Ensuring equitable access to healthcare services safeguards individual wellbeing and enhances society’s overall happiness. This study investigates the complex relationships between spatial hospital accessibility, spatial inequality, and urban wellbeing, focusing on the physical dimension of access measured by travel time. Using geospatial and economic data from 13,776 hospitals, this study reveals that inequality in hospital accessibility, as measured by the Gini coefficient, significantly and negatively impacts urban happiness. Additionally, the results reveal a nonlinear, inverted U-shaped relationship between hospital accessibility and city-level happiness, indicating an optimal threshold beyond which marginal benefits decline. Additionally, the results indicate a key mediating mechanism: unequal access drives population out-migration and reduces the permanent resident population. This outcome, in turn, partially transmits adverse effects to city-level wellbeing. These findings demonstrate substantial spatial and contextual heterogeneity, underscoring the need for policymakers to tailor urban health policies that prioritize enhancing accessibility and ensure equitable distribution to foster sustainable demographic stability and overall urban wellbeing.
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) photosynthesis from H2O and O2 using covalent organic frameworks (COFs) is a sustainable approach, yet its efficiency is restricted by a sluggish water oxidation reaction (WOR) due to insufficient water adsorption and charge separation. Herein, we propose a facile and universal polar center spatial-manipulation strategy to enable efficient H2O2 photosynthesis by COFs via converting high-polarity C═N linkages into 4-carboxyl-quinolyl linkages with weakened-polarity quinoline backbones and ultra-polar carboxyl side chains (forming COF-TBC). This polar-center side-shifting strategy concurrently enhances water adsorption (via the polar carboxyl side chain) and water activation (enabled by efficient exciton formation and separation along the low-polarity quinoline backbone) by COF-TBC, lowering the energy barrier of the rate-determining WOR and achieving outstanding and stable H2O2 photosynthesis from O2 and H2O without sacrificial agents (5624 µmol g−1 h−1, accumulating to 41 mM, solar-to-chemical efficiency of 0.72%). The polar-center side-shifting strategy can be extended to modify other COFs for enhancing H2O2 photosynthesis, indicating its universality. COF-TBC maintains high H2O2 yield in complex real-water matrices and can be integrated into membrane-based and continuous-flow reactors for successive H2O2 generation under natural sunlight. COF-TBC also exhibits efficient photocatalytic performance toward organic contaminant degradation and microorganism inactivation, highlighting its broad potential for water purification.
Implementing Higher-Order Ambisonics (HOA) on consumer devices is hindered by their sparse, irregular microphone arrays, which challenge conventional methods with issues like spatial aliasing and ill-conditioning. This paper proposes a unified Spherical Harmonic Beamforming (SHB-AE) framework that recasts HOA encoding as a spatial filtering problem, enabling robust, signal-independent solutions. We develop two approaches: a frequency-domain (FD) method with compensation for high-frequency artifacts, and a time-domain (TD) methodthat holistically optimizes broadband FIR filters for enhanced stability. The framework is inherently scalable, allowing on-demand order expansion. Using a measured smartphone array, comprehensive objective and subjective evaluations demonstrate the clear superiority of theTD method. It excels in signal fidelity, spatial accuracy, and temporal consistency, outperforming baseline and FD approaches. The TD method also maintains its advantage in adverse conditions, showing remarkable robustness against noise, reverberation, and multi-source environments.It provides a practical, high-performance pathway for enabling high-fidelity spatial audio capture on ubiquitous consumer devices without requiring complex signal analysis or large datasets.
Chinese-domestic large language models such as Doubao, DeepSeek, and Qwen have become the primary LLM platforms, and have the potential to shape the digital environment for classical scholarship within Chinese digital domains due to their ubiquitousness, low-cost and ease of use. Yet their training data for ancient Greek and Latin philology is sparse relative to frontier Western models that remain regionally inaccessible. This paper reports a format-comparison experiment testing whether, and by what mechanism, the encoding format of a digital edition determines the scholarly quality of AI output when these models are queried about a disputed passage in the so-called Periplus Maris Erythraei §56 (line 537), where the phrase μεστὰ πλοῖα has attracted four competing readings. The paper tests whether, and by what mechanism, the encoding format of a digital edition can lead to good philological reasoning of complex textual phenomena. The study may bear implications for further efficient and AI-primed enrichment of digital editions within the Chinese domain that facilitates research and study of Classical Studies in the European tradition.
Awe, a self-transcendent emotion, has been theoretically posited as a precursor to wise reasoning. However, direct empirical evidence supporting this relationship and the underlying mechanism has been limited. In four studies (N = 3700), we examined the relationship between awe and wise reasoning, as well as the mediating effect of self-transcendence, employing cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental designs. We consistently found that awe had a lagged effect on (Study 1), enhanced (Studies 2 & 3), and was associated with (Study 4) wise reasoning. Furthermore, self-transcendence mediated this relationship (Studies 3 & 4). The impact of awe on wise reasoning and mediating effect of self-transcendence could not solely be attributed to awe’s predominantly positive nature, and the mediation model was established beyond the influence of self-smallness (Studies 3–4). These findings contribute to understanding the emotional trigger of wise reasoning, the cognitive implications of awe, and its role in promoting wise conflict resolution.
The abuse of antibiotics leads to widespread antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in water systems, threatening public health. Existing disinfection technologies have limitations including the generation of toxic disinfection byproducts (DBPs) and inefficiency in eliminating intracellular ARGs. Herein, we provide an effective and toxic-DBP-free disinfection approach to remove ARB/ARGs by reactive species generated via activation of sodium percarbonate (SPC) inside and outside cells with naturally abundant sunlight. Combining in situ characterization and theoretical calculation, we reveal that CO3•–, •OH, and O2•– are generated both intra- and extracellularly. SPC passively diffusing into cells complexes with intracellular substances (e.g., heme, Fe–S cluster protein, and cytochrome c) to produce various reactive species in situ under sunlight irradiation, leading to the locally increased oxidation levels within cells. These reactive species synergistically contribute to the collapse of the antioxidant system, resulting in effective ARB inactivation and ARGs degradation. Owing to its limited reactivity toward background substances in water and effective intracellular oxidation mechanisms, the SPC/sunlight system demonstrates efficient ARB disinfection capabilities without any toxic DBPs generation in real water. This study presents a green, cost-effective, and toxic-DBP-free alternative for efficient ARB/ARGs removal with deep insights into intracellular oxidation mechanisms.
Fe(II)-catalyzed ferrihydrite (Fh) transformation is a critical process controlling secondary Fe mineral formation, Fe redox reactivity, and the cycling of associated nutrients and trace elements in anoxic and suboxic environments. Although aqueous Fe(II) (Fe(II)aq) availability is known to regulate Fh transformation pathways, the critical Fe(II)aq concentration required for magnetite (Mt) formation at different temperatures remains poorly understood. Here, we investigated Fe(II)-catalyzed Fh transformation at 25, 45, and 65 °C under anoxic, circumneutral pH conditions across a range of initial Fe(II)aq concentrations. Time-resolved analyses of mineral phases, Fe(II) speciation, particle morphology, and magnetic properties were combined with thermodynamic calculations to determine how temperature regulates transformation kinetics, pathway selection, and Mt formation. Increasing temperature significantly reduced the apparent Fe(II)aq threshold for Mt formation, from > 10.0 mM at 25 °C to 0.6–0.8 mM at 45 °C and 0.3–0.4 mM at 65 °C. Mineralogical evolution followed a two-stage pathway: rapid Fh dissolution and accumulation of lepidocrocite (Lp) and goethite (Gt) during Stage I, followed by Lp consumption and competitive partitioning between Gt growth and Mt formation during Stage II. Elevated temperature shifted the dominant Stage II pathway from template-directed Gt growth toward Lp-to-Mt conversion, changing the overall pathway from Fh → Lp/Gt → Gt to Fh → Lp/Gt → Mt/Gt. Thermodynamic calculations further showed that Stage I nucleation barriers favored Lp and Gt over direct Mt formation, whereas during Stage II, higher temperature enhanced the nucleation driving force and lowered the nucleation barrier for Lp-to-Mt conversion, while the corresponding thermodynamic parameters for Lp-to-Gt conversion remained nearly unchanged. Fe(II) speciation further showed that higher temperatures promoted Fe(II) adsorption and structural Fe(II) incorporation, facilitating the formation of mixed-valence Mt. The delayed appearance of Mt after Lp accumulation, together with rapid Lp consumption and enhanced Fe(II) incorporation, indicates that temperature-promoted Mt formation proceeds mainly through dissolution-reprecipitation rather than direct Fh-to-Mt solid-state conversion or oriented-attachment-dominated growth. The resulting Mt particles displayed temperature-dependent morphological and magnetic characteristics. These findings demonstrate that moderate warming expands the Fe(II)aq window for Mt formation by altering both the thermodynamic accessibility and kinetic competition of secondary mineralization pathways, providing new constraints for predicting Fe mineral phase selection in thermally dynamic biogeochemical environments.
Spiders are renowned for their ecological versatility and silk-based innovations in materials science, yet marine environments remain virtually uncolonized by this predominantly terrestrial lineage. A striking exception is the obligate intertidal spider genus Desis, whose members have evolved extraordinary physiological and behavioural adaptations to persist in wave-swept, saline habitats that oscillate between land and sea. However, the molecular basis of these adaptations has remained largely unexplored. Here, we present a high-quality, chromosome-scale genome of the intertidal spider Desis jiaxiangi, together with a reference genome of the water spider Argyroneta aquatica, integrated with transcriptomic and proteomic data. This multi-omics framework reveals the genomic architecture underlying adaptation to life at the ocean's edge. We uncover expansions of gene families linked to hormone biosynthesis and DNA repair, alongside signatures of adaptive evolution in genes involved osmoregulation, the rate-limiting step of glycolysis, mitochondrial regulation, epithelial tube morphogenesis and circadian rhythm. Notably, we characterize a novel silk spidroin enriched with a unique GVGAKV motif, which may enhance silk hydrophobicity, and detect the duplication burst of hemocyanin genes likely supporting oxygen transport during submersion. Together, these findings reveal convergent molecular strategies for coping with extreme and fluctuating environments, and demonstrate how genomic innovation enables terrestrial lineages to invade marine-influenced ecosystems. Our study establishes Desis as powerful model for understanding adaptation at terrestrial–marine interface.
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) pose global threats to human health and ecological safety. Activation of percarbonate (PC) by eco-friendly bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI) is a promising ARB/ARGs removal technique, yet its efficiency is hindered by the insufficient exposure of reactive Bi sites. Herein, we provide a facile protocol to fabricate BiOI with remarkable PC activation efficiency (BOI-C) for the ultrafast ARB/ARGs removal via modulating reactive Bi sites through introducing optimal Bi3-oxygen vacancy (OV) sites on the unsaturated facets. We show that BOI-C with optimal amount of Bi3-OV site can efficiently activate 50 µM PC to rapidly disinfect 7-log ARB to the limit of detection within only 4 min. Moreover, this reaction system can effectively degrade the released ARG and suppress the horizontal gene transfer process, greatly decreasing the risks of ARG dissemination. Negligible toxic halogen-containing disinfection byproducts is generated during the disinfection process, indicating the outstanding ecological safety of BOI-C/PC system. The reaction system can also effectively disinfect ARB under complex water chemistries including a broad pH range (3–9), high ionic strengths (up to 150 mM), copresence of natural organic matter (up to 10 mg L−1), and diverse actual water samples including tap water, lake water, groundwater and aquaculture tailwater. Furthermore, it can also be assembled into a filtration system for successive ARB disinfection, demonstrating the feasibility for practical application. The catalytic system also exhibits excellent ARB disinfection performance across various bacterial strains and effective degradation performance towards different types of emerging organic pollutants, suggesting its universal decontamination capability. Combining in-situ characterizations and theoretical calculations, we reveal that Bi3-OV sites on the unsaturated facets of BOI-C facilitate the p-p interaction with peroxy O atoms of PC molecules and trigger the electron transfer as well as the subsequent cleavage of peroxy bonds, generating abundant CO3•− for the ultrafast ARB disinfection. The results of this study show that BOI-C/PC system can be employed to effectively remove antibiotic resistance in real water.
