Customized three-dimensionally printed mandibular external fixator

The advent of customized three-dimensional (3D) printing allows the affordable manufacturing of sophisticated medical devices, thereby providing swift and simple solutions to specific needs in modern healthcare. Meanwhile, certain devices such as industrial mandibular external fixators (EFs) have become less and less available from medical device companies because of decreased indications. What is more, their handling is often complex. The authors report, step by step, the original design and uneventful clinical use of a 3D-printed, customized mandibular EF. This device was designed together with a positioning and drilling guide for the fixation of a septic mandibular pseudarthrosis. It provided an adequate and satisfactory balance between lightness and rigidity. A simple, accurate and safe placement of the EF was achieved thanks to the skin-supported positioner and drilling guide, thereby making the procedure minimally invasive and time-efficient. To our knowledge, this is the first reported clinical use of a 3D-printed, customized mandibular EF to date. Because such 3D technology is becoming increasingly available to a large number of surgeons, the authors believe that the present innovation could become an alternative to reusable standard EFs.     

Why We Need Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and How to Make It Happen

We make the case for why continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing is essential, what the barriers are, and how to overcome them. To overcome them, government action is needed in terms of tax incentives or regulatory incentives that affect time.     

Current status and challenges of Additive manufacturing in orthopaedics: An overview

Additive manufacturing is a rapidly emerging technology which is being successfully implemented in the various field of medicine as well as in orthopaedics, where it has applications in reducing cartilage defects and treatments of bones. The technology helps through systematic collection of information about the shape of the "defects" and precise fabrication of complex 3D constructs such as cartilage, heart valve, trachea, myocardial bone tissue and blood vessels. In this paper, a large number of the relevant research papers on the additive manufacturing and its application in medical specifically orthopaedics are identified through Scopus had been studied using Bibliometric analysis and application analysis is undertaken. The bibliometric analysis shows that there is an increasing trend in the research reports on additive manufacturing applications in the field of orthopaedics. Discussions are on using technological advancement like scanning techniques and various challenges of the orthopaedic being met by additive manufacturing technology. For patient-specific orthopaedic applications, these techniques incorporate clinical practice and use for effective planning. 3D printed models printed by this technology are accepted for orthopaedic surgery such as revision of lumbar discectomy, pelvic surgery and large scapular osteochondroma. The applications of additive manufacturing in orthopaedics will experience a rapid translation in future. An orthopaedic surgeon can convert need/idea into a reality by using computer-aided design (CAD) software, analysis software to facilitate the manufacturing. Thus, AM provides a comprehensive opportunity to manufacture orthopaedic implantable medical devices.     

妇女叶酸增补中需要关注的问题

妇女围孕期增补叶酸能够有效预防神经管缺陷等疾病的发生。随着对叶酸研究的不断深入，叶酸补充中出现了诸多问题。本文简要综述了叶酸在服用方式以及基础和临床研究中出现的值得讨论、已经引起关注和需要进一步研究探讨的问题，并提出了深入研究叶酸可能的发展趋势。     

食品添加剂KAl（SO4）2中Al的吸收,排泄,蓄积实验研究

目的：探讨我国主要含铝食品添加剂——硫酸铝钾中铝的吸收、排泄和贮留的基本情况。方法：１．采用６月龄日本雄性大耳兔８只进行３天的代谢平衡实验。２．选用２～３月龄２１只雄性兔进行３２周的蓄积实验。结果：代谢实验表明铝的表观吸收率平均在１０％左右，约９０％的口服铝在粪中排出。尿铝随摄入铝的增加而增加，但肾排铝能力不足吸收的１０％。兔的蓄积实验证明在３２周实验后实验兔随铝摄入的增加其主要脏器均有不同程度的铝蓄积。其蓄积量的顺序为：骨＞肝＞肾＞脑＞心（３．８９～１０５．４６ｍｇ／ｋｇ干重）；蓄积增长倍数为：肝＞脑＞肾＞骨＞心（１．５１～４．５８倍）。结论：１．食品添加剂硫酸铝钾中铝的表观吸收率平均在１０％左右。尿铝随摄入铝的增加而增加，但肾排铝量不足吸收的１０％。２．长期大量摄入含铝食品添加剂可导致机体铝蓄积，其中脑、骨、肝、肾蓄积较明显。     

Effects of exposure to air pollution on blood coagulation

BACKGROUND: Consistent evidence has indicated that air pollution increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases. The underlying mechanisms linking air pollutants to increased cardiovascular risk are unclear. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the association between the pollution levels and changes in such global coagulation tests as the prothrombin time (PT) and the activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) in 1218 normal subjects from the Lombardia Region, Italy. Plasma fibrinogen and naturally occurring anticoagulant proteins were also evaluated. METHODS: Hourly concentrations of particulate (PM10) and gaseous pollutants (CO, NO2, SO2, and O3) were obtained from 53 monitoring sites covering the study area. Generalized additive models were applied to compute standardized regression coefficients controlled for age, gender, body mass index, smoking, alcohol, hormone use, temperature, day of the year, and long-term trends. RESULTS: The PT became shorter with higher ambient air concentrations at the time of the study of PM10 (coefficient = -0.06; P < 0.05), CO (coefficient = -0.11; P < 0.001) and NO2 (coefficient =-0.06; P < 0.05). In the 30 days before blood sampling, the PT was also negatively associated with the average PM(10) (coefficient = -0.08; P < 0.05) and NO2 (coefficient = -0.08; P < 0.05). No association was found between the APTT and air pollutant levels. In addition, no consistent relations with air pollution were found for fibrinogen, antithrombin, protein C and protein S. CONCLUSIONS: This investigation shows that air pollution is associated with changes in the global coagulation function, suggesting a tendency towards hypercoagulability after short-term exposure to air pollution. Whether these changes contribute to trigger cardiovascular events remains to be established.     

集成电路芯片生产的职业病危害特点

目的 研究集成电路芯片制造中作业人员的操作特点、接触职业病危害种类以及事故类型。方法 对集成电路芯片制造的生产流程、职业病危害及接触状况的资料进行收集整理。结果 根据生产流程中使用的设备及芯片制造所用原辅材料，论述了生产过程中各设备和操作工序涉及的各类高度、中度毒性化学物质、工艺特殊气体以及电离辐射和非电离辐射等职业病危害因素、作业人员操作特点和易发事故种类。结论 集成电路芯片制造中职业病危害问题值得关注。     

Semiconductor manufacturing: an introduction to processes and hazards

Recent studies suggest that semiconductor workers have an increased incidence of work-related illness. Semiconductor manufacturing is a chemically intensive industry involving many potentially hazardous operations. As this industry moves into new geographic areas, health care professionals will be asked to evaluate medical or workplace conditions associated with unfamiliar and complex production processes. This paper provides an overview of semiconductor manufacturing processes for these health practitioners. Each step of device fabrication is detailed with its attendant chemical and physical hazards. Broader concepts of industrial control technology, clean room ventilation, and ergonomics are explained. The hazards are tabulated to allow rapid assessment of the risks inherent to each processing step. References have been chosen to guide the reader to more indepth information.     

Sampling‐based estimation for massive survival data with additive hazards model

For massive survival data, we propose a subsampling algorithm to efficiently approximate the estimates of regression parameters in the additive hazards model. We establish consistency and asymptotic normality of the subsample‐based estimator given the full data. The optimal subsampling probabilities are obtained via minimizing asymptotic variance of the resulting estimator. The subsample‐based procedure can largely reduce the computational cost compared with the full data method. In numerical simulations, our method has low bias and satisfactory coverage probabilities. We provide an illustrative example on the survival analysis of patients with lymphoma cancer from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program.