Curriculum to Introduce Critical Care Nurses to Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.

Background: Despite the growing use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in intensive care units (ICUs), no standardized ECMO training pathways are available for ECMO-naive critical care nurses.

Objectives: To evaluate a critical care nurse ECMO curriculum that may be reproducible across institutions.

Methods: An ECMO curriculum consisting of a basic safety course and an advanced user course was designed for critical care nurses.

Superhydrophobic SAM Modified Electrodes for Enhanced Current Limiting Properties in Intrinsic Conducting Polymer Surge Protection Devices.

Surface interface engineering using superhydrophobic gold electrodes made with 1-dodecanethiol self-assembled monolayer (SAM) has been used to enhance the current limiting properties of novel surge protection devices based on the intrinsic conducting polymer, polyaniline doped with methanesulfonic acid. The resulting devices show significantly enhanced current limiting characteristics, including current saturation, foldback, and negative differential effects. We show how SAM modification changes the morphology of the polymer film directly adjacent to the electrodes, leading to the formation of an interfacial compact thin film that lowers the contact resistance at the Au-polymer interface.

Sensitivity to molecular order of the electrical conductivity in oligothiophene monolayer films.

Using conducting probe atomic force microscopy (CAFM), we show that electrical conductivity in oligothiophene molecular films deposited on SiO(2)/Si wafers is extremely sensitive to degree of crystalline order in the film. By locally distorting the molecular order in the films through the controlled application of pressure with the AFM tip, the lateral charge transport was reduced by factors varying from 2 to 10, even when no changes in the height of the film could be observed.

Electrical transport properties of oligothiophene-based molecular films studied by current sensing atomic force microscopy.

Using conducting probe atomic force microscopy (CAFM) we have investigated the electrical conduction properties of monolayer films of a pentathiophene derivative on a SiO(2)/Si-p+ substrate. By a combination of current-voltage spectroscopy and current imaging we show that lateral charge transport takes place in the plane of the monolayer via hole injection into the highest occupied molecular orbitals of the pentathiophene unit. Our CAFM data suggest that the conductivity is anisotropic relative to the crystalline directions of the molecular lattice.

Bifunctional patterning of mixed monolayer surfaces using scanning probe lithography for multiplexed directed assembly.

The patterning of a surface with more than one type of functionality in spatially resolved fashion is described. A scanning probe was used to create patterns composed of two orthogonal types of functionality within a dense, electrochemically active mixed monolayer via a simple modulation of the applied surface bias. One reductive pathway produces surface-bound amine moieties while the other creates an oxidized surface.