Enhancing Cycle Life of Rechargeable Zinc Hybrid Batteries in a Low-Cost, Nonfluorinated Dual-Cation Electrolyte.

Rechargeable zinc batteries (RZBs) are highly attractive as energy storage solutions due to their low cost and sustainability. Nevertheless, the use of fluorine-free zinc electrolyte systems to create affordable, ecofriendly, and safe RZBs has been largely overlooked in the battery community. Previously, we showcased the utilization of a fluorine-free, nonaqueous electrolyte comprising zinc dicyanamide (Zn(dca)) in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) to enable the electrochemical cycling of zinc.

Facilitating Safe Access to Health Care through Legislative Reform - The Australian Experience.

The realisation of the right to health is vulnerable to the interventions of strangers, acting on the belief that certain health care should not be permissible under the law or accessible in practice. In Australia, the key arena for such interventions has been abortion services. Drawing on empirical research undertaken by the authors, this article examines the impact of these interventions and the effectiveness of "safe access zone" laws that now operate nationwide to constrain them.

Advancements in Algorithms and Neuromorphic Hardware for Spiking Neural Networks.

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) have experienced a rapid advancement for their success in various application domains, including autonomous driving and drone vision. Researchers have been improving the performance efficiency and computational requirement of ANNs inspired by the mechanisms of the biological brain. Spiking neural networks (SNNs) provide a power-efficient and brain-inspired computing paradigm for machine learning applications.

Influence of offshore oil and gas structures on seascape ecological connectivity.

Offshore platforms, subsea pipelines, wells and related fixed structures supporting the oil and gas (O&G) industry are prevalent in oceans across the globe, with many approaching the end of their operational life and requiring decommissioning. Although structures can possess high ecological diversity and productivity, information on how they interact with broader ecological processes remains unclear. Here, we review the current state of knowledge on the role of O&G infrastructure in maintaining, altering or enhancing ecological connectivity with natural marine habitats.

Fostering uncertainty tolerance in anatomy education: Lessons learned from how humanities, arts and social science (HASS) educators develop learners' uncertainty tolerance.

Uncertainty tolerance, individuals' perceptions/responses to uncertain stimuli, is increasingly recognized as critical to effective healthcare practice. While the Covid-19 pandemic generated collective uncertainty, healthcare-related uncertainty is omnipresent. Correspondingly, there is increasing focus on uncertainty tolerance as a health professional graduate "competency," and a concomitant interest in identifying pedagogy fostering learners' uncertainty tolerance.

Diverse phosphate and auxin transport loci distinguish phosphate tolerant from sensitive Arabidopsis accessions.

Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for plant growth often limiting agroecosystems. To identify genetic determinants of performance under variable phosphate (Pi) supply, we conducted genome-wide association studies on five highly predictive Pi starvation response traits in 200 Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) accessions. Pi concentration in Pi-limited organs had the strongest, and primary root length had the weakest genetic component.

Stable High-Temperature Cycling of Na Metal Batteries on NaV(PO) and NaFePO Cathodes in NaFSI-Rich Organic Ionic Plastic Crystal Electrolytes.

Sodium batteries have emerged as a promising alternative for large-scale energy storage applications due to the low cost and high abundance of sodium. Sodium batteries require safe, high-voltage, and cost-effective electrolytes and cathode materials for their practical applications to be realized. In the present study, Na metal cells with a mixed-phase electrolyte comprising a high concentration of Na salt in an organic ionic plastic crystal (OIPC), namely, triisobutylmethylphosphonium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide, are investigated-coupled with either a sodium vanadium phosphate-carbon composite (NVP/C) or a sodium iron pyrophosphate (NFpP) cathode.

Computational Investigation of Mixed Anion Effect on Lithium Coordination and Transport in Salt Concentrated Ionic Liquid Electrolytes.

The use of high concentrations of alkali metal ion salts in ionic liquids (ILs) has been demonstrated to significantly improve electrolyte performance, increase alkali metal ion transference numbers, and promote the formation of favorable SEI structures enabling long-term stable cycling. One challenge in using this material is the overall low ionic conductivity, which is a common effect of increased salt concentration. This simulation work first investigated the strategy of using mixed anions to tune the ionic conductivity in a concentrated IL (or "ionic liquid-in-salt") system having 50 mol % lithium salt.

Prevalence and predictors of vitamin D deficiency in a nationally representative sample of adults participating in the 2011-2013 Australian Health Survey.

Vitamin D deficiency is recognised as a public health problem globally, and a high prevalence of deficiency has previously been reported in Australia. This study details the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in a nationally representative sample of Australian adults aged ≥25 years, using an internationally standardised method to measure serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations and identifies demographic and lifestyle factors associated with vitamin D deficiency. We used data from the 2011-2013 Australian Health Survey (n 5034 with complete information on potential predictors and serum 25(OH)D concentrations).

Investigating Mirror System (MS) Activity in Adults with ASD When Inferring Others' Intentions Using Both TMS and EEG.

ASD is associated with mentalizing deficits that may correspond with atypical mirror system (MS) activation. We investigated MS activity in adults with and without ASD when inferring others' intentions using TMS-induced motor evoked potentials (MEPs) and mu suppression measured by EEG. Autistic traits were measured for all participants.

Molecular dynamics simulations of pyrrolidinium and imidazolium ionic liquids at graphene interfaces.

Understanding the electrode-electrolyte interface is essential in the battery research as the ion transport and ion structures at the interface most likely affect the performance of a battery. Here we investigate interfacial structures of three ionic liquids: 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide ([Cmim][dca]), 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide ([Cmim][dca]) and N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium dicyanamide ([Cmyr][dca]) at a charged and uncharged graphene interface using molecular dynamics simulations. We find that these ionic liquids (ILs) behave differently both in the bulk phase and near a graphene interface and we find that this difference is apparent in all types of analyses performed here.

Prey selection and dietary flexibility of three species of mammalian predator during an irruption of non-cyclic prey.

Predators often display dietary shifts in response to fluctuating prey in cyclic systems, but little is known about predator diets in systems that experience non-cyclic prey irruptions. We tracked dietary shifts by feral cats (), red foxes () and dingoes () through a non-cyclic irruption of small mammalian prey in the Simpson Desert, central Australia. We predicted that all three predators would alter their diets to varying degrees as small mammals declined post irruption, and to test our predictions we live-trapped small mammals through the irruption event and collected scats to track predator diets.

Interprofessional communication supporting clinical handover in emergency departments: An observation study.

Background: Poor interprofessional communication poses a risk to patient safety at change-of-shift in emergency departments (EDs). The purpose of this study was to identify and describe patterns and processes of interprofessional communication impacting quality of ED change-of-shift handovers.

Methods: Observation of 66 change-of-shift handovers at two acute hospital EDs in Victoria, Australia.

Combined bio-logging and stable isotopes reveal individual specialisations in a benthic coastal seabird, the Kerguelen shag.

Individual specialisations, which involve the repetition of specific behaviours or dietary choices over time, have been suggested to benefit animals by avoiding competition with conspecifics and increasing individual foraging efficiency. Among seabirds, resident and benthic species are thought to be good models to study inter-individual variation as they repetitively exploit the same environment. We investigated foraging behaviour, isotopic niche and diet in the Kerguelen shag Phalacrocorax verrucosus during both the incubation and chick-rearing periods for the same individuals to determine the effect of sex, breeding stage, body mass and morphometrics on mean foraging metrics and their consistency.

A comparative AFM study of the interfacial nanostructure in imidazolium or pyrrolidinium ionic liquid electrolytes for zinc electrochemical systems.

The electrochemical systems containing zinc dicyanamide salt (Zn(dca)) in both 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide ([Cmim][dca]) and N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium dicyanamide ([Cmpyr][dca]) ionic liquids (ILs) have been studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM) on a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surface under different conditions and applied potentials. The results reveal the following: (1) interfacial layers exist in both ILs, even after the addition of 3 wt% water and 9 mol% Zn(dca) salt. (2) The number of layers is different for the different ILs, with the [Cmim][dca]-based samples exhibiting a much more limited interfacial structure compared to the [Cmpyr][dca] at almost all of the tested conditions.

Diversity of root-associated arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities in a rubber tree plantation chronosequence in Northeast Thailand.

Rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) is of major economic importance in Southeast Asia and for small land holders in Thailand in particular. Due to the high value of latex, plantations are expanding into unsuitable areas, such as the northeast province of Thailand where soil fertility is very low and therefore appropriate management practices are of primary importance. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) contribute to plant growth through a range of mechanisms and could play a key role in a more sustainable management of the rubber plantations.

ED-HOME: Improving educator confidence and patient education in the Emergency Department.

Background: Barriers to effective patient communication in the emergency department (ED) are well recognised; time, resources and staff and consumer expectations. This project aimed to improve the quality of health education provided in the ED by increasing nurses' confidence as educators.

Method: By providing a staff information package including the introduction of a new structured education tool; ED-HOME, and by assessing the confidence and self-efficacy of the nurses in the process, we hoped to determine if an improvement in practice and confidence was achieved.

Fully Automatic Localization and Segmentation of 3D Vertebral Bodies from CT/MR Images via a Learning-Based Method.

In this paper, we address the problems of fully automatic localization and segmentation of 3D vertebral bodies from CT/MR images. We propose a learning-based, unified random forest regression and classification framework to tackle these two problems. More specifically, in the first stage, the localization of 3D vertebral bodies is solved with random forest regression where we aggregate the votes from a set of randomly sampled image patches to get a probability map of the center of a target vertebral body in a given image.

Influence of Zn2+ and water on the transport properties of a pyrrolidinium dicyanamide ionic liquid.

In order to expand our understanding of a potential zinc-based battery electrolyte, we have characterized the physical and transport properties of the ionic liquid (IL) 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium dicyanamide ([C4mpyr][dca]) containing various levels of both Zn(2+) and H2O. Detailed measurements of density, viscosity, conductivity, and individual anion and cation diffusion coefficients using pulsed-field-gradient (PFG) NMR combined with NMR chemical shifts and spin-lattice relaxation (T1) NMR experiments provide insights into the motion and chemical environment of all molecular species. We find that the various techniques for probing ion transport and dynamics form a coherent picture as a function of electrolyte composition.

Experimental and clinical studies of localisation before Flourens.

Experimental studies in the localisation of brain function did not begin with Flourens, nor did clinical studies with the phrenologists or physicians like Auburtin, Bouillaud, or Dax, shortly afterward. Although the pre-1820 literature is moderate, some of it is worth examining because of the problems associated with interpreting it. There are three separate but related problems: philosophical, methodological, and conceptual.