Mehran Pourhossein, Reza Pourbabaki, Elahe Roudi, Vahid Ahmadi Moshiran, Homa Maleck Khani, Samane Khodaverdloo,
Volume 10, Issue 4 (11-2020)
Abstract
Introduction: Errors are a byproduct of human information processing or cognitive functioning. Although everyone is disposed to an error while performing various activities, individual differences in cognitive abilities can lead to various types and rates of errors committed in similar situations. Human errors are one of the most important challenges in work environments, including health care systems, wherein such errors are abundantly occurring. Errors in the delivery of correct medications due to the resemblance in appearance and name are thus one of the cognitive errors that come about in health care systems. The main purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate evidence and approaches recently practiced to reduce medication errors caused by the use of look-alike-sound-alike (LASA) medications.
Material and Methods: The study was conducted on August 30, 2018, through searches in the databases of PubMed and Embase, all available years, using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) instructions. The searches were done in the titles or abstracts of the articles using the intended terms and the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) index in combination. These studies were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria and then categorized based on the type of interventions and outputs. Finally, the data were analyzed descriptively.
Results: The research designs and methods varied widely among the studies. There were also discrepancies in the number of participants, number of tests, type of medications, and test conditions. The approaches examined in these studies were tall-man lettering, color-coding, label background variations, and use of signs and symbols. Accordingly, 11 studies had utilized tall-man lettering and the most important reported in all articles were “error rate” and “response times”. As well, a wide range of medication names had been tested. It should be noted that medication
Conclusion: errors have different dimensions, but the errors caused by the look-alike-sound-alike (LASA) medications and the effect of tall-man lettering of medication name were only investigated in the present study. Laboratory studies in this respect have shown that tall-man lettering contributes to mitigating the rate of errors, which might be due to the better legibility of labels, but evaluations in real work environments are needed to reinforce this conclusion. There is also insufficient evidence to support color-coding, as well as several other approaches such as use of signs and symbols. Because of the novelty of the studies in this field, no uniform mechanism has been so far introduced.
Samaneh Khodaverdloo, Mohammad Reza Pourmand, Ensieh Masoorian, Roohollah Ghasemi, Saba Kalantari, Farideh Gholbabaie,
Volume 13, Issue 3 (9-2023)
Abstract
Introduction: Toluene is significant pollutants in the air. Long-term exposure to toluene can lead to adverse effects. Biofiltration is one of the air pollutant control methods. In this study, Pseudomonas putida was selected as a microorganism capable of hydrocarbon degradation and its ability to biodegrade toluene in a suspension growth reactor was also investigated.
Material and Methods: Experiments were conducted in two days and in five hours. Each method consisted of three sample reactors (A, B, C) and one control reactor (D). In the first method, the amount of bacteria in the sample reactors is 0.5, 1 and 2 McFarland and the amount of toluene injection into the reactors is the same (0.5 microliters) and in the second method, the amount of toluene injection into the sample reactors is 0.5, 1 and 1.5 microliter and 1.5 microliter in the control reactor and the amount of bacteria in them was the same (1 McFarland).Toluene gas samples and carbon dioxide were periodically analyzed.
Results: In the first method of toluene decomposition, there was a significant difference between the three reactors (p-value = 0.002). The results of the second method were also significantly different between the three reactors (p-value<0.001). The decomposition of toluene in two methods also had a significant difference (p-value = 0.232). The amount of CO2 production was significantly different in the second method (p-value=0.003) and the first method (p-value<0.001), but no significant difference was observed in the comparison of the two methods (p-value=0.15).
Conclusion: Increasing bacterial in suspension growth reactor resulted in increased toluene biodegradation in shorter time while increasing toluene in suspension growth reactor may not have an additive effect on the biodegradation process.
