Terra Incognita: Post-Traumatic Infrastructural Opportunism

In anticipation of the impending results of a world affected by climate change, architecture is now more than ever positioned to leverage its unique influence, communication, and power to fight problems that the world cannot see. Every day we turn a lamp on, start a car, or make a pot of coffee, we are engaging into a complex system of interacting with the world’s natural resources: fossil fuels. The United Nations, as of 2019, predicts we have but twelve years at most until climate change is irreversible. As the world runs out of time to cool down, global traumatic incidents such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes expose a brittle system of energy infrastructure all over the world- the resiliency of how we generate the energy we use is being scrutinized. Climate change is the ultimate global problem- so when our national systems of energy are restructured, readapted, and reorganized into new urban frameworks focused on multifunction, what happens to an urban future poised for sustainability instead of waste and excess? Mason White and Lola Sheppard of Lateral Office write that “infrastructures are in fact ecologies, or natural systems artificially supplemented.” Taking a speculative urbanism approach in exploration of the various forms and flows of infrastructure and its relationship to architecture, Terra Incognita creates a future of oil field inhabitation with LOCUS (Large Operative Clean Up System) Corporation in a world where coastal Los Angeles is no longer predicted to be inhabitable due to rising sea levels. LOCUS Missions celebrate new apparatuses for reclaiming the hinterlands from oil extraction. This thesis questions the role of current energy territorialization within Kern County, California, and provokes the 21st century energy transition and utopian playground of infrastructural ecology. The research addresses the environmental traumas related to petroleum and natural gas extraction in Kern County and its dynamic relationship with territory and urbanism through a series of provoking cartographic explorations, urban narratives, and computational speculations for a post carbon future. By questioning the role of systems thinking in large scale problems such as climate change, questions of design autonomy are raised in a world of where we might often neglect to study the systems, the “hidden substrate”, that are right under it. Through leveraging speculative urbanism and representational tactics, the research seeks to posit landscapes of energy as ones that are inherently connected to the growth and development of 21st century cities while also questioning the difference between how energy is currently utilized versus how energy ought to be utilized

Geographical variation in therapy for bloodstream infections due to multidrug-resistant enterobacteriaceae: a post hoc analysis of the INCREMENT study

We aimed to describe regional differences in therapy for bloodstream infection (BSI) caused by extended-spectrum ?-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (ESBL-E) or carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE). 1,482 patients in 12 countries were included from an observational study of BSI caused by ESBL-E or CPE. Multivariate logistic regression was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for the influence of country of recruitment on empirical use of ?-lactam/?-lactamase inhibitors (BLBLI) or carbapenems, targeted use of BLBLI for ESBL-E and use of targeted combination therapy for CPE. The use of BLBLI for empirical therapy was least likely in sites from Israel (aOR 0.34, 95% CI 0.14-0.81), Greece (aOR 0.49, 95% CI 0.26-0.94) and Canada (aOR 0.31, 95% CI 0.11-0.88) but more likely in Italy (aOR 1.58, 95% CI 1.11-2.2) and Turkey (aOR 2.09, 95% CI 1.14-3.81), compared to Spain as a reference. Empirical carbapenems were more likely to be used in sites from Taiwan (aOR 1.73, 95% CI 1.03-2.92) and USA (aOR 1.89; 95% CI 1.05-3.39), and less likely in Italy (aOR 0.44, 95% CI 0.28-0.69) and Canada (aOR 0.10, 95% CI 0.01-0.74). Targeted BLBLI for ESBL-E was more likely in sites from Italy. Treatment at sites within Israel, Taiwan, Turkey and Brazil was associated with less combination therapy for CPE. Although this study does not provide precise data on the relative prevalence of ESBL-E or CPE, significant variation in therapy exists across countries even after adjustment for patient factors. A better understanding of what influences therapeutic choices for these infections will aid antimicrobial stewardship efforts.PH is supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award from the University of Queensland. The study was funded by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Instituto de Salud Carlos III - co-financed by European Development Regional Fund "A way to achieve Europe" ERDF, Spanish Network for the Research in Infectious Diseases (REIPI RD12/0015). BGG, JRB, APH and YC also received funds from the COMBACTE-CARE project (grant agreement 115620), Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) and in-kind contributions from EFPIA companies

Comparison of Predictors and Mortality Between Bloodstream Infections Caused by ESBL-Producing Escherichia coli and ESBL-Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Comparison of the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and mortality of patients with bloodstream infections (BSI) caused by extended-spectrum \u3b2-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli (ESBL-EC) versus ESBL-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (ESBL-KP