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Seismic anisotropy provides essential information for characterizing the orientation of deformation and flow in the crust and mantle. The isotropic structure of the Antarctic crust and upper mantle has been determined by previous studies, but the azimuthal anisotropy structure has only been constrained by mantle core phase (SKS) splitting observations. This study determines the azimuthal anisotropic structure of the crust and mantle beneath the central and West Antarctica based on 8—55 s Rayleigh wave phase velocities from ambient noise cross‐correlation. An anisotropic Rayleigh wave phase velocity map was created using a ray—based tomography method. These data are inverted using a Bayesian Monte Carlo method to obtain an azimuthal anisotropy model with uncertainties. The azimuthal anisotropy structure in most of the study region can be fit by a two‐layer structure, with one layer at depths of 0–15 km in the shallow crust and the other layer in the uppermost mantle. The azimuthal anisotropic layer in the shallow crust of West Antarctica, where it coincides with strong positive radial anisotropy quantified by the previous study, shows a fast direction that is subparallel to the inferred extension direction of the West Antarctic Rift System. Fast directions of upper mantle azimuthal anisotropy generally align with teleseismic shear wave splitting fast directions, suggesting a thin lithosphere or similar lithosphere‐asthenosphere deformation. However, inconsistencies in this exist in Marie Byrd Land, indicating differing ancient deformation patterns in the shallow mantle lithosphere sampled by the surface waves and deformation in the deeper mantle and asthenosphere sampled more strongly by splitting measurements. Plain Language Summary: Seismic anisotropy, which refers to the directional dependence of seismic wave propagation, provides crucial information about the orientation of deformation and flow within the interior of Earth. While most previous studies have focused on the isotropic structure, our study determines the azimuthal anisotropy structure beneath central and west Antarctica. We found that a two‐layer anisotropic structure fits the study region. In West Antarctica, the fast direction of the azimuthal anisotropy in the crust aligns with the extension direction of the West Antarctic Rift System. The agreement between our results and teleseismic core phase studies in the uppermost mantle suggests a thin lithosphere or similar lithosphere‐asthenosphere deformation. However, inconsistencies in certain areas of the study region, such as Marie Byrd Land, suggest that the deformation patterns differ between the shallow mantle lithosphere and the deeper mantle asthenosphere. These findings offer new insights into Antarctica's geological history. Key Points: Rayleigh wave phase velocities in Antarctica determined from ambient noise tomography have significant azimuthal anisotropyAnisotropy in the upper crust shows fast velocities that are subparallel to the inferred West Antarctic Rift System extension directionMantle fast velocities are often subparallel to core phase splitting directions, suggesting similar lithosphere‐asthenosphere anisotropy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs) are promising materials due to their unique physical and chemical properties. Fabrication technologies based on gas-phase reactions reduce the control and collection efficiency of BNNTs due to reactant and product dispersion within the reaction vessel. A surface growth method that allows for controllable growth of BNNTs in certain regions using a preburied boron source is introduced. This work leverages the high solubility of boron in metals to create a boronized layer on the surface which serves as the boron source to confine the growth of BNNTs. Dense and uniform BNNTs are obtained after loading catalysts onto the boronized substrate and annealing under ammonia. Confirmatory experiments demonstrate that the boride layer provides boron for BNNTs growth. Furthermore, the patterned growth of BNNTs is realized by patterning the boronizing region, demonstrating the controllability of this method. In addition, the Ni substrate with BNNTs growth exhibits better performance in corrosion resistance and thermal conductivity than pure Ni. This study introduces an alternative strategy for the surface growth of BNNTs based on boron source design, which offers new possibilities for the controllable preparation of BNNTs for various applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate and optimize brief alcohol interventions (BAIs), it is critical to have a credible overall effect size estimate as a benchmark. Estimating such an effect size has been challenging because alcohol outcomes often represent responses from a mixture of individuals: those at high risk for alcohol misuse, occasional nondrinkers, and abstainers. Moreover, some BAIs exclusively focus on heavy drinkers, whereas others take a universal prevention approach. Depending on sample characteristics, the outcome distribution might have many zeros or very few zeros and overdispersion; consequently, the most appropriate statistical model may differ across studies. We synthesized individual participant data (IPD) from 19 studies in Project INTEGRATE (Mun et al., 2015b) that randomly allocated participants to intervention and control groups (N = 7,704 participants, 38.4% men, 74.7% White, 58.5% first-year students). We sequentially estimated marginalized zero-inflated Poisson (Long et al., 2014) or negative binomial regression models to obtain covariate-adjusted, study-specific intervention effect estimates in the first step, which were subsequently combined in a random-effects meta-analysis model in the second step. BAIs produced a statistically significant 8% advantage in the mean number of drinks at both 1–3 months (RR = 0.92, 95% CI = [0.85, 0.98]) and 6 months (RR = 0.92, 95% CI = [0.85, 0.99]) compared to controls. At 9–12 months, there was no statistically significant difference in the mean number of drinks between BAIs and controls. In conclusion, BAIs are effective at reducing the mean number of drinks through at least 6 months post intervention. IPD can play a critical role in deriving findings that could not be obtained in original individual studies or standard aggregate data meta-analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most human traits are influenced by the interplay between genetic and environmental factors. Many statistical methods have been proposed to screen for gene-environment interaction (GxE) in the post genome-wide association study era. However, most of the existing methods assume a linear interaction between genetic and environmental factors toward phenotypic variations, which diminishes statistical power in the case of nonlinear GxE. In this paper, we present a flexible statistical procedure to detect GxE regardless of whether the underlying relationship is linear or not. By modeling the joint genetic and GxE effects as a varying-coefficient function of the environmental factor, the proposed model is able to capture dynamic trajectories of GxE. We employ a likelihood ratio test with a fast Monte Carlo algorithm for hypothesis testing. Simulations were conducted to evaluate validity and power of the proposed model in various settings. Real data analysis was performed to illustrate its power, in particular, in the case of nonlinear GxE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Alcohol-induced blackouts are periods of impaired memory in which an individual is unable to recount events that occurred while they were intoxicated and are associated with heavier drinking episodes. Objectives: The present study examined age and Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) as moderators of the association between peak number of drinks and experiencing alcohol-induced blackouts. Participants ages 15–25 (N = 411; Mean age = 21.4 (SD = 2.5); 61.6% female) completed baseline and daily surveys as part of a larger ecological momentary assessment study. Past month blackout experiences and peak number of drinks were reported at baseline and FoMO was reported in daily surveys one to three weeks following the baseline survey. Results: A zero-inflated negative binomial model was fit to examine the interaction between peak number of drinks with age and FoMO on alcohol-induced blacking out, controlling for relevant covariates. Findings indicated the association between peak number of drinks on the likelihood of alcohol-induced blacking out was significantly moderated by age. The association was stronger for younger compared to older individuals. Findings further indicated the associations between peak number of drinks on both the likelihood and average number of alcohol-induced blacking out was significantly moderated by FoMO. For individuals with higher levels of FoMO, the association between peak drinks and alcohol-induced blacking out was weaker for the likelihood of experiencing any blackouts and stronger for the number of blackouts. Conclusions: Findings provide support to previous literature examining age and FoMO as risk factors for alcohol-induced blackouts among adolescents and young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic accident has become a significant health and development threat with rapid urbanizations. An accurate urban accident forecasting enables higher-quality police force pre-allocation and safe route planning for both traffic administrations and travelers, maximumly reducing injuries and damages. Off-the-shelf short-term accident forecasting methods, which focus on modeling static region-wise correlations with existing neural networks, mostly performed on hour levels and with single step. However, given the dynamic nature of road networks and expanding urban areas, it is challenging when the spatiotemporal granularity of forecasting improves as the rareness of accident records and complexity of long-term future dependencies. To address these challenges, we propose a unified framework RiskSeq, to foresee sparse urban accidents with finer granularities and multiple steps in spatiotemporal perspective. In particular, we design region-wise proximity measurements and temporal feature differential operations, and embed them into a novel Differential Time-varying Graph Convolution Network to dynamically capture traffic variations. Considering the hierarchical spatial dependencies and obvious context influences, a hierarchical sequence learning structure is devised by introducing contextual factors into a step-wise decoder. The multi-scale spatial risks are learned jointly to boost the risk predictions based on risk-gather and risk-assign networks. Extensive experiments demonstrate our RiskSeq can increase 5 to 15 percent performances on two datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Examined general and specific willingness as predictors of daily-level behavior. • Specific willingness, but not general, associated with behavioral outcomes. • Targeting specific behavioral willingness may be warranted for prevention. Research indicates general willingness to drink (i.e., "How willing are you to drink tonight?") fluctuates day-to-day and is associated with daily-level drinking. However, it is unknown whether willingness to engage in specific alcohol-related behaviors is associated with actual engagement in those behaviors above and beyond general willingness to drink at the daily level. The present study examined whether daily-level willingness to engage in specific behaviors (i.e., pre-gaming, blacking out, hooking up) predicted engaging in those respective behaviors on drinking days above and beyond one's general willingness to drink. Participants included adolescents and young adults who were part of a longitudinal ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study on cognitions and alcohol use. Participants (N = 675; 43 % male) who reported drinking on weekend days (i.e., Friday and Saturday [N = 3,727 days]), were included. The study involved a 3-week EMA burst design with bursts occurring quarterly over 12 months. Multilevel logistic regressions indicated on drinking days when participants reported being more willing than their own average to pre-game (OR = 1.77, p <.001), black out (OR = 1.46, p <.05), or drink before hooking up (OR = 1.68, p <.001), they were more likely to pregame, black out, and hook up, respectively, whereas general willingness to drink was not associated with any outcomes at the daily level. Results suggest willingness to engage in specific behaviors may be essential to target in prevention programming in comparison to general willingness to drink when aiming to reduce specific risk behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cluster randomized trials (CRT) have been widely employed in medical and public health research. Many clinical count outcomes, such as the number of falls in nursing homes, exhibit excessive zero values. In the presence of zero inflation, traditional power analysis methods for count data based on Poisson or negative binomial distribution may be inadequate. In this study, we present a sample size method for CRTs with zero‐inflated count outcomes. It is developed based on GEE regression directly modeling the marginal mean of a zero‐inflated Poisson outcome, which avoids the challenge of testing two intervention effects under traditional modeling approaches. A closed‐form sample size formula is derived which properly accounts for zero inflation, ICCs due to clustering, unbalanced randomization, and variability in cluster size. Robust approaches, including t‐distribution‐based approximation and Jackknife re‐sampling variance estimator, are employed to enhance trial properties under small sample sizes. Extensive simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. An application example is presented in a real clinical trial setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many recent Antarctic seismic structure studies use Rayleigh wave data and thus determine only the SV structure. Love waves provide greater resolution for shallow structure, and coupled with Rayleigh waves, can constrain radial anisotropy by comparing vertically (VSV) and horizontally (VSH) polarized shear velocities. In this study, we jointly analyze Rayleigh and Love wave phase and group velocities from ambient noise to develop a new radially anisotropic velocity model for West and Central Antarctica with an improved shallow crustal resolution using all broadband data collected in Antarctica over the past 20 years. Group and phase velocity maps for Rayleigh and Love waves are estimated and inverted for shear wave velocity structure using a Monte Carlo method. We determine a new sediment distribution map that reveals a thick sedimentary basin (∼4 km) beneath the Southeastern Ross Embayment. Sediment thicknesses at interior basins such as the Polar Subglacial Basin and Bentley Subglacial Trench are modest (<1.5 km), suggesting that these basins are sediment‐starved. The shallow crust as well as the mid‐to‐lower crust in several places shows strong positive anisotropy (VSH > VSV), likely due to lattice preferred orientation of mica‐bearing rocks. However, large regions of the mid‐to‐lower crust show negative anisotropy, likely due to lattice preferred orientation of plagioclase. The uppermost mantle is characterized by strong positive radial anisotropy (4%–8%) in West Antarctica, with the largest anisotropy beneath the Transantarctic and Whitmore Mountains, likely resulting from horizontal olivine preferred orientation due to tectonic activity. Plain Language Summary: The crust and upper mantle structure of Antarctica have been poorly understood until recent studies, due to the remote location and thick ice cover. Seismic anisotropy, the directional dependence of seismic wave propagation, represents a probe to understand the deformation history of the crust and mantle. In this study, we use all broadband seismic records collected in Antarctica over the past 20 years to investigate the shear wave radial anisotropy structure. In addition, the improved shallow resolution allows us to determine a new continental‐scale sediment thickness map, which reveals a thick sediment layer beneath the Southeastern Ross Embayment. Basins on the interior of the continent show limited sediment cover, likely due to sediment‐starved conditions through much of their history. We find positive anisotropy (VSH > VSV) in the shallow crust and a few places in the mid‐to‐lower crust, likely due to the orientation of the mica‐bearing rocks. Much of the lower crust shows negative anisotropy (VSH < VSV), likely due to the lattice preferred orientation of plagioclase. The uppermost mantle generally has positive anisotropy, with the largest magnitudes beneath the Transantarctic and Whitmore Mountains, where it likely results from the tectonic activity. Key Points: We determine the first 3‐D radially anisotropic model for the crust and uppermost mantle of central and West AntarcticaResolution of shallow structure reveals >4 km of sediment beneath the Ross Ice Shelf, but limited sediment thickness for interior basinsThe shallowest crust and uppermost mantle generally show positive radial anisotropy, anisotropy in the mid‐to‐lower crust is highly variable [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study uses daily level data of adolescents and young adults. • Individuals are more likely to hook up on days with alcohol or marijuana use. • Individuals are more likely to hook up when consuming more alcohol than usual. • Hours high from marijuana does not predict hooking up behavior. • Using alcohol and marijuana simultaneously does not predict hooking up behavior. This study examined daily associations between alcohol use, cannabis use, and simultaneous alcohol and cannabis/marijuana (SAM) use with the likelihood of hooking up (uncommitted sexual encounter that may or may not include intercourse). We used a longitudinal measurement burst ecological momentary assessment (EMA) design with 3-week EMA bursts with daily measurements repeated quarterly across 12 months. 1,009 (57 % female, Mean age = 20.00 [SD = 3.21]) Texan adolescents and young adults ages 15–25 participated in the study. Mixed effects logistic regression models were estimated using maximum likelihood estimation to evaluate the associations between substance use and hooking up. Within-person results indicated that participants were more likely to hook up on days with alcohol use and on days with cannabis use, but not on days with SAM use. Participants were also more likely to hook up on drinking days with higher-than-usual alcohol use. Between-person results indicated that participants who used alcohol more often or cannabis more often on average were more likely to hook up, and participants who tended to drink more on drinking days were more likely to hook up. Given the significant daily-level associations between alcohol and cannabis use and hooking up behavior, public health initiatives should focus on developing interventions to reduce alcohol and cannabis use and promote safer hooking up behavior among adolescents and young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Many clinical endpoint measures, such as the number of standard drinks consumed per week or the number of days that patients stayed in the hospital, are count data with excessive zeros. However, the zero‐inflated nature of such outcomes is sometimes ignored in analyses of clinical trials. This leads to biased estimates of study‐level intervention effect and, consequently, a biased estimate of the overall intervention effect in a meta‐analysis. The current study proposes a novel statistical approach, the Zero‐inflation Bias Correction (ZIBC) method, that can account for the bias introduced when using the Poisson regression model, despite a high rate of inflated zeros in the outcome distribution of a randomized clinical trial. This correction method only requires summary information from individual studies to correct intervention effect estimates as if they were appropriately estimated using the zero‐inflated Poisson regression model, thus it is attractive for meta‐analysis when individual participant‐level data are not available in some studies. Simulation studies and real data analyses showed that the ZIBC method performed well in correcting zero‐inflation bias in most situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite borate‐sulfates composed of isolated borate and sulfate groups have been discovered for more than one century, borosulfates of B‐O‐S bonding have not been synthesized until 2012 and their properties remain rarely explored. Here, we report a new borosulfate, namely LiRb4[B(SO4)4], which shows potential as a bran‐new class of deep‐UV nonlinear optical (NLO) material. Remarkably, according to the in situ single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction, LiRb4[B(SO4)4] undergoes successive first‐order phase transitions with incommensurate structural modulations under room temperature and low temperature with (3 + 1)D superspace groups of X2(α0γ)0 and P21(α0γ)0, respectively. The first‐principle calculations and structural analyses reveal that NLO properties, phase transitions, and incommensurate modulations are closely related to the [B(SO4)4]5− super‐tetrahedral units with B‐O‐S bonding. We anticipate that the unprecedented coexistence of deep‐UV transparency, NLO responses, and incommensurate structural modulations in one borosulfate will bring new possibilities to understand the underlying concepts of physics and chemistry in aperiodic materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite borate‐sulfates composed of isolated borate and sulfate groups have been discovered for more than one century, borosulfates of B‐O‐S bonding have not been synthesized until 2012 and their properties remain rarely explored. Here, we report a new borosulfate, namely LiRb4[B(SO4)4], which shows potential as a bran‐new class of deep‐UV nonlinear optical (NLO) material. Remarkably, according to the in situ single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction, LiRb4[B(SO4)4] undergoes successive first‐order phase transitions with incommensurate structural modulations under room temperature and low temperature with (3 + 1)D superspace groups of X2(α0γ)0 and P21(α0γ)0, respectively. The first‐principle calculations and structural analyses reveal that NLO properties, phase transitions, and incommensurate modulations are closely related to the [B(SO4)4]5− super‐tetrahedral units with B‐O‐S bonding. We anticipate that the unprecedented coexistence of deep‐UV transparency, NLO responses, and incommensurate structural modulations in one borosulfate will bring new possibilities to understand the underlying concepts of physics and chemistry in aperiodic materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent taxicab scheduling systems on smartphones continue to gain popularity as they offer prominent conveniences for urban travelling as well as increase potential profits for taxicab drivers, hence inject prosperity and vitality into intelligent transportation and urban business. Existing scheduling approaches usually fall into biases and myopia due to their single target perspective of satisfying the immediate order acceptance, or maximizing the global business success rates.However, the highly complex spatiotemporal dependencies among multiple factors and the efficiency bottleneck of massive order flows make the taxicab scheduling issue still challenging. To this end, in our paper, we propose an integrated scheduling algorithm with both future-aware and context-aware mechanisms. In particular, we first present a generalized graph-based framework which aims to capture traffic dependencies, providing precise and quantified supply-demand prediction in taxicab scheduling. Then, we develop a measurement of regional supply-demand context to perform cooperative and distributed scheduling. To tackle the efficiency bottleneck in massive order flow scenario, we correspondingly design a model to learn business patterns with considering benefits from both drivers and passengers, and further promote service delivery rates via a novel bi-incentive strategy. Extensive numerical studies illustrate the remarkable significance of our method, in terms of both service delivery rates and global driver revenues. The promising results and brand-new perspectives enable our algorithm to be a paradigm in general spatiotemporal scheduling tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural modulations have been recently found to cause some unusual physical properties, such as superconductivity or charge density waves; however, thus‐induced nonlinear optical properties are rare. We report herein two unprecedented incommensurately modulated nonlinear optical sulfides exhibiting phase matching behavior, A2SnS5 (A=Ba, Sr), with the (3+1)D superspace groups P21212(00γ)00s or P21(α0γ)0, featuring different modulations of the [Sn2S7]∞ belts. Remarkably, Ba2SnS5 exhibits an excellent second harmonic generation (SHG) of 1.1 times that of the benchmark compound AgGaS2 at 1570 nm and a very large laser‐induced damage threshold (LIDT) of 8×AgGaS2. Theoretical studies revealed that the structural modulations increase the distortions of the Sn/S building units by about 44 or 25 % in A2SnS5 (A=Ba, Sr), respectively, and enhance significantly the SHG compared with α‐Ba2SnSe5 without modulation. Besides, despite the smaller Eg, the A2SnS5 samples exhibit higher LIDTs owing to their smaller thermal expansion anisotropies (Ba2SnS5 (1.51)

Structural modulations have been recently found to cause some unusual physical properties, such as superconductivity or charge density waves; however, thus‐induced nonlinear optical properties are rare. We report herein two unprecedented incommensurately modulated nonlinear optical sulfides exhibiting phase matching behavior, A2SnS5 (A=Ba, Sr), with the (3+1)D superspace groups P21212(00γ)00s or P21(α0γ)0, featuring different modulations of the [Sn2S7]∞ belts. Remarkably, Ba2SnS5 exhibits an excellent second harmonic generation (SHG) of 1.1 times that of the benchmark compound AgGaS2 at 1570 nm and a very large laser‐induced damage threshold (LIDT) of 8×AgGaS2. Theoretical studies revealed that the structural modulations increase the distortions of the Sn/S building units by about 44 or 25 % in A2SnS5 (A=Ba, Sr), respectively, and enhance significantly the SHG compared with α‐Ba2SnSe5 without modulation. Besides, despite the smaller Eg, the A2SnS5 samples exhibit higher LIDTs owing to their smaller thermal expansion anisotropies (Ba2SnS5 (1.51)

Abstract: In case–control genetic association studies, a standard practice is to perform the Cochran‐Armitage (CA) trend test under the assumption of the additive model because of its robustness. We could even identify situations in which it outperformed the analysis model consistent with the underlying inheritance mode. In this article, we analytically reveal the statistical basis that leads to the phenomenon. By elucidating the origin of the CA trend test as a linear regression model, we decompose Pearson's χ2‐test statistic into two components—one is the CA trend test statistic that measures the goodness of fit of the linear regression model, and the other measures the discrepancy between data and the linear regression model. Under this framework, we show that the additive coding scheme, as well as the multiplicative coding scheme, increases the coefficient of determination of the regression model by increasing the spread of data points. We also obtain the conditions under which the CA trend test statistic equals the MAX statistic and Pearson's χ2‐test statistic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meta-analysis using individual participant data (IPD) is an important methodology in intervention research because it (a) increases accuracy and precision of estimates, (b) allows researchers to investigate mediators and moderators of treatment effects, and (c) makes use of extant data. IPD meta-analysis can be conducted either via a one-step approach that uses data from all studies simultaneously, or a two-step approach, which aggregates data for each study and then combines them in a traditional meta-analysis model. Unfortunately, there are no evidence-based guidelines for how best to approach IPD meta-analysis for count outcomes with many zeroes, such as alcohol use. We used simulation to compare the performance of four hurdle models (3 one-step and 1 two-step models) for zero-inflated count IPD, under realistic data conditions. Overall, all models yielded adequate coverage and bias for the treatment effect in the count portion of the model, across all data conditions. However, in the zero portion, the treatment effect was underestimated in most models and data conditions, especially when there were fewer studies. The performance of both one- and two-step approaches depended on the formulation of the treatment effects, suggesting a need to carefully consider model assumptions and specifications when using IPD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In genetic case-control association studies, a standard practice is to perform the Cochran-Armitage (CA) trend test with 1 degree-of-freedom (d.f.) under the assumption of an additive model. However, when the true genetic model is recessive or near recessive, it is outperformed by Pearson's χ2 test with 2 d.f. In this article, we analytically reveal the statistical basis that leads to the phenomenon. First, we show that the CA trend test examines the location shift between the case and control groups, whereas Pearson's χ2 test examines both the location and dispersion shifts between the two groups. Second, we show that under the additive model, the effect of location deviation outweighs that of the dispersion deviation and vice versa under a near recessive model. Therefore, Pearson's χ2 test is a more robust test than the CA trend test, and it outperforms the latter when the mode of inheritance evolves to the recessive end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Alcohol is frequently used in combination with other substances. • Polysubstance use is a risk factor for negative alcohol-related sexual experiences. • Combining alcohol with two substances is riskier than combining it with one. • Age and gender are risk factors for negative alcohol-related sexual experiences. This study aimed to compare negative alcohol-related sexual experiences among individuals who used (1) alcohol only, (2) alcohol plus marijuana, and (3) alcohol plus marijuana and stimulants. Participants in the analytic sample (N = 1,015; Mean age = 19.16 (SD = 0.79); 45.42% male) completed an online baseline survey as part of an intervention study. A hurdle negative binomial model examined the associations between polysubstance use and negative alcohol-related sexual experiences. Models examined if experiences varied by demographic factors. Compared to participants that only used alcohol, those who used alcohol plus marijuana and stimulants reported a higher likelihood and average number of negative alcohol-related sexual experiences in the past 3 months. Participants that used alcohol plus marijuana had a higher likelihood of having a negative alcohol-related sexual experience in the past 3 months compared to those who only used alcohol. These findings suggest the number and risk for negative alcohol-related sexual experiences increases with the number of substances being used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined occasion-level associations between cognitions (willingness to drink, descriptive norms, and injunctive norms) and situational factors (familiarity with people and locations) with playing drinking games (DGs) among adolescents and young adults. Further, this study tested the associations between playing DGs, the number of drinks consumed, and the negative consequences experienced at the occasion level. Participants were 15-25-year-olds (N = 688; 43% male, 47% White, Non-Hispanic, Mean age = 21.18) who were part of a longitudinal ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study on cognitions and alcohol use. The study design consisted of a 3-week EMA burst design (8 surveys per week) that was repeated quarterly over the 12-month study (up to 2x/day) per participant. Multilevel models showed that occasion-level risks (higher willingness, higher descriptive norms, and less familiarity with people) were associated with playing DGs. When examining the within-person associations between DGs and number of drinks, results showed that playing DGs was associated with consuming more drinks. For consequences, DGs were not uniquely predictive of experiencing more consequences and riding in a vehicle with a driver who had been drinking. This study contributes to the literature by examining associations between cognitions and situational factors with DGs and the role DGs play in experiencing negative consequences among a diverse sample of adolescents and young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Our aim is to investigate the prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control status of hypertension and explore the associated factors among Sichuan Tibetan population.Methods: A cross-sectional investigation was conducted in the Sichuan Tibetan region from to September 2013 to March to 2014. Three thousand two hundred and forty persons were included in the study through a multi-stage stratified clustering sampling. Participants received questionnaires and physical examination. Blood pressure (BP) was recorded three times after 5 min of rest with the mean taken as the final BP. Hypertension was defined according the 2010 Chinese guidelines for the management of hypertension.Results: Prevalence of hypertension was 45.7%. The proportion of different stages (1–3) of hypertension was 31.7%, 9.2%, and 7.6% for males and 26.3%, 9.5%, and 6.0% for females. The rate of awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension were 4.9%, 21.3%, and 3.0% for males and 7.5%, 24.5%, and 3.1% for females. Multiple-factor analysis found that age, overweight or obesity (odds ratio(OR)=1.16), drinking alcohol (OR = 1.29, 95% confidence interval (CI):1.07–1.54), increased waist circumference (OR = 1.81, 95%CI: 1.39–2.36), family history of hypertension (OR = 1.51, 95%CI; 1.28–1.78), higher salt intakes (OR = 1.62, 95%CI: 1.24–2.11), long duration of sleep (OR = 1.05, 95%CI: 1.01–1.09), rural area (OR = 1.99, 95%CI: 1.64–2.41), and drinking coffee at times (OR = 0.71, 95%CI:0.57–0.87) were related to hypertension.Conclusion: Prevalence of hypertension in Sichuan Tibetan was significantly higher than the national level with low rates of awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension. Intervention measurements are needed to change some unhealthy lifestyles, behaviors, and habits in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La 1− x Eu x [B 5 O 8 (OH) 2 ]·1.5H 2 O with the Eu 3+ -doping upper limit of 40 atom% were synthesized hydrothermally. Thereafter, thermal treatments at 710 °C were applied to obtain β-La 1− x Eu x B 5 O 9 . The solid solution range is even narrower, i.e. 0≤ x ≤0.15, due to the mismatch between La 3+ and Eu 3+ . The host borate system shows a typical concentration quenching effect at x =0.20 under CT excitation, and this is postponed to x =0.30 under the f − f excitation. β-La 1− x Eu x B 5 O 9 shows a very intense absorption of charge transfer, and gives strong red emissions at 615 nm with large R / O ratios (1.9–2.4). The saturation effect appears at x =0.11, which is probably due to the lattice distortion. Eu 3+ luminescence was applied as the structural probe to study the local coordination environment change during the dehydration and re-crystallization processes of La 0.93 Eu 0.07 [B 5 O 8 (OH) 2 ]·1.5H 2 O. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incommensurately modulated borate structures of a new type were studied in detail in the nonlinear optical (NLO) materials Cs2 TB4O9 ( T = Ge, Si) using single-crystal X-ray diffraction techniques. The structures were solved by the charge-flipping algorithm in the superspace group I2(αβ0)0. The refinement results strongly suggest that the main structure modulation feature of Cs2 TB4O9 is the ordering of the O atoms. With these modulated structure models, the unreasonable B-O distances in the average structures were explained as the ordering of BO4 and BO3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of perovskites has been active for a long time. Here, we rationally designed and prepared a double perovskite, LaBaZnSbO6, by selecting Zn2+ and Sb5+ with large size and charge differences, and, indeed, complete B-site ordering can be achieved. Careful study using powder X-ray diffraction data pinpointed its space group to be I2/m, which has rarely been seen in double perovskites. Thereafter, an interesting observation of Sr2+-doping-induced symmetry evolution from I2/m to P21/n was confirmed in the complete solid solutions LaBa1−xSrxZnSbO6, where the tilting system also transferred from a−a−c0 to a−a−c+. The transition boundary is around x = 0.4. It can also be visualized by the variation of ϑ (defined as c/[(a + b)/2]), which is associated with the anisotropic shrinkage of the unit cell lattice and indeed shows a minimum at x = 0.4. Such a successive modulation of both the structural symmetry and the average La/Ba/Sr–O bond distances (revealed by Rietveld refinements) motivated us to study the Eu3+ luminescence in La0.95Eu0.05Ba1−xSrxZnSbO6. Interestingly, the maximum of charge transfer absorption of Eu3+ shows a precise changing tendency with the A–O bond distances along with the Sr2+ doping, clearly revealing the structure–luminescence correlations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triggered vacuum switch (TVS) is one of the important switch apparatuses in the high pulsed power system, which takes the vacuum as insulation and arc-extinguishing medium of main gap. The conduction of TVS is the arcing process of vacuum arc in practice. So, it is meaningful to research on the vacuum arc characteristics for the high current application of TVS. A six-gap rod electrode system is studied in this paper. It is made up of 3 pairs of rod electrodes, i.e., spatially interleaved rods of opposite polarity on a ring. The arc development under different high currents is tested and discussed, based on the electrical characteristics of the vacuum arc voltage and arc resistance. The variety of arc voltage shows the parallel arcing and the transfer process in the multi-channel, which is benefit to maintain the diffusion of vacuum arc. A TVS sample based on multi-rod electrode has carried high current of 225 kA in peak and charge transfer of 45 C in a pulse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the effect of atomic vibrations, a high-temperature phase usually features a relatively smaller density when compared with a low-temperature phase. In this work, a new SrCdB2O5 phase has been discovered. According to the crystallization temperature from low to high, the new SrCdB2O5 phase can be regarded as the high-temperature β-SrCdB2O5 phase. The density of β-SrCdB2O5 is obviously larger than that of α-SrCdB2O5, meanwhile β-SrCdB2O5 is energetically favored. This unusual density evolution phenomenon has been investigated. In addition, the Pb2+-doped compounds, PbxSr1−xCdB2O5 (x = 0.125, 0.25, 0.375, 0.5), have also been investigated by powder refinement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triggered vacuum switch (TVS) synthesizes the merits of spark gap and vacuum technology. A TVS sample with multi-gap is described in this paper, in which the main electrode is made up of spatially inter-leaved rods of opposite polarity on a ring. Three pairs of rods are adopted, which can form six main gaps, promoting the high current carrying ability evidently. Due to hundreds of high current pulses, the influence of vacuum arc to the trigger pin and main electrode is inevitable, leading to the termination of lifetime of TVS, especially in the erosion of trigger pin and arc deposition on the trigger surface. In this paper, the major influence factors of lifetime are analyzed and it is concluded that the main current arc is the key factor to determine the lifetime of TVS. As well the change of trigger voltage, trigger resistance and trigger delay will predict the termination of TVS lifetime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Limited research has examined how alcohol use and related consequences affect drinking-related cognitions, which is important as these cognitions may contribute to future drinking. The current study examines daily associations between alcohol use and alcohol-related negative consequences with next-day Prototype Willingness Model (PWM) social reaction pathway cognitions.Method: Participants ages 15-25 years (N = 124, Mean age 18.7, SD = 2.87) completed daily surveys for up to three weeks (i.e., up to 11 surveys/week) using an ecological momentary assessment design. Linear mixed models and Poisson generalized mixed models were conducted to examine whether number of alcoholic drinks or number of negative alcohol-related consequences were associated with next-day PWM social reaction cognitions, including perceived vulnerability, descriptive normative perceptions of number of drinks consumed and the percentage of friends who drink, prototype favorability, prototype similarity, and willingness (i.e., openness) to drink.Results: Within-person results indicated more alcohol use on a given day was associated with lower next-day normative perceptions of the percentage of friends who drink on that day of the week and higher prototype similarity. Furthermore, within-person results indicated that experiencing more negative alcohol-related consequences on a given day was associated with higher perceived vulnerability and lower willingness to drink the next day.Conclusions: Findings showed that next-day social reaction PWM cognitions were associated with prior day alcohol use and negative alcohol-related consequences, suggesting that an intervention might be timed to target drinking cognitions the morning following a drinking event, particularly after experiencing negative alcohol-related consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to reliably detect sentinel lymph nodes for sentinel lymph node biopsy and lymphadenectomy is important in clinical management of patients with metastatic cancers. However, the traditional sentinel lymph node mapping with visible dyes is limited by the penetration depth of light and fast clearance of the dyes. On the other hand, sentinel lymph node mapping with radionucleotide technique has intrinsically low spatial resolution and does not provide anatomic details in the sentinel lymph node mapping procedure. This work reports the development of a dual modality imaging probe with magnetic resonance and near infrared imaging capabilities for sentinel lymph node mapping using magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (10 nm core size) conjugated with a near infrared molecule with emission at 830 nm. Accumulation of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in sentinel lymph nodes leads to strong T2 weighted magnetic resonance imaging contrast that can be potentially used for preoperative localization of sentinel lymph nodes, while conjugated near infrared molecules provide optical imaging tracking of lymph nodes with a high signal to background ratio. The new magnetic nanoparticle based dual imaging probe exhibits a significant longer lymph node retention time. Near infrared signals from nanoparticle conjugated near infrared dyes last up to 60 min in sentinel lymph node compared to that of 25 min for the free near infrared dyes in a mouse model. Furthermore, axillary lymph nodes, in addition to sentinel lymph nodes, can be also visualized with this probe, given its slow clearance and sufficient sensitivity. Therefore, this new dual modality imaging probe with the tissue penetration and sensitive detection of sentinel lymph nodes can be applied for preoperative survey of lymph nodes with magnetic resonance imaging and allows intraoperative sentinel lymph node mapping using near infrared optical devices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Triggered vacuum switch (TVS) is one of the important switch apparatuses in the field of pulsed power system. The field-breakdown will bring long lifetime of TVS under rated working conditions. However, the load of trigger will be heavy, leading to the large time delay and jitter time. In this paper, a field-breakdown TVS sample with flat electrodes was fabricated and its time delay was tested. Initial plasmas play an important role in the turning-on process of TVS, so the time delay from the control signal to the switching-on of TVS is discussed in the trigger system time, the motion time and the collapse time, where the motion time and the collapse time are the needed time for the generation and development of the initial plasmas. Test results show that, under positive working mode, the trigger system time is about 34-36 μs with positive trigger pulse, while 39-41μs with negative trigger pulse, which prove that the polarities of trigger pulse have nothing to do with the trigger system time almost, and the long trigger system time is mainly owing to the limited performances of trigger pulse transformer. The motion time is about 50 ns and almost stable, due to the definite trigger gap. The collapse time is about 100-300 ns, which is decreased with the rise up of main gap voltage, exponentially. In negative working mode, both of the motion time and collapse time are about 10 μs, due to the ions of initial plasmas becoming the main moving particles in the main gap, no longer the electrons as positive working mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A triggered vacuum switch (TVS) is an important component in pulsed power systems due to its quick switch, rapid dielectric recovery, small volume, convenient trigger system, simple structure, etc. A sample of field-breakdown TVS is fabricated, and its turning-on process is described in this paper. The initial plasmas play an important role in the process of TVS operation; its development includes two parts: 1) generation and 2) expansion. Based on the field breakdown principle, an electron emission model is chosen to describe the generation of initial plasmas. A heat conduction model is set up to deduce the expansion of initial plasmas. The model calculated result is accordant with the delay experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triggered vacuum switch (TVS) is one of the important switch apparatuses in the fields of high-pulsed power system. Its working lifetime is due to trigger failure of the trigger pin, so the parameters of trigger source become the key of lifetime dilatation. A sample of field-breakdown TVS coated with nothing is fabricated, which has much longer lifetime than the TVS coated with trigger materials, but more trouble in the trigger process. A trigger system and a LC test circuit are designed to find the operational characteristics of the TVS sample. The trigger system generates a negative pulse with peak value of 30 kV/500 A, the system delay and its scatter is controlled in 70-100 μs, and the triggered rate of success reaches 96%. Test results show that the sample has a wide working voltage range of 0.3-40 kV. The delay of its switching-on is stable in hundreds of nanoseconds, which will be reduced with the increase of main gap voltage. The arcing is steady in the conducting process, keeping arc voltage at 20 V approximately. The arc current drops to zero as current zero is approached, leading to a voltage remained in the capacitance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A novel responsive carrier system based on ordered mesoporous silica SBA-15 was synthesized, with magnetic particles formed in situ and thermo-sensitive poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPA) polymerized inside the pores. It was interesting to find that the obtained system held a relatively large pore diameter (3.8nm) and pore volume (0.47cm3 g−1), which would benefit for drug storage with relatively large molecules. The delivery system displayed a hysteresis loop with a saturation magnetization (M s) of 0.40emu/g, which revealed the magnetic property of the prepared system. In vitro test of ibuprofen (IBU) loading and release exhibited a pronounced transition at around 17°C, indicating a typical thermo-sensitive release property for this delivery system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Ultrasonic waves in combination with nanocasting method have been successfully used in preparation of mesoporous amorphous MnO2 from SBA-15. Modification of the intrachannel surfaces of SBA-15 with amino making them hydrophilic ensures precursor KMnO4 to readily penetrate the pore channels. Moreover, the modification changes the surface reactivity, enabling the formation of MnO2 inside the pores of SBA-15 by the sonochemical reduction of metal ions. The texture/structures of the resultant materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, Raman scattering and nitrogen adsorption/desorption measurements. The loading percentage can be controlled via sonochemical time and almost 76% of the mesoporous volume of the SBA-15 host was finally occupied by nanoparticles MnO2. The novelty of presented approach is 2-fold: a new synthetic concept – a simple and effective method to allow practically a high filling of the pores for fabricating mesoporous metal oxide; and the morphology of the resultant is easier to control, for the formation of metal oxide was completed during the sonochemical process instead of during heat treatment. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Low‐dimensional organic–inorganic hybrids have emerged as promising X‐ray scintillators due to efficient radioluminescence properties. Herein, stable and efficient X‐ray scintillator based on 0D (C40H38P2)MnBr4 hybrid single crystals grown by a facile solution‐processing method is reported. Its crystal structure is determined to be triclinic with P1¯ space group. It has good stability against moisture and irradiation. (C40H38P2)MnBr4 with tetrahedrally coordinated Mn2+ exhibits green emission peaking at 518 nm originating from d–d 4T1→6A1 transition of Mn2+ ion with a high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY) of 74.2%. Under X‐ray excitation, it shows high scintillation yield of 32 000 photons MeV−1, a decent detection limit of 288 nGyair s−1, and a low afterglow comparable to that of Bi4Ge3O12 (BGO). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are considered first-line medications for acute migraine attacks. However, the response exhibits considerable variability among individuals. Thus, this study aimed to explore a machine learning model based on the percentage of amplitude oscillations (PerAF) and gray matter volume (GMV) to predict the response to NSAIDs in migraine treatment. Methods: Propensity score matching was adopted to match patients having migraine with response and nonresponse to NSAIDs, ensuring consistency in clinical characteristics and migraine-related features. Multimodal magnetic resonance imaging was employed to extract PerAF and GMV, followed by feature selection using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression and recursive feature elimination algorithms. Multiple predictive models were constructed and the final model with the smallest predictive residuals was chosen. The model performance was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROCAUC) curve, area under the precision-recall curve (PRAUC), balance accuracy (BACC), sensitivity, F1 score, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV). External validation was performed using a public database. Then, correlation analysis was performed between the neuroimaging predictors and clinical features in migraine. Results: One hundred eighteen patients with migraine (59 responders and 59 non-responders) were enrolled. Six features (PerAF of left insula and left transverse temporal gyrus; and GMV of right superior frontal gyrus, left postcentral gyrus, right postcentral gyrus, and left precuneus) were observed. The random forest model with the lowest predictive residuals was selected and model metrics (ROCAUC, PRAUC, BACC, sensitivity, F1 score, PPV, and NPV) in the training and testing groups were 0.982, 0.983, 0.927, 0.976, 0.930, 0.889, and 0.973; and 0.711, 0.648, 0.639, 0.667,0.649, 0.632, and 0.647, respectively. The model metrics of external validation were 0.631, 0.651, 0.611, 0.808, 0.656, 0.553, and 0.706. Additionally, a significant positive correlation was found between the GMV of the left precuneus and attack time in non-responders. Conclusions: Our findings suggest the potential of multimodal neuroimaging features in predicting the efficacy of NSAIDs in migraine treatment and provide novel insights into the neural mechanisms underlying migraine and its optimized treatment strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circulating cell-free mitochondrial DNA (ccf-mtDNA) is an indicator of cell death, inflammation, and oxidative stress. ccf-mtDNA in pregnancies with placental dysfunction differs from that in healthy pregnancies, and the direction of this difference depends on gestational age and method of mtDNA quantification. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) trigger release of mtDNA, yet it is unknown whether trophoblast cells release mtDNA in response to oxidative stress, a common feature of pregnancies with placental pathology. We hypothesized that oxidative stress would induce cell death and release of mtDNA from trophoblast cells. BeWo cells were treated with antimycin A (10–320 µM) or rotenone (0.2–50 µM) to induce oxidative stress. A multiplex real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay was used to quantify mtDNA and nuclear DNA in membrane-bound, non-membrane-bound, and vesicle-bound forms in cell culture supernatants and cell lysates. Treatment with antimycin A increased ROS (P < 0.0001), induced cell necrosis (P = 0.0004) but not apoptosis (P = 0.6471), and was positively associated with release of membrane-bound and non-membrane-bound mtDNA (P < 0.0001). Antimycin A increased mtDNA content in exosome-like extracellular vesicles (vesicle-bound form; P = 0.0019) and reduced autophagy marker expression (LC3A/B, P = 0.0002; p62, P < 0.001). Rotenone treatment did not influence mtDNA release or cell death (P > 0.05). Oxidative stress induces release of mtDNA into the extracellular space and causes nonapoptotic cell death and a reduction in autophagy markers in BeWo cells, an established in vitro model of human trophoblast cells. Intersection between autophagy and necrosis may mediate the release of mtDNA from the placenta in pregnancies exposed to oxidative stress. NEW & NOTEWORTHY: This is the first study to test whether trophoblast cells release mitochondrial (mt)DNA in response to oxidative stress and to identify mechanisms of release and biological forms of mtDNA from this cellular type. This research identifies potential cellular mechanisms that can be used in future investigations to establish the source and biomarker potential of circulating mtDNA in preclinical experimental models and humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the long input delay problem in consensus control of multi-agent systems with directed graph. First, cascade structure predictive observers are designed to obtain the future state for each agent. Then, adaptive technique based consensus controllers are designed for the agents to make sure that any global information is not needed. Lyapunov–Krasovskii functionals are used for the delay upper bound analysis and sufficient conditions are derived to guarantee that the consensus errors converge to zero asymptotically. Finally, the proposed controllers are verified through numerical simulation and UAVs formation flying tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a meta-analytic mediation analysis approach for individual participant data (IPD) from multiple studies. Mediation analysis evaluates whether the effectiveness of an intervention on health outcomes occurs because of change in a key behavior targeted by the intervention. However, individual trials are often statistically underpowered to test mediation hypotheses. Existing approaches for evaluating mediation in the meta-analytic context are limited by their reliance on aggregate data; thus, findings may be confounded with study-level differences unrelated to the pathway of interest. To overcome the limitations of existing meta-analytic mediation approaches, we used a one-stage estimation approach using structural equation modeling (SEM) to combine IPD from multiple studies for mediation analysis. This approach (1) accounts for the clustering of participants within studies, (2) accommodates missing data via multiple imputation, and (3) allows valid inferences about the indirect (i.e., mediated) effects via bootstrapped confidence intervals. We used data (N = 3691 from 10 studies) from Project INTEGRATE (Mun et al. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 29, 34–48, 2015) to illustrate the SEM approach to meta-analytic mediation analysis by testing whether improvements in the use of protective behavioral strategies mediate the effectiveness of brief motivational interventions for alcohol-related problems among college students. To facilitate the application of the methodology, we provide annotated computer code in R and data for replication. At a substantive level, stand-alone personalized feedback interventions reduced alcohol-related problems via greater use of protective behavioral strategies; however, the net-mediated effect across strategies was small in size, on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disordered multi-target scanning is an important application scenario of lidar target tracking technology. However, when dealing with scanning beam paths steered by cascaded prisms, it presents notable challenges, including highly non-linear and strongly coupled characteristics between the output vectors and prism rotation angles. Additionally, due to prismatic independence, there is no available coordinate system for visually observing the state of multiple prisms and the transitions between these states. In this work, we propose a rotation prism coordinate system, which offers coordinate conversion methods and mathematical expressions for distances. Two scanning modes, the fastest mode, and the shortest mode, along with two criteria, the total distance difference, and path curvature, are proposed for facilitating path selection and adhering to physical restrictions. To tackle the equivalent point-traveling salesman problem within this coordinate system, we employ an ant colony-taboo fusion algorithm. Our experiment results demonstrate a substantial improvement in efficiency, with up to a 2.77-fold enhancement compared to the original technique. This approach presents a promising solution for addressing the complexities of multi-target scanning with cascaded prisms in lidar target tracking. Future applications include environmental detection, rapid scanning and mapping, and identification of assembly parts in chaotic scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copper (Cu)‐based thermoelectric (TE) materials have attracted great attention from both scientific and industrial societies, but for a long time, their real applications are greatly limited by the lack of high‐performance n‐type Cu‐based TE materials. Most recently, the novel n‐type Cu‐based TE material, CuIn5Se8, has been discovered to show a record‐high TE figure‐of‐merit (zT) to match the state‐of‐the‐art p‐type Cu‐based TE materials. However, the physical origin of such high zT is still unclear due to its complex phase compositions and crystal structures. In this work, it is revealed that the excellent TE performance is mainly contributed by the intrinsically ultralow lattice thermal conductivity originating from the unique all‐scale hierarchical architecture. It covers the ranges from atomic‐scale cation disorder in the tetragonal CuIn5Se8 phase and nanoscale diversified stacking units and stacking sequences in the hexagonal CuIn5Se8 phase, to mesoscale grain boundaries between the tetragonal phase and hexagonal phase. Doping Br at the Se‐sites can largely tune the electrical transports of CuIn5Se8 while maintaining the ultralow lattice thermal conductivity, leading to high zT reaching the optimal value predicted by the single parabolic model. This work will guide the investigation of n‐type Cu‐based TE materials in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol or cannabis poses public health risks. Little is known about DUI of Delta-8 THC, a newer cannabis product. Using 2022 survey data among 189 U.S. adults ages 18–25 (58.73% male, 59.26% non-Hispanic White), multivariable logistic regression examined substance-specific (alcohol, cannabis, Delta-8) DUI perceived likelihood and risk in relation to past-year DUI among those with past-year use of each. Overall, 72.49% reported past-year alcohol use, 50.53% cannabis, and 22.46% Delta-8. Among those reporting past-year use of each respective substance, 33.58% reported DUI of alcohol, 32.63% cannabis, and 57.14% Delta-8. On average, participants had the same DUI perceived likelihood (“somewhat unlikely”) across substances and perceived alcohol DUI as riskiest. Higher alcohol DUI perceived likelihood and lower perceived risk were associated with alcohol-related DUI. Greater cannabis-related perceived likelihood (but not risk) was associated with cannabis-related DUI. Neither Delta-8 DUI perceived likelihood nor risk were associated with Delta-8 DUI. In sum, perceived DUI likelihood for alcohol, cannabis, or Delta-8 tended to be similar. Among those with past-year use of each, the proportion of DUI was highest for Delta-8. Interventions should target DUI-related perceived likelihood and promote protective behavioral strategies that reduce substance-specific DUI risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urgency for cost‐effective, high‐resolution, flexible X‐ray imaging detectors is generating great demand for scintillators with low‐temperature processability, high scintillation yield, and negligible afterglow. X‐ray imaging materials are currently dominated by inorganic scintillators in the form of rigid films and bulk crystals, which have inherent limitations including high‐temperature, complex synthesis, and considerable challenges toward advanced nonplanar imaging. Here, high‐performance and flexible X‐ray scintillators based on novel zero‐dimensional (0D) (BTPP)2MnX4 (BTPP = benzyltriphenylphosphonium; X = Cl, Br) halides are reported. They emit bright green light originating from the 4T1‐6A1 transition of Mn2+ under X‐ray excitation. In particular, (BTPP)2MnBr4 single crystals exhibit excellent air‐ and radiation‐stability, a high scintillation yield of 53 000 photons MeV−1, a low detection limit of 89.9 nGyair s−1, and an ultralow afterglow comparable to commercial Bi4Ge3O12 (BGO) single crystals. Moreover, the (BTPP)2MnCl4@polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) flexible scintillation screens achieve a high spatial resolution of 14.1 lp mm−1 and realize high‐quality imaging results of nonplanar objects. This study demonstrates that the flexible scintillation screens based on low‐dimensional Mn(II) hybrid halides have significant potential for low‐dose and high‐resolution X‐ray imaging applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The search of new high‐mobility two‐dimensional (2D) semiconductors is crucial for the development of next‐generation photodetectors, since current photodetectors based on single 2D semiconductors usually cannot simultaneously own ultrafast response rate and ultrahigh sensitivity. Here, using a facial method of sequentially oxidizing Bi2Se3 at optimal O content, a series of bismuth oxyselenide semiconductors (Bi3O2.5Se2, Bi2O2Se, Bi2SeO5) with appealing electronic applications are successfully synthesized. The crystal and band structures of a superlattice‐free Bi3O2.5Se2 phase are resolved by 3D electron diffraction and density functional theory calculations, showing a unique non‐neutral layered structure, moderate band gap, and small effective mass. More importantly, the concept of Bi2Se3 + O2 can be extended to synthesize the superlattice‐free Bi3O2.5Se2 ultrathin films by chemical vapor deposition, whose room‐temperature mobility can be as high as ≈150 cm2 V−1 s−1 based on Hall measurements. The ultrathin Bi3O2.5Se2 photodetectors with a simple device configuration simultaneously own ultrafast response time (≈31 µs), ultrahigh responsivity (≈8 × 104 A/W), and large detectivity (≈8 × 1013 Jones). This work not only introduces a facile way to regulate the phase in the bismuth oxyselenide family, but also provides an alternative candidate for ultrafast and ultrasensitive photodetectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Age is known to be the biggest risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), and Mexican Americans (MAs), who are one of the fastest-aging populations in the United States, are at a uniquely elevated risk. Mitochondrial stress and dysfunction are key players in the progression of AD and are also known to be impacted by lifestyle and environmental exposures/stressors. Objective: This study aimed to identify population-specific differences in indicators of mitochondrial stress and dysfunction associated with AD risk that are detectable in the blood. Methods: Examining blood from both non-Hispanic white (NHW) and MA participants (N = 527, MA n = 284, NHW n = 243), mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and nuclear DNA (nDNA) copy numbers were assessed through quantitative PCR. Data was stratified by population and sample type, and multiple linear regression analyses were performed to identify factors that may influence this phenotype of mitochondrial dysfunction. Results: In the MA cohort, there was a significant relationship between cellular mtDNA:nDNA ratio and body mass index, CDR sum of boxes score, the APOEɛ2/ɛ3 genotype, and education. Further, there was a significant relationship between cell-free mtDNA copy number and both education and CDR sum score. In the NHW cohort, there was a significant relationship between cellular mtDNA:nDNA ratio and both age and CDR sum score. Age was associated with cell-free mtDNA in the NHW cohort. Conclusions: This evidence supports the existence of population-based differences in the factors that are predictive of this blood-based phenotype of mitochondrial dysfunction, which may be indicative of cognitive decline and AD risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MFM‐520(Zn) confines dimers of NO2 with a high adsorption of 4.52 mmol g−1 at 1 bar at 298 K. The synthesis and the incommensurate structure of Cu‐doped MFM‐520(Zn) are reported. The introduction of paramagnetic Cu2+ sites allows investigation of the electronic and geometric structure of metal site by in situ electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy upon adsorption of NO2. By combining continuous wave and electron‐nuclear double resonance spectroscopy, an unusual reverse Berry distorted coordination geometry of the Cu2+ centers is observed. Interestingly, Cu‐doped MFM‐520(Zn0.95Cu0.05) shows enhanced adsorption of NO2 of 5.02 mmol g−1 at 1 bar at 298 K. Whereas MFM‐520(Zn) confines adsorbed NO2 as N2O4, the presence of monomeric NO2 at low temperature suggests that doping with Cu2+ centers into the framework plays an important role in tuning the dimerization of NO2 molecules in the pore via the formation of specific host‐guest interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the efficacy and relative effectiveness of a brief alcohol intervention (BAI) relies on obtaining a credible intervention effect estimate. Outcomes in BAI trials are often count variables, such as the number of drinks consumed, which may be overdispersed (i.e., greater variability than expected based on a given model) and zero‐inflated (i.e., greater probability of zeros than expected based on a given model). Ignoring such distribution characteristics can lead to biased estimates and invalid statistical conclusions. In this critical review, we identified and reviewed 64 articles that reported count outcomes from a systematic review of BAI trials for adolescents and young adults from 2013 to 2018. Given many statistical models to choose from when analyzing count outcomes, we reviewed the models used and reporting practices in the BAI trial literature. A majority (61.3%) of analyses with count outcomes used linear models despite violations of normality assumptions; 75.6% of outcome variables demonstrated clear overdispersion. We provide an overview of available count models (Poisson, negative binomial, zero‐inflated or hurdle, and marginalized zero‐inflated Poisson regression) and formulate practical guidelines for reporting outcomes of BAIs. We provide a visual step‐by‐step decision guide for selecting appropriate statistical models and reporting results for count outcomes. We list accessible resources to help researchers select an appropriate model with which to analyze their data. Recent advances in count distribution‐based models hold promise for evaluating count outcomes to gauge the efficacy and effectiveness of BAIs and identify critical covariates in alcohol epidemiologic research. We recommend that researchers report the distributional properties of count outcomes, such as the proportion of zero counts, and select an appropriate statistical analysis for count outcomes using the provided decision tree. By following these recommendations, future research may yield more accurate, transparent, and reproducible results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) continues to be a leading cause of death in the US. As the US aging population (ages 65 +) expands, the impact will disproportionately affect vulnerable populations, e.g., Hispanic/Latino population, due to their AD-related health disparities. Age-related regression in mitochondrial activity and ethnic-specific differences in metabolic burden could potentially explain in part the racial/ethnic distinctions in etiology that exist for AD. Oxidation of guanine (G) to 8-oxo-guanine (8oxoG) is a prevalent lesion and an indicator of oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. Damaged mtDNA (8oxoG) can serve as an important marker of age-related systemic metabolic dysfunction and upon release into peripheral circulation may exacerbate pathophysiology contributing to AD development and/or progression. Analyzing blood samples from Mexican American (MA) and non-Hispanic White (NHW) participants enrolled in the Texas Alzheimer's Research & Care Consortium, we used blood-based measurements of 8oxoG from both buffy coat PBMCs and plasma to determine associations with population, sex, type-2 diabetes, and AD risk. Our results show that 8oxoG levels in both buffy coat and plasma were significantly associated with population, sex, years of education, and reveal a potential association with AD. Furthermore, MAs are significantly burdened by mtDNA oxidative damage in both blood fractions, which may contribute to their metabolic vulnerability to developing AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]