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Experimental investigation and RSM optimization of performance and emissions in a diesel engine fueled with nitromethane/n-Butanol-diesel blends with exhaust gas recirculation
Abstract This paper presents the experimental study to evaluate the effect of adding the nitromethane (NM) with 20% n-butanol-diesel blend (B20) on the performance and emission characteristics of a EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) enabled diesel engine. The prime objective was to determine the optimum NM concentration and EGR rate that would enable effective control of exhaust smoke and NOx emissions with reasonable engine performance. The experiments were conducted on a vertical, single-cylinder, four-stroke, water-cooled, constant speed, direct injection diesel engine. NM was mixed with B20 at a ratio of 1% to 3% by volume, while the EGR rate was varied from 10% to 30%. A systematic experimental design was developed using Design Expert software to analyse the mutual effects of NM blending in fuel and application of EGR on engine responses. The analysis shows that the engine exhibited optimum results of performance and emissions with 2% NM added in 20% butanol-diesel blend(B20) combined with 15% EGR (B20NM2EGR15) under higher engine loading. For the derived optimized condition, smoke emissions were reduced by 64.45% and 32.14%, while NO x emissions declined by 25% and 17.18% as compared to diesel and B20, respectively. The brake thermal efficiency (BTE) for the optimized blend increased by 14.7% and 2.22% as compared to diesel and B20 respectively. Counter side, for B20NM2EGR15 the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) increased by 10.5% and 8.4% as compared to diesel and B20 respectively. The results show that the combined use of NM and EGR is an effective way to control smoke & NOx simultaneously with reasonable engine performance and are promising towards future emission norms.
Effects of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia on sleep, diet quality, and meal timing in Lebanese adults: a pilot controlled trial
Chain Length Dependence of Chemically Controlled Reactions in Polymerization
Abstract Chemically controlled reactions in polymerization processes are traditionally assumed to have chain-length-independent rate coefficients. However, this work challenges that assumption by using multiscale modeling to demonstrate that chemically controlled polymer–polymer reactions can exhibit significant chain length effects. Taking reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization as a case study, we compare the chain length convergence of the reaction entropy for two processes: the addition of a growing polymer radical to a simultaneously growing polymeric RAFT agent, and the analogous reaction involving a low molecular weight RAFT agent. While the latter reaches equilibrium within 10 monomer additions, the former shows delayed convergence, with effects persisting to degrees of polymerization (DP) of 100 or more. A similar trend was observed in the Diels–Alder step-growth polymerization, where rapid convergence occurred when one chain length was fixed and short, but markedly slower convergence was observed when both reacting chain lengths increased simultaneously. These results reveal that entropy contributions, which scale logarithmically with chain length, lead to significant chain length dependence in the equilibrium constants (Keq). Because these effects arise from fundamental entropic considerations rather than specific features of the reacting species, they are expected to manifest broadly in the kinetics and thermodynamics of other chemically controlled polymer–polymer reactions. Our findings provide a mechanistic basis for resolving discrepancies in experimental estimates of fragmentation rate coefficients, shedding light on debate surrounding rate retardation in RAFT systems. More broadly, this work underscores the importance of chain length effects in the kinetics and thermodynamics of chemically controlled polymer–polymer reactions.
First cosmic-ray muography of a crust-mantle transition zone
Abstract Studying ophiolitic crust–mantle boundaries provides key insights into oceanic lithosphere formation, yet their internal density structure remains poorly constrained due to a scale gap: laboratory measurements capture centimeter-scale densities, whereas geophysical techniques average properties over kilometers and lack intermediate-scale continuity. Here, we use cosmic-ray muography to provide spatially continuous density constraints over tens to hundreds of meters, bridging this gap. We present the first muographic imaging of the crust–mantle transition zone (Moho Transition Zone, MTZ) at Wadi Fizh in the northern Samail Ophiolite. A multi-wire-proportional-chamber-based muography system was operated for 171 days at a distance of 400 m, producing a density image with ~ 3.5 m resolution. The mean density of layered gabbros is 3.03 g cm -3 , while lower densities (2.72 g cm -3 ) are observed within the MTZ, consistent with enhanced alteration, and higher densities (3.38 g cm -3 ) in the lower section indicate peridotitic rocks beneath a thin gabbroic cover. These results indicate that the crust–mantle transition at Wadi Fizh is spatially heterogeneous rather than a simple gradual boundary. Thus, muography enables continuous, in situ mapping of density variations at intermediate scales and provides a valuable complementary approach for studying the structure and evolution of the oceanic lithosphere.
Long-Term Clinical Outcomes of Tisagenlecleucel in Pediatric and Young Adult Patients With Relapsed/Refractory ALL
We report the 5-year analysis of tisagenlecleucel in 79 pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed or refractory (r/r) B-cell ALL (B-ALL) from the global phase II ELIANA trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02435849 ), with a median follow-up of 79.4 months. Tisagenlecleucel was administered as a single infusion with dosing normalized by weight in patients ≤50 kg. Key long-term end points included relapse-free survival (RFS), overall survival (OS), and safety. Censoring included loss to follow-up, withdrawal of consent, new anticancer therapy (± stem cell transplantation [SCT]), and death. The estimated 5-year RFS among responders (n = 70) with and without inclusion of SCT in censoring for new anticancer therapies was 47.3% and 51.0%, respectively. The median time to B-cell recovery was not reached with censoring for all further anticancer therapies, including SCT. The median OS was not reached. The estimated OS at 5 years was 55.0% and 62.4% with and without inclusion of SCT in censoring for new anticancer therapies, respectively. In total, 17 responders received a postinfusion SCT, 14 while still in complete remission. No new or unexpected adverse events were reported. These findings continue to support the potential of tisagenlecleucel as definitive therapy for many heavily pretreated pediatric and young adult patients with r/r B-ALL.
Retraction of “Nanoscale Covalent Organic Framework with Staggered Stacking of Phthalocyanines for Mitochondria-Targeted Photodynamic Therapy”
Enhancing Sb2Se3 thin-film solar cell efficiency via CuGaSe2 dual-absorber integration
COMMIT: A Randomized Study of mFOLFOX6/Bevacizumab/Atezolizumab or Atezolizumab Alone as First-Line Treatment of Deficient DNA Mismatch Repair Metastatic Colorectal Cancer
PURPOSE Immunotherapy for frontline mismatch repair–deficient/microsatellite instability-high (dMMR/MSI-H) metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) is effective; however, nearly half of the patients treated with single-agent PD-1 therapy will progress within 12 months. Preclinical studies in CRC and clinical data from other cancers suggest that vascular endothelial growth factor inhibition and chemotherapy can synergize with PD-L1 inhibition. METHODS The NRG-GI004/SWOG-S1610 (COMMIT) three-arm prospective phase III open-label trial randomly assigned first-line dMMR/MSI-H mCRC patients (1:1:1) to either: mFOLFOX6 (oxaliplatin 85 mg/m², leucovorin 400 mg/m², 5-FU bolus 400 mg/m², and 46-hour infusional 5-FU 2,400 mg/m²)/bevacizumab (FFX/bev), or atezolizumab (atezo) monotherapy (840 mg IV once every 2 weeks), or the combination of FFX/bev/atezo. The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS) in the intent-to-treat population. Because of KEYNOTE 177 results, the FFX/bev arm was closed after 20 patients were enrolled. The study continued with atezo alone versus FFX/bev/atezo, with a revised sample size of 100 patients in the two remaining arms (120 patients across all three arms). RESULTS From November 2017 to March 2025, a total of 102 patients were enrolled in the three arms: FFX/bev: n = 20, atezo: n = 41, and FFX/bev/atezo: n = 41. At a median follow-up of 46 months for the two arms (median age: 63.3 years; 47.6% female; 23.2% BRAF V600E mutated), PFS of FFX/bev/atezo was superior to that of atezo (hazard ratio [HR], 0.439 [95% CI, 0.23 to 0.84]; P = .0103) and below the critical value of 0.0152. The objective response rate was 86.1% versus 46%, and the disease control rate at 12 months was 64.7% versus 32.4% in the FFX/bev/atezo arm compared with the atezo-only arm, respectively. Grade 3 or higher adverse events of any attribution occurred in 52 patients (atezo: 18; combination arm: 34). CONCLUSION The combination of FFX/bev plus atezo led to significantly longer PFS compared with atezo monotherapy in the first-line treatment of dMMR/MSI-H mCRC.
Deactivating Emission in Azulene via Solvent-Induced (Anti)Aromaticity
Abstract Anti-Kasha emission is a coveted feature in optoelectronics, with promise in areas such as imaging, sensing, and the production of white-light LEDs via dual-photon emission. Despite being a rare feature in organic systems, anti-Kasha emission is readily observed in the deceptively simple molecule azulene, which possesses two bright singlet states in the UV–visible spectrum and readily emits from the S2 state. With dominant anti-Kasha emission and decades of synthetic study, azulene is a perfect candidate for novel material fabrication; however, large gaps persist in understanding the photophysics of even the simple parent compound. These range from competing, experimentally unverified models of azulene reactivity and aromaticity to the unexplained deactivation of anti-Kasha emission in a host of azulene derivatives. Herein, we use fluorescence and transient absorption spectroscopies to explore the detailed solvent dependence of azulene photophysics. We discover a tunable reduction in the S2 lifetime via weak complexation with aromatic solvents. Interestingly, our results are independent of polarity, highlighting the primacy of peripherally delocalized 10-π Hückel aromaticity over zwitterionic character. When the dipolar character is enhanced through chemical functionalization, we observe even greater sensitivity to solvent aromaticity and more rapid quenching, revealing the role of conical intersections in azulenes with zwitterionic excited states. Overall, this work provides essential mechanistic insight into the photophysics of azulene and reveals a simple new approach to control the excited-state aromaticity and anti-Kasha emission in this class of materials.
Symmetry-aware graph optimization for scalable multisource remote-sensing data-fusion networks
Abstract The multisource remote-sensing fusion can be used to complement LiDAR, Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and UAV imaging to enhance the spatial analysis. But it is a problem that for large multimodal datasets it is not cost effective to represent this data as a spatial-feature graph for fusion and distributed processing. In this work, a symmetry-aware graph optimization framework is proposed to eliminate redundant computation in the multisource remote-sensing data-fusion workflow. Registered remote-sensing units are depicted as graph nodes and spatial neighbouring and multimodal feature similarity are represented as graph edges. The ability to recognize structurally equivalent node groups by graph automorphism combined with a partitioning of the orbits enables optimization to be carried out on a reduced orbit graph rather than the node-level graph. The optimized orbit-level solution is then projected in the original graph. The framework was tested with the graph sizes ranging from 1,000 to 50,000 nodes measured. With 1,000 nodes, the execution time dropped from 12.5 s, which was obtained using conventional optimization, to 8.2 s, obtained using distributed optimization, to 5.1 s. For 50,000 nodes, execution time decreased from 890.4 s to 520.8 s to 245.3 s, respectively. It is observed from these results that the reduction of graph based on the symmetry property enhances the computational scalability for large spatial-feature graph employed in the multisource remote-sensing fusion pipelines.
Rethinking Regulatory Protections for Accelerated Approvals With Supplementary Indications
Perthionitrite-Induced Persulfidation in Binuclear Cobalt(II) Complexes
Abstract Persulfidation of sulfhydryl functional group (-SH) in protein and nonprotein thiols is a physiologically important process and generally involves the reduction of a partially oxidized sulfur by a fully reduced sulfur. In the present work, two dicobalt(II)-nitrito complexes, [Co2(PhBIMP)(μ-NO2)(DMF)]2+ (2) and [Co2(PhBIMP)(μ-NO2)2]1+ (3), have been demonstrated to react with RC(O)SH (R = Me, Ph) to generate the persulfidated complexes, [Co2(PhBIMP)(μ-SSC(O)R)]2+ (R = Me, 5a; Ph, 5b) in high yields (65–72%) along with nitric oxide (71–80%). Characterization of all the products and intermediates by structural and spectroscopic methods, and comparison of the results with those obtained from control experiments, established the generation of [Co2(PhBIMP)(μ-SC(O)R)(MeCN)]2+ (R = Me, 4a; Ph, 4b) and perthionitrite (SSNO–) in the reactions of 2/3 with RC(O)SH, followed by persulfidation of the coordinated thiocarboxylate (RC(O)S–) in 4a and 4b by the in situ generated SSNO– to produce the persulfidated complexes, 5a and 5b, respectively. The present work thus demonstrates, for the first time, that SSNO–, a physiologically relevant S/N-crosstalk species, can effectively mediate the persulfidation of sulfhydryl functional groups and may implicate a similar, but hitherto unknown, role of SSNO– in biological persulfidation processes.
Variations in regional assessment strategies for coastal flooding in the U.S. east and gulf coasts
Dynamic Circulating Tumor DNA Methylation Monitoring Guiding Postoperative Surveillance in Nonmetastatic Colorectal Cancer: A Prospective, Randomized, Phase III FIND Trial
PURPOSE We hypothesized that a dynamic surveillance strategy guided by circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) methylation would increase the rate of curative-intent therapy for recurrence in patients with nonmetastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) after curative resection. METHODS The FIND trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT05904665 ) is a prospective, multicenter, randomized, phase III study. Patients with nonmetastatic CRC were randomly assigned to ctDNA-guided surveillance or standard computed tomography (CT)–based monitoring. In the ctDNA-guided group, a positive ctDNA result triggered immediate CT imaging; if negative, bimonthly CT continued alongside quarterly ctDNA testing. After two consecutive ctDNA-negative results, imaging reverted to standard frequency. The primary end point was the proportion of patients with recurrence receiving curative-intent metastasis-directed therapy. RESULTS Among 584 eligible patients (289 ctDNA-guided, 295 control) in the modified intention-to-treat population, with a median follow-up of 23.3 months, recurrence rates were similar (18.0% v 18.6%, P = .919). The ctDNA-guided group had a significantly higher rate of curative-intent treatment (48.1% v 23.6%, relative risk 2.03, P = .008). The median time to clinical recurrence was significantly shorter in the ctDNA-guided group than in the control group (9.5 v 13.4 months; P < .001), representing a lead time of 3.9 months. Among recurrences confined to the liver and/or lungs, the ctDNA-guided group showed higher curative resection rates (42.3% v 18.2%, P = .002). These patients had more favorable hepatic metastatic features: fewer lesions (≤3: 75.0% v 28.6%, P = .005), smaller tumor size (≤3 cm: 90.0% v 57.1%, P = .033), and more unilobar disease (80.0% v 28.6%, P = .002). CONCLUSION ctDNA methylation-guided dynamic surveillance improves the rate of curative-intent therapy for recurrence in patients with initially nonmetastatic CRC through earlier detection of resectable metastases, pending validation of long-term survival benefit in future analyses with mature data.
Cycloparaphenylene-Derived Porous Organic Cylinders
Abstract Cycloparaphenylenes, with their distinctive radial conjugation and high macrocyclic rigidity, hold significant yet underexplored potential for the development of novel porous structures. We report the rational design and facile synthesis of three porous organic cylinders (POCys). Through dynamic boronate ester linkages, the coaxial covalent assembly of two catechol-functionalized cycloparaphenylenes could generate cylindrical scaffolds featuring large intrinsic cavities with interconnected channel networks. One of the POCys exhibits high porosity, showing a Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area of 1241 m2·g–1 and excellent gas adsorption capability. This work demonstrates the promise of cycloparaphenylene derivatives as a molecular platform for designing functional porous organic architectures.
The tRNA methylation activity and specificity of NSUN2 are independent of Archease
Abstract Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) undergo extensive maturation, including modifications essential for translation efficiency and fidelity, as well as for structural stability. The modification cytosine-5 methylation (m 5 C) is catalyzed by NSUN2 at multiple positions within distinct structural regions of a subset of tRNAs, yet the determinants of its substrate specificity remain elusive. In archaea, the protein Archease has been implicated in modulating the cytosine specificity of the NSUN2 ortholog Trm4, whereas mammalian Archease was shown to be involved in pre-tRNA splicing. Here, we investigated whether mammalian Archease influences NSUN2 in a similar way like the archaeal enzyme. Using short hairpin RNA-mediated depletion of Archease in mouse embryonic stem cells and in vitro methylation assays with recombinant proteins, we assessed both the catalytic activity and substrate selectivity of NSUN2 in the presence or the absence of Archease. Our results indicate that neither the efficiency nor positional specificity of NSUN2-mediated tRNA m 5 C methylation is affected by Archease. These findings indicate that, unlike in archaea, Archease does not regulate tRNA methylation by NSUN2 in mammals, highlighting an evolutionary divergence in the functional role of Archease in tRNA maturation pathways.
Semiclassical Theory of Stepped Electrodes and Step Bunching
Abstract Atomic-scale steps markedly influence electrochemical activity and stability and exhibit structural instability under electrochemical conditions. Yet the microscopic mechanisms that cause these behaviors remain largely unclear. Herein, we study the microstructure and thermodynamics of the electrical double layer at stepped electrodes, using the semiclassical density-potential functional theory. The theory captures trends observed in experiments regarding the differential capacitance and the potential of zero free charge (PZFC) with step density for stepped Au and Ag . Departing from the case of flat electrodes, the PZFC deviates from the potential of minimum capacitance at stepped electrodes, necessitating local PZFCs to describe heterogeneous surface charging conditions. Furthermore, linking step-induced PZFC shifts to changes of the surface tension, the theory predicts that step bunching is thermodynamically driven at more positive electrode potentials and sensitive to the electrolyte composition.
Streptococcus mutans colonization around orthodontic brackets bonded with flash-free versus conventional adhesives: an in-vitro study
Unlocking Anion Reduction of Lithium Perchlorate via Electrochemically Coupled Oxygen Atom Transfer
Abstract The growing demand for high energy density electrochemical energy storage necessitates energy vectors that maximize the number of electrons transferred per formula unit of active material. Herein, we introduce electrochemically coupled oxygen atom transfer (OAT) as a new paradigm to harness the energy of p-block oxoanions in a Li–metal solid-state battery. Using carbon-supported Fe nanoparticles in a dual role of OAT catalyst and conversion-type cathode active material, we demonstrate the eight-electron anion reduction of ClO4– at &gt;50% conversion, delivering a capacity of 1150 mA h g–1 and an energy density of 1950 W h kg–1. We further demonstrate strategies to enhance the energy density at the electrode level, establishing a foundation for oxoanion-based anion redox in battery systems.