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Pueraria lobata extract mitigates diabetic nephropathy via NLRP3 inflammasome and Caspase-1 regulation
Strain-induced fully coherent triphase nanoarchitecture in refractory high-entropy alloys
Nanostructured materials have exceptional properties, yet scalable fabrication of bulk, three-dimensional, nanograined structures remains a formidable challenge. We report the self-assembly of a fully coherent, triphase nanostructure—resembling a mesocrystal—formed through solid-state phase separation in an equiatomic refractory alloy. The resulting architecture integrates three common metallic crystal structures—face-centered cubic, body-centered cubic, and hexagonal close-packed—interwoven through strain-induced phase separation and unconventional transformation pathways triggered by the separation itself. This nanostructure accommodates large atomic-size mismatches and lattice misfits while maintaining full coherency and thermal stability. The resulting material exhibits a compressive yield strength exceeding 2 gigapascals. These findings provide a method for nanostructure engineering in compositionally complex alloys through strain-induced transformation pathway engineering.
Perinatal mood and anxiety diagnoses and treatment increased among medicaid births, 2017–2021
Abstract Despite funding the most births in the United States (US), we know little about basic patterns and trends of mental health conditions among Medicaid-insured women during pregnancy and after delivery. We sought to characterize the prevalence of diagnosis and treatment for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMAD) among women with Medicaid health insurance coverage. We conducted serial, cross-sectional analyses of women with live-birth deliveries during 2017–2021 using Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) claims. To construct state-specific PMAD diagnosis and treatment trajectories including antidepressant prescriptions and psychotherapy visits, we examined geographic variations by state and year among reproductive aged women. In a national cohort of 4,579,289 women with Medicaid and a live birth, 635,785 (13.88%) had a PMAD diagnosis during the study period. Perinatal women in all age, race, ethnicity, geographic regions, comorbidity burdens, and all but one state experienced growth in PMAD diagnoses. Substantial variation occurred among states for antidepressant use, while national trends remained stable. Characterizing PMAD diagnosis and treatment patterns represents an important public health contribution. Future research should aim to better understand factors underlying variation in PMAD diagnoses and treatment across subgroups and geographic areas.
New list of political jobs at science agencies called ‘weird and capricious’
NIH programs and leadership are hit hard; other science agencies are barely mentioned
Influence of trough currents on Permian reef–shoal belts and reef-capping dolomite reservoirs, Damaoping Block, Sichuan Basin, China
Another red alert for American science
Although research has bipartisan support in the US Congress, and trust in science is above 75% across the country, the Trump administration seems as determined as ever to mortally wound the nation’s scientific enterprise. After the scientific community persuaded Congress to restore most of the president’s draconian cuts to research funding last year, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), under Russell Vought, has found new ways to circumvent the will of Congress and starve American science. At the beginning of this year, OMB dragged its feet in releasing instructions to federal agencies for how to distribute the funding appropriated by Congress, leading to lags in dispersal. Now, OMB has proposed revising the rules that govern how federal dollars are spent. The changes would inevitably lead to unlegislated reductions in funding and damage US leadership in science, both in academia and industry.
Independent contribution of emotion dysregulation to suicide attempts in adolescents beyond the role of depressive symptoms
<i>Viola</i> seed pod architecture shapes sequential, force-augmented pinching
Many plants explosively launch seeds, but these natural catapults often display inefficient, unpredictable energy transfer in seed ejection. Violets ( Viola spp.) address this problem by ejecting seeds successively with consistent propulsive force from a single pod, a strategy that requires sophisticated energy release. In this work, we show that Viola achieves this feat with a simple and compact structure that generates adaptive force augmentation through sequential pinching. Our biological and mathematical analyses indicate that the pod valve’s morphogeometry optimizes pinching with sufficient strength for seed ejection with limited material cost and creates a shifting force-amplifying hotspot, which allows consecutive seed ejections. We use this design principle to create autonomous zipping actuators for a range of applications, including biomedical soft machines.
A prototype differential atom interferometer for fundamental physics
Abstract Gravitational waves and ultralight dark matter are among the most compelling frontiers in fundamental physics, motivating proposals for very-long-baseline atom interferometerssuch as AION 1 , MAGIS 2 , AICE 3 and AEDGE 4 that aim to detect at frequencies at which ground-based 5 and space-borne 6 laser interferometers lose sensitivity. Very-long-baseline atom interferometers look for signals by comparing the quantum phase evolution of widely separated atomic ensembles interrogated by a common laser. However, their performance depends critically on suppressing noise sources, particularly laser phase noise. The experimental validation of such noise rejection remains an important challenge. Here we demonstrate a prototype differential atom interferometer based on the single-photon clock transition of fermionic 87 Sr. Thus, we obtain a gradiometer configuration with a species intrinsically suited to kilometre-scale and space-baseline operation. The instrument operates at the standard quantum limit 7 with no excess noise beyond atom shot noise. The differential configuration maintains quantum-limited sensitivity in the presence of several radians of artificially injected laser phase noise per shot, which emulates the conditions expected in a very-long-baseline atom interferometer. We also demonstrate the recovery of coherent oscillatory signals across a broad frequency range under fully phase-randomized conditions, a capability that is inaccessible to a single interferometer operating in the same regime. These results provide an experimental validation of the noise-immune measurement principle underlying very-long-baseline atom interferometers and mark an important step towards next-generation quantum sensors for gravitational-wave detection and searches for ultralight dark matter 8,9 .
Federated learning and digital twins for lifecycle optimization in Urban building renewal
Spatiotemporal transcriptome atlas of human embryos after gastrulation
Lethal plague outbreaks in Lake Baikal hunter-gatherers 5,500 years ago
Abstract Plague is among the most devastating diseases in human history 1 . However, early strains of the plague-causing bacterium Yersinia pestis lacked virulence factors that are required for the bubonic form until around 3,800 years ago 2,3 . Consequently, the morbidity and mortality of early plague strains remain unclear. Here we describe early plague strains that are associated with two phases of outbreaks among mid-Holocene hunter-gatherers near Lake Baikal in southeast Siberia, beginning from about 5,500 years ago. These outbreaks occur across four hunter-gatherer cemeteries, with a 39% detection rate for plague infection. By reconstructing kinship pedigrees, we show that small familial groups were affected, consistent with human-to-human spread of disease, and that the first outbreak occurred within a single generation. The infections appear to have resulted in acute mortality, especially among children (aged 8 to 11 years). We further note functional differences, including in the ypm superantigen locus, which is also present in present day Yersinia pseudotuberculosis . The new strains diverge ancestrally to known Y. pestis and constrain the timing of its emergence, indicating that this happened before approximately 5,700 years ago. These findings show that plague outbreaks happened earlier than previously thought and were indeed lethal. We contend that the occurrence of outbreaks among mid-Holocene hunter-gatherer communities well outside the sphere of Late Neolithic Europe challenges the notion that higher population densities and lifestyle changes during the Neolithic agricultural transition were prerequisites for plague epidemics.
Management insulin dosing for diabetes using a partially observable Markov decision process with missing data imputation
Abstract Missing data in continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) poses a significant challenge for applying sequential decision-making models to diabetes management. This study evaluates how missing-data imputation affects downstream Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP)-based policy outputs using real CGM trajectories from the Stanford Continuous Glucose Monitoring Database. Three imputation methods are compared: mean imputation, linear interpolation, and a bridge-based adjusted Metropolis-Hastings (M-H) algorithm. The adjusted M-H algorithm incorporates a local temporal bridge, Markovian state-transition information, and a smoothness constraint to generate model-compatible imputations. Numerical experiments are conducted under two missingness scenarios, random missingness and block missingness, with missing rates of 5%, 15%, and 25%. The methods are evaluated using mean squared imputation error (MSIE), policy disagreement rate, and absolute reward gap relative to the complete-data POMDP benchmark. The results show that mean imputation produces substantially larger reconstruction errors and greater downstream POMDP deviations across missingness scenarios. Linear interpolation and adjusted M-H both preserve CGM trajectories and POMDP-derived policy outputs much better than mean imputation. Linear interpolation achieves slightly lower global MSIE under random missingness, whereas adjusted M-H shows comparable POMDP-level performance and local advantages in nonlinear postprandial trajectories and block-missing segments. These findings suggest that temporally informed imputation methods are preferable to mean imputation for incomplete CGM data, and that adjusted M-H provides a model-compatible alternative for preserving sequential decision outputs under partially observed glucose trajectories.
Ink detection from surface topography of the Herculaneum papyri
Deep learning identifies water bodies from low-cost drone images for mosquito larval habitat mapping
Examining associations of social disconnectedness change patterns with subsequent healthcare utilization and costs among public healthcare users in Central Singapore
BDNF rs6265 polymorphism is not associated with the occurrence of overactive bladder and its response to intradetrusor injection of botulinum neurotoxin type A in female patients
Successive nitric oxide and lipoic acid priming mitigates [ZnO]NPs toxicity in wheat: experimental and DFT insights
Abstract The global food security is threatened by the accumulation of anthropogenic nanomaterials in the environment. We investigated the phytotoxic effects of elevated zinc oxide nanoparticles ([ZnO]NPs: 300–400 mg L⁻ 1 ) on wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) and evaluated a novel detoxification strategy using successive redox-priming. Wheat caryopses were primed with alpha-lipoic acid (LA) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP, a nitric oxide donor) either individually or in successive sequences (LA→SNP and SNP→LA). Exposure to [ZnO]NPs resulted in significant growth inhibition, reduction of biomass and degradation of chlorophyll. However, successive priming, particularly the LA+SNP combination, significantly attenuated these negative effects. This treatment effectively restored seedling growth by creating a strong antioxidant shield, greatly increasing the activities of SOD, POD, CAT, and APX, and raising metal chelating activity to 98.1%. Furthermore, Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations, including HOMO–LUMO and molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) analyses, gave mechanistic insights into the molecular interactions of the priming agents and ZnO, highlighting their role as potent radical scavengers and stabilizers. The results indicate that a successive redox priming is an effective and sustainable approach to enhance crop tolerance to high concentrations of nanoparticle toxicity.