Psychospiritual Cleanliness and Well-Being: A Relevant Path to Be in Sync with Nature

The jet-set pace of modern life has essentially met a staggering jolt with the ensuing pandemic put forth by the novel Coronavirus. Mankind is vehemently trying its level best to combat the epidemic and curb the death-toll worldwide as much as practicable. Certain practices of self-discipline are coming to the forefront these days to keep individuals "physically and mentally sanitized.” The regime of self-cleanliness is establishing its significance in the present-day situation. Besides, it is nature which is trying to provide a life lesson to its most intelligent and rational inmates to inculcate submission to the Cosmic Power and to gradually develop herd immunity. Developing a sense of gratitude for the givens of life essentials one to develop a fountain of positivity to maintain his/ her state of well-being. The practice of physical, emotional, and spiritual cleanliness helps to foster a state of tranquility, a "feel of being anchored” leading to the maintenance of well-being among Homo sapiens. It is then that human beings will learn to cohabit the planetary space with other species peacefully and symbiotically. Wellness is bound to thrive in nature consequently. The chapter engages into a theoretical critical analysis of the varied means of sanitizing oneself on the whole to foster well-being of the society. The cry of the present day is attempted to be addressed so that the earth can be a safer and secure "container.” © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Taylor and Francis Pte Ltd. 2022.

Moderating effect of project size on the relationship between COVID-19 safety protocols and economic performance of construction projects

PurposeThe COVID-19 health crisis has brought about a set of extra health and safety regulations, and procedures to the construction industry which could influence projects' economic performance (EP). The aim of this paper is to examine the effect of adopting COVID-19 safety protocols on construction sites on the economic performance (EP) of construction projects.Design/methodology/approachEmploying the survey method using a structured questionnaire, data were collected from small- and large-sized construction projects in Nigeria and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique.FindingsThe findings reveal that job re-organization and sanitization have negative significant effects on EP, while social distancing and specific training have no effect on EP. Furthermore, project size moderates the relationship between job re-organization, sanitization, specific training and EP with the stronger effect on the relationships observed in big projects, except for the relationship between sanitization and EP where the moderating relationship is stronger in small projects. However, there is no significant moderating effect of project size on the relationship between social distancing and EP.Practical implicationsAs construction project sites continue to operate amidst strict safety protocols, this study offers theoretical and practical insights on how construction projects can adhere to the safety protocols while performing economically.Originality/valueThe originality of this study's findings stems from the fact that it is among the first to provide greater insight on how construction projects have fared economically considering the impact of the various COVID-19 protocols.

A Deep Learning-Based Preventive Measures of COVID-19 in a crowd using Reinforcement Model over GAN for Enhanced efficiency

The fast human-to-human spread of COVID-19 has caused significant lifestyle changes for many individuals. At the end of January 2020, the pandemic began, and many nations responded with varying degrees of testing, sanitation, lockdown, and quarantine centers. New normals of testing, sanitization, social separation, and lockdown are being implemented, and people are gradually returning to work and other daily routines. The COVID-19 infected population is monitored by testing individuals regularly. But it's a resource-heavy endeavor to test everyone without good reason. An optimum strategy is required to efficiently identify persons who are most likely to test positive for COVID-19. Sanitation is utilized for both persons and public spaces to eliminate germs. However, the disruption of governmental operations and economic development makes the use of lockdown and quarantine centers a resource-intensive endeavor. Conversely, it degrades the standard of living across a society. Furthermore, keeping people inside their houses or quarantine centers for an unlimited amount of time would not allow the government to care for everyone. These variables impact virus propagation, human health and happiness, available resources, and the economy's health, making their management resource-intensive. counting and density estimation are both attempts to create clever and efficient algorithms that can interpret the data provided by images to carry out Efficiency. GANs have been proven to have promising applications in overcoming the data dearth problem in COVID-19 lung image analysis. The Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models built for the diagnosis of COVID-19 have benefited from the GAN-generated data used to refine their training. Moreover, GANs have helped improve the performance of CNNs by super-resolving pictures and performing segmentation. This work highlights the Reinforcement deep learning model over the fundamental constraints of the possible transformation of GANs-based approaches. This work proposes the model be developed with a new intelligent approach using RL to quantify these different types of testing considered for social distancing, face mask detection, limiting the gathering, and locking the location using the Q Learning technique. Different RL algorithms are implemented, and agents are equipped with these algorithms so that they may interact with the environment and learn the optimum method for doing so. © 2023 IEEE.

An IoT based Smart Robot that Aids in the Prevention of COVID19 Spread

The Internet of Things revolution is transforming current healthcare practices by combining technological, economic, and social aspects. Since December 2019, the global spread of COVID19 has influenced the global economy. The COVID19 epidemic has forced governments all around the world to implement lockdowns to prevent viral infections. Wearing a face mask in a public location, according to survey results, greatly minimizes the risk of infection. The suggested robotics design includes an IoT solution for facemask detection, body temperature detection, an automatic dispenser for hand sanitizing, and a social distance monitoring system that can be used in any public space as a single IoT solution. Our goal was to use IoT-enabled technology to help prevent the spread of COVID19, with encouraging results and a future Smart Robot that Aids in COVID19 Prevention. Arduino NANO, MCU unit, ultrasonic sensor, IR sensor, temperature sensor, and buzzer are all part of our suggested implementation system. Our system's processing components, the Arduino UNO and MCU modules are all employed to process and output data. Countries with large populations, such as India and Bangladesh, as well as any other developing country, will benefit from using our cost-effective, trustworthy, and portable smart robots to effectively reduce COVID-19 viral transmission. © 2022 IEEE.

Efficacy evaluation of an air-assisted electrostatic disinfection device for the effective disinfection and sanitization against the spread of pathogenic infections

This research aims to check the chargeability of sodium hypochlorite and the efficacy evaluation of an air-assisted electrostatic disinfection device. Five different inanimate surfaces i.e., wood, glass, stainless steel, plastic and fabric were considered to examine the performance in terms of efficacy, survival time, off-target losses, spray coverage and the volume of disinfectant consumed. A significant charge-to-mass level of 2.43 mC/kg was achieved for sodium hypochlorite at an applied voltage of 2.0 kV, a liquid flowrate of 253 ml/min and applied air pressure of 4.0 bar. The experimental results found that 1000 mg/L of sodium hypochlorite concentration effectively eliminated Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Clostridium perfringens and Bacteriophage MS2 colonies. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.

Sanitize the Man, Sanitize the Car: COVID-19 Disease Control in Botswana

COVID-19 has dominated global health since it became a global pandemic in early 2020. It has stressed global health systems and pushed many other health concerns to the back burner. There is an urgent need to look for innovative ways to tackle the pandemic in a sustainable and transferrable manner. This article examines the COVID-19 control measures in Botswana. It describes the innovative government actions taken to control the pandemic. It also presents the observations of the authors, who have observed these actions around the country. They report on the effectiveness of the control cordon belts and the disinfection of people and animals as well as the sanitizing of objects like shoes and cars that pass across the control boundaries. Based upon the effectiveness of the control measures in Botswana, the authors recommend an innovative disease control framework for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases which they contend is replicable in other countries. © 2023 The Author(s).

Pandemic Fatigue in Japan: Factors Affecting the Declining COVID-19 Preventive Measures

Pandemic fatigue has threatened the efforts to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide;thus, government-mandated preventive measures have declined. The Japanese government has implemented several methods to address COVID-19′s spread, including hand hygiene, mask requirements, and social distancing. This study is the first to examine the socioeconomic factors affecting Japan's decline in COVID-19 prevention measures. It utilized the Preference Parameters Study of the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research data of the 2021 and 2022 waves. With approximately 1580 observations, we detected a 10%, 4%, and 13% decline in hand hygiene practice, mask-wearing, and social distancing, respectively, between January 2021 and January 2022. Men were more likely to dislike the hand hygiene practice and mask-wearing and were also more reluctant to maintain social distancing. Moreover, financially satisfied individuals were positively associated with a decrease in the hand hygiene practice, while those with greater assets were more likely to dislike maintaining social distancing. People who exercised regularly were less likely to abandon the hand hygiene practices. Our results highlighted the significance of selective prevention programs targeting specific groups to promote compliance and lead to more effective pandemic management and less fatigue or discontentment. © 2023 by the authors.

A multi-robot deep Q-learning framework for priority-based sanitization of railway stations.

Sanitizing railway stations is a relevant issue, primarily due to the recent evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this work, we propose a multi-robot approach to sanitize railway stations based on a distributed Deep Q-Learning technique. The proposed framework relies on anonymous data from existing WiFi networks to dynamically estimate crowded areas within the station and to develop a heatmap of prioritized areas to be sanitized. Such heatmap is then provided to a team of cleaning robots - each endowed with a robot-specific convolutional neural network - that learn how to effectively cooperate and sanitize the station's areas according to the associated priorities. The proposed approach is evaluated in a realistic simulation scenario provided by the Italian largest railways station: Roma Termini. In this setting, we consider different case studies to assess how the approach scales with the number of robots and how the trained system performs with a real dataset retrieved from a one-day data recording of the station's WiFi network.

Vital Factor for Homestay Operation of Tourism Natural Environment in COVID-19 Period

There is a growing interest in the role of homestay in tourism linked to the stakeholders care about sanitization as well as their contribution to the tourism experience. This study is to explore factors that affect the house satisfaction for homestay operation in COVID-19 period. It is a quantitative and survey research. Research tools for this study are structural questionnaires and using area sampling from sample size 399 visitors who stayed one night and longer in the homestay. Percentage, mean, and standard deviation were used to describe general data description of social, population, and attitude of intrinsic factor of homestay operation that affected house satisfaction. Multiple Regression (Enter method) was used to compare between independent and dependent variables. The finding shows that the variables of attitude in term of food;hospitality;tour program;local product's value;management and public relation can affect house satisfaction. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Sanitization Using Autonomous Drone

Since the COVID -19 epidemic has nearly brought about global catastrophe, every chance to make things better must be considered. One such technique for improvement is airborne decontamination. Researching this method's efficacy in the pandemic is vital since it can be used for surface cleaning of bigger areas. There are numerous instances of using drones to disinfect areas affected by epidemics, but best practices and factors affecting effectiveness have not yet been found. The adaptable uses of agricultural drones are evident from reports about utilizing drones for disinfection during a pandemic. The authors of this study calculated the potential amount of disinfectant fluid per unit area using various parameters for fly speed, flight altitude, and flow rate. As a result, by adjusting the settings, a range of disinfectant concentrations per unit area can be provided. Even though the results create a lot of new queries, they can be used to determine appropriate flying characteristics based on various disinfection liquids. © 2022 IEEE.

Smart Disease Prevention System

Up till now many lives were lost due to various contagious s like swine flu, encephalitis, etc. Also, the whole world has faced the COVID-19 pandemic situation recently. These situations led to the thought of designing such a system that can be installed at the entry and exit gate of a mall to reduce the spread of contagious s. The proposed work is created as a prototype to not only detect the face mask and sense the body temperature but also controlling the crowd inside a mall to maintain social distancing. Additionally, the system is strengthened by a sanitization module after entering to the mall. It is a single integrated solution to all the challenges consisting of all these four modules. Apart from malls, this system can be deployed in places like shops, banks, etc. Once the person is detected at the entry gate, the count of people inside the mall is checked to maintain the social distancing norms. If found a less number of people are inside, it checks for a face mask and body temperature. When all three conditions are satisfied, it opens the door and activates the sanitization module. This system uses a Convolution Neural Network (CNN) for face detection, the MLX90614 temperature sensor for temperature sensing, and a servo motor for door control. All the modules are integrated with Raspberry-pi. The system is tested for all possible conditions and results are produced. It can be customized depending on the area of a mall or the shop and the size of the door. © 2022 IEEE.

Medical Assistance Robot with capabilities of Mask Detection with Automatic Sanitization and Social Distancing Detection/ Awareness

Healthcare sectors such as hospitals, nursing homes, medical offices, and hospice homes encountered several obstacles due to the outbreak of Covid-19. Wearing a mask, social distancing and sanitization are some of the most effective methods that have been proven to be essential to minimize the virus spread. Lately, medical executives have been appointed to monitor the virus spread and encourage the individuals to follow cautious instructions that have been provided to them. To solve the aforementioned challenges, this research study proposes an autonomous medical assistance robot. The proposed autonomous robot is completely service-based, which helps to monitor whether or not people are wearing a mask while entering any health care facility and sanitizes the people after sending a warning to wear a mask by using the image processing and computer vision technique. The robot not only monitors but also promotes social distancing by giving precautionary warnings to the people in healthcare facilities. The robot can assist the health care officials carrying the necessities of the patent while following them for maintaining a touchless environment. With thorough simulative testing and experiments, results have been finally validated. © 2022 IEEE.

Automatic Environment Protection Using Mixed Signal Processor for Covid-19

Now a days, the merciless covid-19 is threatening the world in everywhere. And, people are instructed to protect themselves from the virus infections. So, our proposed work will monitor the area around the person with the help of multiprocessor. In this method, particular area's temperature will be monitored by the advanced multiprocessor and the moisture level of the room around the person checked/ verified. And, spraying sanitizer will sanitize automatically, if it is necessary. Moreover, this system reduces the man power and protects the environment from the affects of covid-19. With the use of MSP, we can monitor the temperature and clean up mechanism will run automatically. From this method, we will permit the secured and sanitized people into the crowd places such as stock market, shops and stations. The vital recognition of this method is that fully automated procedure. Hence, it will replace physical labor and save time and also control the virus from spreading one to one another. © 2022 IEEE.

UV-C Disinfection Smart Device

SARS-CoV-2 started a global epidemic that resulted in COVID-19, a real infectious disease that disrupted regular living all over the world. Sterilizing our hands is crucial since the virus and other diseases are spread by touching contaminated surfaces. In this manuscript, a prototype for low-cost sterilisation is created that uses an IR thermal sensor to measure temperature and UV C light rays to disinfect our hands. Numerous bacteria are affected throughout the sanitization process, which has a number of advantages over chemical-based sanitization techniques. In contrast to relevant, it is also easy to customise. There are proprietary devices that can be purchased commercially. This gadget is an excellent illustration of open-source technology. automatic, quick, and safe hand sanitising device. © 2022 IEEE.

Current SARS-CoV-2 Protective Strategies for Healthcare Professionals.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). COVID-19 was first reported in China in December 2019. SARS-CoV-2 is highly contagious and spread primarily via an airborne route. Hand hygiene, surgical masks, vaccinations and boosters, air filtration, environmental sanitization, instrument sterilization, mouth rinses, and social distancing are essential infection control measures against the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. This paper aims to provide healthcare professionals with evidence-based protective strategies.

Development of a Novel Tabletop Device With Suction and Sanitization of Droplets against COVID-19.

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 and other viruses are transmissible by aerosols and droplets from infected persons. This study aimed to develop a portable device that can trap droplets and deactivate viruses, and verify whether the device in an enclosed room can suction droplets and sanitize them using a filter and an ultraviolet-C (UVC) light-emitting diode. Materials and methods The portable device was evaluated by placing it 50 cm away from the droplet initiation point. A particle image velocimetry laser dispersed into a sheet form was used to visualize the droplets splashed on the irradiated sagittal plane and captured using a charge-coupled device camera at 60 frames per second. The images were overlaid and calculated to determine the percentage of the droplets beyond the portable device. Droplets with a particle size larger than 50 µm that dispersed and were deposited more than 100 cm away were measured using a water-sensitive paper. The effect of UVC sanitization on viruses captured by a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter was determined using a plaque assay. Results The percentage of droplets was 13.4% and 1.1% with the portable device OFF and ON, respectively, indicating a 91.8% reduction. The deposited droplets were 86 pixels and 26 pixels with the portable device OFF and ON, respectively, indicating a 68.7% reduction. The UVC deactivated more than 99% of the viruses on the HEPA filter surface in 5 minutes. Conclusions Our novel portable device can suck and fall the dispersed droplets, and an active virus was not observed on the exhaust side.

YUDH: Multi-utility Tool to Reassure Serenity in the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19, the virus that has affected current living standards, has undergone mutation, and the second wave has caused a much more devastating situation in India. In such a scenario, the alert of a third wave by the authorities has alarmingly increased concern in the nation. After being declared as an international emergency, the development of its vaccine has been conducted by different countries. India among other countries is also pursuing to develop much more efficient variants of the vaccine. The situation still persists to be hostile and maintaining the current precaution measures and maximizing the distribution of the vaccines is the only solution in hand. A necessity arises for a user-friendly app to reduce social interaction while assisting in medical support. In this paper, we have proposed an android application named YUDH, which focuses on the overall service that an individual requires from booking test centers, vaccine slot notification to home sanitization. The user can book COVID-19 testing centers and can arrange sanitization service after recovery with the provision of place, date, and time. In addition to booking test centers, swab testing at the doorstep is also available. The user also gets regular notifications on COVID vaccine slot availability in accordance with CoWIN portal and users' preferences. This deployment is aimed at the safety of the user and their privacy safeguard. The application also assists the government to maintain a database more efficiently. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Carbon footprint of FFP2 protective facial masks against SARS-CoV-2 used in the food sector: effect of materials and dry sanitisation

Purpose: International outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 infection has fostered the Italian government to impose the FFP2 protective facial masks in closed environments, including bar, restaurants and, more in general, in the food sector. Protective facial masks are rocketing, both in mass and in costs, in the food sector imposing efforts in fostering reuse strategies and in the achievement of sustainable development goals. The scope of the present paper is to depict possible strategies in manufacturing and reuse strategies that can reduce the carbon footprint (CF) of such devices. Design/methodology/approach: To implement circular economy strategies in the protective facial masks supply chain, it was considered significant to move towards a study of the environmental impact of such devices, and therefore a CF study has been performed on an FFP2 facial mask used in the food sector. Different materials besides the mostly used polypropylene (PP) (polyethylene (PE), polycarbonate (PC), poly (lactic acid) (PLA), cotton, polyurethane (PUR), polystyrene (PS) and nylon 6,6) and different sanitisation alternatives as reuse strategies (both laboratory and homemade static oven, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation) readily implemented have been modelled to calculate the CF of a single use of an FFP2 mask. Findings: The production of textiles in PP, followed by disposal was the main contributor to CF of the single-use FFP2 mask, followed by packaging and transportations. PP and PE were the least impacting, PC, cotton and Nylon 6-6 of the same weight results the worst. PLA has an impact greater than PP and PE obtained from crude oil, followed by PUR and PS. Static laboratory oven obtained an 80.4% reduction of CF with respect to single use PP-made FFP2 mask, whereas homemade oven obtained a similar 82.2% reduction;UV cabinet is the best option, showing an 89.9% reduction. Research limitations/implications: The key strategies to reduce the environmental impacts of the masks (research for new materials and reuse with sanitisation) should ensure both the retention of filtering capacities and the sanitary sterility of the reused ones. Future developments should include evaluations of textile recycling impacts, using new materials and the evaluation of the life cycle costs of the reused masks. Practical implications: This paper intends to provide to stakeholders (producers, consumers and policy makers) the tools to choose the best option for producing and reuse environmentally friendly protective facial masks to be used in the food sector, by using both different materials and easily implemented reuse strategies. Social implications: The reduction of the CF of protective facial masks in the food sector surely will have relevant positive effects on climate change contributing to reach the goals of reducing CO2 emissions. The food sector may promote sustainable practices and attract a niche piece of clients particularly sensible to such themes. Originality/value: The paper has two major novelties. The first one is the assessment of the CF of a single use of an FFP2 mask made with different materials of the non-woven filtering layers;as the major contribution to the CF of FFP2 masks is related to the non-woven textiles manufacturing, the authors test some other different materials, including PLA. The second is the assessment of the CF of one single use of a sanitised FFP2 mask, using different sanitation technologies as those allowed in bars or restaurants. © 2022, Pasquale Giungato, Bianca Moramarco, Roberto Leonardo Rana and Caterina Tricase.

Soap or alcohol-based products? The effect of hand hygiene on skin characteristics during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Different strategies for hand skin hygiene have been used to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2. However, frequent hand sanitization has been associated with skin damage. The present study aimed to evaluate hand hygiene habits during the COVID-19 pandemic and the effect of the repetitive use of soap or alcohol-based products on skin characteristics. METHODS: We conducted a survey regards hand hygiene habits acquired during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, we performed cutometry in a cohort of individuals who cleansed their volar forearms every 30 min, during 4 h, using soap or alcohol-based products. RESULTS: We received 138 responses from people with medium-high educational level who reported a 2.5-time increase in the frequency of hand cleansing (p < 0.0001) that resulted in skin damage. An in vivo analysis of skin moisture and elasticity was also performed among 19 health workers and students. In general, skin moisture decreased with every cleansing, mainly after 2 h of washing with soap (p < 0.01), while skin elasticity only reduced after 4 h of treatment (p < 0.05). Alcohol-based solution or alcohol-based gel (70% ethanol, both) did not affect skin moisture or elasticity during testing. CONCLUSION: It is known that the excessive use of soap or alcohol-based products causes dermatological issues. The present study demonstrates that non-medicated soap significantly affects skin moisture and elasticity, probably because the soap removes the hydrolipidic protective barrier, favoring transepidermal water loss, where the lack of the appropriate stratum corneum hydration also affects skin elasticity, mainly associated with changes in epidermal structure.

Pollution free UV-C radiation to mitigate COVID-19 transmission.

The high rate of transmission of the COVID-19 virus has brought various types of disinfection techniques, for instance, hydrogen peroxide vaporization, microwave generating steam, UV radiation, and dry heating, etc. to prevent the further transmission of the virus. The chemical-based techniques are predominantly used for sanitization of hands, buildings, hospitals, etc. However, these chemicals may affect the health of humans and the environment in unexplored aspects. Furthermore, the UV lamp-based radiation sanitization technique had been applied but has not gained larger acceptability owing to its limitation to penetrate different materials. Therefore, the optical properties of materials are especially important for the utilization of UV light on such disinfection applications. The germicidal or microorganism inactivation application of UV-C has only been in-use in a closed chamber, due to its harmful effect on human skin and the eye. However, it is essential to optimize UV for its use in an open environment for a larger benefit to mitigate the virus spread. In view of this, far UV-C (222nm) based technology has emerged as a potential option for the sanitization in open areas and degradation of microorganisms present in aerosol during the working conditions. Hence, in the present review article, efforts have been made to evaluate the technical aspects of UV (under the different spectrum and wavelength ranges) and the control of COVID 19 virus spread in the atmosphere including the possibilities of the human body sanitization in working condition.