Development of a Mobile Application to Study Sewing Techniques for Manufacturing Fur and Leather Clothes

The global COVID-19 crisis has led to the international isolation of educational institutions, which have had to adapt to changing ways of presenting the information. Mobile applications are the future of the education sector, leading toward its development. The study aims to develop a mobile application to support learning the peculiarities of leather and fur garment manufacturing sewing techniques. The mobile app "TechLab" was developed by using MIT App Inventor. The article proves the effectiveness of its use in the educational space based on social surveys among teachers and students at different levels of education.

RESISTANCE OF SARS COV-2 TO SEAWATER

In this study, it was aimed to comparatively investigate the grain properties of shoe upper leathers produced for different purposes. Thus, six different types of shoe upper leather (cracked, antique, patent, nappa, nubuck, printed) were provided from three different footwear companies. The tensile strength and elongation at break (TS EN ISO 3376), single and double edge tear strength (TS EN ISO 3377-1, TS EN ISO 3377-2), cracking and bursting resistance (TS 4137 EN ISO 3378, TS EN ISO 3379), flex resistance (TS EN ISO 5402-1) as well as dry and wet rubbing fastness tests (TS EN ISO 11640) were applied to leathers that have similar thicknesses. The results of the study gave information about the physical strength and product performances of different upper leather types. The data were evaluated comparatively and the effects of shoe upper leather types on quality and performance were evaluated. © 2022 Toate drepturile asupra acestei ediţii sunt rezervate editorilor.

Beliefs and attitudes to sun tanning and knowledge of melanoma in the Irish population: a cross-sectional study

The incidence of melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer continues to rise in Ireland. This study aimed to explore the tanning and sun-protection behaviour and attitudes, as well as awareness of signs of melanoma, of the Irish population. A cross-sectional study was performed in December 2020 via an online questionnaire. Respondents were recruited according to gender, age and geographical region. In total, 1043 respondents (49% female) completed the questionnaire (mean age 41 years;range 20-72). In total, 443 sunbathe when there is sunny weather in Ireland, with 245 wearing suncream less than half of the time. Thirty-eight per cent (n = 399) have used sunbeds in the last 12 months, despite the global COVID-19 pandemic. Almost half (49%) did not believe getting a sunburn was serious. Most (87%) were aware melanoma would have serious consequences for them and 91% believed it was important to protect themselves from getting melanoma. In total, 839 know that wearing sunscreen can prevent sunburn. However, the main reasons they do not apply it include just forgetting (n = 207), to get a tan (n = 177) and they just don't like putting it on (n = 359). The main reason for limiting sunbathing was to avoid wrinkles/ skin pigmentation (n = 356), followed by a fear of getting skin cancer (n = 334). The primary reason people sunbathed was to top up their supply of vitamin D (n = 336), which was closely followed by getting a tan. Eighty-five per cent reported feeling and looking better with a tan. Despite knowledge of the risks of sunburn, 208 respondents felt it was worth getting slightly sunburnt to get a tan. Most respondents were aware of sun-protection measures (n = 729), but 484 people were not confident about what to look for when performing a self-skin examination and only 410 know the signs of a melanoma. This study found that although the majority of people are aware of the risks of sunbathing, many are happy to take these risks in order to get a tan. Tans are still considered to be attractive by the majority of respondents. Although there are high levels of awareness regarding sun protection, knowledge regarding skin self-examination and the signs of melanoma is lacking. Our results indicate that health promotion interventions for skin cancer may need to focus on education regarding the signs of melanoma and consider strategies to alter the perceptions of the beneficial factors of tanning.

Risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a large cohort of Ontario workers

IntroductionWork is a key determinant of COVID-19 outcomes, however occupational surveillance is a critical information gap in many countries, including Canada. Understanding the risk of SARS-CoV-2 by occupation can identify high risk groups that can be targeted for prevention strategies.Materials and MethodsThe cohort includes 1,205,847 former workers compensation (non-COVID-19) claimants (aged 15–65) linked to health databases in Ontario, Canada. Incident cases were defined as either having a confirmed positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test in the Ontario Laboratory Information System (OLIS), or an International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10-CA) diagnostic code of U07.1 in hospitalization or emergency department records (February 2020-December 2021). Workers were followed until diagnosis, death, emigration, age 65 or end of follow-up. Sex- and age-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazards ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) by occupation, compared to all other cohort members. Analyses were also conducted to examine occupational trends in testing and diagnosis during waves of infection.ResultsOverall, 80,740 COVID-19 cases were diagnosed among workers during follow-up, of those, 80% were diagnosed with a positive PCR test. Associations were identified between COVID-19 diagnosis and employment in nursing (HR=1.44, CI95%=1.40–1.49), air transport operating (HR=1.61, CI95%=1.47–1.77), textile/fur/leather products fabricating, assembling, and repairing (HR=1.38, CI95%=1.25–1.54), apparel and furnishing services (HR=1.38, CI95%=1.19–1.60), and janitor and cleaning services (HR=1.11, CI95%=1.06–1.16). Restricted analyses where health care workers were omitted from the comparison group strengthened some associations for other high-risk workers. Test positivity ranged between 4–16% across major occupation groups. Risks varied over time and with changes in protective measures in workplaces and in broader communities.ConclusionsElevated risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in health care, manufacturing, transportation, and service workers were identified, underscoring the importance of including occupational data in COVID-19 surveillance. Occupational trends in severe outcomes and vaccination are also being explored.

COVID-19 Severity, Cardiological Outcome, and Immunogenicity of mRNA Vaccine on Adult Patients With 22q11.2 DS

Ammonia-nitrogen, a grave environmental concern, is a typical pollutant in deliming process due to the inclusion of ammonium salts as deliming agents in leather manufacture. In order to reduce the emission of ammonianitrogen and improve the biological treatment of mixed tannery wastewater, an ammonium-free deliming method was designed and optimized based on the synergistic effects of aromatic sulfonic acids and sodium dihydrogen phosphate. The results indicated that, the penetrating and buffering performance of the mixtures of p-Hydroxybenzene sulfonic acid (pHBSA) and sodium dihydrogen phosphate (SDHP) at weight ratio of 2:1 was good enough to fulfill the requirement of deliming. The organoleptic and mechanical properties of the crust leather produced by pHBSA-SDHP mixtures deliming were similar with the conventional ammonium sulfate deliming, and the grain pattern was found to be protected against the damage caused by enzymes during bating. The concentrations of ammonia-nitrogen and total nitrogen in pHBSA-SDHP deliming effluent were dramatically cut down by 99% and 94%. It is anticipated that the mixed tannery wastewater could be disposed of more easily by means of adjusting the total organic ratios of C:N:P to their natural ratio by introducing an additional carbon and phosphorus source to the tannery wastewater. This investigation provides an improved method of leather making with significant reduction of ammonia nitrogen emission in deliming operation and fulfills the integral requirements of the modern sustainable leather industry.

LEATHER PRODUCTION: THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE PANDEMIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS

At the present stage of the country’s economic development, within the framework of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the problem of developing and implementing a long-term strategy for the sustainable development of industrial sectors and processing industries, one of which is the leather industry, becomes extremely urgent. The economic growth and development of the leather industry should be carried out within the framework of a unified strategy for the development of enterprises in various industries, the implementation of interrelated measures at all levels of management, including the management of the national economic complex as a whole, the light and chemical industries, animal husbandry and individual commodity producers. The complex of problems that take place in the state and development of the leather industry, its importance in the country’s economy and the lack of elaboration of the problem of forming and implementing the development strategy of the industry enterprises have determined the relevance of the problem and the choice of research directions. The purpose of the research is to develop and substantiate scientific and practical provisions and recommendations for the formation and implementation of the organizational and economic mechanism of the strategy for the development of enterprises of the leather industry. © 2022 Ivanovo State University of Chemistry and Technology. All rights reserved.

Cluster-based development in Egypt: a study of external shocks to the leather and medicinal and aromatic plant sectors

The Egyptian government has prioritized the idea of cluster-based development-that is, the geographic concentration of specialized firms, such as in this case, those producing similar or related products. The establishment of such clusters, however, presents significant challenges, bottlenecks, and obstacles. Based on primary field work, this paper focuses on two case studies of the impacts of shocks on business clusters. The first study involved the relocation of an established leather cluster from Cairo to a newly created industrial park, Robbiki Leather City, which was promoted by Egypt's Ministry of Trade and Industry. Although the relocation partly solved the existing issues of water contamination, new challenges emerged relating to increased production and transportation costs, and unforeseen impacts on the community. The second study assessed the short-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a business cluster producing medicinal and aromatic plants. Overall the MAPs sector was resilient to the outbreak and there are opportunities to offset any negative impacts of the pandemic by taking advantage of new markets for Egyptian MAPs stemming from supply disruptions in other countries;increased global demand for MAPs due to their pharmacological and health properties;and increased international demand for organically grown MAPs. Findings indicate that it is essential for governments to develop policy responses to the challenges - and especially barriers - to the development of business clusters, while simultaneously supporting and creating incentives for the cooperation, entrepreneurship, and collective action needed for business clusters to thrive and grow. As anticipated, challenges and obstacles - whether overarching or in response to shocks - are unique to specific sectors, contexts, and times, and hence need to be dealt with as an ongoing facilitation process.

‘Child labour rampant in Bangladesh’s leather industry’

Researchers found children aged seven to 17 working 12 to 14 hours, six days a week in almost all processes along the leather supply chain – from animal slaughter and skinning to dyeing, waste disposal and manufacturing of leather products and by-products such as glue and meat. “The leather supply chain is highly complex as are the reasons why children engage in the most dangerous forms of labour,” says A.K.M. Maksud, the study’s lead author and executive director at Grambangla Unnayan Committee. Recommendations by Human Rights Watch to Bangladesh’s ministry of labour and employment include rigorously enforcing existing laws, prohibiting hazardous child labour in tanneries, with monitoring and unannounced site inspections, and issuing penalties against employers who violate the law.

Utilization of indoor tanning: A cross-sectional study using mobile device data

Indoor tanning using ultraviolet (UV) radiation increases skin cancer risk. However, there is little objective information on when or where indoor tanning is used. We aimed to evaluate tanning salon geography and patterns of use using objective data rather than self-report. We used data from SafeGraph, a company that combines smartphone location data and proprietary geographic data. Our dataset included aggregate, anonymous data from January 1, 2018-December 31, 2020. We developed and validated an algorithm (positive predictive value 92.6%) to identify businesses offering UV indoor tanning. We evaluated tanning salon locations, number of tanning salons per state population, and foot traffic patterns by visits per month, per day of the week, and per hour of the day. Our algorithm identified 7412 businesses as tanning salons. Of those, 2795 (37.7%) had foot traffic data available. The highest concentrations of tanning salons were in Midwestern states. We found peaks in the spring (April) of 2018 and 2019, a slightly later peak (June) in 2020, and a short-term decrease in tanning salon visits during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic (March-May 2020). Visits were most frequent during weekdays (Monday-Friday). Peak times of day were 12pm-3pm. Our study has limitations: it includes only a small portion of the US population (approximately 10% of mobile devices) and we could not account for indoor tanning outside of tanning salons. Indoor tanning is a known carcinogen, but the majority of information on use is based on cross-sectional surveys. Our study represents new information for public health strategies to decrease exposure to this carcinogen.

Path Selection and Optimization of Chinese Manufacturing Industry Participating in Global Value Chain Reconstruction

This paper focuses on the path of China’s participation in global value chain reconstruction and concludes three ways to reconstruct the global value chain: embedding in the global value chain, reconstructing the national value chain, and leading the regional value chain. Based on the value-added accounting system and the latest statistics of the TiVA database, we construct an index system for the path selection of global value chain reconstruction and put forward a more suitable path for different manufacturing industries in China. According to the VRCA index and ranking of each type of manufacturing industry, our study concludes that: transportation equipment manufacturing tends to embed in global value chains;textiles, clothing, leather, and related manufacturing;wood products, paper products, and printing;chemical and non-metallic mineral products;base metals and metal products;computer, electronic, and electrical equipment manufacturing;machinery and equipment manufacturing;and other manufacturing industries tend to dominate the regional value chains;and food and beverage manufacturing and tobacco industries tend to restructure national value chains. Finally, our paper gives suggestions and prospects for path upgrading;promoting the integrated development of e-commerce and the manufacturing industry can enhance the competitive advantages of China’s manufacturing industry and achieve path upgrading and optimization. Furthermore, the two-way nesting of the “Belt and Road” regional value chain and global value chain can help China’s manufacturing industry eliminate the dilemma of low-end lock-in and upgrade from the original low-end dependent embedding mode to the middle high-end hub embedding mode.

Investigation of the stability and risks of fomite transmission of human coronavirus OC43 on leather.

Limited research exists on the potential for leather to act as a fomite of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or endemic coronaviruses including human coronavirus (HCoV) OC43; this is important for settings such as the shoe manufacturing industry. Antiviral coating of leather hides could limit such risks. This study aimed to investigate the stability and transfer of HCoVOC43 on different leathers, as a surrogate for SARS-CoV-2, and assess the antiviral efficacy of a silver-based leather coating. The stability of HCoV-OC43 (6.6 log10) on patent, full-grain calf, corrected grain finished and nubuck leathers (silver additive-coated and uncoated) was measured by titration on BHK-21 cells. Transfer from leather to cardboard and stainless steel was determined. HCoV-OC43 was detectable for 6 h on patent, 24 h on finished leather and 48 h on calf leather; no infectious virus was recovered from nubuck. HCoV-OC43 transferred from patent, finished and calf leathers onto cardboard and stainless steel up to 2 h post-inoculation (≤3.1-5.5 log10), suggesting that leathers could act as fomites. Silver additive-coated calf and finished leathers were antiviral against HCoV-OC43, with no infectious virus recovered after 2 h and limited transfer to other surfaces. The silver additive could reduce potential indirect transmission of HCoV-OC43 from leather.

Research advances in the fabrication of biosafety and functional leather: A way-forward for effective management of COVID-19 outbreak.

With the recent events following the pandemic COVID-19, global awareness about the use of biosafety materials has been in raise. Leather industry being a major commodity-driven sector, its role in addressing the issues concerning the safe use of leather products has become inevitable for the sustainability of the industry. A significant number of researches have been conducted to fabricate bio-safe leather by incorporating different types of antimicrobial agents during leather manufacturing. Besides, the increasing diversity in the development of synthetic materials and the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on automotive industry may create more demand from customers for incorporating different functionalities in leather without losing its inherent properties. Some of the key functionalities discussed include resistance to microbial growth, self-cleaning through superhydrophobicity and photocatalysis, thermal regulation, flame retardance and scented leather. This review focusses on the fabrication of such advanced functional leather materials over the past decade with special emphasis on antimicrobial leather. Some of the key factors elaborated in the review include the state of art approaches for the preparation of functional materials, mode of incorporation of the same into the leather matrix, the mechanism behind with a perspective on the challenges involved in fabrication for real-world applications. A major outcome of this review is that even though several kinds of cutting edge researches are happening in the field of leather manufacturing, most of them were not validated for its practical applicability and sustainability of the proposed solution. This could be majorly attributed to the cost involved in fabrication of such materials, which forms a crucial factor when it comes to a mass production industry such as leather. Also, the researchers should concentrate on the toxicity of the fabricated materials which can impede the process of adopting such emerging and need of the hour technologies in the near future. Knowledge obtained from this review on fabrication of bio-safety leather against bacteria, mold and fungi would help further to integrate the antiviral property into the same which is a global need. Also, fabrication of functionalized leather would open new avenues for leather manufactures to venture into the development of advanced leather products such as flexible electronics, radiation shielding and fire fighting garments etc.