ABSTRACT
The surface acoustic waves (SAW) propagate inside the microdroplets resulting in kinetic and thermal impacts. The kinetic drives fluid particles inside the droplet while thermal impact increases the liquid’s temperature. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the research investigations related to internal kinetics and heating inside the microdroplet caused by the acoustic waves. The main factors that affect the kinetics and convection heat transfer are the piezoelectric materials, shape of the interdigital transducer (IDT) and mode of acoustic waves. Internal streaming (kinetic) leads to particle mixing, particle manipulation, cell sorting, cell patterning, cell separation, measuring the concentration of immunoglobulin and so forth. The effect of changing the mode of waves and the shape of IDT on the relevant applications are presented. Internal convection heat transfer is important where heating of the liquid is essential for many applications such as monitoring blood coagulation in the human plasma and an acoustic tweezer for particle trapping. Experimental methods developed by researchers to realise uniform temperature with constant heating and cooling cycles are also discussed. Such methods are widely used in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect COVID-19 infection. The heating of the droplet can be efficiently controlled by changing the input power and by varying the duty factor. © The Author(s) 2022.
ABSTRACT
With the spread of COVID-19, it becomes necessary for the whole research community to think about solutions that can help prevent such spread in the future. Blockchain technology can provide one of the methods to reduce the spread of any future pandemic, and such a spread can be restricted to an epidemic level. Epidemic spread as there is no easy way to check infected people moving from one country to another. For this, we propose a framework in which passports are digitized, and all the travel history is stored in the blockchain. Records are maintained in the distributed ledger, not just by one country but all countries worldwide. Whenever a person travels from one country to another, his/her record can be fetched from the blockchain, and based on history, he/she may be permitted or denied further movement. Even in the initial stages of spread, the system will be designed in a way that anyone having travel history to the centre of the epidemic can be set on red alert in just one click so that governments can track the potentially infected people and can quarantine them or take necessary measures to minimize the spread. In the proposed framework, only travel history will be stored in the blockchain that is accessible by anyone, but an individual’s privacy will be maintained by generating different addresses from the same key. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
Education not only means acquiring knowledge or skills, but it also includes acquiring morals, beliefs and values. Nowadays, most people think that gaining an educational certificate means that they are qualified, and because of that, some people make fake certificates to get the job. There is no easy way to validate these certificates, mainly when people belong to different countries. With the spread of coronavirus worldwide, travel restrictions were imposed between nations and within the nation itself. As a result, numerous educational activities, such as conferences, seminars etc., have been postponed. However, the organisers opted to hold these events over the Internet due to the pandemic's numerous limitations. Many of these activities offer certificates of participation, but it is not easy to verify the authenticity of these certificates and the coordinating institutes and attendees. Similarly, there are problems with attending several events at the same time. Many such challenges are explored thoroughly. Then a framework is proposed along with the algorithms that will explain in detail how these challenges can be solved using blockchain technology. As a result, a comparison of the proposed framework is made with the frameworks discussed in the literature and found that the proposed framework is much better in solving the discussed challenges. The article concludes with the future directions for implementing such a framework in the real world. © 2021, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
Aim: To explain our experience of service delivery at Orthopedic surgery during pandemic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS VoV-19). Methods: We studied a retrospective cohort-based on a manual medical record of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology Unit-I, King Edward Medical University, Mayo Hospital, Lahore, from March to July 2020. The medical record of admission operated cases in accident & emergency, indoor, and all patients attended in the out-patient department were stated. We continued the delivery of our service in an emergency, indoor, elective operation theater, and an out-patient department (OPD). The experience of running the services in the emergency, indoor, and OPD was gathered to present for best practices in future perspective. Results: Out of the total of 4660 patients treated, there were 2831(60.75%) males, and 1885(40.4%) were female. The mean age of the patients was 32.8±10.14-year. Amongst the total 4660, 1906(40.9%) patients were operated, and 2754(59.1%) were attended in the OPD. Out of these operated patients, 1839 (96.5%) were trauma patients, 58(3.04%) follow up surgery, 05(0.26%) tumor surgeries, 3(0.16%) arthroplasties, and 01 arthroscopies. Amongst the total of 1839 operated patients in an emergency, 1177(64%) were minor procedures, and 662(36%) were major procedures. Total Admissions in the COVID-19 pandemic were 769 (16.5%), out of which 715(92.98%) were admitted through accident and emergency. Conclusion: There was limitation to elective surgery, with risk to manage the emergency in orthopedic trauma patient. Emergency and tumor surgeries poses real challenge for safety during COVID-19 pandemic.