Thrombocytopenia in critically ill patients: single center data analysis

Introduction: Thrombocytopenia (TP) is one of the most frequent abnormalities of hemostasis found in laboratory tests in critically ill patients. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency and most probable causes of TP in patients hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Material and methods: The documentation of all patients hospitalized in 2019 was analyzed retrospectively in the ICU of the university hospital. Patients diagnosed with TP at admission to the ward or during hospitalization were identified. Potential factors influencing the platelet count were analyzed. Results: During the analyzed period, 291 patients were hospitalized. In 93 patients (32%), TP was diagnosed, including 61 patients at admission (21%), and the remaining 32 patients (11%) during hospitalization. Patients with TP had higher SAPS II, APACHE II and SOFA scores than patients without TP (p <0.001 for all). Mortality in patients with TP was twice as high as in patients without TP (58% vs. 29%, p <0.001). In 18 patients (6%), only one cause of TP was potentially identified, while in 39 patients (13%), four or more factors that could potentially cause TP were identified. Conclusions: Thrombocytopenia is a relatively common problem in the critically ill population, but due to the challenges in differential diagnosis, a reliable assessment of the causes of its occurrence is difficult

Large-scale Research on Quality of Experience (QoE) Algorithms

The large variety of video data sources means variability not only in terms ofincluded content, but also in terms of quality. Therefore, quality assessment pro-vides an additional dimension. The paper describes a comprehensive evaluationexperiment on perceived video quality. Consequently, in summary, 19 200 000video frames will be processed. Given the scale of the experiment, it is setup on a computer cluster in order to accelerate the calculations significantly.This work on Quality of Experience (QoE) is synchronized with that conductedby the Video Quality Experts Group (VQEG), in particular the Joint EffortsGroup (JEG) – Hybrid group project

Making power visible: 'slow activism' to address staff sexual misconduct in Higher Education

This article examines activism to address staff-to-student sexual misconduct in higher education in the United Kingdom from our perspective as founders and members of the research and lobby organization The 1752 Group. We argue that in order to tackle staff sexual misconduct in higher education, the problem has first to be made visible. We theorize this as “slow activism” and outline the activities that we and others have been engaged in toward this end: conducting research, using complaints processes within institutions, naming the experiences of staff sexual misconduct and/or institutions and perpetrators, and carrying out discipline-led and sector-level initiatives