A prospective randomised controlled trial of two paired wound-swabbing techniques (Levine versus Z) was conducted to establish which method was more effective in determining the presence of bacteria in clinically infected wounds. The Levine technique involves rotating the wound swab over a 1-cm(2) area of the wound; the Z technique involves rotating the swab between the fingers in a zigzag fashion across the wound without touching the wound edge. Fifty patients were recruited into the study with acute (42%) and chronic wounds (58%). Overall, the Levine technique detected significantly more organisms than the Z technique (P≤ 0· 001). When acute and chronic wounds were analysed separately, the Levine technique again detected more organisms in both acute (P≤ 0· 001) and chronic wounds (P≤ 0· 001). We conclude that the Levine technique is superior to the Z technique and this result may be because of the Levine technique's ability to express fluid from the wound bed and thereby sampling a greater concentration of microorganisms from both the surface and slightly below the surface of the wound.
How can we develop products that consumers want to use for longer? The lifetime of electrical products is an ongoing concern in discussions about the circular economy. It is an issue that begins at an industry level, but that directly influences the way in which consumers use and discard products. Through a series of workshops and knowledge exchange sessions with Philips Lighting, this paper identifies which design factors influence a consumer's tendency to retain their products for longer. These were distilled into a guiding framework for new product developers-The Emotional Durability Design Nine-consisting of nine themes: relationships, narratives, identity, imagination, conversations, consciousness, integrity, materiality, and evolvability. These nine themes are complemented by 38 strategies that help in the development of more emotionally engaging product experiences. We propose that the framework can be applied at multiple points during the new product development process to increase the likelihood that 'emotion building' features are integrated into an end product.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.