Non-destructive investigation of extracellular enzyme activities and kinetics in intact freshwater biofilms with mineral beads as carriers.

Current procedures for fluorometric detection of extracellular hydrolytic enzyme activities in intact aquatic biofilms are very laborious and insufficiently standardized. To facilitate the direct determination of a multitude of enzymatic parameters without biofilm disintegration, a new approach was followed. Beads made of different mineral materials were subjected to biofilm growth in various aquatic environments.

Realistic context doesn't amplify the survival processing effect: Lessons learned from Covid-19 scenarios.

Imagining being stranded in the grasslands of an unknown territory without basic survival materials and subsequently rating the relevance of words for this situation leads to exceptionally good memory for these words. This survival processing effect has received much attention, primarily because it has been argued to disclose the evolutionary foundations of human memory. So far, only fictitious scenarios were used to demonstrate this effect.

The beep-speed illusion: Non-spatial tones increase perceived speed of visual objects in a forced-choice paradigm.

We introduce a new audio-visual illusion revealing the interplay between audio-visual integration and selective visual attention. This illusion involves two simultaneously moving objects that change their motion trajectory occasionally, but only the direction changes of one object are accompanied by spatially uninformative tones. We observed a selective increase in perceived object speed of the audio-visually synchronized object by measuring the point of subjective equality in a forced-choice paradigm.

Illuminating the prefrontal neural correlates of action sequence disassembling in response-response binding.

Execution of two independent actions in quick succession results in transient binding of these two actions. Subsequent repetition of any of these actions automatically retrieves the other. This process is probably fundamental for developing complex action sequences.

NEST Desktop, an Educational Application for Neuroscience.

Simulation software for spiking neuronal network models matured in the past decades regarding performance and flexibility. But the entry barrier remains high for students and early career scientists in computational neuroscience since these simulators typically require programming skills and a complex installation. Here, we describe an installation-free Graphical User Interface (GUI) running in the web browser, which is distinct from the simulation engine running anywhere, on the student's laptop or on a supercomputer.

PsychOpen CAMA: Publication of community-augmented meta-analyses in psychology.

To enable optimal decision-making based on the best evidence available, open syntheses are called for. To make data accessible and comprehensible even for decision-makers without proficient knowledge in meta-analysis, a graphical user interface (GUI) provides flexible data visualizations including interpretation aids. Moreover, due to a growing number of research findings, efficient and easy updating of meta-analyses is crucial to prevent waste in research.

All together now: Simultaneous feature integration and feature retrieval in action control.

Accounts of human action control assume integration of stimulus and response features at response execution and, upon repetition of some of those features, retrieval of other previously integrated features. Even though both processes contribute sequentially to observed binding effects in studies using a sequential prime-probe design, integration and retrieval processes theoretically affect human action simultaneously. That is, every action that we execute leads to bindings between features of stimuli and responses, while at the same time these features also trigger retrieval of other previously integrated features.

Symptom change trajectories in patients with persistent somatic symptoms and their association to long-term treatment outcome.

Objective: This study investigated symptom change trajectory for patients with persistent somatic symptoms (PSS) during psychotherapy and the association of these patterns with pre-treatment characteristics and long-term outcome.

Methods: Growth mixture modeling was used to identify trajectory curves in a sample of  = 210 outpatients diagnosed with PSS and treated either with conventional cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or CBT enriched with emotion regulation training (ENCERT).

Results: We identified three subgroups of patients with similar symptom change patterns over the course of treatment (a "no change," "strong response," and "slow change" subgroup).

The four weeks before lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany: a weekly serial cross-sectional survey on risk perceptions, knowledge, public trust and behaviour, 3 to 25 March 2020.

BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, public perceptions and behaviours have had to adapt rapidly to new risk scenarios and radical behavioural restrictions.AimTo identify major drivers of acceptance of protective behaviours during the 4-week transition from virtually no COVID-19 cases to the nationwide lockdown in Germany (3-25 March 2020).MethodsA serial cross-sectional online survey was administered weekly to ca 1,000 unique individuals for four data collection rounds in March 2020 using non-probability quota samples, representative of the German adult population between 18 and 74 years in terms of age × sex and federal state (n = 3,910).

Therapist Interventions and Skills as Predictors of Dropout in Outpatient Psychotherapy.

The current study employed machine learning to investigate whether the inclusion of observer-rated therapist interventions and skills in early sessions of psychotherapy improved dropout prediction beyond intake assessments. Patients were treated by postgraduate clinicians at a university outpatient clinic. Psychometric instruments were assessed at intake and therapeutic interventions and skills in the third session were routinely rated by independent observers.

Personalization of Treatment for Patients with Childhood-Abuse-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Background: Differences in effectiveness among treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are typically small. Given the variation between patients in treatment response, personalization offers a new way to improve treatment outcomes. The aim of this study was to identify predictors of psychotherapy outcome in PTSD and to combine these into a personalized advantage index (PAI).

Lesions and reduced working memory impair emotion recognition in self and others.

Emotion recognition (ER) can be conceived of as an integration of affective cues in working memory. We examined whether reduced working memory capacity and brain lesions in neural networks involved in emotion processing interactively impair ER of both one's own and another person's emotions. To assess the recognition of one's own and other's emotions, pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) and facial expressions from the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces (KDEF) database representing fear, anger, disgust, and sadness were presented to 40 lesioned patients and 40 healthy students.

Escaping from the meat paradox: How morality and disgust affect meat-related ambivalence.

Meat production and its consumption harm animals, the environment, and human health; nevertheless, many people like to eat meat. If people become aware of this so-called meat paradox, they experience an aversive cognitive conflict. People, therefore, have to eschew meat if they permanently want to resolve this conflict.

A Systematic Review on Sex- and Gender-Sensitive Research in Public Mental Health During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Crisis.

Sex and gender are important modifiers of mental health and behavior in normal times and during crises. We investigated whether they were addressed by empirical, international research that explored the mental health and health behavior ramifications after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We systematically searched the databases PsyArXiv, PubMed, PsycInfo, Psyndex, PubPsych, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science for studies assessing mental health outcomes (main outcomes) as well as potential risk and protective health behavior (additional outcomes) up to July 2, 2020.

Suggested visual blockade during hypnosis: Top-down modulation of stimulus processing in a visual oddball task.

Several theories of hypnosis assume that responses to hypnotic suggestions are implemented through top-down modulations via a frontoparietal network that is involved in monitoring and cognitive control. The current study addressed this issue re-analyzing previously published event-related-potentials (ERP) (N1, P2, and P3b amplitudes) and combined it with source reconstruction and connectivity analysis methods. ERP data were obtained from participants engaged in a visual oddball paradigm composed of target, standard, and distractor stimuli during a hypnosis (HYP) and a control (CON) condition.

Watching the Brain as It (Un)Binds: Beta Synchronization Relates to Distractor-Response Binding.

Human action control relies on event files, that is, short-term stimulus-response bindings that result from the integration of perception and action. The present EEG study examined oscillatory brain activities related to the integration and disintegration of event files in the distractor-response binding (DRB) task, which relies on a sequential prime-probe structure with orthogonal variation of distractor and response relations between prime and probe. Behavioral results indicated a DRB effect in RTs, which was moderated by the duration of the response-stimulus interval (RSI) between prime response and probe stimulus onset.

Trust in Government Actions During the COVID-19 Crisis.

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic puts countries and their governments in an unprecedented situation. Strong countermeasures have been implemented in most places, but how much do people trust their governments in handling this crisis? Using data from a worldwide survey, conducted between March 20th and April 22nd, 2020, with more than 100,000 participants, we study people's perceptions of government reactions in 57 countries. We find that media freedom reduces government trust directly as well as indirectly via a more negative assessment of government reactions as either insufficient or too strict.

A pre-registered short-term forecasting study of COVID-19 in Germany and Poland during the second wave.

Disease modelling has had considerable policy impact during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and it is increasingly acknowledged that combining multiple models can improve the reliability of outputs. Here we report insights from ten weeks of collaborative short-term forecasting of COVID-19 in Germany and Poland (12 October-19 December 2020). The study period covers the onset of the second wave in both countries, with tightening non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and subsequently a decay (Poland) or plateau and renewed increase (Germany) in reported cases.

Temporal expectancy modulates stimulus-response integration.

We can use information derived from passing time to anticipate an upcoming event. If time before an event varies, responses towards this event become faster with increasing waiting time. This variable-foreperiod effect has been often observed in response-speed studies.

Shedding light on the effects of supportive techniques on nonverbal synchrony and their moderators in psychotherapy for depression.

Accumulating research demonstrates the importance of utilizing supportive techniques in psychotherapy; however, little is known about therapeutic processes that are set in motion following the use of supportive techniques. The present study examined the effects of supportive techniques on nonverbal synchrony, both at the sample level and at the individual differences level. The sample consisted of 86 patients from a randomized controlled trial for treatment of depression.

Misattribution of duties as free choices: The role of emotional awareness in self-infiltration.

Individuals sometimes mistake others' expectations or imposed duties for self-chosen goals, even though they are not congruent with their emotional preferences or integrated values-a phenomenon coined as self-infiltration. Previous studies demonstrated that self-infiltration is more likely to occur in individuals with reduced self-regulation abilities. Here, we investigated in a sample of 250 students whether this association may be mediated by trait emotional awareness, the ability to recognize and understand one's emotions.

Interoception in preschoolers: New insights into its assessment and relations to emotion regulation and stress.

Interoception may play an important role for emotion regulation and stress, thereby affecting mental health in children and adults. Yet, little is known on interoception in preschool children. Therefore, we investigated interoceptive accuracy using the adapted Jumping Jack Paradigm (JJP) and its relationship with emotion regulation and stress.

What sixty years of research says about the effectiveness of patient education on health: a second order meta-analysis.

Although meta-analyses have examined the association between patient education and health, the validity and quality of this evidence have not been comprehensively assessed. This second order meta-analysis combined previous meta-analyses that examined the effectiveness of patient education on health outcomes as an overall weighted grand mean . Further, measures of methodological quality, meaningful variability across first order meta-analyses, and evidence for publication bias were examined.

Soil-derived Nature's Contributions to People and their contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

This special issue provides an assessment of the contribution of soils to Nature's Contributions to People (NCP). Here, we combine this assessment and previously published relationships between NCP and delivery on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to infer contributions of soils to the SDGs. We show that in addition to contributing positively to the delivery of all NCP, soils also have a role in underpinning all SDGs.