(71a) Invited Talk - Transmission Reduction Artificial Intelligence System (TRAIS)

The 2020 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic infected millions of people across the world and is responsible for more than millions of deaths also.¹The disease is caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The mortality rate is nearly 4% for those between the ages of 60-64 years old and a striking 13.4% for those in the 80+ age group.² Clearly, SARS-CoV-2 has been a massive risk given the widespread transmission of the virus.

SARS-CoV-2 is a beta-coronavirus closely related to the previously endemic SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV, life-threatening respiratory diseases leading to pulmonary failure in patients, which caused outbreaks in Guangdong, China and Saudi Arabia, respectively.^{3, 4} To date, there is a plethora of evidence^5-10 demonstrating that SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs fundamentally from the spread of viral pathogens in the infected host’s respiratory system to other susceptible hosts in contact with droplets, aerosols and fomites.¹¹

Ninety-nine percent of aerosols produced by humans, regardless of age, sex, weight and height are less than 10 mm.^{7, 14} This is concerning since the smaller the aerosol, the longer it takes to settle and the greater the probability of being inhaled by other individuals. In a turbulent atmosphere, particles of 100 mm take 5.8 seconds to settle while 0.5 mm aerosols take 41 hours to settle.¹⁵ If aerosols contain viable pathogens, they are a threat even after settling down as they can cause objects to serve as sources of contamination.¹⁶ In case of SARS-CoV-2, the viruses can be viable on a surface for up to 3 days.¹⁷ Researchers have found SARS-CoV-2⁹ with virulent activity⁷ in collected aerosol particles from 0.2 mm to 10 mm, which is a serious concern for the spread of the disease through AC systems.⁹This groundbreaking data strongly indicates the need of SARS-CoV-2 detection in air as well as instantaneous mitigation of the air to safeguard the public and public spaces of the populations.

In this invited talk we present a Transmission Reduction Artificial intelligence (AI) System (TRAIS) for sensing, and removal of airborne particles¹⁹. The system continuously monitors aerosol particle concentrations using a prototyped Airborne Particle Sensing Module for low (0.2 - 2.5 mm) and high (2.5 - 10.0 mm) size particles. A connected mobile device with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) App turns ON the room’s Ventilation Actuator Module via external hardware that plugs into the ventilation control system for the building to carry outdoor fresh air into the room and transport the high aerosol particle air to a disinfection system with a filter. The system design conserves outstanding ventilation energy for aerosol mitigation at an estimated daily cost savings (e.g. 23-fold if system activates only once in 24 hours), allowing for data-driven approaches to reduce viral transmission in hospitals without significant increases in ventilation energy consumption.

The present talk focuses on efforts to develop the TRAIS, including the integration to its components:¹⁹ Airborne Particle Sensing Module, Artificial Intelligence (AI) App and Ventilation Actuator Module. In addition, we show how TRAIS was used to develop additional aerosol mitigation systems to safeguard the exposure to aerosols of healthcare workers in a hospital setting.

References

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[3] I A, Ysrafil: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2): An overview of viral structure and host response. Diabetes Metab Syndr 2020, 14:407-12.

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[8] Li Y, Leung GM, Tang JW, Yang X, Chao CYH, Lin JZ, Lu JW, Nielsen PV, Niu J, Qian H, Sleigh AC, Su HJJ, Sundell J, Wong TW, Yuen PL: Role of ventilation in airborne transmission of infectious agents in the built environment – a multidisciplinary systematic review. Indoor Air, International Journal of Indoor Environment and Health 2007, 17:2-18.

[9] Liu Y, Ning Z, Chen Y, Guo M, Liu YL, Gali NK, Sun L, Duan YS, Cai J, Westerdahl D, Liu XJ, Xu K, Ho KF, Kan HD, Fu QY, Lan K: Aerodynamic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in two Wuhan hospitals. Nature 2020.

[10] Tufekci Z: We Need to Talk About Ventilation. How is it that six months into a respiratory pandemic, we are still doing so little to mitigate airborne transmission? The Altantic 2020, July 30:https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/07/why-arent-we-talking-more-about-airborne-transmission/614737/?utm_source=Global+Wellness+Institute&utm_campaign=2885d9ec32-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_BRIEF_2020_8_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bbb41a322d-2885d9ec32-69722529.

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[12] Gameiro da Silva M: Research Gate. An analysis of the transmission modes of COVID-19 in light of the concepts of Indoor Air Quality, 2020, April:DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.28663.78240.

[13] Correia G, Rodrigues L, Gameiro da Silva M, Gonçalves T: Airborne route and bad use of ventilation systems as non-negligible factors in SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Med Hypotheses 2020, 141:doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2020.109781.

[14] Zayas G, Chiang MC, Wong E, MacDonald F, Lange CF, Senthilselvan A, King M: Cough aerosol in healthy participants: fundamental knowledge to optimize droplet-spread infectious respiratory disease management. Bmc Pulm Med 2012, 12.

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[16] Baron P: Generation and behavior of airborne particles. https://wwwcdcgov/niosh/topics/aerosols/pdfs/aerosol_101pdf.

[17] van Doremalen N, Bushmaker Y, Morris C, Holbrook MG, Gamble A, Williamson BN, Tamin A, Harcourt JL, Thornburg NJ, Gerber SI, Lloyd-Smith JO, de Wit E, Munster VJ: Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1. N Engl J Med 2020, 382:1564-7.

[18] Escombe A, Ticona E, Chávez-Pérez V, Espinoza M, Moore DAJ: Improving natural ventilation in hospital waiting and consulting rooms to reduce nosocomial tuberculosis transmission risk in a low resource setting. BMC Infect Dis 2019, 19:88. ublished 2019 Jan 25. doi:10.1186/s12879-019-3717-9.

[19] Forzani E, Patel B, McKay K, Pyznar G: System and method for mitigating airborne contamination in conditioned indoor environments. Provisional Patent 2020, Aug-19.