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The exploration of ultrafast phenomena is a frontier of condensed matter research, where the interplay of theory, computation, and experiment is unveiling new opportunities for understanding and engineering quantum materials. With the advent of advanced experimental techniques and computational tools, it has become possible to probe and manipulate nonequilibrium processes at unprecedented temporal and spatial resolutions, providing insights into the dynamical behavior of matter under extreme conditions. These capabilities have the potential to revolutionize fields ranging from optoelectronics and quantum information to catalysis and energy storage. This roadmap captures the collective progress and vision of leading researchers, addressing challenges and opportunities across key areas of ultrafast science and condensed matter. Contributions in this roadmap span the development of ab initio methods for time-resolved spectroscopy, the dynamics of driven correlated systems, the engineering of materials in optical cavities, and the adoption of FAIR principles for data sharing and analysis. Together, these efforts highlight the interdisciplinary nature of ultrafast research and its reliance on cutting-edge methodologies, including quantum electrodynamical density-functional theory, correlated electronic structure methods, nonequilibrium Green’s function approaches, quantum and ab initio simulations.

We predict ultrafast switching in a chiral anti-ferromagnet that occurs at femtosecond times, nearly 5 orders of magnitude faster than the torque induced nanosecond switching previously observed. The physical mechanism, quite different from that which drives slow switching, involves the creation of massive effective magnetic fields by ultrafast spin current injection. Identifying these fields as key to femtosecond rotation, we establish simple practical rules for their maximisation with wide applicability to all magnetised materials. Employing state-of-the-art time-dependent density-functional theory and using the example of chiral magnet, Mn\\(_3\\)Sn, we induce ultrafast rotation enough to drive the switching of magnetic order between the six possible non-collinear ground states. We further demonstrate the possibility of undoing this switching by subsequent injection of oppositely polarized spin current. Our findings place chiral anti-ferromagnets as a materials platform for femtosecond Néel-vector switching, opening a route towards the manipulation of magnetic matter at ultrafast times.

The exploration of ultrafast phenomena is a frontier of condensed matter research, where the interplay of theory, computation, and experiment is unveiling new opportunities for understanding and engineering quantum materials. With the advent of advanced experimental techniques and computational tools, it has become possible to probe and manipulate nonequilibrium processes at unprecedented temporal and spatial resolutions, providing insights into the dynamical behavior of matter under extreme conditions. These capabilities have the potential to revolutionize fields ranging from optoelectronics and quantum information to catalysis and energy storage. This Roadmap captures the collective progress and vision of leading researchers, addressing challenges and opportunities across key areas of ultrafast science. Contributions in this Roadmap span the development of ab initio methods for time-resolved spectroscopy, the dynamics of driven correlated systems, the engineering of materials in optical cavities, and the adoption of FAIR principles for data sharing and analysis. Together, these efforts highlight the interdisciplinary nature of ultrafast research and its reliance on cutting-edge methodologies, including quantum electrodynamical density-functional theory, correlated electronic structure methods, nonequilibrium Green's function approaches, quantum and ab initio simulations.

SARS-CoV-2 has emerged as the 5th endemic coronavirus and immunological cross protection between coronaviruses will influence their infectivity and clinical impact. We determined adaptive immunity against the spike protein of each human coronavirus during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. A characteristic pattern of HCoV immunodominance, dominated by OC43 and 229E, was apparent prior to SARS-CoV-2 and was largely unaffected by SARS-CoV-2 infection, which itself elicited moderate antibody titre. Vaccination or hybrid immunity elicited supraphysiological levels of coronavirus-specific antibodies, only a proportion of which was cross-reactive with SARS-CoV-2 spike indicating substantial backboosting of HCoV-specific responses. SARS-CoV-2 vaccination focused antibody responses against the S1 domain of SARS-CoV-2 spike whilst T cell responses recognised peptides equivalently across S1 and S2. Coronavirus-specific T cells exhibited strong production of IFN-γ, IL-2 and CXCL8. In summary, the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into its ecological niche has impacted marginally on relative immunity against other human coronaviruses although vaccination provides a modest antibody increment which is unlikely to be maintained. Further, although SARS-CoV-2 vaccination elicits spike-specific adaptive immune responses that are focused against the S1 domain, thereby favouring neutralising antibodies, the natural history of HCoV immunity indicates that adaptive responses may transition towards S2 recognition across the life course. A prospective analysis reveals that emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has had only a marginal impact on the immune response to spike protein of other endemic human coronaviruses and predicts limited cross protection against infection.

Third-dose coronavirus disease 2019 vaccines are being deployed widely but their efficacy has not been assessed adequately in vulnerable older people who exhibit suboptimal responses after primary vaccination series. This observational study, which was carried out by the VIVALDI study based in England, looked at spike-specific immune responses in 341 staff and residents in long-term care facilities who received an mRNA vaccine following dual primary series vaccination with BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1. Third-dose vaccination strongly increased antibody responses with preferential relative enhancement in older people and was required to elicit neutralization of Omicron. Cellular immune responses were also enhanced with strong cross-reactive recognition of Omicron. However, antibody titers fell 21–78% within 100 d after vaccine and 27% of participants developed a breakthrough Omicron infection. These findings reveal strong immunogenicity of a third vaccine in one of the most vulnerable population groups and endorse an approach for widespread delivery across this population. Ongoing assessment will be required to determine the stability of immune protection.

We studied humoral and cellular immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in 152 long-term care facility staff and 124 residents over a prospective 4-month period shortly after the first wave of infection in England. We show that residents of long-term care facilities developed high and stable levels of antibodies against spike protein and receptor-binding domain. Nucleocapsid-specific responses were also elevated but waned over time. Antibodies showed stable and equivalent levels of functional inhibition against spike-angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 binding in all age groups with comparable activity against viral variants of concern. SARS-CoV-2 seropositive donors showed high levels of antibodies to other beta-coronaviruses but serostatus did not impact humoral immunity to influenza or other respiratory syncytial viruses. SARS-CoV-2-specific cellular responses were similar across all ages but virus-specific populations showed elevated levels of activation in older donors. Thus, survivors of SARS-CoV-2 infection show a robust and stable immunity against the virus that does not negatively impact responses to other seasonal viruses.

Today's hospital quality teams face numerous challenges that continue to evolve because of various payer and regulatory requirements. Quality teams focus on patient safety, readmissions and increasing cost-effectiveness, metrics that are now directly tied to revenue. Performance of key support teams, such as quality teams, and their ability to meet quality measures, can now impact a hospital's financial solvency due to recent Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services incentives and penalties contained in value-based purchasing. For quality care delivery and patient safety, the authors focused on process effectiveness, ensuring care tasks were delivered properly. First, MAM identified \"tasks at risk\" of failure, finding where proven tasks that help the patient failed. This involved process modeling using an intervention lead-time analysis. After implementing MAM, team performance improved across several core measures, including the VTE Discharge Instructions Task At Risk. In addition to effectiveness, efficiency also improved, with care requiring fewer personnel to accomplish the same amount, or even more, task execution.