Quality Assurance for Operating Room Illumination through Lean Six Sigma

Since every mistake made in the healthcare industry can cause permanent harm or even death, some fundamental requirements should be considered when planning and designing operating rooms. Lighting is one of the most important ergonomic factors, especially for operating rooms. This paper investigates the integration of the lean approach and six sigma in measuring the efficiency of LED technology, which can also be regarded as a factor affecting the operating room efficiency. Measurement System Analysis (MSA) and Gage Control methods were applied to determine measurement variability in operating room illumination measurement process. Repeatability and reproducibility (%R&R) was found 12.89%. After calibration, %R&R value was found 8.21%, which implies that calibration helped reduce variability.

Investigation of the unfused cross cylinder test as an alternative method for the determination of spherical distance refraction end points

Background: The duochrome test is commonly used to refine the final sphere in refraction at different stages of a subjective refraction. The unfused cross cylinder test is mainly used to determine the near reading addition with a combination of astigmatic lenses.Aim: To investigate if the unfused cross cylinder test can be adapted for distance in finding the spherical end point for distance prescription.Setting: The study was conducted at an Optometry Clinic, University of Limpopo, South Africa.Methods: Fifty-one non-presbyopic subjects aged between 18 and 25 years were examined. The duochrome and unfused cross cylinder examinations were performed monocularly under normal (bright) and dim room illumination.Results: There was no significant difference in the spherical end point determined with either the duochrome or unfused cross cylinder tests (p ≥ 0.05). The mean spherical end points as determined with the duochrome test were −0.09 ± 0.39 diopre sphere (DS) (range: −0.20 to 0.12 dioptres [D]) in bright room illumination and −0.05 ± 0.38 DS (range: −0.16 D to 0.05 D) in dim illumination. The mean spherical end points for the unfused cross cylinder tests were −0.29 ± 0.39 DS (range: −0.18 D to 0.40 D) and −0.32 ± 0.43 DS (range: –0.44 D to –0.19 D) in room dim illuminations, respectively.Conclusion: The unfused cross cylinder test results as performed in this study may provide an accurate measurement of the spherical end point in a young adult population. We recommend the unfused cross cylinder test to be used in normal (bright) room illumination as an alternative to the duochrome test in the determination of distance refractive error.

Artistic portraits of strange-face illusions produced through eye-to-eye gazing in dyads or mirror-gazing

Strange-face illusions are apparitional perceptions of deformed faces, unknown people and monstrous beings – that are produced when staring for a long time at one’s own face reflected in a mirror or when eye-to-eye staring at another person in a dyad, at low level room illumination. In this experiment, portrait artists were invited to draw strange-face illusions they perceived during a 10-minute session of eye-to-eye gazing while paired in dyads with naïve participants. Dissociation was measured through standard self-report questionnaires. Results showed that portraits became more abstract and less figurative as the artists experienced higher levels of non-pathological dissociation. Statistically, a significant correlation was found between art-abstraction ratings and dissociation scores by judges and portrait artists, respectively. Findings are discussed in relationship to modern art portraits à la manière de Scipione and Francis Bacon.

Evaluation of the performance of radiological monitors in use, cities Salvador (BA) and Florianópolis (SC)

Evaluate the performance of the monitors used for diagnosis based on the parameters defined by AAMP. Materials and Methods: Using calibrated instrumentation traceable to NIST and RBC, were evaluated in 15 monitors, according to the procedures described in AAMP's report 03 and the Spanish protocol in the following parameters: the general aspects of image quality, geometric distortion, screen reflection and room illumination, luminance response, luminance dependence, spatial and low contrast resolution, noise, internal reflection blanking and screen chromaticity. Results: 100% compliance for geometric distortion tests and 0% compliance for the luminance dependence test. Conclusions: There are nonspecific monitors for diagnosis being used for these purposes, without routinely checking tests, in rooms with high illumination and dirt on the screens and the non-implementation or inadequacy of acceptance and quality control tests. The monitors declared by the manufacturers as diagnostic specific on average showed a higher compliance rate

The prognostic value of visually assessing enamel microcracks: Do debonding and adhesive removal contribute to their increase?

ABSTRACT Objective: To find a correlation between the severity of enamel microcracks (EMCs) and their increase during debonding and residual adhesive removal (RAR). Materials and Methods: Following their examination with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), 90 extracted human premolars were divided into three groups of 30: group 1, teeth having pronounced EMCs (visible with the naked eye under normal room illumination); group 2, teeth showing weak EMCs (not apparent under normal room illumination but visible by SEM); and group 3, a control group. EMCs have been classified into weak and pronounced, based on their visibility. Metal brackets (MB) and ceramic brackets (CB), 15 of each type, were bonded to all the teeth from groups 1 and 2. Debonding was performed with pliers, followed by RAR. The location, length, and width of the longest EMCs were measured using SEM before and after debonding. Results: The mean overall width (Woverall) was higher for pronounced EMCs before and after debonding CB (P < .05), and after the removal of MB. Pronounced EMCs showed greater length values using both types of brackets. After debonding, the increase in Woverall of pronounced EMCs was 0.57 µm with MB (P < .05) and 0.30 µm with CB; for weak EMCs, − 0.32 µm with MB and 0.30 µm with CB. Conclusions: Although the teeth having pronounced EMCs showed higher width and length values, this did not predispose to greater EMCs increase after debonding MB and CB followed by RAR.