Six Sigma Methodology applied to Immediate Use Sterilization at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital

Immediate use sterilization, also known as flash sterilization, is an expedited sterilization process used for surgical equipment needed in emergent clinical situations. Immediate use sterilization is a procedure used by Operating Room staff members to sterilize instrumentation on an as needed or just in time basis when instruments needed for a particular case are not immediately available or become contaminated in the course of the case. If instrumentation is not sterilized appropriately, the patient’s safety is possibly put at risk from the potential of surgical site infections. No specific literature data directly correlates immediate use sterilization with surgical site infection. However, eliminating this variable enables infection control to focus prevention efforts elsewhere

Planning, place-making and property markets in inner-London: the active management of clusters of ownership

In inner London many real estate companies own and actively manage clusters of ownership—spatially concentrated property portfolios. The literature has framed this feature of the London property market as the revival of the estate model of development. That is, on the one hand, it is argued that the well-known London’s Old estates are evolving from handsoff family businesses into professionally actively managed portfolios. On the other hand, it is argued that there are emerging clusters of ownership similarly actively managed. However, little is known yet about why property owners choose to cluster their portfolios, challenging risk diversification theories, what their active management comprises and in what institutional context they operate. Using an institutional account, this research examines clusters of ownership exploring their investment and management strategies and how the institutional environment affects these strategies. Methodologically, this research follows a multiple case study design and combines quantitative and qualitative methods, with predominantly qualitative methods. Quantitative data sources include the annual reports of property companies, which were analysed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative methods include semi-structured interviews with cluster owners and other stakeholders, which were analysed using content analysis. Research findings suggest that property owners derive a threefold advantage from clustering and actively managing their property portfolio. First, they gain an edge over the market including new acquisitions by their detailed local knowledge and concentrated ownerships. Second, they deploy an instrumentalised form of place-making in their neighbourhood by curating the mix of uses and tenant mix, their placement, and the space in-between the buildings. Third, they can occupy some of the empty governance space left by a budget-strapped planning system. These private interest-led forceful practices, coupled with a receding planning system, present new challenges to urban governance power dynamics

Dynamical hologram generation for high speed optical trapping of smart droplet microtools

This paper demonstrates spatially selective sampling of the plasma membrane by the implementation of time-multiplexed holographic optical tweezers for Smart Droplet Microtools (SDMs). High speed (>1000fps) dynamical hologram generation was computed on the graphics processing unit of a standard display card and controlled by a user friendly LabView interface. Time multiplexed binary holograms were displayed in real time and mirrored to a ferroelectric Spatial Light Modulator. SDMs were manufactured with both liquid cores (as previously described) and solid cores, which confer significant advantages in terms of stability, polydispersity and ease of use. These were coated with a number of detergents, the most successful based upon lipids doped with transfection reagents. In order to validate these, trapped SDMs were maneuvered up to the plasma membrane of giant vesicles containing Nile Red and human biliary epithelial (BE) colon cancer cells with green fluorescent labeled protein (GFP)-labeled CAAX (a motif belonging to the Ras protein). Bright field and fluorescence images showed that successful trapping and manipulation of multiple SDMs in x, y, z was achieved with success rates of 30-50% and that subsequent membrane-SDM interactions led to the uptake of Nile Red or GFP-CAAX into the SDM

Site-selective installation of BASHY fluorescent dyes to Annexin V for targeted detection of apoptotic cells

Fluorophores are indispensable for imaging biological processes. We report the design and synthesis of azide-tagged boronic acid salicylidenehydrazone (BASHY) dyes and their use for site-selective labelling of Annexin V. The Annexin V-BASHY conjugate maintained function and fluorescence as demonstrated by the targeted detection of apoptotic cells.We thank FCT Portugal (Doctoral Fellowship, SFRH/BD/94779/2013 to F. M. F. S., Postdoctoral Fellowship, SFRH/BPD/103172/2014 to P. M. S. D. C.; projects PTDC/QUI-QUI/118315/2010 and PTDC/BBB BQB/0506/2012; PTDC/QEQ-QOR/1434/2014: PTDC/SAUFAR/119389/2010; FCT Investigator to G. J. L. B. and P. M. P. G.; iMed.ULisboa grant UID/DTP/04138/2013), EU (Marie-Curie CIG to G. J. L. B.; Marie-Sklodowska Curie ITN ProteinConjugates to G. J. L. B. and P. M. P. G.), DFG (SI 2117/1-1 to F. S.), CNPq Brazil (fellowship 200456/2015-6 to J. B. B.); Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Madrid, Spain (grant CTQ2014-54729-C2-1-P), Junta de Andalucía (grant P12-FQM-2140) and the EPSRC (G. J. L. B.) for financial support. G. J. L. B. is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and the recipient of a European Research Council Starting Grant (TagIt)