Can a video game with a fictional minority group decrease intergroup biases towards non-fictional minorities? A social neuroscience study.

A critical scientific and societal challenge consists in developing and evaluating interventions that reduce prejudice towards outgroups. Video games appear to be a promising method but a number of falls in the current scientific literature prevents to fully understand the potential sizeable impact of video games on reducing prejudice. The present study investigated to what extent a video game designed to reduce prejudice towards minorities in a fictional society has the potential to reduce prejudice towards non-fictional minorities. Participants played either a recently developed game (Horns of Justice, HoJ) designed to reduce prejudice towards non-fictional minorities or a control game. After playing at home, participants performed two tasks in a lab context. We observed an overall positive effect of playing HoJ compared to the control game on attenuating prejudice towards an outgroup individual. We indeed observed that players of the control game had more midfrontal theta activity, reflecting more cognitive conflict, when they acted prosociality towards the outgroup participant and a lower neural response to the pain of the outgroup participant compared to the ingroup participant. These effects were attenuated for players of HoJ. We also observed that players of HoJ had a higher sense of agency when they decided to help the outgroup participant compared to when they did not help the outgroup participant, an effect not observable in players of the control game. These results are promising as they support evidence that using fictional characters in video game may induce positive changes on non-fictional individuals.

Review: The Effects of Supersonic Aviation on Ozone and Climate

When working towards regulation of supersonic aviation, a comprehensive understanding of the global climate effect of supersonic aviation is required in order to develop future regulatory issues. Such research requires a comprehensive overview of existing scientific literature having explored the climate effect of aviation. This review article provides an overview on earlier studies assessing the climate effects of supersonic aviation, comprising non-CO2 effects. An overview on the historical evaluation of research focussing on supersonic aviation and its environmental impacts is provided, followed by an overview on concepts explored and construction of emission inventories. Quantitative estimates provided for individual effects are presented and compared. Subsequently, regulatory issues related to supersonic transport are summarised. Finally, requirements for future studies, e.g., in emission scenario construction or numerical modelling of climate effects, are summarised and main conclusions discussed.

A review on discourse studies concerning migrants in media publications from Brazil and South Africa: towards more Afro-Latin perspectives

This paper reviews scientific literature about representation on migrants in Global South media and in other parts of the world, focusing on comparative studies in Brazil and South Africa, and providing suggestions for less Eurocentric perspectives relating to such topic. We resort to a critical review on theoretical references and multiple studies published between the second half of the last century and the beginning of this century. South African comparative research through meta-studies and their quantitative tendency —alongside French Discourse Analysis, Bakhtinian Circle and Greimas’ influence in Brazil— indicate how this type of research needs to be expanded in the Global South. This paper recommends the construction of more systematic content-based analyses and the exploration of the different degrees and forms through which balanced or patronizing portrayals on migrants are projected in media. Dislocation from a dominant sociocognitive perspective towards inter-semiotic/sociolinguistic approaches is advisable. This work also suggests that Pan-Africanism, African approaches, and/or Latin-American philosophies should be part of this foundation for migration criticism, especially if these migratory processes are analyzed in media or communication context

Exposure Assessment to Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields in Occupational Military Scenarios: A Review

(1) Background: Radiofrequency radiations are used in most devices in current use and, consequently, the assessment of the human exposure to the radiofrequency radiations has become an issue of strong interest. Even if in the military field there is wide use of radiofrequency devices, a clear picture on the exposure assessment to the electromagnetic field of the human beings in the military scenario is still missing. (2) Methods: a review of the scientific literature regarding the assessment of the exposure of the military personnel to the RF specific to the military environment, was performed. (3) Results: the review has been performed grouping the scientific literature by the typology of military devices to which the military personnel can be exposed to. The military devices have been classified in four main classes, according to their intended use: communication devices, localization/surveillance devices, jammers and EM directed-energy weapons. (4) Discussion and Conclusions: The review showed that in the exposure conditions here evaluated, there were only occasional situations of overexposure, whereas in the majority of the conditions the exposure was below the worker exposure limits. Nevertheless, the limited number of studies and the lack of exposure assessment studies for some devices prevent us to draw definitive conclusions and encourage further studies on military exposure assessment.

In Other Journals

Editors’ selections from the current scientific literature

Responses to digital disinformation as part of hybrid threats: a systematic review on the effects of disinformation and the effectiveness of fact-checking/debunking

The dissemination of purposely deceitful or misleading content to target audiences for political aims or economic purposes constitutes a threat to democratic societies and institutions, and is being increasingly recognized as a major security threat, particularly after evidence and allegations of hostile foreign interference in several countries surfaced in the last five years. Disinformation can also be part of hybrid threat activities. This research paper examines findings on the effects of disinformation and addresses the question of how effective counterstrategies against digital disinformation are, with the aim of assessing the impact of responses such as the exposure and disproval of disinformation content and conspiracy theories. The paper’s objective is to synthetize the main scientific findings on disinformation effects and on the effectiveness of debunking, inoculation, and forewarning strategies against digital disinformation. A mixed methodology is used, combining qualitative interpretive analysis and structured technique for evaluating scientific literature such as a systematic literature review (SLR), following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework.

An examination of trends in the growing scientific literature on approaching wildlife with drones

Drones or unoccupied aerial vehicles are rapidly being used for a spectrum of applications, including replacing traditional occupied aircraft as a means of approaching wildlife from the air. Though less intrusive to wildlife than occupied aircraft, drones can still cause varying levels of disturbance. Policies and protocols to guide lowest-impact drone flights are most likely to succeed if considerations are derived from knowledge from scientific literature. This study examines trends in the scientific literature on using drones to approach wildlife between 2000 and 2020, specifically in relation to the type of publications, scientific journals works are published in, the purposes of drone flights reported, taxa studied, and locations of studies. From 223 publications, we observed a large increase in relevant scientific literature, the majority of which were peer-reviewed articles published across 87 scientific journals. The largest proportions of peer-reviewed research articles related to aquatic mammals or aquatic birds, and the use or trial of drone flights for conducting population surveys, animal detection or investigations of animal responses to drone flights. The largest proportion of articles were studies conducted in North America and Australia. Since animal responses to drone flights vary between taxa, populations, and geographic locations, we encourage further growth in the volume of relevant scientific literature needed to inform policies and protocols for specific taxa and/or locations, particularly where knowledge gaps exist.

Circulation of Selenium in the Environment

In order to function properly, every living organism must have favourable conditions for its operation, i.e. it must be systematically supplied with the necessary nutrients. On the example of selenium (Se), it can be seen how important is the right balance between providing the right amount of it, without exceeding the level above which it is toxic. The amount of Se in soil is closely correlated with its content in the parent rock; therefore, it differs depending on the soil type and may change even in a small area. Considerable dispersion of the element in the soils of Poland is related to their formation, mainly from dump materials of various glaciations. The problem of maintaining the balance between deficiency and excess of Se in the diet of humans and animals is related primarily to the uneven distribution of this element in nature. In this paper, on the basis of scientific literature, the current issues related to the deficiency and excess of Se in the soil and its possible sources are presented. The relationship between the content in the soil and the supply of Se in plants, animals and humans was also shown. The aim of this study was to summarise the state of knowledge on the complexity of Se occurrence in the environment and its importance in the soil-plant-animals-human system.

Retrospection of Knowledge, Attitude and Practices on the sustainability in contemporary scientific literature 2015 to 2020

As the nations united for urgent solutions during urgent times as per the direction of United Nation on Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs), the present study attempts to explore the existing literature reviews on KAP towards sustainability in various sectors. People wish to adopt to the sustainability in order to chime in with the nature and its systems as it will contribute positively to them. Research papers related to this study are gathered from the potential sources, organised and sequenced to understand the most, moderate and least addresses sector. Within the review the researcher provides a snapshot of the methodology and findings of each study. The sectors to be focused more in the future studies are agriculture, construction and banking.