Five-year experience with setup and implementation of an integrated database system for clinical documentation and research

In radiation oncology, where treatment concepts are elaborated in interdisciplinary collaborations, handling distributed, large heterogeneous amounts of data efficiently is very important, yet challenging, for an optimal treatment of the patient as well as for research itself. This becomes a strong focus, as we step into the era of modern personalized medicine, relying on various quantitative data information, thus involving the active contribution of multiple medical specialties. Hence, combining patient data from all involved information systems is inevitable for analyses. Therefore, we introduced a documentation and data management system integrated in the clinical environment for electronic data capture. We discuss our concept and five-year experience of a precise electronic documentation system, with special focus on the challenges we encountered. We specify how such a system can be designed and implemented to plan, tailor and conduct (multicenter) clinical trials, ultimately reaching the best clinical performance, and enhancing interdisciplinary and clinical research.     

The Estimation of the Molecular Weight of Polytetrafluoroethylene Based on the Heat of Crystallisation. A Comment on Suwa's Equation

Summary: The influence of number‐average molecular weight ranging from 1.4 · 10⁴ to 1.2 · 10⁶ g/mol on the thermal behaviour of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) has been studied. Samples have been prepared by radiation‐induced degradation of commercial PTFE. The molecular weight has been calculated using end‐group concentration determined by infrared (IR) spectroscopy and ¹⁹F solid‐state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Melting and crystallisation heats were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results have been discussed with respect to quantitative relationships between number‐average molecular weight and heat of crystallisation of PTFE described in the literature. The molecular weight calculated from Suwa's equation, which is often used in the literature, has been found to be too low.

Concentration of end‐groups and the molecular weight of PTFE versus the irradiation dose.     

CO Oxidation on Anatase TiO2 Nanotubes Array and the Effect of Defects

The adsorption of O₂ and the CO oxidation reaction has been studied, by TDS and surface titrations, on a TiO₂ nanotubes (TiNTs) array which consist of a 80/20% mixture of the anatase/rutile polymorph. Molecular O₂ adsorption, influenced by defects, as well as CO₂ formation at low temperatures (～100 K) were observed.     

Mechanical Activation of Tetracalcium Phosphate

It was found that prolonged high-energy ball-milling of Hilgenstokite (tetracalcium phosphate, TTCP) resulted in a decrease in both particle and crystallite size, leading to a mechanical activation of the compound. This mechanically activated material demonstrated a high reactivity such that, in contrast to highly crystalline TTCP, a setting reaction with water to nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite (HA) and Ca(OH)₂ could be achieved at 37°C. However, crystalline TTCP is practically unreactive at physiologic temperatures because of the formation of a thin HA layer on the particle surface preventing further reaction.     

Synthesis of 2‐monoglycerides by alcoholysis of palm oil and tuna oil using immobilized lipases

Commercial immobilized lipases were used for the synthesis of 2‐monoglycerides (2‐MG) by alcoholysis of palm and tuna oils with ethanol in organic solvents. Several parameters were studied, i.e., the type of immobilized lipases, water activity, type of solvents and temperatures. The optimum conditions for alcoholysis of tuna oil were at a water activity of 0.43 and a temperature of 60 °C in methyl‐tert‐butyl ether for ～12 h. Although immobilized lipase preparations from Pseudomonas sp. and Candida antarctica fraction B are not 1, 3‐regiospecific enzymes, they were considered to be more suitable for the production of 2‐MG by the alcoholysis of tuna oil than the 1, 3‐regiospecific lipases (Lipozyme RM IM from Rhizomucor miehei and lipase D from Rhizopus delemar). With Pseudomonas sp. lipase a yield of up to 81% 2‐MG containing 80% PUFA (poly‐unsaturated fatty acids) from tuna oil was achieved. The optimum conditions for alcoholysis of palm oil were similar as these of tuna oil alcoholysis. However, lipase D immobilized on Accurel EP100 was used as catalyst at 40 °C with shorter reaction times (<12 h). This lead to a yield of ～60% 2‐MG containing 55.0‐55.7% oleic acid and 18.7‐21.0% linoleic acid.     

Sets of Globally Optimal Stream Surfaces for Flow Visualization

Stream surfaces are a well‐studied and widely used tool for the visualization of 3D flow fields. Usually, stream surface seeding is carried out manually in time‐consuming trial and error procedures. Only recently automatic selection methods were proposed. Local methods support the selection of a set of stream surfaces, but, contrary to global selection methods, they evaluate only the quality of the seeding lines but not the quality of the whole stream surfaces. Global methods, on the other hand, only support the selection of a single optimal stream surface until now. However, for certain flow fields a single stream surface is not sufficient to represent all flow features. In our work, we overcome this limitation by introducing a global selection technique for a set of stream surfaces. All selected surfaces optimize global stream surface quality measures and are guaranteed to be mutually distant, such that they can convey different flow features. Our approach is an efficient extension of the most recent global selection method for single stream surfaces. We illustrate its effectiveness on a number of analytical and simulated flow fields and analyze the quality of the results in a user study.