The United States Needs A Better Testing Playbook For Future Public Health Emergencies.

The absence of a comprehensive national playbook for developing and deploying testing has hindered the United States' ability to rapidly suppress recent biological emergencies (for example, the COVID-19 pandemic and outbreaks of mpox). We describe here the Testing Playbook for Biological Emergencies, a national testing playbook we developed. It includes a set of decisions and actions for US officials to take at specific times during infectious disease emergencies to implement testing rapidly and to ensure that available testing meets clinical and public health needs.

A new ground level neutron monitor for space weather assessment.

We report on a new ground-level neutron monitor design for studying cosmic rays and fluxes of solar energetic particles at the Earth's surface. The first-of-its-kind instrument, named the NM-2023 after the year it was standardised and following convention, will be installed at a United Kingdom Meteorological Office observatory (expected completion mid 2024) and will reintroduce such monitoring in the UK for the first time since ca. 1984.

Evaluating the Effects of a Medication Adherence Packaging Program on Outcomes in Older People.

To determine the impact of an adherence packaging and medication synchronization program on hospital visits for older people living independently in the community. A retrospective pre-post study that evaluated patient outcomes over a 24-month period was conducted. Patient-specific socio-demographic, medical, and hospital visit-related data were collected for 12 months before and after patient enrollment in the adherence packaging program.

Comparison of Neutron Detection Performance of Four Thin-Film Semiconductor Neutron Detectors Based on Geant4.

Third-generation semiconductor materials have a wide band gap, high thermal conductivity, high chemical stability and strong radiation resistance. These materials have broad application prospects in optoelectronics, high-temperature and high-power equipment and radiation detectors. In this work, thin-film solid state neutron detectors made of four third-generation semiconductor materials are studied.