ABSTRACT
Coronavirus 2019 is considered the health disaster of the century and has caused a wave of global panic. Healthcare professionals were at the forefront of this pandemic to provide quality care respecting the safety of patients and the environment. The objective of this study is to determine the preventive measures applied by healthcare professionals towards patients and the environment to combat Covid19. The study was realized during April and May 2020 at the public hospital dedicated to the care of Covid patients in central Morocco in Meknes. Convenience sampling was used to collect the data. 104 people participated in the study, including 61 (58.7%) nurses and 12 (11.5%) doctors. Also, 73 (70.2%) of the healthcare professionals were men and 35 (33.7%) contracted the Coronavirus during their healthcare activity. According to the participants, the causes of this infection lie mainly in their interaction with their professional environment (71.4%). The main preventive measures applied by healthcare professionals were regular hand washing and wearing 104 masks (100%), of which 88 (84.6%) used the FFP2 mask and wore personal protective equipment. However, healthcare professionals were found to adopt other environmental practices, including surface disinfection 95 (91.3%), ventilation and sterilization of premises 46 (44.2%), maintenance and sterilization of equipment 78 (75%), and effective management of hospital waste 75 (72.1%). The study concluded that the preventive measures applied by the professionals were sufficient and complied with global recommendations to minimize the risk of contamination and maintain a healthy healthcare environment for themselves and their patients. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
In this study, we develop a system to provide information on the sterilization of baggage carts and arriving passenger baggage to airport (Hereafter referred as arrival baggage) by using ultraviolet (UV) sterilization and information communication technology as border quarantine measures at airports. This system sterilizes arrival baggage and baggage carts by UV irradiation, and allows passengers to easily view the sterilization information recognized by radio frequency indentation technology. This is to provide safety and security not only to passengers, but also to staff, who may come into direct contact with the arrival baggage, of airport, airline, customs, and so on. In addition, the passengers can be provided with baggage tracking information, such as the current location and estimated delivering time of the baggage. This makes it possible to keep social distancing at baggage claims as an infection prevention. Furthermore, we verify the feasibility of the developed system and identify the issues to be addressed for its practical application through a demonstration of proof of concept at Central Japan International Airport. © 2022 International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences
ABSTRACT
Sterilization of hospitals is one of the major concerns when it comes to hygiene and cleanliness especially during a pandemic situation. The existing methodologies include ultraviolet disinfection or hydrochloride spraying for sterilizing hospital rooms and chemical treatment for surgical and medical equipment. However since COVID strains are developing at a rapid rate, it is necessary for more efficacy and accuracy in sterilization. According to the August 2021 census collected by NCBI, 87 percent of virus transmission is only because of improper sterilization. The following paper proposes efficient and proven ultrasonic sterilization methods that can be preferred to ultraviolet and chemical sterilization in sterilizing not only hospital rooms but also any crowded regions like malls and schools. The Cremant's formula helps in determining the appropriate and effective sterilization ultrasonic frequency level. Using machine learning algorithms, the approximate location, and the number of droplets per second present in the room will be calculated and treated with ultrasonic waves. This demonstration is proved using micro silicon balls which are similar in properties of COVID - 19 viruses. Simulation results are displayed to show the working of the same. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus (COVID-19) is an infectious illness due to serious respiratory trouble. It is impacted numerous humans and has asserted the living expectancy of a greater number of persons from all over the planet. The maturation period of this virus, on typically about 5-6 days but it might also be up to 2 weeks. Throughout this period, the individual may not feel any indications but could still be transmissible. A person could develop this disease if he/ she inhales the virus while a diseased person/ virus carrier within close vicinity sneezes or coughs otherwise tapping an infected place in addition to afterward again his/ her eyes, nose or mouth. To prevent this, the region of the COVID-19 patient must be decontaminated with virucidal disinfectants, such as and 0.05% sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) and ethanol-based products (at least 70%) an optional technique used is UV light sterilization. Ultraviolet (UV) sterilization technology is used to help reduce micro-organisms that can remain on surfaces after basic sprinkling to the minimum amount. The proposed work has established an UV robot or UV bot to perform decontamination in an operating room or in-patients room. Three 19.3-watt UV lights are positioned in a 360-degree circle on the UV bot platform. It used an integrated system based on a microprocessor and a metal frame to aid in navigation in a fixed path to avoid barriers. In addition, a sanitizer dispenser is also included to clean the viral organisms, which is spread through the water droplets of the patient. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
This paper proposes a respirator for children integrated with bamboo-based activated carbon filters and bipolar ionization as the sterilizer to increase protection from Covid-19 and other pathogens. The respirator, named as Bion-Kids, was designed based on the children's head-and-face anthropometry from direct measurement. The duration of sterilization process is controlled based on the activities, which are classified using the Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) model with dataset acquired from the accelerometer. Manufacturing process of the main body prototype comprises heat bending and 3D printing. The bamboo-based activated carbon filter was synthesized by applying heat and pressure at the strewed activated carbon particles on the N95 filter. Observation using scanning electron microscope showed the ability of the bamboo-based activated carbon filter to adsorb and trap the particles. Result of the qualitative fit test and questionnaire survey indicated that Bion-Kids is suitable and comfortable for the children's face. The result of filtration and bipolar ionization sterilization system analysis have also met the ISO14698 standard by not showing any infiltration of microorganisms on the blood agar media. This device may become an early-stage personal protective equipment against the transmission of Covid-19 and other pathogens. © 2022 THE AUTHORS
ABSTRACT
Rising air pollution is a cause of concern throughout the world. With rapid industrialization, growth of transportation industry, increasing construction activities, all has taken a toll on the air quality. The air quality in most parts of our country remains poor to moderately pollute for maximum part of the year. P.M. 2.5, P.M. 10, NOx, and SOx are the primary pollutants. Along with the poor quality of air, COVID-19 has added to the misery by affecting the respiratory tract and further worsening the condition of a patient. Through this project, we aim to build a economical solar powered air purifier that can be installed in each and every household as well as outdoors, catering to the air quality indoors, and contributing in purification of the air in the surrounding environment. The air purifier would be capable of providing air filtration as well as sterilization be powered by solar energy and be available at an affordable price. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
The spread of the coronavirus has been the focus the world's attention. The government has issued a new regulation on the coronavirus that obligates the entire community to always wear a face mask and implement social distancing to prevent the spread of viruses. These issues have been impacted by an increase in the use of face masks throughout the world and in Indonesia. Moreover, the World Health Organization (WHO) suggested using medical face masks. Furthermore, in the health care sector, the possible loading of pathogens in sub-micrometer sizes and properties such as splash resistance and the ability to prevent infection by reducing the concentration of inhaled particulates has created limitations on the types of face masks that can be used. Therefore it is necessary to design a face mask sterilizer device that can extend the life span of masks, thereby decreasing the masks consumption. An investigation on mask sterilizer devices based on heat pipes and thermoelectrics was conducted in this study. The objective of this study was to investigate the thermal performance of the mask sterilizer device. The method used was an experimental method using variations in the input voltage on the thermoelectric, namely 9 V, 10 V, and 11 V, and the microcontroller was also adjusted to control the temperature by 70 ℃, 80 ℃, and 90 ℃. The results showed that the thermoelectrics can generate heat with a temperature difference between the hot side and the cold side that can reach 80.11 ℃. In terms of voltage, the greater voltage that was given led to a greater resulting temperature of the sterilization device and reduced the amount of time to achieve the minimum sterilization temperature. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
ABSTRACT
The emergence of COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in establishing methods of sterilization and prevention, and also in the searching for sterilization methods at the lowest cost and most effective in eliminating viruses. Robots are widely used in many fields including the sterilization to reduce the risk to human life. This work presents a design and implementation of robot for automatic surface disinfecting using Ultraviolet (UV) lights. Arduino UNO R3 is used as micro controller to control the movement of the mobile robot and three ultrasonic sensor which used to avoid robot collision with obstacles. UV lights are used in the sterilization processes of surfaces, air and water, as it ruptures the DNA of bacteria or viruses and thus prevents it from reproduce. Eight UV lights are used in this research work which are fixed around the mobile robot. The results showed the low cost with robot using for surface disinfecting can be obtained with using simple sensors and actuators components and UV lights, as well as being safer for humans than using chemical disinfectants. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
We propose a method for remote sterilization of surfaces which follows wireless power transmission principles. Using the self-steering tracking capability of retro-directive arrays (RDAs), an infected area of interest can be sterilized by radiating microwave power in a controlled and efficient manner, thus producing heat for pathogen deactivation. The employed antenna array system offers dual-circular polarization with isolation values of 55 dB which supports the co-location of the transmit and receive parts of the RDA. In particular, the paper reports the use of a 2 x 2 circularly polarized RDA system operating in the S-band, which is used to investigate the possible heat change of a water covered sample for sterilization, placed at different ranges from the transmitting point and rotated in the plane normal to the illumination. The time required to heat the area of interest up 60°C is numerically studied and the capabilities of inducing the needed temperature gradient over the samples is examined. In addition, measurements have been performed using biological samples of the coronavirus (strain Cov-229E-GFP) to demonstrate virus deactivation. The proposed methodology can also be made completely automated and with little operator interaction, representing a new and attractive option for microwave sterilization of pathogens such as those related to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS COVID-19). © 2022 European Microwave Association.
ABSTRACT
This paper proposes a remote sterilization technique through microwave radiation. The innovative approach requires the heating of a liquid water film layer, which can be sprayed onto the area of interest. Applications include the deactivation of the coronavirus and other pathogens by physically increasing the liquid film temperature achieving thermal sterilization. The proposed technique can be implemented by various antenna systems and retrodirective arrays. In this study, a dual-polarized antenna array is adopted and designed to increase the transmitted power levels without physically including more antenna elements. As reported in the paper, this dual-polarized approach has the benefit of reduced sterilization time when compared to a single-polarization system having the same number of antenna elements. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Emerging of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) since the end of 2019, calls scientist to develop various ways to combat the disease. One of the possible ways is to develop human friendly sterilization room. We report characterization of far UV-C beam propagation in air medium. Several distances and radiation angles of the far UV-C beam was experimentally measured using an UV optical spectrum meter. As a result, the beam has irradiance loss of 0.02 - 0.2 dB/cm and beam radiation angle of about 150 degree for vertical and 180 degree for horizontal. The far UV-C beam can be used for airborne virus sterilization and safe to human skin or eyes. The exposure time varies to the distance from the UVC source. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Presented observational data indicate that a significant number of infections with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus occur by air without direct contact with the source, in addition, in a tangibly long time interval. It is noticed that atmospheric precipitations help to cleanse the air from pollution and at the same time from viruses, reducing non-contact infections. These facts additionally actualize the problem of optimal microbiological decontamination of air and surfaces. In order to optimize microbiological sterilization, a thermodynamic approach is applied. It is shown that irreversible chemical oxidation reactions are the shortest way to achieve sterility, they being capable of providing one hundred percent reliability of decontamination. It is established that oxygen is optimal as an oxidant, including ecologically, because it and all of its reactive forms harmoniously fit into natural exchange cycles. The optimal way to obtain reactive oxygen species for disinfection is the use of low-temperature (“cold”) plasma, which provides energy-efficient generation of oxidative reactive forms - atomic oxygen (O), ozone (O3), hydroxyl radical (⋅OH), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), superoxide (O2 −), singlet oxygen O2(a1Δg). Due to the short lifetime for most of the above forms outside the plasma applicator, remoted from the plasma generator objects should be sterilized with ozone (O3), the minimum lifetime of which is quite long (several minutes). It is substantiated that microwave method of generating oxygen plasma is optimal for energy efficient ozone production. A modular principle of generation is proposed for varying the productivity of ozone generating units over a wide range. The module is developed on the basis of an adapted serial microwave oven, in which a non-self-sustaining microwave discharge is maintained due to ionizations produced by radionuclides-emitters. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.