ABSTRACT
IoT seems to be the trending solution in all sectors notably because of the yield in productivity, efficiency, effective strategies, and results that are associated with adapting to this technology. These positive results are enormously experienced in one of the crucial sectors which determine and ensure the prolonged healthy life expectancy of mankind. It is well noted that a lot of work has been done on this topic in Academia and Corporate field all over the world but this paper will present a selective review that has been done so far by the Academic world as a scholarly article and a resource for the Health Sector in Fiji to earnestly integrate smart technologies in its architecture. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Digital Contact Tracing (DCT) has been proposed to limit the spread of COVID-19, allowing for targeted quarantine of close contacts. The protocol is designed to be lightweight, broad-casting limited-time tokens over Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons, allowing receivers to record contacts pseudonymously. However, currently proposed protocols have vulnerabilities that permit an adversary to perform massive surveillance or cause significant numbers of false-positive alerts. In this paper, we present AcousticMask, which encrypts broadcast messages using a key derived from the audio signal present at each device with sufficient security levels. Our results show that a receiver sharing the same social space as a sender will hear all of the sender's ephemeral IDs (EphIDs) with Hamming distance at most 3, which can be decrypted at the rate of 10 Hz on a Raspberry Pi 4, while achieving a security factor of over 2108against attackers in our testing set, showing AcousticMask is lightweight for DCT and provides sufficient security levels to protect user's privacy. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
We examine the correlation between COVID-19 case activity and air pollution in two cities of Delhi and Mumbai in India. Data regarding air quality index (AQI) of PM2.5 and PM10 from Delhi and Mumbai were collected between July and November 2020. Within the same time period, confirmed cases and daily deaths due to COVID-19 in these two cities were also recorded. AQI levels in Delhi were worst in November (PM2.5: 446 ± 144.6 µg/m3;PM10: 318 ± 131.7 µg/m3) and were significantly higher as compared to Mumbai (PM2.5: 130 ± 41.2 µg/m3;PM10: 86 ± 21.2 µg/m3). This correlated with greater number of cases and higher mortality in Delhi (cases: 6243;deaths: 85) relative to Mumbai (cases: 1526;deaths: 35) during the same time period. This observational study shows that air pollution is associated with poor outcomes in patients with COVID-19. There is an urgent unmet need for appropriate public health measures to decrease air pollution along with strict policy change. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
The need of supporting meditation through digital technology has been increased especially after COVID-19. By combining the olfactory experience provided by the ambient incense connected with virtual reality technology, we propose to bring the aesthetic and affective aspects of smell to the users for meditation in the digital era. TranScent aims to provide users a hybrid composition of sensory experiences that transcends the spatial and temporal characteristics in their surroundings. It lets the users meditate with the incense burnt in the real world while immersing in the audiovisual virtual environment. Rather than emphasizing on the mobility in fast pace, it focuses on giving users the stillness atmosphere for meditation practice through olfactory art with virtual reality. © 2021 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.
ABSTRACT
The Tamil Nadu Air Pollution and Health Effects study (TAPHE-2) aims to evaluate the relationship between air pollution and birth outcome in a rural-urban cohort of 300 pregnant women. Due to COVID-19 related lockdowns, some TAPHE-2 activities were delayed;however, continuous indoor and outdoor air quality data were collected in and around Chennai, India. We report here the impact of graded COVID-19 lockdown on indoor particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) levels based on calibrated data from affordable real-time PM sensors called atmos™ and ambient PM levels from publicly available regulatory monitors. The study period was between 11 March and 30 June 2020 (i.e., 100 days of continuous monitoring), which coincided with four phases of a nationwide graded lockdown. Field calibration coefficients for the atmos PM were derived by collocating them with reference-grade PM monitors. The normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) of the atmos hourly PM2.5 (PM10) improved from 41% to 15% (33% to 18%) after applying the field calibration coefficients. Lockdowns resulted in significant reductions in indoor and ambient PM levels, with the highest reduction observed during lockdown phase 2 (L2) and phase 3 (L3). Reductions as high as 70%, 91%, and 62% were observed in ambient PM2.5, indoor PM2.5, and indoor PM10 relative to pre-lockdown levels (PL), respectively. The indoor PM2.5/PM10 ratio decreased during the lockdown, suggesting a decline in the fine mode dominance in PM10. The indoor-to-outdoor (I/O) ratios in PM2.5 marginally increased during L1, L2, and L3 phases compared to that of PL levels, suggesting an uneven reduction in indoor and ambient PM2.5 levels during the lockdown. © The Author's institution.