Sweet Sacrament Divine, in a Pandemic: St. Mark's Church, Philadelphia

Unlike so many others, St. Mark's live-streaming includes numerous cameras, which allow for focus on the beautiful building and its windows in addition to tire liturgical action. (The feast of Corpus Christi is historically observed on the previous Thursday, but many Anglicans have followed the Roman precedent of transferring it to the following Sunday.) Two rows of pews are roped off for each one that is open, and all worshippers were required to pre-register online to attend-as only a limited number can be accommodated. Managed by the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks ever since, Grumblethorpe today offers not only tours of the historic, house but also a vibrant education program focused on inner-city youth. No words are provided for the congregation, lest those wishing to join in singing this high-church chestnut would be tempted to thwart the powers that be (just one of many sensible adjustments made by St. Mark's).

Live-Streaming Sacraments? Worship in the Era of Coronavirus

According to The New York Times, Since Italy began locking down cities to try to contain the coronavirus, two of the pope's weekly events, which also draw large crowds- his Wednesday general audience and his Sunday Prayer-have been live-streamed from library in the papal palace. At St. Luke's Church, in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, the rector announced a sort of drive-through communion. [...]notice, there will be no Mass on Sunday and all the buildings will be closed for extensive cleaning. There are, of course, a number of Anglican churches that regularly broadcast their worship service. Thanks to the perspicacity of the dean of Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, a number of congregations did not attempt virtual communion and instead offered Morning Prayer.5 This has created a curious set of circumstances: small Episcopal parishes attempt to stream video using a single static camera on a smart phone

Bending bad - Testing caramel wafer bars (#TestATunnocks)

During the coronavirus pandemic, there have been significant challenges in the remote teaching and demonstration of experiments, especially those that require laboratory testing equipment. With a desire to give students a feel for our materials laboratory on open days and allow them to gain a deeper understanding of what materials science and engineering is about, we have designed an experiment focused on composite materials that can be performed remotely and without specialist equipment. This enabled students to experience a bend test sensorily through seeing, hearing and feeling it, creating a strong link to then being able to relate it to the pre-prepared experimental data taken in the laboratory. This fun, easy-to-run and engaging experiment allowed a shared experience and encouraged a discussion about students' observations, differences in results and implications of the bend strength of sandwich composites. We have found it not only works well universally by all ages but can be used with younger children to think about words such as 'stronger', 'stiffer' and 'flexible' and how materials can be different in different directions. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Mathematical Modeling to Understand Plausible Explanations of Hypoxemia in Early COVID-19

Rationale: The disease caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) can cause severe hypoxemia even at early stages of disease progression, in some cases without dyspnea or extensive loss of aeration. Early reports and case studies generated several theorized mechanisms of pathophysiological alterations. In this study, we used a mathematical model to investigate the relative effects of lung perfusion abnormalities suspected to produce hypoxemia in early COVID-19: (1) intrapulmonary shunt resulting from vascular dysregulation and virus-related alterations to hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction, (2) perfusion defects resulting from thrombosis-mediated microembolism, and (3) venous admixture resulting from ventilation-perfusion mismatching throughout the noninjured lung. Our goal was to quantitatively assess whether the proposed mechanisms of hypoxemia in early COVID-19 are physiologically plausible, particularly in terms of how sensitive oxygenation is to each type of alteration. Materials & Methods: A twelve-compartment mathematical model of the lungs was designed to represent distributed ventilation and perfusion in various lung regions partitioned according to aerated vs. injured status, presence or absence of perfusion defect, and three different height levels. Regional vascular resistance was determined for each compartment, followed by calculation of end-capillary oxygen content. Mixed arterial oxygen content was computed by a perfusion-weighted average of compartmental oxygen contents. Arterial oxygen tension and overall shunt fraction for each scenario were then compared to clinical observations from early reports of COVID-19 patients. Results: In the absence of perfusion defects as well as ventilation-perfusion mismatching throughout the noninjured lung, severe hypoxemia resulting from vascular dysregulation alone required not just impairment of hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstrication, but rather extreme vasodilation in the small region of nonaerated lung (70% reduced vascular resistance). Combined with thrombosis-mediated perfusion defects affecting up to 50% of the normally aerated regions, the requirement for vasodilation in the nonaerated regions was reduced. Finally, accounting for moderate levels of venous admixture resulting from ventilationperfusion mismatching throughout the aerated lung (e.g., due to suboptimal perfusion redistribution), required no vasodilation and only moderate extent of perfusion defect. Conclusion: Evidence for each of the lung perfusion abnormalities investigated in this study can be found in the rapidly evolving body of literature emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. Individually, our model predicts extreme alterations required for any single mechanism to fully explain observations of severe hypoxemia despite minimal lung involvement at early stages of the disease. By contrast, hypoxemia in early COVID-19 may be explained by relatively small alterations in multiple contributing factors.

Pandemical Context, Second Repori

"2 The primate of the Episcopal Church released this statement via an internet video: "We've been trying, making mistakes, learning, regrouping, trying anew. "What should historians of the future know about our churches' response to this crisis?" they ask- anticipating publication of "an accurate and detailed picture of daily life in the Episcopal Church during the . . . pandemic" in a year's time.4 In the midst of the economic devastation and medical crisis, civil unrest over systemic racism and police brutality broke out recently across the country and around the world. St.John's Church in Washington erects security fencing," Episcopal News Service, 26 June 2020, https://www. episcopal newsservice, org/2020/06/26/amid-con tinued-vandalism-st-johnschurch-in-washington-erects-security-fencing/ (accessed 14 July 2020).

The Beauty of Holiness amidst the Pandemic

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus spreads through respiratory droplets produced when an infected persons coughs, sneezes, sings, talks, or breathes.2 Most notably, the "Frequently Asked Questions" section of the C.D.C. web site also asserted this: "There is growing evidence that droplets and airborne particles can remain suspended in the air and be breathed in by others, and travel distances beyond six feet (for example, during choir practice, in restaurants, or in fitness classes). According to one web site, A well-documented case of contagion, involving a choir rehearsal on March 10 [2020] at a Presbyterian church in Mount Vernon, Washington, helps explain why indoor gatherings in churches present a high risk even with social distancing. Two of them died.5 In a reconstruction of the disease's spread, The Washington Post reported that one church in South Korea accounted for more than half of that country's infections in the early months of the pandemic.6 Here are the statistics, as of mid-February: worldwide, there have been more than one hundred million cases diagnosed, and nearly two and a half million deaths/ In the United States alone, there have been some twenty-seven million cases and almost five hundred thousand deaths.8 (The United States constitutes about four per cent of the world's population, but more than twenty per cent of deaths from this virus.) Canada has fared far better than the United States, with some five hundred sixty deaths per million;in the U.S. that figure is nearer fifteen hundred.9 More Americans have died most days since early December than in the Pearl Harbor attack of 1941 or the terrorist attacks of September 2001.10 Of the nearly half a million souls who have died, most perished in the past six months.11 In the United Kingdom, the coronavirus has already killed more than there were civilian casualties in World War II (100,162 covro deaths in the past year, compared to approximately 70,000 civilians in the Second World War).12 As of early 2021, variants of the disease have been identified, including one from the United Kingdom and one from South Africa.13 The variants are described by scientists as both more contagious and more deadly. Previously reviewed in these pages, St. Mark's Church on Philadelphia's Locust Street18 offered some particularly notable worship, in particular a part-virtual, part-in-person Evensong and Benediction for All Saints' Day.19 St. Mark's has been livestreaming Low Masses along with Morning and Evening Prayer daily, plus organ recitals, children's homilies and formation sessions, and a hybrid Solemn Mass for All Souls' Day as well as on Sundays.

Navigating the Coronavirus Pandemic: Advice for Grandparents From Grandparents

In a qualitative study, I explored the experiences of grandparents during the coronavirus pandemic in the spring and summer of 2020 in the United States. Grandparents affected by the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent restrictions shared their experiences in audio/video recorded interviews. Responses to one interview question asking about advice they would give to other grandparents were analyzed. Four themes were identified from the data analysis. Advice given was motivated by a desire to help other grandparents and their families. Implications for Extension professionals are discussed.

Remote practicals in the time of coronavirus, a multidisciplinary approach

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, universities across the world have curtailed face to face teaching. Associated with this is the halt to the delivery of the practical experience required of engineering students. The Multidisciplinary Engineering Education (MEE) team at The University of Sheffield have responded to this problem in an efficient and effective way by recording laboratory experiences and putting videos, quizzes and data online for students to engage with. The focus of this work was on ensuring all Learning Outcomes (LOs) for modules and courses were preserved. Naturally, practical skills cannot be easily provided using this approach, but it is an effective way of getting students to interact with real data, uncertainty and equipment which they cannot access directly. A number of short case studies from across the range of engineering disciplines are provided to inspire and guide other educators in how they can move experiments on line in an efficient and effective manner. No student feedback is available at the time of writing, but anecdotal evidence is that this approach is at least acceptable for students and a way of collecting future feedback is suggested. The effort expended on this approach and the artefacts produced will support student learning after the initial disruption of the lockdown has passed.