Benefits, risks, and cost-effectiveness of COVID-19 self-tests from a consumer’s perspective

Background The aim of this study is to quantify the health benefits, risks, and cost-effectiveness of COVID-19 self-tests from a consumer’s perspective in Germany. Methods The analysis is based on a modelling approach using secondary data. The clinical endpoints considered in this analysis are avoided SARS-CoV-2 infections and secondary severe clinical events (death, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and long COVID syndrome). The study determines the number of self-tests that need to be conducted under a 7-day incidence of 75 per 100,000 population to prevent one infection or severe clinical event. Furthermore, the study calculates the cost of testing per avoided clinical event and quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained from a consumer perspective. Results Disregarding the rate of unreported COVID-19 cases, 4556 self-tests need to be conducted (over 12 years) in order to avoid one undesirable event (death, intensive care unit stay, or long COVID syndrome). Ninety percent of infections are not avoided among direct contacts but along the chain of infection. The costs per quality-adjusted life year gained from a consumer’s perspective are €5870. This ratio is particularly sensitive to the 7-day incidence, effective reproduction number, and the age of contacts. Conclusions The benefits of self-testing in the general population at a 7-day incidence rate of 75 per 100,000 appear to be minor. Nevertheless, cost-effectiveness may still be acceptable in the presence of higher-risk contacts given the low costs of self-test kits in Germany.

Evaluation of the Main Causes of Diesel Engine Injector Failure using Fault Tree Analysis

This paper is based on the application of the root cause analysis principle of diesel engine injector failure in diesels Haditha station. The maintenance of the diesel engine injector contains many problems that lead to the injector stopping; several reasons lead to such Problems. Fault tree analysis (FTA) is one of the most widely used methods in the industrial sector to perform reliability analysis of complex engineering systems. A fault tree is a logical representation of the relationship of primary/basic events that lead to a given undesirable event (i.e., top event). This research aims to present the (FTA) technology and how to use it in analyzing the causes of problems that lead to the injector stop working, and how to calculate the probability of occurrence of such problems. Implementation of FTA based on the probabilities of the causes under the top event and canalization lead to the calculated probability value (0.80). The plant management can define a specific plan to reduce these problems, because failure of an important engine part (injector) with such a large value leads to long downtime hours compared to operating hours.

A study on drug therapy issues in the department of medicine of a tertiary care teaching hospital-prospective observational study

Background: A drug therapy problem (DTP) is any undesirable event experienced by a patient that involves or is suspected to involve, drug therapy, and that interferes with achieving the desired goals of therapy. The improper use of drugs can lead to patient morbidity and even mortality. DTP s are the clinical territory of the pharmaceutical care practitioner and the resolution of identifying the DTPs help patients to achieve their goals of therapy. Identifying DTPs enables risk quantification and determination of the potential impact of prevention strategies. DTPs are associated with prolonged length of stay and increased economic burden and results in increased risk of death.Methods: A hospital based, prospective observational study was conducted at department of medicine in Rajah Muthiah medical college and hospital, 80 patients were enrolled in this study based on the inclusion-exclusion criteria. The DTPs were identified using the Cipolle’s method of classification of DTP.Results: The study has shown that 80 of the patients involved in the study had a total of 136 DTPs. An average of 1.7 DTPs were recorded per patient during the study. The most common DTP identified was unnecessary drug therapy accounting to 47%. The absence of valid medical indication was (30%) and (16%) were due to the duplication of therapy. The second most common DTP was unsafe drug for patients, accounting to 45% were due to patient non-compliance and drug interaction which was minor. Need for additional drug therapy was the third most identified accounting 13% were due to medical indication indicate the need of drug therapy.Conclusions: The foremost commonly observed DTP is unnecessary therapy and patient non-compliance to the drugs. The study suggests that DTPs are significantly occurring in hospital can cause the patient for comorbidity, prolonged hospitalization. The study suggests that clinical pharmacist and general practitioners can work together to spot and resolve the DTPs.

Benefits, Risks, and Cost-Effectiveness of Corona Self-Tests from a Consumer's Perspective

Background: The aim of this study is to quantify the health benefits, risks, and cost-effectiveness of corona self-tests from a consumer's perspective in Germany.Methods: The clinical endpoints considered in this analysis are avoided SARS-CoV-2 infections and secondary severe clinical events (death, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and long COVID syndrome). The study determines the number of self-tests that must be conducted under the current 7-day incidence rate (30 per 100,000) to prevent one infection or severe clinical event. The (testing) costs per avoided clinical event and quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained are calculated from a consumer perspective. In a sensitivity analysis, the number of unreported cases is calculated considering the infection fatality rate.Results: Disregarding the rate of unreported COVID-19 cases, 13,148 self-tests have to be conducted (over 36 years) in order to avoid one undesirable event (death, intensive care unit stay, or long COVID syndrome). Three quarters of infections are not avoided with direct contact persons but along the chain of infection. The costs per quality-adjusted life year gained from a consumer’s perspective are €22,715. Taking into account the number of unreported cases reduces the number of testing years to prevent one undesirable event to 28.Conclusions: The benefits and cost-effectiveness of self-testing in the general population at a 7-day incidence rate (30 per 100,000) appear to be no more than modest.

The Importance of the Human Factor in Safety for the Transport of Dangerous Goods

This article discusses the issues related to the safety for the transport of dangerous goods by road. Research on accidents in transport unambiguously points to the human factor, which is the most responsible for causing accidents. Determining the causes of driver unreliability in the human−vehicle−environment system requires thorough research. Unfortunately, in this case, experimental research with human involvement is limited in scope. This leaves modeling and simulation of the behavior of the human factor, i.e., the driver transporting dangerous goods. The human being, because of its complexity, is a challenging element to parameterize. The literature presents various attempts to model human actions. Herein, the authors used heuristic methods, specifically fuzzy set techniques, to build a human factor model. In these models, human actions were specified using a verbal or linguistic description. The specificity of the fuzzy sets allowed for “naturally” limiting the “precision” in describing human behavior. The model was built based on the author’s questionnaire and expert research, based on which individual features were selected. Then, the traits were assigned appropriate states. The output parameter of the model was λL—the intensity of human error. The obtained values of the intensity of the accident caused by the driver’s error were implemented into the author’s method of risk assessment. They constituted one of the factors determining the probability of an accident in the transport of dangerous goods, which allowed for determining the optimal route for the transport of these goods characterized by the lowest risk of an undesirable event on the route. The article presents the model’s assumptions, structure, and the features included in the model, all of which have the most significant influence on shaping the intensity of human error. The results of the simulation studies showed a diversified effect of the analyzed characteristics on the driver’s efficiency.

Fire Fighting Robot using IOT

Fire accidents are undesirable event which emits heat, smoke or flame. Fire accident can cause a huge number of loss because of the danger and risk involved in rescuing victims out of the fire. In everyday life, it is not possible to always rely on human patrol for detecting and extinguishing fire at a fire accident scene. Fire fighting Robot is very effective in detecting fire accidents in industrial and residential areas where fire possibilities are high. In order to achieve this, this robot is used to detect a flame locate it and extinguishes the fire immediately before it leads to a dangerous accident. In case of risky situations, firefighting robot effectively find the fire and suppresses it. Effective monitoring, fire identification and extinguishing of fire are the problems to be solved. Our project is designed to solve those problems. Fireman can send commands to robot through raspberry pi module which is mounted on robot itself. Sprinkler start sprinkling water when it detects fire using sensor.

Assessment of risks of operation of shipboard technical facilities, taking into account the possibility of cyberincidents

Показано, что в сфере морского транспорта все активнее идет процесс цифровизации. Приведены требования резолюций ИМО и нового руководства РМРС, направленные на снижение уязвимости судов от кибератак. Изложены основные понятия и определения теории анализа риска. В качестве критерия оценки уровня и обеспечения безопасности представлен техногенный риск. Предоставлен анализ эксплуатации плавучих регазификационных установок сжиженного природного газа, основанный на опыте эксплуатации и собранных статистических данных. На основании собранной статистической информации, построена модель «дерево отказов» результирующим событием в которой является утечка газа. Установлено, что результирующее нежелательное событие «Утечка газа» может произойти с частотой 0,4 1/год. Рассмотрена архитектура системы управления судоходной компании, которая опирается на 4 подсистемы: операционных технологий, информационных технологий, промышленных систем управления и систем диспетчерского управления и сбора данных (SCADA). Системы управления позволяют осуществлять дистанционный контроль и управление установками и оборудованием. Недостатком систем является их уязвимость для кибератак. На основании анализа публикаций классификационного общества DNV было выявлено восемь основных уязвимостей в области кибербезопасности плавучей регазификационной установки. Исходя из статистики кибератак на инфраструктуру промышленных предприятий РФ в 2019 г. установлено, что частота кибератак на судовые технические средства примерно составит 0,009 1/год. It is shown that in the field of maritime transport, the digitalization process is increasingly active. The requirements of the IMO resolutions and the new management of the RMRS are given, aimed at reducing the vulnerability of ships from cyber attacks. The basic concepts and definitions of the theory of risk analysis are presented. Technogenic risk is presented as a criterion for assessing the level and ensuring safety. The analysis of the operation of floating regasification plants of liquefied natural gas, based on the operating experience and collected statistical data, is provided. Based on the collected statistical information, a “tree of failures” model has been built, in which the resulting event is a gas leak. It has been established that the resulting undesirable event "Gas Leak" can occur with a frequency of 0.4 1 / year. The architecture of the control system of a shipping company is considered, which is based on 4 subsystems: operational technologies, information technologies, industrial control systems and systems of dispatch control and data collection (SCADA). Control systems allow remote monitoring and control of plants and equipment. The disadvantage of systems is their vulnerability to cyber attacks. Based on the analysis of publications of the classification society DNV, eight major vulnerabilities in the field of cybersecurity of the floating regasification unit were identified. Based on the statistics of cyberattacks on the infrastructure of industrial enterprises of the Russian Federation in 2019, it was established that the frequency of cyberattacks on ship technical equipment will be approximately 0.009 1 / year.

Effects of vehicle driveline parameters and clutch judder on gearbox vibrations

Clutch judder causes discomfort in a car. This undesirable event not only creates noise and vibrations, it also disturbs the normal functionality of other components in the driveline, especially the gearbox, which is prone to oscillating inputs. Although there are numerous separate studies on clutch judder and gearbox vibrations, a combined study is necessary in order to investigate the coupled dynamics, especially the effect of vibrations in a clutch on gearbox vibrations. In this paper, a dynamic model is presented for the driveline, including the details of a gearbox and a dry clutch. It allows us to investigate the effect of clutch parameters and to simulate conditions with and without judder. The obtained dynamical equations are then solved numerically. The influence of judder on gear dynamics and passenger comfort is investigated. The results show that judder causes loss of contact in the gearbox in most cases. In more severe cases of judder, it can cause rattle not only in the unloaded gear, but also in the loaded gears. A modal analysis and a frequency spectrum analysis are conducted as well in order to identify the frequency components of the system vibrations and to verify the obtained results. Parts of the results are compared with the theoretical and experimental data from other research studies, which show agreement and serve to validate the model in this work.

A Hierarchical State Machine Model for Hazard Analysis of Real-time Safety Critical Systems

Real-time systems must avoid hazardous situations. To achieve this, their functionality should be investigated under time constraints. In this paper, a modeling based on Hierarchical Communicating Real-time State Machine (H- CRSM) and analysis methodology is proposed to examine statically ANSI-C code to obtain the hazardous events in the input system. A hazardous event equation is taken as input to the proposed system. The output is a list of hazardous scenarios. A path in the code showing the cause of the undesirable event is associated with each hazardous scenario. The strength of the proposed methodology is that the process of hazardous situations detection does not require running the ANSI-C program multiple times with different input values. It also focuses on analyzing the software level of the life cycle. Most of the verification tools check the system level. The system level may be bug-free but the software level may not.