The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the epidemiology of positive blood cultures in Swiss intensive care units: a nationwide surveillance study

Background Evidence about the impact of the pandemic of COVID-19 on the incidence rates of blood cultures contaminations and bloodstream infections in intensive care units (ICUs) remains scant. The objective of this study was to investigate the nationwide epidemiology of positive blood cultures drawn in ICUs during the first two pandemic waves of COVID-19 in Switzerland. Methods We analyzed data on positive blood cultures among ICU patients, prospectively collected through a nationwide surveillance system (ANRESIS), from March 30, 2020, to May 31, 2021, a 14-month timeframe that included a first wave of COVID-19, which affected the French and Italian-speaking regions, an interim period (summer 2020) and a second wave that affected the entire country. We used the number of ICU patient-days provided by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health as denominator to calculate incidence rates of blood culture contaminations and bloodstream infections (ICU-BSI). Incidence rate ratios comparing the interim period with the second wave were determined by segmented Poisson regression models. Results A total of 1099 blood culture contaminations and 1616 ICU-BSIs were identified in 52 ICUs during the study. Overall, more episodes of blood culture contaminations and ICU-BSI were observed during the pandemic waves, compared to the interim period. The proportions of blood culture contaminations and ICU-BSI were positively associated with the ICU occupancy rate, which was higher during the COVID-19 waves. During the more representative second wave (versus interim period), we observed an increased incidence of blood culture contaminations (IRR 1.57, 95% CI 1.16–2.12) and ICU-BSI (IRR 1.20, 95% CI 1.03–1.39). Conclusions An increase in blood culture contaminations and ICU-BSIs was observed during the second COVID-19 pandemic wave, especially in months when the ICU burden of COVID-19 patients was high.

Following in the Footsteps of Isabella Bird?

Alma Karlin (1889–1950), a round-the-world traveller, intellectual, and writer from Celje, Slovenia, arrived in Japan and lived in Tokyo in the early 1920s, an era which historians consider to be an interim period between the initial expansion of the Japanese Empire to mainland Asia and its end in 1945. The writer’s fascination with the land can be inferred, among other things, from a 35-page description of Japan and the Japanese in her most famous book, Einsame Weltreise. Die Tragödie einer Frau (The Odyssey of a Lonely Woman), and passages in Reiseskizzen (Travel Sketches), an earlier work. The article aims to place these travel accounts in the historical and ideological contexts of their time while highlighting some similarities and differences between the representations of the land and its people by Karlin and those by Isabella Bird (1831–1904). Although Karlin makes no explicit reference to the famous British traveller in her writing on Japan, the article demonstrates that she must have known about Bird’s book Unbeaten Tracks in Japan. It is, above all, her decision to introduce her (German) readers to topoi that were typical of Victorian women’s travel writing which suggests that Karlin partly based her image of Japan, if not even the itinerary of her journey there, on Bird’s bestselling work. Nevertheless, Karlin does not seem to have conformed to the then dominant orientalist discourses on Japan, her representations generally showing none of the Western arrogance that was so typical of her fellow travellers of both sexes.

PATRIOTISM in the Lithuanian Language

Patriotism as a phenomenon is not new and it has manifested itself in various ways. The roots of contemporary Lithuanian patriotism go back to the middle of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The available data from that period do not allow making any specific conclusions but it can be seen that the word patriotism was a relatively new in the beginning of the 20th c. Patriotism was best understood in the interim period between the two world wars, when an attitude started to form that own nation should not only be elevated distinguishing it from others but it is also something everybody has to be proud of. After Lithuania was incorporated into the Soviet Union, a new concept, i. e. soviet patriotism, emerged. This idea is based on internationalism, commitment to socialist order and solidarity of soviet nations. The attitude of a present-day Lithuanian to patriotism is reflected best in contemporary discourse. The issues of love for Homeland have been frequently discussed not only by political analysts or historians but also by representatives of arts and sports. Moreover, the media have frequently discussed issues, which are not characteristic of real patriotisms or even have raised some doubts about patriotism being an exaggerated phenomenon. However, comprehensive research studies on patriotism are few. The concept of patriotism has almost escaped the research focus of linguists. Therefore, an attempt will be made to bridge the gap in linguistic research analysing the data available in dictionaries, discourses and surveys. It can be stated that a contemporary individual tends to nurture the same values as people in the interim period. These embraces work for the sake of homeland and nation, concern about its future and welfare, nurturance of homeland and the mother tongue, culture and history. Loyalty, gratefulness, nostalgia to homeland, attachment to the land of their birth, honesty, courage, freedom, responsibility and pride are assigned to patriotism. Patriotism implies defence of own country in the hour of peril. This is particularly emphasised in the historical discourse, where defence of own country is one of the prevailing motives, and in the surveys of students. Contemporary discourse allocates less attention to this issue. Patriotism is related to acknowledgement of the country’s mistakes, promoting its name and celebration of public holidays. Patriotism can hardly be imagined without knowledge of the national history, culture, its heroes and prominent figures. The data from both discourses and surveys allow claiming that patriotism is perceived as a feeling or feelings, an inner state or a value. In fact, it can be stated that though patriotism is not an old concept, which replaced such concepts as ethnicity and love for homeland, the view of patriotism, which formed at the end of the 19th c. and in the beginning of the 20th c., has remained the same up to now.

Genetic Carrier Screening for Cystic Fibrosis, Fragile X Syndrome, Hemoglobinopathies, and Spinal Muscular Atrophy

People generally describe wanting access to carrier screening because knowing about the risk of passing along a genetic condition is considered important and supportive of their desires to be prepared. In the context of expanded carrier screening programs, this could mean that an increased number of people would want to access these programs. Supporting people who are considering carrier screening can be challenging and is likely to be more involved than simply sharing high-level descriptive information about testing details and potential outcomes. Descriptive information is important to help people understand the screening process and the types of results that could emerge from testing; however, programs might be more supportive of informed decision-making if the providers take a proactive role and are open to facilitating speculative conversations about potential ramifications in people’s actual lives. This is challenging given the expressed desire by health care providers, clinical geneticists in particular, to provide “neutral information” that patients would not experience as prescriptive. Given the challenge of supporting people making decisions about whether or not to pursue carrier screening, and the likely increase in people who would consider carrier screening if targeted programs were expanded to population-level screening, it is important to ensure that health care providers are both aware of jurisdictional carrier screening programs and competent in what carrier screening can offer their patients in terms of clinical actionability. Although this is particularly true for general practitioners who are often the primary point of contact with the health care system for their patients, it is also important for people who work in family planning clinics and women’s health clinics. Having the option to engage with carrier screening at the preconception stage was universally preferred by participants across the included studies. Compared with prenatal carrier screening, preconception carrier screening was seen as providing prospective parents with more reproductive options. Health care providers were concerned that offering carrier screening during pregnancy might lead pregnant people and their partners to confuse it with other prenatal testing which would limit people’s ability to be truly informed before deciding whether or not to pursue screening. However, if offered as a prenatal option, most people consider it important to do so as early as possible because it could be paired with other prenatal tests. Although not referred to specifically by any of the included studies, we note that offering carrier screening prenatally rather than at preconception, could place the responsibility to make the decision on cisgender women and non-binary or transgender people with uteruses. Sequentially designed carrier screening programs were the most common across the included studies; however, people moving through programs with this design found the interim period between receiving their positive carrier results and receiving their partners’ results difficult. This was particularly true for people who were already pregnant because this interim period forced them to reimagine both their relationship with the fetus and the future they had imagined with that child. Of course, this reimagining might be necessary if both partners’ screening results came back positive for the condition in question, but to stagger the return of the results could put undue anxiety on potential parents. Carrier screening will not affect everyone in the same way, and reproductive decision-making will still be complex and difficult. As such, the opportunity to engage with genetic counsellors on reproductive options following positive carrier status result is considered valuable.

Big Five Predictors of Pandemic-Related Behavior and Emotions in the First and Second COVID-19 Pandemic Wave in Slovakia

This study explores the effect of Big Five personality traits on behavioral and emotional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Personality traits of 248 Slovak persons were assessed twice before the pandemic using the Big Five Inventory 2. Behavioral and emotional responses to the pandemic were collected during the first and second pandemic wave (April and September 2020). The results showed a statistically significant decrease in all response domains and in COVID-19 fear between the first and the second pandemic wave, suggesting that psychological adaptation to the pandemic occurred during the interim period. The results identified several meaningful links between the traits and pandemic-related behavior and emotions, especially for neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness. However, the effects of personality were higher for the first pandemic wave, suggesting that these effects vary across time probably because of changes in pandemic perception in the society.

4 Appointment of a Provisional Liquidator

The chapter discusses various aspects of appointing a provisional liquidator. A provisional liquidator of a company may be appointed by the court under the Insolvency Act 1986 (IA 1986), s 135 at any time after the making of an application for a bank insolvency order. Provisional liquidators are independent persons operating under the direction of the court for a purpose that is one entirely of preservation during an interim period. He/she will take charge of the company’s affairs, maintain the status quo and prevent prejudice either to those supporting the winding-up petition or to those against it, pending the court’s decision on the petition. He/she terminates the powers of its directors as effectively as does the making of a winding-up order. The appointment terminates the actual authority of all the company’s agents, but the authority of an agent is not terminated until the agent has notice of the appointment of the provisional liquidator.

The Molecular Turn, Predictive Technologies and Diagnostic Fragmentation: An Interview with David Armstrong

Alan Petersen (AP) and Kiran Pienaar (KP): Thank you, David, for agreeing to share your perspectives in this interview. It is a pleasure and honour to have this opportunity to engage with your insights and scholarly contributions on surveillance medicine and the sociology of diagnosis. Looking back to your early contributions on surveillance medicine, these seem to anticipate recent diagnostic trends. What, if anything, has changed in the interim period?

Economic Provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement

The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) contained a detailed economic blueprint for the “New Sudan”. The provisions of the Wealth Sharing Protocol established institutions and laid out principles to address key issues, including: oil sector management and the sharing of oil revenue; ownership and tenure of land; fiscal decentralisation; transparency and accountability; development and external assistance; currency and banking; and debt. During the Pre-Interim period and the Interim period, these provisions were implemented very selectively. This chapter looks at which parts of the economic agreement were prioritised and which sidelined, and weighs up alternative explanations for these choices. In particular, it assesses whether they can be attributed to the drafting of the original agreement (for example, because key clauses were dictated by outsiders, or had inadequate enforcement mechanisms), or to the changing interests of the parties and observers during implementation. It then considers how far the specific economic provisions and institutions established under the CPA had long-term consequences, whether positive or negative, for the two countries of Sudan and South Sudan, during the 2011 secession and beyond. The aim is to establish lessons that might contribute to the realistic design of future peace settlements.