European Meeting Research Articles

Improving quality in the preanalytical phase through innovation, on behalf of the European Federation for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) Working Group for Preanalytical Phase (WG-PRE).

It is now undeniable that laboratory testing is vital for the diagnosis, prognostication and therapeutic monitoring of human disease. Despite the many advances made for achieving a high degree of quality and safety in the analytical part of diagnostic testing, many hurdles in the total testing process remain, especially in the preanalytical phase ranging from test ordering to obtaining and managing the biological specimens. The Working Group for the Preanalytical Phase (WG-PRE) of the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) has planned many activities aimed at mitigating the vulnerability of the preanalytical phase, including the organization of three European meetings in the past 7 years. Hence, this collective article follows the previous three opinion papers that were published by the EFLM WGPRE on the same topic, and brings together the summaries of the presentations that will be given at the 4th EFLM-BD meeting "Improving quality in the preanalytical phase through innovation" in Amsterdam, 24-25 March, 2017.

OPTIMIZATION STRATEGIES OF GUARANTEED RESULT FOR INVESTMENT PROJECTING PROCESSES

In current economic conditions the improvement of investment projecting process is an essential element of efficient control. Investment projecting determines a financial policy of an economic entity as it includes both the development of most profitable means of income acquisition and search for new methods and tools for spare capital investment. In this case the development of the strategy based on investment projecting optimization is an important scientific issue. In the present research matrix games and regression analysis methods are used to make an economic – mathematical control model of an enterprise investment projecting process. The scientific novelty of the research is to develop methods of planned control and to extend the application field of mathematical apparatus of game theory to solve the tasks of optimal employment of recourses under conditions of competitive economic environment. The method to optimize the control of investment projecting suggested in the article allows choosing the best investment projecting strategy. This strategy is considered to be the process of such production output of an enterprise that will be soled with the best guaranteed profitability/risk ratio. The suggested econometric method to choose an optimal control strategy of investment projecting has been used in practice. Features of the suggested method application have been investigated in the case study of a real object of investment projecting, necessary calculations have been made and the obtained results have been analysed. This analysis has revealed the method efficiency to make control decisions when realizing investment projects. The present method may become a foundation for the development of modern tools for investment projecting control in the tasks of strategic optimization. The research is of practical interest for experts in the field of investment and project planning as well as for the specialists who deal with optimal employment of recourses considering the factors of profitability and risk. The research results may be used by any economic entity that implements investment activity and there is no doubt that they will increase its activity efficiency and as a result its competitiveness. Keywords investment projecting, control optimization, decision-making, control strategies, optimality criteria, algorithm, pay-off matrix, compromise solution, game theory, guaranteed result.

10th European Zebrafish Meeting. Budapest, Hungary - July 3-7, 2017

10th European Zebrafish Meeting. Budapest, Hungary - July 3-7, 2017

Current developments in cancer care: including the patients' perspective-3rd European Roundtable Meeting (ERTM) June 17, 2016, Berlin, Germany.

National Cancer Control Plans (NCCP) are necessary to improve cancer care and reduce mortality. We have reported previously on European institutional health structures and transformation of theoretical health care standards into a practical approach. For the latter consideration of the patients' perspective was considered as highly important and chosen as subject for this meeting. Several European organizations have realized deficits in this area. They promote equal and timely access to cancer care since current inequities lead to disparities in cancer survival across Europe. Patients' support working groups are focussing on employment issues, financial services, psychosocial screening and support, palliative care and rehabilitation. They also identified cancer research including patients' views as highly important. Workshops during the 3rd European Roundtable Meeting (ERTM) covered the issues transparency in patient care, implementation of new knowledge and decision making in partnership with the patient. It was concluded that patient views and perspectives have to be considered during the whole continuum of cancer care. Access to treatment, transparency and including patients into the development process are relevant aspects.

Substitution of Critical Raw Materials: Synthesis, Characterization and Processing of New Advanced Materials in Optoelectronic and Magnetic Devices

AbstractThis proceedings volume, published in phys. status solidi contains the research presented at the 2016 Spring European Materials Research Society Meeting in Lille, France, in the framework of the symposium E “Substitution of critical raw materials: synthesis, characterization and processing of new advanced materials in optoelectronic and magnetic devices”.The symposium, organized by the EIP commitment RESET, received 110 abstracts with 61 oral pre¬sentations from 26 different countries and represented one of the first scientific conferences on the theme of Critical Raw Materials in Europe.Raw materials are fundamental in most technological applications, however, the global increase demand and the geopolitical concentration of some of them, raised concerns about securing reliable access to raw material resources. In 2010 and, successively, in 2014 the EU commission created a list “Critical Raw Materials” on the prevision of the supply disruption foresees in the next 10 years and the economic and technological importance.Research is needed to improve the fundamental understanding of the development of new material solutions with a reduced or completely eliminated critical content, while maintaining or enhancing the performance of the materials, components and products.The design of the alternative compounds, the control of growth processes coupled with accurate characterization are mandatory for the further development of new CRM free devices.Among the different applications the research projects presented at the symposium were mainly focussed on modern lighting devices, transparent conductive layers, permanent magnetic materials and catalytic converters, providing an interdisciplinary platform on alternatives to CRM.We thank all invited and contributed participants for the high scientific level of presentation and, more in general, for the success of the symposium.

The 17th European carabidologists meeting - continuity in exploring diversity of carabids in relation with current changes in the environment

The 17th European Carabidologists Meeting (17th ECM) was organised in 2015, and for the first time in Croatia. This was a great honour and privilege to join the 12 European countries that have already hosted these distinguished meetings. 48 years have passed since the first meeting was held in Wijster in the Netherlands (1), organised by the Dutch famous ecologist Piet den Boer. The 17th ECM was attended by 112 participants including organisation team members, coming from 21 European countries and form Canada.

Investigation of Iso-octane Ignition and Validation of a Multizone Modeling Method in an Ignition Quality Tester

An ignition quality tester was used to characterize the autoignition delay times of iso-octane. The experimental data were characterized between temperatures of 653 and 996 K, pressures of 1.0 and 1.5 MPa, and global equivalence ratios of 0.7 and 1.05. A clear negative temperature coefficient behavior was seen at both pressures in the experimental data. These data were used to characterize the effectiveness of three modeling methods: a single-zone homogeneous batch reactor, a multizone engine model, and a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. A detailed 874 species iso-octane ignition mechanism (Mehl, M.; Curran, H. J.; Pitz, W. J.; Westbrook, C. K. Chemical kinetic modeling of component mixtures relevant to gasoline. Proceedings of the European Combustion Meeting; Vienna, Austria, April 14–17, 2009) was reduced to 89 species for use in these models, and the predictions of the reduced mechanism were consistent with ignition delay times predicted by the detailed chemical mechanism acr...

Report of the 4th European Zebrafish Principal Investigator Meeting.

The European Zebrafish Principal Investigator Meeting (EZPM) is an ideal forum for group leaders using this fantastic animal model not only to discuss science but also to strengthen their interactions, to push forward technological advances, and to define guidelines for the use of this fish in research. The city of Lisbon (Portugal) was voted by the European group leaders to be the setting for the 4th EZPM, and the organizing committee, composed by Leonor Saúde (iMM Lisboa, PT), Susana Lopes (CEDOC, PT), Michael Orger (Champalimaud Foundation, PT), Rui Oliveira (ISPA, PT), and António Jacinto (CEDOC, PT), was very enthusiastic to organize a productive event. The 4th EZPM took place from March 15 to 19 at Pavilhão do Conhecimento, a Science Museum and Educational Center winner of The Great Prize FAD of Arquitecture 1999 and The Society for Environmental Graphic Design Award 2011. Over 5 days, 135 group leaders (89 men and 46 women) coming from 19 different European countries and also from the United States, Turkey, Israel, Chile, and Singapore presented and discussed their recent research achievements. In addition to the scientific oral and poster presentations, the group leaders gathered in very lively community sessions on morphants versus mutants (chaired by Didier Stainier, Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, DE), funding issues (chaired by Uwe Strahle, KIT-ITG, DE), and gender equality (chaired by Corinne Houart, KCL, United Kingdom). One of the highlights of the 4th EZPM was the guided visit to Oceanário de Lisboa, an international award-winning place that celebrates life with a stunning display of living aquatic creatures.

PP.30.11] DEFICITS AMONG PHYSICIANS ON SELF-REPORTED AWARENESS AND IMPLEMENTATION OF EVIDENCE BASED RECOMMENDATIONS ON LIFESTYLE CHANGES FOR MANAGEMENT OF HYPERTENSION

Objective: Appropriate lifestyle changes are the cornerstone for prevention and treatment of hypertension. In the recent 2013 ESH/ESC hypertension guidelines 6 lifestyle changes are recommended for the treatment of hypertensive patients with class I evidence level A, based on their proven impact on blood pressure control and cardiovascular risk. We therefore initiated a survey among physicians involved in the treatment of hypertension to explore their awareness and consideration of lifestyle factors in the management of hypertension. Design and method: The survey included a total of 16 questions covering physicians[Combining Acute Accent] demographic information and the 2013 ESH/ESC guidelines recommendations on lifestyle changes. It was designed to take less than 5 minutes to complete and included 6 questions explicitly related to alcohol intake. The survey was conducted at two national meetings in Germany and at two European meetings (ESH meeting in Milan 2016 and ESC meeting in London 2016, respectively). Results: Overall 1084 (37% female) physicians (258 and 826 at the German and European meetings, respectively) participated. They were predominantly cardiologists (50%) and internists (28%), while 9% were general physicians; 77% were hospital based and overall 22% were members of the German and/or European Hypertension Society, respectively. The results of the awareness on the lifestyle changes included in the guidelines and the corresponding recommendations of physicians implemented in their own management of hypertension are summarized in the figure.Conclusions: These results indicate a close correlation between self-reported awareness of guideline recommendations and implementation of these recommendations in clinical practice. European cardiologists and internists emphasize regular exercise and weight reduction stronger than the other four life style factors. Moderation of alcohol consumption is the least emphasized life style factor.

16th Biennial European Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making: ESMDM Meeting Abstracts.

16th Biennial European Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making: ESMDM Meeting Abstracts.

President's Page

EDITOR'S SUMMARYASIS&T president Nadia Caidi announces incoming board members for the positions of president‐elect, treasurer and directors‐at‐large and recognizes the volunteer service of dedicated members in a variety of activities. The search for a director to succeed Dick Hill and interviews with applicants for the position of communications officer continue, while the steadfast team at ASIS&T headquarters maintains operations and member services. The Association's first Meet the Authors webinar, exploring search engine manipulation, was stimulating, and doctoral students' videos on their research will soon be viewable online. Google Scholar metrics for June 2016 reaffirm the leading position of ASIS&T publications for the information science community. The upcoming ASIS&T Annual Meeting in Copenhagen and other fall 2016 meetings in Europe offer valuable opportunities for learning, networking and career growth.

Coronary artery bifurcation with chronic total occlusion: A “biodegradable” strategy for a challenging treatment with optical coherence tomography analysis

Coronary bifurcation lesions (CBLs) are a frequently challenging setting for interventionists. Treatment of these lesions is associated with complications and unfavorable outcomes in terms of death, myocardial infarction (MI) or repeat revascularization [ 1 Al Suwaidi J. Berger P.B. Rihal C.S. Garratt K.N. Bell M.R. Ting H.H. Bresnahan J.F. Grill D.E. Holmes D.R. Immediate and long-term outcome of intracoronary stent implantation for true bifurcation le- sions. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2000; 35: 929-936 Crossref PubMed Scopus (0) Google Scholar , 2 Al Suwaidi J. Yeh W. Cohen H.A. Detre K.M. Williams D.O. Holmes Jr., D.R. Immediate and one-year outcome in patients with coronary bifurcation lesions in the modern era (NHLBI dynamic registry). Am. J. Cardiol. 2001; 87: 1139-1144 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (206) Google Scholar ]. The difficulties encountered to treat CBLs have led to development of alternative techniques like provisional stenting, actually the recommended modality of CBL treatment, rather than two stents technique, with or without final kissing balloon inflation [ 3 Piraino D. Carella M. Buccheri D. Andolina G. Bifurcation lesions: bioresorbable vascular scaffold and drug coated balloon, an efficacy association. Lessons from optimal coherence tomography. Int. J. Cardiol. 2016; 212: 92-93 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (0) Google Scholar , 4 Lassen J.F. Holm N.R. Stankovic G. Lefèvre T. Chieffo A. Hildick-Smith D. Pan M. Darremont O. Ferenc R.A.M. Louvard Y. Percutaneous coronary intervention for coronary bifurcation disease: consensus from the first 10 years of the European bifurcation club meetings. EuroIntervention. 2014; 10: 545-560 Crossref PubMed Scopus (194) Google Scholar ].

European Zebrafish Meeting 2015 Husbandry Session Report.

A workshop to address husbandry and animal welfare was held during the 9th European Zebrafish Meeting in Oslo, Norway, from June 28 to July 2, 2015. The husbandry workshop took place on Monday, June 29, and was well attended by ∼100 audience members. It highlighted problems arising from the diversity of current husbandry practices and included presentations on recent efforts to find common husbandry and animal welfare standards from a variety of international contributors, from Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, as well as the United States and Japan. Presentations included zebrafish and medaka as representatives of aquatic species used in biomedical research and addressed a diverse range of topics such as proposed European guidelines for zebrafish husbandry, general fish facility health and husbandry standards, cryopreservation, publication standards, and feeding strategies. The workshop highlighted the desire to develop common husbandry standards for the aquatic research community across the world.

Fish from Head to Tail: The 9th European Zebrafish Meeting in Oslo.

The 9th European Zebrafish Meeting took place recently in Oslo (June 28-July 2, 2015). A total of 650 participants came to hear the latest research news focused on the zebrafish, Danio rerio, and to its distant evolutionary relative medaka, Oryzias latipes. The packed program included keynote and plenary talks, short oral presentations and poster sessions, workshops, and strategic discussions. The meeting was a great success and revealed dramatically how important the zebrafish in particular has become as a model system for topics, such as developmental biology, functional genomics, biomedicine, toxicology, and drug development. A new emphasis was given to its potential as a model for aquaculture, a topic of great economic interest to the host country Norway and for the future global food supply in general. Zebrafish husbandry as well as its use in teaching were also covered in separate workshops. As has become a tradition in these meetings, there was a well-attended Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and ZFIN workshop focused on Zebrafish Genome Resources on the first day. The full EZM 2015 program with abstracts can be read and downloaded from the EZM 2015 Web site zebrafish2015.org .

Recommendations from a European Roundtable Meeting on Best Practice Healthy Infant Skin Care.

BackgroundEuropean roundtable meeting recommendations on bathing and cleansing of infants were published in 2009; a second meeting was held to update and expand these recommendations in light of new evidence and the continued need to address uncertainty surrounding this aspect of routine care.MethodsThe previous roundtable recommendations concerning infant cleansing, bathing, and use of liquid cleansers were critically reviewed and updated and the quality of evidence was evaluated using the Grading of Recommendation Assessment, Development and Evaluation system. New recommendations were developed to provide guidance on diaper care and the use of emollients. A series of recommendations was formulated to characterize the attributes of ideal liquid cleansers, wipes, and emollients.ResultsNewborn bathing can be performed without harming the infant, provided basic safety procedures are followed. Water alone or appropriately designed liquid cleansers can be used during bathing without impairing the skin maturation process. The diaper area should be kept clean and dry; from birth, the diaper area may be gently cleansed with cotton balls/squares and water or by using appropriately designed wipes. Appropriately formulated emollients can be used to maintain and enhance skin barrier function. Appropriately formulated baby oils can be applied for physiologic (transitory) skin dryness and in small quantities to the bath. Baby products that are left on should be formulated to buffer and maintain babies’ skin surface at approximately pH 5.5, and the formulations and their constituent ingredients should have undergone an extensive program of safety testing. Formulations should be effectively preserved; products containing harsh surfactants, such as sodium lauryl sulfate, should be avoided.ConclusionHealth care professionals can use these recommendations as the basis of their advice to parents.

Specific allergen immunotherapy for the treatment of atopic eczema.

Specific allergen immunotherapy for the treatment of atopic eczema.

Publication rate of paper and podium presentations from the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society Annual Meeting

The Cervical Spine Research Society Europe (CSRS-E) actively promotes scientific activities, the annual meeting being the most evident of them. The publication rate of oral and poster presentations at the annual meeting could be a measure for the success of the promotional activities. The publication rates of abstracts presented at the annual European meetings of the CSRS are unknown. The quality of the abstracts presented at a conference is reflected by the publication rate. A high publication rate is usually interpreted as representative of high scientific value of the conference. Poster and podium presentations from the 2007 to 2012 annual meetings were identified. Pubmed was used to search for the abstract title and/or the combination of authors to verify whether the data were published in a peer-reviewed journal. Abstracts were considered published if the data presented at the meeting were identical to that in the publication. The journals in which the data were published were identified, as well as the origin of the research centre. From 2007 to 2012 826 abstracts were featured at the CSRS Europe annual meetings. There were 236 podium presentations and 590 poster presentations. 42% of the podium presentations resulted in a publication, and 28% of the poster presentations led to a publication. Overall, 32% of accepted abstracts effectuated a publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Abstracts from European research groups had a publication rate of 29% compared to 34% for abstracts from non-European research groups. Spine, European Spine Journal, Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques and J Neurosurgery Spine were the most common publication journals for the abstracts. The mean impact factor of the journals in which was published was 2.2. 42% of the abstracts that were accepted for podium presentation at the CSRS Europe resulted in a publication in peer-reviewed MEDLINE indexed journals. Publication rates are at the high end of the publication rate spectrum of abstracts accepted for European scientific meetings.

Doctor Hermann Strauss, Scientist and Physician, 1868-1944. His multiple activities and scientific achievements, which came to an end in theTheresienstadt Ghetto – Micro and Macro Historical Context. Workshops of Miriam Offer PhD (Western Galilee College, Israel) duringThe Second European Meeting on Nazi Medicine.Transgressing borders (Prague, September 7-9, 2016). Report

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International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences (IACS) 3rd European Section Meeting, 2016

International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences (IACS) 3rd European Section Meeting, 2016

Earth abundant and emerging solar energy conversion materials

AbstractThis proceedings volume of physica status solidi contains research presented at the 2015 Spring European Materials Research Society Meeting in Lille, France. The papers were peer‐reviewed and selected for the proceedings. This meeting was a follow‐on from Symposium E from the Spring 2014 MRS Meeting in San Francisco (“Earth‐Abundant Inorganic Solar‐Energy Conversion”), and will be followed in 2016 with Symposium EE1 at the Spring MRS Meeting in Phoenix (“Emerging Materials and Phenomena for Solar Energy Conversion”).The symposium focused specifically on materials outside of the commercial realm (Si, CdTe and CIGS). All of the topics covered related to earth‐abundant and emerging materials, some of which include metal‐organic perovskite solar cells, novel inorganic solar absorbers, computational design for photovoltaics, defect analysis of absorber materials, interface and surface properties, and novel materials for solar fuel devices. The papers contributed to these Proceedings represent a cross‐section of some of the diverse topics covered during the symposium.We would like to thank all of the many invited and contributed speakers in the symposium, as well as those who presented posters at the meeting. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)