Recommendations for the application and follow-up of quality controls in medical laboratories

This is a translation of the paper “Recommendations for the application and follow-up of quality controls in medical biology laboratories” published in French in the journal Annales de Biologie Clinique (Recommandations pour la mise en place et le suivi des contrôles de qualité dans les laboratoires de biologie médicale. Ann Biol Clin (Paris). 2019;77:577-97.). The recommendations proposed in this document are the result of work conducted jointly by the Network of Accredited Medical Laboratories (LABAC), the French Society of Medical Biology (SFBC) and the Federation of Associations for External Quality Assessment (FAEEQ). The different steps of the implementation of quality controls, based on a risk analysis, are described. The changes of reagent or internal quality control (IQC) materials batches, the action to be taken in case of non-conform IQC results, the choice of external quality assessment (EQA) scheme and interpretation of their results as well as the new issue of analyses performed on several automatic systems available in the same laboratory are discussed. Finally, the concept of measurement uncertainty, the robustness of the methods as well as the specificities of near-patient testing and rapid tests are described. These recommendations cannot apply for all cases we can find in medical laboratories. The implementation of an objective alternative strategy, supported with documented evidence, might be equally considered

Protecting 30% of the planet for nature: costs, benefits and economic implications

A. Waldron, K. Nakamura, J. Sze, T. Vilela, A. Escobedo, P. Negret Torres, R. Button, K. Swinnerton, A. Toledo, P. Madgwick, N. Mukherjee were supported by National Geographic and the Resources Legacy Fund. V. Christensen was supported by NSERC Discovery Grant RGPIN-2019-04901. M. Coll and J. Steenbeek were supported by EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 817578 (TRIATLAS). D. Leclere was supported by TradeHub UKRI CGRF project. R. Heneghan was supported by Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Acciones de Programacion Conjunta Internacional (PCIN-2017-115). M. di Marco was supported by MIUR Rita Levi Montalcini programme. A. Fernandez-Llamazares was supported by Academy of Finland (grant nr. 31176). S. Fujimori and T. Hawegawa were supported by The Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (2-2002) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan and the Sumitomo Foundation. V. Heikinheimo was supported by Kone Foundation, Social Media for Conservation project. K. Scherrer was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 682602. U. Rashid Sumaila acknowledges the OceanCanada Partnership, which funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). T. Toivonen was supported by Osk. Huttunen Foundation & Clare Hall college, Cambridge. W. Wu was supported by The Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (2-2002) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan. Z. Yuchen was supported by a Ministry of Education of Singapore Research Scholarship Block (RSB) Research Fellowship

Working paper analysing the economic implications of the proposed 30% target for areal protection in the draft post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framewor

58 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables- The World Economic Forum now ranks biodiversity loss as a top-five risk to the global economy, and the draft post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework proposes an expansion of conservation areas to 30% of the earth’s surface by 2030 (hereafter the “30% target”), using protected areas (PAs) and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs). - Two immediate concerns are how much a 30% target might cost and whether it will cause economic losses to the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors. - Conservation areas also generate economic benefits (e.g. revenue from nature tourism and ecosystem services), making PAs/Nature an economic sector in their own right. - If some economic sectors benefit but others experience a loss, high-level policy makers need to know the net impact on the wider economy, as well as on individual sectors. [...]A. Waldron, K. Nakamura, J. Sze, T. Vilela, A. Escobedo, P. Negret Torres, R. Button, K. Swinnerton, A. Toledo, P. Madgwick, N. Mukherjee were supported by National Geographic and the Resources Legacy Fund. V. Christensen was supported by NSERC Discovery Grant RGPIN-2019-04901. M. Coll and J. Steenbeek were supported by EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 817578 (TRIATLAS). D. Leclere was supported by TradeHub UKRI CGRF project. R. Heneghan was supported by Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Acciones de Programacion Conjunta Internacional (PCIN-2017-115). M. di Marco was supported by MIUR Rita Levi Montalcini programme. A. Fernandez-Llamazares was supported by Academy of Finland (grant nr. 311176). S. Fujimori and T. Hawegawa were supported by The Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (2-2002) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan and the Sumitomo Foundation. V. Heikinheimo was supported by Kone Foundation, Social Media for Conservation project. K. Scherrer was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 682602. U. Rashid Sumaila acknowledges the OceanCanada Partnership, which funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). T. Toivonen was supported by Osk. Huttunen Foundation & Clare Hall college, Cambridge. W. Wu was supported by The Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (2-2002) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan. Z. Yuchen was supported by a Ministry of Education of Singapore Research Scholarship Block (RSB) Research FellowshipPeer reviewe

Exploitation longitudinale de résultats de programmes de contrôle de qualité organisés par ProBioQual

LYON1-BU Santé (693882101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Improved Pattern Selection for PDB Heuristics in Classical Planning (Extended Abstract)

The iPDB approach selects patterns by a local search in the space of pattern collections. This search often gets stuck in local optima, which limits the quality of the resulting heuristic. In this research abstract, we report on current progress to tackle this problem. We investigate variable neighborhood search with encouraging experimental results

3D-printing for orthopedic treatment of infants with cleft lips and palate deformities

Background: Since its introduction by McNeil in 1954, infant orthopedic treatment of cleft lip and palate deformities has undergone a development into various directions. Depending on the plate design, different improvements of cleft morphology and oral function can be achieved and its application might be restricted to the time before lip surgery or extend for several years. Objective(s): Today 3D printing is assuming an indispensable role in the toolbox of surgery and dentistry. We present a stepwise workflow using this technology to build infant orthopedic plates. Method(s): A silicone impression of the cleft was taken in the awake child. Based on the digitized plaster model (L1 Scanner, Imetric, Switzerland)the plate was digitally designed to a thickness of 2 mm (Meshmixer, Autodesk, US). The plate was printed (Form 2, Formlabs, US)using biocompatible Medical Class IIa resin, which is suitable for long-term intraoral use (Freeprint splint, DETAX, Germany). Post processing consisted of removal of the print support structures, polishing, and fixing a wire, which has an acrylic ovoid alar extension at its end. Finding(s): The 3D printed plate shows equivalent fitting as compared to hand-made acrylic plates; the need for manual adaptation of the plates was minimal. Mean digital planning time was 20 minutes, printing time about 90 minutes. The material costs per plate are approx. 5 CHF, with initial costs for the dental scanner of 10`000 CHF and the 3D-printer of 4`000 CHF. Conclusion(s): The described process of on-the-spot medical 3D-printing represents a simple, fast, and cost-effective new workflow for the manufacturing of infant orthopedic plates, whereas the initial investment for hardware is not negligible. The traditional way is more time-intensive (textgreater 1.5 h longer)and requires a dental technician. However, in order to achieve a completely digitalized workflow, further development of intraoral-3D-scanners is required to improve their soft tissue detection. Copyright textcopyright 201

Low-cost underwater localisation using single-beam echosounders and inertial measurement units

Underwater robot localisation is challenging as it cannot rely on sensors such as the GPS due to electromagnetic wave attenuation or optical cameras due to water turbidity. SONARs are immune to these issues, hence they are used as alternatives for underwater navigation despite lower spatial and temporal resolution. Single-beam SONARs are sensors whose main output is distance. When combined with a filtering algorithm like the Kalman filter, these distance readings can correct localisation data obtained by inertial measurement units. Compared to multi-beam imaging SONARs, the single-beam SONARs are inexpensive to integrate into underwater robots. Therefore, this study aims to develop a low-cost localisation solution utilizing single-beam SONARs and pressure-based depth sensors to correct dead-reckoning linear localisation data using Kalman filters. From experiments, a single-beam SONAR per degree of freedom was able to correct localisation data, without the need of complicated data fusion methods.Nanyang Technological UniversitySubmitted/Accepted versionThis paper is done as part of the work conducted under the SAAB-NTU Joint Lab with support from SAAB Singapore Pte. Ltd, SAAB AB, NTU Robotics Research Centre (RRC) and NTU Sports and Recreational Centre (NTU-SRC)

Role of the dopant aluminum for the growth of sputtered ZnO:Al investigated by means of a seed layer concept

This work elucidates the effect of the dopant aluminum on the growth of magnetron-sputtered aluminum-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) films by means of a seed layer concept. Thin (<100 nm), highly doped seed layers and subsequently grown thick (∼800 nm), lowly doped bulk films were deposited using a ZnO:Al2O3 target with 2 wt. % and 1 wt. % Al 2O3, respectively. We investigated the effect of bulk and seed layer deposition temperature as well as seed layer thickness on electrical, optical, and structural properties of ZnO:Al films. A reduction of deposition temperature by 100 °C was achieved without deteriorating conductivity, transparency, and etching morphology which renders these low-temperature films applicable as light-scattering front contact for thin-film silicon solar cells. Lowly doped bulk layers on highly doped seed layers showed smaller grains and lower surface roughness than their counterpart without seed layer. We attributed this observation to the beneficial role of the dopant aluminum that induces an enhanced surface diffusion length via a surfactant effect. The enhanced surface diffusion length promotes 2D-growth of the highly doped seed layer, which is then adopted by the subsequently grown and lowly doped bulk layer. Furthermore, we explained the seed layer induced increase of tensile stress on the basis of the grain boundary relaxation model. The model relates the grain size reduction to the tensile stress increase within the ZnO:Al films. Finally, temperature-dependent conductivity measurements, optical fits, and etching characteristics revealed that seed layers reduced grain boundary scattering. Thus, seed layers induced optimized grain boundary morphology with the result of a higher charge carrier mobility and more suitable etching characteristics. It is particularly compelling that we observed smaller grains to correlate with an enhanced charge carrier mobility. A seed layer thickness of 5 nm was sufficient to induce the beneficial effects