The Application of Supervised and Unsupervised Computational Predictive Models to Simulate the COVID19 Pandemic

The application of different tools for predicting COVID19 cases spreading has been widely considered during the pandemic. Comparing different approaches is essential to analyze performance and the practical support they can provide for the current pandemic management. This work proposes using the susceptible-exposed-asymptomatic but infectious-symptomatic and infectious-recovered-deceased (SEAIRD) model for different learning models. The first analysis considers an unsupervised prediction, based directly on the epidemiologic compartmental model. After that, two supervised learning models are considered integrating computational intelligence techniques and control engineering: the fuzzy-PID and the wavelet-ANN-PID models. The purpose is to compare different predictor strategies to validate a viable predictive control system for the COVID19 relevant epidemiologic time series. For each model, after setting the initial conditions for each parameter, the prediction performance is calculated based on the presented data. The use of PID controllers is justified to avoid divergence in the system when the learning process is conducted. The wavelet neural network solution is considered here because of its rapid convergence rate. The proposed solutions are dynamic and can be adjusted and corrected in real time, according to the output error. The results are presented in each subsection of the chapter. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Development of gait rehabilitation devices: a review of the literature

A "Stroke" is a neurological disease due to poor blood flowing to the brain, resulting in body cell death. It is ranked second as the most common cause of death globally. The "World Health Organization" estimates that about 15 million people suffer a stroke annually. Most stroke survivors have gait disorders, and most patients cannot walk without assistance. Physiotherapy is crucial for stroke patients to recover and maintain their mobility, functionality, and well-being. In the last 20 years, the replacement of physiotherapists with wearable robotics has become essential due to the developing technology, the need for economic growth, and the challenging health circumstances around the world, such as the COVID-19 pandemic recently. Lower Limb Exoskeleton (LLE) represents the solution for stroke patients under such circumstances, though its performance is a critical challenge paid attention to in the industry. This challenge has motivated the researchers to investigate the application of gait rehabilitation. This review presents and discusses the developments in the control system of LLE over the last decade. It also explores the limitations, new directions, and recommendations in LLE development according to the literature.

Vaccination against covid-19 for patients with primary immunodefi ciency and hereditary angioedema: The position paper of the Russian association of allergology, clinical immunology, and the national association of experts in primary immunodefi ciencies.

Since the end of 2019, the whole world has been suff ering from the Corona virus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic due to the potentially severe acute respiratory infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. To date, the infection has led to more than 4 million deaths worldwide, and>140 thousand deaths in Russia. Vaccination against COVID-19 plays a key role in stopping the pandemic. According to the existing experience in infection prevention, mass vaccination will reduce the virus's expansion and the risk of vaccine-resistant strains developing. In the context of COVID-19, the question of the feasibility and safety of vaccination for patients with primary immunodefi ciency and hereditary angioedema arises. The Russian Association of Allergists, Clinical Immunologists, and the National Association of Experts in Primary Immunodefi ciencies have developed and approved a position paper on the vaccination for patients with primary immunodefi ciency and hereditary angioedema against COVID-19. This position paper provides answers to key questions regarding vaccination for patients with these diseases.Copyright © 2020 Pharmarus Print Media License.

COVID-19 vaccination in patients with primary immunodeficiencies: an international survey on patient vaccine hesitancy and self-reported adverse events.

Introduction: The Sars-CoV-2 pandemic caused great concern for this novel virus among patients with primary immunodeficiency (PID) or inborn errors of immunity (IEI) and their families. When COVID-19 vaccination program started, no data existed on adverse events (AEs) in this particular patient population, nor if patients felt hesitancy being vaccinated. Objectives: To explore i) reasons for COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy, ii) the number and symptoms of AEs and their severity, durability and management. Method: The organisations International Patient Organisation for Primary Immunodeficiencies (IPOPI), European Society for Immunodeficiencies (ESID) and International Nursing Group for Immunodeficiencies (INGID) distributed a global self-administered online survey. Results: The survey was completed by 1317 patients (mean 47, range 12-100, years) from 40 countries. 41.7% of the patients denoted some hesitancy to COVID-19 vaccination, mainly having doubts about postvaccination protection related to their underlying PID and concerns about negative long-term effects. More women (22.6%) reported "very" or "pretty much" hesitancy compared to men (16.4%) (P<0.05). The most common systemic AEs were fatigue, muscle/body pain and headache, usually the same day or the day after the vaccination and lasting for 1-2 days. 27.8% of the respondents reported severe systemic AEs after any dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Only a minority (7.8%) of these patients visited a health-care professional and 20 patients (1.5%) were hospitalized or seen at emergency room without specifying subsequent admission at the hospital. Significantly more local and systemic AEs were reported after the second dose. No differences regarding AEs were observed across different PID subgroups or vaccine types. Conclusion: At the time of the survey, almost half of the patients reported having felt hesitancy to COVID-19 vaccination highlighting the importance and need of developing joint international guidelines and education programs about COVID-19 vaccination. The types of AEs were comparable to healthy controls, but more frequent AEs were reported. Clinical studies and prospective, detailed registration of AEs related to COVID-19 vaccines in this patient population is of great importance. It is crucial to elucidate whether there is a coincidental or causal association between COVID-19 vaccine and some severe systemic AEs. Our data do not contradict that patients with PID can be advised to be vaccinated against COVID-19, in accordance with applicable national guidelines.

Predictors of depressive symptoms among hospitalized COVID-19 patients with respiratory problems.

COVID-19 patients and survivors quite often experience depressive symptoms, which can increase risk for lower immune system response and poorer recovery. Vulnerability to depressive symptoms may be elevated in those patients who have the most severe COVID-19 course of illness, that is, patients who require supplementary oxygen therapy or even intubation. The current study involved a unique sample of patients who were hospitalized due to COVID-19 and who required respiratory support (N = 34, 10 women) in which we investigated depressive symptoms as well as psychopathological personality traits (PID5) as predictors. The majority of patients (76.5%) presented some degree of depressive symptoms. Although we expected severe levels of depressive symptoms to be most prevalent, more patients showed rather moderate levels. At the same time, Negative Affectivity was most predictive of depressive symptoms. We suggest that medical care for patients with greater emotional sensitivity and vulnerability to stress be supplemented with psychological support in order to address depressive symptoms and foster recovery.

Determination of control area and design of fuzzy rule-tuned PID controller for LFC of multimachine power system

In load frequency control (LFC) study of a large power system, the key concept is control area, which is the segment of the system consisting of strongly interconnected buses, generator buses thereof working in unison. For accurate linearization of load frequency control problem, proper determination of control area is important. In the present work, a novel deterministic method is proposed and formulated to calculate the sharing of load changes by the generators to determine the control areas for LFC study of multimachine systems. This method is applied on a weakly interconnected two-area system and then on the 10-Machine New England Test System for area segmentation of each of the two systems. Furthermore, LFC studies are carried out with proposed Fuzzy Rule-tuned PID controllers (FRT-PID Controllers) for both the systems incorporated with Dish-Stirling Solar thermal system (DSTS) in each area. The scaling factors and the controller gains are optimized using Coronavirus Herd Immunity Optimizer Algorithm (CHIOA). Performance of the proposed FRT-PID controllers is compared with that of the Conventional PID controllers for the LFC studies of the systems. To test effectiveness of the FRT-PID controllers, effect of random step load perturbation (SLP) in load buses located in different areas are considered. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

Trajectory Tracking Analysis of Fractional-Order Nonlinear PID Controller for Single Link Robotic Manipulator System

Increasing demand for automation is being observed especially during the recent scenarios like the Covid-19 pandemic, wherein direct contact of the healthcare workers with the patients can be life-threatening. The use of robotic manipulators facilitates in minimizing such risky interactions and thereby providing a safe environment. In this research work, a single link robotic manipulator (SLRM) system is taken, which is a nonlinear multi–input–multi–output system. In order to address the limitations like heavy object movements, uncontrolled oscillations in positional movement, and improper link variations, an adaptive fractional-order nonlinear proportional, integral, and derivative (FONPID) controller has been suggested. This aids in the effective trajectory tracking of the performance of the SLRM system under step input response. Further, by tuning the controller gains using genetic algorithm optimization (GA) based on the minimum objective function (JIAE ) of the integral of absolute error (IAE) index, the suggested controller has been made more robust for trajectory tracking performance. Finally, the comparative analysis of the simulation results of proportional & integral (PI), proportional, integral, & derivative (PID), fractional-order proportional, integral, & derivative (FOPID), and the suggested FONPID controllers validated that the FONPID controller has performed better in terms of minimum JIAE and lower oscillation amplitude in trajectory tracking of positional movement of SLRM system. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Design of Auto-Tuning Nonlinear PID Tracking Speed Control for Electric Vehicle with Uncertainty Consideration

This study presents a new auto-tuning nonlinear PID controller for a nonlinear electric vehicle (EV) model. The purpose of the proposed control was to achieve two aims. The first aim was to enhance the dynamic performance of the EV regarding internal and external disturbances. The second aim was to minimize the power consumption of the EV. To ensure that these aims were achieved, two famous controllers were implemented. The first was the PID controller based on the COVID-19 optimization. The second was the nonlinear PID (NPID) optimized controller, also using the COVID-19 optimization. Several driving cycles were executed to compare their dynamic performance and the power consumption. The results showed that the auto-tuning NPID had a smooth dynamic response, with a minimum rise and settling time compared to other control techniques (PID and NPID controllers). Moreover, it achieved low continuous power consumption throughout the driving cycles. © 2023 by the author.

Production of Modified Nucleosides in a Continuous Enzyme Membrane Reactor.

Nucleoside analogues are important compounds for the treatment of viral infections or cancers. While (chemo-)enzymatic synthesis is a valuable alternative to traditional chemical methods, the feasibility of such processes is lowered by the high production cost of the biocatalyst. As continuous enzyme membrane reactors (EMR) allow the use of biocatalysts until their full inactivation, they offer a valuable alternative to batch enzymatic reactions with freely dissolved enzymes. In EMRs, the enzymes are retained in the reactor by a suitable membrane. Immobilization on carrier materials, and the associated losses in enzyme activity, can thus be avoided. Therefore, we validated the applicability of EMRs for the synthesis of natural and dihalogenated nucleosides, using one-pot transglycosylation reactions. Over a period of 55 days, 2'-deoxyadenosine was produced continuously, with a product yield >90%. The dihalogenated nucleoside analogues 2,6-dichloropurine-2'-deoxyribonucleoside and 6-chloro-2-fluoro-2'-deoxyribonucleoside were also produced, with high conversion, but for shorter operation times, of 14 and 5.5 days, respectively. The EMR performed with specific productivities comparable to batch reactions. However, in the EMR, 220, 40, and 9 times more product per enzymatic unit was produced, for 2'-deoxyadenosine, 2,6-dichloropurine-2'-deoxyribonucleoside, and 6-chloro-2-fluoro-2'-deoxyribonucleoside, respectively. The application of the EMR using freely dissolved enzymes, facilitates a continuous process with integrated biocatalyst separation, which reduces the overall cost of the biocatalyst and enhances the downstream processing of nucleoside production.

N-Step-Ahead Optimal Control of a Compartmental Model of COVID-19

This paper uses a compartmental model that accounts for some of the main features of the COVID-19 pandemic. Assuming a control that represents the aggregated intensity of non pharmaceutical interventions, such as lockdown in varying degrees and the use of masks and social distancing, this text proposes an N-step-ahead optimal control (NSAOC) method that is easy to calculate and provides a guideline for implementation. The compartmental model is extended to account for vaccination, and the N-step-ahead optimal control is calculated for this case as well. The proposed control is robust to parameter variation in all model parameters, when they are assumed to be normally distributed about nominal values. In addition, the proposed NSAOC is shown to compare favorably with a recently proposed PID-like controller. © 2023, Brazilian Society for Automatics--SBA.

One Degree of Freedom Copter Design and Control using Smart and Simple PID Controller

A one-degree-of-freedom (1-Dol) copter is designed, implemented, and controlled by an electronically programmed PID controller. The control of (1-DOF) copter leads to rising of the required vision for controlling stability in the designing of (2-Dofs) quadcopter;were copters are used in many fields. Nowadays, the Covid-19 pandemic causes many challenges in health sectors, especially in patient's isolation centers, which forces the health team to take a lot of precautions when dealing with the patient, by using an optimally controlled quadcopter for dealing patients, one can prevent them from infection. The required dealing involves pharmaceutical submission and temperature monitoring which can be handled by these copters with specific sensors and vision. So, there is a need for high stability and accuracy in the movement with a high speed of balancing. This work is testing one axis of these copters by designing, implementing, and controlling a one-axis copter with a simple PID controller, the controller is implemented by using an Arduino controller, with a satisfaction measure for the required balancing of 97% accuracy. © 2022 IEEE.

Optimized PI Control with Tracking Differentiator for Negative Pressure Cabin Control

To block the epidemics like "Corona Virus Disease 2019(COVID-19)"spreading, an effective isolation of the infected patients during the transportation is an important issue, which makes the negative pressure cabin (NPC) become a key equipment. There exist some practical NPCs in service, whose pressures are mostly controlled using the conventional PID controller with parameters regulated by engineering methods. Until now, there is no report about the model of NPC system from the authors' best knowledge. In this paper, the model of the NPC system is reported, which is an inherent nonlinear system. Because of the nonlinear nature of the cabin pressure, the conventional PID controller cannot achieve desire performance to balance the transient and the steady state performance, even though the optimized PID parameters are chosen using the on-line optimization based on genetic algorithm. To solve such a problem, Tracking Differentiator (TD) and PI controller are combined to achieve the desire performance using the optimized parameters. The experiment results show the improvement of the proposed method. © 2022 IEEE.

Case report: Clearance of longstanding, immune-deficiency-associated, vaccine-derived polio virus infection following remdesivir therapy for chronic SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The global polio eradication campaign has had remarkable success in reducing wild-type poliovirus infection, largely built upon the live attenuated Sabin oral poliovirus vaccine. Whilst rare, vaccine poliovirus strains may cause infection and subsequently revert to a neurovirulent type, termed vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV). Persistent, vaccine derived infection may occur in an immunocompromised host (iVDPV), where it is a recognised complication following receipt of the Sabin vaccine. This has significant implications for the global polio eradication campaign and there is currently no agreed global strategy to manage such patients.Here we describe a case of a 50-year-old man with common variable immune deficiency, persistently infected with a neurovirulent vaccine-derived type 2 poliovirus following vaccination in childhood. iVDPV infection had proven resistant to multiple prior attempts at treatment with human breast milk, ribavirin and oral administration of a normal human pooled immunoglobulin product. His iVDPV infection subsequently resolved after 12 days treatment with remdesivir, an adenosine analogue prodrug that is an inhibitor of viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, administered as treatment for a prolonged, moderate severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. iVDPV from the patient, isolated prior to treatment, was subsequently demonstrated to be sensitive to remdesivir in vitro. Based on the observations made in this case, and the mechanistic rationale for use with iVDPV, there is strong justification for further clinical studies of remdesivir treatment as a potentially curative intervention in patients with iVDPV infection.

Intelligent unmanned medicine cabinet based on 51 single-chip microcomputer

With the relatively uneven distribution of medical resources in China and a new outbreak of COVID-19 at the end of 2019, we developed an intelligent medicine cabinet to alleviate the problem of high pressure and difficulty in accessing medical care in hospitals around the country. The medicine cabinet has a signal transmission circuit system based on 51 microcontroller and a new X-Y trajectory control module, which controls the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal by Proportion Integration Differentiation (PID) algorithm to improve the accuracy of the DC motor. It has the functions of online drug selection, drug sales, drug transmission, etc. Meanwhile, the online drug purchase system based on the WeChat applet can reduce the probability of infection by a new coronavirus. And the new X-Y cargo track will significantly improve the safety of fragile drugs while ensuring their delivery. The development of this medicine cabinet will greatly reduce the operating cost of pharmacies and meet the demand of people to purchase medicine at night. © 2022 SPIE.

Development of Nonlinear Dynamics Simulator for 2-DOF Ball Balancing Platform to Assist Distance Learning of Control Systems

In a wide range of control applications, balance control systems are known to be one of the most crucial and challenging applications. 2-DOF ball balancing platform is an experimental platform which can perform various kinds of balance control experiments. Hence, this laboratory experiment is widely used in many control engineering courses. But with COVID-19, travel restrictions and social distancing, performing laboratory experiments have become much more challenging. Hence, this research explores the feasibility of performing control engineering experiments on Ball on plate system in a simulation environment for distance learning purposes. This paper represents the control design theory, system modelling & simulations of ball balancing platform and proposes a method of performing lab experiments for remote-learning. All the system modelling and simulations of this research were done using MATLAB Simulink based on the Simscape model developed using SolidWorks. © 2022 IEEE.

SARS-COV-2 infections in inborn errors of immunity: A single center study.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a single-stranded RNA virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). One of the main topics of conversation in these past months in the world of immunology has been the issue of how patients with immune defects will fare if they contract this infection. To date there has been limited data on larger cohorts of patients with Inborn Errors of Immunity (IEI) diagnosed with COVID-19. Here, we review the data of COVID-19 infections in a single center cohort of 113 patients from the Mount Sinai Immunodeficiency program, who had 132 infections between January 2020 and June 2022. This included 56 males and 57 females, age range 2 - 84 (median 42). The mortality rate was 3%. Comparison between admitted patients revealed a significantly increased risk of hospitalization amongst the unvaccinated patients, 4% vaccinated vs 40% unvaccinated; odds ratio 15.0 (95% CI 4.2 - 53.4; p <0.00001). Additionally, COVID anti-spike antibody levels, determined in 36 of these patients post vaccination and before infection, were highly variable.

Fuzzy type two self-tuning technique of single neuron PID controller for brushless DC motor based on a COVID-19 optimization

This paper presents an efficient interval type 2 fuzzy (IT2F) based on a single neuron proportional–integral–derivative (PID), also known as IT2FSNPID controller. The main purpose of the proposed control technique is to track the motion profile of the brushless DC (BLDC) motor. Also, a comparative study was investigated fuzzy type 1 (FT1) and IT2F. IT2F can treat the uncertainty and nonlinearity of the BLDC motor drive electric system in contrast to FT1. The parameters of each control technique were obtained using a new COVID-19 optimization algorithm according to an objective function. Moreover, several tests had been performed to ensure the ability of fuzzy type to absorb the system uncertainty and nonlinearity. All controllers were utilized to operate the BLDC motor sudden change in load and continuous load. The simulation results show that the IT2FSNPID can improve the dynamic response of linear and nonlinear of the same BLDC motor and accommodate the system uncertainty significantly. © 2023, Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science. All rights reserved.

LFR Waiter: Arduino Based Android Application Controlled Waiter Robot

One of the most pressing challenges facing restaurants since the COVID-19 outbreak began is personnel. A staffing scarcity across the business has resulted in a slew of issues, including significantly longer wait times and irritated clients. A robot waiter may make a huge impact in a restaurant in this situation. This research led to the formation of a low-cost Arduino-based Android application control Robot that can work as a restaurant waiter. The proposed model can follow a path, avoid obstacles, serve meals to a specific consumer, and return to the kitchen on its own. To precisely follow the line, the PID algorithm is utilized. To detect potential obstructions, a sonar sensor is used. On an LCD, messages and warnings are displayed. An Android app that allows the chief to select a particular table for serving meals. For convenience, the robot's current state is displayed in the application. Our testing results show that the robot performs satisfactorily over 90% of the time. It should be emphasized that the offered model is adaptable to any restaurant. © 2022 IEEE.

Remotely Operated Rotary Inverted Pendulum System for Online Control Engineering Education

Balance control systems are known to be one of the most crucial and challenging systems in the field of controls engineering. Rotary Inverted Pendulum (RIP) system is an experimental platform which can perform a wide range of balance control experiments. In an era where physical movements are restricted and with social distancing and remote learning, conducting laboratory experiments have become much more challenging. Hence, the goal of this study is to test the feasibility in performing laboratory experiments on a RIP system in a simulation environment for distance learning purposes. In this study, the developed RIP system was used to perform experiments on PID and LQR control. All the simulations were performed using SolidWorks®, Simscsape Multibody link and MATLAB® Simulink® software. When the simulations were tested for distance learning, identical results were observed proving the feasibility of linear & nonlinear simulations for remote-learning. Hence, this simulation platform is capable of fulfilling the task of providing hands on experience in control engineering laboratory experiments for remote/distance learning purposes. © 2022 IEEE.

Are PID-5 personality traits and self-harm attitudes related? A study on a young adult sample pre-post COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: Different studies confirm a stronger link between maladaptive personality traits and Non-suicidal Self-injury (NSSI). Additionally, the interest in the relationship between the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and NSSI is growing. The present study aims (a) to investigate differences in personality traits between individuals with NSSI, suicidal ideation, NSSI and suicidal ideation co-occurrence and none; (b) to observe which personality traits predominantly influence the occurrence of self-harm acts; (c) to evaluate the difference in self-harm attitudes pre and post COVID-19 pandemic. Method: 270 (108 males and 162 females) participants aged between 18 and 25 were included in the study. Everyone participated in a clinical interview and completed an assessment consisting of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) and the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS). A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), a multiple hierarchical regression analysis, controlling for age and gender and a T-test for independent samples were conducted. Results: The individuals with the highest levels of negative affectivity, detachment, antagonism, and psychoticism are those who simultaneously present suicidal ideation and NSSI. Moreover, age and detachment predicted higher scores in self-harm attitudes. Our results unexpectedly do not confirm an upward trend of NSSI and suicidal ideation during the pandemic period. Limitations: The study is cross-sectional, and no causal links can be assumed; the groups involved were not homogeneous for numerosity. Conclusions: The results testify that the study of maladaptive traits is fundamental to a greater understanding of NSSIs. Working clinically on those could potentially reduce.