Systems View of Coronavirus

No one envisioned the kinds of problems that emerged from the novel coronavirus nor had anyone considered its interactive scope. Now is the time to begin to redesign our processes and systems so that when confronted again we can cope and navigate better. Everyone needs to be a partner in these redesigns and each of the health, social, educational, and other systems must be integrated because it is their interconnections that coproduce and give meaning to our lives

Intra-uterine fetal demise caused by amniotic band syndrome after standard amniocentesis

The amniotic band syndrome represents a prime example of exogenous disruption of an otherwise normal feta I development. It may be a sequel of invasive diagnostic procedures such as amniocentesis or fetal blood sampling. A 38-year-old gravida II, para II delivered a morphologically normal male stillborn at term. The pregnancy history had been unremarkable but for an early 2nd-trimester amniocentesis. Cause of the intra-uterine fetal demise was noted to be an amniotic band constricting the umbilical cord, An amniotic band is a rare but potentially fatal condition which may be induced by, e.g., invasive prenatal procedures. Such bands are not usually diagnosed prenatally; however, selected patients with augmented risk may profit from intensive ultrasound evaluation including Doppler studies. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel

Flourishing for Sport Consumers: The Case of Fantasy Baseball and Social Media Engagement

Digital technology transformation within the sports industry has led to increasing attention being given to how digital services can influence fans’ positive psychological perspectives. In particular, through this study I aimed to understand the effects of fantasy sports and social media engagement on positive psychological benefits, such as perceived value and flourishing. In the current study, regulatory engagement theory was applied to understand whether the digital engagement of sports consumers is positively associated with perceived value and flourishing as a form of well-being. In the implementation of the pre-, mid-, or post-consumption model, three groups were created based on the participants\u27 habits of using fantasy sports and social media before, while, and after watching television. I then attempted to explore how the aforementioned relations can differ across these three groups. Responses from a total of 629 sports fans were collected via an online Qualtrics panel. Data analysis was conducted using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), structural equation modeling analysis (SEM), multi-group CFA, and multi-group SEM to verify the hypotheses. It was found that engagement in fantasy sports and social media had a positive effect on perceived value and well-being. In addition, perceived value mediated the relationship between fantasy sports or social media engagement and flourishing. The findings of the group comparison showed that there were no differences across the three groups in the effects of fantasy sports and social media engagement on perceived value and flourishing. This empirical study contributed to supporting that digital consumption among sports consumers plays a positive role in their lives, suggesting the need to develop strategic management in the digital sports field. In addition, the digital activity patterns of sports consumers were successfully classified based on game schedules, providing a better understanding of their digital consumption journey in the future

First principles-based atomistic modeling of the interfacial microstructure and capacitance of graphene

textGraphene has been extensively studied for possible future technical applications due to its unique electronic, transport, and mechanical properties. For practical applications, graphene often needs to be placed in a medium or on a substrate. The interfacial interaction between graphene and other materials can greatly affect the performance of graphene-based devices, but has not been well explored. My thesis research focused on developing a better understanding of the interface of pristine and chemically/mechanically modified graphene sheets with ionic liquids (ILs) as well as amorphous silica (a-SiO₂) surfaces using first principles-based atomistic modeling which combines density functional theory, classical molecular dynamics, and Metropolis Monte Carlo. The major focus of my thesis research was on investigating the interfacial structure and capacitance between graphene and ILs; graphene-based materials and ILs have been regarded as viable candidates for supercapacitor electrodes and electrolytes, respectively. Particular emphasis was placed on elucidating the relative contributions of the electric double layer (EDL) capacitance at the graphene/IL interface and the quantum capacitance of graphene-like electrodes. More specifically, we first determined the microstructure (such as orientation, packing density, cation-anion segregation) of chosen ILs near planar graphene electrodes with various surface charge densities. Based on the calculated IL microstructure for each system, the EDL capacitance was then evaluated with particular attention to the effect of cation-anion size difference. We also examined the influence of the chemical and mechanical modifications of graphene-like electrodes on the supercapacitor performance. Especially, mechanisms underlying chemical doping-induced enhancement of the total interfacial capacitance were addressed through analysis of electrode quantum capacitance changes resulting from electronic structure modifications. A part of my effort was also devoted to examining the binding interaction of graphene with a-SiO₂ (which is not yet clearly understood despite its scientific and technological importance). In particular, we attempted to evaluate quantitatively the adsorption strength of graphene on the a-SiO₂ surface, which has been under debate mainly due to the difficulty of direct measurement.Chemical Engineerin

Promoting Patient Outcomes: CLABSI Prevention

What is a CLABSI? “A central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) is a serious infection that occurs when germs (usually bacteria or viruses) enter the bloodstream through the central line” (CDC, 2021) Best practices for preventing CLABSIs: Perform hand hygiene Don proper PPE Sterile/aseptic technique during insertion Prioritize for cares related to central line first Daily assessment for need of central line Daily chlorhexidine gluconate bathing Remove catheters that are unnecessary Scrub the hub BEFORE EVERY access Change dressings every 7 days or as needed Assessment of site/dressing condition Change purple Ultrasite caps with dressings Tubing changes per CentraCare policy Discard piggyback tubing after disconnection Patient education regarding central line Staff education and auditshttps://digitalcommons.centracare.com/nursing_posters/1126/thumbnail.jp

Unconventional elastomeric microsystems: fabrication and application

Elastomer-based microsystems hold great promise for a diverse range of applications such as rapid prototyping of lab-on-a-chip device, soft-MEMS, and soft-robotics. For better performance in such applications, unconventional elastomeric structures in terms of size, shape, and patterning trajectory, have been intensely sought after in microtechnology but their realization has been a continuous challenge. Here, as my dissertation work, I present new microfabrication schemes which enable the realizations of unconventional PDMS structures, and their applications, which will enrich the field of soft-microsystems. First, I present a new fabrication scheme for the realization of cylindrical microfluidic (MF) channels with 3D trajectories based on shaping, bonding, and assembly of sucrose fibers. Due to the high water-solubility of the sucrose templates, the scheme is a simple and environment-friendly. Also, it is cleanroom-free and cost-effective. Despite its simplicity, it enables the realization of essential 3D MF channel architectures such as highly curved MF channels, internal loops, and proper end-to-side junctions. It can, also, realize tapered junctions and stenosis which can benefit vaso-mimetic lab-on-a-chip applications. Secondly, as a practical application of the sucrose-based MF channel, I report the implementation of the bokeh-effect-based microfluidic microscopy scheme for point-of care health monitoring in highly resource-limited environment. For this work, I integrated a single polymer microlens over the sucrose-templated MF channel and retrieved magnified intra-channel images with a commercial, off-the-shelf camera. The bokeh microscope exhibited 10∼40 in magnification and 67∼252 μm of field-of-view extent, confirming their utility for point-of-care monitoring of micro-scale objects in MF channels Third, I present a new technique that enables facile fabrications of high aspect-ratio PDMS micropillars exceeding 2400 m in height and 100 in aspect-ratio. The key enabling factor is the adoption of the direct drawing technique incorporated with the in situ heating for simultaneous hardening and solidification of PDMS. The technique also allows self-aligned installation of highly reflective microspheres at the tips of the micropillars. Using the transparent PDMS micropillar as a flexible waveguide and the microsphere as a self-aligned reflector, I transformed the microsphere-tipped PDMS micropillars into all optically interrogated air-flow sensors and successfully demonstrated its air-flow sensing capability. Lastly, I present a microscale soft-robotic tentacle with spiral bending capability based on pneumatically driven bending motion of a hollow PDMS microtube. For this work, I establish a new, direct peeling-based technique for building long and thin, highly deformable microtubes and a semi-analytical model for their shape-engineering. Based on them, the artificial microrobotic tentacle exhibits the multi-turn spiraling motion with the final radius of 185 μm and squeezing force of ~ 0.78 mN. Thanks to the softness of PDMS and the spiraling motion, the micro-tentacle can function as a soft-robotic grabber of fragile micro-objects. The spiraling tentacle-based grabbing modality, the elastomeric microtube fabrication technique, and the concept of microtube shape-engineering will constitute very valuable additions to future microscale soft-robotics. Here, I organized my dissertation based on four published journal papers of which I am the first/primary author

Preventing Surgical Site Infections by Utilizing CHG Wipes for Preoperative Skin Preparation

Abstract The Clinical Nurse Leader project took place at a 106-bed community hospital in Washington. The microsystem has five operating rooms where they provide outpatient, and inpatient surgical procedures. The goal of this project is to reduce and sustain a near zero number of surgical site infections by implementing the use of a no rinse 2% CHG cloth in the surgical patient. The specific aim of the project is to reduce the rate of SSIs by 80% by December 31st, 2015. Due to a lack of a standardized care, specifically designed for the prevention of SSIs, the microsystem is experiencing a higher rate of SSIs than desired. Methods utilized in this project were data of the current SSI rates for fiscal year 2015, and unit assessment. The data revealed that the microsystem had incurred a total of 12 SSIs, which cost a total of $249,420 to treat. The cost of implementation of the 2$12,168. The pre-intervention results found variations in preoperative skin preparation, and a lack of compliance. Interventions included the standardization of preoperative skin process, developing education for staff and patients, and determining how product would be dispersed to patients. The specific aim goals will not be actualized until data analysis is completed on December 31st, 2015