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BACKGROUND: Autologous bone grafts, sourced from the iliac crest, are the gold standard for bone substitution in spine surgery. However, harvesting autografts increases the risk of postoperative complications. Bone allografts are another popular source of graft material, but their use is rapidly surpassing their availability. There has been considerable interest in manufactured bone graft substitutes, commonly referred to as osteobiologics, which mimic the properties of autologous bone and may be osteoconductive, osteoinductive, osteogenic, or a combination. OBJECTIVE: Osteobiologics have been developed to mimic the properties of autologous bone, but their high cost and variable effectiveness raise questions about their value. This article explores the challenges and opportunities associated with the use of osteobiologics used to aid in bone healing in spinal fusion surgery within a value-based care framework. Spinal fusion treatments such as bone morphogenetic proteins, platelet-rich plasma, autologous conditioned serum, demineralized bone matrix, biomaterial scaffolds, stem cells, and cellular bone matrices are compared. SUMMARY: Bone morphogenetic proteins are highly effective but often associated with serious risks; platelet-rich plasma shows promising results but lacks standardization in research protocols. Autologous conditioned serum is inconclusive and cost-effective, while demineralized bone matrix has variable effectiveness and limited data to use in anterior spinal fusions. Biomaterial scaffolds have limited application in the anterior spine but demonstrate high efficacy when it comes to spinal fusion. Stem cells demonstrate improved postsurgical outcomes but have low yield from bone marrow and potential risks associated with genetic engineering and cell therapy. Cellular bone matrices show promising results and have high fusion rates, yet there is currently no US Food and Drug Adminstration requirement for preclinical or clinical data before commercial u

BackgroundBone graft extenders are being used more in spine surgery as a substitute for iliac crest bone graft. However, potential conflict of interest could impact average fusion rates. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether fusion rates reported in the literature were different in papers evaluating bone graft substitutes and extenders when there was potential conflict of interest versus no potential conflict of interest.MethodsPubmed was searched for studies evaluating fusion rates when bone graft extenders including demineralized bone matrix, hydroxyapatite, and tricalcium sulfate were used. Studies were screened for one or two level fusions and for degenerative spinal conditions. The average fusion rates of subgroups were compared using unpaired Student's t-tests.Results1928 studies were evaluated. 86 studies were included in the study. The fusion rates varied from 4 to 100%. There were 24 studies with a potential conflict of interest and 62 studies with no conflict of interest. The average fusion rate of all the studies was 84.63% with standard deviation of 18.33%. The average fusion rates of those studies with conflict of interest was 80.93% versus 86.06% without conflict of interest. This was not statistically significant (p>0.07). The average fusion rate of studies evaluated by CT scan was 79.8% versus 87.9% without CT. The average fusion rate of studies that employed an independent reviewer to evaluate the fusion was 82.61% versus 85.63% for studies with no independent reviewer.ConclusionThere is a great variability in the reported fusion rates of bone graft extenders. Counter to expectations, average fusion rates were lower in the studies where there was a potential conflict of interest. The use of CT scans and an independent reviewer seem to account for the lower reported fusion rates, and may be a means of negating the potential conflicts of interest in fusion studies.Level of evidence2.

Field experiments were conducted at two different geographical regions viz., tropical region (Naraseepuram village, Coimbatore) and temperate region (Kookal village, Kotagiri, The Nilgiris) in summer and winter season’s to assess the bioefficacy of insecticides used against Diamondbackmoth (DBM), Plutella xylostella and their potential impact on natural enemies in cauliflower. The results revealed that the diamide insecticides like cyantraniliprole 10.26 OD @ 60 g a.i ha-1, chlorantraniliprole 18.50 SC @ 10 g a.i ha-1 and flubendiamide 20 WG @ 18.24 g a.i ha-1 registered more than 95 percent population reduction over untreated control followed by emamectin benzoate 5 SG @ 10 g a.i ha-1 and thiodicarb 75 WP @ 750 g a.i ha-1. Quinalphos 25 EC @ 500 g a.i ha-1and chlorpyriphos 20 EC @ 400 g a.i ha-1 were observed as least effective among the treated insecticides. The diamide insecticides recorded considerably less toxic effect on the natural enemies, especially spiders and coccinellids. Population reduction of natural enemies was noticed immediately after insecticide spray but it gradually increased and was recorded on par with the control population. Hence, cyantraniliprole 10.26 OD @ 60 g a.i ha-1, chlorantraniliprole 18.50 SC @ 10 g a.i ha-1 and flubendiamide 20 WG @ 18.24 g a.i ha-1 can be used as potential component in the integrated pest management against DBM in cole crops.

Firms must adapt to a business environment in constant flux. Economic and political factors and the constant interruption of new technologies force firms and organizations to change and to adapt, so that they are not left behind. Over recent years, the development of disruptive innovations has completely revolutionized past scenarios. These innovations break with what is already established and firms from various sectors face no choice other than to incorporate them into their project management portfolios, so as to ensure survival and business sustainability. Using MIVES methodology as its foundation, a business sustainability management model is presented in this paper for the management of disruptive innovation projects that a firm may wish to develop within a given sector. The management model is designed to facilitate disruptive innovation project management for firms within technological-industrial sectors, by assessing the sustainability of the project. The model is applied to two firms, one from the machine-tooling sector and another from the construction sector. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was performed, the results of which verified the validity and the stability of the proposed model.

Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) are considered to be one of the most energetic events in the heliosphere. Capable of inducing geomagnetic storms on Earth that can cause damage to electronics, a pillar which the modern society we live in leans heavily upon. Being able to accurately predict the arrival of CMEs would present us with the ability to issue timely warnings to authorities and commercial actors, allowing for protective measures to be put in place minimizing the damage. In this study the predicted arrival times and speeds from the Drag Based Model (DBM) and Drag Based Ensemble Model (DBEM) were compared to observational data from a set of 12 events containing fast, Earth-directed Halo CMEs and their corresponding shocks. Although DBM was developed to model CME propagation, varying some parameters allow it to be used for estimating shock/sheath arrival. The results presented in this study indicate that on average DBM performs best when the drag-parameter γ is in the range 0.2 ≤ γ ≤ 0.3. However the variability in the results show that determining a universal value of γ for fast CMEs does not increase the consistency in the model's performance. For completeness, further investigation is needed to account for not only halo CMEs. This will allow to test broader range of variation in the DBEM input parameters.

Bone defects have become a challenging health issue after extensive trauma, osteoporosis, and tumor extirpation worldwide. To enhance bone healing, bone grafts have been employed in clinical treatment for many years. Autologous grafts have been considered as the “gold standard” for the bone graft material, but their application is limited by the donor site morbidity. Demineralized bone matrix (DBM), one of the alternations of autologous graft, has been widely used for craniofacial bone repair. However, the application of DBM is compromised due to its rapid dispersion after the implantation and low osteoinductivity. In order to deliver and localize DBM, carriers with high bioactivity are in need to be developed. Chitosan has been proved to be attractive for researchers in the field of tissue bioengineering due to its high biocompatibility, biodegradability, and low immunogenicity. Besides, heparin, a highly sulfated polysaccharide in the extracellular matrix, possesses the typical structure which can interact with multiple osteoinductive factors to enhance and stabilize the biological activities of growth factors. Therefore, we synthesized a chitosan-based hydrogel with heparinized conjugation (Hep-MeGC), which can not only deliver DBM but also enhance its osteogenic activity. Moreover, upon the stimulation of BMPs (major osteogenic factors in DBM), BMP efficacy is significantly reduced due to increased expression of BMP antagonists like Noggin. Thus, the potency of BMPs in DBM may be enhanced through Noggin suppression. This study aims to investigate the new method by using Noggin suppression and Hep-MeGC hydrogel to enhance DBM-mediated bone repair.To suppress Noggin, human bone marrow stem cells (hBMSCs) were transfected with lentiviral particles that encode Noggin-shRNA. The methacrylate glycol chitosan (MeGC) and heparinized chitosan hydrogel (Hep-MeGC) hydrogel, were then prepared to deliver DBM and BMSCs with Noggin-suppression. The effect of DBM and Noggin su

Firms must adapt to a business environment in constant flux. Economic and political factors and the constant interruption of new technologies force firms and organizations to change and to adapt, so that they are not left behind. Over recent years, the development of disruptive innovations has completely revolutionized past scenarios. These innovations break with what is already established and firms from various sectors face no choice other than to incorporate them into their project management portfolios, so as to ensure survival and business sustainability. Using MIVES methodology as its foundation, a business sustainability management model is presented in this paper for the management of disruptive innovation projects that a firm may wish to develop within a given sector. The management model is designed to facilitate disruptive innovation project management for firms within technological-industrial sectors, by assessing the sustainability of the project. The model is applied to two firms, one from the machine-tooling sector and another from the construction sector. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was performed, the results of which verified the validity and the stability of the proposed model.

Mobile networks, especially LTE networks, are used more and more for high-bandwidth services like multimedia or video streams. The quality of the data connection plays a major role in the perceived quality of a service. Videos may be presented in a low quality or experience a lot of stalling events, when the connection is too slow to buffer the next frames for playback. So far, no publicly available data set exists that has a larger number of LTE network traces and can be used for deeper analysis. In this data set, we provide 546 traces of 5 minutes each with a sample rate of 100 ms. Thereof 377 traces are pure LTE data. We furthermore provide an Android app to gather further traces as well as R scripts to clean, sort, and analyze the data.

Global patterns of brain injury correlate with motor, cognitive, and language outcomes in survivors of neonatal encephalopathy (NE). However, it is still unclear whether local changes in brain structure predict specific deficits. We therefore examined whether differences in brain structure at 6 months of age are associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes in this population. We enrolled 32 children with NE, performed structural brain MR imaging at 6 months, and assessed neurodevelopmental outcomes at 30 months. All subjects underwent T1-weighted imaging at 3 T using a 3D IR-SPGR sequence. Images were normalized in intensity and nonlinearly registered to a template constructed specifically for this population, creating a deformation field map. We then used deformation based morphometry (DBM) to correlate variation in the local volume of gray and white matter with composite scores on the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III) at 30 months. Our general linear model included gestational age, sex, birth weight, and treatment with hypothermia as covariates. Regional brain volume was significantly associated with language scores, particularly in perisylvian cortical regions including the left supramarginal gyrus, posterior superior and middle temporal gyri, and right insula, as well as inferior frontoparietal subcortical white matter. We did not find significant correlations between regional brain volume and motor or cognitive scale scores. We conclude that, in children with a history of NE, local changes in the volume of perisylvian gray and white matter at 6 months are correlated with language outcome at 30 months. Quantitative measures of brain volume on early MRI may help identify infants at risk for poor language outcomes.

En este TFG se realizará un análisis y evaluación de las aplicaciones en Android y Windows para realizar driving test de medidas RSSI en redes WLAN, que permitan su exportación. Posteriormente se realizará un diseño de una campaña de medidas en dichas bandas, con enlaces radio móvil a portátil y móvil a móvil, haciendo uso de la utilidad WiFi direct (Android) o Compartir Internet (iPhone). Finalmente se analizarán las medidas, obteniendo resultados de path-loss y de fading en la medida de lo posible.

Explicar las unidades del Sistema Internacional más empleadas en las Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (TIC). Tanto en escala lineal como logarítmica. Identificar las unidades absolutas y las relativas.

Identificar las normas para interpretarlas y escribir correctamente las magnitudes en cualquier documento, haciendo hincapié en los relacionados con las Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (TIC). Se presentan definiciones, unidades, magnitudes y prefijos decimales y binarios

Identificar los organismos, internacionales o nacionales, que elaboran normas que describen la forma de escribir las distintas variables, unidades y símbolos empleados los campos científicos, haciendo hincapié en los relacionados con las Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (TIC).

Descripción de las normas para escribir correctamente cualquier documento científico, haciendo hincapié en los relacionados con las Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (TIC).

Insecticidal resistance studies against third instar larvae of DBM (Plutella xylostella L.) were carried out to know the rate of development of resistance from F1 to F3 generations in Karnataka population. The third instar larvae obtained from field were subjected to bioassay studies with tested against acephate, cypermethrin, spinosad, cartap hydrochloride and Cry2Ab toxin using leaf dip method to calculate LC50 values. The LC50 values of the insecticides were further used to quantify the resistance in P. xylostella of parental generation (F0) from Karnataka field population. The survivals from F0 generation were reared to next generation (F1). Resistance development studies was assessed from F1 to F3 generation with third instar larvae in every generation with a concentration that caused 80.00 % mortality for all the test insecticides and Cry2Ab toxin. Results revealed that ((0.17 folds) no resistance was developed against acephate in F3 generation. In case of cypermethrin 2.33 folds. Resistance studies further revealed that 1.50 folds resistance was developed against spinosad, 2.28 folds against cartap hydrochloride and Cry2Ab toxin 1.49 folds resistance was recorded in F3 generation. The rate of development of resistance from F1 to F3 generations increased in all the test insecticides and Cry toxin, except against acephate in Karnataka population. This data will be useful in the development of insecticide resistance management approach for DBM.

This dissertation investigates the advantages of procuring capital-intensive infrastructure services via Public-Private Partnerships (P3s or PPPs) – cost and time savings and; innovation and high levels of efficiency – accounting for these advantages by reference to the underlying legal provisions and principles that facilitate them; and in this process highlights two significant directions in which Canadian P3 law, policy and practice has evolved – the enactment of P3 legislation and/or the formulation of non-statutory P3-related policy; as well as the establishment of legal institutions that promote and/or facilitate P3 procurements. The dissertation also addresses key arguments raised against P3s, by reference to aspects of Canadian law, policy and P3 practice. The research methodology comprises a detailed review of legal and non-legal sources. The implication of the research findings is that, given the foregoing developments in Canadian P3 law, policy and practice, the key arguments canvassed against P3s are overstated and lacking in merit.

De toepassing van geïntegreerde contracten is in opkomst. Ze biedt voordelen, maar de toepassing kent ook nadelen. Voordelen ten opzichte van het traditionele model zijn ondermeer de verhoogde sturing op tijd en geld, maar daar tegenover staat een verminderde sturing op het kwaliteitsaspect. Er is een angstbeeld ontstaan bij voornamelijk kleine en middelgrote publieke opdrachtgevers, dat zij een verminderde invloed hebben op het ontwerp. Dit angstbeeld vanuit de theorie wordt onderbouwd in de empirie. Opdrachtgevers geven bij een geïntegreerde contractvorm, zeggenschap en invloed uit handen. De opdrachtnemer wordt in hoge mate verantwoordelijk voor het ontwerp én de uitvoering. De opdrachtnemer loopt hierbij risico’s, die traditioneel bij de opdrachtgever liggen. Het uitgangspunt van dit onderzoek is de toepassing van een geïntegreerde bouworganisatievorm. Één van de kenmerken van geïntegreerde bouworganisatievormen is de verschuiving van de verantwoordelijkheden van de opdrachtgever naar de opdrachtnemer. Opdrachtgevers zijn bang om hun invloed op het ontwerp kwijt te raken. Dit geld met name voor kleine en middel grote publieke opdrachtgevers. Deze opdrachtgevers vormen de doelgroep van dit afstudeeronderzoek. De hoofdvraag van het onderzoek luidt: ‘Hoe kan de angst van een verminderde invloed op het ontwerpresultaat, bij geïntegreerde aanbestedingstrajecten, worden weggenomen? Om de hoofdvraag te beantwoorden zijn er onderzoeksvragen gesteld zoals: waar komt de angst vandaan en is deze terecht? Hoe verloopt het geïntegreerde aanbestedingstraject? Wat is invloed voor de opdrachtgevers? Welke sturingsmiddelen zijn er voor handen? In welke fase kunnen zij hun invloed uitoefenen? En hoe gaan de actoren om met hun veranderende rol? Omdat de hoofdvraag zich leent voor een omvangrijke studie, zijn er kaders gesteld aan het onderzoek. Het onderzoek richt zich op: • de invloed van de opdrachtgever in de fases tot aan start bouw; • geïntegreerde aanbestedingstrajecten; • p, Real Estate & Housing, Architecture

Utilización del decibelio en la ingeniería. Utilización del decibelio para medir atenuaciones y ganancias. Utilización del decibelio para realizar medidas logarítmicas.

Supervised training from examples of a feed-forward neural network is a classical problem, traditionally tackled by derivative-based methods (DBM) that compute the gradient of the error, such as backpropagation. Conventional methods for non-linear optimization, such as Levenberg-Marquardt, quasi-Newton and conjugate gradient are generally faster and more reliable, provided the objective function has continuous second derivatives. Their main drawbacks are well-known, being one of the more serious the possibility of getting caught in local minima of the error surface. As an alternative, Evolutionary Algorithms (EA) have demonstrated their ability to solve optimization tasks in a wide range of applications. However, their use in the neural network context has concentrated on binary-coded Genetic Algorithms, often without a systematic approach and thus more than often outperformed by even simple DBMs. The result is that EAs are generally considered basically inadequate for this problem. In this paper the possibilities of the Breeder Genetic Algorithm (BGA) to solve the numerical optimization problem are thoroughly explored. A case study is developed and used to tune the BGA for this kind of task, by searching in the space of genetic operators and their parameters, on the one hand, and as a function of selection pressure and population size, on the other. It is found that specific configurations stand out over the rest, in a way that is consistent with previous findings. The importance of precising the relationship between the last two mentioned quantities is also highlighted. In order to assess to some extent the validity of the algorithm, a further batch of experiments is devoted to compare the BGA to a powerful DBM, a global method consisting of conjugate gradient embedded into a simulated annealing schedule. The results show a comparable performance pointing this evolutionary algorithm as a feasible alternative to derivative-based methods., Postprint (published version)

This thesis is in response to the annual requirement for departmental planning and scheduling of courses and instructors within all departments at NPS. This project thesis explains the process of analyzing, designing and implementing a web-enabled database capable of providing an effective and efficient tool for departmental planners. Using standard systems analysis procedures, this thesis provides a definition of the current business process, establishes an entityrelationship diagram for the desired process, constructs an operable database using MySQL, and provides a web-enabled interface for the population of data elements, creation of annual plans and reports for the extraction of decision making information., http://archive.org/details/analysisnddevelo1094537699, Lieutenant, United States Navy, Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.