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We describe COVID-19 cases among nonphysician healthcare personnel (HCP) by work location. The proportion of HCP with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was highest in the emergency department and lowest among those working remotely. COVID-19 and non–COVID-19 units had similar proportions of HCP with COVID-19 (13%). Cases decreased across all work locations following COVID-19 vaccination.
Background: Whether working on COVID-19 designated units put healthcare workers (HCWs) at higher risk of acquiring COVID-19 is not fully understood. We report trends of COVID-19 incidence among nonphysician HCWs and the association between the risk of acquiring COVID-19 and work location in the hospital. Methods: The University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics (UIHC) is an 811-bed, academic medical center serving as a referral center for Iowa. We retrospectively collected COVID-19–associated data for nonphysician HCWs from Employee Health Clinic between June 1st 2020 and July 31th 2021. The data we abstracted included age, sex, job title, working location, history of COVID-19, and date of positive COVID-19 test if they had a history of COVID-19. We excluded HCWs who did not have a designated working location and those who worked on multiple units during the same shift (eg, medicine resident, hospitalist, etc) to assess the association between COVID-19 infections and working location. Job titles were divided into the following 5 categories: (1) nurse, (2) medical assistant (MA), (3) technician, (4) clerk, and (5) others (eg patient access, billing office, etc). Working locations were divided into the following 6 categories: (1) emergency department (ED), (2) COVID-19 unit, (3) non–COVID-19 unit, (4) Clinic, (5) perioperative units, and (6) remote work. Results: We identified 6,971 HCWs with work locations recorded. During the study period, 758 HCWs (10.8%) reported being diagnosed with COVID-19. Of these 758 COVID-19 cases, 658 (86.8%) were diagnosed before vaccines became available. The location with the highest COVID-19 incidence was the ED (17%), followed by both COVID-19 and non–COVID-19 units (12.7%), clinics (11.0%), perioperative units (9.4%) and remote work stations (6.6%, p Conclusions: Strict and special infection control strategies may be needed for HCWs in the ED, especially where vaccine uptake is low. The administrative control of HCWs working remotely may be associated with a lower incidence of COVID-19. Given that the difference in COVID-19 incidence among HCWs by location was lower and comparable after the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, facilities should make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory as a condition of employment for all HCWs, especially in areas where the COVID-19 incidence is high.
OBJECTIVES/GOALS: We aimed to determine if GLP-1 receptor agonists exert beneficial effects on surrogate measures of cardiovascular function independently of weight loss. Our objective was to compare the outcomes between GLP-1 receptor agonist treatment versus a similar drug without cardiovascular benefit versus weight loss through diet alone. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We enrolled 88 individuals with obesity (BMI ≥ 30kg/m2) and pre-diabetes and randomized them in a 2:1:1 ratio to 14 weeks of the GLP-1 receptor agonist liraglutide, the dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor sitagliptin, or hypocaloric diet. Sitagliptin blocks degradation of endogenous GLP-1 but does not cause weight loss or lower adverse cardiovascular outcomes. Treatment was double-blinded and placebo-controlled for drug, and unblinded for diet. Primary endpoints were flow-mediated dilation (FMD) to assess endothelial vasodilatory function, and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) to assess endothelial fibrinolytic function. We used a general linear model for each outcome and included gender as a covariate for FMD. Baseline characteristics were similar. Mean age was 50, with 32% men and 13% black. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: At 14 weeks, diet and liraglutide caused weight loss (diet -4.3 ± 3.2 kg, P<0.01; liraglutide -2.7 ± 3.2, P<0.01), while sitagliptin did not (-0.7 ± 2.0, P=0.17). Diet did not improve FMD at 14 weeks compared to baseline (+0.9%, 95% CI [-1.5, 3.3], P=0.46). FMD tended to increase after liraglutide and sitagliptin but was not significant (liraglutide +1.2 [-0.3, 2.8], P=0.12; sitagliptin +1.6 [-0.6, 3.8], P=0.15). Given that liraglutide and sitagliptin work through the same GLP-1 pathway, we combined the liraglutide and sitagliptin groups for overall effect on FMD, which was significantly improved from baseline (+1.4 [0.1, 2.8], P=0.04). Diet and liraglutide improved PAI-1 at 14 weeks (diet -4.4U/mL, [-8.5, -0.2], P=0.04; liraglutide -3.4 [-6.0, -0.7], P=0.01), while sitagliptin did not (-1.4 [-5.1, 2.3], P=0.46). DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Activation of the GLP-1 pathway by liraglutide or sitagliptin improves FMD independent of weight loss, while PAI-1 improvement is weight-loss dependent and is only seen after liraglutide or diet. Our study suggests the cardiovascular benefit of liraglutide may be due to combined improvements in endothelial vasodilatory and fibrinolytic function.
Studies of introduced subject matter in rock-art assemblages typically focus on themes of cross-cultural interaction, change and continuity, power and resistance. However, the economic frameworks guiding or shaping the production of an assemblage have often been overlooked. In this paper we use a case study involving a recently recorded assemblage of introduced subject matter from Marra Country in northern Australia's southwest Gulf of Carpentaria region to explore their production using a hybrid economy framework. This framework attempts to understand the nature of the forces that shape people's engagement with country and subsequently how it is being symbolically marked as adjustments to country occur through colonization. We argue that embedding these motifs into a hybrid economy context anchored in the pastoral industry allows for a more nuanced approach to cross-cultural interaction studies and adds another layer to the story of Aboriginal place-marking in colonial contexts. This paper aims to go beyond simply identifying motifs thought to represent introduced subject matter, and the cross-cultural framework(s) guiding their interpretation, and instead to direct attention to the complex network of relations that potentially underpin the production of such motifs.
To assess the training and the future workforce needs of paediatric cardiac critical care faculty.
Design:
REDCap surveys were sent May−August 2019 to medical directors and faculty at the 120 US centres participating in the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database. Faculty and directors were asked about personal training pathway and planned employment changes. Directors were additionally asked for current faculty numbers, expected job openings, presence of training programmes, and numbers of trainees. Predictive modelling of the workforce was performed using respondents’ data. Patient volume was projected from US Census data and compared to projected provider availability.
Measurements and main results:
Sixty-six per cent (79/120) of directors and 62% (294/477) of contacted faculty responded. Most respondents had training that incorporated critical care medicine with the majority completing training beyond categorical fellowship. Younger respondents and those in dedicated cardiac ICUs were more significantly likely to have advanced training or dual fellowships in cardiology and critical care medicine. An estimated 49–63 faculty enter the workforce annually from various training pathways. Based on modelling, these faculty will likely fill current and projected open positions over the next 5 years.
Conclusions:
Paediatric cardiac critical care training has evolved, such that the majority of faculty now have dual fellowship or advanced training. The projected number of incoming faculty will likely fill open positions within the next 5 years. Institutions with existing or anticipated training programmes should be cognisant of these data and prepare graduates for an increasingly competitive market.
To assess current demographics and duties of physicians as well as the structure of paediatric cardiac critical care in the United States.
Design:
REDCap surveys were sent by email from May till August 2019 to medical directors (“directors”) of critical care units at the 120 United States centres submitting data to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database and to associated faculty from centres that provided email lists. Faculty and directors were asked about personal attributes and clinical duties. Directors were additionally asked about unit structure.
Measurements and main results:
Responses were received from 66% (79/120) of directors and 62% (294/477) of contacted faculty. Seventy-six percent of directors and 54% of faculty were male, however, faculty <40 years old were predominantly women. The majority of both groups were white. Median bed count (n = 20) was similar in ICUs and multi-disciplinary paediatric ICUs. The median service expectation for one clinical full-time equivalent was 14 weeks of clinical service (interquartile range 12, 16), with the majority of programmes (86%) providing in-house attending night coverage. Work hours were high during service and non-service weeks with both directors (37%) and faculty (45%).
Conclusions:
Racial and ethnic diversity is markedly deficient in the paediatric cardiac critical care workforce. Although the majority of faculty are male, females make up the majority of the workforce younger than 40 years old. Work hours across all age groups and unit types are high both on- and off-service, with most units providing attending in-house night coverage.
Seed retention, and ultimately seed shatter, are extremely important for the efficacy of harvest weed seed control (HWSC) and are likely influenced by various agroecological and environmental factors. Field studies investigated seed-shattering phenology of 22 weed species across three soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]-producing regions in the United States. We further evaluated the potential drivers of seed shatter in terms of weather conditions, growing degree days, and plant biomass. Based on the results, weather conditions had no consistent impact on weed seed shatter. However, there was a positive correlation between individual weed plant biomass and delayed weed seed–shattering rates during harvest. This work demonstrates that HWSC can potentially reduce weed seedbank inputs of plants that have escaped early-season management practices and retained seed through harvest. However, smaller individuals of plants within the same population that shatter seed before harvest pose a risk of escaping early-season management and HWSC.
Background: Vancomycin is the treatment of choice for invasive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. Previous guidelines issued by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) recommended targeting vancomycin serum trough concentrations of 15–20 mg/L; however, troughs <15 mg/L are also associated with increased odds of renal toxicity. To minimize toxicity, recently updated ASHP/IDSA/PIDS vancomycin dosing guidelines recommend the use of an area under the vancomycin concentration-time curve divided by the minimum inhibitory concentration (AUC/MIC) pharmacodynamic index to measure vancomycin exposure, with an AUC/MIC ratio >400 correlating with clinical efficacy. However, data on vancomycin therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) in children are limited. Our institutional practice since January 2009 has been to use AUC/MIC, rather than serum trough concentrations, to guide vancomycin dosing. In this study, we describe clinical outcomes in vancomycin-treated children with invasive MRSA infections using this dosing method. Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of children hospitalized with invasive MRSA infections between 2006 and 2019 at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, California. Clinical, microbiologic, and pharmacologic data including the site of MRSA infection, clinical failure or cure, occurrence of acute kidney injury (AKI), vancomycin MIC, vancomycin AUC, and serum trough concentrations were collected. Results: In total, 61 invasive MRSA cases were reviewed: 20 were admitted January 2016 through December 2008, and 41 were admitted January 2009 through June 2019 (Figure 1). Most patients did not have medical comorbidities. The most common types of infections were primary bacteremia (34%) and osteomyelitis (32%). Of 61 children, 50 (82%) had positive clinical outcomes regardless of vancomycin dosing method. Of 20 patients, 8 (40%) admitted prior to January 2009 developed AKI, compared with 5 (12%) of 41 patients admitted after January 2009. Conclusions: In our retrospective review, most patients had clinically successful outcomes regardless of which dosing strategy was used. We found higher rates of renal toxicity in patients who were admitted prior to 2009, with TDM based on measuring peak and trough concentrations, compared with those using AUC/MIC for TDM. Our findings suggest that AUC/MIC TDM for invasive MRSA infections may be associated with lower rates of renal toxicity.
Digital inclusion is becoming more important as many consumer products and engineered systems adopt increasingly digital interfaces. The designers of such services often assume that users have a certain level of digital interface competence, but this is not the case for many users. In this paper, we present a set of personas that could help designers to better understand and consider the range of digital expertise across the population. The personas are based on survey data from 338 people across England and Wales in 2019. The survey examined various factors that affect ability to use digital interfaces, including technology experience, attitudes towards technology and competence with basic interface operations. Twelve clusters were identified using K-means cluster analysis, and twelve personas were developed based on these. The personas help to bring to life the range of digital expertise and highlight people at risk of digital exclusion. In addition, the cluster sizes indicate the proportion of the population represented by each persona and thus the scale of potential digital exclusion.
The Neurodevelopmental and Psychological Outcomes Working Group of the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcome Collaborative was formed in 2018 through support from an R13 grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute with the goals of identifying knowledge gaps regarding the neurodevelopmental and psychological outcomes of individuals with CHD and investigations needed to advance science, policy, clinical care, and patient/family outcomes. Accurate characterisation of neurodevelopmental and psychological outcomes in children with CHD will drive improvements in patient and family outcomes through targeted intervention. Decades of research have produced a generalised perspective about neurodevelopmental and psychological outcomes in this heterogeneous population. Future investigations need to shift towards improving methods, measurement, and analyses of outcomes to better inform early identification, prevention, and intervention. Improved definition of underlying developmental, neuropsychological, and social-emotional constructs is needed, with an emphasis on symptom networks and dimensions. Identification of clinically meaningful outcomes that are most important to key stakeholders, including patients, families, schools and providers, is essential, specifically how and which neurodevelopmental differences across the developmental trajectory impact stakeholders. A better understanding of the discontinuity and patterns of neurodevelopment across the lifespan is critical as well, with some areas being more impactful at some ages than others. Finally, the field needs to account for the impact of race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, cultural and linguistic diversity on our measurement, interpretation of data, and approach to intervention and how to improve generalisability to the larger worldwide population of patients and families living with CHD.
Catheter ablation is a safe and effective therapy for the treatment of supraventricular tachycardia in children. Current improvements in technology have allowed progressive reduction in radiation exposure associated with the procedure. To assess the impact of three-dimensional mapping, we compared acute procedural results collected from the Catheter Ablation with Reduction or Elimination of Fluoroscopy registry to published results from the Prospective Assessment after Pediatric Cardiac Ablation study.
Methods:
Inclusion and exclusion criteria from the Prospective Assessment after Pediatric Cardiac Ablation study were used as guidelines to select patient data from the Catheter Ablation with Reduction or Elimination of Fluoroscopy registry to compare acute procedural outcomes between cohorts. Outcomes assessed include procedural and fluoroscopy exposure times, success rates of procedure, and complications.
Results:
In 786 ablation procedures, targeting 498 accessory pathways and 288 atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia substrates, average procedural time (156.5 versus 206.7 minutes, p < 0.01), and fluoroscopy time (1.2 versus 38.3 minutes, p < 0.01) were significantly shorter in the study group. Success rates for the various substrates were similar except for manifest accessory pathways which had a significantly higher success rate in the study group (96.4% versus 93.0%, p < 0.01). Major complication rates were significantly lower in the study group (0.3% versus 1.6%, p < 0.01).
Conclusions:
In a large, multicentre study, three-dimensional systems show favourable improvements in clinical outcomes in children undergoing catheter ablation of supraventricular tachycardia compared to the traditional fluoroscopic approach. Further improvements are anticipated as technology advances.
Potential effectiveness of harvest weed seed control (HWSC) systems depends upon seed shatter of the target weed species at crop maturity, enabling its collection and processing at crop harvest. However, seed retention likely is influenced by agroecological and environmental factors. In 2016 and 2017, we assessed seed-shatter phenology in 13 economically important broadleaf weed species in soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] from crop physiological maturity to 4 wk after physiological maturity at multiple sites spread across 14 states in the southern, northern, and mid-Atlantic United States. Greater proportions of seeds were retained by weeds in southern latitudes and shatter rate increased at northern latitudes. Amaranthus spp. seed shatter was low (0% to 2%), whereas shatter varied widely in common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.) (2% to 90%) over the weeks following soybean physiological maturity. Overall, the broadleaf species studied shattered less than 10% of their seeds by soybean harvest. Our results suggest that some of the broadleaf species with greater seed retention rates in the weeks following soybean physiological maturity may be good candidates for HWSC.
Seed shatter is an important weediness trait on which the efficacy of harvest weed seed control (HWSC) depends. The level of seed shatter in a species is likely influenced by agroecological and environmental factors. In 2016 and 2017, we assessed seed shatter of eight economically important grass weed species in soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] from crop physiological maturity to 4 wk after maturity at multiple sites spread across 11 states in the southern, northern, and mid-Atlantic United States. From soybean maturity to 4 wk after maturity, cumulative percent seed shatter was lowest in the southern U.S. regions and increased moving north through the states. At soybean maturity, the percent of seed shatter ranged from 1% to 70%. That range had shifted to 5% to 100% (mean: 42%) by 25 d after soybean maturity. There were considerable differences in seed-shatter onset and rate of progression between sites and years in some species that could impact their susceptibility to HWSC. Our results suggest that many summer annual grass species are likely not ideal candidates for HWSC, although HWSC could substantially reduce their seed output during certain years.
Background: Antibiotic “time outs” have been identified as a way to decrease inappropriate use of antibiotics in hospitals.1 The University of Vermont Medical Center created a best-practice advisory (BPA) to alert clinicians to review piperacillin-tazobactam prescriptions after 72 hours (Fig. 1). Data examining the use of a BPA as a method to prompt clinicians to perform an antibiotic “time out” are limited. Objective: The purpose of our retrospective study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the BPA on the rate of piperacillin-tazobactam prescribing as measured by defined daily dose per 1,000 patient days (DDD). Methods: The BPA was integrated into the electronic health record and designed to activate once piperacillin-tazobactam has been prescribed for ≥72 hours. Under approval of the University of Vermont’s Institutional Review Board, administered data for piperacillin-tazobactam and 3 control antibiotics (cefazolin, ceftriaxone, and meropenem) were collected for 1 year prior to and 1 year following the launch of the BPA. Administered data were converted to DDD, and an interrupted time-series analysis was performed to evaluate for changes in antibiotic use. Results: The data included 7,094 patients in the preintervention group and 6,661 patients in the postintervention group. The BPA fired 1,478 times. The prescribing rate of piperacillin-tazobactam 1 year prior to the BPA was 32.34 DDD and decreased every month both before (−1.22 DDD) and after (−0.27 DDD) the BPA initiation, with no significant difference in prescribing trends (P = .10). Meropenem prescribing in the BPA era increased each month compared to the pre-BPA period (1.16 DDD; P = 0.02), whereas cefazolin use (P = .93) and ceftriaxone (P = .09) use did not significantly change. Conclusions: The data show that piperacillin-tazobactam utilization at our institution is decreasing. Considering that this trend started prior to the launch of the BPA and that rate of decline remained unchanged post-BPA, we conclude that the BPA did not further impact our piperacillin-tazobactam consumption. It is possible that other factors influencing prescribing account for the observed decline, including an institution-wide educational campaign regarding the appropriate use of broad-spectrum antibiotics that was initiated in the months prior to the BPA. The reason for the significant rise in meropenem post-BPA is unclear. This may be unrelated to the BPA; however, it requires further investigation.
This chapter offers a reflexive account of a co-produced, multisectoral, community-based project between Glasgow Open Museum (OM), Glasgow Association for Mental Health (GAMH) and Queen Margaret University (QMU). The project is framed around an accredited Public Sociology module, Identity Community & Society, in which participants explore sociological explanations of identity, community and society whilst engaging with and interpreting art and artefacts from the OM collections. We share our experiences of reaching over the chasms between the worlds of museums, mental health advocacy and higher education. Crucially, we hear from student participants, as co-authors, about the increased selfconfidence and reflexive knowledge resulting from participation in the project. In interpreting different art works, participants consider a range of sociological concepts, debates and theories, that frame their interpretation of art, but also facilitate the development of a critical consciousness about social issues that they have direct experience of themselves or that impact participants’ communities.
Widening participation is at the heart of this project; the adult learners, most of whom have limited recent experience of formal learning, became associate students of QMU, with full access to institutional resources whilst learning in a safe community space. In the presentation of our narrative here, we draw upon a combination of personal reflexive accounts, participant feedback and theoretical inspirations. More specifically, later in the chapter, we unpack the underpinning ethos of the project as theoretically framed by Freire's (1970) dialogical ‘pedagogy of the oppressed’, and we conceptualise the practice of our participants as Gramscian organic intellectuals (Gottlieb, 1989). We take the opportunity to weave critical reflection on the utility of Burawoy's (2005) theses for public sociology as a channel through which to interpret and problematise ‘for whom’ and ‘for what’ public sociology is, as well as our positions as value committed, partisan public sociologists, who are committed to creating a sociological space in which community-based adult learners mobilise their own sociological praxis. The focus in this chapter is explaining the meaning of (and need for) a public sociology as a particular style of practising sociology in an engaged, community-focussed way; and which speaks to, for, and with publics in their own communities.
Recent survey in the Gulf of Carpentaria region of northern Australia has identified a unique assemblage of miniature and small-scale stencilled motifs depicting anthropomorphs, material culture, macropod tracks and linear designs. The unusual sizes and shapes of these motifs raise questions about the types of material used for the stencil templates. Drawing on ethnographic data and experimental archaeology, the authors argue that the motifs were created with a previously undocumented stencilling technique using miniature models sculpted from beeswax. The results suggest that beeswax and other malleable and adhesive resins may have played a more significant role in creating stencilled motifs than previously thought.