bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
666Impact of local left atrial wall thickness on the incidence of acute pulmonary vein reconnection after ablation index-guided ablation
Authors: Mulder M J , Kemme M J B , Hopman L H G A , Hauer H A , Tahapary G J M , Gotte M J W , Van Rossum A C , Allaart C P
Published: June 2020

Background/Introduction

Pulmonary vein reconnection is considered a major determinant of atrial fibrillation (AF) recurrence after pulmonary vein isolation (PVI). Ablation Index (AI)-guided ablation allows for the creation of ablation lesions of consistent depth and may reduce the incidence of pulmonary vein reconnection after PVI. However, anatomical and imaging studies have demonstrated an important inter- and intra-patient variability of left atrial wall thickness, which can result in non-transmural ablation lesion formation in thicker segments.

Purpose

The present study aimed to investigate the impact of local left atrial wall thickness on the incidence of acute pulmonary vein reconnection after AI-guided AF ablation.

Methods

Consecutive AF patients who underwent cardiac computed tomography (CT) imaging prior to AI-guided ablation between December 2017 and September 2019 were studied. AI targets were 500 for anterior/roof and 380 for posterior/inferior segments with a maximum interlesion distance of 6 mm. Occurrence of acute pulmonary vein reconnection after initial PVI was assessed after a 30-minute waiting period. Ablation procedures were analysed offline to determine minimum AI, force-time integral, contact force, ablation duration, power, impedance drop and maximum interlesion distance for each segment according to a 16-segment model. Pulmonary vein antrum wall thickness was assessed for each segment on reconstructed CT images based on patient-specific thresholds in Hounsfield Units, using a previously described method.

Results

Seventy patients (63% paroxysmal AF, 67% male, mean age 63 ± 8 years) who underwent preprocedural CT imaging and AI-guided AF ablation were studied. Acute reconnection (AR) occurred in 27/1152 segments (2%, 15 anterior/roof, 12 posterior/inferior) in 17/70 (24%) patients. Anterior/roof segments were thicker than posterior/inferior segments (1.48 [1.23-1.80] vs. 1.13 [1.00-1.30] mm; p < 0.01). Reconnected segments were characterised by a greater local atrial wall thickness, both in anterior/roof (1.83 [1.60-2.00] vs. 1.47 [1.20-1.80] mm; p < 0.01) and posterior/inferior (1.38 [1.25-1.50] vs. 1.13 [1.00-1.27] mm; p < 0.01) segments (Figure 1). Minimum AI, force-time integral, contact force, ablation duration, power, impedance drop and maximum interlesion distance were not associated with acute pulmonary vein reconnection.

Conclusion

Local atrial wall thickness is associated with acute pulmonary vein reconnection after AI-guided PVI. Individualised AI targets based on local wall thickness may be of use to create transmural ablation lesions and prevent pulmonary vein reconnection after PVI.

Abstract Figure. Impact of wall thickness on reconnection
P1001Efficacy of ranolazine for the prevention of atrial fibrillation in high-risk patients with chronic coronary syndrome and hypertension
Authors: Alyavi A L , Alyavi B A , Uzokov J , Abdullaev A X
Published: June 2020

Background

Ranolazine currently is used to relief angina symptoms in patients with chronic coronary syndrome (CCS). Additional its anti-angina effect it has been showing antiarrhythmic effect by predominantly inhibiting late sodium and rapid potassium rectifier current. We aimed to assess the efficacy of ranolazine for the prevention of atrial fibrillation (AF) in high-risk patients older than 60 years with CCS at least >5 years and hypertension.

Methods

264 older high-risk patients (>60 years) with CCS and hypertension were prospectively enrolled (mean age was 66 ± 11.5 years, male 48%). Among them 132 patients have received additional ranolazine to the standard therapy while control group patients (n = 132) have received only standard therapy. Mean follow-up period was 5.0 ± 4.6 years. All statistical analyzes was performed using one sample student t-test.

Results

Initial baseline characteristics of patients were not statistically different. During the follow-up period in 8.3 % (n = 11) of patents have occurred MACE (AMI, PCI, CABG, death) in ranolazine group vs. in 9.8% (n = 13) of patients in the control group (P > 0.05). During the follow-up AF (paroxysmal and persistent) was developed significantly lower in ranolizine group than standard group (respectively: 13.6 % vs.18 percentage; P < 0.05). Sinus rhythm was recovered in the higher percent of patients in ranolazine group than standard group after cardioversion (89% vs. 79%, P < 0.05). Conclusion: Adding ranolazine to the standard treatment seems to have a beneficial role for the prevention of AF in high-risk patients with CCS and hypertension.
P1373Assessment of atrial fibrillation cryoablation outcomes in patients with diabetes
Authors: Sener Y Z , Oksul M , Akkaya F , Ates A H , Canpolat U , Yorgun H , Aytemir K
Published: June 2020

Background

Diabetes is related with both AF occurence and increased thromboembolic risk. There is scarce data about the outcomes of AF catheter ablation in patients with diabetes.

Purpose

We aimed to evaluate outcomes of AF catheter ablation in patients with diabetes.

Methods

All patients underwent AF cryoablation between January 2013 and January 2018 were included .  

Results

A total of 493 patients were enrolled. Mean age was 59.6 ± 11.8 years and 253 (51.3 %) patients were female. Median follow up time was 28 (6-59) months. Recurrence occured in 61 (12.4%) patients. Diabetes was present in 78 (16%) cases. Mean HbA1c value of the diabetic patients was 6.79 ± 1.02 %. 50 (64.1 %) patients was under treatment with only oral antidiabetics while others were using insulin. Diabetic group was older (p < 0.001) and hypertension prevalance was significantly higher in diabetics(p < 0.001). Complication and recurrence rates were similar between the two groups (Table-1). Subgroup analysis revealed that there was not significant difference by AF recurrence between not only patients treated with OAD alone and treated with insulin but also patients with HbA1c value <7 and HbA1c value ≥7 (p = 0.064).

Conclusion

Recurrence and complication rates were similar between diabetic and non-diabetic patients. Despite neuropathy is a well known manifestation of diabetes; phrenic nerve damage rate is similar in diabetic patients with non-diabetic counterparts.

Table-1 Diabetic group (n = 78) Non-diabetic group (n = 415) p value Age, (years) 64.38 ±10.12 58.91 ±11.84 <0.001* Gender, female (%) 45 (57 %) 207 (49.8 %) 0.267 Follow up, (months) 29.5 (6-59) 28 (6-58) 0.987 Hypertension, n (%) 57 (73%) 191 (46 %) <0.001 StrokeTIA, n(%) 4 (5.1 %) 8 (1.9 %) 0.104 Coronary artery disease, n (%) 39 (50 %) 176 (42.4 %) 0.242 AF type, Paroxysmal, (%) 65.7 % 71% 0.367 LV EF, % 59.81 ± 8.44 61.82 ± 6.89 0.027* LV end diastolic diameter, cm 4.90 ± 0.49 4.82 ± 0.46 0.160 LA diameter, cm 3.88 ± 0.51 3.81± 0.58 0.361 Recurrence 8 (10.2 %) 53 (12.7 %) 0.708 Phrenic nerve damage, n (%) 0 (0 %) 17 (4.1 %) 0.088 Inguinal hematoma, n (%) 7 (8.9%) 44 (10.6 %) 0.647 Pseudoaneurysm, n(%) 1 ( 1.2%) 3 ( 0.7 %) 0.502 Comparison of diabetic and non-diabetic patients
P320Prevalence of QRS 120 to 150 ms and QRS more than or equal to 150 ms from patients with left ventricular ejection fraction less than or equal to 35% in sinus rhythm and left bundle branch block
Authors: Beltejar L
Published: June 2020

Introduction

To date, no study in published literature has investigated the prevalence of patients with QRS ≥120 ms (ESC/EHRA Guidelines) and QRS ≥150 ms (ACC/AHA/HRS Guidelines) from patients with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤35% in sinus rhythm (SR) with left bundle branch block (LBBB) morphology, both said QRS durations were included in the criteria of Class I indication for cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) implantation.

Purpose

To determine the prevalence of patients with QRS 120-150 ms and QRS ≥150 ms from patients with LVEF ≤35% in SR and LBBB, to classify these patients to ischaemic cardiomyopathy (ICM) and nonischaemic cardiomyopathy (NICM), and to determine their demographics in terms of age, sex, and comorbidities

Methods

This is a cross-sectional study performed from January to September 2016. Data collection was performed which consists of 2-D echocardiogram with LVEF ≤35% in SR and LBBB, from which 2 groups of QRS 120-150 ms and ≥150 ms with their demographic profiles such as age, sex, and comorbidities will be identified and analyzed using percentage or proportion.

Results

 

The sample size in the study period was composed of 10,113 patients, of whom 1% (135) had LVEF ≤35% in SR. From 135 patients, 11% (15) had LBBB with QRS ≥120 ms. From 135 patients, 7% (9) had QRS 120-150 ms and also 7% (9) had QRS ≥150 ms. All patients who had QRS 120-150 ms were ICM while those with QRS ≥150 ms, 56% (5) were ICM and 44% (4) were NICM. Among patients with QRS 120-150 ms, youngest age was 50, median age was 67, and oldest age was 84, while among patients with QRS ≥150 ms, youngest age was 50, median age was 66, and oldest age was 82. Among those with QRS 120-150 ms, 67% (6) were males and 33% (3) were females whereas those with QRS ≥150 ms, 78% (7) were males and 22% (2) were females. Both groups of QRS 120-150 ms and ≥150 ms had the same identified comorbidities: coronary artery disease (CAD), hypertension (HTN), diabetes mellitus (DM), dyslipidemia and end stage renal disease (ESRD). Those with QRS 120-150 ms, 67% (6) had both CAD and DM, 56% (5) had HTN, 22% (2) had dyslipidemia and 11% (1) had ESRD, whereas those with QRS ≥150 ms, 78% (7) had CAD, 56% (5) had HTN, 44% (4) had DM, and 11% (1) had both dyslipidemia and ESRD.

Conclusions

There was both 7% prevalence of patients with QRS 120-150 ms and QRS ≥150 ms from patients with LVEF ≤35% in SR and LBBB.  All patients with QRS 120-150 ms were ICM while majority of those with QRS ≥150 ms were ICM. In both groups of QRS duration, youngest age was 50; median age of QRS 120-150 ms was 67 whereas QRS ≥150 ms was 66; and with QRS 120-150 ms, patients who were affected were older (84 years old vs 82 years old). Both QRS 120-150 ms and ≥150 ms were predominantly males with CAD, HTN, and DM as identified important risk factors.
1270The epidemiological and phenotypic characteristics of SCD victims with ARVC in Sweden between 2000-2010: a Nationwide study
Authors: Kommata V , Delgado-Vega A , Wisten A , Hagstrom E , Stattin E L
Published: June 2020

Background

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is autosomal dominant inherited, and associated with a significant risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) due to a progressive fibrofatty replacement of the myocardium predisposing for ventricular arrhythmias. It is a main cause of SCD in individuals younger than 40 years of age. The prevalence of ARVC in young individuals with SCD in Sweden has recently been approximated to 4 %, but the characteristics of these patients have not been described before.

Purpose

To study the patient characteristics, physical activity level, medical history, family history and symptoms prior death in subjects who died due to ARVC.

Methods

A retrospective study of all subjects aged 1-35 years who died a SCD due to ARVC in Sweden between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2010. The diagnosis ARVC was based on data from a forensic or clinical autopsy and a histological examination. We also collected data from the police report, medical records, as well as through interviews with family members.

Results

A total of 552 individuals died from SCD during the study period. The study population consists of 22 cases with autopsy verified ARVC. In our cohort there were included 14 males and 8 females. The mean age was 23.7 years old (min age: 13, max age: 35).

Two subjects were diagnosed with ARVC prior to the SCD. In addition, one subject had survived a cardiac arrest a few years before, and got diagnosed with Long QT Syndrome. Another subject was diagnosed with myocarditis just a few months before death. Further, four subjects had a history of ventricular tachycardia, and three subjects had a history of seizures.

Fifteen of the subjects had experienced cardiac symptoms before SCD

nine had a history of syncope, presyncope or both; six subjects had experienced chest discomfort; nine subjects had a history of palpitations. In total, eight of fifteen subjects had sought medical care prior to SCD because of cardiac symptoms.

The majority of the cases were physically active, five participated in competitive sports and 12 in recreational activities. Regarding the type of physical activity, 15/22 participated in a high dynamic physical activity.

Twelve subjects had a positive family history of SCD. In 10 cases, there was a family history of SCD, but only in two in a first degree relative. Three family members had ICD. In four cases there was a family history of cardiomyopathy (one case with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, one with myocarditis, and two with ARVC). CPVT was also diagnosed in one family prior to SCD. 

Conclusions

In this nationwide study of SCD in the young, only two of the 22 subjects had a clinical diagnosis of ARVC prior to death, despite that, most of the individuals had either a history of ventricular arrhythmias or had experienced cardiac symptoms.
P1480French experience of SICD implantation
Authors: Proukhnitzky J , Badenco N , Gandjbakhch E , Maupain C , Waintraub X , Duthoit G , Hidden-Lucet F , Marijon E
Published: June 2020

OnBehalf

GPUR

Introduction

The subcutaneous ICD prevents complications of transvenous leads. Its implantation needs a defibrillation test. Performing this test increases the time of procedures..

Purpose

The aim of our study is to describe the experience of subcutaneous ICD of Assitance Publique des Hopitaux de Paris (AP-HP).

Materials and Methods

In a retrospective cohort we included patients who were involved in subcutaneous ICD treatment at the 5 hospitals of AP-HP from December 2012 to April 2018.Analysis used the Kaplan-Meier method and the Mann-Whitney U test.

Results

162 patients were implanted. 76% of implantations were for secondary prevention before 2017, but only 49% after 2017. 126 (77%) tests were successful at first shock, 14 (8.6%) needed a second shock or more, 9 (5.5%) did not have a test. The shock impedance was significantly higher when the shock was not effective at the first test, 82 ohms CI 95% [68; 112] versus 66 ohms CI 95% [64; 70], p <0.05. 6 patients died (3.7%). Late follow up showed 23 (10%) appropriate shocks and 24 inappropriate shocks (11%) mainly due to T wave oversensing (37.5%).

Conclusions

This is the first french experience of SICD implantation. Success of defibrillation test was lower than expected.

Caracteristics of implantation General anesthesia (%) 162 (100) Procedure time (min) Mean ± SD (median)Range 73± 24 (60)20-165 Cameron Health (%) Generator SQ-RX ® 1010 12 (7.4) Boston Scientific (%) Generator EMBLEM ® A209 100 (61.7) Generator EMBLEM ® A219 44 (27.2) VF time (sec) Mean ± SD (median)Range 16.5± 3.4(15)10-37 Shock Impedance (ohm) Mean ± SD (median) Range 72 ± 12.7 (68) 42-130 Success at 1st shock (%) 126 (77.7) Success at 2nd shock or more (%) 14 (8.6) No test performed (%) 12 (7.4) Implantation caracteristics and defibrillation testing. Impedance was significantly higher in patients without success at first shock : 82 ohms CI 95% [68 ;112] vs 66 ohms CI 95% [64 ;70], p < 0.05.

Abstract Figure. Survival without inappropriate shock
A real-time policy dashboard can aid global transparency in the response to coronavirus disease 2019
Authors: Head Michael G
Published: June 2020

There has been great provision of open data across the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic response, with, for example, dashboards presenting real-time descriptions of new daily cases and risk factors. Transparency has been an important discussion point and there have been concerns and criticisms of governments for not publishing the evidence base that is informing their decision-making. A ‘policy dashboard’ could act as a hub to show the localised reasoning behind COVID-19 policy decisions and allow the global health community to provide further support to governments and international stakeholders.
Why real-world health information technology performance transparency is challenging, even when everyone (claims to) want it
Authors: Adler-Milstein Julia , Thao Crishyashi
Published: June 2020

Crowdsourced ratings have driven increased performance transparency between consumers and suppliers. While many industries have benefitted from such transparency, crowdsourced ratings have struggled to scale in the healthcare domain. In theory, interoperability services offer an ideal setting for crowdsourced ratings: costs are high, performance is variable, and information asymmetries between provider organizations (customers) and vendors offering interoperability solutions exist. Via a Cooperative Agreement between the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and University of California, San Francisco, we developed InteropSelect, a public website that allows crowdsourced ratings of interoperability service purchases. While we garnered broad engagement during the development process, the site failed to attract sufficient reviewers, which is fundamental to the success of crowdsourcing. Additional challenges included the lack of service commoditization that resulted in a complex rating form and lack of market dynamics that facilitated vendor engagement. Our lessons cast doubt on whether crowdsourcing and similar performance transparency efforts under the 21st Century Cures Act will succeed.
The Epidemiology of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in a Pediatric Healthcare Network in the United States
Authors: Otto William R , Geoghegan Sarah , Posch Leila C , Bell Louis M , Coffin Susan E , Sammons Julia S , Harris Rebecca M , Odom John Audrey R , Luan Xianqun , Gerber Jeffrey S
Published: June 2020

Background

Understanding the prevalence and clinical presentation of coronavirus disease 2019 in pediatric patients can help healthcare providers and systems prepare and respond to this emerging pandemic.

Methods

This was a retrospective case series of patients tested for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) across a pediatric healthcare network, including clinical features and outcomes of those with positive test results.

Results

Of 7256 unique children tested for SARS-CoV-2, 424 (5.8%) tested positive. Patients aged 18–21 years had the highest test positive rate (11.2%), while those aged 1–5 years had the lowest (3.9%). By race, 10.6% (226/2132) of black children tested positive vs 3.3% (117/3592) of white children. By indication for testing, 21.1% (371/1756) of patients with reported exposures or clinical symptoms tested positive vs 3.8% (53/1410) of those undergoing preprocedural or preadmission testing. Of 424 patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, 182 (42.9%) had no comorbidities, 87 (20.5%) had asthma, and 55 (13.0%) were obese. Overall, 52.1% had cough, 51.2% fever, and 14.6% shortness of breath. Seventy-seven (18.2%) SARS-CoV-2–positive patients were hospitalized, of whom 24 (31.2%) required respiratory support. SARS-CoV-2-targeted antiviral therapy was given to 9 patients, and immunomodulatory therapy to 18 patients. Twelve (2.8%) SARS-CoV-2-positive patients required mechanical ventilation, and 2 patients required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Two patients died.

Conclusions

In this large cohort of pediatric patients tested for SARS-CoV-2, the rate of infection was low but varied by testing indication. The majority of cases were mild and few children had critical illness.
Keynote: Digital experimentation, courageous citizenship, and Caribbean futurism
Authors: Esprit Schuyler
Published: June 2020

The violence and trauma of climate change have arrived. The Caribbean region is the unfortunate recipient of the impacts of climate change and, much like its inheritance of plantation slavery and colonialism, it is left with the infrastructural, social, and cultural pillage of imperial and neocolonial imposition. This article considers whether and how the humanities and digital humanities, in particular, can produce the ideal intersection between planetary responsibility, community accountability, and sustainable living. In this article, I discuss Create Caribbean Research Institute’s digital humanities praxis through the example of the environmental sustainability project, Carisealand. Through the exploration and discussion of theories, tools, methodologies, and praxis of digital humanities applied to the project, I position Caribbean Afrofuturism in the context of contemporary Caribbean digital environments and the lived experience of Caribbean people in the aftermath of climate change. I apply discourses of Afrofuturism to imagine an alternate Caribbean future represented in the redesign, digital imagination, and representation of selected Caribbean communities. By offering models for rethinking, visualizing, and rebuilding physical spaces, I hope to raise questions and offer insights about the power of digital humanities for social and environmental justice in the contemporary and future Caribbean. The goal is to also offer the model as a template for developing other mapping projects that can propose an alternate future for the Global South.
Impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on 1-year survival in glioblastoma patients
Authors: Moghavem Nuriel , Oh Debora L , Santiago-Rodríguez Eduardo J , Tate William J , Gomez Scarlett Lin , Thomas Reena
Published: June 2020

Background

Glioblastoma (GBM) treatment requires access to complex medical services, and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) sought to expand access to health care, including complex oncologic care. Whether the implementation of the ACA was subsequently associated with changes in 1-year survival in GBM is not known.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study was performed using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. We identified patients with the primary diagnosis of GBM between 2008 and 2016. A multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards model was developed using patient and clinical characteristics to determine the main outcome: the 1-year cumulative probability of death by state expansion status.

Results

A total of 25 784 patients and 14 355 deaths at 1 year were identified and included in the analysis, 49.7% were older than 65 at diagnosis. Overall 1-year cumulative probability of death for GBM patients in non-expansion versus expansion states did not significantly worsen over the 2 time periods (2008–2010: hazard ratio [HR] 1.11, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04–1.19; 2014–2016: HR 1.18, 95% CI 1.09–1.27). In GBM patients younger than age 65 at diagnosis, there was a nonsignificant trend toward the poorer 1-year cumulative probability of death in non-expansion versus expansion states (2008–2010: HR 1.09, 95% CI 0.97–1.22; 2014–2016: HR 1.23, 95% CI 1.09–1.40).

Conclusions

No differences were found over time in survival for GBM patients in expansion versus non-expansion states. Further study may reveal whether GBM patients diagnosed younger than age 65 in expansion states experienced improvements in 1-year survival.
The Role of Epstein-Barr Virus in Adults With Bronchiectasis: A Prospective Cohort Study
Authors: Chen Chun-Lan , Huang Yan , Martinez-Garcia Miguel Angel , Yuan Jing-Jing , Li Hui-Min , de la Rosa-Carrillo David , Han Xiao-Rong , Chen Rong-Chang , Guan Wei-Jie , Zhong Nan-Shan
Published: June 2020

Background

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is implicated in the progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We aimed to determine whether EBV correlates with bronchiectasis severity, exacerbations, and progression.

Methods

We collected induced sputum in healthy controls and spontaneous sputum at 3–6-month intervals and onset of exacerbations in bronchiectasis patients between March 2017 and October 2018. EBV DNA was detected with quantitative polymerase chain reaction.

Results

We collected 442 sputum samples from 108 bronchiectasis patients and 50 induced sputum samples from 50 healthy controls. When stable, bronchiectasis patients yielded higher detection rates of EBV DNA (48.1% vs 20.0%; P = .001), but not viral loads (mean log10 load, 4.45 vs 4.76; P = .266), compared with controls; 64.9% of patients yielded consistent detection status between 2 consecutive stable visits. Neither detection rate (40.8% vs 48.1%; P = .393) nor load (mean log10 load, 4.34 vs 4.45; P = .580) differed between the onset of exacerbations and stable visits, nor between exacerbations and convalescence. Neither detection status nor viral loads correlated with bronchiectasis severity. EBV loads correlated negatively with sputum interleukin-1β (P = .002), CXC motif chemokine-8 (P = .008), and tumor necrosis factor–α levels (P = .005). Patients initially detected with, or repeatedly detected with, EBV DNA had significantly faster lung function decline and shorter time to next exacerbations (both P < .05) than those without. Detection of EBV DNA was unrelated to influenza virus and opportunistic bacteria (all P > .05). The EBV strains detected in bronchiectasis patients were phylogenetically homologous.

Conclusions

Patients with detection of EBV DNA have a shorter time to bronchiectasis exacerbations. EBV may contribute to bronchiectasis progression.
Effectiveness of Copper-Impregnated Solid Surfaces on Lowering Microbial Bio-Burden Levels in an Acute Care Hospital
Authors: Chatterjee Piyali , Williams Marjory D , Coppin John D , Allton Yonhui , Choi Hosoon , Martel Julie Ann D , Zeber John E , Nelson Richard E , Donskey Curtis J , Jinadatha Chetan
Published: June 2020

Background

Microbial bio-burden on high-touch surfaces in patient rooms may lead to acquisition of health care–associated infections in acute care hospitals. This study examined the effect of a novel copper-impregnated solid material (16%–20% copper oxide in a polymer-based resin) on bacterial contamination on high-touch surfaces in patient rooms in an acute care hospital.

Methods

Five high-touch surfaces were sampled for aerobic bacterial colonies (ABCs) 3 times per day over a 3-day period in 16 rooms with copper installed and 16 rooms with standard noncopper laminate installed on high-touch surfaces. A Bayesian multilevel negative binomial regression model was used to compare ABC plate counts from copper-impregnated surfaces with standard hospital laminate surfaces.

Results

The mean and median (interquartile range [IQR]) ABC counts from copper-impregnated surfaces were 25.5 and 11 (4–27), and for standard hospital laminate surfaces they were 60.5 and 29 (10–74.3). The negative binomial regression model–estimated incidence rate for ABC counts on plates taken from copper-impregnated surfaces was 0.40 (0.21–0.70) times the incidence rate of ABC counts on plates taken from standard hospital laminate surfaces.

Conclusions

Copper-impregnated solid surfaces may reduce the level of microbial contamination on high-touch surfaces in patient rooms in the acute care environment, as our study demonstrated a decline in microbial bio-burden on samples taken from copper-impregnated compared with standard hospital laminate high-touch surfaces.
Joseph Smith's Translation
Authors: Brown Samuel Morris
Published: June 2020

Among many remarkable claims, Mormon founder Joseph Smith reported that he had translated ancient scriptures. He dictated the Book of Mormon, an American Bible from metal plates associated with Native antiquity; directly rewrote the King James Bible; and produced a scripture, derived from Egyptian funerary papyri, that he called the Book of Abraham. Smith and his followers used the term “translation” to describe the genesis of these English texts, which remain canonical for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most commenters see these scriptures as merely linguistic objects; the central and controversial question has been whether Smith’s English texts are literal translations of extant source documents. On closer inspection, though, his translations are far more metaphysical than linguistic. These translations express a nonordinary power of language to connect people across barriers of space and time. Within these metaphysical scriptures, Smith expounded a theology of human deification that he also termed “translation.” This one word thus referred to a scripture capable of mediating between the living and the dead and to the transformation of humans into divine beings. Joseph Smith’s projects of metaphysical translation place Mormonism at a productive edge of tense transitions later associated with secular modernity, a modernity challenged by the very existence of the Latter-day Saints. Smith’s translations and the theology that supported them illuminate the power and vulnerability of his critique of American culture in transition as they set the stage for two more centuries of cultural change.
Introduction
Authors: Brown Samuel Morris
Published: June 2020

Joseph Smith and his Latter-day Saints are caught out of time; they are much like living fossils. Their religious tradition is at once ancient and profoundly modern. While the movement arrived in the nineteenth century, it situated itself in the ancient past and the millennial future. Smith mediated between those times with scriptural translations best understood as targums—oral expansions, revisions, and interpretations that achieve the status of scripture—of the Bible, especially the first eleven chapters of Genesis and their primeval history. These targums reconfigure the Bible and create the possibility of a biblical world occupied by the Latter-day Saints. Smith’s targums and his metaphysics of translation were together concerned with escape routes from three modern prisons: mortal language, flattened time, and individualism.
The Nature of Time
Authors: Brown Samuel Morris
Published: June 2020

The wild time of the Bible’s primeval history became progressively less accessible across the nineteenth century. Many philosophers and cultural agents intended time to be flat, linear, and homogeneous. Joseph Smith disagreed, strenuously. He encouraged his followers to live a different form of time, inhabiting the past and present simultaneously, even as he was coy about his relationship to traditional Christian understandings of eternity. Smith’s effort to bind time into a sacred simultaneity famously included attempts to live anciently biblical lives, which included polygamy and apparently never-realized plans for animal sacrifice. These efforts at sacred simultaneity were intended to create and strengthen relationships between the living and the dead and to free Latter-day Saints from the prison of flat time.
Rereading the Bible
Authors: Brown Samuel Morris
Published: June 2020

In the aftermath of the Book of Mormon, Smith and his disciples saw that the King James Bible itself needed to be more directly repaired, in a project they called the New Translation. The project encompassed three phases: (1) visionary work on the primeval history, (2) direct repair of the English text, and (3) marvelously literal exegeses that extended through Smith’s entire career. Contrary to prior treatments, this New Translation project also included large sections of the scripture called Doctrine and Covenants. This chapter on Smith’s Bible translation activities more clearly integrates them with his other scriptures and his ongoing work of targumizing the Bible.
Epilogue
Authors: Brown Samuel Morris
Published: June 2020

Joseph Smith’s mode of thought expressed his avid interest in ideas, concepts, and possibilities that openly defied American norms and expectations. He was especially prone to reject dualisms (matter and spirit, immanent and transcendent, profane and sacred) in a way that merged complementary realms without using them up in the process. Early Latter-day Saint theology argued by its presence and its sensibilities that the cultural trade-offs and limitations that seem necessary to us on the other side of the twentieth century were not inevitable. There was no mandatory compromise between this-worldly flourishing and other-worldly happiness, between human agency and divine presence, between the mechanisms of human life and their eternal meanings.
Belief and Practice
Authors: Evans Richard Kent
Published: June 2020

This chapter is a study of The Guidelines of John Africa, MOVE’s sacred text. John Africa dictated The Guidelines over a span of six years. Several different people helped him create the manuscript. The Guidelines of John Africa are an explanation for, and solution to, the problem of evil. John Africa called these forces of evil the “reformed world system,” or, more frequently, “the System.” John Africa’s worldview was dualistic; it understood the cosmos as a site of conflict that pitted forces of good against forces of evil. The force of good went by many names: the Law of Mama, the Law of Nature, God, Natural Law, and most frequently, Life. Natural processes, according to MOVE, are “coordinated” by this active force.
Progress
Authors: Evans Richard Kent
Published: June 2020

This chapter argues that MOVE’s public confrontations in the early 1970s should be understood within their religious worldview. John Africa taught MOVE people to confront progress, the idea that we can make the world a better place, that technology can relieve our suffering, that we control our own destinies. MOVE people used profane language, situationally inappropriate attire, and disrespectful behavior to draw attention to the sacredness with which American society imbued organized religion, political advancement, and formal education. They refused to genuflect before the power of the state to expose, they believed, the false trust Americans had placed in government. John Africa taught that by merely forcing Americans to confront the hypocrisy inherent in their false religion of progress, the System would crumble. But to do that, MOVE people had to profane what American society held sacred, and to venerate the sacredness of Life that American society had forgotten.
Policing Religion
Authors: Evans Richard Kent
Published: June 2020

This chapter focuses on the role that policing plays in classifying groups, beliefs, and practices as either religious or secular. Almost from the very beginning of the group, MOVE was under surveillance from the city police’s extensive surveillance apparatus. By the early 1980s, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Pennsylvania State Police, and the Secret Service had all targeted MOVE for surveillance, infiltration, or prosecution. To be sure, MOVE brought much of this attention on themselves. But their claims to religious legitimacy were met, early on, with the presumption of criminality. One reason MOVE was not allowed to be a religion was because MOVE never existed apart from government policing and surveillance.
Building a Cult
Authors: Evans Richard Kent
Published: June 2020

This chapter studies how and why Americans in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s came to believe that some religions were “cults,” and interrogates the assumptions that underlay that category. After 1981, many people outside the group began to suspect that MOVE was a cult. Increasingly, the idea that MOVE was a religion—albeit a bad religion—began to make sense. The Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission concluded that in the early 1980s, MOVE was evolving into a “violence-threatening cult.” This belief had less to do with transformations within MOVE, I argue, than it did with transformations in American culture. After John Africa’s acquittal, Americans began to think of MOVE as a cult because scholars, journalists, and their government taught them to.
Conclusion
Authors: Evans Richard Kent
Published: June 2020

This concluding chapter discusses the funerals of John Africa and Frank Africa and updates the history of MOVE to the present. MOVE’s focus today is on freeing the remaining incarcerated MOVE people. MOVE maintains an international network of supporters—numbering, the author estimates, in the thousands. Many of these supporters advocate for the release of the MOVE 9 and of Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose writings on John Africa, MOVE, and his own experience as the world’s most famous death-row inmate have brought MOVE’s story to a wider audience. MOVE people maintain a headquarters near Clark Park in a pair of homes they bought using funds they won from their lawsuit against the city.
Introduction
Authors: Carr David M.
Published: June 2020

This chapter situates the book in the context of ongoing debate about basic models for the formation of the Pentateuch. It outlines the chapters and indicates how the topics relate to other publications by the author on similar topics. The conclusion lists scholars and institutions that supported the project.
The First Noah and the Sons of God and Daughters of Humanity (Gen 5:29; 6:1–4; 9:18–27)
Authors: Carr David M.
Published: June 2020

Whereas some have argued that the anticipation of Noah’s destiny in Gen 5:29 and/or the story of Noah and his sons in Gen 9:20–27 are post-Priestly additions, this chapter argues that both texts are thoroughly and integrally embedded in the non-P primeval history discussed in chapters 2 and 3 of the book. Furthermore, the story of the sons of God and daughters of humanity that comes between these texts (Gen 6:1–4) continues the meditation on human limits and mortality that was seen in the Garden of Eden story (6:1–3), while also providing an etiology of bygone giants in Canaan and famous early Israelite warriors (Gen 6:4). Finally, the chapter tentatively proposes that the original connection point for these traditions about Noah (and interlude about marriages of gods and humans in 6:1–4) was the non-P tradition about Enosh and the beginning of humans calling on YHWH’s name during his time. Thus, within the non-P tradition, it may have been Enosh, not Lamech, who pronounced Noah’s destiny to comfort humanity out of the ground cursed by YHWH (Gen 5:29).
The Non-P Primeval History
Authors: Carr David M.
Published: June 2020

This chapter surveys two main levels in the non-Priestly primeval history. The first is an originally independent primeval history that likely started with the Garden of Eden story and concluded with the account of Shem’s fathering of “all of the sons of Eber”—the closest primeval equivalent the non-P author could have for later Israelites who possessed traditions of the origins of their people from post-Primeval ancestors (e.g., Abraham, Jacob) and/or out of an exodus from Egypt. This originally independent primeval history contained various materials, but it centered in particular on three stories exploring the three major types of pairs of relationships in a patriarchal primary family: (hu)man-wife (Genesis 2–3), brother-brother (Gen 4:1–16), and father-son (Gen 9:20–27). Since this history treats what it takes to be age-old truths and only features semimythic loci such as Eden (Gen 2:8) and the “land of Nod” (Gen 4:16), it provides few indicators with which to date it. Nevertheless, it seems to precede the previously discussed revision of this history through the addition of a flood narrative, a Babel account, Nimrod materials, and also some version of the non-P ancestral story that follows. These latter materials show various signs of likely authorship in the Neo-Assyrian period, drawing deeply and specifically on Mesopotamian traditions (e.g., flood narratives) and mentioning Mesopotamian topoi already prominent in the Neo-Assyrian period (e.g., Babylon, Nineveh).
The Priestly Primeval History and Conflation of P and Non-P
Authors: Carr David M.
Published: June 2020

This chapter surveys three main levels of Priestly or P-like composition in Genesis 1–11. It starts by reviewing the scope and possible date of the Toledot scroll discussed in chapter 4. The Priestly source built around this Toledot book source, preceding it with the Genesis 1 story of God’s creation of the cosmos and expanding it with a full flood narrative (rather than the likely brief mention of the flood in the Toledot book) and overview of post-flood peoples (Genesis 10*). The source then continued with new Priestly Abraham materials (e.g., Genesis 17) and multiple new Toledot of Abraham’s descendants leading up to Israel, which were then followed by a Priestly story of Moses, the Exodus, and the eventual construction of a wilderness Tabernacle in which God could dwell. At a later stage, the P and non-P materials were combined, using P as the basic superstructure for the primeval history and adding, at select points, elements that betray a particular affinity for Priestly concepts and/or ideology. In this sense, the conflation of P and non-P can be seen as a continuation of the Priestly composition process, creating a new, conflated narrative embracing non-P materials within a P framework.
Introduction
Authors: Compton John W.
Published: June 2020

This introduction develops a theoretical framework capable of explaining both the rise of white Protestant social concern in the latter part of the nineteenth century and its sudden demise at the end of the twentieth. The theory proceeds from the premise that religious conviction, by itself, is rarely sufficient to motivate empathetic political behavior. When believers do act empathetically—for example, by championing reforms that transfer resources or political influence to less privileged groups within society—it is typically because strong religious institutions have compelled them to do so. For much of American history, the socioeconomic significance of church membership, coupled with a robust network of ecumenical institutions, endowed mainline Protestant leaders with considerable authority over the beliefs and actions of their congregations. Beginning in the late 1960s, however, the collapse of mainline Protestant authority fueled the rise of an evangelical movement whose leaders were incentivized to echo the increasingly conservative political convictions of the broader white electorate.
The Twilight of the Protestant Establishment
Authors: Compton John W.
Published: June 2020

This chapter further documents the decline of mainline Protestant influence over the course of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It shows how the rise of the antiwar and black power movements, together with the emergence of a new generation of free market-minded corporate leaders, exacerbated the demographic and social trends that had been undermining Protestant moral authority since the mid-1960s. A particularly vexing problem, from the perspective of mainline leaders, was the exodus of young professionals from the church. As a result of this trend, the nation’s churches were increasingly dominated by politically conservative older churchgoers. As they worked simultaneously to address the concerns of young activists and assuage the fears of an aging churchgoing population, mainline elites found themselves caught in an insoluble demographic bind.
Conclusion
Authors: Compton John W.
Published: June 2020

Many present-day Protestant congregations are deeply involved in humanitarian projects—from feeding the homeless to promoting interracial and interfaith understanding. Yet when it comes to political behavior, white evangelicals remain overwhelmingly opposed to programs that benefit the less fortunate, or that run counter to the free market ethos of the modern Republican party. During the first two decades of the twenty-first century, a trio of failed reform campaigns by evangliecal elites—targeting climate change, foreign aid, and immigration, respectively—underscored the fragile nature of evangelical religious authority. In contrast to their postwar predecessors in the Protestant mainline, evangelical elites possess neither the intrinsic religious authority nor the institutional resources necessary to shape the political convictions of their followers. Instead, they serve at the pleasure of the rank and file.
Sleeping Beauty
Authors: Devji Faisal
Published: June 2020

No longer a regulative ideal, humanity has emerged as an empirical reality with our ability to count, measure and alter its global body. But while it is real, humanity possesses no political agency, and has thus been conceptualized since the Cold War in negative ways, as the actual or potential victim of atomic, pandemic or environmental extermination. In the same period, the Muslim ummah, newly conceptualized as an empirical and global community, has also come to be understood primarily as a body of victims. New forms of militancy are geared towards waking this community to its potential for agency, but can only do so outside states and institutions and by the fragmentation of ideology and action into networks of sacrifice that abandon the language of humanism for humanity as an inhuman or impersonal ideal.
The Perfect Victim
Authors: Devji Faisal
Published: June 2020

Since humanity can only be embodied in hierarchical and abstract ways, it is best manifested in the figure of the victim’s bare life. Replacing inherited theological conceptions, the notion of Muslims as victims leads to the replacement of religious conversion by an ethical identification with their suffering. Militant violence is an act of identification, whose problem is to avoid the responsibility for Muslim victimization that everyone is seen as sharing in the global arena.
Laws of Uncertainty
Authors: Devji Faisal
Published: June 2020

How can responsibility for the victimization of Muslims be located in a global arena where potentially everyone can be adjudged guilty? Its universality allows such responsibility to break down the distinction between political and other dimension of action, rendering indiscriminate the violence of victimization as well as that meant to avenge it. But rather than invoking some universal doctrine by which to judge responsibility, the globalization of militancy leads to the repudiation of any such criterion. Instead, everyone is to be judged by the faithfulness to self-professed principles, with those willing to suffer most in their name demonstrating the truth of these values.
Insulting the Prophet
Authors: Devji Faisal
Published: June 2020

Militancy is not the only form that the globalization of Islam takes. It was preceded by decentralized and uncoordinated waves of protest over insults said to be made against Muhammad. These mobilizations have always been distinct and separate from the narratives of jihad, sometimes even overshadowing them. Like Al-Qaeda’s militancy, though, they propose no alternative to Western hegemony and ask only to be included within it. More so than with militancy, there is no theological dimension to such protests, which create a global audience by way of media spectacle.
Hold On
Authors: Toohey Peter
Published: June 2020

What do you do when you’re not asleep and when you’re not eating? You’re most likely waiting—to finish work, to get home, to finish your chores. This book is not really about how to manage all that waiting—“an action,” according to the OED, “of staying where one is until a particular time or event.” It’s a book describing how many people experience waiting. Waiting, which is sculpted by the passing of time, is an experience just as much as it is a situation. In this book I’ll be focusing on the experience, on how it feels to wait. This experience can encompass such things as hesitation and curiosity, dithering and procrastination, hunting and being hunted, fearing and being feared, dread and illness, courting and parenting, anticipation and excitement, listening to and even performing music, being religious, being happy or unhappy, being bored and being boring, doing business and making decisions (all of which I’ll discuss). Waiting is also characterized by such brain chemicals as serotonin and dopamine. They enable the experience of waiting and they can even change the way that waiting’s basis, the passing of time, is registered. Waiting, probably the most commonly experienced situation that humans and animals encounter apart from sleep, is the experience that may characterize most interpersonal relations.