Context Affects Quiet Eye Duration and Motor Performance Independent of Cognitive Effort.

Extensive literature has shown the effect of "quiet eye" (QE) on motor performance. However, little attention has been paid to the context in which tasks are executed (independent of anxiety) and the mechanisms that underpin the phenomenon. Here, the authors aimed to investigate the effects of context (independent of anxiety) on QE and performance while examining if the mechanisms underpinning QE are rooted in cognitive effort. In this study, 21 novice participants completed golf putts while pupil dilation, QE duration, and putting accuracy were measured. Results showed that putting to win was more accurate compared with the control (no context) condition, and QE duration was longer when putting to win or tie a hole compared with control. There was no effect of context on pupil dilation. Results suggest that, while the task was challenging, performance scenarios can enhance representativeness of practice without adding additional load to cognitive resources, even for novice performers.

Perceptual-cognitive expertise when refereeing the scrum in rugby union.

Compared to sports performers, relatively little is known about how sports officials make decisions at a perceptual-cognitive level. Thus, this study examined the decision-making accuracy and gaze behaviour of rugby union referees of varying skill levels while reviewing scrum scenarios. Elite (n = 9) and trainee (n = 9) referees, as well as experienced players (n = 9), made decisions while watching ten projected scrum clips and wearing a mobile eye-tracker. Decision-making accuracy and gaze behaviour were recorded for each scrum. The elite and trainee referees made more accurate decisions than the players, and differences in gaze behavior were observed. The elite and trainee referees displayed lower search rates, spent more time fixating central-pack (i.e., front rows, binds, and contact point) and less time fixating outer-pack (e.g., second rows) and non-pack (e.g., other) locations, and exhibited lower entropy than the players. While search rate failed to predict decision-making accuracy, the time spent fixating central-, outer-, and non-pack locations, as well as entropy, were significant predictors. The findings have implications for training perceptual-cognitive skill among sports officials.

CiteAb: a searchable antibody database that ranks antibodies by the number of times they have been cited.

BACKGROUND: Research antibodies are used by thousands of scientists working in diverse disciplines, but it is common to hear concerns about antibody quality. This means that researchers need to carefully choose the antibodies they use to avoid wasting time and money. A well accepted way of selecting a research antibody is to identify one which has been used previously, where the associated data has been peer-reviewed and the results published. DESCRIPTION: CiteAb is a searchable database which ranks antibodies by the number of times they have been cited. This allows researchers to easily find antibodies that have been used in peer-reviewed publications and the accompanying citations are listed, so users can check the data contained within the publications. This makes CiteAb a useful resource for identifying antibodies for experiments and also for finding information to demonstrate antibody validation. The database currently contains 1,400,000 antibodies which are from 90 suppliers, including 87 commercial companies and 3 academic resources. Associated with these antibodies are 140,000 publications which provide 306,000 antibody citations. In addition to searching, users can also browse through the antibodies and add their own publications to the CiteAb database. CONCLUSIONS: CiteAb provides a new way for researchers to find research antibodies that have been used successfully in peer-reviewed publications. It aims to assist these researchers and will hopefully help promote progress in many areas of life science research.

Synteny analysis provides a route to design genus-specific PCR primers for rapid identification of all Saccharomyces species.

The genus Saccharomyces comprises seven single-genome species (S. arboricola, S. cerevisiae, S. eubayanus, S. kudriavzevii, S. mikatae, S. paradoxus and S. uvarum) and two hybrid species - S. pastorianus (S. cerevisiae plus S. eubayanus) and S. bayanus (mostly S. uvarum plus S. eubayanus). Species-specific primers have already been developed for the identification of each of the single-genome species, and these primers can usually detect both genomes in hybrids. It would be advantageous if a single reaction could detect any member of the clade. We have investigated three potentially generic approaches to design genus-specific primers. Two methods that both use sequence alignment differences for primer design were only partly successful. A third method used synteny data to identify 136 target genes that are potentially present only in all species of the Saccharomyces clade. HSP30 (YCR021C) was fully successful; different primer pairs were developed with high G+C content for use at 63 °C. In < 3 h, using a robust colony-PCR followed by gel electrophoresis, the method can reliably detect any member of the genus. This novel approach still uses conventional sequence alignment mismatches but relies principally on the presence of the target gene only within the genus Saccharomyces.