Shaping Our Australian Scenographic Identities: A visual essay

In the form of a visual essay, this reflection charts a course through eight specific moments in Australian performance design history. Selected by guest editor Tessa Rixon, this essay features contributions from Australia’s most established designers from sound, lighting and costume through to the latest in performance design practice and research. Specially curated for this special edition on Australian scenography, each contributor reflects on a personal experience of a pivotal performance design from their own practice or their experience as an audience member. The resulting contributions present a mix of design forms and focuses, across all forms of live performance – mainstage theatre, independent site-specific performance, queer theatre, Indigenous theatre, Indigenous dance, scenography for performance beyond the stage frame, performance in response to the climate crisis and finally, a few pivotal stepping stones in our national scenographic identity – from the very personal, to the very global. These exemplars of design practice shape what we now could call Australian scenography.

Planned surgery in the COVID-19 pandemic: a prospective cohort study from Nottingham

Purpose Globally planned surgical procedures have been deferred during the current COVID-19 pandemic. The study aimed to report the outcomes of planned urgent and cancer cases during the current pandemic using a multi-disciplinary prioritisation group. Methods A prospective cohort study of patients having urgent or cancer surgery at a NHS Trust from 1st March to 30th April 2020 who had been prioritised by a multi-disciplinary COVID Surgery group. Rates of post-operative PCR positive and suspected COVID-19 infections within 30 days, 30-day mortality and any death related to COVID-19 are reported. Results Overall 597 patients underwent surgery with a median age of 65 years (interquartile range (IQR) 54–74 years). Of these, 86.1% (514/597) had a current cancer diagnosis. During the period, 60.8% (363/597) of patients had surgery at the NHS Trust whilst 39.2% (234/597) had surgery at Independent Sector hospitals. The incidence of COVID-19 in the East Midlands was 193.7 per 100,000 population during the study period. In the 30 days following surgery, 1.3% (8/597) of patients tested positive for COVID-19 with all cases at the NHS site. Overall 30-day mortality was 0.7% (4/597). Following a PCR positive COVID-19 diagnosis, mortality was 25.0% (2/8). Including both PCR positive and suspected cases, 3.0% (18/597) developed COVID-19 infection with 1.3% at the independent site compared to 4.1% at the NHS Trust (p=0.047). Conclusions Rates of COVID-19 infection in the post-operative period were low especially in the Independent Sector site. Mortality following a post-operative diagnosis of COVID-19 was high.

998 Utilisation of A “COVID-Free” Hospital in The Independent Sector - Endourology Service Provision and Outcomes During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction COVID-19 may negatively affect peri-operative outcomes, requiring strategies to allow operating whilst minimising risk. We present our endourology service provision throughout the “lockdown” period. Method Endourological operations 23rd March to 11th May 2020 were designated to the base hospital or independent “green” site by urgency and comorbidity status. Base hospital emergencies underwent surgery in main theatres, whilst elective patients had dedicated “COVID-free” theatres and wards. A portable Holmium laser enabled lasertripsy at the independent site. After 27th April, elective cases required a negative swab and 2-week self-isolation pre-operatively. Results 70 operations were performed: 42 ureteroscopies, 20 stent procedures, 8 PCNLs. Mean age was 57 and 58 at base and independent sites respectively, mean ASA 2.1 and 1.9. 37 operations (53%) occurred at the base hospital, including 14 emergencies (38%). 19 patients received post-operative COVID-19 swabs: 3 positives (8%), all emergencies. 2 patients (5%) died of COVID-19 pneumonia within 35 days; both had negative pre-operative swabs. Of 33 patients at the independent site, 3 (9%) received post-operative swabs, all negative. None had COVID-19 symptoms post-operatively. Conclusions “COVID-free” hospitals, wards and theatres enable elective operating whilst minimising peri-operative virus risk. Further utilisation of independent hospitals would more safely allow operating throughout the pandemic.

335 Planned Surgery in the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Prospective Cohort Study from Nottingham

Introduction Globally planned surgical procedures were deferred during the current COVID-19 pandemic. We aim to report planned urgent and cancer case outcomes during the pandemic using a multi-disciplinary prioritisation group. Method Prospective cohort of patients prioritised by a multi-disciplinary COVID Surgery group undergoing urgent or cancer surgery at a NHS Trust from 1st March-30th April 2020. 30-day post-operative rates of PCR positive and suspected COVID-19 infections, 30-day mortality and COVID-19 related deaths are reported. Results During the period, 597 patients underwent surgery, median age 65-years (interquartile range 54-74) of which 86% (514/597) had a cancer diagnosis. 61% (362/597) had surgery at the NHS Trust whilst 39% (234/597) had surgery at Independent Sector hospitals. The COVID-19 incidence in the East Midlands was 193.7 per 100,000 population. 30-days following surgery, 1.3% (8/597) tested COVID-19 positive with all cases at the NHS site. 30-day mortality was 0.7% (4/597). Mortality following PCR positive COVID-19 diagnosis was 25% (2/8). Including PCR positive and suspected cases 3.0% (18/597) developed COVID-19 infection, 1.3% at the independent site compared to 4.1% at the NHS Trust (p = 0.047). Conclusions Rates of COIVD-19 infection in the post-operative period were low especially in the Independent Sector site. Mortality following a post-operative diagnosis of COVID-19 was high.

A toolkit to generate inducible and interconvertible Drosophila transgenes

ABSTRACTThe existence of three independent binary systems for conditional gene expression (Gal4/UAS; LexA/LexAop; QF/QUAST) has greatly expanded versatile genetic analyses in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster; however, the experimental application of these tools is limited by the need to generate multiple collections of non-interchangeable transgenic fly strains for each inducible gene expression system. To address this practical limitation, we developed a multipurpose modular vector that contains the regulatory elements from all three binary systems, enabling Gal4-, LexA- or QF-dependent expression of transgenes. Our methods also incorporate DNA elements that facilitate independent site-specific recombination and elimination of regulatory UAS, LexAop or QUAST modules with spatial and temporal control, thus offering unprecedented possibilities and logistical advantages for in vivo genetic modulation and efficient interconversion of transgenic fly lines.

Enhancing multi-center generalization of machine learning-based depression diagnosis from resting-state fMRI

Resting-state fMRI has the potential to find abnormal behavior in brain activity and to diagnose patients with depression. However, resting-state fMRI has a bias depending on the scanner site, which makes it difficult to diagnose depression at a new site. In this paper, we propose methods to improve the performance of the diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD) at an independent site by reducing the site bias effects using regression. For this, we used a subgroup of healthy subjects of the independent site to regress out site bias. We further improved the classification performance of patients with depression by focusing on melancholic depressive disorder. Our proposed methods would be useful to apply depression classifiers to subjects at completely new sites.

Percolation of Words on Zd with Long-Range Connections

Consider an independent site percolation model on Zd, with parameter p ∈ (0, 1), where all long-range connections in the axis directions are allowed. In this work we show that, given any parameter p, there exists an integer K(p) such that all binary sequences (words) ξ ∈ {0, 1}N can be seen simultaneously, almost surely, even if all connections with length larger than K(p) are suppressed. We also show some results concerning how K(p) should scale with p as p goes to 0. Related results are also obtained for the question of whether or not almost all words are seen.