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As the power core of an electric vehicle, the performance of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is directly related to the vehicle quality and driving range. However, the charge–discharge performance and cycling performance are affected by the temperature. Excessive temperature can cause internal short circuits and even lead to safety issues, such as thermal runaway. The separator plays a crucial role in protecting the battery from regular operation, preventing direct touch between the cathode and the anode while allowing the transport of lithium ions. In this study, we have designed a thermoregulating separator in the shape of calabash, which uses melamine-encapsulated paraffin phase change material (PCM) with a wide enthalpy (0–168.52 J g-1) to dissipate the heat generated inside the battery promptly. Under extra-long-use conditions, the heat emitted by the battery is absorbed by the PCM without causing a significant temperature rise that triggers thermal runaway. The PCM separator can effectively suppress the temperature increase caused by battery penetration. Due to the unique structure of the PCM, the battery is short-circuited; it can significantly delay the internal temperature rise of the battery and quickly dissipate the heat, which is consistent with the characteristics of natural calabash in nutrient absorption and water diffusion, improving the melting and heat storage efficiency of the PCM. The design of the phase change separator provides an effective reference for overheat protection and improved safety in lithium-ion batteries.

This work proposes a tactic for improving the efficiency of thermal energy conversion and expanding the application scenarios of phase change materials by constructing non-binder and oriented MXene-K+aerogel.The prepared phase change composites (PCCs) can rapidly transform solar, electric, magnetic energy into latent heat for keeping warm, power generation, and thermal physiotherapy.Owing to the suggested tactic, the prepared PCCs achieves ultrahigh energy storage density and realize 99.9998% electromagnetic wave energy attenuation.

Over the past decades, life expectancy in Hong Kong has been increasing steadily. However, the gender gap in life expectancy has experienced a comparatively high level of plateauing state. Based on data from the Human Mortality Database and the official statistics, an age- and cause-decomposition method was used to analyze contributions of main age groups and major causes of death to the gender gap over the period 1986–2016. The results showed that a female-advantage in the mortality among those aged 25 years and above was mainly responsible for the male–female gap in life expectancy in Hong Kong. In consideration of major causes of death, lower female mortality from non-communicable diseases, particularly malignant neoplasms, and pneumonia at older age groups, was the major contributor to the female-favored life expectancy. Public efforts to reduce excess mortality rates from non-communicable diseases and pneumonia among older male population may help narrow the gender gap in life expectancy in Hong Kong.

Immunotherapy has been recommended as a second-line treatment only for high microsatellite instability or DNA mismatch repair deficiency advanced pancreatic cancer in National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines. Here, we report a case with a good response to immunotherapy in pancreatic cancer with mismatch repair proficiency. A 55-year-old woman diagnosed with pancreatic cancer cT4N1M1 (liver, lung) who harbored ERBB2mutations with high tumor mutation burden (TMB) underwent multiple therapies and survived 19 months. A partial response in pancreatic cancer was observed when the patient was treated with combined antiangiogenic therapy and immunotherapy after a series of ineffective treatments. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), a predictive marker of efficacy of immunotherapy, confirmed that immunotherapy resulted in the partial response in pancreatic cancer. To our knowledge, this is the first to report advanced pancreatic cancer with mismatch repair proficiency had a good response to immunotherapy, and this is the first to report an association between high blood-based TMB or NLR and improved clinical outcomes in pancreatic cancer. Therefore, TMB may also be a biomarker for immunotherapy of pancreatic cancer, and NLR may be a prospective predictive marker for efficacy of immunotherapy in pancreatic cancer.

China’s Belt & Road (“B&R”) initiative has attracted much attention in recent years. Many studies have assessed the potential impacts of this initiative from the economic, political, foreign relations, and military perspectives. However, very little attention has been paid to examine the opportunities and challenges of this new initiative from a demographic perspective. Therefore, this study investigates into the population dynamics of 65 countries in the B&R region, and explores the demographic dynamics of this regional cooperation model. Based on graphic visualization, the demographic heterogeneities within the B&R region, in terms of current stages of demographic transitions, population age structure, and demographic windows of opportunities have been revealed. Furthermore, a model-based cluster analysis has been conducted to classify the B&R countries into two groups. One group consists of countries with younger population, low education access, and larger gender gap in the labor market, while the other group comprises of more aged population and has better performances in economic development, education enrolment, and female labor participation. The demographic windows of opportunities in the former group will remain open for the coming decades; whereas the windows have already closed or is about to close very soon in the latter group. The former group should take lessons from the latter concerning how to better prepare themselves for the demographic transition. Moreover, the curvilinear relationship between wealth and well-being has a complicated structure and the B&R initiative should focus not only on economic development but also on the human well-being.

China has experienced dramatic social changes in the last three decades. This study aimed to investigate socio-economic factors related to suicide rates in China from 1990 to 2015, and examine how the impacts of these factors on suicide rates changed over time.