scholarly journals Toward nanotechnology-enabled face masks against SARS-CoV-2 and pandemic respiratory diseases

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazek El-Atab ◽  
Rishabh Bhooshan Mishra ◽  
Muhammad M. Hussain
Keyword(s):  
Respiratory Diseases ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
Electrostatic Attraction ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
Commercial Grade ◽  
Worldwide Production ◽  
Nanofibrous Membranes ◽  
Triboelectric Nanogenerators

Abstract Wearing a face mask has become a necessity following the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease, where its effectiveness in containing the pandemic has been confirmed. Nevertheless, the pandemic has revealed major deficiencies in the ability to manufacture and ramp up worldwide production of efficient surgical-grade face masks. As a result, many researchers have focused their efforts on the development of low cost, smart and effective face covers. In this article, following a short introduction concerning face mask requirements, the different nanotechnology-enabled techniques for achieving better protection against the SARS-CoV-2 virus are reviewed, including the development of nanoporous and nanofibrous membranes in addition to triboelectric nanogenerators based masks, which can filter the virus using various mechanisms such as straining, electrostatic attraction and electrocution. The development of nanomaterials-based mask coatings to achieve virus repellent and sterilizing capabilities, including antiviral, hydrophobic and photothermal features are also discussed. Finally, the usability of nanotechnology-enabled face masks is discussed and compared with that of current commercial-grade N95 masks. To conclude, we highlight the challenges associated with the quick transfer of nanomaterials-enabled face masks and provide an overall outlook of the importance of nanotechnology in counteracting the COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Therapeutic Aspects of Squill; An Evidence-Based Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khadije Saket ◽  
Jalil T. Afshari ◽  
Ehsan Saburi ◽  
Mahdi Yousefi ◽  
Roshanak Salari
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
Traditional Medicine ◽  
Respiratory Diseases ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Helminthic Infections ◽  
Traditional Persian Medicine ◽  
Healing Of Wounds ◽  
Bioactive Agents

From ancient times, medicinal plants have been usually utilized to treat many disorders, but today, interest in these herbs is again aroused, because of their fewer side effects and low-cost. In traditional medicine, for many diseases, various medicinal herbs have been suggested so far. Drimia maritime, also named squill, is an important medicinal plant for the treatment of many diseases, especially respiratory diseases. In the current evidence-based study, we conducted a review of the general characteristics, ingredients, administration form, and side effects of squill in traditional medicine. For this purpose, traditional Persian medicine literatures and electronic databases were examined including PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar. Many compounds are isolated from D.maritima, including scillaren, scillirubroside, scillarenin, and bufadienolide glycosides. Oxymel is the most commonly used form of squill for various diseases, especially respiratory diseases. Besides, squill has been used in the treatment of cardiovascular, digestive, and dermatological disorders, it is also used against various cancer cells for its antioxidant and cytotoxic properties. Moreover, there is relatively reliable evidence of its benefits for bacterial and helminthic infections, rheumatism, edema, gout, abortion induction, healing of wounds and urine induction. It seems that supplementary studies are required to explore the bioactive agents and their effective mechanisms.

scholarly journals IoT and Deep Learning Based Approach for Rapid Screening and Face Mask Detection for Infection Spread Control of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 3495
Author(s):  
Shabir Hussain ◽  
Yang Yu ◽  
Muhammad Ayoub ◽  
Akmal Khan ◽  
Rukhshanda Rehman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
World Health ◽  
Rapid Screening ◽  
Screening System ◽  
Source Of Infection ◽  
The Face ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Vaccine Distribution

The spread of COVID-19 has been taken on pandemic magnitudes and has already spread over 200 countries in a few months. In this time of emergency of COVID-19, especially when there is still a need to follow the precautions and developed vaccines are not available to all the developing countries in the first phase of vaccine distribution, the virus is spreading rapidly through direct and indirect contacts. The World Health Organization (WHO) provides the standard recommendations on preventing the spread of COVID-19 and the importance of face masks for protection from the virus. The excessive use of manual disinfection systems has also become a source of infection. That is why this research aims to design and develop a low-cost, rapid, scalable, and effective virus spread control and screening system to minimize the chances and risk of spread of COVID-19. We proposed an IoT-based Smart Screening and Disinfection Walkthrough Gate (SSDWG) for all public places entrance. The SSDWG is designed to do rapid screening, including temperature measuring using a contact-free sensor and storing the record of the suspected individual for further control and monitoring. Our proposed IoT-based screening system also implemented real-time deep learning models for face mask detection and classification. This module classified individuals who wear the face mask properly, improperly, and without a face mask using VGG-16, MobileNetV2, Inception v3, ResNet-50, and CNN using a transfer learning approach. We achieved the highest accuracy of 99.81% while using VGG-16 and the second highest accuracy of 99.6% using MobileNetV2 in the mask detection and classification module. We also implemented classification to classify the types of face masks worn by the individuals, either N-95 or surgical masks. We also compared the results of our proposed system with state-of-the-art methods, and we highly suggested that our system could be used to prevent the spread of local transmission and reduce the chances of human carriers of COVID-19.

Preparation of Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) Triboelectric Nanogenerators with Different Polymer

2015 ◽  
Vol 814 ◽  
pp. 91-95
Author(s):  
Cheng Wang ◽  
Hao Yu ◽  
Tao Huang ◽  
Chao Tan
Keyword(s):  
Polymer Films ◽  
Polyvinylidene Fluoride ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Mechanical Energy ◽  
Flexible Polymer ◽  
Surrounding Environment ◽  
Nanofiber Membranes ◽  
External Consistency ◽  
Low Wear ◽  
Triboelectric Nanogenerators

Triboelectric nanogenerators have recently been used to harvest mechanical energy from surrounding environment which is of great significance in the field of energy conversion. Electrospinning provides a simple, low cost and versatile method for the generation of 1D nanostrucutures. Nanofiber membranes have many advantages over the commonly used dense film for designing the riboelectric nanogenerators, such as the low wear resistance caused from the internal and excellent external consistency of the electrospinning membranes. In this paper, we produce a variety of polymer films by electro-spinning, and fabricate Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) triboelectric nanogenerators with different polymer films afterwards. We except to explore the TEG power generation effect, and influencing factors, and then determine the best combination of the results of TEG (PVDF-PHBV). Such a flexible polymer TEG generates output voltage of up to 112 V at a power of 0.045W.

scholarly journals A low-cost and scalable process for harvesting microalgae using commercial-grade flocculant

RSC Advances ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (67) ◽  
pp. 39011-39024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gargi Goswami ◽  
Ratan Kumar ◽  
Ankan Sinha ◽  
Soumen Kumar Maiti ◽  
Babul Chandra Dutta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Water Recycling ◽  
Commercial Grade ◽  
Harvesting Efficiency ◽  
Harvesting Process

A low-cost and scalable microalgal harvesting process with high harvesting efficiency has been demonstrated using a commercial flocculant and spent-water recycling.

Design of a Low-Cost Full-Face Mask for Stone Carvers

2019 ◽  
pp. 279-285
Author(s):  
Suraj Bhat ◽  
Naman Doshi ◽  
Chetanya Dev Bharadwaj ◽  
S. N. Singh ◽  
Younus Patel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
Stone Carvers ◽  
Full Face

scholarly journals CO3D, A WORLDWIDE ONE ONE-METER ACCURACY DEM FOR 2025

2020 ◽  
Vol XLIII-B1-2020 ◽  
pp. 299-304
Author(s):  
L. Lebègue ◽  
E. Cazala-Hourcade ◽  
F. Languille ◽  
S. Artigues ◽  
O. Melet
Keyword(s):  
Near Infrared ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Infrared Band ◽  
Automatic Production ◽  
Worldwide Production ◽  
Expected Performance ◽  
Absolute Height ◽  
Dem Accuracy ◽  
New Generation ◽  
2D And 3D

Abstract. The goal of the CO3D (Constellation Optique 3D) mission is the full-automatic production of a worldwide accurate DEM. CO3D is also a constellation of a new generation of low-cost optical satellites. The DEM accuracy is expected to be one meter in relative height and two meters in absolute height with a one-meter grid space. Each of the four satellites of the constellation will provide images with 0.50 m resolution in red, green, blue bands. A NIR (Near-InfraRed) band will also be available with a resolution close to 1 m. The satellites resource will be shared by, on one hand, the French institutions (government, scientists concerned by global Earth monitoring) who will have dedicated access and preferred price conditions, and on the other hand commercial customers interested in 2D and 3D products. The launch of the constellation is expected mid-2023 and 90 % of the DEM worldwide production should be reached by the end of 2025.Starting from an overview of the system characteristics and its main innovations, this paper presents the expected performance, the 2D and 3D products that should be available for the end-users and finally how they should be qualified.

scholarly journals Antiviral face mask functionalized with solidified hand soap: low-cost infection prevention clothing against enveloped viruses such as SARS-CoV-2

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alba Cano-Vicent ◽  
Alberto Tunon-Molina ◽  
Miguel Marti ◽  
Yukiko Muramoto ◽  
Takeshi Noda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infection Prevention ◽  
Viral Infections ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
Woven Fabric ◽  
Enveloped Viruses ◽  
Underdeveloped Countries ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Asymptomatic Individuals ◽  
Indoor Spaces

Infection prevention clothing is becoming an essential protective tool in the current pandemic, especially because now we know that SARS-CoV-2 can easily infect humans in poorly ventilated indoor spaces. However, commercial infection prevention clothing is made of fabrics that are not capable of inactivating the virus. Therefore, viral infections of symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals wearing protective clothing such as masks can occur through aerosol transmission or by contact with the contaminated surfaces of the masks, which are suspected as an increasing source of highly infectious biological waste. Herein, we report an easy fabrication method of a novel antiviral non-woven fabric containing polymer filaments that were coated with solidified hand soap. This extra protective fabric is capable of inactivating enveloped viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 and phi 6 in one minute of contact. In this study, this antiviral fabric was used to fabricate an antiviral face mask and did not show any cytotoxic effect in human keratinocyte HaCaT cells. Furthermore, this antiviral non-woven fabric could be used for the fabrication of other infection prevention clothing such as caps, scrubs, shirts, trousers, disposable gowns, overalls, hoods, aprons, and shoe covers. Therefore, this low-cost technology could provide a wide range of infection protective tools to combat COVID-19 and future pandemics in developed and underdeveloped countries.

Design of a New Low Cost ROV Vehicle

2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasser M. Ahmed ◽  
Omar Yaakob ◽  
Bong K. Sun
Keyword(s):  
Fiber Optic ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Underwater Vehicles ◽  
Commercial Grade ◽  
Site Search ◽  
Battery Power ◽  
Offshore Industry ◽  
A Site ◽  
Network Camera

Remotely operated underwater vehicles which are also known as ROVs are a type of underwater robot vehicle which is widely used in the offshore industry or other applications. The main purpose of this type of tethered underwater mobile robots are tosupersede human to work at hard-to-access or jeopardizing underwater region to do certain specific tasks like to survey a site, search for an item or person that has tremendous value. The remote control of ROV is usually carried out through copper or fiber optic cables which are known as umbilical cables.  In this research work a low cost ROV unit has been designed and constructed at UniversitiTeknologi Malaysia (UTM). The ROV was constructed by low cost material like commercial grade polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes. The low cost ROV is equipped with a network camera and manoeuvred by three motors through 12 volts battery power supply. The ROV is controlled by joystick controller through network cable and is able to submerge up to 20meters intowater to perform underwater observation operation.

scholarly journals Emulsion Electrospinning of Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) Nanofibrous Membranes for High-Performance Triboelectric Nanogenerators

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 5880-5891 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengfei Zhao ◽  
Navneet Soin ◽  
Kovur Prashanthi ◽  
Jinkai Chen ◽  
Shurong Dong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
Nanofibrous Membranes ◽  
Triboelectric Nanogenerators

Bargaining under social distancing requirements: Effects of face masks on socio-economic decision-making in the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramzi Fatfouta ◽  
Yulia Oganian
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Exchange ◽  
Respiratory Diseases ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Economic Decision Making ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
The Face ◽  
Human Social Behavior ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Face masks play a pivotal role in the control and prevention of respiratory diseases, such as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Despite their widespread use, it is not known how face masks affect human social interaction. In this behavioral economics study (N = 475), we examined how mask-wearing modulates individuals’ likelihood of acceptance of unfair monetary offers in an iterated social exchange. Overall, participants accepted more offers, including more unfair offers, from mask-wearing opponents than from opponents without a mask. This effect was enhanced when participants ascribed more altruistic motives to their interaction partner. Importantly, this pattern of results was only present for surgical face masks, but not when a non-medical cloth face covering was used. This is the first study to uncover a new phenomenon, the face-mask effect, in which face masks can alter human social behavior.

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