ABSTRACT
—The current COVID-19 pandemic has elevated the importance of cleanliness and social distancing. These needs will continue to be important as the world moves to a new normal whilst navigating through a post-covid environment. This paper presents a use case application that focuses on enforcing safe distance measures inside a campus building where there is limited manpower resources. Amidst the social setting within the university, staff or students may at times accidentally congregate, which may lead to spread of diseases inconveniencing all affected parties. Our proposed integrated solution consists of a network of video cameras and sensors which allows one to monitor behavior within the building. The integrated smart devices communicate with (1) an analytics server that processes the data from the various sensors and (2) a platform that integrates the analytic results and optimizes the action items to be reflected to the environment. A pilot prototype has been deployed and evaluated within a living lab setting on campus. Results show that the system is useful in streamlining the operational process resulting in more efficient processes and procedures to help enforce safe management measures needed to maintain proper social distancing among occupants in campus. © 2022 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
This article was published ahead of print on the official website of Chinese Journal of Ophthalmolog on Apirl 22,2020. Objective: Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and Transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) are the key proteins for 2019-nCoV entry into host cells. To evaluate the potential infection risk of 2019-nCoV on ocular surface, we compared ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression among different eye tissues. Methods: Experimental study. Thirty mice were assigned to male, female, aged, diabetic and non-diabetic groups, with 6 mice in each group. Real-time PCR was performed to quantify ACE2 and TMPRSS2 gene expression in conjunctiva, cornea, lacrimal gland, iris, lens, retina, lung, heart, kidney, and liver from male mice. Immunohistochemistry staining was applied to visualize the distribution of the two proteins in different mice tissues, and in human corneal and conjunctival sections. Published transcriptome datasets were extracted to generate the expression comparasion of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 between human conjunctival and corneal tissues, and results were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U test. Female mice, aged mice, STZ-induced diabetic mice, diabetic group control mice were also subjected to ACE2 expression analysis. Results were analyzed using Student's t-test. Results: The expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 genes were the highest in conjunctiva among all the six mice eye tissues explored. The expression of these two genes in conjunctiva were lower than that in kidney and lung. ACE2 and TMPRSS2 shared similar expression pattern with the staining concentrated in corneal epithelium, conjunctival epithelium and lacrimal gland serous cells. The expression levels of ACE2 showed gender difference. Female mice had lower ACE2 in conjunctiva and cornea than male mice, with the expression levels being only 43% (t=3.269, P=0.031) and 63% (t=4.080, P=0.015) of that in the male conjunctiva and cornea, respectively. Diabetic mice expressed more ACE2 in conjunctiva (1.21-fold, P>0.05) and lacrimal gland (1.10-fold, P>0.05) compared with the control group. No significant difference on ACE2 expression was found between the aged and young adult mice. The expression level of human conjunctiva ACE2 and TMPRSS2 were significantly higher than that in the cornea (P=0.007), with 5.74-fold and 12.84-fold higher in the conjunctiva than in the corneal epithelium cells, which resembled the situation in mice. Conclusion: The observation of high-level ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression in conjunctiva among the 6 eye tissues examined suggests that conjunctiva serves as an infection target tissue of 2019-nCoV. (Chin J Ophthalmol, 2020, 56:438-446).