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[Introduction] Guidelines have improved the management of prosthetic joint infections (PJI). However, it is necessary to reassess the incidence and risk factors for treatment failure (TF) of Staphylococcus aureus PJI (SA-PJI) including functional loss, which has so far been neglected as an outcome., [Methods] A retrospective cohort study of SA-PJI was performed in 19 European hospitals between 2014 and 2016. The outcome variable was TF, including related mortality, clinical failure and functional loss both after the initial surgical procedure and after all procedures at 18 months. Predictors of TF were identified by logistic regression. Landmark analysis was used to avoid immortal time bias with rifampicin when debridement, antibiotics and implant retention (DAIR) was performed., [Results] One hundred twenty cases of SA-PJI were included. TF rates after the first and all surgical procedures performed were 32.8% and 24.2%, respectively. After all procedures, functional loss was 6.0% for DAIR and 17.2% for prosthesis removal. Variables independently associated with TF for the first procedure were Charlson ≥ 2, haemoglobin 30 kg/m2 and delay of DAIR, while rifampicin use was protective. For all procedures, the variables associated with TF were haemoglobin, [Conclusions] TF remains common in SA-PJI. Functional loss accounted for a substantial proportion of treatment failures, particularly after prosthesis removal. Use of rifampicin after DAIR was associated with a protective effect. Among the risk factors identified, anaemia and obesity have not frequently been reported in previous studies., [Trial registration] This study is registered at clinicaltrials.gov, registration no. NCT03826108., This work was supported by the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking (grant agreement No. 115523), COMBACTE-NET consortium (European Union FP7/2007–2013 and GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals SA, as EFPIA partner). R.E, L.S, O. M, R. E-S, J. L–T, J. P, J. R-B and MD. del T are members of the Spanish Network for Research in Infectious Diseases (REIPI), supported by Plan Nacional de I + D + i 2013‐2016 and Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Subdirección General de Redes y Centros de Investigación Cooperativa, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Spanish Network for Research in Infectious Diseases (REIPI RD16/0016/0001; 0002; 0005; 0009; 0011; 0015), co‐ financed by European Development Regional Fund “A way to achieve Europe”, Operative Program Intelligence Growth 2014‐2020.

Modelomics approach allows modelling and understanding of the mechanisms regulating living complex systems using computational and experimental models. Here, our aim was to highlight recent cancer models with the focus on bioengineering tool box to study bone metastasis cascade. Bone is a common site for cancer metastasis. In the last few decades, various in vitro and in vivo models have been used to provide insights into the treatment of human cancer bone metastasis. Despite significant advances into the understanding of molecular and cellular mechanisms of cancer bone metastasis using traditional models, recent studies reported the functional failure of the new drugs when tested in humans and demonstrated the inability of current bone metastasis models to mimic corresponding human disease. The failure of cancer treatments highlights the importance of reviewing the efficiency and efficacy of current modelomics to accurately investigate bone metastasis. Development of innovative cancer bone metastasis models is an essential step to develop new therapies or investigate the feasibility of current treatments. The emergence of bone on chip, tissue engineering of humanized mouse models has the potential to overcome the limitation of current platforms by better recapitulation of the cancer bone metastasis.

This paper addresses the issue of PM scheduling for a complex mechanical with different failure modes. Unlike conventional studies which only consider a single failure mode without prior health information, our work jointly optimizes the failure time estimation and maintenance scheduling for mechanical systems under different failure modes. The proposed approach considers the failure modes which are fatal to the system function and performance. Firstly, the fatal failure modes are identified and divided into two types: the degraded and functional failure modes. The former indicates the one that has an explicit detectable degradation process till the predefined failure threshold is exceeded, while the latter indicates the failure modes that occur suddenly. For both types of failure modes, approaches of failure time estimation are presented to provide the actual health status information for maintenance scheduling. Afterwards, the maintenance scheduling problem is formulated on the estimated failure time distributions of the multiple failure modes. The integer-constrained genetic algorithm (GA) is adopted to optimize the preventive maintenance scheduling by minimizing the life-cycle cost rate. The optimal PM scheduling is derived based on the following: (1) when to perform the intermediate and major maintenance and (2) which failure mode should be maintained at an intermediate maintenance epoch. Finally, the performance of the proposed approach is validated through a real case of the ram subsystem of a boring machine.

A redundant system whose structure is determined by the fault tree with efficiencies is considered. External load on the system is the function of state of a semi-Markov process. A fast simulation method enabling to evaluate the probability of functional failure when the real system efficiency becomes less than required ones is proposed. The conditions that guarantee the boundedness of the relative error estimate as the reliability of elements increases are found. The numerical example illustrates the the accuracy of estimates obtained by the proposed method.

An s – t-network with highly reliable edges with repair and variable external load is considered. A fast simulation method is proposed to evaluate the probability of functional failure when the real capacity of the network is less than the required capacity. It is proved that under some conditions the estimate has a bounded relative error as edges reliability increases. The numerical example illustrates the efficiency of the method.

This study identified, mapped and treated the clinical features of mentally ill people, who had been isolated and restrained by family and community members as a result of a functional failure of the traditional medical, hospital-based mental health model currently practiced in Indonesia. A 10-month epidemiological population survey was carried out in Karangasem regency of Bali, Indonesia. A total of 404,591 individuals were clinically interviewed, of which 895 individuals with mental health problems were identified, with 23 satisfying criteria of physical restraint and confinement. Of the latter, twenty were males; age range was 19-69 years, all diagnosed by the researchers with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder (ICD-10 diagnostic criteria). Duration of restraint ranged from 3 months to 30 years (mean = 8.1 years, SD = 8.3 years). Through the application of a holistic intervention model, all patients exhibited a remarkable recovery within 19 months of treatment. We conclude that the development of a community-based, culturally sensitive and respectful mental health model can serve as an optimum promoter of positive mental health outcomes.

To analyse the functional and anatomical results of keratoprosthesis using tooth and tibial autograft. We reviewed 227 charts of patients that underwent osteo-keratoprosthesis (OKP) (n = 82) or osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (OOKP) (n = 145) at the Centro de Oftalmologia Barraquer. Mean follow-up time was 8.4 years for OOKP and 3.5 years for OKP. Kaplan-Meier survival curves with 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated for functional success, defined as BCVA >0.05. Anatomical success was defined as retention of the keratoprosthesis lamina. Visual Acuity by Time (VAT) Index with 95% CI was calculated for up to 2 years post-OKP and up to 6 years post-OOKP. Maximum visual acuity ever reached after the last step of the implantation of the keratoprosthesis was used as an indicator for the potential of the retina. Based on Kaplan-Meier analyses, 10-year anatomical survival was 66% (CI 57–76) for OOKP and 47% (CI 27–67) for OKP. Two-year functional survival was 63% (CI 55–71) for OOKP and 49% (CI 37–60) for OKP, and 10-year functional survival was 38% (CI 29–48) for OOKP and 17% (CI 5–28) for OKP. Multivariate analysis showed that neither surgical technique (OOKP or OKP), primary diagnosis nor age had a significant influence on the functional survival. However, a high maximum visual acuity ever reached post-op decreased the risk for functional failure. According to the VAT Index calculations, mean BCVA 2 years after OOKP was 0.33 (CI 0.28–0.41) and after OKP was 0.28 (CI 0.20–0.36). Although we found a tendency that OOKP had better anatomical results than OKP, this difference was not statistically significant up to 10 years post-op. Functional results for both techniques were not significantly different at the 2-year follow-up, but at 10 years they were. However, this difference was influenced by the retinal potential and not by the technique itself.

The problems that arise when analyzing functional failures and the fail-safety of aircraft equipment at the design and certification space of forms of functional failures of equipment and their models, the generation of incompatible forms of failures and their after-effects, and the calculation of the probabilities of their occurrence are also considered.

We consider a class of systems whose required performance is described by a stochastic process η(t), t ≥ 0. An accelerated simulation method is proposed for estimating the probability that at some time instant t ∈ [0, T] the required performance exceeds the available performance. A numerical example is considered.

The spontaneous reversal ethinyl estradiol-induced cholestasis has been documented 7 days after the last estrogen administration in the rat. This finding supports the hypothesis that estrogens produce only a transient functional failure of the hepatocytic structures responsible for bile secretion.