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Olli Raitakari, Jaana Pentti, Juhani S. Koskinen, Juha Mykkänen, Suvi Rovio, Katja Pahkala, Markus Juonala, Terho Lehtimäki, Mika Kähönen, Ichiro Kawachi, Mika Kivimäki, Jorma Viikari, Jussi Vahtera

International Journal of Cardiology·2026

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Nanoparticles, thin films and temperature-dependent oxidation characteristics of metallic bismuth synthesized via solventless pyrolysis of bismuth(III) dithiolates: Polymorphism and photocatalytic dye degradation of bismuth sesquioxide

Xianglong Liu, Tingting Wang, Longhua Li, Junli Wang

Inorganic Chemistry Communications·2026

In this study, we report the preparation of Bi nanoparticles (NPs) and thin films via the solventless pyrolysis of bismuth(III) dithiolates (Bi2(S2CnH2n)3, n = 3, 4) at 160–220 °C, whose thermolysis features the absence of the precursor melting and finishes before the product (Bi metal) melting, and then we demonstrate their oxidation conversion to Bi2O3 NPs and thin films at different temperatures. The polymorphs and phase transitions of so-formed Bi2O3 are highly dependent on the oxidation temperature. Pure-phase β-Bi2O3 (tetragonal), formed by thermally oxidizing Bi NPs at 400 °C, will transform to α-Bi2O3 (monoclinic) by the traditionally known phase transition or β’-Bi2O3 by the c-oriented lattice thermal expansion as the oxidation temperature increases to 500 and 600 °C, which normally leads to an incomplete β → α transition and a mixed product of β’(β)/α phases. Compared to the β phase, the lattice-expanded variant β’-Bi2O3 is found to be stable at both high temperature (500–600 °C) and room temperature (RT) and to display a wide bandgap (∼3.0 eV), a narrow visible-light absorption range and thus relatively poor activity in RhB photodegradation. Moreover, Bi NPs are also found to be oxidized to bismuth oxycarbonate (Bi2O2CO3) at RT in the presence of H2O and CO2. This work opens a novel avenue to synthesize Bi and Bi2O3 NPs and thin films and presents new findings and insights regarding the phase regulation, polymorphism and photocatalytic performance of Bi2O3.

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What Does Flow Matching Bring To TD Learning?

Bhavya Agrawalla, Michal Nauman, Aviral Kumar

arXiv·2026

Recent work shows that flow matching can be effective for scalar Q-value function estimation in reinforcement learning (RL), but it remains unclear why or how this approach differs from standard critics. Contrary to conventional belief, we show that their success is not explained by distributional RL, as explicitly modeling return distributions can reduce performance. Instead, we argue that the use of integration for reading out values and dense velocity supervision at each step of this integration process for training improves TD learning via two mechanisms. First, it enables robust value prediction through \emph{test-time recovery}, whereby iterative computation through integration dampens errors in early value estimates as more integration steps are performed. This recovery mechanism is absent in monolithic critics. Second, supervising the velocity field at multiple interpolant values induces more \emph{plastic} feature learning within the network, allowing critics to represent non-stationary TD targets without discarding previously learned features or overfitting to individual TD targets encountered during training. We formalize these effects and validate them empirically, showing that flow-matching critics substantially outperform monolithic critics (2$\times$ in final performance and around 5$\times$ in sample efficiency) in settings where loss of plasticity poses a challenge e.g., in high-UTD online RL problems, while remaining stable during learning.

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Adapting substance use treatment for black adolescents in the US legal system: protocol for a mixed-method, exploratory, feasibility and acceptability study using the eight-step ADAPT-ITT framework

Brittany E Bryant, Marina Tolou-Shams, Ifunanya Ezimora, Tamika C Zapolski, Ralph DiClemente, Ayana Jordan, Sara J Becker, Lindsay M Squeglia

BMJ Open·2026

Introduction This community-led research study protocol emphasises placing black youth impacted by the legal system, their families and their communities at the forefront of substance use treatment development research and decision-making. The study, the Cultural Adaptation of a Substance Use Treatment (CAST) Project, challenges traditional top-down approaches to treatment creation, advocating for a grassroots model that centres community knowledge, values and active participation. Methods and analysis The CAST project is a US-based mixed-methods study with an exploratory design that examines the impact of racial discrimination on substance use in black youth impacted by the legal system. The study participants are black youth impacted by the legal system (N=15), parents of black youth impacted by the legal system (N=10) and community members who serve black youth (N=10) (total N=35 study participants). Study participants from each group (youth, parents and community members) will participate in three separate focus groups, respectively, to provide feedback on the culturally responsive content needed to best support black youth impacted by the legal system around substance use and mental health. The eight-step Assess, Decision, Adaptation, Production, Topical Expert, Integration, Training, Testing framework will be used as a guide to inform adaptations to the Motivational Enhancement Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (MET/CBT12) for black youth impacted by the legal system. Once the cultural adaptation process has been completed, the study will conclude with an open feasibility and accessibility trial of the culturally adapted MET/CBT12 manual. The primary outcomes of this study are the feasibility and acceptability of the culturally adapted manual, measured by treatment attendance and participant feedback. Secondary outcomes include reductions in substance use and discrimination distress, and improvements in mental health symptoms. Ethics and dissemination This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the University of California, San Francisco (IRB Protocol Number: 23-40126). All study procedures will be conducted in accordance with the ethical standards outlined by the institutional review board. The results from this study will be shared through peer-reviewed publications, academic conferences, community forums and policy briefs to support broader implementation of culturally adapted adolescent substance use interventions that address discrimination-related stress and substance use among black individuals impacted by the legal system. Trial registration number NCT06003725 .

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Nanoparticles, thin films and temperature-dependent oxidation characteristics of metallic bismuth synthesized via solventless pyrolysis of bismuth(III) dithiolates: Polymorphism and photocatalytic dye degradation of bismuth sesquioxide

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