TO THE EDITOR—How best to evaluate the effect of quaternary ammonium compound–based products after detection of postflood bacterial and fungal air bioburden remains uncertain. Thammasat University Hospital (Thailand) closed after severe black-water flooding in 2011; significant resources and costs were associated with hospital closure, reparations, and tiered reopening of select units [1]. In a...

Cleaning is an effective way to lower the bacterial burden (BB) on surfaces and minimize the infection risk to patients. However, BB can quickly return. Copper, when used to surface hospital bed rails, was found to consistently limit surface BB before and after cleaning through its continuous antimicrobial activity.

The cleaning of mirrors in large, remote telescopes is essential if these telescopes are to meet their performance goals, including low (2%) thermal emissivity in the infrared. Aluminum-coated mirror samples, which were naturally or artificially contaminated with materials representative of those at observatories, were cleaned with a UV laser beam or CO2 snow. Cleaning effectiveness was determi...

In this work, the development of an integrated decision-making system for the assessment of cleaning interventions on marble architectural surfaces is presented. The suggested system resulted by the incorporation of a fuzzy logic model into GIS and its architecture includes: (a) a GIS based graphical user interface for features and attributes retrieval, management comparison, analysis and corre...

Dental material science has paid more attention to mechanical properties of as-received materials than to changes produced after intraoral exposure. Orthodontic archwires when exposed to the intraoral environment have shown a significant increase in the degree of debris, surface roughness (Ra), and frictional force. The purpose of this split-mouth study was to evaluate the effects of two method...

In the last years, several robots for building façade cleaning have been designed and some prototypes have been developed. However, most of these robotics systems are too expensive to be introduced in the market or are only able to cope with very simple completely flat glass façades. Funded by the European Commission, a consortium formed by several European enterprises and research institutions...

OBJECTIVE To determine the agents causing asthmatic reactions during specific inhalation challenges (SICs) in workers with cleaning-related asthma symptoms and to assess the pattern of bronchial responses in order to identify the mechanisms involved in cleaning-related asthma. DESIGN A retrospective case series analysis. SETTING The study included all participants who completed an SIC proce...

BACKGROUND Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) are one of the most frequent complications occurring in healthcare facilities. Contaminated environmental surfaces provide an important potential source for transmission of many healthcare-associated pathogens, thus indicating the need for new and sustainable strategies. AIM This study aims to evaluate the effect of a novel cleaning procedure...

Organic matter leads to one of the biggest problems in membranes: fouling. Developing efficient cleaning processes is therefore crucial. This study systematically examines how alginic acid fouling formed under different physical and chemical conditions affect osmotic backwashing cleaning efficiency in forward osmosis (FO). The fouling layer thickness before and after osmotic backwashing was mea...

OBJECTIVE. Effective disinfection of hospital rooms after discharge of patients with Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is necessary to prevent transmission. We evaluated the impact of sequential cleaning and disinfection interventions by culturing high-touch surfaces in CDI rooms after cleaning. DESIGN. Prospective intervention. SETTING. A Veterans Affairs hospital. INTERVENTIONS. During a ...