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Foods (Basel, Switzerland) Jun 2022Auditory cues, such as real-world sounds or music, influence how we perceive food. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of negatively and...
Auditory cues, such as real-world sounds or music, influence how we perceive food. The main aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of negatively and positively valenced mixtures of musical and non-musical sounds on the affective states of participants and their perception of chocolate ice cream. Consuming ice cream while listening to liked music (LM) and while listening to the combination of liked music and pleasant sound (LMPS) conditions gave rise to more positive emotions than listening to just pleasant sound (PS). Consuming ice cream during the LM condition resulted in the longest duration of perceived sweetness. On the other hand, PS and LMPS conditions resulted in cocoa dominating for longer. Bitterness and roasted were dominant under the disliked music and unpleasant sound (DMUS) and DM conditions respectively. Positive emotions correlated well with the temporal sensory perception of sweetness and cocoa when consuming chocolate ice cream under the positively valenced auditory conditions. In contrast, negative emotions were associated with bitter and roasted tastes/flavours under the negatively valenced auditory conditions. The combination of pleasant music and non-musical sound conditions evoked more positive emotions than when either was presented in isolation. Taken together, the results of this study support the view that sensory attributes correlated well with emotions evoked when consuming ice cream under different auditory conditions varying in terms of their valence.
PubMed: 35741981
DOI: 10.3390/foods11121784 -
Journal of Food Science and Technology Aug 2021The food industry has a consumer market with growing interest in modified products, so this study aimed to evaluate consumer acceptance and characterize the temporal...
The food industry has a consumer market with growing interest in modified products, so this study aimed to evaluate consumer acceptance and characterize the temporal profile of traditional and lactose-free "low calorie chocolate ice creams". Six different samples were produced: three formulated with traditional whole milk sweetened with sucrose, sucralose and stevia and three formulated with lactose-free whole milk, also sweetened with the same sweeteners. Time-intensity analysis, temporal dominance of sensation and acceptance analysis were performed. The ice cream with lactose-free milk sweetened with stevia had a lower acceptance. The samples sweetened with sucrose were characterized by intensity, duration and dominance of the "sweet" and "chocolate flavor", while the samples sweetened with sucralose were characterized by intensity and duration of the "sweet" stimulus and also by the dominance of the "milk flavor" stimulus. The samples sweetened with stevia were characterized by greater intensity and duration of bitter stimulus, being also characterized by intensity of sweet taste and chocolate flavor. It can be verified that the use of stevia promotes relevant difference in lactose-free ice cream when compared to traditional ice cream, increasing the duration and dominance of bitter taste, as well impacting and decreasing the consumer acceptance. However, the addition of sucralose did not promote significant changes in the profile of both formulations.
PubMed: 34294978
DOI: 10.1007/s13197-020-04819-2 -
Frontiers in Microbiology 2013The Columbia River (CR) is a powerful economic and environmental driver in the US Pacific Northwest. Microbial communities in the water column were analyzed from four...
The Columbia River (CR) is a powerful economic and environmental driver in the US Pacific Northwest. Microbial communities in the water column were analyzed from four diverse habitats: (1) an estuarine turbidity maximum (ETM), (2) a chlorophyll maximum of the river plume, (3) an upwelling-associated hypoxic zone, and (4) the deep ocean bottom. Three size fractions, 0.1-0.8, 0.8-3, and 3-200 μm were collected for each habitat in August 2007, and used for DNA isolation and 454 sequencing, resulting in 12 metagenomes of >5 million reads (>1.6 Gbp). To characterize the dominant microorganisms and metabolisms contributing to coastal biogeochemistry, we used predicted peptide and rRNA data. The 3- and 0.8-μm metagenomes, representing particulate fractions, were taxonomically diverse across habitats. The 3-μm size fractions contained a high abundance of eukaryota with diatoms dominating the hypoxic water and plume, while cryptophytes were more abundant in the ETM. The 0.1-μm metagenomes represented mainly free-living bacteria and archaea. The most abundant archaeal hits were observed in the deep ocean and hypoxic water (19% of prokaryotic peptides in the 0.1-μm metagenomes), and were homologous to Nitrosopumilus maritimus (ammonia-oxidizing Thaumarchaeota). Bacteria dominated metagenomes of all samples. In the euphotic zone (estuary, plume and hypoxic ocean), the most abundant bacterial taxa (≥40% of prokaryotic peptides) represented aerobic photoheterotrophs. In contrast, the low-oxygen, deep water metagenome was enriched with sequences for strict and facultative anaerobes. Interestingly, many of the same anaerobic bacterial families were enriched in the 3-μm size fraction of the ETM (2-10X more abundant relative to the 0.1-μm metagenome), indicating possible formation of anoxic microniches within particles. Results from this study provide a metagenome perspective on ecosystem-scale metabolism in an upwelling-influenced river-dominated coastal margin.
PubMed: 23750156
DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2013.00120 -
Vision Research Aug 2020Binocular rivalry occurs when incompatible images are presented simultaneously but separately to each eye. Perceptual dominance reverses over time such that one image...
Binocular rivalry occurs when incompatible images are presented simultaneously but separately to each eye. Perceptual dominance reverses over time such that one image temporarily dominates perception, while the other image is suppressed. Prior research has shown that briefly-presented probes modulate perception such that probes presented to the suppressed eye tend to produce shorter percept durations relative to when probes are presented to the dominant eye. This pattern suggests that probes strengthen the competitive strength of the image over which they appear. However, it remains unclear whether probe-modulated effects on binocular rivalry are equivalent across the visual field, in particular as a function of whether probes appear within the region of interocular conflict (i.e on-object) or outside the region of interocular conflict (i.e. off-object). We tested this by manipulating whether probes appeared on-object or off-object. We replicate prior work showing that suppressed-eye probes produce shorter percept durations relative to dominant-eye probes. Critically, however, we show that percept duration also varies as a function of whether probes appear on vs. off the rivalry objects; that is, differences in percept duration between suppressed-eye and dominant-eye probes were much larger for on-object than off-object probes. Importantly, however, the difference between suppressed-eye and dominant-eye probes was still significant for off-object probes. Together these results suggest dynamic mechanisms at work in probe-mediated rivalry, such that on-object probe effects are larger relative to smaller, yet reliable off-object effects.
Topics: Adolescent; Dominance, Ocular; Female; Humans; Light; Male; Vision Disparity; Vision, Binocular; Young Adult
PubMed: 32445983
DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2020.04.011 -
Scientific Reports Feb 2021In several species, rank predicts access to food, and subordinates may need specific behavioural strategies to get a share of resources. This may be especially important...
In several species, rank predicts access to food, and subordinates may need specific behavioural strategies to get a share of resources. This may be especially important in despotic species, where resources are strongly biased in favour of dominants and subordinates may more strongly rely on specific tactics to maximize food intake. Here, we compared three macaque species with an experimental set-up reproducing feeding competition contest. Following our predictions, more tolerant species mostly retrieved food in the presence of others and were less dependent on specific tactics. Contrarily, subordinates in more despotic species more likely collected food (1) when dominants could not see food or (2) were attacking others, (3) while "dissimulating", or (4) "storing food". Our study reveals that dominance styles reliably predict the probability of using specific food retrieval tactics and provides important insights on the social conditions that might have led to the emergence of tactical deception.
Topics: Animals; Competitive Behavior; Eating; Feeding Behavior; Macaca; Social Dominance
PubMed: 33526827
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-82198-0 -
Heliyon Feb 2024Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a chronic autoimmune disease of biliary stasis in which immune factors cause the gradual destruction of small bile ducts, biliary... (Review)
Review
Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a chronic autoimmune disease of biliary stasis in which immune factors cause the gradual destruction of small bile ducts, biliary stasis, and eventually the development of liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and even liver failure. One of the main characteristics of PBC is that it primarily affects middle-aged women, but the precise cause is still unknown. This article analyzes the unique causes and mechanisms of the female predominance of PBC and summarizes the potential causes.The female domination of PBC is reported to be primarily caused by sex hormones, environmental circumstances, and epigenetic changes, each of which has a different subtle impact on patients' gender disparities.
PubMed: 38384574
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e25634 -
PloS One 2022Group hunting is common among social carnivores, and mechanisms that promote this behavior are a central topic in evolutionary biology. Increased prey capture success...
Group hunting is common among social carnivores, and mechanisms that promote this behavior are a central topic in evolutionary biology. Increased prey capture success and decreased losses from competitors are often invoked as factors promoting group hunting. However, many animal societies have linear dominance hierarchies where access to critical resources is determined by social rank, and group-hunting rewards are shared unequally. Despite this inequality, animals in such societies cooperate to hunt and defend resources. Game theoretic models predict that rank and relative rewards from group hunting vs. solitary hunting affect which hunting strategies will evolve. These predictions are partially supported by empirical work, but data needed to test these predictions are difficult to obtain in natural systems. We use digital evolution to test how social rank and tolerance by dominants of subordinates feeding while sharing spoils from group hunting influence which hunting strategies evolve in digital organisms. We created a computer-simulated world to reflect social and hunting dynamics of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta). We found that group hunting increased as tolerance increased and as the relative payoff from group hunting increased. Also, top-ranking agents were more likely to group hunt than lower-ranking agents under despotic sharing conditions. These results provide insights into mechanisms that may promote cooperation in animal societies structured by dominance hierarchies.
Topics: Animals; Carnivora; Hyaenidae; Social Dominance; Predatory Behavior
PubMed: 35687649
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269522 -
Science Advances Nov 2020The concepts of leadership and dominance are often conflated, with individuals high in the social hierarchy assumed to be decision-makers. Dominants can exclusively...
The concepts of leadership and dominance are often conflated, with individuals high in the social hierarchy assumed to be decision-makers. Dominants can exclusively benefit from monopolizing food resources and, therefore, induce an intragroup conflict when leading their group to these resources. We demonstrate that shared decision-making reduces such conflicts by studying movement initiations of wild vulturine guineafowl, a species that forms large, stable social groups with a steep dominance hierarchy. When dominant individuals displace subordinates from monopolizable food patches, the excluded subordinates subsequently initiate collective movement. The dominants then abandon the patch to follow the direction of subordinates, contrasting with nonmonopolizable resources where no individuals are excluded, and dominant individuals contribute extensively to group decisions. Our results demonstrate the role of shared decision-making in maintaining the balance of influence within animal societies.
PubMed: 33239284
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba5881 -
Bioinformation 2022Increasing incidences of myocardial infarction and decreasing age at which they are occurring has forced many researchers to do in depth study pertaining to the...
Increasing incidences of myocardial infarction and decreasing age at which they are occurring has forced many researchers to do in depth study pertaining to the anatomical variations in the vascular pattern of heart. Coronary dominancy of the heart will determine whether the territory of the heart supplied by the posterior inter ventricular artery will receive blood from right coronary artery or left coronary artery or both. Present study was conducted to explore the variations in the coronary dominant pattern in the aborted human fetal hearts. Right and left coronary arteries in 30 aborted human fetal hearts were thoroughly dissected from their commencement from the corresponding aortic sinus till their termination. The coronary dominance was determined on the basis of origin of posterior inter ventricular artery. We found 60% cases of right coronary dominance, 36.66% cases of left coronary dominance and 3.33% cases of balanced coronary dominance/ coronary co-dominance. Data shows variations in the vascular dominancy pattern of heart can be critically important for the cardiac surgeons, cardiologists as well as interventional radiologists while performing investigational or operative procedures.
PubMed: 37168785
DOI: 10.6026/97320630018513 -
Animals : An Open Access Journal From... Jan 2023In recent years, an increased number of studies have dealt with the analysis of social dominance related to animal behavior, physiology, and performance. This study...
In recent years, an increased number of studies have dealt with the analysis of social dominance related to animal behavior, physiology, and performance. This study aimed to investigate whether hierarchical ranking affects the coping style, non-social behavior during open field and novel object tests, performance, and physiological parameters of pigs. A total of 48 growing pigs (24 barrows and 24 females) were mixed three times during the growing-finishing period. The social and non-social behaviors of pigs were directly noted, and three behavioral tests were performed during the experimental period. Performance and physiological parameters were also recorded. Statistical analysis considered hierarchical classification (dominant vs. intermediary vs. subordinate) and -values ≤ 0.05 were considered significant. After three regroupings, the pigs in different hierarchical classifications showed no change in hair cortisol values and open-field and novel object tests. Mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration and leukocyte values increased in intermediary pigs, and the lowest counts were found in pigs classified as dominants. Furthermore, dominant pigs visited the feeder more but spent shorter time there compared to subordinate and intermediary pigs. Our results suggest that hierarchical classification influenced feeding behavior and physiological parameters without affecting cortisol values and growth performance, demonstrating a possible compensation skill.
PubMed: 36670831
DOI: 10.3390/ani13020292