The development of a highly responsive and selective gas sensor for volatile organic compounds, such as hydrogen sulfide and acetone, is still required. In a recent study carried out by Chen et al., FeWO₄ hollow spheres modified with Pd nanoparticles were synthesized using ammonium phosphotungstate hydrate dodecahedra as sacrificial templates followed by liquid-phase reduction.

Diatoms are microalgae whose silica shells form some of nature's most elegant photonic structures. In a new paper, researchers from Skoltech and partner institutes scaled up a diatom frustule by a factor of 2,000 using LCD 3D printing and demonstrated, in the terahertz range, the Talbot effect — a near-field self-imaging phenomenon. The work opens a route to bioinspired THz components such as flat focusing optics, tunable filters, and wavefront modulators.

An integrative review led by the Afrifa-Yamoah research team and co-authored by scholars from Canada, Australia and other countries has been published in Eye & ENT Research. Against the backdrop of the global myopia epidemic, this paper systematically elaborates the genetic, optical and environmental mechanisms driving the onset and progression of myopia, and analyzes the underlying principles of relevant risk factors. It also classifies mainstream myopia correction and control measures, summarizes their clinical effects, and puts forward clinical strategies for personalized and combined interventions. This study provides comprehensive and authoritative theoretical references for clinical ophthalmology practice, myopia prevention and control, as well as future research.

This report presents the first documented case of an extraosseous Ewing’s sarcoma (ES) arising primarily in the retropharyngeal space of an adult. A 59-year-old female presented with progressive dysphagia and acute stridor, initially mimicking a retropharyngeal abscess. However, intraoperative findings showed no pus, and further immunohistochemistry and genetic testing confirmed ES with CD99 positivity and EWSR1 rearrangement. Despite multimodal considerations, the disease was extensive at diagnosis, and the patient deteriorated rapidly, passing away within two months.

A recent case report from Mayo Clinic in Eye & ENT Research documents the first-ever case of vocal fold paralysis (VFP) following Z-POEM. A 68-year-old male developed hoarseness one day after the procedure, and laryngoscopy later confirmed left VFP. This finding breaks the prior safety record of Z-POEM and highlights the vulnerability of the recurrent laryngeal nerve, which lies close to the diverticulum base and is at risk during septal division. This article presents the case from anatomical, diagnostic, and management perspectives, offering a critical safety reference for clinicians performing Z-POEM.

Prof. Shiyuan Liu’s team from Huazhong University of Science and Technology has reported a full-chip EUV curvilinear mask optimization framework that integrates deep learning with gradient-based inverse optimization. This framework achieves an estimated speedup of four orders of magnitude over conventional FDTD methods while preserving accuracy, thereby enabling full-chip EUV mask optimization within a practical runtime. Doctoral student Pinxuan He is the first author of this paper, and Prof. Shiyuan Liu and Dr. Jiamin Liu are the co-corresponding authors. Prof. Honggang Gu, Dr. Song Zhang, Prof. Qi Xia, and Prof. Hao Jiang also contributed to this research.

 Researchers have uncovered the initial adaptive mechanisms of Bacillus velezensis C5 when exposed to polyethylene microplastics. Using comparative transcriptomics, the study revealed a robust, polymer‑specific transcriptional program distinct from general starvation or surface‑contact responses. Exposure to polyethylene triggered massive upregulation of genes involved in biofilm formation and sporulation, while genes associated with canonical degradation were not induced. The bacterium remained viable without growth, formed dense biofilms, and increased surface hydrophilicity but caused only subtle physicochemical changes to the plastic. This survival‑first strategy represents a critical initial phase that must be overcome to enable efficient biodegradation.

 Researchers have developed a multi‑objective optimization framework (MO‑DIDC) that handles infeasible solutions in complex distillation process optimization through data‑driven identification and adaptive directed correction. By identifying promising infeasible solutions near Pareto‑optimal designs and correcting their most influential variables, the framework reduces unnecessary exploration of infeasible regions. Demonstrated on a side‑stream double‑column extractive distillation system and a four‑column extractive distillation system, MO‑DIDC achieves optimization time reductions of 35.3 % and 20.8 %, respectively, compared to a widely used genetic algorithm, while delivering superior or comparable process designs.

Researchers have developed a controllable hydrothermal synthesis strategy for spherical cerium oxide (CeO₂) abrasives with tunable particle sizes from 32 to 531 nm while maintaining excellent sphericity and dispersity. Mechanistic studies reveal that CeO₂ formation occurs via nitrateinduced oxidation of Ce³⁺, with subsequent precipitation coupled to acetate decomposition thermodynamically driving the reaction forward. Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) tests show that 343 nm CeO₂ achieves the highest material removal rate (73.7 nm·min⁻¹) with low surface roughness (Ra = 0.31 nm). The hydrothermally synthesized CeO₂ outperforms commercial abrasives in both short and longterm polishing owing to its uniform morphology.