Research最新文献

Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder characterized by reduced bone mass, impaired microarchitecture, and increased fracture risk, primarily resulting from dysregulated bone remodeling. Increasing evidence highlights a close interaction between bone metabolism and the gut microbiota. Alterations in bone mineral density can influence gut microbial composition. Conversely, microbial dysbiosis disrupts bone homeostasis through multiple pathways, including microbial metabolites, immune regulation, and neuroendocrine signaling. Short-chain fatty acids suppress osteoclast differentiation and enhance intestinal calcium absorption, while gut dysbiosis promotes bone loss by impairing intestinal barrier integrity and increasing proinflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6. The gut-brain-bone axis represents an important regulatory network linking the central nervous system, gut-derived signals, and skeletal remodeling. Chronic stress and neurodegenerative conditions activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and bone-derived extracellular vesicle signaling, thereby favoring bone resorption. Estrogen deficiency further disrupts the receptor activator of nuclear factor κΒ ligand/osteoprotegerin signaling pathway and alters gut microbial composition, contributing to postmenopausal bone loss. Therapeutic strategies targeting this axis, including probiotics, prebiotics, fecal microbiota transplantation, dietary fiber supplementation, and pharmacological or natural compounds, show potential in restoring microbial balance and improving bone metabolism. Future studies integrating multiomics approaches and well-designed clinical trials are needed to clarify microbiome-bone interactions and support the development of targeted interventions for osteoporosis.

Lanthanide nanocrystals hold exceptional promise for electroluminescence applications due to their unique optical properties. However, their intrinsic insulating character and localized 4f orbitals severely restrict carrier injection, thereby hindering direct electrical excitation. In a recent study published in Nature, Tan and colleagues circumvented this fundamental bottleneck via molecular engineering of the nanocrystal surface. They developed a series of functionalized ligands (e.g., carbazole-phosphine oxide) to establish an electroactive interface, facilitating efficient transfer of electro-generated triplet excitons to lanthanide ions. Notably, a wide-ranging multicolor electroluminescence from lanthanide nanocrystals was achieved for the first time, exhibiting high power efficiency and external quantum efficiency. These findings provide new opportunities for electrically driven luminescence in lanthanide nanocrystals or other insulating systems.

Rapid urbanization intensifies hygiene and sustainability challenges in drainage systems, where conventional floor drains suffer from odor backflow, bacterial growth, and pathogen transmission. Existing disinfection methods depend on external power or chemicals, increasing energy consumption and environmental pollution. Herein, we develop an intelligent floor drain system that enables self-powered disinfection by recovering wastewater energy. By synergistically integrating a turbine blade drain valve, a magnetic levitation module, a contactless drive module, and an electromagnetic power generation (EMG) module, the intelligent floor drain system recovers energy from wastewater for power generation while maintaining its traditional functionality. The EMG module is able to produce a peak power output of 0.8 mW at a drainage rate of 4.15 l/min. A voltage-multiplying circuit boosts energy output by 55%. The system was able to achieve 98.2% sterilization efficiency after 50 min of operation. This work contributes to the global goals of sustainability and energy efficiency.

Chemical alterations in metal oxides during manipulation greatly diminish their potential in artificial photosynthesis. Clarifying and overcoming these changes is crucial for realizing the sustainable generation of solar fuels and chemicals. Here, employing multimodal operando techniques, we elucidated the degradation mechanism of copper oxide (CuO_x) photocathodes under operational conditions, revealing an electron-mediated reductive photocorrosion pathway: Cu₂O/CuO → Cu₂O → Cu. These key findings led us to engineer an ultrathin carbon layer encapsulation strategy formed via electrodeposition-coupled self-assembly of carbon nanodots. This protective layer enables efficient photoelectron extraction and spatial isolation. The resulting CuO_x@C exhibits gratifying durability with unaltered phases and steady photocurrent throughout extended operation exceeding 24 h. To enhance activity and selectivity toward ethylene, Ag nanoparticles were integrated onto CuO_x@C. The Ag decoration enhances CO₂ adsorption, stabilizes *CO intermediate, and facilitates the crucial *CO-*CO coupling. The Faraday efficiency for CO₂-to-ethylene conversion on CuO_x@C/Ag reaches up to ~66.4% and retains ~95% of its initial performance after prolonged use. This synergistic strategy of carbon encapsulation and metal decoration exhibits broad applicability, as validated by CuO_x@C/Ru, CuO_x@C/Pd, and BiVO₄@C/Pt. Our work provides a universal design framework for efficient and durable photoelectrodes, accelerating their transition from laboratory prototypes to scalable technologies.

As silicon anodes approach their theoretical capacity limits in lithium-ion batteries, the exploration of materials with even higher energy storage potential becomes imperative. Here, we demonstrate that silicon-carbon composites can deliver ultrahigh capacities exceeding 6,500 mAh g^-1, benefiting from the abundant internal defects within the composite. At a charge-discharge rate of 0.1 C (0.42 A g^-1), the initial discharge specific capacity reaches 6,694.21 mAh g^-1, with a Coulombic efficiency (CE) of 74.71%, markedly exceeding the theoretical capacity limit of silicon. By further optimizing lithium battery electrolyte, the initial discharge specific capacity is 5,294.88 mAh g^-1 and CE is increased to 90.96%. Moreover, an artificial intelligence-assisted framework combining a multilayer perceptron with a constrained genetic algorithm predicts a theoretical maximum initial discharge capacity of 7,789.55 mAh g^-1. These results provide compelling evidence that silicon-carbon composites hold great promise for substantially enhancing the energy density of next-generation lithium-ion batteries.

Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with brain metastases poses formidable therapeutic challenges due to acquired resistance and the inherent pharmacokinetic defects of traditional delivery. We developed an innovative lipoic acid-based self-assembled nanodrug (dabrafenib, trametinib, and lipoic acid self-assembly [DTL]) system, whose rational design was guided by a novel machine learning platform to overcome high-cost, empirical screening bottlenecks. Multifunctional lipoic acid, serving as a universal self-assembling molecule, enabled DTL's robust assembly and enhanced penetration across mucosal and solid tumor barriers via its unique thiol-mediated exchange mechanism while simultaneously exerting distinct antitumor efficacy. Intranasal administration of DTL achieved efficient dual-targeted delivery to both primary NSCLC and established intracranial metastases. Furthermore, compared to conventional targeted combination therapies, DTL induced diverse, multimodal tumor cell death (apoptosis, pyroptosis, and ferroptosis) and profoundly remodeled the immune microenvironment. In vivo, DTL markedly inhibited tumor growth with reduced toxicity, offering a clinically translatable strategy for advanced NSCLC.

Vascular scaffolds are fundamental devices in treating vascular occlusions, aneurysms, and hemodialysis access. However, their long-term efficacy is often compromised by 2 major pathophysiological responses: acute thrombosis and intimal hyperplasia, underscoring the need for effective antithrombotic treatment and intensive surveillance. This review highlights the emerging approaches used to address such challenges in vascular scaffolds: surface biofunctionalization and intelligent monitoring systems. We first introduce the leading biodegradable elastic polymers for vascular scaffolds, followed by a comprehensive overview of surface biofunctionalization techniques for preventing thrombosis and promoting endothelialization. The review further explores the cutting-edge advances in integrating flexible bioelectronics with cardiovascular implants for intelligent real-time monitoring of hemodynamics, thrombosis, and restenosis. It concludes with a discussion of the remaining challenges and future perspectives, thereby promoting the development of more effective cardiovascular therapies and their clinical applications.

It is crucial to monitor the real-time and accurate status of an electric drive system and understand its interaction with driving behavior in order to meet the higher requirements for vehicle safety and reliability in the era of autonomous driving. Traditional wired sensors have limitations in system integration and energy autonomy. This study proposes a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based on the centrifugal-force-enhanced contact mechanism, which can be directly integrated into the transmission shaft of electric vehicles to construct an intelligent self-powered monitoring system. This design effectively overcomes the bottleneck of unstable signals and insufficient durability of traditional rotating TENGs at high speeds by coupling centrifugal force and spring pre-tension and outputs stable and high signal-to-noise ratio sensing signals. On this basis, this study not only achieved high-precision real-time perception of the driving system speed but also further explored the rich information embedded in the centrifugal-force-enhanced contact TENG signal and extended it to the intelligent recognition of driving behavior and road conditions. Based on signal processing and the convolutional neural network and bidirectional long short-term memory model, the system has achieved fault diagnosis of key transmission component bearings in the transmission system with an accuracy rate of up to 96.1%. At the same time, the system can effectively recognize driving behaviors such as sudden acceleration and deceleration (recognition accuracy of 84%), as well as typical road conditions such as flat, slippery, and speed bumps (recognition accuracy of 89.9%), providing key information for automatic driving algorithm calibration and driving safety improvement. The self-powered embedded sensing technology developed in this study provides a new technological path for the efficient energy management and predictive maintenance system of intelligent connected vehicles and is a key sensing node for building future autonomous transportation systems.

The integration of wearable technology and smart textiles has substantially advanced the development of radio-frequency (RF) electronics embedded in textile substrates, opening new opportunities across health monitoring, environmental sensing, and wireless communication. Despite their established performance, conventional rigid RF systems face inherent limitations in conformability and seamless integration within wearable platforms. This review comprehensively summarizes recent progress in textile-based RF active devices, encompassing reconfigurable antennas, tunable metasurfaces, and multifunctional RF systems. We emphasize the transition from isolated components to fully integrated, intelligent platforms capable of energy harvesting, low-power communication, and distributed sensing while proposing solution strategies and future development directions for enriched and systematic performance. Critical technical challenges such as high-precision fabrication, tunable RF response, and architecture design for complex systems are thoroughly discussed. Ultimately, this review outlines promising pathways toward autonomous, adaptive, and intelligently networked textile RF systems, highlighting the convergence of wireless functionality and system-level co-design for the next generation of wearable electronics.

Zirconia (ZrO₂) has become a promising alternative to titanium (Ti) for bone implants due to its excellent biocompatibility. Despite this, the osseointegration of ZrO₂ remains lower than that of Ti implants. However, the underlying biological mechanisms, particularly the osteoimmune response, remain not fully elucidated. Herein, we employed single-cell RNA sequencing to profile the immune-inflammatory niches of ZrO₂ and Ti-based implants, to elucidate mechanisms that could guide the osteogenic functionalization of ZrO₂ implants. The analysis provides a high-resolution atlas of immune-stromal cell dynamics at the bone-implant interface, identifying distinct cellular subsets and ligand-receptor axes activated by each material. Ti implants preferentially enriched stem-cell niches and up-regulated collagen organization through fibroblast-specific collagen type I alpha 1 chain/syndecan 1 signaling, promoting regenerative extracellular matrix remodeling and early osteogenic microenvironment. In contrast, ZrO₂ implants triggered lymphoid-dominated responses, characterized by collagen type VI alpha 2 chain/cluster of differentiation 44-mediated macrophage activation, and pro-inflammatory pathway activation. In vivo validation via bulk RNA sequencing confirmed these material-specific immunomodulatory programs, with Ti favoring osteogenic microenvironments and ZrO₂ inducing fibro-inflammatory niches. These findings provide mechanistic targets for designing immunomodulatory biointerfaces to enhance the osseointegration of ZrO₂ implants.