Perhaps nothing is stronger evidence of the importance of sleep than its conservation across animals, but the extent of its regulatory conservation is unknown. The upside-down jellyfish Cassiopea xamachana sleeps, and this behavior is controlled by radially-spaced marginal ganglia. After defining a sleep-wake threshold, we compared gene expression profiles of ganglia from animals sleep-deprived for two nights and found differential expression in many sleep-related genes including GABAergic, melatonergic, and cholinergic receptors. We focused on a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor alpha subunit-like (Chrnal-E), based on its differential expression, and selected animals for a second round of RNAseq that included both light-based and mechanically-based sleep-deprivation. Combining datasets revealed a short list of differentially expressed genes, of which chrnal-E is the most recognizable and well-supported, so we investigated its potential role in sleep regulation. First, we found that chemical cholinergic neuromodulators positively regulate pacemaker activity. Then, we showed by in situ hybridization that chrnal-E is expressed primarily within the ganglia, and that the area of expression expands after sleep deprivation. Next, we developed RNAi for use in Cassiopea and determined that Chrnal-E promotes wakefulness. Finally, we sampled circadian timepoints in the field and found in control conditions, chrnal-E has lowest expression late at night, but in sleep deprived animals, chrnal-E peaks at this time, supporting a link to wakefulness. Our finding that Cassiopea sleep is regulated by the cholinergic system underscores that mechanisms of sleep conservation are deeply conserved in animal evolution.

During oogenesis, self-renewal and differentiation of germline stem cells (GSCs) must be tightly regulated. TheDrosophilafemale germline serves as an excellent model for studying these regulatory mechanisms. Here, we report that a previously uncharacterized geneCG14545, which we namedsakura, is essential for oogenesis and female fertility inDrosophila. Sakura is predominantly expressed in the ovaries, particularly in the germline cells, including GSCs.sakuranull mutant female flies display rudimentary ovaries with germline-less and tumorous phenotypes, fail to produce eggs, and are completely sterile. The germline-specific depletion ofsakuraimpairs Dpp/BMP signaling, leading to aberrantbag-of-marbles(bam) expression, resulting in faulty differentiation and loss of GSCs. Additionally,sakurais necessary for normal piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) levels and for proper localization of Oo18 RNA-binding protein (Orb) in developing oocytes. We identified Ovarian Tumor (Otu) as protein binding partner of Sakura, and we found that loss ofotuphenocopies loss ofsakurain ovaries. Thus, we identified Sakura as a crucial factor for GSC renewal and differentiation and oogenesis, and propose that Sakura and Otu function together in these processes.

Emerging evidence indicates that the accumulated D-lactate (D-la) from gut microbiota induces diverse effects in human intestinal injury diseases. However, its regulatory mechanism and functional consequence remain unclear. Here, we show that the secreted D-la induces lysine D-lactylation (K-Dla) to modulate transcription in host cells. We uncover K-Dla in HepG2 cells stimulated by D-la from E. coli secretions. Then, we confirm the occurrence of D-la-driven K-Dla by four approaches. We further validate that the existence of K-Dla in organisms by detecting the mouse liver and human intestinal tissue. Besides, we demonstrate a SCOT1-catalyzed biosynthetic pathway of D-lactyl-CoA as a key donor for K-Dla. Next, we identify the K-Dla landscape with 2895 sites and further suggest the regulation of histone K-Dla in transcription. Finally, we show the potential effect of K-Dla on the hepatocellular carcinoma cell proliferation. In summary, we report that the secreted D-la can induce K-Dla to regulate transcription, providing a new insight into the function of D-la secreted by gut microbiota and the effect of protein chemical modifications induced by bacterial secretions.

Home care (or home health care) makes a critical contribution to the care of older people, yet many people have little experience or knowledge of this service, and its component parts. Many older adults receive home care, but the nature of the support varies from country to country. This Forum Article considers how home care is defined, its scope and purpose and how services are shaped by the systems in which they operate. Systematic data collection in home care services already exists in some countries, while in many others, such as the UK, it is being planned. Defining data requirements for home care is critical to evaluation of care quality and cross-country comparisons. Data have the potential to play an important role in shaping perceptions of home care. For information to be useful, we require a shared understanding of what constitutes home care, what people want and need from a service and which data should be captured.

The epidemiological risk factors associated with mpox acquisition and severity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are changing. We assessed perceived mpox risk, and behavioral, clinical and sexual histories among key populations at risk of acquisition through sexual contact. Here, we describe a sampling strategy to enroll participants considered to be at increased risk for mpox infection - men who have sex with men (MSM) and sex workers (SW) - in three urban centers in the DRC. Through the combined approach of time-location sampling with peer educators and respondent-driven sampling, a mixed cohort of 2826 individuals including self-identified MSM (n = 850), SW (n = 815), both MSM and SW (n = 118) and non-MSM, non-SW individuals (n = 1043) was enrolled in Kinshasa, Kinshasa province, Kenge, Kwango province, and Goma, North Kivu province, from March-August 2024. Of these, over 90% were reached through peer educators. The odds of sampling SW individuals were higher at bars/clubs than traditional health facilities. Conversely, the odds of enrolling MSM were highest at selected health facilities. Modifications to the sampling approach were introduced in Kenge and Goma, but these did not affect the enrollment of MSM or SW participants. Ultimately, the selection of, and collaboration with, well-integrated peer educators was the most important facet of this sampling strategy. As the definitions of at-risk populations continue to change for mpox, we demonstrate a functional approach to quickly surveying otherwise hard-to-reach groups for both public health surveillance activities and response.

The sense of agency refers to the subjective feeling of controlling one’s own actions and, through them, external events. It is a crucial aspect of consciousness, indicating that an agent can understand the causal relationship between their actions and environmental changes and, more importantly, voluntarily influence the environment through their actions. There has been extensive debate about when children and which animals possess the sense of agency, primarily because they cannot easily report it. Observing actions might be a promising way to estimate the sense of agency without relying on introspection. However, despite actions containing rich information about human subjective feelings, there are very few ways to abstract such information. In the present study, we aim to clarify the relationship between actions and the sense of agency during control exploration using a dataset of 167 children (6-16 years old) acquired by Nobusako et al. (2022). We employ action plan analysis developed by Chang et al. (2024) to analyze motion sequences data which was self-generated by participants during a control detection task. The action plan analysis uses transformer-LSTM-based autoencoders to capture high-level, abstract representations of sequences of motor commands (referred to as action plans). This approach allows us to quantify action plan diversity that reflects control exploration behaviors. The results showed that action plan diversity can be a promising way to measure the sense of agency both within individuals and among them. This suggests that simply observing how actions change under different control conditions can quantitatively reflect the emergence of the sense of agency in children. The findings and methodology provide a highly novel and useful tool for studying the sense of agency in broader populations and species in future studies.

The coordinated movement of fish schools has long captivated researchers studying animal collective behavior. Classical literature from Weihs and Lighthill suggests that fish schools should favor planar diamond formations to increase hydrodynamic efficiency, inspiring a large body of work ranging from fluid simulations to hydrofoil experiments. However, whether fish schools actually adopt and maintain this idealized formation remains debated and unresolved. When fish schools are free to self-organize in three dimensions, what formations do they prefer? By tracking polarized schools of giant danios (Devario aequipinnatus) swimming continuously for ten hours, we demonstrate that fish rarely stay in a horizontal plane, and even more rarely, in the classical diamond formation. Of all fish pairs within four body-lengths from each other, only 25.2% are in the same plane. Of these, 54.6% are inline, 30.0% are staggered, and 15.4% are side-by-side. The diamond formation was observed in less than 0.1% of all frames. Notably, a "ladder formation" emerged as the most probable formation for schooling giant danios, appearing in 79% of all fish pairs and fish schools elongate at higher swimming speeds. These findings highlight the dynamic and three-dimensional nature of fish schools and suggest that hydrodynamic benefits may be obtained without requiring fixed positions. This research provides a foundation for future studies that examine the hydrodynamics and control of underwater collectives in 3D formations.

A wormhole is a physical object that connects different points in spacetime and is based on a special solution to Einstein's field equations. A wormhole can be visualized as a tunnel with two ends in different points of spacetime (i.e., different locations or different points in time or both). For a long time, there has been a widely accepted understanding in the world of science that it is possible to travel in time using tunnels in spacetime, also known as wormholes. Similarly, wormholes also assist in performing space travel, since travelling through tunnels in spacetime brings extreme distances in space much closer to us. A tunnel in spacetime, the popular name of which is wormhole, is a curvature of time and space connecting two points in spacetime, which enables to move from one moment in time to another or to move from one point in space to another in an instant or only just in 0 seconds. Another major area presented in this work is the mini-standard model of elementary particles. Wormholes and the Mini Standard Model of Elementary Particles are part of the physics theory of time travel. The "Standard Model of Elementary Particle Physics" attempts to describe the properties of all elementary particles that exist in the universe. There are actually many more different particles than can be found in ordinary matter, but mostly these particles are unstable, since the majority of all elementary particles decay relatively quickly into the particles we know everyday.

Taste preference is a fundamental driver of feeding behavior influencing dietary choices and eating patterns. Extensive experimental evidence indicates that the gustatory cortex (GC) is engaged in taste perception, palatability and preference. However, our knowledge of the neural and neurochemical signals regulating taste preference is rather limited. Neuromodulators can affect preferences, though their effects on neural circuits for taste are incompletely understood. Neurosteroids are of particular interest in view of reports that systemic administration of the neurosteroid allopregnanolone, a potent modulator of tonic GABAergic inhibition, induces hyperphagia and increases intake of energy rich food in human and animal subjects. Tonic inhibition is a powerful modulator of circuit excitability and is primarily mediated by extrasynaptic GABAA receptors containing the delta subunit (δ-GABAARs). These receptors are widely distributed in the brain, but information regarding the expression of δ-GABAARs within gustatory circuits is lacking, and their role in taste preference has not been investigated. Here, we focused on GC to investigate whether activation of δ-GABAARs affects sweet taste preference in adult mice. Our data reveal that δ-GABAARs are expressed in multiple cell types within GC. These receptors mediate an allopregnanolone-sensitive tonic current and decrease sweet taste preference by altering the behavioral sensitivity to sucrose concentration in a cell type-specific manner. Our findings demonstrate that taste sensitivity and preference in the adult mammalian brain are modulated by tonic inhibition mediated by neurosteroid-activated δ-GABAARs in GC.

Numerous studies have substantiated the efficacy of slow-paced breathing (SPB) in decreasing anxiety and increasing vagally-mediated heart rate variability (HRV). Given its effectiveness and simplicity, SPB is a promising candidate for a just-in-time adaptive intervention (JITAI). This study examined the efficacy of SPB, triggered by increased anxiety and perseverative cognition (PC), on reducing these symptoms and increasing HRV at macro, micro, and immediate levels. Eighty individuals with subclinical anxiety from the Flemish general population were randomized into experimental (EC) or passive control (CC) conditions. Anxiety symptoms were evaluated at baseline and after 15 days. Participants underwent a control period (CP; 6 days) and an intervention period (IP; 6 days), during which they reported momentary anxiety and PC via a mobile application while wearing a portable electrocardiogram. EC participants received SPB training between CP and IP and were prompted to use SPB exercises during IP when anxiety/PC increased. Analyses revealed a significant effect of SPB on reducing retrospectively reported anxiety, but not on average daily-life anxiety and PC or HRV assessed throughout the IP. Micro-level analyses indicated that SPB was associated with a decrease in PC but not anxiety at the subsequent daily-life assessment. Anxiety and PC decreased substantially from immediately before to immediately after SPB. The effect of SPB on HRV remains inconclusive due to methodological concerns in measuring HRV in ambulatory settings. The results provide mixed evidence for the efficacy of SPB as a JITAI, indicating the need for replication studies to further evaluate its potential.