Neutron diffraction structural study of the apatite-type oxide ion conductor, La8Y2Ge6O27: location of the interstitial oxide ion site

Apatite-type rare earth silicates/germanates have attracted considerable interest recently due to their high oxide ion conductivities. Despite evidence in support of a conduction mechanism involving interstitial oxide ions, the exact location of the interstitial oxide ion sites continues to attract controversy. In this paper we report a neutron diffraction structural study for the high oxygen excess compound, La8Y2Ge6O27. The structural model indicates that the oxide ions are located between the GeO4 tetrahedra, leading to significant localised distortions. These results, coupled with recent modelling studies, hence, support the conclusion that oxide ion migration proceeds via these tetrahedra

Adapting the Body Appreciation Scale-2 for Children: A psychometric analysis of the BAS-2C

© 2017 Positive body image among adults is related to numerous indicators of well-being. However, no research has explored body appreciation among children. To facilitate our understanding of children's positive body image, the current study adapts and validates the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2; Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015a) for use with children. Three hundred and forty-four children (54.4% girls) aged 9–11 completed the adapted Body Appreciation Scale-2 for Children (BAS-2C) alongside measures of body esteem, media influence, body surveillance, mood, and dieting. A sub-sample of 154 participants (62.3% girls) completed the questionnaire 6-weeks later to examine stability (test-retest) reliability. The BAS-2C displayed a unidimensional factor structure and evidence of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct, criterion-related, and incremental validity. Additionally, the results suggest adaptive properties of body appreciation for body-related and emotional well-being among children. The BAS-2C could serve as an essential component within research to understand and estimate children's positive body image

Evaluating the impact of a brief yoga intervention on preadolescents’ body image and mood

Yoga is an embodying activity that promotes body awareness, body connection, body responsiveness, and appreciation of body functionality, and it therefore may be a beneficial school-based intervention for children’s body image. The present study examined the impact of a 4-week yoga intervention on pre-adolescent girls’ and boys’ body image (body appreciation, body esteem, and body surveillance) and mood (positive and negative affect) 1-week post-intervention and at 6-week follow-up. British children (N = 344; 54.4% female) aged 9-11 years were recruited from four schools, two of which were randomly assigned to the yoga intervention and two to a physical education control condition. Unexpectedly, both groups increased body appreciation, body esteem, and positive mood, and decreased body surveillance and negative affect from baseline to post-intervention and/or follow-up. Children in the yoga intervention evaluated the sessions very favourably; the majority desired to participate in more lessons. Potential explanations for these findings are discussed

High-Power Recycling::Upcycling to the Next Generation of High-Power Anodes for Li-ion Battery Applications

With the growing interest in niobium-based anodes for high-power lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), current chemistries (for this application) such as Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) anodes will be superseded, and as such an efficient and effective method of recycling needs to be considered. With this motivation, a potential upcycling route is proposed for LTO for the first time, such that Li is recovered as a salt and the titanium oxide (anatase) repurposed and used in the synthesis of current generation titanium-doped niobates. Using a variety of inorganic acids: HCl, H2SO4 and H3PO4 to achieve the proton-lithium exchange, the lithium was found to be completely leached from the LTO in the former 2 acids. The latter acid was found to give incomplete leaching, with the formation of LiTiOPO4. In addition to the recovery of Li from the leached solution, we also investigated upcycling of the recovered TiO2 (anatase) into next generation anodes TiNb2O7 and Ti2Nb10O29. The rate performance of these upcycled materials was determined through the fabrication of Li half coin cells, where both materials were found to show excellent performance at high rates (219 (2) mA h g−1 and 168 (16) mA h g−1 at 2 A g−1 for TiNb2O7 and Ti2Nb10O29 respectively), highlighting the potential of this recycling strategy for LTO

Carbonate : an alternative dopant to stabilize new perovskite phases ; synthesis and structure of Ba3Yb2O5CO3 and related isostructural phases Ba3Ln2O5CO3 (Ln = Y, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm and Lu)

In this paper we report the synthesis of the new layered perovskite oxide carbonate, Ba3Yb2O5CO3. This phase is formed when 3BaCO(3):1Yb(2)O(3) mixtures are heated in air at temperatures 1000 degrees C, while above this temperature the carbonate is lost and the simple oxide phase Ba3Yb4O9 is observed. The structure of Ba3Yb2O5CO3 was determined from neutron diffraction studies and consists of a tripled perovskite with double Yb-O layers separated by carbonate layers, the first example of a material with such a structure. Further studies showed that analogous Ba(3)Ln(2)O(5)CO(3) phases could be formed for other rare earths (Ln = Y, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm and Lu). The results highlight the ability of the perovskite structure to accommodate carbonate groups, and emphasise the need to consider their potential presence particularly for perovskite systems prepared in lower temperature synthesis routes

Effects of Storage Voltage upon Sodium-Ion Batteries

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are gaining attention as a safer, more cost-effective alternative to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) due to their use of abundant and non-critical materials. A notable feature of SIBs is their ability to utilize aluminum current collectors, which are resistant to oxidation, allowing for safer storage at 0 V. However, the long-term impacts of such storage on their electrochemical performance remain poorly understood. This study systematically investigates how storage conditions at various states of charge (SOCs) affect open circuit voltage (OCV) decay, internal resistance, and post-storage cycling stability in two different Na-ion chemistries: Prussian white//hard carbon and layered oxide//hard carbon. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy before and after storage shows a pronounced increase in internal resistance and a corresponding decline in cycling performance when SIBs are stored in a fully discharged state (0 V), particularly for layered oxide-based cells, illustrating the sensitivity of different SIB chemistries to storage conditions. Additionally, a novel reformation protocol is proposed that reactivates cell capacity by rebuilding the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer, offering a recovery path after prolonged storage. These insights into the long-term storage effects on SIBs provide new guidelines for optimizing storage and transport conditions to minimize performance degradation, making them more viable for commercial applications

Functional Imaging of Audio-Visual Selective Attention in Monkeys and Humans : How do Lapses in Monkey Performance Affect Cross-Species Correspondences?

The cross-species correspondences and differences in how attention modulates brain responses in humans and animal models are poorly understood. We trained 2 monkeys to perform an audio-visual selective attention task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), rewarding them to attend to stimuli in one modality while ignoring those in the other. Monkey fMRI identified regions strongly modulated by auditory or visual attention. Surprisingly, auditory attention-related modulations were much more restricted in monkeys than humans performing the same tasks during fMRI. Further analyses ruled out trivial explanations, suggesting that labile selective-attention performance was associated with inhomogeneous modulations in wide cortical regions in the monkeys. The findings provide initial insights into how audio-visual selective attention modulates the primate brain, identify sources for "lost" attention effects in monkeys, and carry implications for modeling the neurobiology of human cognition with nonhuman animals.Peer reviewe