Mathematical modelling enables prediction of virus transmission risk in multi-occupant buildingsThe novel coronavirus is tiny. At just 0.12 microns across, it is less than 1/500th the width of a single human hair. It is so small that it can be carried in tiny droplets called aerosols. These are as fine as mist, and can stay aloft for hours in some indoor environments. Masks and physical distance can help prevent transmission, but we are still sorting out exactly what an airborne virus could mean for contagion.
“It’s an open question right now, because nobody knows anything about how many viral particles can people spread through breathing. But winter is coming, and we will all be locked indoors. It’s important that we understand how the disease spreads,” says Gabriel Wainer. Click here for full story |
Researchers use AI and supercomputer to identify peptide that can disrupt COVID infectionOn a molecular level, humans are susceptible to COVID-19 because a virus protein is able to bind to a human protein. If that interaction can be stopped, so could this disease. Researchers at Carleton University have synthesized a new protein that is able to do this.
Using AI and Canada’s most powerful supercomputer, Ashkan Golshani and Frank Dehne analyzed millions of possible protein interactions. They were able to predict that there would be a new type of protein that could stop the virus from infecting human cells. The researchers designed this new protein, and synthesized it. In a lab setting, it is successful at preventing coronavirus infection with an efficacy of 75 per cent. Click here for full story |
Ventilation systems can help limit virus transmission in indoor environmentsThe primary purpose of heating and cooling systems in commercial buildings is temperature control. They control the flow of air, but they were not designed to limit the spread of an airborne virus.
“COVID-19 moves quite differently in indoor environments than it does outdoors,” says Burak Gunay an Assistant Professor of Building Science. “Staying two metres apart might be adequate in outdoors, but might not be in a commercial building. We are trying to understand the deficiencies of common heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) configurations in delivering and maintaining sufficient indoor air quality. Click here for full story |
Contact tracing app tracks potential exposure, but preserves privacy“It’s like contact tracing, but without data collection,” says Wei Shi.
The app that Shi has created transmits an encrypted message that is received by nearby phones. The only information included in this message is the date and time. There is no GPS or location data, and no information about a person’s identity or phone number. This message is transmitted directly between cellular phones using their built-in Bluetooth technology. “Many of the contact-tracing systems used in other countries collect your whereabouts and analyze this data at a central server to determine who could have been infected,” says Shi. Click here for full story |
Surface plasmon resonance sensors could enable faster COVID testingAs the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe, the spread of the disease far outpaced our ability to recognize it with testing, and many jurisdictions struggled to understand exactly how widespread the virus was.
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing methods that are widely used to test for the virus are highly accurate, but the process can be cumbersome. Samples must be sent to a central lab to be prepared and tested with specialized reagents and equipment, and it can take days to obtain results. But emerging testing technologies promise to help us test samples more quickly – and ensure we have a better understanding of the extent of future outbreaks. Click here for full story |
PPE decontamination could help ease supply chain strainAs though the spectre of a deadly disease quietly spreading through our communities wasn’t enough, a widespread shortage of masks, gloves and face shields added uncertainty to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We weren’t sure if we were going to have enough N95 masks to protect our health care workers, if there was a huge flood of coronavirus cases,” says Alex Wong, an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology. “We didn’t have a big enough stockpile, and the whole world was asking for N95 masks at the exact same time.” Click here for full story |
3D building models enable advanced, predictive modelling of COVID-19 transmissionThe amount of time we spend puzzling over exponential growth curves has increased, well, exponentially.
But the COVID-19 models shown at daily press briefings have their limits. As we move from containing the virus to managing it, other modelling techniques could help identify outbreaks before they occur, and limit the damage they cause. “Most COVID-19 models have been built to answer a specific question — how do we flatten the curve? This is a major problem we need to attack, because if we don’t control the number of cases, the health care system will be overwhelmed,” says Dr. Gabriel Wainer. Click here for full story |
Sentiment analysis AI can recognize the public's needs and concerns in real time“Sentiment analysis is a very powerful tool,” says Dr. Mohamed Ibnkahla,
“We are able to detect what is happening in real time. Do people need food? Do they need medication? Do people have COVID-19 symptoms, but are not going to the hospital?” Since January, Ibnkahla and his team have been using sentiment analysis to monitor social media in Ottawa. This technique uses an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to analyze the text of social media posts, and identify people’s concerns and the sources of their anxiety. Click here for full story |
Refugee-led organizations fight disinformation in Kakuma and Dadaab refugee campsCOVID-19 closed planet Earth, bringing an era of unprecedented international mobility to a sudden halt. Borders were shut, fleets of aircraft were parked, and entire cities stood still. Everyone was impacted, some more acutely than others.
“International humanitarian organizations are faced with limited mobility. They can’t reach refugees because of shelter-in-place orders,” says James Milner, project director of LERRN: The Local Engagement Refugee Research Network. “In the Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps in northern Kenya, there is fear and uncertainty. There is a lack of information, and programming has been shut down. Click here for full story |
Peptide treatments could inhibit inflammatory COVID responsesTreatments for COVID-19 can help us manage the pandemic, even without a vaccine. Bioinformatics researchers are using artificial intelligence to identify the protein interactions that could be responsible for COVID-19’s most severe symptoms, and developing peptide-based anti-viral treatments that prevent them from occurring.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus only has 29 proteins, but the human body has as many as 20,000. That makes for hundreds of thousands of possible interspecies protein-protein interactions, and it is beyond the capacity of humans to efficiently analyze all of them. James Green is using computational techniques to identify which of these interactions could be causing COVID-19’s most severe symptoms. Click here for full text |
Drone decontamination aims to stop spread to remote communitiesDrones can deliver cargo to places that other aircraft can’t reach – like a remote worksite on a rugged mountainside, or a community that has lost its road access. But these types of locations are also far removed from medical facilities, and a COVID-19 outbreak at a remote location could be especially difficult to manage.
Decontaminating a drone with disinfectants is a possible solution, but drones haven’t been designed to withstand common cleaning chemicals. “On large passenger aircraft, there are protocols for disinfection and cleaning,” says Jeremy Laliberté, "but historically there has not been a lot of disinfection on drones and small planes. We are heading into potentially new territory Click here for full text |
COVID telecommuting is changing profile of daily home energy useThe office workers of the world deserted their cubicles, almost in unison. And if they forgot to shut down their computer on their way out the door, it could very well still be running. The pandemic changed almost every aspect our daily lives, so it is no surprise that the way we are using electricity is different than it was before.
“Home energy use has increased significantly, and the pattern of use is also different,” says Liam O'Brien, an Associate Professor in Architectural Conservation and Sustainability Engineering. O’Brien is working with Ottawa Hydro and Ottawa Community Housing to identify changes in the profile of demand in the city, with a focus on how telework impacts patterns of household demand. Click here for full text |