Levels and patterns of physical activity in stroke survivors with different ambulation status living in low-income areas of Cape Town, South Africa

Little is known about physical activity (PA) in people with stroke living in low-income areas. The aim of this study was to characterize and contrast the levels and patterns of PA between stroke survivors with different ambulation status living in low-income areas in Cape Town, South Afric

The FLARE Network: Vicarious Cal/Val for Earth Observation Satellites

Calibration and characterization of radiometric and geospatial performance is necessary for the accurate retrieval of information from Earth Observation platforms. For small satellite constellations, this is especially true to ensure data quality and consistency among multiple craft that lack on-board calibration equipment. The Field Line-of-sight Automate Radiance Exposure (FLARE) Network provides an automated, on-demand calibration solution designed to meet the requirements of both agency and commercial operators by providing NIST traceable data without the need for expensive campaigns o r on-board calibration sources. FLARE radiometric performance has been verified with Landsat 8 – OLI. FLARE was successfully utilized with Planet SkySat and PlanetScope assets for rapid verification of resolution performance, and in commissioning efforts of new satellites following launch

The role of environmental factors on health conditions, general health and quality of life in persons with spinal cord injuries in South Africa

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT: Data are available upon request from the corresponding author.SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS: FILE S1: International Spinal Cord Injury Survey (InSCI) in Xhosa and Afrikaans languages; TABLE S1: Linear Regression model showing the association between Environmental factors with Health conditions (Secondary health conditions, Pain Intensity and Mental Health) adjusted for age, sex and severity of SCI. TABLE S2: Logistic Regression model showing the association between Environmental factors with General Health and QoL adjusted for age, sex and severity of SCI.Please read abstract in article.The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) funding through its Division of Research Capacity Development under the RCDI.http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerphPhysiotherapySDG-03:Good heatlh and well-beingSDG-10:Reduces inequalitie

Structured feedback on students’ concept maps: the proverbial path to learning?

Good conceptual knowledge is an essential requirement for health professions students, in that they are required to apply concepts learned in the classroom to a variety of different contexts. However, the use of traditional methods of assessment limits the educator’s ability to correct students’ conceptual knowledge prior to altering the educational context. Concept mapping (CM) is an educational tool for evaluating conceptual knowledge, but little is known about its use in facilitating the development of richer knowledge frameworks. In addition, structured feedback has the potential to develop good conceptual knowledge. The purpose of this study was to use Kinchin’s criteria to assess the impact of structured feedback on the graphical complexity of CM’s by observing the development of richer knowledge frameworks. Fifty-eight physiotherapy students created CM’s targeting the integration of two knowledge domains within a case-based teaching paradigm. Each student received one round of structured feedback that addressed correction, reinforcement, forensic diagnosis, benchmarking, and longitudinal development on their CM’s prior to the final submission. The concept maps were categorized according to Kinchin’s criteria as either Spoke, Chain or Net representations, and then evaluated against defined traits of meaningful learning. The inter-rater reliability of categorizing CM’s was good. Pre-feedback CM’s were predominantly Chain structures (57%), with Net structures appearing least often. There was a significant reduction of the basic Spoke- structured CMs (P = 0.002) and a significant increase of Net-structured maps (P < 0.001) at the final evaluation (post-feedback). Changes in structural complexity of CMs appeared to be indicative of broader knowledge frameworks as assessed against the meaningful learning traits. Feedback on CM’s seemed to have contributed towards improving conceptual knowledge and correcting naive conceptions of related knowledge. Educators in medical education could therefore consider using CM’s to target individual student development

Ultra-Stable Environment Control for the NEID Spectrometer: Design and Performance Demonstration

Two key areas of emphasis in contemporary experimental exoplanet science are the detailed characterization of transiting terrestrial planets, and the search for Earth analog planets to be targeted by future imaging missions. Both of these pursuits are dependent on an order-of-magnitude improvement in the measurement of stellar radial velocities (RV), setting a requirement on single-measurement instrumental uncertainty of order 10 cm/s. Achieving such extraordinary precision on a high-resolution spectrometer requires thermo-mechanically stabilizing the instrument to unprecedented levels. Here, we describe the Environment Control System (ECS) of the NEID Spectrometer, which will be commissioned on the 3.5 m WIYN Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in 2019, and has a performance specification of on-sky RV precision < 50 cm/s. Because NEID's optical table and mounts are made from aluminum, which has a high coefficient of thermal expansion, sub-milliKelvin temperature control is especially critical. NEID inherits its ECS from that of the Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF), but with modifications for improved performance and operation near room temperature. Our full-system stability test shows the NEID system exceeds the already impressive performance of HPF, maintaining vacuum pressures below $10^{-6}$ Torr and an RMS temperature stability better than 0.4 mK over 30 days. Our ECS design is fully open-source; the design of our temperature-controlled vacuum chamber has already been made public, and here we release the electrical schematics for our custom Temperature Monitoring and Control (TMC) system.Comment: Accepted for publication in JATI

Case studies of electrical characterisation of graphene by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy

Graphene metrology needs to keep up with the fast pace of developments in graphene growth and transfer. Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) is a non-contact, fast, and non-destructive characterization technique for mapping the electrical properties of graphene. Here we show several case studies of graphene characterization on a range of different substrates that highlight the versatility of THz-TDS measurements and its relevance for process optimization in graphene production scenarios

Abstracts from the 8th International Conference on cGMP Generators, Effectors and Therapeutic Implications

This work was supported by a restricted research grant of Bayer AG

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

Background: Many patients with COVID-19 have been treated with plasma containing anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma therapy in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Methods: This randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]) is assessing several possible treatments in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 177 NHS hospitals from across the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either usual care alone (usual care group) or usual care plus high-titre convalescent plasma (convalescent plasma group). The primary outcome was 28-day mortality, analysed on an intention-to-treat basis. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936. Findings: Between May 28, 2020, and Jan 15, 2021, 11558 (71%) of 16287 patients enrolled in RECOVERY were eligible to receive convalescent plasma and were assigned to either the convalescent plasma group or the usual care group. There was no significant difference in 28-day mortality between the two groups: 1399 (24%) of 5795 patients in the convalescent plasma group and 1408 (24%) of 5763 patients in the usual care group died within 28 days (rate ratio 1·00, 95% CI 0·93–1·07; p=0·95). The 28-day mortality rate ratio was similar in all prespecified subgroups of patients, including in those patients without detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at randomisation. Allocation to convalescent plasma had no significant effect on the proportion of patients discharged from hospital within 28 days (3832 [66%] patients in the convalescent plasma group vs 3822 [66%] patients in the usual care group; rate ratio 0·99, 95% CI 0·94–1·03; p=0·57). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at randomisation, there was no significant difference in the proportion of patients meeting the composite endpoint of progression to invasive mechanical ventilation or death (1568 [29%] of 5493 patients in the convalescent plasma group vs 1568 [29%] of 5448 patients in the usual care group; rate ratio 0·99, 95% CI 0·93–1·05; p=0·79). Interpretation: In patients hospitalised with COVID-19, high-titre convalescent plasma did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes. Funding: UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research