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Impact of healthcare-associated infections within 7-days of acute stroke on health outcomes and risk of care-dependency:a multi-centre registry-based cohort study
Healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) in patients admitted with acute conditions remain a major challenge to healthcare services. Here, we assessed the impact of HCAIs acquired within 7-days of acute stroke on indicators of care-quality outcomes and dependency. Data were prospectively collected (2014–2016) from the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme for 3309 patients (mean age = 76.2 yr, SD = 13.5) admitted to four UK hyperacute stroke units (HASU). Associations between variables were assessed by multivariable logistic regression (odds ratios, 95% confidence intervals), adjusted for age, sex, co-morbidities, pre-stroke disability, swallow screening, stroke type and severity. Within 7-days of admission, urinary tract infection (UTI) and pneumonia occurred in 7.6% and 11.3% of patients. Female (UTI only), older age, underlying hypertension, atrial fibrillation, previous stroke, pre-stroke disability, intracranial haemorrhage, severe stroke, and delay in swallow screening (pneumonia only) were independent risk factors of UTI and pneumonia. Compared to patients without UTI or pneumonia, those with either or both of these HCAIs were more likely to have prolonged stay (> 14-days) on HASU: 5.1 (3.8–6.8); high risk of malnutrition: 3.6 (2.9–4.5); palliative care: 4.5 (3.4–6.1); in-hospital mortality: 4.8 (3.8–6.2); disability at discharge: 7.5 (5.9–9.7); activity of daily living support: 1.6 (1.2–2.2); and discharge to care-home: 2.3 (1.6–3.3). In conclusion, HCAIs acquired within 7-days of an acute stroke led to prolonged hospitalisation, adverse health consequences and risk of care-dependency. These findings provide valuable information for timely intervention to reduce HCAIs, and minimising subsequent adverse outcomes
Designing an innovative digital group work assignment to foster employability:an adaptable hybrid approach for the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond
The Protection of Rights and Advancement of GenderS:In Conversation with Abigail Nappier Cherup, Kevin D. Thomas, Wendy Hein, and Jack Coffin
In this panel discussion, we explore various ways that academics can advance work related to genderS, intersectionality and inequities so that it has impact within academia and in society. Panelists offer practical insights, relate challenges in doing this work, and suggest avenues for alternative yet impactful dissemination of work. The purpose is to demonstrate how those interested in supporting or working in this space might move from being allies to advocates and accomplices
REFLECTIONS ON CYBORG COLLABORATIONS:CROSS-DISCIPLINARY COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE IN TECHNOLOGICALLY-FOCUSED CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
Creating new works combining live musicians with new technologies provides both opportunities and challenges. The Cyborg Soloists research project has commissioned and managed the creation of 46 new works of this type, assembling teams of composers, performers, researchers and technology partners from industry. The majority of these collaborations have been smooth-running and fruitful, but a few have demonstrated complications. This article critically evaluates collaborative methods and methodologies used in the project so far, presenting five case studies involving different types of collaborative work, and exploring the range of professional relationships, the need for different types of expertise within the team and the way technology can act as both a creative catalyst and a source of creative resistance. The conclusions are intended as a toolkit – pragmatic guidelines to inform future practice – and are aimed at artists, technological collaborators, and commissioners and organisations who facilitate these types of creative collaborations
Quantum-enhanced screened dark energy detection
We propose an experiment based on a Bose–Einstein condensate interferometer for strongly constraining fifth-force models. Additional scalar fields from modified gravity or higher dimensional theories may account for dark energy and the accelerating expansion of the Universe. These theories have led to proposed screening mechanisms to fit within the tight experimental bounds on fifth-force searches. We show that our proposed experiment would greatly improve the existing constraints on these screening models by many orders of magnitude
European banking M&As:The role of financial advisors
We investigate the puzzle of banks contracting the services of external advisors for deals they can self-manage and the role of financial advisors in mergers and acquisitions among European banking firms. We also study the determinants of the choice by bank acquirers and bank targets to either appoint external advisors or manage in-house, as well as between appointing either top or lower tier advisors. Top tier advisors are more likely to be employed in debt financed and cross-border deals. We also find that most European bank mergers are managed in-house, contrary to prior findings reporting mostly externally managed deals attributed to the certification effect. Targets fail to benefit from deals where they do not match acquirer’s decision to appoint external advisors. However, there is an overall propensity to match the counter party’s tier of advisor
Demarcating the Granular Frontier:planetary urbanization without an inside
In its age of global crisis, sand has acquired a conspicuous profile as an urban resource and undercover vector of statecraft. Amidst mounting reports of the disastrous effects of sand mining stoked by intense cycles of urbanization and territorial expansion across the world, it is critical to understand the formation of sand’s granular frontiers, and how their differentiated expression through the global sand crisis demands a reconsideration of the theoretical frontiers of urbanization, territory, and global trade. Building on conceptualisations of sand’s granular geographies and its “geologising” of urban political ecology, this paper seeks to demarcate the theoretical and empirical terrain of sand’s granular frontiers, and how they problematize contemporary debates around urbanization’s “planetary” scope and its extractive underbelly. By reconnecting the frontiers of sand extraction and urbanization, this article theorizes the enclosure of geomorphology and where sand’s satiation of urban and state development is leading. In examining how sand’s simultaneous exclusion from formal processes of valuation and regulation structures urbanization in unpredictable ways, it seeks to provide an account of planetary urbanization without an inside
Volcanic and Tectonic Constraints on the Evolution of Venus
Surface geologic features form a detailed record of Venus’ evolution. Venus displays a profusion of volcanic and tectonics features, including both familiar and exotic forms. One challenge to assessing the role of these features in Venus’ evolution is that there are too few impact craters to permit age dates for specific features or regions. Similarly, without surface water, erosion is limited and cannot be used to evaluate age. These same observations indicate Venus has, on average, a very young surface (150–1000 Ma), with the most recent surface deformation and volcanism largely preserved on the surface except where covered by limited impact ejecta. In contrast, most geologic activity on Mars, the Moon, and Mercury occurred in the 1st billion years. Earth’s geologic processes are almost all a result of plate tectonics. Venus’ lacks such a network of connected, large scale plates, leaving the nature of Venus’ dominant geodynamic process up for debate. In this review article, we describe Venus’ key volcanic and tectonic features, models for their origin, and possible links to evolution. We also present current knowledge of the composition and thickness of the crust, lithospheric thickness, and heat flow given their critical role in shaping surface geology and interior evolution. Given Venus’ hot lithosphere, abundant activity and potential analogues of continents, roll-back subduction, and microplates, it may provide insights into early Earth, prior to the onset of true plate tectonics. We explore similarities and differences between Venus and the Proterozoic or Archean Earth. Finally, we describe the future measurements needed to advance our understanding of volcanism, tectonism, and the evolution of Venus