Drug Therapy Problems And Quality Of Life In Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease [RM262. M289 2008 f rb].

Masalah-masalah terapi drug (DTP) merupakan suatu cabaran penting kepada pengamal penjagaan kesihatan, ianya juga mempengaruhi morbiditi, mortaliti dan kualiti kehidupan pesakit (QoL). Drug therapy problems (DTP) are a significant challenge to health care providers that are associated with morbidity, mortality and patient’s quality of life (QoL)

Development of Low Energy Aeration System For Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (EBPR)

In a world that is witnessing an everlasting growth and accelerating increase in its population, an increase in the amount of wastewater produced is inevitable. In order to recycle this wastewater back to the environment, all nutrients should be removed. Unfortunately, removing the nutrients from wastewater is expensive due to the oxygen and chemicals requirement. Phosphorus removal is an important part of wastewater treatment process; Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal (EBPR) is one of the main processes responsible for phosphorus removal in wastewater treatment plants. EBPR consist of two major phases: anaerobic phase and aerobic phase. Aeration costs in the aerobic phase are relatively high in EBPR system. Finding a new approach for decreasing the amount of aeration needed for EBPR systems recently has grown in importance. Most of the research done on EBPR process was focusing on continued aeration, the effect of intermittent aeration is not widely researched. Thus, this research aims to overcome the previously mentioned challenges towards achieving stable EBPR process through different optimization techniques. To achieve this goal, a new aeration strategy has been developed to stepwise decrease the dissolved oxygen (DO) to reach very low DO conditions for EBPR. The new strategy depends on using intermittent aeration as a method of providing DO to the system. The SBR was operated over the span of 140 days under very low DO concentrations ranged from 0.5-1.0 mg/L, and achieved stable nutrients removal with removal efficiencies of: phosphorus removal efficiency (99%), ammonia removal efficiency (99%), COD removal Efficiency (100%). In addition, the effect of acetate to propionate ratio as a carbon source for EBPR systems under low DO concentrations have been studied, to investigate the effect of carbon source on the competition between Glycogen Accumulating Organism (GAO) and Polyphosphate Accumulating Organism (PAO) in EBPR systems. Propionate was found to be the best carbon source for EBPR process, after different compositions of COD were used as a carbon source for the EBPR process. The combination of low DO concentrations and propionate as a carbon source has been found to be a successful approach in controlling the competition between GAO and PAO in EBPR systems

Extensive Geotechnical Instrumentation Program to Control Dike Raising Constructed on Soft Clay

In its quest of increasing potash production, Arab Potash Company (APC) decided to increase the size of their salt evaporation pans. The Dike 18 which is spanning a length of 13km and enclosing a pan area of 16.5km2 was built between January 1996 and December 1997 as part of APC's expansion scheme. The foundation soils were predominantly varies from soft to very soft silty clay. From laboratory and field test results the undrained shear strength of the clay was between 28 to 40 kPa. An extensive instrumentation program was designed and implemented in order to control the dike raising during construction as well as to monitor the performance of the dike foundation during and after the construction. Instrumentations being installed included settlement spider magnets, level stations, standpipe and pneumatic piezometers. The major constraints of the instrumentation program were the large vertical settlements (2-3m) of the very soft clays, artesian conditions where sand and salt layers were present, high salinity of the groundwater and the development of sinkholes. Special installation and protection measures were developed to overcome these constraints. The performance aspects of the instruments were discussed and typical plots were presented.

Predicting Failure times for some Unobserved Events with Application to Real-Life Data

This study aims to predict failure times for some units in some lifetime experiments. In some practical situations, the experimenter may not be able to register the failure times of all units during the experiment. Recently, this situation can be described by a new type of censored data called multiply-hybrid censored data. In this paper, the linear failure rate distribution is well-fitted to some real-life data and hence some statistical inference approaches are applied to estimate the distribution parameters. A two-sample prediction approach applied to extrapolate a new sample simulates the observed data for predicting the failure times for the unobserved units

What is the epidemiology of medication errors, error-related adverse events and risk factors for errors in adults managed in community care contexts? A systematic review of the international literature

© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.Objective To investigate the epidemiology of medication errors and error-related adverse events in adults in primary care, ambulatory care and patients’ homes. Design Systematic review. Data source Six international databases were searched for publications between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2015. Data extraction and analysis Two researchers independently extracted data from eligible studies and assessed the quality of these using established instruments. Synthesis of data was informed by an appreciation of the medicines’ management process and the conceptual framework from the International Classification for Patient Safety. Results 60 studies met the inclusion criteria, of which 53 studies focused on medication errors, 3 on error-related adverse events and 4 on risk factors only. The prevalence of prescribing errors was reported in 46 studies: prevalence estimates ranged widely from 2% to 94%. Inappropriate prescribing was the most common type of error reported. Only one study reported the prevalence of monitoring errors, finding that incomplete therapeutic/safety laboratory-test monitoring occurred in 73% of patients. The incidence of preventable adverse drug events (ADEs) was estimated as 15/1000 person-years, the prevalence of drug–drug interaction-related adverse drug reactions as 7% and the prevalence of preventable ADE as 0.4%. A number of patient, healthcare professional and medication-related risk factors were identified, including the number of medications used by the patient, increased patient age, the number of comorbidities, use of anticoagulants, cases where more than one physician was involved in patients’ care and care being provided by family physicians/general practitioners. Conclusion A very wide variation in the medication error and error-related adverse events rates is reported in the studies, this reflecting heterogeneity in the populations studied, study designs employed and outcomes evaluated. This review has identified important limitations and discrepancies in the methodologies used and gaps in the literature on the epidemiology and outcomes of medication errors in community settings.Peer reviewe

Evaluation of Oxidative Stress and Antioxidant Status in Diabetic and Hypertensive Women during Labor

Pregnancy in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus is associated with a greater incidence of fetal abnormality. Animal studies suggested that increased free-radical production and antioxidant depletion may contribute to this risk. The objective of this work was to evaluate oxidative stress and antioxidant capacity in hypertensive, diabetics, and healthy control women during labor. Simultaneous determination of antioxidant enzymes activities, namely glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), glutathione reductase (GSH-red), superoxide dismutase (SOD), total antioxidant, and lipid peroxides measured as thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) levels, were carried out in maternal plasma during labor. Plasma GSH-Px activity was found to be significantly increased as it doubled in hypertensive, and diabetic women when compared with healthy control women (P<0.05). In contrast, plasma SOD activity was significantly decreased in both groups when compared to the control group (P<0.05). No significant differences were detected in GSH-Red activity between diabetic, hypertensive and control groups. Alterations in antioxidant enzyme activities were accompanied by a significant increase in the levels of plasma lipid peroxides in hypertensive and diabetic women during labor. Plasma levels of total antioxidants were significantly increased in diabetic women as compared with the control group. Based on our results, it may be concluded that enhanced generation of oxidative stress causes alteration of antioxidant capacity in diabetic and hypertensive women during labor. Alterations in antioxidant and prooxidant components may result in various complications including peroxidation of vital body molecules which may be regarded as an increased risk factor for pregnant women as well as the fetus

Drug Therapy Problems And Quality Of Life In Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease

Masalah-masalah terapi drug {DTP) merupakan suatu cabaran penting kepada pengamal penjagaan kesihatan, ianya juga mempengaruhi morbiditi, mortaliti dan kualiti kehidupan pesakit (QoL). Drug therapy problems (DTP) are a significant challenge to health care providers that are associated with morbidity, mortality and patient's quality of life (QoL)