Summaries, Analysis and Simulations of COVID-19 Epidemics in Shanghai

Shanghai is the best city to prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection in China. Since February 20, 2020, Shanghai has experienced five waves of COVID-19. Out of a total of 388 patients with COVID-19 symptoms, 381 were cured and seven died. Medical staff achieved zero infection. This paper summarizes, analyzes and simulates COVID-19 epidemics in Shanghai. The simulation results show that for five waves of epidemics, after reaching the infection turning point, the blocking rate of symptomatic infection is over 99%. The administration needs to maintain the prevention and control implemented 7 days after reaching the infection turning point until the new infection goes away.

Clinical and Antibody Characteristics Reveal Diverse Signatures of Severe and Non-severe SARS-CoV-2 Patients

Clinical and Immune response characteristics of COVID-19 between severe and non-severe patients have not been fully clarified. In this study, clinical features, antibody responses targeting SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (S) and its different domains, Ig isotypes and IgG subtypes, ACE2 competitive antibodies, binding titers with FcγIIa and FcγIIb receptors, and 14 cytokines were investigated in 119 serum samples from 37 PCR-confirmed COVID-19 patients. Severe group including 9 patients represented lower lymphocyte count, higher neutrophil count, higher level of LDH, total bile acid (TBA) (P<1×10-4), r-glutaminase (P=0.011), adenosine deaminase (P<1×10-4), procalcitonin (P=0.004), C-reactive protein (P<1×10-4) and D-dimer (P=0.049) compared to non-severe group (28 patients). Significantly, higher-level antibody targeting S (IgA, IgM, and IgG), different S domains specificity (RBD, RBM, NTD, and CTD), FcγIIa and FcγIIb binding capability were observed in severe group than that of non-severe group, of which IgG1 and IgG3 were the main IgG subclasses. RBD-IgG were strongly correlated with S-IgG both in severe group and non-severe group. Additionally, CTD-IgG were strongly correlated with S-IgG in non-severe group. Positive RBD-ACE2 binding inhibition was strongly associated with high titers of antibody (S-IgG1, S-IgG3, NTD-IgG) especially RBD-IgG and CTD-IgG in severe group, while in non-severe group, S-IgG3, RBD-IgG and NTD-IgG titer correlated with ACE2 blocking rate. S-IgG1 was negatively associated with illness days in severe group (r=- 0.434, P=0.002), while S-IgG3 in severe group (r=0.363, P=0.011) and S-IgG1 (r=0.417, P=3×10-4) in non-severe group was positively associated with days after symptom onset. Moreover, GRO-α, IL-6, IL-8, IP-10, MCP-1, MCP-3, MIG, and BAFF were also significantly elevated in severe group. Overall, the results indicated different signatures in clinical and immune responses between the COVID-19 severe group and non-severe group, which will be markedly contributed to future therapeutic and preventive measures development.

Research on the Inertial Migration Characteristics of Bi-Disperse Particles in Channel Flow

The inertial focusing effect of particles in microchannels shows application potential in engineering practice. In order to study the mechanism of inertial migration of particles with different scales, the motion and distribution of two particles in Poiseuille flow are studied by the lattice Boltzmann method. The effects of particle size ratio, Reynolds number, and blocking rate on particle inertial migration are analyzed. The results show that, at a high blocking rate, after the same scale particles are released at the same height of the channel, the spacing between the two particles increases monotonically, and the change in the initial spacing has little effect on the final spacing of inertial migration. For two different size particles, when the smaller particle is downstream, the particle spacing will always increase and cannot remain stable. When the larger particle is downstream, the particle spacing increases firstly and then decreases, and finally tends to be stable.

Balancing Loads among MEC Servers by Task Redirection to Enhance the Resource Efficiency of MEC Systems

To improve the resource efficiency of multi-access edge computing (MEC) systems, it is important to distribute the imposed workload evenly among MEC servers (MECSs). To address this issue, we propose a task redirection method to balance loads among MECSs in a distributed manner. In conventional methods, a congested MECS selects only one MECS to which it redirects tasks. By contrast, the proposed method enables a congested MECS to distribute its tasks to a set of MECSs, the loads of which are lower than that of the congested MECS by determining the number of tasks that it redirects to each selected MECS. We prove that our task redirection method drives a MEC system to a state where the resulting MECS load vector is lexicographically minimal. Through extensive simulation studies, we show that compared with the conventional methods, the proposed method can achieve the smallest load difference between the load of the MECS, the load of which is the highest, and that of the MECS, the load of which is the smallest. By lexicographically minimizing the MECS load vector, the proposed method decreases the average task blocking rate when the task offload rate is high. In addition, we show that the proposed method outperforms the conventional methods in terms of the number of tasks, the delay requirements of which are not satisfied.

Modelling, Simulations and Analysis of the First COVID-19 Epidemic in Shanghai

To date, over 178 million people on infected with COVID-19. It causes more 3.8 millions deaths. Based on a previous symptomatic-asymptomatic-recoverer-dead differential equation model (SARDDE) and the clinic data of the first COVID-19 epidemic in Shanghai, this paper determines the parameters of SARDDE. Numerical simulations of SARDDE describe well the outcomes of current symptomatic individuals, recovered symptomatic individuals, and died individuals, respectively. The numerical simulations suggest that both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals cause lesser asymptomatic spread than symptomatic spread; blocking rate of about 95.5\% cannot prevent the spread of the COVID19 epidemic in Shanghai. The strict prevention and control strategies implemented by Shanghai government is not only very effective but also completely necessary. The numerical simulations suggest also that using the data from the beginning to the day after about 19 days at the turning point can estimate well the following outcomes of the COVID-19 academic. It is expected that the research can provide better understanding, explaining, and dominating for epidemic spreads, prevention and control measures.

A multi-objective model-based vertical handoff algorithm for heterogeneous wireless networks

The emergence of 5G communication systems will not replace existing radio access networks but will gradually merge to form ultra-dense heterogeneous networks. In heterogeneous networks, the design of efficient vertical handoff (VHO) algorithms for 5G infrastructures is necessary to improve quality of service (QoS) and system resource utilization. In this paper, an optimized algorithm based on a multi-objective optimization model is proposed to solve the lack of a comprehensive consideration of user and network impacts during the handoff process in existing VHO algorithms. The Markov chain model of each base station (BS) is built to calculate a more accurate value of the network state that reflects the network performance. Then, a multi-objective optimization model is derived to maximize the value of the network state and the user data receiving rate. The multi-objective genetic algorithm NSGA-II is finally employed to turn the model into a final VHO strategy. The results of the simulation for the throughput and blocking rate of networks demonstrate that our algorithm significantly increases the system throughput and reduces the blocking rate compared to the existing VHO strategies.

Linear B-Cell Epitopes in Human Norovirus GII.4 Capsid Protein Elicit Blockade Antibodies

Human norovirus (HuNoV) is the leading cause of nonbacterial gastroenteritis worldwide with the GII.4 genotype accounting for over 80% of infections. The major capsid protein of GII.4 variants is evolving rapidly, resulting in new epidemic variants with altered antigenic potentials that must be considered for the development of an effective vaccine. In this study, we identify and characterize linear blockade B-cell epitopes in HuNoV GII.4. Five unique linear B-cell epitopes, namely P2A, P2B, P2C, P2D, and P2E, were predicted on the surface-exposed regions of the capsid protein. Evolving of the surface-exposed epitopes over time was found to correlate with the emergence of new GII.4 outbreak variants. Molecular dynamic simulation (MD) analysis and molecular docking revealed that amino acid substitutions in the putative epitopes P2B, P2C, and P2D could be associated with immune escape and the appearance of new GII.4 variants by affecting solvent accessibility and flexibility of the antigenic sites and histo-blood group antigens (HBAG) binding. Testing the synthetic peptides in wild-type mice, epitopes P2B (336–355), P2C (367–384), and P2D (390–400) were recognized as GII.4-specific linear blockade epitopes with the blocking rate of 68, 55 and 28%, respectively. Blocking rate was found to increase to 80% using the pooled serum of epitopes P2B and P2C. These data provide a strategy for expanding the broad blockade potential of vaccines for prevention of NoV infection.

Dependence of Water-Permeable Chitosan Membranes on Chitosan Molecular Weight and Alkali Treatment

Chitosan membranes were prepared by the casting method combined with alkali treatment. The molecular weight of chitosan and the alkali treatment influenced the water content and water permeability of the chitosan membranes. The water content increased as the NaOH concentration was increased from 1 to 5 mol/L. The water permeation flux of chitosan membranes with three different molecular weights increased linearly with the operating pressure and was highest for the membrane formed from chitosan with the lowest molecular weight. Membranes with a lower water content had a higher water flux. The membranes blocked 100% of compounds with molecular weights above methyl orange (MW = 327 Da). At 60 ≤ MW ≤ 600, the blocking rate strongly depended on the substance. The results confirmed that the membranes are suitable for compound separation, such as in purification and wastewater treatment.

Narrowband transmission filters based on resonant waveguide gratings and conformal dielectric-plasmonic coatings

Nanostructured filter arrays on image sensors are promising for miniature spectrometers and spectral imagers. In this work, we report on resonant waveguide gratings fabricated by UV nanoimprint lithography and conformal dielectric-plasmonic coatings. Optical measurements in accordance with numerical simulations report on a resonance bandwidth of 20 nm in transmission in the visible range. The impact of cladding thickness and filter lateral size on the resonance properties is investigated with the help of numerical calculations. Finally, it is shown that the proposed geometry based on conformal coatings has a very efficient blocking rate compared to other nanostructured filter approaches.