Writing across a Pandemic

Letter from the editors introducing Volume 2 of Writing across the University of Alberta.

Descending the Mountain: Exploring the Impact of Research on Pedagogy and Practice

Conference Report to the virtual Scientific conference of the International Association for Physical Education in Higher Education (AIESEP) 2021 hosted by the University of Alberta and McGill University (Banff, Canada).

184. Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia Management and Outcomes Following Infectious Disease Consult Over Time at a Tertiary Care Center in Canada

Background Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Infectious disease consultation (IDC) is associated with increased adherence to guideline management and improved patient outcomes. We describe the IDC rate over time and impact of IDC on the management and outcomes of patients with SAB. Methods This retrospective chart review includes adult patients (≥ 18 years) hospitalized at the University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Canada who had at least 1 blood culture growing Staphylococcus aureus during two time periods (A: Jan 2010 to Dec 2012; B: Jan to Oct 2020). Patients who died or were made palliative within 48hrs following bacteremia were excluded. Descriptive statistics were used to compare appropriateness of SAB management and outcomes in patients receiving IDC and those who did not (NIDC). Results 325 patients in period A and 129 in period B were included. Baseline demographics were similar. IDC rate increased from 63% to 88% (p< 0.001) between the study periods. IDC was associated with increased odds of receiving an echocardiogram (OR=3.56, 95% CI 2.22 – 5.57; OR=20.4, 95% 4.13 – 110.6, p< 0.001) and appropriate duration of antimicrobial therapy (OR=6.74, 95% 3.93 – 11.54; OR=43.2, 95% 5.72 – 529.5, p< 0.001) between study periods. Mean length of stay decreased in patients receiving IDC (44.8 vs 28.1 days, p=0.005) and increased in NIDC patients (19.9 vs 28.7 days, p=0.216). IDC was associated with lower 30-day mortality in period A (OR=3.53, 95% 1.95 – 6.36), however this association was not observed in period B (OR=1.43, 95% 0.40 – 5.56). There was a trend towards decreased odds of mortality in patients receiving early IDC (≤2 days from bacteremia, n=65) compared to late IDC (≥3 days from bacteremia, n=45) (OR=2.59, 95% 0.95 – 7.10, p=0.077). Conclusion Our centre’s IDC rate for SAB increased over time without specific intervention. IDC increased the odds of appropriate SAB management and was associated with decreased length of stay in period B. IDC was associated with lower 30-day mortality in period A and trended towards lower mortality in period B. Specifically, early IDC decreased odds of 30-day mortality compared to late IDC. These results suggest that routine early IDC be part of SAB management. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

Abstracts of poster presentations at the 2021 virtual annual of the Canadian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences.

In 2021, the Canadian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences (CSPS) partnered with he Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (PSJ) and the Canadian Chapter of Controlled Release Society (CC-CRS) and presented its annual matting in virtual style. Keynote speakers included Professor Michael Houghton – 2020 Nobel Laureate, Director of Li Ka Shing Applied Virology Institute (LKSAVI), Professor, Department of Medical Microbiology & Immunology, University of Alberta and Professor Yoshiharu Matsuura, Director, Center for Infectious Diseases Education and Research (CIDER), Osaka University, Japan.

Featuring Torah Kachur

Dr. Torah Kachur is a passionate science communicator, as a science columnist for CBC Radio and co-creator of scienceinseconds.com, and a lecturer at the University of Alberta and MacEwan University. In this interview, Dr. Kachur told Eureka about her background in science and beyond, motivations as a scientist, and her perspective on the role of communication in science.

Notes from the field: Three Wikimedian-in-Residence case studies

When the University of Alberta Library hired its first Wikimedian-in-Residence (WIR) in 2019, the team had difficulty finding detailed information about how to plan for a WIR and set up the role for success. This chapter details two Wikipedia residencies that served as a guide for the Alberta team in building their WIR project. Case studies of the University of Toronto and Concordia University in Montréal are presented alongside a case study of the University of Alberta. Each study includes details about how the role was approved and funded, how hiring decisions were made, how the WIR focused their efforts, and the impact at their institution. Together, these three examples demonstrate the variety of options for funding and hiring a WIR role and for the focus of the WIR’s work in their term. The chapter poses concrete questions for librarians considering implementing a WIR role at their institution and offers recommendations from each WIR experience as guidance in answering those questions.

STITCHING THE CURVE: PANDEMIC CRAFT AND FEMINIST DATA VISUALIZATION

Feminist scholars are increasingly drawing attention to the ways “big data” and data representations reinscribe gender and racial inequality, an issue made even more pressing by the role data has taken in our daily lives since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. "Stitching the Curve," a knitted pandemic data visualization project by librarians at the University of Alberta, offers an intersection between digital activism and craftivism, enabling a material, feminist response to an erasure and minimization of collective loss. We examine the media coverage around the project, which includes the online blogs of the project’s participants. Using critical technocultural discourse analysis (CTDA) as a guiding methodology, we consider simultaneously the feminist, activist framing and the influence of material and digital platforms on the cultural influence of the work (Brock 2018). Blogging and knitting are frequently associated with craft and writing as an expression of the domestic and personal, relegated to a feminine and, consequently, minimized space of care and labor. Through a critical technocultural discourse analysis of Stitching the Curve, we understand how the project makes a powerful statement in representing not only the oft-dismissed human cost of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also uses mediums of representation that challenge patriarchal “big data” collection and representational practices. Stitching the Curve makes data visualization a rhetoric of care.

FLEdGE (Food: Locally Embedded, Globally Engaged) Partnership

The Food: Locally Embedded, Globally Engaged (FLEdGE) SSHRC-funded Partnership has deep roots in relationships developed over time among academics and community-based practitioners. FLEdGE emerged from community-driven research in Ontario on food hubs and community resilience dating from 2010. From there it expanded to include seven research nodes across Canada and three thematic international working groups, with over 90 researchers, students, and community partners involved in the project. As a multi-institutional project, FLEdGE has nodes in British Columbia (Kwantlen Polytechnic University)/Alberta (University of Alberta), Northwest Territories (Wilfrid Laurier University), northern Ontario (Lakehead University), eastern Ontario (Carleton University), southern Ontario (Wilfrid Laurier University; University of Guelph; University of Waterloo); Quebec (McGill University; Dawson College); and Atlantic Canada (Dalhousie University; Carleton University). There are two or more lead researchers in each node, typically from different disciplines and several community partners in each node. In this way, FLEdGE branched out to include more than 90 partners and collaborators.