Aspire2Health and COVID-19: the impact of the pandemic on outcomes from an outreach program to increase high school student interest in rural health careers

Introduction: Rural health career outreach programs promote health careers to secondary school students and aim to address rural health workforce shortages. This study analyses student feedback data from Aspire2Health, a multidisciplinary rural health career outreach program conducted in Queensland Australia before COVID in 2019, and during COVID lockdown and isolation periods during 2020-2021. The study aims were to assess the suitability of the program and its elements, the program's short-term impact on students' interest in health careers and whether COVID restrictions on program delivery affected students' program experience and outcomes. Methods: We conducted statistical and semantic analysis of data collected pre- and peri-COVID from participating secondary school students living in regional, rural and remote Australian communities. Data validity was established by triangulating quantitative results from items using a five-point Likert scales, qualitative themes from short-response items and frequency analysis of themes. Data were collected pre-COVID (2019, n=125) and peri-COVID (2020-21, n=248). Results: Student responses to the program remained extremely positive despite COVID-imposed restrictions. Feedback scores indicated quite strong agreement in pre- and peri-COVID periods that the program motivated students to pursue a career in health (mean (M)=4.6 pre-COVID v M=4.5 peri-COVID) and that students would recommend the program to a friend (M=4.8 pre-COVID v M=4.7 peri-COVID). Overall ratings of the event were high, although a drop occurred during the peri-COVID period (M=4.8 pre-COVID v M=4.7 peri-COVID; p=0.043). Activity interest rankings indicated that, irrespective of the pandemic, clinical skills sessions, meeting health professionals and watching the emergency scenario were more interesting to students than ambulance and hospital tours (p<0.001). Four themes were generated from analysing qualitative data. In response to the item 'What did you enjoy the most?' the themes were 'clinical skills' (n=203, 55% of respondents) and 'interacting with professionals' (n=146, 39% of respondents). Responses to 'Is there anything we could do differently?' produced the themes 'no changes required' (n=158, 58% of respondents) and 'variety and duration' (n=40, 11% of respondents). 'Variety and duration' described students' desire for more variety, more professionals and more time to engage in activities. The themes and their frequency among student responses indicate strong support for the validity of the results. Conclusion: This study found that the Aspire2Heath program continued to motivate rural students to pursue health careers during the COVID-19 pandemic and that student interest is greatest during activities with hands-on clinical skills and student-professional interactions. These results suggests that rural health career outreach programs can be run under challenging social circumstances with confidence that students can be successfully encouraged to pursue health careers. Furthermore, program design should emphasise hands-on clinical skills and interactions with professions. These findings have practical implications for rural health career outreach programs, particularly those faced with restricted financing or external circumstances that limit their access to external healthcare resources

Augmenting microwave irradiation in MAS DNP NMR samples at 263 GHz

The magnetic microwave field strength and its detailed spatial distribution in magic-angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) probes capable of dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) is investigated by numerical simulations with the objective to augment the magnetic microwave amplitude by structuring the sample in the mm and sub-mm range and by improving the coupling of the incident microwave beam to the sample. As it will be shown experimentally, both measures lead to an increase of the microwave efficiency in DNP MAS NMR

Ultra low temperature microturbine for magic angle spinning system

We investigate the fluid dynamics of a microturbine system that is applied in a device for chemical and biological analysis—a so-called magic angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) probe. The present system is utilized in a wide temperature range from 45K to 293 K. Pressurized air, nitrogen, or helium are used to drive a Pelton type microturbine. This turbine is mounted on a MAS rotor with a diameter between 0.7mm and 3.2 mm. The rotor system is equipped with a pressurized gas bearing that is operated by the same gas species as the turbine. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have been performed and compared with fluid dynamics measurements of the MAS system for different diameters, temperatures, and spinning rates between 23 kHz and 120 kHz. To our knowledge, this work is the first comprehensive CFD and experimental study of such a wide temperature range that has been carried out for microturbines with pressurized gas bearings. The results show good agreement between measurements and CFD simulations with appropriate (real) gas models, i.e., the ideal gas model for air at room temperature, Peng–Robinson model for nitrogen at 105 K, and ideal gas model for helium at 45 K

Solid-State NMR/Dynamic Nuclear Polarization of Polypeptides in Planar Supported Lipid Bilayers

Dynamic nuclear polarization has been developed to overcome the limitations of the inherently low signal intensity of NMR spectroscopy. This technique promises to be particularly useful for solid-state NMR spectroscopy where the signals are broadened over a larger frequency range and most investigations rely on recording low gamma nuclei. To extend the range of possible investigations, a triple-resonance flat-coil solid-state NMR probe is presented with microwave irradiation capacities allowing the investigation of static samples at temperatures of 100 K, including supported lipid bilayers. The probe performance allows for two-dimensional separated local field experiments with high-power Lee-Goldberg decoupling and cross-polarization under simultaneous irradiation from a gyrotron microwave generator. Efficient cooling of the sample turned out to be essential for best enhancements and line shape and necessitated the development of a dedicated cooling chamber. Furthermore, a new membrane-anchored biradical is presented, and the geometry of supported membranes was optimized not only for good membrane alignment, handling, stability, and filling factor of the coil but also for heat and microwave dissipation. Enhancement factors of 17-fold were obtained, and a two-dimensional PISEMA spectrum of a transmembrane helical peptide was obtained in less than 2 h

The invasive land planarian Platydemus manokwari

The land planarian Platydemus manokwari de Beauchamp, 1963 or “New Guinea flatworm” is a highly invasive species, mainly in the Pacific area, and recently in Europe (France). We report specimens from six additional countries and territories: New Caledonia (including mainland and two of the Loyalty Islands, Lifou and Maré), Wallis and Futuna Islands, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Puerto Rico, and Florida, USA. We analysed the COI gene (barcoding) in these specimens with two sets of primers and obtained 909 bp long sequences. In addition, specimens collected in Townsville (Australia) were also sequenced. Two haplotypes of the COI sequence, differing by 3.7%, were detected: the “World haplotype” found in France, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Singapore, Florida and Puerto Rico; and the “Australian haplotype” found in Australia. The only locality with both haplotypes was in the Solomon Islands. The country of origin of Platydemus manokwari is New Guinea, and Australia and the Solomon Islands are the countries closest to New Guinea from which we had specimens. These results suggest that two haplotypes exist in the area of origin of the species, but that only one of the two haplotypes (the “World haplotype”) has, through human agency, been widely dispersed. However, since P. manokwari is now recorded from 22 countries in the world and we have genetic information from only 8 of these, with none from New Guinea, this analysis provides only partial knowledge of the genetic structure of the invasive species. Morphological analysis of specimens from both haplotypes has shown some differences in ratio of the genital structures but did not allow us to interpret the haplotypes as different species. The new reports from Florida and Puerto Rico are firsts for the USA, for the American continent, and the Caribbean. P. manokwari is a known threat for endemic terrestrial molluscs and its presence is a matter of concern. While most of the infected territories reported until now were islands, the newly reported presence of the species in mainland US in Florida should be considered a potential major threat to the whole US and even the Americas

In Vivo Assessment of Cold Adaptation in Insect Larvae by Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Background Temperatures below the freezing point of water and the ensuing ice crystal formation pose serious challenges to cell structure and function. Consequently, species living in seasonally cold environments have evolved a multitude of strategies to reorganize their cellular architecture and metabolism, and the underlying mechanisms are crucial to our understanding of life. In multicellular organisms, and poikilotherm animals in particular, our knowledge about these processes is almost exclusively due to invasive studies, thereby limiting the range of conclusions that can be drawn about intact living systems. Methodology Given that non-destructive techniques like 1H Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging and spectroscopy have proven useful for in vivo investigations of a wide range of biological systems, we aimed at evaluating their potential to observe cold adaptations in living insect larvae. Specifically, we chose two cold-hardy insect species that frequently serve as cryobiological model systems–the freeze-avoiding gall moth Epiblema scudderiana and the freeze-tolerant gall fly Eurosta solidaginis. Results In vivo MR images were acquired from autumn-collected larvae at temperatures between 0°C and about -70°C and at spatial resolutions down to 27 µm. These images revealed three-dimensional (3D) larval anatomy at a level of detail currently not in reach of other in vivo techniques. Furthermore, they allowed visualization of the 3D distribution of the remaining liquid water and of the endogenous cryoprotectants at subzero temperatures, and temperature-weighted images of these distributions could be derived. Finally, individual fat body cells and their nuclei could be identified in intact frozen Eurosta larvae. Conclusions These findings suggest that high resolution MR techniques provide for interesting methodological options in comparative cryobiological investigations, especially in vivo