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Whitefly detection in coconut tree leaves using deep learning
Correction: Optimization of enzyme-assisted extraction of polyphyllins from paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis rhizomes using response surface methodology
Highly efficient atmospheric water harvesting via a biomimetic condensation structure integrated with passive radiative cooling
Abstract Atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) via thermoelectric condensation offers a promising solution for localized water scarcity but is constrained by high energy consumption and low energy efficiency. In this study, we employ selective laser melting (SLM) technology to fabricate a biomimetic 3-D condensation structure. The synergistic effects of geometric curvature gradients and optimized surface wettability significantly enhance water collection efficiency compared to conventional fin designs. Electrochemical polishing is further applied to reduce surface pinning effects, thereby promoting droplet removal. Additionally, a superhydrophobic passive radiative cooling coating is introduced onto the structure’s surface. This coating reflects a substantial portion of incident solar radiation and continuously emits thermal radiation through the atmospheric window, effectively reducing cooling energy demand. Under an applied power of only 56.3 mW cm − 2 , the biomimetic structure achieves a water collection rate of 247.54 mg cm − 2 h − 1 , which is 4.7 times higher than that of a commercial fin condenser. Field testing demonstrates that incorporating the passive radiative cooling coating improves water harvesting efficiency by up to 39.8%. This study presents a viable approach to enhancing the performance of thermoelectric AWH systems, laying a foundation for mitigating the global water-energy conflict.
Higher order interactions in global language endangerment revealed by multilayer language country bipartite network analysis
Formal verification of integrity attacks on connected medical devices in battlefield hospitals
Abstract Field hospitals in battlefield settings increasingly rely on connected medical devices, including monitors, ventilators, infusion pumps, patient-identification services, and gateway-based communication. In such environments, integrity attacks may create patient-safety hazards even when the system appears operational, by tampering with data, replaying old messages, injecting false information, or swapping patient identities. This work presents a formal framework for analyzing these attacks as a stochastic clinical–cyber system that integrates patient-state evolution, intermittent communication, attacker actions, and gateway-centered defense policies. Safety is evaluated using bounded unsafe reachability, supported by formal verification and resource-aware strategy synthesis. A synthetic digital twin is used to generate benign and attacked traces without real patient data; therefore, the findings are interpreted as model-based and simulation-based evidence rather than clinical validation. Confirmatory Monte Carlo evaluation used 5000 trajectories per configuration under 20 fixed root seeds. Patient-ID swapping reached an empirical unsafe reachability of 0.297 (95% CI 0.284–0.310) at the largest evaluated per-step attack-capacity limit, while the combined adaptive attacker reached 0.384 (95% CI 0.371–0.397). Evaluation of the synthesized combined gateway policy reduced empirical model-estimated unsafe reachability from 0.392 (95% CI 0.378–0.406) to 0.119 (95% CI 0.110–0.128) in the evaluated synthetic scenario, corresponding to a 69.6% relative reduction in this formal safety proxy, but with increased workflow burden. A separate PRISM-games worst-case query returned 0.410 under the disclosed finite abstraction. Verification remained tractable at the evaluated scales, with median PRISM runtime increasing from 0.90 to 28.70 s as the abstract state space expanded. Overall, the study supports formal verification as an analytical framework for safety-aware cyber-defense evaluation in connected field-hospital medical systems under explicit modeling assumptions; it does not establish clinical risk reduction or deployment readiness.
On the accuracy of nonlinear image registration in portable low-field 3D brain MRI
Prevalence of metabolic syndrome among psychiatric patients in the Middle East, North Africa, and Türkiye region: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Mortality risk for males and females with type 1 and type 2 diabetes in Aotearoa New Zealand: a national cohort study
Adaptation of burn care accreditation standard
Finite element analysis of different methods for uprighting partially impacted mandibular second molars
Site-specific oral microbiome profiles in healthy young Korean women
Constrained RNA polymerase mutational pathways distinguish corallopyronin A resistance from rifampicin resistance in staphylococci
Abstract Corallopyronin A (CorA) is a natural RNA polymerase (RNAP) inhibitor active against Gram-positive pathogens, including Staphylococcus aureus . Although spontaneous resistance to CorA occurs less frequently than to rifampicin, the genetic basis and evolutionary constraints of CorA resistance remain incompletely defined. Spontaneous mutation frequencies to CorA and rifampicin were determined by fluctuation analysis in three S. aureus strains and two coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS). Resistant mutants were phenotypically characterized and subjected to whole-genome sequencing. Double-resistant mutants were generated under rifampicin selection. Fitness costs were assessed by direct competition assays. Mutation frequencies to CorA were consistently lower than to rifampicin across all tested strains (Rif/CorA ratios 2.3–2.7). Whole-genome sequencing of 41 independently derived CorA-resistant mutants revealed resistance-associated substitutions confined to the RNAP subunits RpoB and RpoC. The mutational landscape was highly restricted, with recurrent hotspots at RpoC K334 and RpoB S1127. In coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS), resistance remained RNAP-centred but displayed broader allelic diversity, including substitutions previously described in S. aureus but identified here for the first time in CNS species, as well as the previously undescribed RpoC D810Y substitution. Ten mutants with resistance to CorA and rifampicin retained the CorA-associated mutation and acquired additional rifampicin resistance substitutions at non-overlapping RNAP residues. CorA resistance imposed a moderate fitness cost (12–15%), while additional rifampicin resistance resulted in mutation-dependent increases in the fitness burden. CorA resistance in staphylococci arises at lower spontaneous frequencies than rifampicin resistance and is mediated by a constrained set of RNAP mutations. The restricted mutational landscape and associated fitness costs indicate that, under the in vitro conditions examined, CorA resistance arises through more constrained evolutionary pathways than rifampicin resistance. These findings provide a foundation for further evaluation of CorA as an RNA polymerase-targeting antimicrobial.
Rational Design of the Composite Perfluoro-Sulfonic Ionomer for High-Performance Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells
Abstract Scaling proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) is constrained by high cathodic overpotential and platinum usage for the oxygen reduction reaction, challenges exacerbated by catalyst poisoning from perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomers. Though compositing PFSA with additives can mitigate this poisoning, progress has remained largely empirical due to the lack of quantitative assessment tools. Here, we introduce an electrochemical probe leveraging ionomer-coated single-crystal Pt(111) to quantify the coverage and strength of PFSA adsorption, elucidating how cationic additives suppress Pt poisoning. We identify an inverse correlation between cation hydration energy and PFSA adsorption, guiding the rational design of a poorly hydrated tetramethylammonium-anchored covalent organic framework (TMA+-COFs) as an ionomer additive. Electrochemical and spectroscopic analyses reveal that the composite TMA+-COFs/PFSA layer significantly inhibits sulfonate adsorption and poisoning onto Pt(111) through robust electrostatic interactions, which translates to a 1.7- and 4-fold activity enhancement for industrial Pt/C in rotating-disk and gas-diffusion electrodes, respectively. We also demonstrated a high mass activity of 1.08 A mgPt–1 in a PEMFC cathode with TMA+-COFs. Our work provides an alternative avenue to conventional catalyst engineering through the rational design of advanced composite ionomers for high-performance, low-Pt PEMFCs.
Robust Android malware detection through EfficientNet–BERT fusion and Jaya optimization for behavioral analysis
Ti3+-O Acid–Base Pairs for Efficient Solar-Driven Photothermal Nonoxidative Ethane Dehydrogenation
Abstract Nonoxidative ethane dehydrogenation (NOEDH) is a carbon efficient but thermodynamically severe route for ethene production. Solar-driven NOEDH offers a promising alternative, yet achieving both high activity and high ethene selectivity over noble metal-free catalysts without external heating remains unresolved. Here, we reported that Ti3+-O acid–base pairs on reduced rutile TiO2 enabled highly efficient full-spectrum solar-driven photothermal NOEDH without any external heating. The optimally reduced TiO2 at 750 °C delivered an ethene production rate of 392.0 mmol g–1 h–1, which was 1107 times higher than that of pristine TiO2 without reduction pretreatment. The high activity with a C2H4 selectivity of 94.9% surpassed the thermodynamic equilibrium limit and outperformed previously reported systems. Comprehensive characterizations identified surface Ti3+ sites adjacent to lattice oxygen as Lewis acid–base pairs that enhanced light absorption, promoted charge carrier separation, and directly participated in the C–H bond cleavage. Photogenerated electrons also preferentially accumulated on the coordinatively unsaturated Ti3+-O sites, which weakened ethene adsorption, thereby accelerating product desorption and suppressing deep dehydrogenation and coke formation. The synergy between photogenerated hot carriers and localized photothermal heating lowered the apparent activation energy from 157.6 kJ mol–1 in the dark to 75.0 kJ mol–1 under illumination. This work establishes surface acid–base pairs on noble metal-free catalyst as a powerful platform for sustainable light-driven alkane upgrading.
DWSM: an EEG digital watermark generation and black-box authentication method based on wavelet transform and statistical hypothesis testing
Total Synthesis of Benthol A: Evidence for a Structure Revision
Abstract Benthol A, a dinoflagellate-derived polyol/polyether marine natural product endowed with potent antimalaria and appreciable antiviral activity, consists of a 72 C atom linear backbone featuring 35 stereogenic centers and four stereogenic alkenes. The constitution and configuration of this intriguing “super-carbon-chain compound” had been assigned by the isolation team by a combination of spectroscopic, chemical, and computational means. Outlined in this and the accompanying paper is the first total synthesis of this challenging target, which came along with a subtle structure revision. During the synthesis of the building blocks, a spectral irregularity was noticed in that the 13C NMR chemical shifts as well as some of the 3JH,H coupling constants of the synthetic samples deviated notably from the data reported for the entire C31–C41 region of benthol A corresponding to the tetrahydropyran E-ring and its vicinity. A systematic approach made it possible to narrow down the likely site of error to a single, incorrectly assigned stereocenter, i.e., the C40 position; interestingly, the configuration of this site had been determined by the isolation team solely by computational means. In chemical terms, our studies showed how the proper choice of a propargylic protecting group allows the regiochemical course of a gold-catalyzed spiroacetalization reaction to be steered. Moreover, carbonyl homologation by the addition of a highly functionalized but entirely unstabilized diazo derivative generated in situ to an equally highly functionalized aldehyde proved adequate for the coupling of elaborate building blocks (Buchner–Curtius–Schlotterbeck reaction).
Reducing circuit resources in Grover’s algorithm via constraint-aware initialization
Abstract Grover’s search algorithm provides a quadratic speedup over classical brute-force methods for unstructured search problems in terms of query complexity and is widely used as a versatile subroutine in numerous quantum algorithms, including those for combinatorial problems with large search spaces. For such problems, it is natural to reduce the effective search space by incorporating problem constraints at the initialization step, which in Grover’s algorithm can be achieved by preparing structured initial states that encode constraint information. In this work, we present a systematic framework with a simple preprocessing procedure for constraint-aware initialization in Grover’s algorithm, focusing on problems with linear constraints. The proposed framework incorporates cardinality constraints and parity constraints extracted from more general linear constraints. While such structured initial states can reduce the number of oracle queries required to obtain a solution, their preparation incurs additional circuit-level costs. We therefore offer a conservative circuit-level resource analysis, showing that the resulting constraint-aware initialization can improve resource efficiency in terms of gate counts and circuit depth. The proposed framework is further illustrated numerically using the exact-cover problem as a representative application. Overall, our results indicate that this approach serves as a practical baseline for achieving more resource-efficient implementations of Grover’s algorithm compared to the standard uniform initialization.
Accelerated Self-Photopolymerization of Phenolics in Microdroplets Contributes to the Brown Carbon Formation
Abstract While phenolic compounds are recognized as key atmospheric precursors of brown carbon (BrC), the mechanisms governing their interfacial transformation into BrC aerosols, particularly at the microdroplet air–water interface (AWI), remain incompletely characterized. This study investigated the photolysis of phenolic compounds in microdroplets under UV irradiation, revealing a transformation efficiency 2 orders of magnitude higher than that in bulk solutions. Through integrated Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry, liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, and fluorescence excitation–emission matrix spectrum, we identified interfacial-confined oligomerization as the dominant pathway generating BrC with oligomer characteristics. Multiscale theoretical simulations unveiled that the AWI functions as a key mediator through a synergistic mechanism: it not only drives the spontaneous accumulation of phenols at the interface, but also enhances their photon absorption efficiency via asymmetric interfacial H-π hydrogen bonding, as evidenced by a critical 24.7% increase in the molar extinction coefficient at 298 nm. Together, these dual effects synergistically facilitate photon capture and subsequent phenoxy radical generation. Our results establish the AWI as photochemical nanoreactors that fundamentally alter atmospheric BrC formation kinetics, providing a mechanistic framework to reconcile field observations of rapid aerosol aging under humid conditions, while challenging current model assumptions about phenolic transformation time scales.