Browse Articles

On‐Demand Deconstructable Thermosets Through Cleavable Comonomer and Thermolatent Base Synergy

ABSTRACT Thermosets provide superior chemical and mechanical properties critical for high‐performance applications, but their permanent crosslinked networks severely limit recyclability and end‐of‐life (EOL) management. Traditional approaches relying on cleavable comonomers enable degradation only through slow diffusion of acidic or basic solutions, hindering practical implementation. Here, on‐demand deconstructable thermosets are developed by incorporating stimuli‐responsive thermolatent bases alongside cleavable comonomers prior to polymerization. These latent species remain inert during thermal or photoinitiated curing, including vat photopolymerization 3D printing, preserving classical thermoset performance. Upon near‐infrared photothermal or thermal activation (>100°C), rapid network deconstruction yields soluble branched oligomers, enabling efficient chemical recycling without aggressive solvents during service life. This strategy is demonstrated using thermolatent 1,5,7‐triazabicyclo[4.4.0]dec‐5‐ene derivatives with radical copolymerization of dibenzo[ c , e ]oxepine‐5‐thione with styrene/acrylic monomers, as well as ring‐opening metathesis polymerization of dicyclopentadiene with silyl ether‐containing cyclic olefins. The approach offers programmable degradation for sustainable high‐performance thermosets.

Deep learning-based automatic detection of pediatric non-high-density tracheobronchial foreign bodies using chest computed tomography

Abstract Foreign body aspiration (FBA) of non-high-density objects (NHDFBs) in children is a critical pediatric emergency, posing risks of airway obstruction and requiring prompt diagnosis, which currently relies on clinician experience with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT). This study aimed to develop and validate a deep learning (DL) model for the automated detection of tracheobronchial NHDFBs in pediatric LDCT scans. A retrospective, multicenter cohort of 600 children with suspected FBA was utilized, with bronchoscopic confirmation as the gold standard. A ResUnet-based model was trained and evaluated on internal and external validation sets, with its performance systematically compared against junior and senior radiologists. The DL model achieved foreign body detection rates comparable to senior radiologists across training, internal test and external validation cohorts without significant intergroup differences, whereas both outperformed junior radiologists significantly (all p  < 0.05). The DL model exhibited drastically shorter reading time (17.5 ± 2.4 s) than senior radiologists (80.2 ± 13.1 s) and junior radiologists (109.3 ± 16.8 s, all p  < 0.05). The model maintained stable high diagnostic performance in all cohorts. Its sensitivity was significantly higher than junior radiologists in both validation sets (all p  < 0.05), while sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV showed no statistical disparities between the DL model and senior radiologists. The DL model yielded AUC values of 0.93, 0.89 and 0.85 in the three cohorts, which were statistically equivalent to those of senior radiologists (0.94, 0.95, 0.90), and substantially superior to junior radiologists (0.82, 0.83, 0.79). The developed DL model achieves expert-level accuracy with superior efficiency for detecting pediatric NHDFBs on LDCT, demonstrating strong potential as a rapid, objective decision-support tool to enhance diagnostic workflows, particularly in settings with limited specialist availability.

Bioorthogonal Tools for Ethanolamine Lipids and Protein Conjugates

ABSTRACT Phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) is the second most abundant class of phospholipids in eukaryotic membranes, as well as a precursor for essential posttranslational protein modifications, such as PE conjugates of ubiquitin and ATG8/LC3 that play key roles in autophagy, and glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchors of numerous cell surface proteins. Bioorthogonal chemistry has revolutionized how phospholipid biosynthesis, transport, and turnover are studied, with clickable metabolic precursors now available for several phospholipid classes. Yet no metabolic bioorthogonal probe for labeling endogenous PE and PE‐derived protein modifications has been developed. Here, we introduce an alkyne‐tagged ethanolamine analog (AlkEA) that is incorporated into PE via the Kennedy pathway and can be derivatized by copper‐catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) for visualization and affinity enrichment. Confocal microscopy revealed the subcellular distribution of AlkEA‐labeled PE in the ER, Golgi, mitochondria, and autophagosomes, while lipidomic analysis demonstrated AlkEA incorporation across diverse PE species. AlkEA labeling also allowed affinity isolation of PE‐conjugated LC3 and ubiquitin, as well as that of a prototypical GPI‐anchored protein. AlkEA is thus a minimally perturbing tool broadly applicable to dissecting PE metabolism and PE‐dependent protein modifications.

A novel probiotic bacterium Bacillus paralicheniformis TATVAM-FAB17 isolated from goat rumen increases milk yield in dairy cattle

Decoupling TM–O Antibonding via Targeted Orbital Engineering Enables High‐Voltage and Long‐Life Sodium Polyanionic Cathodes

ABSTRACT Polyanionic cathode materials based on Mn/V redox couples offer high‐voltage plateaux and high theoretical energy density for sodium‐ion batteries (SIBs). However, they suffer from severe degradation in rate capability and cycling stability under high‐voltage, whose microscopic origin remains elusive on the electronic‐level. Herein, we reveal the strong coupling between Mn/V–O antibonding orbitals at elevated voltages induces significant lattice strain, leading to kinetic hysteresis. Thus, we propose a targeted orbital engineering regulation strategy aiming to disentangle the strong coupling among (TM–O)* orbitals. By introducing Ti 4+ (3d 0 ) and Fe 3+ (3d 5 ) as the stable electronic configurations, and electron‐donating Si, we modulate (TM–O)* orbital occupancy at the electronic level, markedly alleviating structural stress and stabilizing Na + diffusion pathways. The optimized Na 4 Mn 0.7 V 0.7 Ti 0.4 Fe 0.2 (PO 4 ) 2.9 (SiO 4 ) 0.1 cathode delivers high energy density (415.03 Wh/kg) and exceptional long‐cycle performance, retaining 80.3% capacity after 8,000 cycles at 20 C. This strategy demonstrates a feasible orbital engineering approach to develop stable high‐energy‐density cathodes for SIBs.

The impact and mechanisms of green finance on agricultural carbon emissions in China

Backbone Steric Constraints Underlie High Passive Membrane Permeability of <i>N</i> ‐Alkyl Peptides

ABSTRACT N ‐Alkyl peptides have emerged as promising drug modalities, yet the structural determinants governing passive membrane permeability beyond amide hydrogen removal remain poorly understood. Here, we show that sterically constrained N ‐alkyl peptide backbones, generated by dual substitution at the amide nitrogen and the α‐carbon, play a critical role in promoting passive membrane permeability. By directly comparing N ‐alkyl peptides with oligo( N ‐alkyl glycines) lacking C α‐substituents, we isolated the backbone steric effects independently of amide hydrogen removal. N ‐Alkyl peptides bearing an N / C α‐dually substituted backbone architecture consistently exhibited enhanced permeability across a broad range of lipophilicity and diverse sequences. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed two cooperative mechanisms: conformational restriction that favors less hydrated states and steric limitation of backbone hydration by β‐carbons during membrane permeation. Together, these findings uncover a previously unrecognized structural basis for the high passive membrane permeability of N ‐alkyl peptides.

Coherence and fidelity aware routing in quantum networks

Abstract In quantum networks, routing mechanisms designed to deliver successfully multiple simultaneous requests to the destination under limited channel capacity should simultaneously consider resource usage optimization, entanglement-generation performance, and the quality of the end-to-end delivered entangled states. The routing approaches developed for quantum networks in the literature mostly consider the change in fidelity during routing. However, it should be noted that quantum states with the same fidelity value may have different levels of coherence. In this study, for the first time, a novel routing and purification approach for quantum networks is presented, using the end-to-end (E2E) relative entropy of coherence (REC) together with E2E fidelity to determine the purification level and the feasibility of candidate paths. In our study, the coherence- and fidelity-aware routing algorithm (CAFARA) is proposed. In CAFARA, the BBPSSW purification levels are determined for each candidate path and ordered from the lowest to the highest. This information is stored in a lookup table. Then, the lowest BBPSSW purification level that simultaneously satisfies the requested fidelity, REC, latency, and capacity constraints is selected. The E2E fidelity, REC, and required number of raw Bell pairs mentioned here are all stored together in the previously mentioned lookup table. This lookup table was constructed using imperfect initial Werner states, one-sided amplitude damping, Werner-state twirling, BBPSSW purification, and density-matrix-based entanglement swapping, and all calculations were completed before the routing process. As the final step, CAFARA selects the best path with the highest entanglement generation rate (EGR) from the selected feasible paths. In our study, the FARA-PostREC and FARA-NoREC algorithms were developed for comparison with CAFARA. While the FARA-PostREC algorithm uses the REC constraint during the final validation stage of the request, FARA-NoREC does not use any REC constraint; it uses only fidelity as the quality parameter of the paths and as the parameter for determining the purification level. In our simulations under varying link distance, channel capacity, network size, and request load, CAFARA achieved a better average request success rate than FARA-PostREC by reducing late-stage request drops related to coherence because it also uses REC during the purification-level determination stage while maintaining the required E2E fidelity and REC values. Although FARA-NoREC often accepts more requests and assumes that they are successfully delivered, the average final fidelity (AFF) and average final coherence (AFC) values of the requests considered successful are lower than those of the other algorithms; the AFC does not even satisfy the REC threshold. Overall, CAFARA provides a balanced trade-off between the quality-guaranteed request success rate, latency, purification overhead, and resource consumption.

Interfacial Raft‐Like Structures From Bottlebrush Polymers

ABSTRACT We investigated the interfacial behavior of amphiphilic random copolymer‐grafted bottlebrush polymers (RC‐BBPs) synthesized by copper‐catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition in a grafting‐to approach. RC‐BBPs stabilize the fluid–fluid interface by forming laterally confined, “raft‐like” structures that anchor the side‐chains parallel to the interface. These envisaged raft‐like structures, when adsorbed to a fluid–fluid interface, are inferred to leave bare interfacial regions that are inaccessible to adsorption of additional rafts. As such, RC‐BBPs prohibit dense interfacial packing and yield higher interfacial tensions and lower interfacial areal densities than compositionally uniform bottlebrush statistical copolymers (BSCPs). This interfacial assembly of bottlebrush polymer (BBP) rafts offers distinct advantages, since inter‐raft gaps reflect a lack of close‐packing that offers routes to mass transport, seen in this work as a &gt;6‐fold higher interfacial ion flux across RC‐BBP‐stabilized droplets relative to their BSCP counterparts. These results show that controlling the spatial distribution of BBPs via sequence randomness within the side‐chains—a previously overlooked structural parameter—produces a distinct, sparsely packed assembly of BBPs that preserves bare interfacial area to yield regulated, patchy, selective, or adaptive liquid–liquid interfaces.

Uneven mosquito control knowledge, attitudes, and practices in Malaysia shape sustainable dengue prevention across urban and rural settings

Single‐Atom Control of Aromaticity and Excited‐State Dynamics in Endohedral Zirconium–Antimony Zintl Clusters

ABSTRACT Three‐dimensional (3D) aromaticity provides a powerful framework for understanding the stability and electronic structures of superatomic clusters, yet how such aromaticity evolves during atom‐by‐atom structural growth remains poorly understood. Herein, we report two endohedral zirconium‐antimony Zintl clusters, [Zr@Sb 12 ] 2− and [Zr@Sb 13 ] 3− , that offer a rare one‐atom comparison of nuclearity‐dependent aromaticity and photodynamics. Structural and bonding analyses reveal that [Zr@Sb 12 ] 2− behaves as an integrated Sb 12 framework rather than three discrete Sb 4 fragments coordinated to Zr. Adaptive natural density partitioning (AdNDP) and magnetic‐response analyses establish a closed‐shell S 2 P 6 superatomic configuration, giving rise to pronounced spherical all‐metal aromaticity. In contrast, incorporation of one additional Sb atom reorganizes the framework into a cage‐like [Zr@Sb 13 ] 3− cluster, disrupts superatomic shell closure, and produces an S 2 P 4 configuration with strongly attenuated spherical aromaticity. Femtosecond transient absorption (fs‐TA) spectroscopy further reveals that the aromatic [Zr@Sb 12 ] 2− cluster exhibits markedly longer‐lived excited‐state species than [Zr@Sb 13 ] 3− . These findings establish a direct structure–aromaticity–dynamics relationship, demonstrating that single‐atom control of cluster nuclearity can regulate not only ground‐state aromatic stabilization but also excited‐state robustness in all‐metal superatoms.

The effect of friction and fracture on weak shock propagation in granular salt

Adaptive Hydrogenation of Alkynes Using CO as a Molecular Trigger to Selectively Produce Alkanes or <i>Z</i> ‐Alkenes

ABSTRACT The selective hydrogenation of alkynes to either alkanes or alkenes is an important step in synthetic processes across the entire chemical value chain with a broad range of applications especially for fine chemical and pharmaceutical production. While traditional developments aim at individual catalysts optimized for either one or the other product, catalytic systems capable of adaptively targeting both classes of products with high activity and selectivity could enable flexible production schemes. Here, we show that CO can be used as a molecular trigger to dynamically adjust the selectivity of supported palladium nanoparticles (NPs) in alkyne hydrogenation. In particular, Pd NPs immobilized on an imidazolium‐based supported ionic liquid phase (Pd@SILP) hydrogenate a wide range of structurally diverse alkynes, delivering synthetically relevant alkane or Z ‐alkene products under H 2 or H 2 /CO as feed gas, respectively. Reference experiments, kinetic studies including isotope labeling, and near‐ambient‐pressure XPS studies reveal that the rapid and robust selectivity switch originates from the reversible adsorption of CO competing with alkene at the Pd surface. In contrast to its notorious reputation as a catalyst poison in hydrogenation, these findings establish CO as an effective molecular trigger for adaptive catalysis, paving the way toward even broader applications for reversible selectivity control.

Enhancing identity stability in sperm motility analysis via density-adaptive tracklet stitching with YOLOv12n and BoostTrack++

Should Artificial Intelligence Direct Systemic Therapy Decisions in Pancreatic Cancer?

Unraveling A4GALT Mechanism and Its Modulation With Adamantyl‐Galactosylceramide Analogues: Advancing Fabry Disease Therapeutic Strategies

ABSTRACT Fabry disease (FD), one of the most prevalent lysosomal storage disorders in Europe, is caused by mutations in the GLA gene leading to deficient α‐galactosidase A activity with lysosomal accumulation of globotriaosylceramide (Gb3). Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) and pharmacological chaperone therapy (PCT) are used in the clinic to treat FD but are limited in efficacy, underscoring the need for alternative therapeutic strategies. Inhibiting α‐1,4‐galactosyltransferase (A4GALT), the glycosyltransferase responsible for Gb3 biosynthesis, represents an attractive strategy. Here, we reveal the molecular mechanism of human A4GALT at atomic detail using QM/MM simulations. We reveal a conformational rearrangement involving a 3 10 ‐helix that stabilizes the donor substrate and promotes a front‐face S N i‐like catalytic mechanism, in which a short‐lived oxocarbenium‐ion intermediate forms. The simulations informed the synthesis of a panel of glycosylceramide substrate analogues. Among these, AdaGalCer (Ada = adamantyl) proved able to reduce Gb3 production in fibroblasts while simultaneously being converted by A4GALT into the galactosylated product AdaGb2. These results provide a clear path towards inhibiting A4GALT, paving the way for potential new and effective FD therapeutics.

GOLM1 silencing compromises mitochondrial function, proliferation, and invasion in lung cancer cells

Therapeutic Strategy Concerns for <i>BRAF</i> V600E–Mutated Differentiated Thyroid Cancer

Topological Densification‐Reinforced Robust and Durable Protein Adhesive at Dynamic Interfaces

ABSTRACT Robust and durable adhesion is essential for effective tissue sealing and rapid hemostasis in modern clinical practice. However, most two‐component biomimetic systems often require complex multi‐step reactions and fail to maintain durable and strong adhesion under high‐velocity blood flow. Herein, we report a topological densification strategy to address this challenge by crosslinking an engineered lysine‐rich elastin‐like protein with a multifunctional ortho‐phthalaldehyde‐grafted star‐type crosslinker. Rapid covalent bonding of lysine amines creates a dense protein topological network and simultaneously reduces protein hydration by converting hydrated amine sites into less hydrophilic phthalimidine adducts. In contrast to conventional hydrogel adhesives, our formulation exhibits exceptionally strong and durable wet tissue adhesion reaching ∼252 kPa, a value that significantly exceeds many previously reported tissue adhesives and clinically used sealants. Notably, this platform achieves clamp‐free sealing of high‐pressure arterial haemorrhage in large animals and allows safe dural repair in confined spaces without risking postoperative nerve compression. This work establishes a versatile design principle for engineering durable, high‐performance bioadhesives suitable for demanding surgical settings.

A fully analytical virial framework for predicting thermodynamic properties of the CH₄–CO₂ binary gas mixture