Global plastic upcycling during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: The status and perspective.

Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues worldwide since the vast majority of post-consumer plastics are hard to degrade in the environment. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic had disrupted the previous effort of plastic pollution mitigation to a great extent due to the overflow of plastic-based medical waste. In the post-pandemic era, the remaining challenge is how to motivate global action towards a plastic circular economy. The need for one package of sustainable and systematic plastic upcycling approaches has never been greater to address such a challenge. In this review, we summarized the threat of plastic pollution during COVID-19 to public health and ecosystem. In order to solve the aforementioned challenges, we present a shifting concept, regeneration value from plastic waste, that provides four promising pathways to achieve a sustainable circular economy: 1) Increasing reusability and biodegradability of plastics; 2) Transforming plastic waste into high-value products by chemical approaches; 3) The closed-loop recycling can be promoted by biodegradation; 4) Involving renewable energy into plastic upcycling. Additionally, the joint efforts from different social perspectives are also encouraged to create the necessary economic and environmental impetus for a circular economy.

Exam Wizard e-assessment platform: New features, field test results and instructor's experience

During the Covid-19 lockdowns, e-learning and e-assessment became immensely popular worldwide. Exam Wizard is a web-based online e-assessment platform which provides a variety of features including question pool creation, automatic grading, automatic resumption, reusability, simplicity, exam monitoring and scheduling, weighted questions, a count-down timer, and automatic generation of statistics. Exam Wizard supports three kinds of users: administrators, instructors and students. This paper describes some new features of Exam Wizard, as well as the responsibilities and the User Interfaces (UI) of each user role. In addition, this paper describes the instructor's experience from the use of Exam Wizard in pilot tests and midterm exams of technical courses offered by a higher education institution. The instructor found the tool useful because it produces immediate results, saving time and effort;when the instructor's time is limited or in the case of large classes, e-assessment is the only viable option. During the evaluation of Exam Wizard the students appreciated the fact that they received immediate feedback, and the instructor happily stated that as long as there are questions banks available, it is a matter of minutes to create a new exam. © 2022 ACM.

Nanofibrous Polymeric Membranes for Air Filtration Application: A Review of Progress after the COVID-19 Pandemic

Air pollution is one of the major global problems causing around 7 million dead per year. In fact, a connection between infectious disease transmission, including COVID-19, and air pollution has been proved: COVID-19 consequences on human health are found to be more severe in areas characterized by high levels of particulate matter (PM). Therefore, after the COVID-19 pandemic, the production of air filtration devices with high filtration efficiency has gained more and more attention. Herein, a review of the post-COVID-19 pandemic progress in nanofibrous polymeric membranes for air filtration is provided. First, a brief discussion on the different types of filtration mechanism and the key parameters of air filtration is proposed. The materials recently used for the production of nanofibrous filter membranes are presented, distinguishing between non-biodegradable polymeric materials and biodegradable ones. Subsequently, production technique proposed for the fabrication of nanofibrous membranes, i.e., electrospinning and solution blow spinning, are presented aiming to analyze and compare filtration efficiency, pressure drop, reusability and durability of the different polymeric system processed with different techniques. Finally, present challenges and future perspectives of nanofibrous polymeric membranes for air filtration are discussed with a particular emphasis on strategies to produce greener and more performant devices. © 2023 The Authors. Macromolecular Materials and Engineering published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Generic Laboratory Authoring Tool for Virtual and Remote Controlled Laboratories

Due to the impact of Covid-19, many students all over the world have faced some educational issues. Therefore, many educational institutes focused on shifting their learning process to E-learning system. To provide a complete E-learning system, the performing of virtual and remote Laboratory experiments is needed. In this paper, a generic and flexible online authoring tool for the Laboratory Learning System (LLS) is presented. The LLS system is a platform that provides teachers and students with a flexible environment for virtual and remote controlled labs using the proposed authoring tool. The heart of the LLS system is the authoring tool which facilities the ease and flexibility of designing various laboratory experiments which includes a number of pages, and each page has a number of steps with many draggable components. Furthermore, the proposed authoring tool is the first authoring tool that provides general and reusable virtual laboratory resource (VLR) for automatically managing laboratory software and hardware resources. To support the new VRL feature of the authoring tool, the LLS supports the ability to remotely control the laboratory equipment while performing laboratory experiments and also has the capability to run any type of simulation tool for virtually simulated labs. The proposed authoring tool is designed considering all the needed components with well-defined interfaces to achieve an effective and flexible Laboratory learning system. © 2022 IEEE.

Can disposable masks be worn more than once?

Disposable facemasks are a primary tool to prevent the transmission of SARS-COV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, plastic waste generated from their disposal represents a significant environmental problem that can be reduced by maximizing the service life of disposable masks. We evaluated the effect of repeated wearing on the fitted filtration efficiency (FFE) of N95, KF94, KN95, and procedure/surgical masks. The FFEs of masks were compared following extended wearing with and without washing. Results reveal that most disposable facemasks can retain a high level of their baseline FFE after extended wearing, even after 40 h of wearing. Laundering disposable masks degraded FFE in some instances. We conclude that the durability of disposable facemask performance is considerably longer than their intended single use indication, suggesting that reusing disposable masks is a safe means of reducing plastic waste in the environment.

Smart Face Masks for COVID-19 Pandemic Management: A Concise Review of Emerging Architectures, Challenges and Future Research Directions

Smart sensing technology has been playing tremendous roles in digital healthcare management over time with great impacts. Lately, smart sensing has awoken the world by the advent of smart face masks (SFMs) in the global fight against the deadly Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. In turn, a number of research studies on innovative SFM architectures and designs are emerging. However, there is currently no study that has systematically been conducted to identify and comparatively analyze the emerging architectures and designs of SFMs, their contributions, socio-technological implications, and current challenges. In this article, we investigate the emerging SFMs in response to Covid-19 pandemic and provide a concise review of their key features and characteristics, design, smart technologies, and architectures. We also highlight and discuss the socio-technological opportunities posed by the use of SFMs and finally present directions for future research. Our findings reveal four key features that can be used to evaluate SFMs to include reusability, self-power generation ability, energy awareness and aerosol filtration efficiency. We discover that SFM has potential for effective use in human tracking, contact tracing, disease detection and diagnosis or in monitoring asymptotic populations in future pandemics. Some SFMs have also been carefully designed to provide comfort and safety when used by patients with other respiratory diseases or comorbidities. However, some identified challenges include standards and quality control, ethical, security and privacy concerns. © 2001-2012 IEEE.

P(VDF-TrFE)/BaTiO3 Nanofibrous Membrane with Enhanced Piezoelectricity for High PM0.3 Filtration and Reusable Face Masks.

In the background of air pollution and regular COVID-19 prevention, personal protective masks are necessary for our daily life. However, protective masks with high PM0.3 filtration usually have poor air permeability and are mostly disposable, leading to a heavy burden on the environment. In this work, a reusable membrane based on piezoelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] nanofibers embedded with BaTiO3 nanoparticles (BTO NPs) was developed. The P(VDF-TrFE)/BTO composite nanofibers not only have enhanced piezoelectricity and surface polarity but also have reduced diameters that could be beneficial for electrostatic adhesion, pole-polar interactions, and mechanical sieving to increase the PM0.3 capture capacity. Moreover, the BTO NPs also improved the charge storage capacity of the composite membrane, which could further enhance the PM0.3 filtration efficiency after corona treatment. The piezoelectric mask based on P(VDF-TrFE)/BTO composite nanofibers has high filtration efficiencies of 96% for PM0.3 and 98% for bacteria, while the pressure drop was only 182 Pa, which is lower than the commercial N95 standard of 343.2 Pa. Furthermore, the piezoelectric mask has a long and stable filtration performance after 5 cycles of 75% alcohol disinfection, demonstrating that the P(VDF-TrFE)/BTO composite membrane has a potential application in personal protective masks with comfortable and reusable properties.

Smart Face Masks for Covid-19 Pandemic Management: A Concise Review of Emerging Architectures, Challenges and Future Research Directions

Smart sensing technology has been playing tremendous roles in digital healthcare management over time with great impacts. Lately, smart sensing has awoken the world by the advent of Smart Face Masks (SFM) in the global fight against the deadly Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. In turn, a number of research studies on innovative SFM architectures and designs are emerging. However, there is currently no study that has systematically been conducted to identify and comparatively analyze the emerging architectures and designs of SFMs, their contributions, socio-technological implications, and current challenges. In this paper, we investigate the emerging SFMs in response to Covid-19 pandemic and provide a concise review of their key features and characteristics, design, smart technologies, and architectures. We also highlight and discuss the socio-technological opportunities posed by the use of SFMs and finally present directions for future research. Our findings reveal four key features that can be used to evaluate SFMs to include reusability, self-power generation ability, energy awareness and aerosol filtration efficiency. We discover that SFM has potential for effective use in human tracking, contact tracing, disease detection and diagnosis or in monitoring asymptotic populations in future pandemics. Some SFMs have also been carefully designed to provide comfort and safety when used by patients with other respiratory diseases or comorbidities. However, some identified challenges include standards and quality control, ethical, security and privacy concerns. IEEE

Bridging the Gap Between Domain Models and Computational Models: A Case Study of COVID-19

Novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) has broken out and spread rapidly in many countries and regions around the world. Since the outbreak, many researchers have proposed propagation models of COVID-19, among which the mainstream computational epidemiology model requires the establishment of a corresponding artificial society model for computational experiments. However, such models tightly coupled domain knowledge about epidemics with computational models and have low reusability. On this basis, we take COVID-19 as our research object and propose a hierarchical modeling framework for epidemic transmission, which describes how to decouple and dock domain models and computational models. This framework consists of three levels: individual capability model and virus model at the individual level, organizational structure and interaction mechanisms between individuals at the organizational level, and intervention model and environmental model design at the social level. The experimental results show that this is an effective hierarchical framework modeling approach for studying transmission mechanisms. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

The Need for E-Learning Standards for Online Laboratory Management Systems

E-Learning education, Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) and Small Private Online Courses (SPOCs) have been ex-panding in the last decade. However, it increased in giant strides during the COVID-19 pandemic when the schools and universities did not have another option than to use remote education. Having a general understanding of E-Learning technology is not enough to implement an engineering virtual classrooms and laboratories. E-Learning standards are needed in all areas of E-Learning Systems such as online educational web applications, Learning Management Systems, and online labs, among others to gain interoperability, scalability, sustainability, security, privacy, and safety. The main objective of this paper is to discuss in general the current standards and technologies applied to E-Learning systems and analyze the need for a specific standards for Online Laboratory Management Systems (OLMS). © 2022 IEEE.

Work-in-Progress: Rapid Development of Advanced Virtual Labs for In-Person and Online Education

During the closure of K-12 schools and universities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many educators turned to web conferencing tools such as Zoom and WebEx to deliver online lectures. For courses with labs, some teachers provide recorded videos of real labs. Watching recorded lab videos is a passive experience, as the procedures and point of view are fixed, and students do not have any control of the lab and thus miss the opportunity to explore different options, including making mistakes that is important part of the learning process. One approach that holds great potential to enhance laboratory experience for online education is the use of computer-based modeling and simulation tools. Simulation based virtual laboratories emulate lab equipment and configurations in highly realistic 3D environments and can provide very effective learning experiences. While there exist limited interactive lab computer simulations for various subjects, their presentations are still very primitive and often lack realism and complexity. This paper presents methodologies and preliminary findings on rapid development of advanced virtual labs using modeling and simulation for in-person and online education. The importance of modeling and simulation has long been recognized by the scientific community and agencies such as DoD and NSF. However, high-quality simulations are not commonplace, and simulations have not been widely employed in education. Existing simulations for education lack interoperability and compatibility. While there are sporadic uses of computer-based simulations in education that were developed in a piecemeal fashion, there was never systematic development at an industry level for such purposes. Virtual lab development usually require substantial amount of effort and lack of systematic research on rapid virtual lab development hinders their wide use in education. This paper proposes a wholistic and systematic approach for addressing the issues in rapid lab simulation development from several perspectives, including rapid generation of virtual environment, integration of state-of-the-art industry leading software tools, advanced software design techniques that enables large scale software reuse, and innovative user interface design that facilitate the configuration and use of virtual labs by instructors and students. This paper will implement a virtual circuit lab that emulates a circuit lab for the course PHYS 303 offered at Old Dominion University and will be used to elucidate the crucial methodologies for rapid virtual lab development. The virtual lab contains highly realistic visual renderings and accurate functional representations of sophisticated equipment, such as digital oscilloscopes, function generators, and digital multimeters, and authentic rendition of the lab space. The virtual lab allows analog and digital circuit simulation by integrating the de-facto industry standard circuit simulation engine SPICE and Xspice, supporting the circuit labs in course PHYS 303. The Unity game engine is used to develop the front end of the virtual lab. Advanced software development methodologies will be investigated to facilitate software reuse and rapid development, e.g., the same simulation code can be used to support equipment manufactured by different vendors. The paper will also investigate the impact of fidelity of the virtual lab, e.g., equipment and lab room, on student learning outcomes and efficacy. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.

Second-Year Review of the NSF-DoD REU Site: HYPER

The challenges associated with achieving hypersonic flight, developing advanced propulsion systems, and designing reusable launch platforms are strongly interdisciplinary. Exposing undergraduate students to interdisciplinary research is recognized as a means to equip society's future engineers and scientists with the broad skillset necessary to contribute to these areas. The jointly funded NSF-DoD REU site Advanced Technologies for Hypersonic Propulsive, Energetic and Reusable Platforms (HYPER) unites multidisciplinary interests to study advanced structures and systems with application to hypersonics, space, propulsion, and energy. Over the course of two 10-week summer sessions (2019 and 2021), participants have gained hands-on training in contemporary challenges such as: (1) utilizing advanced manufacturing techniques for high-value components, (2) integrating in situ monitoring of stress-strain evolution, (3) developing novel methods for improved internal cooling and heat transfer effectiveness, (4) mitigating flutter through advanced rotor dynamic control, etc. Eleven research projects have been crafted to engage students in PhD-level topics. Many of these challenges rely on approaches that cut across disciplines and research techniques (e.g., experiments and computer simulation). The present reporting serves as a synopsis of challenges, advances, and lessons learned conducting the research thus far. The site HYPER has six core objectives that relate to: (1) preparing students for graduate school and/or research-oriented careers, (2) fostering technical skills in student participants, (3) improving participants' communication skills, (4) marketing to and recruiting a diverse group of participants, and more. Assessment of the program outcomes according to these objectives are reported here with data gathered after two years. Program outcomes were conducted with an external evaluator affiliated within the University of Central Florida's Program Evaluation and Educational Research Group (PEER). Results demonstrate a very effective site with strongly positive outcomes for all participants. Insights are provided so this research effort may be confirmed by other independent sites. It should be noted that the 2020 session was postponed out of an abundance of caution based on the uncertain and evolving conditions facilitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.

Developing home-disinfection and filtration efficiency improvement methods for N95 respirators and surgical facial masks: stretching supplies and better protection during the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic.

The U.S. CDC announced on 04/03/2020 that all citizens should wear face coverings when in public, potentially increasing demand for medical face masks from the public and exacerbating mask shortages for Covid-19 response staff. One solution is reuse after disinfection for the general public. Prior studies have shown that heating for 30 mins at 70°C or above effectively kills SARS, including SARS-CoV-2, and Influenza viruses on masks. Black carbon (BC) particles generated from a kerosene-lamp were used as a proxy for Coronavirus aerosols to test mask performance after disinfection given overlapping size distributions. We determined filtration efficiency (FE) measurements by comparing BC values on both sides of the respirators or masks (Moldex N95 and 3M N95 respirators, HSI surgical masks) placed under vacuum on mannequins. To obtain the maximum FE, each mask type was first measured while taped or modified to tightly fit a mannequin's face when new and after each heating cycle. No reduction in average FE was observed even after 10 disinfection cycles, with FE statistically greater than 95% for N95 respirators and 70% for surgical masks. In sharp contrast, the FE of all medical masks with no additional sealing decreased to ~ 40%, confirming the effectiveness of facial masks relies upon a tight fit. For solving this issue, we designed a method for making individualized custom nose clips to hold a mask tightly to face; FE of 3M N95 respirators and surgical masks remained above 95% and 80%, respectively. Surprisingly, the FE of three homemade thick cloth coverings (in normal use) were 55%. Though more work is still needed, this result supports the public announcements that the public could wear cloth coverings instead of N95 respirators or surgical masks in low-risk environments. When worn with a customized nose clip, N95 respirators and surgical masks have higher FE than the CDC design for cloth coverings.

Development of Protective Cotton Textiles Against Biohazards and Harmful UV Radiation Using Eco-Friendly Novel Fiber-Reactive Bioactive Agent

Due to the increase in biological hazards to global security particularly after COVID-19 crises, the need to develop effective and adaptable technologies to protect humans from biological warfare agents (viruses, bacteria, fungi) has increased. Current protective textiles against biohazards are fabricated through finishing of textiles with bioactive agents. However, bioactive agents are leached from the treated textiles due to the poor durability following their accumulation in environment. The objective of this research was to design a sustainable approach for developing ecologically sound antimicrobial textiles in which the antimicrobial agent is covalently bonded to fabric and does not leach into the effluent when laundered. For this, a novel bifunctional reactive finish was synthesized in which chloroxylenol (antimicrobial agent) was covalently integrated into two reactive systems (triazine and vinyl sulfone). For structural validation, 13C-NMR, 1H-NMR, and, FTIR characterization were employed. The as-synthesized reactive finish was applied on the cotton fabric through pad-dry-cure method. The antimicrobial action of treated fabric (before and after 20 laundry cycles) towards viruses, bacteria, and fungi as well as ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) were evaluated according to standard. The treated fabric showed significant fungicidal (>85%) bactericidal (>95%), and viricidal (>85%) action, that remained effective even after 20 washes, revealing that antimicrobial agent has not leached during washing of treated textiles which established non-leaching behavior of the treated textiles. The treated fabric also exhibited outstanding UPF values (>135). The current study has proposed a novel approach for the fabrication of ecologically sustainable antimicrobial textiles and the proposed method is easily scalable at industrial level.

Commercial Janus Fabrics as Reusable Facemask Materials: A Balance of Water Repellency, Filtration Efficiency, Breathability, and Reusability.

Facemasks as personal protective equipment play a significant role in helping prevent the spread of viruses during the COVID-19 pandemic. A desired reusable fabric facemask should strike a balance of water repellency, good filtration efficiency (FE), breathability, and mechanical robustness against washing cycles. Despite significant efforts in testing various commercial fabric materials for filtration efficiency, few have investigated fabric performance as a function of the fiber/yarn morphology and wettability of the fabric itself. In this study, we examine commercial fabrics with Janus-like behaviors to determine the best reusable fabric facemask materials by understanding the roles of morphology, porosity, and wettability of the fabric on its overall performance. We find that the outer layer of the diaper fabric consisted of laminated polyurethane, which is hydrophobic, has low porosity (∼5%) and tightly woven yarn structures, and shows the highest overall FE (up to 54%) in the submicron particle size range (0.03-0.6 µm) among the fabrics tested. Fabric layers with higher porosity lead to lower-pressure drops, indicating higher breathability but lower FE. Tightly woven waterproof rainwear fabrics perform the best after 10 washing cycles, remaining intact morphologically with only a 2-5% drop in the overall FE in the submicron particle size range, whereas other knitted fabric layers become loosened and the laminated polyurethane thin film on the diaper fabric is wrinkled. In comparison, the surgical masks and N95 respirators made from nonwoven polypropylene (PP) fibers see over a 30% decline in the overall FE after 10 washing cycles. Overall, we find that tightly woven Janus fabrics consisting of a low porosity, a hydrophobic outer layer, and a high porosity and hydrophilic inner layer offer the best performance among the fabrics tested as they can generate a high overall FE, achieve good breathability, and maintain fabric morphology and performance over multiple washing cycles.

Building an i2b2-Based Population Repository for COVID-19 Research.

Reuse of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) for specific diseases such as COVID-19 requires data to be recorded and persisted according to international standards. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre (H12O) evolved its EHRs: it identified, modeled and standardized the concepts related to this new disease in an agile, flexible and staged way. Thus, data from more than 200,000 COVID-19 cases were extracted, transformed, and loaded into an i2b2 repository. This effort allowed H12O to share data with worldwide networks such as the TriNetX platform and the 4CE Consortium.

Reopen Offline Business during a Pandemic? Characterization of Health Certificate Exchange for Human Movement Management

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly restricted the regular offline business activities. Nevertheless, as certain offline business activities are still indispensable, to conduct offline business under pandemic control becomes a valuable research question. This paper addressed this problem by studying business movement management based on health certificate exchange. We first observed three patterns of health certificate exchange multiplicity that serve as a basis for business movement management. Then, we reviewed published literature along two orthogonal directions, health certificates and exchange systems. We studied different health certificates published during the COVID-19 pandemic to identify the categories of health certificates and their characteristics. Meanwhile, we further studied different design paradigms and characteristics of health certificate exchange systems. Last, we mapped our findings on health certificate exchange into the four challenges of movement management systems in a pandemic, namely flexible controllability, scalable accessibility, adaptive reusability, and spatiotemporal traceability, and conceptualized how such the requirements should be achieved and a complete system should operate. © 2021 IEEE.

Vision-Based Hand Tracking System Development for Non-Face-to-Face Interaction

Human-computer interaction (HCI) focuses on the interaction between humans and computers and it exists ubiquitously in our daily lives, especially in post COVID era where non-face-to-face interaction is common. Since HCI usually uses a physical controller such as a mouse or a keyboard, it hinders National User Interface, giving a middle ground between the user and the computer. This paper presents a vision-based hand tracking system development for non-face-to-face interaction, which aims to improve HCI by being able to track the hand which will act as the pen and functioning as a reusable writing surface for creating texts, drawings, and such as well as removing or erasing using the user's hand as the pen, and utilizing Open Computer Vision Library (OpenCV) and Mediapipe. Using the computer's camera the hand will be tracked as the pen for creating basic drawings and handwriting. The vision-based board where the user can draw on and the pen or marker will be the user's hand. The results indicate that this system is accurate enough to be a feasible application for handwriting ad basic drawings. © 2021 IEEE.

A Student-Led, Virtually-Developed Suborbital Payload: Investigating the Structure of Polyurethane Foam in Microgravity

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.

Effect of washing on quality, breathability performance and reusability of disposable face masks.

Disposable face masks are among the personal protective equipment (PPE) that highly contribute to protecting people in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Health authorities recommend wearing a mask as a barrier measure to limit the spread of viral respiratory diseases. During the first waves of the pandemic, besides professional high-quality PPE, decontaminated disposable mask reuse and homemade cloth masks were allowed due to scarcities. This work introduces a simple method based on-time history of the differential pressure, and an easy to use the setup for the testing of different kinds of respiratory protective masks for the purposes of quality control and evaluation of air permeability performance. The standard mask testing method and the new proposed approach were then used to evaluate the effect of machine washing on the widely used type of disposable masks; namely the surgical (medical) face masks. The objective is to determine the number of acceptable washing cycles that this kind of mask can withstand before losing its performance in terms of breathability and airflow resistance. Other quality characteristics such as material (fibres) degradation and hydrophobicity are investigated. Degradation mechanisms due to washing cycles for the different mask constituent layers were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging. This work is an attempt to contribute to the determination of the reusability threshold of general-purpose disposable surgical type face masks thereby contributing to the reduction of environmental concerns. Results in terms of the studied above parameters suggest limiting the reuse of standard type surgical masks to only one machine washing cycle.