APC: Fundamental principles of air conditioners for information technology

Posted by Pearlson
Monday, August 10, 2009
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Every information technology professional who is responsible for the operation of computing equipment needs to understand the function of air conditioning in the data center or network room. This APC introductory white paper explains the function of basic components of an air conditioning system for a computer room. The concepts presented here are a foundation for allowing IT professionals to successfully specify, install, and operate critical facilities.

  • Middle East: Sunday, August 09 - 2009 at 16:00


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Whenever electrical power is being consumed in an information technology (IT) room or data center, heat is being generated that needs to be removed from the space. Data Center and IT room heat removal is one of the most essential yet least understood of all critical IT environment processes. Improper or inadequate cooling significantly detracts from the lifespan and availability of IT equipment. A general understanding of the fundamental principles of air conditioning and the basic arrangement of precision cooling systems facilities more precise communication among IT and cooling professionals when specifying, operating, or maintaining a cooling solution.

This paper explains the basic operating principles and major components of precision cooling systems from an IT perspective. It also provides basic concepts that are an essential foundation for the proper specification and design of data centers or network rooms. This is an introduction paper from a suite of related papers on more advanced cooling topics from APC, and provides references for readers interested in a more complete treatment of the subject.

This APC white paper talks about:
- The nature of heat in the IT environment
- The refrigeration cycle
- Evaporation
- Compression
- Condensation
- Expansion
- Refrigerants
- Energy used by the refrigeration cycle
- Application of the refrigeration cycle in IT cooling
- Equipment located inside the IT environment
- Equipment located outside the IT environment
- Variation of the regrigeration cycle in IT cooling

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Nurses Help Invent High-Tech Gadgets

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Debi Sampsel, RN, and RP-7




Bar-code scanner at Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore

Healthcare technology is no longer the domain of nursing informatics and IT specialists, according to Susan K. Newbold, RN-BC, PhD, FHIMSS, FAAN, founding member of the Capital Area Roundtable on Informatics in Nursing (CARING). Nurses in many areas and specialties are getting involved with developing and implementing cutting-edge technologies and tools that are revolutionizing the way they work while improving safety and quality of care for patients.

Dialed in With an iPhone
Sheila Cortes, RN, BSN, a nurse educator, has come to rely on her iPhone as an indispensible nursing tool. Whether in the classroom, at a meeting, or at the bedside, the iPhone gives her the ability to ensure her teaching information is always up to date. As the nurse educator and a nursing clinician III at Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Cortes also is helping to lead the way in an initiative that will put iPhones in the hands of all the facility’s perioperative nurses.

“I see a lot of potential in using iPhones for nurses,” says Cortes. “It’s better than a computer because you can access information at any time from any place, such as at the bedside.”

Plans for the iPhone include loading the most up-to-date policies and procedures and educational materials onto an iPhone application for all nurses to access. These include the facility’s orientation materials, notes on surgeon’s preferences, patient positioning, troubleshooting equipment, PowerPoint presentations, and videos about surgical equipment, instruments, and procedures. Applications also can be developed for quick references for lab values, drug information and calculations, medical terminology, best practices, and numerous other teaching tools.

For example, a nurse who would like to confirm a patient’s cardiac rhythm could type SVT into the iPhone, which would show an actual SVT rhythm and description for the RN to compare with the patient’s rhythm.

“The iPhone can quickly arm nurses with the most current references and evidence-based practices so they can focus on the critical elements of their care, such as verification of the operative eye,” says Victoria Navarro, RN, MAS, MSN, former director of nursing. “It also makes nurses independent thinkers. They don’t have to depend on other people to learn but have the power in their own fingertips.”

Infusion Nursing Goes Hands-Free
Infusion nurses are playing a key role in the development of a wireless, hands-free voice recognition documentation and communication system at Butler (Pa.) Memorial Hospital. Called AccuNurse, the system allows nurses to dictate their documentation and provides patient information and instant access to other team members on demand anytime, anywhere within the facility.

AccuNurse consists of a wearable computer headset, a speech-recognition engine and a software application. The infusion nurse team and Cindy Esser, RN, BSN, MHA, MBA, director of emerging technologies, helped create the system, specially designed to help infusion nurses better manage interventions. The system prioritizes interventions on a task list and allows nurses to rapidly dictate documentation into the EMR (electronic medical record) system. It also can remind nurses and staff when interventions need to be done, such as when to assess or change an IV site.

“In the past, when an IV was ordered, the unit secretary had to call the switchboard to call the IV nurses who had to call the secretary back,” says Esser. “The voice-activated system tells the IV nurse directly about the order and promotes an effective use of our nursing resources.”

For developing the system, Butler Memorial is the winner of the 2009 Health Data Management Nursing Information Technology award, co-sponsored by CARING. The system pilot demonstrated an effective use of nursing resources, significant reduction in documentation time, more complete information in orders and on documentation, and less time needed to request IV starts, according to Esser.

Robot Teacher and Mentor
One of the newer members of the faculty at The Nursing Institute of West Central Ohio in Dayton is a robot. Known as RP-7, the remote presence robot helps address the nursing faculty shortage, according to Debi Sampsel, RN, MSN, executive director of the institute, which is headquartered at Wright State University.

The human-sized RP-7 integrates digital cameras, audio microphones, amplification circuitry, and custom software to create two-way, audio-video communication between professors and nursing students.

“The remote presence robot is a technology that we can use to engage the brain trust of seasoned PhD-level faculty, even if they retire to other locations,” says Sampsel. “With this technology, faculty who want to continue to work in semi-retirement can lecture or work at the simulation center without physically being on site.”

The nursing institute is also exploring how the RP-7 can be used to help address the nursing shortage in the clinical setting. The RP-7 may allow facilities to continue to use the expertise of seasoned clinical nurses who may have physical limitations.

The RP-7 robot has telescopic vision and technology that can transmit such vital elements as a live image of a patient, EKG tracings, urine output observations, chart notations, and heart and lung sounds. Using this technology, nurses off-site could provide real-time critical thinking, mentoring, and educational resources to less experienced nurses. This could be especially beneficial for off-shifts, when in-house resources may be less available, according to Sampsel.

“The remote presence robot can also be used in research when a PhD expert is needed to lend their expertise and teach nursing staff about conducting research at the bedside,” says Sampsel.

Medication Safety in Hand
Nursing is at the core of an initiative that brought advanced, specialized hand-held personal digital assistant technology to Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. Since last year, every inpatient nurse in the organization has used a bedside medication system on a PDA device that was customized and implemented by the nursing staff.
“We selected this system for the quality and safety features it offers,” says Susan MacMillan, RN, MSN, senior vice president patient care.

Nurses use the bedside medication administration system to scan patients’ bar-coded identification bracelets and medications. The PDA brings up all the necessary medication information, such as the critical five rights: the right patient, drug, dose, route, and time.

“It’s an all-in-one portable device with all the functions of a paper medication administration record, and then some,” says Beth Kilmoyer, RN, BC, MS, informatics project manager.

The PDA allows nurses to document medication administration at the bedside and also features automated alerts for such information as vital signs, pain score assessments, and lab results. In addition, nurses can communicate with pharmacy via the PDA about orders and missing medications.

The system also has been adapted for use with breast milk administration in the NICU, where it is important to ensure newborns receive stored milk from only their own mothers and that it is not expired.

“The system provides us with a better ability to get a confirmed breast milk match,” says Ann Johnson, RN, BS, CRNP, NICU clinical nurse III.

According to Kilmoyer, the system also is helping improve care and patient safety by eliminating legibility errors and providing automated warnings when any of the five rights of medication administration are not being met. The system improves communication because all medication administration information and documentation is accessible to any appropriate professional through the facility’s health information system.

Star Trek Communicator Badge
Affectionately known as the “Star Trek badge” by the nurses at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, the Vocera B2000 communications badge is not science fiction, but a real innovation that’s helping them save steps and nursing time.

The Vocera B2000 communications system includes a small wearable device that is controlled using natural spoken commands and enables hands-free instant two-way voice conversation. For example, to locate and initiate a conversation with Jane Smith, the user would simply say, “Find Jane Smith.”

“When you don’t have to wander all over to find someone, you can keep on nursing,” says Deb Green, RN, nurse manager. “It saves so much time in trying to locate people and get assistance.”

The system allows nurses to answer calls using their voices without breaking sterile technique or stopping what they are doing. In addition, the system can relay text messages and alerts to a display on the back of the badge.

Badge communications are programmed to automatically alert or talk with groups or teams, including the code team, housekeeping team, rapid response staff assist team, high risk delivery team, and every physician group on staff. The system also is integrated into monitoring systems and call lights to instantly alert a nurse to a patient call or an activated alarm.

A study done at the University of California Davis found the system eliminated two miles of walking per nurse per shift on the nursing units, according to Christine Gamlen, RN, MSN, chief nursing executive for Vocera, which developed the badge.

Catherine Spader, RN, is a freelance writer.

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21CSI Technology Selected by CSC for Indiana National Guard Training Center Surveillance

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CROWN POINT, Ind.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--21st Century Systems, Inc. (21CSI) announced today that it has been selected by CSC (NYSE: CSC) to provide an extension of the 21CSI force protection system, Intelligent Distributed Command and Control (IDC2), in support of the Indiana National Guard’s Muscatatuck Urban Training Center (MUTC). Work will be performed under a subcontract from CSC, which has a comprehensive task order with the U.S. Army’s premier R&D electronics laboratory, Communications-Electronic Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC). As called for in the agreement, 21CSI will leverage its advanced software technology to provide non-intrusive, persistent monitoring of a large, geographically diverse training site.

MUTC is a nationally recognized training center for military personnel to develop and hone urban warfare tactics, techniques and procedures. It is also used by homeland security authorities to test and evaluate complementary homeland security technologies. Housed on over 1,000 acres, the center is comprised of more than 70 buildings, one mile of tunnels and a 180-acre reservoir. Combined, these assets create the most realistic urban warfare training experience in a controlled environment.

IDC2 is built on the foundation of 21CSI’s highly versatile force protection technologies that are used to secure borders and guard valuable military assets both on land and underwater. As a primary contributor for this multi-phased, multi-year effort, 21CSI will deliver an integrated system comprised of intelligent agent-based command and control software with an integrated surveillance suite capable of monitoring intelligent sensors, cameras, motion detectors and unattended ground sensors. The networked system will provide the training center and remote command centers with a level of situational awareness and access to detailed information while permitting unencumbered access to public land located near the property. Moreover, the technology has the capability to filter the plethora of information it receives from remote sensors and cameras, and feed only the most relevant data to the end user for maximum decision making results.

“The use of IDC2 in this surveillance application further shows how 21CSI’s technology can be easily transitioned to create a multitude of products, customized for different needs, in both the military and commercial arenas,” said Jeffrey D. Hicks, Chairman and CEO of 21CSI.” “We fully expect for this system to become an indispensable part of managing this unique and necessary training facility.”

About CSC

CSC is a global leader in providing technology-enabled solutions and services through three primary lines of business. These include Business Solutions & Services, Global Outsourcing Services and the North American Public Sector. CSC’s advanced capabilities include systems design and integration, information technology and business process outsourcing, applications software development, Web and application hosting, mission support and management consulting. Headquartered in Falls Church, Va., CSC has approximately 91,000 employees and reported revenue of $17.3 billion for the 12 months ended Oct. 3, 2008. For more information, visit the company’s Web site at www.csc.com.

About 21CSI

21CSI develops decision support software to help operators manage complex, high-stress, rapidly changing environments through sound, computer-assisted data monitoring and decision making. Intelligent agents embedded in the systems enable the software to adapt, respond, and learn from individual users in a variety of different situations. Find us on the web at http://www.21CSI.com.

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UN technology agency keen on RP experience

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THE adaptation and use of information and communications technology (ICT) in the Philippines is seen as vital to the evolution of industries and businesses in the country, and, as such, it is a matter of interest for the United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

ITU Deputy Secretary-General Houlin Zhao recently visited the Philippines to see firsthand how ICT is being utilized in the country to improve economic resilience. The ITU head’s objective was to know how the current financial crisis is affecting the ICT industry in the country. The ITU also sought to gather local facts and best practices, particularly on telecommunications-related issues, ICT infrastructure, services and resources.

To address the ITU’s concerns, a tour of the different ICT hubs in Metro Manila was organized by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology with the assistance of the Information Technology Association of the Philippines.

The highlights of the ITU chief’s visit included a visit to the UP–Ayala Techno Hub in Quezon City. IBM, a tenant of the techno hub, shared its best practices and contributions to the industry. IBM Philippines country general manager James Velasquez gave a quick briefing and tour of the latest IBM facility in the country.

“From a workforce of three when we started more than seven decades ago, we now have more than 7,000 employees,” Velasquez said. To date, IBM Philippines is the only local end-to-end provider of hardware, software and service delivered to clients worldwide.

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