Project description:Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Till now, the total number of affected patients are 9,073,969 with 471,199 deaths and 3,747,128 currently infected active cases. Major concern is due to the droplets and aerosols of SARS CoV 2 causing the rapid spread and transmission. Since last 3 months we are using the indigenous face shields for our health care workers which costs only 0.13 USD per shield. Now we propose the use of this same shield for the general public to reduce the transmission of SARS CoV2.
Project description:This study assessed the disinfection using 70% ethanol; H2O2-quaternary ammonium salt mixture; 0.1% sodium hypochlorite and autoclaving of four 3D-printed face shields with different designs, visor materials; and visor thickness (0.5-0.75 mm). We also investigated their clinical suitability by applying a questionnaire to health workers (HW) who used them. Each type of disinfection was done 40 times on each type of mask without physical damage. In contrast, autoclaving led to appreciable damage.
Project description:ObjectivePandemic scenarios like the current Corona outbreak show the vulnerability of both globalized markets and just-in-time production processes for urgent medical equipment. Even usually cheap personal protection equipment becomes excessively expensive or is not deliverable at all. To avoid dangerous situations especially to medical professionals, but also to affected patients, 3D-printer and maker-communities have teamed up to develop and print shields, masks and adapters to help the medical personnel. In this study, we investigate three home-made respiratory masks for filter and protection efficacy and discuss the results and legal aspects.Materials and methodsA home-printed respiratory mask with a commercial filter, a scuba-diving mask with a commercial filter and a mask sewn from a vacuum cleaner bag were investigated with 99mTc-labeled NaCl-aerosol, and the respective filter-efficacy was measured under a scintigraphic camera.ResultsThe sewn mask from a vacuum cleaner bag had a filter efficacy of 69.76%, the 3D-printed mask of 39.27% and the scuba-diving mask of 85.07%.ConclusionHome-printed personal protection equipment can be a-yet less efficient-alternative against aerosol in case professional masks are not available, but legal aspects of their use and distribution have to be kept in mind in order to avoid compensation claims.
Project description:Coronavirus disease 2019 is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. It has taken a toll of lots of lives since its outbreak. Infection prevention at present is an appropriate control measure in addition to other measure like hand hygiene and personal protective equipment (PPE). In our country with a large population, supplying PPE to all the health care workers of all hospitals definitely is an economic burden. Hence we have come up with an economic and simple solution for face mask.
Project description:Most laboratories employ spin coating with application of antisolvent to achieve high efficiency in perovskite solar cells. However, this method wastes a lot of material and is not industrially usable. Conversely, large area coating techniques such as blade and slot-die require high precision engineering both for deposition of ink and for gas or for electromagnetic drying procedures that replace, out of necessity, anti-solvent engineering. Here we present a simple and effective method to deposit uniform high-quality perovskite films with a piece of paper as an applicator at low temperatures. We fabricated solar cells on flexible PET substrates manually with 11% power conversion efficiency. Deposition after soaking the sheet of paper in a green antisolvent improved the efficiency by 82% compared to when using dry paper as applicator. This new technique enables manual film deposition without any expensive equipment and has the potential to be fully automated for future optimization and exploitation.
Project description:Wearing face masks is recommended as part of personal protective equipment and as a public health measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Their use, however, is deeply connected to social and cultural practices and has acquired a variety of personal and social meanings. This article aims to identify the diversity of sociocultural, ethical, and political meanings attributed to face masks, how they might impact public health policies, and how they should be considered in health communication. In May 2020, we involved 29 experts of an interdisciplinary research network on health and society to provide their testimonies on the use of face masks in 20 European and 2 Asian countries (China and South Korea). They reflected on regulations in the corresponding jurisdictions as well as the personal and social aspects of face mask wearing. We analyzed those testimonies thematically, employing the method of qualitative descriptive analysis. The analysis framed the four dimensions of the societal and personal practices of wearing (or not wearing) face masks: individual perceptions of infection risk, personal interpretations of responsibility and solidarity, cultural traditions and religious imprinting, and the need of expressing self-identity. Our study points to the importance for an in-depth understanding of the cultural and sociopolitical considerations around the personal and social meaning of mask wearing in different contexts as a necessary prerequisite for the assessment of the effectiveness of face masks as a public health measure. Improving the personal and collective understanding of citizens' behaviors and attitudes appears essential for designing more effective health communications about COVID-19 pandemic or other global crises in the future. To wear a face mask or not to wear a face mask? Nowadays, this question has been analogous to the famous line from Shakespeare's Hamlet: "To be or not to be, that is the question." This is a bit allegorical, but certainly not far from the current circumstances where a deadly virus is spreading amongst us... Vanja Kopilaš, Croatia.
Project description:Due to supply chain disruption, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe shortages in personal protective equipment (PPE) for health care professionals. Local fabrication based on 3D printing is one way to address this challenge, particularly in the case of simple products such as protective face shields. As a consequence, many public domain designs for face shields have become available. No clear path exists, however, for introducing a locally fabricated and unapproved product into a clinical setting. In a US health care setting, face shields are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); similar policies exist in other countries. We describe a research protocol under which rapid iteration on an existing design, coupled with clinical feedback and real-world testing in an emergency department, allowed a face shield to be adopted by the incident command team at a major academic medical center. We describe our design and testing process and provide an overview of regulatory considerations associated with fabrication and testing of face shields and related products. All designs, materials used, testing protocols, and survey results are reported in full to facilitate the execution of similar face shield efforts in other clinical settings. Our work serves as a case study for development of a robust local response to pandemics and other health care emergencies, with implications for healthcare professionals, hospital administrators, regulatory agencies and concerned citizens.
Project description:This work reports an analytical method for determining electrical resistivity (ρ) and sheet resistance (RS) of isotropic conductors. The method is compared with previous numerical solutions and available experimental data showing a universal behavior for isotropic conductors. An approximated solution is also reported allowing one to easily determine ρ and RS for samples either with regular or arbitrary shapes.