The simultaneous capability of colloidal QDs to sustain robust room-temperature spin quantum coherence and to engage in photochemistry inspired Prof. WU Kaifeng and his team from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to explore a highly interdisciplinary field—using quantum coherence of QDs to control photochemical reactions. 

Urban infrastructure, such as stormwater management ponds (SWMPs), have the potential to be rehabilitated and provide critical freshwater habitat in urbanized watersheds if designed adequately. We tracked different native fish species using passive integrated transponder technology to assess the level of connectivity between a rehabilitated SWMP and a river. We found a high degree of connectivity between the two habitats, even during challenging environmental conditions such as high water temperatures and abundant submerged vegetation.

Scientists at KAUST and collaborators have developed an ultra-thin silicon film embedded with silver nanorings to enhance light absorption.  By optimizing interactions between the cavity and plasmonic modes and leveraging deep learning, they achieved over 100% photocurrent improvement. This contribution holds great promise for creating highly efficient and customizable devices, including solar cells, photodetectors, and optical filters.

Obesity, recognized as a complex and growing health issue, is associated with an increased risk of various cancers. A comprehensive review provides insights into the mechanisms linking obesity to cancer risk and discusses potential clinical implications. Inflammation, hormonal imbalances, gut microbiota dysregulation, adipokine level disruptions, and physical and biochemical stimuli are identified as key mechanisms through which obesity influences cancer development. Chronic low-grade inflammation in adipose tissue, marked by increased proinflammatory immune cell infiltration and cytokine release, is a significant characteristic of obesity and plays a role in carcinogenesis. Hormonal disturbances, such as elevated estrogen levels, contribute to the development of obesity-related cancers, especially in postmenopausal women. The gut microbiota is also dysregulated in obesity, promoting inflammation and carcinogenesis. Adipose tissue, an active endocrine organ, secretes adipokines like leptin and adiponectin, which can either promote or inhibit cancer development when their levels are altered in obesity. Additionally, physical stimuli such as increased abdominal pressure and interstitial fibrosis contribute to the risk of obesity-associated cancer.

This paper aims to improve the feature diversity of training samples while expanding the data scale by mixing the locally similar regions in the two intra-class time series, improving the classification performance.

Water droplets under freezing conditions do not spontaneously detach from surfaces as they do at room temperature due to stronger droplet-surface interaction and lack of an energy transformation pathway. Since accumulated droplets or ice have to be removed manually or with mechanical equipment, which is costly and inefficient, preventing droplet accretion on surfaces is both scientifically intriguing and practically important. Researchers at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have invented a ground-breaking self-powered mechanism of freezing droplet ejection that allows droplets to shoot themselves away, paving the way for cost-efficient and promising technological applications.

A study has introduced an advanced method for visual-inertial navigation, utilizing a single Ultra-Wideband (UWB) anchor with an unknown position to achieve exceptional positioning accuracy and robustness in environments lacking Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals.

In a paper published in National Science Review, an international team of scientists develop an activatable red/near-infrared water-soluble organic room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) probe through a synergistic strategy combining assembly-induced luminescence and tunable twisted intramolecular charge transfer. They evaluate the optical performance of activatable organic RTP probes in various bioimaging and biosensing applications.

A paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences revealed that, the geographical distribution of the temperate savanna on the sandy lands of eastern China at the first time by integrating very high-resolution unmanned aerial vehicle and satellite imagery.