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EAT-lancet diet linked to increased infant head circumference: a contrast with plant-based diet indices
Ancient feeding-related neuropeptides regulate alloparenting in ants
Abstract Alloparental care and division of labour are hallmarks of insect societies 1 . Social insect workers typically care for brood within the nest when they are young and transition to foraging outside the nest as they age 2–5 . This provides a powerful paradigm to study the neural basis of parenting and age-related behavioural change. Although previous work has interrogated aspects of these dynamics 6–14 , the underlying neural and molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, using an unbiased pharmacological screen of neuropeptides, we show that two ancestral regulators of feeding, neuropeptide F (NPF) and allatostatin A (AstA), modulate brood-care behaviour in the clonal raider ant. Through functional manipulations, we show that NPF increases brood-care behaviour, whereas AstA has the opposite effect. Furthermore, we find that the levels of NPF and AstA in the brain change naturally as ants age, suggesting that these changes underlie the age-related changes in brood-care behaviour. Finally, we show that, as in solitary species 15,16 , NPF and AstA remain sensitive to nutritional state, and nutritional state affects brood-care behaviour accordingly. Our results reveal that evolution has co-opted molecular mechanisms that regulated feeding ancestrally to enable cooperative brood care and age-associated division of labour.
Tangled Tail of Mechanically Interlocked Peptides
Correction: Salvianolic acid A modulates α-Ketoisovaleric acid metabolism to inhibit human cartilage endplate cells apoptosis under mechanical tensile stress
Charging Pyracylene: Steering Aromaticity and Reactivity of [12]Annulene by Substitution
Prokaryotic and microbial eukaryotic communities across acid-sulfate and chloride-rich hot springs in Lassen Volcanic National Park
Nonaqueous Ion Transport through Nanopores: A Nonlinear Behavior Driven by Enhanced Ion Correlation
Cocoa agroecosystems embedded in a neotropical Ramsar wetland support arthropod diversity and functional structure relevant to insect conservation
Molecular Glues Recruiting RNF213 As an E3 Ligase for Targeted Protein Degradation: A Minimal Dibromoacetamide Warhead As a Recruitment Ligand
Effect of virtual reality on spatial–anatomical understanding in preoperative liver surgery: a randomized crossover study
Abstract Precise spatial understanding of complex anatomy is critical for preoperative planning in hepatobiliary surgery. Traditional CT and MRI imaging require mental reconstruction of anatomy from 2D slices, imposing substantial cognitive load. Although 3D reconstructions improve spatial understanding, they are typically displayed on 2D screens, limiting true depth perception. Virtual Reality (VR) visualization offers both stereoscopic depth and embodied interaction to improve spatial-anatomical understanding, yet its quantitative advantage over standard desktop visualization remains uncertain, especially regarding task complexity. In this randomized crossover study, 58 medical students analyzed 3D liver models of varying complexity using both VR and desktop visualization. Performance on lesion/vessel relations and lesion segment allocation tasks served as a measure of spatial-anatomical understanding, while visuospatial ability was assessed with the Mental Rotations Test. In complex models, VR significantly improved performance compared with desktop visualization (28.0 ± 3.3 vs. 26.4 ± 3.6; p = 0.002, d = 0.46), whereas results for simpler models were comparable. The VR advantage scaled with task complexity and correlated with higher visuospatial ability ( r = 0.31, p = 0.018). These findings indicate that VR is associated with measurable advantages under higher task complexity, supporting its potential role in surgical education and preoperative planning, although the present design cannot isolate which immersive features drive this benefit.
Biomimetic Redox-Mediated Proton Relay in Nanoreactors for Photocatalysis
A new mamenchisaurid sauropod from the Lower Phu Kradung Formation, Upper Jurassic of northeastern Thailand
Abstract Mamenchisauridae is a group of long-necked non-neosauropodan eusauropod dinosaurs that were abundant in East Asia during the Middle to Late Jurassic, but their diversity and geographic distribution outside China remain poorly documented. Here we describe Uragasaurus kalasinensis gen. et sp. nov., a new sauropod dinosaur from the Phu Kradung Formation of northeastern Thailand. The new taxon is based on a well-preserved anterior dorsal vertebra exhibiting a distinctive combination of characters, including a unique Y-shaped configuration formed by the intraprezygapophyseal and single intraprezygapophyseal laminae and a camellate internal pneumatic structure within the centrum revealed by computed tomography (CT). Phylogenetic analyses recover the new taxon as an early-diverging member of Mamenchisauridae. This discovery represents the first formally named mamenchisaurid from Thailand and expands the known geographic distribution of the clade in Southeast Asia. The occurrence of this taxon in the Lower part of the Phu Kradung Formation also contributes to understanding faunal succession within the unit, supports an Upper Jurassic age for the lower part of the formation, and improves understanding of sauropod diversity in Southeast Asia during the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition.
Mitigating Electrode Stress via Self-Constructed Interfacial Carrier Networks in High-Areal-Capacity SiO <sub> <i>x</i> </sub> Anodes
Slope length thresholds and factor interactions drive nonlinear transitions in bare slope soil erosion
Abstract Soil erosion is a major global environmental threat, and unraveling the complex, non-linear interactions among its drivers is crucial for effective mitigation. This study employed interpretable machine learning (IML) framework, combining Random Forest (RF) with SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis, on a meta-analysis of 385 indoor experiments to decipher these mechanisms. Results identified slope length (SL) as the dominant controller, explaining 28.45% and 45.16% of the variance in runoff and sediment yield, respectively. Critical, factor-specific thresholds that trigger abrupt shifts in erosion dynamics were uncovered: runoff increased sharply when rainfall intensity (RI) exceeded 75 mm/h, and SL of approximately 4.5 m acted as a critical geomorphic threshold between detachment-limited and transport-limited erosion states. More importantly, the influence of key factors like sand content and antecedent soil moisture was mediated almost entirely through synergistic interactions with other variables, as quantified by Interaction-to-Main Effect Ratio (IMER > 188%). This demonstrates that erosion is driven by SL-centered interaction networks and their nonlinear thresholds, advancing the theoretical framework of erosion process transition and providing a mechanistic basis for threshold-targeted conservation strategies.