Understanding how microbial populations generate and modulate electrical signals remains a major technical challenge because extracellular ionic processes are inherently weak, spatially distributed and stochastic. Here, we introduce a mesoporous ultra-low-impedance PEDOT:PSS electrode that exploits volumetric ionic-electronic coupling to probe stochastic electrochemical dynamics in axenic populations of the marine model diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. The three-dimensional porous architecture provides a large electrochemically accessible surface area with high capacitance and low impedance, enabling sensitive detection of non-equilibrium current fluctuations under applied bias. Applied bias systematically amplifies stochastic electrical fluctuations, while living diatoms significantly modify their amplitude and temporal statistics. Noise analysis reveals enhanced low-frequency fluctuations, increased power-law exponents and higher transient-event rates, indicating biologically driven perturbations of the local electrochemical environment. Pharmacological inhibition with tetraethylammonium suppresses spontaneous electrical activity, providing independent functional evidence that membrane-associated potassium-dependent processes contribute to the measured signals. Increasing diatom cell density further produces progressively larger spectral exponents and distinct changes in stochastic-event dynamics, demonstrating that these electrical signatures encode microbial population density. These findings establish stochastic electrochemical noise as a sensitive, label-free probe of microbial bioelectrochemical activity and a bioelectronic strategy for monitoring living microbial systems through their intrinsic non-equilibrium electrical fluctuations.
Elemental selenium (Se), tellurium (Te), and their alloys (TexSe1-x) have re-emerged over the past decade as a promising materials system for low-cost and sustainable thin-film optoelectronic devices. In particular, Se has become a promising material for wide bandgap photovoltaics (PVs), and TexSe1-x has arisen as a high-performance thin-film option for infrared (IR) photodetectors. In this review, we focus on recent developments in Se PVs and TexSe1-x short-wave IR (SWIR) photodiodes (PDs). We discuss the motivations for pursuing these materials, the fundamental properties, considerations for toxicity and sustainability, and the advances in materials science and device engineering. Finally, we discuss open challenges and underexplored opportunities for further development.
The development of advanced molten salt electrolytes for thermal batteries has long been hindered by an intrinsic trade-off between low melting point and high ionic conductivity, posing a fundamental limitation to their performance optimization. To address this challenge, this work reports a high-entropy design strategy that breaks this long-standing constraint by leveraging configurational complexity to simultaneously modulate thermodynamic and transport properties. By constructing a quinary LiF-LiCl-LiBr-KBr-CsBr molten salt system, the introduction of multiple ionic species generates substantial lattice distortion and high configurational entropy, leading to a markedly reduced melting point of 229.5°C and 1.19 S cm-1 at 350°C. When implemented in thermal batteries, a prototype battery achieves ultrafast activation within 64 ms. This work establishes high-entropy design as a general pathway to advanced electrolytes for high-temperature electrochemical applications.
Vascular electrocorticography (vECoG) has shown great promise as a less-invasive alternative to penetrating electrode arrays for neural signal acquisition. This study investigates the signal quality of the Stentrode device, a leading vECoG platform, by contrasting artifact persistence with the preservation of low frequency motor cortical activity. Typical (re-)referencing schemes, including a monopolar stent-mounted reference, a common average reference, and a Laplacian reference, are shown to significantly reduce the presence of electrocardiogram (ECG) artifacts compared to a distal monopolar reference. However, resting state beta activity is also significantly diminished when employing these techniques. By using Band-Limited Independent Component Analysis (BL-ICA), a type of spatial filter that allows weighting of the noise on each electrode differently, ECG artifacts are easily separated from vECoG recordings. With this cleaning methodology, signals are reconstructed without the ECG component and the reduction in cross-channel correlation is evaluated, as well as the increase in relative entropy between rest and go distributions. To ensure that low-frequency motor features are preserved, beta bursts features are evaluated in both the source space and reconstructed signal space. BL-ICA is an effective technique to remove widespread ECG artifacts while maintaining typical motor-related features in beta band activity.
Transmissive active metasurfaces are essential for ultra-compact on-chip optical systems and are widely used in sensing, imaging, and spectroscopy. However, these devices generally suffer from lower efficiency and greater design complexity compared to their reflective counterparts. In this work, an electrically tunable transmission filter based on single-layer graphene integrated with a capacitive gold grating on a mid-IR transparent CaF2 substrate is demonstrated. By employing an ionic gel gating scheme to induce a high Fermi level in graphene, the device achieves a high transmission modulation efficiency of 73.3% for TM-polarized light, along with a broad operational bandwidth of 742 cm-1. Furthermore, by modifying the device structure, an ultrawide operational bandwidth of 1949 cm-1 can be achieved at the expense of reducing the modulation efficiency to 44%, outperforming previously reported electrically tunable mid-IR transmissive metasurfaces. Equivalent circuit model analysis reveals that this extraordinary modulation and bandwidth arise from the dynamic formation of a parallel LC resonance between the tunable inductive response of highly doped graphene and the metal grating's capacitive response. Furthermore, leveraging the spectral diversity generated by this Fermi-level modulation, the platform is computationally demonstrated to operate as a single-pixel mid-IR spectrometer. These results provide a platform for ultra-compact mid-IR applications.
Understanding how population structure shapes viral transmission remains challenging because most in vitro models assume well-mixed conditions and lack spatial structure. We present a Herd-Immunity-on-a-Chip (HIC) platform-a 444-chamber microfluidic network that recreates structured populations-and apply it to human coronavirus 229E infecting MRC-5 fibroblasts. By varying initial inoculum (I0), susceptible density (S0), cell motility, and the fraction of non-susceptible cells (U0), we decode how seeding, density, immunity and movement reshape outbreak trajectories. Increasing S0 or I0 raised local contact rates, reduced effective intercellular spacing, and increased the reproduction number (R0), accelerating spread. In contrast, higher U0 suppressed transmission; with U0 ≥ 80% of the fixed uninfected population (S0 + U0), outbreaks collapsed (herd immunity). Independently, lowering S0 slowed early spread but did not, alone, prevent eventual transmission. We integrate the data with mathematical modelling of spatial, contact-structured transmission to quantify changes in R0 and apparent herd-immunity thresholds. HIC offers a generalizable, bench-top framework for outbreak forecasting and intervention testing.
Topological photonics offers a powerful platform for robust wave manipulation. However, conventional topological devices rely on opaque substrates, limiting their use in applications requiring optical transparency, such as smart windows and transparent electronics. Here, we demonstrate tightly confined valley surface states (VSSs) in an optically transparent topological metasurface platform based on a hollow-snowflake-wire design. The proposed platform simultaneously achieves over 85% visible transparency, deep-subwavelength vertical confinement, and a footprint half that of conventional topological designs. The resulting VSSs exhibit strong robustness against structural discontinuities and high routing flexibility. By tailoring the edge unit cells, we realize a compact topological meta-diplexer with spatially and spectrally separated channels. Communication experiments under 64-QAM modulation confirm robust in-band transmission with error vector magnitude (EVM) < 2 % and strong inter-channel isolation with EVM > 15 % for undesired channels. This work establishes an ultrathin transparent topological metasurface platform, paving the way toward integrated and multifunctional topological photonic systems in optically transparent media.
Conventional multicomponent crystal engineering is largely restricted to one-to-one component substitution, which often provides limited tunability or disrupts the parent lattice structure. Inspired by skeletal editing in molecular chemistry, we herein establish a lattice-editing strategy for supramolecular crystals. This work extends the conventional understanding of the minimal editable structural unit in supramolecular crystals from individual components to local supramolecular structural units, thereby moving beyond strict numerical equivalence and enabling non-stoichiometric component substitution while preserving the original interaction topology. As a proof of concept, a 1→2 component substitution was achieved in the ternary ionic crystal ethylenediamine diperchlorate hemihydrate (EP·0.5H2O) by replacing the [H2eda]2+-H2O composite unit with [H2pda]2+. The resulting anhydrous energetic crystal PEP fully retains the parent crystal framework, space group, cell parameters, and hydrogen-bonding network. PEP exhibits a high density of 1.85 g cm- 3, a phase-transition temperature increased by approximately 90°C, and a 127% enhancement in formation enthalpy. In solid propellant formulations, PEP delivers higher specific impulses than AP and ADN while simultaneously improving thermal stability, environmental stability, and mechanical safety. This work demonstrates precise lattice editing in multicomponent crystals and provides a general strategy for the rational design of high-performance functional crystalline materials.
Acoustic manipulation and propulsion technologies have emerged as powerful platforms for micro/nanoscale control, enabled by their non-contact operation, label-free compatibility, biocompatibility, and strong penetration capability. This review systematically examines the physical mechanisms and recent advances in acoustically enabled passive particle manipulation and autonomous microswimmer propulsion. First, this article outlines the generation and propagation of acoustic waves and their fundamental interactions with matter, with emphasis on acoustic radiation forces and acoustic streaming. It then classifies representative device architectures and acoustic field modulation strategies based on bulk acoustic wave and surface acoustic wave systems. Building on this framework, recent progress in precise target manipulation across diverse media is synthesized, encompassing trapping, transport, enrichment, separation, and patterning. Furthermore, the review highlights the rapidly evolving field of acoustically driven microswimmers, analyzing autonomous propulsion mechanisms arising from shape- and density-induced asymmetries, cavitation phenomena, and sharp-edge oscillations, as well as recent advances in collective behavior, swarm coordination, and intelligent navigation. By delineating the developmental trajectory and key challenges of acoustic manipulation and propulsion, this review establishes a comprehensive knowledge framework for interdisciplinary researchers and highlights future opportunities in precision medicine, smart materials, micro/nano-fabrication, and cross-scale biological manipulation.
Pancreatitis is a life-threatening inflammatory disease of the pancreas. The cytokine interleukin-1α has been demonstrated to act as an alarmin released by necrotic cells. In the present study, we investigated the influence of IL-1α on the immune response during acute and chronic pancreatitis. Following tissue injury, pancreatic acinar cells released IL-1α, which activates tissue-resident fibroblasts to differentiate toward a pro-inflammatory phenotype. By secreting chemokines and cytokines such as CXCL5, CCL2, and IL-6, these fibroblasts recruit immune cells to the pancreas. The absence of IL-1α reduces disease severity in acute pancreatitis and chemokine release. Furthermore, IL-1α primes fibroblasts to enhance the production of extracellular matrix-components by the up-regulation of pro-fibrotic receptors such as Il4ra, Il13ra1, and Tgfbr3. Therefore, the deletion of IL-1α significantly reduced the development of tissue fibrosis. A therapeutic blockade of the IL1R1-signaling by i.p. administration of the IL-1-receptor antagonist Anakinra showed the same effect; the severity of acute pancreatitis and fibrogenesis during chronic pancreatitis were reduced. In conclusion, the crosstalk between necrotic acinar cells and fibroblasts mediated by IL-1α plays a crucial role in acute inflammation of the pancreas and fibrogenic signaling. Blockade of IL1R1-signaling by Anakinra is therefore a promising therapeutic intervention for both acute and chronic pancreatitis.
Communication between the immune system and the brain is critical for neuronal health, yet the molecular signals that mediate this crosstalk are not fully understood. Here, we uncover an unexpected and direct neuroprotective axis linking the thymus to the central nervous system (CNS). We show that the thymus-derived peptide Thymosin alpha-1 (Tα1) functions as a non-canonical ligand for the Hypocretin (Orexin) Receptor 1 (HCRTR1), a classical neuropeptide receptor on neurons. This engagement shields neurons from cell death by suppressing the activity of Receptor-Interacting Protein Kinase 3 (RIPK3), a central executioner of necroptosis. The physiological relevance of this pathway is highlighted in ischemic stroke, where we found that circulating Tα1 levels were significantly reduced in patients and mice, strongly correlating with disease severity. Genetic deletion of the Tα1-encoding gene Ptma exacerbated stroke injury, whereas therapeutic administration of Tα1 conferred robust neuroprotection and improved functional recovery. Our findings identify a novel thymus-brain signaling pathway, revealing a new neuroprotective function for an immune peptide and an unexpected role for a canonical neuronal receptor. This work establishes Tα1 as a promising dual-action therapeutic candidate, capable of both direct neuronal protection and systemic immunomodulation.
In many charge-density-wave (CDW) materials, superconductivity emerges as CDW order collapses, producing a dome-shaped phase diagram commonly associated with quantum criticality or direct competition between the two orders. Here, a distinct pressure-tuned case is identified in NdSeTe2, where the superconducting dome is fully embedded within a persistent CDW state. Electrical resistivity measurements reveal a conventional superconducting dome with a maximum transition temperature of TC ≈ 1.8 K near PC ≈ 2.6 GPa, where long-range CDW signatures disappear from transport. In striking contrast, high-pressure, low-temperature Raman spectroscopy uncovers short-range CDW correlations that remain hidden to resistivity, emerge beyond PC, and persist up to ∼10.0 GPa, spanning the entire superconducting dome. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction detects no structural transition up to 32.4 GPa, indicating that the CDW evolution is electronic in origin. These results establish an unusual phase diagram in which superconductivity develops within a persistent short-range CDW background, offering new insight into pressure-tuned collective states in low-dimensional quantum materials.
Postoperative tumor recurrence remains a major challenge in solid tumor treatment, largely attributed to an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and the enrichment of extracellular glutathione (GSH) in the tumor bed, which supports tumor cell survival and proliferation. To address these issues, we designed a multifunctional hydrogel (named SEH) loaded with a novel cyanine nanozyme and Escherichia coli (E. coli). The cyanine nanozyme integrates efficient photothermal therapy (PTT), photodynamic therapy (PDT), and peroxidase-like enzyme activity. SEH is a temperature-sensitive agarose hydrogel. Upon light irradiation, PTT and PDT are simultaneously triggered, inducing hydrogel degradation to release the encapsulated nanozymes and E. coli. PTT and PDT jointly kill residual tumor cells and E. coli, and the death of the latter leads to the release of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). The nanozymes combined with PDT cyclically produce more reactive oxygen species to deplete extracellular GSH, which disrupts the redox balance of residual tumor cells. Furthermore, released PAMPs recruit immune cells to the tumor site, thereby activating anti-tumor immune responses and establishing long-term immune protection. This study provides a novel and effective strategy for postoperative tumor therapy and recurrence inhibition.
Stroke remains a leading cause of long-term neurological disability worldwide, largely due to irreversible neuronal loss and the limited regenerative capacity of the adult mammalian brain. Neural stem cells (NSCs) in the adult brain possess the potential to generate new neurons after injury, yet the molecular mechanisms regulating their neuronal differentiation following ischemic insult remain incompletely understood. Here, integrating single-cell multi-omics analyses with spatial transcriptomics, we systematically delineated cell type-specific spatiotemporal dynamics in the striatum of a mouse model of ischemia-reperfusion injury. We identified Neurensin 1 (Nrsn1) as a gene markedly upregulated during NSC-derived neuronal differentiation in the recovery phase. Mechanistically, Foxa2 directly activates Nrsn1 transcription, whereas Nrsn1 promotes neuronal differentiation by facilitating the nuclear translocation of the chromatin-remodeling factor Smarcc1 in vitro. In vivo, both endogenous NSCs and transplanted NSCs overexpressing Nrsn1 significantly enhanced neuronal regeneration and improved functional recovery in mice subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion and reperfusion (MCAO/R). Collectively, these findings identify Nrsn1 as a key regulator of NSC neuronal differentiation and uncover a Nrsn1-Smarcc1 coupling mechanism that promotes neural regeneration after ischemic brain injury, highlighting a potential molecular target for strategies aimed at enhancing post-stroke recovery.
Polymer-based magnetoelectric (ME) materials are at the forefront of modern materials science. They have immense potential in a wide range of technological applications, including sensors, energy harvesters, and advanced memory and logic devices. Thus, the combination of magnetostrictive (MS) nanomaterials with lightweight flexible piezoelectric (PE) polymers enables the development of multifunctional systems suitable for versatile applications in the mechanical, electrical, and magnetic domains. Here, a novel three-step fabrication process was employed to create a uniquely structured MS/PE nanocomposite. First, a vertically aligned nanocomposite (VAN) thin film of MS CoFe2O4 (CFO) nanopillars, self-assembled in a benign MgO matrix phase, was grown. Then, wet chemical etching of the benign MgO phase was undertaken. Finally, the CFO nanopillars were coated with a ferroelectric (FE) polymer. The high interfacial area, highly crystalline nanocomposite system enabled efficient strain-mediated coupling between the magnetic and electric order parameters. Thus, a significantly enhanced magnetoelectric coefficient ( α 33 D M E ) of 10 ± 1 V cm- 1Oe- 1 was achieved at room temperature, nearly two orders of magnitude higher than similar composite thin film systems previously reported. Our method offers a simple, versatile, and scalable approach to fabricating very high-performance ME thin film devices.
Chronic stress frequently occurs in patients with cancer, yet how stress is translated into pro-metastatic programs remains unclear. Here, using chronic restraint stress (CRS) in male mice, we show that stress increases metastatic burden and reduces survival in lung metastasis and peritoneal dissemination models, while also increasing overall tumor burden in an orthotopic gastric cancer model. Single-cell transcriptomics of lung metastases reveals stress-associated remodeling of tumor-associated macrophages toward immunosuppressive states, while macrophage depletion attenuates stress-enhanced metastasis. Stress also reshapes the gut microbiota and enriches Lactobacillus reuteri, and microbiota transfer, antibiotic treatment, co-housing, and bacterial gavage experiments support a microbiota-dependent contribution to metastatic progression. Metabolomic analyses identify kynurenine as a stress- and L. reuteri-associated tryptophan metabolite that promotes macrophage-dependent dissemination, whereas tryptophan deficiency blunts stress- and L. reuteri-enhanced metastasis. Mechanistically, our data support a role for TNFR2-C/EBPβ signaling in Kyn-induced immunosuppressive macrophage remodeling. In clinical gastric cancer cohorts, higher depressive symptom burden is associated with shorter disease-free survival, Lactobacillus enrichment, elevated plasma Kyn/Trp ratio, and altered macrophage phenotypes. Together, these findings define a stress-microbiota-tryptophan metabolism-macrophage axis that links chronic stress to gastric cancer metastasis in male mouse models and clinical samples.
Protein-nucleic acid interactions play central roles in gene regulation and cellular function, and extensive efforts have been devoted to predicting nucleic acid binding sites from protein structures. However, protein-nucleic acid recognition is inherently dynamic, whereas most existing computational approaches rely on single static conformations, limiting their ability to capture conformational heterogeneity underlying binding. Here, we present DyProL, an ensemble-based conformational representation learning framework that models proteins as ensembles of conformations sampled from equilibrium-like structural distributions. DyProL learns dynamic structural features through iterative aggregation of intra- and inter-conformation geometric information, enabling representation of both local structural context and global conformational variability. Across multiple benchmarks, DyProL consistently outperforms state-of-the-art methods in nucleic acid binding site prediction, with particularly pronounced improvements under realistic settings using predicted or apo-like structures, where static methods degrade substantially. These results establish dynamic ensemble-based representations as a general and scalable paradigm for structure-based protein modeling, providing a foundation for improving a broad range of protein function prediction tasks.
Particle coalescence is a fundamental pathway of nanoparticle growth, directly governing structural reconstruction, defect formation, and morphological evolution. However, the underlying driving forces behind imperfect oriented attachment, including what initiates the coalescence of misoriented crystals and determines the resulting structures remain unclear, particularly in liquid environments. This study combines in situ liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy with molecular dynamics calculations to investigate the coalescence dynamics of misoriented gold nanoparticles. Our findings reveal that misoriented nanoparticles can coalesce into a single crystal via a kinetically driven jump-to-coalescence process triggered by instantaneous hydration layer collapse. This coalescence is accompanied by a significant potential energy reduction, and the released energy enhances atomic mobility, particularly in small nanoparticles, enabling rapid structural rearrangement into a single crystal. Moreover, the initial contact position relative to the twin boundary determines the atomic diffusion pathway during the coalescence process of twin nanoparticles, while the twin boundary exhibits high stability during the merging process. These findings clarify the regulatory role of the kinetic factor in nanoparticle coalescence behavior and offer guidance for controlling crystal structure and designing twinned nanostructures in the liquid phase synthesis.
The data-driven discovery of high-performance electrocaloric (EC) materials is challenged by sparse direct measurements and systematic discrepancies between direct and indirect measurements, resulting in heterogeneous datasets with varying fidelity levels. Here, a co-kriging-based multi-fidelity learning framework is developed to integrate these data sources and construct a robust predictive model for BaTiO 3 -based ferroelectric ceramics by explicitly modeling cross-fidelity correlation and discrepancy. Combined with a multi-objective active learning strategy, the framework enables efficient optimization of low-temperature EC strength and operational temperature span across the composition-processing space. Guided by this approach, a multi-element-doped BaTiO 3 -based ceramic exhibiting an EC strength of 0.06 × 10 - 6 K · m /V at - 70 ∘ C together with a broad operational temperature span of 75 K is identified. Experimental characterization reveals that the enhanced performance originates from a suppressed and diffuse phase transition associated with a relaxor-like or weakly ordered state, enabling broad temperature stability together with large reversible polarization. These results demonstrate that integrating multi-fidelity learning with active learning provides an effective strategy for accelerating functional materials discovery under realistic experimental constraints.
Negative thermal expansion (NTE) materials, which can compensate for the thermal expansion of structural materials, have attracted much attention in the field of nanoscale electronics and optical devices requiring precise positioning. The present paper demonstrates a reversible colossal NTE in the perovskite-type oxide lanthanoid-substituted BiCoO3. The 6.1% volume shrinkage in Bi0.82Nd0.18CoO3 is the largest ever observed in Pb-free NTE materials. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction and Co L-edge soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements and machine learning force field molecular dynamics simulations confirm that the origin of the NTE is the coordination change from the CoO5 pyramid with high-spin Co3+ to the CoO6 octahedron with the LaCoO3-type Co3+ spin state (intermediate-spin state or mixture of high-spin and low-spin states) due to melting of the dxy orbital ordering in the d6 electron configuration. The NTE properties as functions of ionic radius and concentration of substituting Ln ions are well explained by the nucleation mechanism of the reconstructive martensitic phase transition. The present results offer a new strategy for developing large-NTE materials.
