Search results

In the COVID-19 outbreak periods, people's life has been deranged, leading to disrupt the world. Firstly, the number of deaths is growing and has the potential to surpass the highest level at any time. Secondly, the pandemic broke many countries' fortified lines of epidemic prevention and gave people a more honest view of its seriousness. Finally, the pandemic has an impact on life, and the economy led to a shortage in medical, including a lack of clinicians, facilities and medical equipment. One of those, a simple ventilator is a necessary piece of medical equipment since it might be useful for a COVID-19 patient's treatment. In some cases, the COVID-19 patients require to be treated by modern ventilators to reduce lung damage. Therefore, the addition of simple ventilators is a necessity to relieve high work pressure on medical bureaucracies. Some low-income countries aim to build a simple ventilator for primary care and palliative care using locally accessible and low-cost components. One of the simple principles for producing airflow is to squeeze an artificial manual breathing unit (AMBU) iterative with grippers, which imitates the motion of human fingers. Unfortunately, the squeezing angle of grippers is not proportional to the exhaust air volume from the AMBU bag. This paper aims to model the AMBU bag by a mathematical equation that enables to implement on a simple controller to operate a bag-valve-mask (BVM) ventilator with high accuracy performance.

This paper provides a curvature function to estimate the air volume exhausting from the AMBU bag. Since the determination of the curvature function is sophisticated, the coefficients of the curvature function are approximated by a quadratic function through the experimental identification method. To obtain the high accuracy performance, a linear regression model and a least square method are employed to investigate the characteristic of the BVM ventilator's grippers angle with respect to the airflow volume produced by the AMBU bag.

This paper investigates the correlation between the exhausting airflow of the AMBU bag and the grippers angle of the BVM ventilator.

The experimental results validated that the regression model of the characteristic of the exhausting airflow of the AMBU bag with respect to the grippers' angle has been fitted with a coefficient over 98% within the range of 350–750 ml.

Sultanate of Oman witness a long summer with mostly clear blue skies and typically higher ambient temperatures as seen in other GCC countries. This type of environment warrants the use of high capacity and reliable air conditioning systems, both at resident buildings and vehicles. During summer, cars parked directly under the sun, experience a very high temperature rise inside its cabin in the range of near to 50 °C. This high cabin air temperature often causes thermal discomfort to passengers entering the parked car and also has a serious impact on the cars air-conditioning systems, as it takes longer time to bring back the thermal comfort inside the cabin. The studies also revealed that the high cabin temperature often causes health hazards to occupants, especially to infants. Current research paper, reports an experimental study carried out on a parked car, with instrumentation to identify the various the temperature zones inside the car cabin. This experiential study is aimed to improve the thermal comfort inside the cabin through solar powered cabin air ventilator for effective management of cabin air temperature. The study was carried on a chosen vehicle parked at a set direction and location exposed to day long sunlight at Muscat for considerable period of time. Firstly, the study identified the various temperature zones inside the car cabin and ventilation driven with a 10 Wp solar panel was developed to accomplish the required air exchange inside the cabin, along with continues instantaneous heat rejection through steady air exchange between inside and outside environment. A simple ventilator was developed by means of two fans which drove out the hot trapped air and a secondary fan to cool down the temperature inside the car by providing fresh air for limited time. The experimental investigation showed that the vehicle cabin temperature was typically 10 °C lower when ventilator was turned on. On a typical day on month of May, the cabin air temperatures was approximately 21 °C higher than the ambient air temperature, while with the developed ventilator the difference between the cabin and outside air temperature was reduced by 50% approximately. With the ventilator in operation, it was observed that time taken to reduce the cabin air temperature through vehicle air conditioning system to a satisfactory level was much quicker; typically it took less than the half of the time compared to those values tested without ventilator. Thus indicating, the power saving potential of the developed system as the desired level of thermal comfort can be achieved within the shorter period of time. The reduction in time taken to cool down the cabin temperature to the acceptable limits has direct two fold effects; firstly, the fuel consumption for cooling purpose is reduced and secondly, increased thermal comfort level inside the cars cabin. However, the temperature drop pattern was not similar all around the cabin, due to the varied level of cabin sunlight exposure. Temperature drop at the front of the car was lower than in middle and rear of the car. From the study it can be concluded that, with solar powered ventilator, the temperature inside the car was nearly 10 °C lesser compared to cabin without ventilator and it also helps in to bring back the thermal comfort inside the cabin nearly within half time vis-à-vis cabin without ventilation.

This paper aims to describe evolution of a new public information web site, through evaluation‐refinement prototyping cycles.

An expanding range of participants is being engaged in formal evaluations as the site design evolves. The Flesch‐Kincaid Grade Level Score is applied to assess ease of reading in the wording used; the National Quality Forum guideline statements are applied to determine whether the prototyping design process is meeting performance expectations; and then Nielsen's heuristics are applied to evaluate ease of use of the latest prototype.

The page wordings started at a high reading grade level to be technically correct, with a strategy to progressively reduce levels without losing meaning. Reading level was reduced to an average of two and as much as six grades through editing between the third and fourth‐generation prototypes. None of the National Quality Forum principles were found missing from the development process. The prototype web site was ranked at the middle compared to official public web sites of seven other States' healthcare‐associated infection programs, some of which had been open to the public for more than a year. Many of the heuristic violations that weighed against the prototype were described as being minor and easily fixed. Collaboration between a State health department and a university to advance this evaluation‐refinement process was valuable to both parties, enhancing the ability to produce a new public information web site that is more likely to meet the needs of its intended audience.

In response to increasing expectations of transparency and accountability, a growing number of public web sites are displaying hospital performance data. Washington State's mandatory public reporting of healthcare‐associated infection rates is a recent example of this trend. The Department of Health is required by law to launch a public information web site by December 2009. The research was based on an evidence‐based approach to understand and meet the information needs of the public.

Although few studies have evaluated the usage and impact of hospital comparison web sites, these studies uniformly show relatively low usage and disappointing impact. Using the research literature, issues thought to account for poor usage and low impact, and developed design principles that address this poor past performance were identified. Throughout 2008 and 2009, successive prototypes were developed for the web site structure guided by those principles and refined each generation of prototype through focus group evaluations. This paper explains the approach, and summarizes results from the evaluations, leading to improvements before the final design first opens to the general public.

This paper aims to investigate the formation of an inter-organizational collaboration network that made it possible to repair 2,516 mechanical respirators that were inoperative in Brazil during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A qualitative approach was used in a single case study with semi-structured interviews. The interviewee selection process was non-probabilistic through snowball sampling.

The results suggest that society, through different social groups with their different roles, can organize itself quickly through the formation of collaborative networks, and this organizational configuration can be an alternative for facing crises where actions isolated would be insufficient or slow to urgently address complex situations.

This paper aims to (1) demonstrate that society, through different social groups with their different roles, can organize itself quickly through the formation of collaborative networks; (2) favor the understanding and dynamics of the formation of a network; and (3) contribute to a possible replication of this initiative in future contexts.

The case portrays an unprecedented formation of a collaboration network involving more than 144 organizations that mobilized quickly in a complex context of a pandemic and that generated remarkable results through the reintroduction of equipment that were responsible for the preservation of thousands of lives during the year from 2020.

To preserve both cultural collections and historical buildings that house them, a technologically simple yet robust climate control system was installed in the Historic Archive of the Canary Islands. The archive is located in a municipal building, a late nineteenth century massive masonry building in the city of La Laguna, on Tenerife Island, Spain. The system was designed to maintain the RH level necessary for preventing microbial activities on collections in cultural institutions, by operating residential‐type ventilators and a convective heater under a humidistatic control. We have confirmed that the system not only successfully eliminated events of high relative humidity but also stabilized the climate. The annual temperature variation was significantly reduced, although daily variations increased. The room's moisture content was reduced to less than that of the outside, and microbial activities were reduced in the environment. The system was simple to install and inexpensive to operate.

COVID-19 has shaken views of what is normal and what is possible, raising questions about conventional norms, ways of working and our understanding of agility. This paper aims to respond to calls for empirical research of supply chain capacities in times of crisis and offer a unique perspective on agile procurement and supply chain management from a case study of the Ventilator Challenge.

A descriptive case study was undertaken, adopting an inductive approach. Interviews were conducted with the major stakeholders tasked with the design, sourcing and assembly of ventilators.

Findings are delivered across four key areas: context; procurement and supply chain management; technology and culture; and environment. Key challenges and enablers are discussed, highlighting the critical roles of trust, empowerment and enabling technologies in the construction of an entirely new ventilator supply chain, from scratch, in five weeks.

This paper delivers contributions for both academic research and practice. The case study offers rich new insights relating to procurement in times of crisis, contributing to efforts to advance beyond outdated approaches for resilience in literature. Practical contributions arise in highlighting the significance of adapted sourcing and recruitment, technology, collaboration, people and power of purpose in enabling agility and achieving the impossible.

This case presents some of the entrepreneurial challenges faced by a female leader in the technology sector who conceived a new product based on her passion to help others especially those most disadvantaged.

Upon completion of this case study, students should be able to prepare supply chain and distribution analysis that considers ethics and sustainability, integrate philanthropic efforts as part of an organizational strategy and recognize strategies to promote equity within and beyond an organization.

Connie Stacey (she/her) is an entrepreneur and president of Growing Greener Innovations, an award-winning battery energy storage company based in Alberta, Canada, with a mission to end energy poverty globally. With the emergence of COVID-19 as a global pandemic in 2020, Stacey turned her attention to an innovation called Project Rescue, a ventilator that uses non-identifying patient vitals to track data. It serves as a pandemic early warning system, addressing two key challenges: pandemic data are prone to error, and real-time information is non-existent after the pandemic has spread. This new product was conceived based on her passion to help others, especially those most disadvantaged. This multi-faceted case focuses on the many challenges that Stacey and her team needed to address. The dilemma in this case centres on establishing supply chains amid a pandemic, as well as prioritizing the corporate social responsibility elements of philanthropy and equity within her organization (and beyond).

This case is appropriate for third- or fourth-year undergraduate or graduate-level students.

In addition to “call out boxes” throughout the case and teaching note, additional readings/links/videos are outlined below. (These supplementary materials, “Teaching Tips”, are included in the teaching notes as well.)

CCS 11: Strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a consolidated reference for the acute management of selected iatrogenic procedural injuries occurring in the emergency department (ED).

A literature search was performed utilizing PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar for studies through March of 2017 investigating search terms “iatrogenic procedure complications,” “error management” and “procedure complications,” in addition to the search terms reflecting case reports involving the eight below listed procedure complications.

This may be particularly helpful to academic faculty who supervise physicians in training who present a higher risk to cause such injuries.

Emergent procedures performed in the ED present a higher risk for iatrogenic injury than in more controlled settings. Many physicians are taught error-avoidance rather than how to handle errors when learning procedures. There is currently very limited literature on the error management of iatrogenic procedure complications in the ED.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the three-dimensional (3D) printing community is actively participating to address the supply chain gap of essential medical supplies such as face masks, face shields, door adapters, test swabs and ventilator valves. This paper aims to present a comprehensive study on the role of 3D printing during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, its safety and its challenges.

This review paper focuses on the applications of 3D printing in the fight against COVID-19 along with the safety and challenges associated with 3D printing to fight COVID-19. The literature presented in this paper is collected from the journal indexing engines including Scopus, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, PubMed, Web of Science, etc. The main keywords used for searches were 3D printing COVID-19, Safety of 3D printed parts, Sustainability of 3D printing, etc. Further possible iterations of the keywords were used to collect the literature.

The applications of 3D printing in the fight against COVID-19 are 3D printed face masks, shields, ventilator valves, test swabs, drug deliveries and hands-free door adapters. As most of these measures are implemented hastily, the safety and reliability of these parts often lacked approval. The safety concerns include the safety of the printed parts, operators and secondary personnel such as the workers in material preparation and transportation. The future challenges include sustainability of the process, long term supply chain, intellectual property and royalty-free models, etc.

This paper presents a comprehensive study on the applications of 3D printing in the fight against COVID-19 with emphasis on the safety and challenges in it.