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Background: Surgical site infections (SSIs) among cardiothoracic (CT) patients are associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Data are limited regarding SSI incidence among pediatric patients undergoing primary reparative procedures for congenital cardiac disease. Published evidence on targeted interventions to prevent pediatric CT-surgery SSI is lacking. We aimed to establish standard metrics for measuring CT-surgery SSI incidence and to implement bundled interventions for SSI prevention. Methods: A dedicated CT-surgery SSI prevention workgroup was established, consisting of hospital leadership, CT surgeons, cardiac critical care unit staff, anesthesia, perfusion, environmental services, instrument sterile processing, risk management, infection prevention and antibiotic stewardship. We created a standard definition for CT-surgery SSI and calculated retrospective SSI rates over a 24-month period (2017–2019). The outcome measured was incidence of CT-surgery SSI per 100 primary cardiac procedures with delayed ( 3 days after primary surgery) or non-delayed chest closure. The difference in proportion of SSI was reported separately for delayed closure and non-delayed closure; statistical significance was tested using a Fisher’s Exact test. We identified many potential improvement opportunities, including gaps in SSI surveillance, poor compliance with daily bathing, inconsistent perioperative antimicrobial prophylaxis, lack of controlled environment for bedside chest closures, and lapses in environmental cleaning. These issues informed the enhanced SSI prevention bundle, which included education on sterility with the operating room (OR) staff. Protocols for care of cardiac patients with delayed chest closures focused on universal daily and preoperative chlorhexidine baths. In addition, the bundle incorporated stringent environmental cleaning interventions including scheduled decluttering of patient rooms and clinical spaces, terminal cleaning of patient rooms prior to returning from the OR, and use of adjunctive ultraviolet light for the daily cleaning of operating rooms and patient rooms at discharge. Results: Surveillance definition of microbiological growth from a clinical sample obtained within 30 days of primary cardiac procedure sufficiently captured all CT-surgery SSIs. Of 551 CT-surgery procedures prior to intervention, 91 (17%) had delayed final operative closures. Prior to the intervention, 16 SSIs were identified from July 2017 – May 2019 for a rate of 2.90 per /100 procedures, and was higher among patients with delayed chest closure 6.59 per /100 procedures (6 SSIs/91 procedures) versus those with primary chest closure 2.17 per /100 procedures (10 SSIs/460 procedures; P = 0.034). Gram-positive organisms, including coagulase coagulase-negative Staphylococci, were most frequently identified as the causative organisms for SSIs. Compliance with bundled intervention, rolled out over a 2-month period, was associated with an immediate decrease in the number of SSIs for primary and delayed chest closures 6SSIs /185 procedures in the initial quarters (August – December 2019) of the post-intervention period. However, this decrease was not reflected in the overall rate (3.24 per /100 procedures) due to fewer procedures performed. Data collection to measure sustainability is ongoing. Conclusions: Bundled interventions targeting skin antisepsis and environmental cleaning may be associated with a decrease in SSIs among pediatric CT-surgery patients. Ongoing surveillance is required to determine sustainability of these interventions.
This paper describes a collaborative approach to professional learning that has provided an opportunity for refreshed practices and growth in capacity in schools supporting students with various learning needs in several schools that are part of the Association of Independent Schools in the Australian Capital Territory. An action research approach to professional learning for school staff was facilitated with the participating schools in 2018/2019, centred on the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability.
Research using single-word paradigms has established that forced language switching incurs processing costs for some bilinguals, yet, less research has addressed this phenomenon at the utterance level or considered real-world applications. The current study examined the impacts of forced language switching on spoken output and stress using a simulated virtual meeting. Twenty Spanish–English heritage bilinguals responded to general work-oriented questions in monolingual English (control) or language-switching (experimental) conditions. Responses were analyzed for mean length of utterance (MLU) and type-token-ratio (TTR). Multilevel modeling revealed an interaction effect of Condition (control vs. experimental) and question order on MLU, such that participants in the experimental condition produced significantly shorter utterances by the end of the task. Participants also had significantly lower lexical variation (TTR) overall in the experimental than the control condition. A 2 × 2 ANOVA revealed a significant effect of Condition and an interaction of Task (pre- vs. posttask) and Condition, such that participants in the control condition reported significantly lower stress after the activity. Results demonstrated the impact of a forced switching condition on production at the utterance level. Findings have implications for theory and scenarios in which heritage bilinguals are asked to use multiple languages in the workplace.
Implementation of genome-scale sequencing in clinical care has significant challenges: the technology is highly dimensional with many kinds of potential results, results interpretation and delivery require expertise and coordination across multiple medical specialties, clinical utility may be uncertain, and there may be broader familial or societal implications beyond the individual participant. Transdisciplinary consortia and collaborative team science are well poised to address these challenges. However, understanding the complex web of organizational, institutional, physical, environmental, technologic, and other political and societal factors that influence the effectiveness of consortia is understudied. We describe our experience working in the Clinical Sequencing Evidence-Generating Research (CSER) consortium, a multi-institutional translational genomics consortium.
Methods:
A key aspect of the CSER consortium was the juxtaposition of site-specific measures with the need to identify consensus measures related to clinical utility and to create a core set of harmonized measures. During this harmonization process, we sought to minimize participant burden, accommodate project-specific choices, and use validated measures that allow data sharing.
Results:
Identifying platforms to ensure swift communication between teams and management of materials and data were essential to our harmonization efforts. Funding agencies can help consortia by clarifying key study design elements across projects during the proposal preparation phase and by providing a framework for data sharing data across participating projects.
Conclusions:
In summary, time and resources must be devoted to developing and implementing collaborative practices as preparatory work at the beginning of project timelines to improve the effectiveness of research consortia.
The Apolipoprotein (APOE) ε4 allele increases the risk for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia, but not all carriers develop MCI/dementia. The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine if early and subtle preclinical signs of cognitive dysfunction and medial temporal lobe atrophy are observed in cognitively intact ε4 carriers who subsequently develop MCI.
Methods:
Twenty-nine healthy, cognitively intact ε4 carriers (ε3/ε4 heterozygotes; ages 65–85) underwent neuropsychological testing and MRI-based measurements of medial temporal volumes over a 5-year follow-up interval; data were converted to z-scores based on a non-carrier group consisting of 17 ε3/ε3 homozygotes.
Results:
At follow-up, 11 ε4 carriers (38%) converted to a diagnosis of MCI. At study entry, the MCI converters had significantly lower scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination, Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) Trials 1–5, and RAVLT Immediate Recall compared to non-converters. MCI converters also had smaller MRI volumes in the left subiculum than non-converters. Follow-up logistic regressions revealed that left subiculum volumes and RAVLT Trials 1–5 scores were significant predictors of MCI conversion.
Conclusions:
Results from this exploratory study suggest that ε4 carriers who convert to MCI exhibit subtle cognitive and volumetric differences years prior to diagnosis.
Psychiatric disorders are associated with increased risk of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, but it is not known whether the associations or the role of sociodemographic factors have changed over time.
Aims
To investigate the association between psychiatric disorders and IHD and stroke, by time period and sociodemographic factors.
Method
We used Scottish population-based records from 1991 to 2015 to create retrospective cohorts with a hospital record for psychiatric disorders of interest (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or depression) or no record of hospital admission for mental illness. We estimated incidence and relative risks of IHD and stroke in people with versus without psychiatric disorders by calendar year, age, gender and area-based deprivation level.
Results
In all cohorts, incidence of IHD (645 393 events) and stroke (276 073 events) decreased over time, but relative risks decreased for depression only. In 2015, at the mean age at event onset, relative risks were 2- to 2.5-fold higher in people with versus without a psychiatric disorder. Age at incidence of outcome differed by cohort, gender and socioeconomic status. Relative but not absolute risks were generally higher in women than men. Increasing deprivation conveys a greater absolute risk of IHD for people with bipolar disorder or depression.
Conclusions
Despite declines in absolute rates of IHD and stroke, relative risks remain high in those with versus without psychiatric disorders. Cardiovascular disease monitoring and prevention approaches may need to be tailored by psychiatric disorder and cardiovascular outcome, and be targeted, for example, by age and deprivation level.
Malthus was severely critical of the old poor law, especially when the payments paid to recipients were made in conformity to the principles adopted by the local magistrates in Speenhamland in 1795. He considered that it encouraged early and improvident marriage with unfortunate consequences. There have been a number of attempts to determine whether Malthus was justified in supposing that the old poor law had this effect, some concluding that he was correct in his assumption, others that he was mistaken. The information contained in the first four English censuses did not include a breakdown of the population by age, sex, and marital status, and therefore did not provide a basis for a definitive test of Malthus's assertion before the repeal of the old poor law in 1834. The 1851 census, however, did provide this breakdown for five-year age groups which makes it possible to compare marriage patterns in counties in which a large proportion of the male workforce were ‘peasants’ (Malthus's term for agricultural labourers), and the Speenhamland provisions were widely adopted, with other counties. The results show that Malthus was mistaken.
Older adults are a potentially medically vulnerable population with increased mortality rates during and after disasters. To evaluate the impact of a natural disaster on this population, we performed a temporal and geospatial analysis of emergency department (ED) use by adults aged 65 years and older in New York City (NYC) following Hurricane Sandy’s landfall.
Methods
We used an all-payer claims database to analyze demographics, insurance status, geographic distribution, and health conditions for post-disaster ED visits among older adults. We compared ED patterns of use in the weeks before and after Hurricane Sandy throughout NYC and the most afflicted evacuation zones.
Results
We found significant increases in ED utilization by older adults (and disproportionately higher in those aged ≥85 years) in the 3 weeks after Hurricane Sandy, especially in NYC evacuation zone one. Primary diagnoses with notable increases included dialysis, electrolyte disorders, and prescription refills. Secondary diagnoses highlighted homelessness and care access issues.
Conclusions
Older adults display heightened risk for worse health outcomes with increased ED visits after a disaster. Our findings suggest the need for dedicated resources and planning for older adults following a natural disaster by ensuring access to medical facilities, prescriptions, dialysis, and safe housing and by optimizing health care delivery needs to reduce the burden of chronic disease. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:184–193)
from
Part II
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The Social Context of Mental Health and Illness: Introduction to Part II
By
Sarah Rosenfield, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University,
Kelly Kato, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University,
Dena Smith, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Maryland
Are there differences between men and women in mental health and why? These are the questions taken up by Rosenfield, Kato, and Smith. They begin by providing an overview of classical psychoanalytical theory (Freud's conceptualization) and more recent approaches (by Nancy Chodorow, for example) that represent the major positions on gender differences: women have more mental health problems than men, men have more than women, or both have equal amounts. Evidence reveals that there are no differences in their overall rates of psychopathology, but men and women do differ in the type of psychopathology experienced. Women suffer from higher rates of depression and anxiety (referred to as internalizing disorders), and men have higher rates of substance abuse and antisocial disorders (referred to as externalizing disorders). Rosenfield, Kato, and Smith consider various explanations for these differences. They concentrate on dominant gender conceptions – those held by groups in positions of power, which in this society are primarily white, middle-class conceptions. Divisions between men and women in power, responsibilities (i.e., different role positions), and personal characteristics are relevant for mental health. For example, women earn less money, have jobs with less power and autonomy, and experience an overload of job and family demands more often than men (Simon, 2014). They have closer social ties, which bring more support but also more negative interactions. Women have personal characteristics of low self-esteem and mastery relative to men. They are more nurturant and emotionally reliant compared to men's greater independence and assertiveness. Finally, males and females differ in self-salience, that is beliefs about the importance of the self versus others in social relations: women put others' interests first more often, which promotes internalizing problems, while men tend to privilege the self more strongly, facilitating externalizing problems. The authors suggest that socializing practices encouraging high self-regard along with high regard for others benefit mental health. This is an interesting idea, and students may want to discuss their own socialization into “appropriate” feminine and masculine behaviors.
Introduction
Among the most profound social divisions in our culture is the one we make by gender. Whether we are male or female shapes our access to resources and our life choices and options. It colors the ways we relate to others, what people expect of us, and what we expect of ourselves.
Cleland and Chyba published a classic piece in 2002 that began a movement I call definitional pessimism, where it is argued that there is no point in attempting anything like a general definition of life. This paper offers a critical response to the pessimist position in general and the influential arguments offered by Cleland and her collaborators in particular. One such argument is that all definitions of life fall short of an ideal in which necessary and sufficient conditions produce unambiguous categorizations that dispose of all counterexamples. But this concept of definition is controversial within philosophy; a fact that greatly diminishes the force of the admonition that biologists should conform to such an ideal. Moreover, biology may well be fundamentally different from logic and the physical sciences from which this ideal is drawn, to the point where definitional conformity misrepresents biological reality. Another idea often pushed is that the prospects for definitional success concerning life are on a par with medieval alchemy's attempts to define matter – that is, doomed to fail for lack of a unifying scientific theory. But this comparison to alchemy is both historically inaccurate and unfair. Planetary science before the discovery of the first exoplanets offers a much better analogy, with much more optimistic conclusions. The pessimists also make much of the desirability of using microbes as models for any universal concept of life, from which they conclude that certain types of ‘Darwinian’ evolutionary definitions are inadequate. But this argument posits an unrealistic ideal, as no account of life can both be universal and do justice to the sorts of precise causal mechanisms microbes exemplify. The character of biology and the demand for universality in definitions of life thus probably accords better with functional rather than structural categories. The bottom line is that there is simply no viable alternative, either pragmatically or theoretically, to the pursuit of definitions. If nothing else, the empirical data the pessimists demand will be a very long time coming and scientists will of necessity continue to employ definitions of life in the interim. Chastising them for this will only drive their ideas underground where they can escape critical analysis, making the problems caused by problematic conceptions of life worse.
In western Canada, more money is spent on wild oat herbicides than on any
other weed species, and wild oat resistance to herbicides is the most
widespread resistance issue. A direct-seeded field experiment was conducted
from 2010 to 2014 at eight Canadian sites to determine crop life cycle, crop
species, crop seeding rate, crop usage, and herbicide rate combination
effects on wild oat management and canola yield. Combining 2× seeding rates
of early-cut barley silage with 2× seeding rates of winter cereals and
excluding wild oat herbicides for 3 of 5 yr (2011 to 2013) often led to
similar wild oat density, aboveground wild oat biomass, wild oat seed
density in the soil, and canola yield as a repeated canola–wheat rotation
under a full wild oat herbicide rate regime. Wild oat was similarly well
managed after 3 yr of perennial alfalfa without wild oat herbicides.
Forgoing wild oat herbicides in only 2 of 5 yr from exclusively summer
annual crop rotations resulted in higher wild oat density, biomass, and seed
banks. Management systems that effectively combine diverse and optimal
cultural practices against weeds, and limit herbicide use, reduce selection
pressure for weed resistance to herbicides and prolong the utility of
threatened herbicide tools.
We aimed to characterize the geographic distribution of post-Hurricane Sandy emergency department use in administrative flood evacuation zones of New York City.
Methods
Using emergency claims data, we identified significant deviations in emergency department use after Hurricane Sandy. Using time-series analysis, we analyzed the frequency of visits for specific conditions and comorbidities to identify medically vulnerable populations who developed acute postdisaster medical needs.
Results
We found statistically significant decreases in overall post-Sandy emergency department use in New York City but increased utilization in the most vulnerable evacuation zone. In addition to dialysis- and ventilator-dependent patients, we identified that patients who were elderly or homeless or who had diabetes, dementia, cardiac conditions, limitations in mobility, or drug dependence were more likely to visit emergency departments after Hurricane Sandy. Furthermore, patients were more likely to develop drug-resistant infections, require isolation, and present for hypothermia, environmental exposures, or administrative reasons.
Conclusions
Our study identified high-risk populations who developed acute medical and social needs in specific geographic areas after Hurricane Sandy. Our findings can inform coherent and targeted responses to disasters. Early identification of medically vulnerable populations can help to map “hot spots” requiring additional medical and social attention and prioritize resources for areas most impacted by disasters. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;10:351–361)
Aging is associated with performance reductions in executive function and episodic memory, although there is substantial individual variability in cognition among older adults. One factor that may be positively associated with cognition in aging is physical activity. To date, few studies have objectively assessed physical activity in young and older adults, and examined whether physical activity is differentially associated with cognition in aging. Young (n=29, age 18–31 years) and older adults (n=31, ages 55–82 years) completed standardized neuropsychological testing to assess executive function and episodic memory capacities. An experimental face-name relational memory task was administered to augment assessment of episodic memory. Physical activity (total step count and step rate) was objectively assessed using an accelerometer, and hierarchical regressions were used to evaluate relationships between cognition and physical activity. Older adults performed more poorly on tasks of executive function and episodic memory. Physical activity was positively associated with a composite measure of visual episodic memory and face-name memory accuracy in older adults. Physical activity associations with cognition were independent of sedentary behavior, which was negatively correlated with memory performance. Physical activity was not associated with cognitive performance in younger adults. Physical activity is positively associated with episodic memory performance in aging. The relationship appears to be strongest for face-name relational memory and visual episodic memory, likely attributable to the fact that these tasks make strong demands on the hippocampus. The results suggest that physical activity relates to cognition in older, but not younger adults. (JINS, 2015, 21, 780–790)
The multicomponent Dry Creek site, located in the Nenana Valley, central Alaska, is arguably one of the most important archaeological sites in Beringia. Original work in the 1970s identified two separate cultural layers, called Components 1 and 2, thought to date to the terminal Pleistocene and suggesting that the site was visited by Upper Paleolithic huntergatherers between about 13,000 and 12,000 calendar years before present (cal B.P.). The oldest of these became the typeassemblage for the Nenana complex. Recently, some have questioned the geoarchaeological integrity of the site's early deposits, suggesting that the separated cultural layers resulted from natural postdepositional disturbances. In 2011, we revisited Dry Creek to independently assess the site's age and formation. Here we present our findings and reaffirm original interpretations of clear separation of two terminal Pleistocene cultural occupations. For the first time, we report direct radiocarbon dates on cultural features associated with both occupation zones, one dating to 13,485-13,305 and the other to 11,060-10,590 cal B.P.
In 1969, Robert E. Gregg collected five species of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in three Subarctic localities near the town of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, which he documented in a 1972 publication in The Canadian Entomologist. To determine whether there have been any additions to the local fauna – as might be predicted to occur in response to a warming climate and increased traffic to the Port of Churchill in the intervening 40 years – we re-collected ants from the same localities in 2012. We identified the ants we collected from Gregg’s sampling sites using both traditional morphological preparations and DNA barcoding. In addition, we examined specimens from Gregg’s initial collection that are accessioned at the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago, Illinois, United States of America). Using this integrative approach we report seven species present at the same sites Gregg sampled 40 years earlier. We conclude that the apparent increase is likely not due to any arrivals from more southerly distributed ants, but to the increased resolution provided by DNA barcodes to resident species complexes with a complicated history. We provide a brief synopsis of these results and their taxonomic context.
Background: Extreme appraisals of internal states correlate with and prospectively predict mood symptoms in adults, and discriminate individuals with bipolar disorder from individuals with unipolar depression and non-clinical controls. Aims: These findings required replication in adolescents. This study sought to investigate the relationships between appraisals of internal states, mood symptoms and risk for bipolar disorder in an adolescent sample. Method: A non-clinical sample (n = 98) of adolescents completed measures of mood symptoms, appraisals, and mania risk, alongside covariates. Results: Appraisals of internal states were associated with analogue bipolar symptoms, independently of impulsivity and responses to positive affect. Positive appraisals of activated mood states were uniquely associated with hypomania, whilst negative appraisals were uniquely associated with depression and irritability symptoms. Individuals who appraised activated states as both extremely positive and extremely negative were more likely to score at high or moderate risk for future mania. Conclusions: This study is the first to demonstrate associations between appraisals of internal states, analogue mood symptoms and mania risk in adolescents. Clinical implications are discussed.
Despite evidence for the effectiveness of structured psychological
therapies for bipolar disorder no psychological interventions have been
specifically designed to enhance personal recovery for individuals with
recent-onset bipolar disorder.
Aims
A pilot study to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of a new
intervention, recovery-focused cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT),
designed in collaboration with individuals with recent-onset bipolar
disorder intended to improve clinical and personal recovery outcomes.
Method
A single, blind randomised controlled trial compared treatment as usual
(TAU) with recovery-focused CBT plus TAU (n = 67).
Results
Recruitment and follow-up rates within 10% of pre-planned targets to
12-month follow-up were achieved. An average of 14.15 h (s.d. = 4.21) of
recovery-focused CBT were attended out of a potential maximum of 18 h.
Compared with TAU, recovery-focused CBT significantly improved personal
recovery up to 12-month follow-up (Bipolar Recovery Questionnaire mean
score 310.87, 95% CI 75.00–546.74 (s.e. = 120.34), P =
0.010, d=0.62) and increased time to any mood relapse
during up to 15 months follow-up (χ2 = 7.64,
P<0.006, estimated hazard ratio (HR) = 0.38, 95%
CI 0.18–0.78). Groups did not differ with respect to medication
adherence.
Conclusions
Recovery-focused CBT seems promising with respect to feasibility and
potential clinical effectiveness. Clinical- and cost-effectiveness now
need to be reliably estimated in a definitive trial.
This study investigates the linguistic characteristics of Swedish clinical text in radiology reports and doctor's daily notes from electronic health records (EHRs) in comparison to general Swedish and biomedical journal text. We quantify linguistic features through a comparative register analysis to determine how the free text of EHRs differ from general and biomedical Swedish text in terms of lexical complexity, word and sentence composition, and common sentence structures. The linguistic features are extracted using state-of-the-art computational tools: a tokenizer, a part-of-speech tagger, and scripts for statistical analysis. Results show that technical terms and abbreviations are more frequent in clinical text, and lexical variance is low. Moreover, clinical text frequently omit subjects, verbs, and function words resulting in shorter sentences. Clinical text not only differs from general Swedish, but also internally, across its sub-domains, e.g. sentences lacking verbs are significantly more frequent in radiology reports. These results provide a foundation for future development of automatic methods for EHR simplification or clarification.