QUEER IN TRANSIT – (UN)SETTLEMENT AND PRECARITY IN TIMES OF COVID-19

The situation is worse in countries with no or little sociolegal acceptance. A queer family is oftentimes a double-income-no-children couple who are contributors to the economy as tax-paying citizens with few demands on the system. While showcasing a rich, educated hotelier looking to legitimise his relationship in India with his French husband, or a power lesbian couple as leading epic change in the queer history of India might seem the perfect way forward, both stories lead to a particular view of the Indian queer in mainstream media while marginalising. News started trickling in from all over of people starting to be retrenched or being put on sabbaticals. Queer people move away from their cities of origin, settle elsewhere in order to be able to live more open lives, to ‘find' themselves. Isolating at home has meant that the perpetrators of this violence, both physical and emotional, are their immediate family members, since they felt they had the upper hand now. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Niharika Banerjea, Paul Boyce and Rohit K. Dasgupta;individual chapters, the contributors

INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSMISSION OF "SEVA": ELDERS MODEL SELFLESS SERVICE IN SOUTH ASIAN HOMES FOR CHILDREN

Life course theory is a framework for examining the role of elders in modeling altruistic behavior or "seva" (selfless service) in two homes for children: Unatti (Bhaktapur, Nepal) and Ramana's Garden (Rishikesh, India). Two American women, compelled to impact the plight of children subject to poverty, trafficking and/or caste discrimination (Dalits, the former "untouchables"), each founded homes 20+ years ago and modeled selfless service exemplified by children, some now in "emerging adulthood," who are giving back to their communities. In this intergenerational/intercultural multiple case study, narratives of the program founders now in mid- to late adulthood are presented along with narratives of six young adults who continue to provide nurturance to younger children and engage in projects to educate and feed residents of the homes and nearby communities. The life course principle of time and place situates the children in areas of their countries with relatively low literacy rates. The founders saw the value of education to empower young people, especially girls, to expand their opportunities and serve as role models for children coming into the homes after them. The linked lives principle is evident through shared relationships with the founders as these young people navigate political crises, disasters like the Nepal earthquake, and health crises like the Covid-19 pandemic. Some become leaders themselves as they have been mentored over their life course. A sense of agency is experienced in their young adulthood as more choices for their lives become available as an alternative to subsistence existence and early marriage/childbearing.

Socio-Demographic Profile of Victims of Hanging Cases: An Autopsy Based Cross-Sectional Study Done in Police Morgue of a Medical College of West Bengal

Background: The word asphyxia is of Greek derivation and means "a stopping of the pulse". Any death is asphyxial in nature. But forensic pathology understands asphyxia as the interference with the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body. Hanging and strangulation constitute asphyxia by compressing vital structures within the neck. Hanging is one of the ten leading causes of death in the world accounting for more than a million deaths annually. In India, hanging is one of the common methods of committing suicide. 2021 NCRB report also depicts the alarming rate of increase of suicide in the country. Over the past 30 years specially during and after the COVID-era the incidence of suicide by hanging is on increase, especially among young adults. 2021 NCRB report also depicts the alarming rate of increase of suicide in the country. Material(s) and Method(s): A cross-sectional study was conducted following the complete enumeration method over the body of deceased died due to hanging and came for medico-legal autopsy in Burdwan police morgue of West Bengal with specific Inclusion and Exclusion criteria. Study done on total 129 (N= 129) bodies of hanging cases Detailed information regarding the deceased, circumstances of death, its different sociodemographic parameters hanging were collected from the inquest, investigating officer and relatives. Result(s): Results showed that most of the victims of hanging were males. Highest incidence was in the age group of 21 to 30 years. Most of the victims were Hindus by faith. Conclusion(s): In Covid and Post-Covid era number of hanging cases has been increased mostly due to familial and socio-economical constrains. Copyright © 2022 Ubiquity Press. All rights reserved.

A discrete-time epidemic model for the analysis of transmission of COVID19 based upon data of epidemiological parameters.

The forecasting of the nature and dynamics of emerging coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has gained a great concern for health care organizations and governments. The efforts aim to to suppress the rapid and global spread of its tentacles and also control the infection with the limited available resources. The aim of this work is to employ real data set to propose and analyze a compartmental discrete time COVID-19 pandemic model with non-linear incidence and hence predict and control its outbreak through dynamical research. The Basic Reproduction Number ( R 0 ) is calculated analytically to study the disease-free steady state ( R 0 < 1 ), and also the permanency case ( R 0 > 1 ) of the disease. Numerical results show that the transmission rates α > 0 and ß > 0 are quite effective in reducing the COVID-19 infections in India or any country. The fitting and predictive capability of the proposed discrete-time system are presented for relishing the effect of disease through stability analysis using real data sets.

A Data Science Approach to Evaluate Drug Effectiveness: Case Study of Remdesivir for Covid-19 Patients in India

In this paper, symptoms, and medical treatment data of 130 COVID-19 patients have been collected from a leading Hospital in Kolkata. After necessary de-identification and data wrangling, a thorough exploratory data analysis has been performed. Further, it has been investigated if the drug Remdesivir affects early discharge. A decision tree-based model was subsequently built to predict the length of stay of a patient, based on demographics and health parameters. It is observed that Remdesivir cannot be concluded to be more effective than alternative treatments. It is observed that diabetes significantly increases the length of stay of a patient. It may be noted that such a study has not been conducted earlier for COVID-19 patients in India. This study will be beneficial for healthcare community and pharmaceutical companies as there is lot of conflicting views and acute dearth of information about the disease and its treatment. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Understanding the Voice of Customers Using Artificial Neural Networks: A Study of Food Aggregators in the Cachar District of Assam

The evolution of online food delivery system started in India in the late 2000’s and since then many Food Aggregators have come up with a variety of prospects for the customers. This process of Business to Customer services had found itself to be very popular especially in the last few years and after the COVID 19 attack the business had flourished to a large extent. People do not prefer to come out of their abodes and try to procure the eatables by maintaining proper social distancing. There have been a number of local Food Aggregators that have emerged in the Cachar District only recently and post 2020 especially in the lockdown phase they have accelerated their operations in the Valley by joining hands with a number of food outlets. These local entrepreneurial efforts are still in the growth phase and are trying to meet the customer demands to enhance their satisfaction level. Speaking of enhancing the satisfaction of the customers, there are many factors that work before meeting their overall satisfaction and these factors if are considered carefully would not only increase the customer loyalty towards the respective. Purposive Sampling was used in this study to get the responses from the online food buyers. It used Artificial Neural Networks to understand the pattern of the buying behavior of customers in this area and tried to create a model that would enhance the understanding of the Food Aggregators in regards to the buying frequency of the customers and take steps accordingly. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

An Evaluative Review on Various Tele-Health Systems Proposed in COVID Phase

With the rise of Covid-19, the importance of health monitoring has risen to a new peak. Keeping a check on the symptoms of covid is an integral part of our lifestyle now. Using Tele-Health systems can quickly achieve this feat. The Tele-Health field has vastly improved in the span of the uprise of the pandemic and has helped provide medical and non-medical individuals with the help they require. Much work has been done in this field, integrating IoT with the medical field to monitor an individual’s physical parameters efficiently and safely remotely. We have done a systematic review of the works that have helped develop this field during the pandemic. Bringing forward the pros and cons of these systems, we try to draw a clear picture to clearly understand the systems that have helped improve our daily lifestyle over this pandemic period. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Biomarker Levels Concur with a Risk Stratification Criteria in Covid-19 Pneumonia, a Role for a Prognostic-Tool for Identification of Clinical Deteriorators

Rationale: COVID-19 patients present with a number of clinical symptoms ranging from mild, moderate to severe, while only a subgroup of patients, who requires high-dependency critical care resources, accounts for most of the COVID-19 associated health care expenditure and death. A reliable prognostic tool is therefore required to identify patients at risk of developing severe COVID-19 pneumonia. To address this unmet need, we tested a wide range of potentially important peripheral blood biomarkers in a group of clinically risk-stratified COVID-19 patients in order to identify most relevant candidate biomarker(s) predictive of disease progression. Methods: Patients and healthy controls recruited to this study are summarised in Figure 1. Biomarkers levels were analysed using ANOVA across the severity groups. Spearman-correlation coefficients against pairs of average levels from each biomarker within severity-group and healthy controls were assembled into a 76x76 matrix and agglomerative hierarchical clustering was applied to generate the final heatmaps. Linear-discriminant analysis (LDA) was carried out on a reduced optimised set of biomarkers to explore the boundaries between the clinical severity groups.Results: Degree of lymphopaenia, neutrophil levels, TNF-α, INR-levels, and pro-inflammatory cytokines;IL6, IL8, CXCL9 and D-dimers were significantly increased in COVD-19 patients compared to healthy controls (p<0.05, 95% C.I.). C3a and C5 was significantly elevated in all categories of severity compared to healthy controls (p<0.05), C5a levels were significantly different between “moderate” and “severe” categories (p<0.01). sC5b-9 was significantly elevated in the “moderate” and “severe” category of patients compared to healthy controls (p<0.001).Heatmap analysis demonstrated distinct visual differences of biomarker profiles between the clinical severity groups. LDA on the deteriorators, non-deteriorators and healthy volunteers as a combined function of the predictor variables: C3, eosinophil-counts, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), fractalkine, IL10, IL27, LTB4, lymphocyte count, MIG/CXCL9, M-CSF, platelet count and sC5b-9 showed clear separation between the groups based on biomarker/blood-count levels.Conclusions: Diagnostic and clinical assessments followed by robust statistical and machine learning approaches could identify peripheral blood biomarkers for prognostic stratification of patients in COVID-19. Our results would be helpful for clinicians and supports the use of point of care devices that can quantify multiple analytes. (Lui G, et al., Pointof- care detection of cytokines in cytokine storm management and beyond: Significance and challenges. VIEW. 2021;2: 1-20.). Such would allow for more efficient management and resource allocation. 1 (Figure Presented).

Compassionate Use of an Anti-C5 Inhibitor, Nomacopan, Positively Influenced the Course and Progression of Disease in Covid-19

Background Originally derived from tick-saliva, nomacopan is a first-in-class dual inhibitor of leukotriene B4 (LTB4) and complement C5. Nomacopan (Coversin) is currently in Phase III development for bullous pemphigoid and HSCT-TMA. In this study, we used nomacopan to treat a small cohort of COVID-19 patients on a compassionate basis. We concurrently present data from a study of biomarkers within a larger cohort of COVID-19 patients, where hyperinflammatory pathways due to complement are highlighted. Methods Patients, healthy-controls and sub-groups recruited to this study are summarised in Figure 1. Betweengroup comparisons in demographic, clinical and biomarker levels were carried out using Kruskal-Wallis and rank-Wilcoxon tests. ROX. SpO2Seven patients (six males and one female) in the CORONET study were treated with nomacopan (1st initial subcutaneous-dose: 45mg of nomacopan (t1/2 = 2.5 hrs), + 2 doses;45 mg, 12-hourly. Subsequently, patients were administered 45mg, od for 12 days. Antibiotic prophylaxis was co-administered. Results ROX indices for patients at enrolment within the CASCADE and CORONET studies were lower than that for normal-healthy individuals, with SpO2 <93%, admitted to ICU or COVID-19 Unit with suspected COVID-19 pneumonia and not on invasive mechanical ventilation on recruitment. Average values for SOFA and NEWS scores were significantly different (p<0.05) between the clinical severities. Values for SOFA and NEWS score were not available for the CORONET study patients.CH50, sC5b-9, C5, C5a, C3, and C3a levels were elevated significantly in CASCADE patients (p<0.05, C.I. 95%).Of the seven patients in the CORONET study, six survived, one (female) died, due to unforeseen circumstances (three days delay to get treatment delivered) from start of symptom onset before starting nomacopan treatment. Conclusion The result of this combined study shows that COVID-19 patients, admitted to hospital with significant symptoms of respiratory difficulty, demonstrated increased circulating levels of components of the complement cascade, potentially linked to lung damage leading to fatality. Interestingly, C5-levels (target of nomacopan) was increased, validating the rationale for anti-C5 treatment of COVID-19 patients. Nomacopan treatment was associated with no noticeable adverse event and without highly elevated as associated with normal C5 and C5a levels. (Figure Presented).

Mathematical Analysis of a COVID-19 Epidemic Model by Using Data Driven Epidemiological Parameters of Diseases Spread in India.

This paper attempts to describe the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (COVID-19) via an epidemic model. This virus has dissimilar effects in different countries. The number of new active coronavirus cases is increasing gradually across the globe. India is now in the second stage of COVID-19 spreading, it will be an epidemic very quickly if proper protection is not undertaken based on the database of the transmission of the disease. This paper is using the current data of COVID-19 for the mathematical modeling and its dynamical analysis. We bring in a new representation to appraise and manage the outbreak of infectious disease COVID-19 through SEQIR pandemic model, which is based on the supposition that the infected but undetected by testing individuals are send to quarantine during the incubation period. During the incubation period if any individual be infected by COVID-19, then that confirmed infected individuals are isolated and the necessary treatments are arranged so that they cannot taint the other residents in the community. Dynamics of the SEQIR model is presented by basic reproduction number R 0 and the comprehensive stability analysis. Numerical results are depicted through apt graphical appearances using the data of five states and India.

Mathematical Analysis of Two Waves of COVID-19 Disease with Impact of Vaccination as Optimal Control.

This paper is devoted to answering some questions using a mathematical model by analyzing India's first and second phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. A new mathematical model is introduced with a nonmonotonic incidence rate to incorporate the psychological effect of COVID-19 in society. The paper also discusses the local stability and global stability of an endemic equilibrium and a disease-free equilibrium. The basic reproduction number is evaluated using the proposed COVID-19 model for disease spread in India based on the actual data sets. The study of nonperiodic solutions at a positive equilibrium point is also analyzed. The model is rigorously studied using MATLAB to alert the decision-making bodies to hinder the emergence of any other pandemic outbreaks or the arrival of subsequent pandemic waves. This paper shows the excellent prediction of the first wave and very commanding for the second wave. The exciting results of the paper are as follows: (i) psychological effect on the human population has an impact on propagation; (ii) lockdown is a suitable technique mathematically to control the COVID spread; (iii) different variants produce different waves; (iv) the peak value always crosses its past value.

Optimal control design incorporating vaccination and treatment on six compartment pandemic dynamical system

In this paper, a mathematical model of the COVID-19 pandemic with lockdown that provides a more accurate representation of the infection rate has been analyzed. In this model, the total population is divided into six compartments: the susceptible class, lockdown class, exposed class, asymptomatic infected class, symptomatic infected class, and recovered class. The basic reproduction number (R0) is calculated using the next-generation matrix method and presented graphically based on different progression rates and effective contact rates of infective individuals. The COVID-19 epidemic model exhibits the disease-free equilibrium and endemic equilibrium. The local and global stability analysis has been done at the disease-free and endemic equilibrium based on R0. The stability analysis of the model shows that the disease-free equilibrium is both locally and globally stable when R0<1, and the endemic equilibrium is locally and globally stable when R0>1 under some conditions. A control strategy including vaccination and treatment has been studied on this pandemic model with an objective functional to minimize. Finally, numerical simulation of the COVID-19 outbreak in India is carried out using MATLAB, highlighting the usefulness of the COVID-19 pandemic model and its mathematical analysis.

IoT Based Smart Home-Health Monitoring System Using Dempster-Shafer Evidence Theory for Pandemic Situation

With the advancement of the Internet of Things in our smart environment, smart devices are working without human intervention. So home can be converted to intelligent home automation systems to perform its computation automatically. In a pandemic situation, the majority of people have spent their maximum time at home. So indoor air quality, insider's and outsider's health monitoring has become an important issue. As respiratory diseases are the main concern for pandemics, we have to develop an intelligent home system model to monitor healthy environmental conditions for the users. This paper proposes an energy-efficient smart system model to monitor the health and environmental condition by measuring the carbon monoxide threat level that indirectly affects other atmospheric parameters. Our system alerts when the carbon monoxide level exceeds the safe level. Remote monitoring of the home and health parameters is done in real-time with the help of the system model. For this purpose, we are adopting Dempster-Shafer evidence theory as a mathematical model to aggregate the data coming from different sensors. The sensor nodes track the home and health parameters such as room temperature, humidity, carbon monoxide level, SpO2 level, body temperature, and pulse rate. The smartphone app updates the user's real-time sensor data through the display and indirectly helps to maintain the physical distance. The proposed intelligent home-health system model is compact, cost-effective, energy-efficient for the user, and is especially useful for the quarantined covid affected people in a pandemic situation. © 2022 ACM.

COVID-19 second wave: District level study of concentration of confirmed cases and fatality in India

The paper aims to reveal the spatial pattern of the concentration of COVID-19 confirmed cases and the spread of the pandemic from the Case Fatality Ratio. The study has been accomplished with district-level data. The analysis of the spatial pattern decoding has been done considering the Global and Local Moran's I statistics comprising the linear trend of spatial autocorrelation for the whole India. The timeframe has been divided considering the surge of the second wave in March, 2021 and the peak of the wave in May 2021. The spatial clustering technique presents both the concentration of confirmed cases using Location Quotient analysis and the pattern of spread of the infection-related fatality throughout the country. The high Location Quotient of the confirmed cases strongly clustered around the Mumbai-Puna region, Kerala-Karnataka region, Garhwal Himachal, NCT of Delhi and Ladakh-Kashmir-Himachal Pradesh region during the period of the study. In May, the concentration has randomly clustered around the middle part of India. The Case Fatality Ratio was high in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana at the surge of the second wave. During the peak (May), two significant clusters of high Case Fatality Ratio are observed in and around the Mumbai urban (Maharashtra) and NCT of Delhi (including Punjab-Haryana). © 2021 The Authors

Evaluation of Virtual Reality Technology and Online Teaching System for Medical Students in Ukraine During COVID-19 Pandemic

A study has been conducted to evaluate the virtual reality technology and online teaching system among medical students of Bogomolets NationalMedical University, Ukraine during COVID-19 pandemic. The final questionnairecontained the 15 questions with 5 options to comprehensively evaluate thevirtual reality technology and online teaching system. The feedback of the surveywas analyzed to find effectiveness of virtual reality technology and online teachingin medical education in Ukraine. Data of survey reflected that mostly studentsadopted and agreed on virtual reality technology and online teaching and admittedthat these technologies are best alternatives to physical learning with the65.79% an agreement with the user-friendly interface for virtual reality andonline teaching system, while, 64.03% showed an agreement that virtual realityand online teaching system compensated the suspension of face-to-face medicaleducation during the COVID-19. During online learning, there was ample timefor educational activities as depicted from their response of 36.84% as stronglyagree, 35.96% as agree, 6.14% as disagree, 4.39% as strongly disagree and16.67% as neither agree nor disagree. Tutors/teachers also enjoyed virtual realityand online learning through their experience and flexibility in time management.Likewise, the results of all questions showed positive reviews and encouragedvirtual reality and online teaching in academic continuity and stability in medicaleducation in Ukraine. It can be concluded that digital learning environments areextremely effective in terms of medical students and staff satisfaction, accomplishment,and technical learning skill growth © 2021. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning. All Rights Reserved.

Transmission dynamics and estimation of basic reproduction number (R0 ) from early outbreak of novel coronavirus (covid-19) in india

Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an epidemic declared by the World Health Organization (WHO). Till now in June 13, 2020, the total COVID-19 cases in different countries around the world are 77,56,905 with 4,28,576 deaths and 3,974,422 recovered. The virus has taken spread in India as well, whereas of June 13, 2020, 3,09,603 cases are confirmed with 8,890 deaths and 1,54,330 recovery. It this situation, it is vital to know the potential danger posed by the pandemic and the epidemic trajectory. In this paper, the basic reproduction number (R0 ) of COVID-19 from the early epidemic data in India is estimated. The course of the pandemic in India as well as the worst affected seven states in India, namely Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal is also analyzed. The early outbreak data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India, are collected for the analysis. The two R packages ‘R0’ and ‘earlyR’ to estimate the basic reproduction number are used. An attempt is also made to forecast near-future incidence cases based on statistical methods. The results show that R0 varies from 1.53 to 3.25 accounting to different methodologies and serial intervals adopted, whereas WHO estimations are from 2 to 2.5. Due to effect of lockdown, the time-dependent reproduction number has reduced to near about 1.22. It is predicted that by July 15, cumulative number of COVID-19 cases may reach around 1.2 million if the current effective reproduction number remains same over the next one month. Finally, it can be concluded that in the coming months, the novel coronavirus will pose a severe challenge to the Indian healthcare system. Thus, it is necessary to predict how the virus may spread so that the healthcare system may be prepared in advance. The time-dependent reproduction number shows the positive effect of lockdown, as this number has gone down. © Springer International Publishing AG 2018.

Recommendationsforthe comprehensive cognitive neurology telemedicine examination

Objective: To provide evidence-based recommendations for conducting a comprehensive cognitive neurology telemedicine examination. Background: Given the current COVID-19 pandemic and the risk of nosocomial spread of infection, neurology visits are increasingly performed via telemedicine. Older adults with cognitive impairment may be at particularly high risk from COVID-19. There are no practice parameters to guide clinicians in performing cognitive neurology telemedicine evaluations. Design/Methods: A framework for cognitive neurology telemedicine examination is provided. Specific recommendations are offered based on literature review, available best practices, and one subspecialty center's experience with cognitive telemedicine visits during the first eight months of the COVID-19 pandemic, from March to October 2020, at its epicenter in New York City. Results: Most aspects of the examination can be performed with access to history of present illness, past medical history, and presence of an informant who can be an active intermediary in the exam. The Mental Status evaluation can be assessed telephonically without significant adjustment. Availability of secure video capabilities allows for assessment of the general appearance of the patient and the environment. The opportunity to see the environment of a patient firsthand offers additional context that is valuable in the overall care of the patient. Praxis, visuospatial assessment, behavior/affect, and patient-caregiver interaction are best assessed via video along with the remainder of the neurologic evaluation, including a gait exam. Conclusions: A comprehensive, evidence-based evaluation of the patient with cognitive decline can be performed by phone or video. Providing a framework to guide both trainees and practitioners is critical to optimize care for older adults during this pandemic, and can be expanded to diverse populations in varied clinical settings.

Mathematical modeling and analysis of covid-19 infection spreads with restricted optimal treatment of disease incidence

This paper presents the current situation and how to minimize its effect in India through a mathematical model of infectious Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This model consists of six compartments to population classes consisting of susceptible, exposed, home quarantined, government quarantined, infected individuals in treatment, and recovered class. The basic reproduction number is calculated, and the stabilities of the proposed model at the disease-free equilibrium and endemic equilibrium are observed. The next crucial treatment control of the Covid-19 epidemic model is presented in India’s situation. An objective function is considered by incorporating the optimal infected individuals and the cost of necessary treatment. Finally, optimal control is achieved that minimizes our anticipated objective function. Numerical observations are presented utilizing MATLAB software to demonstrate the consistency of present-day representation from a realistic standpoint. © 2021 Pal et al.

A fem study of molecular transport through a single nanopore in a spherical cell

Electroporation has a specific application in the delivery of drugs into the cells. In addition, the challenge is to be able to deliver the drugs effectively. The key to the electroporation-based delivery method is regulated induced transmembrane voltage (ITMV). Recently, with the advent of COVID-19, there has been an increase in clinical trials on the delivery of DNA plasmids by electroporation. As a result, the substantial number of laboratory experiments are not feasible, thereby increasing the dependency on simulation-based research. Simulations of delivery of extracellular material into the cell depend upon molecular transport modeling in an electroporated cell. In this paper, molecular transport through a single nanopore is being studied theoretically. The closed-form expression of molecular transport is used in COMSOL Multiphysics simulation to obtain extracellular concentration variation as a function of time. Sinusoidal pulses with the varying magnitude of electric field (8kV/cm and 10 kV/cm) and time duration were used to understand pulse parameters' effect on molecular transport. The simulation results match the empirical result from the literature hence validate the simulation study. © 2021 by the authors.

A mathematical model to expedite electroporation based vaccine development for covid-19

Electroporation has an application in the selective delivery of drugs explicitly into cells. However, the challenge is to achieve efficiency in delivering the drugs. The key parameter responsible for successful electroporation-mediated drug delivery is induced transmembrane voltage (ITMV). The Food And Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved the clinical trials of DNA plasmid delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine through electroporation. The requirement is to develop a COVID-19 vaccine within a limited time. Hence, the extensive amount of laboratory experiments are not feasible. It has increased dependency on simulation-based analysis. The simulations of electroporation depend on ITMV expression for the specified cell and the environment. In this paper, we have derived the closed-form expression of ITMV (∆Vm). The closed-form expression is used in COMSOL Multiphysics simulation to obtain extracellular concentration variation as a function of time. The simulation results match the empirical results from the literature and hence validate the closed-form expression. The closed-form expression will reduce the development time of electroporation-assisted COVID-19 vaccine delivery. © 2021 by the authors.