Extended quantum anomalous Hall states in graphene/hBN moiré superlattices.

Electrons in topological flat bands can form new topological states driven by correlation effects. The pentalayer rhombohedral graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) moiré superlattice was shown to host fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect (FQAHE) at approximately 400 mK (ref. ), triggering discussions around the underlying mechanism and role of moiré effects.

Diversity in the medical research ecosystem: a descriptive scientometric analysis of over 49 000 studies and 150 000 authors published in high-impact medical journals between 2007 and 2022.

Objectives: Health research that significantly impacts global clinical practice and policy is often published in high-impact factor (IF) medical journals. These outlets play a pivotal role in the worldwide dissemination of novel medical knowledge. However, researchers identifying as women and those affiliated with institutions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have been largely under-represented in high-IF journals across multiple fields of medicine.

Defects vibrations engineering for enhancing interfacial thermal transport in polymer composites.

To push upper boundaries of thermal conductivity in polymer composites, understanding of thermal transport mechanisms is crucial. Despite extensive simulations, systematic experimental investigation on thermal transport in polymer composites is limited. To better understand thermal transport processes, we design polymer composites with perfect fillers (graphite) and defective fillers (graphite oxide), using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a matrix model.

Tensor Train Optimization for Conformational Sampling of Organic Molecules.

Exploring the conformational space of molecules remains a challenge of fundamental importance to quantum chemistry: identification of relevant conformers at ambient conditions enables predictive simulations of almost arbitrary properties. Here, we propose a novel approach, called TTConf, to enable conformational sampling of large organic molecules where the combinatorial explosion of possible conformers prevents the use of a brute-force systematic conformer search. We employ tensor trains as a highly efficient dimensionality reduction algorithm, effectively reducing the scaling from exponential to polynomial.

Automated Flow Synthesis of Artificial Heme Enzymes for Enantiodivergent Biocatalysis.

The remarkable efficiency with which enzymes catalyze small-molecule reactions has driven their widespread application in organic chemistry. Here, we employ automated fast-flow solid-phase synthesis to access catalytically active full-length enzymes without restrictions on the number and structure of noncanonical amino acids incorporated. We demonstrate the total syntheses of iron-dependent myoglobin (BsMb) and sperm whale myoglobin (SwMb).

Influences of fluctuating nutrient loadings on nitrate-reducing microorganisms in rivers.

Rivers serve important functions for human society and are significantly impacted by anthropogenic nutrient inputs (e.g. organic and sulfur compounds).

Vital signs-based healthcare kiosks for screening chronic and infectious diseases: a systematic review.

Background: Increasing demands, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have presented substantial challenges to global healthcare systems, resulting in staff shortages and overcrowded emergency rooms. Health kiosks have emerged as a promising solution to improve overall efficiency and healthcare accessibility. However, although kiosks are commonly used worldwide for access to information and financial services, the health kiosk industry, valued at $800 million, accounts for just 1.

Protein quality control is a master modulator of molecular evolution in bacteria.

The bacterial protein quality control (PQC) network comprises a set of genes that promote proteostasis (proteome homeostasis) through proper protein folding and function via chaperones, proteases, and a protein translational machinery. It participates in vital cellular processes and influences organismal development and evolution. In this review, we examine the mechanistic bases for how the bacterial PQC network influences molecular evolution.

RAVE checklist: Recommendations for overcoming challenges in retrospective safety studies of automated driving systems.

Objective: The public, regulators, and domain experts alike seek to understand the effect of deployed SAE level 4 automated driving system (ADS) technologies on safety. The recent expansion of ADS technology deployments is paving the way for early stage safety impact evaluations, whereby the observational data from both an ADS and a representative benchmark fleet are compared to quantify safety performance.

Methods: In January 2024; a working group of experts across academia, insurance, and industry came together in Washington, DC to discuss the current and future challenges in performing such evaluations.

Identifying and targeting key driver genes for collagen production within the 11q13/14 breast cancer amplicon.

Breast cancers of the IntClust-2 type, characterized by amplification of a small portion of chromosome 11, have a median survival of only five years. Several cancer-relevant genes occupy this portion of chromosome 11, and it is thought that overexpression of a combination of driver genes in this region is responsible for the poor outcome of women in this group. In this study we used a gene editing method to knock out, one by one, each of 198 genes that are located within the amplified region of chromosome 11 and determined how much each of these genes contributed to the survival of breast cancer cells.

Impact of lesion preparation-induced calcified plaque defects in vascular intervention for atherosclerotic disease: in silico assessment.

Percutaneous coronary interventions in highly calcified atherosclerotic lesions are challenging due to the high mechanical stiffness that significantly restricts stent expansion. Intravascular lithotripsy (IVL) is a novel vessel preparation technique with the potential to improve interventional outcomes by inducing microscopic and macroscopic cracks to enhance stent expansion. However, the exact mechanism of action for IVL is poorly understood, and it remains unclear whether the improvement in-stent expansion is caused by either the macro-cracks allowing the vessel to open or the micro-cracks altering the bulk material properties.

Computational Investigation of the Role of Metal Center Identity in Cytochrome P450 Enzyme Model Reactivity.

Mononuclear Fe enzymes such as heme-containing cytochrome P450 enzymes catalyze a variety of C-H activation reactions under ambient conditions, and they represent an attractive platform for engineering reactivity through changes to the native enzyme. Using density functional theory, we study both native Fe and non-native group 8 (Ru, Os) and group 9 (Ir) metal centers in an active site model of P450. We quantify how changing the metal changes spin state preferences throughout the catalytic cycle.

Variants and vaccines impact nasal immunity over three waves of SARS-CoV-2.

Viral variant and host vaccination status impact infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), yet how these factors shift cellular responses in the human nasal mucosa remains uncharacterized. We performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) on nasopharyngeal swabs from vaccinated and unvaccinated adults with acute Delta and Omicron SARS-CoV-2 infections and integrated with data from acute infections with ancestral SARS-CoV-2. Patients with Delta and Omicron exhibited greater similarity in nasal cell composition driven by myeloid, T cell and SARS-CoV-2 cell subsets, which was distinct from that of ancestral cases.

Trust in scientists and their role in society across 68 countries.

Science is crucial for evidence-based decision-making. Public trust in scientists can help decision makers act on the basis of the best available evidence, especially during crises. However, in recent years the epistemic authority of science has been challenged, causing concerns about low public trust in scientists.

Perceptions of science, science communication, and climate change attitudes in 68 countries - the TISP dataset.

Science is integral to society because it can inform individual, government, corporate, and civil society decision-making on issues such as public health, new technologies or climate change. Yet, public distrust and populist sentiment challenge the relationship between science and society. To help researchers analyse the science-society nexus across different geographical and cultural contexts, we undertook a cross-sectional population survey resulting in a dataset of 71,922 participants in 68 countries.

scRNA-seq reveals elevated interferon responses and TNF-α signaling via NFkB in monocytes in children with uncomplicated malaria.

Malaria causes significant morbidity and mortality worldwide, disproportionately impacting sub-Saharan Africa. Disease phenotypes associated with infection can vary widely, from asymptomatic to life-threatening. To date, prevention efforts, particularly those related to vaccine development, have been hindered by an incomplete understanding of which factors impact host immune responses resulting in these divergent outcomes.

Fuel for thought: targeting metabolism in lung cancer.

For over a century, we have appreciated that the biochemical processes through which micro- and macronutrients are anabolized and catabolized-collectively referred to as "cellular metabolism"-are reprogrammed in malignancies. Cancer cells in lung tumors rewire pathways of nutrient acquisition and metabolism to meet the bioenergetic demands for unchecked proliferation. Advances in precision medicine have ushered in routine genotyping of patient lung tumors, enabling a deeper understanding of the contribution of altered metabolism to tumor biology and patient outcomes.

EPISeg: Automated segmentation of the spinal cord on echo planar images using open-access multi-center data.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the spinal cord is relevant for studying sensation, movement, and autonomic function. Preprocessing of spinal cord fMRI data involves segmentation of the spinal cord on gradient-echo echo planar imaging (EPI) images. Current automated segmentation methods do not work well on these data, due to the low spatial resolution, susceptibility artifacts causing distortions and signal drop-out, ghosting, and motion-related artifacts.

19S proteasome loss causes monopolar spindles through ubiquitin-independent KIF11 degradation.

To direct regulated protein degradation, the 26S proteasome recognizes ubiquitinated substrates through its 19S particle and then degrades them in the 20S enzymatic core. Despite this close interdependency between proteasome subunits, we demonstrate that knockouts from different proteasome subcomplexes result in distinct highly cellular phenotypes. In particular, depletion of 19S PSMD lid proteins, but not that of other proteasome subunits, prevents bipolar spindle assembly during mitosis, resulting in a mitotic arrest.

Resource-Rational Virtual Bargaining for Moral Judgment: Toward a Probabilistic Cognitive Model.

Recent theoretical work has argued that moral psychology can be understood through the lens of "resource rational contractualism." The view posits that the best way of making a decision that affects other people is to get everyone together to negotiate under idealized conditions. The outcome of that negotiation is an arrangement (or "contract") that would lead to mutual benefit.

Biology-inspired dynamic microphysiological system approaches to revolutionize basic research, healthcare and animal welfare.

The regular workshops held by the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) on biology-inspired microphysiological systems (MPS) taking place every four years, have become a reliable measure to assess fundamental scientific, industrial and regulatory trends for translational science in the MPS-field from a bird's eye view. The 2023 workshop participants at that time concluded that the technology as used within academia has matured significantly, underlined by the broad use of MPS and the steadily increasing number of high quality research publications - yet, broad industry adoption of MPS has been slow, despite strong interest. Academic research using MPS primarily aims to accurately recapitulate human biology in MPS-based organ models in areas where traditional models have been lacking key elements of human physiology, thereby enabling breakthrough discoveries for life sciences.

Preventing unrestricted and unmonitored AI experimentation in healthcare through transparency and accountability.

The integration of large language models (LLMs) into electronic health records offers potential benefits but raises significant ethical, legal, and operational concerns, including unconsented data use, lack of governance, and AI-related malpractice accountability. Sycophancy, feedback loop bias, and data reuse risk amplifying errors without proper oversight. To safeguard patients, especially the vulnerable, clinicians must advocate for patient-centered education, ethical practices, and robust oversight to prevent harm.