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As a modernist writer writing through the two World Wars and witnessing the decline of British imperial power through the decay of her own class, the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, most of Elizabeth Bowen’s (1899–1973) writing is that of trauma. Many critics have suggested that modernist writing provides a response to the traumas of the era and resonates with the Freudian model of trauma, which regards the syndrome of traumatic events as post-traumatic . This essay challenges the previous studies regarding modernist writing of trauma as post-traumatic , by introducing Saint-Amour’s concept of a “pre-traumatic stress syndrome” to study Bowen’s two novels about wars, The Last September and The Heat of the Day . The essay holds that in Bowen’s writing, anticipation and anxiety arising before the war can also inflict psychic damage, just like the actual war. The essay demonstrates how Bowen’s writing about wars adds a new approach to literary trauma studies, which have concentrated almost solely on the aftermath of catastrophes or violence. Interpreting Bowen’s writing as pre-trauma not only provides a better understanding of the psychological condition of people during the wars but brings a new perspective to trauma studies as well.

The formyl peptide receptors (FPRs) are G protein-coupled receptors that transduce chemotactic signals in phagocytes and mediate host-defense as well as inflammatory responses including cell adhesion, directed migration, granule release and superoxide production. In recent years, the cellular distribution and biological functions of FPRs have expanded to include additional roles in homeostasis of organ functions and modulation of inflammation. In a prototype, FPRs recognize peptides containing N-formylated methionine such as those produced in bacteria and mitochondria, thereby serving as pattern recognition receptors. The repertoire of FPR ligands, however, has expanded rapidly to include not only N-formyl peptides from microbes but also non-formyl peptides of microbial and host origins, synthetic small molecules and an eicosanoid. How these chemically diverse ligands are recognized by the three human FPRs (FPR1, FPR2 and FPR3) and their murine equivalents is largely unclear. In the absence of crystal structures for the FPRs, site-directed mutagenesis, computer-aided ligand docking and structural simulation have led to the identification of amino acids within FPR1 and FPR2 that interact with several formyl peptides. This review article summarizes the progress made in the understanding of FPR ligand diversity as well as ligand recognition mechanisms used by these receptors.

Metasurfaces, ultrathin metamaterials constructed by planar meta-atoms with tailored electromagnetic (EM) responses, have attracted tremendous attention due to their exotic abilities to freely control EM waves. With active elements incorporated into metasurface designs, one can realize tunable and/or reconfigurable metadevices with functionalities controlled by external stimuli, opening a new platform to dynamically manipulate EM waves. In this article, we briefly review recent progress on tunable/reconfigurable metasurfaces, focusing on their working mechanisms and practical applications. We first describe available approaches, categorized into different classes based on external stimuli applied, to realize homogeneous tunable/reconfigurable metasurfaces, which can offer uniform manipulations on EM waves. We next summarize recent achievements on inhomogeneous tunable/reconfigurable metasurfaces with constitutional meta-atoms locally tuned by external knobs, which can dynamically control the wave-fronts of EM waves. We conclude this review by presenting our own perspectives on possible future directions and existing challenges in this fast developing field.

Within customs risk management, the weak ability to identify quality and safety risks of import and export toys—special products with high safety sensitivity—leads to persistently high recall rates. This study constructs a “data collection-risk classification-risk identification” framework integrating LDA and WOA-BP to address this. First, 2010–2024 toy recall texts from international systems are preprocessed. TF-IDF word frequency analysis and network diagrams reveal key risk words and their correlations. LDA then clusters these words into structured risk factors (types, materials, defects) and five risk event categories, providing model inputs. The WOA-BP model, optimizing BP with the Whale Optimization Algorithm, achieves 95.71% accuracy—5.71% points higher than unoptimized BP and outperforming PSO-BP and GA-BP. Its test set R² reaches 0.997, showing strong fitting. This framework enhances toy risk identification and offers a new method for import-export product safety management.

Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and their low-frequency counterparts (i.e., spoof SPPs on artificial surfaces) have recently found numerous applications in photonics, but traditional devices to excite them (such as gratings and prism couplers) all suffer from problems of inherent low efficiency because the generated SPPs can decouple, returning to free space, and reflections at the device surface can never be avoided. Here, we propose a new SPP excitation scheme based on a transparent gradient metasurface and numerically demonstrate that it exhibits inherently high efficiency (~94%) because the designed meta-coupler suppresses both decoupling and surface reflections. As a practical realization of this concept, we fabricated a meta-coupler for operation in the microwave regime and performed near-field and far-field experiments to demonstrate that the achieved excitation efficiency for spoof SPPs reaches ~73%, which is several times higher than that achieved by other available devices in this frequency domain. Our findings can motivate the design and fabrication of high-performance plasmonic devices to harvest light–matter interactions, particularly those related to spoof SPPs in the low-frequency domain. Plasmonic coupler: high-efficiency surface plasmon polariton generator A meta-coupler in the microwave regime that has a high excitation efficiency for spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) has been made. Due to their local field enhancement and subwavelength confinement, SPPs are finding applications in many photonics applications, but conventional devices for producing them suffer from low excitation efficiencies. Now, a research team in China led by Lei Zhou has proposed a new scheme for generating SPPs that employs a transparent gradient metasurface. Numerical analysis predicts that the scheme will have a high generation efficiency of 94% since both decoupling and reflection are suppressed at the surface. The researchers demonstrated the concept experimentally by constructing a metacoupler in the microwave regime that had an excitation efficiency for spoof SPPs of about 73% – several times higher than those of other devices in this frequency region.

As the basis of a diverse set of photonic applications, such as hologram imaging, polarization, and wave front manipulation, the local phase control of electromagnetic waves is fundamental in photonic research. However, currently available bulky, passive, range-limited phase modulators pose an obstacle in photonic applications. Here, we propose a new mechanism to achieve a wide phase modulation range, with graphene used as a tunable loss to drive an underdamped to overdamped resonator transition. Based on this mechanism, we present widely tunable phase modulation in the terahertz regime, realized in gate-tuned ultrathin reflective graphene metasurfaces. A one-port resonator model, supported by full-wave simulations, explains the underlying physics of the discovered extreme phase modulation and indicates general strategies for designing tunable photonic devices. As an example, we demonstrate a gate-tunable terahertz (THz) polarization modulator with a graphene metasurface. Our findings establish the possibility for photonic applications based on active phase manipulation.

Vectorial optical fields (VOFs) exhibiting arbitrarily designed wavefronts and polarization distributions are highly desired in photonics. However, current methods to generate them either require complicated setups or exhibit limited functionalities, which is unfavorable for integration-optics applications. Here, we propose a generic approach to efficiently generate arbitrary VOFs based on metasurfaces exhibiting full-matrix yet inhomogeneous Jones-matrix distributions. We illustrate our strategy with analytical calculations on a model system and an experimental demonstration of a meta-device that can simultaneously deflect light and manipulate its polarization. Based on these benchmark results, we next experimentally demonstrate the generation of a far-field VOF exhibiting both a vortex wavefront and an inhomogeneous polarization distribution. Finally, we design/fabricate a meta-device and experimentally demonstrate that it can generate a complex near-field VOF—a cylindrically polarized surface plasmon wave possessing orbital angular momentum—with an efficiency of ~34%. Our results establish an efficient and ultracompact platform for generating arbitrary predesigned VOFs in both the near- and far-fields, which may find many applications in optical manipulation and communications.

Dynamical controls on terahertz (THz) wavefronts are crucial for many applications, but available mechanism requests tunable elements with sub-micrometer sizes that are difficult to find in the THz regime. Here, different from the mechanism, we propose an alternative approach to construct wavefront-control meta-devices combining specifically designed metasurfaces and graphene layers. Coupled-mode-theory (CMT) analyses reveal that graphene serves as a tunable loss to drive the whole meta-device to transit from one functional phase to another passing through an intermediate regime, exhibiting distinct far-field (FF) reflection wavefronts. As a proof of concept, we design/fabricate a graphene meta-device and experimentally demonstrate that it can reflect normally incident THz wave to pre-designed directions with different polarizations under appropriate gating voltages. We finally design a graphene meta-device and numerically demonstrate that it can generate vectorial THz beams with continuously varying polarization distributions upon gating. These findings pave the road to realizing a wide range of THz applications, such as sensing, imaging, and wireless communications.

With inherent orthogonality, both the spin angular momentum (SAM) and orbital angular momentum (OAM) of photons have been utilized to expand the dimensions of quantum information, optical communications, and information processing, wherein simultaneous detection of SAMs and OAMs with a single element and a single-shot measurement is highly anticipated. Here, a single azimuthal-quadratic phase metasurface-based photonic momentum transformation (PMT) is illustrated and utilized for vortex recognition. Since different vortices are converted into focusing patterns with distinct azimuthal coordinates on a transverse plane through PMT, OAMs within a large mode space can be determined through a single-shot measurement. Moreover, spin-controlled dual-functional PMTs are proposed for simultaneous SAM and OAM sorting, which is implemented by a single spin-decoupled metasurface that merges both the geometric phase and dynamic phase. Interestingly, our proposed method can detect vectorial vortices with both phase and polarization singularities, as well as superimposed vortices with a certain interval step. Experimental results obtained at several wavelengths in the visible band exhibit good agreement with the numerical modeling. With the merits of ultracompact device size, simple optical configuration, and prominent vortex recognition ability, our approach may underpin the development of integrated and high-dimensional optical and quantum systems.

This study examines the logical connection and articulation mechanism between rural human capital and rural revitalization from the perspective of farmers’ professionalization. Utilizing panel data spanning 2011 to 2020, collected from 31 provinces in China, a comprehensive index framework for rural revitalization was constructed, and a fixed-effect model was used for empirical analysis. It is found that: firstly, rural human capital strongly drives rural revitalization, and the professionalization of farmers has a converging influence on rural revitalization as well as a favorable moderating influence on the convergence of rural human capital on rural revitalization. Secondly, the harmonized progress of urban and rural regions is a significant interface mechanism between rural human capital and rural revitalization. Therefore, to facilitate rural revitalization, the government should provide educational opportunities, make investments in rural human capital through policies, and emphasize the value of talents and industrial resources in integrating the urban and rural.