It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, February 25, 2025
The impact of smoking on respiratory rehabilitation efficacy and correlation analysis in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a retrospective study
• Non-smokers showed significant improvements in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), forced vital capacity (FVC), FEV1/FVC ratio, maximal voluntary ventilation, and diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide compared to smokers after rehabilitation.
• Non-smokers demonstrated greater enhancements in 6-minute walk distance and peak oxygen consumption post-rehabilitation compared to smokers.
• Non-smokers had significantly better scores in St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire, Medical Research Council dyspnea scale, and sleep quality assessments compared to smokers following rehabilitation.
What is known and what is new?
• Smoking induces chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, premature aging, and immune dysfunction in the lungs, leading to progressive damage of the airway epithelium, vascular endothelium, small airways, and alveoli, characteristic of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
• Smoking cessation as a critical factor in achieving optimal outcomes in pulmonary rehabilitation programs, influencing both physiological improvements and quality of life enhancements among patients with respiratory conditions.
What is the implication, and what should change now?
• Smoking significantly diminishes the effectiveness of respiratory rehabilitation in COPD patients, resulting in inferior improvements in pulmonary function, exercise capacity, quality of life, and sleep patterns compared to non-smokers.
Publication: Li M, Gao W. The impact of smoking on respiratory rehabilitation efficacy and correlation analysis in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a retrospective study. J Thorac Dis 2025;17(1):254-264. doi: 10.21037/jtd-24-1267
The impact of smoking on respiratory rehabilitation efficacy and correlation analysis in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a retrospective study
COI Statement
Both authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/jtd-24-1267/coif). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
The animal world is full of fascinating examples of cooperation between different animal species: from cleaner wrasses that rid larger fish of their parasites, or birds from the drongo family that warn meerkats of predators, to octopuses that hunt together with fish. But what mechanisms of perception, learning or decision-making do animals need in order to cooperate with other species for mutual benefit?
To address this question, biologist Eduardo Sampaio from the Cluster of Excellence “Collective Behaviour” at the University of Konstanz (Germany) and the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior teamed up with comparative psychologists Alexandra Schnell (Cambridge University; UK) and Piero Amodio (Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn; Italy). In their recent article inCurrent Biology, they explore possible cognitive foundations of cross-species social behaviour using the example of cooperative hunting in octopus and reef fish.
“Partnerships like these challenge traditional views of intelligence and cooperation in the animal kingdom,” says Sampaio. “From an evolutionary perspective, social complexity, problem solving and communication do not only arise within one's own group, but can also be shaped by the need to collaborate across species boundaries.”
A photo gallery on alliances in the animal kingdom, a video as well as further information on cooperative hunting of fish and octopuses is available in our online magazine campus.kn.
Key facts:
Original publication: E. Sampaio, A.K. Schnell, P. Amodio (2025) Cognition in multi-species sociality. Current Biology; doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2025.01.012
An interdisciplinary research team investigates the cognitive foundations of cross-species cooperation
All researchers involved are National Geographic Explorers
Funding: National Geographic Society (Meridian Grant Program)
Caption: The yellow reef fish (top left in the video) signals to the octopus (bottom right) where the prey is hiding. The octopus then moves towards the hiding place.
Caption: Some octopuses hunt together with different species of fish. The fish show the octopus the hiding places of potential prey. The octopus helps to flush the prey out of its hiding place, increasing the chances of a successful hunt for all members of the hunting party.
Caption: The cleaner wrasse feeds on the parasites of larger fish species. The larger fish tolerate the cleaner wrasse, as its feeding behaviour provides them with health benefits.
Caption: Honeyguide birds use their calls to attract the attention of humans and guide them to beehives in the area. Once the hive has been plundered by the humans, the honeyguide eats the remaining insects and wax.
Caption: Drongos, small passerine birds, forage with meerkats and warn them of approaching predators. Occasionally, however, they will deliberately mislead the meerkats to trick them into fleeing. The birds can then steal the food left behind by the fleeing meerkats.
Copyright: Bernard Gagnon/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Mutualistic interaction between caterpillars and ants is highly specific, study shows
Caterpillars secrete a sugary liquid that assures recognition and protection from predators by a certain ant species, but protection became attack when the pairings were switched in an experiment.
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Some families of caterpillars (larvae of butterflies and moths) have developed a specific kind of interaction with ants. One of these families (Riodinidae) includes two species that interact solely with two species of ants.
In a study publishedin the journal Insect Science, researchers in Brazil affiliated with the University of São Paulo (USP), the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL) show that this interaction is highly specific in the sense that each caterpillar species interacts only with one ant species. The study was supported by FAPESP.
In an experiment performed by the researchers involving switched caterpillar-ant pairs, the ants attacked and killed the caterpillars even when the latter used specific organs to secrete a sugary liquid that should have assured protection by ants.
The researchers also analyzed the cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) that cover the outermost layer (cuticle) of virtually all plants and insects, serving as a waterproofing agent and as a communication signal, among other functions.
“We found insect and plant CHCs to be quite different from each other. In caterpillars, they signal food for ants. The caterpillars in our experiment offered a sweet secretion that enabled them to be recognized and protected by certain ant species,” said Luan Dias Lima, first author of the study, which was conducted as part of her postdoctoral research at the University of São Paulo’s Ribeirão Preto School of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters (FFCLRP-USP), with funding from FAPESP.
In a previous study, the researchers demonstrated that other species that interact with ants may use a different strategy, hiding from the ants by releasing the same odor as the plant they inhabit (readmore at: agencia.fapesp.br/34787).
In the experiment, the researchers collected caterpillars of the species Juditha molpe, which live in harmony with ants of the species Dolichoderus bispinosus, and caterpillars of the species Nymphidium chione, which are found only where there are ants of the species Pheidole biconstricta. The caterpillars were collected at the Serra das Araras Ecological Station in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.
In one group, the researchers switched only the plant caterpillars and kept the same ant species. In another, they switched the pairs, putting J. molpe caterpillars with P. biconstricta ants and N. chione caterpillars with D. bispinosusants, while combining all of them with the same plant genus (Inga spp).
In the first group, the interaction was the same as it had been with the previous plant, and the pairs interacted harmoniously. The ants touched the caterpillars with their feelers until they located two openings to specific organs for communication by the caterpillars with ants. The caterpillars secreted a nectar, which the ants consumed, and soon afterward the ants began protecting the caterpillars.
With different ants, however, the outcome was unfavorable to the caterpillars. In this context, the ants at first ignored the caterpillars until they found the opening to one of the specialized nectar secretion organs. After the ants touched the site with their feelers, the caterpillars secreted the nectar, which initially calmed the ants.
This effect was short-lived, however. It ended when a caterpillar was unable to go on producing the nectar, or when the ants touched the region near another organ used solely for interaction with ants, and the organ did not react. After inspecting the caterpillar a little longer, the ants began behaving aggressively, opening their mandibles and biting.
“Almost all of the caterpillars were killed during this pair-switching treatment. Soldiers of the species P. biconstricta even used their strong mandibles to cut J. molpe into pieces,” Lima said.
Finding ants to pair with is so important for the caterpillars, he explained, that adult females lay eggs only on the plant species inhabited by the right ant species.
“When the eggs hatch, the ants will protect the caterpillars from predation by other animals. Without the ants’ protection, they die before their time,” he said.
The researchers now plan to find out whether the small amounts of CHC also ward off attacks by other natural enemies, such as predators and parasitoids that use chemical clues to locate prey and hosts.
About FAPESP
The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration.
Recently, a research team led by Professor Zhi-Guo Zhang from Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT), in collaboration with Professor Ye Long from Tianjin University, has made a breakthrough in the field of flexible polymer solar cells (PSCs). Their research has revealed the inherent trade-off of efficiency, stability and stretchability via acceptors materials structural regulation, providing critical insights for the bright future of flexible organic photovoltaics. The discovery has been published in National Science Review in an article entitled “Simultaneous enhancement of efficiency, stability and stretchability in binary polymer solar cells with a three-dimensional aromatic-core tethered tetrameric acceptor”.
What about the polymer solar cells (PSCs)?
Polymer Solar Cells (PSCs) is a promising emerging solar technology for powering wearable, portable devices, and such innovative areas. Compared with those of rigid solar panels based on inorganic materials (silicon, perovskite etc.), PSCs is made from organic (carbon-based) materials, which endow the benefits of lightweight, thin, flexible, affordable, and non-toxic.
Over the past five years, the power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of PSCs have improved significantly to over 20%. This progress is largely attributed to the development of a series of non-fullerene small molecular acceptors (SMAs). However, the stability and mechanical properties of PSCs devices are still not ideal for commercial applications, and the inherent trade-off of these performances are also lack of sufficient understanding for further advancements.
What about the scientific discovery?
As PSCs rely on a bulk heterojunction (BHJ) structure of polymer donors and SMAs to convert light into electricity, their performance in terms of morphological stability, mechanical robustness, and device efficiency, is inherently tied to these BHJ structures. High-efficiency PSCs often incorporate highly rigid and crystalline SMAs, which typically embrittle the conjugated BHJ films. Additionally, the thermodynamic relaxation of SMAs due to their low glass transition temperature (Tg) raises critical concerns regarding operational stability. Thus, a fundamental challenge is to enhance the morphological stability and mechanical robustness of PSCs without compromising their efficiency.
In this work, the authors designed a tethered giant tetrameric acceptor (GTA) with increased molecular weight that promotes entanglement of individual SMA units, The key to this design is using tetraphenylmethane as the linking core to create more free volume of acceptor component, and produce a three-dimensional and high C2 symmetry structure, which successfully regulate s their aggregation and relaxation behavior. Thus the sub-Tg relaxation of the polymer donor can be maintained, thereby preserving film robustness.
As a result, the PM6:GTA-based blend films exhibit a nearly 150% improvement in crack onset strain compared to their PM6:Y6 counterparts. The GTA-based intrinsically stretchable device retained 88% of their initial PCE under 15% strain and approximately 76% after 150 stretch-release cycles, whereas the Y6-based devices failed. Moreover, the PM6:GTA-based devices achieved a significantly higher PCE of 18.71% and demonstrated outstanding photostability, maintaining over 90% of their initial PCE after more than 1000 hours of operation. Notably, this represents the first case of a non-fullerene acceptor simultaneously enhancing efficiency, stability, and stretchability in binary polymer solar cells.
What about the further advancements?
This research highlights the advantages of a tethered design strategy using three-dimensional core-tethered SMAs, which increase Tg and suppress the thermodynamic relaxation of the acceptor component. In such design, multi-scale supramolecular interactions of the sub SMA units, allow precise regulation of aggregation and relaxation properties in PSC films, improving efficiency, stability, and mechanical properties. Further exploration of molecular architecture could enable flexible PSCs to offer a sustainable and durable energy solution for wearable technologies.
This study was conducted in collaboration with Professor Long Ye from Tianjin University and Dr. Yang Bai from Huanghuai University.
About the paper
Yang Bai, Saimeng Li, Qingyuan Wang, Qi Chen, Ze Zhang, Shixin Meng, Yu Zang, Hongyuan Fu, Lingwei Xue, Long Ye* and Zhi-Guo Zhang*. Simultaneous enhancement of efficiency, stability and stretchability in binary polymer solar cells with a three-dimensional aromatic-core tethered tetrameric acceptor. Natl. Sci. Rev., nwaf019. (* Corresponding authors)
Link to the paper: https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaf019.
About Authors
Zhi-Guo Zhang: Prof. Zhang received his Ph.D. degree from Wuhan University, and completed a joint training program at the National University of Singapore. Following this, he pursued postdoctoral research at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS), subsequently advancing to an associate research faculty position. He is currently a Full-Professor at the College of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology. Professor Zhang's research group specializes in:
High-performance polymer solar cells
Physics and engineering of organic photovoltaic devices
Molecular design and synthesis of novel conjugated organic semiconductors
E-mails: zgzhangwhu@iccas.ac.cn
Long Ye: Prof. Ye has been a Professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin University, since October 2019. He received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (advisor: Prof. Jianhui Hou) in July 2015. From August 2015 to September 2019, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher and was later promoted to Research Assistant Professor in Prof. Harald Ade’s group at the Department of Physics, North Carolina State University. His current research focuses on the morphological and mechanical characterization of semiconducting polymers and their blends in solar cells and transistors, as well as the polymer physics of conjugated polymers.
E-mail: yelong@tju.edu.cn
Yang Bai: He received his B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Beijing University of Chemical Technology, and currently a Full-Lecturer at the College of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Huanghuai University. He mainly focuses on the novel flexible-functional conjugated organic materials for polymer solar cells.
Many alpine ecosystems are undergoing vegetation degradation because of global change, which is affecting ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. The ecological consequences of alpine pioneer community degradation have been less studied than glacial retreat or meadow degradation in alpine ecosystems. Researchers document the comprehensive responses of microbial community characteristics to degradation processes using field-based sampling, and conduct soil microcosm experiments to simulate effects of global change on microorganisms, and explore their relationships to ecosystem functioning across stages of alpine pioneer community degradation.
Their work provides the first evidence that alpine pioneer community degradation led to declines of 27% in fungal richness, 8% in bacterial richness and about 50% of endemic microorganisms. As vegetation degraded, key ecosystem functions such as nutrient availability, soil enzymatic activity, microbial biomass, and ecosystem multifunctionality progressively increased. However, soil respiration rate and carbon storage exhibited unbalanced dynamics. Respiration rates increased by 190% during the middle stage of degradation compared to the primary stage and decreased by 38% in the later stage. This indicates that soil carbon loss or emission increases during the mid-successional stage, whereas in later successional stages, alpine meadows become significant carbon sinks. Compared to microbial community characteristics (such as richness of total and functional taxa, network complexity), community resistance contributes more significantly to ecosystem functions. Especially, the bacterial community resistance is crucial for ecosystem functioning, yet it is greatly impaired by nitrogen addition. Based on microbial network, community assembly, and community resistance analyses, researchers conclude that fungi are more vulnerable to environmental changes and show lower contributions to ecosystem functions than bacteria in degrading alpine ecosystems. Their findings enhance the knowledge of the distinct and synergistic functional contributions of microbial communities in degrading alpine ecosystems and offer guidance for developing restoration strategies that optimize ecosystem functioning of degraded alpine plant communities.
sentation of the dynamics of microbial community characteristics and ecosystem functions across degradation stages, and their relationships found in this study.
A study conducted at the University of Eastern Finland shows that long-term unemployed individuals perceive their capabilities as weaker than the general Finnish population. Capabilities refer to the opportunities to achieve important things in life, such as health and well-being. Additionally, the study found that long-term unemployed men perceive their capabilities as weaker than long-term unemployed women.
According to Professor of Social Work Timo Toikko, this observed gender variation highlights the need for tailored support strategies.
“Understanding these differences is crucial, as it allows us to develop more effective measures to promote the health and well-being of the long-term unemployed, taking into account the specific needs of both men and women,” Professor Toikko notes.
The study modelled the Capability Approach among long-term unemployed respondents (persons out of work for at least a year) and tested whether resources transform into capabilities through various personal, social and environmental factors.
The study was conducted in collaboration between Doctoral Researcher Tiina Ahonen, Professor Tomi Mäki-Opas and Professor Timo Toikko at the University of Eastern Finland, and Professor Antti Kouvo at the University of Turku.
The study found that social and environmental factors can play a crucial role in transforming resources into capabilities. “The opportunities for long-term unemployed individuals are limited, and their resources – practically, the sufficiency of money – transform into opportunities to achieve well-being and health particularly through their immediate environment and social networks,” Ahonen emphasises.
The study examined long-term unemployed individuals' experiences of their resources, capabilities and the factors associated with them.
“By focusing on the subjective perceptions of this marginalised group, it is possible to gain a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms through which experience of well-being arise. The results show a complex interplay of resources, conversion factors and capabilities among vulnerable citizens. On the other hand, the study provides such information about these mechanisms that would not be possible to achieve with conventional population data,” Professor Antti Kouvo notes.
Professor Tomi Mäki-Opas points out that from a welfare policy perspective, the capabilities of the long-term unemployed should be promoted:
“More comprehensive employment benefits and targeted actions that pay particular attention to the social and environmental dimensions of unemployment are needed to address the differentiated needs of the long-term unemployed. Currently, Finnish employment policies and practices may be too narrow and disregard the importance of capabilities.”
The study used quantitative methods such as cross-tabulation, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling to analyse cross-sectional data. The data, collected in 2016, includes 511 Finnish long-term unemployed individuals aged 20–64. The data were gathered as part of the PROMEQ project (Inclusive Promotion of Health and Wellbeing), funded by the Strategic Research Council within the Research Council of Finland, conducted from 2016 to 2019. The secondary data used in the study involved a sample of 2,190 individuals representing the general Finnish population.
Investigating the Capability Approach: How Long-Term Unemployed People in Finland Perceive Their Access to Commodities, Conversion Factors and Capabilities
