Unexpected sounds inhibit the movement of the eyes during reading and letter scanning

Novel sounds that unexpectedly deviate from a repetitive sound sequence are well known to cause distraction. Such unexpected sounds have also been shown to cause global motor inhibition, suggesting that they trigger a neurophysiological response aimed at stopping ongoing actions. Recently, evidence from eye movements has suggested that unexpected sounds also temporarily pause the movements of the eyes during reading, though it is unclear if this effect is due to inhibition of oculomotor planning or inhibition of language processes. Here, we sought to distinguish between these two possibilities by comparing a natural reading task to a letter scanning task that involves similar oculomotor demands to reading, but no higher level lexical processing. Participants either read sentences for comprehension or scanned letter strings of these sentences for the letter ‘o’ in three auditory conditions: silence, standard, and novel sounds. The results showed that novel sounds were equally distracting in both tasks, suggesting that they generally inhibit ongoing oculomotor processes independent of lexical processing. These results suggest that novel sounds may have a global suppressive effect on eye-movement control

Karyotypic conservatism in samples of Characidium cf. zebra (Teleostei, Characiformes, Crenuchidae): Physical mapping of ribosomal genes and natural triploidy

Basic and molecular cytogenetic analyses were performed in specimens of Characidium cf. zebra from five collection sites located throughout the Tietê, Paranapanema and Paraguay river basins. The diploid number in specimens from all samples was 2n = 50 with a karyotype composed of 32 metacentric and 18 submetacentric chromosomes in both males and females. Constitutive heterochromatin was present at the centromeric regions of all chromosomes and pair 23, had additional interstitial heterochromatic blocks on its long arms. The nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) were located on the long arms of pair 23, while the 5S rDNA sites were detected in different chromosomes among the studied samples. One specimen from the Alambari river was a natural triploid and had two extra chromosomes, resulting in 2n = 77. The remarkable karyotypic similarity among the specimens of C. cf. zebra suggests a close evolutionary relationship. On the other hand, the distinct patterns of 5S rDNA distribution may be the result of gene flow constraints during their evolutionary history

Parafoveal preview effects from word N+1 and word N+2 during reading: A critical review and Bayesian meta-analysis

The use of gaze-contingent display techniques to study reading has shown that readers attend not only to the currently fixated word, but also to the word to the right of the current fixation. However, a critical look at the literature shows that there are a number of questions that cannot be readily answered from the available literature reviews on the topic. First, there is no consensus on whether readers also attend to the second word to the right of fixation. Second, it is not clear whether parafoveal processing is more efficient in languages such as Chinese. Third, it is not well understood whether the measured effects are confounded by the properties of the parafoveal mask. The present study addressed these issues by performing a Bayesian meta-analysis of 93 experiments that used the boundary paradigm (Rayner, 1975). There were three main findings: 1) the advantage of previewing the second word to the right is modest in size and likely not centred on zero; 2) Chinese readers seem to make a more efficient use of parafoveal processing, but this is mostly evident in gaze duration; 3) there are interference effects associated with using different parafoveal masks that roughly increase when the mask is less word-like

A co-registration investigation of inter-word spacing and parafoveal preview: Eye movements and fixation-related potentials

Participants’ eye movements (EMs) and EEG signal were simultaneously recorded to examine foveal and parafoveal processing during sentence reading. All the words in the sentence were manipulated for inter-word spacing (intact spaces vs. spaces replaced by a random letter) and parafoveal preview (identical preview vs. random letter string preview). We observed disruption for unspaced text and invalid preview conditions in both EMs and fixation-related potentials (FRPs). Unspaced and invalid preview conditions received longer reading times than spaced and valid preview conditions. In addition, the FRP data showed that unspaced previews disrupted reading in earlier time windows of analysis, compared to string preview conditions. Moreover, the effect of parafoveal preview was greater for spaced relative to unspaced conditions, in both EMs and FRPs. These findings replicate well-established preview effects, provide novel insight into the neural correlates of reading with and without inter-word spacing and suggest that spatial selection precedes lexical processing

Potential therapeutic applications of microbial surface-activecompounds

Numerous investigations of microbial surface-active compounds or biosurfactants over the past two decades have led to the discovery of many interesting physicochemical and biological properties including antimicrobial, anti-biofilm and therapeutic among many other pharmaceutical and medical applications. Microbial control and inhibition strategies involving the use of antibiotics are becoming continually challenged due to the emergence of resistant strains mostly embedded within biofilm formations that are difficult to eradicate. Different aspects of antimicrobial and anti-biofilm control are becoming issues of increasing importance in clinical, hygiene, therapeutic and other applications. Biosurfactants research has resulted in increasing interest into their ability to inhibit microbial activity and disperse microbial biofilms in addition to being mostly nontoxic and stable at extremes conditions. Some biosurfactants are now in use in clinical, food and environmental fields, whilst others remain under investigation and development. The dispersal properties of biosurfactants have been shown to rival that of conventional inhibitory agents against bacterial, fungal and yeast biofilms as well as viral membrane structures. This presents them as potential candidates for future uses in new generations of antimicrobial agents or as adjuvants to other antibiotics and use as preservatives for microbial suppression and eradication strategies

A community-sourced glossary of open scholarship terms

Supplementary Information: This list of terms represents the ‘Open Scholarship Glossary 1.0’ (available at: https://forrt.org/glossary/. Glossary available under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license at: https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41562-021-01269-4/MediaObjects/41562_2021_1269_MOESM1_ESM.pdf).https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41562-021-01269-4/MediaObjects/41562_2021_1269_MOESM1_ESM.pd

A global experiment on motivating social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic

Significance Communicating in ways that motivate engagement in social distancing remains a critical global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study tested motivational qualities of messages about social distancing (those that promoted choice and agency vs. those that were forceful and shaming) in 25,718 people in 89 countries. The autonomy-supportive message decreased feelings of defying social distancing recommendations relative to the controlling message, and the controlling message increased controlled motivation, a less effective form of motivation, relative to no message. Message type did not impact intentions to socially distance, but people’s existing motivations were related to intentions. Findings were generalizable across a geographically diverse sample and may inform public health communication strategies in this and future global health emergencies. Abstract Finding communication strategies that effectively motivate social distancing continues to be a global public health priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. This cross-country, preregistered experiment (n = 25,718 from 89 countries) tested hypotheses concerning generalizable positive and negative outcomes of social distancing messages that promoted personal agency and reflective choices (i.e., an autonomy-supportive message) or were restrictive and shaming (i.e., a controlling message) compared with no message at all. Results partially supported experimental hypotheses in that the controlling message increased controlled motivation (a poorly internalized form of motivation relying on shame, guilt, and fear of social consequences) relative to no message. On the other hand, the autonomy-supportive message lowered feelings of defiance compared with the controlling message, but the controlling message did not differ from receiving no message at all. Unexpectedly, messages did not influence autonomous motivation (a highly internalized form of motivation relying on one’s core values) or behavioral intentions. Results supported hypothesized associations between people’s existing autonomous and controlled motivations and self-reported behavioral intentions to engage in social distancing. Controlled motivation was associated with more defiance and less long-term behavioral intention to engage in social distancing, whereas autonomous motivation was associated with less defiance and more short- and long-term intentions to social distance. Overall, this work highlights the potential harm of using shaming and pressuring language in public health communication, with implications for the current and future global health challenges