Impact of electric vehicle battery recycling on reducing raw material demand and battery life-cycle carbon emissions in China.

The rapid growth of electric vehicles (EVs) in China challenges raw material demand. This study evaluates the impact of recycling and reusing EV batteries on reducing material demand and carbon emissions. Integrating a national-level vehicle stock turnover model with life-cycle carbon emission assessment, we found that replacing nickel-cobalt-manganese batteries with lithium iron phosphate batteries with battery recycling can reduce lithium, cobalt, and nickel demand between 2021 and 2060 by up to 7.

Sleep for infants after discharge from a neonatal ward: Expert- and parent endorsed strategies.

Background: This study aims to outline sleep strategies grounded in scientific research and endorsed by sleep experts, integrating parental input into the evaluation process, to assist parents in supporting infant sleep after discharge from a neonatal ward.

Methods: A Delphi method, consisting of three rounds, was employed. Sleep strategies based on scientific literature were presented to sleep experts and parents of infants discharged from a neonatal ward.

Depression in children with abdominal pain in the emergency department.

Objective: This cross-sectional study examined depression and associated impairment in youth presenting to a pediatric emergency department (PED) with abdominal pain.

Methods: Participants were 11-17 years old, presenting to a PED with idiopathic abdominal pain. Participants completed demographics, pain, pain-related impairment, and depression surveys.

Prognostic value of MR visibility/invisibility in men on Active Surveillance.

Objective: We sought to determine, in a prospective long term cohort, the prognostic value of negative MR imaging with respect to upgrading and need for intervention in men on AS.

Method: A long term prospective single centre study of men on Active surveillance with MR imaging. Primary outcome was upgrading on biopsy and rate of intervention.

Microbial secondary metabolites: advancements to accelerate discovery towards application.

Microbial secondary metabolites not only have key roles in microbial processes and relationships but are also valued in various sectors of today's economy, especially in human health and agriculture. The advent of genome sequencing has revealed a previously untapped reservoir of biosynthetic capacity for secondary metabolites indicating that there are new biochemistries, roles and applications of these molecules to be discovered. New predictive tools for biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) and their associated pathways have provided insights into this new diversity.

Exploration of linear and interpretable models for quantification of cell parameters via contactless short-wave infrared hyperspectral sensing.

The development of optical sensors for label-free quantification of cell parameters has numerous uses in the biomedical arena. However, using current optical probes requires the laborious collection of sufficiently large datasets that can be used to calibrate optical probe signals to true metabolite concentrations. Further, most practitioners find it difficult to confidently adapt black box chemometric models that are difficult to troubleshoot in high-stakes applications such as biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

Enhanced CH emissions from global wildfires likely due to undetected small fires.

Monitoring methane (CH) emissions from terrestrial ecosystems is essential for assessing the relative contributions of natural and anthropogenic factors leading to climate change and shaping global climate goals. Fires are a significant source of atmospheric CH, with the increasing frequency of megafires amplifying their impact. Global fire emissions exhibit large spatiotemporal variations, making the magnitude and dynamics difficult to characterize accurately.

Non-thermal plasma as promising anti-cancer therapy against bladder cancer by inducing DNA damage and cell cycle arrest.

Bladder cancer often recurs, necessitating innovative treatments to reduce recurrence. We investigated non-thermal plasma's potential as a novel anti-cancer therapy, focusing on plasma-activated solution (PAS), created by exposing saline to non-thermal plasma. Our study aims to elucidate the biological effects of PAS on bladder cancer cell lines in vitro, as well as the combination with mitomycin C (MMC), using clinically relevant settings.

Exploring technology acceptance of flight simulation training devices and augmented reality in general aviation pilot training.

This study investigates pilot perspectives on the use of Flight Simulation Training Devices (FSTDs) in Canada's general aviation (GA) sector, which, despite their longstanding adoption, remain underutilized. It also examines pilot perspectives on the potential of Augmented Reality (AR) technology as an assistive tool in GA pilot training. An online survey gathered views on FSTD use for routine flight operations and emergency training, as well as AR's potential to support learning.

Chemical signals and social structures strengthen sexual isolation in Drosophila pseudoobscura.

Species that coexist in hybrid zones sexually isolate through reproductive character displacement, a mechanism that favours divergence between species. In Drosophila, behavioural and physiological traits discourage heterospecific mating between species. Recently, social network analysis revealed flies produce strain-specific and species-specific social structures.

Neurobehavioral plasticity in the rodent gustatory system induced by regular consumption of a low-calorie sweetener during adolescence.

Habitual consumption of low-calorie sweeteners (LCS) during juvenile-adolescence can lead to greater sugar intake later in life. Here, we investigated if exposure to the LCS Acesulfame Potassium (Ace-K) during this critical period of development reprograms the taste system in a way that would alter hedonic responding for common dietary compounds. Results revealed that early-life LCS intake not only enhanced the avidity for a caloric sugar (fructose) when rats were in a state of caloric need, it increased acceptance of a bitterant (quinine) in Ace-K-exposed rats tested when middle-aged.

Decoding the mA epitranscriptomic landscape for biotechnological applications using a direct RNA sequencing approach.

Epitranscriptomic modifications, particularly N6-methyladenosine (mA), are crucial regulators of gene expression, influencing processes such as RNA stability, splicing, and translation. Traditional computational methods for detecting mA from Nanopore direct RNA sequencing (DRS) data are constrained by their reliance on experimentally validated labels, often resulting in the underestimation of modification sites. Here, we introduce pum6a, an innovative attention-based framework that integrates positive and unlabeled multi-instance learning (MIL) to address the challenges of incomplete labeling and missing read-level annotations.

Remote sensing-derived time series of transient glacier snowline altitudes for High Mountain Asia, 1985-2021.

This study presents a new dataset of remote sensing-derived Transient Snowline Altitude (TSLA) measurements for glaciers in High Mountain Asia. We use the Google Earth Engine to obtain TSLA data for approx. 2.

Neutralizing antibody immune correlates in COVAIL trial recipients of an mRNA second COVID-19 vaccine boost.

Neutralizing antibody titer has been a surrogate endpoint for guiding COVID-19 vaccine approval and use, although the pandemic's evolution and the introduction of variant-adapted vaccine boosters raise questions as to this surrogate's contemporary performance. For 985 recipients of an mRNA second bivalent or monovalent booster containing various Spike inserts [Prototype (Ancestral), Beta, Delta, and/or Omicron BA.1 or BA.

Microbial biogeography along a 2578 km transect on the East Antarctic Plateau.

Microorganisms are present in snow/ice of the Antarctic Plateau, but their biogeography and metabolic state under extreme local conditions are poorly understood. Here, we show the diversity and distribution of microorganisms in air (1.5 m height) and snow/ice down to 4 m depth at three distant latitudes along a 2578 km transect on the East Antarctic Plateau on board an environmentally friendly, mobile platform.

Nr4a1 and Nr4a3 redundantly control clonal deletion and contribute to an anergy-like transcriptome in auto-reactive thymocytes to impose tolerance in mice.

The Nr4a nuclear hormone receptors are transcriptionally upregulated in response to antigen recognition by the T cell receptor (TCR) in the thymus and are implicated in clonal deletion, but the mechanisms by which they operate are not clear. Moreover, their role in central tolerance is obscured by redundancy among the Nr4a family members and by their reported functions in Treg generation and maintenance. Here we take advantage of competitive bone marrow chimeras and the OT-II/RIPmOVA model to show that Nr4a1 and Nr4a3 are essential for the upregulation of Bcl2l11/BIM and thymic clonal deletion by self-antigen.

The Canadian Experience With Magnetic Esophageal Anastomosis: A Report From the Canadian Consortium for Research in Pediatric Surgery Study (CanCORPS).

Objective: Magnetic anastomosis is an innovative technique for establishing esophageal continuity in infants born with esophageal atresia. Few case series featuring this technology have been published, with even fewer reports on complications. We present the entire Canadian experience with this approach.

Comparing the incidence of hypospadias across the United States: A contemporary analysis.

Introduction: Hypospadias is a common congenital malformation occurring in up to 80 in 10,00 live male births, with emerging evidence associating exogenous environmental exposures with increased disease incidence. Military personnel are at particularly higher risk for such exposures and indeed, the rate of hypospadias in infant males born to United States military servicewomen deployed during the Gulf War has been reported to be more than 5 times greater compared to undeployed female military personnel.

Objective: To characterize contemporary trends in hypospadias incidence in the general population as well as high risk groups such as males born from US servicewomen using the National Birth Defects Prevention Network.

Sex and Cardiac Operations: Are We Being Fair to Our Female Patients?

Background: Research suggests that although men have a higher cardiovascular disease (CVD) rate, women with CVD are more likely to experience a poorer prognosis, possibly owing to incorrect diagnosis and poorer treatment. A question not yet addressed is whether some of this inequality could be due to sex bias when selecting patients for operation.

Method: The participants were from the Scottish Heart Health Extended Cohort who had been admitted to hospital with a cardiovascular diagnosis over the study period.

Topographic Axes of Wiring Space Converge to Genetic Topography in Shaping Human Cortical Layout.

Genetic information is involved in the gradual emergence of cortical areas since the neural tube begins to form, shaping the heterogeneous functions of neural circuits in the human brain. Informed by invasive tract-tracing measurements, the cortex exhibits marked interareal variation in connectivity profiles, revealing the heterogeneity across cortical areas. However, it remains unclear about the organizing principles possibly shared by genetics and cortical wiring to manifest the spatial heterogeneity across cortex.

Complementary Organization of Mouse Driver and Modulator Cortico-Thalamo-Cortical Circuits.

Corticocortical (CC) projections in the visual system facilitate hierarchical processing of sensory information. In addition to direct CC connections, indirect cortico-thalamo-cortical (CTC) pathways through the pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus can relay sensory signals and mediate cortical interactions according to behavioral demands. While the pulvinar connects extensively to the entire visual cortex, it is unknown whether transthalamic pathways link all cortical areas or whether they follow systematic organizational rules.

How gender shapes practice choices among family medicine residents and early career family physicians: a Canadian qualitative study.

Background: The practice choices of family medicine residents and early career family physicians shape access to primary care. A growing proportion of family physicians are women.

Aim: This study examined how gender operates in shaping family physician practice choices and subsequent practice patterns.

The ChatGPT Fact-Check: Exploiting the Limitations of Generative AI to Develop Evidenced-Based Reasoning Skills in College Science Courses.

Generative large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT can quickly produce informative essays on various topics. However, the information generated cannot be fully trusted as artificial intelligence (AI) can make factual mistakes. This poses challenges for using such tools in college classrooms.