The Practice of Dentistry by Australian- and Overseas- Trained Dentists in Australia: Discriminant Analysis of key Predictors

Available online 18 February 2021INTRODUCTION: Overseas-trained dentists comprise at least one-fourth of the overall Australian dental workforce. This study examined characteristics and practice differences between Australian- and overseas-trained dentists to identify key predictors that best differentiate their dentistry practices. METHODS: Data for the study were from the Longitudinal Study of Dentist Practice Activity (LSDPA), a survey of a nationally representative random sample of dentists in Australia commencing in 1983-1984 and repeated every 5 years. Dentists were surveyed on a wide range of items including participant characteristics, practice patterns, practice inputs, direct demand, and productivity measures. Data were weighted to provide national estimates by age, sex, and practice type. Discriminant function analysis was used to examine the predictor variables that best distinguished between the two groups. Analysis was limited to the most recent wave of the study. RESULTS: A total of 1148 dentists (response rate = 67%) responded to the survey in 2009-2010; 648 cases were available for the discriminant analysis. The discriminant functions for the full sample and each of the 3 age groups (<35 years; 35-50 years; and 50+ years) were found effective to separate dentists into 2 groups (Australian and overseas), with the proportion of cases correctly classified being highest for the oldest age group (89.7% for 50+ years). Female gender, type of practice (working in public sector), and working in disadvantaged areas were significant predictors, with more prominence in the 35- to 50-year age group. Practice inputs, demand, and productivity measures offered less discriminative capacity between the dentists. CONCLUSION: Overseas-trained dentists contribute towards providing dental care to underserved populations, the public sector, and in rural and remote locations. This study provided basis to argue that policies to encourage overseas-trained dentists to contribute towards areas of need locations have been successful, and key productivity measures were also similar to Australian-trained dentists.Madhan Balasubramanian, A. John Spencer, Woosung Sohn, David S. Brenna

Preparation and ferroelectric properties of (124)-oriented SrBi4Ti4O15 ferroelectric thin film on (110)-oriented LaNiO3 electrode

A (124)-oriented SrBi4Ti4O15 (SBTi) ferroelectric thin film with high volume fraction of {\alpha}SBTi(124)=97% was obtained using a metal organic decomposition process on SiO2/Si substrate coated by (110)-oriented LaNiO3 (LNO) thin film. The remanent polarization and coercive field for (124)-oriented SBTi film are 12.1 {\mu}C/cm2 and 74 kV/cm, respectively. No evident fatigue of (124)-oriented SBTi thin film can be observed after 1{\times}10e9 switching cycles. Besides, the (124)-oriented SBTi film can be uniformly polarized over large areas using a piezoelectric-mode atomic force microscope. Considering that the annealing temperature was 650{\deg}C and the thickness of each deposited layer was merely 30 nm, a long-range epitaxial relationship between SBTi(124) and LNO(110) facets was proposed. The epitaxial relationship was demonstrated based on the crystal structures of SBTi and LNO.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, published in Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics (JMSE), 19 (2008), 1031-103

Random sequencing of cDNA clones from Brassica napus

2

Ray tracing of a molecular lens with velocity map Imaging

Summary form only given. We demonstrate the experimental tracing of a molecular beam passing through a cylindrical lens made of a non-resonant laser pulse. The beam of CS/sub 2/ molecules was deflected by a focused laser pulse (1064 nm, 7 ns, peak intensity I/sub 0//spl sim/10/sup 12/ W/cm/sup 2/). We probed the deflection of molecular beam directly by using the velocity map imaging technique. A resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization process was used for the detection of neutral molecules

Femtosecond four-wave mixing experiments on GaAs quantum wells using two independently tunable lasers

Femtosecond two beam and three beam (omega(1),omega(1);omega(2)) four-wave mixing (FWM) experiments on GaAs quantum wells have been performed using two partially synchronized, independently tunable lasers with external jitter compensation. Heavy and light hole beatings are observed with these two mutually incoherent lasers. FWM signals are observed when oz is completely below the exciton energies, with no spectral overlap with the absorption profile. These off-resonant signals are stronger than the interband continuum signals for equivalent detunings