The complexities of aeronautical transfer of acutely unwell neurosurgical patients.

Objective: Neurosurgical care is difficult to access in many scenarios. Aeromedical evacuation of acutely unwell neurosurgical patients from remote, isolated or poorly equipped locations can be considered. This article aims to provide a framework of logistical factors which deserve special consideration in the preparation of these patients for transfer.

Extracting organs of interest from medical images based on convolutional neural network with auxiliary and refined constraints.

Accurately extracting organs from medical images provides radiologist with more comprehensive evidences to clinical diagnose, which offers up a higher accuracy and efficiency. However, the key to achieving accurate segmentation lies in abundant clues for contour distinction, which has a high demand for the network architecture design and its practical training status. To this end, we design auxiliary and refined constraints to optimize the energy function by supplying additional guidance in training procedure, thus promoting model's ability to capture information.

Optimisation of railway tamping scheduling.

This research was devoted to optimising opportunistic tamping scheduling to present a cost-effective approach that considers both preventive and corrective tamping activities. To achieve this, we formulated the track geometry tamping scheduling problem as a mixed integer linear programming model and employed a genetic algorithm for its resolution. Key track quality indicators, including the standard deviation of the longitudinal level and single defects, were considered.

Analysis of Helicopter Air Ambulance Accidents in the United States From 2010 to 2021.

Objective: Helicopter air ambulance (HAA) services are essential to air medical transport in the United States. However, HAA accidents, incidents, and fatalities have been a reason for concern for HAA operations. This article analyzes the numbers, proportions, contributing or causal factors, and defining events of HAA accidents in the United States from 2010 to 2021.

Dynamic Behavior and Energy Absorption of Typical Porous Materials under Impacts.

Porous materials are known for their excellent energy absorption capability and, thus, are widely used in anti-impact applications. However, how the pore shape and size impact the failure mechanism and overall behavior of the porous materials under impact loading is still unclear or limitedly touched. Instead of using homogeneous solids for the porous material model, pores with various shapes and sizes were implanted in a solid to establish the porous materials that have true porous structures, which permits exploration of the local failure mechanism.

The effect of Silver addition and deformation parameters on mechanostructure, biodegradation, antimicrobial and mechanical properties of Zn-based biodegradable alloys.

Although low mechanical properties, Zinc (Zn) alloy systems with Copper (Cu) and Silver (Ag) as alloying elements have strong biocompatibility and biodegradability characteristics. This study examined the effects of rolling parameters and Ag alloying on the mechanical, biodegradable, and final structure of an alloy based on Zn. Comparing treated and untreated specimens, the addition of Ag led to a considerable improvement in both hardness and compressive strength.

Road defect detection based on improved YOLOv8s model.

Road defect detection is critical step for road maintenance periodic inspection. Current methodologies exhibit drawbacks such as low detection accuracy, slow detection speed, and the inability to support edge deployment and real-time detection. To solve this issue, we introduce an improved YOLOv8 road defect detection model.

Raman Spectroscopy of Blood Serum for Essential Thrombocythemia Diagnosis: Correlation with Genetic Mutations and Optimization of Laser Wavelengths.

Essential thrombocythemia (ET) is a type of myeloproliferative neoplasm that increases the risk of thrombosis. To diagnose this disease, the analysis of mutations in the Janus Kinase 2 (JAK2), thrombopoietin receptor (MPL), or calreticulin (CALR) gene is recommended. Disease poses diagnostic challenges due to overlapping mutations with other neoplasms and the presence of triple-negative cases.

Underestimation of Thermogenic Methane Emissions in New York City.

Recent studies have shown that methane emissions are underestimated by inventories in many US urban areas. This has important implications for climate change mitigation policy at the city, state, and national levels. Uncertainty in both the spatial distribution and sectoral allocation of urban emissions can limit the ability of policy makers to develop appropriately focused emission reduction strategies.

The Study on Single-Event Effects and Hardening Analysis of Frequency Divider Circuits Based on InP HBT Process.

The single-event effects (SEEs) of frequency divider circuits and the radiation tolerance of the hardened circuit are studied in this paper. Based on the experimental results of SEEs in InP HBTs, a transient current model for sensitive transistors is established, taking into account the influence of factors such as laser energy, base-collector junction voltage, and radiation position. Moreover, the SEEs of the (2:1) static frequency divider circuit with the InP DHBT process are simulated under different laser energies by adding the transient current model at sensitive nodes.

Experimental Investigation of Current Intensity and Feed Speed in Electrically Assisted Necking and Thickening of 5A02 Aluminum Alloy Tubes.

In order to further explore the forming limits of thin-wall tube necking and thickening, and obtain sufficient thickness of the tube in the thickening area, local electric pulse-assisted forming experiments were carried out to study the effects of current intensity and feed speed on the necking and thickening forming of thin-wall tube. The experimental results show that with the increase in current intensity, the temperature in the forming area of the tube increases, and the forming load for necking and thickening decreases. However, with the increase in feed speed, the overall forming load for necking and thickening increases in general, and the smaller feed speed is more conducive to forming.

Age, crash type and the changing patterns of cycling fatalities in Australia between 1991 and 2022.

Background: Australia has made significant efforts in recent years to promote cycling.

Methods: Trends in cyclist fatalities in Australia between 1991 and 2022, particularly in those aged 60 years and over, were examined using Poisson regression modelling.

Results: Overall, cyclist fatalities decreased by 1.

The effect of punishment and feedback on correcting erroneous behavior.

Introduction: Understanding the consequences of non-punitive sanctions and feedback for nonintentional deviations (i.e., errors) is important to effective safety policy.

Healthcare costs following falls and cataract surgery in older adults using Australian linked health data from 2012-2019.

Objectives: To investigate publicly funded healthcare costs according to faller status and the periods pre- and post-cataract surgeries, and identify factors associated with higher monthly costs in older people with bilateral cataract.

Methods: This prospective cohort study included community-dwelling older people aged 65 and over (between 2012 and 2019); at baseline participants had bilateral cataract and were waiting for cataract surgery in New South Wales (NSW) public hospitals. Participants were followed for 24 months.

An adaptive control framework based multi-modal information-driven dance composition model for musical robots.

Currently, most robot dances are pre-compiled, the requirement of manual adjustment of relevant parameters and meta-action to change the dancing to another type of music would greatly reduce its function. To overcome the gap, this study proposed a dance composition model for mobile robots based on multimodal information. The model consists of three parts.

Reconfigurable absorptive and polarization conversion metasurface consistent for wide angles of incidence.

In this paper, a single-layer reconfigurable reflective metasurface is presented. The proposed metasurface operates at 5.4 GHz and can achieve either absorption or cross-polarization conversion corresponding at two different diode biasing states.

Preparation of CuO@humic acid@carbon nanotube composite material using humic acid as a coupling agent and its lithium-ion storage performance.

The conventional Li-ion battery composite electrode material composed of CuO and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) suffer from poor contact between CuO and CNTs. This results in high electrode resistance and poor electrochemical performance. To solve this problem, CuO@humic acid (HA) @CNT anode material with cross-linked network structure was generated by linking CuO and CNT with HA as a coupling agent.

Sleep quality and stress: An investigation of collegiate aviation pilots.

To investigate collegiate aviation pilots' quality of sleep and psychological distress levels. Collegiate aviation pilots from a Code of Federal Regulations Part 141 four-year degree-awarding university in central Florida ( = 192). The Pittsburgh Sleepiness Quality Index and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale were utilized to assess the participants' subjective quality sleep and psychological distress levels, respectively.

Public opinion on COVID-19 vaccine prioritization in Bangladesh: Who gets the vaccine and whom do you leave out?

One of the most challenging aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic is the inability to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines to fight the pandemic. Many governments around the globe had to prioritize and perform a triage in distributing the vaccines due to the limited supply as well as a lack of financial strength to acquire a sufficient number of vaccines in time. The present study assessed the public opinion in Bangladesh regarding vaccination prioritization strategy and its associated aspects.

A novel integrated optimization model for carbon emission prediction: A case study on the group of 20.

Carbon emission is a central factor in the study of the greenhouse effect and a crucial consideration in environmental policy making. Therefore, it is essential to establish carbon emission prediction models to provide scientific guidance for leaders in implementing effective carbon reduction policies. However, existing research lacks comprehensive roadmaps that integrate both time series prediction and analysis of influencing factors.

Reduced Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex During Fast Head Rotation in Complete Darkness.

The human vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) leads to maintenance of the acuity of an image on the retina and contributes to the perception of orientation during high acceleration head movements. Our objective was to determine whether vision affects the horizontal VOR by assessing and comparing the performance at the boundaries of contribution of: (a) unrestricted visual information and (b) no visual information. Understanding how the VOR performs under both lighted and unlighted conditions is of paramount importance to avoiding falls, perhaps particularly among the elderly.

Optimizing aged care environments to promote resident functional mobility and reduce staff injury risk.

This study aimed to evaluate the suitability and usability of the Pro-Mobility patient/person handling assessment tool (ProMob) within residential aged care. Physiological changes associated with ageing influence an older person's ability to perform functional mobility tasks such as transferring from furniture and walking. Strategies that improve capability and/or reduce the physical demands of the task have the potential to promote an older person's mobility, independence and wellbeing.