Mobile SARS­CoV­2 screening facilities for rapid deployment and university-based diagnostic laboratory.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has created a public crisis. Many medical and public institutions and businesses went into isolation in response to the pandemic. Because SARS-CoV-2 can spread irrespective of a patient's course of disease, these institutions' continued operation or reopening based on the assessment and control of virus spread can be supported by targeted population screening. For this purpose, virus testing in the form of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis and antibody detection in blood can be central. Mobile SARS-CoV-2 screening facilities with a built-in biosafety level (BSL)-2 laboratory were set up to allow the testing offer to be brought close to the subject group's workplace. University staff members, their expertise, and already available equipment were used to implement and operate the screening facilities and a certified diagnostic laboratory. This operation also included specimen collection, transport, PCR and antibody analysis, and informing subjects as well as public health departments. Screening facilities were established at different locations such as educational institutions, nursing homes, and companies providing critical supply chains for health care. Less than 4 weeks after the first imposed lockdown in Germany, a first mobile testing station was established featuring a build-in laboratory with two similar stations commencing operation until June 2020. During the 15-month project period, approximately 33,000 PCR tests and close to 7000 antibody detection tests were collected and analyzed. The presented approach describes the required procedures that enabled the screening facilities and laboratories to collect and process several hundred specimens each day under difficult conditions. This report can assist others in establishing similar setups for pandemic scenarios.

CereBridge: An Efficient, FPGA-based Real-Time Processing Platform for True Mobile Brain-Computer Interfaces.

In general, the signal chain in modern mobile Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) is subdivided into at least two blocks. These are usually wirelessly connected with digital signal processing part implemented separately and often stationary. This causes a limited mobility and results in an additional, although avoidable, latency due to the wireless transmission channel. Therefore, a novel, entirely mobile FPGA-based platform for BCIs has been designed and implemented. While featuring highly efficient adaptability to targeted algorithms due to the ultra low power Flash-based FPGA, the stackable system design and the configurable hardware ensure flexibility for the use in different application scenarios. Powered through a single Li-ion battery, the miniaturized system area of half the size of a credit card leads to high mobility and thus allow for real-world scenario applicability. A Bluetooth Low Energy extension can be connected without any significant area cost, if a wireless data or control signal transmission channel is required. The resulting system is capable of acquiring and fully processing of up to 32 EEG channels with 24 bit precision each and a sampling rate of 250-16k samples per second with a total weight less than 60 g.

An intelligent bioreactor system for the cultivation of a bioartificial vascular graft.

Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death, accounting for 31% of deaths worldwide. As purely synthetic grafts implicate concomitant anticoagulation and autologous veins are rare, tissue-engineered vascular grafts are urgently needed. For successful in vitro cultivation of a bioartificial vascular graft, the suitable bioreactor should provide conditions comparable to vasculogenesis in the body. Such a system has been developed and characterized under continuous and pulsatile flow, and a variety of sensors has been integrated into the bioreactor to control parameters such as temperature, pressure up to 500 mbar, glucose up to 4.5 g/L, lactate, oxygen up to 150 mbar, and flow rate. Wireless data transfer (using the ZigBee specification based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard) and multiple corresponding sensor signal processing platforms have been implemented as well. Ultrasound is used for touchless monitoring of the growing vascular structure as a quality control before implantation (maximally achieved ultrasound resolution 65 µm at 15 MHz). To withstand the harsh conditions of steam sterilization (120°C for 20 min), all electronics were encapsulated. With such a comprehensive physiologically conditioning, sensing, and imaging bioreactor system, all the requirements for a successful cultivation of vascular grafts are available now.