Search

Aim: In this community trial, the objective was to evaluate the incidence of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) cases in two similar communities in three distinct phases: 1 (before the intervention), 2 (during the intervention), and 3 (after the intervention). Methods: The test community received the oral antiseptic intervention (experimental), while the control community did not. The official information agency ("Statewise System for Data Analysis") provided the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Data were analyzed according to the three phases per epidemiological week (epi) using the R Core Team (2021) program. The relative risk and 95% confidence intervals between the cumulative incidence values of the test and control communities were calculated for each period. In the test community, a total of 995 residents over 10 years of age received two bottles containing 600 ml of mouthwash containing antiviral phthalocyanine derivative (APD). The participants were asked to gargle/rinse with of 5 mL of the mouthwash containing ADP 3 to 5 times a day, for 1 min, until the bottles were empty. Results: In phases 1 and 3, the disease risk between the two communities did not differ significantly (p>0.05), while in phase 2, the disease risk was 54% lower in the test community than in the control community. Conclusion: The use of the APD mouthwash protocol seems to reduce the COVID-19 incidence at the population level, and further studies are needed to confirm its protective effect under more precisely controlled conditions. Zielsetzung: In einer Bevölkerungsstudie sollte das Auftreten von COVID-19 in zwei vergleichbaren Gemeinden in drei verschiedenen Phasen untersucht werden: Phase 1 vor, Phase 2 während und Phase 3 nach der Intervention.Methode: Die Testpopulation erhielt die orale antiseptische Intervention, die Kontrollpopulation dagegen nicht. Die amtliche Informationsstelle lieferte die Zahl der bestätigten COVID-19 Fälle. Die Daten wurden entsprechend den drei Phasen pro epidemiologischer Woche (epi) mit dem Programm R Core Team (2021) analysiert. Das relative Risiko und die 95%-Konfidenzintervalle zwischen den kumulativen Inzidenzwerten der Test- und Kontrollpopulation wurden für jeden Zeitraum berechnet. In der Testpopulation erhielten 995 Einwohner im Alter >10 Jahre zwei Flaschen mit je 600 ml Mundwasser mit Gehalt an dem antiviralen Phthalocyanin-Derivat (APD). Die Teilnehmer wurden gebeten, 3 bis 5 Mal täglich 1 min lang mit 5 ml des Mundwassers zu gurgeln/zu spülen, bis die Flaschen aufgebraucht sind. Ergebnisse: In den Phasen 1 und 3 unterschied sich das Erkrankungsrisiko zwischen den beiden Bevölkerungsstichproben nicht signifikant (p>0,05), während in Phase 2 das Erkrankungsrisiko in der Testpopulation 54% niedriger war als in der Kontrollpopulation.Schlussfolgerung: Das viruzide APD-Mundspülprotokoll scheint die COVID-19-Inzidenz auf Bevölkerungsebene zu verringern, jedoch sind weitere Studien erforderlich, um die Schutzwirkung unter genauer kontrollierten Bedingungen zu bestätigen.

The use of artificial neural networks in various applications related with energy management in buildings has been increasing significantly over the recent years. In this chapter, the design of inside air temperature predictive neural network models, to be used for predictive thermal comfort control, is discussed. The design is based on the joint use of multi-objective genetic (MOGA) algorithms, for selecting the network structure and the network inputs, and a derivative algorithm, for parameter estimation. Climate and environmental data from a secondary school located in the south of Portugal, collected by a remote data acquisition system, are used to generate the models. By using a sliding window adaptive methodology, the good results obtained off-line are extended throughout the whole year.