A report from the Irish women in cardiology survey, exploring Europe's largest gender gap in cardiology.

Aims: In Ireland, 8% of public cardiology consultants are female; this is the lowest proportion in Europe. We sought to understand perceptions amongst Irish trainees and consultants regarding aspects of working in cardiology in order to identify areas that can be targeted to improve gender equality. Methods and Results: In September 2021, the Irish Cardiac Society distributed a questionnaire to trainees and consultants in the Republic and Northern Ireland. Ethical approval was obtained from the University College Dublin, Ireland. There were 94 respondents (50% male, 50% consultants) which equates to ∼30% of all trainees and consultants in all Ireland. Although females were more likely to be single, overall, they had additional child-care responsibilities compared with male counterparts. Despite 53% of the respondents preferring to work less than full time, 64% reported a perceived lack of support from their departments. Males were significantly more likely to go into procedural/high radiation sub-specialities. Bullying was reported by 53% of females. Almost 80% of females experienced sexism and 30% reported being overlooked for professional advancement based on their sex. Females also rated their career prospects lower than males. Key challenges for women were: sexism, maternity leave/child-care responsibilities, cardiology as a 'boys club' and lack of flexible training. There was interest from both males and females in a mentorship programme and support for women in leadership positions. Conclusion: Discrimination including sexism, bullying, and equal opportunity for professional advancement are key aspects that need to be addressed to improve gender balance in cardiology within Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Modifying and validating the social responsiveness scale edition 2 for use with deaf children and young people.

A Delphi consensus methodology was used to adapt a screening tool, the Social Responsiveness Scale- 2 (SRS-2), for use with deaf children including those whose preferred communication method is sign language. Using this approach; 27 international experts (The Delphi International Expert Panel), on the topic of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in deaf people, contributed to the review of item content. A criterion for agreement was set at 80% of experts on each item (with 75% acceptable in the final fourth round). The agreed modifications are discussed. The modified SRS-2 research adaptation for deaf people (referred to here as the "SRS-2 Deaf adaptation") was then translated into British Sign Language using a robust translation methodology and validated in England in a sample of 198 deaf children, 76 with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and 122 without ASD. The SRS-2 Deaf adaptation was compared blind to a NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) guideline standard clinical assessment. The area under the Receiver Operating (ROC) curve was 0.811 (95% CI: 0.753, 0.869), with an optimal cut-off value of 73, which gave a sensitivity of 82% and a specificity of 67%. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient was 0.968 suggesting high internal consistency. The Intraclass Correlation Coefficient was 0.897, supporting test-retest reliability. This performance is equivalent to similar instruments used for screening ASD in the hearing population.

Anchor-balloon technique to facilitate stent delivery via the GuideLiner catheter in percutaneous coronary intervention.

AIM: The GuideLiner (GL) is a widely used catheter primarily in complex percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Deep seating of the GL and distal stent placement may be facilitated by the anchor-balloon technique (ABT). METHODS: We aimed to prospectively analyze procedural details, technical success, complications and in-hospital outcome in patients who underwent PCI using the GL catheter and the ABT. RESULTS: A total of 118 patients underwent PCI with the aid of the GL and ABT. Procedure success rate was 95% (112/118) and only seven patients (5.9%) encountered complications. ABT was indicated and successfully used in 29 patients (25%). CONCLUSION: GL and ABT successfully aided stent delivery in unfavorable and heavily calcified lesions which otherwise may have been considered unsuitable for PCI.

Reactive Precipitation of Anhydrous Alkali Sulfide Nanocrystals with Concomitant Abatement of Hydrogen Sulfide and Cogeneration of Hydrogen.

Anhydrous alkali sulfide (M2 S, M=Li or Na) nanocrystals (NCs) are important materials central to the development of next generation cathodes and solid-state electrolytes for advanced batteries, but not commercially available at present. This work reports an innovative method to directly synthesize M2 S NCs through alcohol-mediated reactions between alkali metals and hydrogen sulfide (H2 S). In the first step, the alkali metal is complexed with alcohol in solution, forming metal alkoxide (ROM) and releasing hydrogen (H2 ). Next, H2 S is bubbled through the ROM solution, where both chemicals are completely consumed to produce phase-pure M2 S NC precipitates and regenerate alcohol that can be recycled. The M2 S NCs morphology may be tuned through the choice of the alcohol and solvent. Both synthetic steps are thermodynamically favorable (ΔGmo <-100 kJ mol-1 ), proceeding rapidly to completion at ambient temperature with almost 100 % atom efficiency. The net result, H2 S+2 m→M2 S+H2 , makes good use of a hazardous chemical (H2 S) and delivers two value-added products that naturally phase separate for easy recovery. This scalable approach provides an energy-efficient and environmentally benign solution to the production of nanostructured materials required in emerging battery technologies.

Collaboration in crisis: Carer perspectives on police and mental health professional's responses to mental health crises.

For many situations involving a mental health crisis, carers (e.g. family or friends) are present and either attempt to help the person overcome the crisis or request assistance from professional services (e.g. mental health or police). Comparatively, little research has explored how carers experience the crisis, the professional response and how the nature of the response, in turn, impacts carers. The current study was conducted to explore these issues during individual interviews with nine carers who had previous contact with police and mental health services during a crisis response. Collected data described the definition and perceived impact of a mental health crisis for carers, how carers had experienced a crisis response from police and mental health services, and how the professional response had impacted on carers. Of importance was the finding that carers were often themselves traumatized by witnessing or being involved in the crisis, however, were rarely offered direct education or support to help them cope or prevent future crises. A number of carers described a reluctance to request assistance from professional services due to previous poor experiences. This highlighted the importance of implementing strategies to deliver more timely, respectful, specialist and collaborative crisis responses to improve carer and consumer outcomes.

Consumer experience of formal crisis-response services and preferred methods of crisis intervention.

The manner in which people with mental illness are supported in a crisis is crucial to their recovery. The current study explored mental health consumers' experiences with formal crisis services (i.e. police and crisis assessment and treatment (CAT) teams), preferred crisis supports, and opinions of four collaborative interagency response models. Eleven consumers completed one-on-one, semistructured interviews. The results revealed that the perceived quality of previous formal crisis interventions varied greatly. Most participants preferred family members or friends to intervene. However, where a formal response was required, general practitioners and mental health case managers were preferred; no participant wanted a police response, and only one indicated a preference for CAT team assistance. Most participants welcomed collaborative crisis interventions. Of four collaborative interagency response models currently being trialled internationally, participants most strongly supported the Ride-Along Model, which enables a police officer and a mental health clinician to jointly respond to distressed consumers in the community. The findings highlight the potential for an interagency response model to deliver a crisis response aligned with consumers' preferences.

A Comparison of Traditional and Novel Definitions (RIFLE, AKIN, and KDIGO) of Acute Kidney Injury for the Prediction of Outcomes in Acute Decompensated Heart Failure.

AIMS: To determine if newer criteria for diagnosing and staging acute kidney injury (AKI) during heart failure (HF) admission are more predictive of clinical outcomes at 30 days and 1 year than the traditional worsening renal function (WRF) definition. METHODS: We analyzed prospectively collected clinical data on 637 HF admissions with 30-day and 1-year follow-up. The incidence, stages, and outcomes of AKI were determined using the following four definitions: KDIGO, RIFLE, AKIN, and WRF (serum creatinine rise ≥0.3 mg/dl). Receiver operating curves were used to compare the predictive ability of each AKI definition for the occurrence of adverse outcomes (death, rehospitalization, dialysis). RESULTS: AKI by any definition occurred in 38.3% (244/637) of cases and was associated with an increased incidence of 30-day (32.3 vs. 6.9%, χ(2) = 70.1; p < 0.001) and 1-year adverse outcomes (67.5 vs. 31.0%, χ(2) = 81.4; p < 0.001). Most importantly, there was a stepwise increase in primary outcome with increasing stages of AKI severity using RIFLE, KDIGO, or AKIN (p < 0.001). In direct comparison, there were only small differences in predictive abilities between RIFLE and KDIGO and WRF concerning clinical outcomes at 30 days (AUC 0.76 and 0.74 vs. 0.72, χ(2) = 5.6; p = 0.02) as well as for KDIGO and WRF at 1 year (AUC 0.67 vs. 0.65, χ(2) = 4.8; p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: During admission for HF, the benefits of using newer AKI classification systems (RIFLE, AKIN, KDIGO) lie with the ability to identify those patients with more severe degrees of AKI who will go on to experience adverse events at 30 days and 1 year. The differences in terms of predictive abilities were only marginal.