Day: September 5, 2020

Canister bag that solidifies infectious secretions like COVID 19can save health workers from exposure during handling

Infectious secretions from contagious diseases such as COVID 19, tuberculosis (TB), and influenza poses high risk for healthcare workers. Their exposure to the high-risk hazard while handling the waste can soon be controlled with a canister bag that solidifies the secretions rapidly, making disposal safer.

For the safe management of infected respiratory secretions, the researchers at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India, have come up with a method for safe handling and disposal of respiratory secretions in hospitals for ICU patients or those with copious respiratory secretions treated in the wards. They have developed canister bags lined with super-absorbent material containing an effective disinfectant, named “AcryloSorb”.

When the patient is admitted to the hospital, secretions are sucked into bottles or canisters using vacuum line and discarded through the waste fluid disposal system after subjecting to decontamination process. There is a high risk of contamination during the handling, and the disposal needs well-equipped sluice rooms with disinfection facilities. The safety threat and manpower issues will be manifold in less equipped hospitals or temporary isolation wards set up during pandemics.

The canister bags can absorb 500 ml of secretions and solidify it immediately. In addition to that, the whole system will be decontaminated within no time because of the presence of disinfectant. The liner structure has a patented design which allows the progressive absorbent availability upwards. Solidification and immediate disinfection that occurs inside these bags eliminate risk of secondary infections by avoiding spilling and aerosol formation, and thereby protect healthcare workers and promote safe workplace management.Canister bags are enclosed in a customizable sealer bag which can pack it as spill-proof decontaminated biomedical waste disposable through incineration. The product has been tested as per the international standards.

The SCTIMST team that realized this technology consists of biomaterial scientists and clinicians – Dr. Manju, S., Dr. ManojKomath, Dr. Asha Kishore, Dr. Ajay Prasad Hrishi. The know-how of the AcryloSorb suction canister liner (CL Series) bags has been transferred to Romsons Scientific and Surgical Pvt. Ltd for manufacture and immediate marketing. The approximate cost will be Rs. 100/- for each canister liner bag.

Romsons Scientific & Surgical Pvt. Ltd, located at Uttar Pradesh, is a global player in medical devices with more than 200 products in market. The company has proven expertise of half a century in the area of disposable medical and surgical devices and is a prominent brand in the medical device community. The company has its distribution channel across 65 countries. Quality is a prime motto of Romsons, evidenced by the ISO and CE certifications for many of their products.

The field trials of the in-house designed suction canister liner bags are being conducted in SCTIMST.

Portable Sterilization unit using new hybrid sterilization technology can decontaminate PPEs rapidly

Scientists have developed a portable sterilisation unit using a new technology called the hybrid sterilization system that can decontaminate personal protective equipment (PPE) necessary for combating COVID 19, easily and rapidly, allowing them to be used multiple times.

It can be used by health professionals and other COVID warriors for whom PPEs are essential and can prevent generation of hazardous solid waste from PPEs.

IIT Tirupati (IITT) and IISER Tirupati have jointly developed the Portable Optical Cavity

Sterilization Unit (POSCU) to provide efficient and rapid decontamination of personal protective equipment (PPE) and other household items. A working point-of-use sterilization unit has been developed with the support of Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), a statutory body under the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

UV radiation is a proven method for sterilization. However, the lower penetration depth of UV-C and faster divergence from the source can result in nonuniform treatment. The team consisting of Dr. Reetesh Kumar Gangwar (Asst. Prof., Physics), Dr. Arijit Sharma (Asst. Prof.,  Physics), and Dr. Shihabudheen M. Maliyekkal (Asst. Prof., Civil & Environmental Engineering) from IITT have developed this hybrid sterilization system consisting of a UV radiation cavity, cold plasma, and H2O2 spray.

Unlike the traditional UV systems, this unit follows the optical cavity concept to optimize the use of photon flux in the treatment area. The system confines the UV radiation and enhances photon-flux and sterilization efficacy. The coherent operation of UV-C, cold plasma, and H2O2 spray further strengthens the sterilization efficiency due to more hydroxyl radical production.

CSIR-CMERI develops Affordable Solar Powered Battery based Sprayers to tackle Water Crisis in Agriculture

Water is a precious resource and water scarcity is looming large over the entire Nation. Agriculture, which consumes around 70% of Water, for irrigation purpose, is the most vulnerable sector of the Economy owing to this crisis. To address this issue there has been discussion on implementing solar pump in almost every farmland.

Apart from solar pumps, CSIR-CMERI isworking on methods to reduce water consumption required for irrigation. Initially, Drip irrigation was considered but later it was realised that Drip irrigation is not affordable for marginal to small farmers, who are the major stake holders in Indian Agrarian scenario. Those farmers use manual sprayers costing a few thousand rupees.

As per the available knowledge, pesticides play very big role in increasing crop productivity, but large amount of pesticide sprays is wasted due to lack of appropriate machinery, and soil, water and air become polluted. Due to such harmful effects of pesticides, there is an increasing pressure to reduce their use and make their spraying more efficient. To make efficient sprayer, there is need to understand science of surface tension, viscosity, wettability, air drag, dynamic pressure, particle size, etc. CSIR-CMERI developed two variants of battery operated spray systems one for “marginal famers” and other for “small farmers”. Back Pack Sprayer, having capacity of 5 litres, is made for “marginal farmers”, while the Compact Trolley Sprayer having capacity of 10 litres, is made for “small farmers”. These sprayers are equipped with two separate tanks, flow control and pressure regulator to handle different water requirements of the crops, target/site specific irrigation, maintaining appropriate dilution of pesticide/fungicide to control the pest (on foliage, under the leaves, at root zone etc.), creating water based micro-roughness of leaf surface, maintaining soil moisture levels in a narrow range, and weed control. The systems functions on Solar-Powered batteries, thus enabling its usage even in energy and power deprived agricultural regions of the Nation, thus reducing dependence on price volatile fossil fuels. The sprayers are simple to develop, easy to learn and implement, therefore will help to overcome water crisis faced by Indian farmers.

The flow control feature of the Sprayers helps achieve multiple levels of Water/Pesticide flow thereby enhancing the flexibility and dynamicity of the coverage area as well as the intensity of the application. The Dual-Chamber design of the Sprayers helps achieve a degree of resource versatility as it allows the system to carry two variants of liquids at any particular instant. As per experiments conducted at CSIR-CMERI, the engaged farmers have informed that it helps save 75% of Water and 25% time-consumption while using the CSIR-CMERI developed sprayers. This design element might also help reduce the time consumption for Spray based Agricultural applications, as the farmer need not empty the contents of a single vessel completely before using a different content.

Prof. (Dr.) Harish Hirani, Director, CSIR-CMERI, elaborated, “These couple of variants can bring about a revolution in the sphere of Precision Agriculture by reducing usage of Water in Agriculture. This revolutionary technology will help in creating agricultural avenues even in arid and semi-arid regions, as the Water scarcity will no longer be feared by the farming community. The CSIR-CMERI developed sprayers provide a cost-effective socio-economic solution for both marginalised and small-scale farmers. The affordable pricing profile helps to provide opportunities to cottage and micro-industries in furthering the outreach factor of the technology widely.”

CSIR-CMERI has already developed solar tree of capacity 1 Kwp, 3 kwp, 5 kwp, 6 kwp, 7.5 kwp and 11.5 kwp,(which is now the Largest Solar Tree in the world).

NIGHT ROUTINE

We all have been taught to know some basics of a morning schedule and do prepare one for us. Do you ever had a thought of having a night routine? Basically, there are very few people how ever had a night routine. As nights are that part of a day where all of us very little amount of energy left in us to follow any kind of schedule. And basically people want to relax and have a free time. For many people nights are the time when they get some time with family,but for many others this is the time when people get some privacy and can do whatever they like without any bounds and limits. But when you would have a deep thought on the topic you will come to know that night routines are more significant than the morning routines. As much sorted the night would lead to a more productive day. When someone knows what to be done the next day ,automatically the next day becomes more productive. So it’s better to plan the whole day beforehand and have a productive and perfect day rather to be dejected in the morning. Sometimes it’s well possible that the plan made by you don’t works the way it should but then also you would know what are the mistakes done by you that lead to such failures to the plan.

A night routine unknowingly would lead to relax you more than you had ever thought . Because the calmness of the night can be enjoyed much more when tried something new to feel it. So what basically are the night routines? What is that great secret to have a perfectly planned day? Can everyone of us owe the power to make and follow such cruel and evil sounding routines? What is the major step that is to be taken to create such routines?

Basically the answers to all the above question is a little time and a pen paper or any digital platform where you could plan things. Firstly in the night time the body has its major shutdown so for that it had to plan and start this routine from late evening time. Its know that having dinner by 8 pm (IST) is a healthy and body friendly habit. But there a few how follow this habit. Truly this habit is one of those habits which is not to be missed at any cost. This habit would lead to a good stomach health or more specifically a good gut health. A good gut health leads to a healthy individual and a healthy individual leads to a productive mind. This habit could be considered as the first step for night schedule. All of us have a different circadian rhythm cycle and our body works according to that only. Many researches have found that may people have a habit of being night owl and staying awake late night till am sometimes or evening more time . Some people sleep in the early morning when they should actually get up and start their new day. With the modernisation we are changing but there remains things which are good if not changed otherwise our body and its functioning is hampered enormously with our knowing. So it’s better to go to bed by 12am (maximum) and get up by 6 or 7 in the morning. Although it’s said that the best time to go to bed is by 9-9:30 pm and get up by 4-4:30am. As It’s good to inhale the morning breeze because it enhances the memory power.

Now moving on to the next step it could be having a no screen time 1 hour before going to the bed. Because the white light from the screen hampers the melatonin(sleep inducing hormone) and delays our sleep time. Before an hour of going to the bed it’s good to some work which don’t include you to face the screen. So it’s the ideal time to plan the next day and even write down what you did that day or what are those shortcomings which if not done would have made your day even better or write about what are the experiences and lessons you gained that day. After that you could also have a me time by doing a little self care activities like hair care,skin care etc. Just before the bedtime you could do some of the things you feel could relax you. It may be book reading, sketching,colouring,quote writing etc. It could be anything but it should surely relax and soothe your soul deeply. So this leads you to the final step of you night routine. And that is the moon milk if you have any kind of allergy with dairy product or you are a vegan then you can use plant based milk in place of animal product. But surely this moon milk helps your body to rejuvenate and produce a sense of calmness. Do check the recipe of moon milk and give it a try as this induces sleeps,helps to heal the inner injuries,decrease stress and there are tons of benefits of moon milk which if written would lead to another big article.

So with all these basic night time practices one could achieve a great bedtime as well as it would lead to a productive and perfect day. So surely try it out.

ENJOY and surely don’t forget to put an alarm to wake up at perfect time the next morning!!!!!!

Reasons to keep negative people at bay


Do you want to be a successful person in life? Do you want to stay motivated and keep working hard to reach your goals? I am pretty sure you do. In fact, everybody does. Well, if you are really looking forward to fill your life with joy and happiness, and to achieve success, then the one thing which you should do right away is to cut ties with negative people. Below are some of the reasons that might help you realise who your real well- wishers are and why you should remove toxic people from your life.
1) Alters your outlook towards life-
If you surround yourself with people that constantly shakes your confidence and makes you feel miserable about the life goals you have set to achieve, making you believe that you won’t be able to achieve those, then your attitude towards life gets changed. It becomes negative and you start seeing the world through the perspective of your toxic friends, without even realizing it. Such humans does no good to you but what they would do is discourage you time and again and would attempt to drag you down with them to the darkish side.
2) Alters your belief sytem- The problem with negative people is that if you hang around with them often, and listen to them for long enough, they would begin impacting your thinking, and you would quickly recognize that as an alternative of wondering positively you are questioning negatively. Before you even come in terms to it, it would begin impacting the way you assume or see the world and as a result it would alter your belief system when it shouldn’t.
3)Hinders your growth- if you are continually around negative people, it would hinder your overall growth as a person in life. As, already said negative people would often give you negative feedback, and so over the time you would start believing them, which would ultimately affect your growth, as you will by no means try taking the risk to do what you really want to or would never have the courage to chase your dreams.
4) You deserve to stay happy- When in doubt we often seek help from our friends and take treasured advice, people having good intentions for you would always encourage you to dream big and to believe in your ability to achieve it. Negative people on the other hand would advice you exactly the opposite. They would make you believe that you can’t achieve your dreams or your dreams are too big to be achieved, ultimately crushing your self-confidence, and self-worth. You will forever be in self-doubt. So it’s better to break ties with such people and fill your life with joy and happiness, because you deserve to stay happy.
   Now, it’s completely up to you to decide upon the kind of people you really want to keep in your life. You can keep those who pull you down and make you feel miserable or you can simply choose to leave such people behind and keep only those who lifts your spirit during difficult times, the choice is yours.Choose your friends wisely because what matters in the end is quality friends over quantity!