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Proton Conduction in Stable, Crystalline, and Porous Hydrogen‐Bonded Metal–Organic Frameworks
ABSTRACT Hydrogen‐bonded metal–organic frameworks (HMOFs) represent a novel class of crystalline materials that integrate hydrogen bonds (HBs) and coordination bonds (CBs) within stable structures. Herein, we designed carbonyl‐rich molecules with extended arms to increase the density of hydrogen‐bond acceptors and enhanced benzene ring rotation to reduce π‐π stacking, thereby strengthening hydrogen bonding to assist coordination‐driven assembly of HMOFs. Benefiting from strong hydrogen bonding between central carbonyl groups and metal ions to modulate metal coordination, a series of 2+2 layer‐interpenetrated HMOFs with different metal nodes (Co 2+ , Ni 2+ , and Zn 2+ ) were synthesized. Serving as interpenetration intersections, those metal nodes stabilize the framework via hydrogen bonding, together with the inter‐locked coordination framework and extensive hydrogen‐bonded network, endow the HMOFs with open channels and qualified stability. These HMOFs exhibit proton conductivity of ∼10 −3 S cm −1 at 95°C and 98% relative humidity with activation energies all below 0.2 eV. This study presents a new approach for directly constructing stable HMOFs using carbonyl‐rich planar ligands, providing valuable insights for the rational design and synthesis of stable, highly crystalline frameworks.
Nanoparticle-enhanced apigenin suppresses androgen receptor signaling and cellular plasticity in LNCaP cells
Abstract Prostate cancer remains highly dependent on androgen receptor (AR) signaling, yet therapeutic escape often emerges through incomplete suppression of AR-driven transcription and activation of compensatory survival pathways. Here, we investigated whether a hyaluronic acid-coated selenium nanoparticle formulation loaded with apigenin (HA-SeNP-Api) could enhance the anti-tumor activity of apigenin in androgen-responsive LNCaP prostate cancer cells. Selenium nanoparticles were generated by reduction of sodium selenite with ascorbic acid, followed by apigenin loading and hyaluronic acid coating. After 72 h treatment, HA-SeNP-Api produced a consistent biological response across several measured endpoints among the tested groups. Apigenin screening identified 6.25 µM as a biologically active sub-IC50 working concentration. At this dose, the nanoformulation reduced AR and PSA mRNA expression to 0.27-fold and 0.42-fold, respectively, and lowered PSA protein to 10% of control. Total apoptosis increased to 44.30%, compared with 31.36% for selenium nanoparticles alone, 9.77% for apigenin, and 3.70% for enzalutamide. The formulation also increased p53 and p21 expression, reduced SOX2, OCT3/4 and SLUG, and retained growth-inhibitory activity in 3D spheroids. These findings suggest that HA-SeNP-Api enhances the biological activity of apigenin under the tested in vitro conditions and modulates AR/PSA-associated readouts, apoptosis-associated responses, and selected plasticity-associated transcripts in LNCaP cells.
Sourav Sekhar Bera
Performance evaluation of three multimodal large language models for pediatric profile-based orthodontic screening
Manipulating Conical Intersections via a Noncovalent Strategy for Enhanced Photothermal Conversion
ABSTRACT Organic photothermal materials (OPMs) utilize efficient nonradiative decay for photothermal conversion, with conical intersections (CIs) playing a crucial role in dissipating excited‐state energy. Current strategies for manipulating CIs remain largely confined to covalently bonded systems, leaving noncovalent approaches largely unexplored. Herein, we propose a cocrystal‐based noncovalent strategy to modulate CI‐mediated nonradiative decay. Specifically, phenoxazine (PXZ) or phenothiazine (PTZ) were paired with 1,2,4,5‐tetracyanobenzene (TCNB) to construct robust donor–acceptor (D‐A) cocrystals. Crystal structure analysis reveals that cocrystal formation transforms the molecular packing from a herringbone to a parallel arrangement, thereby enabling intermolecular motions. Theoretical calculations uncover a favorable relaxation pathway from the Franck–Condon (FC) region to the CI in PXZ‐TCNB, with a relaxation energy Δ E = −16.92 kcal mol −1 . Femtosecond transient absorption (Fs‐TA) spectroscopy confirms a rapid 11.16 ps relaxation process, demonstrating effective CI‐mediated nonradiative decay. Consequently, both PXZ‐TCNB and PTZ‐TCNB exhibit significantly enhanced photothermal performance compared with their individual components. Leveraging its excellent photothermal conversion efficiency (PCE), we successfully integrated this material into a thermoelectric generator (TEG) for light‐driven power generation and fabricated flexible photothermal films with light‐responsive actuation. This work establishes noncovalent engineering as a promising strategy for regulating CI processes and advancing high‐performance OPMs.
Larvicidal and antifungal efficacy of Lasiodiplodia theobromae ethanolic extract against Aedes aegypti larvae and Colletotrichum spp. strains
Identifying the shared genetic architecture among severe COVID-19, type 2 diabetes, and obesity using cross-trait meta-analysis
A multiuniversity survey on knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding zoonotic diseases among veterinary students in Vietnam
Abstract Undergraduate students of veterinary science are a key future workforce for zoonotic disease (ZD) prevention and One Health implementation, yet in Vietnam, their understanding of zoonosis-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) remains limited. This study aimed to assess KAP toward ZD prevention among veterinary students enrolled at Vietnamese universities and identified factors associated with KAP performance. A cross-sectional survey was conducted between January and November 2021 among undergraduate veterinary science students recruited from ten universities across Vietnam. Participants were invited to complete an online self-administered questionnaire on social demographic characteristics and KAP regarding ZD prevention. Multivariable regression was used to identify factors associated with KAP levels. Among 446 eligible responses to our survey, only 9.6% achieved good knowledge, 83.9% had positive attitudes, and 26.5% reported good practices toward ZDs. Better knowledge was associated with a higher prevalence of positive attitudes (PR 1.13, 95% CI: 1.02–1.27), whereas positive attitudes showed a strong association with good practice (PR 4.66, 95% CI: 2.14–10.17). Senior students (in years 3–5) were more likely to have good knowledge than juniors (PR 2.29, 95% CI: 1.15–4.57), but were less likely to report good practices (PR 0.59, 95% CI: 0.41–0.84). Students in the Central Highlands had lower prevalence of both good knowledge and positive attitudes than those in the North–Central region (PR 0.42, 95% CI: 0.18–0.95 and 0.76, 95% CI: 0.66–0.87, respectively). While veterinary students in Vietnam have a positive professional attitude, there are critical gaps in foundational knowledge and preventive practice relating to ZDs. These findings suggest that strengthening theoretical training, expanding competency-based instruction, and standardizing infection prevention and control protocols may help improve veterinary students’ preparedness and support Vietnam’s One Health strategy.
Challenges of analyzing synthetic tabular data generated from 115 phase 3 oncology trials
Adaptive filtering strategy for maneuvering target tracking with two angle-only sensors
Blood drop patterns and explainable AI reveal livestock anemia signatures
Abstract Anemia significantly limits livestock health and productivity. Existing diagnostic methods remain invasive, infrastructure-dependent, or prone to observer bias. This study evaluated a smartphone-compatible, paper-based blood biosensor combined with machine learning and explainable artificial intelligence for reagent-free image-level anemia classification across goats, sheep, and cattle. For each species, a single drop of whole blood was applied to a glycerol-treated paper substrate, producing bloodspot dispersion patterns associated with packed cell volume (PCV)-defined anemia categories. Standardized smartphone imaging and multi-resolution analysis were used to assess classification performance relative to laboratory hematocrit measurements. Classification performance varied by species, suggesting that species-associated differences in bloodspot morphology and image-pattern consistency may influence the diagnostic information available to image-based models. Sheep showed the highest and most consistent image-level classification performance, while goats and cattle showed more variable species-associated bloodspot patterns. Among the evaluated model configurations, lightweight support vector machine models achieved strong image-level performance with low computational demand. Explainable AI analyses provided complementary evidence that model predictions were associated with spatial bloodspot regions and dominant image-variance components. These findings provide preliminary proof-of-concept evidence for a smartphone-compatible bloodspot imaging framework that may support future development of anemia screening tools for precision livestock management after animal-level and field validation. Because animal-level identifiers were not retained, these results should be interpreted as controlled image-level proof-of-concept performance rather than animal-independent diagnostic accuracy.