Patient satisfaction in an outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) unit practising predominantly self-administration of antibiotics with elastomeric pumps.

Self-administration of antibiotics using elastomeric pumps has become the most frequently used treatment modality at the outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) unit of the University Hospital of Lausanne. However, it remains unknown how comfortable patients feel using this mode of treatment. A questionnaire was offered to all patients treated at the OPAT unit between June 2014 and December 2015. The questionnaire was distributed to 188 patients and 112 questionnaires were returned. Seventy-one patients were treated by self-administration, 21 attended the OPAT unit on a daily basis, and 20 received their antibiotics from home-care nurses. Overall, 83-97% of the patients gave the highest possible scores to the four items evaluating their global satisfaction. Subjects treated by self-administration gave a significantly better rating to 6 of the 17 semi-quantitative questions than the patients treated at the OPAT unit or by home-care nurses. There was no item which was more poorly rated by patients treated by self-administered OPAT than by the other treatment groups. In conclusion satisfaction was high in all patients treated by OPAT. The particularly high satisfaction of patients treated by self-administration of antibiotics with elastomeric pumps suggests that a significant number of patients are happy to take over some responsibility for their treatment. Patients' capacity to appropriate their care themselves should not be underestimated by health care professionals

Reliability assessment and failure mode analysis of MEMS accelerometers for space applications

In the present work, the reliability assessment of capacitive MEMS accelerometers of 3 different suppliers (codenamed A, B, and C) for their use in space applications was performed. The developed reliability assessment testing program addressed specific severities of space missions, such as mechanical shocks and vibrations during take-off and rocket stages separation, high temperature gradients and radiation endurance during in-orbit operation. The main aim of the testing was to evaluate the robustness and reliability limits of MEMS devices by overstressing their specific properties through dedicated tests. Typical failures modes were analyzed and root-causes identified on the devices' subsystem level: MEMS structure, ASIC, interconnecting wires, and package. Overall results of the performed reliability assessment tests and failure mode analyses suggest that the most specific MEMS components, namely the microstructures, do not themselves constitute the failure causes. Following the observations, other components, e.g. interconnects, ASIC or packaging, exhibit lower reliability limits to the specific stresses of the space harsh conditions. Comparative analysis of three accelerometers from various suppliers (designs A, B, and C) suggests the design A (in a hermetic ceramic package) to exhibit the best overall reliability for space-specific application conditions. Design B also shows good robustness. However, its non-hermetic packaging makes it unsuitable for the direct use for space applications in the current state. Utilization of a hermetic package and improvement of the wire-bonding temperature resistance would significantly improve this design. Accelerometers of supplier C (in a hermetic ceramic package) have a trend of occasional “infant mortality” early failures. It is therefore very important to perform burn-in and initial pre-screening for these devices. Another strong weak point for this design is related to a low radiation endurance, which shall be significantly improved

Microfabricated solenoids and Helmholtz coils for NMR spectroscopy of mammalian cells

NMR-microprobes based on solenoids and Helmholtz coils have been microfabricated and NMR-spectra of mammalian cells have successfully been taken. The microfabrication technology developed for these probes consists of three electroplated copper levels for low resistance coils and three SU-8 layers for the integration of microchannels. This technology allows fabricating solenoids, Helmholtz and planar coils on the same wafer. The coils have inner diameters in the range of 160 to 400 microm and detection volumes of 5 to 22 nL. The solenoid and Helmholtz coils show improved RF-field characteristics compared to a planar coil fabricated with the same process. The fabricated solenoid has a particularly low resistance of only 0.46 Omega at 300 MHz. Moreover, it is very sensitive and has a very uniform RF-field, but shows large line width. The Helmholtz coils are slightly less sensitive, but display a far narrower line width, and are therefore a good compromise. With a Helmholtz coil, a SNR of 620 has been measured after one scan on 9 nL pure water. An NMR-microprobe based on a Helmholtz coil has also been used to take spectra of CHO cells that have been concentrated in the sensitive region of the coil with a mechanical filter integrated into the channel

Laboratory validation of MEMS-based sensors for post-earthquake damage assessment

The EU-funded MEMSCON project aims to produce small size sensing nodes for measurement of strain and acceleration. These integrate Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) based sensors and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags in a single package; which can be incorporated in reinforced concrete buildings and can transmit data using a wireless interface. During the first phase of the project, sensor prototypes were produced by assembling preexisting components. In the second phase we developed miniaturized MEMS prototypes fulfilling the target application requirements. This paper outlines the accelerometer operating principles and the sensor architecture, and illustrates operation at both unit and network levels. It also reports on validation campaigns conducted in the laboratory to assess system performance

Micro to nano integration of intelligent wireless sensors networks for structural meso scale applications

Rapid advances in sensing and data transmission techniques, such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), lower power wireless networking and in computation give hopes for a new generation of small, inexpensive, networked sensors that can be distributed on civil and building structures to provide accurate, quantitative information on the physical structure state while in service. This information can be used to assess the structural condition of the monitored facility and aid decision making on rehabilitation so that safety can be attained and rehabilitation costs can be reduced. The aim in EU-funded MEMSCON project was to develop MEMSbased sensors for construction monitoring and to integrate them with a Decision-Support-System (DSS an automatic evaluation software, tol process the measurements and define the condition state, particularly aiming at proactive rehabilitation and rehabilitation after earthquake damage in reinforced concrete buildings . By measuring quantitatively the response of buildings during and after an earthquake, in terms of acceleration and strain become an easy task. based on permanent sensing systems when today the seismic damage is almost exclusively based on visual inspection. To overcome these limitations, MEMCON project aims to produce small size sensing nodes, integrating MEMS-based sensors and an RFID tag in a single package that will be attached to reinforced concrete buildings for life-cycle measurements of acceleration and strain; data that will be transmitted to a remote base station using a wireless interface. DSS will accept input from the sensors to assess the structural condition of the monitored building and to select optimal remedial measures