Ikamva Youth: Field Research Analysis

IkamvaYouth empowers South African students from under-resourced and under-performing secondary schools to achieve academic results competitive with those of the best-funded schools in the country. The organisation is able to offer extensive tutoring services free of charge due to the hard work of its committed volunteer tutors. As more students, called “learners,” flock to join the programme and IkamvaYouth grows, it faces challenges in attracting and maintaining an optimal amount of volunteer tutors. We conducted a quantitative online survey of tutors’ demographic information, backgrounds, and experiences with the organisation. Of IkamvaYouth’s approximately 300 tutors, 223 responded. We conducted tutor and staff interviews and group discussions with a total of 37 individuals within the organisation, initiating critical dialogue on topics such as tutor recruitment, engagement, retention, communication, and the tutors’ overall conception of IkamvaYouth

Ikamva Youth: Tutor Engagement Plan

IkamvaYouth empowers South African students from under-resourced and under-performing secondary schools to achieve academic results competitive with those of the best-funded schools in the country. The organisation is able to offer extensive tutoring services free of charge due to the hard work of its committed volunteer tutors. As more students, called “learners,” flock to join the programme and IkamvaYouth grows, it faces challenges in attracting and maintaining an optimal amount of volunteer tutors. We conducted a quantitative online survey of tutors’ demographic information, backgrounds, and experiences with the organisation. Of IkamvaYouth’s approximately 300 tutors, 223 responded. We conducted tutor and staff interviews and group discussions with a total of 37 individuals within the organisation, initiating critical dialogue on topics such as tutor recruitment, engagement, retention, communication, and the tutors’ overall conception of IkamvaYouth. Our in-field research activities conveniently coincided with IkamvaYouth’s Winter School, a two-week tutoring intensive hosted by all 10 IkamvaYouth branches during the learners’ winter breaks. At Winter School, tutors assist the learners in reviewing the learners’ curriculum before the upcoming national exam period. At most branches, Winter School is held at a neighbouring university. For some, it is be cooperatively hosted by multiple branches. We conducted the individual tutor interviews and tutor group discussions exclusively during these two weeks of Winter School. Following the conclusion of Winter School, Grade 12 learners attend IkamvaYouth’s Matric Camp, a oneweek tutoring intensive that prepares the graduating students for their matriculation exams, a deciding factor in university admittance. We conducted the individual staff interviews exclusively during Matric Camp, gaining staff members’ perspectives on some of the same topics that we had already discussed with tutors. Our findings suggest that IkamvaYouth can improve three facets of tutor retention. First, tutors can be better prepared for the realities of tutoring by accessing standardized, comprehensive orientation and training. Second, branch staff can more efficiently communicate with tutors to achieve meaningful, sustainable impacts on tutor satisfaction. Third, IkamvaYouth can engage tutors in participative initiatives that inspire ownership of their roles and responsibilities within the organisation. We present three deliverables to address these potential improvements. The Field Research Analysis, written specifically to address the needs of IkamvaYouth national staff, includes analyses of the results of the survey, interviews, and discussion groups, and can be leveraged to better understand tutor identities, motivations, and needs. The Orientation Pack, written specifically to address the needs of IkamvaYouth tutors, provides convenient access to the standardized resources necessary to their success. The Tutor Engagement Plan, written specifically to address the needs of branch staff, frames the necessity for and means of achieving meaningful, solution-based discussions between tutors and staff

Ikamva Youth: Orientation Pack

IkamvaYouth enables disadvantaged young South Africans to pull themselves and each other out of poverty through education. IkamvaYouth is a byyouth- for-youth South African organisation that equips learners with knowledge, skills, networks and resources to access tertiary education and employment opportunities upon matriculation

Ikamva Youth: Field Presentation

This slide deck includes the research activities, findings, conclusions, and deliverables that were presented to IkamvaYouth national staff during the field placement

MUMS: Mobile Urinalysis for Maternal Screening

Pregnant women in low-income communities often lack access to the necessary healthcare for successful births. This is frequently due to the high costs of medical care, the remote location of patients, and the infrequency of primary care medical visits. To address this inequity, we have created a mobile application and imaging unit that allows for the low-cost implementation of urinalysis testing, which will aid in the detection of warning signs for prenatal health risks. From a single photo taken with a tablet camera, our application digitizes the results of a standard urinalysis test strip, displays the test results, and tracks the patient test histories. Using early, affordable urinalysis, we can increase the rates early detection, intervention, and successful pregnancies. Our results have shown that our solution can accurately estimate the concentrations of biological compounds found in urine when compared to visual approximations of color comparison charts. Our device is not only more efficient than the alternative, but also more efficient at screening for and detecting potentially fatal health conditions in pregnant women. Ultimately, our solution is a frugal and mobile urinalysis alternative that can feasibly be implemented in rural communities in order to increase early detection of pregnancy complications, allow for early intervention, and improve the probability of successful pregnancies

TCT-294: Long-Term (Three Years) Follow-Up of the Patients with Multiple Sirolimus Eluting Stent Implantation (Full-metal Jacket Patients)

1. The cost, usability and power efficiency of available wildlife monitoring equipment currently inhibits full ground-level coverage of many natural systems. Developments over the last decade in technology, open science, and the sharing economy promise to bring global access to more versatile and more affordable monitoring tools, to improve coverage for conservation researchers and managers. 2. Here we describe the development and proof-of-concept of a low-cost, small-sized and low-energy acoustic detector: 'AudioMoth'. The device is open-source and programmable, with diverse applications for recording animal calls or human activity at sample rates of up to 384kHz. We briefly outline two ongoing real-world case studies of large-scale, long-term monitoring for biodiversity and exploitation of natural resources. These studies demonstrate the potential for AudioMoth to enable a substantial shift away from passive continuous recording by individual devices, towards smart detection by networks of devices flooding large and inaccessible ecosystems. 3. The case studies demonstrate one of the smart capabilities of AudioMoth, to trigger event logging on the basis of classification algorithms that identify specific acoustic events. An algorithm to trigger recordings of the New Forest cicada (Cicadetta montana) demonstrates the potential for AudioMoth to vastly improve the spatial and temporal coverage of surveys for the presence of cryptic animals. An algorithm for logging gunshot events has potential to identify a shotgun blast in tropical rainforest at distances of up to 500 m, extending to 1km with continuous recording. 4. AudioMoth is more energy efficient than currently available passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) devices, giving it considerably greater portability and longevity in the field with smaller batteries. At a build cost of ~US$43 per unit, AudioMoth has potential for varied applications in large-scale, long-term acoustic surveys. With continuing developments in smart, energy-efficient algorithms and diminishing component costs, we are approaching the milestone of local communities being able to afford to remotely monitor their own natural resources

Small-Molecule Activators of Insulin-Degrading Enzyme Discovered through High-Throughput Compound Screening

Background: Hypocatabolism of the amyloid β-protein (Aβ) by insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) is implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer disease (AD), making pharmacological activation of IDE an attractive therapeutic strategy. However, it has not been established whether the proteolytic activity of IDE can be enhanced by drug-like compounds. Methodology/Principal Findings: Based on the finding that ATP and other nucleotide polyphosphates modulate IDE activity at physiological concentrations, we conducted parallel high-throughput screening campaigns in the absence or presence of ATP and identified two compounds—designated Ia1 and Ia2—that significantly stimulate IDE proteolytic activity. Both compounds were found to interfere with the crosslinking of a photoaffinity ATP analogue to IDE, suggesting that they interact with a bona fide ATP-binding domain within IDE. Unexpectedly, we observed highly synergistic activation effects when the activity of Ia1 or Ia2 was tested in the presence of ATP, a finding that has implications for the mechanisms underlying ATP-mediated activation of IDE. Notably, Ia1 and Ia2 activated the degradation of Aβ by ∼700% and ∼400%, respectively, albeit only when Aβ was presented in a mixture also containing shorter substrates. Conclusions/Significance: This study describes the first examples of synthetic small-molecule activators of IDE, showing that pharmacological activation of this important protease with drug-like compounds is achievable. These novel activators help to establish the putative ATP-binding domain as a key modulator of IDE proteolytic activity and offer new insights into the modulatory action of ATP. Several larger lessons abstracted from this screen will help inform the design of future screening campaigns and facilitate the eventual development of IDE activators with therapeutic utility

Implementation of corticosteroids in treating COVID-19 in the ISARIC WHO Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK:prospective observational cohort study

BACKGROUND: Dexamethasone was the first intervention proven to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 being treated in hospital. We aimed to evaluate the adoption of corticosteroids in the treatment of COVID-19 in the UK after the RECOVERY trial publication on June 16, 2020, and to identify discrepancies in care. METHODS: We did an audit of clinical implementation of corticosteroids in a prospective, observational, cohort study in 237 UK acute care hospitals between March 16, 2020, and April 14, 2021, restricted to patients aged 18 years or older with proven or high likelihood of COVID-19, who received supplementary oxygen. The primary outcome was administration of dexamethasone, prednisolone, hydrocortisone, or methylprednisolone. This study is registered with ISRCTN, ISRCTN66726260. FINDINGS: Between June 17, 2020, and April 14, 2021, 47 795 (75·2%) of 63 525 of patients on supplementary oxygen received corticosteroids, higher among patients requiring critical care than in those who received ward care (11 185 [86·6%] of 12 909 vs 36 415 [72·4%] of 50 278). Patients 50 years or older were significantly less likely to receive corticosteroids than those younger than 50 years (adjusted odds ratio 0·79 [95% CI 0·70–0·89], p=0·0001, for 70–79 years; 0·52 [0·46–0·58], p80 years), independent of patient demographics and illness severity. 84 (54·2%) of 155 pregnant women received corticosteroids. Rates of corticosteroid administration increased from 27·5% in the week before June 16, 2020, to 75–80% in January, 2021. INTERPRETATION: Implementation of corticosteroids into clinical practice in the UK for patients with COVID-19 has been successful, but not universal. Patients older than 70 years, independent of illness severity, chronic neurological disease, and dementia, were less likely to receive corticosteroids than those who were younger, as were pregnant women. This could reflect appropriate clinical decision making, but the possibility of inequitable access to life-saving care should be considered. FUNDING: UK National Institute for Health Research and UK Medical Research Council

Procalcitonin Is Not a Reliable Biomarker of Bacterial Coinfection in People With Coronavirus Disease 2019 Undergoing Microbiological Investigation at the Time of Hospital Admission

Abstract Admission procalcitonin measurements and microbiology results were available for 1040 hospitalized adults with coronavirus disease 2019 (from 48 902 included in the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infections Consortium World Health Organization Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK study). Although procalcitonin was higher in bacterial coinfection, this was neither clinically significant (median [IQR], 0.33 [0.11–1.70] ng/mL vs 0.24 [0.10–0.90] ng/mL) nor diagnostically useful (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.56 [95% confidence interval, .51–.60]).</jats:p

The development and validation of a scoring tool to predict the operative duration of elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background: The ability to accurately predict operative duration has the potential to optimise theatre efficiency and utilisation, thus reducing costs and increasing staff and patient satisfaction. With laparoscopic cholecystectomy being one of the most commonly performed procedures worldwide, a tool to predict operative duration could be extremely beneficial to healthcare organisations. Methods: Data collected from the CholeS study on patients undergoing cholecystectomy in UK and Irish hospitals between 04/2014 and 05/2014 were used to study operative duration. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was produced in order to identify significant independent predictors of long (> 90 min) operations. The resulting model was converted to a risk score, which was subsequently validated on second cohort of patients using ROC curves. Results: After exclusions, data were available for 7227 patients in the derivation (CholeS) cohort. The median operative duration was 60 min (interquartile range 45–85), with 17.7% of operations lasting longer than 90 min. Ten factors were found to be significant independent predictors of operative durations > 90 min, including ASA, age, previous surgical admissions, BMI, gallbladder wall thickness and CBD diameter. A risk score was then produced from these factors, and applied to a cohort of 2405 patients from a tertiary centre for external validation. This returned an area under the ROC curve of 0.708 (SE = 0.013, p  90 min increasing more than eightfold from 5.1 to 41.8% in the extremes of the score. Conclusion: The scoring tool produced in this study was found to be significantly predictive of long operative durations on validation in an external cohort. As such, the tool may have the potential to enable organisations to better organise theatre lists and deliver greater efficiencies in care