Disinfection efficiency of hospital infectious disease wards with chlorine dioxide and hypochlorous acid.

The disinfection efficiencies of two chemical disinfectants, chlorine dioxide and weak acid hypochlorous water (WAHW), were examined in the soiled room and dishwashing room of a hospital infectious disease ward in Taiwan. The investigations were conducted in two seasons, namely winter and summer, in order to examine the correlation between the bioaerosol concentration and the environmental factors. In addition, a single-daily disinfection mode (SM) and a twice-daily disinfection mode (TM) were applied in this study. The results showed that the bacteria and fungi colony counts were strongly correlated with the temperature. Both disinfectants reduced the bacteria and fungi concentrations in the considered rooms. However, of the two disinfectants, the ClO2 showed a stronger disinfection effect than the WAHW. It means that when using ClO2 as the disinfectant, the disinfection efficiency of the TM treatment mode is significantly better than that of the SM treatment mode. But, when using WAHW as the disinfectant, no significant difference is found between the disinfection efficiencies of the two methods. Overall, the results showed that the application of ClO2 twice daily provided the most effective means of satisfying the Taiwan EPA guidelines for the indoor air quality of hospital medical wards.

Improvement of indoor air quality in pet shop using gaseous chlorine dioxide.

Many studies have shown that pet shops have a high concentration of bioaerosols. Thus, effective disinfection protocols are essential to protect the pet shop staff and visitors to the store. The present study examines the effectiveness of gaseous chlorine dioxide (ClO2) fogging in minimizing the residual bacteria and fungi levels in a typical pet shop in Taiwan consisting of a commodity area, a lodging area, and a grooming area. This investigation uses three disinfection modes (DMs) according to different disinfection periods, namely once every hour (1DM), once every 2 h (2DM), and once every 3 h (3DM). The bacteria and fungi concentrations are measured before and after disinfection treatment, and the effectiveness of each disinfection mode is evaluated using standard statistical techniques. To assess the effect of the environmental factors on the disinfection efficiency, measurements are taken of temperature, relative humidity, airflow velocity, the carbon dioxide concentration, the PM1, PM2.5, PM7, PM10, and TSP level at each sampling locations. The results reveal that the effectiveness of the three disinfection modes depends on both the environmental parameters and the use of the three areas (e.g., commodity, lodging, or grooming). Hence, the choice of disinfection method should be adjusted accordingly. For all three disinfection modes, a faster air velocity is beneficial in spreading the disinfectant throughout the indoor space and improving the disinfection performance. Overall, the results presented in this study confirm that gaseous chlorine dioxide disinfection improves the air quality in the pet shop interior, and thus beneficial in safeguarding the health of the pet shop staff and visitors.

Impedimetric monitoring of IGF-1 protection of in vitro cortical neurons under ischemic conditions.

Microelectrode arrays (MEAs) incorporated with the electric cell substrate impedance sensing (ECIS) technique provide a method for acquiring cellular electrophysiological information, which is useful for the time-course monitoring of cellular outgrowth and damage. This research utilizes the ECIS technique for monitoring the time-course impedimetric changes in normal and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1)-protected cortical neurons under the ischemic insult of oxygen glucose deprivation (OGD) created in a microperfusion environment. The neuronal apoptosis is reflected by the relatively low cell viability (28 ± 11.5 %) after 30-min OGD followed by 24 h of re-oxygenation. Also the hyperpolarization phase of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) occurs during 2 h of the re-oxygenation period. In contrast, cortical neurons treated with 50 and 100 ng/mL IGF-1 show higher survival rates of 45 ± 5.2 % and 49 ± 9.2 %, respectively, and no occurrence of the hyperpolarization of MMP during the re-oxygenation period. The ECIS results demonstrate that the measured impedance of cortical neurons decreased from 826 ± 86 kΩ to 224 ± 32 kΩ due to cell detachment under the insult of OGD. The measured impedance of IGF-1-protected cortical neurons slowly decreased to about 50 % of the original value (560 ± 45 kΩ for 50 ng/mL and 593 ± 44 kΩ for 100 ng/mL) compared to saline control of 232 ± 37 kΩ, which indicates improved cell adhesion under OGD conditions. The time-course impedimetric results show that the proposed ECIS-based MEAs platform incorporated with a microperfusion environment can be used for the real-time monitoring of cortical neurons under in vitro OGD and the IGF-1 protective effect against OGD-induced ischemic neuronal death.

An implantable bi-directional wireless transmission system for transcutaneous biological signal recording.

This study presents an implantable microcontroller-based bi-directional transmission system with an inductive link designed for biological signal sensing. The system comprises an external module and an implantable module. The external module incorporates a high-efficiency class-E transceiver with amplitude modulation scheme and a data recovery reader. The transceiver sends both power and commands to the implanted module, while the reader recovers the recorded biological signal data and transmits the data to a personal computer (PC) for further data processing. To reduce the effects of interference induced by the 2 MHz carrier signal, the implanted module uses two separate coils to perform the necessary two-way data transmission. The outward backward telemetry circuitry of the implanted module was based on the loadshift keying (LSK) technique. The transmitted sensed signal had a 10-bit resolution and a read-out rate of 115 kbps. The implanted module, measuring 4.5 x 3 x 1.2 cm3, was successfully verified in animal experiment in which the electroneurogram (ENG) signal was recorded from the sciatic nerve of New Zealand rabbits in response to nociceptive stimulation of foot. The reliable operating distance of the system was within about 3.5 cm with an efficiency of around 25%. Our present study confirms that the proposed biological signal sensing device is suitable for various implanted applications following an appropriate biocompatible packaging procedure.

High frequency block of selected axons using an implantable microstimulator.

Currently, the majority of neural stimulation studies are limited to acute animal experiments due to lack of suitable implantable microstimulation devices. As an initial step to observe the long-term effects of neural stimulation, a system consisting of an external wireless controller and an implantable dual-channel microcontroller-based microstimulator for tripolar high frequency blocking was developed. The system is not only small in size, and thus suitable for short-term implantation, but also has sufficient current output parameter ranges to meet the demand for high frequency blocking experiments. Using this implantable microstimulator, a series of experiments were conducted on New Zealand rabbit's tibial nerve, including frequency and amplitude selection in driving stimulus and blocking effect tests, which were designed to assess the feasibility and efficiency of the device via torque measurements. Our results showed that the implantable microstimulator system gave a satisfactory performance and could be utilized to achieve selective stimulation and blocking on various sizes of nerve fibers. Our implantable microstimulation system is not only a novel tool for neuromuscular control studies but could also provide a basis for developing various types of sophisticated neural prostheses.