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Ionic-electronic photodetector for vision assistance with in-sensor image processing
Chirality-transferred epitaxy of circular polarization-sensitive ReS2 monolayer single crystals
Chemistry-informed recommender system to predict optimal molecular receptors in SERS nanosensors
Amyloid fibril structures link CHCHD10 and CHCHD2 to neurodegeneration
Abstract Mitochondrial proteins CHCHD10 and CHCHD2 are mutated in rare cases of heritable FTD, ALS and PD and aggregate in tissues affected by these diseases. Here, we show that both proteins form amyloid fibrils and report cryo-EM structures of fibrils formed from their disordered N-terminal domains. The ordered cores of these fibrils are comprised of a region highly conserved between the two proteins, and a subset of the CHCHD10 and CHCHD2 fibril structures share structural similarities and appear compatible with sequence variations in this region. In contrast, disease-associated mutations p.S59L in CHCHD10 and p.T61I in CHCHD2, situated within the ordered cores of these fibrils, cannot be accommodated by the wildtype structures and promote different protofilament folds and fibril structures. These results link CHCHD10 and CHCHD2 amyloid fibrils to neurodegeneration and further suggest that fibril formation by the WT proteins could also be involved in disease etiology.
Reconfigurable non-Abelian integrated photonics
Observation of the anomalous Nernst effect in altermagnetic candidate Mn5Si3
Abstract The anomalous Nernst effect generates a voltage transverse to an applied thermal gradient in some magnetically ordered systems. While the effect was considered excluded in compensated magnetic materials with collinear ordering, in the recently identified symmetry-class of altermagnets, the anomalous Nernst effect is possible despite the compensated collinear spin arrangement. In this work, we show that epitaxial Mn5Si3 thin films grown on Si manifest an anomalous Nernst effect with a finite spontaneous signal at zero magnetic field despite the vanishing spontaneous magnetization. We attribute this to the previously theoretically predicted and experimentally corroborated altermagnetism of epitaxial Mn5Si3 thin films grown on Si. The observed spontaneous anomalous Nernst coefficient reaches the value of 0.26 μV/K with the corresponding spontaneous Nernst conductivity of 0.22 A/(K ⋅ m). To complement our measurements, we perform density-functional theory calculations of the momentum-resolved anomalous Nernst conductivity, highlighting the contributions of altermagnetic pseudonodal surfaces and ladder transitions to the Berry curvature. Our results illustrate the value of unconventional d-wave wave altermagnets composed of abundant and non-toxic light elements for thermo-electrics and spin-caloritronics.
The EMC acts as a chaperone for membrane proteins
Abstract Structure formation of membrane proteins is error-prone and thus requires chaperones that oversee this essential process in cell biology. The ER membrane protein complex (EMC) is well-defined as a transmembrane domain (TMD) insertase. In this study, we characterize an additional chaperone function of the EMC. We use interactomics and systematic studies with model proteins to comprehensively define client features for this EMC chaperone mode. Based on this data, we develop a machine learning-based tool for client prediction. Mechanistically, our study reveals that the EMC engages TMDs via its EMC1 subunit and modulates their orientation within the lipid bilayer. Productive TMD assembly reduces binding to the EMC chaperone site. Taken together, our study provides detailed insights into an EMC chaperone function, further establishing the role of the EMC as a multifunctional molecular machine in membrane protein biogenesis.
Global quantification of the dispersion effect with POLDER satellite data
Abstract Increased aerosols can modify the shape of the cloud Particle Size Distribution (PSD), thereby influencing the radiative properties of clouds, known as the Dispersion Effect (DE). However, a global, observation-based quantification of its impact on Aerosol-Cloud Interactions (ACI) is lacking, leading to DE being typically ignored in satellite-based estimates of ACI forcing. Here we propose a physics-based method that combines polarimetric satellite data on cloud PSD to achieve global observational quantification of DE’s impact on ACI in liquid-phase stratiform clouds. Globally, DE offsets ACI changes induced by droplet number concentration variation and liquid water path adjustment by 7% and −1.4%, respectively. Furthermore, a parameterization based on the global dataset of PSD shape parameters is developed to improve DE estimation in large-scale models. Both the quantification and parameterization enhance our understanding of DE and facilitate the inclusion of this non-negligible impact of DE on ACI in estimating aerosol climate forcing.
Characteristics of soil organic nitrogen fractions under vegetation restoration in karst areas
Abstract To understand the characteristics of soil organic nitrogen fractions under vegetation restoration in karst areas, soil samples from grassland (5-year-old), shrub-grassland (15-year-old), shrubland (20-year-old) and forestland (40-year-old) were taken as the research objects. The Bremner acid—hydrolysis method was used to determine the soil nitrogen fractions, and the correlations between them and soil physical and chemical properties were analyzed. The results showed that with the increase of soil depth, the mass fractions of soil total nitrogen (TN), non-acid-hydrolyzable nitrogen (AIN), acid-hydrolyzable nitrogen (TAN) and their various components all showed a downward trend. The mass fractions of various organic nitrogen components and their proportions in TN from large to small were as follows: AIN, acid-hydrolyzable unknown nitrogen (TUN), acid-hydrolyzable ammonia nitrogen (AMN), acid-hydrolyzable amino acid nitrogen (AAN), acid-hydrolyzable amino sugar nitrogen (ASN). TUN and AMN were likely the main sources of available nitrogen for plant uptake and utilization. The contents of both TAN and AIN increased significantly with the increase of TN content (P < 0.001). However, vegetation restoration increased the proportion of AIN and decreased the proportion of TAN. Among them, the 15-year-old shrubland had outstanding soil nitrogen-supplying capacity, while there was no significant difference in soil nitrogen-supplying potential among different restoration years. Soil organic carbon, total nitrogen and ammonium nitrogen were all extremely significantly (P < 0.001) positively correlated with soil organic nitrogen fractions. The changes in the characteristics of organic nitrogen fractions affected the soil nitrogen supply and storage capacity. The results of this study can provide a reference for nutrient management during the restoration of degraded soils.
Three-dimensional tooth morphology in patients with tooth agenesis and its association to agenesis pattern, severity, and sex
Abstract Non-syndromic tooth agenesis (TA) can affect both the size and shape of teeth and may interact with sex. This study aimed to advance our understanding of tooth developmental mechanisms by constructing a multifactorial model integrating 3D dental morphology, TA patterns, severity, and sex differences. Digital dental models of 255 Japanese individuals (control: 187; TA: 68) were analyzed. We assessed the contributions of size and shape to sex- and TA-related differences in maxillary central incisors (UI) and first molars (UM) using surface distance mapping and a tooth agenesis-associated shape difference (TAShD) analysis. Additionally, permutation tests were conducted to evaluate the relationship between sex- and TA-associated morphological variation. TA patterns were further classified using k-means clustering, and their associations with 3D tooth morphology were examined. Surface distance maps revealed TA-related morphological traits in both UI and UM, including generalized size reduction, altered cingulum morphology, and diminished distolingual cusps. The TAShD analysis indicated that TA and sex independently influenced tooth shape, although both contributed to size variation. Three distinct TA patterns were identified: Cluster 1 (premolar agenesis) exhibited size reduction without significant shape changes; Cluster 2 (incisor and canine agenesis) showed alterations in both the size and shape of the UI; and Cluster 3 (agenesis of canines, premolars, and second molars) presented with size reduction and shape abnormalities, particularly in the UM. These morphological distinctions across clusters reflect the independent effects of TA and sex on the dental morphology. Collectively, these findings highlight the presence of distinct TA patterns and their associated shape characteristics, thereby offering novel insights into the multifactorial nature of tooth development.
Good neighbours transfer nucleotides
A new late Pleistocene fossil crocodile from Sudan reveals hidden diversity of Crocodylus in Africa
Abstract While Crocodylus fossils are common in late Cenozoic deposits of Africa, there is a lack of knowledge about species diversity within the genus, especially after the Early Pleistocene. Here we report on a complete skull of a new fossil Crocodylus from the Late Pleistocene of the Middle Atbara River, eastern Sudan. Cranial morphology resembles Plio-Pleistocene species of Crocodylus from Africa in having upturned squamosals, though not as prominently developed as in these species, whereas the skull differs from fossil and extant Crocodylus in having a vaulted sagittal boss on the dorsal surface of the rostrum, and in the absence of a supraoccipital exposure on the dorsal skull table. Phylogenetic analyses indicate the Atbara Crocodylus represents a separate species and is more closely related to the fossil African crocodiles than the extant forms. The new species represents the first fossil Crocodylus to be described from the Late Pleistocene of Africa, providing new information on the occurrences and diversification of the genus Crocodylus during the Late Pleistocene.
Exploring DNA methylation age and the influence of physical performance, and hypertension on frailty in elderly women
Improved survival with high albumin leakage in patients with protein-energy wasting and inflammation on hemodialysis and online hemodiafiltration
How machine learning can help us understand what we have grown in the dish
Nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon as an efficient metal-free catalyst for biodiesel production
Efficacy of imipenem combined with dimercaptosuccinic acid in a murine sepsis model using Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Novel dual gland GAN architecture improves human protein localization classification using salivary and pituitary gland inspired loss functions
Abstract Cellular classification is essential for understanding biological processes and disease mechanisms. This paper introduces a novel approach that employs two complementary loss functions within a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) framework for processing images from the Human Protein Atlas dataset. Our method introduces the “Salivary Gland” loss function (SG-Loss), which addresses missing pixel imputation through a unique computational mechanism that models the graded secretion patterns of acinar cells, incorporating multi-scale contextual information to reconstruct incomplete cellular features. This is paired with our innovative “Pituitary Gland” loss function (PG-Loss), which preserves structural integrity through a novel homeostatic regularization approach that adaptively weights pixel relationships based on subcellular compartment boundaries, unlike conventional smoothing techniques. The SG-Loss specifically targets discontinuities in protein expression patterns, while PG-Loss maintains biological plausibility by enforcing organelle-specific constraints learned from annotated training data. Our proposed Dual-Gland GAN demonstrates superior performance with an Inception Score of 9.83 (± 0.31) and MS-SSIM Diversity of 0.187 (± 0.021). The model achieves impressive precision and recall metrics (0.872 and 0.835, respectively), resulting in an F1-score of 0.853. Training stability is reflected in minimal generator and discriminator loss variance (0.028 and 0.032) with convergence achieved in 78 epochs. Comprehensive evaluation shows high quality and diversity scores (0.912 and 0.894), yielding a combined score of 0.903, demonstrating the effectiveness of our biologically inspired approach for cellular image generation and classification. The results also prove the efficiency of the architecture in enhancing the classification results.