Title
Topic
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‘On-Demand Delivery of Fibulin-1 Protects the Basement Membrane During Cyclic Stretching in C. elegans’
“Basement membrane (BM) extracellular matrices enwrap and structurally support tissues. Whether BMs are uniquely constructed for tissues to undergo repetitive stretching and recoil events is unknown. During C. elegans ovulation, the spermathecal BM stretches ∼1.7-fold and then recoils to its original shape every 20 min to passage hundreds of oocytes. … Together, our study identifies an on-demand FBL-1 delivery system that protects the BM network when it is stretched, thereby allowing repeated rounds of tissue expansion and recovery.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Developmental Cell.
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“In this paper, we demonstrate that wormholes must be entangled regardless of asymptotic boundary conditions. By assuming black hole complementarity, we argue that traversable wormholes instantiate entanglement-assisted quantum channels and that this entanglement must be present between the stretched horizons as an initial condition prior to traversability. This result demonstrates the forward direction of the ER/EPR conjectures.” Find the paper and full list of authors in the International Journal of Modern Physics D.
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‘Why ‘Soft Skills’ Will Be The Most Valuable Investment Your Company Can Make’
“As industries automate more routine tasks, the demand for distinctly human skills is rising. Here’s how to equip your team to rise to the challenge.”
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Prometheus initiative aims for cleaner combustion technology
“Chemical engineering professor Richard West, in collaboration with Kyle Niemeyer from Oregon State University, was awarded a $599,925 NSF grant for ‘Disciplinary Improvements: The Prometheus Initiative: FAIR Model and Data Cyberinfrastructure for Predictive Combustion Science.’ By helping to transition the combustion research community from its traditionally closed nature to an Open Science and collaborative paradigm, this grant aims to demonstrate that the open, distributed and zero-barrier model of data sharing can serve as a model for other fields.”
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Hajjar receives SSRC Distinguished Member Award
“Civil and environmental engineering university distinguished and CDM Smith Professor and Chair Jerome Hajjar was selected to receive the 2025 Structural Stability Research Council (SSRC) Distinguished Member Award, which is presented annually to an SSRC member who has actively served the organization for years and made outstanding contributions to its work and mission. Hajjar will receive his award at the 2025 SSRC Annual Stability Conference in Louisville, Kentucky in April, 2025.”
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‘How Emerging Market Multinationals Reshape Global Value Chains’
“Most studies on global value chains focus on advanced economy multinationals that develop products in-house and retain high-value added activities, while outsourcing low-value tasks, like component manufacturing and assembly, to emerging market suppliers. However, this dynamic is shifting as increasing numbers of emerging market suppliers are becoming multinationals and exerting control over more value chain activities. Initially positioned as suppliers for western brands, these companies have leveraged their roles in global value chains to learn, acquire advanced capabilities, and strategically expand through acquisitions.”
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‘Toward an Updated Corporate Governance Framework: Fundamentals, Disruptions and Future Research’
“This essay explores the evolving landscape of corporate governance amid global disruptions and changing stakeholder demands. We argue that traditional governance models are unable to effectively address contemporary challenges such as technological advancements, sustainability pressures, and geopolitical conflicts. While corporate governance has traditionally prioritized financial metrics and majority shareholders, there is a growing shift toward incorporating broader societal and environmental considerations. As a result, we highlight the need for a new corporate governance framework that supports the evolving nature of organizations and their corporate governance practices.”
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‘Accurate Density Determination of Various Natural Stones Employing Archimedes’ Principle and a New Non-Destructive Liquid Pycnometer for Solids’
“In this study we examine the accuracy of the level method, the overflow method and the mass-based suspension method in determining the density of natural stones. We find that the density of polycrystalline materials, which is challenging to be determined by conventional crystallographic techniques (X-Ray diffraction, neutron diffraction), … can instead be assessed accurately using a mass-based method and inexpensive instruments. In addition, the methods we explore are non-destructive which preserve the natural stones. The density is determined with a mass rather than a volume determination method.” Find the paper and full list of authors at PrePrints.org.
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‘What Business Owners Can Learn From World War II Strategic Bombing’
“What can small business owners, family firms, and startups possibly learn from strategic bombing campaigns during World War II? More than you might expect. Under the pressure of high stakes, constrained resources, and uncertain outcomes, wartime leaders faced challenges strikingly similar to those confronting today’s business leaders. The lessons they learned—about focus, adaptability, logistics, morale, and ethical leadership—are as relevant in today’s marketplace as they were in wartime Europe and the Pacific. This article distills those insights into six powerful takeaways for entrepreneurs navigating complexity and growth.”
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‘The Impact of Ownership on Global Strategy:Owner Diversity and Non-Financial Objectives’
“In this special issue introduc-tion, we analyze how a firm’s international ownershipaffects its global strategy. We reinterpret the literatureby grouping dominant owners into four categories:(1) individuals (entrepreneurs and families), (2) labor(managers and employees), (3) state (national and sub-national governments), and (4) institutions (pensionfunds, mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity, ven-ture capital, and impact investors). We argue thatalthough all seek financial returns from their invest-ments, they differ markedly in their non-financialobjectives, resulting in differences in strategies forexpanding abroad.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Global Strategy Journal.
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‘Dynamics of Disordered Intermediates During the Two-Electron Alkaline MnO2 Conversion Reaction for Grid-Scale Batteries’
“Widespread energy storage for the grid will require batteries with low cost and high safety. Intercalation cathodes are typically limited to the transfer of only one electron per transition metal atom or less, negatively impacting cost and energy density. In this work, we report on the rechargeable alkaline MnO2 cathode, which cycles reversibly from the Mn(IV) to Mn(II) state, providing two electrons of capacity per Mn atom.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Joule.
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National Academy of Inventors honors Northeastern innovators
“Northeastern’s National Academy of Inventors chapter honored electrical and computer engineering University Distinguished and William Lincoln Smith Professor Vincent Harris with the Innovation Impact Award; Justin Hayes, PhD’25, chemical engineering, with the Student Innovation Impact Award; and bioengineering assistant research professor Saeed Amal with the Emerging Visionary Award, for their significant contributions to innovation, particularly in AI-driven healthcare.”
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DARPA Award to revolutionize navigation systems
“Electrical and computer engineering associate professor Cristian Cassella (PI), professor Matteo Rinaldi, professor David Horsley, and assistant professor Benyamin Davaji were awarded a $2 million DARPA grant for ‘Enabling Higher Scale Factors in Gyroscopes Through soFt and LacAlized interface-States in microelectromecHanical resonators (FLASH).’ This project aims to develop a new microelectromechanical (MEMS) inertial sensor surpassing the material-limited performance of the existing counterparts by exploiting topological properties in thin-film piezoelectric metamaterials.”
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NSF grant awarded for adaptive clothing
“Electrical and computer engineering associate professor Kris Dorsey and Khoury/mechanical and industrial engineering assistant professor Megan Hofmann, in collaboration with Emory University, were awarded a $699,789 NSF grant for ‘Adaptive Intelligent Healthcare Garment: Advancing Real-Time Monitoring and Behavioral Interventions.'”
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Restuccia and Jornet receive NSF grant for AI-incorporated hardware
“Electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Francesco Restuccia and electrical and computer engineering professor and associate Dean for Research Josep Jornet, in collaboration with Princeton University, Florida International University, and SUNY Polytechnic Institute, were awarded a $200,000 NSF grant for ‘DHARMA.AI Digital Hardware + Analog-RF for Multifunctional Apertures with AI.'”
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Patent for automated of drone swarm networks
“Electrical and computer engineering William Lincoln Smith Professor Tommaso Melodia and associate research professor Salvatore D’Oro were awarded a patent for ‘Software Defined Drone Network Control System.'”
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AI-powered drone networks
“Electrical and computer engineering William Lincoln Smith Professor Tommaso Melodia and associate research professor Salvatore D’Oro were awarded a patent for ‘Distributed Deep Reinforcement Learning Framework for Software-Defined Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Network Control.'”
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‘Lysine vitcylation is a vitamin C-derived protein modification that enhances STAT1-mediated immune response’
“Vitamin C (vitC) is essential for health and shows promise in treating diseases like cancer, yet its mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we report that vitC directly modifies lysine residues to form “vitcyl-lysine”-a process termed vitcylation. Vitcylation occurs in a dose-, pH-, and sequence-dependent manner in both cell-free systems and living cells. … The discovery of vitcylation as a distinctive post-translational modification provides significant insights into vitC’s cellular function and therapeutic potential, opening avenues for understanding its biological effects and applications in disease treatment.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Cell.
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‘Tunable Superconductivity Coexisting With the Anomalous Hall Effect in a Transition Metal Dichalcogenide’
“Antibiotic resistance poses a significant threat to human health, and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are important reservoirs of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Here, we analyze the antibiotic resistomes of 226 activated sludge samples from 142 WWTPs across six continents, using a consistent pipeline for sample collection, DNA sequencing and analysis. We find that ARGs are diverse and similarly abundant, with a core set of 20 ARGs present in all WWTPs.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Nature Communications.
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‘A Phosphorylation Signal Activates Genome-Wide Transcriptional Control by BfmR’
“The nosocomial pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii is a major threat to human health. The sensor kinase-response regulator system, BfmS-BfmR, is essential to multidrug resistance and virulence in the bacterium and represents a potential antimicrobial target. Important questions remain about how the system controls resistance and pathogenesis. Although BfmR knockout alters expression of >1000 genes, its direct regulon is undefined. Moreover, how phosphorylation controls the regulator is unclear. Here, we address these problems by combining mutagenesis, ChIP-seq, and in vitro phosphorylation to study the functions of phospho-BfmR.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Nucleic Acids Research.
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‘Synergistic Signatures of Group Mechanisms in Higher-Order Systems’
“The interplay between causal mechanisms and emerging collective behaviors is a central aspect of understanding, controlling, and predicting complex networked systems. In our work, we investigate the relationship between higher-order mechanisms and higher-order behavioral observables in two representative models with group interactions: a simplicial Ising model and a social contagion model. In both systems, we find that group (higher-order) interactions show emergent synergistic (higher-order) behavior.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Physical Review Letters.
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‘Supercooled Phase Transitions: Why Thermal History of Hidden Sector Matters in Analysis of Pulsar Timing Array Signals’
“The detection of a gravitational wave background in the nanohertz frequency range from pulsar timing array (PTA) observations offers new insights into evolution of the early Universe. In this work we analyze gravitational wave data from PPTA, EPTA, and NANOGrav, as arising from a supercooled first-order phase transition within a hidden sector, characterized by a broken 𝑈(1)𝑋 gauge symmetry. Several previous works have discussed challenges in producing observable PTA signal from supercooled phases transitions. We discuss these challenges and show how they are overcome.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Physical Review D.
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‘Symmetric Circle Configurations From Regular Skeletal Polyhedra’
“The paper studies finite and infinite periodic point-circle configurations in ordinary Euclidean 3-space associated with regular skeletal polyhedra or related structures. The configurations preserve all the symmetries of the underlying polyhedron and, in most cases, are point-circle transitive.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Symmetry.
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Patents for experimental virtual reality methods
“Electrical and computer engineering affiliated faculty Eugene Tunik and Bouvé/electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Mathew Yarossi were awarded a patent for ‘Computer-Implemented Methods and Systems for Designing and Conducting Virtual Reality Experiments.'”
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‘Functional Diversification of Dietary Plant Small Molecules by the Gut Microbiome’
“Plants are composed of diverse secondary metabolites (PSMs), which are widely associated with human health. Whether and how the gut microbiome mediates such impacts of PSMs is poorly understood. Here, we show that discrete dietary and medicinal phenolic glycosides, abundant health-associated PSMs, are utilized by distinct members of the human gut microbiome.” Find the paper and full list of authors in CellPress.
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‘A Chlorinated Diketopiperazine Antibiotic Targets Mycobacterium tuberculosis’
“We describe a novel macrocyclic peptide, speirobactin, produced by Photorhabdus temperata that selectively kills Mycobacterium tuberculosis. … The biosynthetic operon contains a pentapeptide-repeat protein as a resistance gene. Genomic analysis of speirobactin-resistant mutants of M. tuberculosis led to the identification of DNA gyrase as the molecular target. The mutations were recreated and show that DNA gyrase is the only target. Transcriptome analysis of M. tuberculosis treated with antibiotics shows that speirobactin clusters close to fluoroquinolones, supporting its action against the DNA gyrase.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
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‘Limiting the Impact of Protein Leakage in Single-Cell Proteomics’
“Limiting artifacts during sample preparation can significantly increase data quality in single-cell proteomics experiments. Towards this goal, we characterize the impact of protein leakage by analyzing thousands of primary single cells from mouse trachea. The cells were prepared either fresh immediately after dissociation or first cryopreserved and prepared at a later date. We directly identify permeabilized cells by imaging a cell permeable dye and use the data to define a signature for protein leakage.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Nature Communications.
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‘A Universal Language for Finding Mass Spectrometry Data Patterns’
“Despite being information rich, the vast majority of untargeted mass spectrometry data are underutilized; most analytes are not used for downstream interpretation or reanalysis after publication. The inability to dive into these rich raw mass spectrometry datasets is due to the limited flexibility and scalability of existing software tools. Here we introduce a new language, the Mass Spectrometry Query Language (MassQL), and an accompanying software ecosystem that addresses these issues by enabling the community to directly query mass spectrometry data with an expressive set of user-defined mass spectrometry patterns.” Find the paper and full list of authors in Nature Methods.