Improving X-ray imaging under photon-starved conditions could enable lower-dose and higher-resolution imaging for medical diagnosis, security inspection, and industrial testing. Researchers from Chongqing University, the 26th Institute of CETC, and Stevens Institute of Technology developed a scalable photonic crystal scintillator using Marangoni effect-driven interfacial self-assembly. The approach increased average light output by 4.64-fold and improved the X-ray imaging signal-to-noise ratio by 13 dB while maintaining spatial resolution better than 25 μm.

A new review published in PhotoniX Synergy examines how artificial intelligence is transforming the design of terahertz (THz) metamaterial devices (meta-devices). The authors survey conventional and AI-assisted approaches for THz meta-absorbers, modulators, filters, sensors, detectors, and multifunctional devices, and show how machine learning, evolutionary algorithms, deep learning, generative models, and large language models can establish data-driven links between structural geometry and electromagnetic response. The review also discusses challenges including computational cost, limited interpretability, data scarcity, and manufacturability, and outlines future directions such as physics-informed learning, multi-scale optimization, and AI-assisted optical computing hardware for 6G communication, imaging, biosensing, spectroscopy, and security inspection.

Oil-rich food waste leachate is difficult to treat. Researchers at Zhejiang A&F University found that combining Pseudomonas aeruginosa STQ-2 with rhamnolipid-containing fermentation supernatant improved oil degradation and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal. At an initial used cooking oil concentration of 5.0 g/L, the combined treatment achieved rates of approximately 89.9% and 95.6%, respectively, after 96 hours. The findings point to a potential biological approach for treating oily food waste leachate.

Subcutaneous immunization with live influenza virus in mice provided durable protection against lethal flu, outperforming intramuscular or inactivated vaccines. The virus remained restricted to the injection site and lymph nodes without causing lung damage. A single dose gave 100% protection for 277 days through strong germinal center responses.

Aqueous zinc-ion batteries are promising candidates for large-scale energy storage, yet their development is severely hindered by the interfacial instability of zinc anodes. Distinct from strategies employing pre-formed polymers, this work proposes an innovative monomer-induced in situ interface engineering strategy. By leveraging the preferential adsorption of acrylamide monomers on the Zn surface, a locally high-concentration region is created, which subsequently enables the in situ construction of a stable hydrated network interphase (HNI) triggered synergistically by Zn²⁺ and SO₄²⁻ during electrochemical cycling. The HNI precisely regulates Zn deposition via a triple synergistic mechanism: Lewis acid–base coordination (C = O···Zn²⁺) provides fixed nucleation sites; dynamically anchored SO₄²⁻ within the interphase forms negatively charged microregions that homogenize Zn²⁺ flux via Coulombic repulsion; and a dense hydrogen-bonding network effectively confines free water and suppresses side reactions. Benefiting from this multifunctional interphase, the Zn//Zn symmetric cell achieves an ultra-long cycling life of 8650 h (over 360 days) at 1 mA cm⁻² with excellent reproducibility, the Zn//Ti cell delivers a high average Coulombic efficiency of 99.71% at 5 mA cm⁻². The Zn//I₂ full cell retains 89.15% of its capacity after 12,000 cycles. This work provides a novel paradigm for interfacial construction toward high-performance zinc metal anodes.

Researchers developed SwiVirScan, a screening platform containing 36,416 peptides from 140 swine-associated viruses. In 127 adult breeding pigs, every serum sample showed antibody reactivity to peptides assigned to multiple viruses. The study also identified a persistent association between antibody signals for porcine bufavirus and porcine circovirus 3. The findings can guide follow-up surveillance, but antibody signals alone do not establish active infection.

Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) proteins function as key mediators of cytokine signaling and are critically involved in stem cell regulation, tissue regeneration, and immune responses in vertebrates. However, their roles in invertebrate regeneration, particularly in adult pluripotent stem cell systems like those of planarians, remain largely unexplored. In this study, we investigated the function of Djstat5, a STAT5 homolog in the planarian Dugesia japonica, and demonstrated that it is dynamically upregulated during the early regenerative phases. RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated knockdown of Djstat5 resulted in severe defects in tissue regeneration, including blastema hypoplasia, reduced mitotic activity, and diminished apoptosis. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that Djstat5 knockdown led to upregulation of Djnlrc3, a putative negative regulator of regeneration. Functional interaction between Djstat5 and Djnlrc3 was further supported by double RNAi experiments, which showed that co-knockdown of Djnlrc3 significantly rescued the regeneration defects induced by Djstat5 loss. Together, our findings establish Djstat5 as an essential regulator of planarian regeneration and provide new insights into conserved STAT-mediated signaling pathways in adult stem cell-based tissue regeneration.

A 71-year-old woman with a two-year history of a slowly deepening skin depression on her trunk was found to have atrophic dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP)—a rare variant of skin cancer that mimics benign conditions such as scars or morphea. The case highlights the importance of biopsying firm, persistent atrophic lesions, as early diagnosis and complete surgical excision are key to preventing local recurrence.

A UK Biobank study of 260,118 people finds that body clock imbalance is linked to a higher risk of psoriasis, with the highest risk in those who also have high genetic susceptibility.

As the largest ice sheet storage area in the world, Antarctica's gravity field characteristics are key data for studying ice sheet mass balance, sea level changes, and polar resource exploration. However, current gravity field modeling in polar regions faces two major challenges: First, the satellite orbital inclination limit (e.g., the GOCE mission has observation gaps within the latitude circle of 83.3°), which causes ill-posed problems in satellite gravity inversion. Although some studies have improved this using methods like Tikhonov regularization and spherical cap regularization, the applicability of different regularization methods in polar regions lacks systematic evaluation. Second, multi-source gravity data have frequency band limitations, and the study of frequency band characteristics in combined gravity models is relatively scarce. To address these issues, this paper utilizes international Antarctic airborne gravity datasets, including AntGG and PolarGap. It systematically evaluates the accuracy of six satellite gravity field models (such as DIR_R6 and GOCO06s) and five combined gravity models (such as EGM2008 and XGM2019e) in Antarctica, from both spatial and spectral perspectives. The study reveals the error distribution characteristics of different models in Antarctica and further quantifies the contribution characteristics of each model in different frequency bands. The results show that global gravity field models exhibit lower quality within the polar gap at the 83.3°S latitude circle, and introducing additional measurement data combined with regularization methods can significantly improve their accuracy. Additionally, among the combined gravity field models, the XGM2019e_2159 model performs best in Antarctica, and the inclusion of satellite altimetry data significantly improves its quality in oceanic regions. The findings of this study will provide experimental references for data selection and gravity field model optimization in Antarctic gravity field research.