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Is it ethically right, if I say women in our society are not able to lead their lives independently even in this modernized era of 2020? A lot number of physical abuse attacks, rape cases, assaulting of women are being reported daily and are going exponentially high especially in the metro cities. The presence of CCTVs is helping in some manner, but when the attack happens there is no way to Figure out the accused. This paper is intended with an idea for women self-reliance using technology, abating the crime rate against women and girls in India. The proposal document illustrates a rapid responding, cost-effective and easy to carry device empowering women a secure and independent life. Where IoT aims at unifying everything, we have designed and implemented the proposed system integrating IoT with SIM 800 GSM module, Force Sensing Resistor, Pulse Sensor, Bluetooth Module, LCD, Resistors, Transistors, Diodes, LED, Arduino UNO, Buzzers, PCB, Breadboards, Transformer, Switch, Arduino Compiler, and Neo6mv2 GPS module. The proposed system has a dual security feature using which women in agony can call for help and share her location with their predefined emergency number. She can activate the system in three different mdes as per situation demands, at times she feels she is out in odd hours or insecure. The device can be activated by the victim using panic button or bluetooth module. When the device is activated, pulse sensor, GPS module and GSM module incorporated in it automatically gets activated and the system will broadcast the message alert with latitude and longitude dimensions along with the heart rate measure to the authorized predefined numbers and to the police, concurrently will sound a buzzer relentlessly, lenient nearby comprehend with the happening. ForceSensing Resistor is equipped in this device, in case of any external force experienced by the device during any type of misconduct and mishandling. In the era of pepper spray, smart bands, this device is turned out to be more powerful and efficient in insulating the lives against barbarities cause to women.

By advancing the execution request of experiments, experiment prioritization systems can successfully enhance the effectiveness of programming testing. Test case prioritization is turning into an interesting issue in programming testing research. The ardent need for prioritization by software managers arises due to the restricted time, complication of present software and the lot number of tests which managers can’t handle manually, therefore, the software agents are used to increase viability and flaw identification rate. The crux of this concept was to collect and evaluate information from predefined data by setting the priority order of the test cases. Here, we are considering the triangle problem and implementing Pareto analysis for further efficiency of results and to formulate an approach that uses a clustering technique to make an effective strategy that depends upon the code scope metric. The following paper will discuss the different areas of prioritization studies and provide an efficient technique that will have optimum utilization of time, cost and effort required to obtain the most extreme faults.

With the applications of more advanced manufacturing technologies being applied to the pharmaceutical industry, continuous processes are at the forefront of innovation. One area that is highly desired to be systematically investigated is material traceability in continuous manufacturing systems. By following federal guidelines already in place, the goal was to address the issue of material traceability in a continuous direct compression tablet manufacturing process. The residence time distribution (RTD) method has been used for material traceability in continuous pharmaceutical tablet manufacturing process. Utilizing the minimum and maximum residence times for the continuous line pre-production, raw material batch changes that occur during feeder refill can be traced at the outlet of the process. MATLAB programing was used to develop software prototype to trace material components. Developed framework for implementation of material traceability into continuous manufacturing pilot-plant. To demonstrate the application of this framework, a software prototype was developed, which allows the operator to input residence time attributes for each component in the formulation. Using the minimum and maximum residence time values for that component, the lot number is incremented when the change in material batch is predicted to be present in the tablets at the outlet. The tablet lot number is recorded by the control system in real-time. Developed framework and corresponding software allows the material traceability to be fully accounted for during a continuous drug product manufacturing process. A proof of concept was created to demonstrate feasibility of such a system, which has a wide range of applications.

The crime rate against women and girls in India is rapidly increasing every day. Women are not able to lead their lives independently even in this modernized world. A lot number of physical abuse attacks are being reported on a daily basis. According to the recent government reports, every fifteen minutes, one child is being sexually abused in India. But the criminal is not getting punished due to lack of proper evidence. 99% of such cases go unreported. The presence of CCTV’s is helping in some way, but when the attack happens in a remote area, there is no way to find the accused. The lack of education about the good touch and bad touch among school kids is one of the important factors. In case of girls who have a little knowledge about the bad touch, are either hesitant to inform their parents, or informing them only after the crime has been committed, which is of no use. The chances of punishing the criminal are quite low in such cases. Therefore, a new solution is expected as a modern system which prevents the child abusement crime from happening or at least to find the criminal immediately to prevent another child from the same crime. A wearable device which records the Adrenaline and Oxytocin levels of the body using sensors is suggested. The heart beat rate is also taken into consideration to detect if the girl is in any danger. Pictures of the surroundings are also clicked using an in-built camera to have a proper evidence.

This chapter reviews the management and production of planting materials or planting stock with special attention to tropical species. With the global trend of increased demand for fiber, paper, and wood products, there is an ever-urgent need for reliable and sustainably produced raw materials. While obtaining fruits and seeds in the field, the material should be protected from the elements and labelled with information such as the species, seed lot number, geographic location, name of seed source, weight of seed, date of collection, and the collector’s name. Establishment of forest nurseries must complement the demand for tree-planting material with adequate quality control measures, create employment opportunity for local society, and involve the capacity building of local expertise in operating forest nurseries. In most instances in the tropics, tree-planting activities are carried out as enrichment planting or small-scale reforestation programs in small blocks of forested units.

Online auctions are becoming popular as technological availability and need for virtual sale options within the United States sport horse industry increase. Private treaty has been the predominant outlet for sport horse sales, resulting in limited information on factors impacting online sale prices. Our objective was to determine factors affecting online auction sale price for horses and ponies trained in sport classified disciplines. Data was collected from online sport horse auctions spanning from 2012 to 2020 (n = 75, Professional Horse Auctions, LLC). A horse's lot number, sex, breed, registration status, breeding/lineage, and level of training were collected. Seller's ratings of the horse's disposition, professional training, and suitability for riding and training were recorded. If included in the sale description, the type and number of pictures, and video count were collected. Data were assessed using ANOVA and mean comparisons (α = 0.05), with Tukey's pairwise post hoc analysis where appropriate (STATA 16). A total of 2,454 horses were listed, but only 41.7% resulted in a successful sale (n = 1024) with a wide range of accepted bids impacting mean bid price (mean ± SD, 5164 ± 5345 USD; minimum bid = 200 USD, maximum bid = 41,250 USD). Auction month had a significant effect on sold outcome, with horses more likely to sell in March, June, and September (P = 0.005). Color (k = 17) impacted mean bid price, with black horses (n = 66) yielding the highest price (7,559 ± 6,734 USD, P 0.05). Professional training did not affect sale outcome but did result in a higher mean bid when reported (professional training 5297 ± 6122 USD, no professional training 3901 ± 4160, P = 0.006). Horses were more likely to sell with lower levels of experience (scores of 1–5 on a 10-point scale, where 1 = least experienced and 10 = most experienced) over those with more experience (P = 0.06), but ratings did not affect bid price. The number of pictures, ranging from 1 to 19, included in the listing impacted sale (P = 0.006) and bid (P

Much of the present global state of pharmacovigilance has been shaped by major catastrophic events, including tetanus contamination of diphtheria anti-toxin, use of diethylene glycol as a solvent for sulfanilamide, and financially motivated contamination of heparin. Less dramatic issues pose continuing, less tractable problems that are in need of attention; for example, reciprocal notification for drug–drug interactions identified for one of the two drugs; high-risk adverse events that could be readily mitigated by wearable articles that could notify first responders to the patient’s circumstances and needs; single-use syringes for abuse-potential drugs that could eliminate risk to unsuspecting patients of drugs contaminated by infected healthcare personnel who divert drugs for personal use; mandatory lot number reporting in association with adverse event reporting by hospitals that could assist in product complaint evaluation; and addressing the regulatory gap between manufacturing release and administration to patients. A forum for deliberation among stakeholders, as well as strong, focused advocacy, is needed to resolve present and future issues.

Medical countermeasures (MCMs) are medical products used during public health emergencies. This study, conducted within the Mini-Sentinel Initiative, sought to develop the patient identification and matching processes necessary to assess safety outcomes for MCMs. A handheld device was used to collect identifying information (e.g., name, birthdate, and sex) from the driver's licenses of 421 individuals presenting for routine care at their primary care medical office. Overall, 374 individuals (88.8%) could be linked to their electronic health data using driver's license information. The device was also pilot-tested at a seasonal influenza immunization clinic: detailed vaccine information (e.g., lot number and manufacturer) was captured with a high degree of accuracy. This investigation demonstrated that a handheld device is a feasible means of collecting patient identity and medical product receipt data. This capacity should be useful for safety surveillance of MCMs, particularly when dispensed in settings outside the traditional health-care delivery system.

Cadastral map information is created by registering parcel information such as location, lot number, land category and boundary through the cadastral survey. However, with regard to boundary point coordinate, computerized cadastral information data was registered to either two decimal places (unit in centimeter) or three decimal places (unit in millimeter) so that a confusion in cadastral administration and cadastral survey has been caused. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to look for a method of matching two different coordinate systems through the consideration of registration of cadastral information data and area calculation. In conclusion, the result of the investigation not only shows that areal change and the creation of minute polygons resulted from land alteration could be solved by changing boundary point coordinate from two decimal places to three decimal places, but also suggests that the related laws and regulations to register boundary point coordinate to three decimal places should be institutionally corrected and applied.

In a practical situation, a manufacturer receives different orders from its customers. Different orders may contain different quantities of the product. Therefore, the manufacturer has to decide how to group these orders into different lots based on the capacity of the lot processing machine (such as integrated circuit tester, heated container, etc.) and then decides the sequence of these lots. In this paper, we study a lot scheduling problem with orders which can be split. The objective is to minimize the total completion time of all orders. We show that this problem can be solved in polynomial time.

Specification of security as a non-functional requirement has always been a matter of difficulty as far as its identification and implementation are concerned. There are a lot number of methods and techniques for the implementation of security during the development of software application. The main concern is the identification of vulnerabilities and its proper treatment. Also, one more major concern in the alignment of business goals and its associated assets and related risk with the identified vulnerabilities. Further, assessing these vulnerabilities for finding a better countermeasure has also been a matter of a question. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for the identification of vulnerabilities properly aligned with the business goals and associated assets and its risk of the software application in development. Further, for assessing these vulnerabilities, we also present an ontological classification of the misuse case through a system model. The paper also showcases the implementation mechanism of the proposed framework in detail. Industry-accepted standards like CVSS and CVE have been applied in the proposed framework for authentication and validation of the work proposed.

These days, a lot number of elderly people need health care which may cause huge financial costs, especially in formal case. Machine Learning and the profound achievements in sensing technology provide the opportunities to monitor people living independently at home and can detect a distress situation affordably. Although there are some approaches to do recognize activities for this purpose, but there has not been any game-theoretic approach in order to select the most efficient sensors to reduce the system's overhead by decreasing the number of features. In this paper, we present a new classifier to recognize activities in a smart environment that is based on selection of most efficient sensors by cooperative game theory. The sensors are selected in which provide more information about the target classes. We show the performance of our algorithm by simulation.

This paper presents a dynamic method to deal with two economic lot sizing models with exponential machine failures. Its main difference from the static method is that the machine failure is separately treated from the perspective of failure realisation. The optimal lot size is derived through the equation between the incurred average cost and the marginal cost, which has to be performed for each lot due to the random failures. In the first no-resumption model, the simulation shows that two methods have the similar performance as the lot number increases. For the resumable model, we propose a zero-inventory resumption policy that always resumes the production after each machine failure but delays the resumption until the on-hand inventory is depleted. The simulation result indicates that the new policy by the dynamic method outperforms the initial abort/resume policy, and it also shows the convergence as the production continues.

Objectives: To evaluate the impact of electronic health record (EHR) interoperability on the quality of immunization data in the North Dakota Immunization Information System (NDIIS). Methods: NDIIS doses administered data was evaluated for completeness of the patient and dose-level core data elements for records that belong to interoperable and non-interoperable providers. Data was compared at three months prior to electronic health record (EHR) interoperability enhancement to data at three, six, nine and twelve months post-enhancement following the interoperability go live date. Doses administered per month and by age group, timeliness of vaccine entry and the number of duplicate clients added to the NDIIS was also be compared, in addition to, immunization rates for children 19 – 35 months of age and adolescents 11 – 18 years of age. Results: Doses administered by both interoperable and non-interoperable providers remained fairly consistent from pre-enhancement through twelve months post-enhancement. Comparing immunization rates for infants and adolescents, interoperable providers had higher rates both pre- and post-enhancement than non-interoperable providers for all vaccines and vaccine series assessed. The overall percentage of doses entered into the NDIIS within one month of administration varied slightly between interoperable and non-interoperable providers; however, there were significant changes between the percentage of doses entered within one day and within one week with the percentage entered within one day increasing and within one week decreasing with interoperability. The number of duplicate client records created by interoperable providers increased from 94 duplicates pre-enhancement to 10,552 at twelve months post-enhancement, while the duplicates from non-interoperable providers only increased from 300 to 637 over the same period. Of the 40 core data elements in the NDIIS, there was some difference in completeness between the interoperable versus non-interoperable providers. Only middle name, sex, county, phone number, mother’s maiden name, vaccine manufacturer, lot number and expiration date were significantly (>=5%) different between the two provider groups. Conclusions: Interoperability with provider EHRs has had an impact on NDIIS data quality. Timeliness of data entry has improved and overall doses administered have remained fairly consistent, as have the immunization rates for the providers assessed. There are more technical and non-technical interventions that will need to be accomplished by NDIIS staff and the vendor to help reduce the negative impact of duplicate record creation, as well as, data completeness.

Accurately recording vaccine lot number, expiration date, and product identifiers, in patient records is an important step in improving supply chain management and patient safety in the event of a recall. These data are being encoded on two-dimensional (2D) barcodes on most vaccine vials and syringes. Using electronic vaccine administration records, we evaluated the accuracy of lot number and expiration date entered using 2D barcode scanning compared to traditional manual or drop-down list entry methods.We analyzed 128,573 electronic records of vaccines administered at 32 facilities. We compared the accuracy of records entered using 2D barcode scanning with those entered using traditional methods using chi-square tests and multilevel logistic regression.When 2D barcodes were scanned, lot number data accuracy was 1.8 percentage points higher (94.3-96.1%, P0.001) and expiration date data accuracy was 11 percentage points higher (84.8-95.8%, P0.001) compared with traditional methods. In multivariate analysis, lot number was more likely to be accurate (aOR=1.75; 99% CI, 1.57-1.96) as was expiration date (aOR=2.39; 99% CI, 2.12-2.68). When controlling for scanning and other factors, manufacturer, month vaccine was administered, and vaccine type were associated with variation in accuracy for both lot number and expiration date.Two-dimensional barcode scanning shows promise for improving data accuracy of vaccine lot number and expiration date records. Adapting systems to further integrate with 2D barcoding could help increase adoption of 2D barcode scanning technology.

In Japan, patients were infected by viral hepatitis C generally by administering a specific fibrinogen injection. However, it has been difficult to identify patients who were infected as result of the injections due to the lack of medical records. It is still not a common practice by a number of medical facilities to maintain detailed information because manual record keeping is extremely time consuming and subject to human error. Due to these reasons, the regulator required Medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies to attach a bar code called "GS1-128" effective March 28, 2008. Based on this new process, we have come up with the idea of constructing a new database whose records can be entered by bar code scanning to ensure data integrity. Upon examining the efficacy of this new data collection process from the perspective of time efficiency and of course data accuracy, "GS1-128" proved that it significantly reduces time and record keeping mistakes. Patients not only became easily identifiable by a lot number and a serial number when immediate care was required, but "GS1-128" enhanced the ability to pinpoint manufacturing errors in the event any trouble or side effects are reported. This data can be shared with and utilized by the entire medical industry and will help perfect the products and enhance record keeping. I believe this new process is extremely important.

ResumenObjetivoTrazar el mapa de errores de medicación notificados por profesionales sanitarios del ámbito extrahospitalario en el marco del Programa de Notificación de Errores de Medicación de la Comunidad de Madrid durante el periodo 2008–2009.DiseñoEstudio observacional retrospectivo.EmplazamientoBase de datos de notificaciones de errores de medicación de la Comunidad de Madrid.ParticipantesNotificaciones remitidas a la Página de Uso Seguro de Medicamentos y Productos Sanitarios de la Comunidad de Madrid.Mediciones principalesInformación sobre procedencia del notificador, fecha del incidente, turno, tipo de error y causa, evolución, características del paciente, etapa, lugar donde se produce y detecta, si la medicación fue administrada, características generales del medicamento, lote y caducidad, y breve descripción del incidente.ResultadosEl número de errores de medicación analizados es de 5470, de los que 3412 proceden del ámbito extrahospitalario (62%), ocurriendo mayoritariamente en la etapa de la prescripción (56,92%) y siendo el farmacéutico el profesional que más notificó. En un 92,9% no se produjo daño, en un 4,8% hubo daño y en un 2,3% el error se produjo pero no se pudo hacer seguimiento.ConclusionesLa centralización de la información ha permitido confirmar que la prescripción constituye un punto vulnerable en la cadena terapéutica del medicamento. Depurar las bases de datos de prescripción, evitar la comercialización de presentaciones comerciales que den lugar a confusión, reforzar la información dirigida a profesionales y pacientes, implantar procedimientos normalizados y evitar el uso de prescripciones ambiguas, ilegibles o con abreviaturas, constituyen estrategias útiles para tratar de minimizar estos errores.AbstractObjectivePreparation of a map of medication errors reported by health professionals outside hospitals within the framework of Medication Errors Reporting for the Community of Madrid during the period 2008–2009.DesignRetrospective observational study.LocationNotification database of medication errors in the Community of Madrid.ParticipantsNotifications sent to the web page: Safe Use of Medicines and Health Products of the Community of Madrid.MeasurementsInformation on the originator of the report, date of incident, shift, type of error and causes, outcome, patient characteristics, stage, place where it was produced and detected, if the medication was administered, lot number, expiry date and the general nature of the drug and a brief description of the incident.ResultsThere were 5470 medication errors analysed, of which 3412 came from outside hospitals (62%), occurring mainly in the prescription stage (56.92%) and being more reported pharmacists. No harm was done in 92.9% of cases, but there was harm in 4.8% and in 2.3% there was an error that could not be followed up.ConclusionsThe centralization of information has led to the confirmation that the prescription is a vulnerable point in the chain of drug therapy. Cleaning up prescription databases, preventing the marketing of commercial presentations that give rise to confusion, enhanced information to professionals and patients, and establishing standardised procedures, and avoiding the use of ambiguous prescriptions, illegible, or abbreviations, are useful strategies to try to minimise these errors.

The Biological Stain Commission (BSC) is a quality control laboratory that certifies biological dyes for staining cells and tissues. Originally, a single lot of a certified dye was sold to histologists. Today, companies frequently change their lot numbers as part of regulatory efforts. When a certified dye undergoes a lot number change, the BSC must re-certify this dye to verify that it is identical to the one certified earlier. The BSC has improved how these lot changes are monitored using a redesigned BSC certification label. Certification labels always have been issued by the BSC and are attached to every bottle of “BSC certified dye” that is sold. The new BSC certification label has added security features and currently bears both the BSC certification number and the manufacturer batch lot number. The result is improved security and traceability of certified dyes.

In order to solve the problems of quality-tracing based on Lot Numbers, the corresponding methods were proposed, including the secondary marking method to solve the traceability information loss caused by the attrition of Lot Number, the coordinated coding mechanism among upstream and downstream enterprises and data sharing mode to solve the "Lot Number Isolated Island" in the quality traceability chain, and the “van following parts” mode of inner logistics to solve the management confusion of the work-in-process parts caused by merging, splitting and mixing the batch of the parts. In addition, the feasibility, cost and constraint conditions of the methods proposed were discussed. Finally, the practicality of the research program was illustrated by the application of specific cases.

This study aims to analyze the easiness of location search on a map with different kinds of address indicatory systems. We experimentally compare the time for the subjects to search the locations of given addresses in a part of Seoul City between by lot number based system and by road based system.The result shows that the address by lot number based system is recognized more easily than that by road based system taking into account the average number of choices in the whole process of location search. It would be because of the complexity of road pattern in Korea as well as in Japan.

Number Plate Recognition technique is widely used in identifying vehicle identity across the world where a standard plate size and font are maintained which makes recognition easy. For implementing number plate recognition specifically in India a lot number of issue comes up like hundreds of different forms of fonts being used, size of plate not maintained, five different color number plate, double line number plate etc. All these problems are being taken care while developing a software for Indian number plate recognition and is tested in real Indian road conditions. Support Vector machines are trained & used for detection of number plate contours. ANN is used for character recognition from number plate and various algorithm for plate enhancement, noise reduction and ultimately neural networks are most efficient for result with erasing lot of camera constraints. The ANPR software is designed in C++ using Qt for GUI designing, OpenCV as image processing libraries and SQL as database management thereby making it a complete software implementation of idea.

Automation in the drug distribution processes is helpful to pharmacists in creating new clinical services. We have ameliorated the drug inventory control system seamlessly connected with the physician order-entry system. This control system application, named Artima, allows inventory functions to be faster and more efficient in real time. The medicines used in our hospital are automatically fixed and arranged to sold-packages, and are ordered from each wholesaler by a fax-modem every day. Artima can search the lot number and expiration date of drug in the purchase and delivery records. These functions are powerful and useful in patient's safety and cost containment. We surveyed the inventory amount stored in the computer database, and evaluated time required for inventory management by tabulating working records of employees during past decades. Inventory decreased by 70% along with the continuous improvement of the system during the past decade. The workload in the inventory management in each section of the Pharmacy Department as well as in clinical units was dramatically reduced after the implementation of this system. The automation system in the drug inventory management allows creating new clinical positions for pharmacists. This system also could pay for itself in time.

We investigated a sudden increase in the rate of positive QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-Tube results from 10% to 31% at a U.S. academic institution. Direct comparison of the TB antigen tubes with tubes from a different lot number identified that a potential problem with the TB antigen vials in a certain tube lot was the likely cause of the elevated positive rate. The underlying defect remains unknown. This finding warrants refinement of quality control programs by the manufacturer and users.

A job shop has to deliver a given number of custom-order items. Production is performed in “lots” that require costly setup, and output quality is stochastic. The size of each lot must be set before output quality is observed. We study production processes whose yield is distributed according to a generalized truncated geometric distribution: Production can randomly go “out of control,” in which case all subsequent output of that lot is defective. The “generalization” allows both hazard rates and marginal production costs to vary as production progresses. Our results characterize the optimal lot sizes. In particular, we show that for small demands the optimal lot size equals the outstanding demand, and for larger demands it is less than the outstanding demand, with all lot sizes being uniformly bounded. For sufficiently large demands, we identify conditions under which the optimal lots are precisely those that minimize the ratio of production cost to the expected number of good items. A tighter characterization is given for the standard case, where hazard rates and marginal costs are constant.

Regarding the management of blood preparations, since September 1995 the Ministry of Heath, Labour and Welfare has had to make and/or to keep documentary records such as the product name, date of dispensing, the patient's name and lot number and so on. At Yamanashi Medical University Hospital, to cope with deleterious accidents caused by blood preparations, we developed a new system for the management of blood preparations. This system consists of a printing system for confirmation labels for blood prescriptions and a computerized management system concerning the medication. In this study, the effect of this new management system on the rational use of blood preparations was evaluated. Compared with the former system, the time required to dispense blood preparations decreased from about 500 to 170 seconds per case. Furthermore, based on a questionnaire to medical doctors and/or nurses, it appeared that this system could reduce the time required to manage blood preparations and improve the rational use of injectable drugs.

The problem of processing of job lot of n identical items in a general shop where each item in the lot requires processing in m distinct processors, in any order, is considered. The m processors are not necessarily available at the same time to process the job lot. The objective is to minimize the total cost comprising processor costs and penalty cost for due date violation in completing the processing of the job lot. An optimizing and a heuristic algorithms have been developed.

BACKGROUND As the implementation of POC analyzers in clinical department is growing and HbA1c has been included in diagnostics, it appears mandatory to evaluate the accuracy of the POC method to be used. The aim of our study is to evaluate the analytical performance and usefulness of the Afinion analyzer, and the impact of HbF, hemoglobin variants, and changes of reagent lots. METHODS The Afinion analyzer (Axis-Shield, Oslo, Norway) is based on affinity separation methodology. Analytical performances including imprecision studies and correlation with currently used HPLC were performed on Biochemistry laboratory. We evaluated the effects of presence of variants on the results of HbA1c. Two reagent lots were evaluated on samples without variant as well as on samples with in the presence of hemoglobin variants HbA/S. The practicability of the system was also tested installing the instrument on pediatric consultation. RESULTS Imprecision studies of Afinion were acceptable. Linear regression analysis indicated good correlation between HbA1c values with Afinion (r > 0.97) in comparison with HPLC method. Overall, the Afinion overestimated the HbA1 compared to the MenariniHA8140. These differences were confirmed when the estimated average glucose was calculated. In addition, the variance of cartridge lots requires its use with caution and the problem of lot number instability must be resolved, requiring an adjustment of the calibration by the manufacturer. CONCLUSIONS The Afinion analyzer met the acceptance criteria of analytical performance, requires minimal operator interaction and presents good correlation with the laboratory method. Beyond the analytical performance, the different regression lines for different lots is a matter of concern. The reproductibility of the production of the different reagent lots for POC devices appears inadequate for its use in a clinical department.

In September 1997, the Ministry of Health and Welfare imposed new guidelines for the making and keeping documentary records for blood preparations. Medical staff members should carefully register not only the product name, the dispensed day, and the patient's name but also the lot number. It takes more time to complete these tasks than it does to document a narcotic drug supply. In our hospital, pharmacists copy down a prescription whenever it is dispensed, and blood preparations are now carefully documented according to the newly established guidelines.This report concerns the new system for the management of blood preparations using prescription labels printed by an Automatic-Injection Dispenser with an Injection Order System, which was first introduced in November 1997. Compared with the former system, the time required to record the information decreased from 51 to 28 seconds per case. The work of sorting and binding the copied prescriptions by drugs and dates could also be eliminated using this system. In the future, due to limitations in both time and the number of staff members, finding more efficient wags to record such information, such as described with this system will greatly enhance the ability of hospital pharmacists to improve patient services.

We report a case in which identification of a deceased individual was established using multiple lot numbers printed on a body implantable device. Autopsy of an unknown woman revealed an intramedullary nail inserted within her right femur. The device manufacturer was identified from the configuration of the intramedullary nail, and the “use history” was traced from lot numbers printed on the device’s multiple parts. The deceased individual was thus identified as a woman who had attempted suicide by jumping from a height about a year previously and had been transported to a hospital and undergone surgery that included implantation of the intramedullary nail. The main factor contributing to the rapid identification was the manufacturer’s and distributor’s record of the use history (traceability) of the product, because of their accountability for purposes of quality control. A second contributing factor was multiple lot numbers, resulting in extremely low probability of the same combination of lot numbers being present in multiple individuals. This case confirmed the utility of multiple lot numbers of body implantable devices in forensic identification.

To the Editor, Recently, when preparing our heated intravenous sets for intraoperative use, we detected a series of defective three-way stopcocks (MX5311L, Smiths Medical, Dublin, OH, USA) that caused complete obstruction to flow. Our typical heated fluid line setup includes a three-way stopcock placed between a set of heated tubing (Hotline L-70) and a 30-in tubing extension connected to an intravenous cannula. Every morning, our anesthesia technicians routinely prepare batches of these sets for use throughout the day. Although these intravenous sets had been adequately de-aired and all the clamps were fully opened, we noticed that several were obstructed to passive gravity fed flow. Initially, our technicians were rejecting all three components and disposing of the entire setup. This disconcerting pattern was reported after several incidences, and a faulty set was kept for detailed examination. When troubleshooting a defective setup, the heated fluid line and extension components were observed to deliver full unrestricted flow when the stopcock was removed, thus implicating the three-way stopcock as the cause of the obstruction. Close examination of the white valve within the clear plastic housing showed an incomplete perforation of the ‘‘through hole’’ in the valve body that blocked the passage of fluid (Figure). We immediately notified our staff, Biomedical Engineering, our Quality Control Department, and the local supplier and then performed a full search of our inventory to isolate any other defective units and locate a sample within its packaging to identify the lot number. One more defective three-way stopcock was found during this search, but unfortunately, our technicians had already disposed of its packaging. Despite an exhaustive search, we were initially unable to find a defective unit within its packaging to identify the specific lot number. Our inventory at the time was found to contain 30 different lot numbers, obscuring our search for the defective lot. Our institution typically uses up to 30-40 of these units per day. We estimate that approximately 12 sets were thrown out over a oneto two-week period before the defect was discovered and that two of the units may have turned up in the operating room in emergent situations. In one case, a hot line and stopcock setup was assembled in the operating room for connection to a new intravenous cannula that was urgently placed when a pulmonary artery bleed occurred. Despite troubleshooting all the clamps and connections and applying pressure to the intravenous bag, obstruction of flow through the intravenous cannula persisted, initially casting doubt on the placement of the intravenous cannula. A second setup was quickly substituted and the obstruction immediately resolved. In the second suspected case, a stopcock was inserted in-line within an existing intravenous line during an acute bleed from the liver. The previously functioning intravenous line immediately stopped flowing with the stopcock insertion and then flowed smoothly after its removal. Both of these situations occurred under acute situations when the equipment was set up within the A. D. Milne, MD (&) P. A. Brousseau, BEd Department of Anesthesiology, Pain Management and Perioperative Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada e-mail: admilne@dal.ca

In the United States recording accurate vaccine lot numbers in immunization records is required by the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act and is necessary for public health surveillance and implementation of vaccine product recalls. However, this information is often missing or inaccurate in records. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires a linear barcode of the National Drug Code (NDC) on vaccine product labels as a medication verification measure, but lot number and expiration date must still be recorded by hand. Beginning in 2011, FDA permitted manufacturers to replace linear barcodes with two-dimensional (2D) barcodes on unit-of-use product labels. A 2D barcode can contain the NDC, expiration date, and lot number in a symbol small enough to fit on a unit-of-use label. All three data elements could be scanned into a patient record. To assess 2D barcodes' potential impacts, a mixed-methods approach of time-motion data analysis, interview and survey data collection, and cost-benefit analysis was employed. Analysis of a time-motion study conducted at 33 practices suggests scanning 2D-barcoded vaccines could reduce immunization documentation time by 36-39 s per dose. Data from an internet survey of primary care providers and local health officials indicate that 60% of pediatric practices, 54% of family medicine practices, and 39% of health departments would use the 2D barcode, with more indicating they would do so if they used electronic health records. Inclusive of manufacturer and immunization provider costs and benefits, we forecast lower-bound net benefits to be $310-334 million between 2011 and 2023 with a benefit-to-cost ratio of 3.1:1-3.2:1. Although we were unable to monetize benefits for expected improved immunization coverage, surveillance, or reduced medication errors, based on our findings, we expect that using 2D barcodes will lower vaccine documentation costs, facilitate data capture, and enhance immunization data quality.

Rough Set theory proposed by Z Pawlak is a great help for dealing with uncertain data and dominance based rough set is an extension to the classical rough set theory considering the preference order of the data. As because of the lot number of variables and high degree of uncertainty, the process of a grid's power monitoring and its system is quite complicated. In this paper, we have used dominance based rough set approach for investigation of electrical grid monitoring system, based upon which a grid operator will be able to take efficient and intelligent decisions.

This paper deals with the problem of part input sequencing in an automated flow shop system. The system consists of one input/output station, two machines and one AGV, which is used for all part transfer operations throughout the cell. The objective is the minimization of the makespan. This cell architecture has recently received considerable attention in the literature. Here we consider the case in which the two machines are equipped by a swapping device, allowing the AGV to exchange a new part for the one released by the machine. A similar device exists for the input/output station. If the transportation times are small enough, the problem can be formulated as a two-machine flow shop with limited intermediate buffer, which is NP-hard. Here we analyze the problem in the context of lot processing, i.e., when identical parts must be processed consecutively. Each set of identical parts forms a lot. The number of parts in the lot is the size of the lot. If the size of the ith lot is larger than a value b*i, ...

This paper deals with the problem of determining the optimal lot sizes for a two-stage production-inventory system. The first stage has a large lot to be processed in a single batch and is called the ‘whole lot’; this is split in the second stage into smaller lots of equal size called ‘split lots’. The lot in stage 1 is inspected for its conformity to standards before it is passed on to stage 2. We use a single sampling attribute plan for inspection and examine the consequences of rejecting or accepting the lot. The rejected lots are 100 % inspected and defectives are eliminated..The accepted lots contain defectives in the uninspected part which are identified during stage 2 processing. We have combined these aspects of inspection with the usual inventory costs and developed a model to determine the optimal sizes of the whole lot and split lots

Background The increasing phenomenon of online pharmacies has potential for serious public health problems. This study aimed to evaluate the possibility of accessing a prescription drug in the absence of a prescription for an Italian purchaser. Methods Fluoxetine pills were ordered from several online pharmacies. The study included website analysis, and the quality of the received product including packaging, chemical and microbiological analyses. Results Orders could be placed correctly on 61 of the 98 selected websites, and a sales transaction was concluded successfully on 17 websites. Thirteen drug samples were eventually received. In one case it was necessary to fill in a questionnaire before ordering the drugs. All websites displayed aggressive marketing strategies. There was wide variation in terms of domain registration, company base (when declared) and manufacturer's location (mostly India). All pills were delivered in sealed blister packs showing the lot number and manufacturer's details. A leaflet was enclosed in one case only. In three cases we received more pills than ordered, and in one case Viagra pills as a free gift. Pharmacopoeia microbiological requirements were satisfied. Chemical analysis revealed that the active principle was always present, although many samples did not meet the Pharmacopoeia “other impurities” or “total impurities” criteria. Heavy metals and solvents regulated by the Pharmacopoeia did not exceed the set limits; some of the non-regulated ones were also assessed, in some cases with a positive result (e.g. styrene). Conclusion About 20% of purchase attempts resulted in delivery of the drugs, even in the absence of a medical prescription. Traceability was poor and drug quality was generally worse compared to conventional pharmacy-purchased products. Based on all these broad-spectrum results, user safety appears not to be globally guaranteed.

医薬保健研究域薬学系, Background: Recent investigations by the Ministry of Health of Cambodia suggest that counterfeit medicines have been introduced into the pharmaceutical market in tampered packaging. To further explore this possibility, an interview survey was conducted at the wholesaler level to investigate the medicinal supply chain in Cambodia. Methods. Managing executives of 62 (83.8%) registered wholesalers of modern medicines in Cambodia were interviewed in 2009 on their knowledge of, perception on, and practices related to counterfeiting issues through a semi-structured questionnaire. Results: According to our findings, 12.9% of the wholesalers had encountered counterfeit medicine. However, they demonstrated a variety of perceptions regarding this issue. A majority (59.7%) defined counterfeit medicines as medicines without registration, while other definitions included medicines that were fraudulently manufactured, medicines without a batch/lot number, those containing harmful ingredients or a reduced amount of active ingredients, and expired medicines. Additionally, 8.1% responded that they did not know what counterfeit medicines were. During procurement, 66.1% of the wholesalers consider whether the product is registered in Cambodia, while 64.5% consider the credibility and quality of the products and 61.3% consider the reputation of the manufacturers. When receiving a consignment, 80.6% of wholesalers check the intactness of medicines, 72.6% check the specification and amount of medicines, 71% check Cambodian registration, 56.5% check that the packaging is intact, 54.8% check batch and lot numbers, 48.4% check the dates of manufacture and expiration, and 9.7% check analytical certificates. Out of 62 wholesalers, 14.5% had received medicines that arrived without packages or were separated from their packaging and had to be repacked before distribution. Significant statistical association was found between wholesalers who received medicines separately from their packs/containers and who consider their belief on reliability of pharmaceutical products of certain manufacturing country during procurement (Chi-square: 12.951, P = 0.002). When wholesalers divide medicines from larger packs into smaller ones, 54.8% use packaging purchased from local markets. Conclusion: A number of wholesalers think counterfeit medicines are medicines without registration, and/or do not have any uniform ideas on the issue and what to do, when they find or suspect counterfeits. Furthermore, their strict adherence to anti-counterfeiting measures is urgently needed. © 2011 Khan et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Cadastral surveys deal with one of the oldest and most fundamental facets of human society, which is ownership of land. They are the surveys that create, mark, define, retrace, or reestablish the boundaries and subdivisions of the public lands in Malaysia. Knowing exactly where the boundary lines are is important for many different activities. If there any consideration of constructing a building on the property, conducting a cadastral survey is a requirement to avoid any possibility of encroaching into a neighboring land. This type of survey can ensure that fences and other improvements are located in exactly the right position within the boundary. Originally used to ensure reliable land valuation and taxation, today these surveys are mainly used to solve boundary disputes. The boundary mark is important in starting a Cadastral survey job. This is because the coordinate as well as bearing and distance is a necessity to start the survey job in determining all the boundary of a new or existing parcel. One of the common issues in starting a new cadastral survey job is finding the location of the work site or lot parcel. It may take a long time to refer on the certified plan and locate the site manually. The surveyor may take time to go and find the location of the work site only by referring the certified plan especially in the area that not really familiarize with it. They may take a few days in locating the area. They also need to find the land owner to conform the location of the lot parcel. Therefore, using this new portable GPS that has been integrated with cadastral GIS database, it can help surveyor to save their time to reach at lot parcel. This automatically saves their time in locating the boundary mark. It helped surveyor when the lot parcel now can also be navigated in this portable GPS. Therefore, in this paper will study on the integration of land parcel data in the Malaysian Cadastral database (PDUK) into GPS system to assist surveyor in locating parcel location based lot number of the land.

The American Fenian Henry O’Clarence McCarthy is buried, or presumably so, in St. Louis’ Calvary Cemetery, north of Interstate 70, near Lambert airport. Though well-maintained, like the older Catholic graveyards of many American cities, this one is surrounded by derelict areas now, but testifies to a time when American monetary currency had gravitas and many nineteenth-century German, Italian, and Irish immigrants were buried beneath what, compared to today’s meager markers, were “polished white mansions of stone” as the song “Maggie” put it. Opulent memorials abound and a variety of Victorian grave motifs — mourning sculpted angels and forlorn stone dogs brood over the departed of one hundred years ago. One climbs marble stairs and enters the pillared building near the main gate to inquire after the McCarthy burial site. The office’s computer brings up: McCarthy, Henry O’Clarence, interment September 3, 1865, and the lot number — he is buried beside his mother, Isabella McCarthy. The staff provides a photocopied map, the relevant plot circled, and the route in red traced along the Way of Nazareth, the Way of the Penitent, the Way of the Good Shepherd, and so on, to Section nine.

The explosion of social video sharing sites gives new challenges on video search and indexing techniques. Because of the concept diversity in social videos, it is very hard to build a well annotated dataset that provides good coverage over the whole meaning of concepts. However, the prosperity of social videos on the internet also make it easy to obtain a huge number of videos, which gives an opportunity to mine the semantic content from an infinite amount of video entities. In this paper, we focus on improving the performance concept detectors and propose a refinement framework based on a semi-supervised learning technique. In our framework, the self-training algorithm is employed to expand the training dataset with automatically labeled data. The contribution of this paper is to demonstrate how to utilize the visual feature and text metadata to enhance the performance of concept classifier with a lot number of unlabeled videos. By experimenting on a social video dataset with 21,000 entities, it is shown that after expanding the training set with automatically labeled shots, the concept detectors' performance can be significantly improved.

This paper proposes a smart parking system to solve the problem of unnecessary time consumption in finding parking spot in commercial car park areas. A parking reservation system is developed in such a way that users book their parking spots through short message services (SMS). The SMS sent will be processed by a wireless communication instrumentation device called micro-RTU (Remote Terminal Unit). This micro-RTU will reply the confirmation of booking by giving the details of reservation like password and lot number. The password will be used to enter the parking area and valid for a certain period of time. The system is fully automated with the use of the Peripheral Interface Controller (PIC). This microcontroller is capable in storing information of empty parking spaces, provide passwords as well as allowing or denying access to the parking area. A prototype of a car park system has been designed to demonstrate the capability of the proposed work. The demonstration has proven the capability of the system to reserve the parking, gain entry to the parking area and hence eliminates the hassle of searching empty parking lots.

This paper presents a form to resolve a real problem of efficient material election in reed switch manufacturing. The carrying out of the consumer demands depends on the stochastic results of the classification process where each lot of switches is distributed into bins according to an electric measure value. Various glass types are employed for the switch manufacturing. The effect caused by the glass type variation on the switch classification results was investigated. Based on real data statistic analysis, the problem is reduced to the lot number minimizing taking into consideration the glass type, and interpreted as a bin packing problem generalization. On difference to the classic bin packing problem, in the considered case, an item represents a set of pieces; a container is divided into a number of bins (sub‐containers); the bin capacity is variable; there are the assignment restrictions between bins and sets of pieces; the items are allowed to be fragmented into bins and containers. The problem has ...

The package of an investigational new drug intended for human use has to bear a label with a statement specific for the national regulations; EC: name and address of the company, identification of the substance or code, date of expiry/ retest, lot number, name of the responsible physician, to be used for clinical trials; US: “caution: new drug — limited by federal law to investigational use”.

The development and operation of a prototype inpatient drug distribution system that uses bar codes is described, and the impact of bar coding on the cassette-filling and verification process is summarized. A prototype pharmacy dispensing site was created to function in parallel with an existing satellite dispensing site that served 78 general medical-care beds. Supplemental labels encoded with an 11-digit unique product identification number, a 5-digit expiration date, and a 6-character lot number were generated and affixed to all unit dose packages dispensed from the prototype pharmacy site. The unit doses were labeled with Code 49 symbology; each label measured 0.8 x 1.25 inches. Each patient cassette was labeled using Code 39 symbology. A cost-benefit model was developed, and the two dispensing systems were compared with respect to (1) time to fill patient cassettes, (2) time to verify patient cassettes, (3) time to process patient charges and credits, (4) time to correct dispensing errors, (5) accuracy of the cassette-filling process, and (6) accuracy of the cassette verification process. Bar-code dispensing and verification saved 1.52 seconds per dose. Additionally, the cassette verification function was shifted from pharmacists to technicians. Estimated per-dose cost of the bar-code system was 2.73 cents. A measurable improvement in the accuracy of filling patient cassettes was documented. The feasibility of using bar codes in unit dose dispensing was demonstrated, and the prototype system was shown to produce cost efficiencies and patient-care benefits.

Vast areas in central Iran have suffered from water shortages for many decades due to limited water resources in the country. The Qomroud Tunnel Project Lot number 7 (QTP7), which is the subject of this study, is part of the Dez-Qomroud water conveyance tunnel projects that will convey water from the adjacent Dez Highlands to a central Iran watershed known as Qomroud. Comprehensive engineering geology and rock mechanics studies have been conducted to determine geological-geomechanical characteristics of the geological strata along the QLT7 tunnel route. Results from these field and laboratory tests are presented and discussed in this article.