Artículo Científico / Scientific Paper |
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https://doi.org/10.17163/ings.n27.2022.01 |
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pISSN: 1390-650X / eISSN: 1390-860X |
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SOCIAL DISTANCING IN THE FACE OF COVID-19:
SIMULATION OF THE MAXIMUM CAPACITY OF PEOPLE THROUGH PHP |
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DISTANCIAMIENTO SOCIAL ANTE LA COVID- 19: SIMULACIÓN DEL AFORO MÁXIMO DE PERSONAS MEDIANTE PHP |
Received: 03-11-2021, Received after review:
06-12-2021, Accepted:13-12-2021, Published: 01-01- 2022 |
Abstract |
Resumen |
Confluence of people in internal or external
areas considerably increases transmission of COVID-19, because the social
distancing established by the health system is not observed. The objective of
this work was to use programming techniques with the PHP language (hypertext
preprocessor), for developing an application that simulates the maximum
number of people who can enter an internal or external area. The methodology
enabled recognizing common internal and external areas, configuring the
development environment, coding, simulation proposal and simulator execution
where a practical case and ten places were evaluated to determine its reliability.
The simulator provided the maximum people capacity of an internal or external
area, honoring a social distancing of 2 m. Results enabled to know that using
information technologies through programming techniques and the PHP language
constitutes a technological alternative to fight against the spread of the
virus. |
La confluencia poblacional en áreas internas o externas incrementa considerablemente la trasmisión de la COVID-19, por no respetar el distanciamiento social que establece el sistema de salud. El objetivo de este trabajo fue hacer uso de técnicas de programación, empleando el lenguaje PHP (preprocesador de hipertexto), para el desarrollo de una aplicación que simule el aforo máximo de personas que pueden ingresar a un área interna o externa. La metodología permitió el reconocimiento de áreas internas y externas comunes, configuración al entorno de desarrollo, codificación, propuesta de simulación y ejecución del simulador donde se ha evaluado un caso práctico y diez lugares para determinar su confiabilidad. El simulador brindó el aforo máximo de personas que pueden ingresar a un lugar de área interna o externa cumpliendo el distanciamiento social de 2 m. Los resultados permitieron conocer que el uso de las tecnologías de información a través de las técnicas de programación y el lenguaje PHP contribuyó en ser una alternativa tecnológica para la lucha contra la propagación del virus. |
Keywords: social distancing, PHP,
programming techniques |
Palabras clave: distanciamiento social, PHP, técnicas de programación |
1,*Escuela de Posgrado, Universidad Nacional de Piura – Perú. Corresponding
author ✉: openac@posgrado.unp.edu.pe 2,*Departamento de Física, Universidad Nacional de Piura – Perú 3Área de Tecnologías de la Información, Centro de Reposo San Juan de Dios – Perú.
Suggested
citation: Peña Cáceres, O. J. M.; More More, M. A.; Cornejo Sojo, R.
E. and Garay Silupu, E.
R. “Social distancing in the face of COVID-19: simulation of the maximum
capacity of people through PHP,” Ingenius,
Revista de Ciencia y Tecnología, N.◦ 27, pp. 9-16, 2022, doi: https://doi.org/10.17163/ings.n27.2022.01 |
1.
Introduction Due to the presence of COVID-19,
the world has taken different control measures, such as social distancing in
public and private spaces, which has led to new communication ways and
characteristics in which human beings cannot interact until the advent of a
new normality [1]. Commercial places, financial institutions, recreation
areas and governmental institutions, after closing their doors have resumed
their business and commercial activities where one of the fundamental
criteria for reopening is to determine the maximum people capacity. Such
control measure converges with the appropriate use of masks and rational hand
wash with water and soap or alcohol [2]. In this scenario it is important to
manage areas of interaction, as well as knowing the number of people that can
enter a public or private place according to the diameter of each
infrastructure taking into consideration biosecurity regulations associated
with the social distancing between one person and the other. This
information may be known through a simulation that provides the maximum
capacity of people that can access and interact in open or closed spaces
honoring biosecurity measures. The present research work intended to
demonstrate that programming techniques are one of the means available to
evaluate and simulate the maximum capacity of people in places of low, medium
and high confluence of people. This exercise helped public and private
sectors in a more agile and optimal way, to honor biosecurity regulations and
to reduce possible infections of COVID-19 that may propagate due to typical
people activities. Such activity contributes with the socio-economic sector
and to a government-citizen transformation, developing better proximity and
reliability links, mainly in the economic sphere and in the attention of
essential services that people permanently use [3]. Research
works about social distancing between one person and another to prevent
COVID-19 infection were analyzed to address this study. Detection of people
and identification of objects and the distance between them was revised, with
the purpose of developing an application that involves detection and
estimation of the people that would be more exposed to become infected by
this virus [4]. However, this cannot be possible without analyzing it from a
wide and dynamical context, and with a socioeconomic focus where the use of
the resources available and the engineering cosmovision
gets involved in the solution of common problems, thus contributing to
strengthen productive and economic sectors. Consequently, the use of
information technologies (IT) has become a daily means where people have a
fundamental role in organizations which enable them to adapt to new changes,
generate proposals and provide immediate solutions [5]. |
Humans may develop a
cross-sectional view of world’s reality, with the existing solutions to face
COVID-19, with resilient characteristics and horizons, encouraging new
proposals, context, collaborative ways and techniques that safeguard the
integrity of population. ICTs may provide solutions to this new scenario [6].
Even though the COVID-19 pandemics paralyzed access to global systems, it
focused on health care through unprecedented blockades and forced social
distancing, quickly accelerating the development of these digital
technologies to fulfill different worldwide requirements for health attention
[7]. For this reason, it is intended to use emerging technologies to prevent
its propagation [8]. Control and mitigation of COVID-19 requires involvement
of many sectors, including general public. On the other hand, application
technologies provide the means through which these different sectors may
innovate, communicate and act quickly [9]. If control measures
are not applied to reduce the number of contacts at particular places, this
may have influence in the evolution of the pandemics. Consequently, it was
important to identify the places of greater contact and determine the weight
of propagation that has influence on the possibility to have available and
make appropriate use of the resources. In this sense, the use of simulation
models, as detailed in the current research work, may contribute to decision-
making [10]. The findings from a systematic review of 172 studies (44
comparative studies; n = 25,697 patients) about COVID-19, severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)
provide the best available evidence that current policies of at least 1 m of
physical distance are associated with a great reduction in case of infection,
but distances of 2 m may be more effective [11]. In view of the
above, the general objective of this research study is to use programming
techniques with the PHP language, by means of reference variables such as the
length and width of an internal or external area, which enables simulating
and knowing the number of people that may be admitted honoring social
distancing. 1.
Materials and
methods Figure 1 illustrates the
methodology considered for developing the web application, to enable knowing
the maximum people capacity that may access internal or external areas
honoring social distancing. |
Figure 1. Methodology 1.1.
Recognize
internal and external áreas Internal areas are closed spaces or
spaces with limited reduced surface, while external areas have larger
dimensions and more access to people. Those spaces are known as indoor or
outdoor environments. At present, the access to this type of areas or
environments is subject to recommendations to mitigate the propagation of
COVID-19. These are based on social distancing, which implies not having
close contact with another person; a distance between 1 and 2 m is
recommended, as defined in different countries [12]. Throughout all the
different activities carried out by humans, they visit indoor places such as
restaurants, shopping malls [13], transportation terminals, academic
institutions, public-private institutions, bars, cafeterias, libraries,
museums or cultural centers, a movie or a theater, a church or spiritual
center, their house (or one of its rooms), the home of another person (or one
of its rooms), a covered sport facility; they also visit outdoor (external)
places such as a square, a urban forest, a viewpoint, a sport field, a street
or a section of it, a park, a neighborhood and the terrace of a bar /
cafeteria / restaurant [14]. Dispersed population
that converges at the aforementioned places is linked to they
type of geographical area. Indeed, residents of rural communities show greater
levels of identity with the place they live in than residents of cities [15],
behavior which is reflected in a high access traffic to shopping malls,
restaurants and public institutions. This scenario is significantly affected
by a weak and not moderate calculation of the maximum people capacity; this
situation represents a lack of identification and evaluation of the available
spaces that fulfill biosecurity regulations. At a local level,
the Government should establish control measures that foresee and contribute
to the orientation of public and private places, strengthening management of
its operations to enable ensuring social distancing and implementing
cleaning, disinfection and personal protection actions [16]. |
1.2.
Development
environment At present, PHP is one of the most
popular programming languages, commonly used by the open-source community
because it is an industry for constructing big web applications [17]. It is a
compatible, scalable, secure and multidisciplinary programming language that
enables developing agile, optimal and immediate applications based on the
requirements of society. Appserv 8.5.0 is used as an interpreter;
it is an open-source tool for the Windows operating system that integrates
Apache, MySQL and PHP, taking into account the 5.6.26 version of PHP. For
coding, the SublimeText [18] text editor enables
developing a web application to simulate and determine the maximum people
capacity of an internal or external area honoring the mandatory social
distancing. 1.3.
Coding of the
simulator in PHP At the coding stage, programming
techniques are used to exploit their expression, order and sequence when
writing instructions and sentences. Priority rules [19] are also known for achieving
optimal results and solving common problems [20], which contributes in the
development of a web application to simulate the maximum people capacity of
internal or external areas, honoring biosecurity regulations. Table 1 describes the use of the
five variables created, as well as the operationalizations
that specify how these variables interact to give the inputs and outputs that
define the behavior of the simulator according to the dimensions entered, as
seen in Figure 2. Table 1. Description of
the variables used in simulator coding
Table
2 explains the predominant instructions, sentences and labels for coding the
simulator. Table 2. Predominant instructions
(I), sentences (S) and labels (L) for coding the simulator
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Figure 2. Coding of the simulator in PHP The images shown in
Figure 3, namely, distance90, distance and person, are
used for the operation of the img label
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1.4. Places proposed for simulation A simulation is an artificial representation
of a real process [21], where it is simulation and not reality, and a special
objective is sought [22]. In this context, ten places with the internal and
external areas most commonly and recurrently visited by the people residing
in the Region, Province and District of Piura – Peru, to know the maximum
people capacity that may be admitted to each of the places shown in Table 3,
honoring the biosecurity regulations. Table
3. Places with
simulated internal and external areas
1.5. Execution of the simulator:
practical case In this stage, initial tests were
carried out involving execution of the simulator, where it was sought to know
the maximum people capacity that may be admitted to the waiting area of the
COVID-19 vaccination facility of the Universidad de Piura, identified as an
external outdoor area, with a length of 12 m and a width of 10 m. The results of the simulation for
this first test case indicate that there is an area of 120 m2, and
that the maximum people capacity is 30 people honoring a social distancing of
2 m, as shown in Figure 4. |
Figure 4. Simulation results
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It may be seen
that the parametrization of the admission variables is not absolute, as well
as the diameter for honoring the social distancing; the composition and form
of the results will depend on the admission data. 2.
Results and
discussion Table 4 shows the results of the ten
places identified, and it may be observed in the column Maximum available
people capacity that results are favorable, considering the percentage of
available area, which enables obtaining real results and knowing the
reliability of the web application, provided it is clear that 100 % of the
space is not always available in internal or external areas for free access
of people. According to the
results of Table 4, it can be also seen that places with external areas
exhibit better predominance in the use of the simulator that enables
determining the maximum people capacity honoring social distancing; however,
for places with internal areas it can be seen that there are some limitations
due to the presence of objects, accessories and others, where it should be
first obtained the occupied and available area to achieve more reliable
results. |
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Table 4. Results of máximum people capacity in the places with internal and
external areas
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Recall
that in places such as restaurants, cafeterias, bars and commercial stores
there are spaces where people should wait to access the service or request
being made. In this context, the simulator represents a contribution suitable
to be used to know the maximum people capacity that may be admitted to places
with internal and external areas, making available for entrepreneurs and
public sector technological tools that promote honoring biosecurity
protocols, articulated with the socioeconomic sector that provides people’s
source of livelihood. |
It is deducted that the use and
application of the simulator will contribute and boost the identification of
places with internal areas due to the due to the lack of pipes in these
places of population recurrence. The results obtained
regarding the simulated maximum people capacity and the available maximum
people capacity show a variation of the available area which depends on the
place where the simulator is used to determine the maximum people capacity,
as seen in Figure 5. |
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Figure 5. simulation results In this sense, to obtain
reliable results it is important to know the available area, ignoring factors
that limit access to people that seek to interact inside or outside a place,
with the purpose of honoring social distancing according to biosecurity
regulations. 3.
Conclusions The results given by the simulator
for the practical case stated and the ten places evaluated enabled knowing
the maximum people capacity that may be admitted to a place with internal and
external areas, honoring the social distancing of 2 m. For effective use of
the simulator, it is necessary to know the area occupied by objects,
accessories and others in the place being evaluated. The simulator
visually shows the certainty, order and security of knowing how to calculate
the maximum people capacity that may be admitted in places with external or
internal areas, taking into account that places with external areas are the
most appropriate for convergence of people since they have a greater
available area and smaller number of obstacles that might reduce the maximum
number of people that may be in an environment. The present research
work may be strengthened locating a system of video cameras inside or outside
places with greater recurrence of people, to know the number of people that
have come in or gone out, and those how are in the place. This product may be
developed using the PHP programming language and, as an alternative, Python
with artificial vision techniques. Therefore, it is
demonstrated that the application of the techniques and the PHP programming
language provides a promising route to fight against COVID- 19, through easy
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