Empty Room Research Articles

Eco-Sustainability in Hospital Pharmacy: A Pilot Survey on 'Going Green'.

Purpose: Between 2009 and 2015, the Canadian health care system was estimated to be responsible for 4.6% of national carbon emissions. Determine awareness of and describe eco-initiatives that the department of pharmacy can implement to aim to reduce the carbon footprint in hospital pharmacy in an effort to 'go green'. Methods: In a quality improvement initiative, pharmacy employees (i.e. pharmacists and pharmacy technicians) completed a cross-sectional survey designed to gauge willingness to 'go green' at work, to identify actionable areas of waste, and to assess commuting practices. Results: A total of 15 respondents completed the survey conducted March 14th -April 7th, 2022. Most respondents (73%) were willing to engage in more sustainable practices at work. The main barriers to implementing green practices at work were 'too time consuming' (20%), 'adds too much complexity' (20%), and 'cost' (16%). For commuting, 60% indicated the primary mode of transportation as 'personal vehicle', where 'subsidized transit' and was listed as the greatest incentive that could encourage a greener commute. The three largest areas of waste cited were 'single use plastic' (36%), 'limited of awareness of green practices' (15%), and 'lights left on in empty rooms' (12%). Conclusions: Pharmacy staff shared willingness to engage in more sustainable 'go green' practices but raised challenges to do so. With the knowledge that Canada has the second most climate intensive health system, there is a need for future research to describe how hospital pharmacies can contribute strategically to 'go green', advancing with implementing low carbon sustainable pharmacy practices.

A Tracking and Mapping Method for Visually-degraded Environment

Abstract. When exploring uncertain areas, the system usually relies on Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) to map the surrounding environment and track the location through the environment. Recent work has shown that the SLAM algorithm can exhibit strong robustness when observing distinctive features. However, some environments, such as tunnels or empty rooms, may lack sufficient features to navigate reliably. This is called environmental degradation, which refers to the difficulties encountered in positioning and mapping in specific scenarios and then lead to poor system performance. We propose an improved algorithm based on Non-Rigid Structure-from-Motion (NRSfM) and Deformable SLAM (DefSLAM). The method proposed in this paper can be used to deal with the degraded environment of visual sparse and repetitive features. In the experiment, the algorithm processes the close-up sequence of the degraded scene, both in the laboratory-controlled experiment and in the real-world sequence, to generate a 3D model of the scene relative to the mobile camera. It has been proved that the algorithm proposed in this paper achieves impressive performance on the dataset and the estimation method is robust to degradation.

Coupling adaptive filters with acoustic travel time tomography for indoor climate measurements in occupied room conditions

Acoustic travel time TOMography (ATOM) as a remote sensing technique allows for the measurement of indoor climate parameters, such as air temperature and airflow velocity distributions. The performance of ATOM in monitoring indoor air temperature in empty room conditions was evaluated recently, utilizing a combined analysis approach of room acoustics and tomography. This study shifts focus to the assessment of ATOM in an occupied room condition where fixed objects are introduced to the test area. The presence of objects in a room can result in notable shifts in the travel times of individual reflections. In some cases, these shifts can cause reflections to disappear completely or be replaced by new ones. These partial disruptions in the reflection pattern present challenges in obtaining accurate information about the room's temperature. To ensure the accurate identification of undisturbed reflection paths, an algorithm was developed that can convert distorted signals into a pure reference signal using a suitable adaptive filter. The measurement results confirm the validity of the approach for a temperature interval of 4°C where the system was trained for two temperatures of 20°C and 24°C in a climate chamber.

Utilizing Augmented Reality to Evaluate Service Member Team Performance.

Decision-making is a complex process that relies on situational awareness and experience to create a potential list of actions while weighing the risks and benefits of each action. There is a paucity of data evaluating decision-making for individual service members (SM) during the performance of team-based military-relevant activities. Understanding individual performance and decision-making within the context of a team-based activity has potential to aid in the detection and management of mild traumatic brain injuries and assist with safe and timely return-to-duty decision making. The aim of this project was to evaluate cognitive and motor performance in healthy SM during an augmented reality military specific, team-based activity. Data from 110 SMs from Fort Moore Georgia were analyzed for this project. Service members completed 3 augmented reality room breaching and clearing scenarios (Empty Room, Civilian/Combatant, and Incorrect Position of a unit member) with 3 avatar team members. Participants wore a Microsoft HoloLens 2 (HL2) device and used a replica M4 weapon (Haptech Defense Systems) during scenarios. Three-dimensional position data from the HL2 headset was used to compute temporal measures of room breaching and clearing events while the number and timing of weapon discharge was monitored by the M4. Temporal outcomes included time to enter room, time to fire first shot, time in fatal funnel, and total trial time while motor outcomes were distance traveled and average movement velocity. Pairwise comparisons between the Incorrect Position scenario and the Civilian/Combatant scenario demonstrated no difference in time to enter the room (2.36 seconds in both scenarios). Time to fire the first shot in the Civilian/Combatant scenario was longer (0.97 seconds to 0.58 seconds) while time in fatal funnel (2.58 seconds to 3.31 seconds) and time to trial completion (7.46 seconds to 8.41 seconds) were significantly longer in the Incorrect Position scenario. Reaction time to fire the first shot, time in the fatal funnel, and total trial time reflect a change in information-processing and decision-making capabilities during military specific, ecological, team-based scenarios when altering the environment inside of the room and modifying avatar movements. Future studies are planned to evaluate the effects of mild traumatic brain injury on specific aspects of military team performance.

The influence of affective voice on sound distance perception.

Affective stimuli in our environment indicate reward or threat and thereby relate to approach and avoidance behavior. Previous findings suggest that affective stimuli may bias visual perception, but it remains unclear whether similar biases exist in the auditory domain. Therefore, we asked whether affective auditory voices (angry vs. neutral) influence sound distance perception. Two VR experiments (data collection 2021-2022) were conducted in which auditory stimuli were presented via loudspeakers located at positions unknown to the participants. In the first experiment (N = 44), participants actively placed a visually presented virtual agent or virtual loudspeaker in an empty room at the perceived sound source location. In the second experiment (N = 32), participants were standing in front of several virtual agents or virtual loudspeakers and had to indicate the sound source by directing their gaze toward the perceived sound location. Results in both preregistered experiments consistently showed that participants estimated the location of angry voice stimuli at greater distances than the location of neutral voice stimuli. We discuss that neither emotional nor motivational biases can account for these results. Instead, distance estimates seem to rely on listeners' representations regarding the relationship between vocal affect and acoustic characteristics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Characterising applied forces during positive pressure ventilation: a randomised cross-over simulation study

ObjectiveTo characterise applied force on the face and head during simulated mask ventilation with varying mask, device and expertise level.DesignRandomised cross-over simulation study.SettingA quiet, empty room in the children’s hospital.ParticipantsNeonatal...

Determination of diffuse field sound absorption of a porous absorber from Biot parameters using simulation

Porous sound absorbers are commonly assessed by their diffuse field sound absorption. In the test, a sample of the material, having a recommended surface area of 2.44 m by 2.74 m, is placed on the floor of a reverberation room. The average sound pressure level in the room is measured using a reference sound source and compared to the level in an empty room. Using room acoustic theory, the diffuse field sound absorption of the sample can be determined. This sound absorption is often much higher than the normal incidence sound absorption due to diffraction effects especially at lower frequencies. In this research, a hybrid simulation method is used to determine the diffuse field sound absorption from the Biot properties of the sound absorber. Statistical energy analysis is used to model the room and finite element analysis is used to simulate the material sample. Results from simulation are compared against measurement and agreement is acceptable.

Aerosol generation during pediatric otolaryngological procedures

ObjectivesTo assess the extent of staff exposure to aerosol generation in common pediatric otorhinolaryngological procedures (tonsillotomies, adenoidectomies, and tympanostomies) and determine the surgical phases responsible for most aerosol generation in these procedures. MethodsAerosol generation was measured during 35 pediatric otolaryngological procedures using an Optical Particle Sizer that measures aerosol concentrations for particle sizes between 0.3 and 10.0 μm. The different phases of and instruments used in each procedure were logged. Operating room background aerosol levels and coughing were used as references. ResultsTotal aerosol concentrations were significantly higher during tonsillotomies and adenoidectomies when compared to tympanostomies (p = 0.011 and p = 0.042) and to empty room background aerosol concentrations (p = 0.0057 and p < 0.001). Aerosol concentration during tonsillotomies did not differ from coughing, which is considered as standard for high-risk aerosol procedures. During tympanostomies, aerosol concentrations were even lower than during perioperative concentrations. No statistically significant difference in aerosol generation comparing suction, electrocautery, cold instruments, and paracentesis was found. ConclusionAccording to the results of this study, tympanostomies are low-risk aerosol-generating procedures. On the other hand, pediatric tonsillotomies produced aerosols comparable to coughing, pointing to them being significantly aerosol-producing procedures and viral transmission is theoretically possible intraoperatively.

Conditional room layout generation based on graph neural networks

In this paper, we present a novel end-to-end variational generative model that utilizes graph-based latent representations for indoor scene synthesis at one time. In contrast to prior research, our method deviates from the practice of gradually introducing and arranging furniture in an empty room using autoregression. Instead, it focuses on acquiring a comprehensive implicit representation of the room’s original architectural structure and the placement of furniture. We initially transform the 3D room scene into a dense scene graph, where nodes correspond to the objects present in the room while edges reflect the spatial location links and functional correlations between objects. Then, a neural network is trained to acquire the graph-based latent representation of the room scene through iterative message passing, ultimately resulting in the acquisition of the data distribution on the latent space of the room layout. Given the architectural structure of an empty room as a prerequisite for scene synthesis, the generative model has the ability to sample from the prior distribution of the room’s latent representation. This allows the model to then decode and generate a variety of room layouts. We evaluate our method with the state-of-the-art 3D indoor scene dataset and generation methods. The experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves more rational and diverse outcomes in the context of generating scenes under specific conditions.

Effectiveness of ceiling-mounted ultraviolet-C lamps: An experimental study in a biocontainment unit of a tertiary care hospital

We aimed to evaluate the performance of ceiling-mounted UV-C lamps. This study was conducted in an empty room with UV-C lamps in the biocontainment unit of a tertiary care hospital in South Korea. Each pathogen (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Candida krusei, Bacillus cereus, and Mycobacterium peregrinum) was inoculated on blood agar plates and placed in 20 selected places from the UV-C lamp, and irradiation was applied for 15 min. As a control group, the bacterial solution was diluted 10,000 times and UV was not applied. A mean ± SD of 5.95 ± 0.91 log reduction was observed with UV irradiation compared with the control. The log reduction was greatest for S. aureus [median, 7.05 (IQR, 6.49-7.26)] and least for M. peregrinum [median, 4.88 (IQR, 4.58-5.24)]. The degree of log reduction was inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the UV-C lamp (R2 = -0.12, P<.001). In this study, ceiling-mounted UV-C demonstrated effective disinfection of at least 4-log reduction of the test organisms within a 4-m distance. Mounted UV-C lighting is a considerable option for improving surface disinfection.

GPR Mapping of Cavities in Complex Scenarios with a Combined Time-Depth Conversion.

The paper deals with a combined time-depth conversion strategy able to improve the reconstruction of voids embedded in an opaque medium, such as cavities, caves, empty hypogeal rooms, and similar targets. The combined time-depth conversion accounts for the propagation velocity of the electromagnetic waves both in free space and in the embedding medium, and it allows better imaging and interpretation of the underground scenario. To assess the strategy's effectiveness, ground penetrating radar (GPR) data referred to as an experimental test in controlled conditions are accounted for and processed by two different approaches to achieve focused images of the scenario under test. The first approach is based on a classical migration algorithm, while the second one faces the imaging as a linear inverse scattering approach. The results corroborate that the combined time-depth conversion improves the imaging in both cases.

Database Management for the Arrangement and Management of Online Boarding Houses in the Archipelago Region

Teluk Mutiara District is one of the sub-districts in the Alor Island group, currently a sub-district that has the potential for quite rapid regional development. With the increasing prospects for development and activities in this region, more and more people are coming to work, try their luck, attend education and live in this region. The geographical location of Alor Regency with the Islands region makes people choose the alternative boarding house as a temporary residence. People experience problems when looking for a boarding house because they have to go around and ask acquaintances and friends about the availability of empty boarding rooms. Boarding house owners are also limited in promoting boarding houses, they only write information about the boarding house business in front of the house. This limited information means a system has been created that can register, search for and promote boarding house businesses according to needs quickly and precisely. The iterative method is used in developing systems because this method can accept changes in requirements from users if necessary. The system was successfully built with a boarding house and promotion data collection feature as well as a boarding house search feature based on location, facilities and closest distance

Home Automation Using Image Processing

Today, many of the automation systems deployed are mostly controlled by humans. This control by humans restricts the automation of home appliances to an extent. Also, most of the deployed home automation systems use the Internet of Things technology to control the appliances. In this we propose a system developed using action recognition to fully automate the home appliances. We recognize the three actions of a person (sitting, standing and lying) along with the recognition of an empty room. With this system, we remove the human intervention in home automation systems for controlling the home appliances and at the same time we ensure the data privacy and reduce the energy consumption by efficiently and optimally using home appliances and also it has a security mode. In the security mode if any human is detected it captures the image of the person detected and shares the picture to responsible person,the picture shared will be refreshes with every one minute and also it uploads the captured image in local IP address provided to it. through the local IP no. of persons can see the image captured.

Simulation of hydrogen leakage diffusion behavior in confined space

In this paper, the diffusion characteristics and laws of hydrogen leakage in confined spaces are investigated using a combination of numerical simulations and experiments, and a small-scale cube model (dimensions: 0.47 m×0.33 m × 0.20 m) is used. The effects of leak source location, obstacles, leak hole size and shape on hydrogen diffusion and concentration evolution were investigated. The results show that the top funnel is sprayed vertically downward, the diffusion velocity decreases rapidly under the blocking effect of air and buoyancy force, and the momentum of the airflow is exchanged. During the injection phase, the leaking gas is mainly subjected to strong buoyancy forces and the hydrogen concentration shows a stratification effect. When the injection stops, the concentration difference decreases and eventually the hydrogen concentration reaches a steady state. The obstacle model in turbulence (4.3%) increases the concentration difference by a factor of about three compared to the empty room model (1.7%), which seriously affects the diffusive behavior of hydrogen. The obstacle in laminar flow model (10.4%) has almost the same concentration difference as the empty room model (10.2%). Rectangular leakage holes have a greater initial kinetic energy and diffuse more widely and faster.

Effect Of UV-Assisted Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) Photocatalysis on Viable Airborne Bacteria and Fungi in The Seasoning Powder Industry

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been known to have anti-microbial activity against fungi, bacteria, and viruses. The application of TiO2 in the membrane attached to the air conditioner was expected to minimize airborne microorganisms. This study contribution to investigate the efficacy of UV-assisted TiO2 photocatalysis in controlling airborne microorganisms in the seasoning powder industry. TiO2 was coated to the non-woven membrane and attached with a UV lamp inside the air conditioner. When the AC was on, the Ti3+ was released into the air. Enumeration of airborne microorganisms was conducted by opening the agar plates for 15 min at several food processing facilities, followed by incubating agar plates for 72 hours at 30 °C. The result shows dry processing facility had the highest number of initial airborne bacteria while the wet production facility had the highest number of initial airborne fungi. Interestingly, the number of airborne microorganisms fluctuated in the packaging facility related to the number of people going inside and outside. On the contrary, the number of airborne microorganisms was deficient in empty rooms, which indicated that the number of airborne microorganisms might be related to people and products. Overall, airborne microorganisms were reduced after 60 min of irradiation. Therefore, it is recommended to irradiate the facilities for 60 min before production start. SEM images and EDAX analysis results show TiO2 was detected after 160 h. However, it was recommended to change the TiO2 membrane after one month. This research was expected to contribute to controlling airborne microorganisms during food production in food processing facilities.

Clustering analysis of noise sources in healthcare facilities

Hospital environmental noise can impact the comfort of both workers and patients, causing sleep disturbances and hindering the recovery process. Environmental noise in hospitals is typically due to the mixture of various sound sources, including staff, outdoor noises, and mechanical equipment. Patients and staff experience different effects from noise contributions: the former's recovery process is influenced, while the latter's communication efficiency is compromised. Conventional measurements are based on equivalent continuous sound pressure levels. However, the latter does not provide any kind of details about the hospital's sound context. Unsupervised acoustic measurements have been already used in many fields, but still in a few healthcare scenarios. For this reason, a clustering technique has been used to deepen the conventional noise analysis. The Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) is used to identify and quantify the contributions of the main types of sound sources. This analysis has been conducted within two four-bed bays: one in active conditions and the other unoccupied. The GMM analysis involves the noisiest period of the day, the morning round. The results demonstrate the GMM's ability to overcome conventional practices by providing significant insight into environmental noise, even in active conditions. In the active room, noise sources were tagged and measured. The spectral matching, based on the empty room's outcomes and standard references, represents the benchmark to assess the reliability of the method.

Carbon monoxide formation from total volatile organic compounds from the use of household spray products

Introduction: Air pollutants emitted from household spray products used in our homes and offices have adverse effects on human health. The quantification and identification of emission sources of air pollutants forms a foundation for an effective indoor exposure control. This study presents the results of a fundamental study conducted to evaluate the kinetics and emission trends Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOCs) and Carbon Monoxide (CO) from household spray products.&#x0D; Materials and methods: Fortyfive (45) commonly used household spray products were selected for this study. The experiment was conducted in an isolated empty room of dimension (2.72×2.82×2.00) m3 with no known/ significant indoor emission source(s). CO and TVOCs concentrations were measured with Aeroqual® 500 series monitor with CO and TVOCs head at 15 min, 1 h, 3 h, and 24 h, for all 45 samples of household spray products.&#x0D; Results: Spontaneous second – order conversion of TVOCs to CO was observed for most of the spray products in the indoor environment. For the insecticides samples, TVOCs initial concentrations were 7.2–73±19.76 ppm which after one hour the concentrations became 1.8 – 17±7.20 ppm. CO measured initial concentration were 0 – 4±1.08 ppm which the concentration levels reduced to 0–7±2.16 ppm. TVOCs concentration was above the permissible limit set by USEPA and CO concentration for some of the air fresheners, perfume, shoe impregnation spray and hair sprays fall short the limit of 40,081.89 and 25,562.37 µg/m3 set by United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and World Health Organization (WHO), respectively.&#x0D; Conclusion: As the concentration of TVOCs decreased as the concentration the concentration, CO increased following a second order kinetics. The result obtained will help in the development of safer products and a proper guide on how to use them in a way it will not cause harm to both the user of the product and the environment.

THE DETERMINATION OF VISITS AS IMPORTANT CRITERION FOR EVENT MANAGEMENT IN THE FIELD OF SERVICES

The article considers the determination of visits as an important criterion for event management. Concepts, theoretical methods and bases of application of methods of determination of visits of events are often considered by domestic and foreign scientists that testify to necessity of the decision of various tasks in this context. It is important to determinate such criterions as average length of stay, average number of visitors, relative length of stay, coefficient of visitors, coefficient of variation, peak number of visitors, average number of visitors, space capacity. This allows event management units and business leaders to adjust the resources, procedures, indicators, standards, etc., necessary for more effective implementation of event activities. Criteria for forecasting the number of event visitors have been developed. Correctly determining the number of guests is important due to the fact that empty rooms are as critical to the perception of the event as long queues. A large number of participants are necessary for financial success, but exceeding the permissible capacity is fraught with various risks and problems. The importance of such attendance indicators was determined as: average length of stay, average number of visitors, relative length of stay, visitor rate, variation rate, peak occupancy, average occupancy and possession. This allows event management stakeholders and business managers to set up the resources, procedures, indicators, standards, etc., necessary for more effective implementation of events. In the case of a long or prolonged event, certain components of the event, days or places of their holding can be evaluated according to these criteria. Thanks to this, the main "centers of attraction" (areas with a high number of visitors) and "bottlenecks" (areas with a high degree of capacity utilization) are distinguished.

Reconversion of a building to a new functional program using graph matching

Building, demolishing, and rebuilding new structures, instead of renovating vacant buildings for adaptive reuse, generates a significant amount of waste. Quickly assessing if and how a building can house a new function can be time-consuming. We developed a method that automates this process using a graph-based strategy in which both the building and the functional program are represented by attributed graphs. Specifically, the new method performs a node matching strategy based on the properties of the nodes and the topological structure of the graphs by which each empty room is filled with an activity of the new function.

The influence of racial perception on the recognition and reporting of child neglect

BackgroundA major concern in the detection and reporting of child abuse and neglect regards the phenomenon of racial bias. ObjectiveThis research examined whether the assessment and/or decision making concerning a case of neglect by Student Guidance Center-workers (SGC) is racially biased. Participants and setting238 Flemish SGC-workers participated and filled in the questionnaire. MethodsA visual vignette was used. SGC-workers were shown pictures of a neglectful situation that randomly varied with respect to whether the child in the picture was colored or white or whether the room was empty. Participants indicated (1) if this was a situation of neglect (yes/no) and (2) if they would report this situation (yes/no). ResultsThe assessment was influenced by the color of the child with a moderate effect (V = 0.23). In case of a white child, 84 % of the respondents assessed the situation as neglect. In case of an empty room 71 % and in case of a colored child only 58 % assessed the situation as neglect (p = .002). Reporting of the case was not influenced by the color of the child (p = .875). ConclusionsSGC-workers assessment of neglect appears to be racially biased. White children are considered more as neglected compared to their colored counterparts. Implementing strategies in order to decrease the racial bias is important.