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The COVID-19 pandemic has upended how we live and work. In Canada, the gender gap in employment among parents with young children widened substantially during the pandemic. Previous studies, however, examine parents in Canada without distinguishing them by immigrant status, although immigrant versus Canadian-born parents may have distinct work-family experiences. In this study, we investigate how the intersection of parental and immigrant statuses influenced change in gender employment gaps during the pandemic. Drawing on Labor Force Survey (LFS) microdata from March 2019 to February 2021, we examine the probability of employment by gender, parental status, and immigrant status. When comparing the school closure period (March to August 2020) relative to the same months in 2019 (pre-pandemic), immigrant women, irrespective of parental status, witnessed larger declines in employment than their male counterparts and nonimmigrants, and the gender gap widened the most among recent immigrants with school-aged children. When schools gradually reopened (September 2020 to February 2021), employment recovered faster for recent than established immigrant mothers. Overall, our findings show that among parents of young children, the growing gender gap in employment during the pandemic was concentrated among immigrants, with immigrant mothers disproportionately disadvantaged. This study illuminates how the pandemic exacerbated intersectional inequalities based on gender, parenthood, and immigrant status. Keywords: Immigration, parents, gender, employment, inequality, COVID-19. La pandemie de COVID-19 a bouleverse notre facon de vivre et de travailler. Au Canada, le fosse entre les sexes en matiere d'emploi chez les parents de jeunes enfants s'est considerablement enforce pendant la pandemie. Les etudes anterieures, cependant, examinent les parents au Canada sans distinction de leur statut d'immigrant, bien que les parents immigrants et les parents nes au Canada puissent avoir des experiences travail-famille differentes. Dans cette etude, nous examinons comment le croisement des statuts de parent et d'immigrant a influence l'evolution des ecarts d'emploi entre les sexes pendant la pandemie. En nous servant des micro-donnees de l'enquete sur la main-d'aeuvre (EMAE) de mars 2019 a fevrier 2021, nous examinons la probabilite d'emploi selon le sexe, le statut parental et le statut d'immigrant. Si l'on compare la periode de fermeture des ecoles (mars a aout 2020) aux memes mois de 2019 (avant la pandemie), les femmes immigrees, quel que soit leur statut parental, ont connu des baisses d'emploi plus importantes que leurs homologues masculins et que les non-immigrants, et le fosse entre les sexes s'est le plus creuse chez les immigrants recents ayant des enfants d'age scolaire. Lorsque les ecoles ont progressivement rouvert (de septembre 2020 a fevrier 2021), l'emploi s'est retabli plus rapidement pour les meres recemment immigrees que pour celles etablies. Dans l'ensemble, nos resultats montrent que, parmi les parents de jeunes enfants, l'ecart croissant entre les sexes en matiere d'emploi pendant la pandemie etait concentre parmi les immigrants, les meres immigrantes etant desavantagees de maniere disproportionnee. Cette etude met en lumiere la facon dont la pandemie a exacerbe les inegalites intersectionnelles fondees sur le sexe, la parentalite et le statut d'immigrant. Mots-cles : Immigration, parents, genre, emploi, inegalite, COVID-19., INTRODUCTION The work and lives of Canadian workers were derailed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, Canadian provinces issued wide-ranging public health orders in response to [...]

Deep eutectic electrolytes offer opportunities for tailoring solvation structure and interface chemistry in advanced batteries, but developing deep eutectic electrolytes for high‐performance zinc ion batteries (ZIBs) remains a challenge. Herein, multifunctional dual‐metal‐salt derived ternary eutectic electrolytes (DMEEs) are designed via a supporting salt strategy for dendrite‐free and long‐lifespan ZIBs. DMEEs are constructed by zinc trifluoromethanesulfonate (Zn(OTF)2), supporting salt of lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide, and neutral ligand of N‐methylacetamide. Noticeably, supporting salt with weak lattice energy not only induces the reconstruction of intermolecular interactions to form ion pairs and ion aggregates but also tailors the Zn2+ solvation structure and solid electrolyte interface (SEI). The developed DMEEs possess a dual‐anion‐rich Zn2+ solvation shell and induce an inorganic‐rich hybrid SEI, which effectively suppresses side reactions and obtains a dendrite‐free Zn anode with high reversibility. Remarkably, Zn//Zn cells demonstrate cycling stability for over 3000 h, and Zn//PANI full cells deliver no significant capacity decay after 5000 cycles at a high current density of 5 A g−1. This work opens a new avenue to design advanced deep eutectic electrolytes, and the deep understanding of solvation structure and SEI offers guidelines for developing high‐performance batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the stress distribution of splinted or nonsplinted restorations supported by 2 short or 2 standard dental implants in the mandibular molar region using three-dimensional finite element analysis. Two standard implants (4.8 × 10mm) were placed in the mandibular molar area. Two short implants (4.8 × 6 mm) were located in the mandibular molar atrophied area. Implant-supported prostheses were simulated with splinted or nonsplinted crowns design. Vertical load of 200 N and oblique load of 100 N were applied on the central fossa and the buccal cusps. Evaluation of stress distribution in implants and peri-implant cortical bone using the finite element analysis software (Ansys, Version 2020, R2), a multipurpose computer design program. The maximum principal stress of cortical bone around the implants was higher in nonsplinted crowns when compared to splinted crowns. The stress concentration of cortical bone surrounding implants increased as the implant length decreased either splinted crowns or nonsplinted crowns. The short implants with nonsplinted crowns showed lower stresses when compared to standard implants with nonsplinted crowns. The results suggest that the nonsplinted prostheses supported by short dental implants might be considered in the molar area of the atrophic mandible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, the post-Winter Olympics era has seen the rapid development and promotion of ice rinks with air-supported membrane structures. With the rise of large indoor spectator areas in ice rinks, thermal comfort needs in spectator areas are receiving more and more attention. The satisfaction of thermal comfort needs is crucial to people's health and well-being, so further study of the issue of thermal comfort in such spectator areas is needed. Unfortunately, models currently used to evaluate the thermal comfort of traditional building envelopes are not applicable to air-supported membrane-envelope ice rinks. Researchers need to focus on the internal thermal comfort needs of air-supported membrane envelopes for spectator areas. The aim of this research was to establish a thermal comfort model to provide exact temperature-range recommendations for spectator areas in air-supported membrane ice rinks. The indoor thermal-environment parameters of the ice rink in Harbin were measured from 2 January to 15 January 2023. To elicit data on spectators' actual thermal sensations in the ice rink, a field questionnaire was administered. By modifying the expectancy factor, an extended predicted thermal comfort model was established. The results suggested that the operative temperature required to meet spectators' thermal comfort needs in the case study ice rink ranged from 17 °C to 26 °C. The results of the study offer specific insights into the indoor thermal comfort needs of air-supported ice rinks and provide a more accurate temperature-setting reference for the healthy and energy-efficient development of such rinks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi‐pulse soliton molecules are observed in passively mode‐locked fiber lasers by using 2D layered metal dichalcogenides (LMDs) as a saturable absorber. LMD has attracted significant attention in photonics and optoelectronics in which tin disulfides (SnS2) are implemented for energy storage, photo‐catalysts, and transistor. However, the applications of SnS2 in optoelectronics fields are quite rare. Soliton supramolecules are the self‐assembly of optical solitons into highly‐ordered supramolecular structures which have not been experimentally observed due to the absence of techniques for controlling the inter‐soliton forces. In this article, SnS2 LMDs are successfully applied in a passively mode‐locked fiber laser. It is confirmed that the proposed fiber laser has a center wavelength of 1561.5 nm, a 3‐dB spectral width of 2.45 nm, signal‐to‐noise ratio of 63 dB, and a radiofrequency of 7.2 MHz. The different interiors of the second‐order, third‐order, and ninth‐order bound state of solitons in the cavity are investigated. Furthermore, it is found that numbers of optical solitons self‐assembled into highly ordered supramolecular structures in a passively mode‐locked fiber laser for the first time. The bound state between the six supramolecular soliton units is obtained experimentally and theoretically which have potential applications in ultrafast laser‐field manipulation and optical information storage because of special interactions between pulses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss the reasons why urban Christians choose certain sites for religious activities and explain the rapid development of house churches in urban areas in China from the perspective of individual Christians, through survey data obtained by the Chinese Urban Research Center for Ethnic and Religious Affairs Management in the city of Wuhan. We found that Christians who attend religious activities in urban house churches are generally younger in age, higher in education level, and more likely to be working in independent, private, or foreign-invested enterprises. Further investigation reveals that “Three-Self churches” are few in number and poorly planned geographically, resulting in very limited service abilities, thus being far from satisfactory for all believers. Moreover, the activities of such churches are unvaried and lack attractiveness. On the other hand, in house churches, Christians are able to build tight-knit social networks and house churches are more competitively aware in the “religious market”, leading some urban Christians to choose house churches, thereby inciting the fast development of house churches in Chinese urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zinc ion batteries (ZIBs) encounter interface issues stemming from the water-rich electrical double layer (EDL) and unstable solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI). Herein, we propose the dynamic EDL and self-repairing hybrid SEI for practical ZIBs via incorporating the horizontally-oriented dual-site additive. The rearrangement of distribution and molecular configuration of additive constructs the robust dynamic EDL under different interface charges. And, a self-repairing organic-inorganic hybrid SEI is constructed via the electrochemical decomposition of additive. The dynamic EDL and self-repairing SEI accelerate interfacial kinetics, regulate deposition and suppress side reactions in the both stripping and plating during long-term cycles, which affords high reversibility for 500 h at 42.7% depth of discharge or 50 mA·cm-1. Remarkably, Zn//NVO full cells deliver the impressive cycling stability for 10000 cycles with 100% capacity retention at 3 A·g-1 and for over 3000 cycles even at lean electrolyte (7.5 μL·mAh-1) and high loading (15.26 mg·cm-2). Moreover, effectiveness of this strategy is further demonstrated in the low-temperature full cell (-30 oC)., (© 2024 Wiley‐VCH GmbH.)