Stable Size Research Articles

High‐Safety Lithium Metal Batteries Enabled by Additive of Fire‐Extinguishing Microcapsules

ABSTRACTLithium metal battery (LMB) is regarded as one of the most promising high‐energy energy storage systems. However, the high reactivity of lithium metal and the formation of lithium dendrites during battery operation have caused safety concerns. Herein, we present the design and synthesis of fire‐extinguishing microcapsules to enhance LMB safety. The encapsulation strategy addressed perfluoro(2‐methyl‐3‐pentanone)'s volatility and storage challenges, yielding microcapsules with stable and uniform size distributions. The rapid release and effective fire‐extinguishing performance of the microcapsules upon exposure to high temperatures has been demonstrated. Integration of these microcapsules into LMBs showed no significant impact on electrochemical performance, maintaining high lithium‐ion conductivity, and stable cycling capacity. Notably, practical safety tests on pouch cells indicated that the presence of microcapsules effectively prevented ignition and improved thermal stability under mechanical damage and flame intrusion, underscoring their potential for significantly improved battery safety. These findings provide a robust strategy for mitigating fire hazards of high‐energy‐density battery systems without compromising their electrochemical performances.

Abstract 4148073: Expect the Unexpected: Type A Aortic Dissection in Pregnant Patient with Marfan Syndrome

Case Description: A 26 yo woman with Marfan Syndrome (MFS, FBN1 ), ectopia lentis, aortic dilation and no family history of MFS or aortic dissection was evaluated for preconception counseling. She was asymptomatic, and the size of her aortic root (~4cm) and ascending aorta (~3.5cm) had been stable for over 5 years. She was counseled that risk of cardiac events during her pregnancy is high, but lower compared to those with aortic sizes >4.5cm. Once pregnant, she was followed closely with imaging every trimester (MRA at 25 weeks gestation showed stable aortic sizes). Cardio-obstetric recommendations included: CARPREG II score: 2, mWHO class: III, consideration of assisted second stage due to aortic root dilation. She was counseled on symptoms of aortic dissection and to seek emergency care should those symptoms arise. At 27 weeks gestation, she presented to the ED with intense chest and neck pain, shortness of breath, and headache. Emergent CT showed aortic root (4.1cm) and proximal ascending aortic dissection with propagation into the left main coronary artery (Figure 1). She underwent emergent C-section followed by aortic root and ascending aorta replacement and mechanical aortic valve replacement due to severe regurgitation. She was discharged in stable condition 8 days after an uncomplicated post-operative recovery. Her baby is recovering in the NICU. Discussion: While risk of aortic dissection in women with MFS is higher during pregnancy, recent studies suggest relative safety with aortic root diameters up to 4.5cm. Our case highlights that even at “lower risk” aortic sizes, aortic dissection remains an important risk for such women. Educating patients and providers about the acute symptoms of aortic dissection and forming an action plan for timely intervention can be lifesaving. Furthermore, some genetic mutations (e.g. TGBR1/2 or SMAD3 ) and sequence variants within the FBN1 gene may pose a higher risk of aortic dissection at smaller aortic diameters. Our patient’s pathogenic FBN1 mutation (-c.2114-5T>G, previously classified as a VUS) highlights the importance of genetic testing: prophylactic surgery at sizes <4.5cm may be considered with high-risk genetic variants or a family history of aortic dissection.

Abstract 4143242: Right Ventricular Remodeling During the First Decade After Tetralogy of Fallot Repair: An Echocardiographic Study

Background: After TOF repair (TOFr), pulmonary regurgitation resulting in right ventricular (RV) dilatation and dysfunction is common. We have previously demonstrated that RV function (RVF) improves in the first two years after TOFr, however RV changes in the first decade after TOFr are less known. We investigated RVF and RV size (termed remodeling) using echocardiography during the first decade after TOFr. Methods: Retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent TOFr and were followed at our institution from 3/2012 to 12/2023. Those with at least two echocardiograms separated by one year were included. Two patients that received a pulmonary valve replacement were excluded. After confirming intra- and inter-reader reproducibility, RV remodeling was assessed offline by global longitudinal strain (GLS), free wall strain (FWS), fractional area change (FAC), end systolic area (ESA/BSA) and end diastolic area (EDA/BSA). RVF changes over time were assessed with multivariable linear mixed effects models adjusting for perioperative covariates. Two years after TOFr (Y2) was used as reference given RVF peaks at this point following surgery. Results: Out of 758 echocardiograms from 116 patients, 688 were suitable for analysis. Median age at TOFr was 3.5 months (IQR:1.92, 4.89). Compared to Y2, we identified the largest decline in RVF at Year 3, with no worsening from year to year until Y10. There were no associations of perioperative covariates with RVF except for ventriculotomy (FAC) and residual pulmonary stenosis (FWS). There was no progression in RV remodeling over the first decade after TOFr. (Graph, table). Conclusion: After the initial 2-year improvement following TOFr, RVF worsens but remains stable throughout the first decade with stable RV size accounting for BSA. Our findings augment the knowledge of RV remodeling during childhood and could help guide outpatient follow up, counseling, frequency of echocardiograms, and timing of the first cardiac MR.

Abstract 4136516: Intraventricular pseudoaneurysm: A diagnosis with high mortality that demands a good eye

Traumatic left ventricular (LV) pseudoaneurysms (PSA) are rare, life-threatening complications of blunt chest trauma and the management is heavily reliant on early identification and diagnosis. A healthy 55-year-old female presented after blunt chest trauma from a car accident. Bedside echocardiogram revealed a mid-septal LV discontinuity with myocardial outpouching. Lab work was significant for high sensitivity troponin of 22,000 ng/L which peaked at 24,000 in 5 hours. ECG revealed normal sinus rhythm with a QRS duration of 102ms. No ventricular ectopy was detected. Transthoracic echocardiograph (TTE) using echo contrast agent and computed tomography (CT) scan confirmed the intraventricular pseudoaneurysm (Fig 1-A&B). A transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) showed an intact PSA at 3.7 x 2.5 cm LV PSA with a 5mm neck extending from the mid septum superiorly into the right ventricle (RV) with no Doppler evidence of rupture or shunt (Fig 2). With cardiology and cardiac surgery shared decision making, conservative therapy was elected in the setting of polytrauma and hemodynamic stability. Serial TTEs showed stable size and appearance of the PSA during her month long hospitalization. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI) 7 months later showed significant improvement in the PSA size to 0.3 cm 2 and extensive myocardial remodeling (Fig 1-C). LV septal PSA is rare following blunt chest trauma, and it confers a considerable risk of rupture with the highest risk occurring within 3 months of formation. Untreated PSA presents with risks including thromboembolism, infection, and arrhythmia. Multimodal cardiac imaging is paramount for diagnosis and surveillance. There are no guidelines for serial monitoring in hemodynamically stable patients and an individualized approach should be taken. In this patient TTE, TEE, and CT imaging modalities were utilized. Our patient progressed without complication following conservative management with shrinking and scarring of the aneurysm characterized by the cMRI.

Silibinin-Loaded Amphiphilic PLGA–Poloxamer Nanoparticles: Physicochemical Characterization, Release Kinetics, and Bioactivity Evaluation in Lung Cancer Cells

Despite its potential against several carcinomas, the pharmacological efficacy of silibinin (SLB) is hampered by poor solubility, absorption, and oral bioavailability. To face these issues, we developed polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) nanoparticles (NPs) coated with hydrophilic polyethene oxide (PEO) for controlled and targeted SLB delivery. NPs were produced at two different SLB loadings and presented a spherical shape with smooth surfaces and stable size in water and cell culture medium. The encapsulation efficiencies were found to be >84%, and thermal analysis revealed that the SLB was present in an amorphous state within the NPs. In vitro SLB release experiments revealed that at the lowest SLB loading, desorption of the active molecule from the surface or nanoporosities of the NPs mainly dictates release. In contrast, at the highest SLB loading, diffusion primarily regulates release, with negligible contributions from other mechanisms. Cell experiments showed that, compared with the free drug, SLB loaded in the produced NPs significantly increased the bioactivity against H1299, H1975, and H358 cells.

Stable and Minimum Size Solubilization of Membrane Proteins with Cocktails of Phospholipid Analogues.

Membrane proteins (MPs) play important roles in various cellular processes and are major targets for drugs. Solubilization of MPs is often needed for structural and biophysical studies. For high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance measurements, there is a size limit of the sample (<100 kDa), and a high thermal stability at an increased temperature is required. Furthermore, lipid bilayer-like environments are desirable to preserve the native states of MPs. However, existing solubilization techniques do not fulfill these requirements at the same time. In this study, we combined two phospholipid analogues as a solubilizer and stabilizer to isolate MPs. This method maintained bacteriorhodopsin (bR) extracted from purple membranes in its native state for 7 d at 40 °C. The solubility was comparable to that of conventional detergents for MPs, and the thermal stability of the solubilizate was the best among them. The increase in the molecular size caused by the solubilization of bR was only 20 kDa, indicating that 20 phospholipid analogue molecules were sufficient to solubilize one bR molecule. 15N-1H heteronuclear single quantum coherence spectra of solubilized 2H- and 15N-labeled bR gave ∼80% of the expected peaks. In addition, the lysate of human neuropeptide Y2 receptor-expressing mammalian cells exhibited ligand recognition for 7 d at 37 °C, suggesting that this technique can be used for ligand screening. Moreover, the structure of the single membrane-spanning M2 protein of the influenza A virus expressed in Escherichia coli was stably maintained for 7 d at 40 °C. Thus, our method is promising for various MP studies.

Statistics of drops generated from ensembles of randomly corrugated ligaments

The size of drops generated by the capillary-driven disintegration of liquid ligaments plays a fundamental role in several important natural phenomena, ranging from heat and mass transfer at the ocean-atmosphere interface to pathogen transmission. The inherent nonlinearity of the equations governing the ligament destabilization leads to significant differences in the resulting drop sizes, owing to small fluctuations in the myriad initial conditions. Previous experiments and simulations reveal a variety of drop size distributions, corresponding to competing underlying physical interpretations. Here, we perform numerical simulations of individual ligaments, the deterministic breakup of which is triggered by random initial surface corrugations. The simulations are grouped in a large ensemble, each corresponding to a random initial configuration. The resulting probability distributions reveal three stable drop sizes, generated via a sequence of two distinct stages of breakup. Four different distributions are tested, volume-based Poisson, Gaussian, Gamma, and Log-Normal. Depending on the time, range of droplet sizes and criteria for success, each distribution has successes and failures. However, the Log-Normal distribution roughly describes the data when fitting both the primary peak and the tail of the distribution while the number of droplets generated is the highest, while the Gamma and Log-Normal distributions perform equally well when fitting the tail. The study demonstrates a precisely controllable and reproducible framework, which can be employed to investigate the mechanisms responsible for the polydispersity of drop sizes found in complex fluid fragmentation scenarios.

Incidence and Temporal Patterns of Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma in Children and Adolescents in Germany: A Pooled Analysis Based on Data from the German Malignant Endocrine Tumor Registry and the German Childhood Cancer Registry.

Introduction: The increasing incidence of differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) in children and adolescents has become a growing concern. This study provides the first extensive assessment of incidence patterns and temporal trends of pediatric DTC in Germany, using the best available data from the German Malignant Endocrine Tumor (MET) Registry and the German Childhood Cancer Registry (GCCR) covering a period of 25 years. Patients and Methods: We conducted a register-based incidence and time series analysis, identifying all children and adolescents diagnosed with DTC at ages 0-17 years between 1997 and 2021 in Germany, as recorded in the German MET Registry and/or the GCCR. Age-specific and age-standardized incidence rates (ASR) over time, average annual percentage changes (AAPC), and cross-tabulations were used to evaluate incidence and temporal patterns. Results: We identified 469 DTC cases, including 85.7% papillary thyroid cancer and 9.4% follicular thyroid cancer. The average ASR for the period 1997-2021 was 1.16 per million, with higher rates in females compared with males (1.64 vs. 0.72 per million, respectively). Incidence rates increased with increasing age. The overall ASR increased from 0.84 per million in 1997-2001 to 1.48 per million in 2017-2021, with an AAPC of 3.46% [confidence interval or CI: 2.12-4.83]. The increase was most pronounced in adolescents aged 15-17 years (AAPC: 6.79% [CI: 4.43-9.19]). The proportion of incidentalomas rose from 5% in 1997-2001 to 26% in 2017-2021, yet we observed no marked shift in tumor size between symptomatic and incidental cases. Conclusions: Our study revealed a significant increase in pediatric DTC incidence in Germany, most pronounced among adolescents. The observation of an increasing incidence mirrors global trends and presents a complex public health challenge. While improved detection likely contributes to this trend, the stable tumor size distribution suggests that other factors are also in play. The rising detection of incidentalomas suggests enhanced diagnostic practices unrelated to symptoms of thyroid neoplasia. These findings highlight the need to carefully evaluate diagnostic and screening practices in pediatric populations.

Dynamics of a Discrete Population Model

In order to explore the influences of the strong Allee effect on population evolution in two-patch environments, this paper constructs a population model with discrete diffusion and analyzes its dynamics. Using the center manifold theorem, we discuss the codimension-one bifurcation, such as flip bifurcation, of the model. The qualitative structures and stability of the model at the degenerate fixed point are obtained from the approximation of flow. Based on the theoretical analysis results, we investigate the influences of the strong Allee effect and diffusion on population evolution. The qualitative structures of degenerate fixed point and numerical simulation show that the strong Allee effect will make the population tend to a stable size when the two initial population patch sizes are equal and exceed a threshold. But the stable size of population does not exceed the carrying capacity, depending on the constant Allee effect and carrying capacity, which differ from the conclusion of logistic model that population size tends to the carrying capacity. However, if the two initial population patches are equal in size and below this threshold, or if the sizes of the initial population patches are unequal, the population size will decrease. The fixed point becomes degenerate with respect to the strong Allee effect causing the population tend to a stable size below carrying capacity, which exacerbates the complexity of population evolution.

In situ atomic observations of aggregation growth and evolution of penta-twinned gold nanocrystals

The twin boundaries and inherent lattice strain of five-fold twin (5-FT) structures offer a promising and innovative approach to tune nanocrystal configurations and properties, enriching nanomaterial performance. However, a comprehensive understanding of the nonclassical growth models governing 5-FT nanocrystals remains elusive, largely due to the constraints of their small thermodynamically stable size and complex twin configurations. Here, we conducted in situ investigations to elucidate the atomic-scale mechanisms driving size-dependent and twin configuration-related aggregation phenomena between 5-FT and other nanoparticles at the atomic scale. Our results reveal that surface diffusion significantly shapes the morphology of aggregated nanoparticles, promoting the symmetrical formation of 5-FT, especially in smaller nanoparticles. Moreover, the inherent structural characteristics of 5-FT mitigate the dominance of surface diffusion in its morphological evolution, retarding the aggregation evolution process and fostering intricate twin structures. These findings contribute to advancing our capacity to manipulate the configuration of twinned particles, enabling more predictable synthesis of functional nanomaterials for advanced engineering applications.

Particle Virtual Element Method (PVEM): an agglomeration technique for mesh optimization in explicit Lagrangian free-surface fluid modelling

Explicit solvers are commonly used for simulating fast dynamic and highly nonlinear engineering problems. However, these solvers are only conditionally stable, requiring very small time-step increments determined by the characteristic length of the smallest, and often most distorted, element in the mesh. In the Lagrangian description of fluid motion, the computational mesh quickly deteriorates. To circumvent this problem, the Particle Finite Element Method (PFEM) creates a new mesh (e.g., through a Delaunay tessellation, based on node positions) when the current one becomes overly distorted. A fast and efficient remeshing technique is therefore of pivotal importance for an effective PFEM implementation in explicit dynamics. Unfortunately, the 3D Delaunay tessellation does not guarantee well-shaped elements, often generating zero- or near-zero-volume elements (slivers), which drastically reduce the stable time-step size. Available mesh optimization techniques have limited applicability due to their high computational cost when runtime remeshing is required. An innovative possibility to overcome this problem is the use of the Virtual Element Method (VEM), a variant of the finite element method that can make use of polyhedral elements of arbitrary shapes and number of nodes. This paper presents the formulation of a 3D first-order Particle Virtual Element Method (PVEM) for weakly compressible flows. Starting from a tetrahedral mesh, poorly shaped elements, such as slivers, are agglomerated to form polyhedral Virtual Elements (VEs) with a controlled characteristic length. This approach ensures full control over the minimum time-step size in explicit dynamics simulations, maintaining stability throughout the entire analysis.

Shifted Flood and Ecology Regimes Due To Channel Bar Greening and Increased Flow Resistance in a Large Dammed River

AbstractDamming profoundly affects downstream flow‐sediment regimes, altering channel bar dynamics and thereby affecting floods and riverine biodiversity. Here, we investigate the response of bars to upstream damming by examining patterns, mechanisms, and impacts in the Middle Yangtze River (∼1,000 km). Over a decade of post‐damming observational data reveal substantial increases in bar revegetation and Leaf Area Index. Shorter flood duration and stable bar size collectively drive bar greening. Consequently, denser vegetation has slowed flow velocity by 17% ± 2% and increased flow resistance by 21% ± 5%, offsetting the water‐level decrease from channel expansion due to scouring and even causing a slight rise in floodwater levels. Furthermore, damming has markedly altered river connectivity, thermal regimes, and solute dynamics, detrimentally affecting fish habitats and aquatic life. These findings, along with refined river stage simulation considering flow‐sediment‐vegetation interactions, facilitate sustainable reservoir operation and river management in big river systems.

A Highly Sensitive, Conductive, and Flexible Hydrogel Sponge as a Discriminable Multimodal Sensor for Deep‐Learning‐Assisted Gesture Language Recognition

AbstractFlexible multimodal sensors have gained increasing popularity for applications in healthcare and extreme environment operations owing to their all‐around environmental perception and data acquisition capabilities. However, fabricating a magnetism‐mechanics‐humidity multimodal sensor that possesses high sensitivity without signal overlapping while in a facile methodology remains a great challenge. Herein, a highly sensitive, conductive, and flexible hydrogel sponge sensor with discriminable magnetism, mechanics, and humidity sensing capability is proposed, which shows stable pore size (19.30 µm) and satisfactory mechanical properties based on the synergistic hydrogen bonding among sodium alginate, poly(vinyl alcohol) and glycerol. The proposed sensors can not only display favorable humidity sensing ability with rapid response/recovery time (2.5/4 s) but also possess enhanced sensitivities (a gauge factor of 0.46 T−1 for magnetic field, −1.16 kPa−1 for pressure), superior stability and durability (over 8000 cycles). Benefiting from the separated capacitive and resistive response signals, the sensors can precisely distinguish the magnetic, mechanical, and humidity stimuli without cross‐talk. Further, the sensor arrays assisted by the deep learning algorithm are developed to realize gesture language recognition with a high accuracy of 99.17%. It can be believed that this high‐performance sensor will have good prospects in future soft electronics and human‐machine interaction systems.

Manipulator with Integrated Flexible Tactile Sensing Arrays for Kiwifruit Ripeness and Size Classification.

Fruit grading for ripeness and size is an essential process in the supply chain. Incorrect grading can easily lead to spoiled and degraded fruits entering the market, reducing consumers' confidence in purchasing. At the same time, it is easy to cause the fruit supply chain to reduce profits, unreasonable resource allocation, and related practitioners' income. The current mainstream machine vision grading and manual grading in the production line have dilemmas such as susceptibility to environmental interference, inconsistent grading standards, high cost, and labor shortage. To overcome these problems, this study proposes an integrated flexible tactile sensing array (3 × 4) manipulator for efficient, stable, low-cost, and accurate ripeness and size grading of kiwifruit. The flexible sensing manipulator grasps the kiwifruit, detects the hardness of the kiwifruit by relying on tactile sensing, and determines the ripeness level based on the hardness. The size of the kiwifruit is also differentiated according to whether there is a significant change in the resistance of the topmost sensing unit of the flexible pressure sensor array. The 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 anomalies that may occur in actual production were tested and combined with machine learning KNN, SVM, and RF algorithms for data modeling and grading. The results show that the lowest accuracy of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 possible outliers is 86.67% (KNN), 95.83% (SVM), and 92.5% (RF), respectively. KNN has the lowest classification effect, and SVM has the best. This study overcomes the drawbacks of inefficient destructive detection and unstable manual detection and makes up for the vulnerability of single machine vision to interference from environmental factors. This study can alleviate the challenges caused by fruit wastage and promote the sustainable production and consumption of the fruit industry chain.

Small cyst size and lack of growth as negative predictors of malignant transformation in low-risk intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms of the pancreas: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

For branch-duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (BD-IPMNs) without worrisome features (WFs) or high-risk stigmata (HRS), current guidelines recommend surveillance. However, these intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMNs), especially the small and stable-sized ones, carry a low risk of malignant transformation. Our aim was to assess whether small cyst size and absence of rapid growth provide reassurance against the development of WFs/HRS and malignancy (high-grade dysplasia (HGD) or pancreatic cancer (PC)). PubMed/Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Library and the Web of Science Core Collection were systematically searched from inception to May 2023 to identify studies investigating surveillance outcomes of low-risk BD-IPMNs. Studies assessing baseline cyst size and/or growth in relation to WFs/HRS and/or HGD/PC were included. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale tool was used to assess study quality. Of the 1937 identified manuscripts, 21 studies were eligible for inclusion. The quality of these studies was considered reasonable. A negative association between cyst size and WFs/HRS development was found in 11 out of 13 relevant studies, but only one out of nine studies reported a negative association between size and malignancy. Regarding cyst growth, four out of six studies described a negative association with the development of WFs/HRS, and all six reported a negative association with malignancy. The pooled relative risk (RR) of developing WFs/HRS or malignancy for cysts ≤15mm was 0.37 (95% CI 0.25-0.57) and the RR of developing malignancy for cyst growth <2-2.5mm/year was 0.04 (95% CI 0.02-0.09)). This systematic review and meta-analysis shows that small and stable-sized low-risk BD-IPMNs are associated with a markedly low progression rate, with stable cyst size being the most reassuring feature. Because of substantial heterogeneity in definitions and reported outcome measures, prospective studies are needed to confirm that surveillance of small and stable sized cyst can be de-intensified or even discontinued.

Treatment with BRAF/MEK-inhibitors in mutant BRAF-V600E papillary craniopharyngioma

Craniopharyngiomas (CPs) are rare brain epithelial tumors arising in the supracellar region infiltrating adjacent areas causing visual loss, panhypopituitarism, cognitive deficits and morbid obesity. Papillary craniopharyngiomas (PCP) harbour in 94% BRAF mutation. Two patients with PCP and BRAF V600E mutation but with different tumor status were treated with BRAF- and MEK-inhibitors. Case I, was diagnosed with biopsy, and treated for 16 months with BRAF- and MEK-inhibitors. After 3.5 months there was a 50% reduction of the tumor volume, and after 13 months the tumour volume decreased from 2220 mm3 to 90 mm3 (96%). Two months after stopping the drugs he was treated with fractionated cranial irradiation (54 Gy). No recurrence of the PCP was recorded. Eight months after stopping the drugs, he was diagnosed with an adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus, which led to his death 12 months later. Case II a woman had had four surgeries due to recurrences of a PCP and a BRAF V600E mutation was confirmed. After a new recurrence measuring 14x12x18 mm she was started on BRAF- and MEK-inhibitors. After 4 months of treatment a significant decrease to 8x9x13 mm was recorded. The treatment continued for 31 months and the MRI demonstrated a stable unchanged size including scar tissue, with a volume reduction from 633 mm3 to 483mm3. During treatment her visual acuity improved in her left eye from 0.05 to 0.3. After stopping the drugs “watchful waiting” with repeated MRI was decided. She is now off treatment since 25 months, without any recurrence on MRI.

An Artificial Light-Harvesting System based on Supramolecular AIEgen Assembly.

Photosynthesis is a complex multi-step process in which light collection is the initial step of photosynthesis and plays an important role in the utilization of solar energy. In order to improve the utilization of sunlight, researchers have developed a variety of artificial light-harvesting systems to simulate photosynthesis in nature. Here, we report a supramolecular artificial light-harvesting system in aqueous solution. Since β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) has a hydrophobic cavity and a hydrophilic outer surface, we adopt β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) as the host molecule and use adamantane as the guest molecule. At the same time, we modified β-CD with the donor molecule naphthalimide and adamantane with the tetraphenylethylene molecule which has aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effects. By using fluorescent molecules with AIE, the self-quenching effect caused by aggregation in aqueous solution can be effectively avoided. Due to the host-guest interaction of β-CD and adamantane, nanoparticles with stable structure and uniform size can be spontaneously assembled in water. Because of the close distance and strong spectral overlap between naphthalimide and tetraphenylethylene, Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) was realized, and artificial light-harvesting system was successfully constructed in aqueous solution. Therefore, this study provides a new strategy for constructing artificial light-harvesting system, and the artificial light-harvesting system shows broad application prospects in aqueous solutions.

A cubic perovskite fluoride anode with the surface conversion reactions dominated mechanism for advanced lithium-ion batteries.

Perovskite fluorides are attractive anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) because of their three-dimensional diffusion channels and robust structures, which is advantageous for the rapid transmission of lithium ions. Unfortunately, the wide band gap results in poor electronic conductivity, which limits their further development and application. Herein, the cubic perovskite iron fluoride (KFeF3, KFF) nanocrystals (~100 nm) are synthesized by a one-step solvothermal strategy. Thanks to the good electrical conductivity of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), the overall electrochemical performance of composite anode material (KFF-CNTs) has been significantly improved. In particular, the KFF-CNTs delives a high specific capacity (363.8 mAh g-1), good rate performance (131.6 mAh g-1 at 3.2 A g-1), and superior cycle stability (500 cycles). Noted that the surface conversion reactions play a dominant role in the electrochemical process of KFF-CNTs, together with the stable octahedral perovskite structure and nanoscale particle sizes achieving high ion diffusion coefficients. Furthermore, the specific lithium storage mechanism of KFF has explored by the distribution of relaxation times (DRT) technology. This work opens up a new way for developing cubic perovskite fluorides as high-capacity and robust anode materials for LIBs.

Update of the Genetic Variability of Monkeypox Virus Clade IIb Lineage B.1.

From 1 January 2022 to 31 May 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 97,745 laboratory-confirmed Mpox cases, including 203 deaths, across 116 countries. Despite a 2.3% decrease in new cases in May 2024 compared to April 2024, significant regional variations persist. The African Region reported the highest proportion of new cases, while other regions experienced mixed trends. Phylogenomic analyses of the Mpox virus Clade IIb lineage B.1 reveal stable genetic variability with minimal diversification. The Bayesian Skyline Plot indicates a generally stable viral population size with a modest peak in late 2023, followed by a decline. In general, the data indicate that the MPXV outbreak is primarily localized within a few consistent geographic clusters. The virus's evolution is relatively slow, as indicated by its stable genetic variability, and Clade IIb lineage B.1 does not currently show signs of rapid genetic changes or population growth. The current low level of genetic diversity should not lead to complacency. Ongoing genomic surveillance is essential for effective outbreak management and understanding. This monitoring is crucial for identifying any shifts in the virus's behavior or transmission, allowing for prompt public health responses and adjustments. In addition, continued vigilance is necessary to detect any new variants that might influence the outbreak's trajectory.

Elucidating the evolution of pore structure, microstructural damage, and micromechanical response in cement pastes containing microencapsulated phase change materials under freeze-thaw conditions

As climate variability intensifies the frequency and severity of freeze-thaw cycles, the development of cementitious materials capable of withstanding these harsh conditions becomes increasingly crucial. This research focuses on the potential of Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials (MPCMs) to enhance the durability of Hardened Cement Paste (HCP) in the face of such challenges. Specifically, this paper evaluates the influence of MPCMs on evolution of pore microstructure, damage, and micromechanical response in HCP subjected to extended freeze-thaw cycles, utilizing Low-Temperature Differential Scanning Calorimetry (LTDSC), X-ray Tomography (XRT), and micro-indentation. LTDSC results indicate a lower ice-crystallization temperature and a significant reduction in ice formation in MPCM-integrated HCP. Micro-indentation experiments reveal that while the control HCP undergoes substantial decreases in indentation hardness (35 %) and Young's modulus (37 %) after 180 cycles, the MPCM samples show much lower losses (only 9 % loss in hardness and 7 % loss in Young's modulus for 20 % MPCM inclusion). XRT image analysis reveals that MPCMs mitigate pore enlargement, preserve a stable pore size distribution, and effectively reduce the risk of increased interconnected porosity in HCP when subjected to extended freeze-thaw cycles. Crack analysis demonstrates that control HCP samples exhibit significant crack propagation with increased freeze-thaw cycles, while samples with 10 % MPCM inclusion show only slight crack initiation, and those with 20 % MPCM inclusion maintained their structural integrity with virtually no crack progression after 180 freeze-thaw cycles. These findings underscore the potential of MPCMs to improve the durability of HCP against freeze-thaw damage, offering key insights for designing more robust materials.