Innovative Sensor Technology for Emergency Detection in Life Science Laboratories.

Chemical, analytical and biological laboratories use a variety of different solvents and gases. Many of these compounds are harmful or even toxic to laboratory personnel. Permanent monitoring of the air quality is therefore of great importance regarding the greatest possible occupational safety and the detection of dangerous situations in the work process. An increasing need exists for the development and application of small and portable sensor solutions that enable personal monitoring and that can be flexibly adapted to different environments and situations. Different sensor principles are available for the detection of gases and solvent vapors, which differ in terms of their selectivity and sensitivity. Besides simple sensing elements, integrated sensors and smart sensors are increasingly available, which, depending on their scope of functions, require a distinct effort in integration. This chapter gives an overview of available sensors and their integration options, and describes ready-to-use sensor systems for personal monitoring in life science laboratories.

Evaluating of IAQ-Index and TVOC Parameter-Based Sensors for Hazardous Gases Detection and Alarming Systems.

The measurement of air quality parameters for indoor environments is of increasing importance to provide sufficient safety conditions for workers, especially in places including dangerous chemicals and materials such as laboratories, factories, and industrial locations. Indoor air quality index (IAQ-index) and total volatile organic Compounds (TVOC) are two important parameters to measure air impurities or air pollution. Both parameters are widely used in gases sensing applications. In this paper, the IAQ-index and TVOCs have been investigated to identify the best and most flexible solution for air quality threshold selection of hazardous/toxic gases detection and alarming systems. The TVOCs from the SGP30 gas sensor and the IAQ-index from the SGP40 gas sensor were tested with 12 different organic solvents. The two gas sensors are combined with an IoT-based microcontroller for data acquisition and data transfer to an IoT-cloud for further processing, storing, and monitoring purposes. Extensive tests of both sensors were carried out to determine the minimum detectable volume depending on the distance between the sensor node and the leakage source. The test scenarios included static tests in a classical chemical hood, as well as tests with a mobile robot in an automated sample preparation laboratory with different positions.

Mobile Detection and Alarming Systems for Hazardous Gases and Volatile Chemicals in Laboratories and Industrial Locations.

The leakage of hazardous gases and chemical vapors is considered one of the dangerous accidents that can occur in laboratories, workshops, warehouses, and industrial sites that use or store these substances. The early detection and alarming of hazardous gases and volatile chemicals are significant to keep the safety conditions for the people and life forms who are work in and live around these places. In this paper, we investigate the available mobile detection and alarming systems for toxic, hazardous gases and volatile chemicals, especially in the laboratory environment. We included papers from January 2010 to August 2021 which may have the newest used sensors technologies and system components. We identified (236) papers from Clarivate Web of Science (WoS), IEEE, ACM Library, Scopus, and PubMed. Paper selection has been done based on a fast screening of the title and abstract, then a full-text reading was applied to filter the selected papers that resulted in (42) eligible papers. The main goal of this work is to discuss the available mobile hazardous gas detection and alarming systems based on several technical details such as the used gas detection technology (simple element, integrated, smart, etc.), sensor manufacturing technology (catalytic bead, MEMS, MOX, etc.) the sensor specifications (warm-up time, lifetime, response time, precision, etc.), processor type (microprocessor, microcontroller, PLC, etc.), and type of the used communication technology (Bluetooth/BLE, Wi-Fi/RF, ZigBee/XBee, LoRa, etc.). In this review, attention will be focused on the improvement of the detection and alarming system of hazardous gases with the latest invention in sensors, processors, communication, and battery technologies.

Flexible IoT Gas Sensor Node for Automated Life Science Environments Using Stationary and Mobile Robots.

In recent years the degree of automation in life science laboratories increased considerably by introducing stationary and mobile robots. This trend requires intensified considerations of the occupational safety for cooperating humans, since the robots operate with low volatile compounds that partially emit hazardous vapors, which especially do arise if accidents or leakages occur. For the fast detection of such or similar situations a modular IoT-sensor node was developed. The sensor node consists of four hardware layers, which can be configured individually regarding basic functionality and measured parameters for varying application focuses. In this paper the sensor node is equipped with two gas sensors (BME688, SGP30) for a continuous TVOC measurement. In investigations under controlled laboratory conditions the general sensors' behavior regarding different VOCs and varying installation conditions are performed. In practical investigations the sensor node's integration into simple laboratory applications using stationary and mobile robots is shown and examined. The investigation results show that the selected sensors are suitable for the early detection of solvent vapors in life science laboratories. The sensor response and thus the system's applicability depends on the used compounds, the distance between sensor node and vapor source as well as the speed of the automation systems.

Integrating Mobile Robots into Automated Laboratory Processes: A Suitable Workflow Management System.

The general trend of automation is currently increasing in life science laboratories. The samples to be examined show a high diversity in their structures and composition as well as the determination methods. Complex automation lines such as those used in classic industrial automation are not a suitable solution with respect to the required flexibility of the systems due to changing application requirements. Rather, full automation requires the connection of several different subsystems, including manual process steps by the laboratory staff. This requires suitable workflow management systems that enable the planning and execution of complex process steps. The integration of mobile robots for transportation tasks is currently an important development trend for realizing full automation in life science laboratories. The article "Workflow Management System for the Integration of Mobile Robots in Future Labs of Life Sciences" presents the development and application of a hierarchical workflow management system (HWMS) as a top-level process management and control system. This concept combines the typical hierarchical automation structure with novel approaches for the integration of transportation tasks with variable degrees of automation. The aim is to create a general-purpose workflow management system that can be used in different areas of the life sciences, regardless of the specific device components and applications used.

SARS-Cov-2 and environmental protection: A collective psychology agenda for environmental psychology research.

While the virus SARS-CoV-2 spreads all over the world, most countries have taken severe measures to protect their citizens and slow down the further spread of the disease COVID-19. These measures affect individuals, communities, cities, countries, and the entire planet. In this paper, we propose that the tremendous consequences of the corona crisis invite environmental psychology to focus more strongly on research questions that address major societal challenges from a collective psychology perspective. In particular, we stress that the corona crisis may affect how people appraise - and potentially respond to - the looming climate crisis. By consistently pointing out systemic links and their human factor, environmental psychology can become central to a scientific agenda of a sustainable 'post-corona society'. In order to provide a framework for future research towards a sustainable societal transformation, we build on the Social Identity Model of Pro-Environmental Action (SIMPEA) and extend its scope to understand people's responses following the corona crisis. The model allows predictions of previously not explicitly included concepts of place attachment, nature connectedness, basic psychological needs, and systems thinking. It may serve as a guiding framework for a better understanding of the transformation towards a sustainable future.

Multi-Sensor-Fusion Approach for a Data-Science-Oriented Preventive Health Management System: Concept and Development of a Decentralized Data Collection Approach for Heterogeneous Data Sources.

Investigations in preventive and occupational medicine are often based on the acquisition of data in the customer's daily routine. This requires convenient measurement solutions including physiological, psychological, physical, and sometimes emotional parameters. In this paper, the introduction of a decentralized multi-sensor-fusion approach for a preventive health-management system is described. The aim is the provision of a flexible mobile data-collection platform, which can be used in many different health-care related applications. Different heterogeneous data sources can be integrated and measured data are prepared and transferred to a superordinated data-science-oriented cloud-solution. The presented novel approach focuses on the integration and fusion of different mobile data sources on a mobile data collection system (mDCS). This includes directly coupled wireless sensor devices, indirectly coupled devices offering the datasets via vendor-specific cloud solutions (as e.g., Fitbit, San Francisco, USA and Nokia, Espoo, Finland) and questionnaires to acquire subjective and objective parameters. The mDCS functions as a user-specific interface adapter and data concentrator decentralized from a data-science-oriented processing cloud. A low-level data fusion in the mDCS includes the synchronization of the data sources, the individual selection of required data sets and the execution of pre-processing procedures. Thus, the mDCS increases the availability of the processing cloud and in consequence also of the higher level data-fusion procedures. The developed system can be easily adapted to changing health-care applications by using different sensor combinations. The complex processing for data analysis can be supported and intervention measures can be provided.

Potential of Laboratory Execution Systems (LESs) to Simplify the Application of Business Process Management Systems (BPMSs) in Laboratory Automation.

Modern business process management (BPM) is increasingly interesting for laboratory automation. End-to-end workflow automation and improved top-level systems integration for information technology (IT) and automation systems are especially prominent objectives. With the ISO Standard Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) 2.X, a system-independent and interdisciplinary accepted graphical process control notation is provided, allowing process analysis, while also being executable. The transfer of BPM solutions to structured laboratory automation places novel demands, for example, concerning the real-time-critical process and systems integration. The article discusses the potential of laboratory execution systems (LESs) for an easier implementation of the business process management system (BPMS) in hierarchical laboratory automation. In particular, complex application scenarios, including long process chains based on, for example, several distributed automation islands and mobile laboratory robots for a material transport, are difficult to handle in BPMSs. The presented approach deals with the displacement of workflow control tasks into life science specialized LESs, the reduction of numerous different interfaces between BPMSs and subsystems, and the simplification of complex process modelings. Thus, the integration effort for complex laboratory workflows can be significantly reduced for strictly structured automation solutions. An example application, consisting of a mixture of manual and automated subprocesses, is demonstrated by the presented BPMS-LES approach.

Experimental determination of TRIP-parameter K for mild- and high-strength low-alloy steels and a super martensitic filler material.

A combined experimental numerical approach is applied to determine the transformation induced plasticity (TRIP)-parameter K for different strength low-alloy steels of grade S355J2+N and S960QL as well as the super martensitic filler CN13-4-IG containing 13 wt% chromium and 4 wt% nickel. The thermo-physical analyses were conducted using a Gleeble (®) 3500 facility. The thermal histories of the specimens to be tested were extracted from corresponding simulations of a real gas metal arc weldment. In contrast to common TRIP-experiments which are based on complex specimens a simple flat specimen was utilized together with an engineering evaluation method. The evaluation method was validated with literature values for the TRIP-parameter. It could be shown that the proposed approach enables a correct description of the TRIP behavior.

Hybrid organic/inorganic thin-film multijunction solar cells exceeding 11% power conversion efficiency.

Hybrid multijunction solar cells comprising hydrogenated amorphous silicon and an organic bulk heterojunction are presented, reaching 11.7% power conversion efficiency. The benefits of merging inorganic and organic subcells are pointed out, the optimization of the cells, including optical modeling predictions and tuning of the recombination contact are described, and an outlook of this technique is given.

Psychophysical workload in the operating room: primary surgeon versus assistant.

BACKGROUND: Working in the operating room is characterized by high demands and overall workload of the surgical team. Surgeons often report that they feel more stressed when operating as a primary surgeon than in the function as an assistant which has been confirmed in recent studies. In this study, intra-individual workload was assessed in both intraoperative functions using a multidimensional approach that combined objective and subjective measures in a realistic work setting. METHODS: Surgeons' intraoperative psychophysiologic workload was assessed through a mobile health system. 25 surgeons agreed to take part in the 24-hour monitoring by giving their written informed consent. The mobile health system contained a sensor electronic module integrated in a chest belt and measuring physiological parameters such as heart rate (HR), breathing rate (BR), and skin temperature. Subjective workload was assessed pre- and postoperatively using an electronic version of the NASA-TLX on a smartphone. The smartphone served as a communication unit and transferred objective and subjective measures to a communication server where data were stored and analyzed. RESULTS: Working as a primary surgeon did not result in higher workload. Neither NASA-TLX ratings nor physiological workload indicators were related to intraoperative function. In contrast, length of surgeries had a significant impact on intraoperative physical demands (p < 0.05; η(2) = 0.283), temporal demands (p < 0.05; η(2) = 0.260), effort (p < 0.05; η(2) = 0.287), and NASA-TLX sum score (p < 0.01; η(2) = 0.287). CONCLUSIONS: Intra-individual workload differences do not relate to intraoperative role of surgeons when length of surgery is considered as covariate. An intelligent operating management that considers the length of surgeries by implementing short breaks could contribute to the optimization of intraoperative workload and the preservation of surgeons' health, respectively. The value of mobile health systems for continuous psychophysiologic workload assessment was shown.

Mobile real-time data acquisition system for application in preventive medicine.

In this article, the development of a system for online monitoring of a subject's physiological parameters and subjective workload regardless of location has been presented, which allows for studies on occupational health. In the sector of occupational health, modern acquisition systems are needed. Such systems can be used by the subject during usual daily routines without being influenced by the presence of an examiner. Moreover, the system's influence on the subject should be reduced to a minimum to receive reliable data from the examination. The acquisition system is based on a mobile handheld (or smart phone), which allows both management of the communication process and input of several dialog data (e.g., questionnaires). A sensor electronics module permits the acquisition of different physiological parameters and their online transmission to the handheld via Bluetooth. The mobile handheld and the sensor electronics module constitute a wireless personal area network. The handheld allows the first analysis, the synchronization of the data, and the continuous data transfer to a communication server by the integrated mobile radio standards of the handheld. The communication server stores the incoming data of several subjects in an application-dependent database and allows access from all over the world via a Web-based management system. The developed system permits one examiner to monitor the physiological parameters and the subjective workload of several subjects in different locations at the same time. Thereby the subjects can move almost freely in any area covered by the mobile network. The mobile handheld allows the popping-up of the questionnaires at flexible time intervals. This electronic input of the dialog data, in comparison to the manual documentation on papers, is more comfortable to the subject as well as to the examiner for an analysis. A Web-based management application facilitates a continuous remote monitoring of the physiological and the subjective data of the subject.