Models of ICT Innovation. A Focus on the Cinema Sector

The report starts by looking at the competing and overlapping definitions of creative industries, media and content industries. Chapter 1 investigates the fate of R&D and innovation in the creative industries and in the broader Telecom Media and Technology sectors. Chapter 2 summarizes past studies on innovation in distinct media and content industries (videogames, music recording and newspapers publishing) and draws some lessons from them. Chapter 3 delves more deeply into the specific case of cinema. This chapter investigates the film industry's complex and evolving relationship with technologies and technological inventions. Chapter 4 offers a short cross-comparison with R&D in the book publishing industry. Chapter 5 deals with policy issues triggered by the observed digital changes. Chapter 6 concludes with a brief assessment of EU strengths and weaknesses, and offers some recommendations.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Evaluation of Physical-Chemical and Microbiological Stability of Fluconazole Oral Suspensions for Hospital Use

Fluconazole is an important drug in the treatment of cutaneous and systemic mycoses. The Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre performs a derivation of fluconazole capsules to obtain an oral liquid formulation that is easily administered and whose dose can be adjusted. In order to replace the derivation for a formulation produced from an active pharmaceutical ingredient, this study sought to develop a liquid oral formulation, evaluate its physical chemical and microbiological stability and demonstrate suitability of the analytical method for the formulation assay. Seven different formulations of pharmaceutical suspension form were produced and evaluated for pH, viscosity, sedimentation volume and assay. The analytical method by High Performance Liquid Chromatography was demonstrated. Two most promising formulations were manipulated in the Farmácia Semi-Industrial do Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre and stored in amber PET bottles under three different conditions: room temperature, under refrigeration (2 to 8 ºC) and in an oven (40 ° C). Samples were collected after 0, 7 and 14 days to evaluate physical-chemical stability, assay, pH and macroscopic aspects. Samples were collected after 0 and 21 days to evaluate microbiological stability. It was possible to demonstrate stability for one of the formulations for a 14-day period. Throughout the study, the chosen formulation presented adequate quantification of fluconazole, constant pH, no organoleptic changes and no microbial growth. The results suggest the incorporation of a new formulation for fluconazole to the Farmacia Semi-Industrial portfolio)

Desenvolvimento e avaliação da estabilidade de formulações orais líquidas contendo baclofeno para uso hospitalar

A carência de formas farmacêuticas líquidas orais adequadas para uso em pacientes pediátricos e pacientes adultos com dificuldade de deglutição, constitui um problema de saúde pública, principalmente no contexto hospitalar. O fármaco quiral baclofeno é um relaxante muscular de ação central de escolha para tratamento de espasticidade em adultos e crianças. É comercializado no Brasil apenas sob a forma de comprimidos contendo o seu racemato, o que evidencia a necessidade do desenvolvimento de formulações líquidas de uso oral para facilitar o ajuste de dose, a sua administração e deglutição. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo desenvolver formulações orais líquidas contendo a matéria-prima do fármaco baclofeno, isentas ou não de açúcar, como alternativa terapêutica para pacientes pediátricos e adultos com dificuldade de deglutição, internados em ambiente hospitalar, otimizá-las através da abordagem do quality by design (QbD) e avaliar sua estabilidade físico-química, microbiológica e quiral. A matéria-prima do fármaco baclofeno foi caracterizada através das técnicas de espectrofotometria na região do ultravioleta, faixa de fusão, análise térmica por calorimetria exploratória diferencial e espectrometria de massas. Para os estudos de pré-formulação doze pré-formulações contendo baclofeno (5,0 mg/mL) foram submetidas a estudos de estabilidade preliminar por 28 dias, armazenadas em temperatura ambiente, avaliando-se aspecto, cor, odor, pH, viscosidade e ressuspensão pós-agitação a cada sete dias. Com auxílio do software MODDE® 12.1, foram realizados desenhos experimentais de varredura e otimização que resultaram em onze experimentos para cada etapa e avaliou-se aspecto, cor, odor, pH, viscosidade e volume de sedimentação de cada pré-formulação após a manipulação e a cada sete dias, por 28 dias, armazenadas em temperatura ambiente. Um método analítico por cromatografia líquida de alta eficiência (CLAE) foi desenvolvido para determinação quantitativa do baclofeno nas formulações e apresentou linearidade, limite de detecção de 0,09 μg/mL e de quantificação de 0,26 μg/mL, precisão, exatidão e robustez, além de caráter indicativo de estabilidade. Foi desenvolvida metodologia analítica por CLAE quiral para determinação quantitativa dos enantiômeros do fármaco. Nos estudos de estabilidade preliminar, as pré-formulações apresentaram variações de acordo com os limites especificados para os parâmetros avaliados. O delineamento experimental conduziu para duas formulações otimizadas, a primeira 10 denominada de Formulação XS contendo os excipientes glicerina, sorbato de potássio, ácido cítrico, água ultrapura, aroma e xarope simples e a segunda, a Formulação CMC, contendo glicerina, sorbato de potássio, ácido cítrico, sucralose, água ultrapura, aroma e solução de carboximetilcelulose sódica. As formulações foram acondicionadas em frascos de vidro âmbar e submetidas a estudo de estabilidade físico-química, microbiológica e quiral, sendo armazenadas em temperatura ambiente (15-30 °C), sob refrigeração (2-8 °C) e em estufa (40 ºC) durante 84 dias. Ambas as formulações apresentaram estabilidade físico-química e microbiológica quando armazenadas em temperatura ambiente e sob refrigeração e estabilidade quiral nas três temperaturas avaliadas até 84 dias. Os resultados deste estudo poderão servir de referência no preparo de formulações orais líquidas contendo baclofeno na rotina hospitalar e colaborar com a segurança e adesão ao tratamento de pacientes adultos e pediátricos.The lack of oral liquid pharmaceutical forms suitable for use in pediatric patients and adult patients with difficulty in swallowing is a public health problem, especially in the hospital context. The chiral drug baclofen is a centrally acting muscle relaxant of choice for treating spasticity in adults and children. It is marketed in Brazil only in the tablets form containing its racemate, which highlights the need to develop liquid formulations for oral use to facilitate dose adjustment, administration, and swallowing. The present study aimed to develop oral liquid formulations containing the raw material of the drug baclofen, free or not of sugar, as a therapeutic alternative for pediatric patients or adults with swallowing difficulties, interned in a hospital environment, optimize them through the quality by design (QbD) approach and evaluate its physicochemical, microbiological, and chiral stability. For the preformulation studies twelve pre-formulations containing baclofen (5.0 mg/mL) were stored at room temperature and subjected to preliminary stability studies for 28 days, evaluating appearance, color, odor, pH, viscosity, and post-agitation resuspension every seven days. With the aid of the MODDE® 12.1 software, screening and optimization experimental designs were performed, which resulted in eleven experiments for each step and the appearance, color, odor, pH, viscosity, and sedimentation volume of each preformulation were evaluated after handling and every seven days, for 28 days, stored at room temperature. A stability-indicating method by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was developed for quantitative determination of baclofen in the formulations and presented linearity, limit of detection of 0.09 μg/mL and quantification of 0.26 μg/mL, precision, accuracy, and robustness. An analytical methodology was developed by chiral HPLC for quantitative determination of drug enantiomers. In preliminary stability studies, the preformulations showed variations within the limits specified for the evaluated parameters. The experimental design led to two optimized formulations, the first called SS Formulation containing the excipients glycerin, potassium sorbate, citric acid, ultrapure water, aroma, and sucrose syrup and the second, the CMC Formulation, containing glycerin, potassium sorbate, citric acid, sucralose, ultrapure water, flavor, and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose solution. The formulations were placed in amber glass flasks and subjected to a physicochemical, microbiological, and chiral stability study, being stored at room temperature (15-30 °C), under 12 refrigeration (2-8 °C) and in an oven (40 °C) for 84 days. Both formulations showed physicochemical and microbiological stability when stored at room temperature and under refrigeration and chiral stability at the three temperatures evaluated, up to 84 days. The results of this study may serve as a reference in the preparation of liquid oral formulations containing baclofen in the hospital routine and collaborate with the safety and adherence to the treatment of adult and pediatric patients

Characterization of Automotive Paint Clear Coats by Ultraviolet Absorption Microspectrophotometry with Subsequent Chemometric Analysis

Clear coats have been a staple in automobile paints for almost thirty years and are of forensic interest when comparing transferred and native paints. However, the ultraviolet (UV) absorbers in these paint layers are not typically characterized using UV microspectrophotometry, nor are the results studied using multivariate statistical methods. In this study, measurements were carried out by UV microspectrophotometry on 71 samples from American and Australian automobiles, with subsequent chemometric analysis of the absorbance spectra. Sample preparation proved to be vital in obtaining accurate absorbance spectra and a method involving peeling the clear coat layer and not using a mounting medium was preferred. Agglomerative hierarchical clustering indicated three main groups of spectra, corresponding to spectra with one, two, and three maxima. Principal components analysis confirmed this clustering and the factor loadings indicated that a substantial proportion of the variance in the data set originated from specific spectral regions (230–265 nm, 275–285 nm, and 300–370 nm). The three classes were well differentiated using discriminant analysis, where the cross-validation accuracy was 91.6% and the external validation accuracy was 81.1%. However, results showed no correlation between the make, model, and year of the automobiles

Flow structure and near-field dispersion in arrays of building-like obstacles

Dispersion in the near-field region of localised releases in urban areas is difficult to predict because of the strong influence of individual buildings. Effects include upstream dispersion, trapping of material into building wakes and enhanced concentration fluctuations. As a result, concentration patterns are highly variable in time and mean profiles in the near field are strongly non-Gaussian. These aspects of near-field dispersion are documented by analysing data from direct numerical simulations in arrays of building-like obstacles and are related to the underlying flow structure. The mean flow structure around the buildings is found to exert a strong influence over the dispersion of material in the near field. Diverging streamlines around buildings enhance lateral dispersion. Entrainment of material into building wakes in the very near field gives rise to secondary sources, which then affect the subsequent dispersion pattern. High levels of concentration fluctuations are also found in this very near field; the fluctuation intensity is of order 2 to 5

Compliance with a structured bedside handover protocol : an observational, multicentred study

Backgrounth Bedside handover is the delivery of the nurse-to-nurse shift handover at the patient's bedside. The method is increasingly used in nursing, but the evidence concerning the implementation process and compliance to the method is limited. Objectives: To determine the compliance with a structured bedside handover protocol following ISBARR and if there were differences in compliance between wards. Design: A multicentred observational study with unannounced and non-participatory observations (n = 638) one month after the implementation of a structured bedside handover protocol. Settings and participants: Observations of individual patient handovers between nurses from the morning shift and the afternoon shift in 12 nursing wards in seven hospitals in Flanders, Belgium. Methods: A tailored and structured bedside handover protocol following ISBARR was developed, and nurses were trained accordingly. One month after implementation, a minimum of 50 observations were performed with a checklist, in each participating ward. To enhance reliability, 20% of the observations were conducted by two researchers, and inter-rater agreement was calculated. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVAs and multilevel analysis. Results: Average compliance rates to the structured content protocol during bedside handovers were high (83.63%; SD 11.44%), and length of stay, the type of ward and the nursing care model were influencing contextual factors. Items that were most often omitted included identification of the patient (46.27%), the introduction of nurses (36.51%), hand hygiene (35.89%), actively involving the patient (34.44%), and using the call light (21.37%). Items concerning the exchange of clinical information (e.g., test results, reason for admittance, diagnoses) were omitted less (8.09%-1.45%). Absence of the patients (27.29%) and staffing issues (26.70%) accounted for more than half of the non-executed bedside handovers. On average, a bedside handover took 146 s per patient. Conclusions: When the bedside handover was delivered, compliance to the structured content was high, indicating that the execution of a bedside handover is a feasible step for nurses. The compliance rate was influenced by the patient's length of stay, the nursing care model and the type of ward, but their influence was limited. Future implementation projects on bedside handover should focus sufficiently on standard hospital procedures and patient involvement. According to the nurses, there was however a high number of situations where bedside handovers could not be delivered, perhaps indicating a reluctance in practice to use bedside handovers

A lensed radio jet at milli-arcsecond resolution II: Constraints on fuzzy dark matter from an extended gravitational arc

Using a single gravitational lens system observed at $\lesssim5$ milli-arcsecond resolution with very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), we place a lower bound on the mass of the fuzzy dark matter (FDM) particle, ruling out $m_\chi \leq 4.4\times10^{-21}~\mathrm{eV}$ with a 20:1 posterior odds ratio relative to a smooth lens model. We generalize our result to non-scalar and multiple-field models, such as vector FDM, with $m_{\chi,\mathrm{vec}} > 1.4 \times 10^{-21}~\mathrm{eV}$. Due to the extended source structure and high angular resolution of the observation, our analysis is directly sensitive to the presence of granule structures in the main dark matter halo of the lens, which is the most generic prediction of FDM theories. A model based on well-understood physics of ultra-light dark matter fields in a gravitational potential well makes our result robust to a wide range of assumed dark matter fractions and velocity dispersions in the lens galaxy. Our result is competitive with other lower bounds on $m_\chi$ from past analyses, which rely on intermediate modelling of structure formation and/or baryonic effects. Higher resolution observations taken at 10 to 100 GHz could improve our constraints by up to 2 orders of magnitude in the future.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Accepted in MNRAS Letter