No abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic causes new challenges to women and their babies who still need to access postnatal care amidst the crisis. The novel application of social network technologies (SNTs) could potentially enhance access to healthcare during this difficult time. Objectives This study describes the challenges experienced in accessing maternal and child health services by women with limited or no education during this COVID-19 pandemic and discusses the potential of SNTs to support maternal and child health amidst this crisis. Methods We administered surveys to women who had recently given birth in a rural setting and interviewed a purposively selected subset to ascertain their experiences of accessing maternal and child health services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our analysis involved descriptive analysis of quantitative data using STATA 13 to describe study participants’ characteristics, and content analysis of qualitative data to derive categories describing maternal health challenges. Results Among 50 women, the median age was 28 years (interquartile range 24–34), 42 (84%) completed upper primary education. Access to the health facility was constrained by transport challenges, fear of contracting COVID-19, and delays at the facility. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, 42 (84%) women missed facility visits, 46 (92%) experienced financial distress, 43 (86%) had food insecurity, and 44 (88%) felt stressed. SNTs can facilitate remote and timely access to health services and information, and enable virtual social connections and support. Conclusion SNTs have the potential to mitigate the challenges faced in accessing maternal and child health services amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

No abstract

111 vivo muscle is normally sterile. This tissue becomes highly contaminated post morteni by aerobic and anaerobic flora, however, if it is stored at normal or higher temperature and if it is not protected against contamination from these sources by rather drastic technics. I t has been shown that irradiation can protect muscle from such contamination, but we know that sterilization doses of radiation do not completely inhibit proteolysis (8). We have chosen not to rely on such sterilizations for our first experimentation. W e have preferred, rather, to work under strictly aseptic conditions and to excise the muscle material on which we observe modifications during its normal aseptic autolysis. EXPERIMENTALMatexiale. Lambs (50 kg.) and rabbits (3 kg.) have been used. For practical rcasons, we have limited our observations to the dorsal muscles of animals in good health and more particularly those free from Bang's and other diseases. Excision was done as follows :The animal was first sheared and then thoroughly washed with soap and water. It was epilated with SBa-starch-ZnO mixture on the whole surface of the back and washed again with lukewarm water. It was then slain and bled by severing the throat veins. Thereupon, we laid the animal on an operating table and covered it with sterile towels. The animal, still on the table, was carried into a special room where the atmosphere had been sterilized both by UV rays and Cresol aerosols. (Operators wore sterile blouses, masks and gloves; instruments were heat sterilized). The hide was cut along the spine and turned over revealing a large operating area; this area was bordered by sterile towels. Dorsal muscles thus denuded were excised from the ribs and the apophysis.Working with the lamb, the muscles were cut under UV rays into pieces of approximately 50 gr. ; with rabbits, muscles were stored with no further dissection.To protect OUT muscle samples against oxidation by atmospheric oxygen, we put them in large special sterile test tubes composed of two compartments. In the first compartment, we introduce 10 cc. of fresh alkaline pyrogallol solution (25 g. pyrogallol + 75 cc. H,O + 10 g. NaOH in pellets). In the second one, the muscle sample was introduced immediately after dissection ; the tubes were then hermetically closed with rubber stoppers. The samples were thus protected against evaporation.This method has become routine in our laboratory, and we find that a trained operator can prepare and operate on 5 rabbits per day. For a lamb, we need 3 persons and the operations are somewhat refined with regard to sterile manipulations. Bacteriological controls show that the percentage of contaminated samples excised in this manner is practically nil. However, each sample is tested after storage for the possible presence of aerobic or anaerobic organisms.We find that the presence of pyrogallol enables us to keep unaltered the original color of our samples. But, if pyrogallol is absent, the samples soon lose their pink pigmentation and become light brown-probably through th...

No abstract

Thanks to the public and low cost availability of wireless high speed internet access students are increasingly equipped with mobile internet enabled devices to connect to university services like Learning Management System (LMS). But the applications services like LMS are still unable to adapt themselves to modern mobile devices with restrictions like re duced display size. By recognizing the device and its restrictions it is possible to optimize the LMS interface. Additionally by using device features like position, acceleration sensors, or the camera it is possible to detect the intentions of the user. The context of the user's situation determines which university services are helpful and interesting. Gathering these context information and reasoning on them is the foundation of our context-and service-oriented approach towards a mobile LMS.This enables us to personalize the mobile learning experience with location-sensitive lecture streaming, campus navigation, and ubiquitous features of the whole university computing infrastructure. By nsing a service-oriented architecture we are able to compose a variety of different university and external services towards a pervasive university.

Pervasive educational games have the potential to transfer learning content to real-life experiences beyond lecture rooms, through realizing field trips in an augmented or virtual manner. This article introduces the pervasive educational game ''RouteMe'' that brings the rather abstract topic of routing in ad hoc networks to real-world environments. The game is designed for university-level courses and supports these courses in a motivating manner to deepen the learning experience. Students slip into the role of either routing nodes or applications with routing demands. On three consecutive levels of difficulty, they get introduced with the game concept, learn the basic routing mechanisms and become aware of the general limitations and functionality of routing nodes. This paper presents the pedagogical and technical game concept as well as findings from an evaluation in a university setting.

No abstract