Yes / Born in Bradford (BiB) have carried out surveys of BiB participants during the first national lockdown (April – June 2020) and at a second Phase (Oct – Dec 2020). A third survey took place between June – July 2021. Participants were from either the BiB’s Growing Up (GU) or Better Start (BiBBS) cohorts and had children in pre-school, primary and secondary school age groups. This report presents a summary of the findings identified in Phase 2 (29th October 2020 – 23rd December 2020) of the Born in Bradford’s Covid-19 adult survey. / The Health Fund Covid-19 Award; Wellcome Trust; ESRC; NIHR: Applied Research Collaboration, Yorkshire and Humber; ActEarly UK Preventative Research Partnership Consortium; NIHR Clinical Research Network; National Lottery Community Fund

Yes / Objectives: This research aims to explore the perception of dental officers (DOs) and dental managers (DMs) on the use of teledentistry and digital platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic in Fiji. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted among 30 DOs and 17 DMs. The study was conducted in private dental clinics, government dental clinics and the School of Dentistry and Oral Health clinic (SDOH), in the Central Division, Fiji that were selected randomly. The participants were selected using the purposive sampling method using the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data was collected through in-depth interviews via zoom using a self-developed semi-structure open-ended interview questionnaire. Manual thematic analysis of the data was conducted. Results: Five themes emerged from data analysis: utilization of teledentistry and media during the pandemic, usefulness of teledentistry, confidence with teledentistry and digital platforms-associated risks, digital platforms for record keeping, and teledentistry promotion and training. Teledentistry was mostly utilized by private practitioners and the oral surgery department. Practitioners were not in favour of teledentistry as they thought it was putting them at risk. Conclusion: Majority of DOs and DMs were not utilizing teledentistry except for a few private dental practitioners and the oral surgery department. Future research can be conducted in other divisions and include other healthcare professionals. / 3M Health Care, manufacturers of Cavilon barrier film

Yes / The COVID-19 national emergency led to a surging demand for telehealth expansion within pediatric occupational therapy. Despite the growing literature on telehealth as a response to COVID-19, few studies explore the use of telehealth for children and young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This pilot study aimed to understand the experiences of occupational therapists adapting to a virtual delivery service model amidst COVID-19 to support youth with ASD. The researchers used a qualitative research design. Semi-structured, video-based interviews were used to collect data. Interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. This study included 3 UK registered occupational therapists. Four themes emerged from the data: 1. “Telehealth is Reducing Social Anxiety” 2. “Parents End Up Becoming Your Therapy Assistants” 3. “Nothing Will Replace Face to Face for Assessments” 4. “You Definitely Have to Be More Creative.” The themes report that telehealth can reduce social anxiety, increase skill transferability, and improve family involvement. Participants indicated that shorter sessions, movement-based interventions, planning and adapting to home-based resources were strategies that overcame the limitations of virtual therapy. The findings contrast with some previous research that found that telehealth may inhibit engagement and may strain the therapeutic rapport. This study supports existing literature that telehealth can enhance engagement, family involvement and generalization of skills. Findings from this study support the use of telehealth to deliver occupational therapy services for children and young people with ASD, but it is recommended that telehealth should not be a one size fits all service delivery model. Further larger-scale research is needed to confirm the study findings and to explore the family and young person’s perspectives of using telehealth.

Yes / We explored carers experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in England to identify long-term impacts and implications, and to suggest future support for caregivers. Data were collected during COVID-19 rapid response studies (IDEAL-CDI; INCLUDE) from carers participating in a British longitudinal cohort study (IDEAL). Semi-structured interview data were compared to their accounts from previous interviews conducted during the first 18 months of the pandemic. There was indication of some return to pre-pandemic lifestyles but without appropriate support carers risked reaching crisis point. Evidence points to a need for assessment and management of support needs to ensure well-being and sustainable dementia caregiving. / Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through grant ES/V004964/1. Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through grant ES/L001853/2. Alzheimer’s Society, grant number 348, AS-PR2-16-001. / The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 29 Aug 2024.

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shutdown and regulations have drastically altered the world of competitive sports. The global shutdown beginning in March 2020 put a significant strain on athlete's ability to train, as many fitness centers were closed to prevent disease transmission. When it was deemed that athletic competition was safe to resume, there were still strict regulations in place to support public health efforts. This retrospective study primarily aims to evaluate the effectiveness of COVID-19 safety regulations in competitive sports. Specifically, the successfulness to correctly implement social distancing guidelines is of high interest. A secondary aim of this study is to assess changes in workload during preseason training before COVID-19, during the time of heavily enforced COVID-19 regulations, and following strict COVID-19 restrictions, as workload can be a predictor of athletic injury. Participants in this study included Virginia Tech Women's Soccer athletes and data were analyzed from the first 9 preseason training sessions during the 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 seasons. Data were generated from participants wearing the STATSports Apex device during training. A custom MATLAB spatiotemporal program developed by the Williams Research Group was utilized to determine player proximity. Total distance (m) and high metabolic load (HMLD) (au), and high-speed distance (HSD) (m) metrics were analyzed to understand changes in participant workload. It was found that overall the Virginia Tech Women's Soccer Team's implementation of the guidelines was effective, as there were no invasion violations during the 2020 preseason sample. / Master of Science / The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the world as we know it. Competitive sports are no exception. The worldwide shutdown as a result of COVID-19 made it difficult for athletes to train while in isolation, as most facilities were closed to prevent disease transmission. When sports were able to continue again, there were still barriers preventing normal practices and competition. Athletes were asked to make every effort to maintain social distancing, even during training sessions. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate how well NCAA Division 1 Women's Collegiate Soccer players maintained social distancing during preseason practices. A secondary goal of this study is to uncover changes in workload from before COVID-19 (2019), during strict COVID-19 regulations (2020), and when COVID-19 restrictions had been less enforced (2021 and 2022). The reasoning for this is that how much work an athlete does can be indicative of risk for injury. If an athlete does significantly more work than usual, there is a higher risk of injury. This study will use global positioning systems (GPS) and measures that reflect workload collected from Virginia Tech Women's Soccer players. It was found that the players remained farther apart during the 2020 season due to the emphasis on social distancing, and that the workload will show a gradual increase to prevent injury. Overall, the study found that the COVID-19 regulations were effectively implemented among the Virginia Tech Women's Soccer Team in the 2020 preseason when restrictions were the highest.

When the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak began to ring alarm bells worldwide, rapid, efficient diagnosis was critical to the emergency response. The limited ability of medical systems and the increasing number of daily cases pushed researchers to investigate automated models. The use of deep neural networks to help doctors make the correct diagnosis has dramatically reduced the pressure on the healthcare system. Promoting the improvement of diagnosis networks depends not only on the network structure design but also on the activation function performance. To identify an optimal activation function, this study investigates the correlation between the activation function selection and image classification performance in balanced or imbalanced datasets. Our analysis evaluates various network architectures for both commonly used and novel datasets and presents a comprehensive analysis of ten widely used activation functions. The experimental results show that the swish and softplus functions enhance the classification ability of state-of-the-art networks. Finally, this thesis distinguishes the neural networks using ten activation functions, analyzes their pros and cons, and puts forward detailed suggestions on choosing appropriate activation functions in future work. / Master of Science / When the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak began to ring alarm bells worldwide, the rapid, efficient diagnosis was critical to the emergency response. The manual diagnosis of chest X-rays by radiologists is time and cost-consuming. Compared with traditional diagnostic technology, the artificial intelligence medical system can simultaneously analyze and diagnose hundreds of medical images and speedily obtain high precision and high-efficiency returns. As we all know, machines are brilliant in learning new things and never sleep. Suppose machines can be used to replace human beings in some positions. In that case, it can significantly relieve the pressure on the medical system and buy time for medical practitioners to concentrate more on the research of new technologies. We need to know that the critical decision unit of the intelligent diagnosis system is the activation function. Therefore, this work provides an in-depth evaluation and comparison of the traditional and widely used activation functions with the emerging activation functions, which helps to improve the accuracy of the most advanced diagnostic model on the COVID-19 image dataset. Besides, the results of this study also summarize the cons and pros of using various neural functions and provide many suggestions for future work.

Yes / This study aims to examine the drivers and impact of et-moone on relational governance within B2B relationships in the Arab Asian region. Building on commitment and trust theory, this study proposes how et-moone could be driven by IT-enabled interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected using an online questionnaire survey from the food, pharmaceutical, detergent and sterilizer industries in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. A two-stage structural equation modelling approach was used to test the model. The results largely support the significant impact of et-moone predictors. A strong and significant relationship was also found between et-moone and relational governance. This study expands the theoretical horizon of et-moone by considering a new driver (i.e., IT-enabled interactions) and its consequences in terms of relational governance. The outcomes of the current study also make contributions for both practitioners and researchers who are interested in socio-cultural values (i.e., et-Moone) in Arabic countries. An in-depth discussion on the above is presented in the subsections on theoretical and practical implications.

No / Wellbeing is a growing concern for educators and students alike and is especially significant in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has brought the importance of wellbeing into sharp focus. Elsewhere, the authors (Cobb and Croucher) have written about a new pedagogic approach they have developed, specifically related to archaeology, although applicable across higher education. In this approach, they draw on relational theories and archaeology's “material turn” to focus on “Inclusive Learning Assemblages”. They explore the material and social assemblages that students encounter, both in different learning contexts and outwith learning, arguing that if we foreground learning assemblages, then student diversity and the student learning experience will be enhanced. In this paper, the authors take a step further by exploring the value of this approach for student wellbeing. They argue that taking an assemblage approach to teaching and learning in archaeology, and foregrounding diversity, actively improves student wellbeing too. This paper brings into dialogue mental health issues, with the diversity of student experiences, and the broad material engagements of an archaeology degree, in order to suggest a series of concrete steps that practitioners can implement to enhance student wellbeing.

Forskning visar att sjuksköterskor påverkades personligen av en ökad arbetsbelastning under COVID-19 pandemin. Sjuksköterskor beskrev emotionellt och fysiskt utmanande arbetsmiljöer samt en minskad patientsäkerhet och vårdkvalitet under pandemin. Forskning visar även att närstående till patienter under pandemin beskrev kommunikationssvårigheter med patienter och vårdpersonal samt erfarenheter av informationsbrist. Med Erikssons vårdteori som bakgrund kan patienters erfarenheter av isolering under COVID-19 bidra till en ökad kunskap av isolerade patienters behov för att uppnå hälsa. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva patienters erfarenheter av isolering efter genomgången COVID-19 på sjukhus. Metod: Kvalitativ litteraturstudie med beskrivande syntes enligt Evans metod. Resultat: Resultatet presenterades med två teman och sex subteman. Första temat beskriver patienters avsaknad av samhörighet med fyra subteman: ”Att vara instängd”, ”Att vara stigmatiserad”, ”Att inte erhålla information” samt “Att inte kunna kommunicera”. Andra temat beskriver isoleringens silverkant med två subteman; ”Att få nya insikter” samt ”Att finna sociala resurser ”. Slutsats: Patienter som isolerades under COVID-19 beskrev erfarenheter av ensamhet, opersonlig vård samt begränsad fysisk kontakt och kommunikation. Patienters erfarenheter belyser ett behov av ett etiskt vårdvetenskapligt perspektiv för sjuksköterskor som kan erbjuda mänsklig kontakt, samtal och empati för isolerade patienter.

Die Bauchlagerung von intubierten ARDS-Patient/innen mit einer schlechten Oxygenierung wird laut Leitlinie seit mehreren Jahren als supportive Therapiemaßnahme empfohlen. Im Rahmen der COVID-19 Pandemie wurde nun erstmalig die Bauchlagerung auch bei hypoxämischen, nicht-intubierten Patient/innen untersucht. Diese Fragestellung wurde in der vorliegenden Arbeit mittels einer systematischen Übersichtsarbeit betrachtet. Aufgrund der aktuellen Pandemiesituation wurden neben ARDS-Patient/innen im Allgemeinen insbesondere COVID-19 Patient/innen mit einem akuten Lungenversagen als Subgruppe untersucht. Am 21.11.2020 wurde eine systematische Suche nach Studien in den Datenbanken MEDLINE, Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register und Living Overview of the Evidence platform durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse wurden, wo möglich, in Form einer Meta-Analyse zusammengefasst, in Tabellen darstellt oder deskriptiv beschrieben. Das Risiko für Bias wurde jeweils für die eingeschlossenen kontrollierten Studien mittels ROBINS-I beurteilt. Die Vertrauenswürdigkeit der Evidenz der gesamten Arbeit wurde mit Hilfe des GRADE-Ansatzes untersucht. Insgesamt wurden 30 Studien eingeschlossen, davon 4 kontrollierte Studien, keine RCTs. In 3 der kontrollierten Studien wurde die Bauchlagerung bei COVID-19 Patient/innen untersucht, in einer bei Patient/innen mit einem anderweitig verursachten ARDS. Es ist unklar, ob die Bauchlagerung die Intubationsrate (RR = 0,92; 95% KI: 0,59 - 1,44; I² = 65%; sehr niedrige Vertrauenswürdigkeit der Evidenz), die Mortalität (RR = 0,55; 95% KI: 0,23 - 1,30; I² = 60%; sehr niedrige Vertrauenswürdigkeit der Evidenz) und die Wahrscheinlichkeit für eine Aufnahme auf die Intensivstation (RR = 0,94; 95% KI: 0,54 - 1,63; I2 = 71%; sehr niedrige Vertrauenswürdigkeit der Evidenz) verringern kann. Auch für die anderen betrachteten Endpunkte konnte kein signifikanter Effekt der Bauchlagerung nachgewiesen werden Im Vergleich der Subgruppen „Nicht-COVID-19“ (8 Studien) und „COVID-19“ (22 Studien) konnten in Bezug auf alle betrachteten Endpunkte keine relevanten Unterschiede festgestellt werden. Insgesamt ist die Evidenz nicht ausreichend, um Vor- und Nachteile der Bauchlagerung für nicht-intubierte ARDS Patient/innen gegenüber der üblichen Rückenlagerung aufzuzeigen und diese für die Praxis zu empfehlen. / Prone positioning of intubated ARDS patients with poor oxygenation has been recommended as a supportive therapy for several years. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, prone positioning has now been investigated for the first time in hypoxemic, non-intubated patients. This issue was examined by our systematic review. Because of the current pandemic situation, we assessed the effects of prone positioning in COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory failure in particular as a subgroup in addition to ARDS patients in general. A systematic search for studies was performed in MEDLINE, Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register, and Living Overview of the Evidence platform databases on 21 November 2020. Where possible, results were analyzed in the form of meta-analysis, presented in tables, or described descriptively. Risk of bias was assessed for each of the included controlled studies using ROBINS-I. The quality of evidence for the entire systematic review was assessed using the GRADE approach. A total of 30 studies were included, 4 of which were controlled trials, but no RCTs. 3 of the controlled trials investigated prone positioning in COVID-19 patients, one trial in patients with ARDS caused by other means. It is unclear whether prone positioning can reduce intubation rate (RR =0.92; 95% CI: 0.59-1.44; I²=65%; very low quality evidence), mortality (RR =0.55; 95% CI: 0.23-1.30; I²=60%; very low quality evidence), and the likelihood of ICU admission (RR =0.94; 95% CI: 0.54-1.63; I2 =71%; very low quality evidence). No significant effect of prone positioning was demonstrated for the other outcomes considered either. When comparing the "non-COVID-19" (8 studies) and "COVID-19" (22 studies) subgroups, no relevant differences were found for all outcomes assessed. Overall, the evidence is insufficient to demonstrate benefits and harms of prone positioning for non-intubated ARDS patients compared with usual care and to translate the results into practice.