A collaborative approach to combining service, teaching, and research

Objective. To describe a faculty-student collaborative model and its outcomes on teaching, service, and scholarship. Design. A Medicare Part D elective course was offered that consisted of classroom and experiential learning where pharmacy students participated in community outreach events to assist Medicare beneficiaries with Part D plan selection. The course training was expanded to include medication therapy management (MTM) and the administration of immunizations. At the completion of the course, students collaborated with faculty members on research endeavors. Evaluation. During the first 6 years of this course, the class size more than doubled from 20 to 42 students, and all students participating in the course met the IPPE requirements for community outreach. Over that same period, the number of beneficiaries receiving assistance with their Part D plan grew from 72 to 610; and with the help of students starting in 2011, faculty members had 28 poster presentations at national conferences, 7 invited podium presentations at national/international meetings, and published 8 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals. Conclusion. Through collaborative efforts, this model took an elective course and provided classroom and experiential learning for students, needed health services for the community, and opportunities to pursue wide ranging research projects for faculty members and students

The outcomes of reconstruction using frozen autograft combined with iodine-coated implants for malignant bone tumors: Compared with non-coated implants

Objective: We perform reconstruction using frozen tumor bone treated by liquid nitrogen after excision of malignant bone tumors. To prevent post-operative infection, we use iodine-coated implants that we developed. The purpose of this study is to compare the outcome of reconstruction using frozen autograft with non-coated implants (group N) and iodine-coated implants (group I).Methods: Sixty-two patients were included in group N. The mean age was 31.9 ± 2.3 years. A total of 20 patients died and two were lost to follow-up, averaging 20.0 ± 2.9 months post-operatively, leaving 40 patients available for an assessment at a mean of 79.1 ± 5.8 months post-operatively. There were 38 patients in group I. The mean age was 29.8 ± 3.9 years. The mean follow-up period was 32.1 ± 3.0 months. All patients were alive at the latest follow-up. Survival of frozen bone was determined by Kaplan-Meier analysis.Results: In group N, survival of frozen bone was 80.7 ± 6.0% and 57.4 ± 10.2% at 5 and 10 years, respectively. Complications were encountered in 31 of 62 patients (50.0%), including deep infection in 10 (16.1%), fracture in 11 (17.7%), local soft-tissue recurrence in 6 (9.7%) and bone absorption in 4 (6.5%). In group I, survival of frozen bone was 86.7 ± 6.3% at 5 years. Complications were encountered in 8 of 38 patients (21.1%), including deep infection in one (2.6%), fracture in four (10.5%), local soft-tissue recurrence in two (5.3%) and bone absorption in one (2.6%). There was a significantly lower infection rate in group I (P = 0.032).Conclusion: Reconstruction using frozen autograft combined with iodine-coated implants for patients with malignant bone tumor is very useful method in which good limb function can be gained with minimized risk of infection. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.Article number hyw065 / Embargo Period 6 month

Effect of Heat Accumulation on Femtosecond Laser Reductive Sintering of Mixed CuO/NiO Nanoparticles

Direct laser-writing techniques have attracted attention for their use in two- and three-dimensional printing technologies. In this article, we report on a micropatterning process that uses femtosecond laser reductive sintering of mixed CuO/NiO nanoparticles. The writing speed, laser fluence, and incident total energy were varied to investigate the influence of heat accumulation on the micropatterns formed by these materials. Heat accumulation and the thermal history of the laser irradiation process significantly affected the material composition and the thermoelectric properties of the fabricated micropatterns. Short laser irradiation durations and high laser fluences decrease the amount of metal oxide in the micropatterns. Selective fabrication of p-type and n-type thermoelectric micropatterns was demonstrated to be possible with control of the reduction and reoxidization reactions through the control of writing speed and total irradiation energy

Application of Adaptive Sliding Mode Control with an Ellipsoidal Sliding Surface for Vehicle Distance Control

This paper proposes a sliding mode control with an ellipsoidal sliding surface for vehicle distance control. The performance of two different sliding surfaces, namely ones that are ellipsoidal and linear, is evaluated under the same conditions. Each controller, regardless of sliding surface, is designed to achieve a similar level of control performance. It is shown through simulation that the sliding mode control with the ellipsoidal sliding surface proposed by the authors has advantages over conventional sliding mode control with a linear sliding surface, in that it is smoother and has lower energy consumption. Furthermore, a boundary layer width adaptation law is applied to prevent chattering

Cu Patterning Using Femtosecond Laser Reductive Sintering of CuO Nanoparticles under Inert Gas Injection

In this paper, we report the effect of inert gas injection on Cu patterning generated by femtosecond laser reductive sintering of CuO nanoparticles (NPs). Femtosecond laser reductive sintering for metal patterning has been restricted to metal and metal-oxide composite materials. By irradiating CuO-nanoparticle paste with femtosecond laser pulses under inert gas injection, we intended to reduce the generation of metal oxides in the formed patterns. In an experimental evaluation, the X-ray diffraction peaks corresponding to copper oxides, such as CuO and Cu2O, were much smaller under N2 and Ar gas injections than under air injection. Increasing the injection rates of both gases increased the reduction degree of the X-ray diffraction peaks of the CuO NPs, but excessively high injection rates (≥100 mL/min) significantly decreased the surface density of the patterns. These results qualitatively agreed with the ratio of sintered/melted area. The femtosecond laser reductive sintering under inert gas injection achieved a vacuum-free direct writing of metal patterns

Direct Writing of Cu Patterns on Polydimethylsiloxane Substrates Using Femtosecond Laser Pulse-Induced Reduction of Glyoxylic Acid Copper Complex

We investigate the direct writing properties of copper (Cu) patterns on glass and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates using femtosecond laser pulse-induced thermochemical reduction of glyoxylic acid copper (GACu) complex. The films of the GACu complex coated on the substrates were irradiated by focused femtosecond laser pulses using a low numerical aperture of 0.45. Under the same conditions, such as laser scanning speed and pulse energy, the width of the line patterns fabricated on PDMS substrates was larger than that on glass substrates. X-ray diffraction peaks of the patterns on glass substrates corresponded to Cu without significant oxidation. By contrast, although Cu patterns were fabricated on PDMS substrates at a scanning speed of 10 mm/s and pulse energy of 0.49 nJ, Cu2O was also generated under overheating conditions at a scanning speed of 1 mm/s and pulse energy of 0.37 nJ. All the patterns exhibited electrical conductivity. The minimum resistivity of the patterns on PDMS substrates is 1.4 × 10−5 Ωm, which is 10 times higher than that on glass substrates, indicating that microcracks formed by thermal shrinkage of the substrates during the laser irradiation increase the resistivity. This direct Cu writing technique on soft materials is useful for fabricating flexible microdevices

Effect of Heat Accumulation on Femtosecond Laser Reductive Sintering of Mixed CuO/NiO Nanoparticles

Direct laser-writing techniques have attracted attention for their use in two- and three-dimensional printing technologies. In this article, we report on a micropatterning process that uses femtosecond laser reductive sintering of mixed CuO/NiO nanoparticles. The writing speed, laser fluence, and incident total energy were varied to investigate the influence of heat accumulation on the micropatterns formed by these materials. Heat accumulation and the thermal history of the laser irradiation process significantly affected the material composition and the thermoelectric properties of the fabricated micropatterns. Short laser irradiation durations and high laser fluences decrease the amount of metal oxide in the micropatterns. Selective fabrication of p-type and n-type thermoelectric micropatterns was demonstrated to be possible with control of the reduction and reoxidization reactions through the control of writing speed and total irradiation energy