Global view on radiation protection in medicine

When planning good management of ionising radiation in medicine, key factors such as ensuring that health professionals work together and convincing them that radiation protection (RP) represents a substantial part of the quality management system in their clinical practice are of utmost importance. The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation has decided that one of the thematic priorities will be medical radiation exposure of patients. The International Commission on Radiological Protection has recently updated the report on RP in medicine and continues to work on focused documents centred on specific areas where advice is needed. The roles of the International Atomic Energy Agency, World Health Organization and the European Commission, in the area of RP in medicine, are described in the present document. The industry, the standardisation organisations as well as many scientific and professional societies are also dedicating significant effort to radiation safety aspects in medicine. Some of the efforts and priorities contemplated in RP in medicine over the coming years are suggested. The best outcome will be accomplished when all the actors, i.e. medical doctors, other health professionals, regulators, health authorities and the industry manage to work together.     

Rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing in medicine and dentistry

The fundamentals and latest developments of Rapid Prototyping (RP) and Rapid Manufacturing (RM) technologies and the application of most common biomaterials such as titanium and titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) are discussed in this paper. The issues while fabricating pre-surgical models, scaffolds for cell growth and tissue engineering and concerning fabrication of medical implants and dental prostheses are addressed. Major resources related to RP/RM technology, biocompatible materials and RP/RM applications in medicine and dentistry are reviewed. A large number of papers published in leading journals are searched.

Besides the titanium and titanium alloys which were established as bio-compatible materials over five decades ago, other biocompatible materials such as cobalt-chromium and PEEK have also been increasingly used in medical implants and dental prosthesis fabrication. For over a decade RP technologies such as Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and Selective Laser Melting (SLM) along with the Fused Depositing Modelling (FDM) are predominantly employed in the fabrication of implants, prostheses and scaffolds. Recently Electron Beam Melting (EBM) has been successfully employed for fabrication of medical implants and dental prostheses with complex features. In dentistry crown restoration, the use of thin copings of Ti6Al4V made by the EBM process is an emerging trend. This review is based upon the findings published in highly cited papers during the last two decades. However the major breakthrough in the field of RP/RM for medical implants and dental prostheses took place in the last decade. The fabrication of medical implants and prostheses and biological models have three distinct characteristics: low volume, complex shapes and they are highly customised. These characteristics make them suitable to be made by RM technologies even on a commercial scale. Finally, current status and methodology and their limitations as well as future directions are discussed.     

Development of training syllabi for radiation protection and quality assurance of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) systems

The use of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scanners for measuring bone mineral density (BMD) is on the increase. A single DXA scan is a relatively low-dose diagnostic X-ray examination; however, radiation protection (RP) issues should not be trivialised. One objective of the EU 6th Framework SENTINEL co-ordination action was to develop training syllabi in RP and quality assurance (QA) for BMD, and this study presents the results. An EU-wide survey was carried out which confirmed that there was a need for an accredited DXA RP training course in many EU states. There is also limited published guidance on acceptance testing/QA for DXA. Two training syllabi were developed: one on RP and one on QA of DXA systems. A training course was delivered in Ireland in 2006 by the Medical Physics & Bioengineering Department of St James's Hospital, Dublin. Following the training course, a PC-based training CD was developed and will be made available. A harmonised approach to training will promote consistent approaches to radiation safety across the EU.     

严重自然灾害医学救援工程管理探讨

探讨了严重自然灾害医学救援的工程管理,着重分析了这些严重突发事件医学救援的极端重要性和艰难性,以及汶川大地震医学救援的巨大成就和存在的问题,进而从宏观政策、医疗卫生和教育训练3个层面提出了进一步加强严重自然灾害医学救援工程管理的思考和建议.     

Practitioners education on medical exposure justification

The knowledge of practitioners on justification of the individual medical exposure was assessed during education and training programmes. A survey containing questions on this issue was used. The results show that the Good Practice Guide should be disseminated and studied by radiation protection training programmes and such kind of training must be extended to prescribers because they have to be involved in the justification process.     

基于 RE / RP / RT 技术人工骨的快速成形

介绍人工骨的数字开发流程,阐述各种快速成形技术(RP)在医学上的应用。通过医学三维重构软件MIMICS对部分头骨进行三维实体重构,并利用FDM快速成形工艺进行快速成形,以RP成形件为母体进行快速硅橡胶模的开发。实践证明,应用数字制造技术为修复体等医学产品制作提供了一种有效提高临床治疗效果和修复美学效果的方法。     

Educational and training activities in personal dosimetry in Greece

An individual monitoring programme is one of the main components of any radiation protection programme since it constitutes the mean for assessing and thus optimising the doses of occupationally exposed workers. The Greek Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) is the competent authority for radiation protection and nuclear safety in Greece. GAEC's educational and training activities in the field of occupational radiation protection at the national and regional (Eastern Europe) level are presented, along with the relevant activities of the University of Ioannina in the region of North-West Greece, as an example of a local education and training programme. The curricula of two postgraduate courses addressed to qualified experts and medical physics experts and mainly the modules dedicated to individual monitoring are discussed as well.     

Determinants of training and technique failure in home hemodialysis

Home hemodialysis (HHD) has clinical and economic advantages compared with in‐center conventional hemodialysis. Many health systems wish to broaden the population to which this modality can be successfully offered. However, determinants of successful HHD training and technique survival are unknown. We hypothesize that both medical and social factors play a role when patients fail to successfully adopt HHD. We examined characteristics of consecutive patients who initiated training for HHD between 2003 and 2011. Patients were classified as “failure” if they failed to complete HHD training or experienced technique failure (TF) within the first year of treatment. Remaining patients were classified as “success.” One hundred seventy‐seven patients initiated HHD training. In the “failure” group (n = 32), 24 did not finish training and 8 had TF. In the “success” group (n = 145), 65 (45%) patients remained on NHD, 49 (34%) discontinued HHD because of renal transplantation and 21 (14%) because of death, while only 10 (7%) eventually transferred to another dialysis modality. In a multivariable logistic regression analysis, the strongest predictors of “failure” were end‐stage renal disease because of diabetes (odds ratio [OR] 3.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.4–10.3, P = 0.008) and use of rental housing (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.3–6.0, P = 0.01). Both medical and social factors are associated with failure to adopt HHD. Enhanced supports or a customized education strategy for these vulnerable patients should be considered.     

产学研合作教育的实践与思考——株洲工学院产学研合作教育的探索

产学研合作教育作为一种新的人才培养模式，引起了我国高等教育界的高度重视，各高校进行了广泛的探索，讨论了产学研合作教育的发展与实践的基础上，提出合作教育成功的关键是完善管理体制和创新教育模式。     

Production of new 3D scaffolds for bone tissue regeneration by rapid prototyping

The incidence of bone disorders, whether due to trauma or pathology, has been trending upward with the aging of the worldwide population. The currently available treatments for bone injuries are rather limited, involving mainly bone grafts and implants. A particularly promising approach for bone regeneration uses rapid prototyping (RP) technologies to produce 3D scaffolds with highly controlled structure and orientation, based on computer-aided design models or medical data. Herein, tricalcium phosphate (TCP)/alginate scaffolds were produced using RP and subsequently their physicochemical, mechanical and biological properties were characterized. The results showed that 60/40 of TCP and alginate formulation was able to match the compression and present a similar Young modulus to that of trabecular bone while presenting an adequate biocompatibility. Moreover, the biomineralization ability, roughness and macro and microporosity of scaffolds allowed cell anchoring and proliferation at their surface, as well as cell migration to its interior, processes that are fundamental for osteointegration and bone regeneration.     

基于CITGR理念下的设计人才培养模式研究

随着全民创新活动的开展,设计教育再次获得人们的重点关注。为了应对时代的发展变化,对我国设计类本科教育培养模式发展提出切实可行的建议。分别从培养目标与教育意识、培养方法与手段等方面,对中外设计人才培养模式现状进行对比分析。揭示出了我国现有设计人才培养模式实效性及其与外在环境的关联性弱,缺乏知识交叉和融合引导,教学过程中的多学科协同意识与程度不高等问题,并从三个方面提出建议:以能力培养为导向,建立培养模式的自审调整机制;设置跨学科课程组,提高知识综合应用引导;推进校级、校企、国际协同课程,实现强化协同意识。     

Learning our lessons: the future of education and training inBritain

Britain has no acceptable future other than as a successful manufacturing nation; its position within the European Community of nations does not alter that fact. The extent of its success will be determined by the quality of the workforce, and that will depend upon education and training. The author reviews how the social and educational history of Britain has divided the nation and led to the present poor performance of its industries. The state of education and vocational training is contrasted with that in Germany, the key economic competitor. Proposals are made for the progressive improvement in position, based upon a coherent approach to schools, higher education and the provision of vocational training. The role that the Institution of Electrical Engineers can play in this most critical national task is identified     

Environmental effects in fibre fabrication using electrospinning-based rapid prototyping

ABSTRACT

The ability to construct rapidly artefacts with controllable architectures has made rapid prototyping (RP) an attractive alternative for scaffold fabrication in tissue engineering. Recently, an electrospinning-based RP, another in-house development RP technique, has been introduced. The technique applies near-field electrospinning for fine fibre creation and faces a problem on fibre solidification influenced by several parameters. Presented in this paper is the investigation on the effect of ambient parameters on the fibre fabrication process. Experiments were conducted to investigate the fabrication in open and closed environments as well as the influence of humidity. According to the statistical analyses of the results, the environment had slight effects on the fibre creation, and the fabrication in the closed environment is recommended.     

Industrial pressures for change in UK education and training

This article analyses industry's requirements of the education system and seeks to identify the factors which influence industry's long-term requirements for the education and training of its employees. It then identifies how these factors impact on the UK education and training system, with particular emphasis on further and higher education     

Pattern Recognition in Photoacoustic Dataset

In photoacoustic imaging, optical absorption properties of matter are imaged by detecting the ultrasound that is produced when the material is illuminated by a laser. For medical imaging, photoacoustics is a useful tool since matter in the human body has different optical absorption properties. In this study, pattern recognition systems are used to study a set of medical images for tumor identification and extraction—to detect the specific area in which the tumor is present. The objective is to incorporate this information into real-time image acquisition systems to improve medical diagnosis. Preliminary results obtained by studying the image dataset demonstrated the interchangeability of the proposed system. A system of automatic classification was constructed, using a set of images with and without cancerous tumors to evaluate the proposed method. The training set used was manually labeled, and the test set was never seen by the training set. The results helped us determine the feasibility of the proposed system.     

Intelligent layout planning for rapid prototyping

Significant savings in cost and time can be achieved in rapid prototyping (RP) by manufacturing multiple parts in a single setup to achieve efficient machine volume utilization. This paper reports the design and implementation of a system for the optimal layout planning of 3D parts for a RP process. A genetic algorithm (GA) based search strategy has been used to arrive at a good packing layout for a chosen set of parts and RP process. A two stage approach has been proposed to initially short-list acceptable orientations for each part followed by the search for a layout plan which optimizes in terms of final product quality and build time. The GA uses a hybrid objective function comprising of the weighted measures like part build height, staircase effect, volume and area-of-contact of support structures. In essence it captures the key metrics of efficiency and goodness of packing for RP. The final layout plan is produced in the form of a composite part CAD model which can be directly exported to a RP machine for manufacturing. Design methodology of the system has been presented with some representative case studies.     

环保型水切割胶粉对天然橡胶力学性能和动态性能的影响

采用环保型水切割胶粉及力化学改性胶粉（MRP）与天然橡胶（NR）复合制备胶粉-NR复合胶,并探讨了胶粉用量对复合胶力学性能和动态性能的影响。通过红外和热失重分析确定了胶粉的主要成分为NR和丁苯橡胶（SBR）,且改性后胶粉大分子链结构未发生明显变化。通过橡胶加工分析仪研究了胶粉用量及改性对复合胶加工性能的影响。采用炭黑分散仪研究并观察了胶粉在NR中的分散情况。结果表明,胶粉改性后与NR的相容性提高,二者界面结合力增大,MRP-NR复合胶加工性能改善。炭黑分散结果表明,胶粉用量越多,其分散性越差,改性后胶粉的分散性提高,MRP-NR复合胶的力学性能最优,拉伸强度为27.9 MPa。     

加强对大学生预备党员教育的思考

高等学校加大在大学生中发展党员工作力度后，存在重发展轻教育、重发展前教育培训轻入党后再教育的倾向，特别是对预备党员教育考察的长远性、系统性还不够。文章就大学生预备党员普遍存在的问题，提出加大教育培训的内容，以改善工作的途径、方法等，以求进一步提高大学生党员的素质，更好地发挥学生党员的先进性作用。     

The Stiles–Crawford Effect: spot-size ratio departure in retinitis pigmentosa

The Stiles–Crawford effect of the first kind is the retina’s compensative response to loss of luminance efficiency for oblique stimulation manifested as the spot-size ratio departure from the perfect power coupling for a normal human eye. In a retinitis pigmentosa eye (RP), the normal cone photoreceptor morphology is affected due to foveal cone loss and disrupted cone mosaic spatial arrangement with reduction in directional sensitivity. We show that the flattened Stiles–Crawford function (SCF) in a RP eye is due to a different spot-size ratio departure profile, that is, for the same loss of luminance efficiency, a RP eye has a smaller departure from perfect power coupling compared to a normal eye. Again, the difference in spot-size ratio departure increases from the centre towards the periphery, having zero value for axial entry and maximum value for maximum peripheral entry indicating dispersal of photoreceptor alignment which prevents the retina to go for a bigger compensative response as it lacks both in number and appropriate cone morphology to tackle the loss of luminance efficiency for oblique stimulation. The slope of departure profile also testifies to the flattened SCF for a RP eye. Moreover, the discrepancy in spot-size ratio departure between a normal and a RP eye is shown to have a direct bearing on the Stiles–Crawford diminution of visibility.     

Analysis of Key Technologies and Equipments Development of Largescale Melted Extrusion Manufacturing Systems

To develop large-scale RP systems used to producing functional parts and large-sized models has become an urgentcall now. In this paper, a large-scale RP system, MEM600-l, based on the melted extrusion manufacturing (MEM)process has been developed success