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Retraction: Jaeumganghwa-Tang Induces Apoptosis via the Mitochondrial Pathway and Lactobacillus Fermentation Enhances Its Anti-Cancer Activity in HT1080 Human Fibrosarcoma Cells

The caged dynamics, the Johari–Goldstein β relaxation, and the structural α-relaxation and their interconnections in amorphous waters

The presence of caged dynamics, the Johari–Goldstein (JGβ) relaxation preceding the cooperative α-relaxation, and the fact that their properties are interconnected have been established universally for glass-forming liquids of various kinds [K. L. Ngai, Prog. Mater. Sci. 139, 101130 (2023)]. We apply the universal properties of the three processes in interpreting or reinterpreting the calorimetric and dielectric relaxation data of four amorphous waters: amorphous solid water (ASW), hyperquenched glassy water (HGW), low-density liquid water (LDL), and high-density liquid water (HDL). The presence of the JGβ relaxation and the caged dynamics before the terminal α-relaxation, and the interrelations between their respective properties, are found in the four amorphous waters exactly as in other glass-formers. The existence of the JGβ glass transition temperature, Tgβ, is found indirectly from the response of the caged dynamics in ASW, HGW, and HDL, and its value of ∼113 K is consistent with the extrapolation of the dielectric JGβ relaxation times τβ(T) to long times. The calorimetric data of LDL at a heating rate of 10 K/min show Tgα of LDL is 136 K, which is the same as that of ASW and HGW incidentally. The calorimetric and dielectric data of HDL at temperatures below 125 K, before it transforms to LDL at higher temperatures, are interpreted as originating from the JGβ relaxation and not from the α-relaxation. The value of Tgβ of HDL obtained from calorimetry or deduced from the dielectric JGβ relaxation times τβ(T) is also near 113 K. The α-relaxation glass transition temperature Tgα of HDL, obtained by extrapolating the values from calorimetric and volumetric studies at elevated pressure to ambient pressure, are 137 and 128 K respectively. The 137 K for Tgα is supported by observation of glass transition at the same temperature by DSC in samples of HDL prepared by compressing droplets of HGW. Assuming τα(Tgα) is 100 s, the value of the calorimetric Tgα for HDL is close to the calorimetric and dielectric τα(T) of HGW. The τα(T) of HGW and LDL have Arrhenius temperature dependence with a small fragility index m. The Arrhenius temperature dependence of τβ(T) for HGW, HDL, and LDL are similar as well. Applying the relation between τα(T) and τβ(T) from the Coupling Model, the averaged coupling parameter nav ∼ 0.18 is deduced for all four amorphous waters. Such a small value of nav is consistent with the frequency dependence, ∼ν−nav, on the high-frequency flank of the α-loss peak of HGW and LDL Thus, the small nav correlates with the small m, in accord with the correlation found in other glass-formers.

Ultrahigh Ionic Conductivity in Halide Electrolytes Enabled by Anion Framework Flexibility Engineering

A water-soluble copolymer for storage and electron conversion in photocatalytic on-demand hydrogen evolution

Abstract Cost- and energy-efficient long-term storage of excess solar energy remains a major bottleneck in the transition to a sustainable society. Here, we present a water-soluble redox-active copolymer containing viologen moieties that can be charged with electrons upon visible light irradiation using a tris[4,4’-bis( tert -butyl)−2,2’-bipyridine]ruthenium(II) complex as chromophore. In the presence of a sacrificial donor, the system achieves charging efficiencies above 80% and fully maintains this state for several days. Subsequent acidification and the addition of various catalysts enable on-demand usage of the stored electrons for proton reduction to hydrogen with up to 72% efficiency. The system further demonstrates reversibility via a simple pH switch, allowing multiple charging, storage, and catalysis cycles without time-consuming polymer isolation. The present study presents a direct on-demand hydrogen evolution method through discharging of a water-soluble polymer that functions as a temporary energy and electron storage material.

An automatic congenital radio-ulnar synostosis deformity evaluation method (CRUS-DE): integrating TLT-SAM and GPMM-R for landmark identification

Introducing an integrated maternity care pathway for women with a history of small-for-gestational-age: Evaluation of its effect on care process and clinical outcomes

Introduction This study focusses on the implementation of an integrated care pathway for women with SGA in their obstetric history that pursues value-based healthcare. This study aims to 1) Determine whether the integrated care pathway led to a reduction in the number of antenatal secondary care consultations, as an indicator of care efficacy, and 2) compare clinical outcomes for women with a history of SGA before and after implementation of the integrated care pathway. Methods Retrospective cohort study including data from pregnant women with a history of SGA within integrated maternity care organisation Annature, 2017–2020. Intervention was an integrated care pathway (2018). Pre- and post-intervention periods were compared assessing prenatal secondary care consultations, place and mode of delivery, and perinatal outcomes. Results The implementation of the care pathway for pregnant women with a history of SGA led to a reduction in mean number of prenatal secondary care consultations per pregnancy from 11 in 2017–5 in 2020, and fewer inductions of labour (78 (34.2%) vs 127 (26.8%), p = 0.045). Additionally, the number of births in primary care increased (35 (15.4%) vs 136 (28.8%), p < 0.001) with no significant adverse impact on neonatal outcomes in the post-intervention period compared to the pre-intervention period. Conclusion The implementation of the care pathway for pregnant women with a history of SGA resulted in a reduction in prenatal secondary care consultations and fewer inductions of labour. Additionally, the number of births in primary care increased, with no significant adverse impact on neonatal outcomes in the post-intervention period compared to the pre-intervention period.

Hot-electron capture at the TiO2/O2 interface: The role of functional dependence and interfacial dynamics

The trapping of hot electrons by molecular oxygen at TiO2 surfaces plays a central role in photocatalytic charge separation and interfacial redox chemistry. Using ab initio nonadiabatic molecular dynamics simulations, electron capture by the O2 molecule at the rutile TiO2(110)/O2 interface was investigated. A pronounced dependence on the exchange–correlation functional was identified: in DFT+U, the O2 LUMO lies below the conduction band minimum (CBM), leading to nearly complete electron trapping, whereas in the HSE, the LUMO is shifted above the CBM, resulting in much weaker capture. Importantly, electron trapping was found to be intimately coupled to the molecular dynamics of O2 at the surface, with both the distance and orientation of the adsorbate strongly modulating the probability of electron transfer dynamically. Comparisons with experiments indicate lower trapping efficiencies in theory, and possible origins of this discrepancy are discussed. These findings establish a microscopic framework in which interfacial level alignment and molecular dynamics jointly determine electron capture at semiconductor–molecule interfaces.

Characterization of a Silver Vinylcarbene Intermediate in Carbene–Alkyne Metathesis and Its Concerted C(sp ² )–H Bond Insertion

Ultralong-range exciton transport in submillimeter-scale spherulite film of π-conjugated polymers

Semantic-aware fault diagnosis of heavy-duty railway maintenance machinery and its potential in multisensor fusion systems

Tracking Acquisition of Language in Kids (TALK) study protocol: A longitudinal investigation of infants at high vs. low risk for atypical speech and language development

The sensitive period for phonetic learning, normally considered to be between 6–12 months of age, has been demonstrated as one of the earliest milestones for language development. Infant speech processing towards the end of the sensitive period has been shown to predict individual language development trajectories up to school entry and most recently, risk of speech and language disorders, suggesting its potential clinical relevance. Yet, this literature is largely limited to typically developing infants with regard to their family histories of speech and language delays or disorders. The current study begins to fill the gap by investigating associations between neural markers of the sensitive period , family history risk factors, and language outcomes by gathering extensive information from a large group of infants. Specifically, family information includes an extensive parental survey of family background and clinical history, a comprehensive assessment of language skills for one older sibling by a research speech-language pathologist (SLP), and a daylong audio recording in infants’ homes for assessing their language environment. The study design focuses on comparing neural predictors of language development in infants with or without first-degree family history of speech and language delays and disorders (i.e., High vs. Low-Risk infants). Infants’ neural speech processing is measured three times using Magnetoencephalography at 6 months, 12 months, and 14 months of age. Infants’ language development is tracked until school entry by both parental surveys and the same comprehensive assessment protocol with a research SLP. This protocol documents the study design and methodological details for data collection and preprocessing. This study will allow our research team to start tackling important questions regarding early predictors of speech and language delays and disorders (e.g., late-talking, Developmental Language Disorder) and contribute significant value to the broader field.

How much exercise do you really need?

Visualizing the energy landscape for a molecular dynamics trajectory

We introduce an open-source program that converts molecular dynamics trajectories into disconnectivity graphs, providing a concise and interpretable visualization of the energy landscape that has been traversed. Our approach applies Savitzky–Golay smoothing to per-frame thermodynamic traces (potential energy in NVE/NVT or enthalpy in NPT ensembles) to identify local extrema as proxies for minima and transition states, and generates the necessary files for disconnectivity graph construction. This workflow requires no additional geometry optimization. The method is ensemble-agnostic and compatible with both all-atom and coarse-grained simulations. For some representative biochemical systems, it processes 104–105 frames in seconds on a standard laptop and produces an approximate representation of the underlying landscape topology. The resulting graphs capture the structures that are visited and pathways between them for a selected energy and time resolution, offering an interpretable structural summary of conformational hierarchies with minimal postprocessing. Because extrema are detected directly from the trajectory, the graphs reflect the organization of the explored region of the landscape on the molecular dynamics timescale. Our approach basically substitutes local minima and maxima from the smoothed time series as proxies for the true stationary points of the underlying landscape.

Photolysis of CO ₂ Carbamate for Hydrocarboxylation Reactions

Photo-initiated solvent-mediated depolymerization of consumer poly(methyl methacrylate) without chlorinated reagents

Abstract The chemical recycling of commodity acrylic polymers, such as the transparent thermoplastic polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), typically requires temperatures of 350-400°C. Herein, we report chemical recycling back to monomers for PMMA between 120-180°C, through UV illumination under oxygen-free conditions. We have achieved gram-scale degradation of consumer plastic with >95% conversion, yielding >70% monomer, which can be readily repolymerized. The process proceeds even at high concentrations (>1 M) and depends strongly on solvent choice: aromatic solvents like dichlorobenzene and diphenyl ether maximize conversion. In contrast to a concurrently published study, we report that chlorine radicals are not required for depolymerization; however, when present, they react with the unzipping chain to form chlorine-functionalized PMMA which can be upcycled through derivatization. In more sustainable non-chlorinated solvents such as benzonitrile, minimal termination by radicals enables complete unzipping. These findings demonstrate a low-temperature, scalable route for the chemical recycling of PMMA, offering alternative pathways for plastic circularity.

Aversive behavioural responses of killer whales to sounds of long-finned pilot whales

Assessing the sustainable development of a national research ecosystem: A generative AI-based evaluation of empirical educational research in China (2004–2023)

A nation’s progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education) depends in part on the long-term health of its educational research system, yet systematic, longitudinal assessments of such research ecosystems remain scarce. This study applies a generative artificial intelligence–based framework to evaluate the sustainable development of China’s empirical educational research ecosystem from 2004 to 2023. We compiled a dataset of 2,145 empirical studies published in leading Chinese education journals and used GPT-4o to score each paper on 31 quality indicators covering research problem, theoretical framing, design, data collection, analysis, and reporting, using a 1–10 analytic rating scale. Based on the resulting score distributions, we constructed a fuzzy relation matrix and applied a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to derive annual and overall sustainability indices, while the Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) method was used to determine objective indicator weights. The overall sustainability index of China’s empirical educational research ecosystem over the 20-year period is 75.77 on a 100-point scale, with membership degrees concentrated at quality levels 7 (0.328) and 8 (0.435), indicating a generally robust and maturing system. Longitudinal trends reveal three stages of evolution—fluctuating development, rapid growth, and continuous improvement—corresponding to a shift toward more stable high-quality output. At the micro level, the ecosystem shows strong responsiveness to real-world educational problems, with high average scores for the relevance (8.45) and social significance (8.23) of research questions, as well as generally solid research design and data analysis practices. However, relatively lower scores for transparency of data analysis (7.08) and accessibility of raw data (6.46) highlight persistent challenges for reproducibility, open science, and methodological innovation. We conclude that China’s empirical educational research ecosystem has reached a relatively high and stable level of performance but faces critical tasks in strengthening data openness, methodological renewal, and AI-augmented governance. The proposed generative AI–based evaluation framework may offer a scalable tool for continuous monitoring and governance of national research ecosystems, while its results should be interpreted as an auxiliary input rather than a substitute for expert peer assessment.

Mechanically interlocked polymers in dilute solution under shear and extensional flows: A Brownian dynamics study

Mechanically interlocked polymers (MIPs) are a class of polymer structures in which the components are connected by mechanical bonds instead of covalent bonds. We measure the single-molecule rheological properties of polyrotaxanes, daisy chains, and polycatenanes under steady shear and steady uniaxial extension using coarse-grained Brownian dynamics simulations with hydrodynamic interactions. We obtain key rheological features, including tumbling dynamics, molecular extension, stress, and viscosity. By systematically varying structural features, we demonstrate how MIP topology governs flow response. Compared to linear polymers, all three MIP architectures exhibit enhanced tumbling in shear flow, weaker shear thinning, and lower normal stress differences in extensional flow. While polyrotaxanes show higher shear and extensional viscosities, polycatenanes and daisy chains have lower viscosities. In extensional and shear flows, MIPs typically extend more in the flow direction and at weaker flow strengths than linear polymers. These effects arise from the mechanically bonded rings in MIPs, which expand the polymer profile in the gradient direction and increase backbone rigidity due to ring–backbone repulsions. This study provides key insights into MIP flow properties, providing the foundation for their systematic development in engineering applications.

Fluorescence Transduction of Liquid Crystal Ordering Transitions for Biosensing

Bioinspired spiking architecture enables energy constrained touch encoding

Abstract The sense of touch is essential for safe interactions with the external world, enabling humans to rapidly detect and localize physical stimuli. Biological systems achieve these abilities through hundreds of thousands of mechanoreceptors distributed across the skin and efficiently processing vast streams of tactile information. Replicating these affordances in autonomous systems is crucial for advancing robotics. However, current tactile sensing solutions face critical challenges, including excessive wiring, high energy demnds of AI computing, and limitations in scalability and parallel processing. Here, we present a modular artificial tactile system combining a Fiber Bragg Grating-based e-skin with a spiking neural network (SNN) that mimics the early stages of the human somatosensory system. Our architecture achieves up to 10× localization super-resolution, improving localization accuracy by 32% over state-of-the-art deep learning methods and effectively generalizing to multitouch and dynamic conditions. Crucially, when implemented on a neuromorphic chip, the SNN demonstrates robustness to the constrained resolution and mismatches of analog neurons, bolstering highly parallel and sub-mWatt hardwired computation. Bioinspired connectivity is shown to functionally influence tactile processing, offering mechanistic insights in a framework that bridges physiological hypotheses, modeling, and validation in a real-world tactile scenario. These results demonstrate a scalable, energetically sustainable solution for touch perception, with immediate applications in autonomous systems requiring safe human interaction and operation in dynamic environments.