Implementation of environmental cleaning and disinfection has been shown to reduce the incidences of healthcare-associated infections. The effect of an enhanced strategy for terminal room disinfection, applying the pulsed xenon-based ultraviolet light no-touch disinfection systems (PX-UVC) after the current standard operating protocol (SOP) was evaluated. In a teaching hospital, the effectiveness in reducing the total bacterial count (TBC) and in eliminating high-concern microorganisms was assessed on five high-touch surfaces in different critical areas, immediately pre- and post-cleaning and disinfection procedures (345 sampling sites). PX-UVC showed only 18% (15/85) of positive samples after treatment compared to 63% (72/115) after SOP. The effectiveness of PX-UVC was also observed in the absence of manual cleaning and application of a chemical disinfectant. According to the hygienic standards proposed by the Italian Workers Compensation Authority, 9 of 80 (11%) surfaces in operating rooms showed TBC ≥15 CFU/24 cm2 after the SOP, while all samples were compliant applying the SOP plus PX-UVC disinfection. Clostridium difficile (CD) spores and Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPC) were isolated only after the SOP. The implementation of the standard cleaning and disinfection procedure with the integration of the PX-UVC treatment had effective results in both the reduction of hygiene failures and in control environmental contamination by high-concern microorganisms.
that uses the sensor-generated information to accurately regulate and enhance the dynamic performance.Soft robots (and more in general soft material-based systems) can be built with a plethora of materials and composites having very different mechanical properties, spanning from fluids (i.e., liquid metals, etc.) and hydrogels, to stiff solids (i.e., acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), epoxy resins, etc.). Also, in most cases, the constituent materials have many degrees of freedom and are highly non-linear, with relevant hysteresis and viscoelastic behavior. Hence, modeling soft systems is a very challenging task, and it still misses a comprehensive theoretical foundation. [19] As a result, the modeling phase is often overlooked in the design process, which in most cases relies on trial and error experimentation. The most commonly used materials in the design of soft robotics are silicone-based elastomers, such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). They are used as the flexible material in pneumatic actuators, [4,5,14] in magnetic actuators, [11] and in electrically driven actuators as well, usually along with a conductive layer, commonly a carbon-based material. [15,16] Besides, other flexible polymers such as polyimides, [8] polyurethanes (PU), [12,20] or hydrogels [9] are used. So far, most devices are fabricated by casting or molding of liquid monomers, followed by hardening by UV light or heat.3D printing is an additive manufacturing technique, in which a required material is deposited, layer by layer, to form a 3D object, that is, it is a sequential 2D printing. The main advantages of 3D printing over subtractive manufacturing methods, are the simplicity of the process and the ability to form complex and hollow structures. There is a variety of 3D printing technologies that are commercially available, as described in a diversity of review reports. [21][22][23] Therefore, we will present here only a concise description of the printing technologies that are most relevant to soft robotics, all of them are based on ink compositions which are liquid during the printing processes.The most widely used methods are based on extrusion of materials, called fused deposition modeling (FDM) [24,25] and direct ink writing (DIW). [26,27] Both methods rely on a material that is extruded through a nozzle onto a substrate, and differ by the materials being used, the nozzle's nature, and the fixation mechanism. In FDM, a thermoplastic filament is extruded through a heated nozzle, followed by solidification upon cooling on the substrate, to form a solid 2D layer. This technique is simple and not expensive, but is limited to thermoplastic polymers and has relatively low resolution. In DIW, a viscous Soft robotics is a growing field of research, focusing on constructing motorless robots from highly compliant materials, some are similar to those found in living organisms. Soft robotics has a high potential for applications in various fields such as soft grippers, actuators, and biomedical devices. 3D printing of soft robotics present...
We describe the epidemiology of New Delhi Metallo-Beta-Lactamase-Producing Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacterales (NDM-CRE) colonization/infection in a cohort of COVID-19 patients in an Italian teaching hospital. These patients had an increased risk of NDM-CRE acquisition versus the usual patients (75.9 vs. 25.3 cases/10,000 patient days). The co-infection significantly increased the duration of hospital stay (32.9 vs. 15.8 days).
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