Title
Topic
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‘Age-Related Changes in Mesopic Reading Vision Across Adulthood’
“Reading is indispensable for daily activities such as reading books, menus, and food labels, occurring under a wide range of luminance conditions from mesopic (dim light) to photopic (daylight). Despite its significance, there has been limited attention on age-related changes in mesopic reading vision. The current study aims to investigate how mesopic reading vision changes across adulthood.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.
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‘What Makes a Theory of Consciousness Unscientific?’
“Theories of consciousness have a long and controversial history. One well-known proposal — integrated information theory — has recently been labeled as ‘pseudoscience’, which has caused a heated open debate. Here we discuss the case and argue that the theory is indeed unscientific because its core claims are untestable even in principle.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Nature Neuroscience.
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‘A Phosphorylation Signal Activates Genome-Wide Transcriptional Control by BfmR’
“The nosocomial pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii is a major threat to human health. The sensor kinase-response regulator system, BfmS-BfmR, is essential to multidrug resistance and virulence in the bacterium and represents a potential antimicrobial target. Important questions remain about how the system controls resistance and pathogenesis. Although BfmR knockout alters expression of >1000 genes, its direct regulon is undefined. Moreover, how phosphorylation controls the regulator is unclear. Here, we address these problems by combining mutagenesis, ChIP-seq, and in vitro phosphorylation to study the functions of phospho-BfmR.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Nucleic Acids Research.
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‘Binuclear Ruthenium Complex Linker Length Tunes DNA Threading Intercalation Kinetics’
“Binuclear ruthenium complexes have been investigated for potential DNA-targeted therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Studies of DNA threading intercalation, in which DNA basepairs must be broken for intercalation, have revealed means of optimizing a model binuclear ruthenium complex to obtain reversible DNA-ligand assemblies with the desired properties of high affinity and slow kinetics. Here, we used single-molecule force spectroscopy to study a binuclear ruthenium complex with a longer semirigid linker relative to the model complex.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Biophysical Journal.
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‘Evolution of High-Order Van Hove Singularities Away From Cupratelike Band Dispersions and its Implications for Cuprate Superconductivity’
“We discuss the evolution of high-order Van Hove singularities (hoVHSs) that carry faster-than logarithmic divergences over a wide range of parameters in cupratelike electronic band dispersions. Numerical and analytic results give insight into the quantized value of the VHS power-law exponent 𝑝𝑉 and the transition between hoVHSs with different values of 𝑝𝑉. … Our study supports the idea that superconductivity in the cuprates occurs near a crossover between two different competing orders (antiferromagnetism and the density wave associated with the hoVHS), which is why high-temperature superconductivity is so rare.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Physical Review…
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‘Inglorious Sufferers: Motivational Factors and Moral Foundations Shape Compassionate and Helping Reactions Toward Suffering Norm Transgressors’
“While previous research shows that people’s reactions to others’ suffering can vary, it remains unclear how these responses differ for targets who have previously transgressed, and which factors drive these changes. In two studies (total N = 899), this paper experimentally investigates how compassionate and helping reactions toward a suffering transgressor change depending upon: (a) the target’s motivation (altruistic vs egoistic vs control) for the transgression (Study 1); (b) the nature of the transgression in terms of moral foundation (Care vs Fairness) of the disrespected (vs respected) norm (Study 2).” Find the paper and full list of authors in Motivation and Emotion.
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‘Holographic View of Mixed-State Symmetry-Protected Topological Phases in Open Quantum Systems’
“We establish a holographic duality between -dimensional mixed-state symmetry-protected topological (mSPT) phases and -dimensional subsystem symmetry-protected topological (SSPT) states. Specifically, we show that the reduced density matrix of the boundary layer of a -dimensional SSPT state with subsystem symmetry and global symmetry corresponds to a -dimensional mSPT phase with strong and weak symmetries. Conversely, we demonstrate that the wave function of an SSPT state can be constructed by replicating the density matrix of the corresponding lower-dimensional mSPT phase.” Find the paper and full list of authors in PRX Quantum.
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Patent for efficient computation
“Electrical and computer engineering professor Edmund Yeh was awarded a patent for ‘Network and Method for Servicing a Computation Request.'”
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‘Affective Abstraction Predicts Variation in Alexithymia, Depression, and Autism Spectrum Quotient’
“Affective abstraction refers to how people conceptualize affective states in terms of category-level representations that generalize across specific situations (e.g., “fear” as evoked by heights, predators, and haunted houses). Here, we develop a novel task for assessing affective abstraction and test its relations with trait alexithymia, depression, and autism spectrum quotient. In a preregistered online study, participants completed a set of tasks in which they matched a cue image with one of two probe images based on similarity of affective experience.” Find the paper and full list of authors in APA PsycNet.
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‘Classification of Infant Sleep-Wake States From Natural Overnight In-Crib Sleep Videos’
“Infant sleep is critical for healthy development, and disruptions in sleep patterns can have profound implications for infant brain maturation and overall well-being. Traditional methods for monitoring infant sleep often rely on intrusive equipment or time-intensive manual annotations, which hinder their scalability in clinical and research applications. We present our dataset, SmallSleeps, which includes 152 hours of overnight recordings of 17 infants aged 4–11 months captured in real-world home environments.” Find the paper and full list of authors in the 2025 IEEE Winter Applications and Computer Vision Workshops.
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‘Mental Models Matter: Conceptualizations of the Human–Nature Relationship Predict Pro-Environmental Attitudes’
“Mental models—internal, dynamic, incomplete representations of the external world that people use to guide cognitive processes…—have practical implications for predicting attitudes and behaviors across various domains. This study examines how mental models of the human–nature relationship predict pro-environmental behavioral intentions directly and indirectly as mediated through anthropocentric and biocentric environmental attitudes. To address these aims, participants were asked about mental model components of the human–nature relationship (human exceptionalism, beliefs about human impact on nature and beliefs about nature’s impact on humans), pro-environmental attitudes (biocentric and anthropocentric) and their pro-environmental behavioral intentions (protection and investment).”
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Patent for hybrid nanopore technology
“College of science and bioengineering professor Meni Wanunu received a patent for ‘Lipid-Free Anchoring of Thermophilic Bacteriophage G20c Portal Adapter Into Solid-State Nanopores.'”
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‘The Emergence and Loss of Cyclic Peptides in Nicotiana Illuminate Dynamics and Mechanisms of Plant Metabolic Evolution’
“While the class of ribosomally synthesized, post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) represents a major source of antibiotics and bioactive compounds, plant RiPPs are relatively understudied compared to those from microbial sources. Here, we resurrect an extinct peptide cyclase from the coyote tobacco through analysis of its functional relatives in other species. This cyclase installs a carbon–carbon macrocycle into heptapeptides, expanding the diversity of plant-derived cyclic peptides. By interconverting two distinct cyclases through targeted mutations, we illuminate how these enzymes evolve new functions.” Find the paper and full list of authors in PNAS.
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‘tRNA Kinetics on the Ribosome Depends Nonmonotonically on Intersubunit Rotation’
“To translate messenger RNA into proteins, the ribosome must coordinate a wide range of conformational rearrangements. Some steps involve individual molecules, whereas others require synchronization of multiple collective motions. … While decades of biochemical, single-molecule, and structural analysis have provided many insights into the timing of these motions, little is known about how these dynamical processes influence each other. To address this, we use molecular simulations to isolate specific interactions that allow tRNA kinetics to be controlled by subunit rotation.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Biophysical Journal.
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‘A Network Approach to White Band Disease…’
“Coral reefs are increasingly threatened by disease outbreaks, yet little is known about the genetic mechanisms underlying disease resistance. Since the 1970s, White Band Disease (WBD) has decimated the Caribbean staghorn coral Acropora cervicornis. However, 15% or more of individuals are highly disease-resistant, and the genes controlling the production of Argonaut proteins, involved in microRNA (miRNA) post-transcriptional gene silencing, are up-regulated in WBD-resistant corals. … In this study, we conducted an in situ disease transmission experiment. … We identified 67 bona fide miRNAs in A. cervicornis.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Ecology and Evolution.
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‘Discovering Ni/Cu Single-Atom Alloy as a Highly Active and Selective Catalyst for Direct Methane Conversion to Ethylene: A First-Principles Kinetic Study’
“Direct methane conversion to liquid fuels or value-added chemicals is a promising technology to utilize natural resources without resorting to further petroleum extraction. However, discovering efficient catalysts for this reaction is challenging due to either coke formation or unfavorable C–H bond activation. Herein, we design single-atom alloy (SAA) catalysts to simultaneously eliminate the above two bottlenecks based on mechanism-guided strategies.” Find the paper and full list of authors in ACS Catalysis.
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‘Mental Models Matter: Conceptualizations of the Human–Nature Relationship…’
“Mental models—internal, dynamic, incomplete representations of the external world that people use to guide cognitive processes such as reasoning, decision making, and language comprehension—have practical implications for predicting attitudes and behaviors across various domains. This study examines how mental models of the human–nature relationship predict pro-environmental behavioral intentions directly and indirectly as mediated through anthropocentric and biocentric environmental attitudes.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Sustainability.
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‘How Politics Affect Pandemic Forecasting: Spatio-Temporal Early Warning Capabilities’
“Using keyword filtering, we identified eight COVID-19-related geo-social media topics. We then utilized Chatterjee’s rank correlation to assess their early warning capability for COVID-19 cases 7 to 42 days in advance across six infection waves. … Our results highlight the need for a dynamic spatially targeted approach that accounts for both how regional geosocial media topics of interest change over time and the impact of local political ideology on their epidemiological early warning capabilities.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Frontiers in Public Health.
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Wireless beam management, now AI-drive
“Electrical and computer engineering assistant research professor Michele Polese, assistant professor Francesco Restuccia, and William Lincoln Smith Professor Tommaso Melodia were awarded a patent for ‘Coordination-Free mmWave Beam Management With Deep Waveform Learning.'”
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‘Advanced Deposition Methods for Mixed Metal Alloys and Hydroxides as High-Performance Catalysts for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction’
“Alkaline water and anion-exchange membrane electrolyzers are considered leading solutions for the large-scale production of hydrogen due to their lower capital costs. In recent years, numerous hydrogen evolution electrocatalysts have been developed, primarily by alloying nickel with other transition metals. Despite these advancements, stability remains a challenge due to the low intrinsic corrosion resistance of these alloys. In this work, we present an advanced synthesis method that incorporates an amorphous copper hydroxide phase within a nickel–copper alloy using a pH-trap mechanism.” Find the paper and full list of authors in ACS Catalysis.
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‘Your Tech Team’s Biggest Risk Isn’t AI – It’s People Skills’
“In an industry where rapid technological advancements are the norm, it’s easy to assume that hard skills, like programming, data analysis, and machine learning, are the primary drivers of success. However, insights from a recent survey by Skiilify and InsightJam, “AI Won’t Replace You—But Lack of Soft Skills Might,” highlights a critical gap that could thwart the careers of even the most technically skilled professionals: the absence of durable soft skills.”
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Visible light system could revolutionize underwater-to-air communication
“Electrical and computer engineering William Lincoln Smith Professor Tommaso Melodia and research assistant professor Emrecan Demirors were awarded a patent for ‘Visible-Light Software-Defined Modem.'”
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‘Why Belonging Matters More Than Just Diversity’
“Creative workforces, accelerated business growth, and leaders who have learned how to harness their team’s diversity are all expected outcomes of well-executed diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Hiring to develop a more diverse workforce, however, doesn’t mean that these synergies will automatically accrue. Inclusive leaders need to understand that implementing DEI practices is a great starting point but an insufficient place to finish.”
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‘Time-Warping Analysis for Biological Signals: Methodology and Application’
“Any set of biological signals has variability, both in the temporal and spatial domains. To extract characteristic features of the ensemble, these spatiotemporal profiles are typically summarized by their mean and variance, often requiring prior padding or resampling of the data to equalize signal length. Such compression can conceal essential information in the signal. This work presents the method of time-warping, reformulated as elastic functional data analysis (EFDA), in an accessible way.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Scientific Reports.
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‘Higher-Order Connectomics of Human Brain Function Reveals Local Topological Signatures’
“Traditional models of human brain activity often represent it as a network of pairwise interactions between brain regions. Going beyond this limitation, recent approaches have been proposed to infer higher-order interactions from temporal brain signals involving three or more regions. However, to this day it remains unclear whether methods based on inferred higher-order interactions outperform traditional pairwise ones for the analysis of fMRI data. To address this question, we conducted a comprehensive analysis using fMRI time series of 100 unrelated subjects from the Human Connectome Project.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Nature Communications.
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‘Human Mobility Is Well Described by Closed-Form Gravity-Like Models Learned Automatically from Data’
“Modeling human mobility is critical to address questions in urban planning, sustainability, public health, and economic development. However, our understanding and ability to model flows between urban areas are still incomplete. … Here, we show that simple machine-learned, closed-form models of mobility can predict mobility flows as accurately as complex machine learning models, and extrapolate better.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Nature Communications.