Team:NEYCFLS China/Human Practices
- Background—What are Viruses?
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A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Unlike the organisms that we usually refer to (humans, plants, bacteria etc.), viruses do not have a cell structure, and they only contain a protein shell, and viral DNA or RNA. As simple as they are, viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth and are the most numerous type of biological entity. Viruses are named based on their genetic structure to facilitate the development of diagnostic tests, vaccines and medicines. Virologists and the wider scientific community do this work, so viruses are named by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV). Diseases are named to enable discussion on disease prevention, spread, transmissibility, severity and treatment. Human disease preparedness and response is WHO’s role, so diseases are officially named by WHO in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). For example, the current epidemic COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2.
- Covid-19 Infection and Deaths (Including World Diagram)
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From the beginning of 2020 till now, Covid-19 has been spreading and showing us its impact on people’s livelihoods and health.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a dramatic loss of human life worldwide and presents an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and the world of work.
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The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating: tens of millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty, while the number of undernourished people, currently estimated at nearly 690 million, could increase by 132 million by the end of the year, according to ILO, FAO, IFAD and WHO.
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It is not only about poverty and loss in business, it can largely affect our health and trigger numerous illnesses even after recovery. According to the NHS, the symptom of COVID could be a high temperature, a new and continuous coughing and a loss to our smell and taste at the beginning, and may eventually develop into hypopnea and lead to death caused by insufficient oxygen.
- Different Respiratory Viruses and their Impact on Humans
- SARS-Cov
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Originated Guangzhou, China 2002, lasted until 2003. Symptoms include fever, headache, coughing, and weakness. Patients recovered from SARS may be unable to carry out physical labor, and some might never be able to walk again, not to mention mental health damage.
- Influenza Virus (IV)
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Has many forms and varieties (influenza A, B, C, and D virus), can be caught by humans and some animals. Symptoms include fever, muscle pain, weakness and respiratory symptoms. Given its nature, influenza virus catches on and spreads quickly, causing worldwide damage and deaths (mostly IA, which mutates and spreads rapidly). p.s. IA: mutates rapidly (caused between 200,000,000 to 400,000,000 deaths during the outbreak of 1918-1919)
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IB: Has high probability of infection, but has not yet caused world-wide pandemic.
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IC: Mild symptoms, but not very serious
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ID: The latest one to cause a worldwide pandemic, which died down in 1949
- MERS-Cov
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HOriginated 2012, last diagnosed 2018. Symptoms include fever, shivering, coughing, difficulty breathing, muscle pain, and nausea. Patients recovered from this virus face similar sequelas as those recovered from SARS.
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In general, viruses affect global economy, damage the physical and mental health of people, and can destroy plants, animals, and microorganisms.
- Importance of Masks
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COVID-19 spreads mainly from person to person through respiratory droplets. Respiratory droplets travel into the air when you cough, sneeze, talk, shout, or sing. These droplets can then land in the mouths or noses of people who are near you or they may breathe these droplets in.
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Masks are vital in preventing the virus from spreading, and many studies have proven this to be true. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that face masks are “the most effective means to prevent interhuman transmission,” an inexpensive bulwark that, when combined with physical distancing, quarantine and contact tracing, is “the most likely fighting opportunity to stop the COVID-19 pandemic” absent an effective vaccine or drug therapy. The study, by Renyi Zhang of Texas A&M University, and colleagues, looked at outbreaks of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China; in northern Italy; and in New York from Jan. 23 to May 9. They concluded that “the difference with and without mandated face covering represents the determinant in shaping the pandemic trends in the three epicenters.” Face masks alone “significantly reduced the number of infections… by over 78,000 in Italy from April 6 to May 9 and over 66,000 in New York City from April 17 to May 9.” By studying pandemic trends, they concluded that the other measures — distancing, isolation and contact tracing — must be accompanied by face masks to really make a difference.
- Different Types of Masks
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Masks can be classified into three major categories. With cloth masks being the least protective and N95 protection masks being the most effective at keeping out pathogens.
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Cloth Masks can be made from a variety of fabrics and many types of cloth masks are available. The masks that are worn should have multiple layers of tightly woven, breathable fabric, and fabric that blocks light when held up to bright light source.
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Disposable face masks are widely available; they are sometimes referred to as surgical masks or medical procedure masks and are made of multiple layers of non-woven material.
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According to CDC, there are multiple ways to have better fit and extra protection with cloth and disposable masks, including wear two masks (disposable mask underneath AND cloth mask on top), combining either a cloth mask or disposable mask with a fitter or brace, or tucking ear loops of a 3-ply mask where they join the edge of the mask.
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Another class of masks are respirators. Some respirators are designed and tested to meet international standards. These respirators are labeled to tell you what standard they meet. Respirators approved by NIOSH are evaluated by NIOSH against a specific US standard that includes a quality requirement.
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NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) approves many types of filtering facepiece respirators. The most widely available are N95, but other types (N99, N100, P95, P99, P100, R95, R99, and R100) offer the same or better protection as an N95. N95s filter up to 95% of particles in the air and proper fit can be achieved, they may feel harder to breathe through than a cloth mask, and unfortunately, they are usually more expensive than regular surgical masks.
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- How Masks Work
- The main structure of medical masks.
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Surgical masks belong to the second class of medical devices, most of which are self-priming filter masks. Its working principle is to make the air containing harmful substances filtered through the filter material of medical masks and then inhaled or exhaled by people. The standard surgical mask is divided into three layers:
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1. Blue non-woven fabric (outside): The outer layer is a water barrier layer made of waterproof non-woven fabric, which can block the splashing liquid.
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2. Melt Blown Filter fabric: The middle layer is a filter layer, which is the cores of the mask, with goof filtering, shielding, heat insulating and oil absorbing.
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3. White non-woven fabric (inside): The inner layer is a water absorbing layer, which can absorb the moisture of the wearer's mouth and nose.
- Melt Blown Filter Fabric.
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Of the three layers, the one that plays the most important role in preventing bacteria from entering the body is the second layer, the melt-blown layer, this is a kind of fabric with highly fibrotic and self-bonding fiber mesh formed by blowing molten thermoplastic resin from an extruder die tip onto a conveyor or take-up screen with high-velocity airflow. This process allows the fabric to have a fine fibrous structure like the one below. (the fibers are 0.5 to 10 microns in diameter)
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This network allows melt-blown fabrics to mechanically trap airborne particles, like non-woven fabrics made of glass and cellulose fabrics, for example:
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Inertial Impaction: When the particle is close to the collector, its action track will start to change direction and move away from the collector. At this time, the particle will break away from the airflow due to inertia and impact the filter fiber according to its original action track, and will be absorbed by molecular gravity (easy to capture high density, fast speed, large particles)
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Interception: The large particles that follow the cyclone fitness exercise are intercepted by the microporous filtering effect of the mechanical equipment that filters the raw materials (easy to catch particles with diameters larger than fiber diameters
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Diffusion: The Brownian motion of the particles diffuses and shifts to the filter fiber, and is absorbed by the attractive effect of the molecular structure (easy to capture low speed, small particles). PP fiber, meanwhile, has high resistance and do not absorb moisture from the environment to maintain the stability of the electronic charge, so can pass for melt-blown fabric in very processing to make it "recharge" and rely on the electrostatic force appealed directly to the charged particles in the air and to capture it, or inducing the neutral particles in the air to produce polarity to capture it again, thus significantly improving filtration efficiency without increasing respiratory resistance.
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- Corona Discharge.
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The most common electret treatment is corona discharge, corona discharge refers to the asymmetric electrode (points or lines) and plate or high enough voltage applied between the cylinder and ionization part will be restricted in point and line with producing the ion, these high-speed particles and the neutral molecules collide in the air, then produce more ions The ions themselves do not penetrate the fabric which is wrapped around the plate or cylinder, but instead transfer the charge they carry to the surface. These charges are either deposited on the surface of the melt-blown fabric or injected and trapped in charge traps, resulting in an electrostatic field in the melt-blown fabric.
- Electret Masterbatch.
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In addition to the electric discharge on the melt-blown cloth, electret masterbatch particles (such as tourmaline) are also added to it. The electret masterbatch particles can increase the density and depth of the charge trap in the melt-blown non-woven fabric mentioned above, so that the captured charge is in a lower energy state, making it difficult for the charge to leave the trap. In this way, melt-blown non-woven products with the same weight can further reduce the resistance of non-woven products, improve the filtration efficiency of non-woven products, and slow down the decline of electret charge to extend the validity of masks.
- Shortcomings.
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Although the initial filtration performance of melt-blown cloth treated by electret process and electret masterbatch is very good, as more and more dust, bacteria and viruses in the air are captured and neutralized by the charge of the melt-blown layer, the electrostatic effect will gradually weaken. As this happens, the charge of the Meanwhile, it is also greatly affected by air humidity, which will lead to charge dissipation. This is why surgical masks should be changed every 4 to 6 hours and should not be reused after washing.
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A thorough and meticulous analysis about the questionnaire which was designed by our team. Recently, news have exaggerated the seriousness of covid-19, some low-risks cities and rural areas are formulated to become medium risk or high risk areas. Nevertheless, other regions may deceive their pandemic situations. Therefore, our investigation result is more reliable and precise to reflect the severity of covid-19 pandemic.
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We advertise this questionnaire by putting an advertisement in the IGEM page after connecting to IGEM HQ. We invite members from high-school and university groups in order to maintain the diversity and accuracy of our final conclusion.
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Therefore, we want to:
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1. Get a true understanding of the epidemic situation in each region of China through the questionnaire.
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2. Assess the amount of Nano Silver and Indigo in one mask based on people’s expectation of this anti-virus mask.
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3. People’s consciousness of safeguarding their health condition during covid-19 pandemic in different regions to decide which region should be most advertised to use our new mask.
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4. Find out people’s acceptance of our product: Will they buy the masks if the price is higher than average?This is the question of the greatest concern. After designing the mask model, we want to put the theory into practice, applying them to epidemic areas.
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Designed for people residing in Chinese mainland
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1. Where are you from?
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75% of the people surveyed are from Liaoning, China.
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The rest 25% are mostly from Jiangsu and Beijing, China.
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2. What is the status of the epidemic in your area?
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93.8% surveyed are from areas of low risk, and 5% from medium risk areas, which suggest that China’s pandemic situation is mostly under control.
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3. How often do you wear a mask?
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56.58% surveyed wear masks every day, and 20% of people wear masks all the time, which suggests a high demand in general for masks domestically. However, there are still nearly 20% of people who only wear masks when they are required to in enclosed environments. To raise awareness for the necessity of masks, our team held a lecture in our high school about the importance of masks.
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4. What do you pay attention to when buying masks?
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From the survey’s result we received, the physics group found that the number of people who put more attention on the protectiveness of the mask is twice as much as other items. Therefore, through our previous study, in order to combine our tie-dyeing process with the antibacterial principle of traditional masks, research on the physical structure and function of masks becomes the priority of our group, especially the part of keeping high protective properties of masks.
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Therefore, our group made an in-depth study on the working principle of mask protection, the manufacturing materials, and diverse functions of different layers. On the basis of not destroying the original structure, we will apply tie-dyeing technology to the production of masks, combining with the research results of the chemical group.
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In addition to the importance of protection, we found that people also put their attention on the attractive appearance of the mask. Thus, our tie-dyeing mask can be quite appealing to the public because of its novel and creative exterior. Moreover, there are not many people who are obsessed with the price, which means that we may not need to struggle with reducing the cost and low the quality of patterns that form on the outer layer of the mask. This also allows us to keep the uniqueness and culture value of our products as much as possible.
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5. How much RMB do you think 100 surgical masks are worth (Rough estimate, plz do not look up on the internet)
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On average, people think 100 surgical masks are worth 0.62 dollars. Our modeling teams have used these statistics to assess the amount of indigo and silver, therefore find a balance between the price and the performance.
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6. Types of tie-dye products you have bought (multiple choice)
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Please illustrate your idea and the knowledge of the tie-dye industry.
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A majority of Chinese people have bought tie-dyed products, over half of our participants have bought tie-dyed clothes. 30 percent of the crowd haven’t bought tie-dyed products. This feedback has brought us confidence that most people have accepted and appreciated tie-dyed products including clothes, cloth of different textures, dolls and masks.
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However, people outside of China don’t exactly know the traditional Chinese tie-dye process and its relevant products. We designed promotion steps and implementation methods.
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For the comprehensiveness of the findings, we also received survey results from participants in the US, Canada, Finland, France, Russia, and many other countries. The results showed that 30% of people had bought tie dyeing related products, and almost all of those products were clothes. The survey results related to Covid-19 showed that most of the respondents were in areas with high risk of the epidemic. 80% of the respondents think that the protection of masks is the most important, 15% of them considered price, and 5% considered the beauty.
- How HP Has Affected the Entire Project (Integrated Human Practices)
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How are human practice has affected our project in various different ways. Firstly, and most importantly, our HP work on Covid-19 led us to come up with the idea of using ANTI-Virus on masks to fight the virus and other pathogens transmitting using similar methods. When our human practice team learned that surgical masks how do you special properties on its second layer, those that could be affected by modifications on the other two layers, we chose to keep the second layer intact, and work only on our first layers.
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During the month of April, while we were at a loss of what to do for iGEM 2021, our human practice team found out that the major defect of any surgical mask was that bacteria and viruses on the first layer could stay on that layer for a long time, and when conditions are right, they could cause sicknesses. In fact, this was the most crucial information in this year's project. Because of this piece of info, we were able to come up with an idea of dyeing our cloths to disinfect the first layer and make these cloths somewhat reusable. Without this, NEYCFLS_China would just be a team unable to accomplish…nothing.
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According to our survey, the maximum price that we were allowed to put on every mask was 4 Chinese yuan. This our computer models computed the maximum effective that we could get using 4 yuan, and returned the masses of AgNP and indigo we should use to get the max efficiency.
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In our survey with the artisan Zhao Xu, we learned that indigo was most likely the dye component that was responsible for all of the vibrant colors. If we didn't have this piece of information, we will be checking for other naturally blue compounds like Persian blue, or Egyptian blue. Extracting a single compound from a mixture of who knows how many compounds usually takes a long time, and NMR and IR tests aren’t cheap at all.
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