Healthcare Provider N95 Respirator Contamination Worn Behind Face Shields With SARS-CoV-2 During Routine Clinical Care of Patients With COVID-19

N95 respirator contamination with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during clinical care of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 is poorly understood. We performed a prospective observational study on healthcare provider's (HCP's) N95 respirators' and face shields' SARS-CoV-2 contamination during aerosol-generating procedures on SARS-CoV-2- positive patients housed in a COVID-19-specific unit. Medical masks worn on top of HCP's N95 respirators, and under face shields, during study aerosol-generating procedures were used as surrogates to detect contamination to avoid waste. Thirtythree HCPs were studied, and a total of 33 mask and 27 face shields were sampled. Masks were cut into 9 pieces and face shields were sampled twice, front and back, to determine locality of contamination; however, no positive samples were identified using standard polymerase chain reaction techniques with a CT value up to 40. All 9 mask piece samples were then pooled, as were face shield samples, using centrifugal concentration with polyethersulfone membranes. Once pooled and concentrated, overall, 9 (15%) samples were positive via real-time polymerase chain reaction: 5 from masks (15.2%) and 4 from face shields (14.8%)

Sequencing and scheduling : algorithms and complexity

Sequencing and scheduling as a research area is motivated by questions that arise in production planning, in computer control, and generally in all situations in which scarce resources have to be allocated to activities over time. In this survey, we concentrate on the area of deterministic machine scheduling. We review complexity results and optimization and approximation algorithms for problems involving a single machine, parallel machines, open shops, flow shops and job shops. We also pay attention to two extensions of this area: resource-constrained project scheduling and stochastic machine scheduling

Time-dependent analysis of length of stay and mortality due to urinary tract infections in ten developing countries: INICC findings

To estimate the excess length of stay (LOS) and mortality in an intensive care unit (ICU) due to a Catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), using a statistical model that accounts for the timing of infection in 29 ICUs from 10 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Greece, India, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, and Turkey. To estimate the extra LOS due to infection in a cohort of 69,248 admissions followed for 371,452 days in 29 ICUs, we used a multi-state model, including specific censoring to ensure that we estimate the independent effect of urinary tract infection, and not the combined effects of multiple infections. We estimated the extra length of stay and increased risk of death independently in each country, and then combined the results using a random effects meta-analysis. A CAUTI prolonged length of ICU stay by an average of 1.59 days (95% CI: 0.58, 2.59 days), and increased the risk of death by 15% (95% CI: 3, 28%). A CAUTI leads to a small increased LOS in ICU. The increased risk of death due to CAUTI may be due to confounding with patient morbidity