Explore the vast range of titles available.

High-performance lead-free K 0.5 Na 0.5 NbO 3 piezoelectric ceramics present a practical alternative to lead-containing counterparts by effectively reducing potential environmental hazards. This advancement is particularly relevant to the development of ferroelectric heterojunction devices for biomedical applications. Here, we design and fabricate a frequency-adjustable ferroelectric heterojunction based on the developed K 0.5 Na 0.5 NbO 3 piezoelectric ceramics with a high piezoelectric coefficient ( d 33  = 680 pC/N). By leveraging flexible encapsulation, the heterojunction achieves miniaturization ( φ  = 13.3 mm, h  = 2.28 mm) and suitability for implantation. After penetrating the rat skull, the ultrasound generated by the heterojunction at a frequency of 3 MHz reaches a focal depth of about 7.9 mm, a focal width of approximately 480 μm at −6 dB, and millimeter-scale continuous focal tuning (1.5 mm) within a narrow frequency range (2.7–3.3 MHz). Additionally, the implanted heterojunction enables long-term and high-precision transcranial neuromodulation, and consequently yields therapeutic effects in a myocardial infarction animal model. Collectively, this study highlights a viable strategy for developing and applying lead-free ferroelectric heterojunctions, expanding their potential in brain modulation, and providing new insights into clinical treatments of myocardial infarction. The authors present a frequency-adjustable ferroelectric heterojunction based on K 0.5 Na 0.5 NbO 3 piezoelectric ceramic, which enabling therapeutic effects in a myocardial infarction animal model by long-term and high-precision transcranial neuromodulation.

The convergence of the Internet of Everything (IoE) and healthcare requires ultra-reliable, low-latency, and intelligent communication systems. Sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks, coupled with digital twin (DT) models and large AI models (LAMs), are envisioned to promise substantial and practically meaningful improvements in smart healthcare by enabling real-time monitoring, diagnosis, and personalized treatment. In this article, we propose an LAM-enhanced DT-driven network slicing framework for healthcare applications. The framework leverages large models to provide predictive insights and adaptive orchestration by creating virtual replicas of patients and medical devices that guide dynamic slice allocation. Reinforcement learning (RL) techniques are employed to optimize slice orchestration under uncertain traffic conditions, with LAMs augmenting decision-making through cognitive-level reasoning. Numerical results show that the proposed LAM–DT–RL framework reduces service-level agreement (SLA) violations by approximately 42–43% compared to a reinforcement-learning-only slicing strategy, while improving spectral efficiency and fairness among heterogeneous healthcare services. Finally, we outline open challenges and future research opportunities in integrating LAMs, DTs, and 6G for resilient healthcare IoE systems.

The Bambusoideae subfamily, originating in the late Cretaceous, has evolved to include over 1500 species globally. Notably, China hosts the richest diversity of Bambusoideae, with 728 species documented. After a long period of coevolution, plenty of animals could feed on these plants rich in cellulose and lignin. As an important group of pests and participants in the ecosystem, bamboo‐feeding true bugs (BFTBs, or bamboo‐feeding Heteropteran insects) have attracted the attention of researchers. However, the diversity and distribution of BFTBs still lack systematic and generalized research. In this study, we reviewed the BFTBs in China and simulated the diversity pattern and the driving forces of this pattern. A list of 36 genera with 69 species of BFTBs in China was obtained through paper review and field surveys. And their bamboo‐feeding habit had multiple independent origins. The spatial diversity pattern showed that the biodiversity hotspots of BFTBs are located in and around the tropics of southern China. Environmental driving force analysis showed that the minimum temperature of coldest month and annual precipitation were the dominant environmental factors shaping the spatial diversity of BFTBs. Our work quantified the diversity and distribution of BFTBs in China, providing fundamental data support for pest control and evolutionary research. There are 36 genera with 69 species bamboo‐feeding true bugs in China. Their spacial diversity pattern showed preference in South China, with higher diversity areas located in the tropics and its surrounding areas.

The sterile insect technique has been explored in the laboratory to control populations of Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae), a globally invasive pest. We studied the reproductive behavior of D. suzukii including mating frequency, time between matings, and mating duration among non-irradiated flies. Irradiation doses were tested at 0, 60, 90, 110, 120, 150, and 180 Gy to select the optimal dose for producing sterile males. In addition, we examined the effects of mating sequence on offspring production where females were presented with irradiated males first and then wild males, or the reverse. Female D. suzukii were found to mate twice on average through their lifespan, with 16.53 ± 12.05 d between matings. The first mating duration was 24.64 ± 1.52 min shorter than the second mating. A dose of 90 Gy was suitable where irradiated males lived as long as non-irradiated males, and few eggs hatched from matings. The mating sequence experiment revealed first-male parentage preference. Wild females that mated with a wild male and then irradiated male produced more offspring than females mated with an irradiated and then wild male. Overall, the influence of mating sequence should be taken into consideration when applying the sterile insect technique (SIT) to control D. suzukii populations.

Olfaction is a critical physiologic process for insects to interact with the environment, especially plant-emitted volatiles, during which odorant receptors (ORs) play an essential role in host recognition. Although OR gene evolution has been studied in many insect orders, a comprehensive evolutionary analysis and expression of OR gene gain and loss events among diverse hemipteran species are still required. In this study, we identified and analyzed 887 OR genes from 11 hemipteran species. The number of OR genes discovered in each species ranged from less than ten to hundreds. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all identified Hemiptera OR genes were classified into seven major clades. Gene gain and loss events of OR have occurred in several species. Then, by positive selection, we discovered the amino acid differences between species to understand the molecular evolution of OR in the order Hemiptera. Additionally, we discussed how evolutionary analysis can aid the study of insect–plant communication. This study lays a foundation for subsequent investigations into the molecular mechanisms of Hemiptera olfactory receptors involved in host recognition.

Large and complex workpieces are core components in fields, such as aerospace, shipbuilding, and other industrial applications. However, the main challenge of curved plate processing comes from the difficulty in determining the nonlinear rebound features with structural design parameters. An intelligent method framework is proposed for 3D surface manufacturing in cloud‐edge collaboration environment. With the construction of an intelligent generation method for machining parameters, a unified data model is effectively integrated with various discrete data, and an intelligent processing mechanism based on 3D point clouds is constructed. In particular, a prediction method for curved panel rebound is constructed to reduce the manual dependency of the manufacturing process. Finally, a related case study is conducted to verify the framework, and the result shows accuracy, interpretability and reusability advantages over other similar methods. An intelligent method framework is proposed for 3D surface manufacturing in cloud‐edge collaboration environment. With the construction of an intelligent generation method for machining parameters, a unified data model is effectively integrated with various discrete data, and an intelligent processing mechanism based on 3D point clouds is constructed. In particular, a prediction method for curved panel rebound is constructed to reduce the manual dependency of the manufacturing process.

Anticancer peptides (ACPs) have been proven to possess potent anticancer activities. Although computational methods have emerged for rapid ACPs identification, their accuracy still needs improvement. In this study, we propose a model called ACP-BC, a three-channel end-to-end model that utilizes various combinations of data augmentation techniques. In the first channel, features are extracted from the raw sequence using a bidirectional long short-term memory network. In the second channel, the entire sequence is converted into a chemical molecular formula, which is further simplified using Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry System notation to obtain deep abstract features through a bidirectional encoder representation transformer (BERT). In the third channel, we manually selected four effective features according to dipeptide composition, binary profile feature, k-mer sparse matrix, and pseudo amino acid composition. Notably, the application of chemical BERT in predicting ACPs is novel and successfully integrated into our model. To validate the performance of our model, we selected two benchmark datasets, ACPs740 and ACPs240. ACP-BC achieved prediction accuracy with 87% and 90% on these two datasets, respectively, representing improvements of 1.3% and 7% compared to existing state-of-the-art methods on these datasets. Therefore, systematic comparative experiments have shown that the ACP-BC can effectively identify anticancer peptides.

Sympathetic hyperactivation and neuroinflammation are the main triggers of malignant ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) after myocardial infarction (MI). Previous studies proved that photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) could reduce MI-induced VAs by inhibiting neuroinflammation. However, the limited penetration depth and potential phototoxicity of phototherapy impose constraints on its further application. As a treatment strategy derived from phototherapy, sonodynamic therapy (SDT) offers exceptional advantages, including excellent penetration capability, temporal-spatial controllability, superior efficacy and minimal side effects. Therefore, it is worthwhile to investigate the effects of sonodynamic modulation on neuroinflammation and arrhythmia prevention. We designed a long-wavelength emissive sonosensitizer (named ) based on donor-acceptor-donor scaffold. Subsequently, the compound was encapsulated in DSPE-PEG5000 to form nanoparticles (NPs). experiments were conducted to determine the optimal concentration of NPs-mediated SDT and to verify the effects and pathways on autophagy in BV2 cells. The distribution and metabolism of NPs were assessed by NIR-II fluorescence imaging. Finally, studies were performed to assess the effect of NPs-mediated SDT on post-MI sympathetic neuroinflammation and the occurrence of VAs. studies demonstrated that NPs combined with LIFU could promote microglial autophagy via the ROS-AMPK-mTOR pathway. NPs were further microinjected into the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), real-time NIR-II fluorescence imaging showed that NPs could remain in the PVN for up to 12 h and be metabolized through the liver and kidney. Further results verified that NPs-mediated SDT could inhibit sympathetic nervous activity, and inflammatory responses, thus preventing MI-induced VAs. NPs-mediated SDT can promote microglial autophagy and inhibit sympathetic neuroinflammation, thus reducing MI-induced VAs. The current research may inspire a novel strategy for neuromodulation and arrhythmia prevention, providing broader prospects for clinical translation of nanomedical technology.

In nature, competing species often achieve coexistence through niche differentiation. We examined this phenomenon for Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae and Spalangia endius (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), two species of pupal parasitoids that are considered biological control agents of house fly, Musca domestica (Diptera: Muscidae). We examined the ability of each species, alone and in combination, to locate host pupae buried at different depths (0, 1, 2, 4, and 6 cm) in three types of substrate (sand, dry wheat bran, and spent fly diet). We then evaluated the competitiveness of each species by allowing first one species, then the other species, to parasitise host individuals within time periods ranging from less than 2 hours to 96 hours of each other. Spalangia endius exhibited greater ability than did P. vindemmiae to locate host pupae buried at depths below one centimetre. Conversely, P. vindemmiae exhibited a greater competitive ability, being more likely to emerge from pupae co-parasitised by S. endius, regardless of oviposition interval or sequence. Our findings suggest that these two parasitoid species coexist through niche differentiation. Our findings also indicate that to increase the effectiveness of biological control, the environmental conditions and risk of interspecific competition should be considered when selecting parasitoid species for release.

The mitochondrial genome is a reliable genetic marker for reconstructing phylogeny and Pteromalidae is a diverse and complex family of chalcid wasps, but its evolutionary history is still poorly understood. In this study, we sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of four species (Muscidifurax similadanacus, M. sinesensilla, Nasonia vitripennis, and Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae) of Pteromalidae. Additionally, a phylogenetic hypothesis was reconstructed for the subfamilies of Pteromalidae that includes newly acquired mitogenomes and those deposited in NCBI. We used pairwise breakpoint distances to infer this phylogeny. Our study enriches the overall knowledge on gene rearrangement in Pteromalidae, reveals the evolutionary relationships among several major groups of Pteromalidae, accumulates molecular data for a Pteromalidae phylogeny, and provides a genetic background basis for biological control in agriculture and forestry. The mitochondrial genomes of Muscidifurax similadanacus, M. sinesensilla, Nasonia vitripennis, and Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae were sequenced to better understand the structural evolution of Pteromalidae mitogenomes. These newly sequenced mitogenomes all contained 37 genes. Nucleotide composition was AT-biased and the majority of the protein-coding genes exhibited a negative AT skew. All 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs) initiated with the standard start codon of ATN, excepted for nad1 of N. vitripennis, which started with TTG, and terminated with a typical stop codon TAA/TAG or an incomplete stop codon T. All transfer RNA (tRNA) genes were predicted to fold into the typical clover-leaf secondary structures, except for trnS1, which lacks the DHU arm in all species. In P. vindemmiae, trnR and trnQ lack the DHU arm and TΨC arm, respectively. Although most genes evolved under a strong purifying selection, the Ka/Ks value of the atp8 gene of P. vindemmiae was greater than 1, indicating putative positive selection. A novel transposition of trnR in P. vindemmiae was revealed, which was the first of this kind to be reported in Pteromalidae. Two kinds of datasets (PCG12 and AA) and two inference methods (maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference) were used to reconstruct a phylogenetic hypothesis for the newly sequenced mitogenomes of Pteromalidae and those deposited in GenBank. The topologies obtained recovered the monophyly of the three subfamilies included. Pachyneurinae and Pteromalinae were recovered as sister families, and both appeared sister to Sycophaginae. The pairwise breakpoint distances of mitogenome rearrangements were estimated to infer phylogeny among pteromalid species. The topology obtained was not totally congruent with those reconstructed using the ML and BI methods.