Micro- and macroergonomic changes in mental workload and medication safety following the implementation of new health IT

Health information technology (IT) is a promising way to achieve safer medication management in the delivery of healthcare. However, human factors/ergonomics dictates that in order to make the complex, cognitive work of healthcare delivery safer, health IT must properly support human cognition. This means, for example, that new health IT must reduce, not increase, workload during safety-critical tasks. The present study was the first to quantitatively assess the short- and long-term impact of bar coded medication administration (BCMA) IT on nurses' mental workload as well as on perceived medication safety. One-hundred seventy registered nurses across 3 dissimilar clinical units at an academic, freestanding pediatric hospital in the Midwest US participated in surveys administered before, 3 months after, and 12 months after the hospital implemented BCMA. Nurses rated their external mental workload (interruptions, divided attention, being rushed) and internal mental workload (concentration, mental effort) during medication administration tasks as well as the likelihood of each of three medication safety events: medication administration errors, medication errors on the clinical unit, and clinical unit-level adverse drug events. Clinical unit differences were assessed. Findings generally confirmed the hypothesis that external but not internal mental workload was associated with the perceived likelihood of a medication safety event. Comparisons of mental workload from pre- to post-BCMA revealed statistically significant changes in the critical care unit only. Medication safety appeared to improve over the long term in the hematology/oncology unit only. In the critical care and medical/surgical units, medication safety exhibited short-term improvements that were eliminated over time. Changes in mental workload and medication safety, two classically microergonomic constructs, were deeply embedded in macroergonomic phenomena. These included the fit between the BCMA system and the nature of nursing work, the process of BCMA implementation, and BCMA interactions with concurrent changes occurring in the hospital. Findings raise questions about achieving sustainable performance improvement with health IT as well as the balance between micro- and macroergonomic approaches to studying technology change.Relevance to industryDesigners must consider how technology changes cognitive work, including mental workload. Hospitals and other implementers of technology must ensure that new technology fits its users, their tasks, and the context of use, which may entail tailoring implementation, for example, to specific clinical units. Evaluators must look over time to assess both changes in cognitive work and implementation issues. Healthcare practitioners must also recognize that new technology means a complex transformation to an already complex sociotechnical system, which calls for a macroergonomic approach to design and analysis.     

Why do small business butcher shops fail to fully implement HACCP?

This study aims to assess the degree of HACCP implementation in small business butcher shops and understand which factors most influence butchers' intention to fully implement it, through the application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. One hundred and one butchers managing or owning small butcher's responded to the interview regarding their Attitudes, Subjective Norm, Perceived Behavioural Control, Personal Norm, and Knowledge with regard to their Intention to fully implement a HACCP system in their shops. Before the interviews, a certified veterinarian visited all the shops. Visits included an inspection of the establishments using the Official Portuguese Control Plan checklist for meat retailers. Conformance level measured past performance regarding food safety practices. Based on past performance, butchers were divided into “high performers” and “low performers”. “High performers” yielded high values of Attitude and Intention towards the Behaviour. For these, Attitude and Personal Norm emerge as predictors of the Intention to fully implement a HACCP system. For “low performers”, Personal Norm was the strongest predictor of Intention, with results pointing to the need for an intervention from the authorities to promote increased conformance to food safety practices. For both groups, neither Social Norm nor Perceived Behavioural Control acted as significant predictors of Intention.     

Profiling drunk driving recidivists in Denmark

Drunk drivers are a menace to themselves and to other road users, as drunk driving significantly increases the risk of involvement in road accidents and the probability of severe or fatal injuries. Although injuries and fatalities related to road accidents have decreased in recent decades, the prevalence of drunk driving among drivers killed in road accidents has remained stable, at around 25% or more during the past 10 years. Understanding drunk driving, and in particular, recidivism, is essential for designing effective countermeasures, and accordingly, the present study aims at identifying the differences between non-drunk drivers, drunk driving non-recidivists and drunk driving recidivists with respect to their demographic and socio-economic characteristics, road accident involvement and other traffic and non-traffic-related law violations. This study is based on register-data from Statistics Denmark and includes information from 2008 to 2012 for the entire population, aged 18 or older, of Denmark. The results from univariate and multivariate statistical analyses reveal a five year prevalence of 17% for drunk driving recidivism, and a significant relation between recidivism and the drunk drivers’ gender, age, income, education, receipt of an early retirement pension, household type, and residential area. Moreover, recidivists are found to have a higher involvement in alcohol-related road accidents, as well as other traffic and, in particular, non-traffic-related offences. These findings indicate that drunk driving recidivism is more likely to occur among persons who are in situations of socio-economic disadvantage and marginalisation. Thus, to increase their effectiveness, preventive measures aiming to reduce drunk driving should also address issues related to the general life situations of the drunk driving recidivists that contribute to an increased risk of drunk driving recidivism.     

埋地管道泄漏内封堵装置设计与研究

针对流体输送埋地管道泄漏问题,设计了一种利用管道机器人携带封堵气囊进行快速应急封堵修复的埋地管道泄漏内封堵装置。采用矩阵变换方法建立了牵引系统驱动轮过弯方程,利用MATLAB软件对过弯方程进行了验证,同时利用ADAMS软件仿真分析过弯路径与驱动轮转角对牵引系统行走速度的影响。研究结果表明:由两个串联封堵器组成的应急封堵系统可满足复杂工况下的管道泄漏封堵要求;牵引系统驱动轮在弯管内部行走时,单轮速度呈周期性变化,但三个驱动轮整体周期运动特性一致;驱动轮转角在25°~40°时,牵引系统行走速度与驱动轮转角成正比,且转角为30°时驱动效果最好。该内封堵装置的结构设计可为管道泄漏应急封堵领域装备的研发提供重要参考。     

关于信息化测绘时代工程测量发展的思考

如今我国信息化技术全面发展，尤其对于工程测量工作领域来讲，不管是在工程建设和管理方面都产生不小的支撑引导效用。由此，笔者具体结合如今工程建设信息化测绘核心任何以及设备布置细节，进行结构整体安全管理周期和周边地理空间信息技术发展能效整理解析，试图将工程测量最新发展机遇和技术挑战问题处理完全。希望能够借此为日后一定时期范围内相关工程测量规划主体提供合理指导性建议内容，最终为我国各类工程事业可持续发展前景绽放奠定深刻适应基础。     

Suitability,efficiency and microbiological safety of novel physical technologies for the processing of ready‐to‐eat meals,meats and pumpable products

Consumer studies and market reports show an increase in consumption of ready‐to‐eat (RTE) foods. Although conventional processing technologies can in most cases produce safe products, they can also lead to the degradation of nutritional compounds and negatively affect quality characteristics. Consumers strongly prefer food that is minimally processed with the maximum amount of health‐promoting substances. Novel processing technologies as pre‐ or post‐treatment decontamination methods or as substitutes of conventional technologies have the potential to produce foods that are safe, rich in nutrient content and with superior organoleptic properties. Combining novel with conventional processes can eliminate potential drawbacks of novel technologies. This review examines available scientific information and critically evaluates the suitability and efficiency of various novel thermal and nonthermal technologies in terms of microbial safety, quality as well as nutrient content on the production of RTE meals, meats and pumpable products.     

Survey of domestic food purchases and related home handling practices in the Abruzzo region (central Italy): Data collection and analysis through a language-independent classification system

A telephone survey was carried out on 13,486 randomly selected households located in the Abruzzo region (central Italy). Three questionnaires were specifically designed in relation to three different groups of foods (Meat and meat products, Fishery products, Fruit and vegetables). Questions were mainly focused on the amount and number of purchases, type of retailer, and home food handling practices with respect to the week prior to the interview. Data were classified according to a multilingual thesaurus system (LanguaL). Results allowed to estimate domestic purchases (in kg) per capita for different food categories. The category “Red meat/Cattle” accounted for a large part of purchases in the “meat and meat products” group (10.9 kg per capita/year; 32.2% of purchases in the group) while the category “Fish or related organism/Fish” was the most purchased in the “fishery products” group (6.9 kg per capita/year; 63.3%). The aggregation of more detailed characteristics enabled the identification of popular categories of foods, such as “Red meat/Cattle/Divided into pieces” (25% of the “meat and meat products” group). Significant differences (p < 0.05) were found between the four different provinces (L'Aquila, Chieti, Pescara and Teramo) with respect to “Poultry/Chicken” and “Red meat/Cattle” categories. Householders were also asked about post-purchase food handling practices that might be hazardous to food safety. More than 20% of those surveyed stated that they thawed frozen meat at room temperature. The degree of doneness after cooking of different food categories was generally high: over 90% of products purchased in the majority of meat and fish categories were properly cooked. However a noticeable proportion of householders (about 15%) reported medium or rare cooking of “Red meat/Cattle” and “Red meat/Swine”. Differences (p < 0.05) were also found between consumers of different ages, with people over 65 years old being more prone to freeze meat and cook it thoroughly.The survey was carried out in a specific geographic area and on a statistically significant sample of households, thus allowing a collection of data on domestic habits relating to food purchases and home food handling practices. This information should be included in the framework of quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) models as a measure of the actual exposure of consumers to pathogenic microorganism. The LanguaL system also proved to be a practical language-independent method useful not only to identify and describe food items but also to classify them according to specific food safety characteristics.     

石油化工可燃气体或蒸气排放系统的消防安全设计

石油化工生产装置大多是通过火炬燃烧排放易燃易爆气体或通过放空管将易爆气体直接排入大气中。文章分析了火炬系统和放空管的火灾危险因素,并从火炬的布置、高度、排放能力、自动监控装置以及放空管的气体排放浓度、安装位置、安全装置等方面,重点论述了火炬系统和放空管的消防安全设计要点。     

自喷井电动清蜡绞车的研制

针对目前石油钻采用清蜡绞车总体结构设计不合理以及实用性不强等技术难题,研制开发了自喷井电动清蜡绞车。该绞车的核心部件包括过载保护安全装置、牙嵌离合器轴套、自动/手动互换装置、计量装置以及密封装置。在清蜡绞车自动工作中,当清蜡刮刀遇到较大阻力时,清蜡绞车将接收到反馈信号,可实现智能停车,自动转换为手动状态,以便操作人员检查和排除故障,从而确保了操作的安全性,延长了设备的使用寿命。1000余台电动清蜡绞车的现场应用表明,该产品可以大大降低原油的开采成本,具有良好的经济效益和社会效益。