Smaller preferred interpersonal distance for joint versus parallel action

During social interaction, humans prefer to keep a certain distance between themselves and other individuals. This preferred 'interpersonal distance' (IPD) is known to be sensitive to social context, and in the present study we aimed to further investigate the extent to which IPD is affected by the specific type of social interaction. In particular, we focused on the contrast between joint actions, where two or more individuals coordinate their actions in space and time to achieve a shared goal, and parallel actions, where individuals act alongside each other but individually. We predicted that joint action would be associated with a smaller preferred IPD compared to parallel action. Additionally, given that this research took place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we aimed to assess whether IPD preferences are affected by individuals' concerns about infection in general, as well as COVID-19 in particular. We predicted that higher individual concerns would be associated with greater preferred IPD. To test these hypotheses, we asked participants to imagine different social scenarios (involving either joint or parallel actions alongside a stranger) and indicate, on a visual scale, their preferred IPD. The results of two experiments (n = 211, n = 212) showed that participants preferred a shorter distance when they imagined acting jointly compared to when they imagined acting in parallel. Moreover, participants who reported higher discomfort for potential pathogen contact and who were more aware of the COVID-19 context in which the study took place preferred a larger IPD in general. Our results provide further evidence that different types of social interaction shape IPD preference. We discuss potential reasons for this phenomenon and highlight remaining questions for future research

Programming Idioms for Transactional Events

Transactional events (TE) are an extension of Concurrent ML (CML), a programming model for synchronous message-passing. Prior work has focused on TE's formal semantics and its implementation. This paper considers programming idioms, particularly those that vary unexpectedly from the corresponding CML idioms. First, we solve a subtle problem with client-server protocols in TE. Second, we argue that CML's wrap and guard primitives do not translate well to TE, and we suggest useful workarounds. Finally, we discuss how to rewrite CML protocols that use abort actions

Attention allocation in complementary joint action: How joint goals affect spatial orienting

When acting jointly, individuals often attend and respond to the same object or spatial location in complementary ways (e.g., when passing a mug, one person grasps its handle with a precision grip; the other receives it with a whole-hand grip). At the same time, the spatial relation between individuals’ actions affects attentional orienting: one is slower to attend and respond to locations another person previously acted upon than to alternate locations (“social inhibition of return”, social IOR). Achieving joint goals (e.g., passing a mug), however, often requires complementary return responses to a co-actor’s previous location. This raises the question of whether attentional orienting, and hence the social IOR, is affected by the (joint) goal our actions are directed at. The present study addresses this question. Participants responded to cued locations on a computer screen, taking turns with a virtual co-actor. They pursued either an individual goal or performed complementary actions with the co-actor, in pursuit of a joint goal. Four experiments showed that the social IOR was significantly modulated when participant and co-actor pursued a joint goal. This suggests that attentional orienting is affected not only by the spatial but also by the social relation between two agents’ actions. Our findings thus extend research on interpersonal perception-action effects, showing that the way another agent’s perceived action shapes our own depends on whether we share a joint goal with that agent

Event Marketing and Expansion Assessment

Prepared in partnership with the Wabasha Area Chamber of Commerce by the Community Assistantship Program (CAP) administered by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, University of Minnesota

You will take care of me when I am old: Norms on children's caregiver obligations - An analysis with data from the European Values Study

Objective: We explore gender differences in support of the norm that children must provide care for their parents. Background: Society's values and norms play a crucial role in deciding whether to provide family care. We investigate these values and norms on family care by analyzing which individual and country level factors affect them. Method: We use data from the European Values Study wave 5 and multilevel regression techniques. The question, "Adult children have the duty to provide long-term care for their parents", serves as our dependent variable. The explanatory variables at the individual level are gender and further socio-demographic variables. At the country level, we include expenditures on health care, and the female labor force participation rate. Results: The results show that women, as well as those living in countries with high expenditure on health care and high female labor force participation rates, are less supportive of the norm that children have an obligation to provide care for their parents. Furthermore, the gender effect is stronger in countries with a higher female labor force participation rate. Conclusion: Norms and values on family care are not fixed and can change, as suggested by the differences between countries. They are also not shared by all social groups equally, as the differences between women and men and along other socio-demographics show. Replication files: https://ubp.uni-bamberg.de/jfr/index.php/jfr/article/view/854/704

Crossmodal correspondences as common ground for joint action

When performing joint actions, people rely on common ground - shared information that provides the required basis for mutual understanding. Common ground can be based on people's interaction history or on knowledge and expectations people share, e.g., because they belong to the same culture or social class. Here, we suggest that people rely on yet another form of common ground, one that originates in their similarities in multisensory processing. Specifically, we focus on 'crossmodal correspondences' - nonarbitrary associations that people make between stimulus features in different sensory modalities, e.g., between stimuli in the auditory and the visual modality such as high-pitched sounds and small objects. Going beyond previous research that focused on investigating crossmodal correspondences in individuals, we propose that people can use these correspondences for communicating and coordinating with others. Initial support for our proposal comes from a communication game played in a public space (an art gallery) by pairs of visitors. We observed that pairs created nonverbal communication systems by spontaneously relying on 'crossmodal common ground'. Based on these results, we conclude that crossmodal correspondences not only occur within individuals but that they can also be actively used in joint action to facilitate the coordination between individuals. Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

When eyes beat lips: speaker gaze affects audiovisual integration in the McGurk illusion

Eye contact is a dynamic social signal that captures attention and plays a critical role in human communication. In particular, direct gaze often accompanies communicative acts in an ostensive function: a speaker directs her gaze towards the addressee to highlight the fact that this message is being intentionally communicated to her. The addressee, in turn, integrates the speaker’s auditory and visual speech signals (i.e., her vocal sounds and lip movements) into a unitary percept. It is an open question whether the speaker’s gaze affects how the addressee integrates the speaker’s multisensory speech signals. We investigated this question using the classic McGurk illusion, an illusory percept created by presenting mismatching auditory (vocal sounds) and visual information (speaker’s lip movements). Specifically, we manipulated whether the speaker (a) moved his eyelids up/down (i.e., open/closed his eyes) prior to speaking or did not show any eye motion, and (b) spoke with open or closed eyes. When the speaker’s eyes moved (i.e., opened or closed) before an utterance, and when the speaker spoke with closed eyes, the McGurk illusion was weakened (i.e., addressees reported significantly fewer illusory percepts). In line with previous research, this suggests that motion (opening or closing), as well as the closed state of the speaker’s eyes, captured addressees’ attention, thereby reducing the influence of the speaker’s lip movements on the addressees’ audiovisual integration process. Our findings reaffirm the power of speaker gaze to guide attention, showing that its dynamics can modulate low-level processes such as the integration of multisensory speech signals

Entwicklung von DegS-Inhibitoren

Aufgrund wachsender Resistenzen von Bakterien gegenüber Antibiotika wird an der Entwicklung neuer Verbindungen gearbeitet, die helfen, die Abwehrmechanismen der Pathogene auszuschalten oder zu umgehen bzw. neue Targets adressieren. Von HtrA-Proteasen ist bereits bekannt, dass sie eine wichtige Rolle in vielen biologisch relevanten Prozessen spielen. Zu den prokaryotischen HtrA-Proteasen gehört auch das im Periplasma lokalisierte, als Stresssensor agierende DegS, welches bis dato noch nicht für eine Wirkstoffsynthese synthetisch evaluiert wurde. Aufgrund seiner essentiellen Funktionen unter Stressbedingungen, sowie der Tatsache, dass DegS in einer Vielzahl von Gram-negativen Bakterien zu finden ist, handelt es sich hierbei möglicherweise um ein potentielles Target für die Entwicklung neuer Antibiotika zur Bekämpfung von Infektionskrankheiten. Um diese Hypothese zu überprüfen wurden im Rahmen dieser Arbeit 27 Derivate einer niedermolekularen Verbindung, die DegS in hohen Konzentrationen hemmte, synthetisiert und in biologischen Assays untersucht. Anhand der synthetisierten Derivate war es erstmals möglich, eine Aussage über die Struktur-Wirkungsbeziehung für diese Inhibitorklasse aufzustellen. Basierend auf diesen Ergebnissen konnten erfolgreich gezielte strukturelle Modifikationen durchgeführt werden, die zur Verbesserung der DegS-Hemmung und der DegS-Spezifität des Inhibitors führten.Because of increasing resistance of bacteria against antibiotics new small molecules for disabling or bypassing defence mechanisms of pathogens or for addressing new protein targets are urgently required. It is known that HtrA-proteases play crucial roles in many biologically relevant processes. The stress sensor DegS, a prokaryotic HtrA protease located in the periplasm, has so far not been investigated as a target for chemotherapy development. This is suprising as the stress sensor DegS is the initial factor involved in periplasmatic stress response consisting of DegS-mediated sensing of unfolded or misfolded proteins in the periplasm, resulting in its proteolytic activation. DegS-mediated proteolysis of RseA results in a cascade of reactions that finally leads to the release of σE in the cytoplasm that induces transcription of stress genes. Because of its essential functions under stress conditions as well as the fact that DegS is found in many Gram-negative bacteria, DegS might represent a potential target for the development of new antibiotics against infectious disease. This hypothesis was tested in this thesis via the development of DegS inhibitors for biological application. As a starting point, the LDC in Dortmund had performed prior to the experimental works of this thesis a high-throughput screen for identifying DegS inhibitors. From this screening campaign, they identified 2-(4-aminopiperidin-1-yl)-N-benzyl-8-isopropylpyrazolo[1,5-a][1,3,5]triazin-4-amine (1) as a potential DegS inhibitor in biochemical and in vivo assays. To improve the rather weak inhibition of DegS and its specificity, derivatives of this small molecule structure were synthesized and biochemically tested for DegS inhibition, enabling insights into the underlying structure-activity-relationships of DegS inhibition. The 4-aminopiperidine substituent attached to the pyrazolotriazine thereby turned out to be essential for the inhibitory effect as any modification of this group led to inactive derivatives. The same effect was observed upon modification of the pyrazolotriazine scaffold. In contrast, the isopropyl group was turned out to be modifiable under retention of bioactivity. Substitution by large nonpolar groups improved the inhibitory effect and led to a higher DegS specificity. As a major drawback of LDC compound 1 as well as of structurally related compounds is their off-target inhibition of cyclin dependent kinases. This discovery represents an important step for improving inhibitor specificity. Substitution of isopropyl by an 4-ethoxy phenyl led to an inhibitor 2-(4- aminopiperidin-1-yl)-N-benzyl-8-(4-ethoxyphenyl)pyrazolo[1,5-a][1,3,5]triazin-4-amine (42) that displayed only weak inhibitory potential (with IC50 values > 30 μM) for tested kinases. The modification of the benzylamine group allowed to gain insights into the structure-activity relationships at this site of the inhibitor. It turned out that large nonpolar groups improve the inhibition of DegS. Furthermore, it was found that the meta position on the benzene ring represents the most effective site for substitutions for improving inhibition. This finding enabled the synthesis of the most potent DegS Inhibitor so far: 2-(4-aminopiperidin-1-yl)-N-(3-(benzyloxy)benzyl)-8-isopropylpyrazolo[1,5-a][1,3,5]triazin-4-amine (17). For this inhibitor, DegS inhibition rates could be improved from initial 200 μM for inhibitor 1 to 2.5 μM for inhibitor 17. In the second biochemical assay, an improvement of the IC50 value of 150 μM for compound 1 to an IC50 value of 51.7 μM for compound 17 was observable. However, while large hydrophobic groups improve the inhibitory effect, they also decrease the pharmacological properties. This requires careful optimization of the binding affinity via increase of hydrophobicity as these inhibitors in vivo might be rather inactive, e.g. because their effective concentration in the periplasm in which DegS is located might be rather low. Overall, 27 derivatives of Inhibitor 1 were synthesized and tested. All derivatives with a hydrophobic group in meta position attached to the benzene have shown a better inhibitory effect than inhibitor 1 in biochemical assays. In additional experiments performed by the Suisse-based company BioVersys, it could be shown that colistin and a subset of the synthesized inhibitors display a desirable synergistic behaviour. For further improvement of the inhibitors, it will however be highly desirable to identify the precise binding site which should allow structure-based inhibitor design. Experiments with an azide tagged derivative that may allow photocrosslinking experiments to map the binding site were tried in this thesis but turned out to unsuccessful so far. Accordingly, first attempts to gain a co-crystal structure of inhibitor 17 and DegS were undertaken by collaborators but have not been working out so far within the time frame of this thesis. An optimization of the synthesis route that may allow to generate structurally more complex benzylamine derivatives via a late-stage introduction at an amino group in meta position of the benzene ring turned out to be promising. The modification of the synthesis route enabled a late stage coupling of an acyl chloride to a meta-amino derivative. As this approach should also be compatible with the attachment of carboxylic acids via peptide coupling reagents, this alternative strategy represents a real advance as the unfavourable POCl3 reaction is no longer required in the synthesis of every derivative. Unfortunately, a second optimization approach for derivatization of the group C residues by a Suzuki coupling approach could not be established within this thesis. This limits the derivatisation of group C to those commercially available and POCl3-stable 1H-pryazolo-5-amines. As modifications of this group however turned out to be more DegS specific, the development of an alternative approach in the future would be highly desirable