Simple Blanket Research Articles

Pigs in a Blanket: Evaluation of a Novel Device to Support Premature Neonatal Thermal Regulation

Background: 1.47 million preterm births worldwide tragically end in neonatal death (death within 28 days after birth). Contributing to this is the inability for preterm neonates to thermoregulate. In low-resource areas, access to incubators may be non-existent. Kangaroo Mother Care/Skin-to-Skin care (KMC/STS) is one method used in such situations and involves the caregiver strapping the infant to their chest in a kangaroo-like pouch. This method is effective but does not provide warming when the caregiver needs rest, nor does it allow the infants heart and respiratory rate to be monitored reliably. We created a device that aims to solve these issues in a safe, cost effective, and efficient way.
 Methods: Pilot studies were performed with 3 pigs to develop parameters that will validate the devices efficacy in a pre-clinical trial. Newborn pigs from 0-5 days old were used as the model for these initial trials. Test configurations were designed to demonstrate 1) the pigs could not regulate their core temperature without the device and 2) the heating elements of the device provided better support than a simple blanket. The pig’s core temperature was used as the standard measurement across all trials.
 Results: When exposed to an ambient temperature of 20oC, the pigs were not able to regulate their core temperature, which dropped 0.5oC per hour. After reaching hypothermic temperature (below 36.5oC), pigs placed in the warming device returned to a healthy core temperature (38.6oC) over the course of one hour. Pigs in the device with heating off only recovered partially. No pig had any abrasions or burns.
 Conclusion: These studies prove the devices feasibility and have established the parameters needed to design a larger trial. If the device continues to show similar efficacy in the future tests, it could be used to help lower premature infant mortality in low-resource settings.

A call for transplant stewardship: The need for expanded evidence-based evaluation of induction and biologic-based cost-saving strategies in kidney transplantation and beyond.

Rising expenditures threaten healthcare sustainability. While transplant programs are typically considered profitable, transplant medications are expensive and frequently targeted for cost savings. This review aims to summarize available literature supporting cost-containment strategies used in solid organ transplant. Despite widespread use of these tactics, we found the available evidence to be fairly low quality. Strategies mainly focus on induction, particularly rabbit antithymocyte globulin (rATG), given its significant cost and the lack of consensus surrounding dosing. While there is higher-quality evidence for high single-dose rATG, and dose-rounding protocols to reduce waste are likely low risk, more aggressive strategies, such as dosing rATG by CD3+ target-attainment or on ideal-body-weight, have less robust support and did not always attain similar efficacy outcomes. Extrapolation of induction dosing strategies to rejection treatment is not supported by any currently available literature. Cost-saving strategies for supportive therapies, such as IVIG and rituximab also have minimal literature support. Deferral of high-cost agents to the outpatient arena is associated with minimal risk and increases reimbursement, although may increase complexity and cost-burden for patients and infusion centers. The available evidence highlights the need for evaluation of unique patient-specific clinical scenarios and optimization of therapies, rather than simple blanket application of cost-saving initiatives in the transplant population.

Controlled ambipolar charge transport of polymer semiconductors by viologen-doping for complementary-like electronic circuits

Abstract We report on controllable ambipolar charge transport in polymeric semiconductors by the incorporation of viologen-based molecular additives. The viologen dopants selectively contribute to an increase in the charge carrier density of the electrons while enhancing the fibril-like crystalline thin-film morphology of the polymers to provide favourable charge transport in staggered-structure organic field-effect transistors. A well-balanced ambipolar behaviour is obtained at the optimised viologen concentration in donor-acceptor conjugated polymers by conversely modulating the p- and n-channel carrier mobilities within a given active layer. Complementary-like inverter circuits are demonstrated through the application of a simple blanket coating of a viologen-doped ambipolar semiconductor, which exhibits high ideal voltage switching at around half of the applied bias, a high gain of more than 50, and sufficient noise immunity to enable various applications for printed electronics and optoelectronics.

Fluoroquinolone Restriction as an Effective Antimicrobial Stewardship Intervention.

Fluoroquinolones are a commonly prescribed antibiotic class that has come under scrutiny in recent years due to mounting evidence of association between adverse drug events, C. difficile infection and isolation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Inpatient antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programs have a toolbox of potential interventions to curb inappropriate antibiotic use, prevent antibiotic-associated adverse drug events, and avoid unnecessary costs of care. Fluoroquinolone restriction policies in the acute care setting have demonstrated beneficial effects, including decreased rates of C. difficile infection and ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae. However, a simple blanket restriction policy may "squeeze the antibiotic balloon" and will likely be insufficient if not implemented in conjunction with other AMS interventions. There is a growing body of evidence to support formulary restriction of fluoroquinolones in the acute care setting to decrease rates of C. difficile infection and development of ESBL-producing organisms. Data on how to best implement these restrictions or how to implement outside of acute care settings is limited.

Construction of an Economic Blanket Belt Oil Skimmer

In this era of modern civilization, liquid fuel transport is mandatory around the world. But there has been several oil spilling accidents around the world and their negative effects are against all the living elements. In the last decades Bangladesh face such problem randomly in sea area and as well as in the river side damaging a large number of livings alongside the river having a badly effect on the entire ecology. The local residents collect the spilled oil manually. The system is less efficient, slow and health hazardous. Belt Oil skimmers using Polymer, Teflon, Elastomer, Corrosion Resistant Steel materials belt are widely used for recovery of this oil. However, they are costly and unavailable. In this work a low cost simple blanket belt skimmer device by using locally available equipment that will be capable to absorb the spilled oil rapidly from river water that is filled with animal and plant waste. After constructing such oil skimmer, the performance is evaluated that accomplish two types of oil having different physical properties. Experimental analysis gives around 190 litre/hour of Sample-1 oil whereas absorption rate for the Sample-2 oil is around 253 litre/hour for the constructed device with minimum cost compare to the other conventional belt oil skimmer.

Suspended Diamond-Shaped Nanowire With Four {111} Facets for High-Performance Ge Gate-All-Around FETs

A feasible pathway to scale germanium (Ge) FETs in future technology nodes has been proposed using the tunable diamond-shaped Ge nanowire (NW). The Ge NW was obtained through a simple top-down dry etching and blanket Ge epitaxy techniques readily available in mass production. The different etching selectivity of surface orientations for Cl2 and HBr was employed for the three-step isotropic/anisotropic/isotropic dry etching. The ratio of Cl2 and HBr, mask width, and Ge recess depth were crucial for forming the nearly defect-free suspended Ge channel through effective removal of dislocations near the Si/Ge interface. This technique could also be applied for forming diamond-shaped Si NWs. The suspended diamond-shaped NW gate-all-around NWFETs feature excellent electrostatics, the favorable {111} surfaces along the $\langle 110\rangle $ direction with high carrier mobility, and the nearly defect-free Ge channel. The pFET with a high $I_{{\mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}}/I_{{\mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle OFF}}}$ ratio of $6 \times 10^{7}$ and promising nFET performance have been demonstrated successfully.

Right to Health Care. What Does that Mean?

This is an argument for specificity in using the word “right” in the healthcare debate. Two statements commonly seen are: “everyone has the right to health care” and “health care is a human right.” When statements like these are used the usual implication is that health care is not currently a right in the U.S. However, a right to health care does exist in various forms. For instance, there exists the right to purchase health care or health insurance. There exists the right to get health care if you are poor. Granted, assistance programs are having problems now, and you might have to lose your life savings and go bankrupt to qualify. There exists the right to walk into a hospital ER and demand health care, but you'll get a big bill. What doesn't exist is the right to health care which will not put anyone into financial distress. The seminal documents of the U.S. reference rights endowed by a Creator, but the right to be given health care is not evident in these documents, nor in Western religious teaching, unless it can be considered a part of charity, which most religions consider a duty. The 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25, says everyone has a right to a standard of living adequate for health and well being, and it specifically mentions medical care (www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml). Unfortunately, since medical care depends on working people and is not free, medical care will be competing with other rights, such as the right to an education and property rights. There are also questions of fairness. For example, should smokers have the right to take your money for lung cancer treatment? Do sexually promiscuous people have a right to your resources for HIV treatment? We are all doing something unhealthy. Can we demand others pay for the consequences of our actions? It is probable that the word “right” is often used in health care arguments because the concept of a right is powerful, emotional, seems simple, and implies that there can be no argument against it. But as noted above, the right to health care can mean many different things. Providing health care rights requires infringement upon other rights, moral judgements, and a complex allocation of resources. Simple blanket statements like: “everyone has a right to health care” are meaningless. Arguing over such a statement is useless. Appropriate arguments are more specific: exactly what will constitute future health care rights, and how will adequate resources be developed to provide for them.

SET‐LRP of methyl acrylate catalyzed with activated Cu(0) wire in methanol in the presence of air

AbstractSingle electron transfer‐living radical polymerization (SET‐LRP) of methyl acrylate (MA) in methanol, catalyzed with nonactivated and activated Cu(0) wires, was performed in the presence of nondeoxygenated reagents and was investigated under a simple blanket of nitrogen. The addition of a small amount of hydrazine hydrate mediates the deoxygenation of the reaction mixture by the consumption of oxygen through its use to oxidize Cu(0) to Cu2O, followed by the reduction of Cu2O with hydrazine back to the active Cu(0) catalyst. SET‐LRP of MA in methanol in the presence of air requires a smaller dimension of Cu(0) wire, compared to the nonactivated Cu(0) wire counterpart. Activation of Cu(0) wire allowed the polymerization in air to proceed with no induction period, linear first‐order kinetics, linear correlation between the molecular weight evolution with conversion, and narrow molecular weight distribution. The retention of chain‐end functionality of α,ω‐di(bromo) poly(methyl acrylate) (PMA) prepared by SET‐LRP was demonstrated by a combination of experiments including 1H NMR spectroscopy and matrix‐assisted laser desorption ionization–time of flight mass spectrometry after thioetherification of α,ω‐di(bromo) PMA with thiophenol. In SET‐LRP of MA in the presence of limited air, bimolecular termination is observed only above 85% conversion. However, for bifunctional initiators, the small amount of bimolecular termination observed at high conversion maintains a perfectly bifunctional polymer. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011

Deep-UV Curing of Poly(4-Vinyl Phenol) Gate Dielectric for Hysteresis-Free Organic Thin-Film Transistors

A simple method is presented to remedy the hysteresis problem associated with the gate dielectric of poly(4-vinyl phenol) (PVPh), which is widely used for organic transistors. The method involves simple blanket illumination of deep ultraviolet (UV) on the PVPh layer at room temperature. The exposure results in the photochemical transformation of hydroxyl groups in PVPh via the UV/ozone effect. This reduction in the concentration of hydroxyl groups enables one to effectively control the hysteresis problem even when the layer is exposed to moisture. The contrast created in the concentration of hydroxyl groups between the exposed and unexposed parts of PVPh also allows simultaneous patterning of the dielectric layer.

40-Gb/s Widely Tunable Low-Drive-Voltage Electroabsorption-Modulated Transmitters

We present the first 40-Gb/s widely tunable electroabsorption modulator (EAM)-based transmitters. The sampled-grating Distributed Bragg Reflector (SG-DBR) laser/EAM devices were fabricated using a multiple-band-edge-quantum-well-intermixing (QWI) technique, which requires only simple blanket regrowth and avoids disruption of the axial waveguide. Devices were fabricated from two different multiple quantum well (MQW) active-region designs for direct comparison. The SG-DBR lasers demonstrated 30 nm of tuning with output powers up to 35 mW. The integrated QW EAMs provided 3-dB optical modulation bandwidths in the 35-39 GHz range, low-drive voltage (1.0-1.5 VPtoP), and low/negative-chirp operation. Bit-error-rate measurements at 40 Gb/s demonstrated 0.2-1.1 dB of power penalty for transmission through 2.3 km of standard fiber

Incidence of irregular cycles among Mayan women who reported having regular cycles: implications for fertility awareness methods

Despite the low contraceptive prevalence among the Mayan population of Guatemala, past research has found interest in natural methods. A calendar rhythm method with a simple blanket rule would appear to be preferable to more complicated methods. Under a blanket rule, the number of days of abstinence is predetermined and all couples are instructed to abstain during the same interval of the menstrual cycle. However, regular menstrual cycles may be key to successful practice of a calendar method. A database of 880 cycles of 301 women of the Guatemalan highlands was analyzed to determine the length and regularity of menstrual cycles in this population.

Combination of a self-cooled liquid metal breeder blanket with a gas turbine power conversion system

Self-cooled liquid metal breeder blankets have a high potential to meet the overall goal of fusion research to develop an economically and environmentally attractive energy source. They offer the possibility to design mechanically simple blanket segments, employ a high-temperature, low-pressure coolant, allow for a high power density, and as consequences of these, achieve high efficiency and availability with relatively low cost. A major concern with self-cooled blankets is the high chemical reactivity of lithium with water. A secondary heat transport loop is usually required between the primary lithium loop and the steam/water loop of the Rankine cycle in the power conversion. The potential for liquid metal–water reactions is eliminated if the Rankine cycle is replaced by a Brayton cycle, employing a closed cycle helium gas turbine. This paper describes a system combining a self-cooled blanket with a closed cycle helium gas turbine in order to combine the advantages of self-cooled blankets with the ones of high temperature gas-cooled concepts. Scoping calculations assuming a maximum lithium temperature of 670°C and a maximum helium pressure of 18MPa have shown that the gas turbine cycle results in about the same overall thermal efficiency as an advanced Rankine cycle (46%).

Water-Cooled Solid-Breeder Blanket Concept for ITER

A water cooled solid-breeder blanket concept was developed for ITER. The main function of this blanket is to produce the necessary tritium for the ITER operation. Several design features are incorporated in this blanket concept to increase its attractiveness. The main features are the following: (a) a multilayer concept which reduces fabrication cost; (b) a simple blanket configuration which results in reliability advantages; (c) a very small breeder volume is employed to reduce the tritium inventory and the blanket cost; (d) a high tritium breeding ratio eliminates the need for an outside tritium supply; (e) a low-pressure system decreases the required steel fraction for structural purposes; (f) a low-temperature operation reduces the swelling concerns for beryllium; and (g) the small fractions of structure and breeder materials used in the blanket reduce the decay heat source. The key features and design analyses of this blanket are summarized in this paper.

Conceptual Design of A Self-Cooled FLiBe Blanket

There are a number of attractive features for Flibe, such as: (1) low-pressure operation, (2) relatively inert to air and water, (3) low activation, (4) high-temperature stability, and (5) low electrical conductivity. If these features can be incorporated into a self-cooled blanket, a simple, high-performance, and reliable blanket may be possible. Detailed analysis has uncovered some attractive features and some potential problems. A highly compact and efficient primary loop can be developed with a conversion efficiency of 46%. The blanket is designed to be inherently safe for at least a 4.7 MW/m/sup 2/ neutron wall loading. Since no reflector is needed, the mass utilization is very high. A similar blanket for MINIMARS has a mass utilization figure of 138 kW(e)/tonne, the highest among the four blanket candidates. In addition, a very simple blanket can be designed. There is, however, concern about the lithium doping idea for tritium control. The issues cannot be resolved until experimental verification is available. However, if a vanadium alloy is used for the structural material, a large fraction of tritium will permeate back through the first wall to the plasma. Permeation through the first wall will result in a tritium partial pressure of < 10/sup -4/more » Torr. If this is the case, the primary blanket tritium recovery system can be combined with the plasma exhaust system. A highly efficient tritium cleanup system will still be required to reduce the tritium permeation problem. A countercurrent extraction system can be used for tritium cleanup.« less

Priorities in Middle East Studies

A number of events, including the Lambert Report on Language and Area Studies, legislation on National Defense Education, and various other bills on international education, provide an important opportunity for reevaluating priorities in the study of foreign regions. We believe that Middle East Studies, as a regional study needs support and that this support is threatened by a shifting attention to domestic needs and by impending reductions in funds for education. But we also believe that what is needed is more than a simple blanket appeal for funding. Clear priorities and new directions are required to give meaning to the call for support and to channel that support into important directions. This matter has been the subject of much discussion within the Middle East studies community and specifically within the Middle East Studies Association. The latest discussions took place at the meeting of Middle East center and program directors, at the Fifth Annual Meeting of MESA in November, 1971.