TY - JOUR A1 - Pauly, Dennis Nikolas A1 - Nottbusch, Guido T1 - The Influence of the German Capitalization Rules on Reading JF - Frontiers in Communication N2 - German orthography systematically marks all nouns (even other nominalized word classes) by capitalizing their first letter. It is often claimed that readers benefit from the uppercase-letter syntactic and semantic information, which makes the processing of sentences easier (e.g., Bock et al., 1985, 1989). In order to test this hypothesis, we asked 54 German readers to read single sentences systematically manipulated by a target word (N). In the experimental condition (EXP), we used semantic priming (in the following example: sick → cold) in order to build up a strong expectation of a noun, which was actually an attribute for the following noun (N+1) (translated to English e.g., “The sick writer had a cold (N) nose (N+1) …”). The sentences in the control condition were built analogously, but word N was purposefully altered (keeping word length and frequency constant) to make its interpretation as a noun extremely unlikely (e.g., “The sick writer had a blue (N) nose (N+1) …”). In both conditions, the sentences were presented either following German standard orthography (Cap) or in lowercase spelling (NoCap). The capitalized nouns in the EXP/Cap condition should then prevent garden-path parsing, as capital letters can be recognized parafoveally. However, in the EXP/NoCap condition, we expected a garden-path effect on word N+1 affecting first-pass fixations and the number of regressions, as the reader realizes that word N is instead an adjective. As the control condition does not include a garden-path, we expected to find (small) effects of the violation of the orthographic rule in the CON/NoCap condition, but no garden-path effect. As a global result, it can be stated that reading sentences in which nouns are not marked by a majuscule slows a native German reader down significantly, but from an absolute point of view, the effect is small. Compared with other manipulations (e.g., transpositions or substitutions), a lowercase letter still represents the correct allograph in the correct position without affecting phonology. Furthermore, most German readers do have experience with other alphabetic writing systems that lack consistent noun capitalization, and in (private) digital communication lowercase nouns are quite common. Although our garden-path sentences did not show the desired effect, we found an indication of grammatical pre-processing enabled by the majuscule in the regularly spelled sentences: In the case of high noun frequency, we post hoc located parafovea-on-fovea effects, i.e., longer fixation durations, on the attributive adjective (word N). These benefits of capitalization could only be detected under specific circumstances. In other cases, we conclude that longer reading durations are mainly the result of disturbance in readers' habituation when the expected capitalization is missing. KW - orthography KW - eye-tracking KW - reading KW - noun KW - parafoveal and foveal processing Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00015 SN - 2297-900X VL - 5 PB - Frontiers Media CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Felisatti, Arianna A1 - Laubrock, Jochen A1 - Shaki, Samuel A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Commentary BT - A mental number line in human newborns JF - Frontiers in Human Neuroscience KW - spatial-numerical associations KW - SNARC KW - mental number line (MNL) KW - spatial frequency (SF) KW - temporal frequency KW - hemispheric asymmetry KW - newborns KW - embodied cognition Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00099 SN - 1662-5161 VL - 14 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Husain, Samar A1 - Yadav, Himanshu T1 - Target Complexity Modulates Syntactic Priming During Comprehension JF - Frontiers in Psychology N2 - Syntactic priming is known to facilitate comprehension of the target sentence if the syntactic structure of the target sentence aligns with the structure of the prime (Branigan et al., 2005; Tooley and Traxler, 2010). Such a processing facilitation is understood to be constrained due to factors such as lexical overlap between the prime and the target, frequency of the prime structure, etc. Syntactic priming in SOV languages is also understood to be influenced by similar constraints (Arai, 2012). Sentence comprehension in SOV languages is known to be incremental and predictive. Such a top-down parsing process involves establishing various syntactic relations based on the linguistic cues of a sentence and the role of preverbal case-markers in achieving this is known to be critical. Given the evidence of syntactic priming during comprehension in these languages, this aspect of the comprehension process and its effect on syntactic priming becomes important. In this work, we show that syntactic priming during comprehension is affected by the probability of using the prime structure while parsing the target sentence. If the prime structure has a low probability given the sentential cues (e.g., nominal case-markers) in the target sentence, then the chances of persisting with the prime structure in the target reduces. Our work demonstrates the role of structural complexity of the target with regard to syntactic priming during comprehension and highlights that syntactic priming is modulated by an overarching preference of the parser to avoid rare structures KW - syntactic priming KW - top-down parsing KW - sentence comprehension KW - SOV language KW - Hindi Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00454 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 11 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ziege, Madlen A1 - Theodorou, Panagiotis A1 - Jüngling, Hannah A1 - Merker, Stefan A1 - Plath, Martin A1 - Streit, Bruno A1 - Lerp, Hannes T1 - Population genetics of the European rabbit along a rural-to-urban gradient JF - Scientific Reports N2 - The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is declining in large parts of Europe but populations in some German cities remained so far unaffected by this decline. The question arises of how urbanization affects patterns of population genetic variation and differentiation in German rabbit populations, as urban habitat fragmentation may result in altered meta-population dynamics. To address this question, we used microsatellite markers to genotype rabbit populations occurring along a rural-to-urban gradient in and around the city of Frankfurt, Germany. We found no effect of urbanization on allelic richness. However, the observed heterozygosity was significantly higher in urban than rural populations and also the inbreeding coefficients were lower, most likely reflecting the small population sizes and possibly on-going loss of genetic diversity in structurally impoverished rural areas. Global FST and G'ST-values suggest moderate but significant differentiation between populations. Multiple matrix regression with randomization ascribed this differentiation to isolation-by-environment rather than isolation-by-distance. Analyses of migration rates revealed asymmetrical gene flow, which was higher from rural into urban populations than vice versa and may again reflect intensified agricultural land-use practices in rural areas. We discuss that populations inhabiting urban areas will likely play an important role in the future distribution of European rabbits. KW - Conservation biology KW - Genetics Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-57962-3 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 10 PB - Nature Publ. Group CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dech, Silas A1 - Bittmann, Frank A1 - Schaefer, Laura T1 - Behavior of oxygen saturation and blood filling in the venous capillary system of the biceps brachii muscle during a fatiguing isometric action JF - European Journal of Translational Myology N2 - The objective of the study is to develop a better understanding of the capillary circulation in contracting muscles. Ten subjects were measured during a submaximal fatiguing isometric muscle action by use of the O2C spectrophotometer. In all measurements the capillary-venous oxygen saturation of hemoglobin (SvO2) decreases immediately after the start of loading and levels off into a steady state. However, two different patterns (type I and type II) emerged. They differ in the extent of deoxygenation (–10.37 ±2.59 percent points (pp) vs. –33.86 ±17.35 pp, P = .008) and the behavior of the relative hemoglobin amount (rHb). Type I reveals a positive rank correlation of SvO2 and rHb (? = 0.735, P <.001), whereas a negative rank correlation (? = –0.522, P <.001) occurred in type II, since rHb decreases until a reversal point, then increases averagely 13% above the baseline value and levels off into a steady state. The results reveal that a homeostasis of oxygen delivery and consumption during isometric muscle actions is possible. A rough distinction in two types of regulation is suggested. KW - muscle oxygenation KW - hemoglobin amount KW - isometric muscle action KW - O2C spectrophotometer Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4081/ejtm.2019.8800 SN - 2037-7460 VL - 30 IS - 1 SP - 79 EP - 87 PB - Unipress CY - Padova ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Puschmann, Anne-Katrin A1 - Drießlein, David A1 - Beck, Heidrun A1 - Arampatzis, Adamantios A1 - Moreno Catalá, Maria A1 - Schiltenwolf, Marcus A1 - Mayer, Frank A1 - Wippert, Pia-Maria T1 - Stress and Self-Efficacy as Long-Term Predictors for Chronic Low Back Pain BT - A Prospective Longitudinal Study JF - Journal of Pain Research N2 - Purpose: Psychosocial variables are known risk factors for the development and chronification of low back pain (LBP). Psychosocial stress is one of these risk factors. Therefore, this study aims to identify the most important types of stress predicting LBP. Self-efficacy was included as a potential protective factor related to both, stress and pain. Participants and Methods: This prospective observational study assessed n = 1071 subjects with low back pain over 2 years. Psychosocial stress was evaluated in a broad manner using instruments assessing perceived stress, stress experiences in work and social contexts, vital exhaustion and life-event stress. Further, self-efficacy and pain (characteristic pain intensity and disability) were assessed. Using least absolute shrinkage selection operator regression, important predictors of characteristic pain intensity and pain-related disability at 1-year and 2-years follow-up were analyzed. Results: The final sample for the statistic procedure consisted of 588 subjects (age: 39.2 (± 13.4) years; baseline pain intensity: 27.8 (± 18.4); disability: 14.3 (± 17.9)). In the 1-year follow-up, the stress types “tendency to worry”, “social isolation”, “work discontent” as well as vital exhaustion and negative life events were identified as risk factors for both pain intensity and pain-related disability. Within the 2-years follow-up, Lasso models identified the stress types “tendency to worry”, “social isolation”, “social conflicts”, and “perceived long-term stress” as potential risk factors for both pain intensity and disability. Furthermore, “self-efficacy” (“internality”, “self-concept”) and “social externality” play a role in reducing pain-related disability. Conclusion: Stress experiences in social and work-related contexts were identified as important risk factors for LBP 1 or 2 years in the future, even in subjects with low initial pain levels. Self-efficacy turned out to be a protective factor for pain development, especially in the long-term follow-up. Results suggest a differentiation of stress types in addressing psychosocial factors in research, prevention and therapy approaches. KW - low back pain KW - psychosocial risk factors KW - stress KW - self-efficacy KW - MiSpEx Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2147/JPR.S223893 SN - 1178-7090 VL - 13 SP - 613 EP - 621 PB - Dove Medical Press CY - Albany, Auckland ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Müller, Sandra A1 - Dawczynski, Christine A1 - Wiest, Johanna A1 - Lorkowski, Stefan A1 - Kipp, Anna Patricia A1 - Schwerdtle, Tanja T1 - Functional Biomarkers for the Selenium Status in a Human Nutritional Intervention Study JF - Nutrients N2 - Soils in Germany are commonly low in selenium; consequently, a sufficient dietary supply is not always ensured. The extent of such provision adequacy is estimated by the optimal effect range of biomarkers, which often reflects the physiological requirement. Preceding epidemiological studies indicate that low selenium serum concentrations could be related to cardiovascular diseases. Inter alia, risk factors for cardiovascular diseases are physical inactivity, overweight, as well as disadvantageous eating habits. In order to assess whether these risk factors can be modulated, a cardio-protective diet comprising fixed menu plans combined with physical exercise was applied in the German MoKaRi (modulation of cardiovascular risk factors) intervention study. We analyzed serum samples of the MoKaRi cohort (51 participants) for total selenium, GPx activity, and selenoprotein P at different timepoints of the study (0, 10, 20, 40 weeks) to explore the suitability of these selenium-associated markers as indicators of selenium status. Overall, the time-dependent fluctuations in serum selenium concentration suggest a successful change in nutritional and lifestyle behavior. Compared to baseline, a pronounced increase in GPx activity and selenoprotein P was observed, while serum selenium decreased in participants with initially adequate serum selenium content. SELENOP concentration showed a moderate positive monotonic correlation (r = 0.467, p < 0.0001) to total Se concentration, while only a weak linear relationship was observed for GPx activity versus total Se concentration (r = 0.186, p = 0.021). Evidently, other factors apart from the available Se pool must have an impact on the GPx activity, leading to the conclusion that, without having identified these factors, GPx activity should not be used as a status marker for Se KW - Se KW - selenoprotein P KW - GPx activity KW - cardiovascular disease KW - status markers Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12030676 SN - 2072-6643 VL - 12 IS - 3 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reeg, Jette A1 - Heine, Simon A1 - Mihan, Christine A1 - McGee, Sean A1 - Preuss, Thomas G. A1 - Jeltsch, Florian T1 - A graphical user interface for the plant community model IBC-grass JF - Plos One N2 - Plants located adjacent to agricultural fields are important for maintaining biodiversity in semi-natural landscapes. To avoid undesired impacts on these plants due to herbicide application on the arable fields, regulatory risk assessments are conducted prior to registration to ensure proposed uses of plant protection products do not present an unacceptable risk. The current risk assessment approach for these non-target terrestrial plants (NTTPs) examines impacts at the individual-level as a surrogate approach for protecting the plant community due to the inherent difficulties of directly assessing population or community level impacts. However, modelling approaches are suitable higher tier tools to upscale individual-level effects to community level. IBC-grass is a sophisticated plant community model, which has already been applied in several studies. However, as it is a console application software, it was not deemed sufficiently user-friendly for risk managers and assessors to be conveniently operated without prior expertise in ecological models. Here, we present a user-friendly and open source graphical user interface (GUI) for the application of IBC-grass in regulatory herbicide risk assessment. It facilitates the use of the plant community model for predicting long-term impacts of herbicide applications on NTTP communities. The GUI offers two options to integrate herbicide impacts: (1) dose responses based on current standard experiments (acc. to testing guidelines) and (2) based on specific effect intensities. Both options represent suitable higher tier options for future risk assessments of NTTPs as well as for research on the ecological relevance of effects. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230012 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 15 IS - 3 PB - Plos 1 CY - San Francisco ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Linker, Torsten T1 - Addition of Heteroatom Radicals to endo-Glycals JF - Chemistry N2 - Radical reactions have found many applications in carbohydrate chemistry, especially in the construction of carbon–carbon bonds. The formation of carbon–heteroatom bonds has been less intensively studied. This mini-review will summarize the efforts to add heteroatom radicals to unsaturated carbohydrates like endo-glycals. Starting from early examples, developed more than 50 years ago, the importance of such reactions for carbohydrate chemistry and recent applications will be discussed. After a short introduction, the mini-review is divided in sub-chapters according to the heteroatoms halogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. The mechanisms of radical generation by chemical or photochemical processes and the subsequent reactions of the radicals at the 1-position will be discussed. This mini-review cannot cover all aspects of heteroatom-centered radicals in carbohydrate chemistry, but should provide an overview of the various strategies and future perspectives KW - radicals KW - carbohydrates KW - heteroatoms KW - synthesis Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/chemistry2010008 SN - 2624-8549 VL - 2 IS - 1 SP - 80 EP - 92 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Listek, Martin A1 - Hönow, Anja A1 - Gossen, Manfred A1 - Hanack, Katja T1 - A novel selection strategy for antibody producing hybridoma cells based on a new transgenic fusion cell line JF - Scientific Reports N2 - The use of monoclonal antibodies is ubiquitous in science and biomedicine but the generation and validation process of antibodies is nevertheless complicated and time-consuming. To address these issues we developed a novel selective technology based on an artificial cell surface construct by which secreted antibodies were connected to the corresponding hybridoma cell when they possess the desired antigen-specificity. Further the system enables the selection of desired isotypes and the screening for potential cross-reactivities in the same context. For the design of the construct we combined the transmembrane domain of the EGF-receptor with a hemagglutinin epitope and a biotin acceptor peptide and performed a transposon-mediated transfection of myeloma cell lines. The stably transfected myeloma cell line was used for the generation of hybridoma cells and an antigen- and isotype-specific screening method was established. The system has been validated for globular protein antigens as well as for haptens and enables a fast and early stage selection and validation of monoclonal antibodies in one step. KW - Antibody generation KW - Assay systems Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58571-w SN - 2045-2322 VL - 10 PB - Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature CY - London ER -