A framework for industrial systems modeling and simulation

To successfully compete in a global market, manufacturing production systems are being forced to reduce time to market and to provide improved responsiveness to changes in market conditions. The organizations that comprise the business links in the production system must constantly make tradeoffs between time and cost in order to achieve a competitive but quick response to consumer demand. Due to the inherent uncertainty of consumer demand, these tradeoffs are, by definition, made with incomplete information and can incur significant financial and competitive risk to the organization. Partnerships between organizations are a mechanism for increasing the information in the decision making process by combining information from the two partners. Partnerships are inherently difficult to implement due to trust issues. A mechanism for investigating and validating the mutual benefit to partnering would be useful in designing and implementing partnerships. This paper describes the development of a software framework for industrial systems modeling and simulation. The framework provides a mechanism for investigating changes to industrial systems in a manner which minimizes the effort and computational power needed to develop focused simulations. The architecture and it`s component parts are described

Factors linked to severe thrombocytopenia during antiviral therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis c and pretreatment low platelet counts

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Baseline low platelet count (< 150,000/μL) increases the risk of on-treatment severe thrombocytopenia (platelet count < 50,000/μL) in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) undergoing antiviral therapy, which may interrupt treatment. The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors for severe thrombocytopenia during treatment for CHC in patients with baseline thrombocytopenia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Medical records were reviewed for 125 patients with CHC treated with antiviral therapy according to the standard of care, with regular follow-up examinations. Early platelet decline was defined as platelet decrease during the first 2 weeks of therapy.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Severe thrombocytopenia developed in 12.8% of patients with baseline thrombocytopenia, and predicted a higher therapeutic dropout rate. Multivariate analysis revealed baseline platelet count < 100,000/μL and rapid early platelet decline (> 30% decline in the first 2 weeks) were significantly associated with severe thrombocytopenia (<it>P </it>< 0.001 and 0.003, odds ratios, 179.22 and 45.74, respectively). In these patients, baseline PLT ≥ 100,000/μL and lack of rapid early platelet decline predicted absence of severe thrombocytopenia (negative predictive values were 95.1% and 96.6%, respectively). In contrast, baseline platelet count < 100,000/μL combined with rapid early platelet decline predicted severe thrombocytopenia (positive predictive value was 100%).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>For patients with CHC on antiviral therapy, baseline platelet counts < 100,000/μL and rapid early platelet decline can identify patients at high risk of developing on-treatment severe thrombocytopenia.</p

Exendin-4 effects on islet volume and number in mouse pancreas

The aim of this study was to evaluate Exendin-4 (EX-4) effects on islet volume and number in the mouse pancreas. Thirty-two healthy adult male NMRI mice were randomly divided into control and experimental groups. EX-4 was injected intraperitoneally (i. p.) at doses of 0.25 (E1 group), 0.5 (E2 group), and 1 µg/kg (E3 group), twice a day for 7 consecutive days. One day after the final injection, the mice were sacrificed, and the pancreas from each animal dissected out, weighed, and fixed in 10% formalin for measurement of pancreas and islet volume, and determination of islet number by stereological assessments. There was a significant increase in the weight of pancreases in the E3 group. Islet and pancreas volumes in E1 and E2 groups were unchanged compared to the control group. The E3 group showed a significant increase in islet and pancreas volume (P < 0.05). There were no significant changes in the total number of islets in all three experimental groups. The results revealed that EX-4 increased pancreas and islet volume in non-diabetic mice. The increased total islet mass is probably caused by islet hypertrophy without the formation of additional islets

Images in Medicine - A Variant of Poland Syndrome

A 30-year-old man presented with aesthetic complaints of weakness on the right side along with maldevelopment of right hand since birth. The birth history was uneventful. There was no history of exposure to teratogenic drugs. Seven other siblings were normal. The parents did not have a similar defect

Images in Medicine - A Variant of Poland Syndrome

A 30-year-old man presented with aesthetic complaints of weakness on the right side along with maldevelopment of right hand since birth. The birth history was uneventful. There was no history of exposure to teratogenic drugs. Seven other siblings were normal. The parents did not have a similar defect

Organoleptic assessment of halitosis for dental professionals - general recommendations

An organoleptic assessment of an odor is defined as a method that can measure the strength of target odors and expresses the value in terms of a point or number with reference to a pre-defined organoleptic scale. Organoleptic assessments are performed using different scales and are used widely in industry (e.g. for measuring the effectiveness of anti-odor agents), in research (to discover relationships between bad breath and microbiology of the tongue, or the generation of particular volatile compounds), but it is also a prerequisite for the diagnosis of halitosis in individual patients required before directing appropriate treatment. An organoleptic assessment of halitosis patients may be carried out in specialized institutions but--based on the fact that in most cases the odor originates from oral structures--also by dental professionals including general dental practitioners (GDPs). Thus, this paper describes the scientific background for recommendations on how a GDP or dental hygienist or general practitioner with cases of bad breath should use organoleptic methods as a valid approach to assess malodor in patients, with a view to diagnosis and treatment, and subsequent treatment monitoring

Study on the organoleptic intensity scale for measuring oral malodor

The 0-5 organoleptic scale is used widely in breath research and in trials to measure the efficacy of anti-odor agents. However, the precise relationship between odor scores and gas concentrations of target odorants is unknown. The purpose of this study was to relate mean organoleptic scores from odor judges (n = 7) for pure odorants (n = 8) representative of those found in oral malodor. Judges used a common 0-5 scale to report the odor intensity of sample sets in random order of concentration. Regression analysis of data showed that odor score was proportional to the log concentration of odorant, and comparison of slopes showed H2S to be the most significant in terms of odor power. Detection thresholds (mol.dm-3) were: Skatole (7.2 × 10 -13) < methylmercaptan (1.0 × 10-11) < trimethylamine (1.8 × 10-11) < isovalerate (1.8 × 10-11) < butyrate (2.3 × 10-10) < hydrogen sulphide (6.4 × 10-10) < putrescine (9.1 × 10 -10) < dimethyl disulphide (5.9 × 10-8). The study demonstrates the exponential nature of the olfactory response and shows that any single compound's contribution to malodor depends on odor power and threshold in addition to concentration

Bacteremia following subgingival irrigation and scaling and root planing.

The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of bacteremia after a single professional subgingival irrigation with a 0.12% chlorhexidine gluconate mouthrinse (CHX) as well as after a subsequent scaling and root planing (S/RP) during the same visit. Thirty subjects each with at least 1 site that probed 4 mm or more and bled on probing were randomly assigned to the following groups: 1) irrigation with 0.12% CHX; 2) irrigation with sterile water; and 3) non-irrigated controls. To begin the study blood was drawn just before and 2 minutes after irrigation. Thirty minutes later, blood was drawn again just before and 2 minutes after S/RP at the same site. Specimens were cultured for anaerobic and aerobic microorganisms using standard cultural techniques. Eighteen blood cultures from 15 subjects yielded positive cultures resulting in 23 isolates. Gram-positive rods comprised 34.8% of the total isolates; Gram-positive cocci 34.8%, Gram-negative rods 21.7%, and Gram-negative cocci 8.7%. In the CHX group, bacteremia was detected in 5 subjects after irrigation and in 2 other subjects after S/RP. In the water group, bacteremia was detected in one subject after irrigation and in 4 subjects after S/RP. The control group had 3 bacteremias after S/RP. There was no significant difference between the incidence of bacteremia associated with irrigation by CHX or sterile water (P = 0.141). There was also no significant difference in the incidence of bacteremia after S/RP between the CHX and sterile water irrigation groups and in patients who did not receive irrigation (control group) (P = 0.88).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)link_to_subscribed_fulltex