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Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease driven by immune cell interactions within plaques. Nanotherapeutics targeting immune regulation offer potential for atherosclerosis treatment. However, current nanotherapies mainly focus on modulating individual immune subsets and rarely examine cross-cell anti-atherosclerotic mechanisms. Here, we develop an inorganic nanoparticle platform (PEGylated violet phosphorus nanosheets [VPNS@P]) that efficiently accumulates in the immune microenvironment of atherosclerotic plaques, particularly in macrophages and monocytes and partly T/B cells, with minimal off-target uptake. The VPNS@P platform substantially reduces plaque areas and improves plaque stability in atherosclerotic mice without observed side effects. Importantly, we unravel the underlying mechanisms of VPNS@P in atherosclerosis treatment through single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and experimental verification to suppress inflammation and enhance immunity, demonstrating that it effectively modulates four key immune cell populations within plaques. Additionally, VPNS@P reshapes intercellular communication among immune cells, revealing therapeutic targets for atherosclerosis. This study reveals an immune-modulating nanotherapy for atherosclerosis, highlighting the potential in treating inflammatory diseases.

In this study, we investigated the clinical feasibility of using umbilical cord blood as an alternative to neonatal blood for measuring serum albumin and immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels in newborns, including preterm newborns. Serum levels of albumin and IgG were measured in cord and neonatal blood from singleton newborns. We analyzed correlations and systematic errors between cord and neonatal blood measurements, stratifying the results for very preterm newborns (VPNs) born at a gestational age of less than 32 weeks and non-VPNs born at a gestational age of 32 weeks or later. Among all 494 newborns (78 VPNs and 416 non-VPNs), serum albumin and IgG levels were determined for 95.7% and 88.7% of them, respectively. Strong correlations between cord and neonatal blood were observed for the serum albumin and IgG levels (rs = 0.864 and 0.966, respectively). Moreover, the measurement errors between cord and neonatal blood were small for all newborns (0.2 g/dL and 65 mg/dL, respectively). These findings were consistent with both VPNs and non-VPNs. Umbilical cord blood is a suitable substitute for neonatal blood in measuring serum albumin and IgG levels in newborns, even in premature newborns.

The majority of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) fail when it comes to protecting our privacy. If we are using a VPN to protect our online privacy, many of the well-known VPNs are not secure to use. When examined closely, VPNs can appear to be perfect on the surface but still be a complete privacy and security disaster. Some VPNs will steal our bandwidth, infect our computers with malware, install secret tracking libraries on our devices, steal our personal data, and leave our data exposed to third parties. Generally, Android users should be cautious when installing any VPN software on their devices. As a result, it is important to identify malicious VPNs before downloading and installing them on our Android devices. This paper provides an optimised deep learning neural network for identifying fake VPNs, and VPNs infected by malware based on the permissions of the apps, as well as a novel dataset of malicious and benign Android VPNs. Experimental results indicate that our proposed classifier identifies malicious VPNs with high accuracy, while it outperforms other standard classifiers in terms of evaluation metrics such as accuracy, precision, and recall.

Cancer remains a significant global public health concern. Numerous challenges still remain in its treatment. Recently, a novel two-dimensional material-violet phosphorene nanosheets (VPNS)-has shown considerable application potential in the biomedical field due to its unique physicochemical properties. The VPNS with a concentration of 41.00 μg/mL has been demonstrated to exhibit significant anti-cancer effects through the induction of apoptosis. The treatment of VPNS was revealed by cell metabolomics analysis to a marked down-regulation of succinate hemialdehyde expression and an up-regulation of pyridoxine levels in cancer cells. These differentially expressed metabolites are closely associated with the vitamin B6 metabolic pathway. In addition, the VPNS has also been demonstrated to exert excellent anti-cancer effects within a living organism by in vivo animal experiments.

Polycrisis (intersections of multiple, compounding crises) fracture health communication. Despite rising frequency in Southeast Asia, empirical evidence on how health information is adapted and diffused is scarce. Myanmar's 2025 earthquake, amid armed conflict and internet shutdowns, offered a critical case. Participatory mind-mapping was conducted with 24 stakeholders, including humanitarian and health workers, media actors, and community leaders, representing a diverse range of experts and implementors involved in the crisis response. In each session, participants mapped how health information flowed across actors, channels, and barriers. Reflexive thematic analysis of maps, transcripts, and notes identified diffusion pathways and adaptive strategies. Diffusion spanned assessment, planning, and delivery but was seldom linear. Actors shifted among messaging apps, satellite links, radio, and in-person relay as connectivity, censorship, and security changed. Credibility increased when messages were community-verified, paired with aid, and localized to resource constraints (e.g., substituting supplies assumed available in global protocols with local alternatives). Communities organized their own coordination arrangements, such as household ledgers, that sometimes outperformed formalized systems. Digital innovations shaped operations: Starlink restored connectivity during blackouts; Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and platform switching (Telegram, Viber) bypassed censorship; and verification networks sought to counter misinformation. Reliance on digital channels alone was inadequate given limited literacy, surveillance, and displacement; radio, printed flyers, and religious or community gatherings remained essential for many groups. In Myanmar's polycrisis context, and potentially in comparable settings, findings suggest resilient diffusion may benefit from hybrid approaches combining new connectivity tools (satellite internet, VPNs, mesh networks) with trusted offline and community-led practices, attending to equity, safety, and appropriateness.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a highly prevalent malignancy, is mostly diagnosed at intermediate and advanced stages. Current monotherapies are limited by poor targeting, severe toxicity, drug resistance, and high metastatic risk, necessitating more effective precision therapeutic strategies. Photothermal therapy (PTT) and ferroptosis induction are promising for HCC treatment, but violet phosphorus nanoparticles (VPNs) alone confer limited PTT efficacy, while the ferroptosis inducers RSL3 and sulfasalazine (SSZ) are hampered by poor aqueous solubility, low biostability, and off-target toxicity, restricting their clinical translation. Herein, we constructed a glypican-3 (GPC3)-targeted multifunctional nanodelivery system for synergistic PTT-ferroptosis anti-HCC therapy. Liposomes coloading RSL3, SSZ and encapsulating VPNs (VRS@LP) were first synthesized. Macrophage membranes engineered to express the GPC3-specific single-chain antibody hGPC3 (M-hGPC3) were prepared via lentiviral transduction, then coated onto VRS@LP by mechanical extrusion to yield the targeted nanocarrier VRS@MLP-hGPC3.This nanocarrier achieves receptor-mediated endocytosis via specific hGPC3-GPC3 binding on HCC cells, with drug release triggered by the acidic lysosomal microenvironment. RSL3 inhibits glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) activity, and SSZ blocks System xc--mediated cystine uptake; their combination synergistically depletes intracellular glutathione (GSH) and potently induces ferroptosis in HCC cells. The nanoplatform-mediated PTT not only directly ablates tumor cells but also releases damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), promoting dendritic cell maturation, T-cell activation, and tumor-associated macrophage polarization. Meanwhile, PTT-generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) synergize with ferroptosis to amplify oxidative injury and reduce HCC metastatic potential. The GPC3-targeted nanodelivery system enables precise synergistic PTT-ferroptosis therapy with high targeting efficiency, favorable biocompatibility and low systemic toxicity, significantly enhancing HCC therapeutic efficacy and suppressing metastasis. This work provides a potential strategy and experimental basis for precision HCC therapy, with promising clinical translational potential.

Violet phosphorus (VP) is a phosphorus allotrope first discovered by Hittorf in 1865, which has aroused more attention in the biomedical field in recent years attributed to its gradually discovered unique properties. VP can be further categorized into bulk VP, VP nanosheets (VPNs), and VP quantum dots (VPQDs), and chemical vapor transport (CVT), liquid-phase/mechanical/laser exfoliation, and solvothermal synthesis are the common preparation approaches of bulk VP, VPNs, and VPQDs, respectively. Compared with another phosphorus allotrope (black phosphorus, BP) that is once highly regarded in biomedical applications, VP nanomaterial (namely VPNs and VPQDs) not only exhibits tunable bandgap, moderate on/off current ratio, and good biodegradability, but shows enhanced stability and biosafety as well, allowing it to be a promising candidate for a variety of biomedical applications like antibacterial therapy, anticancer therapy, and biosensing and disease diagnosis. In this review, the classification and the relevant synthesis routes of VP are initially summarized, and the unique properties of VP nanomaterial momentous to its biomedical applications are subsequently expounded. The latest research advances of this emerging nanomaterial in the biomedical field are then introduced in detail, and both the existing challenges and future prospects are also discussed.

The widespread use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and encrypted tunnels has enabled users to bypass state-level censorship. However, it has also created significant challenges for legitimate network monitoring and content governance. Website Fingerprinting (WF) offers a privacy-preserving alternative to deep packet inspection by identifying encrypted traffic based on metadata patterns such as packet direction, timing, and burst structure. Nevertheless, existing deep learning models, primarily Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are highly vulnerable to obfuscation techniques such as Website Traffic Fingerprinting Protection with Adaptive Defense (WTF-PAD), Walkie-Talkie, and Front, which disrupt local burst signatures and degrade classification accuracy. To overcome these limitations, we propose Temporal Patch Attention with Self-Supervised Traffic Masking (TPA-SSTM), a novel hybrid CNN-Transformer architecture designed for robust website fingerprinting for traffic that is protected by encryption measures. TPA-SSTM leverages a 1D CNN backbone to extract hierarchical local features, then applies semantic patching to segment the feature sequence into high-level behavioral phases which are initial load, resource fetching, and idle/user interaction treating each as a structured token for sequence modeling. These patches are embedded and processed by a Transformer encoder with multi-head self-attention, enabling the model to capture long-range temporal dependencies across traffic phases. The framework is further enhanced with self-supervised traffic masking as on-the-fly data augmentation, along with class-balanced learning to improve generalization under noisy and imbalanced data conditions. The proposed TPA-SSTM has been evaluated across four datasets: a non-defended Closed World (CW) and three defended scenarios (WTF-PAD, Walkie-Talkie, and Front). Experimental results demonstrate that TPA-SSTM achieves 97.4% accuracy on CW, 91.9% accuracy on WTF-PAD, 95.25% accuracy on Walkie-Talkie, and 85.91% accuracy on Front, significantly outperforming state-of-the-art baselines.

As a second-order nonlinear optical phenomenon, the bulk photovoltaic (BPV) effect is expected to break through the Shockley-Queisser limit of thermodynamic photoelectron conversion and improve the energy conversion efficiency of photovoltaic cells. Here, we have successfully induced a strong flexo-photovoltaic (FPV) effect, a form of BPV effect, in strained violet phosphorene nanosheets (VPNS) by utilizing strain engineering at the h-BN nanoedge, which was first observed in nontransition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) systems. This BPV effect was found to originate from the disruption of inversion symmetry induced by uniaxial strain applied to VPNS at the h-BN nanoedge. We have revealed the intricate relationship between the bulk photovoltaic effect and strain gradients in VPNS through thickness-dependent photovoltaic response experiments. A bulk photovoltaic coefficient of up to 1.3 × 10-3 V-1 and a polarization extinction ratio of 21.6 have been achieved by systematically optimizing the height of the h-BN nanoedge and the thickness of VPNS, surpassing those of reported TMD materials (typically less than 3). Our results have revealed the fundamental relationship between the FPV effect and the strain gradients in low-dimensional materials and inspired further exploration of optoelectronic phenomena in strain-gradient engineered materials.

Recent legislation in Australia banning social media accounts for children under 16, alongside similar proposals worldwide, has ignited debate about whether age-based restrictions are an effective way to protect young people's mental health. While the intent of such bans is to reduce exposure to harmful content, their feasibility and effectiveness remain unclear. Enforcement requires robust age verification, often relying on sensitive data such as government-issued identification or facial scans, which raises privacy concerns and can be circumvented through the use of VPNs. Moreover, social media use is diverse. Although it can intensify harms such as bullying, it also provides vital opportunities for connection and support, particularly for marginalised adolescents. Removing access to accounts may limit risks within platforms, but does not prevent exposure to harmful content elsewhere, nor does it guarantee increased offline engagement. Importantly, blanket bans fail to address unsafe design features embedded within social media or to equip adolescents with the skills needed to navigate online environments. More targeted, evidence-based regulation that promotes safer platform design and accountability may provide a more effective pathway to protecting young people's well-being.

How does the brain convert visual input into specific motor actions1,2? In Drosophila, visual projection neurons (VPNs)3,4 perform this visuomotor transformation by converting retinal positional information into synapse number in the brain5. The molecular basis of this phenomenon remains unknown. We addressed this issue in LPLC2 (ref. 6), a VPN type that detects looming motion and preferentially drives escape behaviour to stimuli approaching from the dorsal visual field with progressively weaker responses ventrally. This correlates with a dorsoventral gradient of synaptic inputs into and outputs from LPLC2. Here we report that LPLC2 neurons sampling different regions of visual space exhibit graded expression of cell recognition molecules matching these synaptic gradients. Dpr13 shapes LPLC2 outputs by binding DIP-ε in premotor descending neurons mediating escape. Beat-VI shapes LPLC2 inputs by binding Side-II in upstream motion-detecting neurons. Gain-of-function and loss-of-function experiments show that these molecular gradients act instructively to determine synapse number. These patterns, in turn, fine-tune the perception of the stimulus and drive the behavioural response. Similar transcriptomic variation within neuronal types is observed in the vertebrate brain7 and may shape synapse number via gradients of cell recognition molecules acting through both genetically hard-wired programs and experience.

Converting sensory information into motor commands is fundamental to most of our actions1,2. In Drosophila, visuomotor transformations are mediated by Visual Projection Neurons (VPNs)3,4. These neurons encode object location and motion to drive directional behaviors through a synaptic gradient mechanism5. However, the molecular origins of such graded connectivity remain unknown. We addressed this question in a VPN cell type called LPLC26, which integrates looming motion and transforms it into an escape response through two separate dorsoventral synaptic gradients at its inputs and outputs. We identified two corresponding dorsoventral expression gradients of cell recognition molecules within the LPLC2 population that regulate this synaptic connectivity. Dpr13 determines synaptic outputs of LPLC2 axons by interacting with its binding partner, DIP-ε, expressed in the Giant Fiber - a neuron that mediates escape7. Similarly, Beat-VI regulates synaptic inputs onto LPLC2 dendrites by interacting with Side-II expressed in upstream motion-detecting neurons. Behavioral, physiological, and molecular experiments demonstrate that these coordinated molecular gradients regulate synaptic connectivity, enabling the accurate transformation of visual features into motor commands. As continuous variation in gene expression within a neuronal type is also observed in the mammalian brain8, graded expression of cell recognition molecules may represent a common mechanism underlying synaptic specificity.

This study aimed to investigate the positional changes of maxillary first molars in patients treated with the hybrid hyrax-mentoplate and Cl III elastics combination using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Ten patients (7 females-3 males, mean age: 11.66±0.83 years) treated with hybrid hyrax-mentoplate at Marmara University Department of Orthodontics were included. Angular and linear measurements were taken from pre-treatment and post-treatment CBCT images, and changes in maxillary first molar teeth were examined using 3D SLICER version 5.0.2 (www.slicer.org). Statistical significance was set at p≤0.05. Significant increases were observed in all distance measurements except C16p-C26p in the coronal plane, and significant decreases were observed in angular measurements only at 16mb and 26mb (p≤0.05). All measurements in the sagittal plane significantly increased compared to the vertical and horizontal reference lines (p≤0.001). Angular measurements relative to the palatal reference line significantly increased only in P-16p, P-26mb, and P-26p (p≤0.05). In skeletal measurements, significant changes were observed only in V-A, V-ANS, H-PNS, and V-PNS measurements (p≤0.05). The expansion at the apical level was significantly higher than that at the coronal level (p≤0.05). Compared to the V line, more mesial movement was observed at the coronal level than at the apical level (p≤0.001). The use of Class III elastics causes greater expansion at the apical level than the coronal. Molar teeth exhibit a mesial movement, but there could be multiple contributing factors. In molars connected to Class III elastics, extrusion occurs. When vertical control is important, appropriate safety measures are advised.

Encryption of network traffic should guarantee anonymity and prevent potential interception of information. Encrypted virtual private networks (VPNs) are designed to create special data tunnels that allow reliable transmission between networks and/or end users. However, as has been shown in a number of scientific papers, encryption alone may not be sufficient to secure data transmissions in the sense that certain information may be exposed. Our team has constructed a large dataset that contains generated encrypted network traffic data. This dataset contains a general network traffic model consisting of different types of network traffic such as web, emailing, video conferencing, video streaming, and terminal services. For the same network traffic model, data are measured for different scenarios, i.e., for data traffic through different types of VPNs and without VPNs. Additionally, the dataset contains the initial handshake of the VPN connections. The dataset can be used by various data scientists dealing with the classification of encrypted network traffic and encrypted VPNs.

In the cat, vagal postganglionic controls of heart rate, atrio-ventricular (AV) conduction and left ventricular contractility are mediated by three separate intrinsic cardiac ganglia, the sinoatrial (SA), AV and cranioventricular (CV) ganglia, respectively. The vagal preganglionic neurons (VPNs) that project to these ganglia are located in the ventrolateral nucleus ambiguus (NA-VL). We have previously shown that the VPNs projecting to the SA, AV and CV ganglia are distinct from one another. We have also demonstrated that neuropeptide Y-immunoreactive (NPY-IR) axon terminals synapse upon VPNs projecting to the SA ganglion. In the present study, we test the hypothesis that those VPNs projecting to the AV ganglion (negative dromotropic VPNs) and those projecting to the CV ganglion (negative inotropic VPNs) are innervated by NPY-IR terminals in NA-VL. A retrograde tracer was injected into the AV or CV ganglion of the cat, and the brains subsequently processed for visualization of tracer and the immunocytochemical visualization of NPY by dual labeling electron-microscopic methods. We observed that 11+/-5% of all axodendritic synapses and 8+/-6% of all axosomatic synapses upon negative inotropic VPNs were NPY-IR. Furthermore, 19+/-14% of all axodendritic synapses upon negative dromotropic VPNs were NPY-IR. A few NPY-IR axosomatic synapses upon negative dromotropic neurons were also observed. NPY-IR terminals in NA-VL occasionally formed axosomatic synapses with NPY-IR neurons and axoaxonic synapses with unlabeled terminals. These results suggest that central NPY afferents to the NA-VL modulate the vagal preganglionic control of AV conduction and left ventricular contractility.

Synapses are often precisely organized on dendritic arbors, yet the role of synaptic topography in dendritic integration remains poorly understood. Utilizing electron microscopy (EM) connectomics we investigate synaptic topography in Drosophila melanogaster looming circuits, focusing on retinotopically tuned visual projection neurons (VPNs) that synapse onto descending neurons (DNs). Synapses of a given VPN type project to non-overlapping regions on DN dendrites. Within these spatially constrained clusters, synapses are not retinotopically organized, but instead adopt near random distributions. To investigate how this organization strategy impacts DN integration, we developed multicompartment models of DNs fitted to experimental data and using precise EM morphologies and synapse locations. We find that DN dendrite morphologies normalize EPSP amplitudes of individual synaptic inputs and that near random distributions of synapses ensure linear encoding of synapse numbers from individual VPNs. These findings illuminate how synaptic topography influences dendritic integration and suggest that linear encoding of synapse numbers may be a default strategy established through connectivity and passive neuron properties, upon which active properties and plasticity can then tune as needed.

The nervous system flexibly processes information under different conditions. To do this, neural networks frequently rely on uniform expression of modulatory receptors by distinct classes of neurons to fine tune the computations supported by each neuronal class. Here, we explore an alternate organization in which one population of neurons in the olfactory system of Drosophila expresses all of the receptors for the modulator serotonin. We find extensive, heterogeneous receptor co-expression by ventral projection neurons (v-PNs), with many receptor combinations present. Despite overlap in glomerular innervation of v-PNs expressing each serotonin receptor, their axon terminals innervate largely distinct zones within a higher order olfactory region. Serotonin differentially modulates odor-evoked responses of v-PNs with distinct receptor expression and these v-PNs synapse upon separate sets of third order olfactory neurons. This functional organization implies that serotonin differentially modulates the responses of v-PNs that participate in divergent, downstream olfactory circuits.

Drug delivery systems with high-targeted doses can minimize excipients, reduce side effects, and improve efficacy. Human blood circulation is a complex circulatory system, and the motion control of microrobots in the static flow field in vitro is completely different from in vivo. How to achieve precise counterflow motion for targeted drug delivery without vascular blockage and immune rejection is the biggest challenge for micro-nano robots. Here, we propose a control method that enables vortex-like paramagnetic nanoparticle swarm (VPNS) to move upstream against the flow. By mimicking the clustering motion of wild herring schools and the rolling of leukocytes, VPNS are incredibly stable even when subjected to high-intensity jet impacts in the blood environment, can travel upstream, anchor at the target location, and dissipate when the magnetic field is withdrawn, which greatly reduces the risk of thrombosis. VPNS can also upstream along the vessel wall without an additional energy source and has a marked targeted therapeutic effect on subcutaneous tumors.

To survive, animals must convert sensory information into appropriate behaviours1,2. Vision is a common sense for locating ethologically relevant stimuli and guiding motor responses3-5. How circuitry converts object location in retinal coordinates to movement direction in body coordinates remains largely unknown. Here we show through behaviour, physiology, anatomy and connectomics in Drosophila that visuomotor transformation occurs by conversion of topographic maps formed by the dendrites of feature-detecting visual projection neurons (VPNs)6,7 into synaptic weight gradients of VPN outputs onto central brain neurons. We demonstrate how this gradient motif transforms the anteroposterior location of a visual looming stimulus into the fly's directional escape. Specifically, we discover that two neurons postsynaptic to a looming-responsive VPN type promote opposite takeoff directions. Opposite synaptic weight gradients onto these neurons from looming VPNs in different visual field regions convert localized looming threats into correctly oriented escapes. For a second looming-responsive VPN type, we demonstrate graded responses along the dorsoventral axis. We show that this synaptic gradient motif generalizes across all 20 primary VPN cell types and most often arises without VPN axon topography. Synaptic gradients may thus be a general mechanism for conveying spatial features of sensory information into directed motor outputs.