Background: Neck vessel imaging is often performed in hyperacute stroke to allow neurointerventionalists to estimate access complexity. This study aimed to assess clinician agreement on catheterization strategies based on imaging in these scenarios. Methods: An electronic portfolio of 60 patients with acute ischemic stroke was sent to 53 clinicians. Respondents were asked: (1) the difficulty of catheterization through femoral access with a regular Vertebral catheter, (2) whether to use a Simmons or reverse-curve catheter initially, and (3) whether to consider an alternative access site. Agreement was assessed using Fleiss’ Kappa statistics. Results: Twenty-two respondents (7 neurologists, 15 neuroradiologists) completed the survey. Overall there was slight interrater agreement (κ=0.17, 95% CI: 0.10–0.25). Clinicians with >50 cases annually had better agreement (κ=0.22) for all questions than those with fewer cases (κ=0.07). Agreement did not significantly differ by imaging modality: CTA (κ=0.18) and MRA (κ=0.14). In 40/59 cases (67.80%), at least 25% of clinicians disagreed on whether to use a Simmons or reverse-curve catheter initially. Conclusions: Agreement on catheterization strategies remains fair at best. Our results suggest that visual assessment of pre-procedural vessels imaging is not reliable for the estimation of endovascular access complexity.

Background: Hyperacute stroke care demands rapid, coordinated care. Traditional metrics like Door-to-Needle time are pivotal but insufficient for capturing the complexity of endovascular stroke interventions. The SMILES collaboration aims to standardize and optimize protocols for door-to-intervention times, incorporating Crew Resource Management (CRM). Methods: The multidisciplinary initiative integrates both hospitals, ED, neurology, and QI teams. We employed a comprehensive approach: stakeholder engagement, simulation-based learning, process mapping, and literature review. Emphasis was placed on enhancing situational awareness, triage and prioritization, cognitive load management, role clarity, effective communication, and debriefing. Results: The collaboration led to PDSA cycles and development of refined stroke protocols. Interventions included: 1) A ’zero point survey’ for team pre-arrival briefings, enhancing situational awareness and role clarity; 2) Streamlined patient registration to reduce cognitive load and improve triage efficiency; 3) Direct transfer of patients to imaging. Additionally, digital tools were implemented to facilitate communication. Simulation sessions reinforced CRM principles, leading to improved team cohesion and operational performance. Conclusions: The SMILES initiative is grounded in CRM principles by standardizing protocols and emphasizing non-technical skills crucial for high-stakes environments. This improves outcomes but also fosters a culture of safety and efficiency. Future directions include an evaluation of these protocols’ impact on patient factors.

While most papers on high-entropy alloys (HEAs) focus on the microstructure and mechanical properties for structural materials applications, there has been growing interest in developing high-entropy functional materials. The objective of this paper is to provide a brief, timely review on select functional properties of HEAs, including soft magnetic, magnetocaloric, physical, thermoelectric, superconducting, and hydrogen storage. Comparisons of functional properties between HEAs and conventional low- and medium-entropy materials are provided, and examples are illustrated using computational modeling and tuning the composition of existing functional materials through substitutional or interstitial mixing. Extending the concept of high configurational entropy to a wide range of materials such as intermetallics, ceramics, and semiconductors through the isostructural design approach is discussed. Perspectives are offered in designing future high-performance functional materials utilizing the high-entropy concepts and high-throughput predictive computational modeling.

Environment can impact the wear behavior of metals and alloys substantially. The tribological properties of Al0.6CoCrFeNi high-entropy alloys (HEAs) were investigated in ambient air, deionized water, simulated acid rain, and simulated seawater conditions at frequencies of 2–5 Hz. The as-cast alloy was composed of simple face-centered cubic and body-centered cubic phases. The wear rate of the as-cast HEA in the ambient air condition was significantly higher than that in the liquid environment. The wear resistance in seawater was superior to that in ambient air, deionized water, and acid rain. Both the friction coefficient and wear rate in seawater were the lowest due to the formation of oxidation film, lubrication, and corrosion action in solution. The dominant wear mechanism in the ambient air condition and deionized water was abrasive wear, delamination wear, and oxidative wear. By contrast, the wear mechanism in acid rain and seawater was mainly corrosion wear, adhesive wear, abrasive wear, and oxidative wear.

This article provides a short review on computational modeling on the formation, thermodynamics, and elasticity of single-phase high-entropy alloys (HEAs). Hundreds of predicted single-phase HEAs were re-examined using various empirical thermo-physical parameters. Potential BCC HEAs (CrMoNbTaTiVW, CrMoNbReTaTiVW, and CrFeMoNbReRuTaVW) were suggested based on CALPHAD modeling. The calculated vibrational entropies of mixing are positive for FCC CoCrFeNi, negative for BCC MoNbTaW, and near-zero for HCP CoOsReRu. The total entropies of mixing were observed to trend in descending order: CoCrFeNi > CoOsReRu > MoNbTaW. Calculated lattice parameters agree extremely well with averaged values estimated from the rule of mixtures (ROM) if the same crystal structure is used for the elements and the alloy. The deviation in the calculated elastic properties from ROM for select alloys is small but is susceptible to the choice used for the structures of pure components.

The collective response of electrons in an ultrathin foil target irradiated by an ultraintense (${\sim}6\times 10^{20}~\text{W}~\text{cm}^{-2}$) laser pulse is investigated experimentally and via 3D particle-in-cell simulations. It is shown that if the target is sufficiently thin that the laser induces significant radiation pressure, but not thin enough to become relativistically transparent to the laser light, the resulting relativistic electron beam is elliptical, with the major axis of the ellipse directed along the laser polarization axis. When the target thickness is decreased such that it becomes relativistically transparent early in the interaction with the laser pulse, diffraction of the transmitted laser light occurs through a so called ‘relativistic plasma aperture’, inducing structure in the spatial-intensity profile of the beam of energetic electrons. It is shown that the electron beam profile can be modified by variation of the target thickness and degree of ellipticity in the laser polarization.

Here we demonstrate wireless energy transfer that exploits the conductivity and permittivity of soil to create a potential gradient on the surface around an earthed electrode, distributing electrical energy over the area. This generated surface potential can be amplified using a special standing-wave receiver for harnessing the distributed energy. We have experimentally mapped the surface potential around the electrode and plotted the received energy covering an area of 1200 m2. Key operating parameters are determined with a discussion on optimizing the system efficiency. This technique could address the challenge of distributing electrical energy to many low power devices over large outdoor areas without the use of wires.

Background: NMDA receptor encephalitis (NMDARE) is associated with pre-existing psychiatric symptoms and seizure disorders. It is not typically associated with elevated ICP. Diagnostically, EEG findings in NMDARE are characteristic as are the pathological features of ovarian teratomas associated with this disease. We report a patient who tested positive for NMDARE however presented with features not known to be associated with the disease including elevated ICP, atypical EEG findings and grossly atypical features on pathological section. Results: A 26 year old woman presented with psychiatric symptoms and status epilepticus. On examination, she was found to have papilledema and eleveated ICP on measurement. Her imaging and EEG demonstrated atypical findings, not consistent with NMDARE. CT scan of the abdomen demonstrated an adnexal mass. CSF studies eventually tested positive for NMDARE and following removal of her ovarian teratoma, the pathology demonstrated atypical findings for lesions associated with NMDARE classically. Conclusions: NMDARE is a new entity, which has historically shown a typical clinical course. Our case demonstrates a previously undescribed presentation of NMDARE with elevated ICP, atypical EEG findings and unique pathology of the associated ovarian teratoma.

Current robotic systems have achieved great sophistication in kinematic motion, control, and neural processing. One of the most challenging limitations imposed on modern robotics is the portable power source needed to sustain tether-free operation. Energy storage devices such as batteries and combustion engines may be heavy, require a great deal of space, and invariably have a finite energy capacity. Methods to control such devices may also impose limitations as most robotic systems rely on either tethered or radiative communication. The unavoidable repercussion of these limitations is the ultimate reduction of mobility and operation time to achieve specific tasks. To address these challenges, we apply our quasi-wireless powering methodology to show the operation of two robotic devices over a 1×1 m2 surface. Both power and control signals are transmitted simultaneously, producing seamless storage-free functionality over the entire area with a communication technique that is not line-of-sight or radiation dependent. We demonstrate an average power transfer efficiency of 93% using commercially available toy robots and discuss parameters relating to the power and communication performance.

We present observations of the first 10° of longitude in the Mopra CO survey of the southern Galactic plane, covering Galactic longitude l = 320–330° and latitude b = ±0.5°, and l = 327–330°, b = +0.5–1.0°. These data have been taken at 35-arcsec spatial resolution and 0.1 km s−1 spectral resolution, providing an unprecedented view of the molecular clouds and gas of the southern Galactic plane in the 109–115 GHz J = 1–0 transitions of 12CO, 13CO, C18O, and C17O. Together with information about the noise statistics from the Mopra telescope, these data can be retrieved from the Mopra CO website and the CSIRO-ATNF data archive.

We present the first results from a new carbon monoxide (CO) survey of the southern Galactic plane being conducted with the Mopra radio telescope in Australia. The 12CO, 13CO, and C18O J = 1–0 lines are being mapped over the $l = 305^{\circ }\text{--} 345^{\circ }, b = \pm 0.5^{\circ }$ portion of the fourth quadrant of the Galaxy, at 35 arcsec spatial and 0.1 km s−1 spectral resolution. The survey is being undertaken with two principal science objectives: (i) to determine where and how molecular clouds are forming in the Galaxy and (ii) to probe the connection between molecular clouds and the ‘missing’ gas inferred from gamma-ray observations. We describe the motivation for the survey, the instrumentation and observing techniques being applied, and the data reduction and analysis methodology. In this paper, we present the data from the first degree surveyed, $l = 323^{\circ } \text{--} 324^{\circ }, b = \pm 0.5^{\circ }$ . We compare the data to the previous CO survey of this region and present metrics quantifying the performance being achieved; the rms sensitivity per 0.1 km s−1 velocity channel is ~1.5 K for ${\rm ^{12}CO}$ and ~0.7 K for the other lines. We also present some results from the region surveyed, including line fluxes, column densities, molecular masses, ${\rm ^{12}CO/^{13}CO}$ line ratios, and ${\rm ^{12}CO}$ optical depths. We also examine how these quantities vary as a function of distance from the Sun when averaged over the 1 square degree survey area. Approximately 2 × 106M⊙ of molecular gas is found along the G323 sightline, with an average H2 number density of $n_{\text{H}_2} \sim 1$ cm−3 within the Solar circle. The CO data cubes will be made publicly available as they are published.

Across academic medicine, including psychiatry, women are underrepresented in senior positions. Various reasons have been put forward, for example the lack of high-ranking female role models or mentors and a reduced rate of career progression for women compared with men. Mentoring has been shown to be a popular and feasible intervention which can improve the success of those perceived as disadvantaged groups (in this case women) by having an important impact on personal development, career guidance and research productivity.

Ignition or thermal explosion in an oxidizing porous body of material can be described by a dimensionless reaction–diffusion equation of the form ∂tu=∇2u+λe−1/u. Here such equations will be formulated in symmetrically shaped bounded regions Ω, effectively reducing the mathematical formulation to that of one dimension. This is critically re-examined from a modern perspective using numerical methods. A computer algorithm is constructed and used to carry out a broad-ranging evaluation of the watershed critical initial temperature conditions for thermal ignition of nonuniform assemblies. It is then shown how the resulting mathematical structure for the ignition threshold curves can be correlated by a hyperbolic conic section with a high degree of accuracy over the full range of positive ambient temperature values. However, this sometimes over-predicts (which is bad) and sometimes under-predicts (which is good) the critical initial condition. The definition of additional dimensionless parameters is found to generate further simplification, leading to a universal correlating form capable of collapsing the entire solution space onto a single line in the plane of the new variables. In addition, this study considers the physically intuitive conjecture that spatial moments of the initial temperature profile ought to possess a direct mathematical link to the critical ignition threshold. As such, the mth-order spatial moment of the critical total energy content integrals is defined, and an empirical result is derived stating that certain orders of this moment should be insensitive to changes in ambient temperature and initial shape profile and may be considered functionally dependent on the dimensionless eigenvalue only, within some quantifiable error band. Spatial moment integrals, based on computed critical threshold conditions, are found to support this conjecture, with the best accuracy obtained for the second-order moments.

In a study comparing the responses of institutionnalized Down's syndrome (DS) and non-Down's (ND) inmates to enterovirus infections, the frequency of wild enteric viruses and the excreation patterns of oral polio vaccine (OPV) viruses were similar in both groups. Antibody titres developed to poliovirus types 2 nad 3 following vaccination were similar in DS and ND and ND vaccinees, but the responses to type I virus was signifcantly less in DS vaccinees. As judged by the development of poliovirus antibody in non-vaccinees, the spread of virus from OPV-immunized to unimmunized subjects in the institution was not noticeably different in DS and ND subjects.

An unexpected finding was that the excretion patterns of all three serotypes of poliovirus were strikingly similar for each individual to individual. The similarity of excreation occurred despite wide differences within an individual in the titres of neutralizing serum antibodies to the three serotypes. It is suggested that the rate at which a given individual eliminates enteroviruses may be largely determined by factors, the activities of which atre not reflected in serum antibody titres.

It is now generally recognized that the glands of internal secretion play an important part in regulating metabolism and so controlling the nutrition of the animal. Hatui found that castration was followed by a putting on of fat except in those cases in which the pituitary underwent a compensatory hypertrophy, when the animal remained normal in weight.