What Is the Impact of Microplastics and Lipid Regulators on Marine Meiofauna? Case Study of Polyvinyl Chloride, Atorvastatin, and Simvastatin

A microcosm experiment was carried out to provide a deeper insight into the toxic mechanisms exerted by two lipid regulator agents, as well as their interactions with the polyvinyl chloride microplastic on marine meiofauna. Two concentrations of Atorvastatin “A” and of Simvastatin “S”, (i.e., 0.6 mg.kg−1 and 6 mg.kg−1), as well as a single dosage of polyvinyl chloride microplastics “P” at 20 mg.kg−1, separately and their combined mixtures (“AP” and “SP”) were used on coastline dwelling marine meiofauna, with a main focus on nematodes. The results showed a significant reduction in meiofauna abundance in treatments compared to control. SIMPER analysis highlighted a significant decrease in the abundance of epigrowth feeders (2A), which possess conical (co) tails, and indistinct (id) amphideal foveas compared to control microcosms, reflected mainly in the decrease in abundance of the species Prochromadorella longicaudata. Furthermore, the contamination with microplastic affected only the omnivores-carnivores guild. Another finding of the current experiment is that the mixtures of microplastic with drugs lead to synergic interactions that increased their toxic effects on marine nematode communities.

Maternal Dietary Nitrate Supplementation Lowers Incidence of Stillbirth in Hyper Prolific Sows under Commercial Circumstances

The objective of the current experiment was to investigate whether or not maternal dietary nitrate supplementation, a nitric oxide (NO) precursor, could reduce piglet losses under commercial circumstances. In the current experiment, 120 hyper prolific gilts and sows (Landrace x Yorkshire: Danbred) on a commercial farm in Denmark received either a control lactation diet or a lactation diet containing 0.1% of calcium nitrate (containing 63.1% of nitrate) from approximately 5 days pre-farrowing until day 4 of lactation. The number of piglets born total, alive, and stillborn, as well as birth weights, weights after cross-fostering (approximately 1 day of age), 24 h after cross-fostering, day 3 of age, and at weaning was recorded. Placentas of sows were collected after expulsion and scored on redness. No effect of nitrate supplementation was found on piglet weight, piglet growth, placental redness score, and pre-weaning mortality during lactation. Maternal dietary nitrate supplementation decreased stillbirth percentage with 2.5% (9.9 vs. 7.4%; p = 0.05). It can be concluded that maternal dietary nitrate supplementation shows the potential to decrease the incidence of stillbirth in hyper prolific sows.

Buffering – Please Be Patient! Does the Attribution of Pauses to Technical Issues Hamper Learning?

In educational contexts, system-determined pauses are often used to interrupt the transient flow of information and thus avoid cognitive overload in dynamic learning materials. However, next to these didactically motivated interruptions, video-based learning materials may also be interrupted due to technical issues with regard to constrained bandwidth or outdated technology. Against this background, the current experiment investigated whether the interruption of dynamic representations due to technical issues negatively affects learning. For this purpose, 64 participants watched an Arabic language tutorial. They were either informed that the video included breaks in order to support learning or that there may be breaks due to technical issues. Contrary to our pre-registered hypotheses, the attribution of the pauses to technical issues did not hamper learning and did not affect participants' ratings regarding the usefulness and the disturbance caused by the pauses. However, exploratory analyses revealed a negative correlation between the perceived usefulness and the disturbance caused by the pauses. Limitations and implications of these findings are discussed.

Can longer gaze duration determine risky investment decisions? An interactive perspective

Can longer gaze duration determine risky investment decisions? Recent studies have tested how gaze influences people’s decisions and the boundary of the gaze effect. The current experiment used adaptive gaze-contingent manipulation by adding a self-determined option to test whether longer gaze duration can determine risky investment decisions. The results showed that both the expected value of each option and the gaze duration influenced people’s decisions. This result was consistent with the attentional diffusion model (aDDM) proposed by Krajbich et al. (2010), which suggests that gaze can influence the choice process by amplify the value of the choice. Therefore, the gaze duration would influence the decision when people do not have clear preference.The result also showed that the similarity between options and the computational difficulty would also influence the gaze effect. This result was inconsistent with prior research that used option similarities to represent difficulty, suggesting that both similarity between options and computational difficulty induce different underlying mechanisms of decision difficulty.

Cross-lingual priming of cognates and interlingual homographs from L2 to L1

Many word forms exist in multiple languages, and can have either the same meaning (cognates) or a different meaning (interlingual homographs). Previous experiments have shown that processing of interlingual homographs in a bilingual’s second language is slowed down by recent experience with these words in the bilingual’s native language, while processing of cognates can be speeded up (Poort et al., 2016; Poort & Rodd, 2019a). The current experiment replicated Poort and Rodd’s (2019a) Experiment 2 but switched the direction of priming: Dutch-English bilinguals (N = 106) made Dutch semantic relatedness judgements to probes related to cognates (n = 50), interlingual homographs (n = 50) and translation equivalents (n = 50) they had seen 15 minutes previously embedded in English sentences. The current experiment is the first to show that a single encounter with an interlingual homograph in one’s second language can also affect subsequent processing in one’s native language. Cross-lingual priming did not affect the cognates. The experiment also extended Poort and Rodd (2019a)’s finding of a large interlingual homograph inhibition effect in a semantic relatedness task in the participants’ L2 to their L1, but again found no evidence for a cognate facilitation effect in a semantic relatedness task. These findings extend the growing literature that emphasises the high level of interaction in a bilingual’s mental lexicon, by demonstrating the influence of L2 experience on the processing of L1 words. Data, scripts, materials and pre-registration available via https://osf.io/2swyg/?view_only=b2ba2e627f6f4eaeac87edab2b59b236.

Attentional Bias in Humans Toward Human and Bonobo Expressions of Emotion

Correctly recognizing and efficiently attending to emotional situations are highly valuable skills for social species such as humans and bonobos, humans' closest living relatives. In the current study, we investigated whether humans perceive a range of emotional situations differently when these involved other humans compared to bonobos. A large group of children and adults participated in an emotion perception task and rated scenes showing either bonobos or humans in situations depicting distressed or aggressive behavior, yawning, scratching, grooming, playing, sex scenes or neutral situations. A new group of people performed a dot-probe task to assess attentional biases toward these materials. The main finding is that humans perceive emotional scenes showing people similarly as emotional scenes of bonobos, a result reflecting a shared evolutionary origin of emotional expressions. Other results show that children interpreted bonobos’ bared teeth displays as a positive signal. This signal is related to the human smile, but is frequently seen in distressed situations, as was the case in the current experiment. Children may still need to learn to use contextual cues when judging an ambiguous expression as positive or negative. Further, the sex scenes were rated very positively, especially by male participants. Even though they rated these more positively than women, their attention was captured similarly, surpassing all other emotion categories. Finally, humans’ attention was captured more by human yawns than by bonobo yawns, which may be related to the highly contagious nature of yawns, especially when shown by close others. The current research adds to earlier work showing morphological, behavioral and genetic parallels between humans and bonobos by showing that their emotional expressions have a common origin too.

Is the Suppression Effect of the Color Red on Snack Food Consumption Reliable?

Two articles hypothesized that exposure to the color red would induce a state of avoidance motivation and reported that snack food consumption was decreased when the food was served on red plates, relative to white and blue plates. The current experiment combined their procedures and approximately tripled their group sizes. Participants were provided with pretzels on red, white, or blue plates in a mock sensory analysis task. The results indicated that more pretzels were consumed when presented on red plates, in direct contradiction of previous results. Alternative explanations, such as group differences in hunger or preference for pretzels, could not account for the results. The facilitation effect of red indicates that the color red does not always reduce snack food consumption and suggests that the reported inhibitory effect of red on snack consumption may not be reliable.

Oxidant- Antioxidant Status in Suicide Behavior in Kurdish Ethnicity

Introduction: Oxidative stress plays critical role in aging and pathogenesis of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. However, its role in suicidal behavior is not clarified yet. Consequently, we aimed to evaluate the oxidant-antioxidant status in the serum of suicide attempters in Ilam city. Methods: 50 suicide attempters and 40 control subjects (volunteers) aged 18-35 years were studied in the current experiment. In order to consider the oxidant-antioxidant status, serum levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), nitric oxide (NO), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were measured. Results: Serum levels of SOD enzyme and TAC were significantly lower in suicide attempters group compared to the controls. Furthermore, serum NO level was significantly higher in the suicide attempters in compare with the controls. Interestingly, the serum level of MDA was significantly lower in the suicide attempters compared to the controls. Conclusion: Presence of oxidative stress without MDA elevation, which has been detected in suicide attempters can be considered as a biochemical hallmark in suicide behavior.

In Vitro Neutral Detergent Cellulase Method and Chemical Composition to Predict In Vivo Fermentable Organic Matter of Roughages

In vivo fermentable organic matter (FOM) reflects the energy production and the potential of rumen’s microbial protein synthesis. However, the in vivo method with fistulated animals for FOM measurement compromises animal welfare and is laborious as well as expensive. Although the alternative in situ nylon bag technique has been widely used, it is also costly and requires rumen liquor. Therefore, the present study was performed to compare the in situ nylon bag technique with the in vitro neutral detergent cellulase (NDC) method or chemical composition to estimate in vivo FOM of roughages. For this purpose, we selected 12 roughages, including six each from forages and crop residues. Our results have shown the strong correlation equations between FOMin situ and FOMNDCFOM NDC of forages (n =6; R2 = 0.79), crop residues (n =6; R2 = 0.80), and roughages (n = 12; R2 = 0.84), respectively. Moreover, there were also strong correlations between the chemical composition of roughages and FOMin situ(n = 12; R2 = 0.84–0.93) or FOMNDC (n = 12; R2 = 0.79–0.89). In conclusion, the in vitro NDC method and chemical composition were alternatives to in situ nylon bag technique for predicting in vivo FOM of roughages in the current experiment.

Can Optic Flow Further Stimulate Treadmill-Elicited Stepping in Newborns?

Typically developing 3-day-old newborns take significantly more forward steps on a moving treadmill belt than on a static belt. The current experiment examined whether projecting optic flows that specified forward motion onto the moving treadmill surface (black dots moving on the white treadmill surface) would further enhance forward stepping. Twenty newborns were supported on a moving treadmill without optic flow (No OF), with optic flow matching the treadmill’s direction and speed (Congruent), with optic flow in the same direction but at a faster speed (Faster), and in a control condition with an incoherent optic flow moving at the same speed as in the Congruent condition but in random directions (Random). The results revealed no significant differences in the number or coordination of forward treadmill steps taken in each condition. However, the Faster condition generated significantly fewer leg pumping movements than the Random control condition. When highly aroused, newborns made significantly fewer single steps and significantly more parallel steps and pumping movements. We speculate the null findings may be a function of the high friction material that covered the treadmill surface.