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Although decision-making processes are typically studied with isolated individuals in the laboratory to control external factors, we mostly make decisions in a social environment in the presence of other individuals. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effects of social conditions on individuals' decision-making performance in economic and moral contexts. Forty-four pairs of participants of the same gender (42 females and 46 males) constituted the sample for this study. Each pair was required to complete both economic and moral tasks under three types of social conditions, namely, “individual,” “joint,” and “joint with gaze-cueing.” Furthermore, eye- and mouse-tracking technologies were utilized to record the participants' responses to the decision tasks. We hypothesized that even a minimal social context would influence people's decisions, as manifested in their gaze and mouse responses. The results revealed that the minimalist social condition in which participants do not communicate or interact with each other affected their decision-making performance. The interplay among social conditions, diverse task types, and stimuli type were identified as some of the factors that impact the decision-making process in this setting.

Existing studies in cognitive neuroscience predominantly focus on a single participant’s behavioral and brain re-sponses. Lack of an interactive context for joint action particularly limited social neuroscience studies to simulated socialcontexts. Advances in portable brain imaging technologies have made it practical to simultaneously monitor the brain activityof two or more people in an interactive context to investigate neural correlates of social interaction. In this study, the rela-tionship between behavioral synchrony and inter-brain coherence is investigated during simultaneous reading of matching andmismatching sentences in different auditory conditions. A dual-fNIRS hyperscanning setup was used to obtain simultaneousrecordings of hemodynamic activity from the prefrontal cortices of the participants while they jointly read-aloud the sentencesdisplayed on their screens. The results suggest that the level of inter-brain coherence in the right superior cortex tends toincrease depending on the level of behavioral synchrony among the participants.

Supramolecular polymer gels show promise for use in batteries, supercapacitors, and multifunctional sensors. However, their poor stiffness and ionic conductivity hinder their large‐scale utilization. Herein, a cellulose‐based supramolecular bio‐polymer gel (SBPG) with high ionic conductivity and exceptional stiffness is reported. These properties are translated into proof‐of‐concept iontronic pressure sensors with an ultra‐high sensitivity of 1 475 000 kPa−1. The technological potential is demonstrated via fabrication of a prototype smart glove using only eight pressure sensors based on this novel gel. Smart glove sensors with 90% classification accuracy for object recognition are demonstrated using a tactile feedback algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saxagliptin is an effective and selective dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitor. This study was designed to determine possible protective effects of saxagliptin against damage caused by renal ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) in rats. In this study, 40 rats were divided into 4 groups (n = 10 for each). Group 1 (Control), Group 2 (I/R) in both kidneys ischaemia of 45 min was performed, and then reperfusion was applied for 24 h. Saxagliptin (Group 3: 2 mg/kg and Group 4: 10 mg/kg) was administered by oral gavage to the animals in treatment groups, before the I/R. Saxagliptin decreased the markers (BUN, Cre, NGAL, KIM-1 and IL-18) of acute renal damage in blood and kidney tissue. Saxagliptin provided increase in antioxidant enzyme levels and decrease in MDA and apoptosis. Histological results showed that the administration of saxagliptin exhibited a protective effect against renal damage caused by I/R. These results indicates that saxagliptin provide protection against kidney injury caused by I/R. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]