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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread all across the world. Low- and medium-income countries are more affected economically and socially compared to developed countries due to the lack of a rapid, robust, and affordable testing infrastructure. Furthermore, the high cost of real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system, sophisticated user-handling procedure, and high expense of the conventional clinical tests are the root causes of the less accessibility of the testing systems to the users. In this study, a COVID-19 Point-of-Care (POC) ecosystem model is proposed for the low- and medium-income countries (or energy deprived countries) that will facilitate the technological development with locally available fabrication components. In addition, the nontechnological development phases have also been discussed, which encompasses the collaboration among academia, local as well as government bodies, and entrepreneurial ventures. In addition, a hypothetical design of a microfluidic paper-based analytical (μPADs) POC platform is proposed to detect COVID-19 analyte using unprocessed patient-derived saliva, which is a miniaturized form-factor of conventional real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. The device contains four major reaction zones, which are sample zone, buffer zone, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) Master Mix zone, Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) zone, and sensor zone. To obtain quicker test results and easier operation, a handheld image acquisition technique is introduced in this study. It is hypothesized that in a remote setting, the proposed design could be used as an initial guideline to develop a POC COVID-19 testing system, which may be simple, easy-to-use, and cost-effective., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Accurately quantifying the social distancing (SD) practice of a population is essential for governments and health agencies to better plan and adapt restrictions during a pandemic crisis. In such a scenario, the reduction of social mobility also has a significant impact on electricity consumption, since people are encouraged to stay at home and many commercial and industrial activities are reduced or even halted. This paper proposes a methodology to qualify the SD of a medium-sized city, located in the northwest of the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil, using data of electricity consumption measured by the municipality's energy utility. The methodology consists of combining a data set, and an average consumption profile of Sundays is obtained using data from 4-months, it is then defined as a high SD profile due to the typical lower social activities on Sundays. An supervised and an unsupervised artificial neural network (ANN) are trained with this profile and used to analyze electricity consumption of this city during the COVID-19 pandemic. Low, moderate, and high SD ranges are also created, and the daily population behavior is evaluated by the ANNs. The results are strongly correlated and discussed with government restrictions imposed during the analyzed period and indicate that the ANNs can correctly classify the intensity of SD practiced by people. The unsupervised ANN is used more easily and in different scenarios, so it can be indicated for use by public administration for purposes of assess the effectiveness of SD policies based on the guidelines established during the COVID-19 pandemic., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

As it is known that the whole world is battling against the Corona Virus Disease or COVID19 and trying their level best to stop the spread of this pandemic. To avoid the spread, several countries like China, Italy, Spain, America took strict measures like nationwide lockdown or by cordoning off the areas that were suspected of having risks of community spread. Taking cues from the foreign counterparts, the government of India undertook an important decision of nationwide full lockdown on March 25th which was further extended till May 4th, 2020 (47 days-full lockdown). Looking at the current situation government of India pushed the lockdown further with eased curbs, divided the nation into green, orange and red zones, rapid testing of citizens in containment area, mandatory wearing of masks and following social distancing among others. The outbreak of the pandemic, has led to the large economic shock to the world which was never been experienced since decades. Moreover it brought a great uncertainty over the world wide electricity sector as to slow down the spread of the virus, many countries have issued restrictions, including the closure of malls, educational institutions, halting trains, suspending of flights, implemented partial or full lockdowns, insisted work from home to the employees. In this paper, the impact analysis of electricity consumption of state Haryana (India) is done using machine learning conventional algorithms and artificial neural network and electricity load forecasting is done for a week so as to aid the electricity board to know the consumption of the area pre hand and likewise can restrict the electricity production as per requirement. Thus, it will help power system to secure electricity supply and scheduling and reduce wastes since electricity is difficult to store. For this the dataset from regional electricity boards of Haryana that is, Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam and Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam were analysed and electricity loads of state were predicted using python programming and as per result analysis it was observed that artificial neural network out performs conventional machine learning models., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Long-term stability and long-term performance of thermal storage media are a key issue that should be thoroughly analysed when developing storage systems. However, no testing protocol or guideline exists up to now for validating storage media, so that authors apply their own criteria, not only for designing testing procedures but also for predicting the material behaviour under long-term operation. This paper aims to cover this gap by proposing a methodology for validating thermal storage media; in particular, phase change materials (PCMs). This methodology consists of different stages that include PCM characterization, preliminary assessment tests, and accelerated life testing. For designing the accelerated life tests, lifetime relationship models have to be obtained in order to predict PCM long-term behaviour under service conditions from shorter tests performed under stress conditions. The approach followed in this methodology will be valid for materials to be used as sensible or thermochemical storage media, too., (© 2019 The Authors. International Journal of Energy Research Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)