Reducing Parental Stress in Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units

Abstract The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) are highly operational and highly active environments. Health care workers must react quickly to care for patients and provide life-saving measures fundamental to favorable patient outcomes. Caregivers of this critical patient population are often overlooked as the healthcare team prioritizes patient’s needs. In addition, medical equipment, machines, and monitors have multiple safety alarms sounding frequently and contributing to high levels of parental stress upon their child’s admission to the NICU and PICU. Lack of giving adequate prominence to the value of caregiver support services in the hospital milieu has been identified as a professional concern in many healthcare settings. Furthermore, many of these programs were suspended in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and in some settings continue to be interrupted. This study aims to evaluate the insights of caregivers who received and did not receive caregiver wellness services and the impact of these services on their stress levels during their child’s NICU or PICU stay. These stress levels were evaluated using a parent survey tool. These survey results did reveal that parents experienced a decrease in their stress level after receiving stress-reducing techniques provided by caregiver wellness programs in the hospital setting. These findings provide nurse leaders with implications for nursing regarding the importance of communicating the merits of structured caregiver support programs to policymakers and championing caregiver well-being

High Resolution X-Ray Spectroscopy with Compound Semiconductor Detectors and Digital Pulse Processing Systems

The advent of semiconductor detectors has revolutionized the broad field of X-ray spectroscopy. Semiconductor detectors, originally developed for particle physics, are now widely used for X-ray spectroscopy in a large variety of fields, as X-ray fluorescence analysis, X-ray astronomy and diagnostic medicine. The success of semiconductor detectors is due to several unique properties that are not available with other types of detectors: the excellent energy resolution, the high detection efficiency and the possibility of development of compact detection systems. Among the semiconductors, silicon (Si) detectors are the key detectors in the soft X-ray band (< 15 keV). Si-PIN diode detectors and silicon drift detectors (SDDs), with moderate cooling by means of small Peltier cells, show excellent spectroscopic performance and good detection efficiency below 15 keV. Germanium (Ge) detectors are unsurpassed for high resolution spectroscopy in the hard X-ray energy band (>15 keV) and will continue to be the choice for laboratory-based high performance spectrometers. However, there has been a continuing desire for ambient temperature and compact detectors with the portability and convenience of a scintillator but with a significant improvement in resolution. To this end, numerous high-Z and wide band gap compound semiconductors have been exploited. Among the compound semiconductors, cadmium telluride (CdTe) and cadmium zinc telluride (CdZnTe) are very appealing for hard X-ray detectors and are widely used for the development of spectrometer prototypes for medical and astrophysical applications. Beside the detector, the readout electronics also plays a key role in the development of high resolution spectrometers. Recently, many research groups have been involved in the design and development of high resolution spectrometers based on semiconductor detectors and on digital pulse processing (DPP) techniques. Due to their lower dead time, higher stability and flexibility, digital systems, based on directly digitizing and processing of detector signals (preamplifier output signals), have recently been favored over analog electronics ensuring high performance in both low and high counting rate environments. In this chapter, we review the research activities of our group in the development of high throughput and high resolution X-ray spectrometers based on compound semiconductor detectors and DPP systems. First, we briefly describe the physical properties and the signal formation in semiconductor detectors for X-ray spectroscopy. Second, we introduce the main properties and critical issues of a X-ray detection system, highlighting the characteristics of both analog and digital approaches. Finally, we report on the spectroscopic performance of a high resolution spectrometer based on a CdTe detector and a custom DPP system. As an application, direct measurements of mammographic X-ray spectra by using the digital CdTe detection system are also presented

A digital approach for real time high-rate high-resolution radiation measurements

Modern spectrometers are currently developed by using digital pulse processing (DPP) systems, showing several advantages over traditional analog electronics. The aim of this work is to present digital strategies, in a time domain, for the development of real time high-rate high-resolution spectrometers. We propose a digital method, based on the single delay line (SDL) shaping technique, able to perform multi-parameter analysis with high performance even at high photon counting rates. A robust pulse shape and height analysis (PSHA), applied on single isolated time windows of the detector output waveforms, is presented. The potentialities of the proposed strategy are highlighted through both theoretical and experimental approaches. To strengthen our approach, the implementation of the method on a real-time system together with some experimental results are presented. X-ray spectra measurements with a semiconductor detector are performed both at low and high photon counting rates (up to 1.1 Mcps)

Accelerated tests on Si and SiC power transistors with thermal, fastand ultra-fast neutrons

Neutron test campaigns on silicon (Si) and silicon carbide (SiC) power MOSFETs and IGBTs were conducted at the TRIGA (Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics) Mark II (Pavia, Italy) nuclear reactor and ChipIr-ISIS Neutron and Muon Source (Didcot, U.K.) facility. About 2000 power transistors made by STMicroelectronics were tested in all the experiments. Tests with thermal and fast neutrons (up to about 10 MeV) at the TRIGA Mark II reactor showed that single-event burnout (SEB) failures only occurred at voltages close to the rated drain-source voltage. Thermal neutrons did not induce SEB, nor degradation in the electrical parameters of the devices. SEB failures during testing at ChipIr with ultra-fast neutrons (1-800 MeV) were evaluated in terms of failure in time (FIT) versus derating voltage curves according to the JEP151 procedure of the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC). These curves, even if scaled with die size and avalanche voltage, were strongly linked to the technological processes of the devices, although a common trend was observed that highlighted commonalities among the failures of different types of MOSFETs. In both experiments, we observed only SEB failures without single-event gate rupture (SEGR) during the tests. None of the power devices that survived the neutron tests were degraded in their electrical performances. A study of the worst-case bias condition (gate and/or drain) during irradiation was performed

Accelerated Tests on Si and SiC Power Transistors with Thermal, Fast and Ultra-Fast Neutrons

Neutron test campaigns on silicon (Si) and silicon carbide (SiC) power MOSFETs and IGBTs were conducted at the TRIGA (Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics) Mark II (Pavia, Italy) nuclear reactor and ChipIr-ISIS Neutron and Muon Source (Didcot, U.K.) facility. About 2000 power transistors made by STMicroelectronics were tested in all the experiments. Tests with thermal and fast neutrons (up to about 10 MeV) at the TRIGA Mark II reactor showed that single-event burnout (SEB) failures only occurred at voltages close to the rated drain-source voltage. Thermal neutrons did not induce SEB, nor degradation in the electrical parameters of the devices. SEB failures during testing at ChipIr with ultra-fast neutrons (1-800 MeV) were evaluated in terms of failure in time (FIT) versus derating voltage curves according to the JEP151 procedure of the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC). These curves, even if scaled with die size and avalanche voltage, were strongly linked to the technological processes of the devices, although a common trend was observed that highlighted commonalities among the failures of different types of MOSFETs. In both experiments, we observed only SEB failures without single-event gate rupture (SEGR) during the tests. None of the power devices that survived the neutron tests were degraded in their electrical performances. A study of the worst-case bias condition (gate and/or drain) during irradiation was performed

A Novel Extraction Procedure of Contact Characteristic Parameters from Current–Voltage Curves in CdZnTe and CdTe Detectors

The estimation of the characteristic parameters of the electrical contacts in CdZnTe and CdTe detectors is related to the identification of the main transport mechanisms dominating the currents. These investigations are typically approached by modelling the current–voltage (I–V) curves with the interfacial layer–thermionic-diffusion (ITD) theory, which incorporates the thermionic emission, diffusion and interfacial layer theories into a single theory. The implementation of the ITD model in measured I–V curves is a critical procedure, requiring dedicated simplifications, several best fitting parameters and the identification of the voltage range where each transport mechanism dominates. In this work, we will present a novel method allowing through a simple procedure the estimation of some characteristic parameters of the metal–semiconductor interface in CdZnTe and CdTe detectors. The barrier height and the effects of the interfacial layer will be evaluated through the application of a new function related to the differentiation of the experimental I–V curves

Electrical Characterization of CdTe pixel detectors with Al Schottky anode

Pixelated Schottky Al/p-CdTe/Pt detectors are very attractive devices for high-resolution Xray spectroscopic imaging, even though they suffer from bias-induced time instability (polarization). In this work, we present the results of the electrical characterization of a (4x4) pixelated Schottky Al/p- CdTe/Pt detector. Current-voltage (I-V) characteristics and current transients were investigated at different temperatures. The results show as deep levels play a dominant role in the charge transport mechanism. The conduction mechanism is dominated by the space charge limited current (SCLC) both under forward bias and at high reverse bias. Schottky barrier height of the Al/CdTe contact was estimated by using the thermionic-field emission model at low reverse bias voltages. Activation energy of the deep levels was measured through the analysis of the reverse current transients at different temperatures. Finally, we employed an analytical method to determine the density and the energy distribution of the traps from SCLC current-voltage characteristics

Energy resolution and throughput of a new real time digital pulse processing system for x-ray and gamma ray semiconductor detectors

New generation spectroscopy systems have advanced towards digital pulse processing (DPP) approaches. DPP systems, based on direct digitizing and processing of detector signals, have recently been favoured over analog pulse processing electronics, ensuring higher flexibility, stability, lower dead time, higher throughput and better spectroscopic performance. In this work, we present the performance of a new real time DPP system for X-ray and gamma ray semiconductor detectors. The system is based on a commercial digitizer equipped with a custom DPP firmware, developed by our group, for on-line pulse shape and height analysis. X-ray and gamma ray spectra measurements with cadmium telluride (CdTe) and germanium (Ge) detectors, coupled to resistivefeedback preamplifiers, highlight the excellent performance of the system both at low and high rate environments (up to 800 kcps). A comparison with a conventional analog electronics showed the better high-rate capabilities of the digital approach, in terms of energy resolution and throughput. These results make the proposed DPP system a very attractive tool for both laboratory research and for the development of advanced detection systems for high-rate-resolution spectroscopic imaging, recently proposed in diagnostic medicine, industrial imaging and security screening