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Children learn in classrooms in the presence of background noise, mostly produced by the children themselves. Even when the acoustic conditions are favorable (i.e., low noise levels), differences in individual performance and listening effort in complex academic tasks are observed. Personal characteristics such as linguistic and cognitive skills and sensitivity to noise have been reported as factors supporting students' performance. Moreover, the Framework for Understanding Effortful Listening (FUEL) postulates the additional, individual dimension of children's motivation should be considered when evaluating listening effort, besides task cognitive demands. This study aims to explore the interplay of the above-mentioned individual factors for primary school children (N=120, grades 3 to 5) doing a sentence comprehension task in two-talkers background noise. Data on both accuracy and response time, as well as self-ratings of effort and motivation, were acquired. In addition, inhibitory control, linguistic competencies, and self-ratings of noise sensitivity were measured in quiet. Results first highlight the interplay of acoustic conditions and linguistic competencies in shaping the child's motivation in performing the task, and then show how the children's inhibitory control and noise sensitivity mediate behavioral and subjective effort. Thus, individual factors shall be taken into consideration when evaluating the effect of classroom acoustics on performance in academic tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed the use of digital payments. However, this is still far from reaching the cashless economy that Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas seeks. With the ease of lockdown restrictions, cash may still dominate physical transactions due to the limited adoption of e-wallets in the country. This study aimed to determine whether Filipino consumers prefer the use of cash or e-wallets in dealing with in-store transactions. A self-administered survey was distributed to 252 individuals residing in Greater Manila and Pampanga. It gathered socio-demographic variables and a Likert scale to measure factors, namely performance, usefulness, trust, ease of use, security, responsiveness, transparency, perceived enjoyment, and behavioral intention. The results of the survey were analyzed through Non-Parametric Tests such as the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test, Kruskal-Wallis Test, Mann-Whitney U Test and Kendall- Theil Test. The results of the study showed that most of the Filipino consumers still prefer having cash transactions in the current and future times and are not yet able to adapt to the usage of e-wallet. Having an aim to become a 'cashless' society, e-wallet service providers must make improvements to encourage more consumers to use e-wallets in dealing with in-store transactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children learn to regulate themselves independently at preschool age; thus, adjustment is necessary to improve. Several studies have found the relationship between cool executive function and the development of adjustment. However, little is known about the impact of cool executive function intervention to enhance the adjustment of preschool children. This study investigated the efficacy of an online intervention that focuses on cool executive function components (inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility) in improving children's adjustment during COVID-19 pandemic. The study included seven sessions consisting of 4 different tasks (self-ordered pointing task, flanker task, stop-signal task, and flexible item selection task), which lasted approximately one month. Sixty-four children (48-72 months) who participated in the study were randomized into an experimental or control group. Pre-and post-assessments conducted using Child Adjustment and Parenting Self-efficacy (CAPES). Changes in children's adjustment were analyzed using the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The results indicate that the adjustment among participants has improved significantly only in children aged four years (48-59 months). This finding suggests that the cool executive function intervention can promote early child adjustment by adding another aspect of EF, even in a pandemic condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flavonoid compounds have many benefits in the health field, one of which is xanthine oxidase inhibitor. Xanthine oxidase is a catalyst in the oxidation of hypoxanthine to xanthine and catalyzes xanthine oxidation and causing uric acid formation. The formation of gout in the body will trigger the onset of arthritis gout, which is swelling in the joints, causing unbearable pain. Flavonoid compounds will be extracted from the Sansevieria trifasciata leaves using the Ultrasound Assisted Enzymatic Extraction (UAEE) method which is a combination of two methods, enzymatic hydrolysis in the pre-treatment and sonication extraction process. Enzymatic hydrolysis using cellulase enzymes aims to destroy the cell wall of mother-in-law's tongue leaves so that the yield extraction is expected to be higher. The advantage of using this method is that the extraction time is shorter, can increase the yield extraction, requires a little solvent, and is environmentally friendly. Quantitative tests on the content of flavonoids and inhibition tests of flavonoids on xanthine oxidase will be carried out using UV-Vis spectrophotometry at 415 nm and 295 nm wavelengths respectively. In this study the extraction of flavonoid compounds from the leaves of the tongue-in-law will be carried out using the enzymatic hydrolysis method and sonication extraction with ethanol solvent. The variations of this research are the concentration of cellulase enzymes and the concentration of ethanol solvents. In this study, the optimal extract yield was 58.654% at 60% ethanol concentration and 60 mg/g enzyme concentration. The obtained flavonoid content was 0.370 mg/g in the extract with an enzyme concentration of 60 mg/g and 50% ethanol concentration. The inhibitory activity of the xanthine oxidase enzyme to extract at optimal conditions was 60.267%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colletotrichum spp. is a significant strawberry fruit pathogen, causing yield losses of up to 80% - growing resistance to pesticides demands to new, environmentally-friendly plant protection. Essential oils (EO) are one of the biological plant protection products suitable for pathogens control. The antimicrobial and antifungal activity of EO, biodegradability and low toxicity, make it potential for use in plant protection against pathogens instead of chemical pesticides. The present study was carried out to investigate the antifungal effects of Salvia officinalis and Picea abies essential oils against strawberry Colletotrichum spp. isolate. The research carried out at the LAMMC Institute of Horticulture. The biofungicidal effect was assessed based on radial growth inhibitions. There were evaluated several EO concentrations from 1000 till 1800 µl/l. Single-spore isolate fragment placed in the centre of PDA with different concentrations. Plates were incubated at 25 o C in dark and evaluated after 2, 4, 7 days. S. officinalis and P. abies EO showed inhibitory effect on Colletotrichum spp. mycelial development. The S. officinalis inhibitory effect was more than 50% in all concentrations. The present study revealed that highest 1800 µl/l S. officinalis EO concentration Colletotrichum spp. colony diameter was significantly lower (1.84 cm) compared with control (5.75 cm). However, P. abies inhibition more than 50% were only in concentrations from 1600 µl/l. According to our results, treatment with EO can reduce the growth of Colletotrichum spp. and EO could be an effective potential bio-fungicide to control strawberry anthracnose. EO as bio-fungicides characteristics is their natural origin and low risk for resistance development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because more and more young people are constantly presented with the opportunity to access information and connect to others via their smartphones, they report to be in a state of permanent alertness. In the current study, we define such a state as smartphone vigilance, an awareness that one can always get connected to others in combination with a permanent readiness to respond to incoming smartphone notifications. We hypothesized that constantly resisting the urge to interact with their phones draws on response inhibition, and hence interferes with students' ability to inhibit prepotent responses in a concurrent task. To test this, we conducted a preregistered experiment, employing a Bayesian sequential sampling design, where we manipulated smartphone visibility and smartphone notifications during a stop-signal task that measures the ability to inhibit prepotent responses. The task was constructed such that we could disentangle response inhibition from action selection. Results show that the mere visibility of a smartphone is sufficient to experience vigilance and distraction, and that this is enhanced when students receive notifications. Curiously enough, these strong experiences were unrelated to stop-signal task performance. These findings raise new questions about when and how the smartphones can impact performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a well-known fact that schenkerian principles of analysis and musical thinking open comprehensions of the musical works that are not reachable by using other methods of analysis. Breaking a piece down into manageable fragments and identifying strategies for sight reading, learning and memorizing are steps that have to be identified and completed that could be possibly leading to the development of the brain functions that are essential to instrument playing but also for the cognitive control of behavior. The structural analysis offers the awareness and the self-monitoring that can help in this matter. A musician who understands the effects and functions will reveal the richness of the analysis in the performance of the work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pillarenes are macrocyclic compounds composed of hydroquinone units linked by methylene bridges at para positions [1]. Although pillar[5]arene shows electrochemical activity related to the oxidation of hydroquinone units, the number of studies on its use in electrochemical sensors is very few [2]. Ascorbic acid (AA), known for its reducing properties, is easily oxidized to dehydroascorbic acid. It is a powerful antioxidant and fights against free radical-induced diseases. Excess ascorbic acid can irritate the stomach, and oxalic acid, one of its metabolites, causes problems in the kidneys. Sometimes, excess amounts of ascorbic acid can result in the inhibition of natural processes occurring in food and can cause a deterioration of taste/aroma [3-5]. Thus, the determination of ascorbic acid has become important. In this study, the electrochemical behavior of a newly synthesized pillar[5]arene derivative on the glassy carbon (GC) electrode surface was investigated using the electrochemical method. The GC electrode surface was modified with gelatin/azido-pillar[5]arene to improve the conductivity on the electrode surface. Electrochemical experiments were carried out to determine the usability of the prepared electrode surface in the determination of ascorbic acid. Electrochemical experiments were carried out in different pH media at different scan rates to determine the optimum conditions. As a result, it was established in this study that azido-pillar[5]arene was sensitive to ascorbic acid at different pH and concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to evaluate the antibacterial activity of 103 protein fractions obtained from the extra cellular product (ECP) and four different fractions from the cellular component (whole cell product, heat-killed whole cell product, intra-cellular product and crude extra cellular product) of Pseudomonas sp. against Aeromonas hydrophila pathogen on tilapia fish. Antibacterial activities were measured by the zone of inhibition in a sensitivity test against A. hydrophila. Intra-cellular product, whole cell product, and heat-killed whole cell product of Pseudomonas sp. exhibited inhibition zone of 10 mm and crude of fraction ECP showed inhibition zone of 11 mm. All protein fractions of ECP displayed potential activity against A. hydrophila in Nila tilapia. 73.8% protein fractions had resistant inhibition and 20.4% possessed intermediate inhibition. 5.8% fractions caused sensitive inhibition. Our results showed that protein fractions of ECP were found to be the most effective to inhibit A. hydrophila growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using 16 television PSAs and with a 2 (valence) by 2 (action tendency) design, an experiment (N=245) examined the impact of behavioral inhibition/approach systems (BIS/BAS) on affect. Two hypotheses (valence vs. action tendency) derived from the nature of emotions and properties of BIS/BAS were derived and tested against each other. The results from two-level tobit models showed that BIS and BAS showed a complex pattern of associations with emotions that was not wholly consistent with either the approach-avoidance or valence aspects of affect; and that surprise might be joint product of novelty and valence assessments. Implications and implications for future research were discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lateral Inhibition primarily is understood as the retinal bipolar contrast enhancement in early vision-to fit visually-driven behavior to a Gaussian physical environment. When it has been found that any motion anticipation is already accomplished to a large extent by these neuronal circuits in the retina, the time dimension becomes an integral aspect of the spatial discrimination. The performed hyperpolarization transforms environmental Gauss distributed information to become time and space discrete allowing geometrical prediction according to time, to reach and hit goals or to avoid collision. Apparently by changing attention, alternate modes in four-dimensional bindings are invoked to orientate and to direct precise decisions in motor activity. Though the output of the autonomous self-referenced system again is Gaussian. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to examine whether behavioral tendencies commonly related to addictive behavior are consistent with those related to pathological gaming. Specifically, we tested the relation between pathological gaming and two behavioral tendencies: attentional bias and impaired response inhibition. For this purpose, 92 adolescent males performed two attentional bias tasks (addiction-Stroop, dot-probe) and one behavioral inhibition task (go/no-go). Additionally, a measure of pathological gaming, and items regarding game use were included. Our results indicate that adolescents with higher levels of pathological gaming displayed some signs of attentional bias and diminished behavioral inhibition, but only when confronted with game-related stimuli. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social presence can facilitate (e.g. Fridlund, 1991) or inhibit (e.g. Wagner & Smith, 1991) nonverbal behavior, depending on the relationship between the present persons. Nonverbal behavior will be facilitated among friends while presence of a stranger will inhibit nonverbal behavior (e.g. Wagner& Lee, 1999 ). In a 2x2 between subjects design, we varied the sociality of the setting (alone or presence of a stranger) and the visibility of the camera (visible or concealed). All Participants (N=89) watched 18 different IAPS pictures chosen to elicit different feelings. Feelings were measured by the PANAS Scale. While nonverbal behavior was recorded, categorized and analyzed in duration and frequency. Results showed that emotions do largely not differ between the conditions, but nonverbal behavior is significantly inhibited by the visibility of the camera and the present stranger. We thus conclude that a visible camera has the same inhibition effect as has the stranger. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]