SARS-CoV-2 testing strategies for a safe (post-)pandemic implementation of school music trips and their impact on participants’ health

IntroductionDuring the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) lockdowns, children repeatedly experienced social isolation. Dealing with the resulting post-pandemic health implications remains a challenge. The role of group recreational activities is crucial in promoting children’s health; however the implementation can encounter challenges, especially when infections such as COVID-19 are surging.ObjectivesIn this prospective observational study, we aimed to investigate whether safe cohorts can be created through appropriate test strategies to facilitate music trips during the COVID-19 waves. The primary outcome was the occurrence of positive cases during the journey. Secondarily, a survey was conducted to evaluate the physical and mental health status of participants before and after the first journey.MethodsTwo school music trips were conducted. The first trip (T1) took place from 4 January 2022 to 9 January 2022, and the second trip (T2) from 3 January 2023 to 8 January 2023. For T1, central laboratory SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) pool tests were performed before departure. For T2, prior point-of-care (PoC) PCR pool tests were conducted to validate the findings. A hygiene protocol was mandatory for T1 and recommended for T2.ResultsBefore T1, 95 volunteers underwent PCR laboratory pool testing, which revealed one positive COVID-19 case. During the travel, one student had a positive antigen test. Questionnaires for the mental health status were collected before T1 from 95 participants and again as a follow-up after T1 from 79 participants. There was a significant decrease in cold symptoms among students (p = 0.002). Following this, the perceived risk of infection significantly increased in the students’ group (p = 0.019). Additionally, anxiety symptoms [as measured using generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)-7 score] and the fear of getting infected marginally increased in students. All T1 participants indicated that they would be willing to attend a similar trip again. In the initial T2 pool testing, 88 participants took part. Two participants tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, with one solely showing signs of a subsiding infection and the other being highly infectious, which led to the exclusion of the highly infectious participant from the travel. During the trip and the follow-up period, no further cases were reported.ConclusionBoth testing concepts effectively identified positive “SARS-CoV-2 cases in advance and prevented transmissions, enabling safe school music trips during the winter. The use of PoC-PCR may be superior in terms of time efficiency and flexibility. Despite the increase in the perceived fear of infection among children, the overall experience of the journey was positive

Male partner attendance of skilled antenatal care in peri-urban Gulu district, Northern Uganda

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Male partner attendance of skilled Antenatal Care (ANC) is beneficial to improving maternal outcomes. This study investigated the level, perceived benefits and factors associated with male partner attendance of skilled ANC in a peri-urban community recovering from two decades of civil conflict.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This cross-sectional survey used multi-stage sampling in 12 villages of Omoro county to select 331 married male respondents aged 18 years or more, whose female spouses had childbirth within 24 months prior to the survey. A structured questionnaire elicited responses about male partner attendance of ANC during pregnancy at a public health facility as the main outcome variable. Analysis used Generalized Linear Model (GLM) in Stata version 10.0 to obtain Prevalence Risk Ratios (PRR) for association between the binary outcome and independent factors. All factors significant at p < 0.15 and potential confounders were included in the multivariable model.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall, 65.4% (95%CI; 60.3, 70.5) male partners attended at least one skilled ANC visit. Mean age was 31.9 years [SD 8.2]. Perceived benefits of attending ANC were: HIV screening (74.5%), monitoring foetal growth (34%) and identifying complications during pregnancy (18.9%). Factors independently associated with higher ANC attendance were: knowledge of 3 or more ANC services (adj.PRR 2.77; 95%CI 2.24, 3.42), obtaining health information from facility health workers (adj.PRR 1.14; 95%CI 1.01, 1.29) and if spouse had skilled attendance at last childbirth (adj.PRR 1.31; 95%CI 1.04-1.64). However, factors for low attendance were: male partners intending their spouse to carry another pregnancy (adj.PRR 0.83; 95%CI 0.71, 0.97) and living more than 5 Km from a health facility (adj.PRR 0.83, 95%CI 0.70, 0.98).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Men who were knowledgeable of ANC services, obtained health information from a health worker and whose spouses utilised skilled delivery at last pregnancy were more likely to accompany their spouses at ANC, unlike those who wanted to have more children and lived more than 5 km from the health facility. These findings suggest that empowering male partners with knowledge about ANC services may increase their ANC participation and in turn increase skilled delivery. This strategy may improve maternal health care in post conflict and resource-limited settings.</p

Highly Transparent AZO/Ag/AZO Multilayer Front Contact for n-i-p Silicon Thin-Film Solar Cells

ABSTRACTOxide-metal-oxide structures are an alternative to single material transparent electrical contacts. Among other advantages, these multilayer systems provide good conductivity and transmittance, even when fabricated at room temperature. Low temperature processing is a requirement for silicon thin-film solar cells on various flexible substrates. The design and fabrication of oxide-metal-oxide structures based on ZnO:Al and Ag are investigated in this work. Further the integration of an optimized multilayer electrode into an amorphous silicon solar cell in substrate configuration was performed. Measurement results and possible loss mechanisms are discussed.</jats:p

Thin metal layer as transparent electrode in n-i-p amorphous silicon solar cells

In this paper, transparent electrodes, based on a thin silver film and a capping layer, are investigated. Low deposition temperature, flexibility and low material costs are the advantages of this type of electrode. Their applicability in structured n-i-p amorphous silicon solar cells is demonstrated in simulation and experiment. The influence of the individual layer thicknesses on the solar cell performance is discussed and approaches for further improvements are given. For the silver film/capping layer electrode, a higher solar cell efficiency could be achieved compared to a reference ZnO:Al front contact

Simultaneous Color Imaging and Fluorescence Detection using a Single Camera Sensor

We demonstrate an imaging system intended for medical applications that allows to display simultaneously and in real-time both the reflectance image as well as the signal from up to three fluorescent dyes