Considering the current scenario of Coronavirus outbreak and the post-pandemic situation, the need of a robust hand hygiene program assumes utmost importance, particularly in institutional settings such as education and healthcare. As different nations all across the globe lift the lockdown restrictions and as life springs back to normalcy, organizations, in order to quell the apprehensions and concerns of its workers, may have to institute newer paradigms to curb infection and generate awareness. Prior reported research shows that although an adequately designed health hygiene system may be helpful in curbing the infection spread, a major issue stems from the lack of adherence, by a section of individuals in any institution. In such a situation, it becomes absolutely imperative to track the compliance by different individuals, so that educational interventions may be targeted for the concerned group of workers. Further, currently, no low-cost compact systems exist that can provide for the hand hygiene requirements for a group of people, which are “touch-free”, automated and which are monitored. To bridge this gap, we propose the design and development of an automated monitored hand hygiene system to curb infection spread in institutional settings. It is designed in such a way that it would provide for hand sanitization of four people at a time per machine, simultaneously ensuring social distancing between them. The proposed product will not only reduce the apprehensions of the workers in an institutions by providing for solutions to curb infection spread, but will also be economical and aesthetically compact to be deployed at multiple locations within an organization, thus providing for a much safer workplace during the post-lockdown phase.

Considering the current scenario of Coronavirus outbreak and the post-pandemic situation, the need of protective gear such as facemasks assumes utmost importance, for the common populace, as well as in areas of concern such as community and healthcare settings. Prior reported research shows that although the usage of masks may be helpful in curbing the infection spread, a major issue stems from the lack of adherence of proper steps in wearing/taking off masks. The users touch their face, ears, eyes, nose etc. after taking off the masks, ultimately making themselves more susceptible to infection, and thus reducing the efficacy of the suggested measure of using masks. The current masks are quite inadequate. It covers only the nose and mouth, leaving room for the users to touch their face, ears, nose and eyes, which are all the vulnerable gates for the infection transmission. The masks are uncomfortable and require regular adjustment, there are problems of humidity build-up inside masks, high chances of leakage, problems with breathing, and one even needs to take off the mask for ingesting liquids, food, medicine etc. even if one is in a community setting or in a crowded region. Further, since these masks provide insufficient protection, there is an additional burden on the supply chain requirements for other personal protective gear. To address these limitations of the commercially available masks, we propose the design of a low-cost COmfortably Vented, Indigenously Designed (COVID) fabric helmet. It is designed in such a way that usage of this cheap helmet along with the usually worn cloth is enough to provide complete protection to an individual. The fabric helmet is integrated with many innovative design features that will not only address the concerns of the users, but will be comfortable, cheap and also ease pressure on the requirement for expensive, and already scarce personal protective equipment and thus greatly curtail COVID-19 infection spread in the country. Most importantly, the prosed design will serve as a very effective device in the protection of the pediatric population in the educational institutions as well as in residential and healthcare settings, as situations spring back to normalcy in communities around the globe.

Considering the current scenario of Coronavirus outbreak and the post-pandemic situation, the need of a robust hand hygiene program assumes utmost importance, particularly in institutional settings such as education and healthcare. As different nations all across the globe lift the lockdown restrictions and as life springs back to normalcy, organizations, in order to quell the apprehensions and concerns of its workers, may have to institute newer paradigms to curb infection and generate awareness. Prior reported research shows that although an adequately designed health hygiene system may be helpful in curbing the infection spread, a major issue stems from the lack of adherence, by a section of individuals in any institution. In such a situation, it becomes absolutely imperative to track the compliance by different individuals, so that educational interventions may be targeted for the concerned group of workers. Further, currently, no low-cost compact systems exist that can provide for the hand hygiene requirements for a group of people, which are "touchfree", automated and which are monitored. To bridge this gap, we propose the design and development of an automated monitored hand hygiene system to curb infection spread in institutional settings. It is designed in such a way that it would provide for hand sanitization of four people at a time per machine, simultaneously ensuring social distancing between them. The proposed product will not only reduce the apprehensions of the workers in an institutions by providing for solutions to curb infection spread, but will also be economical and aesthetically compact to be deployed at multiple locations within an organization, thus providing for a much safer workplace during the post-lockdown phase.

Enhancing evaporation rates are of great practical interest in many technological applications such as water desalination or drying in industry. Since the conventional methods of increasing evaporation viz. increasing temperature, surface area etc. may not be always practically feasible or economical, novel methods of evaporation enhancement are necessary. The current study explores the possibility of evaporation enhancement by introducing a Tetrafluoroethane gas ambient under different conditions of heating and circulation. Depending upon the temperature and circulation conditions, as enhancement of 58 to 375% in evaporation rate has been measured and physical explanations into the underlying mechanism have been suggested.