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Strong oxygen octahedral coupling is found to transfer the octahedral rotation between NdGaO₃ and La_2/3Sr_1/3MnO₃, allowing manipulation of the heterostructures’ magnetic and electronic anisotropic properties by engineering the oxygen network.

Machine-learning algorithms trained on 25,000 geolocated soil samples are used to create high-resolution global maps of mycorrhizal fungi, revealing that less than 10% of their biodiversity hotspots are in protected areas.

Rare earth Nickelates, (RENiO₃) host a bond disproportionation phase transition where oxygen 2p holes form at one of the Ni sites. This process results in a spin-disproportionation state where a singlet state is formed by the spin of the nickel and the spin of the oxygen hole at every other site. Here, Li et al find evidence of this spin-disproportionated state in a rareearth nickelate.

A cross-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) including 29,612 patients with ALS and 122,656 controls identifies 15 risk loci with distinct genetic architectures and neuron-specific biology.

In this randomized, controlled integrated phase 1/2/3a/3b clinical trial, the authors show that the self-amplifying mRNA COVID-19 vaccine ARCT-154 shows good immunogenicity and is safe and efficient against COVID-19 (57% against any COVID-19, and 95% against severe COVID-19).

The future challenges and potential opportunities of robotics and autonomous systems in urban ecosystems, and how they may impact biodiversity, are explored and prioritized via a global horizon scan of 170 experts.

John Chambers, Jaspal Kooner, Pim van der Harst, Shyong Tai, Paul Elliott, Jiang He, Norihiro Kato and colleagues performed a genome-wide association study of blood pressure phenotypes in individuals of European, East Asian and South Asian ancestry. They find trait-associated SNPs at 12 loci, some of which are associated with methylation at nearby CpG sites.

Unprecedented floods and droughts bring new challenges for risk reduction, as is clear from this analysis of the drivers of changing impacts in many cases worldwide, with implications for efficient governance and investment in integrated management.

Clinical studies have suggested that the therapeutic potential of polyclonal convalescent plasma is highest in the first days of symptoms. Here, the authors present results from a pooled analysis of two clinical trials in COVID-19 outpatients that did not provide conclusive evidence in favor of convalescent plasma.

Quek et al. survey endoscopists across ten Asian countries, exploring their perspectives on the use of artificial intelligence in gastrointestinal endoscopy. Perceived benefits, adoption barriers, research priorities, and the proposed role of an Asia AI Task Force are detailed.

Cancer immunotherapeutic agents can be tumour-targeted to improve their therapeutic efficacy. Here the authors engineer Salmonella typhimurium loaded with cytolysin A and flagellin B to potentiate its anti-tumour activity in primary and metastatic tumours.

A spatial taxonomic framework integrating genomic, morphological, ecological, life history and acoustic data is used to clarify the cryptic evolution of the taxonomically controversial mouse lemur complex, with a view to aiding future conservation of this and other similarly cryptic clades.

The authors summarize the data produced by phase III of the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, a resource for better understanding of the human and mouse genomes.

Most studies of the genetics of the metabolome have been done in individuals of European descent. Here, the authors integrate genomics and metabolomics in Black individuals, highlighting the value of whole genome sequencing in diverse populations and linking circulating metabolites to human disease.

Saliency methods are used to localize areas of medical images that influence machine learning model predictions, but their accuracy and reliability require investigation. Saporta and colleagues evaluate seven saliency methods using different model architectures, and find that saliency maps perform worse than a human radiologist benchmark.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rapidly progressing neurodegenerative disease. Here, Wray and colleagues identify association of the GPX3-TNIP1 locus with ALS using cross-ethnic meta-analyses.

Narcolepsy has genetic and environmental risk factors, but the specific genetic risk loci and interaction with environmental triggers are not well understood. Here, the authors identify genetic loci for narcolepsy, suggesting infection as a trigger and dendritic and helper T cell involvement.

The AI for Social Good movement aims to apply AI/ML tools to help in delivering on the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs). Here, the authors identify the challenges and propose guidelines for designing and implementing successful partnerships between AI researchers and application - domain experts.

In the first results from an ongoing global cancer screening data repository, screening program organization was better overall in Europe compared to other continents; however, there were substantial gaps in implementation across both high- and low-resource settings.

Species’ range shifts projections are usually based on climate and land cover variables. Here, the authors use long-term records for bird species to show that species distribution models accounting for climate and land cover often fail to predict observed range shifts.

The bacterium Streptococcus suiscauses respiratory tract infections in pigs and meningitis in humans. Here, the authors show that human disease isolates are limited to a single virulent population and find no consistent genomic differences between pig and human isolates.

Life-threatening vascular tumors can be associated with uncontrolled activity of the guanine nucleotide-binding protein subunit alpha (Gαq). Here, the authors develop a murine model for these tumors and show that MEK inhibition prevents formation of vascular lesions and improves survival.

Previously documented record values of the fusion triple product in the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X are shown to be evidence for reduced neoclassical energy transport in this optimized device.

Early stellarator designs suffered from high particle losses, an issue that can be addressed by optimization of the coils. Here the authors measure the magnetic field lines in the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator, confirming that the complicated design of the superconducting coils has been realized successfully.

Results from the first experimental campaign of the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator demonstrate that its magnetic-field design grants good control of parasitic plasma currents, leading to long energy confinement times.

Wildlife hunting can support diets and socio-economic well-being in communities around the world, but overexploitation can have cascading ecosystem effects. This study examines socio-cultural, economic and landscape factors associated with wildlife hunting in tropical forests in Africa.

Laser microdissection and microarrays are used to assess 900 precise subdivisions of the brains from three healthy men with 60,000 gene expression probes; the resulting atlas allows comparisons between humans and other animals, and will facilitate studies of human neurological and psychiatric diseases.

The comet assay is commonly used to assess DNA damage. This collection of consensus protocols includes adaptations for a wide range of species and sample types, assay formats and detection of different types of DNA lesions.

Reducing soil degradation and improving soil management could make an important contribute to climate change mitigation. Here the authors discuss opportunities and challenges towards implementing a global climate mitigation strategy focused on carbon sequestration in agricultural soils, and propose a framework for guiding region- and soil-specific management options.