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Nonthermal plasma (NTP) offers exceptional theoretical energy efficiency for nitrogen fixation, yet realizing this potential in practice remains a formidable challenge due to rapid energy dissipation, particularly through low-energy electrons that typically lose their energy as heat. Conventional plasma modulation largely relies on mass-transfer-dominated frameworks, lacking mechanisms to selectively channel these electrons into productive chemical pathways. Here we demonstrate that positively charged water microdroplets constitute active electrostatic confinement interfaces to harvest and re-energize low-energy plasma electrons. Under minimized microdroplet charge relaxation, plasma energy becomes spatially and energetically confined at the droplet-air interface, promoting interfacial water splitting and triggering a distinctive •OH-mediated dinitrogen (N2) oxidation pathway at reduced discharge voltage. Such energetic regulation boosts dinitrogen oxidation rates 60-fold while cutting power consumption by two-thirds, achieving a nitrate energy efficiency of 1.65 μmol J-1 that rivals electrolysis-based industrial benchmarks. These results reveal an unrecognized chemical role of ubiquitous microdroplets as plasma energy concentrators and establish an interfacial electrostatic confinement mechanism for directing NTP reactivity, with implications for nitrogen fixation chemistry, atmospheric chemistry, and plasma catalysis.

Tactile sensors are essential for robots to interact with complex environment, but the precise perception of surface tackiness remains a critical challenge for robotic interactive intelligence. Quantitative adhesion analysis requires measuring both pressure and pulling forces at the exact same location. However, existing sensors struggle with signal crosstalk and baseline instability, failing to achieve this intrinsically decoupled measurement. Here, we report a surface-soft, magneto-mechanical coupling tactile sensor that achieves intrinsic signal decoupling within a single sensing element. By leveraging a skin-like bidirectional deformation design, inward pressure and outward pulling force generate baseline-separated magnetic signatures. This eliminates the need for complex post-processing and enables continuous, high-stability monitoring of the full adhesion cycle-from initial contact to final pull-off. The sensor exhibits only 0.25% force drift over 10 h and remains below 0.30% after hammer strikes and maintains 99.52% signal coincidence across repeated press-pull cycles. Such exceptional performance metrics grant the sensor a level of tackiness differentiation that rivals standard adhesion testing. When integrated with a neural network, the sensor yields 99.78% tackiness identification accuracy under diverse contact conditions, exceeding human precision (85.71%). This work pushes the boundaries of existing tactile sensing and lays a solid foundation for advanced robotic manipulation of tacky and lightweight objects.

Natural rivers play a crucial role in regulating the global carbon cycle. However, as critical engineered waterways, inter-basin water transfer projects (IBWTs) substantially alter regional hydrological connectivity and biogeochemical processes, yet their contribution to the carbon cycle remains poorly understood. Here, we address this knowledge gap with a comprehensive field investigation of the South-to-North Water Diversion Middle Route Project (SNWD-MRP), the world's largest IBWT. The results show that carbon dynamics within the canal are dominated by autochthonous processes, primarily algal photosynthesis and microbial metabolism, which establish a seasonal pattern of "summer consumption and winter storage" for dissolved carbon species and are synergistically modulated by anthropogenic hydrological management. From summer to winter, the concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) increased by 20.26% and 30.95%, respectively, whereas the partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) and the dissolved methane concentration (dCH4) decreased by 49.19% and 42.06%, respectively. Using 2024 as an example, we found that the canal exported 236.94 Gg C yr-1 laterally and emitted 33.77 Gg C yr-1 vertically as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4), representing only about 2.57% of the total flux from large natural rivers. Notably, the decadal cumulative lateral DOC export (146.78 Gg C) rivals the annual DOC export of large river systems such as the Yellow River. Algal-fixed CO2 was microbially converted into potent greenhouse gases like CH4, further intensifying the greenhouse effect caused by emissions from the entire canal. Overall, our findings suggest that the large-scale IBWT can create a novel aquatic corridor that disrupt natural carbon boundaries and drive regional-scale carbon redistribution, thereby providing critical insights for coordinating water resource management strategies with carbon neutrality objectives.

The growing reliance upon cloud settings has rendered secure transmission of information essential. This study introduces the future-ready DNA-based cryptography (FRDNAC) paradigm, which combines DNA-based encryption with the feedback-assisted archimedes optimization algorithm to achieve efficient key generation and improved security. FRDNAC was assessed in comparison to contemporary optimization approaches such as the feedback artificial tree, the archimedes optimization algorithm, the blue monkey optimization, the coot optimization algorithm, the butterfly optimization algorithm, the shark smell optimization, the whale optimization algorithm, and the lightweight encryption system, as well as traditional encryption methods such as DNA encryption, Blowfish, Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA), the advanced encryption system, and the elliptic curve cryptography. Experimental findings demonstrate FRDNAC's exceptional encryption and decryption efficacy, achieving an encryption duration of 0.11 s (key length 4.0), surpassing rivals like FAT (0.29 s) and LES (0.20 s). Furthermore, FRDNAC markedly enhanced memory efficiency, rendering it suitable for resource-limited cloud settings. Security evaluations indicate its robustness against cryptographic threats, encompassing known-plaintext attack, chosen-plaintext attack, and brute force attack. Despite obstacles in real-time key generation and computational cost, FRDNAC presents itself as a highly safe and efficient cryptographic framework appropriate for cloud-based applications. Its strong security framework establishes it as a viable solution for sectors requiring high-performance encryption in evolving digital environments.

The pursuit of next-generation spintronic devices is pivoting toward noncollinear antiferromagnets (nc-AFMs), their vanishing net magnetization and inherent ultrafast spin dynamics enable the development of faster and more energy-efficient spintronic devices with strong resilience against external magnetic fields. Most importantly, their unique electronic and spin structures give rise to significant Berry curvature, leading to a significant magnetoelectric signal, such as the anomalous Nernst effect (ANE), even in the absence of sizable magnetization. Here, we report the discovery of a giant and remarkably temperature-invariant ANE in high-quality epitaxial Mn3Pt thin films with various compositions, which allows thermoelectric devices with a wide operating temperature window. Mn3Pt overwhelms other nc-AFMs rivals with a significant ANE coefficient up to 0.71 µV/K at room temperature. Our combined experimental observation and theoretical calculations establish that the composition-tunable Mn-3d orbital states govern the Berry curvature landscape, responsible for this exceptional performance. This study highlights the composition tunability as a venue for applicable nc-AFM spintronic devices.

Integrated second-order [χ(2)] photonics underpins next-generation classical and quantum technologies, enabling applications ranging from frequency conversion and high-speed modulation to entangled photon generation. However, the field is now limited by a lack of materials that combine high nonlinear performance with scalable, CMOS-compatible fabrication. Vapor-deposited organic thin films having large χ(2) nonlinearities without electric field poling offer a versatile solution, theoretically enabling both standalone organic circuits and heterogeneous integration on passive platforms. Yet, the translation of these films into functional photonic devices has remained speculative. Here, we demonstrate phase-matched second-harmonic generation in strip-loaded waveguides by harnessing the film's giant birefringence (Δn ≈ -0.2) to match fundamental modes (TE00 → TM00), thereby maintaining high modal overlap. The resulting efficiency of [Formula: see text] rivals that of strip-loaded waveguides on thin-film lithium niobate. These results establish spontaneously oriented organics as a promising material class for the integration of second-order nonlinear functionalities on arbitrary substrates.

In many nerve injuries, tissue destruction, scar, and other factors prohibit surgical reapproximation of the nerve ends without excessive tension. The resultant nerve gap has traditionally been bridged using autologous sensory nerve; however, the harvest of autologous nerve graft adds time and donor site morbidity. Over the past decades, a variety of commercially available hollow conduits designed for nerve gap reconstruction have been used. More recently, commercially available processed human nerve allograft has been introduced with the promise of reconstruction whose success rivals the results of nerve autograft. In the case of digital nerve reconstructions, a number of studies indicate that for small nerve gaps (<15 mm) the recovery of sensation is the same for nerves repaired with nerve autograft, hollow nerve conduit, or processed nerve allograft. Although processed nerve allograft appears to outperform hollow conduits for slightly larger nerve gaps, it is unclear how it compares to nerve autograft across a variety of different nerve injuries. Overall, the results of nerve reconstruction are often disappointing, regardless of whether by direct repair or by spanning an intervening nerve gap. Further work on the biology of nerve regeneration is needed, not only to improve existing nerve conduits, but to improve the results of all nerve repairs and reconstructions.

Sexually selected weapons can function as both combat tools and agonistic signals, depending on whether and how males assess rivals. We investigated the function of the enlarged male hindlegs in the New Guinean thorny devil stick insect, Eurycantha calcarata in male-male and male-female interactions. Field and laboratory observations showed that larger males with proportionally larger hindlegs were more likely to win fights and subsequently mate. Behavioral sequence analyses and contest cost predictors indicated that males likely use a mutual assessment strategy. Surprisingly, males did not appear to use their hindlegs as signals of fighting ability. Rather, rival assessment may be mediated by tactile and chemical cues, as suggested by frequent antennation observed during contests. Hindlegs were employed mainly to deliver powerful squeezes in rare, escalated fights. During copulation, males also used hindlegs to stabilize their position, but females did not appear to resist, providing no evidence for a coercive function. These findings suggest that enlarged male hindlegs in E. calcarata serve purely as force-delivering combat tools rather than signaling structures. These results highlight how understanding the specific functions and contexts of weapon use provides critical insight into the diversification of sexually selected traits.

The development of efficient catalysts for acetylene hydrochlorination is critical for replacing the industrially prevalent mercury chloride catalysts. Herein, a defective nitrogen-doped carbon material (NC-APT) is engineered via a facile co-polymerization of pyrrole, aniline, and thiophene, followed by a controlled calcination procedure. This co-polymerization strategy introduces abundant structural defects compared to mono-polymerization processes, primarily due to the lattice mismatch and steric hindrance between the distinct monomers, which disrupts the regularity of the polymer chain and prevents graphitic ordering. The resulting NC-APT catalyst features a high specific surface area of 375.7 m2&#xb7;g-1 and a substantial nitrogen dopant content of 14.4%, with 81% of the nitrogen existing as catalytically active edge structures (pyrrolic and pyridinic N). Consequently, the catalyst delivers exceptional performance, achieving 92% acetylene conversion at 220 &#xb0;C with a C2H2 gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of 80 h-1. This performance significantly outperforms many reported metal-free counterparts and rivals that of traditional metal-based catalysts. This work offers new insights into the rational design of carbon-based, metal-free catalysts through monomer mismatch engineering.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) continues to be the leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally, imposing a substantial burden on healthcare systems worldwide. Physical inactivity is a significant modifiable risk factor that contributes to the onset and progression of CVD. Current guidelines recommend regular aerobic and muscle-strengthening exercise, with even below-guideline volumes reducing mortality risk significantly. Notably, even physical activity levels below these recommendations can significantly reduce mortality risk, emphasizing the importance of any movement over a sedentary lifestyle. Exercise functions as both a preventive and therapeutic intervention, helping individuals with and without CVD, including those recovering from myocardial infarction or managing heart failure. At the molecular level, the IGF-1/PI3K/Akt signaling pathway plays a crucial role in exercise-induced cardiac protection by promoting balanced cardiac growth, enhancing contractility, and reducing fibrosis. Furthermore, increased endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) activity improves vascular function, antioxidant enzymes mitigate oxidative stress, and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC-1&#x3b1;) stimulates mitochondrial biogenesis, while pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-&#x3b1;) are downregulated. Large-scale cohort studies have proved that regular exercise can reduce all-cause and CVD mortality by 36%-56%. This magnitude of risk reduction rivals or exceeds that achieved by pharmacological interventions such as statins or antihypertensives, positioning physical activity as a foundational, cost-effective intervention for population-level cardiovascular disease prevention. However, excessive exercise may pose risks such as arrhythmias or myocardial strain, underscoring the need for personalized, balanced exercise programs. Future research should focus on defining best exercise prescriptions, understanding exercise-drug interactions, and developing biomarkers to check adaptive responses. Ultimately, integrating personalized exercise medicine into healthcare and public policy offers a cost-effective strategy for preventing and managing CVD, promoting lifelong cardiovascular resilience and well-being.

Sexual selection acting on males through intrasexual competition for mates is a well-established driver of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) in primates. However, studies typically focus on within-group competition, overlooking the potential significance of competition arising from interactions between neighbouring social groups, particularly when home ranges overlap. Here, we analysed the relationships between SSD, mating system and different proxies of range use across up to 143 species of anthropoid and strepsirrhine primates. Contrary to expectations, mating system-a commonly used proxy for male competition-did not significantly predict SSD. Instead, male-biased SSD increased with home range overlap and encounter rate between social groups, even after accounting for mating system and body size allometry. This suggests that spatial pressures, such as the latent threat of competition from rival groups, impose stronger selection on male compared with female size. Home range overlap may select for larger males to deter rivals, defend resources or monopolize females across shared territories, potentially without frequent physical contests. Our work calls for renewed attention to how spatial competition, including resource defence and mate guarding across overlapping territories, influences trait evolution in primates and other social vertebrates and to re-evaluate proxies of sexual selection.

Interspecies competition plays a crucial role in shaping microbial community dynamics and influencing host-associated outcomes. However, the mechanisms by which microbes directly neutralize the antimicrobial systems of their rivals remain largely unexplored. Here, we demonstrate that a bacterial effector protein, translocated via the widely distributed type IV secretion system (T4SS), directly disarms the antibacterial type VI secretion system (T6SS) of a competitor. Specifically, we show that Lysobacter enzymogenes, a ubiquitous soil bacterium, uses its bacterial-killing T4SS (T4SSBK) to deliver a non-lethal effector, LqqE1, into the cytoplasm of Pseudomonas putida, a competitor equipped with a functional antibacterial K1-T6SS. LqqE1 targets and hijacks VgrG1, a conserved structural component of the K1-T6SS's spike in P. putida, through direct binding. We propose that the binding of LqqE1 to VgrG1 disrupts the native loading of the K1-T6SS nuclease effector Tke2 onto VgrG1. As a result, the translocated LqqE1 abolishes the secretion of the inner-tube protein Hcp via K1-T6SS, effectively interfering with the antibacterial function of P. putida. Structural and phylogenetic analyses reveal that LqqE1 homologs are widespread among bacteria that encode T4SS, with several representative members exhibiting similar K1-T6SS-disabling functions. These findings uncover a novel interbacterial warfare strategy in which a T4SSBK effector sabotages a competitor's T6SS by subverting its core structural architecture. Our results provide new insights into the molecular arms race between two distinct and widespread antibacterial contact-dependent secretion systems, enhancing our understanding of the diversity in microbial community competition.

Multijunction solar cell architectures offer a means to exceed the efficiency limits of traditional single-junction cells, notably surpassing the Shockley-Queisser limit. III-V compound semiconductors, known for their adaptable bandgaps, are often used in constructing multijunction cells, but their fabrication largely relies on complex epitaxial growth techniques. These processes are further complicated by the demanding necessity for lattice-matched, heavily-doped tunnel junctions. To address these challenges, our study introduces a mechanically stacked, four-terminal perovskite/InGaAsP tandem solar cell as a viable alternative to conventional all-III-V semiconductor dual-junction cells. We successfully achieved a low-bandgap InGaAsP solar cell with an impressive efficiency of 19.0% and an open-circuit voltage of 657&#x2009;mV by employing carrier-selective contacts, a performance that rivals state-of-the-art InGaAsP homojunction solar cells. Furthermore, by pairing an InGaAsP bottom cell with a semi-transparent perovskite top cell in a tandem configuration, we attained a remarkable efficiency of 27.7% along with an outstanding open-circuit voltage of 1.7&#x2009;V. The remarkable proof-of-concept demonstration presented here not only paves the way for highly efficient dual-junction thin film flexible solar cells but also simplifies the fabrication process by eliminating the need for lattice-matched tunnel junction layers, a common requirement in conventional III-V multijunction solar cells.

This study analyzes how national incentive programs can play a transformative role in facilitating green hydrogen adoption across emission-intensive industrial sectors. Despite the recognized potential of green hydrogen for industry decarbonization, its widespread uptake remains constrained by elevated costs, limited supporting infrastructure, and technological limitations. By evaluating system optimization strategies, including PV-Wind, PEM electrolyser, energy storage and hydrogen tank sizing, this research demonstrates that targeted incentives applied to the redevelopment of legacy industrial zones can substantially reduce the Levelized Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH) from 7.8 USD/kg in baseline scenarios to 4.5 USD/kg with incentives considered, while simultaneously achieving notable reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from approximately 3.2 kgCO&#x2082;eq/kgH&#x2082; to near 1.4 kgCO&#x2082;eq/kgH&#x2082;. The novelty of this work is fourfold. It presents the first techno-economic optimization of Power-to-Hydrogen (PtH) systems that explicitly quantifies the interaction between national incentive schemes (0-70% CAPEX subsidies) and optimal sizing of PV, wind, electrolyzer, and hydrogen storage for heavy industrial applications. It demonstrates a linear relationship between total capital investment and LCOH (R&#xb2;&#x2009;>&#x2009;0.96), enabling rapid cost estimation without full simulations. It identifies a critical threshold for battery storage cost reduction (&#x2265;50%) before batteries become economically viable in PtH systems without incentives. It also provides a comparative analysis of incentive effects versus projected equipment cost reductions (2030-2050), showing that incentives alone can achieve 43-54% LCOH reductions. In addition, this formulated control strategy aims to accomplish three main objectives such as satisfying hourly hydrogen demand, maximizing renewable electricity utilization, and minimizing grid electricity withdrawal. The economic effect of these incentives closely rivals anticipated declines in equipment expenses projected for the coming decade. Furthermore, the observed linear relationship between capital investment and LCOH enables precise cost modelling and streamlines decision-making for site-specific implementations, minimizing the need for additional simulations.

Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) has emerged as one of the most effective, computationally tractable fine-tuning approaches for training Vision-Language Models (VLMs) and Large Language Models (LLMs). LoRA accomplishes this by freezing the pre-trained model weights and injecting trainable low-rank matrices, allowing for efficient learning of these foundation models even on edge devices. However, LoRA in decentralized settings still remains under-explored, particularly for the theoretical underpinnings due to the lack of smoothness guarantee and model consensus interference (defined formally below). This work improves the convergence rate of decentralized LoRA (DLoRA) to match the rate of decentralized SGD by ensuring gradient smoothness. We also introduce DeCAF, a novel algorithm integrating DLoRA with truncated singular value decomposition (TSVD)-based matrix factorization to resolve consensus interference. Theoretical analysis shows TSVD's approximation error is bounded and consensus differences between DLoRA and DeCAF vanish as rank increases, yielding DeCAF's matching convergence rate. Extensive experiments across vision/language tasks demonstrate our algorithms outperform local training and rivals federated learning under both IID (independent and identically distributed) and Non-IID data.

Animal weapon systems are used for attack and defence during competition for resources, including, though not confined to, competition for mates. They comprise the weapon itself and associated morphological structures-or 'weapon-supportive traits'-that are essential for the deployment of the weapon in combat. We investigate the form and function of a weapon system in burying beetles, Nicrophorus vespilloides, to better understand why it differs between the sexes. Both males and females engage in contests with members of their own sex to monopolize a scarce carrion breeding resource. We show that mandibles (weapon during biting) and head width (weapon-supportive trait) are larger in males, and that males exhibit a disproportionately larger increase in bite force with head width than females. However, in staged contests with size-matched rivals of the same sex, the weapon system functioned in the same way for males and females: for each sex, the combined effects of head width and maximum bite force best predicted contest outcome. We suggest that each component part of the weapon system serves multiple additional functions, including tasks associated with parental care, which contribute differently to fitness in each sex. The resulting divergent selection pressures may explain why sexual dimorphism persists.

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are highly transparent, cost-effective photovoltaic devices that convert sunlight into fluorescence, which is then concentrated on peripheral solar cells via total internal reflection (TIR). In this Letter, we systematically analyzed the influence of directional emission on the efficiency of LSCs, revealing that directional emission not only enhances TIR efficiency but also mitigates light propagation losses. To validate this, we utilized highly bright and polarized emitting CdSe/CdZnS quantum rods (QRs) as the emitter. By developing an electrically aligned photopolymerization technique, we successfully induced and fixed the orientation of the QRs within a polymer matrix, thereby preventing the aggregation-induced quenching. Further characterization demonstrated a 1.23-fold efficiency improvement for the directionally emitting LSC device compared to its isotropic counterpart. Ultimately, the 3.5&#xd7;3.5&#xd7;0.85&#x2009;&#x2009;cm^{3} laminated-glass device achieved an extremely high power conversion efficiency of &#x223c;4.92%. By adjusting QRs concentration, a light utilization efficiency of &#x223c;2.39% with over 60% transmittance was obtained, rivaling state-of-the-art transparent photovoltaic devices.