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Motor actions can be simulated and generated through the perception of objects and their characteristics. Such functional characteristics of objects with given action capabilities are called affordances. Here we report an interaction between the perception of affordances and the processing of numerical magnitude, and we show that the numerical information calibrates the judgement of action even when no actual action is required. In Experiment 1, participants had to judge whether they would be able to grasp a rod lengthways between their thumb and index finger. The presentation of the rod was preceded by a number or a non-numerical symbol. When a small number preceded the rod, participants overestimated their grasp; conversely, when a large number preceded the rods, they underestimated their grasp. In Experiment 2, participants were requested to judge if two successive rods had the same length, a judgement that did not involve any grasping. The numerical primes had no effect on this judgement, showing that the magnitude/affordance interaction was not due to a simple perceptual effect. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that the interaction was not present with a non-numerical ordered sequence, thereby eliminating sequence order as a potentially confounding variable.

Discrete numerosities can be represented by various finger configurations. The impact of counting strategies on these configurations and their possible semantic status were investigated in young adults. Experiment 1 showed that young adults named numerical finger configurations faster when they conformed to their own canonical finger-counting habits than when they did not. Experiment 2 showed that numeral finger configurations used as unconsciously presented primes speeded up numerical comparative judgements of Arabic numeral targets. Participants responded faster and made fewer errors with numerical than with non-numerical primes, and when primes and targets were congruent (i.e., leading to the same response). Moreover, this priming effect generalised to novel never consciously seen numerosities for canonical configurations but not for non-canonical ones. These results support the idea that canonical finger configurations automatically activate number semantics whereas non-canonical ones do not.

Rips et al. claim that the principles underlying the structure of natural numbers cannot be inferred from interactions with the physical world. However, in their target article they failed to consider an important source of interaction: finger counting. Here, we show that finger counting satisfies all the conditions required for allowing the concept of numbers to emerge from sensorimotor experience through a bottom-up process.

Numbers induce shifts of spatial attention on the left or the right sides of external space as a function of their magnitude. However, whether this number–space association is restricted to the linear horizontal extensions, or extends to the whole visual scene, is still an open question. This study investigates, by means of a cancellation paradigm, the influence of numerical magnitude during scanning tasks in which participants freely explore complex visual scenes unconstrained towards either the horizontal or the vertical unidimensional axes. Five cancellation tasks were adapted in which Arabic digits were used as targets or distracters, in structured (lines and columns) or unstructured visual displays, with a smaller (2 or 3 types of distracters) or larger (10 or more types of distracters) sets of stimuli. Results show that the participants’ hits distribution was a function of number magnitude: shifted on the left for small and on the right for large numbers. This effect was maximised when numerical cues were sparse, randomly arranged and, critically, irrelevant to the task. Overall, this study provides novel evidence from visuo-spatial exploratory cancellation tasks for an attentional shift induced by number magnitude.

With his massive redeployment hypothesis (MRH), Anderson claims that novel cognitive functions are likely to rely on pre-existing circuits already possessing suitable resources. Here, we put forward recent findings from studies in numerical cognition in order to show that the role of sensorimotor experience in the ontogenetical development of a new function has been largely underestimated in Anderson's proposal.

Immune-regulatory mechanisms of drug-free remission in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are unknown. We hypothesized that synovial tissue macrophages (STM), which persist in remission, contribute to joint homeostasis. We used single-cell transcriptomics to profile 32,000 STMs and identified phenotypic changes in patients with early/active RA, treatment-refractory/active RA and RA in sustained remission. Each clinical state was characterized by different frequencies of nine discrete phenotypic clusters within four distinct STM subpopulations with diverse homeostatic, regulatory and inflammatory functions. This cellular atlas, combined with deep-phenotypic, spatial and functional analyses of synovial biopsy fluorescent activated cell sorted STMs, revealed two STM subpopulations (MerTK pos TREM2 high and MerTK pos LYVE1 pos ) with unique remission transcriptomic signatures enriched in negative regulators of inflammation. These STMs were potent producers of inflammation-resolving lipid mediators and induced the repair response of synovial fibroblasts in vitro. A low proportion of MerTK pos STMs in remission was associated with increased risk of disease flare after treatment cessation. Therapeutic modulation of MerTK pos STM subpopulations could therefore be a potential treatment strategy for RA. Multiple subpopulations of synovial tissue macrophages with varied transcriptional, phenotypic and functional features may contribute to disease flare and tissue repair in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis and patients in clinical remission.

A muon collider would enable the big jump ahead in energy reach that is needed for a fruitful exploration of fundamental interactions. The challenges of producing muon collisions at high luminosity and 10 TeV centre of mass energy are being investigated by the recently-formed International Muon Collider Collaboration. This Review summarises the status and the recent advances on muon colliders design, physics and detector studies. The aim is to provide a global perspective of the field and to outline directions for future work.

The One Health approach unites efforts across human-animal-environment interfaces against shared threats like zoonotic diseases. T-Racing is a Shiny web application, that supports epidemiological investigations and helps contain livestock-related disease spread, aligning with multidisciplinary principles to safeguard public health. The application uses Temporal Network Analysis techniques to address the dynamic nature of animal trade, facilitating backward and forward tracing strategies. T-Racing leverages web services to retrieve data from multiple sources simultaneously and in near real-time through the plumber package and is distributed using Shinyproxy. T-Racing manages and analyze extensive and diverse datasets within the same environment, including animal movement data, disease outbreak data, and genomic data, all obtained from Italian National databases. In this work, we show T-Racing’s capabilities by simulating epidemiological investigations of brucellosis and tuberculosis outbreaks that occurred in non–endemic areas of Italy. To further highlight its capabilities, an interactive demo of T-Racing is available, showcasing its potential and features. This tool supports epidemiological investigations by adopting a data-driven approach, guiding users through the analysis via an iterative process while leveraging their expertise. Therefore, it enables faster data analysis, improves understanding of disease transmission patterns, and facilitates prompt and targeted interventions.

In contrast to the many reports of successful real-world cases of personalized bacteriophage therapy (BT), randomized controlled trials of non-personalized bacteriophage products have not produced the expected results. Here we present the outcomes of a retrospective observational analysis of the first 100 consecutive cases of personalized BT of difficult-to-treat infections facilitated by a Belgian consortium in 35 hospitals, 29 cities and 12 countries during the period from 1 January 2008 to 30 April 2022. We assessed how often personalized BT produced a positive clinical outcome (general efficacy) and performed a regression analysis to identify functional relationships. The most common indications were lower respiratory tract, skin and soft tissue, and bone infections, and involved combinations of 26 bacteriophages and 6 defined bacteriophage cocktails, individually selected and sometimes pre-adapted to target the causative bacterial pathogens. Clinical improvement and eradication of the targeted bacteria were reported for 77.2% and 61.3% of infections, respectively. In our dataset of 100 cases, eradication was 70% less probable when no concomitant antibiotics were used (odds ratio = 0.3; 95% confidence interval = 0.127–0.749). In vivo selection of bacteriophage resistance and in vitro bacteriophage–antibiotic synergy were documented in 43.8% (7/16 patients) and 90% (9/10) of evaluated patients, respectively. We observed a combination of antibiotic re-sensitization and reduced virulence in bacteriophage-resistant bacterial isolates that emerged during BT. Bacteriophage immune neutralization was observed in 38.5% (5/13) of screened patients. Fifteen adverse events were reported, including seven non-serious adverse drug reactions suspected to be linked to BT. While our analysis is limited by the uncontrolled nature of these data, it indicates that BT can be effective in combination with antibiotics and can inform the design of future controlled clinical trials. BT100 study, ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT05498363 . Analysis of 100 consecutive personalized bacteriophage therapy cases supports the use of personalized and sometimes pre-adapted, bacteriophage preparations, often in combination with antibiotics.