Dechuan Sun, Gregory Tanyi, Alan Lee, Chris French, Younger Liang, Christina Lim, Ranjith R Unnithan
{"title":"Design and fabrication of a low-cost liquid optical waveguide for augmented reality.","authors":"Dechuan Sun, Gregory Tanyi, Alan Lee, Chris French, Younger Liang, Christina Lim, Ranjith R Unnithan","doi":"10.1038/s44172-025-00469-4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s44172-025-00469-4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The design and production of augmented reality (AR) waveguide combiners face considerable challenges due to the intricate nature of conventional fabrication techniques and the need for high precision. To overcome these obstacles, the field requires rapid prototyping methods that enable researchers and engineers to swiftly explore various designs and configurations, thereby accelerating the development process. Here, we have developed a cost-effective method for fabricating liquid geometric waveguide combiners for AR applications using silicone oil as the medium, leveraging the capabilities of Polyjet 3D printing. During the design phase, we optimized the structure of the waveguide combiner to facilitate easier fabrication. Our proposed method simplifies the production process by removing the need for complicated steps like dicing, layer bonding, and polishing, which are usually involved in traditional manufacturing techniques. We conducted optical simulations and developed a prototype using our patented fabrication method, successfully demonstrating its feasibility for rapid prototyping.</p>","PeriodicalId":72644,"journal":{"name":"Communications engineering","volume":"4 1","pages":"131"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144692593","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ghada Zamzmi, Adarsh Subbaswamy, Elena Sizikova, Edward Margerrison, Jana G Delfino, Aldo Badano
{"title":"Scorecard for synthetic medical data evaluation.","authors":"Ghada Zamzmi, Adarsh Subbaswamy, Elena Sizikova, Edward Margerrison, Jana G Delfino, Aldo Badano","doi":"10.1038/s44172-025-00450-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44172-025-00450-1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":72644,"journal":{"name":"Communications engineering","volume":"4 1","pages":"130"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12280076/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144683720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Aerodynamic significance of mass distribution on diverse samara descent behaviors.","authors":"Zhao-Bang Hou, Jun-Duo Zhang, Yun-Da Li, Yong-Xia Jia, Wei-Xi Huang","doi":"10.1038/s44172-025-00465-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44172-025-00465-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Samaras, or wing seeds, feature fibrous appendages that act as wings to enable wind-driven dispersal. Diversity in morphologies and structures subtly contributes to the flight patterns of various seeds, thereby serving as a key factor in the reproductive strategies of plants. To explore the mechanisms underlying various samara flight behaviors, we proposed an effective framework by manipulating the mass distribution on a plate to mimic various three-dimensional descent behaviors of samaras. Through this approach, we experimentally identified and characterized four distinct flight modes. The three-dimensional vortical structures were then numerically analyzed to gain insights into the samara-inspired flight behaviors. Our study innovatively demonstrates how strategic mass distribution in samaras leads to diverse flight behaviors that leverage vortices to enhance seed dispersal, offering a fresh perspective for the design of biomimetic fliers.</p>","PeriodicalId":72644,"journal":{"name":"Communications engineering","volume":"4 1","pages":"129"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12274521/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144669026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Explainability in the age of large language models for healthcare.","authors":"Munib Mesinovic, Peter Watkinson, Tingting Zhu","doi":"10.1038/s44172-025-00453-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44172-025-00453-y","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":72644,"journal":{"name":"Communications engineering","volume":"4 1","pages":"128"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12271443/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144661149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Shape memory alloys for cryogenic actuators.","authors":"Shunsuke Sato, Hirobumi Tobe, Kenichiro Sawada, Chihiro Tokoku, Takao Nakagawa, Eiichi Sato, Yoshikazu Araki, Sheng Xu, Xiao Xu, Toshihiro Omori, Ryosuke Kainuma","doi":"10.1038/s44172-025-00464-9","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44172-025-00464-9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Actuators are widely used in various mechanical products. However, there have been no actuators that can exhibit high actuation stresses and strains at cryogenic temperatures. Although shape memory alloys (SMAs) are attractive candidates for thermally driven actuators with high actuation stresses and strains, the operation of conventional SMAs is limited to a narrow temperature range near the room temperature. Here, we report the shape memory effect under tensile conditions with a high work output across a wide temperature range of 50-270 K in Cu-Al-Mn-based alloys. In addition, a mechanical heat switch using Cu-Al-Mn was designed for thermal insulation in space infrared telescope, and we demonstrated the operation at around 100 K. These results indicate that Cu-Al-Mn SMAs are potential cryogenic actuators with high actuation stress and strain that would contribute to the development of low temperature technologies in various fields including space astronomy, superconductivity, and liquefied gas industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":72644,"journal":{"name":"Communications engineering","volume":"4 1","pages":"124"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12267560/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144651383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Leveraging satellite observations and machine learning for underwater sound speed estimation.","authors":"Madusanka Madiligama, Zheguang Zou, Likun Zhang","doi":"10.1038/s44172-025-00459-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44172-025-00459-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Underwater acoustics plays a vital role in climate science, marine ecosystems, environmental monitoring, mineral exploration, and oceanography. Accurate underwater sound speed data is crucial for acoustic modeling and applications such as sonar systems. However, limited data and computational constraints hinder real-time, high-resolution mapping of three-dimensional sound speed fields. We present an integrated approach that combines remote sensing, machine learning, and underwater acoustics to estimate sound speed across vast ocean regions. By analyzing sea surface temperature and salinity from satellite observations, we use machine learning to rapidly and accurately predict 3D underwater sound speed. Incorporating spatial and temporal variables enables detailed, real-time mapping. Validation against in-situ profiles and Argo float data confirms the model's accuracy across seasons, regions, and timeframes. This approach advances underwater sound speed prediction beyond traditional limits. Acoustic propagation modeling further demonstrates the potential of our model for applications in underwater detection, communication, and noise analysis.</p>","PeriodicalId":72644,"journal":{"name":"Communications engineering","volume":"4 1","pages":"126"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12263853/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144644272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Le Zhang, Yunfeng Liang, Arata Kioka, Takeshi Tsuji
{"title":"Economically viable geological CO<sub>2</sub> storage from direct air capture has critical threshold of 70% CO<sub>2</sub> concentration.","authors":"Le Zhang, Yunfeng Liang, Arata Kioka, Takeshi Tsuji","doi":"10.1038/s44172-025-00468-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44172-025-00468-5","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Direct Air Capture (DAC), a key component of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), has been widely studied. However, its large-scale deployment is hindered by the high energy cost of purifying captured CO<sub>2</sub>. Using impure CO<sub>2</sub> can reduce energy consumption and overall costs, but it also lowers storage efficiency. This work employs molecular dynamics simulations to examine storage efficiency by analyzing the impurity systems' density across a wide temperature and pressure range. The results indicate a strong similarity between the density changes at the macroscopic level and the Van der Waals interaction changes at the molecular level. Additionally, the Normalized Storage Efficiency caused by Impurities (NSEI) is proposed, which can be used for storage potential and cost evaluation. A detailed NSEI analysis suggests that CO<sub>2</sub> concentration should reach at least 70% to achieve economically viable storage. This finding provides practical guidance for DAC capture system design and impurity CCS project planning.</p>","PeriodicalId":72644,"journal":{"name":"Communications engineering","volume":"4 1","pages":"127"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12264126/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144644271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Operation optimisation of direct current microgrids toward stability and economy: a model-data co-driven framework.","authors":"Yuxin Zhu, Fei Wang, Zhengyu Lin, James Fleming","doi":"10.1038/s44172-025-00466-7","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44172-025-00466-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Direct current microgrids are widely regarded as a promising clean power system technique. However, the microgrid stability is challenged by routine operations and unplanned faults, especially when the operation optimisation overly pursues economy at the expense of stability. This paper proposes a stability-constrained operation optimisation to balance the stability and economy of islanded direct current microgrids. The proposed stability-constrained operation optimisation is formulated as a nonlinear optimisation model and a model-data co-driven solution algorithm is developed. The proposed method strictly guarantees the stability requirements. Furthermore, the proposed method consists of local convex approximations and a small amount of stability evaluation, thus exhibiting high efficiency. Case study illustrates that the proposed method is not affected by prediction errors and avoids the violation of stability constraints. In some tests, the proposed method keeps the solution time within seconds compared to the model-driven method that may take up to the minute level.</p>","PeriodicalId":72644,"journal":{"name":"Communications engineering","volume":"4 1","pages":"125"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12259914/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144638829","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aris Tsirigotis, George Sarantoglou, Stavros Deligiannidis, Erica Sánchez, David Sanchez, Ana Gutierrez, Adonis Bogris, Jose Capmany, Charis Mesaritakis
{"title":"Author Correction: Photonic neuromorphic accelerator for convolutional neural networks based on an integrated reconfigurable mesh.","authors":"Aris Tsirigotis, George Sarantoglou, Stavros Deligiannidis, Erica Sánchez, David Sanchez, Ana Gutierrez, Adonis Bogris, Jose Capmany, Charis Mesaritakis","doi":"10.1038/s44172-025-00463-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44172-025-00463-w","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":72644,"journal":{"name":"Communications engineering","volume":"4 1","pages":"123"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12246481/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144610460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sophia Long, Lisa Lopez, Bethan Ford, François Balembois, Riccardo Montis, Wern Ng, Daan M Arroo, Neil McN Alford, Hamdi Torun, Juna Sathian
{"title":"LED-pumped room-temperature solid-state maser.","authors":"Sophia Long, Lisa Lopez, Bethan Ford, François Balembois, Riccardo Montis, Wern Ng, Daan M Arroo, Neil McN Alford, Hamdi Torun, Juna Sathian","doi":"10.1038/s44172-025-00455-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44172-025-00455-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Room-temperature MASERs (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) amplify electromagnetic waves at microwave frequencies with minimal noise. We demonstrate a cost-effective LED-pumped maser using pentacene-doped para-terphenyl as the gain medium. Here, we show that LED light, which is brightness-enhanced and guided via a cerium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet luminescent concentrator, achieves persistent maser emission at 1.45 GHz with a duration of 200 µs and a microwave output power of 0.014 mW, surpassing previous non-laser pumped systems. Operating at low voltage, the LED-pumped maser ensures safety, reduced costs, and simple integration. Potential applications include sensitive magnetic resonance imaging, portable atomic clocks, quantum technologies, and enhanced deep-space radio astronomy.</p>","PeriodicalId":72644,"journal":{"name":"Communications engineering","volume":"4 1","pages":"122"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12241473/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144602422","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}