Factors influencing peripheral intravenous catheter practice of nurses in small and medium sized hospitals: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The importance of the peripheral intravenous catheter (PIVC) practices on patient safety is increasing. Small and medium-sized hospitals play a central role in the provision of healthcare services in South Korea, but lack a system for quality improvement, leaving patient safety at risk. This study aimed to identify the extent to which the PIVC practice knowledge of nurses, the nursing working environment, and the patient safety-culture perception affect PIVC practices and thereby provide basic data for improving the PIVC practices in small and medium-sized hospitals. METHODS: This study had a cross-sectional descriptive design to identify the factors affecting PIVC nursing practices in small and medium-sized hospitals. Questionnaires returned by 149 nurses collected data on general characteristics, practical knowledge of PIVC nursing, nursing working environment, patient safety-culture perception, and PIVC practices. The questionnaire data were analysed using descriptive statistics, the independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Scheffé's test, Pearson correlation, and hierarchical regression analysis. RESULTS: The mean score of PIVC practices was 4.60 out of 5. Length of clinical experience, practical knowledge of PIVC nursing and patient safety-culture perception were significant factors affecting the PIVC nursing practices, with these variables explaining 26.2% of the variance therein. CONCLUSIONS: The PIVC practices of nurses in small and medium-sized hospitals can be improved by providing education and training based on the latest standard or guideline to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge and skills. And campaigns and programs to strengthen patient safety culture perception specific to small and medium-sized hospital should be implemented. to ensure the safety of PIVC practice.

[Effects of Program to Promote Obesity Prevention Behaviors on Pre-Schoolers: Focused on Kindergartener in Korea].

PURPOSE: This study aimed to develop a program to promote obesity prevention behaviors for pre-schoolers and to confirm the effectiveness of the program in Korea. METHODS: The program comprised 8 sessions for 4 weeks including combined classroom lectures and physical activities. A non-equivalent control group pre-post test study design was used, and seventy two children, aged 5 to 6 years (experimental group: 33, control group: 39) and their parents participated in the study. To examine the effectiveness of the program, children's knowledge, intake of sugar-added beverages and fruits & vegetables, time of outdoor play and screen time, and parental self-efficacy were measured. Data were analyzed with SPSS/WIN ver. 22.0 and R 4.0.2, using descriptive analysis, chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, the independent t-test, and Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). RESULTS: The results showed that the experimental group reported significantly increased knowledge (p < .001) and longer time of outdoor play on weekends (p = .033). However, there were no significant differences in the intake of sugar-added beverages and fruits & vegetables, screen time, and parental self-efficacy in the two groups. CONCLUSION: This study confirms the applicability of an obesity prevention intervention at kindergartens in Korea. The results can be used as basic data for the study of childhood obesity prevention in Korea.

Validation of analytical methods for heterocyclic amines in seven food matrices using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) are potent mutagens generated by the high temperatures of the cooking process. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate analytical methods for HCAs determination using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry in seven food matrices: corn oil, milk, 20% ethanol, pork, flat fish, sea mustard (Undaria pinnatifida), and radish. Six isotopically labelled internal standards were used for quantitation, and Chem Elut and Oasis hydrphilic-liphophilic balance cartridges were applied for sample preparation to remove interferences. Calibration curves showed good linearity (R2 > 0.99) in all matrices. The ranges of the method detection limit and method quantitation limit were 0.009-2.35 ng g-1 and 0.025-7.13 ng g-1, respectively. The recoveries ranged from 67.5% to 119.6%. The coefficients of variation ranged from 0.3% to 15.1% for intra-day and ranged from 0.8% to 19.1% for inter-day. The methods were applied to 24 total diet study samples for HCAs quantitation. These results indicate that the established methods are reliable for determining HCAs in various foods.

Effect of Al2O3 insulator thickness on the structural integrity of amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide based thin film transistors.

The current transparent oxide semiconductors (TOSs) technology provides flexibility and high performance. In this study, multi-stack nano-layers of TOSs were designed for three-dimensional analysis of amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide (a-IGZO) based thin film transistors (TFTs). In particular, the effects of torsional and compressive stresses on the nano-sized active layers such as the a-IGZO layer were investigated. Numerical simulations were carried out to investigate the structural integrity of a-IGZO based TFTs with three different thicknesses of the aluminum oxide (Al2O3) insulator (δ = 10, 20, and 30 nm), respectively, using a commercial code, COMSOL Multiphysics. The results are graphically depicted for operating conditions.

Effect of nozzle tip configuration on the micro-droplet formation.

Micro-droplet formation is an emerging area of research due to its wide-ranging applications in micro-fluidic based devices. For high resolution patterning and coating processes in various industrial fields, the formation of micro-droplets should be controlled according to the rheological properties of the working fluids. However, the physical properties of the some of working fluids are limited to meet the industrial applications. In this paper, the effect of the nozzle tip configuration on the micro-droplet formation process was numerically observed. A two-phase level-set modeling method was employed for simulations, and the results for various nozzle shapes were compared. In order to validate the numerical results of ink-jet printing with various operating conditions, we introduced a dimensionless parameter Z which is the factor of correlation of dynamic viscosity with surface tension of a working fluid on the microfluidics of drop-on-demand (DOD) jets, and obtained reasonable values of Z. Also, the numerical results such as velocity and shear rate distributions, etc. were graphically depicted in two-dimensional coordinates.

An experimental study on the airlift pump with air jet nozzle and booster pump.

The experiments for high head airlifting performance with vertical tube were examined for wastewater treatment. Comparing with the centrifugal pump and other pumps, the airlift pump has some problems and limited applications. However, an advantage of an airlift pump is in its geometrical simplicity, not having any moving parts, so it is suitable in lifting fluids including tiny pieces of metal or grit. In this study, for the purpose of high lifting head, an air jet nozzle was used. We have performed experimentally according to various characteristics of the airlift pump system such as the change of submerged depth, lifting head of liquid-air mixture (total head) and air flow rate. This work has verified through experiments that airlift pump shows lifting ability for 3 m (Sr = 0.3) in comparison with conventional height, 2 m (Sr = 0.4). Also, we suggested that the new airlift pump system with the air booster pump be used to improve the higher lifting head performance.