Safety climate and related factors in rehabilitation nurses of hospitals in Iran

BACKGROUND

Safety climate is a common insight of staff that indicates individuals' attitudes toward safety and priority of safety at work.

OBJECTIVES

Nursing is a risky job where paying attention to safety is crucial. The assessment of the safety climate is one of the methods to measure the safety conditions in this occupation. The aim of this study was to assess the safety climate of rehabilitation nurses working in hospitals in Tehran.

METHODS

This is a cross-sectional study which was carried out on 140 rehabilitation nurses selected from all hospitals and clinics in Tehran in 2019. To collect the required data, a two-section questionnaire was used. The first section was related to demographic factors and the second part (22 statements) was to measure the safety climate using nurses' safety climate assessment questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS V16 using independent t-test, ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U test at the 5% level.

RESULTS

Findings showed that the total mean of safety climate was 3.06±0.56. According to the results, a significant difference was found between the positive and negative satisfaction of nurses with safety climates (P-value = 0.03), communication with nurses (P-value = 0.01) and supervisors' attitude (P-value = 0.02). Furthermore, a significant difference in safety climate between the individual with the second job and the individual without second could be observed (P-value = 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicated that the safety climate was not at an acceptable level. Thus, it is essential to introduce safety training courses (e.g. safety, work-rest balance, and so on) and to improve the safety performance at work.

Techno-economical optimization of Reactive Blue 19 removal by combined electrocoagulation/coagulation process through MOPSO using RSM and ANFIS models

In this research, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) models were applied for optimization of Reactive Blue 19 removal using combined electrocoagulation/coagulation process through Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO). By applying RSM, the effects of five independent parameters including applied current, reaction time, initial dye concentration, initial pH and dosage of Poly Aluminum Chloride were studied. According to the RSM results, all the independent parameters are equally important in dye removal efficiency. In addition, ANFIS was applied for dye removal efficiency and operating costs modeling. High R(2) values (≥85%) indicate that the predictions of RSM and ANFIS models are acceptable for both responses. ANFIS was also used in MOPSO for finding the best techno-economical Reactive Blue 19 elimination conditions according to RSM design. Through MOPSO and the selected ANFIS model, Minimum and maximum values of 58.27% and 99.67% dye removal efficiencies were obtained, respectively.

Response surface optimization of acid red 119 dye from simulated wastewater using Al based waterworks sludge and polyaluminium chloride as coagulant

In this research, the performance of Polyaluminium Chloride (PAC) and Polyaluminium Chloride sludge (PACS) as coagulants for acid red 119 (AR119) dye removal from aqueous solutions were compared. The sample of PACS was collected from "Baba Sheikh Ali" water treatment plant (Isfahan, Iran) where PAC is used as a coagulant in the coagulation/flocculation process. A response surface methodology was applied to evaluate the simple and combined effects of the operating variables including initial pH, coagulant dosage and initial dye concentration and to optimize the operating conditions of the treatment process. Results reveal that the optimal conditions for dye removal were initial pH 3.42, coagulant dosage of 4.55 g dried PACS/L and initial dye concentration of 140 mg/L for PACS, while the optimal initial pH, coagulant dosage and initial dye concentration for PAC were 3.8, 57 mg/L and 140 mg/L, respectively. Under these optimal values of process parameters, the dye removal efficiency of 94.1% and 95.25% was observed for PACS and PAC, respectively. Although lower amount of PAC in comparison with PACS was needed for specific dye removal, the reuse of PACS as a low-cost material can offer some advantages such as high efficiency for AR119 dye removal and economic savings on overall water and wastewater treatment plant operation costs.

Study on the removal of acid dyes using chitosan as a natural coagulant/coagulant aid

Chitosan was selected as a natural coagulating agent for the removal of acid dyes (Acid Blue 292; AB292, and Acid Red 398; AR398) from dye-containing solutions. The study was organised in two phases. In phase 1, chitosan was used alone as a natural coagulant for the removal of the dyes. For this purpose, the effect of different parameters including pH, chitosan dosage and initial dye concentration on the dye removal efficiency was examined. In phase 2 of the study, the application of chitosan as a natural coagulant aid in conjunction with polyaluminium chloride (PAC) was assessed. According to the results of phase 1, the best removal efficiencies occurred in an acidic pH range (less than 6) for both of the dyes. Also, excellent dye removal results (about 90%) were achieved with relatively low dosages of chitosan (30-35 mg L(-1) for AB292 and 50-60 mg L(-1) for AR398). However, the initial concentration of the dyes severely influenced the coagulation performance of chitosan, which can constrain the performance of chitosan as a natural coagulant. On the basis of the results of phase 2, chitosan, as a natural coagulant aid, noticeably enhanced the dye removal efficiency of PAC, especially in the case of AB292. Small amounts of chitosan (3 or 5 mg L(-1)) enhanced the dye removal efficiency of PAC up to 2.5 times for AB292.

Coagulation/flocculation process for dye removal using sludge from water treatment plant: optimization through response surface methodology

In this study, performance of a waterworks sludge (FCS: ferric chloride sludge) for the removal of acid red 119 (AR119) dye from aqueous solutions were investigated. For this purpose, response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize three operating variables of coagulation/flocculation process including initial pH, coagulant dosage and initial dye concentration. The results showed that the decrease of initial pH was always beneficial for enhancing dye removal and no re-stabilization phenomenon was occurred even at the used maximum FCS dosage. It seems that iron hydroxides of the FCS could neutralize the negative charges on dye molecules or cause to the trapping of the dye ones. Therefore, the sweep flocculation and/or the charge neutralization might play key roles in the enhancement of dye removal. The optimum initial pH, FCS dosage and initial dye concentration were found to be 3.5, 236.68 mg dried FCS/L and 65.91 mg/L, respectively. Dye removal of 96.53% is observed which confirms close to RSM results. Therefore, it can be concluded that reusing the FCS as a low-cost material into the coagulation/flocculation process in wastewater treatment plants can offer some advantages such as high efficiency for AR119 dye removal and economic savings on overall treatment plant operation costs.

A comparison study on Acid Red 119 dye removal using two different types of waterworks sludge

This study aims to compare the performance of two waterworks sludge samples, ferric chloride sludge (FCS) and polyaluminium chloride sludge (PACS), as coagulants to remove Acid Red 119 (AR119) dye from aqueous solution. A series of batch experiments were performed to investigate the effect of initial pH, coagulant dosage and initial dye concentration on coagulation/flocculation process efficiency. Results showed that the dye removal was strongly pH-dependent and followed the same trend for both coagulants, increasing steadily with decreasing initial pH in the range of 3-12. With the increase of coagulant dosage, the dye removal efficiency increased and no re-stabilization phenomenon was observed. However, the coagulant dosage needed for the maximum dye removal efficiency was much lower for FCS (150 mg dried sludge/L) in compare with PACS (5.5 g dried sludge/L). It seems that both charge neutralization and sweep flocculation mechanisms were involved in removal of AR119 using FCS and PACS. With the increase of initial dye concentration, Q (the amount of the removed dye per unit mass of coagulant) steadily increased and reached to a maximum value of 0.96 mg dye/mg sludge and 0.029 mg dye/mg sludge for FCS and PACS, respectively. FCS was more effective than PACS for AR119 dye removal due to the higher amount of dye removed per unit mass of sludge.

Coagulation/flocculation of dye-containing solutions using polyaluminium chloride and alum

This study aims to compare the performance of Polyaluminium Chloride (PAC) and alum as coagulants to remove a specific type of dye (Acid Blue 292 (AB292)) from dye-containing solution. For this purpose, the influence of pH, coagulant dosage, coagulant aids (kaolinite and bentonite), and initial dye concentration on dye removal efficiency were examined. According to the results, removal of AB292 was absolutely dependent on the pH variations. The maximum dye removal occurred when pH was 7 and 5 for PAC and alum, respectively. Both coagulants efficiently removed the dye (about 85%) with a relatively low dosage (40 mg/l) in their optimum pH range. By adding kaolinite as a coagulant aid, the removal efficiencies tended to increase, especially for lower dosages of PAC and alum. With the increase of initial dye concentration, PAC and alum represented different behaviors. In the case of PAC, Q (the amount of the removed dye per unit mass of coagulant) increased at first and reached to a maximum value, 2.1 mg dye/mg PAC, and then decreased rapidly. While for alum, Q steadily increased with the increase of dye concentration and reached to 2.8 mg dye/mg alum. No reduction of Q occurred for alum with the increase of dye concentration in the range of 25-250 mg/l.

Equilibrium and kinetic adsorption study of a cationic dye by a natural adsorbent--silkworm pupa

In this work the use of silkworm pupa, which is the waste of silk spinning industries has been investigated as an adsorbent for the removal of C.I. Basic Blue 41. The amino acid nature of the pupa provided a reasonable capability for dye removal. Equilibrium adsorption isotherms and kinetics were investigated. The adsorption equilibrium data were analyzed by using various adsorption isotherm models and the results have shown that adsorption behavior of the dye could be described reasonably well by either Langmuir or Freundlich models. The characteristic parameters for each isotherm have been determined. The monolayer adsorption capacity was determined to be 555 mg/g. Kinetic studies indicated that the adsorption follows pseudo-second-order kinetics with a rate constant of 0.0434 and 0.0572 g/min mg for initial dye concentration of 200 mg/l at 20 and 40 degrees C, respectively. Kinetic studies showed that film diffusion and intra-particle diffusion were simultaneously operating during the adsorption process. The rate constant for intra-particle diffusion was estimated to be 1.985 mg/g min(0.5).