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It is no secret that creativity is an important component of advertising. It can enhance attention, facilitate recall, and drive emotional responses. However, there is continued opportunity to explore the boundary conditions regarding creativity's ability to break though clutter. This article looks at whether two types of interference—external interference and competitive interference—limit creativity's ability to enhance recall. We test this across three studies investigating the effects of these types of interference on individuals' ability to recall creative ads and brands. The first experiment tested external interference using digitally manipulated print ads and three external music conditions. The second experiment tested competitive interference through TV ads. A third study extended the second study by holding creativity constant within the interference conditions. Results indicate that creativity does indeed facilitate recall under limited interference. However, this effect is lost under conditions of high interference, implying that creativity can be dulled and lost in the noise. We find these effects under both immediate and one-week-delay recall conditions. These findings are important for researchers and managers as the positive impact of creativity may not be realized under conditions of high interference but may certainly be fully realized in conditions of low or moderate interference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the safety of preoperative chemoprophylaxis (PEC) in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients undergoing oncologic procedures. Study Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Tertiary academic center. Methods: HNC patients with Caprini risk score (CRS) ≥5 who underwent inpatient surgery ≥3 hours between 2015 and 2020 were included. Patients were divided into 2 cohorts, PEC and control, based on whether or not they received a single dose of low molecular weight heparin or unfractionated heparin prior to surgery. The primary endpoint was the 30‐day rate of major bleeding events. Results: A total of 539 patients were included; 427 patients received PEC prior to surgery. The rate of major bleeding was 6.7%. The PEC cohort was more likely to have received concurrent aspirin or ketorolac (225 of 427 patients vs 36 of 112 patients; P =.0002), greater duration of chemoprophylaxis (7.8 vs 5.0 days; P <.0001), have higher CRS (7.2 vs 6.6; P <.0001), longer operative times (596 vs 512 minutes; P <.0001), higher blood loss (265 vs 214 ml; P =.02), and higher bleeding rates when compared to the control (34 of 427 patients; P =.03). On multivariate analysis, only PEC was associated with bleeding (odds ratio, 8.74; 95% confidence interval, 1.15‐66.5). The rate of VTE was 1.3% and was not significantly different between cohorts. Conclusion: PEC was associated with an increase in bleeding and did not result in lower rates of VTE in patients with HNC. This study highlights the need to determine the optimal regimen of chemoprophylaxis in this patient cohort. Level of Evidence: 3 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The monitoring of body temperature is a recent addition to the plethora of parameters provided by wellness and fitness wearable devices. Current wearable temperature measurements are made at the skin surface, a measurement that is impacted by the ambient environment of the individual. The use of near-infrared spectroscopy provides the potential for a measurement below the epidermal layer of skin, thereby having the potential advantage of being more reflective of physiological conditions. The feasibility of noninvasive temperature measurements is demonstrated by using an in vitro model designed to mimic the near-infrared spectra of skin. A miniaturizable solid-state laser-diode-based near-infrared spectrometer was used to collect diffuse reflectance spectra for a set of seven tissue phantoms composed of different amounts of water, gelatin, and Intralipid. Temperatures were varied between 20–24 °C while collecting these spectra. Two types of partial least squares (PLS) calibration models were developed to evaluate the analytical utility of this approach. In both cases, the collected spectra were used without pre-processing and the number of latent variables was the only optimized parameter. The first approach involved splitting the whole dataset into separate calibration and prediction subsets for which a single optimized PLS model was developed. For this first case, the coefficient of determination (R2) is 0.95 and the standard error of prediction (SEP) is 0.22 °C for temperature predictions. The second strategy used a leave-one-phantom-out methodology that resulted in seven PLS models, each predicting the temperatures for all spectra in the held-out phantom. For this set of phantom-specific predicted temperatures, R2 and SEP values range from 0.67–0.99 and 0.19–0.65 °C, respectively. The stability and reproducibility of the sample-to-spectrometer interface are identified as major sources of spectral variance within and between phantoms. Overall, results from this in vitro study justify the development of future in vivo measurement technologies for applications as wearables for continuous, real-time monitoring of body temperature for both healthy and ill individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Consumption of pork and pork products is a major source of human infection with Salmonella. Salmonella is typically subclinical in pigs, making it difficult to identify infected pigs. Therefore, effective surveillance of Salmonella in pigs critically relies on good knowledge on how well the diagnostic tests used perform. A test that has been used in several countries for Salmonella monitoring is serological testing of meat juice using an ELISA (MJ ELISA) to detect antibodies against Salmonella. This MJ ELISA data could be used to estimate infection prevalence and trends. However, as the MJ ELISA output is a sample‐to‐positive (S/P) ratio, which is a continuous outcome rather than a binary (positive/negative) result, the interpretation of this data depends upon a chosen cut‐off. Aim: To apply Bayesian latent class models (BLCMs) to estimate diagnostic accuracy of the MJ ELISA test values in the absence of a gold standard without needing to apply a cut‐off. Methods and Results: BLCMs were fitted to data from a UK abattoir survey carried out in 2006 in order to estimate the diagnostic accuracy of MJ ELISA with respect to the prevalence of active Salmonella infection. This survey consisted of a MJ ELISA applied in parallel with the bacteriological testing of caecal contents, carcass swabs and lymph nodes (n = 625). A BLCM was also fitted to the same data but with dichotomisation of the MJ ELISA results, in order to compare with the model using continuous outcomes. Estimates were obtained for sensitivity and specificity of the ELISA over a range of S/P values and for the bacteriological tests and were found to be similar between the models using continuous and dichotomous ELISA outcomes. Conclusion: The Bayesian method without specifying a cut‐off does allow prevalence to be inferred without specifying a cut‐off for the ELISA. The study results will be useful for estimating infection prevalence from serological surveillance data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High pathogenicity avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs) cause high morbidity and mortality in poultry species. HPAIV prevalence means high numbers of infected wild birds could lead to spill over events for farmed poultry. How these pathogens survive in the environment is important for disease maintenance and potential dissemination. We evaluated the temperature-associated survival kinetics for five clade 2.3.4.4 H5Nx HPAIVs (UK field strains between 2014 and 2021) incubated at up to three temperatures for up to ten weeks. The selected temperatures represented northern European winter (4 °C) and summer (20 °C); and a southern European summer temperature (30 °C). For each clade 2.3.4.4 HPAIV, the time in days to reduce the viral infectivity by 90% at temperature T was established (DT), showing that a lower incubation temperature prolonged virus survival (stability), where DT ranged from days to weeks. The fastest loss of viral infectivity was observed at 30 °C. Extrapolation of the graphical DT plots to the x-axis intercept provided the corresponding time to extinction for viral decay. Statistical tests of the difference between the DT values and extinction times of each clade 2.3.4.4 strain at each temperature indicated that the majority displayed different survival kinetics from the other strains at 4 °C and 20 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) is a safe and cost-effective transitional care approach administered via different delivery models. No standards exist for appropriate OPAT program staffing. We examined outcomes of patients receiving OPAT via different care models to identify strategies to improve safety while reducing health care overuse. Methods Retrospective demographic, clinical, and outcome data of patients discharged with OPAT were reviewed in 2 periods (April–June 2021 and January–March 2022; ie, when staffing changed) and stratified by care model: self-administered OPAT, health care OPAT, and skilled nursing facility OPAT. Results Of 342 patients, 186 (54%) received OPAT in 2021 and 156 (46%) in 2022. Hospital length of stay rose from 12.4 days to 14.3 in 2022. In a Cox proportional hazards regression model, visits to the emergency department (ED) within 30 days of OPAT initiation (hazard ratio, 1.76; 95% CI, 1.13–2.73; P =.01) and readmissions (hazard ratio, 2.34; 95% CI, 1.22–4.49; P =.01) increased in 2022 vs 2021, corresponding to decreases in OPAT team staffing. Higher readmissions in the 2022 cohort were for reasons unrelated to OPAT (P =.01) while readmissions related to OPAT did not increase (P =.08). Conclusions In a well-established OPAT program, greater health care utilization—length of stay, ED visits, and readmissions—were seen during periods of higher staff turnover and attrition. Rather than blunt metrics such as ED visits and readmissions, which are influenced by multiple factors besides OPAT, our findings suggest the need to develop OPAT-specific outcome measures as a quality assessment tool and to establish optimal OPAT program staffing ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the context of nationwide law reform, New South Wales (NSW) became the last state in Australia to legalise voluntary assisted dying (VAD) – commencing 28 November 2023. Clinicians have divergent views regarding VAD, with varying levels of understanding, support, and willingness to be involved, and these may have a significant impact on the successful implementation. Aims: To understand levels of support, understanding and willingness to be involved in VAD among clinical staff across NSW during implementation of VAD. Methods: A multisite, cross‐sectional online survey of clinicians across four local health districts, assessing relevant demographics, awareness of and support for VAD legislation and willingness to be involved in different levels of VAD‐related clinical activities. Results: A total of 3010 clinical staff completed the survey. A majority of participants were aware of VAD legislation in NSW (86.35%) and supportive of it (76%), with nursing and allied health clinicians significantly more likely than medical specialists to express support. Among medical specialists, support was statistically more likely in those who did not care for patients at the end of life and those with limited knowledge of the legislation. Willingness of medical specialists to perform key roles was significantly lower, with 41.49% willing to act in coordinating or consulting roles, and only 23.21% as administering practitioners. Conclusions: The majority of clinical staff surveyed across NSW supported VAD legislation. While many eligible clinicians were reluctant to be actively involved, sufficient numbers appear willing to provide VAD services, indicating that successful implementation should be possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]