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The aim of this work was to evaluate the feasibility of combining Raman Spectroscopy (RS) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy with Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for objective comparisons of unbranded black ballpoint pen inks; more specifically, to determine the original source of an ink treated as unknown. Eleven unbranded black ballpoint pens obtained during an education fair in Malaysia in May 2014 were prepared and analysed using RS and FTIR, where one of the pens was used to write a simulated threatening note. The spectra of the ballpoint pen inks obtained from the RS and FTIR analysis, including the ink on the simulated threatening note were then subjected to PPMC and PCA. The linear correlations of r = 0.756 and r = 0.999 and the similarities in terms of PC1 and PC2 scores of one of the inks to the ink on the simulated threatening note, which indicated a strong relationship between the two inks, substantiate the feasibility of combining RS and FTIR with the statistical and mathematical techniques of PPMC and PCA for objective comparison and source determination of ballpoint pen inks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Partnered pharmacist medication charting (PPMC), a process redesign hypothesised to improve medication safety and interdisciplinary collaboration, was trialed in a tertiary hospital's emergency department (ED). Objective: To evaluate the health-related impact and economic benefit of PPMC. Methods: A pragmatic, controlled study compared PPMC to usual care in the ED. PPMC included a pharmacist-documented best-possible medication history (BPMH), followed by a clinical conversation between a pharmacist and a medical officer to jointly develop a treatment plan and chart medications. Usual care included medical officer-led traditional medication charting in the ED, without a pharmacist-obtained BPMH or clinical conversation. Outcome measures, assessed after propensity score matching, were length of hospital or ED stay, relative stay index (RSI), in-hospital mortality, 30-day hospital readmissions or ED revisits, and cost. Results: A total of 309 matched pairs were analysed. The median RSI was reduced by 15.4% with PPMC ( p = 0.029). There were no significant differences between the groups in the median length of ED stay (8 vs . 10 h, p = 0.52), in-hospital mortality (1.3% vs . 1.3%, p > 0.99), 30-day readmission rates (21% vs . 17%; p = 0.35) and 30-day ED revisit rates (21% vs . 19%; p = 0.68). The hospital spent approximately $138.4 for the cost of PPMC care per patient to avert at least one medication error bearing high/extreme risk. PPMC saved approximately $1269 on the average cost of each admission. Conclusion: Implementing the ED-based PPMC model was associated with a significantly reduced RSI and admission costs, but did not affect clinical outcomes, noting that there was an additional focus on medication reconciliation in the usual care group relative to current practice at our study site., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers (MS), at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision., (Copyright © 2023 Atey, Peterson, Salahudeen, Simpson, Boland, Anderson and Wimmer.)

It is common to encounter polytomous and nominal responses with latent variables in social or behavior research, and a variety of polytomous and nominal item response theory (IRT) models are available for applied researchers across diverse settings. With its flexibility and scalability, the Bayesian approach using the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method demonstrates its great advantages for polytomous and nominal IRT models. However, the potential of the Bayesian approach would not be fully realized without model formulations that can cover various models and effective fit measures for model assessment or criticism. This research first provided formulations for typical models that are representative of different modeling groups. Then, a series of discrepancy measures that can offer diagnostic information for model-data misfit were introduced. Simulation studies showed that the formulation worked as expected, and some of the fit measures were more useful than the others or across different situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corrosion in pipelines is one of the major challenges faced by oil and gas industries all over the world. This has made corrosion control or management a major factor to consider before setting up any industry that will transport products via pipelines. In this study the types of corrosion found on system 2A pipeline were; pitting, microbial, sulfide-stress cracking, hydrogen-stress cracking and hydrogen-induced cracking and these were caused by poor maintenance of the pipeline system, severe mutilation of the pipeline coatings, substrates due to vandalization and coating failures. The data from cathodic protection control method from Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)/ Pipeline and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) for system 2A line was analyzed and it was deduced that about 10.3km of the pipeline was well protected and possibly fit for use and about 62.7km is experiencing under protection which means corrosion is predicted to take place in that segment in a short time and finally about 16km of the pipeline is experiencing corrosion. From the results obtained, it can be deduced that the use of cathodic protection technique as a method of controlling corrosion in oil and gas pipelines is effective and efficient when compared to other methods and thus constant monitoring is needed to achieve optimum efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]