The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a vital yet challenging process in water splitting, requiring a four-electron transfer that often suffers from slow reaction kinetics. Noble metal-based oxides, such as RuO2 and IrO2, have been the go-to catalysts for this process, but their scarcity and high cost have motivated the search for alternative, non-precious metal catalysts. NiFe (oxy)hydroxide (NiFeOOH) has emerged as a promising candidate due to its high activity, low cost, and improved stability. However, optimizing its performance to meet industrial standards remains a key scientific challenge.
Led by Xiangjiu Guan, the team at Xi’an Jiaotong University introduced high valence molybdenum (Mo) into NiFeOOH to modify its electronic structure and enhance electrical conductivity. This innovative approach aimed to reduce the overpotential required for the OER and improve the catalyst’s stability under operational conditions. The researchers employed both empirical experiments and theoretical simulations to understand the interactions between Mo, Ni, and Fe in the doped catalyst.
The Mo-doped NiFeOOH catalyst demonstrated a significantly reduced overpotential of 205 mV at 10 mA/cm² and a Tafel slope of 31.7 mV/dec, indicating superior catalytic activity. Moreover, it maintained stable operation for up to 170 h, showcasing its impressive durability. The study revealed that Mo-doping enhances the valence states of Ni and Fe, leading to a shift in the d-band center of the bimetallic active sites, which is crucial for the transformation into the active γ-NiFeOOH phase. Theoretical investigations using density functional theory (DFT) computations further supported these findings, elucidating the most effective OER pathways and the role of Mo in enhancing catalytic activity.
This research offers a promising strategy for developing high-performance, non-precious metal electrocatalysts for the OER. The Mo-doped NiFeOOH catalyst’s combination of low overpotential, rapid reaction kinetics, and long-term stability makes it a strong contender for commercial applications in water electrolysis and other renewable energy technologies. The findings also contribute to the fundamental understanding of bimetallic synergies in catalyst design, providing a foundation for future innovations in the field of electrocatalysis.
Original source: https://journal.hep.com.cn/fie/EN/10.1007/s11708-024-0960-6
A new study from University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center researchers identifies a cellular signature that explains why about one-third of prostate cancers respond especially poorly to treatment.
Treatments such as enzalutamide, which is an androgen receptor pathway inhibitor (ARPI), are standard of care for advanced prostate cancer. While many patients have long-term good response to the drugs, some will derive no benefit whatsoever. These “extreme non-responder” patients die much more quickly from prostate cancer.
The new study, published in npj Precision Oncology, looked at RNA sequencing data and clinical outcomes from several prostate cancer clinical trial datasets. The researchers identified a gene program linked to ARPI extreme non-response. Moreover, they discovered the chemotherapy docetaxel could be a good option earlier on in patients whose tumor harbors the ARPI extreme non-response program. Docetaxel is approved for prostate cancer but typically given later in the course of treatment.
We found significant differences in the gene expression program between prostate cancers that do exceptionally well vs. exceptionally poorly with ARPIs. Patients who have this extreme non-response program appear to get significant benefit from docetaxel, suggesting these patients may be good candidates for earlier docetaxel treatment.”
Anbarasu Kumaraswamy, Ph.D., lead first author, investigator in the Alumkal Lab at the Rogel Cancer Center
The researchers also found that the kinase CDK2 regulates the extreme non-response program, and targeting CDK2 could block the program and reduce tumor growth in the laboratory samples that harbored the ARPI extreme non-response program. The authors suggest exploring CDK2 inhibitors, currently in clinical trials in other cancer types, as a promising new direction in prostate cancers with the extreme ARPI non-responder program.
Source:
Michigan Medicine – University of Michigan
Journal reference:
Kumaraswamy, A., et al. (2025). Transcriptional profiling clarifies a program of enzalutamide extreme non-response in lethal prostate cancer. npj Precision Oncology. doi.org/10.1038/s41698-025-01002-8.
The federal cabinet has approved the import of 500,000 metric tons of sugar, waiving 53% in import taxes to offset the negative impact of its earlier decision to allow sugar exports despite objections from the finance ministry.
The cabinet waived all the duties and taxes on the import of sugar, which has also made the Ministry of Finance jittery, according to the Finance Ministry sources.
The decision to waive taxes by overruling the finance Ministry was first taken during a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, according to the ministry sources. The cabinet subsequently vetted the summary moved by the Ministry of National Food Security.
The cabinet took the decision without discussing the matter as a regular agenda item and instead approved it through the circulation of the summary. The rules allow the disposal of cases through circulation.
Due to food emergency, the federal cabinet has allowed the import of 500,000 metric tons of sugar to stabilize local prices with immediate effect, said Rana Tanveer Hussain, the Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research while talking to The Express Tribune.
Rana Tanveer said that the central bank will provide the cash line to the Trading Corporation of Pakistan for the import of sugar.
The development came on the heels of rising sugar price that according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics were recorded at Rs196 per kilogram last week. The prices were at Rs138 per kg before the sugar export.
Without waving off taxes and duties, the landed price of sugar had been estimated at Rs245 per kilogram. After exempting these taxes, the landed price is estimated at Rs153 per kg, excluding freight prices.
During the last meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet the Finance Secretary had refused to waive off taxes or give subsidies. This time the government did not bring the summary in the ECC and got it directly approved from the federal cabinet.
The government’s decision to earlier allow the export of 765,000 metric tons of sugar is said to be the main reason for the price hike from Rs138 to Rs196 per kg. However, the food minister said that the situation emerged after one million tons of low production of sugar due to climate change, which impacted the crop yield this year.
“The cabinet considered a summary dated 4th July 2025, submitted by the National Food Security and Research Division, which was circulated, for import of white crystalline sugar to ensure food security and stabilize the sugar prices and approved the proposal” according to the cabinet decision.
The cabinet approved the import of sugar by waiving off all applicable taxes, which stand at 53%, excluding provincial excise duty. The federal cabinet exempted 18% sales tax, 3% additional sales tax, 6% income tax, 20% custom duty and 6% additional custom duty.
The Information Minister Attaullah Tarar did not respond to a question whether the cabinet approved the tax exemptions.
Finance Ministry alarmed
The sources said that the Finance Ministry has agitated the cabinet’s decision and informed the Prime Minister’s Office that it could impact Pakistan’s international commitments.
Pakistan has also given international commitments that it would not procure agriculture commodities, according to the Finance Ministry officials. They have cautioned to the PM’s Office that the implementation of the cabinet’s decision may create problems to meet international commitments.
A cabinet minister on condition of anonymity said that the taxes have been waived off by invoking the food emergency, thus, the decision should not go against any international commitments.
The Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb did not respond to questions whether the ministry took up the matter of tax waivers with Prime Minister’s Office.
In a press statement, the Ministry of National Food Security said that all necessary arrangements for the sugar import initiative have been completed, and immediate implementation is already underway.
The ministry highlighted that the current government had earlier permitted sugar exports when there was ample domestic supply, demonstrating a balanced policy to manage market dynamics. Now, by approving sugar imports, the administration aims to keep prices steady and protect consumers from sudden hikes.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the country exported 765,734 metric tons of sugar between July and May of last fiscal year, earning Rs114 billion. This marks a 2,200% increase in sugar exports compared to the same period last year.
Exporting first and then deciding to import has sparked concerns over the government’s contradictory policies and the disadvantageous position imposed on consumers. After exports, domestic sugar prices hit a record Rs190 per kilogram – Rs58 higher than the pre-export price.
In March, the government had fixed the retail price of sugar at Rs164 per kilogram – 13% higher than the cap set during the export approval period – allowing millers to enjoy windfall gains in both local and export markets.
The government had negotiated the ex-factory and retail prices of sugar with the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), which has previously been accused of cartel-like behaviour by the nation’s antitrust watchdog – the Competition Commission of Pakistan. Despite the agreed rates, the government failed to ensure stable retail prices.
Rapper Pusha T has made waves with recent comments in an interview with Elliott Wilson, downplaying Kendrick Lamar’s legacy and admitting that Drake “washes” both him and Kendrick.
During the conversation, Pusha T claimed he couldn’t recall Kendrick’s lyrics, suggesting that Kendrick’s influence may be overrated.
“If I had to compete? Drake washes us both,” Pusha T stated, acknowledging Drake’s commercial dominance and ubiquitous chart presence. He emphasized Drake’s consistency: “He’s been running the game for a decade—can’t knock that.”
Pusha T also revealed his perspective on Kendrick’s artistic impact: “I really couldn’t even start Kendrick’s verse,” he confessed. “If I asked how it started, I wouldn’t know.” This echoes a moment from Drake’s 2013 Elliott Wilson sit-down, where Drake claimed Kendrick’s “Control” verse was unforgettable… yet no one could recall how it began.
By contrast, Pusha praised Drake’s ability to deliver hits and maintain presence. “He knows the game—what to drop, when to drop,” Pusha remarked, noting Drake’s strategic consistency over flash.
Fans online immediately responded, sparking debate across Twitter and hip‑hop forums about who truly leads the rap hierarchy: lyricism or longevity. Many called Pusha’s comments “honest,” while others fiercely defended Kendrick’s cultural importance.
The full interview with Elliott Wilson is available on X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube, drawing significant attention from the hip‑hop community. Whether fans agree or disagree, Pusha T’s blunt take on the ongoing Drake–Kendrick legacy conversation is igniting fresh discussion in rap’s evolving landscape.
For more than a century, type 1 diabetes has meant one thing: a lifetime administering insulin.
But for the first time, science is breaking that paradigm – not by managing the disease, but by intercepting it before symptoms even appear.
As the first patients in the UK begin receiving the groundbreaking new therapy, teplizumab, we are developing ways to identify who might benefit from a drug that only works if given before any symptoms appear.
At the Royal Devon NHS, we are currently treating the first UK adult, Hannah Robinson, who was found to have early type 1 diabetes by chance during routine pregnancy screening.
Related: New Treatment May Cure Severe Type 1 Diabetes, Study Finds
About 10% of people with diabetes have type 1, while the remaining 90% have type 2, a condition linked to lifestyle factors where insulin is still produced but does not work properly.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition that leads to complete loss of insulin production from the pancreas. Without insulin, blood sugar levels rise dangerously, increasing the risk of blindness, kidney failure and early death.
The pancreas produces insulin, which helps cells absorb glucose from the blood. (Science Photo Library/Canva)
Although type 1 is often thought of as a disease of childhood, research from the University of Exeter has highlighted that more than half of all new cases occur in adults.
For millions around the world living with type 1 diabetes, treatment to keep blood sugar in check means lifelong daily insulin. However, using insulin comes with its own risks.
If blood sugar drops too low, it can cause hypoglycaemia, or “hypos”, which in severe cases may lead to seizures or even death. It is no surprise that constantly balancing between high and low blood sugars takes a heavy toll on both physical and mental health. During her pregnancy, Robinson needed insulin and saw firsthand how “life completely revolves around balancing your blood glucose”.
Teplizumab offers a completely different approach. Instead of simply replacing insulin, it targets the immune attack that causes type 1 diabetes.
Our immune system is usually remarkably good at telling friend from foe, protecting us from infections and cancer while leaving our own organs alone. But sometimes, for reasons still not fully understood, this balance breaks down in a process known as autoimmunity.
In type 1 diabetes, the immune system mistakenly attacks the pancreas, destroying insulin-producing cells.
Teplizumab works by retraining the immune system and dialling down the specific cells that target the pancreas. Studies show it can delay the disease and the need for insulin therapy by two to three years, with generally mild side-effects.
For Robinson, who knows all too well from pregnancy and the full-time job that is living with type 1 diabetes, the possibility of a few extra years without insulin really mattered.
The drug is already approved in the US and is under review for routine NHS use, although a few children and teenagers in the UK have also received it through special access programmes.
Finding people early
There is a catch. By the time people develop symptoms of type 1 diabetes, such as thirst, weight loss and fatigue, more than three-quarters of their insulin-producing capacity is already destroyed.
For teplizumab and similar therapies to work, they need to be given before symptoms appear, while blood sugar levels are still normal. This means these treatments are not an option for people who already have established type 1 diabetes.
So how do we find people at this early stage? Fortunately, it is possible to detect the beginnings of the autoimmune attack many years before symptoms show using simple blood tests that measure immune markers called pancreatic autoantibodies.
Just a few drops from a finger prick can reveal whether the immune system has started to target the pancreas. Finding people early not only offers the chance to delay disease progression, it can also help avoid the life-threatening emergencies that sometimes come with a first diagnosis – such as diabetic ketoacidosis.
With type 1 diabetes affecting roughly one in 200 people, there is still the question of who to test. Not everyone’s risk is the same. When we think of inherited diseases, we often imagine conditions caused by a single gene change, such as cystic fibrosis.
Type 1 diabetes does have a genetic component, but it involves many different genes, each nudging a person’s risk up or down. Having genetic risk alone is not enough, with unknown environmental factors also needed to tip the balance.
Nine in ten people who develop type 1 diabetes have no family history. While testing relatives of people with type 1 is a logical first step, research at the University of Exeter suggests that combining all these genetic factors into a single risk score could help predict who might develop the disease and identify babies who should be monitored more closely.
This could become an important tool as we move towards wider genomic screening.
It is still early days, but we are seeing a fundamental shift in how we approach type 1 diabetes. For more than a century, treatment has meant patients taking on the daily burden of replacing the insulin their bodies can no longer make.
Now, the focus is turning to therapies that tackle the immune problem at its source, with the hope of stopping the disease before it fully develops and opening the door to an insulin-free future.
Richard Oram, Professor of Diabetes and Nephrology, University of Exeter and Nicholas Thomas, Clinical Lecturer, Diabetes and Endocrinology, University of Exeter
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
With just a few months remaining until the Windows 10 end-of-support date, Microsoft seems to have belatedly realized that owners of tens of millions of consumer PCs running Windows 10 aren’t ready to replace their old computers, and they’re also not about to fork over $30 for a one-year Extended Security Updates (ESU) subscription.
So, at the end of June, just days before the end of its fiscal year, the company waved the white flag and announced new “free enrollment options” for the ESU program, along with a description of the steps customers will need to follow to sign up. Anyone willing to try out Microsoft’s cloud-based Windows Backup or spend a few minutes per day with the Bing search engine over the course of a week can avoid the $30 tariff and get that subscription for free using the enrollment wizard shown here.
Microsoft is offering a year’s worth of free security updates to owners of Windows 10 PCs.
Screenshot by Ed Bott/ZDNET
The news was buried in yet another long-winded post on the Windows Blog, which praises Windows 11 and encourages business customers to upgrade their old PCs, buy new ones, or migrate to cloud-based alternatives like Windows 365.
Also: Can’t quit Windows 10? You can pay Microsoft for updates after October, or try these alternatives
That announcement applies to tens of millions of consumer PCs that are ineligible for the free Windows 11 upgrade because they don’t meet compatibility requirements. Enterprise customers are ineligible for the free options and will be required to pay a significantly higher price (starting at $61 per device per year, and then doubling each year after that) for up to three years of a commercial ESU subscription. Those business options are available through the Microsoft Volume Licensing Program today; Microsoft’s Cloud Service Provider partners will be able to begin selling the commercial ESUs starting Sept. 1.
ESU coverage for personal devices runs from October 15, 2025, through October 13, 2026. The ESU subscription is tied to a Microsoft account and can be applied to as many as 10 PCs when signed in using that account.
Who’s eligible?
The option to sign up for an ESU subscription from a personal Windows 10 PC is available in Windows Insider builds today, and the company says it will begin rolling out to additional Windows 10 PCs in July, with broad availability expected by mid-August.
The option will be available to any PC running Windows 10, version 22H2, Home, Professional, Pro Education, and Workstation editions, with the latest update installed. Enterprise and Education editions are not eligible. The option will also be unavailable on any PC that is joined to an Active Directory domain, Entra ID-joined, or registered with Mobile Device Management software such as Windows Intune. (Full instructions are available in this Microsoft Support document.)
You must be signed in with an administrator account. Because the ESU subscription is tied to a Microsoft account, you will also need to sign into a Microsoft account as part of the enrollment process.
How to sign up
I was able to test the enrollment process on a PC running the Release Preview edition of Windows 10 Pro. The sign-up link is available in Settings > Windows Update, as shown next:
On a personal device running the latest Windows 10 version, you’ll find this link to sign up for Extended Security Updates.
Screenshot by Ed Bott/ZDNET
Clicking “Enroll now” opens the enrollment wizard. Because I was signed in with a Microsoft account and had previously used the Windows Backup program to save my settings to Microsoft’s cloud, I was waved right through with the following message:
If you’re signed in with a Microsoft account and you’ve already used the Windows Backup program, you’ll be able to enroll for free, immediately.
Screenshot by Ed Bott/ZDNET
If you’re signed in with a local account, or if you haven’t previously run Windows Backup, you’ll need to jump through a few extra hoops. You’ll see this page in the enrollment wizard instead.
The free options require a commitment using a Microsoft account.
Microsoft
The easiest of the free options is to use Windows Backup to sync your settings to the cloud. If you’d rather not do that, you can redeem 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points or pay $30 (outside the US, local pricing will vary).
Also: How to upgrade your ‘incompatible’ Windows 10 PC to Windows 11 – 2 free options
As I’ve previously noted, this option is available only for “personal use,” a move that’s obviously designed to discourage business customers from trying to get security updates at a discount. In small businesses that aren’t part of a managed Microsoft environment, it would be impossible to enforce that restriction, so Microsoft has wisely decided to block personal ESU subscriptions only on commercial devices that are part of a managed enterprise network.
What’s the catch with the free options?
Using Windows Backup to “sync your settings to the cloud” sounds like a simple option, but that option might not work for you. As it currently exists, the Windows Backup option also copies personal data to the OneDrive cloud storage service. If you have a substantial amount of data and haven’t paid for a Microsoft 365 Home or Personal subscription or a standalone storage upgrade, you’ll burn through the 5GB of default storage and possibly wind up with a big mess.
Also: Can’t upgrade your Windows 10 PC? Here are your options before it all ends in 3 months
Redeeming 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points is a simpler option. If you’ve already created a personal profile using your Microsoft Account in Edge, you might have already amassed enough points to cover that cost (those points would be worth a little under $1 if redeemed for an Amazon gift card). If your Microsoft Rewards count is starting from zero, you can quickly cover the bill by downloading the Bing app for mobile and using it for two days (500 points), then doing a series of search-based quizzes, polls, and other silly tasks for a few days to accumulate 100-200 points per day on the Microsoft Rewards site.
And if none of those options work for you … well, that will be $30, please.
Also: 400 million Windows PCs vanished in 3 years. Where did they all go?
These announcements represent a pretty big climb-down for Microsoft and a tacit acknowledgment that the population of Windows 10 PCs still in use in October is likely to be much larger than expected. The new ESU options won’t change the end-of-support date for Windows 10, but they do offer a one-year reprieve for price-sensitive consumers and a chance for Microsoft to soften the inevitable PR hit it will take at the end of 2025.
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The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday annulled the distribution of reserved seats in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Assembly and ordered the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to redistribute the seats after hearing the parties.
A two-member bench, comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal, announced the reserved judgment on the petition of the PML-N against the distribution of reserved seats.
In its two-page judgment, the court declared null and void both the announcements of the ECP regarding the allocation of reserved seats for women and minorities. It said the ECP should reallocate these seats after hearing all candidates and political parties within 10 days.
The court delayed the oath-taking of the lawmakers on the reserved seats until the ECP decision. The court also ruled that ECP’s deadline for the independent candidates to join any political party in the provincial assembly by February 22, 2024, was unconstitutional.
The K-P Assembly comprises 124 lawmakers – 99 elected on general seats, besides 21 reserved seats for women and four reserved seats for non-Muslims. The reserved seats are allocated only to the political parties in the house based on their strength.
After the general elections on February 8, 2024 the ECP allocated the reserved seats to the political parties, excluding the independents, who were PTI-backed, and formed majority in the house. However, the matter dragged for over a year in the courts, until it was settled in the Supreme Court recently.
The PHC ruling directed the ECP to redistribute these seats after hearing the PML-N, the JUI-F, the PPP, the ANP and the PTI-Parliamentarians.
Earlier, during the hearing, ECP Special Secretary Law Muhammad Arshad, ECP lawyer Mohsin Kamran, PML-N lawyer Aamir Javed and Barrister Saqib Raza, JUI lawyer Naveed Akhtar and Farooq Afridi appeared in the court.
The petitioner’s lawyer argued that the ECP counted six PML-N members – five elected on general seats and one independent joining the party within three days of stipulated time – and distributed the reserved seats, accordingly, through a notification issued on February 22, 2024.
However, he continued, notifications of the election victories of some candidates were still pending by that time. He added that the notification of Malik Tariq Awan’s victory was issued on February 22, who joined the PML-N on February 23 – well within the three days of timeframe.
This raised the PML-N’s strength in the house to seven, the lawyer told the court. Similarly, he added, the ECP issued a separate notification for allocation of reserved seats for minorities on March 4 and again the PML-N’s six seats were counted, as Awan was declared an independent.
As per the distribution, lawyer stated, one minority seat was given to the JUI, one to the PML-N and one to the PPP, while one seat was left vacant, which would have been decided through tossing of the coin. He added that the party moved the ECP and claimed that it had seven seats in the house.
Overall, lawyer Aamir Javed told the court, the ECP gave 10 reserved seats to the JUI based on its seven general seats in the assembly, while the PML-N was given eight reserved seats on the strength of seven general seats, by counting its six seats.
The petitioner’s lawyer said that the party did not want postponement of the Senate elections which was due later this month. He requested that if the court wanted to send the matter to the ECP, then the election supervisor should be bound to decide the matter within three days.
When asked by Justice Ali as to how the ECP could distribute the seats when the process was not complete, the ECP special secretary said that the assembly session had to be held 21 days after the election. He added that ECP allocated the seats based on the party positions on February 22, 2024.
The JUI lawyer took the position that the party whose seats were challenged should be made a party to the case. Naveed Advocate said that JUI was not party and he was representing Gujral Singh, who was elected on a reserved seats.
After hearing the matter, the court reserved its ruling, which was announced later in the day. The court also annulled the notification regarding Gujral Singh, dated March 26, 2024.
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