Spheres of Practice for the Co-design of Wearables

As expectations within the area of smart textiles increasingly become informed and driven by technological developments, the disciplinary boundaries and relationship between user and technological innovation will unavoidably transform. The authors venture that new paradigms of collaborative practice will inevitably develop between design and science, to more fully realize both the opportunities and contexts that wearable textiles offer. Drawing on previous work by the authors namely Molecular Imprinted Textiles (MIT - 2009/10), Future Textile Visions (FTV - 2010/11), Design Specks: Connecting People with Speckled Computing (2012/13), Second Skin (2013/14), and The S*** Word: Designing the Empathic Underwardrobe (2014), a model is proposed to more clearly understand and navigate between design, technology and application, and more importantly, between our cultural understanding of the user and the wearer. This paper reflects on a series of projects that inform a methodological approach: a process of asking questions; developing scenarios; exploring materials and making; generating concepts and building prototypes. Each project involved collaborations between design, academics, users and industry, and a form of co-design, where knowledge exchange was central, design was the intermediary, and the goal was to understand the drivers and the stakeholders. Simultaneously, this research sought to better understand and communicate the development of more empathic textile and fashion artifacts, and solutions. Co-design in this context is seen as a core approach to shifting the balance from technology as merely adjunct, or as a hook for marketers and users, to a more informed and harmonised position, where technology sits proximally and comfortably. The notion of interdisciplinary understanding, which tracks across domains of product, fashion and textiles, presents an approach where the application is still emerging. Through analysis of this progressive series of projects, the authors suggest that there is an opportunity to explore the inherent connectedness that textiles might offer for the integration and embedding of technology within material as a means to embrace these affordance opportunities. Central to this notion is the realisation of opportunities arising from dialogue and collaborative making (i.e. co-design), and for exploring the transformative notions of the user and the wearer. This paper led the authors to pose a set of questions that align to a four stage design process: Research, Define, Develop, Reflect, to frame findings and insights, and to outline the potential for future opportunities of working with technology to achieve the making and wearing of desirable materializations on the body

Risk of secondhand smoke exposure and severity of COVID-19 infection: multicenter case–control study

IntroductionExposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) is an established causal risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and chronic lung disease. Numerous studies have evaluated the role of tobacco in COVID-19 infection, severity, and mortality but missed the opportunity to assess the role of SHS. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine whether SHS is an independent risk factor for COVID-19 infection, severity, mortality, and other co-morbidities.MethodologyMulticentric case–control study was conducted across six states in India. Severe COVID-19 patients were chosen as our study cases, and mild and moderate COVID-19 as control were evaluated for exposure to SHS. The sample size was calculated using Epi-info version 7. A neighborhood-matching technique was utilized to address ecological variability and enhance comparability between cases and controls, considering age and sex as additional matching criteria. The binary logistic regression model was used to measure the association, and the results were presented using an adjusted odds ratio. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 24 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).ResultsA total of 672 cases of severe COVID-19 and 681 controls of mild and moderate COVID-19 were recruited in this study. The adjusted odds ratio (AOR) for SHS exposure at home was 3.03 (CI 95%: 2.29–4.02) compared to mild/moderate COVID-19, while SHS exposure at the workplace had odds of 2.19 (CI 95%: 1.43–3.35). Other factors significantly related to the severity of COVID-19 were a history of COVID-19 vaccination before illness, body mass index (BMI), and attached kitchen at home.DiscussionThe results of this study suggest that cumulative exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke is an independent risk factor for severe COVID-19 illness. More studies with the use of biomarkers and quantification of SHS exposure in the future are needed

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Not AvailableCompeting demands for the use of quality gypsum by other industrial sectors has necessitated the search for alternate amendments for sodic soils. Municipal Solid Waste Compost (MSWC) as conditioner has the potential for improving the physical, chemical and biological properties of the sodic soils. Considering these benecial effects, the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India has also mandated the application of MSWC to maintain the soil health that may also ensure the safe disposal of this urban waste. Therefore, this study explored the potentiality of MSWC in the reclamation of saline-sodic soil irrigated with high SAR irrigation water. Conventional amendments gypsum (G) viz., GR25 (25% gypsum requirement), GR50 and its combination with -1 10 and 20 t ha of farmyard manure (F) and MSWC of Karnal (KC) and Delhi (DC) origin were incubated with soil for one month at 60% eld capacity. After 30 days of incubation, a soil column leaching experiment was carried out with completely randomized factorial design in triplicate. Columns were sequentially leached up to ten pore volumes of synthetic saline −1 water having xed EC of 6 dS m with variable SAR of 10 and 15 iw 1/2 −1/2 mmol L . Nature, quantity and independent integration of amendments had a positive inuence as evident from the decrease in soil alkalinity and leaching of salts. Unamended soil had high pH than amended soil. Leaching with saline water released an appreciable quantity of electrolytes from the soil. The + - 2- ionic balance analysis indicated an increase in Na , Cl , CO in 3 2+ 2+ + leachates with increase in SAR while contents of Ca , Mg , K , 2- - SO declined and that of HCO did not change. Leaching with 4 3 different SAR waters had considerable inuence on decrease in both pH and EC. Decrease in leachate pH was the maximum with the use of GR DC followed by GR DC and the least in control. 25 20 25 10 Changes in pH and EC showed inverse relation at different soil depths. Among the different combination of amendments, GR 25 -1 + DC (20 t ha ) treated soil showed greatest reduction in both soil pH and EC irrespective of water SAR.Not Availabl

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