Assessment of laparoscopic instrument reprocessing in rural India: a mixed methods study

Background: Laparoscopy is a minimally-invasive surgical procedure that uses long slender instruments that require much smaller incisions than conventional surgery. This leads to faster recovery times, fewer post-surgical wound infections and shorter hospital stays. For these reasons, laparoscopy could be particularly advantageous to patients...

Sterilization of disposable face masks by means of standardized dry and steam sterilization processes: an alternative in the fight against mask shortages due to COVID-19

Steam sterilization of used disposable face masks with respect to COVID-19 shortages

Anticipating Xenogenic Pollution at the Source: Impact of Sterilizations on DNA Release From Microbial Cultures

The dissemination of DNA and xenogenic elements across waterways is under scientific and public spotlight due to new gene-editing tools, such as do-it-yourself (DIY) CRISPR-Cas kits deployable at kitchen table. Over decades, prevention of spread of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), antimicrobial resistances (AMR), and pathogens from...

Solution methods for the tray optimization problem

In order to perform medical surgeries, hospitals keep large inventories of surgical instruments. These instruments need to be sterilized before each surgery. Typically the instruments are kept in trays. Multiple trays may be required for a single surgery, while a single tray may contain instruments that are required for multiple surgical...

A novel approach for application of white rot fungi in wastewater treatment under non-sterile conditions: immobilization of fungi on sorghum

In this study, we tested a new approach to facilitate the application of white rot fungi (WRF) under non-sterile conditions, by introducing grain sorghum as carrier and sole carbon and nutrient source for WRF. To this end, Trametes versicolor was immobilized on sorghum, and its ability to remove humic acid (HA) from synthetic and real...