Relationship study between the student learning approach in the occupational safety and health field and acquired competencies

Purpose: To search for training methods for specialists in industrial safety, environmental and occupational safety and health in conditions of insufficient (or absent) laboratory support and to study the relationship between the student learning approach and acquired competencies. Design/methodology/approach: To study modern advances in industrial safety, environmental and occupational safety and health and training methods for specialists a systematic literature review approach has been used. For publications from 2017, queries were asked through keywords and safety related topics. To relationship study between the student learning approach and acquired competencies a student survey on random sampling has been used. A total of 112 students of the 3rd and 4th year of study at the university were interviewed. Findings: The results of the survey showed that the students’ number who simultaneously successfully answered theoretical questions and completed practical tasks is 33.8% from the group with theoretical training and 75% from the group that was trained in the workplace. The relationship between the groups with a visit to the existing enterprise and acquired competencies was justified by the association coefficient and contingency coefficient that are 0.7 and 0.4 respectively. Research limitations/implications: A student’s survey was conducted at only one university. Questions were asked only according to the curriculum of the course “Labour Protection”. No survey for other training courses conducted. Practical implications: The research results are reasonable and can be applied at universities to improve the educational process of training specialists. Originality/value: It was proposed that students be trained using existing enterprises as a laboratory base and by the methods of statistics mathematical processing was substantiated the proposal feasibility

Establishing Changes in the Technical Parameters of Nipple Rubber for Milking Machines and Their Impact on Operational Characteristics

Nipple rubber is an important part of a milking machine, one of its key elements. This is the only component of a milking plant that has direct contact with the surface of a cow udder. In addition, nipple rubber is the most loaded component of a milking machine. During the milking process, it is compressed and unclenched more than 400 times. In order to maximize the effect of the use of rubber, it is necessary to calculate the conditions of its use correctly, to monitor technical parameters in due time. The task of the study is to establish changes in the technical parameters of the nipple rubber of milking machines and their impact on the performance of the article.In the course of the research, it was established that the service life of all kinds of nipple rubbers was 1,000 hours, which, if used for 8 hours a day, corresponds to 125 days or 4 months of operation. When used for 1,000 hours, the rubber stiffness varies within significant limits and an average is: for products made of silicone 2,849.61±52.23–3,343.76±51.26 N/m; made of the material of rubber mixtures – 2,597.76±78.26–2,821.43±55.24 N/m. The readiness coefficient of all products is 1. Using electron microscopy, it was possible to establish the changes of the inner surface of nipple rubber after operating for 125 days/1,000 hours and after operating for 250 days/2,000 hours. It is proved that all its basic parameters change during operation. The weight of an article changes by 8.5 %, the depth – by 37 %, the wall thickness – by 2.5 %, and the stretching length – by 27 %. The high positive correlation dependence (r=+0.939) between the nipple rubber stiffness and milking intensity was found.The studied indicators are important for determining the performance and nipple rubber suitability for use. The conducted research offers a real possibility of taking into consideration the qualitative parameters of nipple rubber during their selection and subsequent operatio

Terms, definitions and measurements to describe sonographic features of lymph nodes : consensus opinion from the Vulvar International Tumor Analysis (VITA) group

In centers with access to high-end ultrasound machines and expert sonologists, ultrasound is used to detect metastases in regional lymph nodes from melanoma, breast cancer and vulvar cancer. There is, as yet, no international consensus on ultrasound assessment of lymph nodes in any disease or medical condition. The lack of standardized ultrasound nomenclature to describe lymph nodes makes it difficult to compare results from different ultrasound studies and to find reliable ultrasound features for distinguishing non-infiltrated lymph nodes from lymph nodes infiltrated by cancer or lymphoma cells. The Vulvar International Tumor Analysis (VITA) collaborative group consists of gynecologists, gynecologic oncologists and radiologists with expertise in gynecologic cancer, particularly in the ultrasound staging and treatment of vulvar cancer. The work herein is a consensus opinion on terms, definitions and measurements which may be used to describe inguinal lymph nodes on grayscale and color/power Doppler ultrasound. The proposed nomenclature need not be limited to the description of inguinal lymph nodes as part of vulvar cancer staging; it can be used to describe peripheral lymph nodes in general, as well as non-peripheral (i.e. parietal or visceral) lymph nodes if these can be visualized clearly. The association between the ultrasound features described here and histopathological diagnosis has not yet been established. VITA terms and definitions lay the foundations for prospective studies aiming to identify ultrasound features typical of metastases and other pathology in lymph nodes and studies to elucidate the role of ultrasound in staging of vulvar and other malignancies