UK DNA working group eDNA week, January 2022

Here, we report on eDNA week, an international conference held online as a five-day series of webinars from January 17, 2022, to January 21, 2022. The conference was organized by the UK DNA working group, which has witnessed considerable growth and application of eDNA research since its founding and first conference in 2014. The 2022 event, held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, provided an opportunity to invite international researchers who are leading the field, without the usual constraints of conference location. Compared with the previous UK-based in-person conferences, there was greater international participation amongst the 514 people who registered to attend the event. To emphasize the importance of collaboration between sectors in driving forward DNA monitoring, a session was devoted to presentations by participants from governmental agencies, and another to those from commercial companies developing and utilizing DNA tools. The industry and stakeholder sessions were accompanied by state-of-the-art presentations delivered by a global group of DNA/eDNA researchers from 11 countries. These sessions were complemented by an open forum session for reflection and discussion. © 2022 The Authors. Environmental DNA published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Acute Limb Ischemia among COVID-19 Patients in Hospital Kuala Lumpur

BACKGROUND: Acute arterial thromboembolism among the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) patients is worrying as it can result in significant thrombotic events. AIM: The research aimed to determine the clinical results of COVID-19-infected patients who had acute limb ischemia (ALI) during the COVID-19 epidemic. METHOD(S): ALI patients who had a positive COVID-19 were included in the observational cohort study, which was conducted at a single center. The primary outcomes were 30 days mortality, limb salvage, and successful revascularization. RESULT(S): From May to October 2021, data from 21 ALI subjects who had positive COVID-19 were analyzed. Of the 21 included subjects, 10 were male (48%). Their mean age was 65 +/- 5 years. In 9 subjects (42%), revascularization was done. Four (19%) of the 21 persons died while they were hospitalized. Twelve patients underwent major amputation, and among them, one patient died after a month of hospitalization for COVID-19-related pneumonia. Among the 12 patients that underwent amputation, 10 of them presented with ALI during the 1st week of COVID-19 illness. Only one patient developed acute limb ischemia despite being on heparin thromboprophylaxis. CONCLUSION(S): Despite attempts at revascularization, ALI associated with COVID-19 has high mortality and high rates of limb loss. In our experience, major amputation is required in up to a third of patients. This poor result appears to confirm that these infected individuals have a marked hypercoagulable condition. However, adhering to the treatment protocol of heparin thromboprophylaxis confers a benefit in this patient group. Copyright © 2022 Karthigesu Aimanan, Nurul Nadiah Nazurah Mohd Ali, Mohd Nurhisham Azmi Abdul Rahman, Putra Mas Pian, Kumaraguru V. K. Pillay, Firdaus Hayati, Hanif Hussein.

UK DNA working group eDNA week, January 2022

Here, we report on eDNA week, an international conference held online as a five-day series of webinars from January 17, 2022, to January 21, 2022. The conference was organized by the UK DNA working group, which has witnessed considerable growth and application of eDNA research since its founding and first conference in 2014. The 2022 event, held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, provided an opportunity to invite international researchers who are leading the field, without the usual constraints of conference location. Compared with the previous UK-based in-person conferences, there was greater international participation amongst the 514 people who registered to attend the event. To emphasize the importance of collaboration between sectors in driving forward DNA monitoring, a session was devoted to presentations by participants from governmental agencies, and another to those from commercial companies developing and utilizing DNA tools. The industry and stakeholder sessions were accompanied by state-of-the-art presentations delivered by a global group of DNA/eDNA researchers from 11 countries. These sessions were complemented by an open forum session for reflection and discussion. © 2022 The Authors. Environmental DNA published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Teaching, Assessing and Promoting Lifelong Learning – A Case of First Year University Students, in a Developing Country During a Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a major technological disruption for Universities. This paper addresses the reflections of the staff regarding teaching, assessing and lifelong learning for the first year “Pastel for Accounting” module during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic forced universities to move from face to face teaching and assessing to a purely online mode of delivery. This paper uses the Reflective Practice Cycle to provide insight into the teaching and learning experience for the Pastel module, from the perspective of the teaching team. The insight provided included the 2020 academic year when the initial disruption took place. The insight then continued on to the 2021 academic year where changes were made for the module to be fully online. The paper further discusses the ways in which lifelong learning was encouraged in the renewed online module. The outcomes of this research can assist other modules at other universities with possible ideas of how to conduct a fully online service module. Future research should investigate the results of the expected changes for 2022. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Using the Diffusion of Innovation Theory to Explain Foundation Phase Teachers’ Perceptions of Online Zoom Classes During a Pandemic – A Case of a South African Private School

In this paper, the emphasis is on teaching the foundation phases of school via the Zoom platform during the Covid-19 pandemic. Fifteen out of the eighteen teachers of a private school in South Africa completed the survey questions, and the questions were then analyzed using the Diffusion of Innovation Theory. Most teachers felt that they were able to use Zoom successfully, although they prefer face-to-face teaching. The paper’s main contribution is the identification of six factors affecting the use of Zoom, namely the importance of being prepared, the role that the environment plays, the resources available, the ability of the student, the infrastructure in place, and lastly, the part that discipline plays. Future research will involve more grades in the study, not only grades 1 to 3, and survey other schools and their teachers using similar online teaching tools. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.