Ontological Representations of Software Patterns

This paper is based on and advocates the trend in software engineering of extending the use of software patterns as means of structuring solutions to software development problems (be they motivated by best practice or by company interests and policies). The paper argues that, on the one hand, this development requires tools for automatic organisation, retrieval and explanation of software patterns. On the other hand, that the existence of such tools itself will facilitate the further development and employment of patterns in the software development process. The paper analyses existing pattern representations and concludes that they are inadequate for the kind of automation intended here. Adopting a standpoint similar to that taken in the semantic web, the paper proposes that feasible solutions can be built on the basis of ontological representations.Comment: 7 page

The role of predictive genomic markers of colorectal cancer: review of literature

Catedra de chirurgie nr.1 ,,Nicolae Anestiadi”, Universitatea de Stat de Medicină și Farmacie „Nicolae Testemițanu”, Chișinău, Republica Moldova, Al XIII-lea Congres al Asociației Chirurgilor „Nicolae Anestiadi” și al III-lea Congres al Societății de Endoscopie, Chirurgie miniminvazivă și Ultrasonografie ”V.M.Guțu” din Republica MoldovaIntroducere: Cancerul colorectal (CCR) reprezintă o problemă de sănătate publică, cu un impact semnificativ negativ asupra morbidităţii şi mortalităţii populaţiei de pe glob. Depistarea leziunilor incipiente prin implementarea unui program eficient de screening ar reduce morbiditatea și mortalitatea în CCR, ar economisi o parte importantă din resursele care ar fi cheltuite pentru tratarea pacienților aflați în stadiile avansate ale bolii. Scopul: Prezentarea informațiilor recente privind rolul markerilor genomici în depistarea precoce a CCR. Material şi metode: Au fost utilizate bazele de date PubMed, Google Academic, Medline, Hindawi pentru a studia rolul unor markeri predictivi ai CCR prin analiza surselor literare ce au descris și testat diverse instrumente de predicție și diagnostic precoce pentru CCR. Rezultate: Prin analiza bazelor de date au fost selectate 46 de articole: 15 − dedicate metodelor clinice de diagnostic, 10 − referitoare datelor specifice de laborator, 11− privind secvențierea transcripților în sângele periferic și 10 − referitoare algoritmilor de screening. Astfel, s-au determinat corelații între manifestările clinico-endoscopice ale patologiilor colonului, predictoare ale neoplaziilor maligne. A fost demonstrată informativitatea markerilor genomici predictori ai CCR: CEA, CA 19-9, CA 242, CA 50, markerii moleculari, care contribuie la confirmarea precoce a diagnosticului și inițierea timpurie a tratamentului acestor neoplazii. Concluzii: Acest review evidențiază eficiența corelării metodelor clinice și biologice în diagnosticul precoce al CCR, ceea ce ar reduce nivelul de morbiditate și mortalitate, cât și ar ameliora calitatea vieții supraviețuitorilor.Background: Complicated colorectal cancer (CCRC) is a public health problem with a significant negative impact on morbidity and mortality. Detecting early lesions by implementation an effective screening program would save a significant part of the resources that would be spent to treat patients in advanced, incurable stages of the disease. Objective of the study: Presenting recent information on the role of genomic markers in the early detection of CRC. Methods and materials: PubMed, Academic, Medline, Hindawi databases have been used to study the role of CRC's predictive markers by analyzing literary sources which described and tested various predictive and early diagnostics tools for CRC. Results: By analysis of the databases, 46 articles were selected: 15 on clinical diagnostic methods, 10 on specific laboratory data, 11 on transcription in peripheral blood of subjects and 10 on screening algorithms for early detection of CRC. Thus, there were determined the correlation between the manifestations of the pathologies of the colon and endoscopic clinical predictors of malignant neoplasia. The informativity of CRC predictive genomic markers has been demonstrated: CEA, CA 19-9, CA 242, CA 50, molecular markers, which have contributed to the early consolidation of diagnosis and early initiation of treatment of this neoplasia. Conclusion: This review reveals the effectiveness of clinical and biological methods for early diagnosis of CRCs, which would reduce mortality and improve the life quality of survivors

Relative C*-simplicity and characterizations for normal subgroups

The notion of a plump subgroup was recently introduced by Amrutam. This is a relativized version of Powers' averaging property, and it is known that Powers' averaging property is equivalent to C*-simplicity. With this in mind, we introduce a relativized notion of C*-simplicity, and show that for normal subgroups it is equivalent to plumpness, along with several other characterizations.Comment: 15 pages; added preliminaries section, small correction to Theorem 5.8 (formerly Theorem 4.6), other small change

Secret Journey

pages 192-19

Improving Suturing Skills for Surgical Residents and Advancing Prosthesis Control for Amputees.

Proper suturing technique is one of the most important skills a surgical resident should acquire. However, current methods for teaching it rely on subjective performance evaluations. An instrumented training apparatus for abdominal closure could be used to define objective assessments that directly relate to closure quality. I identify a synthetic material that models abdominal fascia using porcine and cadaveric data and design a means to mount the material so that it mimics abdominal closure. Digital images are used to quantify material deformations and provide real-time objective measures regarding the effect of suture placement and tension in the abdominal tissue. In parallel, I develop a finite element model of abdominal fascia and its closure with suture to deduce stresses in the material and forces in the sutures. I find that despite uniform suture spacing, the forces in suture are unevenly distributed along the closure. These findings motivate the development of a surgical learning tool that objectively relays information about suture placement and tension. In a second body of work, I address the development of a novel interface between an amputee’s peripheral nervous system and a motorized prosthetic device. Conventional myoelectric control cannot produce a sufficient number of independent signals for actuation of modern computerized upper limb prostheses. A compact construct involving grafted muscle surgically prepared at the end of a transected peripheral nerve is envisioned for transducing a nervous signal with fine specificity and sensitivity. Up to 20 such constructs can be prepared in a human arm, and epimysial electrodes on each construct can be used to relay signals encoding 20 independent channels of motor intent. I develop a means of evaluating this construct in awake rats, and demonstrate that the transduced signals suffer minimal crosstalk and are correlated with gait. A decoder is able to reconstruct data produced by motion tracking, and I show that adjacent constructs placed proximal to one another provide the same signals as anatomically intact muscle-nerve antagonist-pair analogs. The correlation between the signals transduced, the walking kinematics, and analogous out of phase activation obtained from adjacent constructs indicates that this technology holds promise for human translation.PHDMechanical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/147635/1/danursu_1.pd

Impactul pandemiei COVID-19 asupra screening-ului cancerului colorectal

Nicolae Anestiadi Department of Surgery no. 1, Nicolae Testemitanu SUMPhBackground. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third type of cancer globally diagnosed. Detecting of the early stages would reduce mortality. Since the onset of COVID-19, medical resources have been redirected, resulting in a sharp decline in CRC screening. Objective of the study. Presentation of recent information on the impact of COVID-19 in the early detection of CRC. Material and Methods. Bibliographic sources from the Medline, PubMed, Google Academic databases for the years 2019 – 2021 were used to study the effects of the COVID-19 on the early detection of CRC. The search was perfomed by the following keywords: colorectal cancer, COVID-19, screening. Results. The processing of articles from online databases, in accordance with the search criteria, highlighted 63 works: 18 – dedicated to barriers in detecting of CRC, 11 – on the adaptation of screening methods, 14 – on open access colonoscopy, 12 – related to medical factors and 8 – to factors related to patients who blocked CRC screening. Thus, the negative effect of Covid-19 was determined by reducing the early diagnosis rate of CRC by 85%. The causes being: redistribution of medical and financial resources, limitation of endoscopic investigations, stopping of examinations and scheduled interventions. Conclusion. The COVID-19 has severaly disrupted CRC screening, and its adaptation requires the implementation of individualized screening strategies, more accessible and convenient options for patient compliance.Introducere. Cancerul colorectal (CCR) reprezintă al III -lea tip de neoplazie diagnosticată la nivel global. Depistarea stadiilor incipiente ar duce la reducerea mortalității. De la debutul COVID-19, resursele medicale au fost redirecționate, rezultând o scădere bruscă a screening-ului CCR. Scopul lucrării. Prezentarea informațiilor recente privind impactul COVID-19 în depistarea precoce a CCR. Material și Metode. Au fost utilizate sursele bibliografice din bazele de date Medline, PubMed, Google Academic, din perioada anilor 2019-2021, pentru a studia efectele pandemiei COVID-19 asupra depistării precoce a CCR. Căutarea a fost efectuată după următoarele cuvinte-cheie: cancer colorectal, COVID-19, screening. Rezultate. Prelucrarea articolelor din bazele de date on-line, în concordanță cu criteriile de căutare, au evidențiat 63 de lucrări: 18 – dedicate barierelor în depistarea CCR, 11 – referitoare la adaptarea metodelor de screening, 14 – privind colonoscopia cu acces deschis, 12 – referitoare la factorii medicali și 8 – la factorii legați de pacienți care au blocat screening-ul CCR. Astfel, s-a determinat efectul negativ al COVID-19, prin reducerea ratei de diagnosticare în stadii precoce a CCR cu 85%. Cauzele fiind: redistribuirea resurselor medicale și financiare, limitarea investigațiilor endoscopice, anularea examinărilor și a intervențiilor programate. Concluzii. Pandemia COVID-19 a perturbat major screening-ul CCR, iar adaptarea acestuia necesită implementarea unor strategii individualizate de screening, opțiuni mai accesibile și convenabile pentru complianța pacienților