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Interaction between gender and age on the methylation levels of KLF14 promoter

Scientific Reports Chiung-Hung Chiang, Yen-Chung Chen, Oswald Ndi Nfor et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-01536-8

Artificial synapses based on CIPS/Te vdW heterojunction ferroelectric transistor for traffic light recognition

Applied Physics Letters Zuyi Wang, Fei Li, Yiming Zhao et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1063/5.0256495

Neuromorphic computing is a key technology for simulating brain function and plays a crucial role in the next-generation computing, offering a potential solution to the challenges posed by the von Neumann bottleneck. Tellurium (Te) and CuInP2S6 (CIPS), as two-dimensional (2D) materials with excellent properties, have been widely used in advanced electronics and optoelectronics. However, the combination of the stable ferroelectricity of CIPS and the high current characteristics of Te, which both electrical and optical stimuli can modulate, offers great potential for addressing complex application scenarios, yet this type of 2D van der Waals (vdW) device has been largely unexplored. In this study, we developed an optoelectronic neuromorphic device based on CIPS and Te, which exhibits fundamental synaptic behaviors in response to electrical stimulation and demonstrates different current responses under light of varying wavelengths. Additionally, we constructed an RC system based on this device to address the problem of traffic light recognition. In this system, the ferroelectric modulation of CIPS by voltage enables short-term depression (STD) to simulate human braking behavior in response to dangerous signals. This approach effectively enhances the response capabilities of intelligent traffic systems to traffic signals, offering significant application potential.

Serum starvation-induced cholesterol reduction increases melanoma cell susceptibility to cytotoxic T lymphocyte killing

Scientific Reports Miaomiao Hou, Longtao Ji, Dimin Li et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-00586-2

Interfacial thermal transport suppression by hydrogen insertion in an epitaxial Al/Si heterostructure

Applied Physics Letters Menglin Chang, Ziyuan Yuan, Nianjie Liang et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1063/5.0253324

Engineering of interfacial thermal transport is crucial for efficient heat-to-electricity conversion and cooling of electronic devices. Here, we achieve remarkably high interfacial thermal conductance in a series of aluminum/silicon heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy, up to 0.49 GW m−2 K−1 at room temperature, which is ∼29% greater than state-of-the-art values. The pristine interface is near perfect without any notable defects, as confirmed by atomic-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Density functional theory calculations reveal the possible covalent bonding between Al and Si at the interface. Intriguingly, by inserting a monolayer of hydrogen atoms at the interface, the conductance can be reduced by ∼47%. Molecular dynamics simulations show that phonon transmission is primarily suppressed within the frequency range from 2 to 7 THz. Our work highlights the potential of manipulating interfacial thermal transport at the atomic scale and may facilitate diverse applications in thermal management and energy harvesting.

Non-linear relationship between social jetlag and depressive symptoms among Chinese college students

Scientific Reports Jing Luo, Jinyou Yang, Tianjiao Dai et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-03371-3

Assessing electric-field engineering of filamentary-type conduction in Cu/HfO2/Pt memristive devices using the quantum point-contact model

Applied Physics Letters Taewook Kim, Enrique Miranda, Eszter Piros et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1063/5.0261095

We explored the role of electric-field engineering in controlling filamentary-type conduction in Cu/HfO2/Pt memristive devices, utilizing the quantum point-contact (QPC) model for analysis. In a previous study, we reported that devices with a thicker oxide layer stack (20 and 15 nm) statistically exhibit higher resistance values in the high-resistance state (HRS) compared to devices with a thinner oxide layer stack (10 nm). In addition, thicker oxides exhibit higher and more broadly distributed set voltages compared to the more uniform distribution of set voltages occurring in thinner oxide layers. In this work, we thoroughly analyzed the electron transport characteristics of the electroformed devices (Cu conducting filament) using the QPC model, which allows us to infer the main features of the confinement potential barrier at the constriction's bottleneck. The obtained results indicate that the HRS current for the three thicknesses investigated follows a trend consistent with the predictions of the QPC model in terms of the aspect ratio energy barrier thickness/constriction radius (tB/R). Notably, the 10 nm samples exhibit a lower aspect ratio (tB/R < 1: wide nanogap) than the 15 and 20 nm samples (tB/R > 1: elongated nanogap). It was found that wide nanogaps are associated with lower variance of the HRS current and smaller set voltages. In view of these results, we suggest that optimizing the switching oxide layer thickness, therefore the shape of the filament, may be a suitable way to reduce variability of HRS current and set voltage to improve resistive switching performance.

AI-assisted technology optimization in disability support systems using fuzzy rough MABAC decision-making

Scientific Reports Jabbar Ahmmad, Osamah AbdulAziz Al-Dayel, Meraj Ali Khan et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-02362-8

Silicon-based van der Waals heteroepitaxy of PbSe with room-temperature sensitive mid-infrared response

Applied Physics Letters Yu Wan, Jiafeng Hu, Yan Lu et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1063/5.0271152

Silicon integration of non-silicon semiconductors is always challenging due to the serious lattice and thermal expansion mismatch. In this study, we design a silicon-based van der Waals heteroepitaxy of infrared semiconductors through the graphene buffer layer. Through density functional theory calculations, we demonstrate that graphene-modified SiO2 surfaces exhibit a drastic reduction in surface potential and sliding energy compared to unmodified substrates. These properties enable the epitaxial growth of high-quality single-crystal lead selenide (PbSe) on silicon, effectively circumventing conventional substrate-induced constraints. The photoelectric characterization shows that the detector made from the graphene/silicon-based PbSe structure achieves great mid-infrared performance. It has a room-temperature specific detectivity (D*) of up to 1.4 × 109 cm Hz1/2 W−1 and a rapid response time in the microsecond range. Our work offers a scalable pathway to overcome limitations of lattice-matched epitaxy and advance the development of silicon-compatible optoelectronics.

Prognostic model for predicting recurrence in breast cancer patients in Saudi Arabia

Scientific Reports Ousman Khan, Jimoh Olawale Ajadi, Fahad Almsned et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-94530-z

High-speed tunable generation of random number distributions using actuated perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions

Applied Physics Letters Ahmed Sidi El Valli, Michael Tsao, J. Darby Smith et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1063/5.0259366

Perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (pMTJs) actuated by nanosecond pulses are emerging as promising devices for true random number generation (TRNG) due to their intrinsic stochastic behavior and high throughput. In this work, we demonstrate the tunability and quality of random number distributions generated by pMTJs operating at a frequency of 104 MHz. First, changing the pulse amplitude is used to systematically vary the probability bias. The variance of the resulting bitstreams closely matches the expected binomial distribution, demonstrating consistency with an underlying sequence of Bernoulli trials. Second, the quality of uniform distributions of 8-bit random numbers generated with a probability bias of 0.5 is considered. A reduced chi-square analysis of these data shows that only two XOR operations are sufficient to achieve this distribution with p-values greater than 0.05. Finally, we show that there is a correlation between long-term probability bias variations and pMTJ resistance. These findings suggest that variations in the characteristics of the pMTJ underlie the observed variation of probability bias. Our results highlight the potential of stochastically actuated pMTJs for high-speed, tunable TRNG applications, showing the importance of the stability of pMTJ device characteristics in achieving reliable, long-term performance.

Intestinal microbiota improves inflammation and cognitive function in the brain of a7nAChR deficient rat through the gut brain axis

Scientific Reports Chi Cao, Shulin Li, Wencheng Wang et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-02627-2

Transparent multifunctional memristor based on amorphous InAlZnO for biomimetic sensing system

Applied Physics Letters Yimeng Xu, Caiyang Ye, Wenyao Jiao et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1063/5.0251101

Recent advances in artificial intelligence have heightened interest in biomimetic sensory systems that can replicate biological neural processes, particularly learning, memory formation, and cognitive behaviors. In this study, a transparent multifunctional memristor with both volatile and nonvolatile properties is developed using amorphous InAlZnO (a-IAZO). The device's ability to transition between volatile and nonvolatile states effectively mimics biological synaptic behaviors, enabling the simulation of both short-term memory and long-term potentiation/inhibition processes. As a volatile memristor, the device exhibits key nociceptor characteristics, including “no adaptation,” “relaxation,” “threshold firing,” and “sensitization of allodynia/hyperalgesia.” By integrating the a-IAZO memristor with an electrical pressure sensor system, we demonstrated a bionic sensing system capable of pressure detection and voltage-based signal processing. These findings offer promising applications in neuromorphic computing and bionic robotics, advancing the development of artificial sensory systems that more closely approximate biological functions.

Construction and validation of a cell based reporter assay for identifying inhibitors of SARS coronavirus 2 RNA dependent RNA polymerase activity

Scientific Reports Eunjeong Kang, Haelim Yoon, Junho Lee et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-03813-y

Background-free microwave-induced thermoacoustic imaging by magnetic field modulation

Applied Physics Letters Guojia Huang, Yu Wang, Shanxiang Zhang et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1063/5.0271610

Microwave-induced thermoacoustic (TA) imaging is a potential noninvasive method for high resolution detection of deep tissues. However, background signals from non-target areas can limit imaging contrast. Here, we proposed a reversible switch microwave-induced TA differential imaging using the ferromagnetic resonance effect to achieve high-contrast and background-free imaging. The ferromagnetic resonance of ferromagnetic materials under the combined action of alternating magnetic field and biased static magnetic field can enhance microwave absorption and further produce stronger TA signal. The results demonstrated that the conversion of strong and weak TA signals of ferromagnetic materials can be realized by controlling the switch of biased static magnetic field, so as to achieve high-contrast and background-free TA differential imaging. This technology provides a potential approach for high-contrast and background-free microwave-induced TA imaging in complex biological tissues.

Efficient TD3 based path planning of mobile robot in dynamic environments using prioritized experience replay and LSTM

Scientific Reports Yunhan Lin, ZhiJie Zhang, Yijian Tan et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-02244-z

Abstract To address the challenges of sample utilization efficiency and managing temporal dependencies, this paper proposes an efficient path planning method for mobile robot in dynamic environments based on an improved twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient (TD3) algorithm. The proposed method, named PL-TD3, integrates prioritized experience replay (PER) and long short-term memory (LSTM) neural networks, which enhance both sample efficiency and the ability to handle time-series data. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, simulation and practical experiments were designed and conducted. In the simulation experiments, both static and dynamic obstacles were included in the test environment, along with experiments to assess generalization capabilities. The algorithm demonstrated superior performance in terms of both execution time and path efficiency. The practical experiments, based on the assumptions from the simulation tests, further confirmed that PL-TD3 has improved the effectiveness and robustness of path planning for mobile robot in dynamic environments.

Observation of conflicting Seebeck coefficient and Hall coefficient in Sb-doped MnBi4Te7 crystals

Applied Physics Letters Yinong Yin, Yan Zhang, Yutian Lang et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1063/5.0252064

In the past decades, great efforts have been devoted to designing and developing high-efficiency thermoelectric (TE) materials due to the increasing demands in the fields of power generation, cooling, and sensing. Given that the developments of TE materials based on charge and phonon engineering are facing a plateau, the manipulation of spin degree of freedom has been considered as an innovative strategy to further improve the TE performance, which has drawn growing attention in recent years. In this work, we studied the thermoelectric transport properties of Sb-doped MnBi4Te7 crystals, which contain the Bi2Te3 layers for charge transport and MnTe layers for spins. We observed abnormally low thermopower in the crystals with Sb doping ratios of 0.25 and 0.35, and the sign of thermopower is contradictory to the Hall coefficient. Further experiments evidenced magnetic field-enhanced thermopower and electrical resistivity over a wide temperature range, which support a spin-driven thermoelectric mechanism. An explanation based on the interplay between the spin and heat in entropy transport via charged carriers is proposed.

The vitamin D spectrum: insights into 25(OH)D and VDBP in chronic kidney disease and post-transplant

Scientific Reports G. Priyadarshini, Sreejith Parameswaran, Jayaprakash Sahoo et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-03035-2

Inside Back Cover: First Encapsulation of Organometallic Single‐Molecule Magnet into Single‐Walled Carbon Nanotubes (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 22/2025)

Angewandte Chemie International Edition Haitao Zhang, Ryo Nakanishi, Takefumi Yoshida et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1002/anie.202510024

A TEM study of MOCVD-grown rutile GeO2 films

Applied Physics Letters Imteaz Rahaman, Botong Li, Hunter D. Ellis et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1063/5.0244206

Ultrawide bandgap semiconductors are promising for the next-generation power electronics, largely attributed to their substantial bandgap and exceptional breakdown electric field. Rutile GeO2 (r-GeO2) emerges as a promising alternative, particularly because of its ambipolar dopability. However, research on r-GeO2 is still in its infancy, and further investigation into its structural properties is essential for enhancing epilayer quality. In our previous work, we identified distinct surface morphologies—square-patterned and smooth regions—of r-GeO2 films grown on r-TiO2 (001) substrates using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. This research employs transmission electron microscopy to investigate the structural characteristics of the material. The findings indicate that the square-patterned regions are crystalline, whereas the smooth regions exhibit amorphous properties. The measured lattice spacing in the (110) plane is 0.324 nm, slightly exceeding the theoretical value of 0.312 nm. This discrepancy suggests the presence of tensile strain in the r-GeO2 film, resulting from lattice mismatch or thermal expansion differences with the substrate. We also observed a threading dislocation density of 1.83 × 109 cm−2, consisting of 11.76% screw-type, 29.41% edge-type, 55.89% mixed-type dislocations, and 2.94% planar defects. These findings offer valuable insight into the growth mechanisms and defect characteristics of r-GeO2.

Retraction Note: Mixed convection flow of an electrically conducting viscoelastic fluid past a vertical nonlinearly stretching sheet

Scientific Reports Ahmad Banji Jafar, Sharidan Shafie, Imran Ullah et al. May 26, 2025 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-02616-5