Social learning of fear and safety is determined by the demonstrator's racial group.

Social learning offers an efficient route through which humans and other animals learn about potential dangers in the environment. Such learning inherently relies on the transmission of social information and should imply selectivity in what to learn from whom. Here, we conducted two observational learning experiments to assess how humans learn about danger and safety from members ('demonstrators') of an other social group than their own. We show that both fear and safety learning from a racial in-group demonstrator was more potent than learning from a racial out-group demonstrator.

NMR investigations of interactions between anesthetics and lipid bilayers.

Interactions between anesthetics (lidocaine and short chain alcohols) and lipid membranes formed by dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) were studied using NMR spectroscopy. The orientational order of lidocaine was investigated using deuterium NMR on a selectively labelled compound whereas segmental ordering in the lipids was probed by two-dimensional 1H-13C separated local field experiments under magic-angle spinning conditions. In addition, trajectories generated in molecular dynamics (MD) computer simulations were used for interpretation of the experimental results. Separate simulations were carried out with charged and uncharged lidocaine molecules. Reasonable agreement between experimental dipolar interactions and the calculated counterparts was observed. Our results clearly show that charged lidocaine affects significantly the lipid headgroup. In particular the ordering of the lipids is increased accompanied by drastic changes in the orientation of the P-N vector in the choline group.

Anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and waste activated sludge: ADM1 modelling and microbial analysis to gain insights into the two substrates' synergistic effects.

The reasons for the acidification problem affecting Food Waste (FW) anaerobic digestion were explored, combining the outcomes of microbiological data (FISH and CARD-FISH) and process modelling, based on the Anaerobic Digestion Model n°1 (ADM1). Long term semi continuous experiments were carried out, both with sole FW and with Waste Activated Sludge (WAS) as a co-substrate, at varying operational conditions (0.8-2.2 g VS L-1 d-1) and FW / WAS ratios. Acidification was observed along FW mono-digestion, making it necessary to buffer the digesters; ADM1 modelling and experimental results suggested that this phenomenon was due to the methanogenic activity decline, most likely related to a deficiency in trace elements. WAS addition, even at proportions as low as 10% of the organic load, settled the acidification issue; this ability was related to the promotion of the methanogenic activity and the consequent enhancement of acetate consumption, rather than to WAS buffering capacity. The ability of the ADM1 to model processes affected by low microbial activity, such as FW mono-digestion, was also assessed. It was observed that the ADM1 was only adequate for digestions with a high activity level for both bacteria and methanogens (FISH/CARD-FISH ratio preferably >0.8) and, under these conditions, the model was able to correctly predict the relative abundance of both microbial populations, extrapolated from FISH analysis.

NMR studies of membranes composed of glycolipids and phospholipids.

Lipid membranes composed of monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) and dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) were studied by means of NMR spectroscopy. The macroscopic phase behaviour was investigated by (31)P NMR under stationary conditions, whereas microscopic properties such as segmental ordering were probed by two-dimensional (1)H-(13)C separated local field experiments under magic-angle spinning conditions. Our results clearly show that ordering/disordering effects occur for the headgroups as well as for the acyl chains when the sample composition is varied. In particular, the (1)H-(13)C dipolar couplings within the galactose headgroup of MGDG exhibited significant concentration dependence.

Probing segmental order in lipid bilayers at variable hydration levels by amplitude- and phase-modulated cross-polarization NMR.

The conformational response of dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine bilayers in the liquid crystalline phase to hydration is investigated by a novel magic-angle spinning cross-polarization NMR technique.

Efficient solid-state NMR methods for measuring heteronuclear dipolar couplings in unoriented lipid membrane systems.

Recently (Dvinskikh et al., J. Magn. Reson., 2003, 164, 165 and Dvinskikh et al., J. Magn. Reson., 2004, 168, 194), some of us introduced two efficient solid-state NMR techniques for the determination of heteronuclear dipolar couplings under magic-angle spinning (MAS). These two-dimensional (2D) recoupling methods have been applied previously to simple amino acids, and to columnar systems with high positional and orientational order. In this work, we show that the 2D MAS sequences produce unparalleled 1H-13C dipolar resolution in unoriented lipid membranes. The recoupling experiments were applied to hydrated dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) in the liquid-crystalline Lalpha phase, and the results agreed well with previous NMR investigations using specifically deuterated phospholipids.

Heating caused by radiofrequency irradiation and sample rotation in 13C magic angle spinning NMR studies of lipid membranes.

Application of rapid sample rotation and radiofrequency irradiation in magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR of lipid bilayers can significantly increase the sample temperature. In this work, we studied the extent of heating during the acquisition of 1H-decoupled 13C MAS spectra of hydrated dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) in the L(alpha) phase. First, we describe a simple procedure for determining the increase in temperature by observing the shift of the 1H water signal. The method is then used to identify and assess the various factors that contribute to the sample heating. The important factors discussed in this paper include: (i) the spinning speed, (ii) the variable-temperature gas pressure, (iii) the rotor geometry, (iv) the power, duration and frequency of the radiofrequency irradiation and (v) the hydration level. A comparison of different heteronuclear decoupling schemes in terms of their ability to produce highly resolved 13C spectra of DMPC is also reported.