22 research outputs found

    The impact of a hand hygiene workshop on improving the knowledge of hand hygiene of medical students

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    Introduction and Objectives: Knowledge of hand hygiene is important for medical students. The aim of this study was to compare the knowledge before and after a workshop on hand hygiene held for medical students at the Faculty of Medicine, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Sri Lanka.Methods: A self-administered, pre-tested validated questionnaire, based on hand hygiene guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), was distributed among the medical students before and after conducting a workshop on hand hygiene.Results were assessed by comparing the current guidelines set by the WHO with the knowledge of hand hygiene among the medical students.Results: All 177 students participated in the study before conducting the workshop. There were 104 (58.8%) preclinical and 73 (41.2%) clinical students. Of the 104 preclinical students, the percentage who knew the importance of “My five moments for hand hygiene” approach (hand hygiene before direct contact with patients, after direct contact with patients, before clean/aseptic procedures, after contact with blood/body fluid and after contact with patient’s surrounding) before conducting the workshop were 53.8%, 67.3%, 51.0%, 88.5% and 34.6% respectively. Of the 73 clinical students, the percentage who knew the importance of the “My five moments for hand hygiene” approach before conducting the workshop were 49.3%, 63.0%, 87.7%, 94.5% and 27.4% respectively. Of the 112 students who participated in the workshop, there were 68 (60.7%) preclinical and 44 (39.3%) clinical students. Of the 68 preclinical students, 77.9%, 79.4%, 91.2%, 95.6% and 70.6% knew the importance of the “My five moments for hand hygiene” approach post workshop. Post workshop, the percentage of the 44 clinical students who knew the importance of “My five moments for hand hygiene” approach were 90.9%, 88.6%, 93.2%, 97.7% and 81.8% respectively.Conclusions: The pre workshop knowledge of hand hygiene among the two categories of medical students was not satisfactory. The knowledge on each component of “My five moments for hand hygiene” concept improved to more than 70% after conducting the workshop. </p

    Elective Cancer Surgery in COVID-19-Free Surgical Pathways During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: An International, Multicenter, Comparative Cohort Study.

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    PURPOSE: As cancer surgery restarts after the first COVID-19 wave, health care providers urgently require data to determine where elective surgery is best performed. This study aimed to determine whether COVID-19-free surgical pathways were associated with lower postoperative pulmonary complication rates compared with hospitals with no defined pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This international, multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent elective surgery for 10 solid cancer types without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Participating hospitals included patients from local emergence of SARS-CoV-2 until April 19, 2020. At the time of surgery, hospitals were defined as having a COVID-19-free surgical pathway (complete segregation of the operating theater, critical care, and inpatient ward areas) or no defined pathway (incomplete or no segregation, areas shared with patients with COVID-19). The primary outcome was 30-day postoperative pulmonary complications (pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, unexpected ventilation). RESULTS: Of 9,171 patients from 447 hospitals in 55 countries, 2,481 were operated on in COVID-19-free surgical pathways. Patients who underwent surgery within COVID-19-free surgical pathways were younger with fewer comorbidities than those in hospitals with no defined pathway but with similar proportions of major surgery. After adjustment, pulmonary complication rates were lower with COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.2% v 4.9%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.86). This was consistent in sensitivity analyses for low-risk patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade 1/2), propensity score-matched models, and patients with negative SARS-CoV-2 preoperative tests. The postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection rate was also lower in COVID-19-free surgical pathways (2.1% v 3.6%; aOR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.76). CONCLUSION: Within available resources, dedicated COVID-19-free surgical pathways should be established to provide safe elective cancer surgery during current and before future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks

    Elective cancer surgery in COVID-19-free surgical pathways during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: An international, multicenter, comparative cohort study

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    PURPOSE As cancer surgery restarts after the first COVID-19 wave, health care providers urgently require data to determine where elective surgery is best performed. This study aimed to determine whether COVID-19–free surgical pathways were associated with lower postoperative pulmonary complication rates compared with hospitals with no defined pathway. PATIENTS AND METHODS This international, multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent elective surgery for 10 solid cancer types without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Participating hospitals included patients from local emergence of SARS-CoV-2 until April 19, 2020. At the time of surgery, hospitals were defined as having a COVID-19–free surgical pathway (complete segregation of the operating theater, critical care, and inpatient ward areas) or no defined pathway (incomplete or no segregation, areas shared with patients with COVID-19). The primary outcome was 30-day postoperative pulmonary complications (pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, unexpected ventilation). RESULTS Of 9,171 patients from 447 hospitals in 55 countries, 2,481 were operated on in COVID-19–free surgical pathways. Patients who underwent surgery within COVID-19–free surgical pathways were younger with fewer comorbidities than those in hospitals with no defined pathway but with similar proportions of major surgery. After adjustment, pulmonary complication rates were lower with COVID-19–free surgical pathways (2.2% v 4.9%; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.62; 95% CI, 0.44 to 0.86). This was consistent in sensitivity analyses for low-risk patients (American Society of Anesthesiologists grade 1/2), propensity score–matched models, and patients with negative SARS-CoV-2 preoperative tests. The postoperative SARS-CoV-2 infection rate was also lower in COVID-19–free surgical pathways (2.1% v 3.6%; aOR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.36 to 0.76). CONCLUSION Within available resources, dedicated COVID-19–free surgical pathways should be established to provide safe elective cancer surgery during current and before future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks

    Climate Change Impacts on Rice Farming Systems in Northwestern Sri Lanka

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    Sri Lanka has achieved tremendous progress since 1950 in crop production and food availability. Yields grew at an impressive rate until leveling off in the mid-eighties. Sri Lanka's population is anticipated to grow in the coming decades, creating an ever-greater demand for food security on the household, sub-district, regional, and national scales.The agricultural sector in Sri Lanka is vulnerable to climate shocks. An unusual succession of droughts and floods from 2008 to 2014 has led to both booms and busts in agricultural production, which were reflected in food prices. In both instances, the majority of farmers and consumers were adversely affected.At present the rice-farming systems are under stress due to inadequate returns for the farmers and difficulty in coping with shocks due to climate, pests, and diseases, and prices for produce. There are government price-support mechanisms, fertilizer-subsidy schemes, and crop insurance schemes, but the levels of the supports are modest and often do not effectively reach the farmers

    Outcomes from elective colorectal cancer surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

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    This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

    Spectroscopic and electrochemical investigation of interactions between metal Cr(VI) and Thiram (Tetramethylthiuram disulfide)

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    Evidences for the presence of interactions between a widely used fungicide called thiram and Cr(VI) ions have been obtained by an electrochemical and spectroscopic approach. The highest absorbance (894 nm) and the peak current (Cyclic Voltammetry) have been detected when the equimolar-concentrated solutions of thiram and Cr(VI) were mixed in the ratio of 2:1. The interactions in the aforementioned mixture were further confirmed by FTIR studies

    Tetrahydrobenzochromene Synthesis Enabled by a Deconjugative Alkylation/Tsuji–Saegusa–Ito Oxidation on Knoevenagel Adducts

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    A modular and practical route to versatile cyano-1,3-dienes by a sequence involving deconjugative alkylation and “Tsuji–Saegusa–Ito oxidation” is reported. In this letter, the versatility of the products is also explored, including a route to benzochromene scaffolds common to many natural products

    Generic framework for multi-disciplinary trajectory optimization of aircraft and power plant integrated systems

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    Engineering improvements, technology enhancements and advanced operations have an important role to play in reducing aviation fuel consumption and environmental emissions. Currently several organizations worldwide are focusing their efforts towards large collaborative projects whose main objective is to identify the best technologies or routes to reduce the environmental impact and fuel efficiency of aircraft operations. The paper describes the capability of a multi-disciplinary optimization framework named GATAC (Green Aircraft Trajectories under ATM Constrains) developed as part of the Clean Sky project to identify the potential cleaner and quieter aircraft trajectories

    A 65 nm CMOS broadband self-calibrated power detector for the square kilometre array radio telescope

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    In this study, a 65 nm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) broadband self-calibrated high-sensitivity power detector for use in the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the next-generation high-sensitivity radio telescope, is presented. The power detector calibration is performed by adjusting voltages at the bulk terminals of the input transistors to compensate for mismatches in the output voltages because of process, voltage and temperature variations. Measurements show that the power detector, preceded by an input power-match circuit with 6 dB gain, has an input signal range from −48 to −11 dBm over which a 0.95 dB maximum error in the detected power is observed when the calibration rate is 20 kHz. The proposed broadband power detector has a 3 dB upper band edge of 1.8 GHz, which adequately covers the midband SKA frequency range from 0.7 to 1.4 GHz. The settling time and the calibration time are both <5 ÎŒs. The circuit consumes 1.2 mW from a 1.2 V power supply and the input-match circuit consumes another 5.8 mW. The presented power detector achieves the best combination of the detection range and sensitivity of previously published circuits
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