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In marine organisms, differing degree of sensitivity to ocean acidification (OA) is expected for each life stage, and disturbance at one stage can carry over into the following stage or following generation. In this study we investigated phenotypic changes of sperm and larvae of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus in response to different pH conditions (8.0, 7.7, 7.4) experienced by the parents during gametogenesis. In sperm from two-months exposed males, sperm motility, velocity, ATP content, ATP consumption and respiration rate were evaluated at three pH values of the activating medium (8.0, 7.7 and 7.4). Moreover, larvae from each parental group were reared at pH 8.0 and 7.7 for 20 days and larval mortality and growth were then assessed. Sperm motility and respiration rate were not affected either by exposure of males to low pH or by the post-activation pH. Sperm velocity did not differ among post-activation pH values in all sperm groups, but it decreased slower in sperm developed under acidified conditions, suggesting the presence of positive carryover effect on sperm longevity. This positive carryover effect of exposure of males to low pH values was highlighted also for the sperm ATP content, which was higher in these groups of sperm. ATP consumption rate was affected by post-activation pH with higher values at pH 8.0 in sperm from males maintained at control condition and pH 7.7 while the energy consumption appeared to be differently modulated at different experimental conditions. A negative carry over effect of OA was observed on survival of larvae from parents acclimated at pH 7.4 and additive negative effects of both parental and larval exposure to low pH can be suggested. In all groups of larvae, decreased somatic growth was observed at low rearing pH, thus larvae from parents maintained at low pH did not show an increased capability to cope with OA.

Between the years 2015 and 2019, members of the Horizon 2020-funded Innovative Training Network named “AMVA4NewPhysics” studied the customization and application of advanced multivariate analysis methods and statistical learning tools to high-energy physics problems, as well as developed entirely new ones. Many of those methods were successfully used to improve the sensitivity of data analyses performed by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider; several others, still in the testing phase, promise to further improve the precision of measurements of fundamental physics parameters and the reach of searches for new phenomena. In this paper, the most relevant new tools, among those studied and developed, are presented along with the evaluation of their performances. © 2021 The Author(s)

Permutation methods are very useful in several scientic elds. They have the advantage of making fewer assumptions about the data and of providing more reliable inferential results. They are also particularly useful in case of high-dimensional problems since they easily account for dependence between tests, thereby allowing for more powerful multiplicity control procedures. Indeed, Westfall and Young's min-p procedure often improves on the Holm procedure by providing more rejections. The advantage of being able to make fewer assumptions about the process generating the data unfortunately involves an inherent limitation in the way a process can be modeled (e.g. through multiple linear models). In this work, we propose a permutation (and rotation) method which allows the inference in the multivariate linear model even in the presence of covariates (i.e. nuisance parameters, i.e. confounders). Also, the method allows for the immediate application of the min-p procedure. We make clear how permutations are a particular case of rotations of the data. Permutation tests are exact, while rotation tests retain exactness under multiple-multivariate linear model with normal errors. When errors are not normal, the rotation tests are weakly exchangeable (i.e. approximated and asymptotically exact). A real application to genetic data is presented and discussed.

Plant-based meat alternatives have grown tremendously in recent years, with an unprecedented increase in vegan and meat-sounding labelled products appearing on European Union shelves. However, a regulation clarifying what the “vegan” label means and if “meat-sounding” names should be allowed when referring to plant-based foods is still lacking. Led by opposite reasons, both vegetarian and meat producers' associations are demanding to fill this legal void. Our paper contributes to this debate by providing the results of two online experiments that measures how consumers perceive plant-based meat substitutes based on vegan vs. meat-sounding labelling. The results of the first study showed that meat-sounding labels applied to plant-based food altered perceived healthiness, but not other characteristics of the product. The second study indicated that vegan labelling exerted a negative effect on the consumers’ perception of tastiness and healthiness, and willingness to buy of plant-based foods. Importantly, these effects were moderated by the consumers’ attitudes towards meat-eating and veganism. In line with these results, we propose that the explicit use of the “vegan” label might be counterproductive to increase the sales of plant-based foods, and that the biasing impact of meat-sounding labels on plant-based food's perception is weak.

Impulsivity has been proposed as an endophenotype for bipolar disorder (BD); moreover, impulsivity levels have been shown to carry prognostic significance and to be quality-of-life predictors. To date, reports about the genetic determinants of impulsivity in mood disorders are limited, with no studies on BD individuals. Individuals with BD and healthy controls (HC) were recruited in the context of an observational, multisite study (GECOBIP). Subjects were genotyped for three candidate single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (5-HTTLPR, COMT rs4680, BDNF rs6265); impulsivity was measured through the Italian version of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11). A mixed-effects regression model was built, with BIS scores as dependent variables, genotypes of the three polymorphisms as fixed effects, and centers of enrollment as random effect. Compared to HC, scores for all BIS factors were higher among subjects with euthymic BD (adjusted β for Total BIS score: 5.35, p < 0.001). No significant interaction effect was evident between disease status (HC vs. BD) and SNP status for any polymorphism. Considering the whole sample, BDNF Met/Met homozygosis was associated with lower BIS scores across all three factors (adjusted β for Total BIS score: −10.2, p < 0.001). A significant 5-HTTLPR x gender interaction was found for the SS genotype, associated with higher BIS scores in females only (adjusted β for Total BIS score: 12.0, p = 0.001). Finally, COMT polymorphism status was not significantly associated with BIS scores. In conclusion, BD diagnosis did not influence the effect on impulsivity scores for any of the three SNPs considered. Only one SNP—the BDNF rs6265 Met/Met homozygosis—was independently associated with lower impulsivity scores. The 5-HTTLPR SS genotype was associated with higher impulsivity scores in females only. Further studies adopting genome-wide screening in larger samples are needed to define the genetic basis of impulsivity in BD.

The goal of the present study is to explore the perception of the relationship with parental figures, traumatic experiences, personality traits and psychosocial characteristics of the participant sibling caregivers. The sample was composed of 30 sibling caregivers recruited at psychiatric facilities in Italy, and of 30 control siblings. The battery of instruments administered included Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2 (MMPI-2), and The Inventory of Traumatic Experiences (TEC). This research found that sibling caregivers of patients with severe psychiatric pathologies are distinctly different from the siblings of the control group with respect to the perception of their relationship with parental figures more frequently regarded as dysfunctional, and were also characterized by a higher presence of traumatic experiences. The problematic relationship with parental figures, some traumatic experiences, and the burden of taking care of a sibling with psychiatric disorders are probably important variables with regards to the individual’s overall psychological condition.

ObjectivesTo assess the trends concerning utilisation of maternal and child health (MCH) services before, during and after the Ebola outbreak, quantifying the contribution of a reorganised referral system (RS).DesignA prospective observational study of MCH services.SettingPujehun district in Sierra Leone, 77 community health facilities and 1 hospital from 2012 to 2017.Main outcome measuresMCH utililization was evaluated by assessing: (1) institutional deliveries, Cesarean-sections, paediatric and maternity admissions and deaths, and major direct obstetric complications (MDOCs), at hospital level; (2) antenatal care (ANC) 1 and 4, institutional delivery and family planning, at community level. Contribution of a strengthened RS was also measured.ResultsAt hospital level, there is a significant difference between trends Ebola versus pre-Ebola for maternal admissions (7, 95% CI 4 to 11, pConclusionsA stronger health system compared with other districts in Sierra Leone and a strengthened RS enabled health facilities in Pujehun to maintain service provision and uptake during and after the Ebola epidemic.

The most prevalent approach to activation localization in neuroimaging is to identify brain regions as contiguous supra-threshold clusters, check their significance using random field theory, and correct for the multiple clusters being tested. Besides recent criticism on the validity of the random field assumption, a spatial specificity paradox remains: the larger the detected cluster, the less we know about the location of activation within that cluster. This is because cluster inference implies “there exists at least one voxel with an evoked response in the cluster”, and not that “all the voxels in the cluster have an evoked response”. Inference on voxels within selected clusters is considered bad practice, due to the voxel-wise false positive rate inflation associated with this circular inference. Here, we propose a remedy to the spatial specificity paradox. By applying recent results from the multiple testing statistical literature, we are able to quantify the proportion of truly active voxels within selected clusters, an approach we call All-Resolutions Inference (ARI). If this proportion is high, the paradox vanishes. If it is low, we can further “drill down” from the cluster level to sub-regions, and even to individual voxels, in order to pinpoint the origin of the activation. In fact, ARI allows inference on the proportion of activation in all voxel sets, no matter how large or small, however these have been selected, all from the same data. We use two fMRI datasets to demonstrate the non-triviality of the spatial specificity paradox, and its resolution using ARI. One of these datasets is large enough for us to split it and validate the ARI estimates. The conservatism of ARI inference permits circularity without losing error guarantees, while still returning informative estimates.