Manipulation of T cells has revolutionized cancer immunotherapy. Notably, the use of T cells carrying engineered T cell receptors (TCR-T) offers a favourable therapeutic pathway, particularly in the treatment of solid tumours. However, major challenges such as limited clinical response efficacy, off-target effects and tumour immunosuppressive microenvironment have hindered the clinical translation of this approach. In this review, we mainly want to guide TCR-T investigators on several major issues they face in the treatment of solid tumours after obtaining specific TCR sequences: (1) whether we have to undergo affinity maturation or not, and what parameter we should use as a criterion for being more effective. (2) What modifications can be added to counteract the tumour inhibitory microenvironment to make our specific T cells to be more effective and what is the safety profile of such modifications? (3) What are the new forms and possibilities for TCR-T cell therapy in the future?

Relativistic few-cycle mid-infrared (mid-IR) pulses are unique tools for strong-field physics and ultrafast science, but are difficult to generate with traditional nonlinear optical methods. Here, we propose a scheme to generate such pulses with high efficiency via plasma-based frequency modulation with a negatively chirped laser pulse (NCLP). The NCLP is rapidly compressed longitudinally due to dispersion and plasma etching, and its central frequency is downshifted via photon deceleration due to the enhanced laser intensity and plasma density modulations. Simulation results show that few-cycle mid-IR pulses with the maximum center wavelength of $7.9\;\unicode{x3bc} \mathrm{m}$ and pulse intensity of ${a}_{\mathrm{MIR}}=2.9$ can be generated under a proper chirp parameter. Further, the maximum energy conversion efficiency can approach 5.0%. Such a relativistic mid-IR source is promising for a wide range of applications.

The resurgence and outbreaks of mumps occur frequently in many countries worldwide in recent years, even in countries with high vaccination coverage. In this study, a descriptive and spatiotemporal clustering analysis at the township level was conducted to explore the dynamic spatiotemporal aggregation and epidemiological characteristics of mumps in Wuhan. During 2005 and 2019, there were 40 685 cases reported in Wuhan, with an average annual morbidity of 28.11 per 100 000 populations. The morbidity showed a fluctuating tendency, and peaked in 2010 and 2018. Bimodal seasonality was found, with a large peak between May and July, and a mild peak from November to January in the following year. Male students aged 5–9-year-old were the main risk group of mumps infection. Significant global spatial auto-correlation was detected except in 2007, 2009 and 2015. The spatial and temporal scan statistics indicated that the hot-spots mainly located at the western and southern areas of Wuhan with variations almost every year. Our findings could assist the public health authorities to develop and improve targeted health strategies, and allocate health resources rationally.

We reconstructed the centennial climate changes for the period of 9–7 cal ka BP in the upper region of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River Delta plain. A general warming and wetting trend from 8560 to 7220 cal yr BP was indicated by the decrease in Quercus (deciduous) and increases in Quercus (evergreen), Pinus, and Polypodiaceae spores. However, there were several brief climate fluctuations. A notable palynological change, from regional assemblages dominated by arboreal pollen to local assemblages mainly consisting of nonarboreal pollen, reflects climate fluctuations. The key indices of Quercus (deciduous), Pinus, herbs, fern spores, and palynological concentrations showed similar signs of centennial climate fluctuations. We suggest that the climate changes of the Dongge Cave and Yangtze River Delta regions were mainly affected by the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) during the period of 9–7 cal ka BP. The general warming trend may be associated with an intensified EASM, and solar activity may be one of the important factors driving the centennial climate changes. The ~8.2 ka event was also recorded in the Yangtze River Delta region, which suggests that there was a close relationship between the EASM and Greenland climate during the early Holocene.

Ge nanocrystals embedded in an amorphous SiO2 film on Si matrix were prepared by ion implantation and subsequent annealing. Neutron transmutation doping (NTD) technique was used for doping Ge nanocrystals with As impurities. The microstructure, phase and photoluminescence of NTDed Ge nanocrystals were analyzed and compared with undoped Ge nanocrystals. A new photoluminescence peak related to As impurities was found. It is discovered that impurities are expelled from larger clusters resulted from Ge nanocrystal aggregation on the sample surface. To prevent nanocrystal aggregation and assure uniform doping of As, it is necessary to adopt appropriate implantation and annealing conditions.

Rutile (TiO2) single crystals of (110) or (001) orientation were irradiated by high fluence protons with the energy of 0.5, 4.9 and 18 MeV and with the fluence of 1×1018 and 1.9×1022 m-2. UV-VIS-IR, LRS and HRTEM were used to analyze the optical absorption and microstructure of samples. The UV-VIS-IR results showed that proton irradiation induces two absorption peaks centered at 760 and 1700 nm respectively, even high fluence irradiation induces absorption plateau at 600∼2500 nm. LRS results showed that the related intensity of common vibration modes is different for different planes. Proton irradiation induces the vibration frequency and related intensity change for inherent LRS modes, and several new vibration modes also appear. High fluence proton irradiation induced large defect clusters, i.e. stacking faults, which is demonstrated by HRTEM observation. The optical absorption mechanism also has been discussed.

The investigation of nanocrystalline Ge (nc-Ge) directly prepared with high dose Ge ion implantation of 1×1016, 1×1017, 5×1017 and 1×1018cm-2 respectively without subsequent annealing is presented in this paper. The specimens were measured by means of GIXRD, LRS and PL. The results show the nc-Ge, which possesses strong compressive stress, can be fabricated when the implanting dose of Ge ions is over the threshold dose∼1×1017cm-2. The content and size of nc-Ge will enlarge with increasing dose. The nc-Ge formation mechanism may be the Ge atoms in the amorphous Ge (a-Ge) clusters, which are formed through the aggregation of implanted Ge ions, obtain energy from the instant local annealing zone induced by the incident Ge ion and reconstruct to nc-Ge existing in a-Ge clusters. The PL results indicate the strong PL peaks centered at about 295, 400 and 570 nm can be observed in implanted samples. The intensity of these PL peaks increases with increasing dose. The related PL mechanism in Ge-ion-implanted SiO2 film has also been discussed.