Use of interactive messaging to reduce pre-diagnosis loss to follow-up for TB care

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the uptake and usage of a WhatsApp-based interactive communication strategy to avert pre-diagnosis loss to follow-up (LTFU) from TB care in a high-incidence setting.METHODS: We enrolled adults (≥18 years) who underwent routine sputum TB testing in two primary healthcare clinics in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa. The intervention consisted of structured WhatsApp-based reminders (prompts) sent prior to a routine clinic appointment scheduled 2–3 days after the diagnostic visit. Pre-diagnosis LTFU was defined as failure to return for the scheduled appointment and within 10 days.RESULTS: We approached 332 adults with presumptive TB, of whom 103 (31%) were successfully enrolled; 213 (64%) did not own a WhatsApp-compatible phone. Of 103 participants, 74 (72%) actively responded to WhatsApp prompts; 69 (67%) opted to include a close contact in group communication to co-receive reminders. Pre-diagnosis LTFU was low overall (n = 7, 6.8%) and was not associated with failure to respond to WhatsApp prompts.CONCLUSION: In this high-incidence setting, enrolment in a WhatsApp-based communication intervention among adults with presumptive TB was low, mainly due to low availability of WhatsApp-compatible phones. Among participants, we observed high message response rates and low LTFU, suggesting potential for interactive messaging services to support pre-diagnosis TB care.

Nutritional Health Education during Pandemic

Covid-19 has been booming since December 2019, and is a serious concern in the world. The transmission of this virus is very fast, especially in patients who are hospitalized. So that as a precautionary measure of contracting this virus, actions can be taken in the form of enlightenment in terms of cognitive to the community, in this case in the form of Educational Interactive Communication in the form of Health Education. Health education for patients to meet adequate nutritional intake, so that it is hoped that the spread of this virus can be inhibited with high immunity obtained from varied, balanced nutrition, and all aspects of substances that the body needs can be fulfilled. The purpose of this community service is to provide health education to 15 patients. The method provided is in the form of service learning by providing health education to patients by visiting the patient one by one at each patient. The results of this community service were all participants who understand about nutritional intake, types of balanced nutrition, and things that increase immunity in preventing the transmission of covid-19

The Role Of ‘Think-Pair-Share’ In Enhancing the Moroccan University Students’ Speaking Skills in Online Classes

Speaking English as a foreign language presents one of the most common challenges for learners of English due to many factors related to their perception of the teacher as “a sage on the stage,” their own shyness, a lack of appropriate vocabulary and accurate grammar, and a lack of cooperative learning skills. To help students remedy this problem, the Think-Pair-Share’ strategy was used in this study of online classes during the COVID 19 pandemic. Research has demonstrated that learners can improve their speaking skills and learn more effectively through meaningful collaboration and sharing. This study aims to investigate the role of the Think-Pair-Share’ approach in promoting students’ speaking skills. The study adopts a qualitative approach and addresses the following two research questions: (i) To what extent does the Think-Pair- Share help in improving students’ speaking skills? (ii) How can this improvement be justified? Twenty-eight first-year Moroccan university students took part in this study. The research instruments used combined pre- and post-speaking tests, students’ self-evaluation, and classroom observations. Data were video recorded, analysed qualitatively using the FCE speaking-assessment criteria, and compared to the students’ self- evaluation of their own performance. The results show that the Think-Pair-Share strategy enabled predominantly average and weak students to exchange their views on a range of familiar topics with more ease, confidence, and fluency using more appropriate vocabulary and a clearer organisation of ideas. Although the learners still had problems with their pronunciation and accurate grammar, they demonstrated better interactive communication.

Augmented Reality: A New Learning Experience among Health Care Professionals

<p><strong>Background and Objective:</strong> Augmented Reality (AR) is an effective tool for learning as well as marketing with multilateral interactive communication. It allows brands to give their customers unique experiences with the convenience of tapping into their mobile devices. This study was conducted to assess the perceptions of healthcare professionals (HCPs) to learn through AR and its effectiveness in HCPs&rsquo; engagement and learning experience.</p> <p><strong>Methods:</strong> An interventional study was conducted with HCPs across various tertiary care hospitals in Pakistan from May 2020 till December 2020.<strong> </strong>An<strong> </strong>AR based activity was carried out with the HCPs where they used pictures of objects around them to create a message. These were geo-tagged to a question related to hypertension and participants answered each question. Mobile application &ndash; WallaMe was utilized for this activity. At the end of the activity, HCPs were requested to fill a feedback form based on their experience with the AR app. Data was entered and analyzed by using SPSS version 22.</p> <p><strong>Results:</strong> AR stimulated learning &nbsp;gives the participants an overall exciting (80%), captivating (81%), and fruitful learning experience (82%). AR for marketing campaign was more effective for Brand Recall with paper based campaign for 82.8% and more effective than digital campaign for 85.6% participants. AR was recommended by 80% participants for learning and brand recall.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> AR is a useful tool to enhance user experience for learning as well as improves brand recall and can be used for marketing campaigns.</p>

Summary of the 12th Meeting of the European Forum on antiphospholipid antibodies ONLINE

As a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the 12th meeting of the European Forum on Antiphospholipid Antibodies was held in a digital format on 26th March 2021. Even experienced for the first time in a virtual set-up, it kept its strength in continuation of the opportunity for more than 200 physicians from all continents and 20 countries to meet the experts in the field. Contemporary research in the area of antiphospholipid syndrome was presented, and proposals for the new research projects, as a distinguishing feature of the meeting, made a major contribution. Despite challenging times, this meeting enabled the highest number of registered participants to have interactive communication with presenters. This report summarizes major studies and new research projects presented during the online forum meeting.

Preface

This volume of proceedings is a compilation of thirty-four accepted papers submitted to the 10th Global Conference on Materials Science and Engineering (CMSE 2021). This conference was held in the online mode on August 1-4, 2021, and attended by over a hundred researchers, scholars, academic and industry experts in materials science and engineering from 35 countries. During the four-day online conference, three keynote speeches with topics on biomaterials, semiconductor materials, and powder metallurgy were delivered by Prof. Seeram Ramakrishna (National University of Singapore, Singapore), Prof. Qixin Guo (Saga University, Japan), and Prof. José M. Torralba (The Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain). Sixty-four oral and invited presentations were presented and discussed in-depth in six technical sessions, followed by a poster session on the conference website, with interactive communication among the attendees. Despite the inhibiting factor of Covid19, the conference successfully promoted exchanging new ideas and perspective discourse among the participants in their respective fields. The conference was brilliantly chaired by the Conference Chairman, Prof. Sigitas Tamulevičius from the Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania, and a team of Session Chairs: Dr. Yanli Lu (Northwestern Polytechnical University, China), Prof. Yaovi Gagou (Université de Picardie Jules Verne, France), Dr. Stefan Siebert (Brockhaus Measurements, Germany), Dr. Marianna Marciszko-Wiąckowska (AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow, Poland), Dr. Hasan Koten (Istanbul Medeniyet University, Turkey), Dr. P.E. Markovsky (Kurdyumov Institute for Metal Physics NASU, Ukraine), and Assoc. Prof. Jun Yan (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA). All participants highly appreciated the online support and facilitation of Conference Secretaries: Ms. Ling Li and Ms. Kelly Feng (Bosen, China). List of Conference Committee Members are available in this pdf.