Villanova University

Two-dimensional carbides and nitrides, known as MXenes, are promising for water-processable coatings due to their excellent electrical, thermal, and optical properties. However, depositing hydrophilic MXene nanosheets onto inert or hydrophobic polymer surfaces requires plasma treatment or chemical modification. This study demonstrates a universal salt-assisted assembly method that produces ultra-thin, uniform MXene coatings with exceptional mechanical stability and washability on various polymers, including high-performance polymers for extreme temperatures. The salt in the Ti3C2Tx colloidal suspension reduces surface charges, enabling electrostatically hydrophobized MXene deposition on polymers. A library of salts was used to optimize assembly kinetics and coating morphology. A 170 nm MXene coating can reduce radiation temperature by ~200 °C on a 300 °C PEEK substrate, while the coating on Kevlar fabric provides comfort in extreme conditions, including outer space and polar regions.

Unhurried conversations are necessary for careful and kind care that is responsive and responsible to both patients and clinicians. Adequate conceptual development is an important first step in being able to assess and measure this important domain of quality of care. In this article, we expand on a preliminary model to identify the key microlevel communication practices that support an unhurried conversation, defined as an ongoing, mutual accomplishment between patient and clinician that proceeds through a range of verbal and nonverbal communication practices wherein one or more participants (mutually) regulate the sequence, spacing (temporal and spatial), and speed of interaction to make themselves available to the other and remove or suspend distractions from the environment in order to improve care. We draw from the rich, qualitative descriptions found in earlier work that point to specific, observable practices in clinical encounters and identified empirical and theoretical work across a range of disciplines to expand our understanding of these practices. Ultimately, we identify and elaborate on 10 observable indicators of patient-clinician communication: engaging in shared turn taking, establishing rapport through discussion of off-task topics, pausing to allow the other ample time to speak, moderating the pace of spoken language, avoiding conversational interruptions, minimizing external interruptions, triaging topics as needed to create adequate time, expressing emotions, encouraging participation through inviting questions, and displaying open body language. These indicators work together to cocreate unhurried conversations

Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) have been essential for protecting human health for almost a century, functioning as surface disinfectants and sanitizers. With bacterial resistance increasing against commercially available QACs, the development of novel antimicrobials with divergent architectures is essential for effective infection prevention and control. Toward this end, our group has expanded beyond traditional ammonium scaffolds and explored the development of quaternary phosphonium compounds (QPCs). Herein, we report the synthesis and biological investigation of a series of 20 novel multicationic QPCs, bearing multiple short alkyl or aryl chains, also referred to as “bushy‐tailed” multiQPCs; these structures were hypothesized to have strong bioactivity while displaying low mammalian toxicity. Select bushy‐tailed QPC derivatives with trishexylphosphonium groups displayed single‐digit or sub‐micromolar activity against all seven bacteria tested, and MIC values of 2‐ to 8‐fold better than their bushy‐tailed QAC counterparts. Importantly, therapeutic indices of these bushy‐tailed QPCs were favorable in many cases, and were ≥4 against the entire bacterial panel for pX‐P6*,P6* and 1,8‐P6*,P6*, superior to more traditional architectures. This work highlights the promise of a novel set of multicationic phosphonium compounds as novel disinfectants with potent bioactivities and low toxicity.

The harvest and sale of wildlife can drive species to extinction when consumers are willing to pay high prices for the last harvested individuals of a very rare species, a phenomenon known as the anthropogenic Allee effect (AAE). Because demand for rarity is an inherent human desire, the AAE has the potential to affect a wide range of exploited species across several geographic regions. Here, we assess the current extent of empirical evidence for the AAE, how such evidence has been measured, and how this evidence interfaces with existing models of the AAE. We find substantial gaps in the empirical evidence base for the AAE and suggest that this deficit prevents assessment of the AAE in species extinctions. We provide a framework for generating empirical evidence that can identify when the AAE is likely occurring or has the potential to occur in the future, and recommend directions for both empirical and theoretical modeling research designed to strengthen our ability to forecast the ecological and market conditions that result in an AAE.

Elizabeth Inchbald (1753–1821) was an actress, playwright, and novelist. In the early 19th century, she also became one of the era’s most important critics of drama through her introductions to The British Theatre (1806–09), a twenty-five volume collection of popular plays. The author of more than twenty plays herself, most of which were staged at London’s most prominent theatres, she is perhaps best characterized by her incisive understanding of audiences and her experimentations with a variety of popular genres. Inchbald’s interest in the theatre was lifelong. While she was only a mediocre success as a performer, she absorbed important lessons through her onstage experiences that she used in both her personal dramaturgy, and in her later critical writings. In her arrangement of incidents, dialogue, and ability to tailor her characters to the particular strengths of an acting company, she achieved remarkable success across more than two decades of writing for the stage. This chapter celebrates Inchbald’s dramaturgical experiments in her first full-length success, Such Things Are (1787), which blends a comedic plot centering British expatriates on the island of Sumatra with a sentimental plot concerning the Sultan and his long-lost wife. Connecting the two plots is the play’s hero, Haswell, based on the real-life prison reformer John Howard. The play is extant in two manuscript versions and an array of printed editions which demonstrate a variety of interventions and changes made throughout the play’s history. These alterations show that even as Inchbald wrote for commercial success, she did not shy away from critiques of social problems, including political, imperial, and legal realities, instead often finding ways to embed these critiques within the bounds of contemporary dramatic convention.

Thermal bleaching, or the loss of symbiotic algae that provide most energetic resources for the coral host, is an increasing threat to reefs worldwide and is projected to worsen with climate change. While bleaching is a well-recognized threat, the impact on the process of reproduction in bleaching survivors is not well resolved, despite being central to coral resilience. Montipora capitata can survive bleaching while completing a full gametogenic cycle, offering an ideal system to study gametogenic resilience and physiological tradeoffs. We experimentally bleached fragments of M. capitata colonies and followed their gametogenesis and physiological responses for 10 months (six time points). All bleached colonies produced gametes at the same time as controls, suggesting that reproductive processes were energetically prioritized. However, proteomic analysis revealed tradeoffs and delays in activating key physiological processes earlier in gametogenesis in areas such as skeletal growth and reproductive hormone synthesis. Tradeoffs during the gametogenic cycle, likely a direct response to thermal bleaching, resulted in smaller oocytes from bleached colonies, potentially indicating decreased transfer of parental resources to gametes. While gametogenesis is likely to continue in this species, it is unknown how the fecundity, synchrony of spawning, viability and success of future offspring may be impacted by future bleaching events.

The peak intensity that occurs during a storm event can drive the performance of a green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), which may or may not align with the expected performance of the GSI. Both the peak intensity volume and where it occurs within an event are found to influence the GSI response. The design criteria set the expectation of how well a GSI will manage stormwater within a watershed. The Villanova University bioinfiltration rain garden (BRG) has been monitored since 2003, providing a long hydrological data record that is used to study local and observed rainfall patterns in comparison to design criteria to understand the impact of storm intensity on GSI performance. Intensities for all the storms recorded at the site were assessed at different timesteps and compared to the intensities typically used by the design storm approach in meeting regulatory criteria. There were 1482 storm events analysed and for all timesteps, the values commonly used for meeting design regulations were seen to be well above what was observed at the BRG, with 98% of the storms occurring below these values. Out of the 1482 storms, only 46 storms (3%) had effective durations longer than 10 h and no storm observed had an effective duration longer than 22 h, yet their peak intensities were still below the peak intensity associated with design regulations. This finding highlights the difference in the duration these sites are designed to manage (typically 24 h), in comparison to the ones experienced by the systems. The peak intensity analysis done at the different timesteps shows that for the storms recorded at the BRG, the intensities vary with changing time intervals and events. Of all the assessed events, only two events recorded larger intensities than the regionally specified NOAA C design storm, demonstrating the skewness of the approach. There was no trend in peak rain intensities over the 20‐year rainfall record. This study concludes that due to their dynamic performance, vegetated GSI have a natural resilience to a variety of precipitation patterns and climate changes that may be compromised when designing to a static value set through design storms.

Since knock behaves as a random process, all knock controllers regulate some statistical property of this process which must be estimated from the data. The choice of the statistical metric used for feedback, its target value, and the method used for its estimation all have a strong impact on the performance of the closed loop system. In this work, expressions for the asymptotic variance of the estimates of different test statistics are derived and used to compare empirical versus parametric estimation methods. The variance of different metrics and the slope of their response curves (e.g. knock probability vs knock percentile intensity feedback) are also used to compute and compare the efficacy of these different measures for knock control purposes. The efficacy is seen to vary as a function of the chosen knock probability target, and lower knock thresholds/higher knock rate targets are recommended. Finally, the estimator dynamics are shown to dominate the dynamics of the closed loop response, and estimates obtained using a sliding window versus an exponentially weighted moving average are compared and contrasted. In each case, the results are illustrated using closed loop simulations of controller response subject to disturbances.

This article develops the ideas of perfection and education in Spinoza and Maimonides. Both thinkers identify human perfection with intellectual knowledge and a transformation in affect. They accordingly envision education in terms of enhancing cognition and shaping the desire to know. The first steps are a critical evaluation of imagination and the development of the mind’s rational, inferential powers. These steps stabilize and strengthen our positive affects, and they arouse a desire for what Spinoza calls the third kind of knowing and Maimonides calls intellectual apprehension. Individuals achieve this highest perfection by degrees, if at all. Spinoza argues that the more the body can undergo, the more we know, the more active and hence the more perfect we are, and the more joy, love, and satisfaction we experience. Spinoza calls the third kind of knowing both scientia intuitiva and amor dei intellectualis. Maimonides’s perfect human being experiences an intellectual apprehension of the existence of God and receives flashes of insight concerning aporetic metaphysical questions. Although Spinoza’s amor dei intellectualis transforms the knower’s way of living, it is not explicitly political. Maimonides’ model of the perfect human is Moses, whose intellectual apprehension brings about a passionate love for God and eventuates in prophecy, which Maimonides theorizes as the overflow of intellectual attainment through imagination. Moses is the most perfect prophet, the one who founds and organizes a community.

The dramatic impacts of climate change presage an inevitable surge in mass migration; however, advanced democracies are ill-equipped for this impending crisis. Moreover, we know very little about how publics evaluate this group of prospective migrants, who are estimated to increase from 100 million to 200 million worldwide within decades. This study investigates American attitudes toward climate-related migrants in a conjoint experiment of more than 1,000 US adults, in which respondents evaluated fictional refugee profiles that varied across multiple attributes. Findings reveal that Americans (1) prefer political refugees over climate-related refugees; and (2) prefer climate-related and economic migrants to a similar extent, and that these preferences are not driven by concerns over climate-related refugees’ integration into American society. Subgroup analyses indicate that younger individuals, those with high climate-change anxiety, and those who previously engaged in climate-related political activities discriminated less against climate-related migrants. Analyses of open-ended responses reveal that climate anxiety is a driver of positive evaluations of climate-related migrants.

This study examined the use of machine learning in detecting deception among 210 individuals reporting homicides or missing persons to 911. The sample included an equal number of false allegation callers (FAC) and true report callers (TRC) identified through case adjudication. Independent coders, unaware of callers’ deception, analyzed each 911 call using 86 behavioral cues. Using the random forest model with k-fold cross-validation and repeated sampling, the study achieved an accuracy rate of 68.2% for all 911 calls, with sensitivity and specificity at 68.7% and 67.7%, respectively. For homicide reports, accuracy was higher at 71.2%, with a sensitivity of 77.3% but slightly lower specificity at 65.0%. In contrast, accuracy decreased to 61.4% for missing person reports, with a sensitivity of 49.1% and notably higher specificity at 73.6%. Beyond accuracy, key cues distinguishing FACs from TRCs were identified and included cues like “Blames others,” “Is self-dramatizing,” and “Is uncertain and insecure.”

Drawing on contrasting theoretical perspectives of self-interest and utilitarian/ethical motivations, we examine the degree to which a company's pace of departure from Russia after the Ukraine invasion is driven by its exposure to the Russian market. Moreover, we investigate whether firm-level political and non-political risks influence the propensity to delay or expedite the exit/withdrawal process. Contrary to utilitarian expectations advocating for ethical exit decisions irrespective of exposure and risks, firms with higher Russian exposure were less likely to exit sooner, indicating a prioritization of business interests over ethical imperatives. This self-interest effect was further amplified by heightened political risks but attenuated by non-political risks. These findings remained consistent across various model specifications, with limited discernible variations based on firm characteristics such as ranking, COVID-19 exposure and risk, past idiosyncratic volatility, or family ownership and control. In addition, an examination of post-exit effects on profitability, risk, cost of capital, and liquidity revealed no statistically significant relationships. Our study highlights the prevalence of self-interest motivations over utilitarian principles, as firms with substantial Russian exposure prioritized safeguarding their business interests in the aftermath of the Ukraine invasion, even at the potential cost of ethical and social responsibility imperatives.