What is Isolation: Definition and 67 Discussions

In health care facilities, isolation represents one of several measures that can be taken to implement in infection control: the prevention of communicable diseases from being transmitted from a patient to other patients, health care workers, and visitors, or from outsiders to a particular patient (reverse isolation). Various forms of isolation exist, in some of which contact procedures are modified, and others in which the patient is kept away from all other people. In a system devised, and periodically revised, by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), various levels of patient isolation comprise application of one or more formally described "precaution".
Isolation is most commonly used when a patient is known to have a contagious (transmissible from person-to-person) viral or bacterial illness. Special equipment is used in the management of patients in the various forms of isolation. These most commonly include items of personal protective equipment (gowns, masks, and gloves) and engineering controls (positive pressure rooms, negative pressure rooms, laminar air flow equipment, and various mechanical and structural barriers). Dedicated isolation wards may be pre-built into hospitals, or isolation units may be temporarily designated in facilities in the midst of an epidemic emergency.
Isolation should not be confused with quarantine or biocontainment. Quarantine is the compulsory separation and confinement, with restriction of movement, of individuals or groups who have potentially been exposed to an infectious microorganism, to prevent further infections, should infection occur. Biocontainment refers to laboratory biosafety in microbiology laboratories in which the physical containment (BSL-3, BSL-4) of highly pathogenic organisms is accomplished through built-in engineering controls.When isolation is applied to a community or a geographic area it is known as a cordon sanitaire. Reverse isolation of a community, to protect its inhabitants from coming into contact with an infectious disease, is known as protective sequestration.

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  1. The Bill

    Engineering EE resources for audio hardware design?

    My Google-fu has been failing me on this. I'm looking for a good variety of online resources and textbooks on the design of audio equipment. The level I'm looking for would be for upper-level undergraduate or intro graduate level electrical engineering. Topics must include how to best isolate...
  2. E

    Is transformer always 'source' to which current returns?

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  3. E

    B Rest energies of individual nucleons considered in isolation

    I'm conscious I posted a question about a similar topic recently, however I can't seem to resolve an apparent contradiction. As an example, consider a deuterium atom with 1 proton and 1 neutron. When separated at infinity, each has a certain mass and a certain rest energy differing only by a...
  4. G

    Power supply for testing: Variac or isolation transformer first?

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  5. J

    Definition of isolation and pulse response time for a 3-way power splitter

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  6. T

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  7. R

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  8. PhotonSSBM

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  9. B

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  10. B

    Automotive NVH Test for rubber mounts on firewall

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  11. C

    Rate Constant Determination - Isolation Method Homework Help Needed

    Homework Statement Due to formatting problems, I have attached the problem below. Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution Plotting the appropriate graphs and based on linearity, I have determined that the reaction is first order with respect to [O2] and second order with respect to [NO]...
  12. H

    Isolation Transformer: Why Load Connects to Primary Side

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  13. J

    Noise isolation headphone recommendations?

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  14. G

    Isolation transformer: Potential difference to the earth

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  15. WCOLtd

    I Rotation curves of galaxies as a function of isolation.

    Which galaxy has the largest angular momentum of all galaxies observed? What does its rotation curve look like? Which galaxy has the smallest angular momentum of all galaxies observed? What does its rotation curve look like? Which two galaxies are closest to one another? What do the rotation...
  16. T

    Quick question about inverter TX order wrt mains

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  17. teetar

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  18. P

    Isolation transformers

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  19. A

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  20. N

    Isolation transformer questions

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  21. T

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  22. S

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  23. NotAMethDealer

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  24. M

    Finding Interior Points in a Subset: Hints & Tips

    How do you find the interior points of a subset? I understand that a point is an interior point if there exists an epsilon neighborhood that is in the set, but I don't know how that would work with specific sets. Any hints?
  25. N

    Isolation of heavy metals from their respective oxides

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  26. S

    Help with Isolation amplifiers

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  27. M

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  28. Y

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  29. H

    Is isolation necessary for accurate scientific research?

    What is meant by isolation?
  30. R

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  31. R

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  32. R

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  33. K

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    Bear with me if you notice any botched ideas in my writing, I'm working on it. Initially I was wondering about direct injection of ATP. But I ran into a roadblock... First - Is it possible to isolate ATP from a source and make a high concentration ATP solution or even pure ATP? (extraction...
  34. S

    A question about KI and the isolation of I2 (molecular iodine)

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  35. E

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    Im new here and I am not an engineer but i have a question hopefully someone can offer their thoughts on.. I film and record bands live and i want to run a video camera at concerts that are often very loud.. At times I also need to position the camera in front of the PA speakers and this...
  36. P

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  37. Q

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  38. E

    Isolation Transformer: Protecting Circuits & People

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  39. E

    Oscilloscope Isolation: Explained

    Hai all, Could you please explain the need for isolating the oscilloscope. If not isolated what will happen?
  40. G

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  41. A

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    have you ever pondered on just how isolated every facet of society is from one another, and our subsequent dependence on technology to stay connected and in cooperation with the rest of the world? with a population nearing 7 billion, no one really knows anyone. A very basic observation, I'm...
  42. T

    Isolating Single Atoms: Experiments & Application

    Hey guys, I'm working on some experiment designs and I'm trying to figure out if its possible to isolate a single atom of a particular element for insertion into an inert gas chamber, so say for eg, i want to take carbon atoms, one at a time, and inject them into a neon gas filled chamber, is...
  43. G

    Base Isolation Systems in Skyscrapers?

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  44. W

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    I want to know what do we use an isolating (1:1) transformer for. My book says it is to "protect against electric shock". It doesn't say how. I tried to ask my teacher but he didn't know. I also have looked at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolation_transformer" [Broken], but I could not...
  45. S

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    I'm looking to understand how to estimate the sound isolation capacity of a wall structure. With rising degree of detail will probably come an exponantial increase in complexity. I'm looking to start of, euhm,... gently. :shy: What I've gathered so far: -The impedance of the wall seems to take...
  46. P

    Isolate x in this following function f(x)= ( Variable isolation problem)

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  47. M

    Basic Engineering Question - Electric Isolation

    I'm trying to determine exactly what electric isolation is and how to break isolation. Is Galvanic isolation the same as electric isolation? I have found some information on Galvanic but not Electrical. If anyone has a good resource to recommend on the subject I would appreciate it. Thanks
  48. T

    Isolation Transformers and Electrical Safety

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  49. Chandra214

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  50. I

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