Analyzing bacterial networks and interactions in skin and gills of Sparus aurata with microalgae-based additive feeding.

The inclusion of microalgae in functional fish diets has a notable impact on the welfare, metabolism and physiology of the organism. The microbial communities associated with the fish are directly influenced by the host's diet, and further understanding the impact on mucosal microbiota is needed. This study aimed to analyze the microbiota associated with the skin and gills of Sparus aurata fed a diet containing 10% microalgae.

Key epidemiological indicators and spatial autocorrelation patterns across five waves of COVID-19 in Catalonia.

This research studies the evolution of COVID-19 crude incident rates, effective reproduction number R(t) and their relationship with incidence spatial autocorrelation patterns in the 19 months following the disease outbreak in Catalonia (Spain). A cross-sectional ecological panel design based on n = 371 health-care geographical units is used. Five general outbreaks are described, systematically preceded by generalized values of R(t) > 1 in the two previous weeks.

The study of aggression and affiliation motifs in bottlenose dolphins' social networks.

Networks in biology have provided a powerful tool to describe and study very complex biological processes and systems such as animal societies. Social network analysis allows us to assess different processes occurring in animal groups. In the current study, we use this approach to investigate how conflict dynamics and post-conflict interactions shape the social networks of groups of captive bottlenose dolphins.

Inequalities in COVID-19 inequalities research: Who had the capacity to respond?

The COVID-19 pandemic has been testing countries' capacities and scientific preparedness to actively respond and collaborate on a common global threat. It has also heightened awareness of the urgent need to empirically describe and analyze health inequalities to be able to act effectively. In turn, this raises several important questions that need answering: What is known about the rapidly emerging COVID-19 inequalities research field? Which countries and world regions have been able to rapidly produce research on this topic? What research patterns and trends have emerged, and how to these compared to the (pre-COVID-19) global health inequalities research field? Which countries have been scientifically collaborating on this important topic? Where are the scientific knowledge gaps, and indirectly where might research capacities need to be strengthened? In order to answer these queries, we analyzed the global scientific production (2020-2021) on COVID-19 associated inequalities by conducting bibliometric and network analyses using the Scopus database.

Rapid evolution of SARS-CoV-2 challenges human defenses.

The race between pathogens and their hosts is a major evolutionary driver, where both reshuffle their genomes to overcome and reorganize the defenses for infection, respectively. Evolutionary theory helps formulate predictions on the future evolutionary dynamics of SARS-CoV-2, which can be monitored through unprecedented real-time tracking of SARS-CoV-2 population genomics at the global scale. Here we quantify the accelerating evolution of SARS-CoV-2 by tracking the SARS-CoV-2 mutation globally, with a focus on the Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) of the spike protein determining infection success.