Musical training is an enrichment activity involving multiple senses, including auditory, visual, somatosensorial, attention, memory, and executive function (EF), all of which are related to cognition. This study examined whether musical training enhances EF in preschool children who had not undergone previous systematic music learning. This study also explored the after-effects 12 weeks after cessation of musical training. Participants were 61 preschool children from a university-affiliated kindergarten in North China. The experimental group underwent 12 weeks of integrated musical training (i.e., music theory, singing, dancing, and role-playing), while the control group performed typical daily classroom activities. The three components (inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility) of executive functions were evaluated using the Day/Night Stroop, Dimensional Change Card Sort, Dot Matrix Test, and Backward Digit Span Task. In Experiment 1, EFs were tested twice-before (T1) and after (T2) the music training. The results showed that children’s EFs could be promoted by musical training. In addition, EFs were tested again 12 weeks later after the end of the intervention (T3) in Experiment 2. We discovered that integrated musical training demonstrated a sustained promotion effect.

Epigenetic mediation through bromodomain and extraterminal (BET) proteins have progressively translated protein imbalance into effective cancer treatment. Perturbation of druggable BET proteins through proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) has recently contributed to the discovery of effective therapeutics. Unfortunately, precise and microenvironment-activatable BET protein degradation content with promising tumor selectivity and pharmacological suitability remains elusive. Here, we present an enzyme-derived clicking PROTACs (ENCTACs) capable of orthogonally cross-linking two disparate small-molecule warhead ligands that recognize BET bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4) protein and E3 ligase within tumors only upon hypoxia-induced activation of nitroreductase enzyme. This localized formation of heterobifunctional degraders promotes specific down-regulation of BRD4, which subsequently alters expression of epigenetic targets and, therefore, allows precise modulation of hypoxic signaling in live cells, zebrafish, and living mice with solid tumors. Our activation-feedback system demonstrates compelling superiorities and may enable the PROTAC technology with more flexible practicality and druggable potency for precision medicine in the near future.

This work presents a smart solar regulation strategy through the photon tunable long persistent phosphors as solar harvest antenna to enhance overall sunlight utilization by the photosynthetic organisms in multiple...

We present a remote Michelson interferometric phase sensor based on dual-core fiber transmission and linear phase demodulation. The former allows for synchronous transmission of both sensing signal and reference lights, enabling efficient suppression for the environmental disturbances along the transmission link and for the incoherent phase noise between the two lights. The latter is conducted by two optical phase-locked loops, one of which consists of a fiber stretcher that is used to eliminate the residual phase noises, thus stabilizing the operation point while the other relies on a phase modulator that is used to track the remote phase changes, thus achieving a highly linearized phase demodulation. A remote phase sensing over a 20 km fiber link with less than 3% nonlinear phase error over 3 π range has been readily realized, corresponding to more than 10 times extension in a linear phase demodulation range. The proposed system shows great potential in the field of remote phase sensing for a variety of physical quantities.

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Photosynthetic microorganisms, especially microalgae and cyanobacteria, have been well‐developed as attractive biomaterials with their eigen oxygen production capability, high‐value metabolites, and diverse biofunctionalities. Moreover, recent advances in nanotechnology and materials sciences also witnessed promising prospects by integrating unique properties of distinctive functional materials with photosynthetic microorganisms to construct material‐decorated photosynthetic microorganisms (MPMs) that can foster diversified biomedical functions. These integrated MPM hybrids can serve as smart cargoes for targeting therapeutic delivery, mainly due to their modifiable surface morphology, actuated propulsion, good biocompatibility, and spacious encapsulating effect. Moreover, attributing to the intrinsic oxygenation and autofluorescence, the MPMs can also act as the oxygen supplier to conduct various oxygen‐related modulation and image‐guided therapies. This review systematically outlines the recent advances of MPMs as unique platforms to achieve their targeted drug delivery. In addition, promising applications of these micro‐sized biohybrids for in situ oxygen modulation and oxygen‐related therapeutic manipulation are also summarized. Some relevant applications regarding their synergistic theranostics and the feasibility as the macro‐sized scaffold for tissue engineering and wound healing are also carefully covered. Finally, current challenges and future perspectives of these multifunctional material‐microbe hybridized conjugations are also discussed.

A coherent dual-wavelength frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) lidar utilizing dual-heterodyne mixing which permits efficient phase noise cancellation has been proposed. Consistent ranging resolution about 1.4 × 10−6 over distances beyond tens of intrinsic coherence length is achieved.