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Background: The tomato russet mite (TRM), Aculops lycopersici, is a strictly herbivorous and economically significant pest that infests Solanaceae plants, but its host suitability varies, showing high performance on tomatoes. Although symbiotic bacteria have been suggested to play crucial roles in the host adaptation of herbivores, their effects on TRM remain unclear., Results: In this study, using next generation high-throughput sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA data, we identified the bacterial diversity and community composition of TRM feeding on tomato, eggplant, and chili. Our results show no significant difference in the bacterial community composition of TRM across three host plants. However, the relative density of Escherichia coli (TRM_Escherichia) showed 9.36-fold higher on tomato than on eggplant and chili. These results align with the observed TRM performance among three host plants. When TRM_Escherichia was reduced using antibiotics, the treated TRM decreased the population density on tomato. However, when we transferred TRM from eggplant to tomato, the population density of TRM increased, coinciding with an increase of the TRM_Escherichia density. These results indicate that TRM_Escherichia may affect the host suitability of TRM. Our fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) results further showed that TRM_Escherichia is primarily distributed in the salivary glands. Metagenomic data results suggest that TRM_Escherichia functions in food digestion and energy metabolism., Conclusion: We provided the first comprehensive analysis of TRM bacterial communities. Our findings demonstrate that the symbiotic bacterium TRM_Escherichia may play crucial roles in the suitability of TRM feeding on different Solanaceae hosts. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.)

Species complex hinders the exploration of terrestrial species diversity, particularly in small arthropod lineages that are morphologically indistinguishable from each other. The Epitrimerus sabinae complex in the Eriophyoidea provides a valuable case study in species complex delimitation, as they exhibit limited morphological variations. In this study, we obtained thousands of nuclear genomic single-nucleotide polymorphisms via whole-genome sequencing from 55 E. sabinae complex specimens, covering their potential all known distribution ranges. We implemented a framework to infer cryptic speciation, which involved phylogenetic and genetic clustering to identify potential species, followed by population demographic assessment to confirm lineage independence (and thus species status). Our results demonstrate that the E. sabinae complex comprises ten distinct species. These species range from highly divergent, genetically isolated lineages, to differentiated populations involving gene flow. This gene flow is widespread across species boundaries, indicating potential genetic introgression among them. Additionally, demographic analyses revealed that the ten species have followed unique trajectories in size change during the Quaternary period. Time-calibrated phylogenies further showed that speciation in the E. sabinae complex occurred rapidly, resulting in a rapid radiation during the Neogene period. Collectively, parallelism/convergence and recent divergence involving multiple gene flows may explain the homoplasy of E. sabinae complex. Our results highlight the integrated approach in species complex delimitation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Simultaneous localization of light to extreme spatial and spectral scales is of high importance for testing fundamental physics and various applications. However, there is a longstanding trade-off between localizing a light field in space and in frequency. Here we discover a new class of twisted lattice nanocavities based on mode locking in momentum space. The twisted lattice nanocavity hosts a strongly localized light field in a 0.048 λ 3 mode volume with a quality factor exceeding 2.9 × 10 11 (∼250 μs photon lifetime), which presents a record high figure of merit of light localization among all reported optical cavities. Based on the discovery, we have demonstrated silicon-based twisted lattice nanocavities with quality factor over 1 million. Our result provides a powerful platform to study light-matter interaction in extreme conditions for tests of fundamental physics and applications in nanolasing, ultrasensing, nonlinear optics, optomechanics and quantum-optical devices., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2022 The Authors. Publishing Services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd.)

Background: C-arm-guided percutaneous puncture balloon compression alone has risk factors of puncture failure, complications, and poor prognosis. Robot-assisted PBC can effectively increase the one-time puncture success rate and improve the safety of the procedure. However, evidence on the superiority of robot-assisted PBC over C-arm-guided PBC alone remains relatively limited., Methods: Retrospective analysis The clinical data of 60 patients with trigeminal neuralgia aged 60 years or older in the Department of Neurosurgery of the Fourth Hospital of Harbin Medical University from January 2021 to October 2021. There were 29 males and 31 females, and the patients' ages ranged from 60 to 79 years, with an average of 71.63 ± 5.12 years. Two groups were divided according to the surgical method, the C-arm guidance-only group (30 cases, n  = 30) and the robot-assisted group (30 cases, n  = 30). The success rate of first puncture, total operation time, number of "pear-shaped" balloons, number of C-arm x-ray scans, and immediate postoperative relief rate were recorded in both groups, and follow-up was performed to evaluate the postoperative results and complications. The overall evaluation of postoperative results and complications was performed., Results: Intraoperative balloon compression was successfully completed in all 60 patients, and the first puncture success rate was higher in the robot-assisted group than in the simple C-arm group, with a significant difference between the two groups ( P  < 0.001). In terms of intraoperative balloon morphology, the number of "pear-shaped" balloons was higher in the PBC than in the C-arm-only PBC group, with a significant difference between the two groups ( P  < 0.005). The degree of immediate postoperative remission in the robotic group was 0 VAS score, which was not statistically significant in both groups ( P  > 0.05). By the final follow-up, the mean VAS score of the robot-assisted group was lower than that of the simple C-arm group, and both were statistically significant ( P  < 0.05); complications of masticatory muscle weakness or abnormal facial sensation occurred in both groups after surgery, but the number of cases in the robot-assisted group was less than that of the simple C-arm group., Conclusion: Robot-assisted PBC is better than PBC with a C-arm x-ray machine in terms of first puncture success rate, number of intraoperative balloon "pear-shaped" cases, number of C-arm x-ray scans and short-term efficacy., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2022 Dong, Zhan, Shao, Gu, Gao, Zhou, Li, Ma, Wang and Liang.)

Arachnida is an exceptionally diverse class in the Arthropoda, consisting of 20 orders and playing crucial roles in the terrestrial ecosystems. However, their interordinal relationships have been debated for over a century. Rearranged or highly rearranged mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) were consistently found in this class, but their various extent in different lineages and efficiency for resolving arachnid phylogenies are unclear. Here, we reconstructed phylogenetic trees using mitogenome sequences of 290 arachnid species to decipher interordinal relationships as well as diversification through time. Our results recovered monophyly of ten orders (i.e. Amblypygi, Araneae, Ixodida, Mesostigmata, Opiliones, Pseudoscorpiones, Ricinulei, Sarcoptiformes, Scorpiones and Solifugae), while rejecting monophyly of the Trombidiformes due to the unstable position of the Eriophyoidea. The monophyly of Acari (subclass) was rejected, possibly due to the long-branch attraction of the Pseudoscorpiones. The monophyly of Arachnida was further rejected because the Xiphosura nested within arachnid orders with unstable positions. Mitogenomes that are highly rearranged in mites but less rearranged or conserved in the remaining lineages point to their exceptional diversification in mite orders; however, shared derived mitochondrial (mt) gene clusters were found within superfamilies rather than interorders, confusing phylogenetic signals in arachnid interordinal relationships. Molecular dating results show that arachnid orders have ancient origins, ranging from the Ordovician to the Carboniferous, yet have significantly diversified since the Cretaceous in orders Araneae, Mesostigmata, Sarcoptiformes, and Trombidiformes. By summarizing previously resolved key positions of some orders, we propose a plausible arachnid tree of life. Our results underline a more precise framework for interordinal phylogeny in the Arachnida and provide new insights into their ancient evolution., (© 2022 Willi Hennig Society.)

Eriophyoid mites (Acari: Eriophyoidea) are among the smallest of terrestrial arthropods and the most species-rich group of herbivorous mites with a high host specificity. However, knowledge of their species diversity has been impeded by the difficulty of their morphological differentiation. This study assembles a DNA barcode reference library that includes 1850 mitochondrial COI sequences which provides coverage for 45% of the 930 species of eriophyoid mites known from China, and for 37 North American species. Sequence analysis showed a clear barcode gap in nearly all species, reflecting the fact that intraspecific divergences averaged 0.97% versus a mean of 18.51% for interspecific divergences (minimum nearest-neighbour distances) in taxa belonging to three families. Based on these results, we used DNA barcoding to explore the species diversity of eriophyoid mites as well as their host interactions. The 1850 sequences were assigned to 531 barcode index numbers (BINs). Analyses examining the correspondence between these BINs and species identifications based on morphology revealed that members of 45 species were assigned to two or more BINs, resulting in 1.16 times more BINs than morphospecies. Richness projections suggest that over 2345 BINs occurred at the sampled locations. Host plant analysis showed that 89% of these mites (BINs) attack only one or two congeneric host species, but the others have several hosts. Furthermore, host-mite network analyses demonstrate that eriophyoid mites are high host-specific, and modularity is high in plant-mite networks. By creating a highly effective identification system for eriophyoid mites in the Barcode of Life Data Systems database (BOLD), DNA barcoding will advance our understanding of the diversity of eriophyoid mites and their host interactions., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Conventional laser cavities require discontinuity of material property or disorder to localize a light field for feedback. Recently, an emerging class of materials, twisted van der Waals materials, have been explored for applications in electronics and photonics. Here we propose and develop magic-angle lasers, where the localization is realized in periodic twisted photonic graphene superlattices. We reveal that the confinement mechanism of magic-angle lasers does not rely on a full bandgap but on the mode coupling between two twisted layers of photonic graphene lattice. Without any fine-tuning in structure parameters, a simple twist can result in nanocavities with strong field confinement and a high quality factor. Furthermore, the emissions of magic-angle lasers allow direct imaging of the wavefunctions of magic-angle states. Our work provides a robust platform to construct high-quality nanocavities for nanolasers, nano light-emitting diodes, nonlinear optics and cavity quantum electrodynamics at the nanoscale., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

Spin-momentum locking is a direct consequence of bulk topological order and provides a basic concept to control a carrier's spin and charge flow for new exotic phenomena in condensed matter physics. However, up to date the research on spin-momentum locking solely focuses on its in-plane transport properties. Here, we report an emerging out-of-plane radiation feature of spin-momentum locking in a non-Hermitian topological photonic system and demonstrate a high performance topological vortex laser based on it. We find that the gain saturation effect lifts the degeneracy of the paired counterpropagating spin-momentum-locked edge modes enabling lasing from a single topological edge mode. The near-field spin and orbital angular momentum of the topological edge mode lasing has a one-to-one far-field radiation correspondence. The methodology of probing the near-field topology feature by far-field lasing emission can be used to study other exotic phenomena. The device can lead to applications in superresolution imaging, optical tweezers, free-space optical sensing, and communication.

Topological insulators are materials that behave as insulators in the bulk and as conductors at the edge or surface due to the particular configuration of their bulk band dispersion. However, up to date possible practical applications of this band topology on materials' bulk properties have remained abstract. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a topological bulk laser. We pattern semiconductor nanodisk arrays to form a photonic crystal cavity showing topological band inversion between its interior and cladding area. In-plane light waves are reflected at topological edges forming an effective cavity feedback for lasing. This band-inversion-induced reflection mechanism induces single-mode lasing with directional vertical emission. Our topological bulk laser works at room temperature and reaches the practical requirements in terms of cavity size, threshold, linewidth, side-mode suppression ratio and directionality for most practical applications according to Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and other industry standards. We believe this bulk topological effect will have applications in near-field spectroscopy, solid-state lighting, free-space optical sensing and communication.

Microarc oxidation (MAO) coated magnesium (Mg) with improved corrosion resistance appeal increasing interests as a revolutionary biodegradable metal for fractured bone fixing implants application. However, the in vivo corrosion degradation of the implants and bone healing response are not well understood, which is highly required in clinic. In the present work, 10μm and 20μm thick biocompatible MAO coatings mainly composed of MgO, Mg 2 SiO 4 , CaSiO 3 and Mg 3 (PO 4 ) 2 phases were fabricated on AZ31 magnesium alloy. The electrochemical tests indicated an improved corrosion resistance of magnesium by the MAO coatings. The 10μm and 20μm coated and uncoated magnesium plates were separately implanted into the radius bone fracture site of adult New Zealand white rabbits using a 3mm width bone fracture defect model to investigate the magnesium implants degradation and uninhibited bone healing. Taking advantage of the good biocompatibility of the MAO coatings, no adverse effects were detected through the blood test and histological examination. The implantation groups of coated and uncoated magnesium plates were both observed the promoting effect of bone fracture healing compared with the simple fracture group without implant. The releasing Mg 2+ by the degradation of implants into the fracture site improved the bone fracture healing, which is attributed to the magnesium promoting CGRP-mediated osteogenic differentiation. Mg degradation and bone fracture healing promoting must be tailored by microarc oxidation coating with different thickness for potential clinic application., (Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

We performed a case-control study to assess the relationship between six single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group F (XPF) on glioma risk in a Chinese population. The six SNPs were genotyped in 330 glioma cases and 652 cancer-free controls using a 384-well plate format on the Sequenom MassARRAY platform (Sequenom, San Diego, USA). Rs1800067 did not follow the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in the control group, and the genotype distributions differed significantly between the two groups for SNPs rs1800067 and rs2276466. For rs1800067, the variant genotype T/T was strongly associated with an increased risk of glioma when compared with the A/A genotype (OR=3.77, 95% CI=2.38-6.01). Individuals with the rs1800067 G allele had a relatively high risk of glioma in a dominant model (OR=3.47, 95% CI=2.26-5.37). The rs2276466 G/G genotype was significantly associated with a moderate increased risk of glioma (OR=1.82, 95% CI=1.10-3.02) in a codominant model, and variation of rs25489 was associated with a 1.31- and 1.78-fold glioma risk in dominant and recessive models, respectively. Our study is the first to identify polymorphisms in rs1800067 and rs2276466 as correlated with glioma susceptibility., (© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)