"Domestic Drama," "Love Killing," or "Murder": Does the Framing of Femicides Affect Readers' Emotional and Cognitive Responses to the Crime?

We conducted two framing experiments to test how downplaying femicide frames affect readers' reactions. Results of Study 1 (Germany, N = 158) indicate that emotional reactions were increased when a femicide was labeled as "murder" compared to "domestic drama." This effect was strongest among individuals with high hostile sexism. Study 2 (U.S., N = 207), revealed that male compared to female readers perceived a male perpetrator more as a loving person when the crime was labeled as "love killing" compared to "murder." This tendency was linked to higher victim blaming. We recommend reporting guidelines to overcome the trivialization of femicides.

Does perceived scarcity of COVID-19 vaccines increase vaccination willingness? Results of an experimental study with German respondents in times of a national vaccine shortage.

Vaccine shortage is still a major problem in many countries. But how does the vaccine shortage affect people's willingness to be vaccinated? To test whether perceived scarcity of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines has an impact on vaccination willingness, a preregistered online experiment with N = 175 non-vaccinated German participants was conducted during a period of national vaccine shortage. Perceived vaccine scarcity was manipulated by either telling participants that SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in their district would be particularly scarce in the upcoming weeks or that above-average quantities would be available. The results show that individuals in the scarcity-condition were significantly more willing to get vaccinated than those in the surplus-condition. In addition, individuals in the scarcity-condition were found to express more anger towards the debate on relaxations for vaccinated versus non-vaccinated individuals. The results indicate that even superficial processes such as a perception of scarcity can influence people's willingness to get vaccinated.

"It's a war! It's a battle! It's a fight!": Do militaristic metaphors increase people's threat perceptions and support for COVID-19 policies?

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world employed militaristic metaphors to draw attention to the dangers of the virus. But, do militaristic metaphors truly affect individuals' perceived threat of the COVID-19 virus and increase their support for corresponding restrictive policies? This study assessed the effects of fictitious newspaper articles that described COVID-19 policies using similarly negatively valenced metaphors but with differing militaristic connotations (e.g., "war" vs. "struggle"). Overall, data from three framing experiments (N = 1114) in Germany and the United States indicate limited evidence on the effectiveness of the tested militaristic metaphors. In the U.S. context, the non-militaristic concept of struggle was consistently more strongly associated with the desired outcomes than militaristic metaphors were. In Studies 2 and 3, we also tested whether reporting using a narrative or straightforward facts had additional influence on the framing effect. A congruency effect of the use of a narrative and of warfare metaphors was found in the German sample, but not in that of the United States. Results of post-experimental norming studies (N = 437) in both countries revealed that the metaphor of war is associated with people ascribing greater responsibility to their governments, whereas the concept of struggle triggers a sense of individual responsibility. These results are discussed in terms of the usefulness and appropriateness of militaristic metaphors in the context of a pandemic.

Biotechnologically produced microbial alginate dressings show enhanced gel forming capacity compared to commercial alginate dressings of marine origin.

Marine alginate fibre dressings are well established in wound management. Alginate fibres can absorb plenty of wound exudate due to their gel forming abilities and ion exchange. Alginates from bacteria have never been studied for medical applications so far, although the microbial polymer raises expectations for improved gelling capacity due to its unique O-acetylation. To prove the gelling capacity of bacterial alginate, we extracted the co-polymer from fermentation of the soil bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii ATCC 9046, cultivated on crude glycerol as an alternative carbon source. Bacterial alginate was isolated in high purity and extruded by a wet spinning method. Fibre structure and properties were characterised by infrared spectroscopy, NMR, GPC, scanning electron microscopy and tensile testing. The fibres could be processed into biocompatible needle web dressings, which showed more than twice the gel formation in saline compared to commercial dressings made of marine alginates. Gelled dressings of bacterial alginate formed stable hydrogels of sufficient shape and strength for wound healing applications. This work suggests that the increased gel formation of bacterial alginate from A. vinelandii may be optimal for the preparation of novel wound dressings.