Impact of environmental biofilms: Industrial components and its remediation

The growth of technology and requirements globally for various commodities has brought about new challenges. Biofilms are aggregations of microbial cells, which contaminate and spoil industrial components and environments. These microbial cells with extracellular polymeric substances colonize living and nonliving surfaces and pose a serious problem for all industries, affecting their processes, leading to a reduction of product quality and economic loss. Industries, such as medical, food, water, dairy, wine, marine, power plants are exposed to biofilm formation. Pipe blockages, waterlogging and reduction of the heat-transfer efficiency, hamper the operating system of plants. Many industries do not set up remedial measures to control biofilm formation as they are not aware of this threat. Various conventional methods to control these biofilms are adopted by industries in their regular workflow, but these are temporary solutions. This calls for further research into remediation of the biofilm and its control for industrial components. This review article addresses the problems of biofilms and proposes solutions for various industrial components. Nanotechnology promises several options, and bring about a new aspect into the industrial economy, by solving the problems of environmental biofilms.     

江苏省卫生地方标准工作现状分析

目的分析江苏省卫生地方标准发展现状，提出优化建议。方法采用数据库检索方式进行分析。结果江苏省卫生地方标准制定主体以卫生行政部门为主，技术标准数量较多。75.00%的标准标龄较短，标准更新较少。江苏省卫生地方标准以职业健康领域标准为主，存在总体标准数量较少、分类依据不清晰、缺乏系统性及全面性指导、第三方主体作用不突出、标准重制定而轻执行等问题。结论江苏省卫生地方标准在促进江苏省卫生领域发展，完善卫生健康管理体系方面发挥着重要作用。建议建立健全标准化工作政策法规，强化标准实施，建立标准专业化队伍，推动行业标准化工作发展。     

Inhalable Dust Measurements as a First Approach to Assessing Occupational Exposure in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Occupational exposure to active ingredients in the pharmaceutical industry has been the subject of very few published studies. Nevertheless, operations involving active powdered drugs or dusty operations potentially lead to operator exposure. The aim of this study was to collect occupational exposure data in the pharmaceutical industry for production processes involving powdered active ingredients. While the possibility of assessing drug exposure from dust level is examined, this article focuses on inhalable dust exposure, without taking chemical risk into account. A total of 377 atmospheric (ambient and personal) samples were collected in nine drug production sites (pharmaceutical companies and contract manufacturing organizations) and the dust levels were assessed. For each sample, relevant contextual information was collected. A wide range of results was observed, both site- and operation-dependent. Exposure to inhalable dust levels varied from 0.01 mg/m³to 135 mg/m³. Though restricted to dust exposure, the study highlighted some potentially critical situations or operations, in particular manual tasks (loading, unloading, mechanical actions) performed in open systems. Simple preventive measures such as ventilation, containment, and minimization of manual handling should reduce dust emissions and workers’ exposure to inhalable dust.     

White spots in pharmaceutical pipelines–EMA identifies potential areas of unmet medical needs

Unmet medical needs are a priority for organizations such as the WHO and major public–private initiatives, such as Innovative Medicines Initiative, were established to speed up the development of better and safer medicines for patients. To assist such projects, the EMA in its ‘Road Map to 2015’ considered the mapping of unmet medical needs as a priority. This study has identified medical conditions for which the EMA could not identify developments in the pharmaceutical pipelines, that is, ‘white spots’. Our analysis was made using external data sources as well as mining data of the EMA. The main areas for white spots were oncology, infectious diseases and certain psychiatric conditions. According to our data and a review of literature, in a number of these white spots, diagnostic tools may even be missing. The identification of those conditions will benefit stakeholders, including regulators, research funding bodies and patients’ organizations.     

基于 DEA Malmquist 指数的我国高技术产业创新效率分析

文章选取2006-2012年我国24个省、自治区和直辖市的高技术产业作为决策单元,将技术创新划分为技术创新开发和转化两个阶段,分别对其投入和产出效率进行研究。研究结论如下：从技术创新的两个阶段比较而言,我国高技术产业的技术创新转化阶段的效率值优于技术开发阶段;从地域分布来看,东部地区的技术开发和转化效率总体高于中部和西部地区;从时间序列数据来看,我国高技术产业技术创新两个阶段的Malmquist全要素生产率指数变化均经历了先降后升的过程;从整体发展的视角看,我国目前多数省份的高技术产业创新效率较前些年有较大幅度的提升,但仍有较大的改进空间。     

我国中医药信息化基础标准发展现状研究

中医药基础标准是中医药标准体系的发展基础和重要一环,也是中医药信息化建设的基础工作,具有普遍的指导意义。通过文献调研的方法,梳理我国中医药基础标准的主要内容,介绍部分中医药基础标准,指出现状与存在的问题并提出相应的建议。