Patients with inflammatory bowel disease have lower numbers of Butyricicoccus bacteria in their stools. Administration of B pullicaecorum attenuates TNBS-induced colitis in rats and supernatant of B pullicaecorum cultures strengthens the epithelial barrier function by increasing the TER.

Persistence of tree species in a habitat depends on their ability to avoid and respond to disturbance-related damage. Responses to stem damage vary among species but typically include bark wound closure and prevention of xylem decay spread. These responses are associated with anatomical, structural, and physiological traits. This study explores how xylem (vessel size and (or) abundance, parenchyma abundance, ray width, and wood density) and phloem (bark thickness, proportion of live inner bark, ray width and (or) dilation, inter-ray distance, and tissue density) traits relate to responses to stem damage in seven species from the Bolivian Amazon. Rates of bark wound closure and radial xylem decay penetration were compared 2 years after experimental damage. A species that closed bark wounds rapidly (100% in Chorisia speciosa A. St.-Hil.) was not efficient at constraining xylem radial decay spread (1.7 mm). The opposite was true for Pseudolmedia laevis (Ruiz & Pav.) J.F. Macbr., a species that closed wounds slowly (30%) but efficiently controlled decay spread (0.5 mm). The relationship between anatomical and (or) structural traits and damage response variables revealed that species with favorable traits for rapid wound closure (e.g., widely dilating rays) had traits that favored xylem decay spread (e.g., low wood density). It is plausible that this apparent trade-off is based on physiological and phylogenetic constraints.

Polyphenols are chemically and biologically active compounds. Grape seed extracts (GSEs) have been widely used as a human food supplement for health promotion and disease prevention. However, there is little information regarding its application in animal feeds. An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of inclusion of GSE at 0.025, 0.25, 2.5 and 5.0 g/kg in a wheat soya bean control diet on growth performance, protein and amino acid (AA) digestibility and plasma lipid and mineral concentrations in broiler chickens at 21 days of age. Performance was not affected by dietary treatment except in the case of birds fed the diet with the highest GSE concentration, which showed a worsening of weight gain and feed conversion. Apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of protein was significantly reduced in the birds fed the highest concentration of GSE, which also had a reduction on the AID of arginine, histidine, phenylalanine, cystine, glutamic acid and proline compared with those fed control diet. The inclusion of graded concentration of GSE in the chicken diets caused a significant linear decrease in the concentrations of plasma copper, iron and zinc. Plasma cholesterol, triglycerides and lipoproteins (high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein and very-low-density lipoprotein) concentrations were not affected by dietary GSE. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that incorporation of GSE in chicken diets up to 2.5 g/kg had no adverse effect on growth performance or protein and AA digestibility. Feed conversion was reduced and growth rate was retarded, when chickens were fed 5 g/kg of GSE. This study also indicated that grape polyphenols reduce the free plasma minerals.

Achieving nature conservation goals require grappling with 'wicked' problems. These intractable problems arise from the complexity and dynamism of the social-ecological systems in which they are embedded. To enhance their ability to address these problems, conservation professionals are increasingly looking to the transdisciplines of systems thinking and evaluation, which provide philosophies, theories, methods, tools and approaches that show promise for addressing intractable problems in a variety of other sectors. These transdisciplines come together especially around praxis, i.e., the process by which a theory or idea is enacted, embodied or realized. We present a review and synthesis of the learnings about praxis that have emerged from The Silwood Group, a consortium of conservation professionals, professional evaluators, and complexity and systems thinkers. The Silwood Group believes that for conservation activities to achieve ambitious goals, we should benefit nature without compromising the well-being of people, and that framing a praxis for conservation in the context of social-ecological systems will provide the greatest potential for positive impact. The learnings are presented as four key principles of a 'praxis for effective conservation'. The four principles are: (1) attend to the whole with humility; (2) engage constructively with the values, cultures, politics, and histories of stakeholders; (3) learn through evaluative, systemic enquiry, and (4) exercise wisdom in judgement and action. We also provide descriptions and references for tools and methods to support such praxis and discuss how the thinking and approaches used by conservation professionals can be transformed to achieve greater effectiveness.

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