Streamlining Care for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a chronic and developmental disorder that affects about one out of every 65 children in California, and one in 59 children in the United States. Children with ASD have difficulty communicating and interacting with others, and experience oversensitivity to new stimuli and environments. Problem: In healthcare settings, children with ASD experience numerous challenges related to lack of adequate knowledge and education of staff regarding ASD, and lack of appropriate environmental and sensory resources which reduce quality of care provided to this population. Methods: The project took place in a Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES) Unit of a Hospital in Northern California that provides psychiatric and mental health services to approximately 15 children with ASD. This setting had no toolkit and/or sensory room to help staff better care for these children. Interventions: An educational toolkit to educate and guide staff, and a sensory room available for staff to offer children with ASD to reduce stimuli were implemented within PES. Results: 21 staff completed pre- and post- Likert-scale surveys, with 100% of the staff stated utilization of the interventions and agreeing with their effectiveness. Moreover, “Sensory Room Log” was used to evaluate the utility of the sensory room, with 100% of the staff using the sensory room for all 15 children with ASD that presented to PES (100% of children with ASD were offered and used the sensory room to decrease stimulation and promote relaxation). Conclusions: All participating staff believed the educational toolkit and the sensory room were effective interventions to help streamline and improve the quality of care provided to children with ASD in PES and recommended them to be utilized within other healthcare settings

Streamlining Care for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a chronic and developmental disorder that affects about one out of every 65 children in California, and one in 59 children in the United States. Children with ASD have difficulty communicating and interacting with others, and experience oversensitivity to new stimuli and environments. Problem: In healthcare settings, children with ASD experience numerous challenges related to lack of adequate knowledge and education of staff regarding ASD, and lack of appropriate environmental and sensory resources which reduce quality of care provided to this population. Objective: To analyze and evaluate the evidence regarding effective staff education and toolkit implementation, along with sensory room and items, and the potential impacts that these interventions can create to help mitigate this issue. Methods: To help guide the project and literature search, a PICOT question was designed and used to search across relevant databases and journals using applicable key terms to identify studies from 2012 to 2020. Selected studies were analyzed using John Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Tools by Dang & Dearholt (2017). Results: Initial search resulted in 4157 studies across the databases and 2097 results across the journals. After applying further criteria and removing duplicates, final yield was five articles. Analysis of the five studies identified guidelines/interventions addressing behavioral and social concerns, healthcare staff knowledge and education, and sensory and environment. Conclusions: All five selected studies highlight the need and importance of implementing an educational toolkit for staff, and sensory room for children with ASD to streamline their care within healthcare settings

Effect of viscosity and drag reducing agents on mass transfer in liquid-liquid spray columns

The effects of dispersed phase viscosity and drag reducing agents on liquid-liquid mass transfer has been investigated in a 52 mm i.d. spray column. Methyl lsobutyl ketone was used as the continuous phase. Aqueous solutions of polyethylene glycol (0-60% w/w) and polyacrylamide (0-500 ppm)were used as the dispersed phase. Correlations have been developed for fractional phase holdup and mass transfer coefficient

Enzyme mass transfer coefficient in aqueous two phase system using a packed extraction column

Fractional dispersed phase hold-up and dispersed side mass transfer coefficients for amyloglucosidase were measured in a 56 mm i.d. packed extraction column using a sodium sulphate-polyethylene glycol 4000 system. Raschig rings (3 to 13.3 mm), Berl saddles (12 mm), Pall rings (12.6 mm), glass spheres (5.2 mm) and structured wire gauze were used as packings. The effect of packing size was investigated in the case of ceramic Raschig rings. The effect of phase composition of the aqueous phase system also was studied. Correlations have been developed for fractional dispersed phase hold-up and volumetric mass transfer coefficient with packing voidage, dry surface area of packings, superficial dispersed phase velocity and the liquid phase physical properties

Enzyme and protein mass transfer coefficient in aqueous two-phase systems-I. Spray extraction columns

Fractional dispersed phase hold-up and dispersed side mass transfer coefficients for bovine serum albumin (BSA) and amyloglucosidase were measured in 22, 34, 50, 56, 70 and 95 mm i.d. spray columns using salt-polyethylene glycol (potassium phosphate-PEG and sodium sulphate-PEG) systems. The effect of distributor design and column height were investigated. The effect of phase compositions of the aqueous phase system was also studied. Empirical and semi-empirical correlations have been developed for fractional dispersed phase hold-up and dispersed side mass transfer coefficients

Enzyme and protein mass transfer coefficient in aqueous two-phase systems- II. York-Scheibel extraction column

Fractional dispersed phase hold-up and dispersed side mass transfer coefficients for bovine serum albumin (BSA) and amyloglucosidase (AMG) were measured in 50 mm i.d. York-Schiebel columns using salt-polyethylene glycol (4000), potassium phosphate-PEG and sodium sulphate-PEG systems. The effect of column height and the effect of phase compositions of the aqueous phase system were studied. The critical impeller speed for flooding and the critical superficial dispersed phase velocity for flooding were measured. Empirical correlations have been developed for fractional dispersed phase hold-up and dispersed side mass transfer coefficients. The performance of the York-Scheibel column has been compared with that of the spray column

Liquid-liquid extraction of biomolecules in downstream processing - A review paper

Economic analysis shows that protein separation and purification are a very important aspect of biomolecules production and processing. This is particularly true for protein processing which, because of the complexity of the starting material, often requires many steps to reach the levels of purity required for medical and food applications. The separation specialists' task is to develop safe and simple processes to achieve products with a high level of purity. On a large scale, chromatography of proteins is not an easily applied method, although on a laboratory scale it is very effective and relatively simple. When it is scaled up, shortcomings such as discontinuity in the process, slow protein diffusion and large pressure drops in the system are seen. For these reasons a substantial research effort has been directed toward the use of aqueous two-phase systems (ATPSs) to replace the initial steps in protein purification and chromatography. This article reviews the chronology and main ATPS fundamentals and discuss the broader applications of this type of system in the extraction and separation of biomolecules