The use of neuroprotective nutraceuticals as a strategy against neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) has gained considerable traction in recent years. In this review, we highlight ergothioneine (ET)—a naturally occurring thiol/thione derivative abundant in mushrooms—as a promising candidate, given its long half-life, blood–brain barrier penetration, and high bioavailability. Numerous population studies have linked low blood ET levels with increased risk and progression of neurological and other age-related disorders in humans, suggesting that dietary ET may confer neuroprotective benefits. Supporting this, several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of ET treatment in reducing PD-associated molecular damage across various pre-clinical models such as C. elegans, Drosophila, rodent models and human neuronal cultures, leading to marked improvements in disease phenotypes. Here, we summarize some of the proposed mechanisms by which ET may exert neuroprotection in PD, including the reduction of protein aggregation, enhancement of mitochondrial function, mitigation of oxidative stress, and attenuation of apoptosis and neuroinflammation. We also highlight recent clinical trials demonstrating the safety and potential efficacy of ET and propose future research to facilitate the translation of ET into the clinic.

Contact electrification has been extensively investigated and harnessed, yet quantifying the triboelectrification capacity of liquid phase materials remains elusive due to their non-fixed shape and complex flow dynamics. Here, we report a novel gas-regulated flow strategy to stabilize liquid columns, effectively decoupling fluid kinetics from electrification processes. By optimizing material selection, electrode configurations, and flow regimes, we established a standardized triboelectric series encompassing 50 diverse liquids, including organic solvents and ionic solutions. Our results reveal that liquid-phase triboelectrification is synergistically governed by molecular functional groups, ionic species, and concentrations. Specifically, hydroxyl groups and dilute ion concentrations promote charge transfer, whereas alkyl groups and excessive ions exert a suppressive effect. This study elucidates that liquid-solid electrification arises from a sophisticated interplay of electron transfer, molecular polarization, ion adsorption/screening, which collectively dictate charge redistribution. By providing a quantitative triboelectric matrix, this work facilitates the design of high-efficiency energy harvesters and safer industrial liquid-handling systems, advancing the fundamental understanding of liquid-interface physics.

Reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards has become a common way to improve explicit reasoning in large language models, but final-answer correctness alone does not reveal whether the reasoning trace is faithful, reliable, or useful to the model that consumes it. This outcome-only signal can reinforce traces that are right for the wrong reasons, overstate reasoning gains by rewarding shortcuts, and propagate flawed intermediate states in multi-step systems. To this end, we propose TraceLift, a planner-executor training framework that treats reasoning as a consumable intermediate artifact. During planner training, the planner emits tagged reasoning. A frozen executor turns this reasoning into the final artifact for verifier feedback, while an executor-grounded reward shapes the intermediate trace. This reward multiplies a rubric-based Reasoning Reward Model (RM) score by measured uplift on the same frozen executor, crediting traces that are both high-quality and useful. To make reasoning quality directly learnable, we introduce TRACELIFT-GROUPS, a rubric-annotated reason-only dataset built from math and code seed problems. Each example is a same-problem group containing a high-quality reference trace and multiple plausible flawed traces with localized perturbations that reduce reasoning quality or solution support while preserving task relevance. Extensive experiments on code and math benchmarks show that this executor-grounded reasoning reward improves the two-stage planner-executor system over execution-only training, suggesting that reasoning supervision should evaluate not only whether a trace looks good, but also whether it helps the model that consumes it. Our code is available at: https://github.com/MasaiahHan/TraceLift

ABSTRACT The design of lightweight, high‐strength, and tough composites is crucial for enhancing the mechanical properties of materials. Bio‐inspired designs for brick‐and‐mortar structures can considerably enhance the strength and durability of composites. Phase interfaces are especially important, as material failures often occur at these interfaces, leading to substantial degradation in structural performance. Accordingly, building robust interfacial connections poses a crucial challenge. In this study, a ceramic‐metal bulk composite with an ordered alternating layered structure, measuring 30 mm × 30 mm × 30 mm, is fabricated by infiltrating 6061 aluminum alloy into an alumina skeleton. Using pressure infiltration technique, a robust interface is formed by constructing a valence gradient of aluminum at the interface between the alumina and the aluminum alloy layers. Benefiting from the synergistic effects of lamellar reinforcement and valence gradient interfacial reinforcement, the ceramic‐metal composite exhibits excellent properties, including high flexural strength (∼986.4 MPa) and toughness (∼45.3 MPa·m 1/2 ) as well as a low thermal expansion coefficient of ∼6.6 × 10 −6 K −1 . The valence gradient interface design strategy is also applicable to ceramic‐metal composite systems with identical elements, such as MgO‐Mg, offering a new pathway for the structural design of advanced composites.

El tratamiento quirúrgico del cáncer de mama ha evolucionado, desde cirugías radicales que incluían la pared torácica hasta cirugías conservadoras de resección tumoral con margen oncológico seguro complementadas con radioterapia; estas se consideran alternativa a la cirugía radical. La supervivencia es similar en ambos procedimientos. Metodología: Estudio de cohorte retrospectivo que evaluó las características demográficas, patológicas y desenlaces clínicos, como recaída y mortalidad, en mujeres con cáncer invasivo, sometidas a cirugía conservadora entre 1998 y 2007 en el INC. Resultados: Se incluyeron 358 pacientes con edad promedio de 53 anos y estados tumora- ˜ les tempranos en su mayoría. Con mediana de seguimiento de cuatro anos se presentaron 40 ˜ recaídas entre locales, regionales y sistémicas con una tasa de recaída de 2,6 recaídas por 100 pacientes/ano. Se presentó un mayor porcentaje de recaídas en estado clínico avanzado ˜ (p=0,022), tamano tumoral mayor de 2 centímetros (p=0,02 ˜ ) y a mayor número de ganglios comprometidos en el vaciamiento axilar (p=0,004). La tasa de mortalidad fue 1,2 muertes por 100 pacientes/ano. Los márgenes positivos se relacionaron con estado clínico avanzado (p=0,010) ˜ y las pacientes con márgenes positivos que recibieron manejo no quirúrgico presentaron un porcentaje mayor de recaída, comparado con las llevadas a cirugía (p=0,023). Esta diferencia se conservó al comparar manejo quirúrgico con no quirúrgico en márgenes positivos invasivos (p=0,037). Conclusiones: El estado clínico avanzado, se relacionó con márgenes positivos y recaída tumoral. El compromiso ganglionar axilar y el manejo no quirúrgico de los márgenes positivos determinaron un mayor porcentaje de recaída.

Metabolic reprogramming controls protective and pathogenic T helper 17 (T H 17) cell responses. When naïve T cells are differentiated into T H 17 cells in vitro, the presence of the cytokine activin A promotes their maturation into a nonpathogenic state. Here, we found that nonpathogenic T H 17 cells induced by activin A displayed reduced aerobic glycolysis and increased oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). In response to activin A, signaling through the adenosine A 2A receptor (A 2A R) and AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) enhanced OXPHOS and reprogrammed pathogenic T H 17 cells toward nonpathogenic states that did not induce central nervous system autoimmunity in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis. In pathogenic T H 17 cells, the transcriptional coactivator p300/CBP-associated factor (PCAF) increased acetylation at histone 3 Lys 9 (H3K9ac) of genes involved in aerobic glycolysis and T H 17 pathogenic programs. In contrast, in nonpathogenic activin A–treated T H 17 cells, AMPK signaling suppressed PCAF-mediated H3K9ac modification of genes involved in aerobic metabolism and enhanced H3K9ac modification of genes involved in OXPHOS and nonpathogenic T H 17 programs. Together, our findings uncover A 2A R-AMPK signaling as a central metabolic checkpoint that suppresses T H 17 cell pathogenicity.

Spin-adapted configuration state functions (CSFs) provide a compact many-electron basis for open-shell molecules. This basis is employed in one flavor of the recently introduced iterative configuration expansion (ICE) selected CI method. In this work, we implemented spin-dependent operators like spin-orbit coupling and direct spin-spin coupling for use in quasidegenerate perturbation theory on top of nonrelativistic/scalar-relativistic ICE wave functions. At the core of the new implementation are matrix elements of spin tensor excitation operators between CSFs, which are evaluated as products of orbital-specific factors. Two applications, the electron paramagnetic resonance g-factors of a Mo^III-based catalytic intermediate and the zero-field splitting in dioxygen, illustrate the capabilities of the new method.

ABSTRACT Intelligent thermal management is essential for battery safety in sustainable development. Herein, we incorporate the “intelligence” property into aqueous zinc‐ion batteries (AZIBs) by introducing a thermo‐responsive graphene oxide/hydroxypropyl cellulose (GO/HPC) composite membrane as a smart thermal protection component. The as‐prepared membrane demonstrates exceptional flexibility and mechanical robustness, with a Young's modulus of 3.3 GPa. Taking advantage of the reversible lower critical solution temperature (LCST)‐driven phase transition of HPC, the membrane undergoes autonomous shrinkage and ionic shutdown when the ambient temperature reaches 65°C‐triggering an immediate self‐protective state to suppress thermal runaway in AZIBs. Mechanistically, the conformational transition of HPC (from hydrophilic extended chains to hydrophobic globules) upon heating simultaneously blocks Zn 2+ transport and water permeation across the membrane, while the amphiphilic GO surface guides the ordering of liquid crystalline HPC domains to optimize this dual‐functional switching behavior. Notably, AZIBs integrated with this intelligent membrane retain 92% and 80% of their initial capacity after a single thermal shutdown‐cooling cycle and after 15 repeated shutdown‐recovery cycles, respectively, confirming the reversibility of the membrane's thermo‐responsive behavior. This work provides a rational material design paradigm for the safety of AZIBs, facilitating their use in practical applications from consumer electronics to large‐scale grid energy storage.

Achieving quantitative insight into the noncovalent interactions that govern molecular function and biological activity in complex assemblies remains a major challenge for quantum chemical analysis, particularly in systems such as nucleic acids where standard force-fields are known to struggle. Local energy decomposition (LED) provides gold-standard coupled-cluster descriptions of intermolecular interactions but can become difficult to interpret chemically when interacting fragments are covalently connected, such as ligands embedded in nucleic acid frameworks or functional groups linked through bonding networks. In these situations, shared electron density across fragment boundaries obscures the physical interpretation of energy contributions. Here we introduce CovaLED, an extension of the LED scheme that enables a rigorous treatment of covalent connectivity within the LED framework. Application to nucleic-acid-based recognition systems demonstrates the capabilities of the approach. In a riboswitch RNA–ligand complex, CovaLED reveals how methylation of guanine leads to a loss of stabilizing hydrogen-bonding interactions, consistent with experimental binding affinity trends. In a segment of human DNA, the method enables accurate quantification of interactions between nucleotides covalently linked within the backbone. CovaLED thus enables coupled-cluster-level energy decomposition in realistic biomolecular systems, where covalent structure and noncovalent recognition are intrinsically intertwined.

One of the major features of the coastal zone is that part of its sea floor receives a significant amount of sunlight and can therefore sustain benthic primary production by seagrasses, macroalgae, microphytobenthos and corals. However, the contribution of benthic communities to the primary production of the global coastal ocean is not known, partly because the surface area where benthic primary production can proceed is poorly quantified. Here, we use a new analysis of satellite (SeaWiFS) data collected between 1998 and 2003 to estimate, for the first time at a nearly global scale, the irradiance reaching the bottom of the coastal ocean. The following cumulative functions provide the percentage of the surface (<i>S</i>) of the coastal zone receiving an irradiance greater than <i>E_z</i> (in mol photons m^&minus;2 d^&minus;1): <br><br> <i>S</i>_Non-polar = 29.61 &minus; 17.92 log₁₀(<i>E_z</i>) + 0.72 log₁₀²(<i>E_z</i>) + 0.90 log₁₀³(<i>E_z</i>) <br><br> <i>S</i>_Arctic = 15.99 &minus; 13.56 log₁₀(<i>E_z</i>) + 1.49 log₁₀²(<i>E_z</i>) + 0.70 log₁₀³(<i>E_z</i>) <br><br> Data on the constraint of light availability on the major benthic primary producers and net community production are reviewed. Some photosynthetic organisms can grow deeper than the nominal bottom limit of the coastal ocean (200 m). The minimum irradiance required varies from 0.4 to 5.1 mol photons m^&minus;2 d^&minus;1 depending on the group considered. The daily compensation irradiance of benthic communities ranges from 0.24 to 4.4 mol photons m^&minus;2 d^&minus;1. Data on benthic irradiance and light requirements are combined to estimate the surface area of the coastal ocean where (1) light does not limit the distribution of primary producers and (2) net community production (<i>NCP</i>, the balance between gross primary production and community respiration) is positive. Positive benthic <i>NCP</i> can occur over 33% of the global shelf area. The limitations of this approach, related to the spatial resolution of the satellite data, the parameterization used to convert reflectance data to irradiance, the lack of global information on the benthic nepheloid layer, and the relatively limited biological information available, are discussed.

We investigate the origin of stereocontrol in asymmetric counteranion-directed photoredox catalysis (ACPC) using a representative [2+2] cycloaddition mediated by a chiral IDPi counteranion (Science 2023, 379, 494–499). Combining extensive conformational sampling, high-level DFT calculations, and multiscale modeling, we elucidate the mechanism and stereochemical landscape of this transformation. Both enantio- and diastereoselectivity are established in the first C–C bond-forming step: diastereoselectivity arises from intrinsic aryl–aryl interactions within the radical cation–styrene pair, whereas enantioselectivity is imposed by the confined chiral environment of the IDPi counteranion. Although electronically silent during the initial photoinduced single-electron transfer, the counteranion anchors the radical cation and organizes its cycloaddition with styrene. Atomic decomposition of the London dispersion (ADLD) and molecular dispersion potential (MDP) analyses reveal that attractive van der Waals forces, shaped by the steric and electronic architecture of the counteranion, promote reactive prealignment of the substrates and selectively stabilize the transition state leading to the major product. These findings provide a unified framework for stereocontrol in chiral ion-pair radical catalysis and offer general strategies for designing asymmetric photoredox transformations.

In celebration of our 15th anniversary and some of our most popular articles, Mihail Atanasov and Frank Neese reflect on the modelling and examination of paramagnetic molecules, building on two papers in Chemical Science: https://doi.org/10.1039/C2SC20801F &amp; https://doi.org/10.1039/C2SC21394J.