Human capital and legal perspectives on remote work: recommendations for organizations

PurposeAs a result of COVID-19 and associated stay-at-home orders, the number of employees working remotely reached unprecedented levels during early periods of the pandemic. Since that time, some employees have returned to the office;yet, there is a lasting impact on employees' desires for remote work. In response, decision-makers in organizations should be equipped with knowledge regarding what makes remote work beneficial for both employees and the organization and also fair and compliant with the law. This paper aims to take a dual perspective spanning human capital and legal aspects of remote work to offer six practical recommendations to organizations. Design/methodology/approachThis paper reviews the human resources (HR) scholarly literature on remote work, using principles from evidence-based management to select valid and reliable findings in which to base practical recommendations for organizations. Associated legal risks are identified through a review of the legal literature on remote work and integrated into the recommendations. FindingsBuilding on a multilevel model of HR practices, the authors offer the following six practical recommendations to organizations: offer hybrid work and both location and schedule flexibility;ensure fair and compliant work schedules;acknowledge manager perceptions;ensure fair approval and evaluation of remote workers;acknowledge individual workers;and align remote work practices with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Originality/valueThe multilevel model of remote work practices discussed in this paper offers an organizing framework for identifying advantages and disadvantages of remote work that future research may build upon. The six recommendations help bridge the research-practice gap by providing organizations with knowledge on how to maximize the benefits of remote work while mitigating potential legal risks.

Use of Telehealth During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Practicing Maternal-Fetal Medicine Clinicians.

Background: Limited knowledge exists about the drivers of telehealth use among obstetricians during COVID-19 in the United States. We investigated the use of live video visits by Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) clinicians, the factors associated with use and interest in future use. Methods: We drew survey data from 373 clinicians on two outcomes: (1) use of any (vs. no) live video visits during COVID-19 and (2) among users, the extent of live video use. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions quantified the association between predisposing (demographic and practice setting characteristics) and enabling factors (prepandemic telehealth use, structural and perceived patient barriers) and each outcome. Results: During the pandemic, 88% reported any use, a jump from 29% prepandemic utilization. Users (vs. nonusers) were younger (p = 0.02); tended to provide comprehensive prenatal care (p = 0.01) and/or inpatient care (p = 0.02), practice in university settings (p = 0.01), engage in various telehealth modalities prepandemic (p ≤ 0.01), and to perceive challenges with technical (p < 0.01), reimbursement (p = 0.05), and patient barriers to internet or data plan access (p ≤ 0.001). After adjusting for covariates, only prepandemic communication through patient portal (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 3.85; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.33-11.12), perceived patient access barriers (aOR = 5.27; 95% CI = 1.95-14.23), and practice in multiple versus university settings (aOR = 0.18; 95% CI = 0.06-0.56) remained significantly associated with use. Approximately 44% were high users. Prepandemic ultrasound use (aOR = 1.92; 95% CI = 1.17-3.16), perceived patient access barriers (aOR = 1.85; 95% CI = 1.12-3.06) and Midwest versus North practice location (aOR = 0.46; 95% CI = 0.21-0.98) predicted high use. Among high users, 99% wanted to continue offering video visits. Conclusions: We found widespread use of live video obstetric care by MFM clinicians and continued interest in use postpandemic.

A Case Series of Surgical Resection of Anterior and Posterior Butterfly Glioma Grade 4 via a Minimally Invasive Keyhole Approach.

Surgical resection of infiltrating glial neoplasms has proven to improve quality of life and confer a significant survival benefit. As accumulating evidence cements the role of surgery in grade 4 gliomas, there is a general trend to transition away from traditional large craniotomies to smaller 'keyhole' approaches, which aim to reduce the trauma and complication profiles associated with large exposures. A keyhole approach uses a small craniotomy positioned perfectly to reach at least all the target structures that a conventional approach would reach. We present a case series of operated butterfly gliomas grade 4 patients through keyhole approaches. All three operated patients have better survival than the literature biopsy groups. The resection of butterfly gliomas should be considered in selected cases. For some patients, it is feasible with the technology used nowadays, with improved quality of life and better survival prognosis.

Axillary adenopathy detected on breast MRI following COVID-19 vaccination: outcomes and follow-up recommendations.

This retrospective study presents 110 patients with suspected COVID-19 vaccine-related axillary adenopathy on breast MRI. Our study aimed to assess the outcomes of axillary adenopathy detected on breast MRI performed within one year after COVID-19 vaccination. The median time between the COVID-19 vaccine and breast MRI was shorter in patients with detected adenopathy compared to patients without detected adenopathy (6 weeks [2-17] versus 15 [7-24] weeks, p < 0.001). Unilateral axillary adenopathy detected on breast MRI had a low malignancy rate (3.3%), and no cases of malignant axillary adenopathy were diagnosed without a known breast cancer in the ipsilateral breast. Our findings suggest that unilateral axillary adenopathy identified on breast MRI ipsilateral to a recent COVID-19 vaccination can be considered benign in the absence of a suspicious breast finding or known breast cancer. Regardless of vaccine status and timing, unilateral axillary adenopathy detected on MRI evaluation with a known malignancy or suspicious breast finding should be considered suspicious. This will avoid unnecessary scheduling constraints, patient anxiety, and cost, without delaying diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer.

Remote Working During Covid-19 Crisis: Impact of Organizational Support Mechanisms on Employee Engagement and other Work-Related Attitudes

Purpose: As the Covid-19 pandemic has necessitated increased remote working, organizations need to use support mechanisms to facilitate new ways of working. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the organizational support mechanisms impact employee work-related attitudes in the context of remote working. As people are anxious about both lives and livelihood during this crisis, the paper also aims to analyze how anxiety impacts the relationship of employee engagement with job satisfaction and organizational commitment.Methodology: For this purpose, responses were collected between March 25 and April 30, 2020 from a heterogeneous sample of employees (N=181) working remotely during the pandemic. Employees' perspectives on work-related attitudes and organizational support mechanisms throughout lockdown in India were captured. Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyze the data.Findings: This study reported findings in two areas: how organizational support mechanisms (effective structure, supportive leadership, caring culture and technology) impact employees' work-related attitudes in the context of remote working during the pandemic;and how anxiety due to the crisis impacts the relationship of employee engagement with job satisfaction and organizational commitment.Practical Implications: An immediate managerial implication of the findings suggest that it is not just technological infrastructure that facilitates remote working during a pandemic like Covid-19 but other organizational support mechanisms also have a significant impact on employee engagement. Also, there is a need for managers to create a caring, supportive, and open culture to reduce employee anxiety.Originality The article makes two main contributions. First, this study suggests and tests a model for boosting employee engagement leading to job satisfaction and organizational commitment for remote working in times of a pandemic. Second, the study provides suggestions for managers to apply the theoretical model.

Air Flows in Opera

Clusters of contaminations have been identified within rehearsing choirs during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, singing and playing wind instruments are known to generate enhanced release of respiratory droplets, which are then transported by the expiratory flows. By tracking the air exhaled by professional opera singers and musicians from the MET Orchestra in New York City, we measure the spatial extent of the various air flows in opera. While loud singing is often associated with fast flows, professional opera singers and musicians are usually exhaling air flows slower than the air jets exhaled by a person breathing at rest. However, we identify a few situations leading to the release of rapid air jets that are able to enhance the transport of pathogenic droplets within an orchestra. Finally, we show how singing with a facemask and covering the bell of a wind instrument provide a strong reduction of the transport of respiratory droplets, in addition to the filtration features of a mask. © 2022 American Physical Society.

Pain Extent Is Not Associated with Sensory-Associated Symptoms, Cognitive or Psychological Variables in COVID-19 Survivors Suffering from Post-COVID Pain.

We aimed to investigate the relationship between pain extent, as a sign of sensitization, and sensory-related, cognitive and psychological variables in hospitalized COVID-19 survivors with post-COVID pain. One hundred and forty-six (67 males, 79 females) previously hospitalized COVID-19 survivors with post-COVID pain completed demographic (age, sex, height, weight), sensory-related (Central Sensitization Inventory, Self-Report Leeds Assessment of Neuropathic Symptoms), cognitive (Pain Catastrophizing Scale, Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia) and psychological (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) variables. Pain extent and frequency maps were calculated from pain drawings using customized software. After conducting a correlation analysis to determine the relationships between variables, a stepwise linear regression model was performed to identify pain extent predictors, if available. Pain extent was significantly and weakly associated with pain intensity (r = -0.201, p = 0.014): the larger the pain extent, the lower the pain intensity. No other significant association was observed between pain extent and sensory-related, cognitive, or psychological variables in individuals with post-COVID pain. Females had higher pain intensity, more sensitization-associated symptoms, higher anxiety, lower sleep quality, and higher kinesiophobia levels than males. Sex differences correlation analyses revealed that pain extent was associated with pain intensity in males, but not in females. Pain extent was not associated with any of the measured variables and was also not related to the presence of sensitization-associated symptoms in our sample of COVID-19 survivors with long-term post-COVID pain.

Sustainable Assessment for Biomass Power Plant Location during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Renewable energy plays an important role in energy sustainability and environmental friendliness, for example in terms of biomass power, and is essential for generating electric power, which has a significant impact on sustainable energy for the future. The objective of this research, therefore, is to propose a sustainable method of assessment for biomass power plant site selection for electric power supply for field hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand In this research, based upon overlay map layers as an empirical study, the pandemic, as well as environmental friendliness, are considered in Thailand The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) has been applied in order to determine the weighting of the criteria. Furthermore, the Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (FTOPSIS) has also been applied in order to rank alternative locations. The contribution of this research lies in the development of an approach that is flexible in terms of sustainable assessment, in terms of both subjective and objective evaluation measures, in order to reduce bias in the decision-making process, as well as to include natural disaster assessment in providing guidelines for the location selection of a biomass power plant from the perspective of environment friendliness.

Hyperferritinemia and the Extent of Mucormycosis in COVID-19 Patients.

Introduction Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease attributed to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has shown associations with various fungal opportunistic infections such as mucormycosis, invasive candidiasis, and aspergillosis, which have contributed to the mortality of the disease. In India, the incidence of mucormycosis had risen rapidly during the second wave. There is ample literature demonstrating the role of iron in the pathogenesis of mucormycosis. The hyperferritinemia associated with COVID-19 may have played a significant role in promoting the invasion and extent of the fungus. Aims and objectives The study aimed to analyze the association between serum ferritin levels and the extent of involvement of mucormycosis in patients affected with COVID-19. Methodology A single-center cross-sectional study was conducted using retrospective hospital record data. G*Power statistical analysis software was used to compute the sample size of 62 (31+31). The radiological data were used to determine the extent of involvement. Results A statistically significant difference was seen in levels of serum ferritin (p = 0.008) between the radiologically judged two groups of the mild extent of invasion of mucormycosis (rhinosinusitis) and severe extent of invasion (rhino-orbital/cerebral mucormycosis), with a severe extent seen with the group having higher levels of serum ferritin. Severe extent of invasion was seen in 53.6% of patients with diabetes mellitus and 62.5% of patients with both diabetes and hypertension. Conclusion The hyperferritinemia not only presents as a marker of the systemic inflammatory process in COVID-19 but also indicates increased free iron, which thereby aids the growth and extent of involvement by the fungus (R hizopus oryzae). In individuals with diabetes and hypertension, the severity was greater. Controlling catastrophic outcomes in individuals with high serum ferritin levels necessitates extra caution.

How long did crops survive from floods caused by Cyclone Idai in Mozambique detected with multi-satellite data

Floods are causing massive losses of crops and agricultural infrastructures in many regions across the globe. During the 2018/2019 agricultural year, heavy rains from Cyclone Idai caused flooding in Central Mozambique and had the greatest impact on Sofala Province. The main objectives of this study are to map the flooding durations, evaluate how long crops survived the floods, and analyse the dynamics of the affected crops and their recovery following various flooding durations using multi-source satellite data. Our results indicate that Otsu method-based flooding mapping provides reliable flood extents and durations with an overall accuracy higher than 90%, which facilitates the assessment of how long crops can survive floods and their recovery progress. Croplands in both Buzi and Tica administrative units were the most severely impacted among all the regions in Sofala Province, with the largest flooded cropland extent at 23,101.1 ha in Buzi on 20 March 2019 and the most prolonged flooding duration of more than 42 days in Tica and Mafambisse. Major summer crops, including maize and rice, could survive when the fields were inundated for up to 12 days, while all crops died when the flooding duration was longer than 24 days. The recovery of surviving crops to pre-flooding status took a much longer time, from approximately 20 days to as long as one month after flooding. The findings presented herein can assist decision making in developing countries or remote regions for flood monitoring, mitigation and damage assessment. [Display omitted] • Image-dependent threshold method precisely extracts flood extent and duration. • Multi-satellite analysis is feasible to quantify the dynamic flood impacts on crops. • Crops could survive even inundate for 12 days, but recovery was slow. • All crops die with flooding durations longer than 24 days. • The Buzi and Tica regions were severely damaged by the 2019 floods in Mozambique. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Remote Sensing of Environment is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

The PROCEM study protocol: Added value of preoperative contrast-enhanced mammography in staging of malignant breast lesions - a prospective randomized multicenter study.

BACKGROUND: Correct preoperative estimation of the malignant extent is crucial for optimal planning of breast cancer surgery. The sensitivity of mammography is lower in dense breasts, and additional imaging techniques are sometimes warranted. Contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) has shown similar sensitivity and in some cases better specificity, than magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in small, observational studies. CEM may be more cost-effective than MRI, and may provide better identification of the tumor extent, however, no randomized trials have been performed to date to investigate the added value of CEM. In a feasibility study, we found that the treatment was changed in 10/47 (21%) cases after additional CEM. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the added value of CEM in preoperative staging of breast cancer in a randomized study. METHOD: This prospective randomized study will include 440 patients with strongly suspected or established diagnosis of breast malignancy, based on assessment with mammography, ultrasound and core biopsy/cytology, and for whom primary surgery is planned. Patients will be randomized 1:1 using a web-based randomization tool to additional investigation with CEM or no further imaging. The CEM findings will be taken into consideration, which may lead to changes in primary treatment, which is the primary endpoint of this study. Secondary endpoints include rate of reoperation and number of avoidable mastectomies, as well as a cost-benefit analysis of additional CEM. Patient-reported health-related quality of life will be investigated at 1 year with the validated Breast-Q™ questionnaire. The rate of local recurrence or new cancer ipsi- or contralaterally within 5 years will be assessed from medical records and pathology reports. DISCUSSION: The aim of this trial is to explore the added value of CEM in preoperative staging of breast cancer. The results obtained from this study will contribute to our knowledge on CEM as an additional imaging method to standard investigation with digital mammography and ultrasound. The findings may also provide additional information on which patient groups would benefit from CEM, and on the economic aspects of CEM in standard preoperative practice. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov , registration no: NCT04437602 , date of registration: June 18, 2020.

Chest x-ray findings and temporal changes among adult patients with COVID-19 admitted in a tertiary referral center.

PURPOSE: To describe the radiographic findings of hospitalized adult Filipino COVID-19 patients on serial chest x-ray imaging. METHOD: We performed a retrospective review of records and chest x-rays of eligible adult Filipinos with confirmed COVID-19 admitted from 1 March 2020 to 31 July 2020. Demographics, clinical outcomes, and chest radiographic findings were recorded. Serial chest x-ray findings were correlated with the clinical outcome. RESULTS: From 144 adult patients (93 males and 51 females), a total of 785 chest x-rays were reviewed (144 baseline and 641 follow-up). The most common finding overall is ground-glass opacity. The most common distribution pattern is bilateral, patchy/diffuse involvement of the central/peripheral zones. In x-rays taken after the third admission day, reticular opacities become more common than consolidation. The radiographic extent score was higher for deceased patients compared to the survivors at Day 7-9 (6 vs 4.4, p-value = 0.0011), Day 10-12 (5.9 vs 4.3, p-value = 0.0079) and Day 13-15 (5.5 vs 4.1, p-value = 0.0297). The presence of endotracheal tubes (68 % vs 7.5 %, p-value < 0.001) and pleural effusion (70 % vs. 36 %, p-value = 0.0004) were higher among the deceased. Reticular opacities were more common for discharged patients (50 % vs 30 %, p-value = 0.0021). CONCLUSION: Ground-glass opacities with bilateral, patchy/diffuse involvement of the central/peripheral zones are the most common findings. The presence of endotracheal intubation, pleural effusion, and persistently elevated radiographic extent scores are typically seen in deceased patients. Serial chest radiography with radiographic extent scoring is a useful tool in monitoring COVID-19 for hospitalized adult patients.

Quantitative CT Extent of Lung Damage in COVID-19 Pneumonia Is an Independent Risk Factor for Inpatient Mortality in a Population of Cancer Patients: A Prospective Study.

Background: CT lung extent has emerged as a potential risk factor of COVID-19 pneumonia severity with mainly semiquantitative assessment, and outcome was not assessed in the specific oncology setting. The main goal was to evaluate the prognostic role of quantitative assessment of the extent of lung damage for early mortality of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia in cancer patients. Methods: We prospectively included consecutive cancer patients with recent onset of COVID-19 pneumonia assessed by chest CT between March 15, 2020, and April 20, 2020, and followed until May 1, 2020. Demographic, clinical, laboratory test data and imaging findings were recorded. Quantitative chest CT assessment of COVID-19 pneumonia was based on the density distribution of lung lesions using a freely available software recently released (Myrian XP-Lung). The association between extent of lung damage and overall survival was studied by univariate and multivariate Cox analysis. The Uno C-index was used to assess the discriminatory value of the quantitative CT extent of lung damage. Results: Seventy cancer patients with chest CT evidence of COVID-19 were included. After a median follow-up of 25 days, 17 patients (24%) had died. The median quantitative chest CT extent of COVID-19 was 20% (IQR = 14-35, range = 3-59) for non-survivors vs. 10% (IQR = 6-15, range = 2-55) for survivors (p = 0.002). The extent of COVID-19 pneumonia was correlated with inpatient management (p = 0.003) and oxygen therapy requirements (p < 0.001). Independent factors associated with death were performance status (PS) ≥2 (HR = 3.9, 95% CI = [1.1-13.8] p = 0.04) and extent of COVID-19 pneumonia ≥30% (HR = 12.0, 95% CI = [2.2-64.4] p = 0.004). No differences were found regarding the histology of cancer, cancer stage, metastases sites, or type of oncologic treatment between the survivor and non-survivor groups. The cross-validated Uno C-index of the model including PS and extent of COVID-19 pneumonia was 0.83, 95% CI = [0.73-0.93]. Conclusions: The quantitative chest CT extent of COVID-19 pneumonia was a strong independent prognostic factor of early inpatient mortality in a population of cancer patients.