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A 71-day study was conducted to explore the effect of increasing dietary levels (0, 250, 500, 1000 mg kg feed−1; D0, D250, D500 and D1000, respectively) of a blend of microencapsulated organic acids (OA, specifically citric and sorbic acid) and nature identical compounds (NIC, specifically thymol and vanillin), on growth, intestinal immune parameters and gut microbiota (GM) of European sea bass juveniles reared under normal and subsequently suboptimal environmental conditions (high temperature, 30.0 ± 0.4 °C and low oxygen, 4.6 ± 0.6 mg L−1). OA and NIC did not promote growth, feed utilisation and feed intake at the inclusion tested but induced a significantly upregulation of IL-8, IL-10 and TGFβ. GM analyzed by next-generation sequencing showed that OA and NIC were able to exert prebiotic properties stimulating the development of beneficial bacteria taxa such as Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, and Bacillus sp. Picrust analyses displayed a significant potential functional reconfiguration of GM promoting a decrease in inflammation-promoting and homeostatic functions at increasing OA and NIC administration. For the first time on this species the exposure to suboptimal rearing conditions was able to modify GM structure reducing LAB and increasing Proteobacteria, findings which were consistent with the inflammatory process observed at mRNA level.

Left ventricle, LV wringing wall motion relies on physiological muscle fiber orientation, fibrotic status, and electromechanics (EM). The loss of proper EM activation can lead to rigid-body-type (RBT) LV rotation, which is associated with advanced heart failure (HF) and challenges in resynchronization. To describe the EM coupling and scar tissue burden with respect to rotational patterns observed on the LV in patients with ischemic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) left bundle branch block (LBBB). Thirty patients with HFrEF/LBBB underwent EM analysis of the left ventricle using an invasive electro-mechanical catheter mapping system (NOGA XP, Biosense Webster). The following parameters were evaluated: rotation angle; rotation velocity; unipolar/bipolar voltage; local activation time, LAT; local electro-mechanical delay, LEMD; total electro-mechanical delay, TEMD. Patients underwent late-gadolinium enhancement cMRI when possible. The different LV rotation pattern served as sole parameter for patients’ grouping into two categories: wringing rotation (Group A, n = 6) and RBT rotation (Group B, n = 24). All parameters were aggregated into a nine segment, three sector and whole LV models, and compared at multiple scales. Segmental statistical analysis in Group B revealed significant inhomogeneities, across the LV, regarding voltage level, scar burdening, and LEMD changes: correlation analysis showed correspondently a loss of synchronization between electrical (LAT) and mechanical activation (TEMD). On contrary, Group A (relatively low number of patients) did not present significant differences in LEMD across LV segments, therefore electrical (LAT) and mechanical (TEMD) activation were well synchronized. Fibrosis burden was in general associated with areas of low voltage. The rotational behavior of LV in HF/LBBB patients is determined by the local alteration of EM coupling. These findings serve as a strong basic groundwork for a hypothesis that EM analysis may predict CRT response.Clinical trial registration: SUM No. KNW/0022/KB1/17/15.

Morality evolved within specific social contexts that are argued to shape moral choices. In turn, moral choices are hypothesized to be affected by body odors as they powerfully convey socially-relevant information. We thus investigated the neural underpinnings of the possible body odors effect on the participants’ decisions. In an fMRI study we presented to healthy individuals 64 moral dilemmas divided in incongruent (real) and congruent (fake) moral dilemmas, using different types of harm (intentional: instrumental dilemmas, or inadvertent: accidental dilemmas). Participants were required to choose deontological or utilitarian actions under the exposure to a neutral fragrance (masker) or body odors concealed by the same masker (masked body odor). Smelling the masked body odor while processing incongruent (not congruent) dilemmas activates the supramarginal gyrus, consistent with an increase in prosocial attitude. When processing accidental (not instrumental) dilemmas, smelling the masked body odor activates the angular gyrus, an area associated with the processing of people’s presence, supporting the hypothesis that body odors enhance the saliency of the social context in moral scenarios. These results suggest that masked body odors can influence moral choices by increasing the emotional experience during the decision process, and further explain how sensory unconscious biases affect human behavior.

Here we report a comprehensive analysis of the robustness of seven high-quality real-world complex weighted networks to errors and attacks toward nodes and links. We use measures of the network damage conceived for a binary (e.g. largest connected cluster LCC, and binary efficiency Effbin) or a weighted network structure (e.g. the efficiency Eff, and the total flow TF). We find that removing a very small fraction of nodes and links with respectively higher strength and weight triggers an abrupt collapse of the weighted functioning measures while measures that evaluate the binary-topological connectedness are almost unaffected. These findings unveil a problematic response-state where the attack toward a small fraction of nodes-links returns the real-world complex networks in a connected but inefficient state. Our findings unveil how the robustness may be overestimated when focusing on the connectedness of the components only. Last, to understand how the networks robustness is affected by link weights heterogeneity, we randomly assign link weights over the topological structure of the real-world networks and we find that highly heterogeneous networks show a faster efficiency decrease under nodes-links removal: i.e. the robustness of the real-world complex networks against nodes-links removal is negatively correlated with link weights heterogeneity.

The recent developments in the field of social networks shifted the focus from static to dynamical representations, calling for new methods for their analysis and modelling. Observations in real social systems identified two main mechanisms that play a primary role in networks' evolution and influence ongoing spreading processes: the strategies individuals adopt when selecting between new or old social ties, and the bursty nature of the social activity setting the pace of these choices. We introduce a time-varying network model accounting both for ties selection and burstiness and we analytically study its phase diagram. The interplay of the two effects is non trivial and, interestingly, the effects of burstiness might be suppressed in regimes where individuals exhibit a strong preference towards previously activated ties. The results are tested against numerical simulations and compared with two empirical datasets with very good agreement. Consequently, the framework provides a principled method to classify the temporal features of real networks, and thus yields new insights to elucidate the effects of social dynamics on spreading processes.

As long-chain fatty acids (LCFA) of the n-3 series are critically important for human health, fish consumption has considerably increased in recent decades, resulting in overfishing to respond to the worldwide demand, to an extent that is not sustainable for consumers’ health, fisheries economy, and marine ecology. In a recent study, it has been shown that whole rye (WR) consumption improves blood and liver n-3 LCFA levels and gut microbiota composition in rats compared to refined rye. The present work demonstrates that specific colonic polyphenol metabolites may dose dependently stimulate the synthesis of n-3 LCFA, possibly through their microbial and hepatic metabolites in rats. The intake of plant n-3 alpha-linolenic acid and WR results in a sort of fatty fish-like effect, demonstrating that the n-3 LCFA levels in blood and tissues could be increased without eating marine foods, and therefore without promoting unsustainable overfishing, and without damaging marine ecology.

We investigate the interfacial dynamics of a 2D self-organized mixed layer made of silica nanoparticles interacting with phospholipid (DPPC) monolayers at the air/water interface. This system has biological relevance, allowing investigation of toxicological effects of nanoparticles on model membranes and lung surfactants. It might also provide bio-inspired technological solutions, exploiting the self-organization of DPPC to produce a non-trivial 2D structuration of nanoparticles. The characterization of interfacial dynamics yields information on the effects of NPs on the mechanical properties, important to improve performances of systems such as colloidosomes, foams, creams. For this, we combine micro-tracking in real-space with measurement in momentum-space via x-ray photon-correlation spectroscopy and Digital Fourier Microscopy. Using these complementary techniques, we extend the spatial range of investigation beyond the limits of each one. We find a dynamical transition from Brownian diffusion to an arrested state driven by compression, characterized by intermittent rearrangements, compatible with a repulsive glass phase. The rearrangement and relaxation of the monolayer structure results dramatically hindered by the presence of NPs, which is relevant to explain some the mechanical features observed for the dynamic surface pressure response of these systems and which can be relevant for the respiratory physiology and for future drug-delivery composite systems.

Body postures are essential in animal behavioural repertoires and their communicative role has been assessed in a wide array of taxa and contexts. Some body postures function as amplifiers, a class of signals that increase the detection likelihood of other signals. While foraging on the ground, bonobos (Pan paniscus) can adopt different crouching postures exposing more or less of their genital area. To our knowledge, their potential functional role in the sociosexual life of bonobos has not been assessed yet. Here we show, by analysing more than 2,400 foraging events in 21 captive bonobos, that mature females adopt a rear-exposing posture (forelimb-crouch) and do so significantly more often when their anogenital region is swollen than during the non-swollen phase. In contrast, mature males almost completely avoid this posture. Moreover, this strong difference results from a diverging ontogeny between males and females since immature males and females adopt the forelimb-crouch at similar frequencies. Our findings suggest that the forelimb-crouch posture may play a communicative role of amplification by enhancing the visibility of female sexual swellings, a conspicuous signal that is very attractive for both males and females. Given the high social relevance of this sexual signal, our study emphasizes that postural signalling in primates probably deserves more attention, even outside of reproductive contexts.