Bimetallic Pt nanoparticles play a critical role in various applications, including catalysis, chemical production, fuel cells, and biosensing. In this study, we start with Au@Pt core–shell structure and investigate the evolution of these nanoparticles at elevated temperatures. Our in-situ X-ray diffraction study at elevated temperatures concluded that the onset of Au–Pt alloying occurs between 500 and 600 °C. At higher temperatures, the nanoparticles gradually approached the state of a solid solution, but the composition across the nanoparticles was not uniform even at 1,000 °C. Our results suggest that the alloyed nanoparticles at high temperatures are dominated by one solid solution but contain distinct regions with slightly different compositions.

We study the uniform convergence rates of nonparametric estimators for a probability density function and its derivatives when the density has a known pole. Such situations arise in some structural microeconometric models, for example, in auction, labor, and consumer search, where uniform convergence rates of density functions are important for nonparametric and semiparametric estimation. Existing uniform convergence rates based on Rosenblatt’s kernel estimator are derived under the assumption that the density is bounded. They are not applicable when there is a pole in the density. We treat the pole nonparametrically and show various kernel-based estimators can attain any convergence rate that is slower than the optimal rate when the density is bounded uniformly over an appropriately expanding support under mild conditions.

The article examines the challenges that urban teachers faced in unitary systems, where students of different ages and educational levels shared the same classroom and were taught by a single teacher. It aims to compare these challenges across several cities including Alicante, Badajoz, Cádiz, Canary Islands, Málaga, and Zaragoza to determine common issues within Spain. The study is based on sixteen technical reports from 1916 to 1926 and uses qualitative methods to analyze teachers’ narratives for deeper insights. Additionally, a literature review and quantitative analysis of Spanish statistical sources were conducted. Key findings highlight parental disinterest as a significant cause of school absenteeism. The article concludes by stressing the importance of understanding historical educational contexts in informing current educational policies and practices.

Changes in the characterization of communicative competence, especially in the context of large-scale testing, are typically driven by an evolving understanding of real-world communication and advancements in test construct theories. Recent advances in AI technology have fundamentally altered the way language users communicate and interact, prompting a reassessment of how communicative competence is defined and how language tests are constructed.

In response to these significant changes, an AI-mediated interactionalist approach is proposed to expand communicative competence. This approach advocates for extending the traditional concept of communicative competence to encompass AI digital literacy skills and broadened cognitive and linguistic capabilities. These skills enable effective AI tool usage, as well as the interpretation and application of AI-generated outputs and feedback, to improve communication. Embedding these competencies into language assessments ensures alignment with contemporary communication dynamics, enhancing the relevance of language assessments, and preparing learners for navigating AI-augmented communication environments.

While high-stakes testing faces considerable challenges in adopting this expanded construct, low-stakes formative assessments, where scores do not influence critical decisions about individuals and where opportunities exist to rectify errors in score-based actions, if any, provide a fertile ground for exploring the integration of AI tools into assessments. In these contexts, educators can explore giving learners access to various AI tools, such as editing and generative tools, to enhance assessment practices. These explorations can start to address some of the conceptual challenges involved in applying this expanded construct definition in high-stakes environments and contribute to resolving practical issues.

Radiocarbon dating is a widely used method in archaeology and earth sciences, but the precision of calibrated dates from single radiocarbon measurements can be difficult to understand. This study investigates the precision of calibrated radiocarbon dates depending on the uncertainties of the measurement and the details of the calibration curve. Using data for the Holocene epoch and the IntCal20 calibration curve, over 1,000,000 hypothetical radiocarbon measurements were calibrated and analyzed. The study shows that high-precision measurements can yield calibrated date ranges from less than 50 years to more than 200 years (at the 95.4% probability) depending on the specifics of the calibration curve. This research may serve as a tool for planning future studies and assessing whether high-precision measurements are beneficial for proposed case.

Chronological studies are pivotal for understanding different dimensions of the past. Latin America has embraced various archaeometric dating methods, including radiocarbon (14C) dating. This article reviews the development and challenges of radiocarbon databases and datasets in Latin America, analyzing their integration with global projects and highlighting regional disparities. While global databases like IntChron and CARD often marginalize Latin American data, local projects such as ArqueoData, AndesC14, MesoRAD, SAAID and ExPaND focus on regional needs. The fragmentation of radiocarbon data across publications, technical reports, and limited-access archives hinders accessibility and collaboration. This article underscores the necessity of transitioning from static datasets to dynamic web applications, utilizing APIs to enhance data interoperability, incorporating FAIR principles (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability). This article proposes embedding Latin American initiatives within stable, local institutions to ensure sustainability, establishing classification standards for both radiocarbon dates and associated archaeological contexts. Interdisciplinary collaboration between archaeologists and computer scientists is crucial to developing robust, interoperable databases. By embracing these strategies, Latin America can bridge technological and economic gaps, strengthening its contribution to global archaeological research and fostering new insights into the region’s past.

The Centenary of the First World War saw unprecedent prominence given to the ‘colonial contribution’ in commemorative discourse. While this newfound public recognition sometimes relied on simplistic and sanitised narratives of the war, scholarship produced in the period has greatly enriched understandings of how conflict was experienced by colonised peoples. In this article, I explore the utility of one of the key conceptual innovations of the Centenary, the Greater War, for the analysis of colonial experiences of the conflict. I do this by considering three key questions: Can the Greater War framework facilitate new comparative histories of violence in the war? How do its expanded chronologies account for colonial contexts? Can we adapt its conceptual frameworks to better integrate colonial histories? Exploring the potential answers to these questions will point to new avenues of research that can ensure the colonial is effectively incorporated into our narratives of the global conflict.

This paper presents an Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) cavity-backed symmetric dual-beam self-diplexing slot antenna for short-distance multiuser point-to-point communications using mm-wave frequency bands. The antenna is fed by two capacitive-gap-coupled microstrip lines, which help the antenna to operate at two different frequency bands with a self-diplexing property. Independent frequency tunability at both the operating bands can be achieved by varying the capacitive gap position along the microstrip feed lines. To enhance port isolation and achieve dual-beam characteristics the design incorporates an L-shape folded slots, centrally located shorting via, W-slot, corrugated microstrip structures and mender line slot. The beams are directed at ± $\theta = \pm 43^\circ$ with a half-power beam width of 56∘ each. The antenna offers peak realized gains of 5.95 and 6.21 dBi at the lower and upper band, respectively. The antenna is fabricated and measured, which shows a good agreement between simulation and measurement, confirming its suitability for short-distance multiuser point-to-point communications

We studied the spectral analysis of X-ray emission spectroscopy for lithium-ion battery materials during the disproportionation reaction driven by heat treatment. To improve the quantitative analysis of chemical states, we consider the contribution of unstable chemical states in the peak deconvolution. We first applied a linear combination fitting (LCF) to the residuals, assuming an asymmetric Lorentzian peak, which was obtained for the unstable chemical component. Since LCF requires a set of known spectra for peak deconvolution, we develop the LCF for spectral analysis, including unknown chemical states. Both quantification results show a similar trend in the temperature dependence of the heat treatment. With the latter method, we can quantify the samples, including unknown chemical compounds, even when that compound does not have a known X-ray emission spectrum.

This paper explores Italy’s perspective on West Germany’s evolving role in Europe in the 1970s, focusing on the interplay between leadership expectations and the fear of hegemony. In the context of the collapse of the Bretton Woods System, the oil crisis and transatlantic tensions, Italy viewed West Germany as both a potential leader and a dominant economic power. By examining political and public debates, this study delves into Italy’s complex ambivalence towards German leadership – admiring its economic strength while simultaneously fearing its influence over European integration and monetary policy – in a way that demonstrates a nuanced Italian reaction to German ‘reluctance’. The rejection of Germany’s hegemonic role was closely tied to an expectation of leadership. However, this expectation conflicted with the type of leadership Germany offered, revealing a sharp contrast between Italian and German conceptions of leadership.

Members of the International Centre for Diffraction Data, the world center for quality diffraction and related data, met 10–14 March 2025 for their Annual Spring Meetings. The event was held as a hybrid meeting, with many members traveling to ICDD Headquarters in Newtown Square, PA, USA, while others attended through the Zoom platform.