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Purpose: Drug shortages are anticipated to worsen with time as the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues. The aim of this study is to track drug shortages within Illinois and identify causes and trends to this time-sensitive problem. Methods: In order to communicate between health systems within the state, the Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists (ICHP) developed a medication shortage dashboard, which collects information from health systems in the state on current drug shortages. Classes of medications inquired about included: anti-infectives, neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBAs), sedatives/analgesics, vasopressors, and "others." Data was gathered from 6 different medication shortage dashboards, ranging from May 20, 2020 to June 22, 2020 and was used to track drug shortages within Illinois. Additionally, this data was analyzed in conjunction with the number of hospital beds utilized by COVID-19 patients at the time. Results: Illinois's medication shortage dashboard tracked the supply level of 42 medications used in the treatment of patient's hospitalized with COVID-19. Data from an average of 75 health systems was analyzed each week (average response rate: 52%). For each medication, health systems identified if they had ample supply, mild shortage, moderate shortage, or critical shortage. Overall the trends of these medications positively correlated with the number of hospital beds utilized by COVID-19 patients in Illinois (r 2 = 0.7). Conclusion: The data from this study supports the conclusion that increased hospital bed utilization by COVID-19 patients is correlated with increased drug shortages of medications used in the treatment of COVID-19. It is imperative that health systems take appropriate action to prevent and manage drug shortages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spectacular, themed environments have been theorized as places where play is limited and consumer agency is overpowered. In a multiperspectival ethnographic engagement with ESPN Zone Chicago, we find consumers resisting the rules, but only to a limited degree. Spectacular consumption possesses a do-it-yourself quality unrecognized in prior theory. Technology and screens are important to this form of play, which exhibits a transcendent character built of liminoid elements and consumer fantasy. Yet, even in ostensibly overpowering spectacular consumption environments, consumption still is negotiated dialectically; consumer and producer interests are embedded in one another in a process of "interagency." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study explores the variety of information formats used and audiences targeted by public health faculty in the process of disseminating research. Methods: The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with twelve faculty members in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, asking them about their research practices, habits, and preferences. Results: Faculty scholars disseminate their research findings in a variety of formats intended for multiple audiences, including not only their peers in academia, but also public health practitioners, policymakers, government and other agencies, and community partners. Conclusion: Librarians who serve public health faculty should bear in mind the diversity of faculty's information needs when designing and improving library services and resources, particularly those related to research dissemination and knowledge translation. Promising areas for growth in health sciences libraries include supporting data visualization, measuring the impact of non-scholarly publications, and promoting institutional repositories for dissemination of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Two experiments examined the detectability of multiple transient changes within a cluttered and dynamic display (a simulated sonar display).Background: Research suggests that there are severe limitations when multiple targets must be detected within close temporal proximity. The present research explored whether these limitations influence performance in a dynamic monitoring task.Method: Participants monitored a cluttered and dynamic display and reported the number of new objects that appeared (one to four objects). The time between onset events was varied. A blinking cue sometimes accompanied each new object, giving observers multiple opportunities to detect it.Results: A large decrease in performance was observed when participants were asked to detect multiple targets within a short period of time. Performance was worse than predicted based on the attention literature. Performance suffered when observers were asked to detect more than two or three targets. The blinking cue greatly attenuated this performance deficit, even for short-duration blinking cues (one blink).Conclusion: Operators can easily become overwhelmed when asked to respond to even a small number of events when these events occur close in time. Extending transient events in time improves performance, but some attentional limitations may be difficult or impossible to overcome.Application: These results have important implications for systems in which important events may occur within close temporal proximity (e.g., when a sonar operator is tasked with detecting threats in the battle space). Situations in which these limitations may or may not influence performance are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Performance consequences related to integrating an imperfect alert within a complex task domain were examined in two experiments.Background: Cockpit displays of traffic information (CDTIs) are being designed for use in airplane cockpits as responsibility for safe separation becomes shared between pilots and controllers. Of interest in this work is how characteristics of the alarm system such as threshold, modality, and number of alert levels impact concurrent task (flight control) performance and response to potential conflicts.Methods: Student pilots performed a tracking task analogous to flight control while simultaneously monitoring for air traffic conflicts with the aid of a CDTI alert as the threshold, modality, and level of alert was varied.Results: As the alerting system became more prone to false alerts, pilot compliance decreased and concurrent performance improved. There was some evidence of auditory preemption with auditory alerts as the false alarm rate increased. Finally, there was no benefit to a three-level system over a two-level system.Conclusion: There is justification for increased false alarm rates, as miss-prone systems appear to be costly. The 4:1 false alarm to miss ratio employed here improved accuracy and concurrent task performance. More research needs to address the potential benefits of likelihood alerting.Application: The issues addressed in this research can be applied to any imperfect alerting system such as in aviation, driving, or air traffic control. It is crucial to understand the performance consequences of new technology and the efficacy of potential mitigating design features within the specific context desired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on a technique for creating nanotube circuits for flexible electronic displays developed by researchers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. According to Purdue University electrical and computer engineering professor Ashraf Alam, the researchers demonstrated the first working nanonet circuit containing over 100 transistors. It mentions potential applications of the flexible circuit, including electronic paper that displays text and images.