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Introduction Burnout among healthcare professionals in intensive care units (ICUs) is a serious issue that leads to early retirement and medication errors. Their gender, lower years of experience, and lower education have been reported as risk factors. Simultaneously, mutual support—commonly referred to as “back-up behavior,” in which staff members support each other—is critical for team performance. However, little is known about the influence of mutual support among ICU healthcare professionals on burnout. The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality refers to mutual support as the involvement of team members in: assisting one another, providing and receiving feedback, and exerting assertive and advocacy behaviors when patient safety is threatened. Objective This study aimed to verify the hypothesis that lower mutual support among ICU healthcare professionals is associated with increased probability of burnout. Methods A web-based survey was conducted from March 4 to 20, 2021. All ICU healthcare professionals in Japan were included. An invitation was sent via the mailing list of the Japanese Society of Intensive Care Medicine and asked to mail to local communities and social network services. We measured burnout severity using the Maslach Burnout-Human Services Survey and mutual support using the TeamSTEPPS Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire, as well as occupational background. The cutoff value for burnout was predefined and conducted logistic regression. Results We received 335 responses, all of which were analyzed. The majority of respondents were nurses (58.5%), followed by physicians (18.5%) and clinical engineers (10.1%). The burnout group scored significantly lower on mutual support than the non-burnout group. After adjusting for covariates in a logistic regression, low mutual support was an independent factor predicting a high probability of burnout. Conclusions This study suggests that it is important to focus on mutual support among ICU healthcare professionals to reduce the frequency of burnout.

This paper presents a new instantaneous current control to obtain an instantaneously flat torque waveform with smaller torque ripples of switched reluctance motors (SRMs). The proposed current control is based on table lookup. By geometric insights for the machine and finite element method based analysis, ideal current profiles for the flat torque are generated. Some simulation results are presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed control, which are verified by experiment.

It is available, for the garbage assembling issue of the disposed empty PET bottles, that PET bottle could be folded up easily and effectively by both hands. Then, based on the geometrical theory of cylindrical Origami proposed by Nojima, we designed some kinds of CAD model of PET bottle with regular folding lines in circular direction and evaluated the function of folding up for axial compressive loading by CAE. Two main useful results are obtained as follows. One is that the empty PET bottle with the configuration of inclined main folding lines could be folded up by hands. The second is that the PET bottle in full, with the configuration above mentioned, could have the stiffness necessary for keeping in a pile of bottles' case and vending machine by the effect of increased internal pressure which is loaded on the folding surface of the bottle wall.

SUMMARYThis paper presents a new instantaneous current control to obtain an instantaneously flat torque waveform with smaller torque ripples of switched reluctance motors (SRMs). The proposed current control is based on table lookup. By geometric insights for the machine and finite element method based analysis, ideal current profiles for the flat torque are generated. Some simulation results are presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed control, which are verified by experiment.