishe

Improving the Analytical Performance of a Digital Lab-On-A-Chip for Detection and Quantification of Ig-E

status: publishe

Design strategy for multi-analyte enzyme based assay in microfluidic lab-on-a-chip system

status: accepte

Droplet based microfluidics for high-throughput bioassays

A recent trend in biosensor technology is the integration of biosensing assays in microfluidic devices. These devices allow automated, high throughput analyses, in combination with significantly reduced amounts of sample and reagents. An upcoming category of microfluidics is the droplet based microfluidics, involving the transport of individual droplets by a carrier flow. In this two- or multiphase systems, thousands of nanoliter droplets (from 3000 per second to 1 per minute) can be formed, merged, mixed and split. Hence, this platform serves as a powerful tool to create high-throughput nanoreactors. This work presents the production and use of a droplet based lab-on-a-chip in poly(dimethyl)siloxane (PDMS). The nanodrops are generated by mixing two immiscible fluids: perfluorocarbon oil (as carrier phase) and water (as nanoreactor). In the PDMS channels, at the T-junction, the water phase is injected in the perfluoroil, forming drops of water in a continuous oil phase. In a first phase, the mechanism of droplet formation and internal droplet flow is investigated by particle image velocimetry (PIV) using fluorescent nanoparticles. This technique allows the visualization of the velocity profile inside the droplet as a function of the used parameters (flow speed, surfactant concentration, viscosities of the fluids…). Secondly, an optimization study is executed to accurately control droplet volume and inter-droplet distance. These parameters are influenced by channel dimensions, the total flow speed, the flow ratio (of water and oil) and the concentration of surfactants. The chip will be used for the execution of an IgE-bioassay, utilising magnetic nanoparticles. Antibodies are immobilised on the surface of these particles and capture the IgE-molecules in the sample. Separating the beads from most of the sample volume (using external magnets), results in an increased concentration of IgE, thereby improving detection limits. A second fluorescent labelled antibody is used to qualify the amount of captured IgE.status: accepte