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Magnon–polaritons are hybrid light–matter quasiparticles originating from the strong coupling between magnons and photons. They have emerged as a potential candidate for implementing quantum transducers and memories. Owing to the dampings of both photons and magnons, the polaritons have limited lifetimes. However, stationary magnon–polariton states can be reached by a dynamical balance between pumping and losses, so the intrinsically nonequilibrium system may be described by a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. Here we design a tunable cavity quantum electrodynamics system with a small ferromagnetic sphere in a microwave cavity and engineer the dissipations of photons and magnons to create cavity magnon–polaritons which have non-Hermitian spectral degeneracies. By tuning the magnon–photon coupling strength, we observe the polaritonic coherent perfect absorption and demonstrate the phase transition at the exceptional point. Our experiment offers a novel macroscopic quantum platform to explore the non-Hermitian physics of the cavity magnon–polaritons. Strong coupling between magnons and photons allows coupling of magnongs to qubits, suggesting that magnon-polaritons could find applications in quantum information. Here, Zhang et al. observe an exceptional point and spontaneous symmetry breaking in a cavity magnon-polariton system.

Background Viral-encoded auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) are important toolkits for modulating their hosts’ metabolisms and the microbial-driven biogeochemical cycles. Although the functions of AMGs have been extensively reported in numerous environments, we still know little about the drivers that shape the viral community-wide AMG compositions in natural ecosystems. Exploring the drivers of viral community-wide AMG compositions is critical for a deeper understanding of the complex interplays among viruses, hosts, and the environments. Results Here, we investigated the impact of viral lifestyles (i.e., lytic and lysogenic), habitats (i.e., water, particle, and sediment), and prokaryotic hosts on viral AMG profiles by utilizing metagenomic and metatranscriptomic techniques. We found that viral lifestyles were the most important drivers, followed by habitats and host identities. Specifically, irrespective of what habitats viruses came from, lytic viruses exhibited greater AMG diversity and tended to encode AMGs for chaperone biosynthesis, signaling proteins, and lipid metabolism, which could boost progeny reproduction, whereas temperate viruses were apt to encode AMGs for host survivability. Moreover, the lytic and temperate viral communities tended to mediate the microbial-driven biogeochemical cycles, especially nitrogen metabolism, in different manners via AMGs. When focusing on each lifestyle, we further found clear dissimilarity in AMG compositions between water and sediment, as well the divergent AMGs encoded by viruses infecting different host orders. Conclusions Overall, our study provides a first systematic characterization of the drivers of viral community-wide AMG compositions and further expands our knowledge of the distinct interactions of lytic and temperate viruses with their prokaryotic hosts from an AMG perspective, which is critical for understanding virus-host-environment interactions in natural conditions. -i-eSMHy56EjkBsNfneT5s Video Abstract

Whispering-gallery modes (WGMs), confining the resonant photons in nanoscale volumes, have been known to exhibit high-quality factor and sensitivity for electromagnetic waves in the field of nanophotonics. Here, we numerically demonstrate that a metasurface, which consists of periodic arrays with concentrically hybrid rectangular-slot (RS) and circular-ring-aperture (CRA) unit cells, supports polarization-dependent plasmonic sensing and switching in the visible and near-infrared regions. In particular, it is shown that the magnetic plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) effect arises from the coupling between a wideband WGM resonance and a narrowband magnetic dipole resonance mode in the hybrid metasurface. It is of great interest to find that the resonance mode broadening and mode shift sensing can be realized by varying the polarization angle of incident light and the length of the RS structure, respectively. Moreover, a novel and easy-fabricated plasmonic switching can be implemented in the visible and near-infrared regions. By changing the inner radius of the CRA structure, we reveal that the operating wavelength of the plasmonic switching can be extended to the telecom O- or E-band with an optimal ON/OFF ratio being 18.35 dB. Our results provide a path toward designing compact and tunable PIT device and could expand the application range of subwavelength nanostructures to the realm of optical communications and information process.

The micro disk resonator gyroscope is a micro-mechanical device with potential for navigation-grade applications, where the performance is significantly influenced by the quality factor, which is determined by various energy dissipation mechanisms within the micro resonant structure. To enhance the quality factor, these gyroscopes are typically enclosed in high-vacuum packaging. This paper investigates a wafer-level high-vacuum-packaged (<0.1 Pa) cobweb-like disk resonator gyroscope, presenting a systematic and comprehensive theoretical analysis of the energy dissipation mechanisms, including air damping, thermoelastic damping, anchor loss, and other factors. Air damping is analyzed using both a continuous fluid model and an energy transfer model. The analysis results are validated through quality factor testing on batch samples and temperature characteristic testing on individual samples. The theoretical results obtained using the energy transfer model closely match the experimental measurements, with a maximum error in the temperature coefficient of less than 2%. The findings indicate that air damping and thermoelastic damping are the predominant energy dissipation mechanisms in the cobweb-like disk resonant gyroscope under high-vacuum conditions. Consequently, optimizing the resonator to minimize thermoelastic and air damping is crucial for designing high-performance gyroscopes.

Plasmonic Fano resonance (FR) that contributes to multitudinous potential applications in subwavelength nanostructures can facilitate the realization of tunable wavelength selectivity for controlling light–matter interactions in metasurfaces. However, the plasmonic FR can be generated in metasurfaces with simple or complex geometries, and few of them can support flexible amplitude modulation and multiwavelength information transfer and processing. Here, we study the near-infrared plasmonic FR in a hybrid metasurface composed of concentrically hybridized parabolic-hole and circular-ring-aperture unit cells, which can induce polarization-dependent dual-wavelength passive plasmonic switching (PPS) and digital metasurface (DM). It is shown that the designable plasmonic FR can be realized by changing the geometric configurations of the unit cells. In particular, owing to the polarization-dependent characteristic of FR, it is possible to fulfill a compact dual-wavelength PPS with high ON/OFF ratios in the related optical communication bands. Moreover, such PPS that manipulates the amplitude response of the transmitted spectrum is an efficient way to reveal a 1-bit DM, which can also be rationally extended to a 2-bit DM or more. Our results suggest a pathway for studying polarization-dependent PPS and programmable metasurface devices, yielding possibilities for subwavelength nanostructures in optical communication and information processing.

Two novel species of the genus Deinococcus, designated SYSU M49105T and SYSU M42101T, were isolated from freshwater samples of the Pearl River estuary in Guangdong, China. Phylogenetic analysis using 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strains SYSU M49105T and SYSU M42101T showed the highest sequence similarities to Deinococcus aetherius JCM 11751 T (93.6%) and Deinococcus multiflagellatus NBRC 112888 T (97.3%), respectively. Cells of both strains were Gram-staining positive, aerobic, coccus-shaped, oxidase-negative and non-motile. The cell wall contained meso-diaminopimelic acid as their diagnostic diamino acid. MK-8 was the predominant respiratory quinone for both strains. The polar lipid profile of SYSU M49105T contained two unidentified phosphoglycolipids, nine unidentified glycolipids, and five unidentified polar lipids. SYSU M42101T had one unidentified phosphoglycolipid, nine unidentified glycolipids, one unidentified aminophospholipid and four unidentified polar lipids. The major fatty acids of strains SYSU M49105T and SYSU M42101T were summed feature 3 (C16:1ω7c and/ or C16:1ω6c) and C16:0. The G + C contents of the novel isolates based on genomic DNAs were 69.6% and 67.4%, respectively. On the basis of phenotypic, genotypic and phylogenetic data, strains SYSU M49105T and SYSU M42101T should be considered to represent two novel species in the genus Deinococcus, for which the names Deinococcus aestuarii sp. nov. and Deinococcus aquaedulcis sp. nov. were proposed with the type strains SYSU M49105T (= KCTC 43258 T = CGMCC 1.18609 T) and SYSU M42101T (= KCTC 43257 T = CGMCC 1.18614 T), respectively.

Methamphetamine (METH), an extremely and widely abused illicit drug, can cause serious nervous system damage and social problems. Previous research has shown that METH use causes dopaminergic neuron apoptosis and astrocyte-related neuroinflammation. However, the relationship of astrocytes and neurons in METH-induced neurotoxicity remains unclear. We hypothesized that chemokine interleukin (IL) eight released by astrocytes and C-X-C motif chemokine receptor 1 (CXCR1) in neurons are involved in METH-induced neuronal apoptosis. We tested our hypothesis by examining the changes of CXCR1 in SH-SY5Y cells and in the brain of C57BL/6 mice exposed to METH by western blotting and immunolabeling. We also determined the effects of knocking down CXCR1 expression with small interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA) on METH-exposed SH-SY5Y cells. Furthermore, we detected the expression levels of IL-8 and the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) pathway in U87MG cells and then co-cultured the two cell types to determine the role of CXCR1 and IL-8 in neuronal apoptosis. Our results indicated that METH exposure increased CXCR1 expression both and , with the effects obtained being dose-dependent. Silencing of CXCR1 expression with siRNAs reduced the expression of cleaved caspase-3, cleaved poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), and other related proteins. In addition, IL-8 expression and release were increased in METH-exposed U87MG cells, which is regulated by NF-κB pathway. Neuronal apoptosis was attenuated by siCXCR1 after METH treatment in the co-cultured cells, which can be reversed after exposure to recombinant IL-8. These results demonstrate that CXCR1 plays an important role in neuronal apoptosis induced by METH and may be a potential target for METH-induced neurotoxicity therapy. -Methamphetamine exposure upregulated the expression of CXCR1.-Methamphetamine exposure increased the expression of interleukin-8 through nuclear factor-kappa B pathway.-Activation of CXCR1 by interleukin-8 induces an increase in methamphetamine-related neuronal apoptosis.

Anisotropic plasmonic metasurfaces have attracted broad research interest since they possess novel optical properties superior to natural materials and their tremendous design flexibility. However, the realization of multi-wavelength selective plasmonic metasurfaces that have emerged as promising candidates to uncover multichannel optical devices remains a challenge associated with weak modulation depths and narrow operation bandwidth. Herein, we propose and numerically demonstrate near-infrared multi-wavelength selective passive plasmonic switching (PPS) that encompasses high ON/OFF ratios and strong modulation depths via multiple Fano resonances (FRs) in anisotropic plasmonic metasurfaces. Specifically, the double FRs can be fulfilled and dedicated to establishing tailorable near-infrared dual-wavelength PPS. The multiple FRs mediated by in-plane mirror asymmetries cause the emergence of triple-wavelength PPS, whereas the multiple FRs governed by in-plane rotational asymmetries avail the implementation of the quasi-bound states in the continuum-endowed multi-wavelength PPS with the ability to unfold a tunable broad bandwidth. In addition, the strong polarization effects with in-plane anisotropic properties further validate the existence of the polarization-resolved multi-wavelength PPS. Our results provide an alternative approach to foster the achievement of multifunctional meta-devices in optical communication and information processing.

Macrophages are heterogenic phagocytic cells that play distinct roles in physiological and pathological processes. Targeting different types of macrophages has shown potent therapeutic effects in many diseases. Although many approaches are developed to target anti‐inflammatory macrophages, there are few researches on targeting pro‐inflammatory macrophages, which is partially attributed to their non‐s pecificity phagocytosis of extracellular substances. In this study, a novel recombinant protein is constructed that can be anchored on an exosome membrane with the purpose of targeting pro‐inflammatory macrophages via antigen recognition, which is named AnCar‐ExoLaIMTS. The data indicate that the phagocytosis efficiencies of pro‐inflammatory macrophages for different AnCar‐ExoLaIMTS show obvious differences. The AnCar‐ExoLaIMTS3 has the best targeting ability for pro‐inflammatory macrophages in vitro and in vivo. Mechanically, AnCar‐ExoLaIMTS3 can specifically recognize the leucine‐rich repeat domain of the TLR4 receptor, and then enter into pro‐inflammatory macrophages via the TLR4‐mediated receptor endocytosis pathway. Moreover, AnCar‐ExoLaIMTS3 can efficiently deliver therapeutic cargo to pro‐inflammatory macrophages and inhibit the synovial inflammatory response via downregulation of HIF‐1α level, thus ameliorating the severity of arthritis in vivo. Collectively, the work established a novel gene/drug delivery system that can specifically target pro‐inflammatory macrophages, which may be beneficial for the treatments of arthritis and other inflammatory diseases. Targeting different types of macrophages has shown potent therapeutic effects in arthritis. This study constructs new engineered exosomes that can efficiently deliver therapeutic contents to pro‐inflammatory macrophages mainly through TLR4‐mediated endocytosis, thereby ameliorating the severity of arthritis in vivo. This work provides a novel prospective and potential strategy for targeting treatments of arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.

Fano resonances that feature strong field enhancement in the narrowband range have motivated extensive studies of light–matter interactions in plasmonic nanomaterials. Optical metasurfaces that are subject to different mirror symmetries have been dedicated to achieving nanoscale light manipulation via plasmonic Fano resonances, thus enabling advantages for high-sensitivity optical sensing and optical switches. Here, we investigate the plasmonic sensing and switches enriched by tailorable multiple Fano resonances that undergo in-plane mirror symmetry or asymmetry in a hybrid rotational misalignment metasurface, which consists of periodic metallic arrays with concentric C-shaped- and circular-ring-aperture unit cells. We found that the plasmonic double Fano resonances can be realized by undergoing mirror symmetry along the X-axis. The plasmonic multiple Fano resonances can be tailored by adjusting the level of the mirror asymmetry along the Z-axis. Moreover, the Fano-resonance-based plasmonic sensing that suffer from mirror symmetry or asymmetry can be implemented by changing the related structural parameters of the unit cells. The passive dual-wavelength plasmonic switches of specific polarization can be achieved within mirror symmetry and asymmetry. These results could entail benefits for metasurface-based devices, which are also used in sensing, beam-splitter, and optical communication systems.