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Mink, on a farm with about 15,000 animals, became infected with SARS-CoV-2. Over 75% of tested animals were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in throat swabs and 100% of tested animals were seropositive. The virus responsible had a deletion of nucleotides encoding residues H69 and V70 within the spike protein gene as well as the A22920T mutation, resulting in the Y453F substitution within this protein, seen previously in mink. The infected mink recovered and after free-testing of 300 mink (a level giving 93% confidence of detecting a 1% prevalence), the animals remained seropositive. During further follow-up studies, after a period of more than 2 months without any virus detection, over 75% of tested animals again scored positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Whole genome sequencing showed that the viruses circulating during this re-infection were most closely related to those identified in the first outbreak on this farm but additional sequence changes had occurred. Animals had much higher levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in serum samples after the second round of infection than at free-testing or during recovery from initial infection, consistent with a boosted immune response. Thus, it was concluded that following recovery from an initial infection, seropositive mink were readily re-infected by SARS-CoV-2. Author summary Early on, in the course of SARS-CoV-2 infections among mink in Denmark, we identified a farm, with about 15,000 mink, that had virus-infected animals. At this time, we found that a very high proportion of the mink had been infected and made antibodies against the virus. In contrast to the three previously infected farms, the mink were allowed to recover (the mink had shown few signs of disease and only low mortality) and our testing demonstrated the absence of circulating virus. Continued screening, in the following weeks, supported the absence of infection in the mink but the maintenance of antibodies against the virus. However, less than 3 months after the initial infection, we again identified the presence of virus in some dead mink from this farm and in many live mink. The viruses responsible for this second wave of infection were slightly different from those found in the first wave but were closer to each other than to the SARS-CoV-2s found on other mink farms. The antibody levels in mink during this second wave of infection were much higher than observed after the initial infection. We concluded that the initial round of infection in mink was insufficient to confer protection against re-infection.

Robots can protect healthcare workers from being infected by the COVID-19 and play a role in throat swab sampling operation. A critical requirement in this process is to maintain a constant force on the tissue for ensuring a safe and good sampling. In this study, we present the design of a disposable mechanism with two non-linear springs to achieve a 0.6 N constant force within a 20 mm displacement. The nonlinear spring is designed through optimization based on Finite Element Simulation and Genetic Algorithm. Prototype of the mechanism is made and tested. The experimental results show that the mechanism can provide 0.67±0.04 N and 0.57±0.02 N during its compression and return process. The proposed design can be extended to different scales and used in a variety of scenario where safe interacting with human is required.

Abstract This study aims at providing new insights into poverty, vulnerability, and their correlates in Mozambique, applying synthetic panels techniques and expanding on earlier analyses. Our results suggest that there is a high degree of poverty immobility, especially in rural areas in the northern and central regions and for low-educated people. Even nonpoor households are at a high risk to vulnerability, and this risk does not differ much for households in urban/rural areas or in different regions or with different education levels. We also observe that a large portion of the population remains in or out of poverty over the entire year, with a higher percentage of individuals moving into poverty between the dry and the rainy seasons and a nonnegligible proportion of vulnerable people not managing to revert to nonpoverty in the subsequent dry season. Overall, these findings are highly relevant for designing anti-poverty policies and strategies, as they provide information on intra-year shocks and on some of the characteristics related to upward and downward mobility over longer time spans, also with regard to the recent Covid-19 and other recent shocks suffered by the country.

The Lancet Countdown is an international collaboration that independently monitors the health consequences of a changing climate. Publishing updated, new, and improved indicators each year, the Lancet Countdown represents the consensus of leading researchers from 43 academic institutions and UN agencies. The 44 indicators of this report expose an unabated rise in the health impacts of climate change and the current health consequences of the delayed and inconsistent response of countries around the globe—providing a clear imperative for accelerated action that puts the health of people and planet above all else.\ud \ud The 2021 report coincides with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26), at which countries are facing pressure to realise the ambition of the Paris Agreement to keep the global average temperature rise to 1·5°C and to mobilise the financial resources required for all countries to have an effective climate response. These negotiations unfold in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic—a global health crisis that has claimed millions of lives, affected livelihoods and communities around the globe, and exposed deep fissures and inequities in the world's capacity to cope with, and respond to, health emergencies. Yet, in its response to both crises, the world is faced with an unprecedented opportunity to ensure a healthy future for all.

The increasingly unprecedented incidents (e.g. COVID-19) have made the contemporary supply chains more vulnerable to divergent risks and disruptions. Encouragingly, the recent trend of digital tran...

Much uncertainty persists about how the coronavirus (COVID-19) and its derived crisis effects will impact both the economy and forests. Here we conceptualize a recursive model where an initial COVID-19 supply-side shock hits first the Global North that, mediated by country-specific epidemic management strategies and other (fiscal, monetary, trade) policy responses feeds through to financial markets and the real economy. Analytically we distinguish two stylized scenarios: an optimistic V-shaped recovery where effective policy responses render most economic damages transitory, versus a pessimistic pathway of economic depression, where short-run pandemic impacts are dwarfed by the subsequent economic breakdown. Economic impacts are transitioned from the global North to the South through trade, tourism, remittances and investment/capital flows. As for impacts on tropical forests, we compare the effects of past economic crises to early indicators for incipient trends. We find national income and commodity price effects to be torn between three forces: a contractive-inflationary supply-side shock, deflationary pandemic demand-side effects, and expansive-inflationary monetary and fiscal policy responses. We discuss how global forest outcomes will depend on how these macroeconomic battles are resolved, but also on geographical differences in deforestation dynamics. Reviewing recent fire and deforestation alerts data, as well as annual tree-cover loss data, we find that deforestation-curbing and -enhancing factors so far just about neutralized each other. Yet, country impacts vary greatly. Changing macroeconomic scenarios, such as fading out of huge economic stimulus packages, could change the picture significantly, in line with what our model predicts.

Denne artikel undersøger underviseres og studerendes erfaringer med digitalt understøttet projektvejledning under COVID-19-nedlukningen i foråret 2020. Der sættes fokus på filosofien bag problem- og projektbaseret vejledning på Aalborg Universitet og Roskilde Universitet, samt hvordan og i hvor høj grad digital transformation af vejlederpraksis understøtter og udfordrer denne filosofi. Resultaterne baserer sig primært på 12 kvalitative interviews med undervisere og 10 kvalitative interviews med studerende gennemført som en del af projektet “Erfaringer og oplevelser med online undervisning på 9 videregående uddannelsesinstitutioner”, suppleret af resultater fra lokale, interne undersøgelser i samme periode. Artiklen søger overordnet set at besvare undersøgelsesspørgsmålet: Hvad har vi lært om digitalt understøttet projektvejledning under COVID-19-nedlukningen, og hvilke erfaringer kan vi tage med os ind i en fremtidig problem- og projektorienteret vejlederpraksis? Undersøgelsens resultater viser, at nedlukningsperioden har givet anledning til nytænkning af den problem- og projektbaserede vejlederpraksis, og at vejledningen har potentiale til at blive mere fleksibel, studentercentreret og proces-orienteret, når den transformeres fra primært produktvejledning til en højere grad af procesfacilitering i hybride læringsrum.

With schools and universities closing across Europe, the Covid-19 lockdown left actors in the field of education battling with the unprecedented challenge of finding a meaningful way to keep the wheels of education turning online. The sudden need for digital solutions across the field of education resulted in the emergence of a variety of digital networks and collaborative online platforms. In this joint article from scholars around Europe, we explore the Covid-19 lockdowns of physical education across the European region, and the different processes of emergency digitalization that followed in their wake. Spanning perspectives from Italy, Germany, Belgium, and the Nordic countries, the article’s five cases provide a glimpse of how these processes have at the same time accelerated and consolidated the involvement of various commercial and non-commercial actors in public education infrastructures. By gathering documentation, registering dynamics, and making intimations of the crisis as it unfolded, the aim of the joint paper is to provide an opportunity for considering the implications of these accelerations and consolidations for the heterogeneous futures of European education.

Dagens podcast produceres som del af dissemineringen af undersøgelsen - Evaluering Af Digitalt Understøttet Læring På Aalborg Universitet I 2020 - Underviser- Og Studenterperspektiver På Universitetets Nedlukning Som Følge Af Covid-19, som blev foretaget i efteråret 2020 og dækkede undervisere og studerendes oplevelser af arbejds- og studielivet i relation til studieaktiviteter på AAU i foråret 2020 til efteråret 2020. Rapporten er struktureret omkring 5 hovedtemaer: Digitalt understøttet undervisning, PBL-modellen, Vejledning, Eksamen, og sidst Trivsel, motivation og identitet. Denne podcastserie vil dække dele af disse temaer over 3 afsnit og i dag i denne første del taler vi om trivsel, motivation og identitet med fokus på studerende.

COVID-19 pandemien ændrede i 2020 hverdagen for uddannelsesinstitutioner verden over. Situationen har afkrævet svar, fra både de studerende og uddannelsernes side, på hvordan undervisningen kunne fortsætte på trods af restriktioner, der umuliggjorde ansigt-til-ansigt undervisning. Denne artikel analyserer, hvorledes strategier for digitalt understøttet læring er blevet oplevet og har udviklet sig fra forårets ”nødundervisning” til efterårets parallelle og hybride tilgange på et PBL-universitet i Danmark. Undersøgelsen bygger på et stort sæt kvalitative data, der indkapsler oplevelser af den digitale undervisning på tværs af samtlige fakulteter og institutter på Aalborg Universitet, i form af 22 fokusgruppeinterviews med undervisere og studerende foretaget fra september til november i efteråret 2020. Dataene er efterfølgende blevet transskriberet og kodet i NVivo og analyseret ved brug af tematisk analyse og tegner et holistisk billede af de stadigt igangværende digitale læringsaktiviteter, herunder tilgange til og betydningen af det fysiske rum og sociale relationer i hybrid problem- og projektbaseret læring. Artiklen bidrager således med viden om og perspektiver på, hvordan digital transformation kan understøtte aktiv og kollaborativ læring i deltagerstyrede læringsmiljøer, som eksempelvis PBL.