INTEGRATED HUMAN PRATICE
Overview
Before the project started, each member of our team was in the meeting room to discuss how to properly carry out our Human Practice activities. We divided the tasks in the cycle into three sections to solve the problems in a clear and concise manner.
1.DISCOVER THE BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT
2.DESIGN OUR SOLUTION
3.DIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE
Different people can see the project from different perspectives and it is not enough to just discuss it within the team. Therefore we tried to contact experts or practitioners from various fields. We took down as many of their suggestions as possible, whether they were complimentary or critical of us. After filtering out the valid suggestions, the gaps in our project were improved and its positive and negative impact on the future was analysed. We have followed this rule throughout the course of our human social practice. This allows us to better facilitate the progress of our projects.
Discover the background of the project
Explore local context
The problems we currently face
In April 2022, the outbreak of the epidemic in Fujian Province has brought great challenges and pressure to the prevention and control of the epidemic in Fujian's universities. Has profoundly affected our lives.
According to our research and interviews with staff, we found that the cost of epidemic prevention and control is very large. Since the staff could not disclose more detailed information to us during the interview, we estimated the financial expenditure of "normalization of all nucleic acids". According to the information provided by Zongkai Zheng of Putian Municipal Bureau of Statistics, we divide the total nucleic acid expenditure into the following four parts:
1. Establish sampling location
2. Salary of sampling personnel
3. Nucleic acid sampling and detection cost
4. Antigen detection cost
The cost of the two testing methods is not the same, so a questionnaire was made and distributed in Putian, Fuzhou Cangshan District and Pingtan County. A total of 1264 questionnaires were collected. Since the proportion of antigen detection is small, antigen detection will be divided into nucleic acid detection in the following estimation.
The questionnaire does not collect the IP address and other personal information of the respondents to ensure that our survey will not disclose information to the public.
Since the demographic results in 2022 have not been released yet, according to the total population of Fujian Province in 2021, about 48 million people, 3000 people will be responsible for each nucleic acid testing location, and the establishment cost of each testing location is 40000 yuan. It is estimated that the annual new expenditure will be 640000000 RMB.
In addition to the medical personnel responsible for sampling, the general public can also participate in sampling after receiving training. According to the requirements and relevant policies, it is assumed that three sampling personnel (300 yuan/person/day) and one information entry personnel (200 yuan/person/day) are required for each sampling location. Estimated annual new expenditure 6424000000 RMB
The testing institutions are mainly hospitals and third-party testing institutions. We used the sampling cost of 5 yuan from the affiliated hospital of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University as the unit price, including the cost of cotton swabs, reagents and test tubes, PCR, etc. Estimated annual new expenditure 87600000000 RMB
According to the estimated financial expenditure of Fujian Province in 2021 of 504851000000 RMB, and the above estimate that the expenditure of Fujian Province on normalization of nucleic acid testing in 2022 will increase by 94664000000 RMB, the expenditure of Fujian Province on normalization of nucleic acid testing will account for 18.75% of the annual expenditure.
This is a huge financial expenditure! In addition, we recently found through news that some people have escaped nucleic acid detection and isolation. Therefore, in order to avoid the recurrence of such large-scale epidemic containment management and affect our lives as much as possible, an important way is to improve the detection method.
We further considered whether synthetic biology could be used to make residents not need to take the initiative to do nucleic acid testing, so that we could know whether residents were infected with new coronavirus. In this way, we can effectively prevent some people from evading nucleic acid testing, which will lead to the spread of the epidemic. In addition, we also hope that this method of synthetic biology can get the detection results faster than the traditional nucleic acid detection. Only a faster early warning can win enough valuable time to prevent the spread of the epidemic.
Therefore, we came up with the idea of using the principle of sewage epidemiology to make a hardware to detect antigens in sewage. In order to improve the hardware, we interviewed all the industry experts in the design. According to their suggestions, we reflected on the potential security risks, design vulnerabilities and other factors in the project, and finally improved the hardware, hoping that it can play a huge role in the future.
The above non estimated data are all from czt.fujian.gov.cn
Epidemic ituation in april in Fujian province
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China has always pursued the policy of "dynamic zeroing". However, in April 2022, a small-scale epidemic broke out in Fujian Province. In that month, 145 new cases of local pneumonia patients were added, bringing huge challenges and pressure to the epidemic prevention and control management of Fujian's major universities.
As students of FAFU, our most direct feeling is that we need to measure temperature at the gate of our dormitory area. The table in the dining room is also separated by plastic plates to form a table for 4 people, which is very narrow; The laboratory was even completely closed, and various scientific research projects stagnated.
We can't meet and communicate conveniently, can't eat comfortably in the restaurant, and can't carry out our own scientific research projects in the laboratory. All these have brought us endless troubles and troubles. We want to do our best to change the status quo.
Interview in Pingtan
The economy of Pingtan is mainly based on tourism, farming, aquaculture, handicrafts and service industries. The arrival of the epidemic had a huge impact on the economic development of Pingtan. After learning that there was no epidemic in Pingtan in early July and the health of our team members, FAFU went to Pingtan for two days of research.
At the end of the day, we took the issues we found over the two days and summarised them in a report(click here to this report).
However, several farmers told us that they had received special subsidies for crops during the epidemic from the local government. It is this fund that enables them to have sufficient funds for next year's farming, helping them to regain confidence.
Establish the problem
Interview with officials related to economic management
We got in touch with Xionglin Ke of Putian Municipal People's Government of Fujian Province. He is the chief of the Economic Department, responsible for managing the economic work, and has a good understanding of the economic situation in the region under the epidemic. He provided us with the amount of special funds (as of March 2, 2022) mainly used for medical treatment, epidemic prevention and control in Fujian Province, as well as the impact of the initial epidemic on the GDP of Fujian Province.
Xionglin Ke told us that, as of March 2, the provincial finance at all levels had allocated a total of 4.145 billion yuan, mainly for medical treatment, epidemic prevention and control and other purposes. It is these special funds that ensure that patients will not be affected by the cost of treatment, and that local governments will not be affected by the cost of epidemic prevention and control. But this fund is undoubtedly a huge burden for the government finance.
He stressed to us that comprehensive, rapid and accurate nucleic acid detection is the first prerequisite for timely isolation and treatment of COVID-19 patients. He took the GDP of Fujian Province as an example. In the first half of 2020, due to the lack of experience in epidemic prevention, some patients did not participate in nucleic acid testing, which led to the expansion of the epidemic. In the first half of 2020, the GDP of Fujian Province increased by only 0.5% year-on-year. After a series of efforts, the national nucleic acid test was carried out for many times to ensure that "no one was missed", and the corresponding isolation measures were taken, the epidemic situation was gradually controlled, as shown in the year-on-year growth of GDP of Fujian Province by 3.3% in 2020.
He encouraged us to make innovations in the detection method of the novel coronavirus. Comprehensive, rapid and accurate nucleic acid testing is of great significance for epidemic prevention and control. He suggests that our new nucleic acid test can be optimized in terms of cost and accessibility.
Interview with officials related to data statistics
The epidemic has brought many troubles to our lives. The service industry and other industries have been shut down, resulting in an obvious shortage of jobs.Under the pressure of survival, many young people have reduced their desire to have children. We wanted to know about the huge challenges posed by the epidemic to China's population problems, so we contacted Zongkai Zheng, the deputy director of Putian Municipal Bureau of Statistics. His department was responsible for organizing the census, so he had profound insights on population issues.
Zongkai Zheng told us that China is a country with a large population, but in recent years, the birth rate of the population has continued to decline, and the aging of the society has continued to increase. In particular, the epidemic situation in these years has exacerbated the population problem. The reason is that the epidemic has caused economic recession, shutdown and production suspension of human society, which has brought a strong psychological impact on young people and made them uncertain and less confident about the future. All these negative effects together inhibit the childbearing desire of young people.
Zongkai Zheng stressed that, according to the open data, China's birth population in the first half of 2022 will be 5.23 million; The death toll was 5.31 million, and the total population decreased by 80000. This has sounded the alarm bell for us. If we do not take measures, our country will enter the era of negative population growth. Zongkai Zheng told us that he believed that if the epidemic could be dispersed as soon as possible, the population problem faced by China would be alleviated to a certain extent.
We told Deputy Director Zheng Zongkai that our project is to innovate a new detection method, which can more efficiently and comprehensively detect viruses among residents. He affirmed this. He said that in the process of population census and nucleic acid detection, it is very difficult to " no one was missed ". If we can solve this problem, it will be of great help to the epidemic prevention and control.
Prove the demand
Interview on light and heavy industries in Quanzhou
In order to understand the impact of the epidemic on heavy industry, we came to Shuitou Town, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province to interview Peiyu Wang, the chairman of Rongsheng Group. The group has a sizeable stone enterprise, so our interview mainly focused on the operation of the enterprise before and after the epidemic and the changes in revenue.
Wang Peiyu said that since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2019, it has a great impact on the development of the entire stone industry chain. For example, the problem of labor shortage: during the epidemic, in response to the government's requirements for the control of personnel flow, the arrangement of workers has changed greatly, from 285 workers to 118 workers, even less after the epidemic. The reasons include the difficulty in recruiting workers after the epidemic, and layoffs due to the decline of economic benefits of enterprises. In addition to the labor problem, the cost of raw materials and logistics has also increased significantly: in 2021, the price of raw materials in Quanzhou stone industry has increased by 12-18% compared with 2019, and the logistics cost has also increased by 20-23%. Under the influence of various external factors, the actual turnover of the enterprise in 2021 decreased by 28.6% compared with 2019.
Wang Peiyu stressed that what she is most worried about now is the health problems of employees in the factory. She was worried that the epidemic situation in the factory would spread because some employees did not carry out nucleic acid testing regularly, which would lead to the factory being closed by the government and cause greater losses to the whole society and the factory.
In response to her concerns, we timely introduced the possible hardware parts of our project, which aroused her great interest. She warmly invited us to test our products in her factory to ensure the safety of the factory. We expressed our gratitude for this and promised to pilot in her factory once the hardware part was improved.
Interview with Huabing Wang, owner of the food company
In order to understand the impact of the epidemic on light industry, we interviewed Wang Huabin, the boss of Fengsheng Food Company. After understanding our intentions, Wang Huabin told us that due to the impact of the epidemic, the local government has greatly improved the requirements for the biosafety of the entire industry, and also indirectly improved the quality and safety testing standards in the food production process. In order to prevent raw materials from carrying viruses during transportation, he purchased a complete set of disinfection equipment, which also increased the operating costs.
However, he stressed that although it cost a lot of money to buy disinfection equipment, it made him feel more secure during production. He felt that the epidemic also indirectly promoted the quality and safety control of the whole factory, which was a good opportunity to improve the production quality level.
In the follow-up conversation, we learned that his factory actually made less profit during the epidemic, but Wang Huabin took a long-term view. He thought it was only temporary. He is currently trying to improve the production level of the factory, and once the transformation is completed, it will bring huge profits.
Wang Huabin is undoubtedly a long-term and optimistic entrepreneur. We expressed the hope that our hardware could be tested in his factory in the future. He welcomed the idea, saying that it would add a guarantee to the production safety of his factory.
Design our solution
Interview with Professor Rensing Christopher Guenther Theodor
We want to know what each country thinks about epidemic prevention and control. So we spoke to Professor Rensing from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University. He is from Germany and has long taught in the United States. Fellow of the American Society for Microbiology. We briefly described our project. And asked him about the prevention and control measures of each country. We also talked about the impact of the human pandemic on a country's economy, education and human relations.
He told us that human pandemics kill so many people because they happen before the body's own immune system develops antibodies. Viruses are "unknown" to the body. Before most people acquire antibodies through infection or vaccination. The human body is almost helpless. That is why the newly discovered virus spreads widely and kills large numbers of people.
In the midst of the pandemic, it is the elderly who are most at a loss. His mother chose to stay away from people during the outbreak because older people have weaker immune systems and she thought she could better protect herself. Because the family is not around will face a lot of inconvenience. But young people are choosing a more normal life after experiencing the pandemic. They socialize and party while taking precautions.
Feedback
We had more ideas about our Human Practice work. We feel our Human Practice work should focus on what we've learned from this disaster and how we can do better the next time we face a pandemic. First, how to secure the basics of life for older persons living alone in the context of the pandemic. How to keep the elderly, who do not often have access to Internet information, abreast of the trend of the epidemic. Know the valid information in time. For humans, how to minimize infection and mortality when the virus subtype is unknown. How to quickly find the infected while ensuring normal social interaction. These are problems we should solve together.
Interview with Professor Chenyun Guo of Xiamen University
Invited by the XMU-China team, we went to Xiamen in July for a study tour. We had an appointment with Professor Chen-Yun Guo from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, who is an expert in protein structure and function analysis. Her group is also working on COVID-19.
In order to explore the potential of the project, we showed her our design ideas as well as hardware design options. She rejected our original design that making test strips. Because the protein could be inactive or even polluting to the environment. She advocated that we instead use probes to achieve detection of substances in sewage.
She then took us on a tour of the laboratories at Xiamen University, including the NMR instrument, meteorological chromatography and the liquid chromatograph. She gave us a detailed introduction to the principles, functions and use of the instruments.
Visit to Putian Water Purification Plant
We wanted to find out if our hardware was subject to corrosion from other substances in the water when it was in operation. In July, we got in touch with Aihong Ke of Putian Water Quality Purification Co., Ltd. who is a station manager of this company. After we described the project for him, she showed us how the domestic wastewater is transformed into domestic water through treatment. She told us that there are testing instruments in each workshop of the treatment station, and the probes of the testing instruments are regularly calibrated and replaced in order to ensure the accuracy of the testing values. This is because some oxidizing and reducing agents, such as chlorine, are added during the water purification process. These chemical reagents may cause damage to the testing instruments.
Feedback
We will make changes to the design drawings of the hardware. Make each part removable, so that it is more convenient to replace the parts later.
Interview with Prof. Guidi Yang & XI ZHU
Based on the results of our literature search, and after consolidating some unclear questions about our project, we interviewed the teachers of the relevant disciplines in our university, and in the early stages we had doubts about the definition of our project and were a bit uncertain about our vision of detecting pathogens in sewage, so our team first interviewed Guidi Yang, when we had some questions, for example, we were uncertain about the product of our experimental design, uncertainty about the platform material for peptide immobilization, the exclusion of interfering substances present in the effluent for the identification of our bacterial solution, and how to translate the proteins on the cell surface into electrical signals after they have interacted with each other? And so on. After a detailed and in-depth communication with the teacher. Finaly, the teacher expressed his approval of the direction of our project and said that it was feasible. However, the specific questions required more professional
guidance, so another teacher, Zhu Xi, was recommended, and we interviewed him after that.
The most recommended conclusion obtained was to chemically attach the peptide to a graphene-based nanocomposite electrode, using [Fe(CN)6]3-/4- as a probe to detect antigen-antibody binding. And nanogold was added to increase the electrical conductivity. The limit of detection (that is, the smallest concentration that can reliably be detected in a sample) of this method can reach the ppm level (that is, μg/mL). This also gives us good ideas for the whole hardware design. As for the other questions, we also got good answers and we hope to continue exploring based on this.
Jinshan Wastewater Treatment Department
In the beginning, we initially designed the detection device to be installed directly in the downpipe. The charge transfer and resistance changes at the interface between electrode and electrolyte during antigen-antibody binding at the redox electrode [Fe(CN)6]3-/4- were used to indirectly monitor the electron output of different concentrations of antigen.
In August, we came to Jinshan Sewage Treatment Plant for the first time, and they denied our achievements. They said, the sewers in residential areas are relatively thin. If detection devices are installed in the pipes, the pipes will be blocked. He hoped we can improve the design." Therefore, we redesigned and moved the detection device out of the pipeline.
In September, we came to Jinshan Sewage Treatment Plant again. This time they accepted our idea. At the same time, the staff said: Is our device limited to pathogen detection, and can we detect more substances?
Feedback
We gained a better understanding of the wastewater treatment process. After the first visit, we spent a month changing the hardware from inside the pipe to outside the pipe. After the second visit, we needed to increase our efforts to promote our product and ask the public for their opinion of us.
Visiting Jincheng Quality Supervision Administration
To make sure our hardware was safe and accurate enough, we approached the Jincheng Quality Supervision Administration for help. We were warmly received by Renping Mo and Jun Zhang.
Jun Zhang showed us how to use a variety of instruments, and made suggestions on the detection method of our hardware: in sewage, it is possible to encounter more acidic and alkaline environment, so sampling detection should be adopted.
Renping Mo told us that a qualified product should first protect human health, national standards, industry standards and requirements, and should not endanger human health. If we want to use the product on a wider scale, we must pass the test, such as
·Whether the waste will cause environmental pollution？
·Whether the use process will cause biological leakage？
He finally stressed to us that precision and accuracy are very important in the detection, and suggested that we regularly overhaul the hardware to verify whether its accuracy has declined, so as to ensure the long-term stable operation of the hardware.
Visiting Shanxi Road and Bridge Group Branch
For the establishment of a mathematical model of sewage epidemiology, a map of the city's pipeline distribution needs to be used. We contacted two companies in charge of urban pipeline planning at an early stage, and after learning of our idea, they refused our request. This may cause the pipeline construction blueprint to leak.
Feedback: As we move forward with a project, we need to pay more attention to the confidentiality of our stakeholders. After this failed interview, we investigate whether the resources used are socially competitive before the interview. But drawings are necessary for modeling, so we intend to change the solution.
We contacted Lili, the general manager of Shanxi Road and Bridge Company, who is mainly responsible for the design and planning of roads and bridges in urban and rural areas. When she learned that we had failed to ask for a piping plan, she gave us advice: manhole covers on the road were everywhere, and pipes were buried beneath them. Therefore, the path distribution of pipes is roughly similar to roads. Therefore, we can use Fuzhou's traffic trunk road distribution instead of pipeline distribution.
Feedback:
After that, we drew a traffic trunk route map in Cangshan District, Fuzhou, according to the traffic route map, and used it as a template to start building the model.
Laws and regulations relevant to us
After finalizing the project proposal, we reviewed the relevant laws and policies. Below is the information we compiled.
DIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE
Putian Public Security Bureau
In previous interviews, it was suggested that our hardware could be used not only for the detection of pathogens, but also for the detection of certain chemicals or human metabolite.So we thought about whether it could be used to detect the metabolites of drugs passing through the human body. Based on this question,
we contacted Wu Zhenxiong of the Putian Public Security Bureau.
He said four commonly used ways are used to test whether a person is taking drugs, they are urine tests, blood tests, saliva tests and hair tests. Among them, hair testing is most commonly used in court trials, saliva testing, and urine testing are used for screening. Test strips are generally used in urine testing and saliva testing. when the content of drug metabolites in the urine of the specimen reaches 300ng/ml, it binds to the limited antibody with tiny-colored particles fixed on the permeation membrane. This step will prevent it from binding to the antigen in the test area, so the precipitated bands will not appear in the t-line area. If the specimen does not contain drugs or other metabolites, a ribbon sedimentation line will appear in the T-line area. Another ribbon on the test strip is applied to determine whether the experiment is reliable. Simply put, horizontal bars are positive and parallel bars are negative.
Feedback
The sharing of the Wu Zhenxiong is very critical. In the future, we can also use the random peptide library to screen proteins that interact with drug metabolites, and then use our hardware for detection. So as to achieve the existence of drug users in the localized detection area.
Putian Science and Technology Museum
In May this year, we got in touch with Wu Kaimin of the Putian Science and Technology Museum, the deputy director of the museum, who has extensive experience in popularizing the popular science and holding offline activities during the epidemic. We hope to be able to help us successfully carry out our science communication activities by communicating with him.
He stressed to us that the most important thing in hosting an event is safety, specially during COVID-19, there are special requirements for security measures of hosting events. He also provided us with the relevant guidelines for conducting offline activities in Fujian Province, wishing that we would be able to read them and hold the activities strictly in accordance with the requirements of the documents to ensure safety. Secondly, the student information collected during the event must be kept strictly to prevent it from being leaked. Mr. Wu provided us with a programme for the events he had held, which was very helpful for us to carry out education in the future.
Feedback
We listened carefully to the Deputy Curator's opinion on the content of the event we were hosting. He suggested that we change the content of the course according to different age groups to make the popular science content more understandable. In addition, he also told us some details of the event to help everyone better participate in the science popularization activities of an unfamiliar discipline.
Putian Red Cross Society & Disabled Persons’Federation
We want to involve more people in learning and applying synthetic biology, and we also want to use this discipline to help more individual. So we got in touch with Chen Huibai of the Putian Red Cross, who is the secretary general of the Putian Red Cross Society and is very familiar with many of the Red Cross's work. We wanted to ask her about the process of doing synthetic biology public welfare activities, precautions and how to further increase the participation of people with disabilities in our activities.
During the conversation, we mentioned that we wanted to donate the income from all our courses to poor areas to help the local education development, so we asked her about it. She stressed to us that in holding public welfare activities, everything involving money is very sensitive. During the conversation, we asked her about the idea of donating the income from all our courses to poor areas to help develop local education. She emphasized the fact that in holding public welfare activities, everything involving money is very sensitive, and provided the latest version of the Fujian Provincial Red Cross Society Regulations. She also told us that this version of the regulations has a special chapter on "Property and Supervision", which we can refer to to standardize our donation process and improve the transparency of our activities.
Huibai Chen applauded our idea of wanting to help more people with disabilities participate in our activities, and she reminded us that we were not advised to have direct contact with people with disabilities because we may not be familiar with their ways of behaving and thinking. She stressed that people with disabilities often require special care and are sensitive at heart, and we may not be able to communicate in a measured manner in the short term. So she recommended to us Lin Zhifeng, director of the office of the Putian Disabled Persons' Federation, who will give us some suggestions and help.
At the suggestion of Chen Huibai, we immediately got in touch with Lin Zhifeng of the Putian Disabled Persons' Federation Office, who is the director of the Putian Disabled Persons' Federation Office and has extensive experience in organizing community activities for the disabled. We hope that through his guidance, we can help more disabled people to participate in synthetic biology public welfare activities, better understand the use of biology around them, and strengthen the science of genetically modified foods.
After Director Lin Zhifeng learned of our intentions, he emphasized the fact that language is an crucial bridge of communication. The language of the visually impaired or hearing-impaired is Braille and sign language. He suggested that we could make the content of our online courses in Braille or sign language.
He provided us with books that we hoped would be studied carefully in order to make Braille books and record sign language videos. He said he would be more than willing to further guide us in the production of Braille books and the recording of sign language videos.
