Development of a Methodology for Monitoring Sars-Cov-2 Rna in Wastewater

Coronavirus disease 2019 is a contagious disease that occurs in humans caused by infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Originally emerged in Wuhan, from Hubei Province, China, SARS-CoV-2 has spread rapidly around the world. In order to effectively combat this pandemic, a methodology must be found to be able to predict, early detect and monitor the extent of infections, which is vital for reducing the risk of transmission. Monitoring of SARSCoV-2 in wastewater to detect and quantify the virus, to estimate the number of infected subjects in a population in a given area has proven to be very promising. Wastewater monitoring has already been implemented in several European countries, as well as in Australia, China and the United States. Although the fact that SARS-CoV-2 may be present in wastewater has been reported in several studies and is being given special attention, a standard procedure for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater is still missing. Our goal is to design and propose, based on information reported already in the literature, an efficient methodology for detecting and quantifying SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater. In addition, we also performed a comparison based on performance characteristics of the two methods used to detect and quantify SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater, reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and digital PCR (dPCR).

Thromboelastic Profiles of Patients With Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pneumonia

Study Objectives: The primary objective of the study was to use thromboelastography (TEG) to evaluate coagulation dynamics in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and to investigate TEG as a predictive tool for clinical course of infection. Methods: Adult patients admitted to Naval Medical Center Portsmouth with the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 were eligible for enrollment. TEG was performed on admission and trended daily with other laboratory tests through the hospitalization. Charts were reviewed for demographic, medical history, daily progress notes, clinical status, lab values, and anticoagulation medication use for each patient. Treatment teams were blinded to TEG values. Results: A total of 53 patients were enrolled, with three patients having two separate admissions. There were 31 males and 22 females with a mean age of 48. The preponderance of individual TEG components showed progression towards hypercoagulation as days of illness progressed, with 92% of subjects having at least one TEG value outside the reference range, even with the vast majority of patients receiving either therapeutic or prophylactic anticoagulants. The maximum amplitude (MA) and TEG coagulation indexes (CI) best correlated with day of illness (r = 0.45 and r = 0.32, respectively). Peak CI also correlated with length of hospital stay (r = 0.38). The majority (91%) remained hypercoagulable on discharge. Conclusions: The use of TEG measurements in those hospitalized at NMCP with COVID-19 infection confirms the hypercoagulable state previously reported in COVID-19 patients. It may have a role as a tool to predict clinical courses or to direct anticoagulation or antiplatelet therapy to reduce morbidity and mortality.

A Study on the Environmental Impact During Distribution and Disposal Stages for the 3-Ply Face Masks by Using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

The demand of face masks had increased tremendously due to pandemic outbreak of COVID-19, leading to the increment production rate of face masks in Malaysia. Waste is also produced at the same time, resulting impacts towards the environment. Due to the land scarcity issue in Malaysia, the end of life treatment for the waste is taken into consideration. The study tools used in this study is life cycle assessment (LCA) to identify the significant potential environmental impact produced during the life cycle stages for distribution and disposal through GaBi Education Software. The disposal stage between landfill and incineration of the 3-Ply face masks is studied to determine the end of life treatment for it. The impact assessment method selected in this study is CML 2001-Jan 2016 with the environmental indicator of Global Warming Potential (GWP), Acidification Potential (AP), Eutrophication Potential (EP) and Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP). GWP results in producing highest impact to the environment during both distribution and disposal stages. The impact of GWP also relates to the climate change. Modern incineration is recommended to overcome the issue of land scarcity in Malaysia as the amount of waste by 3-Ply face masks are increasing due to the pandemic COVID-19, reducing the impacts towards the environment. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Carbon Footprint Assessment from Purchased Electricity Consumption and Campus Commute in Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP): Pre- and During COVID19 Pandemic

Most institutions and organizations nowadays have been taking responsibility in reducing their carbon footprint (CF) to curtail the global warming impact to at least 20–25% reduction by 2030. Universities and higher learning institutions are starting to invest in becoming greener and carbon-free. Current COVID19 communicable disease has swayed the routine and concurrently influenced regular trends of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions throughout the world. This study explored the possible GHG emissions (calculated as CO2e) from internal campus commute and purchased electricity consumption from the year 2018–2020 at Universiti Malaysia Perlis main campus to analyze the influence of COVID19 pandemic on its CO2e emission. The average amount of CO2e emitted during pre-COVID19 period (n = 26) was 1,518.8 tCO2e/year while during COVID19 period, it was 1,071.5 tCO2e/year (n = 10), marked as 29.5% reduction. Due to completeness and quality of data for contracted bus (monitoring period of years 2018, 2019 and 2020 as 12 months, 12 months, and 2 months, respectively), year 2019 was determined as the appropriate baseline year for setting the CO2e reduction target due to COVID19 pandemic precedented year. In comparison to pre-COVID19 pandemic, almost 95%/year and 7%/year reductions of CO2e were recorded for both Scope 1 and Scope 2, respectively. Comparing Scope 1 and 2, it was obviously observed that the purchased electricity consumption (Scope 2) was the predominant contributor to GHG emission at UniMAP campus by 78% despite of current pandemic influence and its reduction was indistinct (7%/year reduction). Thus, the reduction target in future should be venturing in energy savings and energy auditing in addition to carbon offsetting. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.