Search Results (4,194)

Reproducing SM4 (GB/T 32907-2016) hardware-accelerator results on open-source RISC-V platforms is difficult, because most published designs depend on proprietary FPGA toolchains. This paper contributes an asymmetric dual-channel SM4 architecture together with a fully reproducible open-source verification framework; physical on-board acceleration is not claimed and is left as future work. The architecture exploits two algorithmic symmetries of SM4—encryption and decryption differ only in round-key order, and the round transform T shares the byte-wise S-box $\tau$ with the key-expansion transform $T^{\prime }$—but maps them onto an asymmetric workload. Bulk encryption is throughput-bound, whereas key expansion runs once per session. Accordingly, a 32-stage fully unrolled encryption pipeline (one 128-bit block per cycle in steady state) is paired with a single round function reused iteratively for the key schedule, and encryption and decryption share one datapath via round-key reversal. Because the TH1520 SoC on LicheePi 4A does not expose the Xuantie C910 RoCC port, we verify the design in three reproducible tiers on the board itself: (T1) RTL co-simulation of an sm4_rocc wrapper passes 1040/1040 vectors for both the standalone datapath and the full system. (T2) A pure-C reference model passes 10/10 GB/T 32907-2016 vectors on the real C910 at a measured 291.9 Mbps. (T3) A Linux illegal-instruction trap-and-emulate prototype confirms ISA and OS-level semantics. Open-source synthesis (Yosys + SkyWater Sky130) gives a measured area of 133 kGE and a switching-dominated post-synthesis power estimate of ≈0.28 W at 100 MHz (≈22 pJ/bit, ≈46 Gbps/W). At 100 MHz the unrolled pipeline reaches an RTL simulation-equivalent steady-state throughput of 12.8 Gbps, about 43.9× the software baseline. Every reported number is reproducible with open-source tools only (Icarus Verilog, GTKWave, GCC, Yosys, Sky130 PDK). Full article

Folate is an essential vitamin associated with protein and DNA synthesis in the body. Compared with synthetic folic acid, 6S-5-methyltetrahydrofolate calcium salt crystal form C (MTHF CAC) is safer and has a higher bioavailability. In this study, a nanofiber membrane (MT-GE) was prepared from fish gelatin and MTHF CAC in the aqueous system via electrospinning. Differential scanning calorimetry showed higher transition temperatures for MT-GE than for GE. The weight loss curve of MT-GE detected by thermogravimetric analysis was higher than that of GE. The results corresponded to those of X-ray diffraction, which indicated the slightly higher crystalline strength of MT-GE than GE. Therefore, the inclusion of MTHF CAC improved the physical characteristics of GE nanofibers. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis revealed that the retention of MTHF CAC in MT-GE reached 85.57%, which suggested that electrospinning caused no effect on the properties of MTHF CAC. The MT-GE membrane supported cell proliferation, and the Cell Counting Kit-8 results indicated that the cell proliferation rate exceeded 100%, with the MT-GE solution demonstrating more than double the proliferation rate of the control group. Therefore, MT-GE has great potential for use as a medical biomaterial. Full article

Euonymus maackii is an important ornamental tree species valued for its autumn foliage in northern China. To precisely elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the distinct leaf coloration types in E. maackii during autumn, this study aimed to identify the optimal reference genes for qRT-PCR normalization across different tissues, developmental stages, and autumn leaf coloration types. Using 10 different tissues of E. maackii as experimental materials, 10 candidate reference genes were comprehensively evaluated for expression stability using three software tools, including geNorm, and the RefFinder online platform, with structural genes of the pigment biosynthesis pathway employed for validation. The comprehensive evaluation revealed that TIP41 was the most stable reference gene across different tissues, developmental stages, and the full sample set; EF-1α exhibited the highest stability among samples representing different autumn leaf coloration types; and GAPDH was the least stable in all sample groups. Quantitative validation of target genes demonstrated that when EF-1α and TIP41 were used in combination for normalization, the expression patterns of pigment biosynthesis structural genes were highly consistent with the phenotypic changes observed in autumn leaf coloration. In summary, this study recommends TIP41 as a universal reference gene for expression analysis across different tissues and developmental stages of E. maackii; for studies involving different autumn leaf coloration types, a dual-reference normalization approach combining EF-1α and TIP41 is recommended. Full article

Neocinnamomum caudatum (Nees) Merr. is an underutilized woody oil plant with seeds rich in long-chain fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Reliable quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis is essential for investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying seed oil biosynthesis, but suitable reference genes have not yet been validated in this species. Here, seven candidate reference genes, namely EF-1α, ACT2, ACT11, UBQ11, TUA, F-BOX, and GAPDH, were selected from transcriptomic data and evaluated in leaves, flowers, and developing seeds of N. caudatum. Their expression stability was assessed using geNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper, followed by comprehensive ranking with RankAggreg. Among all tested samples (leaves, flowers and developing seeds combined), GAPDH was identified as the most stable reference gene, whereas EF-1α was the least stable. For developing seeds alone, TUA showed the highest stability, while EF-1α exhibited poor stability. In leaf and flower samples, ACT11 was the most stable gene, whereas TUA was unsuitable for normalization. The expression patterns of NcFAD2 and NcFatB, two genes involved in fatty acid biosynthesis, were used to validate the selected reference genes. Stable reference genes and the optimized multi-gene combination generated consistent expression profiles, while unstable reference genes caused evident distortion. This study provides the first systematic evaluation of reference genes for qRT-PCR analysis in N. caudatum and offers a practical foundation for future functional studies of lipid metabolism in this woody oil plant. Full article

Reverse transcription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) is a highly efficient and sensitive technique for quantifying gene transcript levels. The accuracy of gene expression analysis depends critically on the selection of appropriate reference genes for normalization, which is essential to minimize technical variation arising from differences in RNA quality, reverse transcription efficiency, and sample handling. Schisandra chinensis is a medicinally important plant with a long history of use in traditional Chinese medicine and has gained increasing global recognition. In recent years, a growing number of studies have employed molecular biology approaches to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying secondary metabolite biosynthesis in S. chinensis. However, systematically validated reference genes for RT-qPCR analysis in this species have not yet been established. In the present study, the expression stability of eleven candidate reference genes was evaluated across different tissues and under various abiotic stress conditions in S. chinensis using four statistical algorithms: geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, and RefFinder. Comprehensive analysis revealed that PP2A15 and UBC2 were the optimal reference gene combination for leaves; UBC2 and UBC11 for stems; RPL6 and PP2A15 for roots; RPL21 and RPL6 for fruits; and RPL6 and UBC11 as the best-performing pair across all tissue types. Under abiotic stress conditions, UBC11 and UBC2 exhibited the highest stability in both leaves and roots under salt stress; UBC2 and GPN1 proved most stable under alkaline stress; UBC2 and RPL6 were identified as the most suitable combination under drought stress; and UBC2 and UBQ12 demonstrated consistently stable expression across all three abiotic stress treatments. The reliability of these reference gene combinations was further validated by examining the expression profiles of three target genes. Collectively, these findings establish a validated reference gene toolkit for future gene expression studies in S. chinensis, particularly for the functional characterization of genes involved in lignan biosynthesis and abiotic stress responses. Full article

In this study, the microstructural changes and coarsening behavior of Ag₃Sn in Sn-6.4Sb-3.9Ag-0.25Ni-0.003Ge (mass%) during high-temperature aging were investigated. Additionally, low-cycle fatigue tests were conducted to compare the fatigue behavior of Sn-6.4Sb-3.9Ag-0.25Ni-0.003Ge with that of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu. At room temperature, SbSn phases are dispersed in the β-Sn matrix. As the temperature rises, Sb atoms dissolve in the β-Sn phase; thus, the SbSn phases disappear, and some of the atoms aggregate. The activation energy was 45 kJ/mol for the coarsening of Ag₃Sn in Sn-6.4Sb-3.9Ag-0.25Ni-0.003Ge due to aging. Ag₃Sn coarsening was estimated to be controlled by the lattice diffusion of Ag atoms in the β-Sn phase. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the solid solution of Sb atoms in the β-Sn phase reduces the solubility limit of Ag atoms in the β-Sn phase, which delays the coarsening of Ag₃Sn. Regarding fatigue properties, while both alloys exhibited comparable low-cycle fatigue behavior at room temperature, the fatigue ductility exponent’s increase was confirmed to be suppressed for the Sn-6.4Sb-3.9Ag-0.25Ni-0.003Ge alloy at 175 °C. This trend suggests that the delayed coarsening of Ag₃Sn maintains the cyclic strain-hardening exponent, thereby influencing high-temperature fatigue behavior. Full article

The performance of inverted CH₃NH₃GeI₃ (MAGeI₃) perovskite solar cells incorporating both a hole transport layer (HTL) and an electron transport layer (ETL) was investigated using the Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator (SCAPS). Three candidate HTLs, including PEDOT:PSS, MoS₂, and WS₂, along with five ETLs including PCBM, TiO₂, IGZO, ZnO, and SnO₂, have been systematically evaluated. The analysis shows that WS₂ and SnO₂ provided the most favorable hole and electron transport, respectively. To improve device efficiency, the absorber layer thickness, defect density in MAGeI₃, doping levels of WS₂ and SnO₂, as well as the interface defect densities and the work function of indium tin oxide (ITO), have been systematically studied. The optimal absorber layer thickness is determined to be approximately 900 nm. The optimal doping density of both WS₂ and SnO₂ is 1 × 10¹⁹ cm⁻³. The MAGeI₃ layer should maintain a defect density as low as 1 × 10¹⁵ cm⁻³, and the defect densities at MAGeI₃ interfaces should remain at 1 × 10¹⁵ cm⁻². Additionally, an ITO work function of at least 5.2 eV is necessary to prevent the formation of a Schottky barrier at the ITO/WS₂ interface. The simulated power conversion efficiency (PCE) can reach 22.9% under these optimized conditions. Our simulation results offer a viable route to develop high-efficiency MAGeI₃ perovskite solar cells. Full article

Background/Objectives: Genetic testing (GT) is essential for precision therapy in prostate cancer (PC). Implementation in routine outpatient cancer care remains heterogeneous. We assessed real-world data on GT practices among German Outpatient Urologists (GOUs) to identify strategies for improvement. Methods: A nationwide, multi-center survey was conducted among GOUs in Germany (02–06/2025), assessing demographics, qualifications, and GT behavior. Cochran-Armitage test for trend and Fisher’s exact test were used to assess associations; odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were estimated using binary logistic regression. Results: In total, 117 GOUs participated, all practiced in outpatient settings. GT differed by disease stage: in localized prostate cancer, 6.0% reported ordering somatic testing (SoT) and 8.5% germline testing (GeT), compared to 67.5% and 42.7%, respectively, in metastatic disease. Overall, 29.1% reported not ordering GT of any kind. Ordering SoT for metastatic disease was significantly lower among senior physicians compared to early- and mid-career physicians (43% vs. 78% and 74%; OR 0.46 per career stage, 95% CI 0.27–0.79, p = 0.004). GeT did not differ significantly by experience (OR 0.90 per career stage, 95% CI 0.56–1.46, p = 0.67). Neither gender (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.31–1.74), nor having a qualification in urological cancer-specific genetic counseling (26.5% of respondents; OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.33–1.98) was significantly associated with testing. BRCA1 and BRCA2 were recognized by 96.6% of respondents. Knowledge of other PC-associated genes was much lower. Conclusions: Despite guideline recommendations, GT, particularly GeT, remains underutilized in PC care in Germany. Senior physicians tested significantly less, and gene knowledge beyond BRCA1/2 was limited. Full article

Early flowering-related factors play pivotal roles in coordinating plant growth and reproductive development. In this study, we investigated the biological function of early flowering gene (ELF) in Arabidopsis thaliana using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing and construction of overexpression approaches. Two independent ELF overexpression (OE-ELF) and genome-edited (ge-elf) lines were generated and systemically analyzed. ELF overexpression significantly enhanced early seedling performance, increasing germination rate and seedling fresh weight by up to 8.7%, while genome-edited lines exhibited a marked reduction. Root growth was strongly promoted in OE-ELF plants, with root length increase of 85% and 75%, whereas ge-elf lines showed a reduction of up to 48%. At later developmental stages, OE-ELF plants displayed enhanced vegetative growth, including increased leaf length (32%), leaf area (91%), and accelerated flowering (21% earlier than wild type). In contrast, ge-elf delayed flowering by up to 25% and resulted in compact plant architecture. Reproductive development was severely compromised in ge-elf plants, which exhibited malformed inflorescences, reduced pollen germination, shortened silique (45%), and a drastic decrease in seed number per silique (70%). Conversely, OE-ELF plants showed increased silique number and seed per silique. Molecular analysis revealed that ELF positively regulates key flowering-related genes, including FLC, SOC1, AP1, and LFY, which correlated strongly with growth and reproductive traits. Our results demonstrate that ELF functions as a central regulator integrating vegetative growth, floral development, male fertility, and seed production in Arabidopsis thaliana. Full article

Object detection in low-light scenes is difficult because weak illumination reduces local contrast, amplifies sensor noise, and makes small or occluded objects hard to localize. Existing enhancement-before-detection pipelines can improve visual brightness, but they are not always optimized for detection features, while transformer-style global reasoning is often too costly for lightweight detectors. To address this gap, we propose GE-Detection, a detector-side framework that integrates Global Sub-Sampled Attention (GSA), Efficient Multi-scale Attention (EMA), and dropout regularization into YOLO- and PicoDet-style architectures. GSA introduces lower-cost global context modeling through spatially reduced key-value tokens, EMA refines multi-scale fused features without aggressive channel compression, and dropout improves training-time regularization with no inference-time parameter overhead. Experiments on COCO, ExDark, BDD100K-Night, and NightOwls show that the method is most effective in low-light detection: on ExDark with YOLO11n, mAP50-95 improves from 34.39% to 36.74%, mAP50 from 56.24% to 59.27%, and Box (P) from 67.63% to 71.36%. The full YOLO11n variant uses 2.91M parameters and maintains 134.7 FPS on an RTX 2080 Ti under the tested setting. Cross-dataset and corruption experiments further indicate that the proposed modules improve localization under several nighttime domain shifts while retaining known limitations under severe noise and adverse weather. These results indicate that combining efficient global attention, multi-scale feature recalibration, and targeted regularization can improve low-light localization while keeping the detector practical for deployment. Full article

The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider marked a major milestone in our understanding of electroweak symmetry breaking. Since then, increasingly precise measurements by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations, based primarily on proton–proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$ corresponding to about $140{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ per experiment, have confirmed its compatibility with Standard Model predictions within current uncertainties. The Higgs boson mass is now measured with a precision of about 0.08%, while its couplings to fermions and bosons are determined at the 7–20% level. The completion of the LHC programme and the High-Luminosity LHC, will probe Higgs boson couplings at the few-percent level. However, sub-percent precision is required for stringent tests of the Standard Model, as any deviation would signal new physics beyond it. This strongly motivates future collider facilities, designed both as high-precision Higgs factories and, in many cases, as energy-frontier machines. Within the framework of the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, we discuss the physics case and main characteristics of the proposed particle collider options, highlighting their complementarity, technological challenges, and expected performance. The 2026 Strategy Update identifies the FCC-ee collider as the preferred next flagship project at CERN. Operating at the Z pole and at centre-of-mass energies between 240 and 365 GeV, it would enable model-independent, per-mille-level precision on Higgs boson couplings, while providing a pathway to a future high-energy hadron collider. The Higgs sector thus constitutes a central laboratory for precision tests of the Standard Model and for exploring the fundamental structure of our universe. Full article

Hyblaea puera is a major pest of teak and mangroves. Reliable RT-qPCR normalization requires stable reference genes, none of which have been validated in H. puera. In this study, we assessed the expression stability of ten candidate reference genes under different experimental conditions. Stability was evaluated using the ΔCt method, BestKeeper, NormFinder, and geNorm, and a comprehensive stability ranking was generated using the RefFinder online tool. Our results indicated that amplification efficiencies ranged from 91.67% to 100.82%, with R² values exceeding 0.9901. The optimal reference gene combinations varied by condition: Ribosomal Protein L27 (RPL27) and Ribosomal Protein L10 (RPL10) for temperature treatments; Actin and RPL10 for larval instars; Ribosomal protein S5 (RPS5) and Elongation factor-1α (EF-1a) for adult sexes; RPL10 and EF-1a for tall developmental stages; RPL10 and RPS5 for tissues; as well as EF-1α and Actin for all combined conditions. Finally, the expression profiles of target gene Lethal were evaluated, and the outcomes further confirm the importance of selecting fitting reference genes for normalization of qRT-PCR data. These results provide the evaluated reference gene sets for H. puera, facilitating more accurate RT-qPCR normalization in future molecular studies of host plant adaptation (teak vs. mangroves), temperature tolerance, and larval development in this pest. Full article

This research investigates a vertically structured Ge-on-Si avalanche photodetector (APD) fabricated in a separate absorption, charge, and multiplication configuration. The application of ramp gating enables reverse bias beyond the punch-through voltage, allowing the device to operate in linear avalanche mode. A significant dark avalanche current is observed under steady conditions, exhibiting linear multiplication approximately proportional to the input gating and thermal generation rate. Notably, this linear behavior persists even at voltages beyond the Geiger mode. The observed results are attributed to Ge/Si interface traps caused by the 4.18% lattice mismatch and deep-level traps introduced during fabrication. Under 1550 nm short-wave infrared normal-incidence pulsed illumination, the device exhibits negative differential resistance, attributed to illumination-induced self-quenching of electric field in multiplication region and modification of the barrier at the Ge/Si interface. A light-induced slow transient decrease in the absolute dark-state current is followed by a sustained inverse quenching effect, restoring the large dark-state current. These findings offer insights into the dynamic behavior of Ge-on-Si APDs, with potential implications for advanced optoelectronic applications. Full article

Background: Artificial Intelligence (AI) software in mammography is trained on a set of processed images and may be less effective when applied to images acquired on different systems or systems with different processing and/or acquisition settings. The aim of this work was to undertake a retrospective audit of a large number of mammography systems in the United Kingdom and identify the number of differences in image acquisition and processing factors. Methods: Images of the TORMAM phantom are acquired as part of the routine quality control programme. Data from the DICOM header of these images were extracted to provide a snapshot in time of the system configurations. A longitudinal audit of DICOM header data for all of the Hologic systems was tested by one medical physics department (MPD1) over 14 years. Results: We received results from 28 UK medical physics services for 498 systems. There were 7 different models of mammography systems, each with up to 7 different versions of acquisition workstation software. Each mammographic model had multiple image processing versions, including bespoke settings. The GE had two dose settings, while Siemens systems had a range of doses from 80% to 150% of the standard dose. In the longitudinal audit, there were between 2 and 6 software versions in concurrent use on the Hologic systems tested by MPD1. Conclusions: This study showed the heterogeneity of system setup across the UK in a single year, as well as changes to system setup over time. These differences may affect the outcomes of both AI and human readers. There are responsibilities on AI suppliers, mammography equipment manufacturers, breast-screening units, and medical physics services to ensure outcomes are not adversely affected by differences or changes in mammography equipment configurations. Full article

The optical transition characteristics of fully strained Ge_1−xSn_x films grown on Ge substrate were investigated by high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The results showed Sn composition-dependent nonlinear behaviors in interband transition energies. The influence of strain on nonlinear behaviors was identified by the ratio of bowing parameters. Optical transition energies are largely tuned due to the strain-induced band structure. The strain in GeSn alloys may be responsible for the fluctuation of interband transition energies. The effect of full strain appears to result in an opposite trend in the direct and indirect band gap energies. The transition from indirect-to-direct band gap semiconductor in the present work is determined to be x = 0.103 at 300 K. These results contribute to further exploration into band gap engineering for mid-infrared optoelectronic materials. Full article