Ventilation Equipment Research Articles

Three-Dimensional Printed Laryngoscopes as Allies Against COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an overload on the health care system on a global scale. Because the disease affects the respiratory system, patients may require ventilator equipment for breathing, and consequently, numerous tracheal intubations have been performed. The video laryngoscope is a medical device that aids this procedure. It is used by anesthesiologists to visualize the anatomical structures of the larynx during tube insertion. Unfortunately, many hospitals worldwide are unable to afford sufficient units of this medical device. To satisfy the high demand, low-cost alternatives employing three-dimensional (3D) printing techniques have been developed for health care professional's use. With the intention of ensuring the efficiency, reproducibility, and security of the 3D-printed laryngoscope, this article presents a novel model with versions for pediatric and adult use, which was developed under the supervision of a medical team. The mechanical performance of 3D-printed prototypes (of the proposed models) was evaluated using mechanical assays, and the results indicated a satisfactory safety factor.

Numerical investigation of the convective heat transfer coefficient for a sleeping infant in a ventilation room.

This study aimed to investigate the influence of wind speed and direction on the convective heat transfer from a sleeping infant in different postures. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of a virtual infant manikin with realistic dimensions was developed to obtain the convective heat transfer coefficient (hc ) at the body surface and the airflow and temperature distributions. The numerical model was validated beforehand using experimental data collected from infant thermal manikin experiments. The simulation results revealed that the infant's whole-body hc increased from 4.00 to 15.73 W/m2 ·K when wind speed varied from 0.12 to 1m/s. Infants lost heat more quickly than adults under ventilation, with about 2W/m2 ·K higher hc than adults in still air, and the discrepancy widened as the wind speed increased. Wind from the floor generated the highest hc , approximately 66.4% greater than the wind from the feet at 1m/s wind speed. Considering the wind from the feet caused the most evenly distributed hc , ventilation equipment was suggested to be placed on the side of the infant's feet to reduce local discomfort. Based on the simulation results, empirical models of hc were developed, which lay a solid theoretical foundation for further study on the interaction between infants and environments.

ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ ВПЛИВУ РОЗТАШУВАННЯ ВИТЯЖНИХ ВЕНТИЛЯТОРІВ ПО ВЕРХНІЙ ЛІНІЇ НА АЕРОДИНАМІКУ ПТАШНИКА З ВИКОРИСТАННЯМ CFD

The aerodynamic air ducts in the poultry house significantly affect the poultry keeping and ensure air quality. Stagnant zones ultimately worsen the quality of output and many other factors that contribute to this. To improve the aerodynamics in the poultry house, authors proposed to install exhaust ventilation equipment on the upper line – 2.18 m above floor level. New scientific and practical results of CFD modeling show improved aerodynamic characteristics near exhaust fans. On the plane of the room at a height of 0.7 m from the floor level, the average air velocity is 0.696 m/s. In certain areas the air velocity is kept at 1.5 m/s. When the exhaust fans are located on the upper line, the so-called "tunnel effect" is created, which allows, in the warm period of the year, not to use additional equipment of the microclimate system to create a tunnel ventilation system.

Attention-LSTM architecture combined with Bayesian hyperparameter optimization for indoor temperature prediction

Accurate prediction of indoor temperature can provide more reference data for indoor thermal comfort assessment and the operational effectiveness of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment, making it possible to reduce unnecessary energy consumption while ensuring occupant comfort. This paper introduces a deep learning method to predict indoor air temperature. The aim is to explore the potential of a model combining LSTM with encoder-decoder and attention mechanisms in short-term forecasting and compare it with LSTM models and GRU models. The hyperparameters are optimized by TPE Bayesian optimization to facilitate the determination of various parameters in the deep model. The results show that compared with other commonly used time series prediction algorithms, the model has an advantage in the case of short-term time ahead prediction. The model can accurately predict the change trend of room temperature and maintain stability for a long time. The R-square of the prediction results is more than 0.9. This work has reference significance for the feasibility study of establishing an indoor temperature prediction model.

The psychological status mediates the effect of indoor air pollution on recurrent spontaneous abortion

BackgroundIndoor air pollution (IAP) exposure and psychological status have been recognized as important risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes, but their mediating effects on recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) have not been analyzed. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the association between IAP and RSA and to examine the mediating effect of psychological status on their association. MethodsThis study included 830 RSA cases and 2156 controls in Gansu province, China. The Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) questionnaires were used to collect information on participants’ psychological status. The IAP exposure was collected by the survey on cooking fuel use, kitchen ventilation characteristics, cooking styles, and indoor smoking, etc. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the associations between IAP exposure and RSA. The mediation analysis was used to evaluate the mediation effects of IAP and psychological status on RSA while controlling for confounding. ResultsAmong these cases, 16.87% cooked with unclean cooking fuel (UCF) and 37.00% lacked cooking ventilation, which was much higher than the controls. Active smoking and the use of UCF were associated with RSA, with an odds ratio (OR) of 3.374 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.510–7.541] and 1.822 (95% CI: 1.328–2.500), respectively. We found that the use of a range hood was a protective factor for RSA, with an OR of 0.590 (95% CI: 0.463–0.752). There was a significant mediation effect of depression on the association between IAP and RSA, which accounted for 5.61%–9.22% of the total effect of IAP on RSA. ConclusionThe IAP may be an important risk factor for RSA, which may be intensified by the poor psychological status, and the use of ventilation equipment when cooking is a protective factor for RSA.

Occupational differences in COVID-19 hospital admission and mortality between women and men in Scotland: A population-based study using linked administrative data.

ObjectivesWe aim to estimate occupational differences in COVID-19 hospital admission and mortality by sex. Occupations vary with respect to environmental factors that influence exposure to COVID-19 such as ventilation, social contact and protective equipment. Variations between women and men may arise because they occupy different roles within an occupation or from behavioural differences. ApproachWe established an innovative linked data collection combining individual-level data from 2011 Census with health administrative records and household identifiers from Ordnance Survey’s Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN). Using data for a cohort of approximately 1.7 million Scottish adults aged 40 to 64 years, we analysed occupational differences in COVID-19 hospital admission and mortality, during the period between 1 March 2020 and 31 January 2021. We estimated age-standardised incidence rates (ASIRs) for COVID-19 hospital admission and death per 100,000 adults, stratified by sex and occupation. Using Cox proportional hazards models, we estimated COVID-19 hospital admission and death risks, adjusting for socio-economic and pre-pandemic health factors. ResultsGenerally, women had lower ASIRs for COVID-19 hospital admission and mortality compared to men. For COVID-19 mortality, ASIRs were highest among women employed in elementary trades and related occupations (e.g. packers/canners). For hospital admission, high rates were observed among women working in caring personal services (e.g. nursing assistants/ambulance staff). Among men, ASIRs were highest among those in elementary services occupations (kitchen assistants/waiters) and taxi drivers, who also had the highest admission rate. After adjusting for pre-pandemic health factors, we observed lower death risks for women employed as health professionals, and those in associate professional and technical occupations (medical technicians/paramedics), compared to the baseline model. Lower adjusted admission risks were also observed for both women and men in professional occupations (e.g. in science/engineering and teaching/education). Among men, adjusted death risks remained elevated for large vehicle and taxi drivers, who also displayed high admission risks. ConclusionOccupational differences in COVID-19 hospital admission and mortality between women and men may be explained by a mixture of social, workplace and behavioural factors. These need to be considered when designing intervention policies which aim to reduce infections in the workplace.

Modelling and mitigating lifetime impact of building demand responsive control of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems

This paper presents a modelling methodology to characterize heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment lifetime impact of load controls and an aging-aware demand responsive control strategy for single-stage HVAC systems to strike a balance between the electric utility and HVAC life-cycle costs. To assess the control performance and evaluate potential trade-offs between energy consumption, utility cost and equipment lifetime impact, whole-month simulation tests for a single-zone office building have been conducted for the proposed aging-aware control strategy along with two benchmarking strategies – energy minimizing and utility cost minimizing controllers. Test results show that the aging-aware demand response strategy could result in reductions of HVAC equipment aging effect by 18.8% to 39.1% compared to the utility-priority controller. The total building operation cost, with the electricity utility and HVAC life-cycle costs combined, could be reduced by up to 13.2% compared to the utility minimizing strategy and by up to 16.1% compared to the energy minimization baseline.

The prevalence and risk factors of facial pressure injuries related to adult non-invasive ventilation equipment: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

To systematically assess the prevalence of facial pressure injuries related to adult non-invasive ventilation equipment, and risk factors of facial pressure injuries. PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database, Wanfang Database, Chinese Biomedical Database and Weipu Database were comprehensively searched for observational studies investigating the prevalence and risk factors of facial pressure injuries related to adult non-invasive ventilation equipment from inception to May 16th, 2022. Filter articles based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The quality of the included studies was evaluated independently by two investigators. Meta-analysis was conducted using Stata 16.0 software package. In total, 2835 articles were screened and data from 12 studies were used in meta-analysis. The prevalence of facial pressure injuries related to adult non-invasive ventilation equipment was 25% (95% confidence interval, CI:15% to 37%, I2 =97.34%, P < 0.0001). After controlling for confounding variables, the following risk factors of facial pressure injuries: use equipment form, with diabetes, fever, cumulative time of using equipment, facial skin oedema and Glasgow score. Understanding the risk factors of facial pressure injuries can provide the healthcare personnel with the theoretical basis for the management and treatment of the patients.

Investigation of the lateral ventilation system in a poultry house using CFD

Maintaining a normalised microclimate in a poultry house is one of the main factors. It is the quality indicators of air parameters that ultimately determine the quality of product output. Keeping poultry requires considerable efforts and technological solutions. In this regard, the purpose of the study is to improve the microclimate system in the poultry house by installing ventilation equipment on the side wall. A powerful tool for predicting the air flow pattern in a poultry house is Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling using ANSYS Fluent. This is an alternative to experimental research. CFD modelling results have shown that the valves operate most efficiently at 330 mm from the ceiling. The pressure drop of the supply valves is 45.85 Pa. The air velocity at the inlet of the supply valves is 9.17 m/s. The air velocity at a height of 0.7 m from the floor level varies within 0.57 m/s, the temperature – 9.91°C

ТЕХНОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ КОНТРОЛЬ КОНЦЕНТРАЦИИ АММИАКА НА ПРЕДПРИЯТИЯХ АГРОПРОМЫШЛЕННОГО КОМПЛЕКСА

The microclimate of the industrial premises of the agro-industrial complex is of great importance. It is necessary to maintain normal values of temperature, relative humidity, and it is also necessary to take into account the concentration of harmful gases that negatively affect the body of farm animals and poultry, lead to premature failure of buildings, structures and equipment, increase the cost of their repair, which affects the cost of products. The maximum concentration of ammonia in the air of premises for animals is allowed no more than 20 mg / m3 . In order to reduce the influence of harmful factors, a measuring device IKG-1 has been developed that allows monitoring the content of ammonia in the air of agricultural premises. The meter allows you to quickly measure the concentration of ammonia (NH3) within 10 minutes. The measurement limits are 20...200 mg/m3 in the air of the working area of industrial premises. The characteristics of the ammonia concentration meter IKG-1 are compared with the readings of the device of industrial manufacture UG-2, which has passed standardization. Scientific research and production testing have shown that the developed ICG-1 meter determines the concentration of ammonia 2-3 times more accurately and 3-4 times faster than the gas analyzer UG-2. The use of a gas determinant of ammonia concentration in the air makes it possible to ensure general safety standards during the operation of buildings and structures due to the efficient operation of ventilation equipment with air conditioners.

Maternal exposure to cooking oil fumes during pregnancy and autistic‐like behaviors in Chinese preschoolers

There is growing evidence that cooking oil fumes (COFs) are harmful indoor air pollutants. However, there is a dearth of research investigating whether maternal COFs exposure during pregnancy may affect children's autistic-like behaviors in China. This study aimed to explore this association, and examine the effects of different cooking fuels and ventilation methods used by mothers on the presence of autistic-like behaviors. This study analyzed the survey data of the Longhua Child Cohort Study in 2017 with a total of 62,372 mothers enrolled in this study. A self-administrative questionnaire was used to collect information on socio-demographic characteristics, cooking habits during pregnancy, and autistic-like behaviors (measured using the Autism Behavior Checklist). After adjusting for potential confounders, the results showed that compared with children whose mothers never cooked during pregnancy, children whose mothers cooked sometimes, often, always during pregnancy had the higher risk of autistic-like behaviors. As the amounts of COFs exposed to and the frequency of cooking during pregnancy increased, the risk of a child's autistic-like behaviors also increased. Mothers using natural gas as cooking fuels had a lower risk of their child having autistic-like behaviors, compared with mothers using coal or other cooking fuels. Furthermore, pregnant women using ventilation measures during cooking significantly decreased likelihood of the presence of autistic-like behaviors in their children. These results suggest that maternal exposure to COFs during pregnancy may increase the likelihood of the presence of autistic-like behaviors in offspring. These findings support a recommendation that pregnant women should avoid exposure to COFs and use clean fuels and ventilation equipment in kitchens to reduce the risk of autistic-like behaviors in children.

Seismic early warning systems for the transport cascade under the “SHIPKA” pass

The report presents an early warning system against earthquakes of the conceptual design of the tunnels under the “Shipka” Pass. Bulgaria gives many victims on the roads - those killed in traffic crashes and accidents. In the case of tunnel facilities in seismic areas, chain accidents in tunnel pipes are particularly dangerous. Early warning systems for tunnels make it possible to immediately stop traffic by the traffic police or automatically, to include additional ventilation equipment and turn on the additional reserve lighting installations.

User-Centric BIM-Based Framework for HVAC Root-Cause Detection

In the building operation phase, the Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) equipment are the main contributors to excessive energy consumption unless proper design and maintenance is carried out. Moreover, HVAC problems might have an impact on occupants’ discomfort in thermal comfort. Hence, the identification of the root cause of HVAC problems is imperative for facility managers to plan preventive and corrective maintenance actions. However, due to the complex interaction between various equipment and the lack of data integration among Facility Management (FM) systems, they fail to provide necessary information to identify the root cause of HVAC problems. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is a potential solution for maintenance activities to address the challenges of information reliability and interoperability. Therefore, this paper presents a novel conceptual model and user-centric framework to determine the causes of HVAC problems implemented in BIM for its visualization. CMMS and BMS data were integrated into BIM and utilized by the framework to analyze the root cause of HVAC problems. A case study in a university building was used to demonstrate the applicability of the approach. This framework assists the FM team to determine the most probable cause of an HVAC problem, reducing the time to detect equipment faults, and providing potential actions to solve them.

Intraoperative use of noninvasive ventilation during spinal anaesthesia in patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease undergoing orthopaedic surgery: A case report

Compared with invasive mechanical ventilation, noninvasive ventilation (NIV) improves patient comfort and neurocognitive function; and reduces the likelihood of nosocomial infections and the need for sedation. NIV can also be used perioperatively to prevent postoperative pulmonary complications. This current report describes a case of a 64-year-old female patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic respiratory failure that underwent spinal anaesthesia during surgery. She was sedated with propofol. She brought her home ventilator equipment to the operating room and it was used in biphasic-positive airway pressure mode for immediate treatment of respiratory depression.

Characteristics of ultrafine particle emission change depending on the placement of ventilation systems in 3D printer working environment

This study evaluated the emission characteristics of ultrafine particles emitted during material extrusion type 3D printer, called Desktop 3D printer, operation in the test bed and mock-up environmental conditions respectively. For the measurement, a condensation particle counter (CPC) and scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) were employed. In the test-bed evaluation, representative materials widely used nowadays such as ABS, PLA, TPU, PC, etc, emitted higher than the UFP criteria (3.5 ×1011) of 2D printer test method RAL-UZ 171. Particle sizes emitted from materials were found to be less than 200 nm. For the mock-up environment, seven different Desktop 3D printers and mechanical ventilation devices are used to compare the reduction rates of UFP according to the kind and placement of ventilation systems. When the ventilation equipment was installed on the ceiling, the reduction efficiency of UFP emission was not confirmed clearly while the reduction rates were significantly reduced when installed on the window.

Automatic relative humidity optimization in underground heritage sites through ventilation system based on digital twins

Underground heritage sites generally experience significant humidity, which results in the destruction of the surfaces and structures. This study establishes an underground heritage site preservation mechanism through a dynamic ventilation system based on digital twin technology. The aim is to control the relative humidity (RH) gradually on the air region near the walls of sites within the standard range and reduce adverse physical equipment effects and energy consumption of the system. Underground heritage site projects have more complex shapes with irregular and nonlinear arcs and height difference distributions. It is challenging to regenerate them. To achieve this objective, a model simplification rule for irregular heritage building information modeling (HBIM) technology was first established via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. Second, a methodology was developed to design a reliable and effective ventilation equipment and its layout based on CFD for irregular heritage sites. Compared with the scheme based on the optimal geometric rule arrangement, the number of pipes can be reduced by up to 25%. Third, a web-based digital twin platform combined with Internet of Things (IoTs) technology was established for achieving real-time control of the overall RH level of underground heritage sites within the standard range. The results present new solutions to control the RH of underground heritage sites for preservation. The proposed methodology can be used in typical underground heritage sites and illustrated by a real case. The validation encompassed development of digital environment for the real case and development of the ventilation system for its RH optimization.

COVID-19 Pandemic: Our Experience in Pakistan

COVID-19 emerged as a horrible nightmare for the humans on earth. This was not only because of the nature of the illness, diversity of symptoms, its bizarre course and unpredictable fate but also due to the broad spectrum of challenges the healthcare system faced across the globe. These challenges include the limited knowledge about the disease, shortage of dedicated COVID-19 facilities, gross deficiencies of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), diagnostic kits, medicines, equipment for assisted ventilation and several other things necessary for COVID-19 management. Besides sparsely available resources, the myths and denial of COVID-19 had created conspiracies among the masses were even a bigger and a new kind of challenge that probably the medical fraternity has never faced in the recent past. Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) realised its responsibility as a leading organisation of doctors, accepted all the challenges, stood tall and firm, putting all its efforts and capabilities to counter the COVID-19 at all fronts. The presentation covers the experiences faced by PIMA and its role during the COVID-19 pandemic in the last two years.International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Supplementary Issue: 2022 Page: S10

Device-related pressure ulcers: SECURE prevention. Second edition.

Device-related pressure ulcers: SECURE prevention. Second edition.

Research and Design of Remote Online Supervision System of Coal Mine Electromechanical Equipment

Increasing the supervision of coal mine electromechanical equipment is an urgent need to ensure the safe production of coal mines. This paper designs and develops a coal mine electromechanical equipment supervision system, which includes four parts: mine-side monitoring subsystem, mine-side data acquisition and transmission module, local-side data analysis and storage module, and coal mine electromechanical equipment supervision platform. It realizes coal mine ventilator, drainage pump, air compressors, hoists and other major electromechanical equipment online monitoring and equipment failure analysis. The system satisfies the remote online inspection and management of equipment by multi-level departments, reduces the possibility of enterprise accidents, innovates the supervision mode, and improves the efficiency of supervision.

Design of a device for preventing pollution and air pollution in the pipeline joint of the ventilator

Ventilators are currently the most commonly used auxiliary mechanical ventilation equipment in clinical practice, and play an important role in the treatment of hypoxemia. Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a special type of pulmonary parenchymal inflammation of nosocomial infection in patients with mechanical ventilation, which leads the increase of mortality and affects the prognosis of patients. The non-standard management of ventilator pipeline joints and the aerosol formed by bacterial condensate splashed from ventilator pipeline pollute the air, resulting in cross infection, which are the important reasons for VAP. The existing ventilator pipeline joint cap can achieve the effect of preventing pollution, but the clinical application compliance is not high. Based on the above factors, teachers, students and medical staff of the School of Public Health and Management, Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine and other units have designed a device for preventing pollution and air pollution of the ventilator pipeline joint, and obtained the national utility model patent of China (ZL 2020 2 1361981.X). The device is composed of a model lung, a mask body, a suspension part and a beam mouth part, etc. The use method is simple, and can be applied to the pollution avoidance of invasive ventilator and non-invasive ventilator pipeline joints, to reduce the occurrence of VAP in patients and the occupational exposure of medical staff.