Linear codes with few weights have attracted significant interest due to their wide-ranging applications in secret sharing, authentication codes, association schemes, strongly regular graph, and some other fields. This paper focuses on unifying several existing construction methods for few-weight linear codes, extending the works of Wang et al. (2015) [24], Wu et al. (2019) [25], and Fang et al. (2023) [10]. In our code construction, we introduce a novel index set J, whose cardinality and structural properties are shown to critically influence both the length and weight distribution of the resulting few-weight linear codes. By employing cyclotomic mappings and choosing the more general defining sets, several new classes of binary linear codes with at most three weights are constructed. Our framework subsumes all aforementioned constructions as special cases and enlarges the spectrum of attainable parameters. The weight distributions of the corresponding linear codes are also explicitly determined. We also demonstrate that some of the linear codes constructed in this paper are optimal in the sense that they have the best known parameters in the tables maintained by Markus Grassl and/or optimal in the sense that they meet certain bounds on linear codes. (c) 2026 Elsevier Inc. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.

Altermagnets are compensated magnets featuring momentum-dependent nonrelativistic spin splitting generated by nontrivial operations connecting opposite-spin sublattices. A direct symmetry-based route to control this spin splitting is to modify the real-space operations that define the altermagnetic spin-momentum locking (SML). Here, we develop a strain-resolved symmetry framework for two-dimensional pentagonal altermagnets, classifying whether uniaxial and shear strain tensors preserve, reconstruct, or eliminate the SML. Using the above criterion combined with first-principles screening, we identify 94 stable altermagnetic candidates from 3330 materials. These candidates cover all type-III spin Laue groups of orthorhombic lattices and are classified into three strain-response types: Type-I preserves the SML; Type-II reconstructs the SML through partial symmetry breaking while retaining essential altermagnetic features; and Type-III destroys the altermagnetic SML. Representative materials further demonstrate this classification: ferroelastic α-CoS_2 exhibits ferroelastically switchable SML and reverses the sign of the off-diagonal spin conductivity; shear-strained α-CoP_2 undergoes a g- to d-wave reconstruction of the SML, activating off-diagonal spin conductivity; and uniaxially strained FeSSe realizes strain-selected spin-valley transport. This work provides theoretical and material guidance for strain-controlled transport in two-dimensional orthorhombic altermagnets.

Efficient DNA synthesis is crucial for advancements in DNA data storage and synthetic biology, yet the micro-scale dynamics of nucleotide monomers in solution, particularly their diffusion, are not fully understood. Here, we present a novel four-bead coarse-grained (CG) model for DMT (dimethoxytrityl)-protected nucleotide monomers, meticulously validated via Boltzmann inversion. This CG approach dramatically enhances computational efficiency (≥20×) compared to all-atom models, thus enabling simulations on significantly larger spatiotemporal scales. Using the stochastic Eulerian Lagrangian method to accurately model fluid-solid interactions, our simulations in acetonitrile reveal that monomer diffusion significantly decreases with increasing concentration due to enhanced intermolecular interactions. Channel walls impose substantial, concentration-dependent restrictions, especially perpendicular to the wall. Crucially, adenine and thymine monomers diffuse slower than cytosine and guanine monomers, providing a kinetic basis for variations in mass transfer efficiency during DNA synthesis. This study offers a new perspective for profoundly understanding the micro-dynamics during DNA synthesis, providing a potential way for optimizing synthesis parameters and advancing DNA data storage technology.

Chip-based de novo DNA synthesis technology is crucial for advancing synthetic biology. However, the limited capacity of microchip-based synthesis hinders its direct application, as large quantity of oligonucleotides (oligos) are often required. This paper proposed a high-capacity DNA synthesis chip that utilizes silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) self-assembled on the inner surface of confined microwells through a vertical deposition technique. Effects of Si-NPs mass fraction, size, and solvent type on the self-assembly (SA) process within each microwell were thoroughly evaluated. Oligos were successfully synthesized on the Si-NPs-assembled chip and validated via hybridization with fluorescent-labeled probes. A three-fold increase in synthesis capacity was estimated on a single layer of Si-NPs, and the number of SA layers can be easily adjusted by altering the composite of the Si-NPs suspension. The proposed microarrayed chip resolves the trade-off between synthesis throughput and capacity and offers significant potential for the next generation of ultrahigh-throughput DNA synthesis in synthetic biology.

We predict a new class of two-dimensional (2D) materials, termed dual-switchable ferroelectric altermagnets (FEAMs), where reversing the ferroelectric polarization simultaneously alters both electronic spin splitting and magnonic chirality splitting. This provides a pathway for the unified electrical manipulation of both ground-state electron spin textures and collective magnon excitations within a single monolayer, a largely unexplored area. Employing symmetry analysis and first-principles calculations on five candidates identified via database screening (exemplified by CrPS3 and V2I2O2BrCl), we elucidate the mechanism in FEAMs. Ferroelectricity driven by specific atomic displacements breaks inversion symmetry while preserving key spin group symmetries (e.g., [C2||M]). This dual switch could be experimentally observed through a magneto-optical Kerr effect sign change. This work establishes a material-specific pathway toward integrating electrical control over coupled electronic and magnonic properties in two dimensions, paving the way for novel multifunctional spintronic and magnonic applications.

This study investigates the modulation of thermal hydrodynamics of open droplets by nanoparticles (NPs) on a single-plate electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) system. Experimental results show that the evaporation rate of deionized water was reduced about 66% by doping 800-nm SiO2 NPs as compared to that without NPs. Meanwhile, the decrease in contact angle was increased by 10 degrees compared to that of pure DI water which is probably caused by the inclination of increasement in hydrophilicity with higher percentage of NPs doped. Specifically, Nanofluid exhibits improved wettability control, increasing pure water and, thereby significantly enhancing system energy efficiency. These findings demonstrate that the nanoparticle-enhanced single-plate EWOD system offers distinct advantages for point-of-care testing (POCT), particularly in microfluidic applications requiring precise thermal control and long-term operational stability.

This paper reports a novel DNA synthesis chip with both high synthetic throughput and capacity enabled by controllable self-assembly of nanoparticles. Silica nanoparticles suspension was inkjet-printed into a set of sealed microwells and then assembled on the inner wall in each single microwell parallelly. A three-fold increase in effective area was obtained with one layer of SiNPs assembled, and the number of assembly layers can be easily adjusted by changing the composition of suspension. A 15-mer nucleotides were synthesized and validated by fluorogenic probe hybridization successfully on the chip.

This paper reports a universal aptamer-based biosensor which is capable of detecting both small molecules and large biomarkers at femtomole level concentration. The tetrahedral DNA framework (TDF)-tethered pendulant double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) configuration is proposed to obtain a high signal conversion efficiency, and the chronoamperometry detection method is adopted to measure the dynamic response with sub-millisecond accuracy, both of that contribute to such a low LOD. Meanwhile, the TDF-tethered dsDNA structure provides additional benefits of feasible deployment and replaceability, as well as excellent antifouling properties. The proposed TDF-mediated molecular pendulum biosensor holds great potential for biological detecting in vivo, especially for large proteins. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) were employed as test targets to validate the model, with limits of detection (LODs) of 3.96 fM and 0.22 fM, respectively. These values are nearly two orders of magnitude higher than those reported in the current state of the art.

It is imperative to have an in-depth understanding of the mechanism of action for the role of moisture in a coal matrix during coal spontaneous combustion, not only for preventing fires in the coal industry but also for reducing emissions of hazardous gases. In this study, the method of isotope tracing was first introduced to study the mechanism of moisture in the spontaneous combustion of coal. Moisture in a coal matrix was labeled separately using D2O and (H2O)-O-18, and the coal samples with internal moisture and external moisture were prepared by controlling the drying temperature. Coal samples with different isotopic moisture were heated using a spontaneous combustion apparatus. The gaseous products (CO2, CO, and CH4) were measured using a GC-950 gas chromatography equipped with a flame photometric detector, and simultaneously, the isotopic gases (including (CO)-O-18, (CO2)-O-18, CH3D) were timely monitored using an online mass spectrometer. The appearance of isotopic gases directly proved that the moisture could participate in the spontaneous combustion of coal in atomic level, and the moisture in the coal matrix is involved in the spontaneous combustion of coal through chemical reaction. Based on the experimental results, the pathways of the oxygen atom and H atom from the moisture participating in the production of isotopic gases were investigated. The reaction mechanism of moisture participating in the spontaneous combustion of coal was also explored based on the migration law of oxygen and hydrogen atoms of H2O molecule in coal matrix.

Surface adhesion is vital to the capability of precise manipulation of open droplets. However, it is still a great challenge to achieve efficient, large-scale, and cost-effective construction of highly adhesive surface for large-volume droplets manipulation. In this paper, a facile methodology for fabricating a superhydrophobic and highly adhesive polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface is presented for multifunctional droplet transferring. The proposed features can be easily fabricated by PDMS replicating and vapor-phase silanization. The 1500-grit sandpaper was chosen as the optimal template, owing to its superior hydrophobic attributes with an approximate contact angle of 155.1°, a maximum adhesion volume of 38.6μL, and a minimal residual volume of 0.124μL. Remarkable stability was also validated with exposure to air for more than 9 weeks or to reagents with pH ranging from 1 to 13. Visually colorimetric detection of Cu2+ is successfully demonstrated on both single-droplet and droplet-array forms after a series of transporting, mixing, and reacting processes between different reagent droplets. The facile preparation and equipment-free platform highlights the potential application in point-of-care testing (POCT).

This paper presents a simple and cost-effective method for fabricating porous polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) reactor array chip that is applied in de novo DNA synthesis. A microzone melting technique is proposed in the preparation of a porous PDMS reactor using the sugar particle as a sacrificial template. The curing temperature of 155 degree celsius, higher than the melting point of the sugar particle, is chosen to enhance interconnectivity and reduce internal surface roughness of micropores inside the porous PDMS. The morphological observation and flow resistance test were performed on porous PDMS fabricated with various sugar particle sizes and weight ratios of PDMS to the sugar particle. The results indicate that region I (interconnected pore area) plays a pivotal role in the flow resistance of the porous PDMS reactor. The effectiveness of the porous PDMS reactor in DNA synthesis is verified by gel electrophoresis and fluorescence hybridization. Synthesis product analysis demonstrates that the yield of the porous PDMS reactor is in the same order of magnitude as that of a commercially available 200 nmol synthesis column. The proposed porous PDMS microreactor array chip exhibits great potential in the high-yield DNA synthesis.

This paper reports a facile fabrication method of polymeric chip with about five-fold increasement in reaction area by in-situ constructing porous microreactor array, which is therefore beneficial for low-cost, high throughput and high capacity de novo DNA synthesis. Microwell arrays were laser-engraved on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) substrate, filled with sugar and then casted with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). After sugar removed, porous PDMS (pPDMS) arrays would be incorporated easily. A 40-mer oligonucleotides were successfully synthesized on the pPDMS array and validated by fluorescent hybridization experiments. With the high reaction sites provided by pPDMS, the yield of oligo is about four times higher than the pristine planar PDMS with the same footprint. In addition, the porosity of pPDMS can be easily adjusted to meet different yield requirements.

This paper presents a facile and cost-effective fabrication method of microreactor array chip for high-throughput DNA synthesis with three orders of mangnitude enhancement in synthesis capacity. Inkjet printing was used to dispense a massive droplet array of silica nanoparticle slurry on chemically-modified surface. Dense microreactor array can be simply obtained by following the procedure of three-phase contact line (TCL)-confined nanoparticle aggregating, which is dominated by the receding contact angle (RCA) of the modified substrates. Chip with RCAs greater than 90 degrees transfers the resultant force to a lifting statu as well as enhances the inward force effect, which leading to a dense and compact packing synergistically on limited chip area. Herein, a consequential increasement in effective reaction area contributes to the significant enhancement in synthesis capacity as compared to a planar or porous substtrate. The proposed microarray chip demonstrates great prospects for both highthroughput and high-capacity DNA synthesis.

This paper investigates a distributed control scheme for the coordination of an islanded microgrid considering renewable energy sources (RES). A distributed finite-time secondary frequency controller is designed to compensate the frequency deviation in a finite-time manner. The model of an islanded microgrid considering RES is presented with the connection of graph theory. Comparing with the traditional dynamic model, this paper gives a specific model of dc power source considering RES. Further, the design process of the distributed secondary frequency controller is described in detail, including the upper bounds of the convergence time. Finally, a simulation is provided to verify the effectiveness of our proposed method.

With the growing development of renewable energy sources (RES), it is more challenge for the frequency adjustment of power system due to the randomness and volatility. This paper investigates a control scheme based on the adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) for the frequency control of an islanded microgrid considering RES. A frequency controller is designed to adjust the output power of micro-turbine when photovoltaic (PV) power generation and wind power generation are both connected into the microgrid. Moreover, the changes of load demand are also taken into consideration. Finally, simulations are provided to verify the performance of our method compared with other methods.

Delay invariant convolutional network codes (abbreviated DI-CNCs) can guarantee multicast communication at asymptotically optimal rates in networks with any delay profile. For a cyclic network, it has been shown that one can associate it with an acyclic network consisting of nodes in five layers, and the acyclic algorithm of $\mathbb {F}$ -linear multicast can be employed to construct a DI- $\mathbb {F}$ -CNC, as long as the field size is larger than the number of sinks in the cyclic network. In this paper, we present a directly feasible construction algorithm for a DI- $\mathbb {F}$ -CNC over a cyclic network. Complexity of code construction and theoretical guarantees of algorithm implementation are also investigated in detail. The advantage of the straight construction algorithm is that for an existing code, when some sink nodes and associated edges are added, our algorithm just modifies the new assigned coding coefficients in an efficient localized manner, without the necessity to construct again the code in its expanding network.

In this work, we proposed a new method of seed recycling for casting monocrystalline silicon ingots. Different regions at the bottom of the monocrystalline silicon bricks were cut for controlling its size and crystal defects, which were used as recycled seeds and reasonable splicing to induce grain boundaries. The results showed that the recycled seeds with higher concentration of metal impurities will result in a longer red zone and the yield of mono-Si ingot would be slightly decreased. The defect density in the recycled seeds increased significantly, but decreased greatly during the seeding and growth. The defect distribution in PL images at the top of ingots grown with recycled seeds was similar to that of ingots grown with new seeds. Furthermore, the average cell efficiency of the solar cells fabricated by the wafers grown with recycled seeds was only 0.1% different from that of the wafers grown with new seeds. Therefore, this low-cost seed recycling method is of great significance for reducing the cost of cast monocrystalline silicon.

High throughput detection of multiple DNA targets has become a widely used technique in molecular diagnostics. However, due to the limited surface in dense microreactor array microchip, it is impossible to attach a large number of oligonucleotide probes to a single cell, which therefore limits the detection sensitivity. This paper presents a high sensitivity DNA detecting chip by taken particle-packed microarray as the solid carries for de novo DNA synthesis. Microwell are wet etched on silicon chip, and the surface for binding sites are significantly increased by packing with silica microspheres. Meanwhile, high-density single strand DNA (ssDNA) molecules are de novo synthesized on the functionalized amino group on the surface instead of loosely immobilizing with exogenous primers. Synergistically, the fluorescence signal is enhanced after further hybridizing with fluorescent-labeled complementary probes. By packing a 700 μm microwell with 2.5 μm silica particles, the effective synthesis area was increased about two orders of magnitude. High intensity and uniform fluorescent signal from packed microwell was confirmed both by inverted fluorescence microscopy and laser confocal fluorescence microscopy. The proposed packed array can be used as sensitive biosensors for detecting biological DNA, RNA and other antibodies.

Superhydrophilic–superhydrophobic patterned surfaces constitute a branch of surface chemistry involving the two extreme states of superhydrophilicity and superhydrophobicity combined on the same surface in precise patterns. Such surfaces have many advantages, including controllable wettability, enrichment ability, accessibility, and the ability to manipulate and pattern water droplets, and they offer new functionalities and possibilities for a wide variety of emerging applications, such as microarrays, biomedical assays, microfluidics, and environmental protection. This review presents the basic theory, simplified fabrication, and emerging applications of superhydrophilic–superhydrophobic patterned surfaces. First, the fundamental theories of wettability that explain the spreading of a droplet on a solid surface are described. Then, the fabrication methods for preparing superhydrophilic–superhydrophobic patterned surfaces are introduced, and the emerging applications of such surfaces that are currently being explored are highlighted. Finally, the remaining challenges of constructing such surfaces and future applications that would benefit from their use are discussed.

In this paper, we study Hermitian linear complementary dual (abbreviated Hermitian LCD) rank metric codes. A class of Hermitian LCD generalized Gabidulin codes are constructed by q(m)-self-dual bases of F-q2m over F-q2. Moreover, the exact number of q(m)-self-dual bases of F-q2m over F-q2 is derived. As a consequence, an upper bound and a lower bound of the number of the constructed Hermitian LCD generalized Gabidulin codes are determined.