One of the most productive behavioural domains to study visual communication in mammals is social play. The ability to manage play-fighting interactions can favour the development of communicative modules and their correct decoding. Due to their high levels of social cohesion and cooperation, slender-tailed meerkats (Suricata suricatta) are a very good model to test some hypotheses on the role of facial communication in synchronizing playful motor actions. We found that the relaxed open mouth (ROM), a playful facial expression conveying a positive mood in several social mammals, is also present in meerkats. ROM was mainly perceived during dyadic playful sessions compared to polyadic ones. We also found that meerkats mimic in a very rapid and automatic way the ROM emitted by playmates (Rapid Facial Mimicry, RFM). RFM was positively correlated with the relationship quality shared by subjects thus suggesting that the mimicry phenomenon is socially modulated. Moreover, more than the mere presence of isolated ROMs, the presence of at RFM prolonged the duration of the play session. Through RFM animals can share the emotional mood they are experiencing and this appears to be particularly adaptive in those species whose relationships are not inhibited by rank rules and when animals build and maintain their bonds through social affiliation. The meerkat society is cohesive and cooperative. Such features could have therefore favoured the evolution of facial mimicry, a phenomenon linked to emotional contagion, one of the most basic forms of empathy.
Direct dating, using the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) 14C method, indicates that some petroglyphs (rock art) at El-Hosh in Upper Egypt pre-date the early 7th millennium BP (mid 6th millennium cal BC), making it the oldest graphic activity recorded in the Nile Valley.
Background
Administering cancer drugs is a high-risk process, and mistakes can have fatal consequences. Failure Mode, Effect and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) is a widely recognized method for identifying and preventing potential risks, applied in various settings, including healthcare. The aim of this study was to recognize potential failures in cancer treatment prescription and administration, with a view to enabling the adoption of measures to prevent them.
Methods
This study consists of a FMECA. A team of resident doctors in public health at the University of Padua examined the cancer chemotherapy process with the support of a multidisciplinary team from the Veneto Institute of Oncology (an acknowledged comprehensive cancer center), and two other provincial hospitals. A diagram was drafted to illustrate 9 different phases of chemotherapy, from the adoption of a treatment plan to its administration, and to identify all possible failure modes. Criticality was ascertained by rating severity, frequency and likelihood of a failure being detected, using adapted versions of already published scales. Safety strategies were identified and summarized.
Results
Twenty-two failure modes came to light, distributed over the various phases of the cancer treatment process, and seven of them were classified as high risk. All phases of the cancer chemotherapy process were defined as potentially critical and at least one action was identified for a single high-risk failure mode. To reduce the likelihood of the cause, or to improve the chances of a failure mode being detected, a total of 10 recommendations have been identified.
Conclusions
FMECA can be useful for identifying potential failures in a process considered to be at high risk. Safety strategies were devised for each high-risk failure mode identified.
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