Robots often learn from historical experience collected under older controllers and physical conditions. When tasks, hardware or environments change, that data can become misleading. Researchers developed Occupancy-Matching Policy Optimization (OMPO), which anchors large replay buffers to a small set of recent interactions. Across locomotion, transfer, manipulation and a real-robot test, OMPO improved stability, sample efficiency and adaptation.

A recent review outlines major advances in hydrogel-based strategies for musculoskeletal therapy. Through refined material design and strengthened mechanical performance, hydrogels can mimic key extracellular matrix features while enabling localized and controlled delivery of drugs, cells, and other bioactive cues. They can also be engineered into clinically relevant formats, including injectable systems, scaffolds, patches, and adhesive sealants, supporting applications across bone and cartilage repair, osteoarthritis management, disc regeneration, tendon healing, and dural repair. 

Pneumonia, a leading cause of global mortality, requires prompt and accurate antibiotic administration. Standardized treatment approaches frequently disregard sex and gender differences. This study is a post-hoc analysis of a prospective cohort study of patients requiring ventilatory support in 27 intensive care units from 9 Western European countries. The study underscores the significance of these variables and advocates revising clinical guidelines to integrate sex- and gender-specific considerations into antimicrobial therapy and decision-making.

Enteroviruses (EVs) are a diverse group of viruses and a common cause of multiple infections in children. A recent Pediatric Investigation review examines EV infections, highlighting the challenges posed by viral diversity, rapid evolution, immune evasion, and limited treatment and vaccine options. Currently, no specific antiviral treatment exists for EV, and prevention is limited since current vaccines cover only certain serotypes, underscoring the need for further research to expand both preventive and therapeutic options.

The universe has been having fewer and fewer stellar “babies.” Over the past 4.5 billion years, the rate of star birth has crashed to less than half of what it once was. But here’s the twist: the most essential “fuel” for making stars has barely decreased. This finding comes from an international team led by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument project. They used China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope to make high-precision measurements of cosmic neutral atomic hydrogen over the past 4.5 billion years.

A new study published in Biomedical Analysis reports a protein-coated nanoparticle platform that combines the powerful light-to-heat conversion ability of copper sulfide with the biological compatibility of albumin, offering a potential strategy for safer photothermal cancer therapy.

A new study in Energetic Materials Frontiers provides a detailed picture of how aluminum combustion evolves after detonation and how this process contributes to the sustained thermal and blast-wave effects of CL-20-based thermobaric explosives. By combining high-speed infrared thermography, blast-wave measurements and theoretical modeling, the researchers show that thermobaric explosives differ fundamentally from TNT in the spatial organization and temporal evolution of their fireballs. More importantly, the work identifies a key transition around 30 ms after detonation, when the dominant contribution shifts from early oxygen-deficient aluminum combustion to secondary post-combustion involving entrained atmospheric oxygen.

Researchers have developed a dimethyl-substituted energetic molecular perovskite, DAP-DM4, by rationally modifying the A-site cation of the DAP-4 framework. Single-crystal analysis reveals that double methylation induces a structural transformation from the conventional three-dimensional perovskite network to a one-dimensional chain architecture, while simultaneously eliminating labile N–H bonds. This molecular passivation raises the decomposition temperature to 373.5 °C and improves friction insensitivity, providing a new strategy for designing ultra-heat-resistant perovskite energetic materials.