Elderly Hip Osteoarthritis: A Review of Short-Term Pain Relief Through Non-Weight-Bearing Therapies.

Older individuals with hip osteoarthritis (OA) who have difficulty walking, climbing stairs, or performing daily tasks often find non-weight-bearing (NWB) exercises essential for rebuilding strength and preserving function without further stressing the joints. In addition, those with a higher body mass index (BMI) particularly benefit from NWB therapy, as it alleviates joint pressure while facilitating safe and effective rehabilitation. Thus, NWB interventions, such as manual therapy (MT) and aquatic therapy (AT), are especially critical for older adults aged 60 and above, offering pain relief and functional improvement by minimizing gravitational impact on the hip joint.

New Application of Histological Staining for Visualization of Endogenous Proteins in Fossil Material.

Biochemical applications are increasingly utilized in paleontological studies, especially for detecting ancient proteins in fossil samples. Histopathological staining techniques have been applied, but they have yet to specifically target type I collagen, the primary bone matrix protein and the most significant protein of interest in paleoproteomic research. Moreover, these staining methods are often applied to demineralized fossils, which remove the original microstructure of the bone matrix and increase the risk of contamination.

Chern-Protected Flatband Edge State in Metaphotonics.

Two-dimensional Dirac semimetals feature flatband edge states but a zero Chern number, while Chern insulators support one-way edge states associated with a nonzero Chern number. Here, we demonstrate a two-dimensional photonic crystal combining the response of a semimetal and of a Chern insulator, termed a Chern semimetal. This photonic semimetal is characterized by a nonzero Chern number, simultaneously hosting both a flatband edge state and a one-way edge state.

Efficient soil decontamination via rapid ion exchange in vacuum.

Soil from Fukushima contaminated with radioactive Cs was effectively decontaminated through heat treatment with NaCl under vacuum. Although the decontamination ratio was about 10% after heat treatment at 1073 K in atmospheric conditions, the decontamination ratio reached over 90% after heat treatment at 1073 K under vacuum. Under atmospheric conditions, NaCl induced phase transformation in clay minerals, whereas under vacuum, decontamination progressed through rapid ion exchange in clay minerals.

Hydrogen-Bonding-Dependent Water-Responsive Actuation of Cell Walls.

Water-responsive (WR) materials can exert significant forces when they deform in response to changes in the relative humidity. Recent studies on biological WR materials have brought attention to the potential influence of nanoconfined water on high-energy WR actuation. Here, we investigated the effects of nanoconfined liquids on the WR actuation of cell walls by introducing chaotropic or kosmotropic solutes, known for their impact on the H-bonding network and biomolecule stabilities in aqueous solutions.

Global importance of nitrogen fixation across inland and coastal waters.

Biological nitrogen fixation is a key driver of global primary production and climate. Decades of effort have repeatedly updated nitrogen fixation estimates for terrestrial and open ocean systems, yet other aquatic systems in between have largely been ignored. Here we present an evaluation of nitrogen fixation for inland and coastal waters.

CONTEXT-DEPENDENT VARIABILITY OF HIF HETERODIMERS INFLUENCES INTERACTIONS WITH MACROMOLECULAR AND SMALL MOLECULE PARTNERS.

Hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs) are transcription factors that coordinate cellular responses to low oxygen levels, functioning as an α/β heterodimer which binds a short hypoxia response element (HRE) DNA sequence. Prior studies suggest HIF/HRE complexes are augmented by the binding of additional factors nearby, but those interactions are not well understood. Here, we integrated structural and biochemical approaches to investigate several functionally relevant HIF assemblies with other protein, small molecule, and DNA partners.

The specificity and structure of DNA crosslinking by the gut bacterial genotoxin colibactin.

Accumulating evidence has connected the chemically unstable, DNA-damaging gut bacterial natural product colibactin to colorectal cancer, including the identification of mutational signatures that are thought to arise from colibactin-DNA interstrand crosslinks (ICLs). However, we currently lack direct information regarding the structure of this lesion. Here, we combine mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to elucidate the specificity and structure of the colibactin-DNA ICL.

Mapping allosteric rewiring in related protein structures from collections of crystallographic multiconformer models.

How do related proteins with a common fold perform diverse biological functions? Although the average structure may be similar, structural excursions from this average may differ, giving rise to allosteric rewiring that enables differential activity and regulation. However, this idea has been difficult to test in detail. Here we used the qFit algorithm to model "hidden" alternate conformations from electron density maps for an entire protein family, the Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases (PTPs), spanning 26 enzymes and 221 structures.

Pigment concentrations only partially predict avian eggshell colour mimicry in a polymorphic host-brood parasite system.

The precise mimicry of host eggshell colours and patterns by some obligate avian brood parasites provides a powerful study system for understanding co-evolutionary arms races. However, most attention has focused on host behaviour in response to mimicry, rather than the proximate mechanisms that give rise to mimetic eggshell colours and patterns. In Africa, the cuckoo finch produces a wide range of eggshell colours that largely match those of one of its hosts, the tawny-flanked prinia .

Pore formation by the CDTb component of the Clostridioides difficile binary toxin is Ca-dependent.

Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) is one of the five most urgent bacterial threats in the United States. Furthermore, hypervirulent CDI strains express a third toxin termed the C. difficile binary toxin (CDT), and its molecular mechanism for entering host cells is not fully elucidated.

Simple Strategies to Quantify and Control Polymer Threading into Micropores.

Blends of polymers with microporous particles are essential to many modern technologies, including membranes, catalysts, nanocomposites, and porous liquids. However, the design space and performance of these technologies are substantially limited because it is difficult to quantify and control how polymers thread into the particles' sub-2 nm micropores. Here, we address these issues with two new strategies.

Acoustic overtones improve the discrimination of conspecific female calls by male common cuckoos from similar heterospecific calls.

Acoustic communication in obligate brood parasitic common cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) plays an important role both in social contacts within its own and with other species (including its many hosts). For example, the female cuckoo's bubbling call putatively mimics the call of the Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) to serve as defence from host songbirds mobbing the parasitic female. However, several other, both raptorial and harmless, sympatric bird species also have similar vocalizations to the bubbling call (including the Eurasian kestrel, Falco tinnunculus, and the Eurasian green woodpecker, Picus viridis).

The Critical Role of the C-terminal Lobe of Calmodulin in Activating Eukaryotic Elongation Factor 2 Kinase.

Eukaryotic elongation factor-2 kinase (eEF-2K), a member of the α-kinase family, modulates translational rates by phosphorylating eEF-2, a GTPase that facilitates the translocation of the nascent chain on the ribosome during the elongation phase of protein synthesis. eEF-2K is regulated by diverse cellular cues, many of which sensitize it to the Ca-effector protein calmodulin (CaM). CaM, which binds and allosterically activates eEF-2K in the presence of Ca, contains two structural "lobes," each with a pair of Ca-binding EF-hands.

Utilizing surface water adsorption on layered MnO nanosheets for enhancing heat storage performance.

Layered manganese dioxide containing K cations in-between the MnO layers is known to be capable of reversibly storing and releasing thermal energy through the rapid water intercalation mechanism. In this study, we demonstrate that MnO nanosheets exhibit superior heat storage properties by the combination of surface water adsorption and bulk water intercalation. The heat storage capacity has been experimentally increased by approximately 1.

Correction: Exciton and charge transfer processes within singlet fission micelles.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1039/D5SC01479D.].

Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of Soil Carbon Cycling and Its Response to Environmental Change in a Northern Hardwood Forest.

The timescales over which soil carbon responds to global change are a major uncertainty in the terrestrial carbon cycle. Radiocarbon measurements on archived soil samples are an important tool for addressing this uncertainty. We present time series (1969-2023) of radiocarbon measurements for litter (Oi/Oe and Oa/A) and mineral (0-10 cm) soils from the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, a predominantly hardwood forest in the northeastern USA.

Nonlocal flat optics for size-selective image processing and denoising.

All-optical image processing based on metasurfaces is a swiftly advancing field of technology, due to its high speed, large integrability and inherently low energy requirements. So far, the proposed devices have been focusing on canonical operations, such as differentiations to perform edge detection across all objects in a complex scene. Yet, undesired background noise and clutter can hinder such operations, requiring target selection with digital post-processing which inherently limits the overall accuracy, efficiency and speed.

Control and enhancement of optical nonlinearities in plasmonic semiconductor nanostructures.

The efficiency of nanoscale nonlinear elements in photonic integrated circuits is hindered by the physical limits to the nonlinear optical response of dielectrics, which cannot be engineered as it is a fundamental material property. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that ultrafast optical nonlinearities in doped semiconductors can be engineered and can easily exceed those of conventional undoped dielectrics. The electron response of heavily doped semiconductors acquires in fact a hydrodynamic character that introduces nonlocal effects as well as additional nonlinear sources.

Spin density wave and van Hove singularity in the kagome metal CeTiBi.

Kagome metals with van Hove singularities near the Fermi level can host intriguing quantum phenomena such as chiral loop currents, electronic nematicity, and unconventional superconductivity. However, to our best knowledge, unconventional magnetic states driven by van Hove singularities-like spin-density waves-have not been observed experimentally in kagome metals. Here, we report the magnetic and electronic structure of the layered kagome metal CeTiBi, where Ti kagome electronic structure interacts with a magnetic sublattice of Ce J = 1/2 moments.

Nanometer-thick Si/Al gradient materials for spin torque generation.

Green materials for efficient charge-to-spin conversion are desired for common spintronic applications. Recent studies have documented the efficient generation of spin torque using spin-orbit interactions (SOIs); however, SOI use relies on the employment of rare metals such as platinum. Here, we demonstrate that a nanometer-thick gradient from silicon to aluminum, which consists of readily available elements from earth resources, can produce a spin torque as large as that of platinum despite the weak SOI of these compositions.

An unexpectedly shrunken bandgap in VOnanoparticles.

Synchrotron x-ray spectroscopy was employed to determine the effects of nanostructuring on electronic band structure in VO, a promising cathode material and widely used catalyst. VOnanoparticle and bulk powders were characterized via P-XRD, electron microscopy, and diffuse reflectance ultraviolet/visible/near-infrared spectroscopy to confirm the optical bandgap. X-ray emission spectroscopy revealed the nanoparticle valence band O 2states to be upshifted relative to the bulk, while x-ray absorption spectroscopy and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering showed the lowest V 3conduction band states to be static.

Modulating water-responsive actuation energy of regenerated silk fibroin tyrosine modification.

Water-responsive actuation energy density of regenerated silk fibroin is doubled through tyrosine residue modification, increasing from 1.6 MJ m to 3.5 MJ m.

Exciton and charge transfer processes within singlet fission micelles.

Multiexciton (ME) mechanisms hold great promise for enhancing energy conversion efficiency in optoelectronic and photochemical systems. In singlet fission (SF), the generation of two triplet excitons from a single photon provides a route to circumvent thermal energy losses and organic systems offer opportunities to modulate ME dynamics. However, the practical implementation of SF-based materials is hindered by poor triplet exciton mobility, interfacial recombination losses, and complex dynamics at heterogeneous interfaces.

Nonlocal phase-change metaoptics for reconfigurable nonvolatile image processing.

The next generation of smart imaging and vision systems will require compact and tunable optical computing hardware to perform high-speed and low-power image processing. These requirements are driving the development of computing metasurfaces to realize efficient front-end analog optical pre-processors, especially for edge detection capability. Yet, there is still a lack of reconfigurable or programmable schemes, which may drastically enhance the impact of these devices at the system level.