A Three-Dimensional, Flexible Conductive Network Based on an MXene/Rubber Composite for Lithium Metal Anodes.

Flexibility enhancement is a pressing issue in the current development of advanced lithium-metal battery applications. Many types of organic polymers are inherently flexible, which can form a composite structure enhancing electrode flexibility. However, organic polymers have a negative influence on the plating and stripping of lithium-metal anodes, and the large number of polymers block the pore of the material, reducing the utilization of the active site.

Differences in smoking cessation behaviors and vaping status among adult daily smokers with and without depression, anxiety, and alcohol use: Findings from the 2018 and 2020 International Tobacco Control Four Country Smoking and Vaping (ITC 4CV) Surveys.

This study examined differences in quit attempts, 1-month quit success, and vaping status at follow-up among a cohort of 3709 daily smokers with and without depression, anxiety, and regular alcohol use who participated in both the 2018 and 2020 International Tobacco Control Four Country Smoking and Vaping (ITC 4CV) Surveys. At baseline, a survey with validated screening tools was used to classify respondents as having no, or one or more of the following: 1) depression, 2) anxiety, and 3) regular alcohol use. Multivariable adjusted regression analyses were used to examine whether baseline (2018) self-report conditions were associated with quit attempts; quit success; and vaping status by follow-up (2020).

Predicting an individual's functional connectivity from their structural connectome: Evaluation of evidence, recommendations, and future prospects.

Several recent studies have optimized deep neural networks to learn high-dimensional relationships linking structural and functional connectivity across the human connectome. However, the extent to which these models recapitulate individual-specific characteristics of resting-state functional brain networks remains unclear. A core concern relates to whether current individual predictions outperform simple benchmarks such as group averages and null conditions.

A Regiospecific Co-Assembly Method to Functionalize Ordered Mesoporous Metal Oxides with Customizable Noble Metal Nanocrystals.

An efficient regiospecific co-assembly (RSCA) strategy is developed for general synthesis of mesoporous metal oxides with pore walls precisely decorated by highly dispersed noble metal nanocrystals with customized parameters (diameter and composition). It features the rational utilization of the specific interactions between hydrophilic molecular precursors, hydrophobic noble metal nanocrystals, and amphiphilic block copolymers, to achieve regiospecific co-assembly as confirmed by molecular dynamics simulations. Through this RSCA strategy, we achieved a controllable synthesis of a variety of functional mesoporous metal oxide composites (e.

Leveraging anatomical constraints with uncertainty for pneumothorax segmentation.

Background: Pneumothorax is a medical emergency caused by the abnormal accumulation of air in the pleural space-the potential space between the lungs and chest wall. On 2D chest radiographs, pneumothorax occurs within the thoracic cavity and outside of the mediastinum, and we refer to this area as "lung + space." While deep learning (DL) has increasingly been utilized to segment pneumothorax lesions in chest radiographs, many existing DL models employ an end-to-end approach.

Cardiovascular risks of Asian patients on androgen-receptor-targeted agents for prostate cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Prostate cancer is now one of the most prevalent cancers in men in Asia. As the average life expectancy of Asian males with prostate cancer increases with the availability of treatment options, the possible risk of cardiac-related adverse effects arising from androgen-receptor-targeted agents (ARTAs) may be increased due to the greater exposure. We aim to perform a meta-analysis on the incidence of cardiac-related adverse events in Asian patients with prostate cancer treated with ARTAs.

Evaluation of Energy Utilisation Efficiencies of Digestible Macronutrients in Juvenile Malabar Snapper () Reveals High Protein Requirement for Optimal Growth Using Both Factorial and Multifactorial Approaches.

Malabar snapper () is an economically important marine fish throughout the Indo-Pacific, with an emerging aquaculture industry. Although generic marine feeds are available for production, these are not optimised for this species. Understanding energy utilisation and balance can provide insight into suitable macronutrient profiles for new species to provide a baseline for future development.

The Effect of Thermal Cycle on Hot Cracking Evolution and Formation Mechanism in Thin Wall, Single Layer, and Cubic Samples of High-Strength Al-Cu-Mg-Mn Alloys Fabricated by Laser Powder Bed Fusion.

Thermal cracking is one of the serious issues that deteriorates the processibility of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) high-strength aluminum components. To date, the effects of processing parameters on crack formation are still not well understood. The purpose of this study is to understand the correlation between the thermal cycle and the hot cracking during LPBF of Al-Cu-Mg-Mn alloys.

Effective Spiral Laser Path for Minimizing Local Heating and Anisotropic Microstructures in Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing.

Heat accumulation due to repetitive simple laser processing paths during building up a three-dimensional structure is a well-known issue that needs to be settled to reduce the excessively high residual stress and thermal deformation in a powder bed fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing process. Because of the dependency of laser path on the thermal dispersion, it is essential to analyze the heat accumulation phenomenon during laser processing. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis based on the volume of fraction method is used to optimize the laser path for minimizing the local heating up in the PBF process.

Proliferative potential and angiogenic characteristics of blood outgrowth endothelial cells derived from middle-aged and older adults.

Objectives: Autologous blood outgrowth endothelial cells (BOECs) have been proposed to induce therapeutic angiogenesis for treating cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The aim of the present study was to investigate the proliferative potential and angiogenic characteristics of BOECs among middle-aged and older adults, the population particularly susceptible to CVDs.

Methods: BOECs were isolated from 48 peripheral blood samples of subjects aged 56 ± 4 years.

Associations of Cord Blood Concentrations of Perfluoroalkyl Substances with Autistic Traits in Singaporean Children: The Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes Study.

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social deficits and repetitive behaviors. Environmental pollutants may contribute to the etiology of ASD, but studies of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have shown conflicting results.

Objectives: We assessed associations between cord blood concentrations of PFAS with autistic traits at age seven years in a Singaporean birth cohort.

On the probability of necessity and sufficiency of explaining Graph Neural Networks: A lower bound optimization approach.

The explainability of Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) is critical to various GNN applications, yet it remains a significant challenge. A convincing explanation should be both necessary and sufficient simultaneously. However, existing GNN explaining approaches focus on only one of the two aspects, necessity or sufficiency, or a heuristic trade-off between the two.

Construction of amino functional metal-organic framework modified aramid composite separators with high Li transport channels for dendrite-free lithium-ion batteries.

The formation and growth of lithium dendrites is an ever-present and urgent problem in lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). At the same time, the low melting point of commercial polyolefin separators may lead to safety issues during application. On this basis, in this work, poly (m-phenylene isophthalamide) (PMIA)/Zr-based metal-organic framework (NH-UiO-66) composite separator was prepared by non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS).

Estimation of the wetting induced settlement of loess soils from the wetting soil-water characteristic curve.

Collapsible loess soils, known for their significant volume reduction upon the wetting, pose critical challenges in the geotechnical engineering. The estimation of the wetting-induced settlement is crucial for the foundation design and the determination of the negative skin friction on the pile. In this paper, a new method is proposed to estimate the wetting induced collapse from the wetting soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) and the index properties of the loess soils.

Vertical land motion is underestimated in sea-level projections from the Oka estuary, northern Spain.

Coastal populations are susceptible to relative sea-level (RSL) rise and accurate local projections are necessary for coastal adaptation. Local RSL rise may deviate from global mean sea-level rise because of processes such as geoid change, glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), and vertical land motion (VLM). Amongst all factors, the VLM is often inadequately estimated.

A dual-adaptive stochastic reinforcement chimp optimization algorithm for fire detection and multidimensional problem solving.

Chimp optimization algorithm (CHOA) is a recently developed nature-inspired technique that mimics the swarm intelligence of chimpanzee colonies. However, the original CHOA suffers from slow convergence and a tendency to reach local optima when dealing with multidimensional problems. To address these limitations, we propose TASR-CHOA, a twofold adaptive stochastic reinforced variant.

Investigating the association between labor pain and cessation of breastfeeding.

Mothers encounter several challenges to sustain breastfeeding until the recommended 6 months of age. There is limited evidence on the impact of women's labor pain experiences upon cessation of breastfeeding. We aimed to investigate the association between women's labor pain experiences, intrapartum interventions, and pre-birth psychological vulnerabilities and cessation of breastfeeding.

iPSC-derived human sensory neurons reveal a subset of TRPV1 antagonists as anti-pruritic compounds.

Signaling interplay between the histamine 1 receptor (H1R) and transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V member 1 (TRPV1) in mediating histaminergic itch has been well-established in mammalian models, but whether this is conserved in humans remains to be confirmed due to the difficulties in obtaining human sensory neurons (SNs) for experimentation. Additionally, previously reported species-specific differences in TRPV1 function indicate that use of human SNs is vital for drug candidate screening to have a higher chance of identifying clinically effective TRPV1 antagonists. In this study, we built a histamine-dependent itch model using peripheral SNs derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC-SNs), which provides an accessible source of human SNs for pre-clinical drug screening.