Dental Treatment under General Anesthesia in Healthy and Medically Compromised/Developmentally Disabled Children: A Comparative Study

Aim: To compare the type, number of procedures and working time of dental treatment provided under dental general anesthesia (DGA) in healthy and medically compromised/developmentally disabled children (MCDD children). Design: This cross-sectional prospective study involved 80 children divided into two groups of 40 children each. Group 1 consisted of healthy and Group 2 consisted of MCDD children. Results: Healthy children needed more working time than MCDD children, the means being 161±7.9 and 84±5.7 minutes, respectively (P= 0.0001). Operative dentistry and endodontic treatments showed a significant statistical difference (P= 0.0001). The means of procedures were 17±5.0 for healthy children and 11±4.8 for MCDD children (P= 0.0001). Conclusions: Healthy children needed more extensive dental treatment than MCDD children under DGA. The information from this sample of Mexican children could be used as reference for determining trends both within a facility as well as in comparing facilities in cross-population studies

How Do Flanking Objects Affect Reaching and Grasping Behavior in Participants with Macular Disorders?

Purpose: To investigate how objects (flankers) placed on either side of a target affect reaching and grasping behaviour in visually impaired (VI) subjects due to macular disorders compared to age matched normals. Methods: Subjects reached out to grasp a cylindrical target placed on its own and when it had two identical objects (flankers) placed either half or one target diameter away on each side of the target. A motion analysis system (Vicon 460) recorded and reconstructed the 3D hand and finger movements. Kinematic data for transport and grasping mechanisms were measured. Results: In subjects with VI, crowding effected the overall movement duration, time after maximum velocity and maximum grip aperture. Maximum effect was shown when the flankers were placed close to the target (high level crowding) with a decreased effect shown for flankers placed further away (medium level crowding). Compared to normals, subjects with VI generally took longer to initiate the hand movement and to complete the movement. Time after maximum velocity and time after maximum grip aperture were also longer in subjects with VI. No interaction effects were found for any of the indices for the different levels of crowding in the two visual groups. Conclusions: Reaching and grasping behaviour is compromised in subjects with VI due to macular disorders compared to normals. Crowding affected performance for both normal subjects and those with VI. Flankers placed half an object diameter away showed greater deterioration than those placed further away

Real-Time Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Drives under Stator Faults

Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing methods can facilitate the development of control strategies in a safe and inexpensive environment particularly when extreme operating conditions such as faults are considered. HIL methods rely on accurate real-time emulation of the equipment under investigation. However, no validated tools for real-time emulation of electrical drives under fault conditions are available. This paper describes the implementation of a high-fidelity real-time emulator of a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) drive in a platform suitable for HIL tests. The emulator is capable of representing the drive operation under both healthy conditions and during inter-turn stator winding faults. Nonlinearities due to saturation, higher order harmonics, slotting effects, etc. are accounted for using fourdimensional look-up tables obtained by finite element analysis (FEA). The proposed model is computationally efficient and capable of running in real-time in a FPGA platform and is validated against simulations and experimental results in a wide range of operating conditions. Potential applications of the proposed emulation environment to the development of drive control, fault detection and diagnostic algorithms are proposed

Emprendimiento, rentas de las familias y políticas activas de empleo

En este artículo comenzamos analizando las Políticas Activas de Empleo de apoyo al emprendimiento en Aragón utilizando los datos del Servicio Público de Empleo. Estudiamos los programas de ayuda a autoempleo durante el periodo 2010-2018 a través de los datos sobre un pago único para las personas que se establecen como autónomas, o en forma de distintos tipos de subvenciones (subvenciones al establecimiento como trabajador autónomo, incentivos a la consolidación de proyectos, subvenciones financieras, subvenciones para asistencia técnica o subvenciones para formación). Este artículo enfatiza lo altamente interesante que resulta el análisis de la eficacia de las PAE destinadas al emprendimiento como herramienta de intermediación laboral y generación de renta aplicado desde el ámbito territorial

The role of spatial and temporal radiation deposition in inertial fusion chambers: the case of HiPER¿

The first wall armour for the reactor chamber of HiPER will have to face short energy pulses of 5 to 20 MJ mostly in the form of x-rays and charged particles at a repetition rate of 5–10 Hz. Armour material and chamber dimensions have to be chosen to avoid/minimize damage to the chamber, ensuring the proper functioning of the facility during its planned lifetime. The maximum energy fluence that the armour can withstand without risk of failure, is determined by temporal and spatial deposition of the radiation energy inside the material. In this paper, simulations on the thermal effect of the radiation–armour interaction are carried out with an increasing definition of the temporal and spatial deposition of energy to prove their influence on the final results. These calculations will lead us to present the first values of the thermo-mechanical behaviour of the tungsten armour designed for the HiPER project under a shock ignition target of 48 MJ. The results will show that only the crossing of the plasticity limit in the first few micrometres might be a threat after thousands of shots for the survivability of the armour

Modelización de las distribuciones diamétricas en masas de Betula alba L. en el noroeste de España con la función Weibull biparamétrica

The diameter distributions of 125 permanent plots installed in birch dominated (Betula alba L.) stands in Galicia were modelled with the two-parameter Weibull distribution. Four different fitting methods were used: that based on percentiles of the distribution, non linear regression, maximum likelihood and the method of moments. The most accurate fit was obtained with the non linear regression (NLR) approach, considering the following statistics in the comparison: bias, mean absolute error (MAE), mean square error (MSE) and number of plots rejected by the Kolmogoroff-Smirnoff (KS) test. The scale parameter (b) and the shape parameter (c) obtained with the most accurate method (non linear regression), were first modelled with simple linear models and then related to commonly measured prediction variables (quadratic mean diameter, dominant height and stand density) with the parameter prediction model (PPM). The parameters fitted with the method of moments were recovered with the parameter recovery model (PRM) from the first and the second moments of the distribution (mean diameter and variance, respectively). Results indicated that both methods were successful in predicting the diameter frequency distributions. The PRM was more accurate than the PPM method.Las distribuciones diamétricas de 125 parcelas permanentes instaladas en masas puras de abedul (Betula alba L.) en Galicia fueron modelizadas con la distribución Weibull de dos parámetros. Se emplearon cuatro métodos de ajuste: basados en percentiles de la distribución, regresión no lineal, máxima verosimilitud y el método de los momentos. Los ajustes más precisos fueron obtenidos con regresión no lineal, considerando los siguientes estadísticos en la comparación de los resultados: sesgo, error medio absoluto, error medio cuadrático y número de parcelas rechazadas por el test de Kolmogoroff-Smirnoff. El parámetro de escala (b) y el parámetro de forma (c) obtenidos con el método más preciso (regresión no lineal), fueron relacionados con variables de masa de frecuente medición (diámetro medio cuadrático, altura dominante y densidad) mediante modelos lineales sencillos aplicando la metodología de predicción de parámetros. Los parámetros ajustados con el método de los momentos fueron recuperados con modelos de recuperación de parámetros a partir del primer y del segundo momento de la distribución (diámetro medio y varianza, respectivamente). Los resultados indicaron que ambos métodos fueron satisfactorios para predecir las distribuciones de frecuencias de diámetros. El método de recuperación de parámetros fue más preciso que el método de predicción de parámetros