ENHANCING THE CREATIVITY OF REENGINEERING Techniques for Making IS More Creative

Industries in the US continue to lose ground in international competition. If IS is to help change that trend, it will have to become more creative. Creativity improvement programs are being introduced in other areas of the company— now is the time for IS organizations to follow suit.     

The Donauspital-Stolzalpe concept (Danube Hospital, Vienna, Austria). Corrective osteotomy with selective labrum surgery following preoperative MRI arthrography

Concomitant pathologies (labral lesions, intra-/extra-osseous ganglia and stress bone marrow edema) in adult residual hip dysplasia (RHD) might influence the outcome of conservative hip surgery. The aim of our prospective clinical study was to assess the value of preoperative MR arthrography in diagnosing concomitant lesions and in making surgical decisions in RHD. The first 37 consecutive patients with a minimum follow-up of 18 months have been analysed. All 37 patients presented RHD with the clinical symptomatology of labral lesions and underwent routine preoperative MRA. According to clinical, radiological and MR arthrographical criteria, these 37 patients were subdivided into four therapeutic subgroups: (1) reorientation of the acetabulum using the T?nnis triple pelvic osteotomy (TPO); (2) intertrochanteric varisation osteotomy (IVO); (3) palliative decompression with only symptomatic partial resection of the torn labrum (PALL); (4) primary total hip replacement (TEP). Based on the preliminary clinical and radiological outcomes of these four subgroups, the following conclusions can be drawn: labral lesions are considered to be a sign of chronic joint instability. Therefore, acetabular malorientation should be corrected by redirectional osteotomy of the acetabulum (TPO-subgroup) even in low grades of RHD if labral lesions are present. "Palliative" labral resections without corrective osteotomy (PALL subgroup) in secondary osteoarthritis due to RHD are definitively obsolete, because they rapidly progress to severe osteoarthritis due to surgically accelerated joint instability. In RHD with highly osteoarthritic hip joints and concomitant lesions, one should not hesitate to perform primary THR even in young patients.     

Nano-structured solid oxide fuel cell design with superior power output at high and intermediate operation temperatures

A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with a thin-film yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte was developed and tested. This novel SOFC shows a similar multilayer set-up as other current anode-supported SOFCs and is composed of a Ni/8YSZ anode, a gas-tight 8YSZ electrolyte layer, a dense Sr-diffusion barrier layer and a LSCF cathode. To increase the power density and lower the SOFC operating temperature, the thickness of the electrolyte layer was reduced from around 10 μm in current cells to 1 μm, using a nanoparticle deposition method. By using the novel 1 μm electrolyte layer, the current density of our SOFC progressed to 2.7, 2.1 and 1.6 A/cm² at operation temperatures of 800, 700 and 650°C, respectively, and out-performs all similar cells reported to date in the literature. An important consideration is also that cost-effective dip-coating and spin-coating methods are applied for the fabrication of the thin-film electrolyte. Processing of 1 μm layers on the very porous anode substrate material was initially experienced as very difficult and therefore 8YSZ nanoparticle coatings were developed and optimized on porous 8YSZ model substrates and transferred afterwards to regular anode substrates. In this paper, the preparation of the novel SOFC is shown and its morphology is illustrated with high resolution SEM pictures. Further, the performance in a standard SOFC test is demonstrated.     

First experiences with the Polish Optical Internet

The paper describes the new development programme of the Polish information infrastructure. The programme, called in Polish PIONIER: (English—PIONEER) Polish Optical Internet, Advanced Applications, Services and Technologies for the Information Society, has been proposed to the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research and has been accepted. The aim of the programme is to create an advanced infrastructure together with tools, services and applications available to the entire scientific community and eventually to government and local administrations as well as society in general. Services and applications are expected to appear as selected pilot realizations in order to verify deployed technologies. Some of the pilot realizations and testbeds are also presented in the paper.     

Patient views of adverse events: comparisons of self-reported healthcare staff attitudes with disclosure of accident information

In the present paper, we report results of surveys in 2003 in Japan and Denmark about patients' views about adverse events, focusing on the actions of healthcare staff involved in a medical accident. Results show that patients were more likely to indicate negative expectations to a doctor's reactions after a medical accident when asked in general terms than when asked in relation to concrete case stories. When asked in general terms, 66% (47%) of Japanese (Danish) respondents expected that doctors sometimes hold back on providing information to patients about a medical accident, while 37% (7%) did so when asked about a concrete, mild-outcome case. We examine some possible reasons for the relatively high level of distrust of Japanese patients, and we discuss whether the seemingly lower level of disclosure in Japan than in Denmark and the negative stories in the Japanese press may have an impact. We also suggest some implications for introducing a patient-centred or customer-centred approach to risk management in healthcare and other domains.     

Creation of Superhydrophobic Electrospun Nonwovens Fabricated from Naturally Occurring Poly(Amino Acid) Derivatives

Creation of superhydrophobic materials bio‐inspired by nature fascinates many scientists. One of the most intriguing challenges in this field is the fabrication of these materials using biopolymers from the viewpoint of green chemistry and environmental chemistry. Here, superhydrophobic and biodegradable nonwovens are constructed by electrospinning from a naturally occurring poly(amino acid), poly(γ‐glutamic acid) (γ‐PGA), modified with a hydrophobic α‐amino acid, l ‐phenylalanine. The contact angle of a water droplet on the materials is 154°, and the droplet remains stuck to the material surface even if it is inverted, clearly indicating a petal‐type superhydrophobic property. Biodegradability and post‐functionalization of the nonwovens as well as cell adhesion on the superhydrophobic materials are also evaluated. As far as we know, this is the first report on biodegradable materials exhibiting a petal‐type superhydrophobicity. The material design and processing shown here can be applied to various bioresources and such functional materials will become a new class of functional materials satisfying some of the requirements in green science.     

盒子普及时代的家庭影院

到家之后,利用家里的大屏幕电视无疑更能发挥视频的震撼效果。我们需要什么设备?是最近炒得火热的电视盒子?还是利用手头不用的笔记本电脑?或者DIY一台小巧精致的HTPC?要不就干脆直接购买智能电视?电视的视频最佳搭档,究竟是谁?