Hypoxemia occurs during exposure to high altitude (continuous hypoxemia) or in the context of breathing disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA; intermittent hypoxemia). Growing evidence demonstrates that hypoxemia induces an anorexigenic effect on appetite; however, few studies have assessed hypoxemia-related reductions in appetite during acute passive exposures and during intermittent hypoxemia. This study thus pooled together four same-single-site randomized crossover trials using simulated models of high altitude (fraction of inspired oxygen = 0.1200, ∼5000 m) and moderate OSA (∼15 hypoxemic cycles per hour, ∼85 oxyhemoglobin saturation). Changes in appetite were evaluated during 6 h of passive normoxia and intermittent or continuous hypoxemia in postprandial or fasting states among healthy young adults (n = 40) and middle-aged individuals living with OSA (n = 7). Our results demonstrate that (1) acute passive intermittent hypoxemia leads to statistically significant, but likely not clinically significant reductions in appetite in the postprandial state, (2) the anorexigenic effect of acute passive hypoxemia on appetite is not consistent across hypoxemic methods and nutritional states, and (3) variations in individual factors may influence appetite responses during normoxia and hypoxemia. These findings indicate that the effect of acute passive hypoxemia on appetite is heterogeneous, particularly across different hypoxemic methods and nutritional states.

(1) Background: With the aging population, effective interventions are needed to enhance the health of older adults. This study investigated the combined effects of yoga and the Mediterranean diet on various health outcomes in community-dwelling older adults; (2) Methods: The study employed a randomized controlled trial design with a total of 116 older adults randomized to an experimental group (n = 57) that underwent a combined yoga and Mediterranean diet program and a control group (n = 59) that did not receive any intervention. Nutritional status was assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment, flexibility with the Back Scratch Test and the Chair Sit-and-Reach Test, balance, gait, and fall risk with the Tinetti Scale, and muscle strength with a dynamometer and the 30 s Chair Stand Test; (3) Results: Regarding nutritional status, there were significant differences between the experimental group and the control group (Cohen\'s d = 0.02). The participants in the experimental group showed greater balance (11.12 ± 3.01 vs. 10.03 ± 2.35, Cohen\'s d = 0.41 and gait (7.63 ± 1.96 vs. 6.69 ± 2.50, Cohen\'s d = 0.44) with respect to the control group. In terms of flexibility, the experimental group showed statistically significant improvements in the right arm (Cohen\'s d = 0.43), left arm (Cohen\'s d = 0.64), right perineum (Cohen\'s d = 0.42), and left leg (Cohen\'s d = 0.37) Finally, in terms of strength, participants in the experimental group experienced statistically significant improvements in grip strength and lower body strength (Cohen\'s d = 0.39 and 0.81, respectively); (4) Conclusions: The study highlights the potential benefits of a 12-week intervention combining yoga with a Mediterranean diet to improve the health and functional capacities of community-dwelling older adults.

Understanding how animal collectives and societies form and function is a fundamental goal in animal biology. To date, research examining fish shoaling behavior has focused mostly on the general principles and ecological relevance of the phenomeon, while the ways in which physiological state (e.g., nutrition) affects collective behavior remain overlooked. Here, we investigated the shoaling behavior of common minnows (Phoxinus phoxinus) with three different nutritional states (control treatment: fasting for 24 h, fasting treatment: fasting for 7 days, and digestion treatment: 1 h after satiation feeding) across two ecological contexts (i.e., without and with food). No effects of either nutritional state or context were found on swimming speed, but the acceleration was greater in the digestion group than in the control group, with that in the fasting group being intermediate. Similar to change tendency in group length and group width of shoals, both interindividual distance and nearest neighbor distance were also greater in the fasting group than in the digestion group, suggesting that fasting and digestion may exert opposite driving forces on group cohesion. However, neither nutritional state nor context influenced the group area, group speed, group percent time moving, or group polarization. Both the foraging efficiency and the percentage of food items consumed by the fish shoals were greater in the fasting and control groups than in the digestion group. Our study suggested that one week of hunger and the energetically demanding stage of food digestion tend to have opposite influences on group shape, while the social foraging context does not influence the individual and group behavior of fish.

UNASSIGNED: The gut barrier, comprising gut microbiota, plays a pivotal role in chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression and nutritional status. This study aimed to explore gut barrier alterations in hemodialyzed (HD) patients, non-HD (NHD) CKD patients, and healthy volunteers.
UNASSIGNED: Our cross-sectional study enrolled 22 HD patients, 11 NHD patients, and 11 healthy volunteers. We evaluated fecal microbiota composition (assessed via bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequencing), fecal IgA levels, surrogate markers of gut permeability, serum cytokines, appetite mediators, nutritional status, physical activity, and quality of life.
UNASSIGNED: HD patients exhibited significant alterations in fecal microbiota composition compared to healthy volunteers, with observed shifts in taxa known to be associated with dietary patterns or producing metabolites acting on human host. In comparison to healthy volunteers, individuals with HD patients exhibited elevated levels of inflammatory markers (CRP, IL-6 and TNF-α), glucagon-like peptide-2, and potential anorexigenic markers (including leptin and peptide YY). NHD patients had increased levels of CRP and peptide YY. Overall fecal microbiota composition was associated with height, soft lean mass, resting energy expenditure, handgrip strength, bone mineral content and plasma albumin and TNF-α.
UNASSIGNED: Compared to healthy volunteers, HD patients have an altered fecal microbiota composition, a higher systemic inflammation, and a modification in plasma levels of appetite mediators. While some differences align with previous findings, heterogeneity exists likely due to various factors including lifestyle and comorbidities. Despite limitations such as sample size, our study underscores the multifaceted interplay between gut microbiota, physiological markers, and kidney function, warranting further investigation in larger cohorts.

In species that provide biparental care, there is a sexual conflict between parents over how much each should contribute toward caring for their joint offspring. Theoretical models for the resolution of this conflict through behavioral negotiation between parents assume that parents cannot assess their partner\'s state directly but do so indirectly by monitoring their partner\'s contribution. Here, we test whether parents can assess their partner\'s state directly by investigating the effect of nutritional state on cooperation between parents in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. We used a two-by-two factorial design, in which a well-fed or food-deprived female was paired with a well-fed or food-deprived male. We found that females adjusted their level of care in response to both their own nutritional state and that of their partner and that these decisions were independent of their partner\'s contribution. We found no evidence that males responded directly to the nutritional state. Males instead responded indirectly based on the contribution of their partner. Our results suggest that parents are able to assess the state of their partner, in contrast to what has been assumed, and that these assessments play an important role in the mediation of sexual conflict between caring parents.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the influence of pre-pregnancy maternal BMI and increases in maternal weight during pregnancy on perinatal and child outcomes at birth and at 5 years.
METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted between November 2016 and December 2021. The participants were a total of 115 women-child dyads, selected from among pregnant women receiving routine prenatal care in different health centres belonging to 2 health districts. Follow-ups were conducted with the women during pregnancy and with their children during the 10 days after birth and at 5 years.
RESULTS: The total weight gain during pregnancy is influenced by an inadequate pre-pregnancy BMI (0.03; 95 % CI, 0.004 - 0.25; P=.001) and a greater increase in maternal BMI during the first and second term of pregnancy. A greater increase in BMI during pregnancy was associated with higher breastfeeding rates both in the short term (1.21; 95 % CI, 1.01-1.44; P = 0.04) and the long term (12 months: 1.30; 95 % CI, 1.02 - 1.67; P = 0.04; 24 months: 1.30; 95 % CI, 1.02 - 1.69; P = 0.04). No links were found between gains in maternal weight and the weight of the newborn, nor between maternal weight and/or pre-pregnancy BMI with the nutritional status of the child.
CONCLUSIONS: After studying these results, it was concluded that promoting and implementing health and education policies focused on enhancing maternal nutritional status is essential to improve the nutritional status of children.
CONCLUSIONS: Healthy gestational weight gain (GWG) is an important issue to be addressed by the midwife in primary care, both in the preconception period and throughout pregnancy. As a result, it is important that the midwife is trained and has the appropriate resources and tools to work with pregnant women individually and collectively. In addition to paying attention to overweight and obese pregnant women, the midwife should also pay attention to women with a normal BMI, as they seem to have greater difficulty in maintaining a healthy weight gain. Another line of intervention to be addressed is breastfeeding (BF), where the midwife should be the main point of reference from the beginning of this process, taking into account the relationship between BMI and BF.

The gut hormone ghrelin drives food motivation and increases food intake, but it is also involved in the anticipation of and response to rewards other than food. This pre-registered study investigated how naturally varying ghrelin concentrations affect the processing of touch as a social reward in humans. Sixty-seven volunteers received slow caressing touch (so-called CT-targeted touch) as a social reward and control touch on their shins during 3T functional imaging on two test days. On one occasion, participants were fasted, and on another, they received a meal. On each occasion, plasma ghrelin was measured at three time points. All touch was rated as more pleasant after the meal, but there was no association between ghrelin concentrations and pleasantness. CT-targeted touch was rated as the most pleasant and activated somatosensory and reward networks (whole brain). A region-of-interest in the right medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) showed lower activation during all touches, the higher the ghrelin concentrations were. During CT-targeted touch, a larger satiety response (ghrelin decrease after the meal) was associated with higher mOFC activation, and this mOFC activation was associated with higher experienced pleasantness. Overall, higher ghrelin concentrations appear to be related to a lower reward value for touch. Ghrelin may reduce the value of social stimuli, such as touch, to promote food search and intake in a state of low energy. This suggests that the role of ghrelin goes beyond assigning value to food reward.

The stomach-derived hormone ghrelin motivates food search and stimulates food consumption, with highest plasma concentrations before a meal and lowest shortly after. However, ghrelin also appears to affect the value of non-food rewards such as interaction with rat conspecifics, and monetary rewards in humans. The present pre-registered study investigated how nutritional state and ghrelin concentrations are related to the subjective and neural responses to social and non-social rewards. In a cross-over feed-and-fast design, 67 healthy volunteers (20 women) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a hungry state and after a meal with repeated plasma ghrelin measurements. In task 1, participants received social rewards in the form of approving expert feedback, or non-social computer reward. In task 2, participants rated the pleasantness of compliments and neutral statements. Nutritional state and ghrelin concentrations did not affect the response to social reward in task 1. In contrast, ventromedial prefrontal cortical activation to non-social rewards was reduced when the meal strongly suppressed ghrelin. In task 2, fasting increased activation in the right ventral striatum during all statements, but ghrelin concentrations were neither associated with brain activation nor with experienced pleasantness. Complementary Bayesian analyses provided moderate evidence for a lack of correlation between ghrelin concentrations and behavioral and neural responses to social rewards, but moderate evidence for an association between ghrelin and non-social rewards. This suggests that ghrelin\'s influence may be restricted to non-social rewards. Social rewards implemented via social recognition and affirmation may be too abstract and complex to be susceptible to ghrelin\'s influence. In contrast, the non-social reward was associated with the expectation of a material object that was handed out after the experiment. This may indicate that ghrelin might be involved in anticipatory rather than consummatory phases of reward.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a disease that is spreading worldwide and is responsible for a huge number of deaths annually. It is characterized by progressive and often irreversible airflow obstruction, with a heterogeneous clinical manifestation based on disease severity. Along with pulmonary impairment, COPD patients display different grades of malnutrition that can be linked to a worsening of respiratory function and to a negative prognosis. Nutritional impairment seems to be related to a reduced exercise tolerance and to dyspnoea becoming a major determinant in patient-perceived quality of life. Many strategies have been proposed to limit the effects of malnutrition on disease progression, but there are still limited data available to determine which of them is the best option to manage COPD patients. The purpose of this review is to highlight the main aspects of COPD-related malnutrition and to underline the importance of poor nutritional state on muscle energetics, exercise tolerance and dyspnoea.

UNASSIGNED: This paper presents a preliminary study on whether repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can modulate the nutritional status of persistent vegetative state (PVS) patients (the primary endpoint) by regulating the intestinal flora and the metabolites, with the correlation between them also investigated.
UNASSIGNED: Seventy-six patients with PVS were selected and divided into the observation group (n = 38) and the control group (n = 38) by random numerical grouping. All subjects\' stool samples were examined for metabolites and analyzed regarding the short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) content. All subjects\' serum albumin, prealbumin, and hemoglobin levels were measured before and after the treatment. Nutrition risk screening 2002 was performed on all the subjects before and after the treatment and on the 30th and 90th days of the follow-up.
UNASSIGNED: (1) Intestinal flora structure: the Chao index, Ace index, and Shannon index of the observation group and the control group were significantly higher (p < 0.05), while the Simpson index was significantly lower (p < 0.05) following the treatment. (2) Metabolites of the intestinal flora: the observation group had significantly higher levels of acetic acid, butyric acid, and valeric acid (p < 0.05), as well as lower levels of propionic acid (p < 0.05) following the treatment. (3) Nutritional status (the primary endpoint): following the treatment, the above serum nutritional indices were significantly higher in both groups (p < 0.05), while the indices of the observation group were significantly higher than those of the control group (p < 0.05).
UNASSIGNED: The rTMS method may improve the nutritional status of patients with PVS by regulating the structure of the intestinal flora and affecting the level of SCFAs through the microbiota-gut-brain axis. The possible mechanism involves how high-frequency rTMS can cause increased excitation in the frontal lobe of the right side of the brain, thus regulating the 5-hydroxytryptamine and norepinephrine levels.