vida zaroushani

 One of the ways to increase sound transmission inside buildings are doors and windows. A lot of effort has been made to reduce the noise inside the building. This study examines the methods of active sound control in windows.

Methods and Materials: 

In this systematic review, English articles were searched based on the PRISMA guide between January 2020 and December 2021 and in Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus and ISI Web of Science databases without time limits for publishing articles. The selection of keywords was done based on the principle of Pico and from the Mesh database. Selected keywords were used individually or in combination to search for articles. The articles that had the word noise control in their title or summary along with any related words such as window, transportation, active noise control, active noise canceling, traffic noise, low frequency control, low frequency sounds were selected. Then the titles, abstracts and keywords of these articles were reviewed and related articles were separated from unrelated articles and duplicate articles were also removed. Further, after applying the entry and exit criteria, the full text of the entry articles was collected and analyzed.

 In the first step of the search, a total of 638 studies were found that were published in the investigated databases during the years 2020-2021. Then, by checking the titles of the articles, 456 duplicate or unrelated articles were removed. According to the entry and exit criteria and evaluations and screenings, 97 articles were retrieved, of which 17 articles were included in the study based on the PRISMA guidelines, of which 16 were original articles and one was a review article. The largest number of articles belonged to the researchers of Singapore followed by the United States of America, who accounted for 8 and 5 input articles, respectively.The findings showed that the main solutions to prevent the transmission of sound inside the building include three categories: passive control, active control, and hybrid sound control. Active sound control methods are performed according to the closed and open status of the window in different ways such as cavity control, speaker installation on the window frame, speaker installation in the wall, short duct control.

 Today, active sound control is considered as a potential solution to control low-frequency sounds and traffic noise. Using the active sound control method for glass windows improves sound transmission loss without increasing the mass of the window. Due to geographical and cultural differences, the application of active sound control systems on windows is done in three main categories, fully closed windows, fully open windows and half-open windows. It is suggested that researchers focus more on absorbent layer technologies, calculation methods and numerical simulations.

Oxygen therapy is one of the integral parts of a hospital, which has been introduced as a therapeutic use of oxygen and any human error in this field can have disastrous results. The purpose of this research is to analyze the risk of the oxygen supply system of one of Qazvin hospitals using the method of studying risk and human performance.

In this research first, study team members were selected according to the purpose of the study to benefit from their experiences in discovering the possible situations of human operation risks; then according to the field visits, interviews and existing documents, the duties of people related to the objective were analyzed by the Hierarchical Task Analysis technique. Then, the types of errors and causes were identified and proposed controls were presented to reduce unacceptable risks.

According to the 75 scenarios obtained from the method used, the results indicate that failure to perform job duties with 32.42% as the most important parameter, with the most important factors of human error such as memory slip (38%) and heavy workload (31%) plays a role in the three categories of consequences of fire, explosion and reduction of oxygen sent to the departments.

This method can be used to reduce the risk of fire, explosion and reduce the oxygen pressure sent to different units by using the techniques of improving working conditions, changing the way of training, equipping the oxygen concentration detection sensor and using the liquid oxygen tank

Fire in hospitals and medical centers can lead to unfortunate and dire accidents due to the immobility of most patients, the presence of expensive medical equipment, and the essential role of hospitals in providing health services to people. This study aims to increase fire safety in a healthcare training center in Qazvin.

The latest NFPA 101A was used for fire risk assessment in seven departments of an educational hospital in Qazvin City in 2021-2022. The study calculated the residential risk factor for residents of each area, examined fire safety parameters and determined their risk factor, calculated the obtained points of the area under evaluation, determined the minimum required points in different areas of fire safety, and estimated the fire risk level.

  ICU 1 and 2 departments, CCU 1 and 2, central warehouse, pharmacy warehouse, and hospital facilities were selected for fire risk assessment. The ICU building had the best condition with a total fire safety point of 21.1. The facility building, with a total fire safety point of -14.5, was in the worst condition.

The results showed the need for more attention from researchers to conduct studies in outdoor environments, in various parts of the country, on development and validation of novel heat stress indices, and on implementation and evaluation of control measures in environments with high heat stress.

Natural gas (NG) is one of the cleanest and safest sources of energy transmitted in a high pressure that must be reduced before entering City Gas Station (CGS). Identifying the effective parameters in creating the hazardous areas of CGS is essential to crisis and management. This study using PHAST version 7.11(created by DNV Company) conducted a consequence modelling in three scenarios at three CGS stations in Qazvin Province, by actual data including weather conditions, gas pressure and temperature. The main results for the modeling in all three scenarios were jet fire, flash fire, and explosion. Based on the modeling results, most flame length was obtained in Avaj station with 10 meters more than others. Most radiation levels were also in Avaj station in about 150 m downwind distance, which can be caused by the longer flame length in this station.The results showed that in fire jet modeling, an increase in air temperature can lead to an increase in gas pressure and temperature, which in this study increased the flame length of 2 to 3 meters. However, the flame length and the hazardous area was higher during the day and summer. The use of PHAST modeling software can provide useful information including high-risk operational area, hazard area, high-risk time period (day, night and season) for the management team to respond to emergency situations in process industries. In addition, it is necessary to consider the combination of different operating parameters such as gas pressure and gas temperature with different weather conditions.

One of the necessary measures of saving human life in emergency situations, such as fires, is the safe and swift evacuation of people. The prerequisites for this are to anticipate, identify, and eliminate factors preventing people from leaving buildings in a timely and safe manner while moving them to a safe place [1]. The occurrence of errors caused by engineering, design, human, and psychological factors can aggravate unfavorable and unsafe situations in cases of emergency. Besides, upon the occurrence of accidents, they pave the way for irreparably severe human and financial damage. Therefore, the study of the failures or errors affecting performance and the management of emergency evacuations can be effective in identifying factors affecting human emergency evacuations and improving them in fire incidents. Against this background, this article aims to draw the attention of researchers to effective errors in emergency evacuations, which increase the potentials for adverse consequences of fire incidents. Identification of these factors can lead to the improvement and development of future studies, design and construction of buildings, and promotion of human health and safety. In the following sections, these errors are introduced and classified into three categories of design, human, and psychological errors. Design errors are the errors rooted in environmental factors and infrastructure design. A study conducted at a public hospital in Indonesia showed that the lack of emergency lighting in corridors, stairs, ramps, as well as the low number of fire detectors in inpatient rooms disturbed the evacuation process and elongated the evacuation time [2]. Another study conducted on subway stations showed that structural design features, emergency evacuation facilities, as well as time and characteristics of emergencies, such as fires, were the most important environmental factors affecting safe evacuation. Therefore, forecasting and paying attention to the number of users, width and length of routes, the number of exits, width of corridors, and bottlenecks are very effective in performing optimal evacuation [3]. In addition to the factors mentioned above, it is pretty important to design equipment and resources needed for emergency evacuation. To avoid physical collisions and falls among people, it is recommended to enlarge the size of emergency exit signs. Emergency exit signs play an important role in ensuring safety of buildings against fires. Besides, they help evacuees escape fire faster by following quickest and safest escape routes after a fire is detected. A study conducted on 138 subjects showed that environmental factors affected the speed of people evacuation. In addition, the speed of people evacuation increased with increasing brightness. However, the average evacuation speed improved more with increasing the exit sign size than when brightness increased, which decreased physical contact among people [4].  There are other challenges to the safe emergency evacuation process in high-rise buildings. Accordingly, human fatigue when moving to lower floors and some residents’ inability to move are two of these challenges. In the 11 September accident, several people were rescued from the World Trade Center, who reported they had to stop and rest on several floors when descending stairs. Therefore, to improve the evacuation process in high-rise buildings, it is necessary to use evacuation elevators in addition to evacuation stairs, to be simulated in related studies. Traditionally, evacuation elevators have not been used as evacuation routes, and people have been instructed not to use elevators in case of fires. However, if people exit from high-rise buildings through stairs, it will lead to their fatigue and slowness of exit. On the other hand, with the increase in the breathing activity, the amount of smoke inhaled into the lungs increases, thereby causing people to get trapped between floors. Accordingly, the use of evacuation elevators with appropriate ventilation can be investigated in high-rise buildings. In addition, virtual reality simulation (the equipment used for human immersion in virtual reality to study human behavior) shows that the waiting time of less than 5 minutes is acceptable and safe for people evacuation. Moreover, this type of simulation that uses a simple navigation system with green flashing lights guides people in finding and choosing the elevator as an evacuation emergency rout. However, the waiting time for the elevator to arrive and getting stuck in the elevator are the two main perceived risks posed to people [6]. Human errors are another category of errors affecting safe evacuation of humans in emergencies during a fire [5].  These errors are diverse, with the identification of which increasing reliability of the equipment effective in the emergency evacuation process. Some of these errors include not reacting to warnings quickly and correctly as well as displaying unsafe behaviors, such as staying in the danger zone and taking photos and videos at the time of the accident. It is worth noting that excessive fear as well as feeling despair about being rescued cause cognitive errors in people, being a type of human error effective in finding and choosing the correct evacuation route [5]. Recent studies show that a well-designed and relatively simple navigation system, such as placing a green flashing light next to an emergency exit sign, is significantly effective in correctly choosing exit routes in humans [6]. In this article, psychological errors are the third category of the factors affecting the safe evacuation of people. Psychological characteristics affect how information is processed, including recognizing, understanding, and evaluating warning messages. Psychological errors, under conditions of uncertainty, have a significant impact on people’s decision-making, behavior, and reaction. Therefore, evaluating individual and social human behaviors at the times of crisis and emergency can be effective in the safe operation of emergency evacuation. A phenomenon named "population pursuit" is one of the most common psychological errors in some emergencies. This type of error usually occurs to people unfamiliar with the location. In such situations, people unfamiliar with the environment tend to follow the collective behavior of chasing the fleeing population; accordingly, they follow the fleeing population without recognizing and evaluating warning messages, which is always a successful evacuation method. In some research, it has been reported as an unsafe method [5]. Another common psychological error occurs to people unfamiliar with the scene. Due to the fact that emergencies affect people's decisions, behavior, and reactions, in emergencies such as fires, people unfamiliar with the location of the building cannot make complex decisions. Thus, they try to take the same exit, being the same psychological error that in some cases victimizes prisoners. Accordingly, it is necessary to raise people's awareness to reduce such errors and control adverse consequences [7]. This article enumerates common mistakes in the safe evacuation of people in fires. In addition, it mentions the successful and safe design and implementation of the emergency evacuation process as part of the emergency response plan. It is recommended to conduct further studies on errors occurring in the emergency evacuation process.

This study quantitatively analyzed the fire risk using the Fire Risk Index Method Multistorey Apartment Buildings (FRIM-MAB) method, considering the importance of fire safety in student dormitories as human gathering centers and previous limited studies.

This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 17 sections of the Qazvin University of Medical Sciences student dormitory in 2021. This study used the FRIM-MAB version 2.1. In this method, 17 parameters and their sub-parameters affecting the fire risk index were determined and weighted. Consequently, the studied dormitory was also inspected, the weighted degree of each parameter was computed, and the fire risk index for each section, which ranged between 1 and 5, was determined.

The average fire risk index of the dormitory building at the time of the study was 2.37. The laundry room received the lowest risk index (1.69), while the computer site received the highest risk index (2.7). The results indicated that the most effective parameters causing fire risk were related to “compartmentation” (12 frequency items), “linings in the apartment” (4 frequency items), and “escape routes” (1 frequency item). These parameters contributed more than 42% to create the risk index for the dormitory’s most dangerous areas.

The FRIM-MAB method is a suitable quantitative and indexing fire risk assessment method for student dormitory buildings, and it is a quick, inexpensive, and effective screening and ranking tool. Periodically evaluating the dormitory’s fire risk and, if necessary, improving the environment is essential. In the present study, compartmentation, linings in the apartment, and escape routes were the most effective parameters in fire risk of the studied dormitory.

Hospitals are a symbol of social welfare and the last refuge of patients, which is the most important issue of the health system. Patient safety is the first and most important issue for the health system. Before COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined the Hospital Safety Index (HSI) to measure hospital preparedness for disasters. During the COVID-19 crisis, hospitals faced many problems, including safety. Governments and health officials need to pay attention to fire safety. In the Covid-19 crisis, different conditions were experienced in hospitals, and the number of patients, inpatients, medical staff, equipment, and machinery in these critical conditions has increased significantly. This article in the form of a letter to the editor tries to point out the challenges and opportunities of hospital safety index tools to reduce hospitals’ vulnerability to improve their performance and resilience to disasters.

For nearly two years, the world has been facing a common crisis as Covid-19. In the meantime, governments have suffered a wide variety of damages and costs, and damage to human capital and the loss of health professionals is one of the irreparable costs of health systems in all governments. During this crisis, health care systems and specialists were exposed to special occupational hazards over specific periods of time, and the exposure of the medical staff to these hazards in hospitals led to a number of opportunistic incidents. Investigation of opportunistic incidents can help identify the sources of occupational hazards of medical staff and lead to proper management of risks associated with these accidents. This article aims to draw researchers' attention to opportunistic incidents during the Covid 19 pandemic as a global crisis in hospitals.

Hospitals are vital centers. The presence of vulnerable people, and precious equipment has increased their vulnerability. The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk of fire and to identify the factors affecting the risk of fire in one of the high-risk wards of the hospital.

This cross-sectional study was performed using fire risk assessment method for engineering in the ICU of one of the hospitals in Qazvin. Fire risk was calculated using the related equations in EXCEL software and contributed each of the factors. Ethical considerations such as confidentiality of individuals’ information, employing experts in the research process and the neutrality of researchers in collecting, analyzing and reporting data and information were observed in this research.

The numerical value of risk for the building, residents and activities were 0.815, 2.308 and 1.055, respectively, and was at an unacceptable level in area of ​​residents and activities. Elevation (26.80%), fire spread (16.80%), fire load (12.73%) and accessibility (4.76%) were the factors that had the greatest impact on risk level and the first three in each of the two areas were common.

There are factors in fire risk that have the largest share of participation, so identifying and controlling these root causes can achieve an inherently safer hospital at a lower cost, especially in the design phase of the hospital. It is recommended to use specialized fire risk assessments along with the results of accreditation and patient safety.

Risk assessment is an important tool for reducing casualties and financial damage in the oil and gas industry. This research aimed to identify and evaluate process hazards in the petrochemical industry in 2016.

In this case study, a team was organized and briefed on the process. Besides, hazard identification was performed using the Hazard and Operability Study. Next, causes were analyzed using the Fault Tree Analysis and occurrence probability of top events. Finally, events and subevents were ranked. The minimum cut sets were determined using Boolean algebra.

A total of 77 events were identified. Accordingly, unacceptable, tolerable, and acceptable risk levels were 41, 31, and 5 events, respectively. Fire was the most unacceptable risk level, with the final events of "human errors in correct gasket installation on the flange surface" and "flange defects" having had the shares of 51.2 and 21.55%, respectively.

The combination of the two HAZOP and FTA techniques is useful in process industries in which incomplete performance of the system and control systems is the most effective factor in the potential occurrence of fire. Human errors and flange defects are the two main factors in this event, so occupational safety and health must be improved in this system. Thus, due to complex interactions between humans, machines, materials, and the environment in systems, such as the petrochemical industry, which lead to uncertainties in safety results of the process, risk assessment is recommended to be performed periodically using different techniques.

It is necessary for managers in all types of organizations to take an appropriate training approach in order to maintain and promote health, achieve safety, and prevent environmental damages. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Health Safety and Environment training workshops from the students’ point of view to inform the relevant officials about the participants’ opinions and make efficient decisions in order to improve the quality of training courses in the field of health, safety, and environment. A qualitative study was conducted using face-to-face or telephone interviews with a purposeful number of 37 students studying at the faculty of the health of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences. To analyze data, thematic analysis using a framework approach was applied. Findings related to the students’ viewpoint about the effectiveness of the HSE workshop were presented in six main themes including satisfaction with the educational content, awareness about HSE concepts before the workshop, the importance of HSE subject in the participants’ field of study, important topics presented in the workshop, experience from HSE workshop, major workshop problems, and solutions. Based on the study results, one of the key objectives of all medical universities should be training their students about health and safety matters to potentially prepare them for future job positions with maximum safe behaviors in workplaces. In fact, medical universities play a key role in developing the health and safety knowledge of students helping them in protecting themselves while working in hazardous working conditions.

Considering the importance of identifying and tracing primary sources of Covid-19 crisis in infection control, this study was carried out with the aim of identifying the occupational tasks effective in transmitting Covid-19 in the event of death of a female staff in medical record unit in Shafa Takestan Hospital (Qazvin Province).

This case study was performed on the death of a 26-year-old married woman working in the medical records department of Shafa Takestan Hospital in March 2019. After identifying and completing the tasks, hazards analysis was performed and finally, various tasks and amount of the Covid-19 sources were determined.

Covid-19 risk sources are classified into three groups of human resources with 51 cases (38.06%), office tools and equipment with 46 cases (34.33%) and paper with 37 cases (27.61%). Four tasks were identified as major tasks with a 59.90% of the total number of COVID-19 risk sources. In this study, two critical tasks were determined with the titles of “reply to requests of forensic medicine and insurance” and “reviewing patients’ surgical reports” that contained a total of 39.06% of the Covid-19 sources.

The results showed that the human resources in two major tasks were the most critical sources of Covid-19. So, the control of these critical tasks is of special importance. The results also showed that it is necessary to transfer the special and unusual tasks to the time after the crisis, in order to reduce the sources of Covid-19 contamination.

Hospitals are One of the vital and sensitive places as well as practical that maintaining their function in normal conditions and in times of crisis is one of the biggest concerns of health system managers. By using the principles of fire safety, hospitalschr('39') vulnerability can be reduced. Fire is one of the risks that can lead to many human and financial losses as well as disruption of hospital performance. Fire risk assessment is a more effective way to assess the vulnerability, capacity and capability of the hospital. The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk of fire in one of the hospitals in Tehran to analyze the vulnerability of these uses.
This cross-sectional study was performed by using the Fire Risk Assessment Method for Engineers (FRAME) in the hospital building of a military hospital. Fire risk was calculated using the formulas of the mentioned method in EXCEL software. Factors influencing the level of risk obtained were identified and evaluated.
The level of fire risk for residents in all units was higher than one. Level factor, fire load factor and normal protection factor were identified as effective factors that result in the existing fire risk level.
The numerical value of the risk for the residents was at an unfavorable level. The results of this study showed that the use of FRAME method in assessing the risk of health facilities such as hospitals, by determining the strengths and weaknesses of the assessed locations, the possibility of identifying effective factors to predict and prevent accidents and maintain the performance of these centers at times. Be sensitive to such man-made or natural emergencies.

Cancer is the main cause of death in developed countries and the second main cause of death in developing countries. The aim of this study was to review the occupational risk factors and cancer incident in Iran.

this present systematic review was done based on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines on Persian articles with no time limits in publication and collected from January 2019 to April 2019 from Sid, Magiran and Google Scholar Databases. Some search terms including “job” or “occupation” “occupational exposure” or “cancer” or “neoplasm were used.

A total number of 103 articles were detected. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, finally 18 studies remained in this systematic review with 13897 sample size and 7187 diagnosed patients. Most included studies researched on non-melanoma skin as the most studied cancer and sunlight exposure as the most carcinogenic reported occupational risk factor. Among included researches, only four studies were directly related to occupational cancer with 1837 sample size and 604 diagnosed various cancers in workers that focused on kidney, bladder and mesothelioma cancers (Pleural mesothelioma and Perivascular mesothelioma) .The results showed that, the cancer was reported in some occupations more than others.

Most included researches reported skin cancer and exposure to sunlight as the most studied cancer and occupational risk factor respectively. As regard to importance of effective risk factors on cancer incidence , identification and control of occupational risk factor in the work environment should be a main key element of national cancer control program in countries specially developing countries. So it is recommended to develop the researches in field of occupational cancer in Iran.

Hospitals are highly vulnerable to fire because of the presence of vulnerable people (patients, medical staff, and visitors), expensive equipment, and the ignorance and low-risk perception of occupants. Injuries caused by fire can result in life and financial losses and can disrupt the performance of a hospital. Fire risk assessment is an effective way to assess vulnerability, capacity, and capability. This study aims to evaluate the risk of fire and identify the effective factors and their contribution to a hospital. 

This cross-sectional study was conducted using the Fire Risk Assessment Method for Engineering (FRAME) in the equipment room of a hospital in Qazvin, Iran. The fire risk was first calculated by using the related formulas in Excel software. Then, the influential factors and their contribution to the overall risk were determined to perform corrective measures for reducing the risk.

The numerical value of risk for the building and its contents, occupants, and activities were 2.075, 3.315, and 2.481, respectively (>1), indicating its unacceptable level. Factors affecting the potential risk level for the building and its content and occupants were fire load, venting, and access. Regarding the acceptable risk level, the activation factor was identified as an influential factor in all domains. The highest contribution in the potential risk level for the building and its content and occupants was related to the fire load factor (1.6). In the acceptable risk level, the highest contribution was related to the activation factor (0.4).

The FRAME method can also identify effective factors and their contribution to the overall fire risk of medical centers such as hospitals to help develop plans and special measures to reduce the risk.

Shift working with the sleep disturbance may lead to an increased body weight, depression levels, and inflammation. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between depression scores, Body Mass Index (BMI) and inflammation markers among rotational shift workers in one of the Iranian Oil Refineries. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 189 shift workers aged 21-52 years old with mean 30.58(±6.970) in one of the oil refineries in Tehran city. Studied population was in an 8 hours backward shift (from night to morning). Demographic characteristics were gathered by a general questionnaire and anthropometric variables including weight and height were measured for calculating body mass index (BMI), were calculated. 21-items Beck Depression Inventory, which was translated in Persian, was used to assess the depressive symptoms. Level of Cortisol, IL-6 and hs-CRP was measured by 8 ml fasting blood sample, using RIA kit in radioimmunoassay method, R&D (Germany) kit in enzyme-linked immunosorbent method and quantitative diagnostic kit in immunoturbidimetry method produced by Pars Azmoon Company, respectively. The results of the current study showed that Il-6 and hs-CRP were higher, in workers with depression scores more than 9 in comparison with workers by depression scores equal or below 9 measured by the 21- Item Beck depression inventory. Although there were not statistically significant. There was inverse association between cortisol level and BMI (P-Value<0.01) and positive association between CRP and BMI (PV<0.01) and borderline positive association between IL-6 concentration with BMI (P-Value<0.05). The results of the study revealed that there was a direct association between inflammation factors with Body Mass Index in Tehran oil refinery shift workers. But, the significant relationship between cortisol level, IL-6 and CRP with Shift Work experience were not found.

The emergence of diseases due to drug resistance, genetic mutations, and transmission has made the future of infectious diseases complicated and vague. Currently, the prevalence of coronavirus, with high infectivity and significant lethality, has made infection control among nurses and patient one of the main goals of the World Health Organization [1]. At present, the prevention and control of Covid-19 are in a critical period, so that the use of intelligent health care systems to control infection and maintain human resources, such as nurses, is an undeniable necessity, which should be considered by health policymakers and governments. This can be done by integrating intelligent health with traditional technologies in nursing and health care systems. Nursing robots are an example of such intelligent technologies able to upgrade the traditional systems to those novels, capable of responding to increased demand during biological crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic [2, 3]. Many hospitals across the world have turned to robots to remove the viruses and bacteria in patient rooms and wards, tirelessly and continuously providing services such as environmental sterilization using ultraviolet and disinfectant solutions according to health standards [4]. The use of nursing robots can be useful in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and affect the current and future life of the nursing system. These robots can be used to perform repetitive, tedious, and dangerous activities, such as delivering food to the patient, measuring vital signs, disinfecting the environments, collecting hazardous waste, tracking patients and carriers, and monitoring the quarantined environments, that expose nurses to the Covid-19 [5]. In Italy, the robots equipped with monitors with audio-visual communication with patients were used to measure their important parameters, such as blood pressure and saturated oxygen [6]. Also, nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab sampling and monitored changes in patientschr('39') blood parameters can be performed by nursing robots [5].  These robots can significantly reduce the transmission of infection and physical and mental fatigue among nurses and staff, improving and accelerating the treatment process and reducing the use of personal protective equipment and environmental disinfectants [4]. Nursing robots have been used in the health care system of some countries, including Japan, to solve the challenges in elderly health. Their use has solved the ergonomic problems of nurses, including moving people and bearing their weight. Further, application of these robots in patient education and enduring long shifts in dangerous and special health centers such as the ICU are another their advantages that lead to preserving the human capital and presenting significant economic benefit to the Japanese government [7]. Managing patientschr('39') respiratory, caring for patients under mechanical ventilation and full monitoring and recording vital systems are one of the most important tasks of nurses in the Covid-19 period. Robots can be used independently to read and record patientschr('39') vital signs, such as measuring blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, and blood-soluble gases, leading to reduced infection risk of Covid-19 among health care workers. The skill of preparing, setting, and working with ICU equipment is another task that can be done by automated robots. Further, biometric health care tasks, such as heart rate (electrocardiography), electroencephalography, and muscle bio signals (electromyography), are performed by nursing robots in some countries [4]. The most common hospital wastes during the Covid-19 crisis are plastic masks, gloves, and protective clothing, use of which are inevitable. Consumption of this personal protective equipment, such as an estimated monthly 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves worldwide, leads to widespread environmental pollution. This hazard threatens public health because the waste carries the Covid-19 virus, which survives on plastic for up to 3 days and has far-reaching effects on ecosystems and organisms [8]. In addition to robotschr('39') direct benefits for health systems, it can help to maintain the environmental health for present and future generations. Lack of spiritual and friendly communication with patients and the provision of services to patients not conscious is among the current limitations of robots, showing the high and key role of the nursing staff. Robots cannot replace nurses but can be their assistants in the difficult days of dealing with crises, such as Covid-19; also, they can help policymakers and government planners respond to such crises by attending high-risk locations and engaging in risky activities [9]. Currently, the fatigue and shortage of specialized human resources, on the one hand, and the increasing number of infected patients, on the other hand, have disrupted the admission of other patients in many hospitals, resulting in irreparable damage to patients and their families. In such cases, by reducing the quality of services, other problems, including endangering patientschr('39') safety and increasing the length of hospital stay, also appear [10]. Although providing robots imposes costs on governments, their useful and diverse applications in crises, as well as their durability as a part of essential medical equipment, justify their presence in health care systems [7]. Since nurses are a major part of the workforce in the health care system and play a major role in providing direct services to patients, using robots can be useful for the health care system by compensating for nurses and reducing the leave rate [11]. Covid-19 pandemic is a challenge that provides an opportunity to identify new solutions to overcome such biological crises. The outbreak of this challenging and deadly epidemic has shown that focusing on hospital smartening is not a luxury and unnecessary thinking, but futurism and investment in maintaining the health of the community and associated professionals.

The world is currently facing an all-out crisis over the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This review study aimed to determine the applications of the assistive intelligent technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) in occupational safety and health (OSH) and response to COVID-19.

The given review was carried out from May to June 2020 and the search strategy was fulfilled in the databases of Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopus. The keywords were collected from the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) database and searched individually or in combination. Accordingly, the articles with the term “COVID-19” in their titles or abstracts and some other keywords such as “smart hospital, Industry 4.0, or intelligent technology” were selected and reviewed. Next, the titles, abstracts, and keywords of these studies were examined. To augment the sensitivity of the search, the keywords and the references of the selected articles were also surveyed. Then, the related studies were separated from the irrelevant ones and the duplicates were removed. Finally, the full texts of the selected articles were reviewed.

In this resepct, a total number of 175 studies, published in the databases of Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopus in 2020 were retrieved. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and qualitative screening, 30 articles were included in this review. The assistive intelligent technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), big data, virtual reality (VR), holography, cloud computing, autonomous robots (autorobots), three-dimensional (3D) scanning, 3D printing, and biosensors were established as useful ones to respond to COVID-19. In addition, AI and autorobots could be the most significant technologies of Industry 4.0 in the incoming articles.

These technologies can thus help governments to identify, track, monitor, and treat patients and increase resilience in society and workplace environments during the COVID-19 pandemic.