scholarly journals Decontamination of Common Healthcare Facility Surfaces Contaminated with SARS-CoV-2 using Peracetic Acid Dry Fogging

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd Cutts ◽  
Samantha Kasloff ◽  
David Safronetz ◽  
Jay Krishnan
Keyword(s):  
Peracetic Acid ◽  
Infectious Virus ◽  
High Titer ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Healthcare Setting ◽  
Healthcare Facility ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Clear Plastic ◽  
Computer Keyboard

BackgroundThe SARS-Cov-2 pandemic has highlighted the urgent need for safe and effective surface decontamination methods, particularly in healthcare settings.MethodsThe effectiveness of peracetic acid (PAA) dry fogging in decontaminating common healthcare setting surfaces was evaluated after experimentally contaminating nine surfaces (stainless steel, latex painted wood, unsealed hardwood, melamine countertop, vinyl flooring, clear plastic, faux leather, computer keyboard button and smartphone touch screen) with more than 106 TCID50 of SARS-CoV-2.ResultsWhen fumigated with PAA dry fog for an hour, no infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus was recovered from experimentally inoculated coupons of representing nine different surface types. In contrast, high titer recovery of infectious virus was demonstrated for corresponding untreated drying controls of the same materials.ConclusionStandard surface decontaminating processes, including sprays and wipes, are laborious and often cannot completely decontaminate sensitive electronic equipment. The ease of use, low cost and overall effectiveness of a PAA dry fogging suggest it should be considered for decontaminating settings, particularly intensive care units where severely ill SARS-CoV-2 patients are cared for.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Novel “No-Touch” Technologies for Decontamination of Toys in Pediatric Healthcare Settings

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s229-s229
Author(s):  
Hanan Haydar ◽  
Jessica Kumar ◽  
Jennifer Cadnum ◽  
Claudia Hoyen ◽  
Curtis Donskey
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Facility ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Candida Auris ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Clostridioides Difficile ◽  
Ultraviolet C ◽  
Submicron Droplets ◽  
High Level ◽  
Healthcare Associated ◽  
Pediatric Healthcare

Background: Toys in playrooms are often shared among patients in pediatric healthcare settings; they can present a risk for transmission of bacterial and viral pathogens. Effective cleaning and disinfection of toys using disinfectant wipes is labor intensive and difficult due to irregular surfaces. Methods: We conducted a point-prevalence culture survey to determine the frequency of contamination of in-use toys and high-touch surfaces in playrooms in a pediatric healthcare facility with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), and Clostridioides difficile. Using a variety of toys inoculated with pathogens, we evaluated efficacy and ease-of-use of 3 novel “no-touch” technologies: (1) an electrostatic sprayer, (2) a small ultraviolet-C (UV-C) box (18.9 × 9.9 × 1.8 inches) for smaller toys, and (3) a high-level disinfection cabinet using ultrasonic submicron droplets of peracetic acid and hydrogen peroxide. Test pathogens included C. difficile, MRSA, and Candida auris. Results: Of 135 items cultured in playrooms, 6 (4.4%) were contaminated with MRSA, 1 (0.7%) was contaminated with VRE, and none were contaminated with C. difficile. Each of the technologies reduced all pathogens by >4 log10 CFU on all types of toys tested (plastic, soft rubber, and tablet). The electrostatic sprayer was considered the easiest to use by all users because large numbers of toys could be processed much more quickly (ie, spray for 20 seconds and allow to air dry) than with disinfectant wipes. The disinfection cabinet required 21 minutes for cycle completion, whereas the decontamination cycle for the UV box was only 30–90 seconds but with limited capacity to hold toys. Conclusions: Three “no-touch” technologies were effective for disinfection of toys contaminated with healthcare-associated pathogens. The electrostatic spray application of disinfectant was considered the easiest to use for rapid decontamination of toys.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None

Wireless Technology and Clinical Influences in Healthcare Setting

2011 ◽  
pp. 55-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Hafeez Baig ◽  
Raj Gururajan
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Healthcare Setting ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Wireless Technology ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Information Systems Professionals ◽  
Using Data

This chapter argues that current techniques used in the domain of Information Systems is not adequate for establishing determinants of wireless technology in a clinical setting. Using data collected from India, this chapter conducted a first order regrssion modeling (factor analysis) and then a second order regression modeling (SEM) to establish the determinants of clinical influences as a result of using wireless technology in healthcare settings. As information systems professionals, the authors conducted a qualitative data collection to understand the domain prior to employing a quantitative technique, thus providing rigour as well as personal relevance. The outcomes of this study has clearly established that there are a number of influences such as the organisational factors in determining the technology acceptance and provides evidence that trivial factors such as perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are no longer acceptable as the factors of technology acceptance.

scholarly journals A Continuously Active Antimicrobial Surface Coating Reduces Bioburden in a Healthcare Setting

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s439-s439
Author(s):  
Valerie Beck
Keyword(s):  
Surface Coating ◽  
Geometric Mean ◽  
Healthcare Setting ◽  
Aerobic Bacteria ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Additional Layer ◽  
Clostridioides Difficile ◽  
Sustained Reduction ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Healthcare Associated

Background: It is well known that contaminated surfaces contribute to the transmission of pathogens in healthcare settings, necessitating the need for antimicrobial strategies beyond routine cleaning with momentary disinfectants. A recent publication demonstrated that application of a novel, continuously active antimicrobial surface coating in ICUs resulted in the reduction of healthcare-associated infections. Objective: We determined the general microbial bioburden and incidence of relevant pathogens present in patient rooms at 2 metropolitan hospitals before and after application of a continuously active antimicrobial surface coating. Methods: A continuously active antimicrobial surface coating was applied to patient rooms in intensive care units (ICUs) twice over an 18-month period and in non-ICUs twice over a 6-month study period. The environmental bioburden was assessed 8–16 weeks after each treatment. A 100-cm2 area was swabbed from frequently touched areas in patient rooms: patient chair arm rest, bed rail, TV remote, and backsplash behind the sink. The total aerobic bacteria count was determined for each location by enumeration on tryptic soy agar (TSA); the geometric mean was used to compare bioburden before and after treatment. Each sample was also plated on selective agar for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and Clostridioides difficile to determine whether pathogens were present. Pathogen incidence was calculated as the percentage of total sites positive for at least 1 of the 4 target organisms. Results: Before application of the antimicrobial coating, total aerobic bacteria counts in ICUs were >1,500 CFU/100 cm2, and at least 30% of the sites were positive for a target pathogen (ie, CRE, VRE, MRSA or C. difficile). In non-ICUs, the bioburden before treatment was at least 500 CFU/100 cm2, with >50% of sites being contaminated with a pathogen. After successive applications of the surface coating, total aerobic bacteria were reduced by >80% in the ICUs and >40% in the non-ICUs. Similarly, the incidence of pathogen-positive sites was reduced by at least 50% in both ICUs and non-ICUs. Conclusions: The use of a continuously active antimicrobial surface coating provides a significant (P < .01) and sustained reduction in aerobic bacteria while also reducing the occurrence of epidemiologically important pathogens on frequently touched surfaces in patient rooms. These findings support the use of novel antimicrobial technologies as an additional layer of protection against the transmission of potentially harmful bacteria from contaminated surfaces to patients.Funding: Allied BioScience provided Funding: for this study.Disclosures: Valerie Beck reports salary from Allied BioScience.

scholarly journals Imaging in Propeller Flap Surgery

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (03) ◽  
pp. 145-151
Author(s):  
Shimpei Ono ◽  
Hiroyuki Ohi ◽  
Rei Ogawa
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Duplex Sonography ◽  
Computed Tomographic Angiography ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Computed Tomographic ◽  
Imaging Tool ◽  
Preoperative Mapping ◽  
Flap Design ◽  
Tomographic Angiography

AbstractSince propeller flaps are elevated as island flaps and most often nourished by a single perforator nearby the defect, it is challenging to change the flap design intraoperatively when a reliable perforator cannot be found where expected to exist. Thus, accurate preoperative mapping of perforators is essential in the safe planning of propeller flaps. Various methods have been reported so far: (1) handheld acoustic Doppler sonography (ADS), (2) color duplex sonography (CDS), (3) perforator computed tomographic angiography (P-CTA), and (4) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA). To facilitate the preoperative perforator assessment, P-CTA is currently considered as the gold standard imaging tool in revealing the three-dimensional anatomical details of perforators precisely. Nevertheless, ADS remains the most widely used tool due to its low cost, faster learning, and ease of use despite an undesirable number of false-positive results. CDS can provide hemodynamic characteristics of the perforator and is a valid and safer alternative particularly in patients in whom ionizing radiation and/or contrast exposure should be limited. Although MRA is less accurate in detecting smaller perforators of caliber less than 1.0 mm and the intramuscular course of perforators at the present time, MRA is expected to improve in the future due to the recent developments in technology, making it as accurate as P-CTA. Moreover, it provides the advantage of being radiation-free with fewer contrast reactions.

scholarly journals Liquid marble based digital microfluidics – fundamentals and applications

Lab on a Chip ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chin Hong Ooi ◽  
Raja Vadivelu ◽  
Jing Jin ◽  
Sreejith Kamalalayam Rajan ◽  
Pradip Singha ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Digital Microfluidics ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Liquid Marbles ◽  
Liquid Marble

Liquid marbles are droplets with volume typically on the order of microliters coated with hydrophobic powder. The versatility, ease of use and low cost make liquid marbles an attractive platform...

scholarly journals Molecularly Imprinted Polymers Combined with Electrochemical Sensors for Food Contaminants Analysis

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (15) ◽  
pp. 4607
Author(s):  
Dounia Elfadil ◽  
Abderrahman Lamaoui ◽  
Flavio Della Pelle ◽  
Aziz Amine ◽  
Dario Compagnone
Keyword(s):  
Food Safety ◽  
Molecularly Imprinted Polymers ◽  
Electrochemical Sensors ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Electrochemical Analysis ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Electrochemical Sensing ◽  
Food Contaminants ◽  
Molecularly Imprinted ◽  
Imprinted Polymers

Detection of relevant contaminants using screening approaches is a key issue to ensure food safety and respect for the regulatory limits established. Electrochemical sensors present several advantages such as rapidity; ease of use; possibility of on-site analysis and low cost. The lack of selectivity for electrochemical sensors working in complex samples as food may be overcome by coupling them with molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). MIPs are synthetic materials that mimic biological receptors and are produced by the polymerization of functional monomers in presence of a target analyte. This paper critically reviews and discusses the recent progress in MIP-based electrochemical sensors for food safety. A brief introduction on MIPs and electrochemical sensors is given; followed by a discussion of the recent achievements for various MIPs-based electrochemical sensors for food contaminants analysis. Both electropolymerization and chemical synthesis of MIP-based electrochemical sensing are discussed as well as the relevant applications of MIPs used in sample preparation and then coupled to electrochemical analysis. Future perspectives and challenges have been eventually given.

scholarly journals Review of Electrochemical DNA Biosensors for Detecting Food Borne Pathogens

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (22) ◽  
pp. 4916 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiaoyun Wu ◽  
Yunzhe Zhang ◽  
Qian Yang ◽  
Ning Yuan ◽  
Wei Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Pathogen Detection ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Electrochemical Techniques ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Dna Biosensors ◽  
Food Borne Pathogens ◽  
Chip Technology ◽  
Food Borne

The vital importance of rapid and accurate detection of food borne pathogens has driven the development of biosensor to prevent food borne illness outbreaks. Electrochemical DNA biosensors offer such merits as rapid response, high sensitivity, low cost, and ease of use. This review covers the following three aspects: food borne pathogens and conventional detection methods, the design and fabrication of electrochemical DNA biosensors and several techniques for improving sensitivity of biosensors. We highlight the main bioreceptors and immobilizing methods on sensing interface, electrochemical techniques, electrochemical indicators, nanotechnology, and nucleic acid-based amplification. Finally, in view of the existing shortcomings of electrochemical DNA biosensors in the field of food borne pathogen detection, we also predict and prospect future research focuses from the following five aspects: specific bioreceptors (improving specificity), nanomaterials (enhancing sensitivity), microfluidic chip technology (realizing automate operation), paper-based biosensors (reducing detection cost), and smartphones or other mobile devices (simplifying signal reading devices).

Face recognition in an intelligent door lock with ResNet model based on deep learning

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Suphawimon Phawinee ◽  
Jing-Fang Cai ◽  
Zhe-Yu Guo ◽  
Hao-Ze Zheng ◽  
Guan-Chen Chen
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Detection System ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Raspberry Pi ◽  
Training Methods ◽  
Graphics Recognition ◽  
Face Images ◽  
The Face ◽  
Door Lock

Internet of Things is considerably increasing the levels of convenience at homes. The smart door lock is an entry product for smart homes. This work used Raspberry Pi, because of its low cost, as the main control board to apply face recognition technology to a door lock. The installation of the control sensing module with the GPIO expansion function of Raspberry Pi also improved the antitheft mechanism of the door lock. For ease of use, a mobile application (hereafter, app) was developed for users to upload their face images for processing. The app sends the images to Firebase and then the program downloads the images and captures the face as a training set. The face detection system was designed on the basis of machine learning and equipped with a Haar built-in OpenCV graphics recognition program. The system used four training methods: convolutional neural network, VGG-16, VGG-19, and ResNet50. After the training process, the program could recognize the user’s face to open the door lock. A prototype was constructed that could control the door lock and the antitheft system and stream real-time images from the camera to the app.

scholarly journals Environmental Attitudes and Willingness to Purchase Online—Classification Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8592
Author(s):  
Marcin Gąsior
Keyword(s):  
Information Search ◽  
Environmental Attitudes ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
Research Procedure ◽  
Willingness To Purchase ◽  
Willingness To Use ◽  
Competitive Pricing ◽  
Self Reporting Questionnaire

During the last several years, a tremendous increase in the popularity of online shopping has been observed. There are several possible reasons behind it, some of them, like competitive pricing, convenience or low cost of information search, considered to be extrinsic, others—like ease of use of this channel, pleasure related to it or willingness to reduce social interactions—intrinsic. The purpose of this research is to evaluate another factor, i.e., consumers’ environmental attitudes, in the perspective of their possible relation with the perception and willingness to use online and conventional shopping channels. In order to achieve this, a self-reporting questionnaire was developed and the data from a representative sample of 1000 Polish Internet users was gathered. The research procedure included cluster analysis, whose objective was to identify groups of customers with similar composition of environmental attitudes and next, a set of Kruskal–Wallis tests, aimed at identifying differences in opinions on channels between these clusters. The research proved that large groups of consumers with consistent sets of environmental attitudes exist and the scope of differences between such clusters is not reduced to a unidimensional, “positive–negative” continuum. Furthermore, there are significant differences between clusters in the declared willingness to use online and conventional shopping channels—groups more environmentally-oriented are more willing to purchase online and trust online shops, although they neither perceive conventional retail in a more negative way nor directly prefer online over conventional channels. The nature of such a phenomenon is open to explanation and interpretation, nevertheless, the research proves that environmental attitudes should be included in future models of consumers’ channel choice.

scholarly journals Fire Risk Assessment in Healthcare Settings: Application of FMEA Combined with Multi‐Criteria Decision Making Methods

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Fateme Omidvari ◽  
Mehdi Jahangiri ◽  
Reza Mehryar ◽  
Moslem Alimohammadlou ◽  
Mojtaba Kamalinia
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Fire Risk ◽  
Fire Detection ◽  
Healthcare Setting ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Intuitionistic Fuzzy ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Fire Risk Assessment ◽  
Risk Parameters

Fire is one of the most dangerous phenomena causing major casualties and financial losses in hospitals and healthcare settings. In order to prevent and control the fire sources, first risk assessment should be conducted. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is one of the techniques widely used for risk assessment. However, Risk Priority Number (RPN) in this technique does not take into account the weight of the risk parameters. In addition, indirect relationships between risk parameters and expert opinions are not considered in decision making in this method. The aim is to conduct fire risk assessment of healthcare setting using the application of FMEA combined with Multi‐Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods. First, a review of previous studies on fire risk assessment was conducted and existing rules were identified. Then, the factors influencing fire risk were classified according to FMEA criteria. In the next step, weights of fire risk criteria and subcriteria were determined using Intuitionistic Fuzzy Multiplicative Best-Worst Method (IFMBWM) and different wards of the hospital were ranked using Interval-Valued Intuitionistic Fuzzy Combinative Distance-based Assessment (IVIFCODAS) method. Finally, a case study was performed in one of the hospitals of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. In this study, fire alarm system (0.4995), electrical equipment and installations (0.277), and flammable materials (0.1065) had the highest weight, respectively. The hospital powerhouse also had the highest fire risk, due to the lack of fire extinguishers, alarms and fire detection, facilities located in the basement floor, boilers and explosive sensitivity, insufficient access, and housekeeping. The use of MCDM methods in combination with the FMEA method assesses the risk of fire in hospitals and health centers with great accuracy.

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