A novel EMS-induced barley male-sterile mutant (N13401) was identified and characterized, and it shows defective pollen starch accumulation. The male sterility gene msg_N13401 was fine-mapped to a 576.9 kb region on chromosome 2H using a wild-cultivated barley cross to overcome the low polymorphism of cultivated barley.

Single-nucleus RNA-seq atlas of equine skeletal muscle reveals donkey and horse distinct cell types, with species-specific age-related shifts in muscle fiber composition. The conserved upregulation pattern of LDHA reveals the critical role of propanoate metabolism in energy supply for equine locomotion. Cross-species transcriptomic comparison delineates a highly conserved atlas of skeletal muscle cell types.

Researchers developed an exosome-loaded microneedle patch that significantly accelerates oral ulcer healing. By enabling localized and sustained delivery, the patch reduces inflammation and promotes tissue regeneration. Multi-omics analysis reveals that the treatment works by modulating macrophage–epithelial interactions through the TSP-1/CD47/NF-κB signaling pathway.

Researchers found that a small change in 3D-printing settings can help produce better-fitting permanent dental crowns. Crowns printed at moderate angles performed best overall. Thinner layers improved accuracy and fit, while thicker layers produced more consistent results across repeated prints.

A new study presents a neural-network method for building efficient portfolios while keeping the allocation process interpretable. Instead of treating asset correlations as a black box, the model learns how to clean noisy collective market patterns and respects the symmetries of covariance matrices. Tested on U.S. equities, it delivered higher returns per unit of risk under realistic trading conditions.

Quantum particles in imperfect or quasiperiodic environments may spread, become localized, or enter critical states with fractal wave functions. These behaviors can combine into seven fundamental localization phases, but a unified framework for all of them has been missing. A team led by Prof. Xiong-Jun Liu at Peking University has now developed a generic spin-1/2 quasiperiodic system that captures all the fundamental phases, proves three theorems, constructs new exactly solvable models, and proposes the implementation with ultracold atoms in optical Raman lattices.

Plastics are essential to modern life, but their inherent poor mechanical, thermal and electrical properties limit advanced applications. Researchers from the Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics and partners reported in National Science Review a scalable in-situ CNT-polymer fusion and hot-working strategy. This method breaks the bottleneck of high-loading CNT incorporation into thermoplastic matrices, and develops novel CNT superplastics applicable to thermoplastic processing and 3D printing.