One-step and wash-free multiplexed immunoassay platform based on bioinspired photonic barcodes

Multiplex, rapid and accurate virus quantification plays a great value in biomedical detection. Here, a novel one step, wash-free immunoassay platform based bioinspired PhC barcodes for multiplexed virus quantification was explored. PhC barcodes were decorated with PDA by self-polymerization of DA, thus this nanocomposite hybridized PhC barcodes facilitated the adsorption of FITC labelled antibodies and quenched itself photoluminescent, allowing a fast responsive composite platform. In the presence of target analyte, the FITC-labelled detection antibody was released from the surface of PDA decorated microcarrier to specifically bind to the target analyte, thus recovered the photoluminescence. In addition, the PhC microcarrier was enabled to carry out various color barcode for different targets detection though tuning internal periodic structures. Based on these excellent performances of the nanocomposite barcode, this method can not only capture H1N1, H5N1, SARS-CoV-2 simultaneously with rapid, accuracy but also accomplish multiplex quantification detection with high-sensitivity. Furthermore, our developed platform was also achieved with high-sensitivity and high-specificity through the verification of clinical samples, thus laying out a new avenue for multiplex virus detection in clinical diagnosis. © 2023

Machine Learning based Automated Product Billing and Inventory

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were imposed to stop the spread of the virus. As a result, the shopping malls, retail stores and grocery stores had to be shut down leading to significant losses. Though online shopping is always an option, buying daily groceries online is not a feasible option due to delivery times. As the world is now recovering from the pandemic, people have now started visiting malls, retail stores and other places for buying grocery items. In such situation it then becomes very crucial to help people shop more efficiently to reduce the buying time. This will help to keep the crowd under control without jeopardizing the safety and social distance norms. The major problem with most top retail stores is that the customer must wait in long queues after buying their products for getting them billed and payment. This puts pressure on the management and billing staff as well as makes the process of shopping a time consuming and unpleasant experience for the customer. The other issue is that most retail stores waste a significant area of their shop in setting up the billing counters and furthermore also must recruit people for running the billing counters. This project proposes a way of solving the above-mentioned problems and issues with the help of a smart shopping cart. A cart with built in billing and product scanning system which will prepare the bill as the customer is shopping, thus saving customer's valuable time, area of the shop and eliminating the need for recruiting employees for billing. © 2022 IEEE.

Implementation of Association Rules with Apriori Algorithm in Determining Customer Purchase Patterns

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Indonesia Usaha Mikro, Kecil, Menengah (UMKM) have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The barcode scanning system currently only helps support the buying and selling process and cannot determine the provision of stock or the creation of promotional packages. Website application development using the Association Rule Method with the Apriori Algorithm is the solution offered to produce a pattern of relationships between products that buy by customers. The goods relationship is the basis for making decisions by shop owners to determine the stock of interconnected goods or making promotional packages with the association method by calculating the value of support and confidence. The system was built using the PHP programming language and 4820 transaction data. The results of data analysis through the website using the Antoni store dataset show the results of association rules. Based on 50 experiments conducted by researchers, if the Antoni shop wants to produce two directions, it is better to use minimum confidence of 10% or 12% with minimum support of 2% or 4%. However, if you want to produce 1 rule, you should use minimum confidence of 14%, 16%, or 18% with minimum support of 2%, 4%, or 6%. The lift ratio value of each minimum belief and the recommended support are more significant than 1. Therefore, the combination of association rules results is solid and valid. It can be used that this algorithm is suitable for a collection of related items, so it is appropriate to be used in analyzing product sales patterns at Antoni Stores. © 2022 IEEE.

IoT based Conveyor belt design for contact less courier service at front desk during pandemic

During pandemic different kind of virus is spread through contact. Exchange of different goods, documents and different components need to be transfer from one place to other place or country to country through courier / postal service. For the protection of front desk or office people from the pandemic, we can design a conveyor belt at front desk of courier offices. In this conveyor belt we can arrange barcode readers, microcontroller interface actuators, and GSM shields. Such that at front office employees need not to touch the objects. They generate a barcode for customer, customer need to place the barcode sheet on their consignment and keep on the conveyor belt. This conveyor belt will guide the consignment based on barcode reader and it can separate the consignments for local and international transfer. And any objection for the consignment an SMS will be sent to correspondent customer. © 2022 IEEE.

Six new species of Zaischnopsis Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Eupelmidae) from China based on morphological and molecular data

Six new species of Zaischnopsis Ashmead (Hymenoptera: Eupelmidae) from China are described, Zaischnopsis covid Jiang & Peng sp. nov., Zaischnopsis fuscolivida Tang & Peng sp. nov., Zaischnopsis lii Jiang & Peng sp. nov., Zaischnopsis pacis Jiang & Peng sp. nov., Zaischnopsis campaniformis Tang & Peng sp. nov., and Zaischnopsis zhongi Jiang & Peng sp. nov. All the new species are described and illustrated based on females, and partial mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences are provided for the six new species as well as for the previously described Z. fumosa Peng & Xiang. Females of all the species of Zaischnopsis recorded from China are differentiated in a key. © 2022, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle. All rights reserved.

2FAST2Q: a general-purpose sequence search and counting program for FASTQ files.

Background: The increasingly widespread use of next generation sequencing protocols has brought the need for the development of user-friendly raw data processing tools. Here, we explore 2FAST2Q, a versatile and intuitive standalone program capable of extracting and counting feature occurrences in FASTQ files. Despite 2FAST2Q being previously described as part of a CRISPRi-seq analysis pipeline, in here we further elaborate on the program's functionality, and its broader applicability and functions. Methods: 2FAST2Q is built in Python, with published standalone executables in Windows MS, MacOS, and Linux. It has a familiar user interface, and uses an advanced custom sequence searching algorithm. Results: Using published CRISPRi datasets in which Escherichia coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis gene essentiality, as well as host-cell sensitivity towards SARS-CoV2 infectivity were tested, we demonstrate that 2FAST2Q efficiently recapitulates published output in read counts per provided feature. We further show that 2FAST2Q can be used in any experimental setup that requires feature extraction from raw reads, being able to quickly handle Hamming distance based mismatch alignments, nucleotide wise Phred score filtering, custom read trimming, and sequence searching within a single program. Moreover, we exemplify how different FASTQ read filtering parameters impact downstream analysis, and suggest a default usage protocol. 2FAST2Q is easier to use and faster than currently available tools, efficiently processing not only CRISPRi-seq / random-barcode sequencing datasets on any up-to-date laptop, but also handling the advanced extraction of de novo features from FASTQ files. We expect that 2FAST2Q will not only be useful for people working in microbiology but also for other fields in which amplicon sequencing data is generated. 2FAST2Q is available as an executable file for all current operating systems without installation and as a Python3 module on the PyPI repository (available at https://veeninglab.com/2fast2q).

AR-Mart: The Implementation of Augmented Reality as a Smart Self-Service Cashier in the Pandemic Era

Considering the recent booming of cashier-less checkout technology and the future trend of increasing self-service and contactless conditions due to Covid-19, it is necessary to find an alternative checkout concept suitable for local retail conditions. Using augmented reality, the aim of this study is to compare the proposed method with the conventional method of cashier checkout using barcode scanner. The method used in this study is marker-based tracking, where the marker is an image file which will be uploaded to Vuforia SDK Kit. The result of the proposed method for AR-Mart as a smart cashier is faster, more accurate and can reduces the duration for cashier checkout significantly. © 2021 IEEE.

Description of Chilearinus Sharkey gen. nov. and status of Nearctic Earinus Wesmael, 1837 (Braconidae, Agathidinae) with the description of new species.

The Neotropical members formerly included in Earinus Wesmael, 1837 are transferred to a new genus, Chilearinus Sharkey gen. nov. Presently three Nearctic species of Earinus are recognized, i.e., Earinuserythropoda Cameron, 1887, Earinuslimitaris Say,1835, and Earinuszeirapherae Walley, 1935, and these are retained in Earinus. Earinuschubuquensis Berta, 2000 and Earinusscitus Enderlein, 1920 are transferred to Chilearinus, i.e., C.chubuquensis, and C.scitus, comb. nov. One other species is transferred to Chilearinus, i.e., Microgasterrubricollis Spinola, 1851, Chilearinusrubricollis, comb. nov. Two other Neotropical species, Earinushubrechtae Braet, 2002 and Earinusbourguignoni Braet, 2002 were described under the genus Earinus but are here transferred to Lytopylus, L.hubrechtae, and L.bourguignoni comb. nov. Two new species of Chilearinus are described, C.covidchronos and C.janbert spp. nov. The status of Agathislaevithorax Spinola,1851, Agathisrubricata Spinola,1851, and Agathisareolata Spinola, 1851 is discussed. A neotype is designated for Earinuslimitaris (Say, 1835) and diagnosed with a COI barcode. Earinusaustinbakeri and Earinuswalleyi spp. nov. are described. The status of both Earinus and Chilearinus in the Americas is discussed. A revised key to the genera of Agathidinae of the Americas is presented.

Applying Lightweight Elliptic Curve Cryptography ECC and Advanced IoT Network Topologies to Optimize COVID-19 Sanitary Passport Platforms Based on Constrained Application Protocol

Being in a period of covid-19 urges us to develop platforms that help in minimizing the spread of the virus. Thus, this paper proposes a Medical IoT platform that is created to control citizens’ access to public areas. Our platform focuses on three scenarios on which a citizen is admitted to: being vaccinated which means that the person holds a vaccine pass that contains a unique QR code, possessing a PCR test which means that the person holds a unique barcode, and having an RFID tag which contains a unique identifier. All scenarios start with the same test which allows us to detect the presence of a citizen using a PIR IoT Client node, and end with one last test which is the face recognition to verify the present citizen is indeed who he/she claims to be. Only if one of the scenarios is valid can the citizen be allowed to access the public space. To ensure communication between the IoT nodes we developed our platform based on the Constrained Application Protocol CoAP. As for the security of the payloads, we have implemented RSA, AES, and ECC encryption algorithms to protect the integrity of the data and prevent any attacks. We also based our platform on 4 types of network topologies namely star, tree, mesh, and cluster. The use of different topologies and different encryption methods will allow us to eventually choose which one best matches the platform’s requirements, and that is in terms of execution time and memory occupation. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Design and Development of Modular and Open System (MOST) for Pandemic Precaution

With the new normal of our daily lives caused by the novel COVID 19, it has become a requirement to sanitize our hands and go through manual temperature screening via a handheld infrared thermometer. Moreover, our contact info must be provided either using a smartphone app or logbook. This process is time consuming and causes long queues. Therefore, to expedite this process, a device named Modular and Open System (MOST) was designed and developed. The MOST chassis is built using an aluminum bar. This chassis is attached with a spring-operated mechanism used to dispense a liquid sanitizer from a bottle manually using the foot. The chassis is also installed with a controller, camera, MLX90614 temperature sensor, touchscreen, barcode scanner, and tower light. These components are used to perform contactless temperature measurement, capture a person’s information, display the temperature, and alert the user about their health condition. The information can be of any data such as name, phone number, identification number and others as long it is in a barcode format. Meanwhile, to improve the accuracy for temperature measurement, a distance compensation algorithm based on a quadratic least square method is applied in the MOST system. It is tested, MOST is able to expedite this process and the accuracy of temperature measurement to a user is 99%. A person only needs to stand in front of it, flash the barcode either using a card or smartphone and thus the health status can be displayed. Moreover, the data including date, time, measured temperature, and person’s information are recorded. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

A SURVEY ON DATA PRIVACY IN ELECTRONIC PRESCRIPTION

In this digital world with high advancement of technologies, there is utmost need to perform technological advancement in healthcare domain. In this covid-19 situation each citizen must feel that if the doctor can pass the prescription electronically, then not required to visit the hospitals. At the other end, privacy of patient history or data is again critical task at the time of handling E-prescription. This paper represents different approaches that are taken towards the data privacy in electronic prescription, it talks about different methods through which privacy of any electronic prescription is maintained. Electronic prescription is the digital version of having a prescription, it involves sending of prescription through the internet to the patient's account which it is meant to. Talking about storage despite its utilization, there are also several hindrances with regards to the protection of data which is being stored to the cloud. Highly professional and encouraging hackers are now attempting their possible best to intercept or thieve large amounts of data consisting of vital and critical information that has been transmitted or stored in the cloud. In this paper, thorough study and analysis talk about how a user can be authenticated using different mediums or methods to ensure that prescription is delivered at the right place and a brief comparison between how the electronic prescription has been implemented in several developed countries. We will also look on the usability and the deployability of electronic prescription in these developed countries.

Multi barcode scanning and decoding technology based on ar smart glasses

This research mainly develops the technology of multi barcode location, extraction and decoding on Android AR smart glasses, and realizes it with Python, OpenCV and Zbar. This technology can be applied to manufacturing industry, combining shop floor control system (SFCS) and execution manufacturing system (MES), to improve the production process and reduce the production cycle. In addition, due to the spread of COVID-19, in order to avoid infection of COVID-19, the business mode of unmanned shopping malls is getting highly valued. Our research result provides a feasible solution to unmanned shopping malls. © The Authors.

Raman Molecular Fingerprints of SARS-CoV-2 British Variant and the Concept of Raman Barcode.

The multiple mutations of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus have created variants with structural differences in both their spike and nucleocapsid proteins. While the functional relevance of these mutations is under continuous scrutiny, current findings have documented their detrimental impact in terms of affinity with host receptors, antibody resistance, and diagnostic sensitivity. Raman spectra collected on two British variant sub-types found in Japan (QK002 and QHN001) are compared with that of the original Japanese isolate (JPN/TY/WK-521), and found bold vibrational differences. These included: i) fractions of sulfur-containing amino acid rotamers, ii) hydrophobic interactions of tyrosine phenol ring, iii) apparent fractions of RNA purines and pyrimidines, and iv) protein secondary structures. Building upon molecular scale results and their statistical validations, the authors propose to represent virus variants with a barcode specially tailored on Raman spectrum. Raman spectroscopy enables fast identification of virus variants, while the Raman barcode facilitates electronic recordkeeping and translates molecular characteristics into information rapidly accessible by users.

A Survival Guide for the Rapid Transition to a Fully Digital Workflow: The "Caltagirone Example".

Digital pathology for the routine assessment of cases for primary diagnosis has been implemented by few laboratories worldwide. The Gravina Hospital in Caltagirone (Sicily, Italy), which collects cases from 7 different hospitals distributed in the Catania area, converted the entire workflow to digital starting from 2019. Before the transition, the Caltagirone pathology laboratory was characterized by a non-tracked workflow, based on paper requests, hand-written blocks and slides, as well as manual assembling and delivering of the cases and glass slides to the pathologists. Moreover, the arrangement of the spaces and offices in the department was illogical and under-productive for the linearity of the workflow. For these reasons, an adequate 2D barcode system for tracking purposes, the redistribution of the spaces inside the laboratory and the implementation of the whole-slide imaging (WSI) technology based on a laboratory information system (LIS)-centric approach were adopted as a needed prerequisite to switch to a digital workflow. The adoption of a dedicated connection for transfer of clinical and administrative data between different software and interfaces using an internationally recognised standard (Health Level 7, HL7) in the pathology department further facilitated the transition, helping in the integration of the LIS with WSI scanners. As per previous reports, the components and devices chosen for the pathologists' workstations did not significantly impact on the WSI-based reporting phase in primary histological diagnosis. An analysis of all the steps of this transition has been made retrospectively to provide a useful "handy" guide to lead the digital transition of "analog", non-tracked pathology laboratories following the experience of the Caltagirone pathology department. Following the step-by-step instructions, the implementation of a paperless routine with more standardized and safe processes, the possibility to manage the priority of the cases and to implement artificial intelligence (AI) tools are no more an utopia for every "analog" pathology department.

Pitfalls of barcodes in the study of worldwide SARS-CoV-2 variation and phylodynamics.

Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genome variation using a minimal number of selected informative sites conforming a genetic barcode presents several drawbacks. We show that purely mathematical procedures for site selection should be supervised by known phylogeny (i) to ensure that solid tree branches are represented instead of mutational hotspots with poor phylogeographic proprieties, and (ii) to avoid phylogenetic redundancy. We propose a procedure that prevents information redundancy in site selection by considering the cumulative informativeness of previously selected sites (as a proxy for phylogenetic-based criteria). This procedure demonstrates that, for short barcodes (e.g., 11 sites), there are thousands of informative site combinations that improve previous proposals. We also show that barcodes based on worldwide databases inevitably prioritize variants located at the basal nodes of the phylogeny, such that most representative genomes in these ancestral nodes are no longer in circulation. Consequently, coronavirus phylodynamics cannot be properly captured by universal genomic barcodes because most SARS-CoV-2 variation is generated in geographically restricted areas by the continuous introduction of domestic variants.

The role of manufacturers in the implementation of global traceability standards in the supply chain to combat vaccine counterfeiting and enhance safety monitoring.

The counterfeiting of vaccines is an increasing problem globally with the safety of persons vaccinated, the trust in vaccines generally and the associated reputation of vaccine manufacturers and regulatory agencies at risk. This risk is especially critical with the on-going development of COVID-19 vaccines. The ability to track and trace vaccines through the vaccine supply chain down to persons vaccinated has to be enhanced. In this context of traceability, the global immunization community has recently set the barcoding of the primary packaging of vaccines, specifically vaccine vials and pre-filled syringes, as a top priority. Emerging vaccine manufacturers are already engaged in investigating ways to incorporate barcoding in their labelling and packaging using GS1 international standards. A specific pilot taking place in Indonesia by the national vaccine manufacturer, Bio Farma, shows the innovation of barcoding on primary packaging already underway with a relatively modest level of investment and success at this stage. This article highlights the efforts of industry and governments on the value of traceability and introduction to 2D barcodes. Access to financial resources and support from the international immunization community would accelerate such innovations leading to enhanced security of the vaccine supply chain.