Objective: To investigate the facemask adherence rate among South Asian countries and to examine association between face mask adherence and socio-demographic factors.
Study Design: Cross-sectional ...study.
Place and duration of study: South Asian countries (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh), from Jul to Sep 2020.
Methodology: A total of 1579 individuals of age more than 14 years, of either gender, who had internet accessibility and understood English, participated in the study. The study was designed on Google forms and distributed through social media networks. The three South-Asian countries, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, were targeted. Data regarding socio-demographics and type of facemask adherence was collected.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 31.32 ± 9.83 years. Of all the participants, there were 826 (46.3%) males, and 959 (53.7%) were females. Univariate analysis showed that females, Muslims, education level till graduate, employed, monthly income ≤$300, and Bangladeshis participants had higher odds of face mask adherence (p<0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that females, Muslims, urban residents, secondary level education, employed, family monthly income $100-$300, and Bangladeshis were strongly associated with face mask adherence (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Among the three countries, Bangladeshis had higher facemask adherence than Pakistan and India. The sociodemographic factors associated with facemask usage were gender, religion, locality, education, employment status, family monthly income, and nationality.
The purpose of fire safety equipment (FSE) inspection and maintenance is to ensure that this equipment is in good working condition during emergencies, so that fire damage could be kept to a minimum. ...At present, the maintenance and inspection of FSE must be performed according to the standards and methods specified by fire safety regulations, which makes it necessary to consult relevant files and drawings. However, the reading of maintenance and inspection information can be a very time-consuming endeavor as the majority of these files are in paper. To solve the aforementioned issues, building information modeling (BIM) was used in this study to construct the FSE elements so that the required information could be rapidly acquired by FSE inspectors. A cloud database for equipment inspection and maintenance was then generated by organizing the compiled information. This database was combined with the augmented reality (AR) technology to facilitate FSE inspection and maintenance using mobile devices, thus overcoming the constraints imposed by paper files on these tasks. The results of the demonstration and validation shown that the proposed BIM AR FSE system provides highly comprehensive, mobile, and effective access to FSE information. The combination of information and real-life objects via AR effectively facilitated the presentation of information in an immediate, visual, and convenient manner.
•Evaluates the feasibility of BIM and AR system integration to facility fire safety equipment inspection.•A systematic analytical method was used to understand the information requirements and relationships in the BIM_based system.•A case study is performed to validate the viability of the BIM AR system to present information in an immediate, visual, and convenient manner.•BIM and AR integration has the potential to enhance efficiency in information retrieval.
Equestrians are no strangers to injury. Modernization of the sport aims to support safe riding habits and limit fatal injuries, especially with the use of equestrian safety equipment. The purpose of ...this study was to investigate factors influencing the use of safety equipment across a range of equestrian disciplines. It was hypothesized that use, perceptions of efficacy, and influencing factors would differ according to discipline but not other demographic factors. An online survey was widely distributed via horse industry organizations and social media over a 2-week period in January 2021. The survey identified rider demographics including age, education level, geographic region, and primary riding discipline, and used 5-pt Likert-scale questions regarding use, perceived effectiveness, and influences on 3 types of safety equipment. Data were examined using frequency counts, correlation, and mixed model ANOVA (SAS, Inc.). Of 770 responses, 48.6% identified themselves as English riders, 46.2% as western riders, and 5.2% as drivers. As hypothesized, helmet use was lower in western disciplines than English disciplines (P < 0.0001) or driving (P < 0.0001). Participation in a discipline that requires use of safety equipment increased the likelihood of helmet use (P < 0.0001), but not other equipment. Age, level of education, and geographic region did not influence the use of helmets or other equipment (P > 0.05). When asked how often respondents used helmets, only 58.2% of all participants chose “always,” yet 74.2% considered helmets “very effective” in preventing injury. Across all disciplines, 79.1% “strongly agreed” or “somewhat agreed” that their use of helmets was influenced by past injuries and experiences. Of respondents, 75.3% “strongly agree” that youth should be required to wear helmets. Unlike helmet use, only 16.8% had used safety vests in the past year, and 19.5% used safety stirrups. Use of safety vests and safety stirrups was greater (P < 0.001) in English than western disciplines. Of respondents, 58.3% considered safety vests “very effective” or “moderately effective” in preventing injuries; while more than one-quarter (27.8%) were “not sure” of effectiveness of safety stirrups. These results suggest that while helmet use is considered an effective way to prevent injury, discipline norms still heavily influence use. Safety vests and stirrups were less likely to be used and may require more industry wide education or exposure before being widely accepted. Understanding the equestrian demographics and disciplines that are likely to use safety equipment, as well as how they are influenced will allow for greater education and safety in equestrian sport.
We are not all in this together. My 32-year history with the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States-initially as an HIV/AIDS policy analyst and now as an HIV-prevention researcher- has provided the ...dubitable opportunity to witness how adroitly deadly viruses spotlight fissures of structural inequality. In the late 1980s, "changing face" was the term often used to describe the epidemic's transition from one that affected predominantly White and class-privileged gay and bisexual men to one that exacted a disproportionate toll on people at the most marginalized demographic intersections: Black and Latinx gay and bisexual men, cisgender and transgender women, injection drug users, and poor people.The epidemic curve ofHIV/AIDS in the United States has now flattened, to use the parlance of the day, but not for people marginalized by intersections of racism, sexism, classism, and transphobia. An HIV vaccine still eludes us, but biomedical interventions such as preexposure prophylaxis effectively reduce HIV transmission. Alas, not for all. Black people are still less likely to have access to preexposure prophylaxis than are their White counterparts. Thus, COVID-19's arrival made me dread what its "changing face" might portend. Newspaper headlines swiftly affirmed the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 in Black and Navajo communities and issued ominous warnings about the pandemic's future in poor White rural communities.My irritation with the ubiquitous phrase "We're all in this together" quickly ensued. Although seemingly innocuous and often well intentioned, the phrase reflects an intersectional color and class blinding that functions to obscure the structural inequities that befall Black and other marginalized groups, who bear the harshest and most disproportionate brunt of anything negative or calamitous: HIV/AIDS, hypertension, poverty, diabetes, climate change disasters, unemployment, mass incarceration, and, now, COVID-19.
Polymer 3D printing is an emerging technology with recent research translating towards increased use in industry, particularly in medical fields. Polymer printing is advantageous because it enables ...printing low-cost functional parts with diverse properties and capabilities. Here, we provide a review of recent research advances for polymer 3D printing by investigating research related to materials, processes, and design strategies for medical applications. Research in materials has led to the development of polymers with advantageous characteristics for mechanics and biocompatibility, with tuning of mechanical properties achieved by altering printing process parameters. Suitable polymer printing processes include extrusion, resin, and powder 3D printing, which enable directed material deposition for the design of advantageous and customized architectures. Design strategies, such as hierarchical distribution of materials, enable balancing of conflicting properties, such as mechanical and biological needs for tissue scaffolds. Further medical applications reviewed include safety equipment, dental implants, and drug delivery systems, with findings suggesting a need for improved design methods to navigate the complex decision space enabled by 3D printing. Further research across these areas will lead to continued improvement of 3D-printed design performance that is essential for advancing frontiers across engineering and medicine.
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