Background: Occupational exposure to hazardous drugs occurs in all aspects of anticancer drug handling. Proper recommendations and guidelines should be applied to control and reduce exposure. Objective: To assess pharmacists' knowledge and practice regarding the safe handling of anticancer drugs. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at seven major hospitals in Baghdad City, Iraq, from December 2023 to February 2024. A pre-designed questionnaire was given to pharmacists who handled anticancer drugs in chemotherapy units. The questionnaire comprises sociodemographic data, knowledge of the safe handling of cytotoxic drugs and thoughts about exposure and risk, practices for safely handling cytotoxic drugs, and challenges for safely handling cytotoxic drugs. Results: A total of 126 pharmacists were enrolled in the study. Less than half of the participants (46%) received training on anticancer drugs. While more than a third (42.9%) of the pharmacists were handling more than 100 cytotoxic preparations weekly, the total knowledge score was 7.14, while the total practice score was 73.36, with less than half of the pharmacists having good knowledge (44.44%) or practice (48.41%). Pharmacists who received training had significantly higher total practice scores than those who did not. Pharmacists with more than 100 weekly preparations were more knowledgeable than those with 50–99 preparations. Conclusions: The majority of participating pharmacists had fair to excellent knowledge and practice regarding the safe handling of cytotoxic medications. However, there were some gaps regarding important knowledge and practice issues. To improve knowledge and practices regarding anticancer handling, training is necessary.
This study uses an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) to examine the constitutive relationships of the Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) residual tensile strength at elevated temperatures. The objective is to develop an effective model and establish fire performance criteria for concrete structures in fire scenarios. Multilayer networks that employ reactive error distribution approaches can determine the residual tensile strength of GFRP using six input parameters, in contrast to previous mathematical models that utilized one or two inputs while disregarding the others. Multilayered networks employing reactive error distribution technology assign weights to each variable influencing the residual tensile strength of GFRP. Temperatur
... Show MoreIn this paper had been studied the characterization of the nanocatalyst (NiO) Mesh electrodes. For fuel cell. The catalyst is prepared and also the electrodes The structural were studied through the analysis of X-ray diffraction of the prepared nanocatalyst for determining the yielding phase and atomic force microscope to identify the roughness of prepared catalyst surface, Use has been nanocatalyst led to optimization of cell voltage, current densities & power for a fuel cell.
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Lasers, with their unique characteristics in terms of excellent beam quality, especially directionality and coherency, make them the solution that is key for many processes that require high precision. Lasers have good susceptibility to integrate with automated systems, which provides high flexibility to reach difficult zones. In addition, as a processing tool, a laser can be considered as a contact-free tool of precise tip that became attractive for high precision machining at the micro and nanoscales for different materials. All of the above advantages may be not enough unless the laser technician/engineer has enough knowledge about the mechanism of interaction between the laser light with the processed material. Several sequential phenom
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