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A community of practice (COP) can offer learning and support as a group of people who come together to share concerns, best practices, or new knowledge about some shared interest or passion. However, creating or joining a COP may present challenges, especially for those whose networks are relatively undeveloped. In this article, we define a COP and share how vicarious learning and crowdsourcing, as pragmatic, relational, and information-gathering processes, offer important benefits to teaching and learning COPs. After discussing how vicarious learning and crowdsourcing can be extended within a COP, we offer specific theory-to-practice learning ideas and suggestions. We end the article with brief insights for other management educators about our own COP experiences.

Abstract: The aim of this study is to enable the hydrogen economy and decarbonize various sectors in our environment that requires less expensive and more durable water electrolyzers, which can meet the Hydrogen-Shot target. The key is to improve the ionomer interfaces in low-temperature water electrolyzers as rapidly as possible, but to do so, it requires a systematic and holistic campaign combining both experiments and theory. In this perspective, we discuss the issues of electrolyzers and needs for translational science. We then present the approach that the Energy EarthShot Research Center: Center for Ionomer-based Water Electrolysis is taking in hopes of inspiring the community with this approach that can be leveraged to multiple problems and technologies. Graphical abstract: (Figure presented.) Highlights: One way to achieve the Hydrogen-Shot goal of low-cost, clean hydrogen, is advancing research and development on the interfaces of water electrolyzers for both performance and lifetime. The Center for Ionomer-based Water Electrolysis is exploring new techniques and strategies to not only interrogate interfacial phenomena in water electrolyzers to increase efficiency and durability, but also a new paradigm related to synergistic, cojoined experimental and theoretical research. Discussion: Catalyst\ionomer interfaces are complex and not fully understood, but through investigating different interfaces and utilizing digital and physical twins, we can elucidate key mechanisms and understanding. Understanding the dynamic double layer in electrochemical systems that use solid electrolytes is crucial to identifying and mitigating the controlling phenomena to enable increased performance and durability at the technology level. Studying the time and length scales of interfacial changes can be a powerful tool to understand reaction mechanisms and changes in the electrolyzer performance and durability.

Wood fuel from the agroforestry sector is one of the main strategies cited by the EU for reducing energetic dependance on foreign markets. Its sustainability, both economic and environmental, can be improved through the optimization of harvesting and chipping operations. This study was focused on the dynamic and energetic balance of the chipping phase carried out by a chipper operated by the power-take-off (PTO) of a medium-power tractor. Both machines were equipped with sensors for real-time monitoring of fuel consumption, PTO torque and speed, trunk diameter and working time during the comminution of 61 poplar trees grown in a medium rotation coppice system. The data analysis was carried out on the entire dataset (about 29,000 records) without considering their belonging to different trees. By means of proper data ordinations, it has been possible to define all the intervals in which the chipping stopped (e.g., between two trees) and to exclude them from the intervals of actual chipping. This has allowed forcomputation of operative and actual working time, as well as of the basic power required to operate the chipper and the power for actual chipping. Subsequently, the parameter values observed during actual chipping were related to the cutting diameters measured at the same instant. Subsequently, the dataset was divided according to seven diameter classes, and, for each class, the descriptive statistical indices of working time, work productivity, CO2 emissions, energy requirement and fuel consumption were calculated. Eventually, the correlation between the variations in trunk diameter and other parameters was verified both on the whole dataset and based on the class average values. The analysis made it possible to identify the conditions of greatest efficiency for the chipper. More generally, the method could help to increase the accuracy of measurements aimed at characterizing the performance of chippers from the point of view of dynamic energy requirements as well as in relation to different wood species.

Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) is a potentially life-threatening condition that complicates diabetes mellitus. Euglycemic DKA (eDKA) is emerging as a variant in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus. The rise in its presentation is being caused by newer medicines using SGLT-2 inhibitors, with a complex underlying pathophysiology. Here we report a case of a 70-year-old woman presenting to the emergency department complaining of shortness of breath and abdominal pain. She suffers from type 2 diabetes mellitus and is on oral therapy, including the SGLT-2 inhibitor empagliflozin. Further testing revealed a high-anion-gap metabolic acidosis without elevation of lactate levels and a glucose level of 160 mg/dL. CT imaging of the abdomen showed a small bowel perforation. The case required aggressive medical therapy before surgical repair in the operating room. EDKA is a medical emergency that can be challenging to identify due to its atypical presentation compared to the traditional DKA (which is hyperglycemic). These characteristics can delay effective and timely treatment.

Abstract Mediterranean climates are characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. Previous studies suggest that over the last 1.36 Myr, Mediterranean winter rainfalls were in phase with the African monsoon. Here we present a high-resolution terrestrial and marine dataset for the Marine Isotope Stage 17 interglacial (Middle Pleistocene) from Southern Italy, showing that precipitation rates and regimes in the central Mediterranean varied independently of the monsoon system. Specifically, events of extreme summer precipitation were promoted by increased regional insolation rates and/or extratropical cyclones, and their magnitude was further enhanced by the advection of cool and humid North Atlantic air during stadials. Our findings provide new information on the short- to mid-term natural hydroclimatic variability of the Mediterranean basin, and offer new critical insights on land–ocean interactions at the regional scale by complementing previous analyses on the displacement of storm tracks toward southern Europe.

With a growing demand for electricity, clean hydrogen production and usage can be an asset not only to mitigate emissions but for long-term energy storage as well. Hydrogen gas, a high-density energy carrier, can be made through electrolysis in charging mode and generate electricity via a fuel cell in discharging mode in a unitized regenerative fuel cell (URFC). While URFCs reduce cost by combining the charging and discharging modes into a singular device, switching between modes becomes burdensome, and water management is a major challenge. One way to mitigate these issues is to operate the entire system in the vapor phase. Vaporphase operation simplifies the physics of the system but will introduce losses within the system, primarily ohmic and mass transport during the charging mode. In this study, we explore the performance of a Proton-Exchange-Membrane (PEM)-URFC under vaporphase conditions and the impact of different PEMs, feed gases, and relative humidity on the performance and durability. By tailoring operating conditions and membrane, the vapor-URFC achieves a roundtrip efficiency of 42% and a lifetime of 50,000 accelerated stress test cycles for fully humidified feeds. Discussion of vapor-URFC for energy storage and extensions to look at various applications shows the promise of this technology.

Teacher education (TE) in Finland is based on strong university autonomy, including the right to decide the curriculum content and the teaching methods. Democracy and its values are generally seen as central principles for TE, and the normative basis for education promoting democratic culture is strong. However, in practice, education for democracy is not at the core of TE. On the contrary, building a culture of democracy and action with students is unsystematic and dependent on individual teachers.To overcome this challenge, we studied a group of 18 first-year teacher students focused on democracy education. The study suggests that with systematic education toward a strong conceptualization of "teachers as democratic/societal agents," TE can promote a teacher who sets being an active and societally participative democratic individual as their primary objective. This study also shows that democratic education requires long-term education, not just single courses.

Long fragments of isocrinid stalks belonging to the stalked crinoid genus Isselicrinus (Isocrinida, Isselicrininae) were found at Cambrigar, near Ferrara di Monte Baldo (Verona province, northeastern Italy) in the strata called “Harpactocarcinus punctulatus and Pentacrinus diaboli horizon”, traditionally ascribed to the lower Eocene (Ypresian). Morphometric analysis of this material allowed us to identify two distinct species filtering their food at different levels of the water column. The first species, characterized by a mostly pentagonal stalk section, is ascribable to Isselicrinus diaboli (Bayan), a taxon frequently cited from the lower Eocene of northeastern Italy but until now poorly known. The other species has a marked star-shaped stalk section presenting a combination of pedomorphic characters and is ascribed to the new taxon Isselicrinus baldoensis n. sp. A detailed analysis of numerous columnals and pluricolumnals of Isselicrinus diaboli from the type-locality of San Pancrazio near Mossano (Berici Hills, Vicenza province, northeastern Italy) allowed us to propose a revised and more complete diagnosis of this taxon. The particular burial conditions and the ecology of these two species are discussed as well as a reappraisal of the age of the “Harpactocarcinus punctulatus and Pentacrinus diaboli horizon”. Based on new calcareous nannofossil data, and confirmed by the larger foraminiferal assemblages, the isocrinids from Cambrigar are firmly assigned to the Lutetian (middle Eocene). Calcareous nannofossils identified in the matrix of historical hand specimens from the classical locality of San Pancrazio indicate a similar age.

Pruning represents the main tree care activity in cities, where it is carried out to reduce wind-break risk, to ensure road visibility, to reduce infrastructure interactions and damages, and last but not least, for aesthetic reasons. However, pruning is also proven to increase tree susceptibility to disease and it can potentially affect their capacity to provide ecosystem services (ES). This study aims to assess the effect of three different life-long pruning scenarios on urban trees PM10 capture and CO2 stock performance. The total carbon balance of twelve tree species (Acer platanoides L., Cedrus spp., Celtis australis L., Cupressus arizonica Greene, Cupressus sempervirens L., Pinus halepensis Mill., Pinus nigra J.F. Arnold, Pinus pinea L. Platanus hybrida Brot., Populus nigra L. var. 'Italica', Quercus ilex L., and Tilia cordata Mill.) was evaluated, including the disposal of the pruning residues of the trees. In all management scenarios studied, pruning represented an opportunity to increase the crown Carbon stock up to 65 %, taking into account the full reestablishment of the crown. The results suggest considering more frequent and less intense ordinary pruning scenarios as a preferable tree management strategy to optimise the tree ES performance and minimise branch dieback occurrence. In addition, the analysis carried out on four different waste wood disposal methods showed that the open dump scenario was the lowest CO2 eq re-emission choice.

Introduction Monitoring biomechanics is crucial in sports and rehabilitation, and frontal knee angle is of special interest in these applications. Current solutions – optical motion capture (OMC), or inertial measurement units suits – are costly, spatially constrained, and impractical for use in daily life. Textile-based wearable systems are a valuable alternative for unobtrusive movement monitoring. Textile-based wearables for knee angle monitoring have mostly been used for sagittal angle prediction, however, frontal knee angle measurement is more challenging. We investigated the design and performance of a smart garment for the detection of knee joint angles in three planes during different activities. Methods We equipped a pair of tight pants with four helical auxetic yarn capacitive strain sensors (Cuthbert et al., 2022) placed close to the knees. The exact positioning was optimized with an OMC study: markers were placed in potential sensor locations (Gholami et al., 2019) and the pairs of markers whose distance had the highest mutual information with knee angles were selected for sensor placement. A healthy participant performed walking and turning around, and knee ab/adduction activities wearing the sensorized prototype. The latter activity emphasized knee motion in the frontal and transverse planes. The capacitances from the sensors were recorded with a custom electronics board that transmitted data wirelessly to a smartphone. Multiple regression algorithms were implemented to predict knee angles from the strain sensors data, with the ground truth obtained from the OMC data recorded simultaneously during the experiments. Results The optimal sensor placements were above the kneecaps, orientated as the vastus medialis and the rectus femoris. Xgboost regression algorithm yielded best performance for walking with root mean square errors (RMSE) of 10.79°, 3.77°, and 2.49° for the sagittal, frontal, and transverse angles, respectively. Linear regression performed the best for knee ab/adduction with RMSEs of 8.96°, 6.33°, and 1.58° for the sagittal, frontal, and transverse angles (Fornaciari, 2023). Discussion/Conclusion The smart garment system was overall able to track the knee angle in three planes. The larger errors, compared with previous works (Gholami et al., 2019), reported for the walking and turning around movement are likely because of high variations in the movements of the participants during turning around. Additionally, the proposed system showed capability to monitor frontal and transverse angles with an average RMSE of 3.5°. The larger error values of the sagittal angles are likely because of higher range of motion in that plane. The proposed system allows for continuous and unobtrusive knee angle monitoring outside of the laboratory settings in the comfortable form factor of smart clothing. References Cuthbert, T. J., Hannigan, B. C., Roberjot, P., Shokurov, A. V., & Menon, C. (2022). HACS: Helical auxetic yarn capacitive strain sensors with sensitivity beyond the theoretical limit. Advanced materials, 35(10) Article 2209321. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202209321 Fornaciari, A. (2023). Wearable technology for lower limb movement monitoring [Master’s thesis]. Politecnico di Milano. Gholami, M., Rezaei, A., Cuthbert, T. J., Napier, C., & Menon, C. (2019). Lower body kinematics monitoring in running using fabric-based wearable sensors and deep convolutional neural networks. Sensors, 19(23), Article 5325. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19235325

Alkaline or hydroxide exchange membrane water electrolysis (HEMWE) is a promising technology for green hydrogen production using platinum group metal-free catalysts and stainless steel, an advantage of alkaline water electrolysis (AWE), and a gasimpermeable membrane, a parallel to proton exchange membrane electrolysis (PEMWE). However, the HEMWE requires supporting electrolytes and there is minimal understanding of their role on the respective reactions. Without SELs, HEMWE performance and durability are worse than PEMWE systems. Herein, consistently feeding potassium hydroxide anolyte, we systematically study the effects of catholyte SELs in HEMWEs including dry vs. wet operation, cation effects, anion effects, and cation/OH ratios on cell potential and stability. We report that (i) hydration of the cathode improves high current density operation by preventing dehydration of the hydroxide exchange membrane (HEM), (ii) there was no correlation between cation type and cell potential, (iii) cell potential and high frequency resistance did not correlate with SEL conductivity, (iv) cathodic carbonate SEL had a significant negative effect on cell performance, (v) increased cation/OH ratio also caused increased cell potentials. Overall, this study concludes that feeding water or potassium hydroxide solution is desirable to improve the AEMWE performance.

The oxygen-evolution reaction (OER) is pivotal in many energy-conversion technologies as it is an important counter reaction to others that convert stable chemicals to higher-value products using electrochemistry. The local microenvironment and pH for the anode OER can vary from acidic to neutral to alkaline depending on the system being explored, making definitive mechanistic insights difficult. In this paper, we couple experiments, first-principles calculations based on density functional theory, microkinetics, and transport modeling to explore the entire pH range of the OER. At low current densities, neutral pH values unexpectedly perform better than the acidic and alkaline conditions, and this trend is reversed at higher current densities (> 20 mA cm−2). Using multiscale modeling, this switch is rationalized by a change from a dual-reaction mechanism to a single rate-determining step. The model also shows how the alkaline reaction rates dominate in the middle to high pH range. Furthermore, we explore that the local pH for near-neutral conditions is much different (e.g., 2.4 at the reaction surface vs. 9 in the bulk) than the pH extremes, demonstrating the criticality that transport phenomena plays in kinetic activity.

Abstract Alternating copolymers are distinctly unique in comparison with other copolymers. Herein, an in-depth investigation of the oxyanionic ring-opening copolymerization of propylene oxide (PO) and allyl glycidyl ether (AGE) from benzyl alcohol (BnOH) activated with potassium acetate (KOAc) complexed by 18-crown-6 ether (18C6) is described. We demonstrate that the 18C6/KOAc complex is an efficient and benign catalytic system to promote copolymerization of both oxirane monomers, leading to well-defined polyethers with varied comonomer content and low dispersity values (Ɖ M

Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is an infiltrative cardiomyopathy divided into two types: light-chain (LA) and transthyretin (ATTR) CA. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) has emerged as an important diagnostic tool in CA. While late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), T1 mapping and extracellular volume (ECV) have a consolidate role in the assessment of CA, T2 mapping has been less often evaluated. We aimed to test the value of T2 mapping in the evaluation of CA. This study recruited 70 patients with CA (51 ATTR, 19 AL). All the subjects underwent 1.5 T CMR with T1 and T2 mapping and cine and LGE imaging. Their QALE scores were evaluated. The myocardial T2 values were significantly (p < 0.001) increased in both types of CA compared to the controls. In the AL-CA group, increased T2 values were associated with a higher QALE score. The myocardial native T1 values and ECV were significantly (p < 0.001) higher in the CA patients than in the healthy subjects. Left ventricular (LV) mass, QALE score and ECV were higher in ATTR amyloidosis compared with AL amyloidosis, while the LV ejection fraction was lower (p < 0.001). These results support the concept of the presence of myocardial edema in CA. Therefore, a CMR evaluation including not only myocardial T1 imaging but also myocardial T2 imaging allows for more comprehensive tissue characterization in CA.

The development of proton-exchange-membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE) is crucial to establishing a green-hydrogen infrastructure. Active research in hydrogen technologies is focused on minimizing costs, improving efficiency, and mitigating safety risks. In this study, sensitivity analyses were performed using a physics-based model and used to identify critical parameters capable of reducing overpotentials and safety risks. These parameters include operational (i.e. temperature), structural (i.e. thickness of the components), and material properties (i.e. exchange current density). Simulated results suggest that better engineering of the membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) can offset intrinsic limitations. Membrane thickness and conductivity yielded the largest percent change on performance. Gas crossover was observed to be sensitive to diffusion, solubility, and bubble formation. Current density regimes were identified, where each crossover parameter was most influential. MEA parameterization serves as a framework for theoretical PEMWE optimization simulations and input for design criteria for future research targets.

Hydroxide-exchange-membrane water electrolysis (HEMWE) is an emerging hydrogen-production pathway that combines many advantages of incumbent alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) and proton-exchange-membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE). Advancement in HEMWE has been accelerated with the development of stable and conductive hydroxide exchange membranes (HEMs) and a more comprehensive understanding of alkaline gas-evolving kinetics. However, performance and durability without supporting electrolytes (SELs) remain inferior to PEMWE and AWE and little is known about the role and impact of the SELs. This study investigates the effects of SELs used as anolyte solutions in HEMWEs including cation-type, anion-type, SEL conductivity and pH, presence of carbonates and increased cation/OH- ratios on cell voltage and stability. We report our findings that (i) cell potential and high-frequency resistance did not correlate with anolyte SEL conductivity, (ii) cation-type influences cell voltage at low current densities (

Introduction Pain is a multidimensional experience that varies among individuals and has a significant impact on their health. A biopsychosocial approach is recommended for effective pain management; however, health professionals’ education is weak on this issue. Patient involvement is a promising didactic methodology in developing a more holistic perspective, however there is a lack of reliable evidence on this topic. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effectiveness of patient involvement in pain education in undergraduate medicine and nursing students.Methods and analysis An open-label randomised controlled trial including qualitative data will be conducted. After an introductory lesson, each student will be randomly assigned to the intervention group, which includes an educational session conducted by a patient–partner along with an educator, or to the control group in which the session is exclusively conducted by an educator. Both sessions will be carried out according to the Case-Based Learning approach. Primary outcomes will be students’ knowledge, attitudes, opinions and beliefs about pain management, whereas the secondary outcome will be students’ satisfaction. The Pain Knowledge and Attitudes (PAK) and Chronic Pain Myth Scale (CPMS) will be administered preintervention and postintervention to measure primary outcomes. Students’ satisfaction will be measured by a questionnaire at the end of the session. Two focus groups will be conducted to evaluate non-quantifiable aspects of learning.Ethics and dissemination The protocol of this study was approved by the independent Area Vasta Emilia Nord ethics committee.Adherence to The Declaration of Helsinki and Good Clinical Practice will ensure that the rights, safety and well-being of the participants in the study are safeguarded, as well as data reliability. The results will be disseminated through scientific publications and used to improve the educational offer. A version of the anonymised data set will be released for public access.Trial registration Trial was not registered on ClinicalTrials.gov as the interventions being compared only concern educational programmes and the outcomes considered do not refer to any clinical dimension.

In Finland, graduating teachers are expected to become “transformational agents” who are able to critically reflect upon and evaluate what types of changes are necessary in education and who can also implement the required changes. However, based on previous studies, teacher education seems to have little influence on future teachers’ core perceptions of teacher’s work. Instead, previous studies have demonstrated that new teachers’ perceptions might draw on tradition and cultural-historical phases of the Finnish teacher profession, and normative ideas concerning the ideal characteristics of a “good” teacher or student teacher. In this study, we examine how student teachers’ perceptions of teacherhood build upon and who has the power to define the “ideal teacher.” Based on our study, we suggest that to understand how the perception of the ideal teacher is formed and how teacher education could better influence the transformation of these perceptions, we must consider the unofficial power relations among student teachers. These power relations seem to originate from the hegemonic discourse of the “typical student teacher,” which contains and renews traditional perceptions of teaching and teachers as authorities and experts transmitting subject content knowledge and skills to pupils. This discourse seems to be renewed among student teachers and has more impact on students’ perceptions than the official aims of teacher education. Hence, in our study, the unspoken sociocultural power relations come to light in different ways, in the peer relations between student teachers but also in the students’ conceptions of the teacher educators. We suggest that by unraveling the unofficial power relations in the sociocultural context of teacher education and by focusing on supporting every student teacher’s agency and critical reflection, it is possible to transform the perceptions about the ideal teacher.

AbstractBackground Most symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections produce mild to moderate symptoms. Although most patients are managed in the outpatient setting, little is known about the effect of general practitioners’ (GP) management strategies on the outcomes of COVID-19 outpatients in Italy.Objectives Describe the management of Italian GPs of SARS-CoV-2 infected adult patients and explore whether GP active care and monitoring are associated with reducing hospitalisation and death.Methods Retrospective observational study of SARS-CoV-2 infected adult outpatients managed by GPs in Modena (Italy) from March 2020 to April 2021. Information on management and monitoring strategies, patients’ socio-demographic characteristics, comorbidities, and outcomes (hospitalisation and death due to COVID-19) were retrieved through an electronic medical record review and analysed descriptively and through multiple logistic regression.Results Out of the 5340 patients from 46 GPs included in the study, 3014 (56%) received remote monitoring, and 840 (16%) had at least one home visit. More than 85% of severe or critical patients were actively monitored (73% daily) and 52% were visited at home. Changes over time in patients’ therapeutic management were observed in concordance with the guidelines’ release. Active daily remote monitoring and home visits were strongly associated with reduced hospitalisation rate (OR 0.52, 95% CI 0.33–0.80 and OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.33–0.78 respectively).Conclusion GPs effectively managed an increasing number of outpatients during the first waves of the pandemic. Active monitoring and home visits were associated with reduced hospitalisation in COVID-19 outpatients.

Many electrochemical energy-conversion systems are evaluated by polarization curves, which report the cell voltage across a range of current densities and are a global measure of operation and state of health. Mathematical models can be used to deconstruct the measured overall voltage and identify and quantify the voltage-loss sources, such as kinetic, ohmic, and mass-transport effects. These results elucidate the best pathways for improved performance. In this work, we discuss several voltage-breakdown methods and provide examples across different low-temperature, membrane-based electrochemical systems including electrolyzers, fuel cells, and related electrochemical energy-conversion devices. We present best practices to guide experimentalists and theorists in polarization-curve breakdown analysis.

Acridine orange (AO) is a metachromatic fluorescent dye that stains various cellular compartments, specifically accumulating in acidic vacuoles (AVOs). AO is frequently used for cell and tissue staining (in vivo and in vitro), mainly because it marks different cellular compartments with different colors. However, AO also forms triplet excited states and its role as a photosensitizer is not yet completely understood. Human immortalized keratinocytes (HaCaT) were incubated for either 10 or 60 min with various concentrations (nanomolar range) of AO that were significantly lower than those typically used in staining protocols (micromolar). After incubation, the cells were irradiated with a 490 nm LED. As expected, cell viability (measured by MTT, NRU and crystal violet staining) decreased with the increase in AO concentration. Interestingly, at the same AO concentration, altering the incubation time with HaCaT substantially decreased the 50% lethal dose (LD50) from 300 to 150 nM. The photoinduced cell death correlated primarily with lysosomal disfunction, and the correlation was stronger for the 60 min AO incubation results. Furthermore, the longer incubation time favored monomers of AO and a distribution of the dye to intracellular sites other than lysosomes. Studies with mimetic systems indicated that monomers, which have higher yields of fluorescence emission and singlet oxygen generation, are favored in acidic environments, consistent with the more intense emission from cells submitted to the longer AO incubation period. Our results indicate that AO is an efficient PDT photosensitizer, with a photodynamic efficiency that is enhanced in acidic environments when multiple intracellular locations are targeted. Consequently, when using AO as a probe for live cell tracking and tissue staining, care must be taken to avoid excessive exposure to light to avoid undesirable photosensitized oxidation reactions in the tissue or cell under investigation.

The unitized regenerative fuel cell (URFC) is a promising electrochemical device for intermittent renewable energy storage in chemical bonds. However, widespread application has been hindered due to low round-trip efficiencies (RTEs) and disappointing durability, in particular at high rates. Here, we break through that barrier by demonstrating highly efficient, flexible, and stable URFCs via hierarchical design of the multiscale catalyst-layer structures. A more porous and less tortuous Pt and Ir catalyst layer is realized using a doctor blade fabrication method that significantly improves URFC performance. We demonstrate RTEs of 56% and 53% under constant-electrode and constant-gas mode, respectively, while operating at 1000 mA cm-2, and significantly, a RTE of 45% at 2000 mA cm-2, achievements that were previously viewed as unfeasible under the onerous demands of URFC operation. At the same time we demonstrate URFCs under both constant-electrode and constant-gas mode operated continuously for over 500 h with negligible degradation. These results demonstrate the viability of applying URFCs for long-term energy storage at previously unattainable efficiencies and cast new light on electrode design and optimization of URFCs. This journal is

Nowadays, the infraorder Delphinida (oceanic dolphins and kin) represents the most diverse extant clade of Cetacea, with delphinids alone accounting for more than 40% of the total number of living cetacean species. As for other cetacean groups, the Early Miocene represents a key interval for the evolutionary history of Delphinida, as it was during this time span that the delphinidans became broadly distributed worldwide, first and foremost with the widespread genus Kentriodon and closely related forms. Here, we report on a new odontocete find from Burdigalian (20.4–19.0 Ma) deposits of the Friulian-Venetian Basin of northeastern Italy, consisting of the partial cranium of a small delphinidan with associated ear bones (right periotic, stapes, malleus and tympanic bulla). Osteoanatomical considerations and comparisons allow us to assign the studied specimen to the genus Kentriodon. This is the first confirmed record of Kentriodon from Europe as well as from the whole proto-Mediterranean region. Stratigraphic and phylogenetic considerations suggest that our new specimen may represent the geologically oldest member of Kentriodon. The evolutionary success of Kentriodon may correlate with the emergence of narrow-band high-frequency echolocation as a possible strategy to escape acoustic detection by large marine predators such as the squalodontids. In addition, the relatively high encephalization quotient of Kentriodon spp. may have provided these early dolphins with some kind of competitive advantage over the coeval non-delphinidan odontocetes.

We present here new quantitative analyses of planktic and benthic foraminifera to assess the impact of the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO, ~40 Ma) on these biotic groups studied along a shallow-water succession rich in larger benthic foraminifera (Sealza, Liguria, NW Italy). The MECO is one of the major Eocene global warming events, characterized by ~4–6°C warming, shifts in the global carbon cycle, and rise in atmospheric pCO2. The Sealza succession is interpreted as the product of a drowning ramp influenced by tectonic activity and provides an exceptional chance to compare biotic variations in shallow-water assemblages with deep-water communities across the MECO. In the section, the MECO interval is tentatively constrained by stable isotope oxygen data and calcareous plankton biostratigraphy. The marked decline in abundance of the epifaunal benthic Cibicidoides across the lower-middle part of the MECO suggests a decrease in oxygenation at the seafloor. Further evidence of oxygen depletion is the increase in organic matter content (TOC) of the sediment and the presence of infaunal genera Uvigerina and Bolivina. The planktic foraminiferal assemblages record the MECO warming in the upper water column as the mixed-layer warm index genera Acarinina and Morozovelloides markedly increase in abundance. In the post-MECO interval, here poorly exposed, cooler conditions are indicated by the dominance of the cold-water index genus Subbotina. Remarkably, Acarinina decline in abundance in the upper MECO interval and never recover. The MECO perturbance permanently impacted the benthic and planktic communities at Sealza that exceeded the tipping point to move to a new regime, thus proving the fauna to be not resilient, but also not recording any extinctions.

Introduction: Pediatric emergency care is essential for adequate medical treatment of pediatric cancer-associated complications and for increasing the chances of cure. Objective: This study aimed to describe pediatric cancer-associated emergencies and outcomes, and to analyze the factors associated with hospitalization. Method: A retrospective observational cohort study was conducted including patients aged ≤19 years who attended the pediatric emergency of a general cancer hospital from April 17 to October 17, 2019. The variables analyzed were demographics, socioeconomic status, disease and treatment factors, reasons for seeking emergency care, and associated outcomes. Results: This study included 309 patients who required 994 emergency consultations, with a total of 766 reasons for seeking care. The median age was 4.86 years; 50.8% were female and 51.5% were white. The patients had solid tumors (49.8%), central nervous system tumors (27.5%), and hematological neoplasms (15.5%). Most of the patients were home discharged (72.2%) or to support houses (6.7%). Fever was the most frequent symptom (30.8%) and the most common reason for admission. 19.2% of the patients were admitted to the ward and 2.0% to the pediatric intensive care unit (2.0%). Only two of the 309 patients (0.6%) seeking care in the pediatric emergency died in the emergency room, and these patients were in end-of-life care. Conclusion: The availability of a pediatric emergency room with skilled professionals in supportive care of pediatric patients with cancer was essential for the management of disease and treatment-related complications.

The estimation of the reference evapotranspiration is fundamental in defining irrigation projects. However, an estimation using the standard equation requires climate variables that are difficult to measure and are not very accessible. Thus, the objective of this study was to calibrate and validate alternative methods to estimate evapotranspiration that use simple variables and to compare performance with the standard Penman-Monteith method for the municipality of Nova Venécia, Espírito Santo, Brazil. For this, a 12-year time series (2008-2019) of meteorological data from the Instituto Nacional de Meteorología was used. The standard FAO-56 Penman–Monteith method was used to evaluate alternative methods: Hargreaves and Samani, Benevides and Lopes, Linacre, Hamon and Camargo. Method performance was analyzed by correlation coefficient, Willmott index, root mean square of normalized error, and performance index. Calibration improved the statistical indices, increasing the performance of the Hargreaves and Samani, Benevides and Lopes, and Linacre methods to “very good” in the rainy season and to “intermediate” in the dry season. They were superior to the Hamon and Camargo methods, which continued to show “tolerable” to “very poor” performance in both periods.

Ancient DNA from an Italian mummy’s gallstone provides insight into opportunistic E. coli infection.

Direct conversion of methane to methanol has been a long-sought objective. Partial oxidation by thermal catalysis is possible but suffers from a rapid loss in methanol selectivity with increasing methane conversion. More recently, the electrochemical oxidation of methane, using water, rather than oxygen, as the oxidizing agent has been considered in both aqueous electrolyte systems and membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs). While promising results have been demonstrated using MEAs, the absence of key metrics of system performance make it hard to compare and contrast the results of different investigators. This Perspective examines why MEAs are well-suited for the electrochemical oxidation of methane, defines the metrics for assessing MEA performance, and reviews the progress in the field. An analysis of the challenges to finding suitable electrocatalysts is included with the aim of guiding the search for electrocatalysts that would be both active and selective for the conversion of methane to methanol.