Visual bionic systems are of crucial importance in the development of artificial intelligence for environmental perception. However, the traditional artificial vision system has problems such as complex system and high energy consumption due to the physical separation of image perception, storage, and processing unit. In this work, we designed an ITO/ZTO/ZnO/ITO/Mica structure optoelectronic synaptic device, which is capable of integrating optical sensing, information storage, and logic computation. Utilizing its excellent light response characteristics, the PPF, learning-experience behavior, and Pavlov experiment were successfully simulated. In a 3 × 5 array, the “F” hidden in “E” was identified by using 2 different lighting conditions, successfully simulating color recognition. Furthermore, a further design of an automatic meeting vehicle system based on the embedded platform was carried out, and the meeting vehicle behavior was successfully achieved by utilizing the light response of the ZTO device. This discovery demonstrates the potential of ZTO devices in simulating the behavior of biological synapses, providing new avenue for neuroscience research and the development of bioelectronic devices.

Accumulating evidence demonstrates crosstalk involving the intestine and the brain, with the gut microbiota serving as a critical mediator of this interaction. The gut microbiota, along with its derived metabolites and bioactive compounds, modulates the immune microenvironment of brain tumors via the gut–brain axis, thereby influencing tumor initiation, progression, invasion, and metastasis. This review systematically summarizes the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying gut–brain axis modulation of brain tumors and examines emerging therapeutic approaches, including advances in immunotherapy and targeted therapy, that hold promise for future brain tumor treatment strategies.

Aging has important impacts on both the function and structure of the brain, yet the interplay between these changes remains unclear. Here, we present a unified framework including both single-modal and multimodal age predictions using a large UK Biobank dataset (27,793 healthy subjects, 49 to 76 years) to identify and validate brain functional network connectivity (FNC) and gray matter volume (GMV) changes associated with aging, then propose a novel analysis method to reveal various joint aging patterns, and finally investigate the association between joint function–structure changes and cognitive declines. Multimodality outperforms single modality in the age prediction, underscoring the significance of multimodal aging-related changes. Aging primarily induces synergistic changes, with both FNC and GMV decreased in the cerebellum, frontal pole, paracingulate gyrus, and precuneus cortex, indicating consistent degeneration in motor control, sensory processing, and emotional regulation, and contradictory changes with increased FNC magnitude but decreased GMV in the occipital pole, lateral occipital cortex, and frontal pole, acting as a compensatory mechanism as one ages to preserve visual acuity, cognitive ability, and behavioral modulation. Particularly, joint changes, with both FNC and GMV decreased in the crus I cerebellum and the paracingulate gyrus, show a strong Pearson correlation with the reaction time. In summary, our study unveils diverse joint function–structure changes, providing strong evidence for understanding distinct cognitive deteriorations during aging.

Solar-driven interfacial evaporators represent a promising technique to address the energy crisis and freshwater scarcity issues. However, simultaneously achieving both high evaporation efficiency and long-term stability in a single evaporator system under multifactorial environmental conditions remains challenging. Herein, inspired by the anisotropic channel structure of wood, a novel evaporator featuring a vertical channel structure and excellent photothermal conversion performance for evaporation is developed through the covalent-bond bridging of MXene–polydopamine–cellulose nanocrystals. Polydopamine-modified MXene acts as a photothermal material, exhibiting excellent photothermal conversion efficiency. The vertical channels endow the evaporator with efficient thermal management and rapid mass transfer capabilities to dynamically balance the feedwater supply and photothermic energy input. Thereby, the evaporator exhibits an enhanced evaporation rate of 2.29 kg m⁻² h⁻¹, accompanied by a remarkable 97.34% evaporation efficiency under 1-sun illumination. Additionally, the evaporator possesses a mechanical strength as high as 0.454 MPa, which ensures its long-term stability. Over 14 d of testing, stable evaporation rates of 2.27 kg m⁻² h⁻¹ were maintained over 8-h cycles with no salt crystallization. This work introduces a novel evaporator design with a strong evaporation capability, which has potential applications in addressing the energy crisis and water scarcity challenges.

Slice-based additive manufacturing has been intensively investigated due to its potential in complex 3-dimensional (3D) structure construction across various fields. Current researches focus on curing surface and resin formation regulation to realize continuous printing. However, multi-material construction necessitates vat switching, compromising construction continuity. Achieving simultaneous multi-material construction within a single layer and enabling continuous multi-material construction continue to pose substantial challenges. Here, we present a continuous multi-material additive manufacturing (CMAM) approach by integrating extruding multi-liquid phases into droplet-based 3D printing system. The multi-droplet-based multi-liquid reservoir enables both 2D patterning of multi-liquid materials and their real-time curing, along with continuous resin replenishment to achieve continuous multi-material 3D construction. Additionally, extrusion parameters (extrusion number, spatial distribution, and extrusion flow rates) are controllable layer by layer, leading to controllable muti-material 3D distribution. Interfacial fusion can be controlled by adjusting printing speed and resin viscosity, leading to enhanced mechanical adhesions of 2 materials without influencing interfacial boundary precision. Increasing extrusion number can realize multi-material 3D structure construction with controlled material distribution, which can be extended to 3D structure-based anti-counterfeiting and soft robotics, guaranteeing a highly efficient and sustainable approach to multi-material 3D fabrication.

Introduction: Topographical cues of biomaterial scaffolds directly guide cell behaviors by determining integrin ligation and subsequent mechanotransducive pathways, but their influence on organelle (e.g., mitochondrion) behaviors remains unclear. Objectives: Considering the high sensitivity of mitochondria in cardiomyocytes to topographical signals, this study focused on investigating the impact of oriented micro/nano-wrinkled surfaces with varying wavelengths (0.5 to 25.0 μm) and amplitudes (0.05 to 4.30 μm) on the mitochondrial functions of rat embryonic myocardial cell line H9c2. Methods and Results: The results uncover a nonlinear response of cardiomyocyte behavior and mitochondrial homeostasis to these surface features. Notably, surfaces with a 3-μm wavelength and 0.7-μm amplitude (W3) promoted substantial cell elongation and orientation, whereas surfaces with a 0.5-μm wavelength and 0.05-μm amplitude (W0.5) triggered pronounced mitochondrial division. Remarkably, W0.5 topography facilitated mitochondrial division via cytoskeletal remodeling, involving vinculin and tubulin, which disrupted mitochondrial energy metabolism, enhanced reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated oxidative stress, and perturbed mitochondrial homeostasis by stimulating the adenosine 5′-monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) pathway. The transcriptomic analysis identifies the pivotal involvement of the p53, FoxO, mTOR, HIF-1, and AMPK signaling pathways in regulating mitochondrial dynamics in myocardial cells induced by W0.5, confirming the essential role of the polyadenylation signal (AATAAA) in modulating transcript splicing processes. Conclusion: Overall, this study offers important insights into the regulatory mechanisms by which aligned micro/nano topographical stimuli impact mitochondrial responses in cardiomyocytes, which hold potential for the development of novel biomaterial-focused approaches for diagnosing and treating cardiovascular diseases.

As a key component of perovskite-based tandem photovoltaic devices, wide-bandgap (WBG) perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have been extensively explored recently. For WBG perovskite with mixed Cs/formamidinium (FA) cations and I/Br anions, it is challenging to control ordered crystal growth due to component complexity, and defect-mediated halogen migration causes severe phase separation, leading to poor film quality and inferior device performance. In this work, CsPb₂Br₅ has been developed to serve as a heteronucleation agent to regulate the crystal growth of Cs_0.2FA_0.8Pb(I_0.6Br_0.4)₃ perovskite for producing high-quality film. Theoretical and experimental results show that CsPb₂Br₅ reduces the energy barrier of nucleation and increases the defect formation energy, which not only promotes the homogeneous nucleation and guides the vertical growth of perovskite, which is beneficial for charge transport, but also reduces the defect density and releases the residual strains that suppress phase separation in the film. Therefore, optimized 1.80-eV PSCs yield a champion power conversion efficiency of 20.14% and a record-high fill factor of 85.39% with enhanced device stability. Notably, the constructed 4-terminal tandem devices yield promising power conversion efficiencies of 31.13% (perovskite/silicon) and 28.39% (all-perovskite). This work adds critical building blocks for efficient and stable WBG PSCs by rational crystallization control.

Background: Cardiac surgery patients frequently experience perioperative neurocognitive disorder. Cognitive reserve (CR) is known to mitigate such deficits. Here, we investigate whether global left frontal cortex (gLFC) connectivity, a neural proxy of CR, modulates the relationship between postoperative inflammation and cognitive recovery. Methods: Twenty-five patients scheduled for heart valve replacement surgery were compared to healthy controls using neuropsychological assessments, magnetic resonance imaging, and cytokine levels measured at 3 intervals (before surgery and 7 and 30 days after surgery). Linear regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between the increase in inflammation markers on postoperative day 7 (ΔInflammatory factor_{[7d-baseline]}) and changes in cognition from postoperative day 7 to 30 (ΔNeuropsychological assessment_[30d-7d]). Moderation analysis combined with Johnson–Neyman threshold testing was performed to assess how gLFC connectivity across 3 time points moderated the relationship between ΔIL-6_{[7d-baseline]} and cognitive change. Results: Patients exhibited significant cognitive decline, particularly in executive and memory function, as well as decreased gLFC connectivity on postoperative day 7, compared to controls. This decline was followed by recovery on postoperative day 30. In patients, ΔIL-6_{[7d-baseline]} was negatively correlated with ΔCorsi block test_(30d-7d): β = −0.62, P < 0.001 and ΔDigit symbol test_(30d-7d): β = −0.47, P = 0.017. The interactions of gLFC connectivity at 3 time points × ΔIL-6_{[7d-baseline]} were separately significant on postoperative cognitive recovery. Johnson–Neyman analysis revealed that the effect of ΔIL-6_{[7d-baseline]} was significant when gLFC connectivity was within a specific range. Conclusion: These findings suggest that gLFC connectivity, reflecting CR, may serve as a target for interventions to enhance cognitive resilience in cardiac surgery patients.

The diversity of neutrophils’ subtypes and functions in the tumor microenvironmentunderlies their contributions to both pro- and anti-tumorigenic activities. How to elucidate the antitumor mechanisms of neutrophil and effectively utilize it still needs to be studied. In this study, neutrophil stimulus reaction index (NSRI) was established for high selectivity of neutrophils. Sufficient and highly selective exogenous neutrophils were used to infuse into tumor-bearing mice. Navigation technique was used to make neutrophils rapidly infiltrate into the tumor tissue, which played a key role in inhibiting tumor growth. We found that tumor cells were efficiently killed in direct coculture with sufficient neutrophils by promoting a multimodal death primarily dominated by apoptosis. Interestingly, colon cancer organoid diameters were decreased markedly cocultured with neutrophils, and were more remarkable in the application of organoid microinjection of neutrophils. Consistent with the 3D-printed model, in vivo model indicated that neutrophils meaningfully inhibited the tumor growth by formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) with neutrophil elastase (NE) payload. This study not only unveils the crucial anticancer effects of neutrophils but also sets out an innovative strategy of aggressive dose exogenous neutrophils with precise navigation, which provided the basis for advancements in neutrophil-based immunotherapy for colon cancer treatment.