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Use of 3D printed connectors to redesign full face snorkeling masks in the COVID-19 era: A preliminary technical case-study

ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in severe shortages of personal protection equipment and non-invasive ventilation devices. As traditional supply chains could not meet up with the demand, makeshift solutions were developed and locally manufactured by rapid prototyping networks. Among the different global initiatives, retrofitting of full-face snorkeling masks for Non-Invasive-Ventilation (NIV) applications seems the most challenging. This article provides a systematic overview of rapid prototyped - 3D printed - designs that enable attachment of medical equipment to snorkeling masks, highlighting potential and challenges in additive manufacturing. The different NIV connector designs are compared on low-cost 3D fabrication time and costs, which allows a rapid assessment of developed connectors for health care workers in urgent need of retrofitting snorkeling masks for NIV purposes. Challenges and safety issues of the rapid prototyping approach for healthcare applications during the pandemic are discussed as well. When critical parameters such as the final product cost, geographical availability of the feedstock and the 3D printers and the medical efficiency of the rapid prototyped products are well considered before deploying decentralized 3D printing as manufacturing method, this rapid prototyping strategy contributed to reduce personal protective equipment and NIV shortages during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also concluded that it is crucial to carefully optimize material and printer parameter settings to realize best fitting and airtight connector-mask connections, which is heavily depending on the chosen feedstock and type of printer. Graphical abstract Image, graphical abstract

SUBMITTER: Profili J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8234254 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:With the advent of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-Corona Virus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, the theme of emotion recognition from facial expressions has become highly relevant due to the widespread use of face masks as one of the main devices imposed to counter the spread of the virus. Unsurprisingly, several studies published in the last 2 years have shown that accuracy in the recognition of basic emotions expressed by faces wearing masks is reduced. However, less is known about the impact that wearing face masks has on the ability to recognize emotions from subtle expressions. Furthermore, even less is known regarding the role of interindividual differences (such as alexithymic and autistic traits) in emotion processing. This study investigated the perception of all the six basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise), both as a function of the face mask and as a function of the facial expressions' intensity (full vs. subtle) in terms of participants' uncertainty in their responses, misattribution errors, and perceived intensity. The experiment was conducted online on a large sample of participants (N = 129). Participants completed the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Autistic Spectrum Quotient and then performed an emotion-recognition task that involved face stimuli wearing a mask or not, and displaying full or subtle expressions. Each face stimulus was presented alongside the Geneva Emotion Wheel (GEW), and participants had to indicate what emotion they believed the other person was feeling and its intensity using the GEW. For each combination of our variables, we computed the indices of 'uncertainty' (i.e., the spread of responses around the correct emotion category), 'bias' (i.e., the systematic errors in recognition), and 'perceived intensity' (i.e., the distance from the center of the GEW). We found that face masks increase uncertainty for all facial expressions of emotion, except for fear when intense, and that disgust was systematically confused with anger (i.e., response bias). Furthermore, when faces were covered by the mask, all the emotions were perceived as less intense, and this was particularly evident for subtle expressions. Finally, we did not find any evidence of a relationship between these indices and alexithymic/autistic traits.

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Use of 3D printed connectors to redesign full face snorkeling masks in the COVID-19 era: A preliminary technical case-study

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