4,020 research outputs found
Comparison and relative utility of inequality measurements: as applied to Scotlandâs child dental health
This study compared and assessed the utility of tests of inequality on a series of very large population caries datasets. National cross-sectional caries datasets for Scotlandâs 5-year-olds in 1993/94 (n = 5,078); 1995/96 (n = 6,240); 1997/98 (n = 6,584); 1999/00 (n = 6,781); 2002/03 (n = 9,747); 2003/04 (n = 10,956); 2005/06 (n = 10,945) and 2007/08 (n = 12,067) were obtained. Outcomes were based on the d3mft metric (i.e. the number of decayed, missing and filled teeth). An area-based deprivation category (DepCat) measured the subjectsâ socioeconomic status (SES). Simple absolute and relative inequality, Odds Ratios and the Significant Caries Index (SIC) as advocated by the World Health Organization were calculated. The measures of complex inequality applied to data were: the Slope Index of Inequality (absolute) and a variety of relative inequality tests i.e. Gini coefficient; Relative Index of Inequality; concentration curve; Koolman and Doorslaerâs transformed Concentration Index; Receiver Operator Curve and Population Attributable Risk (PAR). Additional tests used were plots of SIC deciles (SIC10) and a Scottish Caries Inequality Metric (SCIM10). Over the period, mean d3mft improved from 3.1(95%CI 3.0â3.2) to 1.9(95%CI 1.8â1.9) and d3mft = 0% from 41.1(95%CI 39.8â42.3) to 58.3(95%CI 57.8â59.7). Absolute simple and complex inequality decreased. Relative simple and complex inequality remained comparatively stable. Our results support the use of the SII and RII to measure complex absolute and relative SES inequalities alongside additional tests of complex relative inequality such as PAR and Koolman and Doorslaerâs transformed CI. The latter two have clear interpretations which may influence policy makers. Specialised dental metrics (i.e. SIC, SIC10 and SCIM10) permit the exploration of other important inequalities not determined by SES, and could be applied to many other types of disease where ranking of morbidity is possible e.g. obesity. More generally, the approaches described may be applied to study patterns of health inequality affecting worldwide populations
Shark fossil diversity (Squalomorphii, Squatinomorphii, and Galeomorphii) from the Langhian of Brielas (Lower Tagus Basin, Portugal)
The fossiliferous marine Miocene sediments of the Lower Tagus Basin (Portugal) present
a great diversity of Chondrichthyes forms. The current study focuses on the fossil
sharks from the Langhian Vc unit of the Brielas section, located in the SetĂşbal
Peninsula. A total of 384 isolated fossil teeth were analysed and ascribed to 17 species from the Orders Hexanchiformes, Squaliformes, Squatiniformes, Lamniformes,
and Carcharhiniformes. Centrophorus granulosus and Iago angustidens are described
for the first time in Portuguese sediments, whereas Pachyscyllium dachiardii and
Rhizoprionodon ficheuri represent only their second reported occurrence. Galeorhinus
goncalvesi was already known from the Portuguese uppermost Miocene (Alvalade
Basin), but it is now recognized in older sediments. Furthermore, the new material
seems to include the first reported occurrence of Hexanchus cf. agassizi in Miocene
sediments. As a whole, these new findings support the previous palaeoenvironment
characterization of a warm infralittoral setting gradually deepening to a circalittoral
one, where seasonal upwelling phenomena could have occurred
Extreme Type-II Superconductors in a Magnetic Field: A Theory of Critical Fluctuations
A theory of critical fluctuations in extreme type-II superconductors
subjected to a finite but weak external magnetic field is presented. It is
shown that the standard Ginzburg-Landau representation of this problem can be
recast, with help of a novel mapping, as a theory of a new "superconductor", in
an effective magnetic field whose overall value is zero, consisting of the
original uniform field and a set of neutralizing unit fluxes attached to
fluctuating vortex lines. The long distance behavior is related to
the anisotropic gauge theory in which the original magnetic field plays the
role of "charge". The consequences of this "gauge theory" scenario for the
critical behavior in high temperature superconductors are explored in detail,
with particular emphasis on questions of 3D XY vs. Landau level scaling,
physical nature of the vortex "line liquid" and the true normal state, and
fluctuation thermodynamics and transport. A "minimal" set of requirements for
the theory of vortex-lattice melting in the critical region is also proposed
and discussed.Comment: 28 RevTeX pages, 4 .ps figures; appendix A added, additional
references, streamlined Secs. IV and V in response to referees' comment
Topological phase-fluctuations, amplitude fluctuations, and criticality in extreme type-II superconductors
We study the effect of critical fluctuations on the phase diagram in
extreme type-II superconductors in zero and finite magnetic field using
large-scale Monte Carlo simulations on the Ginzburg-Landau model in a frozen
gauge approximation. We show that a vortex-loop unbinding gives a correct
picture of the zero field superconducting-normal transition even in the
presence of amplitude fluctuations, which are far from being critical at .
We extract critical exponents of the dual model by studying the topological
excitations of the original model. From the vortex-loop distribution function
we extract the anomalous dimension of the dual field , and
conclude that the charged Ginzburg-Landau model and the neutral 3DXY model
belong to different universality classes. We find are two distinct scaling
regimes for the vortex-line lattice melting line: a high-field scaling regime
and a distinct low-field 3DXY critical scaling regime. We also find indications
of an abrupt change in the connectivity of the vortex-tangle in the vortex
liquid along a line . This is the finite field counter-part of
the zero-field vortex-loop blowout. Which at low enough fields appears to
coincide with . Here, a description of the vortex system only in terms of
field induced vortex lines is inadequate at and above the VLL melting
temperature.Comment: 30 pages, 14 figure
Structural analysis and corrosion studies on an ISO 5832-9 biomedical alloy with TiO2 solâgel layers
The aim of this study was to demonstrate the
relationship between the structural and corrosion properties
of an ISO 5832-9 biomedical alloy modified with titanium
dioxide (TiO2) layers. These layers were obtained via the
solâgel method by acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of titanium
isopropoxide in isopropanol solution. To obtain TiO2 layers
with different structural properties, the coated samples
were annealed at temperatures of 200, 300, 400, 450, 500,
600 and 800 C for 2 h. For all the prepared samples,
accelerated corrosion measurements were performed in
Tyrodeâs physiological solution using electrochemical
methods. The most important corrosion parameters were
determined: corrosion potential, polarization resistance,
corrosion rate, breakdown and repassivation potentials.
Corrosion damage was analyzed using scanning electron
microscopy. Structural analysis was carried out for selected
TiO2 coatings annealed at 200, 400, 600 and 800 C. In
addition, the morphology, chemical composition, crystallinity,
thickness and density of the deposited TiO2 layers
were determined using suitable electron and X-ray measurement
methods. It was shown that the structure and
character of interactions between substrate and deposited
TiO2 layers depended on annealing temperature. All the
obtained TiO2 coatings exhibit anticorrosion properties, but
these properties are related to the crystalline structure and
character of substrateâlayer interaction. From the point of
view of corrosion, the best TiO2 solâgel coatings for stainless steel intended for biomedical applications seem to
be those obtained at 400 C.This study was supported by Grant No. N N507
501339 of the National Science Centre. The authors wish to express
their thanks to J. Borowski (MEDGAL, Poland) for the Rex 734 alloy
QED3 theory of underdoped high temperature superconductors
Low-energy theory of d-wave quasiparticles coupled to fluctuating vortex
loops that describes the loss of phase coherence in a two dimensional d-wave
superconductor at T=0 is derived. The theory has the form of 2+1 dimensional
quantum electrodynamics (QED3), and is proposed as an effective description of
the T=0 superconductor-insulator transition in underdoped cuprates. The
coupling constant ("charge") in this theory is proportional to the dual order
parameter of the XY model, which is assumed to be describing the quantum
fluctuations of the phase of the superconducting order parameter. The principal
result is that the destruction of phase coherence in d-wave superconductors
typically, and immediately, leads to antiferromagnetism. The transition can be
understood in terms of the spontaneous breaking of an approximate "chiral"
SU(2) symmetry, which may be discerned at low enough energies in the standard
d-wave superconductor. The mechanism of the symmetry breaking is analogous to
the dynamical mass generation in the QED3, with the "mass" here being
proportional to staggered magnetization. Other insulating phases that break
chiral symmetry include the translationally invariant "d+ip" and "d+is"
insulators, and various one dimensional charge-density and spin-density waves.
The theory offers an explanation for the rounded d-wave-like dispersion seen in
ARPES experiments on Ca2CuO2Cl2 (F. Ronning et. al., Science 282, 2067 (1998)).Comment: Revtex, 20 pages, 5 figures; this is a much extended follow-up to the
Phys. Rev. Lett. vol.88, 047006 (2002) (cond-mat/0110188); improved
presentation, many additional explanations, comments, and references added,
sec. IV rewritten. Final version, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay
channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7
TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector,
and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No
significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper
limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the
standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at
95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE
- âŚ