Computer system for equipment management

A computer system has been developed to meet the requirements of equipment management. The system was originally developed to run on personal computers, but has been upgraded to provide true multiuser facilities and more advanced program capabilities. This has been achieved using improved hardware and a relational database. The manner in which the sofware operates is described, with some examples examined in more detail. The system provides a wide range of information, including inventory data, repair costs and time as well as service records and worksheets. In addition it meets the other basic requirements of the department, including wordprocessing, budgetary control and stock control. The system also provides an immediate and repid overview of the repair state of all equipment whilst reducing administration time for many aspects of the service. Emphasis has been placed on the integrity of the data and ease of entry of additional data.     

Risk management in the design of medical device software systems

The safety of any medical device system is dependent on the application of a disciplined, well-defined, risk management process throughout the product life cycle. Hardware, software, human, and environmental interactions must be assessed in terms of intended use, risk, and cost/benefit criteria. This article addresses these issues in the context of medical devices that incorporate software. The article explains the principles of risk management, using terminology and examples from the domain of software engineering. It may serve as a guide to those new to the concepts of risk management and as an aide-memoire for medical device system/software engineers who are more familiar with the topic.     

基于Android系统的医院设备共享服务管理系统

为了提高设备利用率,大多医院将部分设备集中放置于病区服务中心,供全院科室共享使用,但是设备的借用、归还登记依然采用手工模式,这种模式工作效率低下且数据统计难度大。为了解决该问题,本文设计开发了一套基于Android系统的医院设备共享服务管理系统。该系统利用二维码作为设备唯一识别标识,利用Android移动终端软件扫描设备二维码获取该设备基础信息,并通过Web Service接口从数据服务器中获取设备详细信息后进行共享服务管理操作。该软件系统采用Java+MVC框架开发,利用SQL Server 2008实现设备信息存储、共享。通过对徐州医科大学附属医院病区服务中心200余台设备的日常共享服务管理的实际应用与测试,该系统能很好的优化医院设备共享服务管理流程,提高了设备管理人员工作效率。     

Integrated software for probabilistic identification of microorganisms

A computer program has been designed to carry out microbialidentification using probability matrices along with the Bayestheorem. When implementing the system the main considerationshave been flexibility, user-friendliness and integration ofidentification coefficients and mathematical tests of matrices.The program has been developed in QuickBASIC for PC/MS-DOS operatingsystems and presents a menu-driven structure that aims to facilitateits use.     

An integrated software system for microcomputer management of recombinant DNA data.

A database-oriented system (pCP123) is described for the manipulation of recombinant DNA data. This system was developed within the context of an integrated software package with spreadsheet, database, graphing and programming capabilities. The system includes two databases, one of sites and another of regions, coordinately handled by a series of macro-programs operated from four user-define menus. A distinctive feature of the system is the possibility of handling both ends of defined functional or structural regions in situations of simulated deletions or insertions.     

完善国家公园管理体制的建议

建立国家公园体制是习近平生态文明思想的重大理论和实践创新,对于推进自然资源的科学保护和合理利用、促进人与自然和谐共生、推进美丽中国建设具有极其重要的意义.自2015年12月起,我国陆续启动了三江源、神农架、武夷山等10个国家公园体制试点(唐芳林等,2019;臧振华等,2020).国家公园体制试点承担着破解我国自然保护地...     

A watershed approach for improving medical image segmentation

In this paper, a novel watershed approach based on seed region growing and image entropy is presented which could improve the medical image segmentation. The proposed algorithm enables the prior information of seed region growing and image entropy in its calculation. The algorithm starts by partitioning the image into several levels of intensity using watershed multi-degree immersion process. The levels of intensity are the input to a computationally efficient seed region segmentation process which produces the initial partitioning of the image regions. These regions are fed to entropy procedure to carry out a suitable merging which produces the final segmentation. The latter process uses a region-based similarity representation of the image regions to decide whether regions can be merged. The region is isolated from the level and the residual pixels are uploaded to the next level and so on, we recall this process as multi-level process and the watershed is called multi-level watershed. The proposed algorithm is applied to challenging applications: grey matter–white matter segmentation in magnetic resonance images (MRIs). The established methods and the proposed approach are experimented by these applications to a variety of simulating immersion, multi-degree, multi-level seed region growing and multi-level seed region growing with entropy. It is shown that the proposed method achieves more accurate results for medical image oversegmentation.     

推行本科生导师制 提升医学微生物学教学质量

本科生导师制是在适应新时期高等医学教育培养体制下产生的一种"以满足学生个性发展和创新精神需要"为理念的制度,它在很大程度上克服了医学微生物学传统教学模式的弊端,体现了"以学生为主体,以提高能力素质为核心"的教学理念,充分调动了学生的积极性和创造力,增强了学生的实践技能和综合素质,切实提高了医学微生物学的教学质量,值得深入学习和推广。     

The EU medical device regulation: Implications for artificial intelligence-based medical device software in medical physics

Medical device manufacturers are increasingly applying artificial intelligence (AI) to innovate their products and to improve patient outcomes. Health institutions are also developing their own algorithms, to address specific needs for which no commercial product exists.Although AI-based algorithms offer good prospects for improving patient outcomes, their wide adoption in clinical practice is still limited. The most significant barriers to the trust required for wider implementation are safety and clinical performance assurance .Qualified medical physicist experts (MPEs) play a key role in safety and performance assessment of such tools, before and during integration in clinical practice. As AI methods drive clinical decision-making, their quality should be assured and tested. Occasionally, an MPE may be also involved in the in-house development of such an AI algorithm. It is therefore important for MPEs to be well informed about the current regulatory framework for Medical Devices.The new European Medical Device Regulation (EU MDR), with date of application set for 26 of May 2021, imposes stringent requirements that need to be met before such tools can be applied in clinical practice.The objective of this paper is to give MPEs perspective on how the EU MDR affects the development of AI-based medical device software. We present our perspective regarding how to implement a regulatory roadmap, from early-stage consideration through design and development, regulatory submission, and post-market surveillance. We have further included an explanation of how to set up a compliant quality management system to ensure reliable and consistent product quality, safety, and performance .     

SLIMarray: Lightweight software for microarray facility management

Background  

Microarray core facilities are commonplace in biological research organizations, and need systems for accurately tracking various logistical aspects of their operation. Although these different needs could be handled separately, an integrated management system provides benefits in organization, automation and reduction in errors.     

Toward improving postgraduate medical education.

Twenty-two patients receiving 5 per cent glucose solution intravenously during an acute illness were studied for evidence of hyperglycemia. Those in whom blood sugar rose above 100 mg per 100 ml (Folin-Wu) during intravenous therapy subsequently had impairment of carbohydrate tolerance as measured by oral glucose tolerance tests. The data collected suggested that blood sugar of 100 mg per 100 ml (Folin-Wu) or more developing in such a setting is a clue to the presence of diabetes mellitus.     

Integrated data acquisition system for medical device testing and physiology research in compliance with good laboratory practices

In seeking approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for clinical trial evaluation of an experimental medical device, a sponsor is required to submit experimental findings and support documentation to demonstrate device safety and efficacy that are in compliance with Good Laboratory Practices (GLP). The objective of this project was to develop an integrated data acquisition (DAQ) system and documentation strategy for monitoring and recording physiological data when testing medical devices in accordance with GLP guidelines mandated by the FDA. Data aquisition systems were developed as stand-alone instrumentation racks containing transducer amplifiers and signal processors, analog-to-digital converters for data storage, visual display and graphical user-interfaces, power conditioners, and test measurement devices. Engineering standard operating procedures (SOP) were developed to provide a written step-by-step process for calibrating, validating, and certifying each individual instrumentation unit and the integrated DAQ system. Engineering staff received GLP and SOP training and then completed the calibration, validation, and certification process for the individual instrumentation components and integrated DAQ system. Eight integrated DAQ systems have been successfully developed that were inspected by regulatory affairs consultants and determined to meet GLP guidelines. Two of these DAQ systems were used to support 40 of the pre-clinical animal studies evaluating the AbiCor artificial heart (ABIOMED, Danvers, MA). Based in part on these pre-clinical animal data, the AbioCor clinical trials began in July 2001. The process of developing integrated DAQ systems, SOP, and the validation and certification methods used to ensure GLP compliance are presented in this article.     

New directions for improving the management of agricultural soils

Idowu et al., in this edition of Plant and Soil describe a welcome new tool that allows farmers to optimize the management of their fields. It is based on a holistic approach that integrates assays of soil physical, chemical and biological parameters into an easily understandable, low-cost and quantitative estimate of soil quality or “health”. It can facilitate tracking and understanding of the short and long term effects of different management approaches on soil (and crop) health. Most of the assays used are based on traditional, labour-intensive techniques. The tool could be improved through employment of assay technologies that are under development. For example, Idowu et al., in this edition investigated the use of near infra-red spectroscopy as a replacement for some of the traditional soil assays. Similarly, future developments in remote spectroscopic assays, using satellite, airborne or land-based platforms may facilitate further improvement.     

ELBAMAP: software for management of electrophoresis banding patterns

ELBAMAP (Electrophoresis Band Management Package) is a 41-kbyteprogram written in Borland Turbo Pascal, which will run on IBMPC compatible machines. The program consists of 16 proceduresinvolved in data entry, calculation, comparison and graphicrepresentation of banding patterns. These procedures are selectedinteractively in response to a main menu and a series of prompts.Database files may be stored for subsequent analysis or additionof data. Pairwise comparisons of banding patterns may be storedas a similarity matrix suitable for use by other packages whichwill carry out multivariate or cluster analysis. The systemhas been used successfully for storage and comparison of plasmidDNA digest patterns analysed by agarose gel electrophoresisand seed protomer profiles analysed by SDS-polyacrylamide gelelectrophoresis. Received on April 11, 1989; accepted on July 4, 1989