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Here we report a breakthrough in the fabrication of a long lifetime transmon qubit. We use tantalum films as the base superconductor. By using a dry etching process, we obtained transmon qubits with a best T 1 lifetime of 503 μs. As a comparison, we also fabricated transmon qubits with other popular materials, including niobium and aluminum, under the same design and fabrication processes. After characterizing their coherence properties, we found that qubits prepared with tantalum films have the best performance. Since the dry etching process is stable and highly anisotropic, it is much more suitable for fabricating complex scalable quantum circuits, when compared to wet etching. As a result, the current breakthrough indicates that the dry etching process of tantalum film is a promising approach to fabricate medium- or large-scale superconducting quantum circuits with a much longer lifetime, meeting the requirements for building practical quantum computers.

This study explores the innovative application and design of smocking technology in local Chinese clothing brands, emphasizing the technique’s evolution from a functional necessity to a decorative art form. It delves into the integration of smocking with modern fashion design, highlighting its significance in enhancing fabric texture, silhouette, and overall aesthetic appeal. Through comprehensive analyses of case studies and craft types, the paper reveals how local brands creatively adapt smocking, merging traditional craftsmanship with contemporary design principles. The findings suggest that smocking technology not only enriches the textile design repertoire but also contributes to the global identity and innovation of local Chinese clothing brands, bridging heritage crafts with modern design innovations.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been identified as important regulatory factors of gene expression in eukaryotic species, such as Homo sapiens , Arabidopsis thaliana , and Oryza sativa . However, the systematic identification of potential lncRNAs in trees is comparatively rare. In particular, the characteristics, expression, and regulatory roles of lncRNAs in trees under nutrient stress remain largely unknown. A genome-wide strategy was used in this investigation to identify and characterize novel and low-nitrogen (N)-responsive lncRNAs in Populus tomentosa ; 388 unique lncRNA candidates belonging to 380 gene loci were detected and only seven lncRNAs were found to belong to seven conserved non-coding RNA families indicating the majority of P. tomentosa lncRNAs are species-specific. In total, 126 lncRNAs were significantly altered under low-N stress; 8 were repressed, and 118 were induced. Furthermore, 9 and 5 lncRNAs were detected as precursors of 11 known and 14 novel Populus miRNAs, respectively, whereas 4 lncRNAs were targeted by 29 miRNAs belonging to 5 families, including 22 conserved and 7 non-conserved miRNAs. In addition, 15 antisense lncRNAs were identified to be generated from opposite strands of 14 corresponding protein-coding genes. In total, 111 protein-coding genes with regions complementary to 38 lncRNAs were also predicted with some lncRNAs corresponding to multiple genes and vice versa, and their functions were annotated, which further demonstrated the complex regulatory relationship between lncRNAs and protein-coding genes in plants. Moreover, an interaction network among lncRNAs, miRNAs, and mRNAs was investigated. These findings enrich our understanding of lncRNAs in Populus , expand the methods of miRNA identification. Our results present the first global characterization of lncRNAs and their potential target genes in response to nitrogen stress in trees, which provides more information on low-nutrition adaptation mechanisms in woody plants.

Background The relationship between transcription and the 3D chromatin structure is debated. Multiple studies have shown that transcription affects global Cohesin binding and 3D genome structures. However, several other studies have indicated that inhibited transcription does not alter chromatin conformations. Results We provide the most comprehensive evidence to date to demonstrate that transcription plays a relatively modest role in organizing the local, small-scale chromatin structures in mammalian cells. We show degraded Pol I, Pol II, and Pol III proteins in mESCs cause few or no changes in large-scale 3D chromatin structures, selected RNA polymerases with a high abundance of binding sites or active promoter-associated interactions appear to be relatively more affected after the degradation, transcription inhibition alters local, small loop domains, as indicated by high-resolution chromatin interaction maps, and loops with bound Pol II but without Cohesin or CTCF are identified and found to be largely unchanged after transcription inhibition. Interestingly, Pol II depletion for a longer time significantly affects the chromatin accessibility and Cohesin occupancy, suggesting that RNA polymerases are capable of affecting the 3D genome indirectly. These direct and indirect effects explain the previous inconsistent findings on the influence of transcription inhibition on the 3D genome. Conclusions We conclude that Pol I, Pol II, and Pol III loss alters local, small-scale chromatin interactions in mammalian cells, suggesting that the 3D chromatin structures are pre-established and relatively stable.

Landslides are a prevalent and devastating form of geological disaster. These events occur when gravity causes rock and soil masses to slide along specific surfaces or zones, often triggered by intense rainfall, seismic activity, or human engineering activities. Assessing landslide hazard risk is crucial for effective disaster management, yet traditional approaches often rely on administrative or grid units, which lack the granularity needed for site-specific hazard management. This results in uniformly high-risk classifications for hilly areas, complicating practical engagement and increasing management costs. The study further combines historical landslide data and applies machine learning models such as Random Forest, XGBoost, and LightGBM to analyze landslide susceptibility in Wenzhou City, proposing a slope unit-based landslide hazard assessment method. The results are as follows: (1) Landslide Susceptibility across different slope units was categorized as low, low-moderate, moderate, moderate-high, high, and very high, with the very high-risk slope units accounting for 5.35% of the total area and the low-risk slope units covering the largest area (975.41 km 2 ). (2) Among the machine learning models used for landslide susceptibility analysis at the slope unit level, the Random Forest model performed the best, demonstrating higher prediction reliability, with an accuracy of 77.94% for Random Forest, 76.95% for XGBoost, and 78.30% for LightGBM. (3) Extreme rainfall events significantly increased the proportion of high-risk slope units, particularly in mountainous and hilly areas. According to different rainfall return periods, the proportion of very high-risk slope units increased from 5.35 to 40.39% under the 100-year return period. (4) A case study of Xuekou Village validated the practical application of the slope unit risk assessment results and proposed preventive measures for medium-to-high-risk units, such as regular monitoring and enhanced vegetation coverage, to mitigate landslide risks.

The topological materials have attracted much attention for their unique electronic structure and peculiar physical properties. ZrTe 5 has host a long-standing puzzle on its anomalous transport properties manifested by its unusual resistivity peak and the reversal of the charge carrier type. It is also predicted that single-layer ZrTe 5 is a two-dimensional topological insulator and there is possibly a topological phase transition in bulk ZrTe 5 . Here we report high-resolution laser-based angle-resolved photoemission measurements on the electronic structure and its detailed temperature evolution of ZrTe 5 . Our results provide direct electronic evidence on the temperature-induced Lifshitz transition, which gives a natural understanding on underlying origin of the resistivity anomaly in ZrTe 5 . In addition, we observe one-dimensional-like electronic features from the edges of the cracked ZrTe 5 samples. Our observations indicate that ZrTe 5 is a weak topological insulator and it exhibits a tendency to become a strong topological insulator when the layer distance is reduced. To understand the anomalous electronic transport properties of ZrTe 5 remains an elusive puzzle. Here, Zhang et al . report direct electronic evidence to the origin of the resistivity anomaly and temperature induced Lifshitz transition in ZrTe 5 , indicating it being a weak topological insulator.

The precise relocation of seismic events is critical for many engineering projects. Swarms of minor or micro earthquakes typically reveal stress concentration and spots of greater seismic hazards. Particularly in the context of deep underground mining, advanced techniques that can accurately relocate microseismicities are urgently in demand. Here, we developed a neural network-based modeling training method that can precisely relocate seismicities and invert for velocities at the same time, with preconfigured receiver network locations. Our model can be iteratively improved with field recorded data. We showed that, with roughly eight iterations, we can reasonably resolve for the earthquake locations for both clusters of events, namely spatially distributed with linear pattern or randomly scattered. Our initially trained model, which only focused on events that had a linear distribution pattern, was used as the base for the training of the subsequent models which could better resolve for randomly scattered event locations. Although we stopped at the eighth iteration, the process reported here can be continued, as the model will have a better performance with more iterations.

A novel hydrophilic porous biocomposite was fabricated by incorporating graphene oxide (GO) @chitosan (CS) foam substrate (GO@CS@ZIF-8 foam) with ZIF-8 crystals in situ via a facile stirring method for simultaneous enrichment of glycopeptides and phosphopeptides from complex biological samples. The experimental results demonstrated that GO@CS@ZIF-8 foam exhibited favorable specificity for simultaneous enrichment of N-glycopeptides and phosphopeptides under the same condition for HRP and β-casein tryptic digest mixtures. The novel material was further applied to enriching both glycopeptides and phosphopeptides simultaneously from 4 μL complex human serum, and 423 N-glycopeptides and 40 phosphopeptides corresponding to 133 glycoproteins and 29 phosphoproteins were identified, respectively.

Autonomic nervous system disorders play a pivotal role in the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases. Regulating it is essential for preventing and treating acute ventricular arrhythmias (VAs). Photothermal neuromodulation is a nonimplanted technique, but the response temperature ranges of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) and TWIK-related K + Channel 1 (TREK1) exhibit differences while being closely aligned, and the acute nature of VAs require that it must be rapid and precise. However, the low photothermal conversion efficiency (PCE) still poses limitations in achieving rapid and precise treatment. Here, we achieve a nearly perfect blackbody absorption and a high PCE in the second near infrared (NIR-II) window (73.7% at 1064 nm) via a Pt nanoparticle shell (PtNP-shell). By precisely manipulating the photothermal effect, we successfully achieve rapid and precise multimodal neuromodulation encompassing neural activation (41.0–42.9 °C) and inhibition (45.0–46.9 °C) in a male canine model. The NIR-II photothermal modulation additionally achieves multimodal reversible autonomic modulation and confers protection against acute VAs associated with myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury in interventional therapy. In the prevention and treatment of acute ventricular arrhythmia, rapid and accurate photothermal autonomic neuromodulation is crucial but challenging. Here, the authors report Pt nanoparticle shells with a photothermal conversion efficiency of 73.7% at 1064 nm that contributes to efficient and precise autonomic nerve modulation.

Product Identity (PI) is a strategic instrument for enterprises to forge brand strength through New Product Development (NPD). Concurrently, facing increasingly fierce market competition, the NPD for consumer emotional requirements (CRs) has become a significant objective in enterprise research and development (R&D). The design of new product forms must ensure the continuity of PI and concurrently address the emotional needs of users. It demands a high level of experience from designers and significant investment in R&D. To solve this problem, a generative and quantitative design method powered by AI, based on Shape Grammar (SG) and Kansei Engineering (KE), is proposed. The specific method is as follows: Firstly, representative products for Morphological Analysis (MA) are selected, SG is applied to establish initial shapes and transformation rules, and prompts are input into Midjourney. This process generates conceptual sketches and iteratively refines them, resulting in a set of conceptual sketches that preserve the PI. Secondly, a web crawler mines online reviews to extract Kansei words. Factor Analysis (FA) clusters them into Kansei factors, and the Grey Analytic Hierarchy Process (G-AHP) calculates their grey weights. Thirdly, after analyzing the PI conceptual sketches for feature extraction, the features are integrated with CRs into the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) matrix. Experts evaluate the relationships using interval grey numbers, calculating the optimal ranking of PI Engineering Characteristics (PIECs). Finally, professional designers refine the selected sketches into 3D models and detailed designs. Using a Chinese brand as a case study, we have designed a female electric moped (E-moped) to fit the PI and users’ emotional needs. Through a questionnaire survey on the design scheme, we argue that the proposed innovative method is efficient, applicable, and effective in balancing the product form design of PI and user emotions.