The impact of private hosting on the integration of Ukrainian refugees in Germany.

Amid the Ukrainian displacement crisis, private hosting of refugees in Europe has surged, yet its impact on integration remains understudied. This research examines the short- to medium-term effects of private hosting on Ukrainian refugee integration in Germany. Using data from one of the largest non-profit platforms that matches private hosts with refugees, we compare the multidimensional integration outcomes of refugees who were matched with private hosts to those of observably similar refugees who applied for private hosting but were not matched (n = 1,700).

Active use of latent tree-structured sentence representation in humans and large language models.

Understanding how sentences are represented in the human brain, as well as in large language models (LLMs), poses a substantial challenge for cognitive science. Here we develop a one-shot learning task to investigate whether humans and LLMs encode tree-structured constituents within sentences. Participants (total N = 372, native Chinese or English speakers, and bilingual in Chinese and English) and LLMs (for example, ChatGPT) were asked to infer which words should be deleted from a sentence.

Low-grade non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer: molecular landscape, treatment strategies and emerging therapies.

Low-grade non-muscle invasive bladder cancer is a specific category of bladder cancer with a favourable prognosis; however, its management presents several challenges. The risk of stage progression is very low, but approximately half of patients will experience recurrence within the first 5 years after diagnosis. This high propensity for recurrence, coupled with the threat of progression, mandates ongoing surveillance.

Functional synapses between neurons and small cell lung cancer.

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a highly aggressive type of lung cancer, characterized by rapid proliferation, early metastatic spread, frequent early relapse and a high mortality rate. Recent evidence has suggested that innervation has an important role in the development and progression of several types of cancer. Cancer-to-neuron synapses have been reported in gliomas, but whether peripheral tumours can form such structures is unknown.

Long-range PM pollution and health impacts from the 2023 Canadian wildfires.

Smoke from extreme wildfires in Canada adversely affected air quality in many regions in 2023. Here we use satellite observations, machine learning and a chemical transport model to quantify global and regional PM (particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in diameter) exposure and human health impacts related to the 2023 Canadian wildfires.

Myeloid progenitor dysregulation fuels immunosuppressive macrophages in tumours.

Monocyte-derived macrophages (mo-macs) often drive immunosuppression in the tumour microenvironment (TME) and tumour-enhanced myelopoiesis in the bone marrow fuels these populations. Here we performed paired transcriptome and chromatin accessibility analysis over the continuum of myeloid progenitors, circulating monocytes and tumour-infiltrating mo-macs in mice and in patients with lung cancer to identify myeloid progenitor programs that fuel pro-tumorigenic mo-macs. We show that lung tumours prime accessibility for Nfe2l2 (NRF2) in bone marrow myeloid progenitors as a cytoprotective response to oxidative stress, enhancing myelopoiesis while dampening interferon response and promoting immunosuppression.

Late fluid flow in a primitive asteroid revealed by Lu-Hf isotopes in Ryugu.

Carbonaceous asteroids are the source of the most primitive meteorites and represent leftover planetesimals that formed from ice and dust in the outer Solar System and may have delivered volatiles to the terrestrial planets. Understanding the aqueous activity of asteroids is key to deciphering their thermal, chemical and orbital evolution, with implications for the origin of water on the terrestrial planets. Analyses of the objects, in particular pristine samples returned from asteroid Ryugu, have provided detailed information on fluid-rock interactions within a few million years after parent-body formation.

Neuronal activity-dependent mechanisms of small cell lung cancer pathogenesis.

Neural activity is increasingly recognized as a crucial regulator of cancer growth. In the brain, neuronal activity robustly influences glioma growth through paracrine mechanisms and by electrochemical integration of malignant cells into neural circuitry via neuron-to-glioma synapses. Outside of the central nervous system, innervation of tumours such as prostate, head and neck, breast, pancreatic, and gastrointestinal cancers by peripheral nerves similarly regulates cancer progression.

Human gastroids to model regional patterning in early stomach development.

The human stomach features distinct, regionalized functionalities along the anterior-posterior axis. Historically, studies on stomach patterning have used animal models to identify the underlying principles. Recently, human pluripotent stem (hPS)-cell-based gastric organoids for modelling domain-specific development of the fundic and antral epithelium are emerging.

Observing differential spin currents by resonant inelastic X-ray scattering.

Controlling spin currents, that is, the flow of spin angular momentum, in small magnetic devices, is the principal objective of spin electronics, a main contender for future energy-efficient information technologies. A pure spin current has never been measured directly because the associated electric stray fields and/or shifts in the non-equilibrium spin-dependent distribution functions are too small for conventional experimental detection methods optimized for charge transport. Here we report that resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) can bridge this gap by measuring the spin current carried by magnons-the quanta of the spin wave excitations of the magnetic order-in the presence of temperature gradients across a magnetic insulator.

Energy deficiency selects crowded live epithelial cells for extrusion.

Epithelial cells work collectively to provide a protective barrier, yet they turn over rapidly through cell division and death. If the numbers of dividing and dying cells do not match, the barrier can vanish, or tumours can form. Mechanical forces through the stretch-activated ion channel Piezo1 link both of the processes; stretch promotes cell division, whereas crowding triggers live cells to extrude and then die.

Stabilizing effect of amino acids on protein and colloidal dispersions.

Amino acids (AAs) have a long history of being used as stabilizers for biological media. For example, they are important components in biomedical formulations. The effect of AAs on biological systems is also starting to be appreciated.

Structure and mechanism of the mitochondrial calcium transporter NCLX.

As a key mitochondrial Ca transporter, NCLX regulates intracellular Ca signalling and vital mitochondrial processes. The importance of NCLX in cardiac and nervous-system physiology is reflected by acute heart failure and neurodegenerative disorders caused by its malfunction. Despite substantial advances in the field, the transport mechanisms of NCLX remain unclear.

ABCA7 variants impact phosphatidylcholine and mitochondria in neurons.

Loss-of-function variants in the lipid transporter ABCA7 substantially increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease, yet how they impact cellular states to drive disease remains unclear. Here, using single-nucleus RNA-sequencing analysis of human brain samples, we identified widespread gene expression changes across multiple neural cell types associated with rare ABCA7 loss-of-function variants. Excitatory neurons, which expressed the highest levels of ABCA7, showed disrupted lipid metabolism, mitochondrial function, DNA repair and synaptic signalling pathways.

Fluctuating DNA methylation tracks cancer evolution at clinical scale.

Cancer development and response to treatment are evolutionary processes, but characterizing evolutionary dynamics at a clinically meaningful scale has remained challenging. Here we develop a new methodology called EVOFLUx, based on natural DNA methylation barcodes fluctuating over time, that quantitatively infers evolutionary dynamics using only a bulk tumour methylation profile as input. We apply EVOFLUx to 1,976 well-characterized lymphoid cancer samples spanning a broad spectrum of diseases and show that initial tumour growth rate, malignancy age and epimutation rates vary by orders of magnitude across disease types.

Acute kidney injury and subsequent risk of late-onset infection among extremely low gestational age newborns.

Objective: Determine whether acute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with subsequent late-onset infection (LOI) among extremely low gestational age newborns (ELGAN).

Study Design: Secondary analysis of participants in the Preterm Erythropoietin for Neuroprotection Trial. Infants surviving ≥7 days with sufficient serum creatinine data were included.

Nanotechnology for CAR T cells and tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte therapies.

Adoptive T-cell therapies, and particularly CAR T cells and tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes, have transformed cancer treatment by selectively targeting malignant cells. Despite their clinical success, these therapies face substantial challenges, including costly manufacturing processes and tumour-imposed barriers that limit efficacy. Advances in understanding the nanoscale mechanisms governing T-cell activation and the role of the tumour microenvironment in restricting T-cell responses have driven the development of nanotechnology-based strategies that integrate key chemical and physical cues.

Nanofibrous supramolecular peptide hydrogels for controlled release of small-molecule drugs and biologics.

Maintaining safe and potent drug levels in vivo is challenging. Multidomain peptides assemble into supramolecular hydrogels with a well-defined, highly porous nanostructure that makes them attractive for drug delivery. However, their ability to extend release is typically limited by rapid drug diffusion.

Longitudinal single-cell analysis reveals treatment-resistant stem and mast cells with potential treatments for pediatric AML.

Pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (pAML) is a heterogeneous malignancy driven by diverse cytogenetic mutations. While identification of cytogenetic lesions improved risk stratification, prognostication remains inadequate with 30% of standard-risk patients experiencing relapse within 5 years. To deeply characterize pAML heterogeneity and identify poor outcome-associated blast cell profiles, we performed an analysis on 708,285 cells from 164 bone marrow biopsies of 95 patients and 11 healthy controls.

GluN2A-NMDA receptor inhibition disinhibits the prefrontal cortex, reduces forced swim immobility, and impairs sensorimotor gating.

Recent investigations into the rapid antidepressant effects of ketamine, along with studies on schizophrenia-related susceptibility genes, have highlighted the GluN2A subunit as a critical regulator of both emotion and cognition. However, the specific impacts of acute pharmacological inhibition of GluN2A-containing NMDA receptors on brain microcircuits and the subsequent behavioral consequences remain poorly understood. In this study, we first examined the effects of MPX-004, a selective GluN2A NMDA receptor inhibitor, on behavior within the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC).