Analysis of Loss of Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States

A multiple logistic regression was performed to predict the likelihood of work loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States based on predictors from the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey. The nine predictors included week (time period), birth year, number of children, number of adults, sex, race, Hispanic origin, educational attainment, and marital status. The purpose of the study is to estimate if there is a difference in work loss status at the beginning of the pandemic and at the end of 2020. The results of the model showed that an increase in time since the start of the pandemic has led to increased odds of job loss. This makes sense because the unemployment rate has remained high. All predictors in the model were significant. Females, Hispanics, and Blacks have higher odds of job loss (0.7%, 29.9%, and 30.3%, respectively). Those who are younger and who have not graduated high school have higher odds for loss of work. Certain demographic groups are more likely to have a loss of work, and measures need to be taken to prevent this disparity. Also, because there was missing data in the survey results, multiple imputation was used to analyze 10% of the original sample. These results were not entirely comparable to the estimates using the entire original sample, but the multiple imputation procedure did show that the estimates were different

Thinking with mushrooms: Fungal Posthumanist Aesthetics in Theory, Art, Literature and Film

Pilze trenden: Sowohl in der zeitgenössischen Kulturtheorie und Philosophie als auchin Kunst, Literatur und Film tritt das Fungale als eine Denkfigur auf, die den Herausforderungen unserer anthropozänen Gegenwart besonders entgegen zu kommen scheint. Der Beitrag vollzieht zunächst nach, wie und zu welchem Zweck diese Denkfigur in Rahmen neumaterialistischer und posthumanistischer Positionen in der Theorie und in der populären Wissenschaftsliteratur in Merlin Sheldrakes Entangled Life verhandelt wird, und arbeitet heraus, was sie für Diskurse um posthumane Subjekte und Ästhetiken liefern kann. Im Anschluss wird beispielhaft an Texten von Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Thomas Melle, Peter Handke, Richard Powers und Martin MacInnes, an einer Video-Installation und an dem Horrorfilm In the Earth analysiert, wie eine Aisthesis des Fungalen als posthumanistische Ästhetik zum Einsatz kommt. Die epistemische, ästhetische und poetologische Reflektion der Denkfigur des Fungalen am Ende des Anthropozäns wird dabei als ein ‚becoming fungal‘ untersucht, dessen Potenzial nicht nur in einer neuen Perspektive auf die Rolle des Menschen in einer kollaborativen, wandelhaften Ökologie liegt, sondern auch in einem das menschliche Selbstbewusstsein nicht unbeschadet lassenden Neuverständnis epistemischer Prozesse, kognitiver Phänomene und posthumanen Entanglements.Mushrooms are trending: contemporary cultural theory and philosophy as well as the arts, literature and film sprout the fungal; a figure of thought which seems to be particularly useful to meet the challenges of our Anthropocene present. This contribution traces how and to which intend this figure of thought is used within the frame of New Materialist and Posthumanist thinking, as well as in Merlin Sheldrakes popular science book Entangled Life. It reflects on what this figure of thought can contribute to discourses around posthuman subjectivity and aesthetics. This paper then turns to examples of how a fungally inspired aisthesis is employed as a Posthumanist aesthetics in texts (by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Thomas Melle, Peter Handke, Richard Powers and Martin MacInnes), in a video installation and in the horror film In the Earth. The epistemic, aesthetic and poetological reflections of the fungal at the end of the anthropocene is concludingly discussed as a ‘becoming fungal’, as not only delivering new perspectives on humanity’s role in collaborative, processual ecologies, but also as the beginning of the new understanding of epistemic processes, cognitive phenomena and posthuman entanglement which will not leave human self-esteem untouched

Affe und Affekt

Diese Open-Access-Publikation mit dem Titel "Affe und Affekt" untersucht anhand populärwissenschaftlicher Forschungsmemoiren die Form und Funktion von Emotionen, Affekten und Gefühlen in der Feldforschung mit Affen – und wie gerade Literatur und Film das Verhältnis von Mensch, Affe und Affekt für die Wissenschaft produktiv reflektieren und analysieren. Der Mensch ist evolutionär betrachtet ein Affe unter anderen. Doch nennt er sich selbst homo sapiens, die anderen Affen im besten Fall die ‚Menschenaffen‘ - sonst aber pans, pongos oder papios. Diese Unterscheidung ist nur ein kleines Puzzlestück in einer emotionsgetriebenen Rhetorik der Primatologie, der Wissenschaft von den Affen

Knowledge, attitude and practice among consumers about adverse drug reaction reporting

Background: Background: Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) reporting by consumers is quite low in India. Assessing knowledge and attitude of consumers regarding ADR reporting and observing practice of ADR reporting among them can help explore probable causes for underreporting of ADRs by consumers.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital using investigator-administered questionnaire and interviewing indoor patients of Surgery, Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Dermatology departments. The questionnaire was prepared to assess knowledge, attitude and practice of consumers about ADR reporting. Data was analysed using mean, standard deviation and percentages.Result: A total of 820 consumers of medicines were included. It was found that 32.2% consumers were not aware that a drug can produce adverse effects. After being explained about adverse drug reactions, 94.6% consumers felt that adverse drug reactions should be reported. However, 98.8% consumers were not aware of Pharmacovigilance Programme of India. After consulting about consumer reporting programme, majority of respondents (96.1%) felt that the direct consumer reporting programme helps reporting of ADRs. Moreover, 93.7% of consumers were willing to use it to report ADRs in future. Consumers preferred the Telephonic method with a Toll free number for ADR reporting followed by informing a health care professional.Conclusion: Poor knowledge and awareness about ADR reporting is the major factor for low to nearly absent ADR reporting by consumers in India

Validation of Targets Related to Maternal and Child Health Services in the Rural Area of the Bhavnagar District, Gujarat: A Cross Sectional Study

Introduction: Despite ‘Target free approach’ being implemented since more than 20 years, the targets related to MCH services are still decided and distributed by top to bottom approach in Gujarat. Irrational distribution of targets may lead to under or over achievement of the targets by SCs and PHCs. Objective: To validate the targets related to MCH services in the rural areas of the Bhavnagar district, Gujarat for the year 2019-2020. Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out to count the actual number of MCH beneficiaries by visiting each house of the selected villages (One village each from a good performing and a poor performing SCs of two randomly selected PHCs from each block of Bhavnagar district) and interviewing a family member of the household. This numbers from the villages were compared with the targets assigned to the respective villages. Results: The actual number of antenatal women was found to be 26.6% lower and 38.8% higher than the assigned targets for early pregnancy registration in the villages of poor and good performing SCs respectively. Similarly the actual number of deliveries was found to be 47.2% lower than the assigned targets for institutional deliveries in poor performing SCs. It was also observed that the actual number of children eligible for full immunization in the respective area was found to be much lower in both the groups of SCs than the assigned targets. Conclusion: Assigned MCH targets were found improper in the villages of Bhavnagar district

Analisis Strategi Pemasaran Dalam Meningkatkan Penjualan Terasi Udang Di Desa Rantau Panjang

Marketing strategy is a form of plan on how to design the direction of the target market towards consumer demand in determining the company's expectations to attract customers' interest in the products offered in increasing sales. The problem faced by the Shrimp Shrimp business in Rantau Panjang Village is the absence of a brand and a small business while the management of production in rural areas is difficult to penetrate the market share, for that it is necessary to do a strategy in this Shrimp Shrimp business. The purpose of this study was to determine the right marketing strategy for shrimp paste. The data collection method was obtained from Observation, Interview and Documentation using the Quantitative Descriptive Method, the data that had been obtained was then analyzed using the SWOT analysis method, by looking at Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. The results show that based on the research above, it can be concluded that the problem that occurs in the shrimp paste business is the difficulty in marketing production as a result of the absence of trademark rights and a very simple marketing system

Impact of MRI resolution for Linac-based stereotactic radiosurgery.

OBJECTIVE: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a standard imaging modality in intracranial stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for defining target volumes. However, wide disparities in MRI resolution exist, which could directly impact accuracy of target delineation. Here, sequences with various MRI resolution were acquired on phantoms to evaluate the effect on volume definition and dosimetric consequence for cranial SRS. MATERIALS/METHODS: Four T1-weighted MR sequences with increasing 3D resolution were compared, including two Spin Echo (SE) 2D acquisitions with 5mm and 3mm slice thickness (SE5mm, SE3mm) and two gradient echo 3D acquisitions (TFE, BRAVO). The voxel sizes were 0.4×0.4×5.0, 0.5×0.5×3.0, 0.9×0.9×1.25, and 0.4×0.4×0.5 mm(3), respectively. Four phantoms with simulated lesions of different shape and volume (range, 0.53-25.0 cm(3)) were imaged, resulting in 16 total sets of MRIs. Four radiation oncologists provided contours on individual MR image set. All observer contours were compared with ground truth, defined on CT image according to the absolute dimensions of the target structure, using Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), Hausdorff distance (HD), mean distance-to-agreement (MDA), and the ratio between reconstructed and true volume (Ratio(vol) ). For dosimetric consequence, SRS plans targeting observer volumes were created. The true Paddick conformity index ( CIpaddicktrue ), calculated with true target volume, was correlated with quality of observer volume. RESULTS: All measures of observer contours improved as increasingly higher MRI resolution was provided from SE5mm to BRAVO. The improvement in DSC, HD and MDA was statistically significant (p\u3c0.01). Dosimetrically, CIpaddicktrue strongly correlated with DSC of the planning observer volume (Pearson\u27s r=0.94, p\u3c0.00001). CONCLUSIONS: Significant improvement in target definition and reduced inter-observer variation was observed as the MRI resolution improved, which also improved the quality of SRS plans. Results imply that high resolution 3D MR sequences should be used to minimize potential errors in target definition, and multi-slice 2D sequences should be avoided

Dosimetric Evaluation of Fractionated Stereotactic Radiation Therapy for Skull Base Meningiomas Using HyperArc and Multicriteria Optimization

Purpose: Treatment planning of skull based meningiomas can be difficult due to the irregular shaped target volumes and proximity to critical optic structures. This study evaluated the use of HyperArc (HA) radiosurgery optimization and delivery in conjunction with multicriteria optimization (MCO) to create conformal and efficient treatment plans for conventionally fractionated radiation therapy to difficult base-of-skull (BOS) lesions. Methods and Materials: Twelve patients with BOS meningioma were retrospectively planned with HA-specific optimization algorithm, stereotactic normal tissue objective (SRS-NTO), and conventional automatic normal tissue objective to evaluate normal brain sparing (mean dose and V20 Gy). MCO was used on both SRS-NTO and automatic normal tissue objective plans to further decrease organ-at-risk doses and target dose maximum to within clinically acceptable constraints. Delivery efficiency was evaluated based on planned monitor units. Results: The SRS-NTO in HA can be used to improve the mid- and low-dose spread to normal brain tissue in the irradiation of BOS meningiomas. Improvement in normal brain sparing can be seen in larger, more irregular shaped lesions and less so in smaller spherical targets. MCO can be used in conjunction with the SRS-NTO to reduce target dose maximum and dose to organ at risk without sacrificing the gain in normal brain sparing. Conclusions: HA can be beneficial both in treatment planning by using the SRS-NTO and in delivery efficiency through the decrease in monitor units and automated delivery

Insights into microorganisms, associated factors, and the oral microbiome in infective endocarditis patients

IntroductionInfective Endocarditis (IE) is a rare, life-threatening infection of the endocardium with multisystem effects. Culprit microorganisms derived from different niches circulate through the bloodstream and attach to the endocardium, particularly the heart valves. This study aimed to investigate culprit microorganisms among a cross-sectional cohort of IE patients, their associated factors, and to explore the potential relationship to the oral microbiome.MethodsIn this observational study, we undertook a cross-sectional analysis of 392 medical records from patients diagnosed with IE. The primary outcome of this study was to analyse the association between the IE culprit microorganisms and the underlying anatomical types of IE (native valve (NVE), prosthetic valve (PVE), or cardiac device-related (CDE)). Secondary outcomes encompassed a comparative analysis of additional factors, including: the treatment approaches for IE, and the categorisation of blood cultures, extending to both genus and species levels. Additionally, we cross-referenced and compared the species-level identification of IE bacteraemia outcome measures with data from the expanded Human Oral Microbiome Database (eHOMD).ResultsA culprit microorganism was identified in 299 (76.28%) case participants. Staphylococcal infections were the most common (p < 0.001), responsible for 130 (33.16%) hospitalisations. There were 277 (70.66%) cases of NVE, 104 (26.53%) cases of PVE, and 11 (2.81%) cases of CDE. The majority of PVE occurred on prosthetic aortic valves (78/104, 75%), of which 72 (93.5%) were surgical aortic valve replacements (SAVR), 6 (7.8%) were transcatheter aortic valve implants, and one transcatheter pulmonary valve implant. Overall, underlying anatomy (p = 0.042) as well as the treatment approaches for IE (p < 0.001) were significantly associated with IE culprit microorganisms. Cross-reference between IE bacteraemia outcomes with the eHOMD was observed in 267/392 (68.11%) cases.ConclusionsThis study demonstrated that IE patients with a history of stroke, smoking, intravenous drug use, or dialysis were more likely to be infected with Staphylococcus aureus. CDE case participants and patients who had previous SAVR were most associated with Staphylococcus epidermidis. IE patients aged 78+ were more likely to develop enterococci IE than other age groups. Oral microorganisms indicated by the eHOMD are significantly observed in the IE population. Further research, through enhanced dental and medical collaboration, is required to correlate the presence of oral microbiota as causative factor for IE