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Viability and efficacy of probiotics printed on a textile materialNiehaus, Kim-Laura January 2016 (has links)
Hospital-acquired infections are to date a major challenge in the patient safety. The proliferation of pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae is often reported in connection with textiles, which represent a significant source of transmission. This leads most often to the contamination and cross-contamination of the hospitalized patient and the hospital staff. A promising approach and the immediate objective of this research is the application of probiotics to a textile fabric. They provide preliminary evidence in being able to inhibit pathogenic bacteria growth through their competitive mechanism. During this study, screen-printing was used as a method to apply probiotics on a polyester fabric. The viability of probiotics on the fabric was evaluated in the agar plate test method. Samples that exhibited a growth of grown out colonies were further tested regarding their efficacy towards the abovementioned pathogens. This was determined in a competition test, that included the individually inoculation of the samples with the different bacteria strains. Contact-angle measurements and abrasion resistance as well as the durability were tested in order to investigate the applicability of the fabric and scanning electron microscope images were taken to detect probiotics and to evaluate the quality of the print on the fabric. Major findings included that probiotics were able to survive on the polyester fabric and that these viable probiotics are further successful in the growth inhibition of pathogenic bacteria. Thereby their efficacy against pathogens is related to the viability the probiotics. As neither the probiotics used in this study, nor the other ingredients are considered as hazardous, this process is environment-friendly. This work increases the understanding of probiotics mechanism and their survival and competition behaviour on a textile material. It opens a way in the reduction of hospital-acquired infections through the beneficial effects of probiotics.
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Upphandlingar och affärsmodeller för ökad textilåtervinning : En studie om svenska regioner / Procurement and business models for increased textile recycling : A study of Swedish regionsVirgin, Alexander January 2022 (has links)
Givet det ohållbara resursuttag som idag krävs för att tillgodose samhällets konsumtion, föreligger ett stort behov att övergå till en mer cirkulär ekonomi. En nyckelkomponent i denna övergång är att utifrån avfallshierarkin förbättra vår avfallshantering, exempelvis genom att se till att öka andelen som går till materialåtervinning och minska den som går till energiåtervinning. En strategi som föreslagits för detta är Product Service Systems (PSS), som till stor del går ut på att övergå till affärsmodeller med en högre grad av tjänstefiering, vilket innebär att en större del av värdeskapandet utgår från tjänster iställer för produkter. Med hänseende på behovet av cirkularitet är detta synnerligen aktuellt för textilier. Till skillnad från många andra material som glas och papper, återvinns textilier nästan inte alls i Sverige. Däremot har vissa pilotprojekt etablerats på senare år, framförallt för att ta hand om svenska regioners sjukvårdstextilier då dessa flöden har en högre grad av homogenitet än konsumenttextilier. Med offentliga upphandlingsprocessens potential till förändring som utgångspunkt, genomfördes intervjuer med relevanta aktörer inom värdekedjan för textilåtervinning i tre regioner. Dessa intervjuer utgjorde ett underlag för att utreda huruvida en högre grad av tjänstefiering bör influera regionerna i deras upphandlingsprocess samt vilken roll övriga aktörer kan spela i skiftet mot en högre grad av textilåtervinning. Trots en varierande grad av tjänstefiering i de tre regionerna fanns ett stort överlapp i vilka hinder och möjligheter till en ökad grad av textilåtervinning som identifierades, inte bara av representanterna för regionen utan även övriga aktörer. Ett brett konsensus fanns om att en informationsasymmetri mellan region och leverantör existerade, även om de föreslagna lösningarna på detta varierade. Många av de lösningar som föreslogs som svar på de identifierade hindren hade kommunikation som ett centralt tema. Trots att PSS ofta lyfts som ett sätt att facilitera kommunikation mellan aktörerna, tycks de varierande graderna av tjänstefiering i fallstudierna inte vara den avgörande faktorn för huruvida värdekedjan präglas av bättre förutsättningar för ökad textilåtervinning. Den kommunikation som värdekedjans aktörer efterfrågar, föreslås istället faciliteras av horisontell kommunikation mellan regionerna, där erfarenheter och insikter från innovativa upphandlingsprocesser kan dissemineras till andra regioner, samt genom vertikala kommunikationsplattformar där värdekedjans aktörer kan erbjudas insikt i varandras problemformuleringar och behov. Vidare valde många aktörer att belysa värdet av långsiktighet i relationerna, något som Lagen om Offentlig Upphandling (LOU) i viss mån tycks utgöra ett hinder för, delvis på grund av de tidsmässiga avtalsbegränsningar som finns idag. Relaterat till detta ansågs även avfallstaxonomin utgöra ett hinder för etablerandet av cirkulära textillösningar. Dessa slutsatser påkallar behovet av att se över dessa lagar, framförallt utifrån ett cirkulärt perspektiv, till skillnad från det linjära perspektiv som präglade tiden då dessa utformades. / Given the unsustainable extraction of resources required today to meet society's current levels of consumption, the urgency to move towards a more circular economy is acute. A key component in this transition is to improve our waste management in accordance with the waste hierarchy, for example by ensuring an increase in the share of material recycling. One strategy that has been proposed for this is Product Service Systems (PSS), which largely involves moving to business models with a higher degree of servicification, meaning that a larger part of the value creation is based on services instead of products. With regards to this need for circularity, textiles are a particularly relevant topic. As opposed to other materials such as glass and paper, textile recycling is practically non-existent in Sweden today. However, some pilot projects have been established in recent years, primarily to handle the waste streams of healthcare textiles stemming from Swedish regions, as these flows have a higher degree of homogeneity than consumer textiles. With the capacity for change inherent in the public procurement framework used as a starting point, interviews were conducted with relevant actors in the textile recycling value chain for three regions. These interviews formed a basis for investigating whether a higher degree of servicification should influence the regions in their procurement process and what role other actors can play in the transition towards a value chain with a higher degree of textile recycling. Despite a varying degree of servicification in the three regions, there was a considerable overlap in the obstacles and opportunities identified by the actors as important in the work towards an increased degree of textile recycling, not only by representatives of the regions themselves but also by other actors. There was a broad consensus that an information asymmetry between region and supplier existed, although the solutions proposed to this end varied. Many of the solutions that surfaced in response to the identified obstacles had communication as a central theme. Although PSS is often highlighted as a way of facilitating communication between actors, the varying degree of servicification in the case studies do not seem to be the decisive factor as to whether the value chain is conducive to an increased textile recycling or not. Rather, the type of communication that the actors in the value chain favored, were suggested to be facilitated by both horizontal communication between regions, where insights gained through the deployment of innovative procurement processes could be disseminated to other regions, as well as through vertical communication platforms where the actors in the value chain can acquire insight into each other's respective view of what difficulties and needs exist in the value chain. Furthermore, many actors chose to highlight the value of long-term relationships in the value chain, which the Public Procurement Act (LOU) to a certain extent seems to discourage today, partly because of the constraints on the duration of the contracts between the supplier and the region. Additionally, the waste taxonomy was also considered to be an obstacle to the establishment of circular textile solutions. These conclusions call for a review of these laws, primarily from a circular perspective, as opposed to the linear perspective that characterized the time when they were drafted.
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