Smartphone-Based Self-Testing of COVID-19 Using Breathing Sounds

Telemedicine could be a key to control the world-wide disruptive and spreading novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The COVID-19 virus directly targets the lungs, leading to pneumonia-like symptoms and shortness of breath with life-threatening consequences. Despite the fact that self-quarantine and social distancing are indispensable during the pandemic, the procedure for testing COVID-19 contraction is conventionally available through nasal swabs, saliva test kits, and blood work at healthcare settings. Therefore, devising personalized self-testing kits for COVID-19 virus and other similar viruses is heavily admired. Many e-health initiatives have been made possible by the advent of smartphones with embedded software, hardware, high-performance computing, and connectivity capabilities. A careful review of breathing sounds and their implications in identifying breathing complications suggests that the breathing sounds of COVID-19 contracted users may reveal certain acoustic signal patterns, which is worth investigating. To this end, acquiring respiratory data solely from breathing sounds fed to the smartphone's microphone strikes as a very appealing resolution. The acquired breathing sounds can be analyzed using advanced signal processing and analysis in tandem with new deep/machine learning and pattern recognition techniques to separate the breathing phases, estimate the lung volume, oxygenation, and to further classify the breathing data input into healthy or unhealthy cases. The ideas presented have the potential to be deployed as self-test breathing monitoring apps for the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, where users can check their breathing sound pattern frequently through the app.http://doi.org.libproxy.bridgeport.edu/10.1089/tmj.2020.011

Compilation of Diversity Factors and Schedules for Energy and Cooling Load Calculations, ASHRAE Research Project 1093, Preliminary Report, Literature Review and Database Search

In this report we describe the related literature for the ASHRAE 1093-RP project. To accomplish this we have divided the previous works into three categories: (1) existing literature on diversity factor and load shape calculations, (2) literature that reports on existing databases of monitored data in the U.S. and Europe, and (3) relevant studies about classifications of commercial buildings. In the literature on diversity factors and load shapes, we covered papers reporting the existence of databases of monitored end-uses in commercial building, methods used in developing the daytypes and load shapes, and what classification schemes were used in the commercial building sector. We report the names of the scholars and energy analysts whom we contacted in the U.S. and Europe, that provided detailed information (in a tabulated format) on existing databases on monitored end-uses in commercial buildings in the U.S. Finally, we summarize the classification schemes of the commercial building sector that are reported in national standards and codes.In this report, the first report for the ASHRAE 1093-RP project, we present: (1) our extended literature search of methods used to derive load shapes and diversity factors in the U.S. and Europe, (2) a survey of available databases of monitored commercial end-use electrical data in the U.S. and Europe, and (3) a review of classification schemes of the commercial building stock listed in national standards and codes, and reported by researchers and utility projects. The findings in this preliminary report will help us in performing the next steps of the project where we will identify and test appropriate daytyping methods on relevant monitored data sets of lighting and equipment (and other surrogates for occupancy) to develop a library of diversity factors and schedules for use in energy and cooling load simulations. The goal of this project is to compile a library of schedules and diversity factors for energy and cooling load calculations in various types of indoor office environments in the U.S. and Europe. Two sets of diversity factors, one for peak cooling load calculations and one for energy calculations will be developed

Compilation of Diversity Factors and Schedules for Energy and Cooling Load Calculations, Phase II Report - Identified Relevant Data Sets, Methods, and Variability Analysis

This is the second report of the ASHRAE 1093-RP project that reports on the progress during the scheduled Phase II effort. In this report, we present: (1) the data sets identified and acquired required for the analysis; (2) the method adopted for classifying the Office building categories; (3) the relevant methods for daytyping necessary for creating the typical load shapes for energy and cooling load calculation; (4) the relevant robust variability (uncertainty) analysis; (5) typical load shapes reported in the literature; (6) a test to assure the non-weather dependency (seasonal variation) of the lighting and equipment data sets; and (7) a proposed occupancy surrogate variable. The results obtained during Phase II will enable us to proceed with Phase III, as planned. Phase III will cover: (1) developing the typical load shapes for the acquired data sets, using the proposed method, for both energy and cooling load calculations; (2) developing the tool-kit for deriving the new diversity factors and general guidelines for their use; and (3) developing illustrative examples of the use of the diversity factors in the DOE-2 and BLAST simulation programs

Data Visualization for Quality-Check Purposes of Monitored Electricity Consumption in All Office Buildings in the ESL Database

A total of 44 "pure" Office buildings in the database at the Energy Systems Laboratory, was identified. Other office buildings comprising classrooms and laboratories - typical case of educational buildings, for instance the University of Texas - Austin, and TAMU buildings) - are not included in this report. The report is organized in a specific format; for each site, we included: (1) the contact name for the site, the facility's name, square footage, the starting date of the monitoring (information obtained with the "listsite" commend in the database, (2) the site description that is typically included in the Annual Energy Consumption Reports (AECR) and the Monthly Energy Consumption Reports (MECR), (3) the cover page of each site in the MECR showing savings and comments, (4) a sample of the monthly energy consumption for each site (from the MECR), including time series, scatter plots, and 3-D plots of the energy use, which give a preliminary insight into the energy performance of each building, (5) long-term time series (the whole available data) of the Whole Building Electricity (WBE) consumption, and the Motor Control Center (MCC) consumption whenever available, and (6) short-term time series (one year) of the Whole Building Electricity (WBE) consumption, and the Motor Control Center (MCC) consumption whenever available. The one-year hourly time series, is usually sufficient for most of the application (baselining, saving calculation, establishment of EUI's, development of Typical Load Shapes, etc).This report comprises an effort to visualize the monitored electricity consumption in all office buildings (not including the office buildings comprising other functions as classrooms and laboratories, for instance) in the ESL database. This data visualization, basically long-term and short-term time series plots serves as a preliminary quality check of the data available. A preliminary inspection of the data was performed, by viewing the channels to provide a clear identification of creep, missing data gaps, turned-off periods, and sudden big changes that suggest changes in the building operation or an addition to the building

Compilation of Diversity Factors and Schedules for Energy and Cooling Load Calculations, ASHRAE Research Project 1093, Phase III Draft Report, Compilation of Diversity Factors and Load Shapes

During this phase of the project, we finalized the daytyping method to be followed, and started processing the data sets previously approved by the PMSC. So far, we processed a total of 23 buildings (ESL). The final product will include typical load shapes and diversity factors from 27 Office Buildings monitored by ESL and 9 Office Buildings provided by LBNL (Energy-Edge Buildings). If time allows, we will process 28 additional buildings provided to us by PNNL. These additional buildings were monitored under the ELCAP project. We prepared typical templates (with Microsoft Word) to describe each building along with the corresponding results of the analysis. Mr. Micheal Witte, from Gard Analytics, helped us in writing the BLAST input files, and he also automated the procedure of copying the results from EXCEL to the WORD templates. Table 4 shows the final set of buildings that are currently analysed.This is a draft of the Final Report in the ASHRAE RP-1093 project that, first summarizes the work completed during the scheduled Phase I and Phase II (presented to the PMSC in Seattle - June 1999, and Dallas February 2000), and reports on the progress during the scheduled Phase III effort (Table 1). It should be noted that the PMSC approved a one-year extension after the May-2000-Completion-date noted in Table 1. Tables 2 and 3 show the buildings that were approved by the PMSC in previous meetings

Compilation of Diversity Factors and Schedules for Energy and Cooling Load Calculations, ASHRAE Research Project 1093-RP, Final Report

In this report a day-typing method that uses a percentile analysis is described. In the percentile analysis the 50th percentile was used to calculate the diversity factors and the typical hourly load shapes; other statistics are reported as well, including: the mean, the mean plus or minus one standard deviation, and the 10th, 25th, 75th, and 90th percentiles. This percentile calculation has been codified into a MS Excel spreadsheet that can be used for analyzing up to one year of hourly data in the proper format. A table of comparative EUIs and a summary of the results have also been included to facilitate easier comparison of the profiles. In general the method divides the year into weekday and weekends; allowing the user to include or remove holidays as needed. The spreadsheet then produces three forms of output; a) tabular output describing the statistics of the diversity profiles that are developed, b) graphical output of the diversity profiles, and c) ready-to-use input files for the DOE-2, BLAST and EnergyPlus simulation programs. Electronic copies of all the diversity factor profiles in this report are provided in the accompanying CDROM as part of the MS Word file.This is the final report for the ASHRAE 1093-RP project. This report presents the method used to derive the diversity factors and typical load shapes of lighting and receptacle loads in office buildings. In this report the results of the application of the diversity factor calculations are applied to the data collected for this project. The buildings analyzed for this report consisted of office buildings monitored by the ESL, and office buildings provided by the LBNL

Energy Analysis, Baselining and Modeling of Prairie View A&M University

The thermal metering installations in 29 buildings were inspected. They were generally found to be in good condition, with a flow meter and the two required temperature sensors installed in the hot water and chilled water lines. However, in 14 of the installations, it was observed that either the hot water flow meter or the chilled water flow meter was located so close to a bend, valve, or other obstruction in the line that substantial errors in the flow (and Btu) readings are likely. In five of the buildings, both the hot water and chilled water flow meters were located too close to obstructions. Only 10 buildings had both flow meters placed properly. Temperature sensors were generally placed properly, although it was not possible to locate five (of 58) sensors to verify proper placement, and two others were located in the air handler piping rather than in the main building chilled and hot water lines.Analysis of the available data found that electricity savings in the J.B. Coleman Library for June - September, 1998 were 298 MWh, or 38% of the baseline consumption during these months. Extrapolation of these savings to a full year leads would result in savings of 894 MWh/year. This would result in annual electricity cost savings of $42,500 at the average cost of$0.0475/kWh which was paid by the University for the period October, 1997 - September, 1998. Smaller savings were expected in chilled water, but were not evident in the data available. Likewise, no significant increase in hot water use was observed during the June - September period analyzed

The path forward in Alzheimer's disease therapeutics: Reevaluating the amyloid cascade hypothesis

Development of disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) has been challenging, with no drugs approved to date. The failures of several amyloid-targeted programs have led many to dismiss the amyloid beta (Aβ) hypothesis of AD. An antiamyloid antibody aducanumab recently showed modest but significant efficacy in a phase 3 trial, providing important validation of amyloid as a therapeutic target. However, the inconsistent results observed with aducanumab may be explained by the limited brain penetration and lack of selectivity for the soluble Aβ oligomers, which are implicated as upstream drivers of neurodegeneration by multiple studies. Development of agents that can effectively inhibit Aβ oligomer formation or block their toxicity is therefore warranted. An ideal drug would cross the blood-brain barrier efficiently and achieve sustained brain levels that can continuously prevent oligomer formation or inhibit their toxicity. A late-stage candidate with these attributes is ALZ-801, an oral drug with a favorable safety profile and high brain penetration that can robustly inhibit Aβ oligomer formation. An upcoming phase 3 trial with ALZ-801 in APOE4/4 homozygous patients with early AD will effectively test this amyloid oligomer hypothesis

A study of pressure losses in residential air distribution systems

An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the pressure drop characteristics of residential duct system components that are either not available or not thoroughly (sometimes incorrectly) described in existing duct design literature. The tests were designed to imitate cases normally found in typical residential and light commercial installations. The study included three different sizes of flexible ducts, under different compression configurations, splitter boxes, supply boots, and a fresh air intake hood. The experimental tests conformed to ASHRAE Standard 120P--''Methods of Testing to Determine Flow Resistance of HVAC Air Ducts and Fittings''. The flexible duct study covered compressibility and bending effects on the total pressure drop, and the results showed that the available published references tend to underestimate the effects of compression in flexible ducts that can increase pressure drops by up to a factor of nine. The supply boots were tested under different configurations including a setup where a flexible duct elbow connection was considered as an integral part of the supply boot. The supply boots results showed that diffusers can increase the pressure drop by up to a factor of two in exit fittings, and the installation configuration can increase the pressure drop by up to a factor of five. The results showed that it is crucial for designers and contractors to be aware of the compressibility effects of the flexible duct, and the installation of supply boots and diffusers

A Study of Pressure Losses in Residential Air Distribution Systems

An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the pressure drop characteristics of residential duct system components that are either not available or not thoroughly (sometimes incorrectly) described in existing duct design literature. The tests were designed to imitate cases normally found in typical residential and light commercial installations. The study included three different sizes of flexible ducts, under different compression configurations, splitter boxes, supply boots, and a fresh air intake hood. The experimental tests conformed to ASHRAE Standard 120P--''Methods of Testing to Determine Flow Resistance of HVAC Air Ducts and Fittings''. The flexible duct study covered compressibility and bending effects on the total pressure drop, and the results showed that the available published references tend to underestimate the effects of compression in flexible ducts that can increase pressure drops by up to a factor of nine. The supply boots were tested under different configurations including a setup where a flexible duct elbow connection was considered as an integral part of the supply boot. The supply boots results showed that diffusers can increase the pressure drop by up to a factor of two in exit fittings, and the installation configuration can increase the pressure drop by up to a factor of five. The results showed that it is crucial for designers and contractors to be aware of the compressibility effects of the flexible duct, and the installation of supply boots and diffusers