The Coronavirus Pandemic has influenced the lives of many people. We analyzed the effects of physical activity and stress on students’ motivation during the Pandemic. Participants were 254 university students who reported their academic motivation, physical activity, general stress, the Coronavirus Pandemic strain, and their Coronavirus stress. Women reported higher levels of Coronavirus stress, general stress, and motivation. The Coronavirus stress was predicted by the strain of the Coronavirus Pandemic but not by physical activity. General stress and gender predicted mastery goals, and performance goals were predicted by general stress. Physical activity was not related to students’ motivation during the Pandemic. Higher levels of general stress were associated with higher academic motivation. Negative emotions like stress could have enhanced students’ motivation during uncertain times of the Pandemic. Moreover, a moderate stress level could be favorable for academic dedication and achievement.

Objectives: Crayfish plague disease, caused by the oomycete pathogen Aphanomyces astaci represents one of the greatest risks for the biodiversity of the freshwater crayfish. This data article covers the de novo transcriptome assembly and annotation data of the noble crayfish and the marbled crayfish challenged with Ap. astaci. Following the controlled infection experiment (Francesconi et al. in Front Ecol Evol, 2021, https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.647037), we conducted a differential gene expression analysis described in (Boštjančić et al. in BMC Genom, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-022-08571-z) Data description: In total, 25 noble crayfish and 30 marbled crayfish were selected. Hepatopancreas tissue was isolated, followed by RNA sequencing using the Illumina NovaSeq 6000 platform. Raw data was checked for quality with FastQC, adapter and quality trimming were conducted using Trimmomatic followed by de novo assembly with Trinity. Assembly quality was assessed with BUSCO, at 93.30% and 93.98% completeness for the noble crayfish and the marbled crayfish, respectively. Transcripts were annotated using the Dammit! pipeline and assigned to KEGG pathways. Respective transcriptome and raw datasets may be reused as the reference transcriptome assemblies for future expression studies.

In Western personnel psychology, control beliefs are a valued predictor for work-related outcomes. Yet, little is known about the culture-specific functioning of control in East Africa. Kenya, as an Ubuntu culture, is examined regarding control beliefs and contrasted with a German sample considered to represent an individualistic or Western culture. Responses to N=143 quantitative personality tests were attended with qualitative interviews on control beliefs (self-concept of ability, internality, powerful others, and chance). Content validity and factor structure of control beliefs were analyzed, followed by a Procrustean target rotation. Linear regression analyses were conducted to assess the predictability of job performance, achievement motivation, and well-being. Item comprehension, as well as factor structure of the four control aspects, differ between the two samples. In particular, the ‘powerful others’ control aspect diverges the most between the cultures. Linear regression analyses showed comparable, but not fully congruent predictability. Results indicate that an uncritical transfer of the control beliefs measure from one culture to another is inappropriate. Results fit in the picture of African Ubuntu philosophy, emphasizing social-relational aspects shaping control beliefs. More emic-etic based research is demanded concerning intra- and intercultural variability of control beliefs to depict a transcultural applicable and invariant model.

Agricultural plastic covers made from polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) provide increased yields and an improved crop quality. However, such covers are suspected of partially breaking down into smaller debris and thereby contributing to soil pollution with microplastics. To scrutinize this, we randomly sampled 240 topsoil cores (0–5 cm) from eight fields which were covered with fleeces, perforated foils, and plastic mulches for less than 2 years. Samples from the field periphery (50 m perimeter) served as a reference. Visual plastic debris > 2 mm was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Smaller, soil-associated plastic debris was dispersed from 50 g of fine soil (≤ 2 mm) using sodium hexametaphosphate solution and density-separated with saturated NaCl solution. The collected PE, PP, and polystyrene (PS) debris was selectively dissolved in a mixture of 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene and p-xylene at 150 °C and quantified by pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). We counted six PE and PS fragments > 2 mm in two out of eight fields. By contrast, Py-GC/MS detected PE, PP, and PS contents in the fine soil of six fields (6 % of all samples). In three fields, PE levels of 3–35 mg kg−1 were potentially associated with the use of thinner and less durable perforated foils (40 µm thickness). This was slightly more pronounced at field edges where the plastic covers are turned and weighed down. By contrast, 50 µm thick PE films were not shown to emit any plastic debris. PP contents of 5–10 mg kg−1 were restricted to single observations in the field centers of three sites. At one site, we found expanded PS particles > 2 mm that concurred with elevated PS levels (8–19 mg kg−1) in the fine soil. Both PP and PS were distributed indistinctly across sites so that their source remained unresolved. In addition, the extent to which plastic contents of up to 7 mg kg−1 in the field periphery of some sites were attributed to wind drift from the covered fields or from external sources needs to be investigated in future studies. Our results suggest that the short-term use of thicker and more durable plastic covers should be preferred over thinner or perforated films to limit plastic emissions and accumulation in soil.