April 23, 2020 | Adamas University

Temporary Treatment Centre for COVID-19 using Modular Construction

Dr. T. Senthil Vadivel & K. Narasinga Rao

Professor & Head / Civil Engineering, School of Engineering & Technology, Adamas University, Kolkata – 700126.

General Manager – Head Engineering, Volta Green Structures, Hyderabad – 500 084.

Preamble:

It is expected that in India lockdown going to be extend up to 1^st Week of May 2020 to flatten the curve but anyway some limited relaxation will be given in the urban centres and rural areas to help the poor and supporting former to harvest Rabi Crop. Since COVID-19 is a communicable disease, once relaxation started in practice then it is essential to be ready with enough healthcare facilities especially infrastructure with more quarantine facilities, isolation wards and testing laboratories as soon as possible. On a lighter note, this is the first time that the entire world inspired by a Civil Engineers’ medicine (i.e.) “Stay at Home”.

Solution: Modular Construction:

The modern construction industry provides an apt solution for planning temporary treatment centre by a novel construction technique known as Modular Construction. These structures can be built fast, can be modified as per the requirement and even be transported to places where the necessity pertains.

Modular Buildings:

Modular buildings are produced by pre-engineered building units in factory with different units and assembled in the site. The following steps involved in the construction of Modular Buildings.

Unit Fabrication: Hot Rolled and Light Gauge Steel Frame (LGSF) Unit is used for this fabrication. Hot rolling is for shaping and LGSF is made up of galvanized iron steel by cold forming process. These sections are called as Studs and Tracks.
Framing: Stud is the main framing component and Track is used as a closure. Based on these different framings like Walls, Floors, Doors and Windows are framed.

Fig. 1 Hot Rolled Steel Assembly

Fig. 2 Hot Rolled & LGSF Infill Assembly

MEP Fixture: After framing essential Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Units are incorporated.
Exterior & Interior: Fixing of Wall Panels, Floor Panels and Deck Sheets will be carried out based on the requirements. Since it going to be serves the needs of hospital, essential health care unit requirements need to be taken care of.

Fig. 3 Exterior View

Fig. 4 Interior View

Transporting & Assembling: Once all ready the units can be taken to the site and assembled like a puzzle to produce a Modular Buildings.

Fig. 5 Transporting & Assembling

Fig. 6 3D View of Isolation Room

Fig. 7 3D View of Quarantine Ward

Why Modular Building?

Low cost and can be constructed rapidly.
Flexible construction and it is completely reusable.
High strength and light in weight. Hence it is earthquake resistant.
It provides more carpet area since the thickness of the wall is very less.
It is suitable for all the places even in sloppy terrains.

Proposed Isolation Ward/ Quarantine Centre:

Ward Size : 12 m x 3 m
Height : 2.5 m
Carpet Area : 350 square feet
Unit Specification : Constructed with steel frame, light gauge steel walls covered with puff panel with suitable insulation for thermal control and flooring with high density wooden flooring.
Time of Construction : 10 Days (one module)
Transportation : By Trailer/ Truck (40 ft)
Weight of Module : 4 MT
Design : Indian and International Standards
Recyclability : 80%

The future trends of Mechanical Engineering Education

In India, it is already a month that people are locked down in their homes and ever since this Covid-19 outbreak across the Globe only one question has been triggering every mind, “What’s Next?” Those who have jobs at hands are fearful to lose them and those who don’t seem to be clueless about their future. One might have come across various discussions where people are visualising the passing out batches of schools and colleges to be the major victim of the situation. But wait! Is it really? Does the world has come to an end, how far is it justified to panic being a passing out batch especially when you are on the verge to end your school and take the big leap.

To take a big leap, you need to take few steps backward!!

What to do if you need to prepare yourself for the next phase, well let this be the time to take a pause and let your thoughts go deeper. I believe many of you have already decided to take up Engineering education, and you can really utilise your time now to find out your favourite branch of studies. Oh! Yes there might have been real lot of information to help you out decide what to opt and what not. Information through various sources can help you zeroing the options at hand but what about the inside story?

A sneak peek within the box…

A magic box- yes! I prefer to use this term for Engineering. Just as in case of magic you can realise whatever you want, so does studying Engineering does. Be or make yourself successful in whatever skill that you excel upon. Now the box has several small chambers and this offers you to choose from what you love the most Computer Science, Electrical, Electronics, Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and it goes on and on. Lets know what’s there left unexplored within the box?

The unexplored area is the area where the need of the Global market lies. A synergistic integration of knowledge is what is sought from today’s engineers. Being a Mechanical Engineer knowing all about sensors, data analysis, IoT is what is in the trend and the same lies for each branch. There lies no branch which has been left alone to serve the need of the market. Even a Computer Science graduate is expected to have ideas about mechanisms of a machine. One must work hard on being skilful along with building firm domain knowledge.

Mechanical Engineering as an option

In-case you choose to opt for Mechanical, one must be aware of the possibilities lying in different sectors, but most important is upgrading yourself.

• Manufacturing: Since ages Manufacturing Industries has been the backbone of any economy. Everything we see around us, if not designed by nature, has been designed and manufactured by us. The time has come when Industry 4.0 is taking over and a paradigm shift from conventional manufacturing while adapting smart systems is taking control all over the world. Today, Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning has found its extensive utilisation to automate the machineries hence increasing productivity. Knowledge of handling automated systems; Additive manufacturing processes are the demand of the global market apart from conventional and CNC machines.

• Power Sector: The predominant system of producing power is by using coal. Hydel power plants due to certain environmental restrictions and huge capital cost can be found contributing little to the entire power generation. The current age seeks for Renewablesources, solar being one of the most popular option. Power generation sector has witnessed a huge boon since the introduction of solar systems, and the current market has kicked off the use of hybrid systems for power generation, such as solar with wind. The need of the hour for a Mechanical Engineer is to understand the working principle and operating systems of hybrid power-plants. While various Researchers across the globe is working on to exploit the energy in various resources to drive power-plants, deep understanding of conventional mechanical systems like boilers, turbine, compressors, pumps, fans ,blowers are the need of the hour to work on creating various modern equipments.

• Automobile: One of the most lucrative areas, the current trend in automobile sector lies in automation of various sub- systems within the vehicle. The control system for Intelligent vehicles is one of the most attractive area which requires in-depth knowledge about various mechanisms within the system. Be it controlling various engine parameters to enhance output or supplying fuel into the cylinder, integration of knowledge of sensors along with mechanisms makes you a perfect person the industries might be looking for.

In addition to all this, Mechanical Engineering also presents a huge scope to join various Research and development centres across the globe and work upon enhancing or creating designs. Design and Modelling Softwares like Fusion 360, Inventor, Solid works, Ansys are to be a few to be named which can be used extensively to produce and analyse critical designs. Robotics has always been a passion for the budding mechanical engineers which involves creating various mechanisms for robot based on applications. It is really fascinating to know that with some prerequisite courses a Mechanical Engineer can also work in a capacity of Bio-medical Engineer working on developing materials for in-vitro as well as in-vivo medical applications, replacement of joints,designing modern drug delivery systems etc. In a nut shell the field of mechanical engineering, has sprawled its wings virtually touching every aspect of modern life, including the creating prosthetics to smart machining solutions.

The impact of Bioinformatics in the development of vaccines against COVID-19

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent for the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Since its first detection in December 2019 the disease has engulfed almost entire world by spreading over more than 200 countries that resulted in above 160,000 deaths as of 19^th April 2020. This highly infectious virus spread via respiratory droplets and aerosols when an uninfected person comes in contact with an infected one. Without any drug or vaccine at sight, the world is slowly succumbing to the disease. Therefore, researchers around the world have started collaborating and sharing their research data so that with concerted efforts a cure for the disease can be developed quickly. In this challenging scenario, Bioinformatics came out as one of the essential tools to analyze viral data as it provides vital information about the genetic makeup of the virus and also assists directly in the development of drugs or vaccines against the deadly disease.

Bioinformatics can significantly reduce the cost of research by predicting a few plausible directions amongst hundreds of options. A large amount of data can be analyzed by Bioinformatics to come up with a hypothesis that can be further validated in the laboratory by doing experiments. Instead of doing a bunch of experiments without a clear goal, a few can be tested as predicted by Bioinformatics by analyzing the available data. That way a researcher can save a lot of money and manpower, and also results can be obtained quickly. In the current COVID-19 crisis also Bioinformatics is playing a crucial role by predicting suitable drugs against viral targets and subsequently these are now being tested in the laboratory for validation.

To develop a potent drug against COVID-19 Bioinformatics can help by predicting possible molecules as inhibitors for the virus that can be tested in the laboratory for efficacy. Using certain computational tools or self-written programs a Bioinformatician can predict possible molecules that can be used as drugs against the disease. From analyzing the sequence to the final drug candidate prediction requires several steps to follow which can be broadly divided into five segments – retrieval of the viral sequence from the nucleic acid database, analysis of the sequence data by comparison with other viral sequences, phylogenetic analysis of the viral sequences to find out how the target virus evolved from others, computational modeling of the important viral proteins as drug targets, and finally test several drug molecules against the viral proteins for inhibitory activities.

Bioinformatics Databases:

Immediately after the discovery of the SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan city of China in December 2019, scientists experimentally determined the sequence of the virus and deposited that in the public database so that others can access it freely and work on it. Bioinformaticians downloaded the sequence from the database and started analyzing the sequence to extract useful information about the virus as this is the first step in the drug development against COVID-19.

Sequence Comparison:

The SARS-CoV-2 sequence was compared with other viruses, especially other coronaviruses, and found that it has sequence similarity with SARS-CoV which was responsible for the previous SARS outbreak in 2003. Also, the SARS-CoV-2 sequence was found very similar to a coronavirus found in bats and from that information it was predicted that the virus was probably originated in bats. Subsequently acquiring favorable mutations or changes in its genome the virus jumped to humans from bats thorough a pangolin intermediate – all this information was obtained by analyzing viral sequences which again indicates the significance of Bioinformatics.

Phylogenetic Analysis:

From sequence and phylogenetic analysis scientists also found out that at least three different strains (types A, B, and C) of the virus are currently circulating in different regions of the world. Type A was the ancestral strain that moved from China to Europe and the other strain B originated from A and then moved to America. Type C again originated from A by changing its genome and currently prevalent in Asia. All these fascinating information was obtained due to the help of Bioinformatic analysis.

Building Structural Models:

Once the genetic information of SARS-CoV-2 was analyzed to find out genes that it holds and what type of proteins it encodes, scientists generated theoretical models of all the important proteins of the virus. If one can inhibit those essential proteins of the virus, the virus can be stopped from further infecting others. In the absence of any experimental structures of the viral proteins, theoretical models can be built by a process called homology modeling where if structures of similar proteins from other viruses are available those can be used as templates to generate theoretical structures of target proteins. Structures of the proteins are important for designing drugs against those, and therefore, scientists built theoretical models of important viral proteins that can be targeted by inhibitor molecules.

Drug Designing:

The final step in the process is to use existing drug molecules or modify the structures of existing drug molecules and ‘dock’ them against the viral proteins to see whether these molecules are binding to the important sites on the viral proteins or not by computational analysis. If some molecules are found which can bind to the viral proteins with high affinity, then those molecules can be further tested in the laboratory to find out their effectiveness. This way Bioinformatics can help immensely to design new drugs against the SARS-CoV-2 and stop COVID-19 from further spreading. Already the scientists have designed several inhibitory molecules against SARS-CoV-2 and now these molecules are being tested experimentally to find out which one is the most potent in COVID-19.

Bioinformatics Scope in India:

The current crisis has shown the importance and reach of Bioinformatics applications, and why it is an essential component for a biologist to know. Unfortunately, in India the Bioinformatics jobs are limited and it is considered as a part of the Biotechnology course. As Biotechnology jobs are available in much higher numbers compared to Bioinformatics jobs in India it is recommended to students that they should pursue Biotechnology careers. Therefore, students who would like to pursue Bioinformatics careers they should either pursue Biotechnology undergraduate programs like Biotechnology BSc or Biotechnology BTech, or pursue postgraduate program like Biotechnology MSc, but make sure that Bioinformatics course is an integral component of any of these programs. At the Adamas University, the School of Life Science & Biotechnology offers BSc, BTech and MSc programs in Biotechnology. All these programs have Bioinformatics as one of the major components for study. We hope the cure for COVID-19 is found soon so that we can get back to our normal lives again, but it is no doubt that Bioinformatics applications would play an important role in finding the vaccine.

Silver lining in the face of the Covid crisis

We are undoubtedly going through one of the most critical challenges mankind has ever faced. The pandemic, Covid-19 has taken more than 2 million people in its grip worldwide and almost 5% of them have lost the battle to it. SARS-CoV-2, the virus which has brought almost the entire world to its knees is showing no signs of wearing out anytime soon. The reaches of this microscopic creature has surpassed our perception. As if Mother Nature, just with a small stroke of her finger, has made mankind realise of their false sense of power and ability.

Status of our country: In a poor country like ours, where testing and treatment is very limited and where a large section of the population is deprived of basic needs like water and sanitation, the fight is even more daunting. Thousands of people are stranded without food supplies and medication; no shelter and no protection. Unawareness and ignorance of a vast section of the population is an added disadvantage. It’s very hard to see beyond it and to keep faith that there is a silver lining somewhere amongst the dark clouds.

Nature’s relief: A collateral advantage has clearly been how nature has recovered from a few weeks of lockdown in different parts of the world. Air pollution levels have gone down, rivers and oceans have become cleaner. We can hear birds chirping instead of cars honking. All of us have seen how wild animals have found it much safer to walk the streets at various places and how dolphins and turtles are swimming around near many beaches!! The question is can we learn something from here and take it forward with us? Is it mandatory that the only time we can give nature some space to breathe is when we run out of breath? Why can’t we cut down on unnecessary wastage of nature’s resources, on exploiting every bit of her until she recoils in pain? Even when things get back to normal, will a day of self-imposed lockdown ruin things for us?- our progress, our profits, our lifestyles, our entertainment? I think we have been given an opportunity, maybe the very last one, to rethink our lifestyles. We must rise to the occasion and restructure it, prioritising nature’s well being too.

Corona fighters: Another heart-warming picture that has given hope to mankind is the helping hand many people have lent to others in distress. The forerunners in this are the doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals across the world that are fighting against time to beat this virus and save lives, putting themselves in the frontline of exposure. Scientists who are working round the clock to develop detection kits, vaccines and medicines are also an asset to us. Kudos to all people working in different fields of essential services and trying their best to keep things going under these unprecedented circumstances. We all know how Google has honoured all of them by creating doodles in their honour!

NGOs and individual social workers: Many individuals and organizations are working relentlessly for people and animals in need of support and help. They are not preaching but rather practicing the saying that the hands that serve are holier than the lips that pray. In various cities like Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore, Kanpur and in many smaller towns as well, several NGOs are trying to provide basic food supplies to the poor and homeless people. It’s so good to see that even college kids have come forward in various places and helping as many people they can. Restaurant and shop owners are also doing their share by distributing food to the needy. Many may question the authenticity of these endeavours and the concern is not baseless. But the situation calls for action and I would like to believe those who have gone out of their ways to act and help truly care. Stray animals who depend on human beings, are suffering severely amidst the lockdown. Many are helping them through regular supplies of food and water.

An appeal: Below I am sharing just a few of several benevolent steps taken by NGOs and citizens like us to help fellow humans and animals. You may have a look at a few if you like. We may also try to do our share by helping them or others that we may know of. There’s a lot to be done and all efforts count.

Helping the poor and homeless:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uHkPUiAfU0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYrefoD8jCI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHbrX-vMRe8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpZ3juHaNNo

Helping the animals:

https://www.facebook.com/happyheartsofkolkata/

https://www.facebook.com/PAWSDumDum/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TBXpR40ivE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L57QDDco7Mk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAgMaMMfPMM

Lastly I would like to mention that it’s a kind gesture of Adamas University to extend monetary help to the government as well as providing the campus for developing a temporary healthcare facility for the Covid-19 patients. It is through actions that we make our lives worthwhile. The silver lining is that we still have a choice to bring a change and work towards making the earth a better place to live in. So, let’s all do our best and may we emerge out of this as better humans with a more meaningful existence.