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Antrodia cinnamomea extract exhibits anti-melanogenic and anti-photoaging effects: potential for cosmetic and dermatological applications
Abstract Skin pigmentation and photoaging are major dermatological concerns, underscoring the need for safe and effective topical agents. Antrodia cinnamomea , a medicinal mushroom native to Taiwan, is well known for its hepatoprotective, anti-cancer, and metabolic benefits; however, its anti-melanogenic and anti-photoaging potential remains insufficiently characterized. In this study, we demonstrate that A. cinnamomea ethanol extract (AC-EtOH) suppresses melanin production and tyrosinase activity in α-MSH–stimulated B16F10 melanocytes by downregulating the mRNA expression of tyrosinase, TRP-1, TRP-2, and microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF). AC-EtOH also inhibits α-MSH–activated PKA/cAMP/CREB signaling, further contributing to melanogenesis suppression. In skin fibroblasts, AC-EtOH protects against UV-induced photoaging by reducing the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and attenuating the expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP1 and MMP3) and pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β and IL-6). To improve its suitability for cosmetic formulations, polyethylene glycol (PG)—a widely used solvent—was employed to generate an A. cinnamomea extract–PG mixture (AC-PG). AC-PG retained the biological efficacy of AC-EtOH, reducing melanin production and tyrosinase activity in α-MSH–induced cells, while exhibiting low sensitization and irritation potential, as per OECD Test Guidelines 439, 492, and 442E. Collectively, these findings identify AC-EtOH as a promising natural ingredient with potent anti-melanogenic and anti-photoaging activities, supporting its potential application in cosmetic and dermatological products for skin whitening, anti-wrinkle, and anti-photoaging purposes.
Towards convergence of AI and blockchain for personalized medicine in pharmacogenomics
Why AI can’t be trusted to write scientific reviews
A psychological education model integrating artificial intelligence-based BERT in physical education
Structured-light control of axion electrodynamics in topological insulator scattering
Abstract Topological insulators exhibit an axion-mediated magnetoelectric response that generates cross-polarised scattering channels strictly forbidden in conventional dielectrics, an optical fingerprint of the topological surface states themselves. Exploiting this fingerprint experimentally requires structured illumination capable of selectively amplifying the cross-polarised channel while suppressing background Mie scattering. Here we show that non-diffracting Lommel beams fulfil this role in a way that symmetric Bessel beams fundamentally cannot. We present the first theoretical treatment of polarised Lommel beam scattering by a topological insulator sphere, extending generalised Lorenz-Mie theory to incorporate the full topological magnetoelectric boundary conditions and deriving closed-form cross-polarised scattering coefficients as a function of the axion angle θ0. The central result is that the Lommel asymmetry parameter c provides continuous, tunable control over multipole excitation: by varying c , one preferentially drives the multipole orders that couple most strongly to the axion term, amplifying the cross-polarised signal while suppressing the co-polarized background, a capability absent in any cylindrically symmetric beam. At moderate axion coupling (θ0 = π), the cross-polarised-to-co-polarized intensity ratio reaches order 10⁻², well within the detection range of standard polarimetric instrumentation. The inversion protocol for recovering the axion angle shows that the phenomenon is no longer a computational study of a beam-material combination; instead, it is a non-contact optical metrology protocol for axion angle retrieval. The ratio of cross-polarised to co-polarised scattering intensity increases nonlinearly and monotonically with θ0, confirming an unambiguous optical signature of the topological magnetoelectric effect. Circularly polarised Lommel beams further reveal pronounced handedness-dependent scattering asymmetry arising from spin-orbit coupling at the surface states. These results establish a quantitative framework connecting structured light parameters, topological charge, asymmetry, cone angle, and polarisation, to axion electrodynamics, and identify spatial-light-modulator-generated Lommel illumination as a practical, non-contact route to optical characterisation of topological surface states in Bi₂Se₃ and Bi₂Te₃ nanoparticles.
Correction: Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) essential oil and oil-loaded nano-formulations as an anti-aging potentiality via TGFβ/SMAD pathway
Effect and safety of tislelizumab combined with anlotinib and radiotherapy in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: A single-arm, single-center, phase II clinical study
Abstract Immune checkpoint inhibitors plus targeted therapy remains the mainstay of treatment for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), yet its efficacy is limited. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tislelizumab combined with anlotinib and radiotherapy as first-line therapy for advanced HCC. This was a single-arm, single-center, phase II clinical trial. A total of 45 patients with advanced HCC were enrolled and administered first-line therapy consisting of tislelizumab plus anlotinib combined with radiotherapy. Stratification was performed according to pretreatment portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) status, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage, and median biologically effective dose (BED) of the gross tumor volume (GTV). Treatment response was assessed using the modified Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors, and adverse events (AEs) were graded per the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 4.0. The primary endpoint was the objective response rate (ORR). Secondary endpoints included the progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), disease control rate (DCR), and safety profiles reflected by AEs. The median BED of the GTV was 47.9 Gy (Gy). The ORR and DCR were 62.2% (28/45) and 75.6% (34/45), respectively. Median PFS and OS were 11.0 months (95% CI 1.444–14.081) and 26.7 months (95% CI 1.749–25.178), respectively. ORR and DCR were comparable across subgroups defined by PVTT status, BCLC stage, and BED level (all p > 0.05). No significant differences in PFS or OS were observed among these subgroups (all p > 0.05). Most AEs (82.2%, 37/45) were grade 1/2 and well tolerated. Grade 3/4 AEs occurred in 13.3% (6/45) of patients. No grade 5 events, radiation-induced liver disease, or treatment-related deaths were reported. Tislelizumab combined with anlotinib and radiotherapy demonstrates promising efficacy and acceptable safety as first-line treatment for advanced HCC. Clinical outcomes appear to be independent of PVTT status, BCLC stage, or radiation BED level. Registration Number in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry: ChiCTR2000039022 (10/13/2020). https://www.chictr.org.cn/index.html .
Design, implementation, and evaluation of neonatal abstinence syndrome care management web application: a multimethod study
Innovation starts in schools — lessons from China
Radiation dose has no significant impact on CT-based bone mineral density measurements in a large-animal model
Abstract Bone mineral density (BMD) is a biomarker for frailty, and CT-derived radiodensity can be extracted fully automatically as a surrogate. Because these measurements might be affected by image noise, which varies substantially in the clinical routine, this systematic large-animal study investigates the consistency of CT-based BMD measurements under different radiation dose settings. Twenty Göttingen minipigs underwent six non-contrast CT examinations with five dose levels (CTDIvol: 0.53–10.01 mGy; 5%, 10%, 20%, 40%, 100%; 600 scans). BMD was assessed using CT-derived radiodensity (Hounsfield units, HU) by segmenting the complete ninth thoracic vertebra, and by placing a region of interest (ROI) in the trabecular bone. RM-ANOVA was used to assess statistical significance. Data are presented as mean with standard deviation. The BMD measurement remained consistent between the control and the different dose settings. Even the lowest dose setting (5%: complete = 761 [± 56] HU, ROI = 749 [± 72] HU) showed no significant differences compared to the control (complete = 756 [± 55] HU, ROI = 738 [± 68] HU). Finally, CT-based BMD measurements remained consistent and are therefore robust to substantial dose reduction, indicating the technical feasibility of comparing CT examinations with different dose protocols, relevant for opportunistic screening.
Conservation gains should not be at the mercy of political changes
24-h smartphone usage patterns in university students using high-granularity tracking
How I eavesdrop on frog conversations
A low-cost vision based hand gesture interface for real time industrial motor control in resource constrained environments
How to breathe life back into brain theory
The miniaturized vacuum system for cold atom sensors based on the technology of passive vacuum
Abstract Over the past decade, the cold atom sensors have transitioned gradually from laboratory-based experiments to practical field applications. The miniaturization is of great importance and needs to be achieved for this transition, especially for the vacuum system for cold atom sensors. Typically, the vacuum system is complicated and usually composed of the vacuum chamber, the optical path for the laser beam, and the magnetic field coils. The improvement of size, weight, and power (SWaP) consumption of the vacuum system has become a challenge at present. In this paper, the passive vacuum technology is proposed and overviewed to simplify the vacuum system for cold atom sensors (VSCAS). Firstly, the materials of low helium-permeability are summarized. Secondly, the key components required for the realization of the passive vacuum system (PVS) are discussed in great detail, including the getter pump and atomic source. Then, the integration of the passive vacuum system with the mentioned components is summarized, and the evaluation methods of the performance of those vacuum systems have been analyzed. Moreover, we have carried out the preliminary designs and experiments of PVS, and present some experimental results to verify its feasibility.
ZT-RIASE: Zero Trust-resilient identity attestation for securing smart industrial IoT environment
Abstract In the Industry 5.0 paradigm, collaborative intelligence, human–machine cooperation, and real-time cognitive automation have increased the dependence of industrial systems on secure and uninterrupted Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) connectivity. However, this convergence also expands the cyberattack surface and exposes resource-constrained industrial devices to impersonation, replay, man-in-the-middle, rogue gateway, insider, and session-hijacking attacks. Existing authentication schemes mainly focus on initial access verification and often lack continuous Zero Trust enforcement, failure-resilient reconnection, and network-aware runtime validation. To address these limitations, this paper proposes ZT-RIASE, a Zero Trust-resilient identity attestation framework for securing smart industrial IoT environments. ZT-RIASE adopts a hybrid bootstrap–symmetric runtime design, where public-key cryptography is used only during initial device registration and key agreement, while recurring runtime identity attestation, session maintenance, reconnection, and continuous verification rely on lightweight symmetric-key and behavior-based mechanisms. The runtime protocol uses AES-128-GCM, hash/MAC-based integrity verification, nonce–timestamp freshness, and session-continuity tokens to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and replay resistance without repeated public-key operations. To further reduce recurrent authentication overhead, ZT-RIASE introduces Network-Aware Crypto-Behavioral Continuous Authentication (NA-CBCA), which verifies active sessions using token-use regularity, path/gateway consistency, command-access consistency, message-size deviation, request-rate behavior, packet-timing deviation, retransmission/error behavior, and energy/processing deviation. Timing-sensitive behavioral features are normalized using a network condition index based on RTT, jitter, packet loss, and retransmission rate, thereby reducing false positives under changing industrial network conditions. Performance evaluation using representative constrained-device profiles and ns-3 simulations demonstrates that runtime attestation requires 2.400 ms computation time, 0.625 KB communication overhead, 3.800 KB memory, and 1.998 mJ energy, while NA-CBCA requires only 0.350 ms, 64 bytes, 2.100 KB memory, and 0.246 mJ energy. Large-scale scalability analysis from 100 to 1000 IIoT devices further shows predictable aggregate overhead growth with stable per-device runtime delay. These results demonstrate that ZT-RIASE provides lightweight, failure-aware, and behavior-adaptive Zero Trust identity attestation suitable for realistic smart industrial IoT deployments.
Modeling and experimental insight into the electronic and structural properties of Sodium alginate/Polypyrrole/Titanium dioxide nanocomposites
Abstract The creation of functional materials which enable adjustable electronic properties was fundamental to the development of electronic sensors and biomedical applications. The research assesses a ternary nanocomposite system which combines sodium alginate (SA) with polypyrrole (PPy) and titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) through dual methods of computational simulation and experimental testing. The researchers used Density Functional Theory (DFT) simulations at the B3LYP/6-31G(d, p) level to study how molecules interact with each other and how their electronic structures behave. The research demonstrates that the SA/PPy/TiO 2 composite material exhibits better electronic performance because it shows both a smaller energy gap and a smaller total dipole moment. The global reactivity indices which include ionization energy, chemical hardness, and the HOMO-LUMO gap reveal a synergistic effect which enhances charge transfer according to Density of States (DOS) measurements and Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules (QTAIM) results. The researchers used FTIR and UV-Vis spectroscopy to confirm that SA/TiO 2 composite films matched theoretical predictions at a high accuracy. The B3LYP/6-31G(d, p) level shows that it successfully detects a smaller HOMO–LUMO gap which demonstrates that the studied composites exhibit greater chemical reactivity and better internal charge transfer and higher electrical conductivity.