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Role of spin–orbit coupling in spin-to-lattice energy conversion in ferrite nanoparticles
Food insecurity and its associated factors among pregnant women in Southwest Iran
Hijacking a bacterial ABC transporter for genetic code expansion
Abstract The site-specific encoding of non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs) provides a powerful tool for expanding the functional repertoire of proteins 1–4 . Its widespread use for basic research and biotechnological applications is, however, hampered by the low efficiencies of current ncAA incorporation strategies. Here we reveal poor cellular ncAA uptake as a main obstacle to efficient genetic code expansion and overcome this bottleneck by hijacking a bacterial ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter 5 to actively import easily synthesizable isopeptide-linked tripeptides that are processed into ncAAs within the cell. Using this approach, we enable efficient encoding of a variety of previously inaccessible ncAAs, decorating proteins with bioorthogonal 6 and crosslinker 7 moieties, post-translational modifications 8,9 and functionalities for chemoenzymatic conjugation. We then devise a high-throughput directed evolution platform to engineer tailored transporter systems for the import of ncAAs that were historically refractory to efficient uptake. Customized Escherichia coli strains expressing these evolved transporters facilitate single and multi-site ncAA incorporation with wild-type efficiencies. Additionally, we adapt the tripeptide scaffolds for the co-transport of two different ncAAs, enabling their efficient dual incorporation. Collectively, our study demonstrates that engineering of uptake systems is a powerful strategy for programmable import of chemically diverse building blocks.
Development and validation of an integrated preclinical model mimicking cardiometabolic risk in postmenopausal female rats
Abstract Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death in postmenopausal women, often exacerbated by coexisting metabolic disorders such as obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Existing preclinical models fail to capture the multifactorial nature of these overlapping risk factors in a sex-specific context. Here, we present a novel, translationally relevant cardiometabolic model in female Wistar rats that integrates estrogen deficiency, dietary excess, and diabetic stress to mimic postmenopausal disease progression. The model exhibits pronounced cardiometabolic dysfunction, including obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, QTc prolongation, reduced QRS amplitude, and elevated markers of myocardial injury (Troponin T, CK-MB) and systemic inflammation (IL-6, IL-1β, TNF-α) ( p < 0.05). These hallmarks closely mirror human postmenopausal cardiometabolic syndrome, providing a clinically relevant platform for mechanistic studies. Notably, this model allows investigation of mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and endothelial impairment, while enabling preclinical evaluation of targeted pharmacological interventions, including hormone replacement therapy, metabolic modulators, anti-inflammatory agents, and cardioprotective strategies. By bridging preclinical findings with clinical applications, this approach offers a powerful tool to advance personalized therapeutic strategies for high-risk postmenopausal women, addressing a critical gap in translational cardiovascular research.
A lightweight transformer framework for open set anomaly segmentation in smart city applications
Abstract Open-set anomaly segmentation task in diverse infrastructure faces substantial challenges due to its computational overhead and accuracy measures. Although the existing transformer-based methods are efficient, that are limited in the factors of Computational efficiency and accuracy trade-offs. This paper presents LightMask, a lightweight transformer-based architecture designed for efficient, context-aware segmentation of anomalous regions in complex urban environments. The proposed framework has five key contributions: optimized EfficientNet-B0 backbone, adaptive inference mechanism, separable self-attention (SSA) with linear complexity, progressive multi-scale decoder with dynamic early termination, and boundary-aware contrastive loss for open-set anomaly segmentation tasks. LightMask focuses on the lightweight framework with computational efficiency first, while preserving the performance of anomaly detection. The evaluation results showcase that LightMask produces lower parameter count of 4.29 million (16.35 MB) ensures the lightweight structure and a computational efficiency with only 8.72 GFLOPs. For training and evaluation, the Cityscapes and RoadAnomaly datasets were used and the finding reveals the model robustness with 91.79% precision, 93% recall, 77.66% F1 score, 88.28% AUC-ROC, and a low false positive rate of 36.24% at 95% TPR. Based on these findings LightMask balances computational costs with robust anomaly detection capabilities.
International environmental treaties cannot be reformed through rational design
New fossils reveal the hand of Paranthropus boisei
A novel framework using particle swarm optimization and long short-term memory networks for stock market forcasting
Resilient security architecture for smart buildings using DLT powered encryption
High-fidelity unfolding of 252Cf neutron spectra in EJ-301 scintillators via calibrated response matrices and Monte Carlo simulations
Palaeomagnetic and geochronologic results from lower cretaceous volcanics of the western Qiangtang terrane and implications for the Lhasa-Qiangtang collision
Abstract The Lhasa-Qiangtang collision is key to understanding the formation and evolution of the Tibetan Plateau; however, the precise timing of this event remains hotly debated. To address this uncertainty, we present a combined palaeomagnetic and geochronologic study of Lower Cretaceous Meiriqieco Formation rhyolites from the western Qiangtang terrane. Our geochronologic data reveal an Early Cretaceous (ca. 113–109) age for the Meiriqieco Formation, contradicting previous Late Jurassic assignments. The tilt-corrected site-mean direction yields a palaeopole at 74.3°N, 250.5°E with A 95 = 4.7° ( N = 23). Integrating our new and existing palaeomagnetic data, we place the western Qiangtang terrane at ~ 23.1°N during the Early Cretaceous. Comparison with Early Cretaceous palaeomagnetic data from the western Lhasa terrane indicates that convergence of the two terranes occurred no later than the Early Cretaceous (ca. 132–100 Ma).