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The COVID-19 vaccination rate among children ages 5-11 is low in the U.S., with parental vaccine hesitancy being the primary cause. Current work suggests that safety and side effect concerns are the primary reasons for such vaccine hesitancy. This study explores whether this hesitancy can be mitigated with information interventions. Based on theories of health decision making and persuasion, we designed four information interventions with varying contents and lengths. We wrote two messages on vaccine safety (a detailed safety-long message and a succinct safety-short message), explaining the vaccine's lower dosage, low rate of side effects, and the rigorous approval process. We also had two messages on protection effects (protect-family, protect-child). We combined these four messages with a vaccine-irrelevant control message and compared their effects on parental vaccine intention. We measured the parental vaccination intention using a 0-6 Likert scale question. Among the four intervention groups, we found that the short version of the safety message increased the average vaccination intention by over 1 point compared to the control arm, while the other three interventions failed to show significance. Specifically, these effects are particularly pronounced (around 2 points) for Republican parents who had a much lower initial intention to vaccinate their children. Our study highlights the importance of concise and to-the-point information rendering in promoting public health activities and therefore has important policy implications for raising vaccination intentions among parents, especially those leaning towards more conservative political affiliation.

The role of ammonia concentration in determining the particle shape and size of Ni-rich cathode materials during co-precipitation, though recognized as important, remains insufficiently understood in terms of its underlying mechanisms. In this study, we explore the effects of five distinct ammonia concentrations (0.2 mol L−1, 0.3 mol L−1, 0.4 mol L−1, gradually increasing from 0 to 0.4 mol L−1, and decreasing from 0.4 to 0.12 mol L−1) on the microstructure of the Ni0.95Al0.05(OH)2.05 precursor throughout the precipitation process. The results reveal that ammonia concentration significantly influences both nucleation and crystal growth rates, with higher ammonia levels reducing nucleation rates and leading to more uniform agglomerates. Additionally, ammonia concentration affects the thickness-to-length ratio of the precursor's primary particles, which in turn influences the morphology of the LiNi0.95Al0.05O2 cathode materials during lithiation. Importantly, the study demonstrates that the electrochemical properties of LiNi0.95Al0.05O2 are more closely related to the shape of the primary particles than to the secondary particles, highlighting the critical importance of microstructural control in the design of next-generation Li-ion batteries. This study demonstrates the critical impact of ammonia concentration on particle characteristics. The results offer valuable insights for improving battery performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a transmission medium and heating energy, microwave is widely favored due to its high efficiency, strong selectivity, and easy control. Here, the effects of different heating methods (conventional thermal induction (CI) and microwave induction (MI)) on the polymerization rate of polycarboxylate superplasticizer (PCE) were investigated. Compared with CI, MI significantly boosted the polymerization rate (by approximately 51 times) and markedly decreased the activation energy (Ea), from 46.83 kJ mol−1 to 35.07 kJ mol−1. The polar of the monomers and initiators in the PCE synthesis contributes to varying permittivities and loss factors under the microwave field, which are influenced by their concentration and reaction temperature. The insights gained from the microwave thermal effects and the micro-kinetics of the PCE polymerization system are able to propose theoretical underpinnings for the industrial-scale application of microwave induction polymerization, potentially steering the synthesis of polymer materials towards a more efficient and cleaner process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biopolymer-based hydrogels are important cell scaffolding materials for drug delivery and regenerative medicine. In this study, we report a covalently cross-linked composite chitosan-alginate hydrogel possessing pH sensitivity to degradation for drug delivery. To enhance mechanical strength of hydrogel, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was also added to form hydrogen bonds with polysaccharides under physiological condition. The gelation mechanism is attributed to the Schiff-base reaction occurring between amino groups in carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) and aldehyde groups in oxidized sodium alginate (OAlg). Synchronously, to enhance antibacterial properties of biomaterials, 5-fluorouracil (5-Flu) was mechanically mixed in the PVA solution, followed by incorporation into the CMCS-OAlg hydrogel to form a composite gel scaffold. Molecular weight and concentration of PVA would affect the gelation morphology, mechanical properties, swelling ratio, in vitro degradation and pH sensitivity of the gel scaffold. The composite gel scaffold has good drug release and antibacterial properties through drug release calculation and antibacterial performance evaluation. These results indicate that the composite gel scaffold has great potential for pH-sensitive drug delivery and wound healing applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer (MMIP) was successfully synthesized with acrylamide as a functional monomer and clenbuterol (CLB) as a template molecule. The synthesized MMIPs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR). MMIPs were used to identify and bind CLB as a solid phase extraction material. The experiment data were fitted by the Freundlich isotherm adsorption model. The results show that MMIPs have excellent recognition performance for CLB. MMIPs were successfully applied as adsorbents to preconcentrated CLB in pork samples and detected by HPLC with UV. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were 4.27 μg/L and 14.2 μg/L, respectively. The spiked recovery rates ranged from 94.44% to 102.29%. Therefore, the prepared MMIPs can be used for selective preconcentration of CLB content in complex animal-derived food samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

O2‐type layered oxides have emerged as promising cathode materials for high‐energy lithium‐ion batteries, offering a solution to mitigate voltage decay through reversible transition metal (TM) migration between TM and Li layers during cycling. However, achieving a fully reversible oxygen redox remains a significant challenge. Here, this is addressed by introducing Li─O─Li configurations in the layered structure of Li0.85□0.15[Li0.08□0.04Ni0.22Mn0.66]O2 (O2‐LLNMO), where □ represents vacancies. This adjustment alters the redox‐active oxygen environment and increases the energy gap between the O 2p nonbonding and TM─O antibonding bands. As a result, the contribution of lattice oxygen to capacity is significantly enhanced, improving the reversibility of oxygen redox processes. The O2‐LLNMO cathode demonstrates minimal voltage decay (0.13 mV per cycle) and excellent cycling stability, retaining 95.8% of its capacity after 100 cycles. A novel strategy is presented to design high‐performance layered oxides with stable anionic redox activity, advancing the development of next‐generation lithium‐ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gelatin is an attractive material for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications due to its excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability, which has been utilized as cell, drug, and gene carriers. Gelatin is less immunogenic compared to collagen and its precursor and retains informational signals, such as RGD (Arg-Gly-Asp) sequence, thus promoting cell adhesion and proliferation. To tune the mechanical strength and bioactivity, gelatin can be easily modified via chemical reactions and physical methods to obtain various derivatives. Furthermore, gelatin-based biomaterials can be achieved through chemical immobilization of specific molecules and physical combination with other biopolymers. This review focuses on the recent advances of gelatin and its derivatives as biomaterials in the field of drug delivery, including cell scaffolds for tissue engineering applications., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)