A food safety management system (FSMS)‐diagnostic instrument was applied in 22 dairy processing companies to analyse the set‐up and operation of core control and assurance activities in view of the ...risk characteristics of the systems' context. Three clusters of companies were identified differing in levels of set‐up and operation of this FSMS and system outputs, but all operated in a similar moderate‐risk context. Microbiological assessment of products, environmental and hand samples indicated a poor to moderate food safety level. A two stage intervention approach has been proposed to enable commitment and sustainable improvement for the longer term.
Although noise is one of the leading work-related health risk factors for teachers, many nursery schools lack sufficient noise reduction measures.
This intervention study evaluated the noise exposure ...of nursery school teachers when dropping DUPLO toy bricks into storage cases. Sound analyses of the impact included assessment of the maximum sound pressure level (LAFmax) as well as frequency analyses with 1/3 octave band filter. For the purpose of standardization, a customized gadget was developed. Recordings were performed in 11 cases of different materials and designs to assess the impact on sound level reduction. Thereby, the acoustic effects of three damping materials (foam rubber, carpet, and PU-foam) were investigated.
The lowest LAFmax was measured in cases consisting of "metal grid" (90.71 dB) or of a woven willow "basket" (91.61 dB), whereas a case of "aluminium" (103.34 dB) generated the highest impact LAFmax. The frequency analyses determined especially low LAFmax in the frequency bands between 80 and 2500 Hz in cases designs "metal grid" and "basket". The insertion of PU-foam achieved the most significant attenuation of LAFmax (-13.88 dB) and, in the frequency analyses, the best sound damping.
The dropping of DUPLO bricks in cases contributes to the high noise level in nursery schools, but measured LAFmax show no evidence for the danger of acute hearing loss. However, continuous exposure may lead to functional impairment of the hair cells and trigger stress reactions. We recommend noise reduction by utilizing cases of woven "basket" with an insert of PU-foam.
Objective
Errors in preanalytical phase decrease the accuracy of reports from clinical laboratory department. Considering the disqualified rate of preanalytical sample in our hospital, we performed ...several intervention measures to improve the situation.
Methods
The disqualified sample types and major causes of errors in the preanalytical phase were investigated in clinical laboratory department from September 2008 to August 2009. In the following year, we utilized multiple measures to properly intervene the key points of whole sample collection process, and the preanalytical errors were reanalyzed trimonthly, then the disqualification rate of total, major disqualified sample types and different test groups were calculated to evaluate the effects of the intervention measures.
Results
The total disqualification rate in the preanalytical phase obtained from September 2008 to August 2009 was 1.36%, and the major types of disqualified samples were coagulation of anticoagulant sample, sample inadequacy, sample container error, sample information error and sample type error. After one year intervention through key points of whole preanalytical sample collection process, the total disqualification rate dropped to 0.94%, and the disqualification rate of coagulation of anticoagulant sample, sample inadequacy, sample container error, sample information error, and sample type error decreased by 20.45%, 28.00%, 25.00%, 76.92%, and 66.66%, respectively. As for test groups, the decreasing amplitude of biochemical, routine, immunological, microbiological and emergency test group was 47.36%, 33.33%, 20.00%, 50.00%, and 21.43%, respectively.
Conclusions
The overall effect of the interventions is very good, and the disqualification rate of the main causes decreases to various degrees.
In 2001 the epidemics of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) in Great Britain, The Netherlands and France have shown how fast FMDV may spread between farms. The massive socio-economic impact of these ...epidemics and the intervention measures taken demonstrate the need for quantitative assessments of the efficacy of candidate intervention strategies. Here we use a mathematical model to describe the spatial transmission of FMDV in The Netherlands and use the Dutch 2001 outbreak data to estimate model parameters. We assess the effect of ring culling strategies using a novel and fast approach producing risk maps, and discuss its consequences for ring vaccination. These risk maps identify both the geographical areas of low risk, where a given intervention strategy is likely to achieve epidemic control within only two or three farm-to-farm infection generations, and high-risk areas, where control is likely to take (much) longer. Our results indicate that certain densely populated livestock areas in the Netherlands remain high-risk areas even for strategies that extend EU minimum measures with culling or vaccination within a ring radius of several kilometres. Depending on an economic assessment, area-wide vaccination might be judged appropriate once an FMDV outbreak would have been confirmed in or close to such a high-density area. The modeling approach developed here could be readily applied to outbreak data for other diseases and in other countries.
This research emerged from the idea of studying the opinion of students in the Bachelor's in Primary Education at the University of Granada on their training to teach immigrant students. We want to ...know if the students feel prepared to face this kind of teaching, if they feel they receive enough training for this challenge and if they know about the educational intervention measures that exist and should be applied when teaching immigrants. The results indicate that we should introduce changes in the teaching-learning process to improve the efficiency of pre-service teacher training, as the multilingual and multicultural nature of Spanish society today is constantly growing and increasingly requires teachers who are prepared to meet this demand. We also believe that in our job as educators we should aim for a kind of training that reflects the current job demands and adjusts to all of its specific characteristics.
Cysticercosis is acquired when swine ingest human faeces contaminated with Taenia solium eggs. Humans become tapeworm carriers when they ingest infected pork meat. They can also develop cysticercosis ...after inadvertently swallowing T. solium eggs. Human neurocysticercosis (NCC) is considered as a public health problem in México and in several countries around the world, mainly developing ones. The development of immunodiagnostic techniques has promoted the conduct of seroepidemiological studies. This review provides insight into the evolution of these techniques, their predictive values and their use in field studies, and summarizes evidence supporting health care practice and policy related to cysticercosis/taeniosis in México. Serological studies in rural and urban settings have demonstrated that close proximity with a tapeworm carrier is the main risk factor for acquiring cysticercosis. Research focusing on the tapeworm carrier generated an ELISA for the detection of Taenia coproantigens and facilitated the evaluation of intervention measures. Health education and self-identification of tapeworm carriers were shown to be successful. However, cestodial treatment as a community-based intervention was not as successful. Current immunodiagnostic techniques can be used to pinpoint transmission foci so that appropriate and effective interventions can be applied. In this way, sustainable control, and even eradication of T. solium may be envisioned.
Unlike commercial premises, the indoor air quality of residences is more dynamic, uncontrolled, and prone to human behavioral changes. In consequence, measuring the health benefit gains derived from ...improving indoor air quality in residences is more complicated. To overcome this, a human thermal comfort model was first integrated with indoor microenvironment models, and subsequently linked with appropriate concentration–response and economic data for estimating the economic benefit gains derived from improving indoor air quality in residences for an adult and an elderly person. In this study, the development of the model is illustrated by using a typical residential apartment locating at the worst air quality neighborhood in Hong Kong and the daily weather profiles between 2002 and 2006. Three types of personal intervention measures were examined in the study: (i) using air cleaner in residence, (ii) changing time spent in residence, and (iii) relocating to a better air quality neighborhood. Our results revealed that employing air cleaners with windows closed in residence throughout the entire year was the most beneficial measure as it could provide the greatest annual health benefit gains. It would give a maximum of HK$2072 in 5-year cumulative benefit gain for an adult and HK$1700 for an elderly person. Employing air cleaners with windows closed in only cool season (October through March) could give the highest marginal return per dollar spent. The benefit gains would become smaller when windows were opened to a greater extent. By contrast, relocating to a better air quality neighborhood and changing the time spent in residence did not appeal to be beneficial intervention measures.
Seit dem Auftreten der Corona-Pandemie bestand weltweit die Frage, wann die Pandemie zu einem Ende kommen würde. Mittlerweile werden solche Hoffnungen von der Befürchtung verdrängt, dass die ...Infektionskrankheit nicht eliminiert werden kann und endemisch wird. Der hier vorgelegte Artikel beschreibt zwei Gründe, die für diese Hypothese sprechen: saisonale Übertragung und temporäre Immunität. Beide Faktoren beeinflussen die Übertragungsdynamik stark, was unseren zukünftigen Umgang mit SARS-CoV-2 und politische Entscheidungen prägen wird. Auf der Basis eines mathematischen Modells liefert dieser Artikel Prognosen zum Charakter der zukünftigen Endemizität von SARS-CoV-2 und ihren Implikationen für Impfkampagnen, Kontakteinschränkungen und andere Interventionsmaßnahmen, sowie für die aktuelle Debatte über die Einführung einer Impfpflicht in Deutschland.
PDF
