A 300-km fully-connected quantum secure direct communication network.

Transmission distance and number of users limit the realization of large-scale scalable quantum communication networks, as existing quantum network construction techniques struggle to address these two important factors simultaneously. In this paper, we propose a long-distance large-scale and scalable fully-connected quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) network, which employs a double-pumped structure and the introduction of extra noise to successfully realize QSDC over 300 km between four users in the network in pairs. The results demonstrate that the fidelity of the entangled state shared between users following communication remains above 85%.

Mogroside V enhances bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells osteogenesis under hyperglycemic conditions through upregulating miR-10b-5p and PI3K/Akt signaling.

Background: Mogroside V (MV) is a triterpene glucoside that reportedly exhibits an array of antitumor, anti-inflammatory, hypolipidemic, and hypoglycemic properties. In prior studies, our group determined that MV was able to readily enhance osteogenic bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) differentiation under high-glucose conditions through mechanisms potentially associated with miR-10b-5p and PI3K/Akt signaling activity. The precise molecular basis for these effects, however, remains to be fully elucidated.

Trimethylamine-N-oxide enhances drought tolerance in Eucalyptus by increasing photosynthesis.

Drought stress significantly reduces agricultural productivity, threatening global food security and timber production. Although trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) has been shown to enhance drought tolerance in plants such as Arabidopsis thaliana and tomato, the physiological and molecular mechanisms by which it regulates drought tolerance in plants remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the physiological and transcriptomic changes in Eucalyptus under drought stress following exogenous TMAO treatment.

Polystyrene nanoplastics trigger ferroptosis in Nrf2-deficient gut via ether phospholipid accumulation.

The widespread environmental presence of nanoplastics (NPs) raises significant concerns about their health impacts, particularly on the gastrointestinal system, as NPs are primarily ingested. While previous studies have linked NP-induced intestinal toxicity to oxidative stress and reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, the specific mechanisms of cell death remain unclear. Here, we showed that environmentally relevant concentrations of polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-NPs) induced ferroptosis, a form of lipid peroxidation-driven cell death, in intestinal epithelial cells.

Pre-B-Cell leukemia transcription factor 1 contributes to liver fibrosis by enabling IL-7 signaling in hepatic stellate cells.

Background And Aims: Liver fibrosis, when dysregulated, contributes to irreversible loss of hepatic structure and function heralding end-stage liver diseases including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) represent the common progenitor to myofibroblasts that produce extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins to mediate liver fibrosis. In the present study, we investigated the role of Pre-B-Cell leukemia transcription factor 1 (PBX1) in this process.

Adjuvant PD-1 Blockade With Camrelizumab for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: The DIPPER Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Approximately 20% to 30% of patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) experience disease relapse despite definitive chemoradiotherapy. The programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) blockade camrelizumab has demonstrated considerable value in recurrent or metastatic NPC, while its role in locoregionally advanced NPC is unclear.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of adjuvant camrelizumab for patients with locoregionally advanced NPC.

p38γ modulates ferroptosis in brain injury caused by ethanol and cerebral ischemia/reperfusion by regulating the p53/SLC7A11 signaling pathway.

Ischemic stroke, a neurological condition with a complicated etiology that is accompanied by severe inflammation and oxidative stress, and ethanol (EtOH) may aggravate ischemia/reperfusion (I/R)-induced brain damage. However, the effect of prolonged alcohol intake on acute brain injury remains ambiguous. As part of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family, p38γ is involved in ferroptosis and inflammation in various diseases.

Recent Progress in Bismuth Vanadate-Based Photocatalysts for Photodegradation Applications.

Bismuth vanadate (BiVO), a well-known semiconductor photocatalyst with various advantages, has shown great potential in addressing energy and environmental issues. However, its inherent drawbacks restrict the photocatalytic performance of pure BiVO. In the past few years, many efforts have been devoted to improving the catalytic activity of BiVO and revealing the degradation mechanism in depth.

Giant Capacitive Energy-Storage in BaTiO-Based Fine-Grained Relaxors via Local Polarization Enhancement.

Pb-free dielectric energy storage capacitors are core components in advanced pulse-power electronic systems and devices. However, the relatively low energy density (W) for the industrial pillar BaTiO (BT)-based capacitors remains a significant obstacle for their cutting-edge applications, due to their low intrinsic polarization and breakdown strength (E). Herein, through chemical composition and local structure design, a giant W of 15.

Stability analysis of existing tunnels under dynamic loads during excavation of new tunnels.

Understanding the deformation mechanism and behaviour of adjacent tunnels subjected to dynamic train loads provides vital technical insights for engineering design. This study conducted a detailed analysis and revealed that tunnel excavation significantly affects the stability of adjacent existing tunnels under dynamic loads. First, we developed a dynamic load simulation approach and derived a calculation formula for shield-soil friction.

UW-DNeRF: Deformable Soft Tissue Reconstruction with Uncertainty-Guided Depth Supervision and Local Information Integration.

Reconstructing deformable soft tissues from endoscopic videos is a critical yet challenging task. Leveraging depth priors, deformable implicit neural representations have seen significant advancements in this field. However, depth priors from pre-trained depth estimation models are often coarse, and inaccurate depth supervision can severely impair the performance of these neural networks.

Measuring Overwork in China Using Daily High-Resolution Nighttime Satellite Data.

Overwork is a well-known issue that has drawn increasing interest. It poses significant threats to individuals, including impacts on health and economic well-being. However, due to the lack of a uniform measurement for overwork across different countries and regions over time, existing literature has produced many controversial conclusions.

3D-printed PCL scaffolds combined with injectable sodium alginate/magnesium-doped mesoporous bioactive glass nanosphere hydrogel for meniscus regeneration: In vitro, In vivo, and multiomics-based therapeutic analyses.

Meniscal injury presents a formidable challenge and often leads to functional impairment and osteoarthritic progression. Meniscus tissue engineering (MTE) is a promising solution, as conventional strategies for modulating local immune responses and generating a conducive microenvironment for effective tissue repair are lacking. Recently, magnesium-containing bioactive glass nanospheres (Mg-BGNs) have shown promise in tissue regeneration.

Vision Mamba and xLSTM-UNet for medical image segmentation.

Deep learning-based medical image segmentation methods are generally divided into convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and Transformer-based models. Traditional CNNs are limited by their receptive field, making it challenging to capture long-range dependencies. While Transformers excel at modeling global information, their high computational complexity restricts their practical application in clinical scenarios.

Injectable visible light cross-linking aldehyde-based methacrylated hyaluronic acid hydrogels enhance cartilage repair via improved BMSC homing and chondrogenic differentiation.

Self-repair of articular cartilage defects is a significant challenge that can be addressed using drug-infused hydrogels, which improve injection convenience and provide immediate in situ adhesion. In this study, we developed a hydrogel incorporating Lipo@Kartogenin (KGN) and the cationic functional peptide SKPPGTSS (SKP) linked to aldehyde-based methacrylated hyaluronic acid (AHAMA). The innovative injectable hydrogel responded to visible light, allowing cross-linking under white light (~30 s) and effective adhesion to cartilage tissue.

Role of GPX3+ astrocytes in breast cancer brain metastasis activated by circulating tumor cell exosomes.

Brain metastasis from breast cancer (BMBC) contributes significantly to mortality, yet its mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigates the activation of GPX3+ astrocytes by circulating tumor cell (CTC)-derived exosomes in the metastatic process. Using a mouse model of BMBC, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and metabolomics to explore the role of GPX3+ astrocytes in the brain microenvironment.

Fluorine-Nitrogen Codoped Carbon Dots for Visualization Imaging of Nucleic Acids via Two-Photon Fluorescence Lifetime Microscopy.

Fluorescence imaging is a key tool for visualizing the morphology and dynamics of nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) in living cells to understand their role in regulating the growth, development, and reproduction of organisms. However, effective probes capable of simultaneously targeting both DNA and RNA, as well as tools for analyzing their distribution and relative ratios in organisms, are currently lacking. Therefore, fluorine-nitrogen codoped carbon dots with two-photon absorption (F-NCDs) were synthesized by the hydrothermal method and exhibited stable fluorescence, good biocompatibility, and a fluorescence lifetime sensitive to nucleic acids (DNA and RNA).

Abnormal arterial ligation alone for patients with anomalous systemic arterial supply to the left basal segment of the lung: three case series.

Background: Anomalous systemic arterial supply to the left basal segment of the lung is a rare congenital pulmonary vascular malformation, historically classified as a variant of intra-lobar pulmonary sequestration. The standard surgical approach has typically involved ligation of the anomalous artery in combination with lobectomy or segmentectomy.

Case Description: We present three cases of anomalous systemic arterial supply to the left basal segment of the lung, all successfully treated with thoracoscopic anomalous arterial ligation alone.

The transcription factor ClWRKY61 interacts with ClLEA55 to enhance salt tolerance in watermelon.

High salinity can severely inhibit the growth and development of watermelon ( L.). WRKY proteins are believed to mediate the adaptation of plants to abiotic stresses.

Application of URANS Simulation and Experimental Validation of Axial Flow-Induced Vibrations on a Blunt-End Cantilever Rod for Nuclear Applications.

Fretting wear caused by flow-induced vibration (FIV) is a leading cause of fuel failure in light water nuclear reactors. This study describes a numerical methodology, validated with dedicated experiments, for predicting flow-induced vibrations in cantilever rods exposed to axial water flow, a paradigmatic configuration informative for fuel rods in water-cooled nuclear reactor cores. Utilising strong two-way fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations with an efficient computational approach, the study focuses on two key aspects of self-excited FIV: the dominant vibration frequency and the amplitude of the vibration.

A study of the effect of motor structural components on harmonic noise.

This paper introduces the characteristics of the harmonic noise of the outdoor unit of air conditioner, analyzes the change of the noise sound pressure level and the corresponding spectral characteristics of the outdoor unit when the harmonic noise is generated, and researches the influence of the core structural components of the outdoor unit such as the motor structure, bracket structure, etc., on the spectral characteristics of the harmonic noise. It is found that with the increase of harmonic content in the power supply, the harmonic noise with 200 Hz frequency characteristics is generated, and the noise peak at a fixed frequency of 200 Hz increases gradually with the increase of harmonic content, and the larger the harmonic content of the power supply, the higher the noise peak.

Analytic Gradient for Spin-Flip TDDFT Using Noncollinear Functionals in the Multicollinear Approach.

Spin-flip time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) is an efficient tool for describing ground and excited states, especially when they exhibit significant multiconfigurational effects. Currently, most implementations and applications rely on collinear functionals. Using noncollinear functionals in spin-flip TDDFT is a more natural and appropriate choice, which preserves energy degeneracy and spin symmetry better.

Sulfur Bridge Geometry Boosts Selective Fe═O Generation for Efficient Fenton-Like Reactions.

High-valent iron-oxo species (Fe═O) is a fascinating enzymatic agent with excellent anti-interference abilities in various oxidation processes. However, selective and high-yield production of Fe═O remains challenging. Herein, Fe diatomic pairs are rationally fabricated with an assisted S bridge to tune their neighbor distances and increase their loading to 11.