The use of mechanical bowel preparation and oral antibiotic prophylaxis in elective colorectal surgery: a call for change in practice

Elective colorectal surgery is associated with one of the highest rates of surgical site infections (SSIs), which result in prolonged length of stay, morbidity, and mortality for these patients and have a significant financial burden to healthcare systems. In an effort to reduce the frequency of SSI rates associated with colorectal surgery, the 2018 World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines recommend the routine use of mechanical bowel preparation (MBP) and oral antibiotic prophylaxis (OAP) in adult patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery. However, this recommendation remains a topic of debate internationally. The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines, last revised in 2019, recommend against the routine use of MBP and do not address the issue of OAP. In this communication, we reviewed the current guidelines and examined the most recent evidence from randomised-control trials (RCTs) and meta-analyses on the effect of MBP and OAP on SSI rates since the 2019 NICE guideline review. This recent evidence clearly demonstrated an SSI-risk-reduction benefit with the additional use of OAP and the combination of MBP and OAP in this group of patients, and we therefore highlight the need for change of the current NICE guidelines

Study on Doping Prevention: A map of Legal, Regulatory and Prevention Practice Provisions in EU 28

Historically, anti-doping efforts have focused on the detection and deterrence of doping in elite and competitive sport. There is, however, a growing concern that doping is occurring outside the organised sporting system; giving rise to the belief that the misuse of doping agents in recreational sport has become a societal problem and a public health issue that must be addressed. The EU Commission awarded a contract (EAC/2013/0617) to a Consortium to undertake this Study with the aim of developing the evidence-base for policies designed to combat doping in recreational sport. Fourteen internationally recognised experts shaped the Study which comprised (i) the collection of primary data through a structured survey, and (ii) secondary data through literature searches and website analysis. All 28 Member States participated in the information-gathering process. Specifically, this involved a systematic study of the ethical considerations, legal position, prevention research landscape, and current practise in relation to the prevention of doping in recreational sport. The Study provides a comprehensive overview of current practice and legislation as it applies to the prevention of doping and promotes and supports the sharing of best practices in the EU regarding the fight against doping in recreational sport. It concludes with seven recommendations for future action that focus on the need for a coordinated response in relation to the problems arising from doping in recreational sport

Antecedents of employee intrapreneurship in the public sector:a proactive motivation approach

Public servants’ intrapreneurship (entrepreneurial actions performed by employees from within an organization) is gaining importance as a micro-foundation of public sector innovation and improved service delivery. This study addresses this topic from a proactive motivation perspective and using weekly diary surveys filled out by 757 public servants from 37 departments of the Dutch national public administration for five consecutive weeks (n = 2279 datapoints). Confirmatory factor analyses showed that antecedents of intrapreneurship could be grouped into three categories of proactive motivation: (1) reason-to (prosocial impact, job accountability), (2) can-do (job autonomy, self-efficacy, optimism), and (3) energized-to (work engagement). Multilevel structural equation modeling showed that public servants reported more intrapreneurial behavior when they had more reason-to and were energized-to be proactive. Can-do motivation moderated (strengthened) these relationships. Necessary conditions analyses showed that each predictor was essential, emphasizing the importance of careful alignment of human resource practices aimed at evoking different types of proactive motivation

Toward a Common Framework and Database of Materials for Soft Robotics

To advance the field of soft robotics, a unified database of material constitutive models and experimental characterizations is of paramount importance. This will facilitate the use of finite element analysis to simulate their behavior and optimize the design of soft-bodied robots. Samples from seventeen elastomers, namely Body Double™ SILK, Dragon Skin™ 10 MEDIUM, Dragon Skin 20, Dragon Skin 30, Dragon Skin FX-Pro, Dragon Skin FX-Pro + Slacker, Ecoflex™ 00–10, Ecoflex 00–30, Ecoflex 00–50, Rebound™ 25, Mold Star™ 16 FAST, Mold Star 20T, SORTA-Clear™ 40, RTV615, PlatSil® Gel-10, Psycho Paint®, and SOLOPLAST 150318, were subjected to uniaxial tensile tests according to the ASTM D412 standard. Sample preparation and tensile test parameters are described in detail. The tensile test data are used to derive parameters for hyperelastic material models using nonlinear least-squares methods, which are provided to the reader. This article presents the mechanical characterization and the resulting material properties for a wide set of commercially available hyperelastic materials, many of which are recognized and commonly applied in the field of soft robotics, together with some that have never been characterized. The experimental raw data and the algorithms used to determine material parameters are shared on the Soft Robotics Materials Database GitHub repository to enable accessibility, as well as future contributions from the soft robotics community. The presented database is aimed at aiding soft roboticists in designing and modeling soft robots while providing a starting point for future material characterizations related to soft robotics research

Multi-resolution texture classification based on local image orientation

The aim of this paper is to evaluate quantitatively the discriminative power of the image orientation in the texture classification process. In this regard, we have evaluated the performance of two texture classification schemes where the image orientation is extracted using the partial derivatives of the Gaussian function. Since the texture descriptors are dependent on the observation scale, in this study the main emphasis is placed on the implementation of multi-resolution texture analysis schemes. The experimental results were obtained when the analysed texture descriptors were applied to standard texture databases

Gap Junctions Link Regular-Spiking and Fast-Spiking Interneurons in Layer 5 Somatosensory Cortex

Gap junctions form electrical synapses that modulate neuronal activity by synchronizing action potential (AP) firing of cortical interneurons (INs). Gap junctions are thought to form predominantly within cortical INs of the same functional class and are therefore considered to act within discrete neuronal populations. Here, we challenge that view and show that the probability of electrical coupling is the same within and between regularspiking (RS) and fast-spiking (FS) cortical INs in 16-21 days old mice. Firing properties of these two populations were distinct from other INs types including neurogliaform and low-threshold spiking (LTS) cells. We also demonstrate that pre-junctional APs can depolarize post-junctional neurons and increase the probability of firing. Our findings of frequent gap junction coupling between functionally distinct IN subtypes suggest that cortical IN networks are much more extensive and heterogeneous than previously thought. This may have implications on mechanisms ranging from cognitive functions to modulation of pathological states in epilepsy and other neurological disorders.Peer reviewe

Gestational age and hospital utilization : three-years follow-up of an area-based birth cohort

OBJECTIVE: To investigate differences by gestational age in emergency department visits and re-hospitalizations during the three years following childbirth discharge. METHODS: We performed a historical cohort study in Lazio Region, Italy, for infants born in 2007-2008 to resident mothers. Health administrative data were used. Analysis was performed by multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS: Of 90 545 infants, more than 50% had at least one emergency department visit, and 18.8% at least one re-hospitalization. After the exclusion of infants with congenital anomalies, relative risk ratios of re-hospitalization and, to a lesser extent, of emergency department visits increased by decreasing gestational age; the two events were also higher for mothers ≤35 years of age, with low education and of Italian nationality. Residency outside the metropolitan area was associated with an increased risk of re-hospitalization and a decreased risk of emergency department visits. CONCLUSION: During the three years following childbirth discharge, re-hospitalizations and, to a lesser extent, emergency department use are inversely related to gestational age at birth; socio-demographic factors have an effect on the risk of infant use of hospital resources independent of gestational age

Surface reconstruction of wear in carpets by using a wavelet edge detector

Carpet manufacturers have wear labels assigned to their products by human experts who evaluate carpet samples subjected to accelerated wear in a test device. There is considerable industrial and academic interest in going from human to automated evaluation, which should be less cumbersome and more objective. In this paper, we present image analysis research on videos of carpet surfaces scanned with a 3D laser. The purpose is obtaining good depth Images for an automated system that should have a high percentage of correct assessments for a wide variety of carpets. The innovation is the use of a wavelet edge detector to obtain a more continuously defined surface shape. The evaluation is based on how well the algorithms allow a good linear ranking and a good discriminance of consecutive wear labels. The results show an improved linear ranking for most carpet types, for two carpet types the results are quite significant