The electrochemical oxidation of glycerol (GOR) is gaining traction as a sustainable method to convert biodiesel byproducts into valuable chemicals and fuels, aligning with global demands for renewable energy and green production. Recent advances in catalyst design, reaction mechanisms, and system integration are driving progress, though challenges in selectivity, stability, and scalability remain pivotal for industrial adoption. Researchers are tuning both noble and non-noble metal catalysts—through methods such as facet engineering and single-atom doping—to selectively steer reactions toward high-value multi-carbon products. Furthermore, coupling GOR with cathodic processes like hydrogen evolution or CO₂ reduction offers a path to lower energy use and co-produce clean fuels. Key hurdles, including mass transfer limits and feedstock compatibility, still need addressing. Proposed solutions range from advanced electrode assemblies to integrated techno-economic assessments. Moving forward, a system-level approach that balances technical performance with economic viability will be essential to accelerate GOR technology toward real-world application.

Exosomes facilitate cell-to-cell communication and are involved in key biological processes. Understanding the mechanisms regulating exosome production could offer new therapeutic insights for various diseases. Here, Prof. Zhong’s team demonstrates that exosome secretion is significantly inhibited when glucose is replaced with galactose as the primary carbon source in the culture medium. This glycometabolic regulation of exosome secretion is dependent on the cellular hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP). Inhibition of HBP via gene knockdown, pharmacological blockade, or metabolite deprivation markedly suppresses exosome secretion. Mechanistically, HBP regulates multivesicular body (MVB) outward trafficking and its fusion with the plasma membrane via synaptosomal-associated protein 25 (SNAP25). O-GlcNAcylation of SNAP25 promotes soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor (SNARE) complex assembly, thereby facilitating exosome release. In summary, these findings reveal a critical role of HBP and protein O-GlcNAcylation in exosome secretion, which may provide new therapeutic targets for exosome-associated diseases, including cancer and inflammatory disorders.

In the field of polyoxometalate chemistry, organophosphonate covalently modified polyoxometalates have recently emerged as a promising frontier. These hybrid materials not only broaden the structural diversity of conventional polyoxometalate derivatives and address the inherent stability limitations of polyoxometalates, but also allow for the design of improved properties tailored to diverse applications. This review provides a comprehensive summary of recent advances in organophosphonate covalently modified polyoxometalates research, with a particular focus on their structural features, functional properties, and prospective research directions.

Digital twin (DT) technology is emerging as a core solution for future marine development and intelligent ocean management. The review systematically reviews digital twin applications in the marine field, clarifies its concept, proposes a five-layer framework, and summarizes key technologies, including sensing, data management, modeling, simulation, and monitoring. It highlights DT’s ability to synchronize physical marine systems with virtual models in real time, enabling simulation, prediction, optimization, and decision-making. The authors further outline challenges and development prospects, showing how DT can support deep-sea resource exploitation, offshore wind energy, marine engineering, vessel autonomy, environmental monitoring, and system reliability assessment.

Polyoxometalates are promising inorganic drugs with antiviral activity; however, they pose a risk to humans because of their potential accumulation in the body. Polyoxometalates encapsulated with berberine from a traditional Chinese herb may exhibit lower cytotoxicity. In this study, the antiviral effects of four berberine-based organic–polyoxometalate hybrids (BR-POMs) on BHK-21 and PK-15 cells were evaluated in vitro using encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) or pseudorabies virus (PRV) models. The collected cells were used for quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis. The supernatants were collected to quantify the viral loads using a TCID50 assay in vitro. EC50 and CC50 were determined through dose–response experiments, and the EC50/CC50 ratio was used as a selectivity index to measure the antiviral activity. The results demonstrate that all BR-POMs exhibited certain antiviral activity. The BR-POMs did not exert toxicity against the EMCV- or PRV-infected cells at the tested concentration (CC50 > 40 μM). Notably, BR-EuSiW (EC50 15.07 μM, CC50 651.2 µM, SI 43.21) exerted antiviral effects by acting on the virus at its biosynthesis stage, thereby inhibiting virus proliferation in a dose-dependent manner. This study demonstrates that organic–polyoxometalate hybrids represent a new strategy for developing antivirals against EMCV.

Multimodal large language models have shown powerful abilities to understand and reason across text and images, but their massive size and computational cost limit real-world deployment. This research systematically examines how multimodal models can be made more efficient without severely sacrificing performance. By analyzing lightweight architectures, visual token compression strategies, efficient training methods, and compact language backbones, the study maps out the technical pathways that reduce memory demand and inference cost. The work highlights how efficiency-focused design enables multimodal intelligence to move beyond cloud-based systems toward broader, more accessible applications, including mobile devices and edge computing environments.

Underwater wireless power transfer is emerging as a key technology for enabling long-duration, maintenance-free operation of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). This review provides the most comprehensive overview to date of magnetic-coupling-based underwater wireless charging, addressing challenges such as eddy current losses in seawater, misalignment caused by ocean dynamics, and the growing need for simultaneous transfer of power and data. By comparing transmitter–receiver coil structures, compensation networks, and control strategies, the research identifies design pathways that significantly enhance efficiency, stability, and tolerance to dynamic marine conditions. The work also highlights emerging simultaneous wireless power and data transfer (SWPDT) methods that could reshape the future of marine sensing and robotic operations.

Hair loss and graying, the earliest visible hallmarks of skin aging, result from the functional decline of hair follicle stem cells (HFSCs) and their niche. Dr. Zhao and colleagues conducted a comprehensive analysis of human scalp samples using single-cell RNA sequencing (11 samples, 57,181 cells in total) and spatial transcriptomics (1 sample) to detail the mechanisms involved. The study confirmed the transitional stages of three mitotic keratinocyte subtypes. Comparison of middle-aged and young scalps revealed three key age-associated changes: activated AP-1 transcription factor complex in keratinocytes; up-regulated DCT gene in melanocytes; and a dramatic decrease in BMP and non-canonical WNT (ncWNT) signaling within the critical dermal papilla-keratinocyte crosstalk. This breakdown of essential inter-cellular communication and activation of stress signals provides valuable, cell-resolved insights into hair follicle aging, supporting the development of future regenerative therapies targeting these pathways.

Large-scale Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations have become a focal point for providing round-the-clock high-fidelity information services. However, their efficient and economical batch deployment faces severe challenges from growing demands and multiple constraints, with existing methods struggling to address the computational complexity in large-scale scenarios. To meet this pressing need, this study published in the Chinese Journal of Aeronautics proposes an innovative deployment optimization framework. At its core, it constructs a novel partial time-expanded network and employs an efficient hybrid algorithm to significantly reduce constraint explosion, enhancing solution efficiency and scalability. The framework supports dual-channel, multi-configuration rocket strategies and flexible deployment under multiple mission triggers through weighted optimization. Ultimately, it effectively reduces deployment costs, improves optimization efficiency, and provides reliable decision support for large-scale constellation deployment.

Heterogeneous interface engineering is key to tailoring intrinsic electromagnetic wave (EMW) attenuation. However, fully harnessing the functional benefits of these interfaces requires precise control of their architecture—a major challenge in hierarchical heterostructure design.