Tuning of dynamic solvation structures via click chemistry for PEO-based solid polymer electrolytes

The Li+-transport mechanisms in both solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) and liquid electrolytes (LEs) are fundamentally governed by solvation dynamics, requiring an optimal balance between continuous coordination and moderate binding strength. Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) is a classic SPE matrix that leverages its –CH2–CH2–O– (EO) segments to provide continuous oxygen coordination for Li+ transport via amorphous regions. While continuous EO segments facilitate the intra-chain Li+-transport, their strong multidentate solvation of Li+ through a chelate effect – each Li+ chelates with 4–6 ethylene oxide (EO) units – significantly hinders the inter-chain Li+ mobility. This effect creates rigid solvation cages that both immobilize Li+ and resist modification by alternative moieties (e.g. carbonate or nitrile groups), resulting in poor room-temperature ionic conductivity (σ) and low Li+ transference number (tLi+). To address these challenges, we developed a series of precise Li+-transport models (LTMs) through click chemistry, strategically combining acrylate-PEG and acrylonitrile to engineer balanced interactions between multidentate (EO) and monodentate (C = O, C ≡ N) coordination sites. This design achieved synergistic enhancement of both inter- and intra-chain transport pathways, demonstrated by significantly improved performance with σ = 6.40 × 10− 5 S/cm and tLi+ = 0.44 at 25 °C. This approach permits tailored control of dynamic solvation structures, offering new opportunities to enhance Li+ transport in PEO-based solid polymer electrolytes

Climate warming and deglaciation drive new peat formation in the Southern Alps, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Nascent peatlands represent an emerging, nature-based carbon sink in the global climate system. A warming climate and changing precipitation regime could drive peat initiation beyond the current latitudinal and altitudinal boundaries of the peatland bioclimatic envelope, through increases in plant productivity and moisture availability, with potential implications for global radiative forcing. However, contemporaneous observations of new peat formation remain scarce. We investigate peat initiation within the deglaciating Rob Roy valley in the Southern Alps, Aotearoa/New Zealand. We find that montane peats have developed across the head of the valley since ∼1949 C.E., coinciding with regional climate warming and glacial retreat. Further, we identify a common ecological succession, characterized by a rise in brown mosses (mainly Bryum) beginning around ∼1963 C.E. Our findings indicate the potential for wider peat expansion in increasingly warm and wet montane landscapes. However, further bioclimatic modeling is required to elucidate where future peatland developments may occur.<br/

From crops to clinic: the impact of dual azole use on antifungal resistance in Candida and Candida associated yeasts

Invasive fungal infections caused by pathogenic yeasts are an escalating global health crisis that demands urgent attention within a One Health framework. This review critically examines mounting evidence that widespread agricultural azole fungicide use is a key driver accelerating antifungal resistance in pathogenic yeast. We dissect the shared molecular targets and resistance pathways that underpin dangerous cross-resistance between environmental fungicides and clinical azoles. Traditionally viewed as human commensals, we provide a comprehensive account of the evidenced environmental reservoirs of yeast pathogens, including agricultural soils, wastewater, and the food chain. Ecosystems burdened by persistent azole contamination that create hotspots for resistance evolution and amplification. With antifungal treatment options rapidly diminishing and resistant infections causing rising morbidity and mortality worldwide, we identify vulnerabilities in our shared environment and consider integrated surveillance, stewardship, and environmental interventions to help preserve the efficacy of life-saving antifungals and mitigate the growing threat of fungal disease.<br/

'The heart of the matter': grandparent childcare in contemporary Chinese families

Grandparent childcare is an international phenomenon, especially within families with children under 3 years old. China is no exception, as shown by a number of quantitative studies. Less clear is our understanding of the actual childcare arrangements involved and how these are negotiated and sustained through the intergenerational interactions between grandparents and parents. As a contribution to answering those questions, this qualitative study was undertaken in Taonan, northeast China. Interviews were conducted to explore participants' perceptions of grandparent childcare. A systemic perspective on contemporary Chinese family life is used to present and understand data through an Integrated Family Model. Within the context of a rapidly changing society, traditional characteristics of family obligation and the intimate ties between grandparents and their adult children were being reconfigured in new forms of intergenerational identity. On the basis of the findings, as articulated in the model, recommendations are made for practice and future researc

Using role substitution to improve oral health in care homes: a process evaluation

BackgroundThe oral health of many older adults residing in care homes is poor and service provision is limited. Role substitution has been suggested as a potential model to improve service provision in this context and describes the reallocation of tasks from a dentist to other members of the dental team.ObjectivesTo undertake a theoretically informed process evaluation alongside a pragmatic cluster-randomised controlled trial to determine whether the use of Dental Therapists and Dental Nurses could improve the oral health of dependent older adults in care homes in the UK.Materials and MethodsSemistructured interviews were held with 17 key stakeholders responsible for intervention delivery. Parallel observations were utilised during the intervention delivery phase in 22 homes. Both were conducted inductively using the main themes from the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARIHS) framework to focus on intervention delivery and implementation.ResultsStakeholders were receptive to the potential of using role substitution in this setting and saw this as a viable alternative to current practice. Partnership working was considered key, but was not always observed, and some care staff did not see oral health as their responsibility. The physical environment of the care home setting created a number of challenges, and sugary food and drinks were ubiquitous and formed an important part of the day-to-day structure within the home.ConclusionAlthough role substitution has the potential to meet the needs of dependent older people, a number of challenges exist in promoting oral health and delivering service provision.<br/

Evaluation of autonomous intrusion response agents in adversarial and normal scenarios

The emergence of threats to networked cyber-physical systems (CPS) such as FrostyGoop (2024), Pipedream (2022) and Industroyer2 (2022), motivates a desire for improved automated defences against such threats. Research has found deep reinforcement learning (DRL) can enable autonomous intrusion response systems (IRS) to learn optimal response policies from experience, without relying on static pre-configured rules or explicit system models. The goal of autonomous defence is protecting against multi-stage attacks by learning to minimise disruption to the normal operation of the system and restore CPS functionality. However, this approach is dependent on the training environment being representative of a real system while being conducive to learning. Previous approaches focus on designing agents to adapt to adverse training conditions and neglect evaluation in scenarios absent of the adversary and/or defence agent. In contrast, we focus on improving the design of the training environment proposing both adversarial and normal scenarios for evaluation. Our analysis reveals several novel observations linked to suboptimal training conditions. For example, through evaluation of normal scenarios, it was revealed that security alerts were still present in the absence of the adversary. These observations challenge the assumptions made about the environment implementation in previous work. Our contributions support improved agent training for effective autonomous IRS.<br/

3D electron microscopy reveals novel ultrastructural changes in the diabetic retinal neurovascular unit

Aims/hypothesisThis study used serial block-face scanning electron microscopy (SBF-SEM), a nanoscale imaging technique in x-y-z planes, to investigate 3D ultrastructural changes in the retinal neurovascular unit (NVU) associated with diabetes. We hypothesised that this approach would reveal previously uncharacterised pathological alterations that contribute to the development of diabetic retinal disease (DRD).MethodsRetinas from male diabetic and non-diabetic mice, as well as from human male donors with and without diabetes, were prepared for SBF-SEM imaging. Retinal tissue was microdissected, fixed and embedded for serial sectioning and 3D reconstruction. Ultrastructural analysis of the NVU was performed in capillary regions exclusively within the superficial vascular plexus of both mouse and human retinas. Image stacks were processed using Microscopy Image Browser for contrast normalisation and segmentation, with 3D visualisation performed in Amira software. Quantitative analyses were conducted on pericyte–endothelial cell peg-and-socket formations, cell–basement membrane (BM) interactions, endothelial tubule formation and vascular BM thickness.ResultsSBF-SEM revealed novel 3D ultrastructural changes in the retinal NVU of diabetic mice and humans, including: (1) partial detachment and reduced frequency of pericyte–endothelium peg-and-socket formations (p&lt;0.05–0.001); (2) localised detachment of endothelial cells and pericytes from the vascular BM (p&lt;0.05–0.01), along with macroglial cell retraction from the outer vascular BM; and (3) increased formation of endothelial tubules (p&lt;0.01–0.001). These changes were observed in the absence of any obvious vascular BM thickening, as no significant differences in mean or maximum BM thickness were found between diabetic and non-diabetic retinal capillaries analysed in this study.Conclusions/interpretationThis study provides new insights into the early ultrastructural changes in the retinal NVU in DRD, offering a basis for a better understanding of the pathological processes that contribute to the development of this disease.<br/

Integrated rumen-animal-manure analysis of dairy emission mitigation by feeding apple pomace and hempseed cake

Agri-food by-products are underused feed resources with the potential to reduce dairy emissions, yet most studies examined rumen and manure stages separately, which mask whole-system effects and shift environmental burdens between stages. This study is the first to assess the effects of incorporating apple pomace (AP) and hempseed cake (HC) into dairy cow diets on nitrogen and methane (CH4) emissions, across the entire milk production chain, from rumen fermentation to downstream manure storage. A 3 (treatments) x 3 (Periods) Latin square design was used with 15 cows, treatment diets included (1) CON (control diet): basal diets with forage and concentrates; (2) AP: 10 % of AP replacing forage; (3) HC: 10 % of HC replacing concentrates. Faeces and urine outputs were collected separately from animals, for manure storage experiment. Feeding AP and HC decreased (P &lt; 0.01), respectively, enteric CH4 production by 6.3 % and 6.7 %, CH4/feed intake by 10.6 % and 10.1 %, and CH4/milk yield by 9.8 % and 10.9 %. Inclusion of AP decreased urine N /total N intake, compared to CON and HC (P &lt; 0.05). In manure storage, the AP decreased the cumulative ammonia (NH3) and CH4 emissions by 24.8 % and 27.4 % than CON, respectively (P &lt; 0.05). The above mitigation actions through feeding AP and HC, when working together in implementation for feeding dairy cows, could decrease annual CO2 equivalent emissions by 13 % and 10 % respectively. This is the first integrated study combining rumen fermentation with manure impacts, showing that AP and HC inclusion can be a practical approach to mitigate emissions in dairy farming.<br/

Against market ideologies and AI-powered translation:Advancing a humane approach to translation and open science

The current model of knowledge construction, circulation, and translation appears unsustainable on several accounts in the context of the global publishing industry. This industry is now controlled by an oligopoly of publishers, is dependent in its functioning on the exploitation of authors, and unduly privileges scholarship produced in the Global North, and in a very limited number of languages. In this context, AI-generated and machine translation are increasingly called upon to provide immediate, multilingual dissemination of data and are promoted through a rhetoric of equity, despite the fact that they exacerbate already entrenched inequities in global knowledge circulation. Encounters in translation actively promotes an alternative model that challenges the global publishing industry and its increased dependence on AI-powered automated translation. The journal adopts an open, multilingual, and community-supported translation model that recognizes the labour of editors, authors, and translators, and promotes open science and the inclusion of scholars located in the Global South. We write on behalf of the editors of the journal to call for adopting a model of humane translation that seeks to enrich scientific dialogue and deliberation, open up disciplinary, language, and racial silos, and bypass inequitable and ecocidal AI-powered infrastructures that reduce translation to a mere vector of large-scale dissemination of research findings. Harnessing the potential of the open science movement, transdisciplinarity, and translation studies from this critical perspective allows us to create humane translational spaces that can accommodate equitable and sustainable ecosystems of knowledge production and circulation