Browse Articles

Digital Literature and social media as Contemporary Literary Spaces: Impact on Connection, Well-Being, and Society

Digital literature and social media have completely changed how texts are composed, read and understood and how relationships are formed, lived and participated in, as well as how identities are constructed. Social media is not just a space filled with Communications, but a space where people can make digital literary texts, with narratives, poems, personal stories, memes and multimodal texts circulating around the world. This paper reviews pertinent recent research and empirical studies on the effects of these digital literary environments on social interaction, mental health, youth development, political discussions, and social inequality. Opportunities and challenges are assessed in the review. Digital literary practices promote creativity, collaborative storytelling, self-expression, cultural engagement, and social support, on one hand. On the other hand, they have been linked to well-documented problems like social comparison, compulsive use, misinformation, algorithmic amplification, and exposure to harmful content, especially by adolescents. The paper also discusses the connection between digital literature, polarization, and the digital divide, suggesting that access inequalities to digital textual culture contribute to inequalities in society and education. The paper synthesizes various interdisciplinary perspectives from media studies, digital humanities, communication and psychology, to find that digital literature, and social media in general, is not automatically good or bad. Their social impact is grounded in patterns of creating, interpreting, technological design and engaging with a user. Digital literacy, ethical governance of platform production processes, and ongoing cross-disciplinary research into new forms of AI-supported and participatory digital literature are important points emphasized in the study.

A GABARAP−PtdIns3K-C1 positive feedback loop at the heart of the phagophore nucleation

Abstract In mammalian cells, autophagosomes can reach diameters of over 1000 nm within 30 min after triggering starvation, but how such substantial amounts of membranes can be synthesized remains elusive. The phagophore initiation needs the lipid kinase PIK3C3-Complex 1 (PtdIns3K-C1), which produces phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate (PtdIns3P). PtdIns3P recruits WIPI2 that facilitates lipidation of mammalian ATG8 (mATG8) family proteins on phagophores. Here we show that recombinant membrane-coupled GABARAP binds to and potently activates PtdIns3K-C1. By a combination of cryo-electron microscopy, structural mass spectrometry, activity assays and mutagenesis, we show that GABARAP activates PtdIns3K-C1 through two binding sites. We propose that once GABARAP is indirectly recruited by PtdIns3P generated by basal activity of PtdIns3K-C1, a positive feedback loop is formed where PtdIns3K-C1 interacts with GABARAP and becomes activated to produce more PtdIns3P, thereby further stimulating GABARAP lipidation. This mechanism would be central for autophagosome biogenesis, where enlarged membranes need to be rapidly synthesized.

Digital Social Innovation and Sustainability: Theory, Practice, and Debate

Digital social innovation (DSI), the use of digital technologies by citizens, civil society organizations, social enterprises, and public institutions to develop novel solutions to social and environmental problems, has evolved over the past decade and a half as a distinct field of research and practice at the intersection of technology studies, innovation studies, and sustainability science. Current study explores the interdisciplinary literature on DSI and its relationship to sustainability, in its triple-bottom-line sense of environmental, social, and economic dimensions. It traces the conceptual roots of DSI in the broader social innovation literature and in information-systems research on digital innovation, reviews the major theoretical frameworks, including a nascent multidimensional framework spanning digital technology, innovation process, and sustainability focus to connect digital innovation to sustainable development, and examines empirical evidence on how digitally enabled initiatives, from open data commons and citizen science to platform cooperatives, civic technology, telemedicine, and precision agriculture, contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The research engages critically with the limits of DSI's contribution, including the digital divide, the environmental footprint of digital infrastructure itself, the phenomenon of data colonialism, and the tendency toward technological solutionism, before setting out a twelve-pathway research agenda and highlights practical implications for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers. DSI offers a genuine, if bounded and unevenly distributed, set of tools for advancing sustainability, and its future contribution depends less on the sophistication of the technology involved than on the governance arrangements, funding ecosystems, and power relations within which that technology is embedded.

Rapid and quantitative measurement of bacteriophage infectivity via fully automated droplet digital PCR

Digital Labor and Social Protection in the Platform Economy

Digital labor platforms have transformed organization, monitoring, and compensation of work, challenging the twentieth-century welfare architectures built around stable, full-time employment. Current research explores the relationship between digital labor and welfare provision, tracing how platform-mediated work ranging from ride-hailing and delivery services to microtask crowd work, content moderation, and freelance platform work is uncertain although it has generated new efficiencies and income opportunities. Digital labor exposes a fundamental mismatch between employment-linked welfare systems and the fragmented, algorithmically managed platform work. The study traces the history of the employment-based welfare state, analyzes the mechanics of algorithmic management, surveys legal classification struggles across the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the Global South, and examines gendered, health-related, and cross-border dimensions of the welfare deficit. Emerging policy responses including reclassification litigation, portable benefits schemes, universal basic income proposals, algorithmic transparency mandates, and the European Union's Platform Work Directive have also been explored. Addressing the welfare deficit of digital labor requires decoupling social protection from the traditional employer-employee relationship altogether, and reorganizing it instead around the worker as such.

Efficient molecular motors in liquid crystal networks enable the integration of fluorescence with large opto-mechanical effects

Abstract Liquid crystal polymer networks (LCPNs) exhibit remarkable light-responsive actuation, yet the molecular-level design rules governing their performance remain elusive. Here, we develop a series of molecular motor-based photo-responsive units with tunable rigidity, and different substituents, enabling precise modulation of LCPN mechanics and photo-responsive behavior. By systematic study and comparing these motors with conventional azobenzene and second-generation molecular motors, we establish clear structure-property relationships that link molecular design to macroscopic actuation efficiency and network stiffness. Notably, our motor-integrated LCPNs also exhibit intrinsic fluorescence, enabling shape-encoded pattern visualization without the need for additional fluorescent molecules. This multifunctional liquid crystal-motor hybrid system integrates light-induced actuation, mechanical tunability, and fluorescence signaling, offering design principles for next-generation soft actuators and intelligent photonic devices.

Condensation of MATCAP promotes CENP-E-dependent chromosome congression in mitosis

A manufacturability-informed topology framework for AI-guided design of fibrous network materials

Engineering viral protease-operated nanobodies for programmable and orthogonal control of protein function

Skeletal restructuring of oxetanes through photoinduced oxygen deletion

Abstract Deleting an atom from a heterocycle to reduce ring size or remodel the skeleton represents a unique approach to navigate untapped regions of the chemical space. However, compared with well-established nitrogen-deletion manifolds, the precise recognition and excision of an oxygen atom from a functionalized cyclic ether remains challenging. Here we report a catalyst-free photoinduced oxygen deletion strategy that achieves highly chemo- and regioselective restructuring of oxetanes. The reaction involves a deoxygenative ring deconstruction step to generate an acyclic diiodide intermediate using iodoform under photoirradiation, followed by intramolecular reductive coupling or cyclization/functionalization. This method enables efficient ring contraction or skeletal remodeling of oxetanes, granting streamlined access to families of cyclopropane and benzoheterocycle frameworks in a straightforward fashion. Excellent functional group tolerance is demonstrated through late-stage functionalization and simplified syntheses of pharmaceuticals, which are expected to make a profound impact on drug discovery by reducing the synthetic burden of assembling bioactive molecules.

Public responses about air quality in the world’s ten most populous countries

Metal-mediated weak adsorption enables the selective electrosynthesis of N-phenylhydroxylamine from nitrobenzene hydrogenation in water

Abstract The electrocatalytic hydrogenation of nitrobenzene (Ph-NO 2 ) to N -phenylhydroxylamine (Ph-NHOH) is of industrial importance as a high-value-added process but remains challenging because of the thermodynamically favorable overhydrogenation process. Here, metal-mediated weak adsorption is proposed to enable selective Ph-NO 2 -to-Ph-NHOH electrosynthesis in water. An activity volcano in the context of scaling relationships based on the adsorption energy of Ph-NO has identified metallic silver (Ag) as the optimal highly intrinsically active candidate for Ph-NHOH electrosynthesis. The results of in situ electrochemical infrared spectroscopy reveal the weak adsorption of Ph-NHOH on metallic Ag, which prevents its subsequent hydrogenation. Afterward, a nanosized Ag catalyst (CV-Ag) synthesized by electrodeposition is developed to rapidly and selectively synthesize Ph-NHOH under a large current. CV-Ag enhances the electrosynthesis reaction kinetics of Ph-NHOH. Therefore, an ampere-level current is realized during the electrosynthesis of Ph-NHOH, achieving a high selectivity of nearly 99.6% and continuous gram-scale synthesis of Ph-NHOH at 5.85 g per batch.

An intelligent electronic-textile system with adaptive sweat-regulation for continuous exercise-induced fatigue monitoring

A ring-jig additive friction stir deposition method for efficient additive manufacturing of metal laminates

Perfluorocubane as a σ* orbital-based electron acceptor beyond classical electron-transfer models

Greenhouse warming exacerbates El Niño-induced Indian monsoon droughts

Graduating without a thesis: meet the people getting ‘practical’ PhDs in China

Impact attribution of anthropogenic forcing on lake surface temperature

Longitudinal analysis reveals myeloid cell contributions to murine neuroPASC pathogenesis

Losartan and prednisolone for post-COVID syndrome and cardiac inflammation: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Abstract Persistent cardiac symptoms are common in post-COVID syndrome, even without structural heart disease. Evidence implicates immune dysregulation, endothelial dysfunction and low-grade cardiovascular inflammation. Yet no targeted treatment exists. Myoflame-19 is a multicenter, double-blind clinical trial of 279 participants with inflammatory cardiac involvement defined by cardiovascular magnetic resonance, randomized 1:1 to losartan plus prednisolone ( n = 139 ) or matching placebos ( n = 140 ) for 16 weeks. The modified intention-to-treat population comprised 124 and 122 participants. The primary endpoint, change in left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction, was neutral: between-group difference 0.74 percentage points (pp), 95%CI −0.14 to 1.62, p = 0.10, unpaired t-test; supportive baseline-adjusted ANCOVA 0.99, 95%CI 0.15-1.83, p = 0.021. Among prespecified secondary endpoints, several symptom and imaging measures showed numerical differences favoring intervention, including Average Symptom Score components (modified Canadian Chest Pain Scale −4.8 pp, 95%CI −17.3 to 7.6; NYHA class −8.1 pp, −20.6 to 4.3; Long COVID symptom burden −7.7 pp, −18.9 to 3.6), native T1 and T2 values (native T1 −2.46 ms, −8.35 to 3.42; native T2 −0.31 ms, −1.16 to 0.53), and LV end-diastolic volume ( + 1.45 ml/m², −0.09 to 3.00); however, confidence intervals included the null value and these findings should be regarded as hypothesis-generating.Treatment was safe and well-tolerated. These findings indicate a neutral treatment effect on the primary endpoint. They inform targeted immunomodulation and design of future trials in post-COVID syndrome and inflammatory cardiac involvement. Trial registration: EudraCT 2022-001682-12; NCT05619653.