ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to prevent nasal bridge pressure injury among fit-tested employees, secondary to long-term wear of the N95 mask during working hours. A prospective, single-blinded, experimental cohort design. Participants were enrolled using the convenience sampling methods and randomisation was utilised for group assignment. Eligibility was determined by a COVID Anxiety Scale score and non-COVID clinical assignment. Participants with a history of previous skin injury or related condition were excluded. The experimental group was assigned Mepilex Lite® and the control group used Band- Aid®. Formal skin evaluations were done by Nurse Specialists who are certified in wound and ostomy care by the Wound, Ostomy, Continence, Nursing Certification Board (WOCNCB®). Fit test logs were provided to participants to measure subjective user feedback regarding mask fit and level of comfort. The results of this feasibility trial are promising in supporting the use of a thin polyurethane foam dressing as a safe and effective dressing to apply beneath the N95 mask. Additional research is needed to validate results due to limited data on efficacy and safety of the various barrier dressings as a potential intervention to prevent skin breakdown to the nasal bridge.
ABSTRACT
The global COVID-19 pandemic impacted student science-led initiatives globally, forcing them to either cancel, postpone, or re-imagine their efforts in order to serve and inspire students. One such initiative, Shad Canada, a month-long summer STEAM and Entrepreneurship program for Canadian high school youth, that challenges its participants to create novel solutions to grand global and human challenges. In typical years, participants congregate physically in campuses to work in teams to devise solutions to societal problems. In the era of COVID-19, Shad went virtual. The program devised a novel challenge for their 2020 cohort: to design a microgravity payload for suborbital flight that leverages space and microgravity in a meaningful and creative way with impacts for science, research and humanity - all while collaborating online. Shad partnered with Luna Design and Innovation to create Canada’s first fully remote commercial space flight competition, offering one winning team 3-minutes of microgravity to test their research aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard reusable suborbital vehicle. Working with industry, academic partners, Canadian Space Agency engineers, and other mentors and experts, sixty-two teams of over 600 students took on the challenge, proving their ability to adapt, innovate, and come together under one common goal. A judging panel of Shad representatives and industry experts evaluated the final projects based on their impact, scientific merit, technical feasibility and project plan. Mous4Inc. was ultimately selected as the winner of the Shad 2020 Design Challenge, developing a project that investigates the formation and structure of polyurethane foam in microgravity. This diverse team of ten students from across the country continue to work with mentors to develop a spaceborne polyurethane foam, with potential terrestrial applications. In the end, having strong communication, teamwork, and a central goal of connecting their ideas and interests was able to help Mous4Inc. design this winning project. This presentation centers around the student team’s experience with virtual suborbital payload development, believed to be the first student-led virtually-developed suborbital payload in Canada. This work will highlight both the novel virtual distributed payload development and building process, the value of such virtual payload development programs for other secondary students, lessons learned, and Mous4Inc.’s next steps with respect to launch, post-flight testing, publication and outreach. Copyright © 2021 by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
A substantial volume of various types of Covid-19 masks has been disposed of since the start of the global pandemic. These facemasks are made of non-degradable polymeric materials. As such, they currently signify a major source of microplastic pollution in the environment. Through incineration or pyrolysis, thermal processing has emerged as a mainstream approach in the waste management of the ever-increasing loads of generated facemasks. Via a combined experimental-theoretical framework, we report herein salient features that govern thermal decomposition of the distinct plastic-based components in 3 M N95 (with a respirator) and surgical facemasks. Protective three-four layers in the considered masks are composed of polypropylene (PP) that degrades in a one-step across the temperature window 330 - 480 degrees C. Char residues from the decomposition of ear straps (consisting of polyester) attain 24% and 15% fractions of the initial mass in the case of surgical and N95 masks, respectively. Thermo kinetic parameters are derived for the different components of the facemask by using the Coats-Redfern approach from the thermogravimetric analysis data. Here we also report the potentiality of producing value-added products from the face mask using the GCMS by virtue of the catalytic oxidation of the material expending the Niobium doped CeO2 catalyst under controlled conditions. Constructed mechanisms through density functional theory (DFT) computations illustrated the nature of chemical reactions that mark the two-stage decomposition curve of polyurethane (the material used in the nose area in N95 masks). These chemical events characterize rupture of C-C(O) bonds, sequential departure of CO2/C2H4 molecules, and fission of the C-C linkages. Outcomes from this investigation provide important information (i.e., thermal stability regions of the deployed polymers and potential emission profiles) needed in the urgent pursuit to safely and economically recycle polymeric constituents in Covid-19 masks, and potentially other types of medical wastes.