Overcoming Engineering Challenges to Enable Commercial-Scale mRNA Vaccine Manufacturing

Increasing production capacity may necessitate the facility to cater for higher hazardous area category (e.g., H-Occupancy) design features, such as specialized building construction and potential blast zones. [...]an assessment should cover: * Quantification of flammable material use for production steps, including buffer preparation and LNP storage * Equipment and facility cleaning strategies that contribute to the facility flammable materials inventory * Impact of HVAC design to avoid hazardous atmospheres (e.g., full fresh air), use of local exhaust ventilation (LEV) or fume hoods * Solvent distribution methods (e.g., closed solvent delivery and waste removal systems) * Location of solvent bulk storage outside of the processing area/ facility, and piping in what is necessary plus removing spent solvent in a timely manner (e.g., piped transfer to a waste tank for removal by a specialist contractor). At present, the process cannot be fully single-use, so thought needs to be put into the cleaning and sterilization processes, plus the analytical support infrastructure needed for reusable product-contact surfaces. [...]it is recommended that for each mRNA project, consideration is given to the following aspects to determine the link between the equipment available and the facility design: * Need for custom/proprietary equipment * Independent production rooms with "through-wall" buffer transfer through iris ports in from logistics corridor (Buffer Prep/Hold) * Room electrical classification needs versus process step. * Equipment selection versus electrical and fire code requirements * Benefits and limitations of implementing single-use technologies, given that the process will be hybrid (with stainless steel). [...]the limited capacity for outsourcing of supporting functions, such as facility environmental monitoring or product sterility testing, should be considered during concept design.

Understanding Chinese international students in the U.S. in Times of the COVID-19 crisis: from a Chinese discourse studies perspective

Using the Chinese Discourse Studies (CNDS) as a theoretical framework, this study seeks to challenge the cultural essentialism and uncritical roots of existing literature, with an aim to expose long-standing patterns of Western totalizing discourse in the field of international education research. This exploratory article explores how Chinese international students as cultural agents respond to the global pandemic and pandemic-related stereotypes. Through a critical analysis of 21 Chinese students' narratives, this article identifies three culturally specific characteristics that pervade Chinese normative dialogues: (1) Chinese dialectics, (2) Chinese harmony, and (3) Chinese self-criticism. They are often employed to emphasize Chinese optimistic attitudes in times of crisis, avoidance of confrontation for harmonious communication, and moral character of self-introspection to conform to the social norm. This article offers new empirical evidence for the reconstruction of the Chinese paradigm of discourse studies and reveals the inappropriateness of Western scholarship for understanding non-Western linguistic and communicative events and practices. In sum, this article demonstrates that Chinese discourse studies can be a potential decolonial option to depart from deep-seated scholarship in Western intellectual supremacy and a visionary framework to advance multicultural discourses about international education against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions and anti-Asian racism.

Cartooning COVID-19 on facebook

Mike Asukwo's brightly textured cartoons captured the colorless realities of the Covid pandemic in Nigeria and circulated along with global pandemic discourses as local visual archives of Nigeria's postcolonial disenchantment. Social media is particularly central to the aesthetic value of Asukwo's political cartoons in producing and constraining the expression of civic agency among Nigerians. His cartoons demonstrate how everyday media practices such as the decoding and reproduction of popular culture texts online can challenge hierarchical systems of control. This chapter examines the conditions under which cultural netizens like Asukwo and his online audience make sense of the state's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting how Nigeria's crisis of infrastructure manifests in cartoons to accentuate the messiness of political leadership. The chapter concludes on the ambivalent valences of the social web and the digital public sphere it fosters, underscoring how social media documents the pandemic perspectives of members of the digital class in Nigeria. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023. All rights reserved.

The ideological, theoretical, and socio-economic context of critical HRD: A foundational introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce and overview the theoretical bases which inform a critical understanding of the ways in which social, political, and economic ideologies shape policy, practice, and experience. The chapter is designed around the fundamental notion that: 'All employees should have access to and control on their developmental experiences and these opportunities should be available across a range of levels in the organization. Programs should not only challenge the performative bias of the organization but also help its members achieve success on their own terms'. (Bierema, Human Resource Development Review 8:91, 2009), as well as the central notion that to move forward meaningfully in the contemporary context, Critical Human Resource Development (CHRD) needs to further return to its humanistic origins as a scholarly mechanism of problematizing performativity, stimulating further critical ideologies for challenging 'truth', which, in turn, may stimulate renewed pragmatic orientation while maintaining critical integrity in the field. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023. All rights reserved.

The DRACO Door: Design, Test, and Integration of the Mechanism on the DART Spacecraft

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is NASA's first planetary defense mission to demonstrate the viability of kinetically impacting an asteroid and deflecting its trajectory. The DART spacecraft successfully launched on November 24, 2021 from the Vandenberg Space Force Base and successfully made impact on Dimorphos, the smaller asteroid in the Didymos system, on September 26, 2022. The DART spacecraft has one instrument called Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO). DRACO is an imaging telescope that, in conjunction with the SMART Navigation algorithm, autonomously guided the DART spacecraft to the asteroid. Because DRACO is a mission critical and light sensitive instrument, the DRACO Door mechanism was designed as the protective cover. The door functions to shield DRACO from stray light during launch, to deploy in space once when commanded, and to stay 180 degrees open for the duration of the mission. The DRACO Door went through several iterations during the design phase with decisions on various components such as Frangibolts ®, torsion springs, hardstops, and latches. After fabrication and assembly, the door went through a rigorous environmental testing plan, which included deployment testing, vibration testing, and thermal vacuum testing. After successful qualification of the mechanism, the door was installed and integrated into the DART spacecraft. It should be noted that during the fabrication of the mechanism piece-parts, the COVID-19 pandemic began, and the effects of the pandemic were seen in the challenges faced during the DRACO door assembly and testing. Under the constraints of the pandemic, the DART spacecraft was successfully built, tested, and launched, and the DRACO door was successfully deployed on December 7, 2021. The door has continued to function as intended. This paper will discuss the design choices behind the door components, the environmental qualification test program, and the installation of the door onto the DART spacecraft. In addition, this paper will discuss the lessons learned and the challenges of fabricating and testing the flight hardware. © 2023 IEEE.

Black Lives Experiencing Homelessness Matter: A Critical Conceptual Framework for Understanding How Policing Drives System Avoidance among Vulnerable Populations

This paper examines racialized encounters with the police from the perspectives of people experiencing homelessness in San Diego, California in 2020. By some estimates, homelessness doubled in San Diego during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a survey of (n = 244) and interviews with (n = 57) homeless San Diegans during initial shelter-in-place orders, oversampling for Black respondents, whose voices are often under-represented despite high rates of homelessness nationally. Our respondents reported high rates of police contact, frequent lack of respect;overt racism, sexism, and homophobia;and a failure to offer basic services during these encounters. Centering our Black respondents' experiences of criminalization and racism in what Clair calls "criminalized subjectivity," we develop a conceptual framework that brings together critical theoretical perspectives on the role of race in the governance of poverty and crime. When people experiencing extreme poverty face apathy, disrespect, and discrimination from police—as our data show—the result is a reluctance to seek services and to engage with outreach when offered. This reinforces stereotypes of unhoused people as not "wanting" help or "choosing" to be homeless. We reflect on these findings and our framework for envisioning a system of public safety that supports and cares for—rather than punishes—the most vulnerable members of our society. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Public Integrity is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

The Other Side of 2020: Questioning Everything—Doing Something

In February of 2020, everything around the world changed. By mid-March, the majority of the world was locked down. Teachers were called on to create a sense of "normalcy” for their students. And we tried. During that process, though, as a teacher, I started to truly question what I was teaching and—more importantly—HOW I was teaching. This reflective essay offers a critical interrogation of my own pedagogical choices during and because of the COVID-19 pandemic . . . and so many other "moments” that have led up to it. I contend that we need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves, "Are we doing this right?” The following offers my starting point.

Autoethnographically Interrogating School-Based Anti-"Asian” Racism in Post(?)-Pandemic Times: An AsianCrit-Informed Composite Palimpsest

The ongoing racialized violence against "Asian” communities—that was simultaneously illuminated and amplified during COVID-19—is not a geographically isolated phenomenon. Vis-a-vis the Atlanta Massacre of 2021 and other senseless attacks on "Asian” Americans stemming from white supremacist fears of the Yellow Peril, "Asian” Australians have likewise been, and continue to be, victims of everyday old and new racisms rooted in Orientalist discourses and concomitant fears of the invading Other. As microcosms of society, schools are germane for the analysis, confrontation, and transformation of such racialized injustices and so, as a means of intervening in these everyday inequities, this paper weaves an AsianCrit-informed autoethnography with palimpsestuous composite narratives drawn from semi-structured interviews in a broader project with other migrant "Asian” Australian teachers to chronicle personal and professional race-making practices in the face of racism before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, while also rethinking and re-stor(y)ing a–way toward more hopeful, inclusive futures in schools. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Evidence on post-ICU syndrome prevention and rehabilitation strategies in adults: An umbrella review

Introduction: Post-ICU syndrome (PICS) is a syndrome that is becoming increasingly important due to the growing number of patients surviving critical illness, a phenomenon that has been accentuated especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus of the medical practice that cares for these patients should be oriented toward the best available interventions to prevent and rehabilitate the sequelae of PICS. Objective: To synthesize the evidence on the efficacy and effectiveness of strategies for preventing and rehabilitating PICS in adult patients. Methods: Umbrella review (CRD42022321610). PubMed, Scopus, Ovid (Cochrane), and LILACS were searched for systematic reviews evaluating any intervention to prevent or rehabilitate PICS and its effect on any of the PICS domain(s) (i.e., mental, cognitive, or physical outcomes). Results: 20 studies were included, and 10 were classified as of low or very-low methodological quality, so they were not included in the summary of results. Therapies at the mental and cognitive levels seem to have a beneficial effect but with limited evidence. The interventions analyzed in the physical sphere are very heterogeneous and have contradictory results, with little quality of evidence. Conclusions: Considering the systematic reviews included in this work, this research allows us to conclude that there is low-quality and contradictory information on the efficacy of interventions for the prevention or rehabilitation of PICS. Future practice should focus on developing high- quality studies. © 2023 Asociación Colombiana de Medicina Crítica y Cuidado lntensivo

Non-trauma uses of viscoelastic hemostatic assays in critical care: A narrative review and primer for pharmacists

Thromboelastography (TEG) and rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) are point-of-care viscoelastic tests of whole blood that provide real-time analyses of coagulation. TEG and ROTEM are often used to guide blood product administration in the trauma and surgical settings. These tests are increasingly being explored for their use in other disease states encountered in critically ill patients and in the management of antithrombotic medications. As the medication experts, pharmacists should be familiar with how to interpret and apply viscoelastic tests to disease state and medication management. The purpose of this narrative review is to provide a primer for pharmacists on viscoelastic tests and their interpretation and to explore non-trauma indications for viscoelastic testing in critical care. Literature evaluating the use of TEG and ROTEM for patients with acute and chronic liver disease, ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, coronavirus disease 2019, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation are described. Current applications of viscoelastic tests by pharmacists and potential future roles of critical care pharmacists in expanding the use of viscoelastic tests are summarized.Copyright © 2023 The Authors. JACCP: Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Pharmacotherapy Publications, Inc.

Health literacy and empowerment in the COVID-19 era

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a teachable moment to empower citizens to assess and apply information to protect their health by promoting critical health literacy. Most Americans took preventive measures, suggesting some overall increase in critical health literacy around infectious disease. Simultaneously, however, a torrent of misinformation, disinformation and malinformation intentionally buried facts, sewed doubt and confusion, promoted lies and conspiracies, and undermined health authorities and institutions. The authors discuss how this ‘infodemic' rose from previously localized, unconnected anti-vaccination, anti-government, and anti-science groups galvanized by the pandemic. Prominent politicians seeking political gain lent the power of their offices to the movement, layering a ‘polidemic' onto the infodemic and overwhelming inconsistent public health messaging. Even those with strong health literacy skills were challenged. Millions were misled to over-confidently self-manage their risk, revealing the possibility and perils of empowerment in the absence of critical health literacy skills – negative empowerment. The roots of resistance to the government response to COVID-19, and conditions that fostered its influence are examined, followed by recommendations to position health literacy scholars and practitioners to better meet communication challenges and opportunities in future crises. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Information Services & Use is the property of IOS Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Epidemiological and clinical profile of COVID-19 cases attending rural health training centre of one of the medical colleges of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

Introduction : Understanding the epidemiological and clinical profile of COVID-19 cases and pattern of disease is very much required for future preparedness. Objective : To assess the epidemiological and clinical profile of cases of COVID 19 Method : Cross sectional descriptive study was carried out at a Rural Health Training Centre (RHTC). All cases reported in the month of January 2022were included in the study. The information about the epidemiological and clinical profile was collected from RHTC records by conducting telephonic interview. Results : Total 83 cases were reported. Among them, 43 (54.4%) cases were in age group 20-39 years. Male: Female ratiowas 1.37:1. Therewas one death and patient had ovarian cancer as co-morbidity. Total 71 patients could be contacted for telephonic interview. Fever was most common symptom andwas presenting symptom on first day followed by cough/cold and sore throat. None had shortness of breath or chest pain. Hospitalization rate was 5.63% and none required oxygen supplementation or intensive care. Recovery period was 3-5 days. Out of total, 90% cases were fully vaccinated and 95.8% had knowledge of CAB. Diabetes and hypertension were most common comorbidities andwere statistically significantlymore in age > 40 years. Conclusions : The COVID-19 cases in the beginning of year 2022 had clinical presentation different than the earlier waves. Periodic situational analysis can guide in policymaking for handling this pandemic in future.

Is the liberal media dead?: A critical analysis of Modi's Government and the performance of Indian Media

This paper presents a study of Indian media. Utilizing the Propaganda Model formulated by Herman and Chomsky in the book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media (1988), the paper aims to critically assess the news patterns and media performance of the mainstream Indian media. The contribution of the paper will be the application of the propaganda model in the context of Indian media. For this study, we have analyzed the media coverage of two events – India's ban on Chinese apps and the Pulwama attack. We focus on how Indian Media has helped the Government to establish the propaganda of nationalism during both events, which is explained by Herman and Chomsky in the five filters of news production. We investigate how the anti-China sentiment and the Pulwama attack have been used by the Government to divert attention from their failure of governance, and mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic. The corporate media is playing its part in the machinations of the ruling BJP party. We conclude that the plurality of voices amongst journalists is in decline. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of India Review is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Unpacking Privilege in Pandemic Pedagogy: Social Media Debates on Power Dynamics of Online Education

As one of the world's major social media hubs dedicated to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Facebook mega-group Pandemic Pedagogy provides a panoramic perspective of the key concerns educators and students face amid a public health crisis that forces redefinition of what constitutes effective education. After several months of instruction under pandemic conditions, two central themes emerged as the most extensively discussed and the most intensively contested: (1) rigor versus accommodation in calibrating standards for students, and (2) ways to improve engagement during classes conducted through videoconferencing, especially via Zoom. Both themes reveal deeply embedded systems of privilege and marginalization in the structures and methods of online education. The pandemic starkly exposes disparities in access, equity, and inclusivity. Addressing these challenges will require explicit measures to acknowledge these power imbalances by rethinking what counts as effective teaching and learning rather than relying on institutions to revert to business as usual after this pandemic abates.

Critical discourse studies and 'times of crisis': a proposal for re-existences based on Critical Aquilombage and Pragmatic Networks perspectives

The purpose of this reflection is to contribute to the debate on Critical Discourse Studies, through the presentation of original theoretical-methodological possibilities of anti-colonial nature, attentive and committed to the citizen struggle. Therefore, as a scenario of reflection and potential epistemological and methodological application, the concept of Critical Aquilombage – CA – (SANTOS, 2019;2021;2022) is described and applied in intersection with the concept of Pragmatic Networks – PR – (SANTOS, 2017;2019);the 'discourse of crisis' (located in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil) is used as illustration for the analysis. In the text, theoretical-methodological understandings related to discourse are developed, as well as the critical discourse analysis (FAIRCLOUGH, 2003;2010;RESENDE, 2019) oriented to the consolidation of reexistence movements (SOUZA, 2009;2011). In this way, a critical reflection and potential application of the epistemological-methodological-ontological enterprise CA-PR are presented, approaching them to the problematization of the term 'crisis'. Finally, it is possible to argue that the term ‘crisis' has been strategically used by social representants of symbolic and material power to operate the existential emptiness of Black People, operating the non-existence process (that is, sophisticated discursive movements in which existences are affected and erased, to the detriment of few others – which ones, for centuries, have continued to manipulate language and society in order to maintain places of social privilege and prestige): on the other hand, the critical-reflective use of texts can point to new modes of resistance. © 2022 Thesaurus Editora de Brasilia Ltda.. All rights reserved.

Liver biomarkers for prognosis in COVID-19

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2).Mortality attributable to COVID-19 remains considerably high, with case fatality rates as high as 8-11%. Early medical intervention in patients who are seriously and critically ill with COVID-19 reduces fatal outcomes. Thus, there is an urgent need to identify biomarkers that could help clinicians determine which patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection are at a higher risk of developing the most adverse outcomes, which include intensive care unit (ICU) admission, invasive ventilation, and death. In COVID-19 patients experiencing the most severe form of the disease, tests of liver function are frequently abnormal and liver enzymes are found to be elevated. For this reason, we examine the most promising liver biomarkers for COVID-19 prognosis in an effort to help clinicians predict the risk of ARDS, ICU admission, and death at hospital admission. In patients meeting hospitalization criteria for COVID-19, serum albumin < 36 g/L is an independent risk factor for ICU admission, with an AUC of 0.989, whereas lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) values > 365 U/L accurately predict death with an AUC of 0.943.The clinical scores COVID-GRAM and SOFA that include measures of liver function such as albumin, LDH, and total bilirubin are also good predictors of pneumonia development, ICU admission, and death, with AUC values ranging from 0.88 to 0.978.Thus, serum albumin and LDH, together with clinical risk scores such as COVID-GRAM and SOFA, are the most accurate biomarkers in the prognosis of COVID-19.Copyright © 2021 Sociedad Medica del Hospital General de Mexico. Published by Permanyer.

Human rights protection under the ICCPR: when can and should States derogate? A critical analysis in the context of New Zealand's COVID-19 response

Public emergencies like global pandemics subject human rights to extraordinary vulnerability. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) permits States to restrict rights by enacting permissible limitations on them at any time and by derogating from their protection in emergencies. This article argues that States should rely on the ICCPR's permissible limitations provisions rather than lodge formal derogations in times of crisis, unlike what many States have done during the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws upon New Zealand's highly successful public health response to support this proposition. The article argues that the accountability machinery for compliance with States' rights obligations is stronger when permissible limitations are enacted. Where States do rely on the right to derogate, the article suggests some improvements to existing international accountability mechanisms. These include enhancing the analysis to be contained in notices of derogation and advance capacity-building to enable States to better decide if derogation is necessary in the first place. Ultimately, the article argues that keeping States within the international human rights system is ideal. This can be achieved through reliance on the flexibility built into the ICCPR via its permissible limitations provisions rather than its right of derogation. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Human Rights is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Netnography and volunteer tourism: Critical reflections on conducting online research during a global pandemic

COVID-19 curtailed a significant amount of research in the field, forcing social scientists to consider the future of fieldwork. Netnography seems to offer a covid-resistant alternative to traditional fieldwork methods. This paper expands knowledge of the netnographic approach, focusing on a study of spirituality in international volunteer tourists' experiences. It explores the potential of netnography as a research tool within the context of ongoing concerns around the viability and sustainability of physically travelling to collect data. As such, this paper presents a critical, reflective analysis of the main author's experience in conducting netnographic research during the pandemic, presenting the challenges and limitations, as well as the benefits of the method.

Education in times of COVID-19. Socio-cognitive critical discourse analysis

This article summarizes a research whose general objective was to analyze the way in which the documentary corpus associated with the "Learn at home" strategy reproduces the relations of power, control, social-educational inequality and exclusion in its recipients. The units of analysis were organized in textual visualization matrices with double coding: one open, cross-coded and the other using NVivo v.12 software. Subsequently, the main lines of inquiry were categorized and an inductive categorical interpretation was carried out, relating the categories discourse and society with social knowledge as an interface. The findings indicate that the discursive structures analyzed reproduce power, control, inequality and exclusion, maintaining the status quo, prolonging educational social injustice and privileging symbolic elites;furthermore, the issuers resort to discursive strategies such as the principle of influence, values and praise to achieve the purposes of social domination. As for the research design, this was a qualitative documentary research, of discourse analysis type, in critical perspective from the socio-cognitive approach

Process of Critical and Computational Thinking in the Learning of Mathematics in Secondary Education

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the ways of teaching and learning mathematics in high school, leading to the implementation of new teaching strategies aimed at achieving meaningful learning in the area of mathematics, with the mediation of digital technology and other pedagogical resources of the 21st century. The objective of this work is to analyze and explain the incidence of critical and computational thinking in the learning of mathematical concepts and procedures in secondary school students. The research approach is mixed, combining qualitative and quantitative sources of information and perspectives of analysis;the design is non -experimental;the data collection instruments are: Likert-type questionnaire and cognitive test;the data analysis is carried out by means of descriptive statistics. The results of the work show a sustained development of critical and computational thinking in the students during the mathematics learning activities, expressed in the fluency in the handling of concepts and logical procedures in problem solving;statistically, there is a correlation between the level of learning achieved and the development of critical and computational thinking of 0.545 and 0.823, respectively. It is concluded that the computational and critical thinking developed by secondary school students significantly influences learning and the development of mathematical competencies, with implications in the level of satisfaction with their academic and personal achievements.