Contaminated or infected patients present a risk of cross-contamination for emergency responders, attending medical personnel and medical facilities as they enter a treatment facility. The controlled conditions of an ...Contaminated or infected patients present a risk of cross-contamination for emergency responders, attending medical personnel and medical facilities as they enter a treatment facility. The controlled conditions of an aerosol test chamber are required to examine factors of contamination, decontamination, and cross-contamination. This study presents the design, construction, and a method for characterizing an aerosol test chamber for a full-sized manikin on a standard North Atlantic Treaty Organization litter. The methodology combined air velocity measurements, aerosol particle counts and size distributions, and computational fluid dynamics modeling to describe the chamber’s performance in three dimensions. This detailed characterization facilitates future experimental design by predicting chamber performance for a variety of patient-focused research.展开更多
The current barrier to acquisition and utilization of viable waste-to-energy (WTE) technologies at remote or deployed expeditionary sites requires high capital and operation & maintenance costs. The impacts to env...The current barrier to acquisition and utilization of viable waste-to-energy (WTE) technologies at remote or deployed expeditionary sites requires high capital and operation & maintenance costs. The impacts to environment and human health of differing expeditionary waste management strategies were compared using the Life Cycle Assessment software SimaPro 8.0. Emissions of individual waste management scenarios were compiled from peer-reviewed literature, converted to values compatible with SimaPro’s waste scenario inputs, and the calculated impacts compared using SimaPro’s pre-loaded methodologies. These calculated impacts and the economic impacts confirm that open-air burning of waste is not only dangerous to humans and the environment, but is also not cost-effective. Considering the economic effects and the mitigated human and environmental health impacts, WTE technologies may be a viable waste management strategy for the future.展开更多
文摘Contaminated or infected patients present a risk of cross-contamination for emergency responders, attending medical personnel and medical facilities as they enter a treatment facility. The controlled conditions of an aerosol test chamber are required to examine factors of contamination, decontamination, and cross-contamination. This study presents the design, construction, and a method for characterizing an aerosol test chamber for a full-sized manikin on a standard North Atlantic Treaty Organization litter. The methodology combined air velocity measurements, aerosol particle counts and size distributions, and computational fluid dynamics modeling to describe the chamber’s performance in three dimensions. This detailed characterization facilitates future experimental design by predicting chamber performance for a variety of patient-focused research.
文摘The current barrier to acquisition and utilization of viable waste-to-energy (WTE) technologies at remote or deployed expeditionary sites requires high capital and operation & maintenance costs. The impacts to environment and human health of differing expeditionary waste management strategies were compared using the Life Cycle Assessment software SimaPro 8.0. Emissions of individual waste management scenarios were compiled from peer-reviewed literature, converted to values compatible with SimaPro’s waste scenario inputs, and the calculated impacts compared using SimaPro’s pre-loaded methodologies. These calculated impacts and the economic impacts confirm that open-air burning of waste is not only dangerous to humans and the environment, but is also not cost-effective. Considering the economic effects and the mitigated human and environmental health impacts, WTE technologies may be a viable waste management strategy for the future.