The Korean Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (KSGE) issued guidelines for endoscope reprocessing for the first time in 1995, and the version of the guidelines was updated in August 2009, August 2012, and March 2015. Guidelines for endoscope reprocessing should be revised continuously, because new disinfectants and devices are developed and introduced. The current official version of the KSG...

Reprocessing of hemodialyzers is a well-established practice in the United States. In 1999, 80% of the dialysis centers had dialyzer reprocessing programs. Many researchers, including this author, have studied various aspects of performance and quality control for reprocessed hemodialyzers. Much of the literature associated with these studies confirms dialyzer reprocessing can be a safe and eff...

Generic programming allows you to write a function once, and use it many times at different types. Traditionally, generic functions are defined by induction on the structure of types. “Scrap your boilerplate” (SYB) is a radically different approach that dispatches on the structure of values. In previous work, we have shown how to reconcile both approaches using the concept of generic views: man...

The paper “Scrap your boilerplate” (SYB) introduces a combinator library for generic programming that offers generic traversals and queries. Classically, support for generic programming consists of two essential ingredients: a way to write (type-)overloaded functions, and independently, a way to access the structure of data types. SYB seems to lack the second. As a consequence, it is difficult ...

BACKGROUND Manufacturers' recommendations on cleaning of tracheostomy tubes focus on general warning information and non-specific manual cleaning procedures. The aim of this experimental study was to evaluate different reprocessing methods and to determine the mechanical integrity and functionality of tracheostomy tubes following reprocessing. METHODS Sixteen cuffed or un-cuffed tracheostomy ...

Trace metal atmospheric contamination was assessed in one of the oldest European industrial sites of steel production situated in the southern part of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. Using elemental ratios as well as Pb, Sr, and Nd isotopic compositions as tracers, we found preliminary results concerning the trace metal enrichment and the chemical/isotopic signatures of the most important emissi...

The coprecipitation of U (VI) with iron corrosion products from aqueous solutions by zero valent iron was investigated. The evidence of coprecipitation was demonstrated by conducting experiments with well characterized scrap iron, pyrite and a mixture of both materials with experimental durations of up to four months. Results indicate that under anoxic conditions only less than one tenth of the...

The proliferation resistance of a reprocessing facility can be improved by using a novel detection system that utilizes the nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) phenomenon to determine the isotopic composition of materials flowing through the plant. In an aqueous reprocessing facility, the waste stream was identified as a weak point for proliferation resistance. By identifying the isotopic comp...

Background: The arising challenges over endoscope reprocessing quality proposes to look for possibilities to measure and control the process of endoscope reprocessing. Aim: The goal of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of monitoring endoscope reprocessing with an adenosine triphosphate (ATP) based bioluminescence system. Methods: 60 samples of eight gastroscopes have been assessed from...

As Rachel Louise Carson (1907-1964) successfully noted in her phrase “The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery not over nature but of ourselves”, we are challenged to find ways to produce more energy, reduce our waste production while minimizing use of limited natural resources. Although recycling of materials has a history going back to the times of Plato B...