Modeling collective adaptive agent design and its analysis in Barnga game

This paper explores the collective adaptive agent that adapts to a group in contrast with the individual adaptive agent that adapts to a single user. For this purpose, this paper starts by defining the collective adaptive situation through an analysis of the subject experiments in the playing card game, Barnga, and investigates the factors that lead the group to the collective adaptive situation. Intensive simulations using Barnga agents have revealed the following implications: (1) the leader who takes account of other players’ opinions contributes to guide players to the collective adaptation situation, and (2) an appropriate role balance among players (i.e., the leader, the claiming and quiet players, which make the most and least number of corrections of the leader’s decision) is required to derive the collective adaptive situation.     

Implementation of HACCP in the risk management of medical waste generated from endoscopy

Medical waste poses health hazards, increases the environmental load and is costly to dispose of. To solve the above problems, we applied the hazard analysis and critical control point system (HACCP) to the management of wastes generated from endoscopy. First, the wastes in three hospitals were quantified. The number and weight of waste per case differed significantly among the three hospitals. Second, HACCP was applied to the endoscopy unit of Hospital X for a year. Wastes were segregated into five types and weighed. We found that 25.8% of ‘infectious waste’ was in fact ‘non‐infectious waste’ and ‘non‐infectious plastic waste’. The numbers of needles and needle caps did not correspond in two occasions (needle‐loss rate: 0.42%). Bacterial counts of the waste container were determined to investigate infection hazard. The counts were 0 cfu/cm² in all examinations except one occasion. The waste control manifests were reviewed, and all entries were consistent with the waste sent for disposal. In Hospital X where implementation of HACCP was attempted, reduction of environmental load and cutting of disposal cost are anticipated by changing the categories of waste segregation. The results suggest that hospital wastes should be managed more safely by HACCP.