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.     

食物成瘾的研究进展及启示

食物成瘾是一种复杂的慢性疾病，导致人们在日常生活中对某种食物产生过度依赖与过度进食等相关行为特征，近年来已被认为是影响欧美发达国家肥胖症、暴食症、糖尿病等发病率持续升高的关键原因，引起学术界的极大关注，成为研究热点。本文主要介绍食物成瘾的概念、诊断标准，综述了食物成瘾的病理机制、影响因素和应对措施等方面的研究进展，并探讨食物成瘾对我国食品界的启示，为预防食物成瘾，保障公众健康提供有益借鉴。     

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.     

Sanitary legislation governing Food Services in Brazil

The Technical Regulation of Good Practices for Brazilian Food Services (Regulamento Técnico de Boas Práticas para Serviços de Alimentação do Brasil) can be complemented by sanitary surveillance agencies at the state, district and municipal levels by tailoring it to location-specific requirements. The purpose of the present study was to survey sanitary legislation governing Brazilian Food Services. During the period from November 2011 to November 2012, a survey was conducted with the sanitary surveillance agencies from the various states, capitals and the Federal District. A previously prepared and tested tool was used for data collection, comprising 10 questions. Only 10 (19.2%) of the sanitary codes had been established prior to RDC Resolution n° 216/2004 and were not complementary. Of the legislation cited as complementary, only the states of Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo and the capital of the state of São Paulo truly presented additional and location-specific aspects. No legislation that was specific to hospital kitchens was found. The majority of participating coordination, including the Evaluation List for Good Practices in Food Services, was also verified; however, it had not been published. In conclusion, a gap in sanitary surveillance services exists, which was caused by the lack of location-specific food service regulations.     

Starch: a potential substrate for biohydrogen production

Hydrogen is a clean energy carrier with great potential to be an alternative fuel. Anaerobic hydrogen fermentation seems to be more favorable, since hydrogen is yielded at high rates and various organic waste and wastewater enriched with carbohydrates as substrate result in low cost for hydrogen production. Abundant biomass from various industries could be a source for biohydrogen production where combination of waste treatment and energy production would be an advantage. Carbohydrate‐rich nitrogen‐deficient solid wastes such as starch residues can be used for hydrogen production by using suitable bioprocess technologies. Alternatively, converting biomass into gaseous fuels, such as biohydrogen, is possibly the most efficient way to use these agroindustrial residues. This review summarizes the potential of starch agroindustrial residues as a substrate for biohydrogen production. Types of potential starch agroindustrial residues, recent developments and bio‐processing conditions for biohydrogen production will be discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Prevalence,enumeration, and characterization of Salmonella isolated from aquatic food products from retail markets in China

This study aimed to estimate the extent and level of Salmonella contamination of aquatic food products in China, and to determine serotype, virulotype, and the antimicrobial resistance profiles of recovered Salmonella isolates. Out of 554 samples collected from July 2011 to May 2014, 86 (15.5%) tested positive for Salmonella. The highest contamination rate occurred in oysters (23.1%, 6/26), followed by freshwater fish (18.6%, 43/231), shrimp (13.0%, 13/100), and saltwater fish (12.2%, 24/197). The contamination levels generally corresponded to a most probable number (MPN)/g of 0.3–10, although one sample exceeded 110 MPN/g. Among the 103 isolates, S. Typhimurium, S. Wandsworth, S. Thompson, and S. Derby were the most prevalent serovars. Sixty-eight isolates (66.0%) were resistant to at least one antimicrobial, and 35 (34.0%) were resistant to more than three. High rates of resistance were observed for tetracycline (35.9%), ampicillin (28.2%), nalidixic acid (26.2%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (25.2%), chloramphenicol (20.4%) and streptomycin (18.4%). Of note, S. Thompson isolates exhibited resistance to multiple extended-spectrum cephalosporins, ciprofloxacin, and other antimicrobials. PCR analysis of 15 virulence genes showed that ssaQ, mgtC, siiD, sopB, and bcfC were present in all 103 isolates, whereas the remaining loci were variably distributed. S. Typhimurium, S. Enteritidis, and S. Weltevreden isolates exhibited a wider range of pathogenicity determinants compared with the other strains. Our study provides a comprehensive surveillance on prevalence of Salmonella in aquatic food products from China and indicates its potential risk to public health. These data are valuable for epidemiological studies, risk management, and public health strategies.     

Food recognition using neural network classifier and multiple hypotheses image segmentation

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes the multiple-hypotheses image segmentation and feed-forward neural network classifier for food recognition to improve the performance. Initially, the food or meal image is given as input. Then, the segmentation is applied to identify the regions, where a particular food item is located using salient region detection, multi-scale segmentation, and fast rejection. Then, the features of every food item are extracted by the global feature and local feature extraction. After the features are obtained, the classification is performed for each segmented region using a feed-forward neural network model. Finally, the calorie value is computed with the aid of (i) food volume and (ii) calorie and nutrition measure based on mass value. The experimental results and performance evaluation are validated. The outcome of the proposed method attains 0.947 for Macro Average Accuracy (MAA) and 0.959 for Standard Accuracy (SA), which provides better classification performance.