Twin screw granulation – review of current progress

Twin screw granulation (TSG) is a new process of interest to the pharmaceutical community that can continuously wet granulate powders, doing so at lower liquid concentrations and with better product consistency than found by a high shear batch mixer. A considerable body of research has evolved over the short time since this process was introduced but generally with little comparison of results. A certain degree of confidence has been developed through these studies related to how process variables and many attributes of machinery configuration will affect granulation but some major challenges still lay ahead related to scalability, variations in the processing regimes related to degree of channel fill and the impact of wetting and granulation of complex powder formulations. This review examines the current literature for wet granulation processes studied in twin screw extrusion machinery, summarizing the influences of operational and system parameters affecting granule properties as well as strives to provide some practical observations to newly interested users of the technique.     

Micro- and macroergonomic changes in mental workload and medication safety following the implementation of new health IT

Health information technology (IT) is a promising way to achieve safer medication management in the delivery of healthcare. However, human factors/ergonomics dictates that in order to make the complex, cognitive work of healthcare delivery safer, health IT must properly support human cognition. This means, for example, that new health IT must reduce, not increase, workload during safety-critical tasks. The present study was the first to quantitatively assess the short- and long-term impact of bar coded medication administration (BCMA) IT on nurses' mental workload as well as on perceived medication safety. One-hundred seventy registered nurses across 3 dissimilar clinical units at an academic, freestanding pediatric hospital in the Midwest US participated in surveys administered before, 3 months after, and 12 months after the hospital implemented BCMA. Nurses rated their external mental workload (interruptions, divided attention, being rushed) and internal mental workload (concentration, mental effort) during medication administration tasks as well as the likelihood of each of three medication safety events: medication administration errors, medication errors on the clinical unit, and clinical unit-level adverse drug events. Clinical unit differences were assessed. Findings generally confirmed the hypothesis that external but not internal mental workload was associated with the perceived likelihood of a medication safety event. Comparisons of mental workload from pre- to post-BCMA revealed statistically significant changes in the critical care unit only. Medication safety appeared to improve over the long term in the hematology/oncology unit only. In the critical care and medical/surgical units, medication safety exhibited short-term improvements that were eliminated over time. Changes in mental workload and medication safety, two classically microergonomic constructs, were deeply embedded in macroergonomic phenomena. These included the fit between the BCMA system and the nature of nursing work, the process of BCMA implementation, and BCMA interactions with concurrent changes occurring in the hospital. Findings raise questions about achieving sustainable performance improvement with health IT as well as the balance between micro- and macroergonomic approaches to studying technology change.Relevance to industryDesigners must consider how technology changes cognitive work, including mental workload. Hospitals and other implementers of technology must ensure that new technology fits its users, their tasks, and the context of use, which may entail tailoring implementation, for example, to specific clinical units. Evaluators must look over time to assess both changes in cognitive work and implementation issues. Healthcare practitioners must also recognize that new technology means a complex transformation to an already complex sociotechnical system, which calls for a macroergonomic approach to design and analysis.     

发展我国制革企业刍议

中国已入世 ,制革业将拥有无限机遇 ,但制革厂还现存一些亟待解决的问题。解析了制革厂的技术创新、经营管理等方面的问题。     

Conditioned facilitation of brain reward function after repeated cocaine administration.

Cocaine lowers brain reward thresholds, reflecting increased brain reward function. The authors investigated whether, similar to acute cocaine administration, cocaine-predictive conditioned stimuli would lower intracranial self-stimulation (ICSS) thresholds. Rats received a saline injection for 5 days, a cocaine injection (10 mg/kg) for 20 consecutive days, then saline for 5 additional days. Thresholds were measured immediately before and 10 min after each injection. The initial 5 saline injections had no effect on thresholds, whereas cocaine significantly lowered thresholds for 20 days. There was no tolerance or sensitization to this effect of cocaine over days. During the last 5 days when cocaine administration was substituted with saline, rats demonstrated a conditioned lowering of thresholds during the 2nd daily ICSS session. These data demonstrate that cocaine-predictive conditioned stimuli induce a conditioned facilitation of brain reward function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accuracy of teacher judgments in predicting oral reading fluency.

The relationship between teachers' judgments versus actual performance on curriculum-based measures in reading was examined. A total of 30 regular education teachers were asked to predict the oral reading fluency score of students along with a rating scale of reading subskills. Correlations between teacher judgment measures and student performance found that teachers were accurate reporters of student performance levels in reading. However, some questions were raised whether teachers were accurate at predicting the actual level of student oral reading fluency when effect sizes were used to compare teacher judgment and actual student performance. Recommendations for continued research in understanding the parameters of the accuracy of teacher judgment are made. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explicit Self-Regulated Strategy Development Versus Reciprocal Questioning: Effects on Expository Reading Comprehension Among Struggling Readers.

The effects of 2 rigorous strategic approaches to reading comprehension for 32 5th-grade students who struggle with reading were investigated. The first approach, TWA (Think before reading, think While reading, think After reading), was taught following explicit self-regulated strategy development instructional procedures (K. R. Harris & S. Graham. 1999). The second approach, reciprocal questioning (RQ), was taught following Cooperative ReQuest procedures developed by A. V. Manzo. U. C. Manzo, and T. H. Estes (2001). Compared with RQ students, TWA students improved significantly (with medium to large effect sizes) on 5 oral reading comprehension measures. There were no significant differences, however, between groups on 3 written comprehension measures, self-efficacy, or motivation. Students were positive about each intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

美国节能管理工作特点及对我国的启示

本文比较系统地分析了美国节能管理工作的主要特点,并研究了美国的节能管理模式对我国推动节能工作的启示。文中首先介绍了美国推动节能工作的主要机构,然后从最低能耗标准、能效标识、节能工作参与群体的市场定位、基于市场的节能激励机制及政府机构节能等方面详细阐述了美国节能政策制定和实施的基本特点,并结合我国的国情分析了美国节能管理模式对我国节能工作的启示,最后提出了相关政策建议。     

城市规划行政的制约机制——公众参与

通过对我国城市规划编制过程和实施管理过程中“非理性”因素及其产生根源的分析,提出改进城市规划行政模式,阐述城市规划公众参与的必要性,同时阐明现阶段公众参与的重点。     

大学生教育管理应以理性个性培养为导向

个性包括品德、品格、爱好、自我修养等,能够反映一个人的整个精神面貌。个性并非是与生俱来的,也并非完美无缺,有的还可能存在较大的缺陷。理性个性是个性的升华,是自由、全面、和谐和自律的个性,是一种理想,一种追求,是个性发展的最高境界。目前,高校在培养大学生理性个性的过程中还存在一定问题和矛盾。大学生教育管理应该在主导者的积极指导下,让学生来对自己的个性发展负责,培养理性个性,让他们懂得怎样去理解别人,同别人相处,懂得自己所肩负的责任。     

我国高等学校法人治理结构的实施框架

高等学校法人治理结构的关键在于权力分配与权利制衡,目标在于真正落实高等学校的办学自主权。只有以现存的治理制度与组织结构为基础,引入现代企业治理结构和国外高等学校法人治理的经验,对高等学校的科层制管理结构进行改良,建立符合我国国情的高等学校法人治理结构,才是落实办学自主全权,完善自我管理的必要出路。