Hosting an Educational Careers Day Within the Virtual Paradigm: The Neurology and Neurosurgery Interest Group Experience.

INTRODUCTION:  To explore our experience of hosting the 10th Annual Neurology and Neurosurgery Interest Group-Society of British Neurological Surgeons (NANSIG-SBNS) Neurosurgery Careers Day, held virtually for the first time. METHODS:  Reflective feedback and review of an international, virtual neurosurgery careers day. The authors reflect on the logistics of organizing the event, and the pre- and post-event feedback provided by delegates. Recommendations have been made on how to successfully host a virtual event. The key themes that permeated the event have been outlined and discussed in the context of the feedback received. RESULTS:  The event was attended by 231 delegates from 20 countries worldwide. Knowledge of neurosurgery as a career and the application process increased after attending the careers day (4.27/5 to 4.51/5, p=0.003 and 3.12/5 to 4.31/5, p<0.001 respectively). The key themes identified from the event include attendance, networking, and education. Qualitative feedback was positive and indicated a positive perception of the careers day. CONCLUSIONS:  The future of educational events is unclear, and a hybrid approach is recommended to retain the benefits of the online space when in-person events eventually return

Hosting an Educational Careers Day Within the Virtual Paradigm: The Neurology and Neurosurgery Interest Group Experience.

INTRODUCTION:  To explore our experience of hosting the 10th Annual Neurology and Neurosurgery Interest Group-Society of British Neurological Surgeons (NANSIG-SBNS) Neurosurgery Careers Day, held virtually for the first time. METHODS:  Reflective feedback and review of an international, virtual neurosurgery careers day. The authors reflect on the logistics of organizing the event, and the pre- and post-event feedback provided by delegates. Recommendations have been made on how to successfully host a virtual event. The key themes that permeated the event have been outlined and discussed in the context of the feedback received. RESULTS:  The event was attended by 231 delegates from 20 countries worldwide. Knowledge of neurosurgery as a career and the application process increased after attending the careers day (4.27/5 to 4.51/5, p=0.003 and 3.12/5 to 4.31/5, p<0.001 respectively). The key themes identified from the event include attendance, networking, and education. Qualitative feedback was positive and indicated a positive perception of the careers day. CONCLUSIONS:  The future of educational events is unclear, and a hybrid approach is recommended to retain the benefits of the online space when in-person events eventually return

Sensing non-ideal microheterogeneity in binary mixtures of dimethyl sulfoxide and water

Abstract We present a microscopic study of water–dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) binary mixtures using optical tweezers and thermal lens techniques. Binary mixtures of DMSO with water show anomalous behavior due to the specific hydrogen bonding ability of DMSO. We use a tightly focused femtosecond laser at a low average power to optically trap microspheres with diameters of 1 micron for use as probes. The binary mixture exhibits various viscosities, depending on its composition ratio, and hence different trapped particle characteristic frequencies (corner frequencies) due to Brownian motion. The power spectrum density method is used to obtain the corner frequency from forward-scattered data. Thus, using low-power optical tweezer experiments, we find that the maximum viscosity occurs at a DMSO mole fraction of 0.276. At higher powers, the propensity for trapping is highly diminished. It may be surprising to note that these viscosity values obtained from the corner frequencies do not exactly match those published in the literature. However, this deviation can be attributed to the thermal behavior of the binary mixture, which affects the Brownian motion and hence the obtained viscosity values. Studies at the microscopic level can thus provide a newer perspective on these already important binary mixtures. Intensity-dependent measurements further confirm the contribution of thermal effects in this study.</jats:p