“Nezačepljujuća” modifikacija pozicije konektora dvoslojne prolenske mrežice u hernioplastici muške ingvinalne hernije

The bilayer patch device (Ethicon, Prolen Hernia System®) for inguinal hernia repair has a connector that acts as a ‚plug‘ in the internal inguinal ring. The position of this ‚plug‘ component may be responsible for higher incidence of chronic pain and intestinal damage. We assumed that changing the position of the connector of a bilayer patch device (PHS®) and placing it medially in Hesselbach triangle would contribute to lower incidence of chronic pain and would not result in intestinal damage, with good clinical outcome following indirect inguinal hernioplasty. This retrospective study included 73 patients with 76 indirect inguinal hernias, who underwent the procedure of modifying the position of the bilayer patch device in the 2005-2015 period. The mean age of the patients was 57 years. Three patients had early postoperative complications (3.95%), two of which had postoperative seroma and one had postoperative pain. Three patients (3.95%) had late postoperative complications. One patient (1.32%) had chronic pain. There was one recurrence (1.32%) and one patient (1.32%) needed the mesh removed due to discomfort. The ‘plug free’ position of the connector of a bilayer patch device in patients with indirect inguinal hernioplasty is a safe procedure with low rate of chronic pain, no intestinal damage, and standard low recurrence.Dvoslojna mrežica (Ethicon, Prolen Hernia System®, PHS®) za reparaciju preponskih kila sadrži konektor koji ima ulogu “čepa” u unutarnjem preponskom prstenu. Pozicija ove “čep” komponente može biti odgovorna za kroničnu bol i oštećenja crijeva. Pretpostavili smo da će promjena položaja konektora dvoslojne mrežice (PHS®) i njegovo postavljanje medijalno u Hesselbachovu trokutu doprinijeti manjoj učestalosti kronične boli i da neće doći do oštećenja crijeva, s dobrim kliničkim ishodom nakon reparacije indirektne preponske kile. Ova retrospektivna studija je obuhvatila 73 bolesnika sa 76 indirektnih preponskih kila kod kojih je u razdoblju od 2005. do 2015. napravljena modifikacija postavljanja dvoslojne mrežice. Prosječna starost bolesnika bila je 57 godina. Tri bolesnika su imali rane poslijeoperacijske komplikacije (3,95%), dva serom i jedan ranu poslijeoperacijsku bol. Tri (3,95%) bolesnika su imali kasne poslijeoperacijske komplikacije: jedan (1,32%) s kroničnom boli, jedan (1,32%) s recidivom i jedan (1,32%) s ekstrakcijom mrežice zbog nepodnošenja. “Nezačepljujuća” pozicija konektora dvoslojne mrežice kod bolesnika s indirektnim ingvinalnim hernioplastikama je siguran postupak s niskim postotkom kronične boli, bez oštećenja crijeva i sa standardno malim brojem recidiva

Analysis of lot-sizing methods’ suitability for different manufacturing application scenarios oriented to MRP and JIT/Kanban environments

Goal: The main goal of this research is to analyse the behaviour of a set of ten lot-sizing methods applied to different application scenarios, within the context of more traditional MRP-based manufacturing environments and on JIT/ Kanbans oriented ones.Design/Methodology/Approach: After an extended literature review, a quantitative research method is used to provide a comparative analysis on the performance of the lot-sizing methods under different simulated application scenarios, with variations in demand and peaks of seasonality. Moreover, a final summary provides the error deviations for lot-sizing methods regarding increases in demand variations and seasonality indexes.Results: The study analyses lot-sizing methods and discusses benefits and risks associated to its use in application scenarios marked by a considerable variation in demand or peaks in seasonality.Limitations of the investigation: As the application scenarios did not explore variations in the ordering and stock holding costs, further analysis including these kinds of variations is encouraged.Practical implications: The findings of this research enable the enhancement of the conscience of industrial practitioners, regarding the selection of best suited lot-sizing methods for being applied on each kind of manufacturing scenario, regarding MRP or JIT/Kanban environments.Originality/Value: Given the diversity of the existing lot-sizing methods, for instance, the heuristic ones, authors can find it quite difficult to select appropriate methods for solving their problems for each kind of application scenario. Therefore, the present study can provide useful knowledge to better support decision making in the lot-sizing domain.This work has been supported by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2019

Scheduling and Batching in Multi-Site Flexible Flow Shop Environments

Global competition and the customers demand for customized products with shorter due dates, marked the introduction of the Extended Enterprise. In this Extended Manufacturing Environment (EME), lean, virtual, networked and distributed enterprises collaborate to respond to the market demands. In this paper we study the influence of the batch size on Flexible Flow Shop makespan minimization problem FFC vertical bar vertical bar C-max for two multi-sites approaches, the FSBF (Flow Shop Based Factories) and the PMBF (Parallel-Machines Based Factories). The computational study demonstrates how the performance of the PMBF model decreases with the increase of batch size and determines the batch sizes in which the performance is similar.This work is supported by FEDER Funds through the “Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade - COMPETE” program and by National Funds through FCT “Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia” under the projects: “Projeto Estratégico–UI 252–2011–2012” reference PEstOE/EME/UI0252/2014, FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-PEstOE/EEI/UI0760/2014.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

FHIRbox, a cloud integration system for clinical observations

With the recent technological developments new possibilities arise for the use of wearables and medical monitoring devices by patients and their respective integration into the digital health ecosystem. FHIRbox is a distributed system under development by the authors for integrating data from various diagnosis devices, complying with FHIR - the latest HL7 standard for exchanging clinical information. The innovative aspects of FHIRbox constitute a reference to drive a paradigm shift in terms of access to health information; as it is a solution that places the patient as the true owner of his clinical data. In this work the authors present the project requirements and the system architecture.- (undefined

Virtual Enterprise integration management based on a Meta-enterprise - A PMBoK approach

A Virtual Enterprise (VE) can be viewed as a project, with a lifecycle corresponding to the period between its creation and integration of the constituting elements until its dissolution, comprehending its operation and including its reconfigurations. The authors propose that the VE lifecycle is aligned and can be managed using the frameworks provided by several bodies of knowledge, such as the PMBoK Guide. In this paper the authors propose an alignment referential between the Project Management phases defined by PMBoK and management processes during the VE lifecycle.This work has been supported by (1) COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 (2) FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

P2P Web service based system for supporting decision-making in cellular manufacturing scheduling

With the increase of the Internet and Virtual Enterprises (VEs), interfaces for web systems and automated services are becoming an emergent necessity. In this paper we propose a Peer-to-peer (P2P) web-based decision-support system for enabling access to different manufacturing scheduling methods, which can be remotely available and accessible from a distributed knowledge base. The XML-based modeling and communication is applied to manufacturing scheduling. Therefore, manufacturing scheduling problems and methods are modeled using XML. The proposed P2P web-based system works as web services, under the SOAP protocol. The system’s distributed knowledge base enables sharing information about scheduling problems and corresponding solving methods in a widened search space, through a scheduling community, integrating a VE. Running several methods enables different results for a given problem, consequently, contributing for a better decision-making. An important aspect is that this knowledge base can be easily and continuously updated by any contributor through the VE. Moreover, through this system once suitable available methods, for a given problem, are identified, it enables running one or more of them, for enabling a better manufacturing scheduling support, enhanced though incorporated fuzzy decision-making proceduresAichi Science and Technology Foundation(PTDC/EME-GIN/102143/2008)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Analysing the correlation between social network analysis measures and performance of students in social network-based engineering education

Social network-based engineering education (SNEE) is designed and implemented as a model of Education 3.0 paradigm. SNEE represents a new learning methodology, which is based on the concept of social networks and represents an extended model of project-led education. The concept of social networks was applied in the real-life experiment, considering two different dimensions: (1) to organize the education process as a social network-based process; and (2) to analyze the students' interactions in the context of evaluation of the students learning performance. The objective of this paper is to present a new model for students evaluation based on their behavior during the course and its validation in comparison with the traditional model of students' evaluation. The validation of the new evaluation model is made through an analysis of the correlation between social network analysis measures (degree centrality, closeness centrality, betweenness centrality, eigenvector centrality, and average tie strength) and the grades obtained by students (grades for quality of work, grades for volume of work, grades for diversity of work, and final grades) in a social network-based engineering education. The main finding is that the obtained correlation results can be used to make the process of the students' performance evaluation based on students interactions (behavior) analysis, to make the evaluation partially automatic, increasing the objectivity and productivity of teachers and allowing a more scalable process of evaluation. The results also contribute to the behavioural theory of learning performance evaluation. More specific findings related to the correlation analysis are: (1) the more different interactions a student had (degree centrality) and the more frequently the student was between the interaction paths of other students (betweenness centrality), the better was the quality of the work; (2) all five social network measures had a positive and strong correlation with the grade for volume of work and with the final graThe authors wish to acknowledge the support of the Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, through the Grants "Projeto Estrategico-UI 252-2011-2012'' reference PEst-OE/EME/UI0252/2011, "Ph.D. Scholarship Grant'' reference SFRH/BD/85672/2012, and the support of Parallel Planes Lda.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio