Project Shearwater Ground Effect UAV

The Shearwater unmanned aerial vehicle is a maritime fixed-wing drone that is designed to use ground effect force generated between the aircraft and a body of water to efficiently propel itself near the surface of a body of water. Shearwater features a virtual reality pilot interface and will act as a hybrid underwater vehicle that will eventually be able to operate both above and beneath the ocean’s surface. The Shearwater team developed existing design work to produce major subsystems that culminated in a flyable functioning prototype. An existing airframe was updated with working control surfaces tested in simulation and in practice, an electrical control system, and a working virtual reality (VR) pilot view. The Shearwater team tested a practical prototype and developed an optimized virtual reality command and control system

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]; pp 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

Comparison of 6-month outcomes of survivors of COVID-19 versus non–COVID-19 critical illness

Rationale: The outcomes of survivors of critical illness due to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) compared with non–COVID-19 are yet to be established. Objectives: We aimed to investigate new disability at 6 months in mechanically ventilated patients admitted to Australian ICUs with COVID-19 compared with non–COVID-19. Methods: We included critically ill patients with COVID-19 and non–COVID-19 from two prospective observational studies. Patients were eligible if they were adult (age ⩾ 18 yr) and received ⩾24 hours of mechanical ventilation. In addition, patients with COVID-19 were eligible with a positive laboratory PCR test for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Measurements and Main Results: Demographic, intervention, and hospital outcome data were obtained from electronic medical records. Survivors were contacted by telephone for functional outcomes with trained outcome assessors using the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0. Between March 6, 2020, and April 21, 2021, 120 critically ill patients with COVID-19, and between August 2017 and January 2019, 199 critically ill patients without COVID-19, fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Patients with COVID-19 were older (median [interquartile range], 62 [55–71] vs. 58 [44–69] yr; P = 0.019) with a lower Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score (17 [13–20] vs. 19 [15–23]; P = 0.011). Although duration of ventilation was longer in patients with COVID-19 than in those without COVID-19 (12 [5–19] vs. 4.8 [2.3–8.8] d; P \u3c 0.001), 180-day mortality was similar between the groups (39/120 [32.5%] vs. 70/199 [35.2%]; P = 0.715). The incidence of death or new disability at 180 days was similar (58/93 [62.4%] vs. 99/150 [66/0%]; P = 0.583). Conclusions: At 6 months, there was no difference in new disability for patients requiring mechanical ventilation for acute respiratory failure due to COVID-19 compared with non–COVID-19