Ashing of Bone: Errors Due to Loss of CO2 and Its Correction

Background: Ashing is widely used to determine weight fraction of water-free bone that is mineral, but no standard procedure exists and the range of techniques used spans a range of temperatures and times over which the amount of weight loss is variable. We show that variability is largely due to progressive loss of CO2 from CO3 2- ions in the apatite crystal lattice, beginning at 600⁰C, typically used for ashing. We test the effect of varying temperature, time and weight of sample and develop a reliable method, using small samples.Methods: Replicate samples of bovine cortical bone were tested at 500⁰, 600⁰ and 700⁰C for times ranging up to 24h. We also tested samples of multiple humans at what we concluded to be the optimal conditionsResults: Varying conditions of ashing resulted in variations in apparent ash weight % by up to 7%. Samples between 5 and 20 mg heated to 600⁰C for 1 h gave results agreeing with generally accepted values, but with much smaller variability. Ash wt% values for multiple human bone samples differed by up to 4.8% but replicate data for individuals agree to ± 1 wt%. Conclusions: A satisfactory method is given for ash weight determination using small samples, and yielding highly reproducible data. If accepted widely, ash weight values between laboratories could be used to study variations due to diet, age, drug treatment and disease.

Defining Satisfactory Methods of Treatment in Rare Diseases When Evaluating Significant Benefit–The EU Regulator's Perspective

Since the implementation of the EU Orphan Regulation in 2000, the Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products at the European Medicines Agency has been evaluating the benefits of proposed orphan medicines vs. satisfactory treatment methods. This type of evaluation is foreseen in the Orphan Regulation as the orphan designation criterion called the “significant benefit.” In this article, based on 20 years of experience, we provide a commentary explaining what is considered a satisfactory method of treatment in the context of the EU Orphan Regulation and for the purpose of the assessment of significant benefit. We discuss the challenges posed by continuously changing clinical practise, which is associated with the increasing number of treatment options, evolving nature of medicinal therapeutic indications and our understanding of them.

Information Device Efficiency Study, Perceived Utility to Fulfillment of Users of Internet Networks by Quality of Service and Effect on Public Service Satisfaction

The purpose of this study is to assess and evaluate how the satisfactory condition of rural communities and online programs is incorporated into society to develop information technology in West Sulawesi. The survey was conducted at the Information, Information, and Information Office of the West Sulawesi Area from June to July 2020. The sample used method is mainly focused on the sampling of all workers employed in the Contact Office. And the details of the district. West Sulawesi is dedicated to introducing a satisfactory method of the census and data collection utilizing a questionnaire. The Likert scale is the analysis instrument used in this research. The empirical approach is the detailed methodology used in this analysis—a review of the interaction between one and the other. This analysis demonstrates that Consistency of Information Technology and Consumer Engagement have an impact on Service Quality, Software Technology Usability, User Retention, and Quality. Services that have a positive and meaningful effect on online consumer loyalty, Office Knowledge Status and User Interface have a significant role in online customer satisfaction and standard of service.

A Study on Opportunities and Challenges of Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing has emerged as extra well-known after the involvement of modern technologies in businesses. It has completely changed the historic advertising methods and compelled marketers to remain linked with their buyers or clients by using the net for promoting their products and services. Since the emergence of social media, industrial advertising teachers and entrepreneurs have additionally been intrigued by the influence of such media on the discipline. As social media lookup in the industrial marketing discipline has been of growing interest, this lookup tries to the challenges and possibilities in social media. This research offers some of the options to overcome the problems and analyzing the satisfactory method in a present-day scenario in the discipline and suggests directions for future development.

Interactive α-satisfactory method for multi-objective optimization with fuzzy parameters and linguistic preference

An interactive α-satisfactory method via relaxed order of desirable α-satisfactory degrees is proposed for multi-objective optimization with fuzzy parameters and linguistic preference in this paper. Fuzzy parameters existing in objectives and constraints of multi-objective optimization are defined as fuzzy numbers and α-level set is used to build the feasible domain of parameters. On the basis, the original problem with fuzzy parameters is transformed into multi-objective optimization with fuzzy goals. Linguistic preference of decision-maker is modelled by the relaxed order of desirable α-satisfactory degrees of all the objectives. In order to achieve a compromise between optimization and preference, the multi-objective optimization problem is divided into two single-objective sub-problems: the preliminary optimization and the linguistic preference optimization. A preferred solution can be found by parameter adjustment of inner-outer loop. The minimum stable relaxation algorithm of parameter is developed for calculating the relaxation bound of maximum desirable satisfaction difference. The M-α-Pareto optimality of solution is guaranteed by the test model. The effectiveness, flexibility and sensitivity of the proposed method are well demonstrated by numerical example and application example to heat conduction system.

A new method to evaluate the hand-feel potential of furnishes for tissue paper products

The human perception of softness is an important yet complex property of hygiene tissue paper products. Softness is a function of the combination of machine technology, chemical additives, and furnish composition. As a result, it is difficult to investigate the influence of single parameters. Because no completely satisfactory method for determining the softness of furnishes is available at the laboratory scale, the influence of different fibrous materials in combination with their treatment cannot be comprehensively investigated. To work toward this possibility, this publication describes the development of a method to obtain reliable results based on laboratory handsheets using a modified tissue softness analyzer (TSA). With the help of basic statistical methods, a procedure was developed that reproducibly distinguished the influence between softwood and hardwood. To demonstrate the potential of this method, it was tested on an industrial tissue machine and the influence of four different furnishes on the softness of the semi-finished product was determined.

A Retrospective Study of Dogs with Osteomyelitis Secondary to Fractures (2016-2020)

The purpose of this work was to evaluate the role of surgical procedures and the effectiveness of antimicrobial therapy in dogs with osteomyelitis secondary to fractures repair.Medical records between 2016 and 2020 were analyzed. Clinical data including signalment, affected bone segment, fracture type, isolated microorganisms, antimicrobial susceptibility profiles, applied therapeutic management and fracture healing time were documented.Eleven cases were confirmed with exogenous osteomyelitis of long bones secondary to fractures repair. The most common microorganisms isolated were Staphylococcus spp., Streptoccocus spp., and Escherichia coli. Amoxicillin and clavulanate potassium followed by ceftriaxone were the most effective drugs. High-resistance rates were documented for penicillin and clindamycin. All 10 cases undergoing surgical revision were cured in 10-17 weeks.Simultaneous debridement with implant removal, reduction, and rigid internal fracture fixation is a satisfactory method for revision surgery in treatment of long bones fractures complicated with osteomyelitis.

Privacy-Aware Image Authentication from Cryptographic Primitives

Image authentication is the process of verifying image origin, integrity and authenticity. In many situations, image authentication should allow reasonable image editing, which does not introduce any wrong information against the original one. While it has been studied both extensively and intensively with considerable efforts, there is no satisfactory method supporting region extraction. This paper presents a solution to address the issue of privacy protection in authenticated images. Our scheme allows anyone to extract sub-image blocks from an original image (authenticated by the image producer) and generate a proof tag to prove the credibility of the extracted image blocks. The process of proof tag generation does not require any interaction with the image producer. In addition, the image producer is able to define must-be-preserved image blocks (e.g. producer logo) during the extraction. We define the security property for the authenticated sub-images and give a generic design with two core primitives: an ordinary digital signature scheme and a cryptographic accumulator. The security of our design can be reduced to the underlying cryptographic primitives and its practical performance is demonstrated by a bunch of evaluations. We believe the proposed design, together with other image authentication methods, will further facilitate image relevant services and applications.

The best equilibrium in organizational flexibility-stability continuums

Purpose This work aims to analyse the flexibility-stability continuum and explore the question of where the best equilibrium lies on this continuum and to what extent it can be realized. Design/methodology/approach After analysing the concepts of flexibility and stability, along with their trade-off relationship, from a theoretical standpoint, the optimum in the flexibility-stability continuum is determined by means of a triangulation of theories. The subsequent operation to determine best possible practice is also accomplished via a theoretical analysis. Findings Organizational flexibility and stability are two poles of a continuum that are interdependent. The optimum in a flexibility-stability continuum lies, according to Gossen's first law, where marginal utility is zero. Determination of the optimum requires a great deal of information, however, which is difficult to collate and process because of its complexity. As an alternative to the “optimum”, “best possible practice” is introduced. This provides an alternative to the less satisfactory method of “best practice according to benchmarking.” Originality/value The value of this work lies in finding an optimum in the flexibility-stability continuum. As the (theoretical) optimum is difficult to determine and realize due to inherent complexities, “best possible practice” is presented as an alternative. This takes into account the idea of optimization meaning no improvement is possible if the goal is achieved. “Best possible practice” defines an implementable, best possible state that can be used for organizational goal formulation. To achieve the best possible equilibrium in the flexibility-stability continuum, the respective advantages of stability and flexibility should be ideally exploited to lead to competitive advantage.

MRI and bone scintigraphy for breast cancer bone metastase: a meta-analysis

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic value of magnetic resonance image (MRI) and bone scintigraphy (BS) in the diagnosis of breast cancer bone metastases.MethodsSearching in the databases including PubMed, Embase about the comparative study of MRI and bone scintigraphy in the diagnosis of breast cancer bone metastases during 2000~2018. After we screened further, the extracted effective data were calculated by Meta-Disc 1.4 software.ResultsWe obtained 4 articles. The pooled estimates for sensitivity of MRI, BS were 0.99 (95% CI, [0.95, 1.00]) and 0.93 (95% CI, [0.88, 0.97]) respectively; For specificity were 0.99 (95% CI, [0.95, 1.00]) and 0.86 (95% CI, [0.79, 0.92]) respectively. The AUC of SROC curve for MRI and BS were 0.9948 and 0.9675 respectively.ConclusionMRI remains to be a satisfactory method for the diagnosis of breast cancer bone metastases and should first be considered for patients.