A compact fiber-based system has been developed to compress mid-infrared laser pulses to 187 femtoseconds using low input power. By integrating a holmium-doped ZBLAN photonic crystal fiber within a nonlinear optical loop mirror, the approach achieves high compression efficiency with minimal pedestal energy, offering a simplified route to ultrafast mid-IR sources for spectroscopy and biomedical imaging.

Light speckle fluctuations, a noninvasive proxy for cerebral blood flow index (CBFi), are quantified by diffuse correlation spectroscopy. However, this conventional technique provides marginal brain sensitivity for CBFi in adult humans. To improve the brain sensitivity, researchers have now optimized interferometric diffusing wave spectroscopy—a novel approach to quantify the fluctuations. They demonstrated pulsatile CBFi monitoring at 4–4.5 cm source-collector separation in adults with moderate pigmentation.

Drug-drug interactions (DDI) can cause adverse drug reactions during the co-administration of multiple drugs, necessitating accurate and scalable prediction tools. While deep learning models have shown promise recently, most models show poor performance against drugs not encountered during training. Now, researchers have developed a lightweight and scalable model, called DDINet, designed specifically to predict unseen drug interactions. This innovative model achieves superior accuracy in predicting interactions for unseen drugs, with potential for practical deployment.

In new results from a clinical trial, researchers show that electrical stimulation of the spinal cord can restore the muscle control and sensory feedback required for coordinated walking movements.

Rice University researchers Jianwei Huang and Ming Yi have developed a new capability, magnetoARPES, building on angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) that allows researchers to study quantum behaviors they have been unable to resolve using ARPES alone.