The impact of COVID-19 critical illness on new disability, functional outcomes and return to work at 6 months: a prospective cohort study

Background: There are few reports of new functional impairment following critical illness from COVID-19. We aimed to describe the incidence of death or new disability, functional impairment and changes in health-related quality of life of patients after COVID-19 critical illness at 6 months. Methods: In a nationally representative, multicenter, prospective cohort study of COVID-19 critical illness, we determined the prevalence of death or new disability at 6 months, the primary outcome. We measured mortality, new disability and return to work with changes in the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 12L (WHODAS) and health status with the EQ5D-5LTM. Results: Of 274 eligible patients, 212 were enrolled from 30 hospitals. The median age was 61 (51–70) years, and 124 (58.5%) patients were male. At 6 months, 43/160 (26.9%) patients died and 42/108 (38.9%) responding survivors reported new disability. Compared to pre-illness, the WHODAS percentage score worsened (mean difference (MD), 10.40% [95% CI 7.06–13.77]; p < 0.001). Thirteen (11.4%) survivors had not returned to work due to poor health. There was a decrease in the EQ-5D-5LTM utility score (MD, − 0.19 [− 0.28 to − 0.10]; p < 0.001). At 6 months, 82 of 115 (71.3%) patients reported persistent symptoms. The independent predictors of death or new disability were higher severity of illness and increased frailty. Conclusions: At six months after COVID-19 critical illness, death and new disability was substantial. Over a third of survivors had new disability, which was widespread across all areas of functioning.Carol L. Hodgson, Alisa M. Higgins, Michael J. Bailey, Anne M. Mather, Lisa Beach, Rinaldo Bellomo, Bernie Bissett, Ianthe J. Boden, Scott Bradley, Aidan Burrell, D. James Cooper, Bentley J. Fulcher, Kimberley J. Haines, Jack Hopkins, Alice Y. M. Jones, Stuart Lane, Drew Lawrence, Lisa van der Lee, Jennifer Liacos, Natalie J. Linke, Lonni Marques Gomes, Marc Nickels, George Ntoumenopoulos, Paul S. Myles, Shane Patman, Michelle Paton, Gemma Pound, Sumeet Rai, Alana Rix, Thomas C. Rollinson, Janani Sivasuthan, Claire J. Tipping, Peter Thomas, Tony Trapani, Andrew A. Udy, Christina Whitehead, Isabelle T. Hodgson, Shannah Anderson, Ary Serpa Neto, and The COVID-Recovery Study Investigators and the ANZICS Clinical Trials Grou

Classifying estuarine habitats and predicting their fish faunas

Oral presentatio

Relationships between fish faunas and habitat type in south-western Australian estuaries. Fisheries Research and Development Corporation Final Report, July 2009

OBJECTIVES 1. Devise quantitative and readily usable approaches for classifying the local-scale nearshore habitats within a range of estuaries in south-western Australia and predicting the habitat to which any nearshore site in those systems should be assigned. 2. Determine statistically how the compositions of the fish and benthic invertebrate assemblages in selected south-western Australian estuaries are related to habitat type. 3. Formulate a readily usable and reliable method for predicting which fish and benthic invertebrate species are likely to be abundant at any particular nearshore site in one of the above estuaries

SH stretching vibration of propanethiol ice — a signature for its identification in the interstellar icy mantles

Among the most commonly existing thiol molecules, methanethiol and ethanethiol were discovered in the interstellar medium and identification of the next larger thiol molecule, propanethiol, is long awaited. By simulating icy astrochemical conditions and probing propanethiol ices under infrared spectroscopy we propose the use of SH stretching vibrations observed in the propanethiol molecular ice as a probe towards its identification in the interstellar medium. Though there are conformational changes within the ice (as observed in both VUV and IR spectra), the SH stretching vibration of propanethiol is observed to be unique among the set of thiol molecules, methanethiol and ethanethiol, which enables the detection of propanethiol ice in interstellar dust mantles using the James Webb Space Telescope

The perceived barriers and facilitators to implementation of ECMO services in acute hospitals

LetterBentley J. Fulcher, Angus J. Nicholson, Natalie J. Linke, Danielle Berkovic, Carol L. Hodgson on behalf of the EXCEL Study Investigators and the International ECMO Networ

The radial distribution function of worm-like chains

Thermal conformations of semiflexible macromolecules are generically described by the worm-like chain model. The end-to-end distance distribution, a fundamental quantity of the model, is not yet known in closed form. We provide a solution to the practical problem of choosing an appropriate approximation. First, a comprehensive review of existing approximations and exact limiting results is given. We then propose an explicit expression which interpolates between all relevant limiting cases. We show that it accurately reproduces, at no computational cost, high-precision Monte Carlo data, covering a wide range from stiff to flexible chains and from looped to fully stretched configurations. Using this result we quantify the enhancement of short worm-like loop formation by (protein) bridges

Materials research under ITER-like divertor conditions at FOM Rijnhuizen

At FOM Rijnhuizen, linear plasma generators are used to investigate plasma-material interactions under high-density