Cast iron-base alloy for cylinder/regenerator housing

NASACC-1 is a castable iron-base alloy designed to replace the costly and strategic cobalt-base X-40 alloy used in the automotive Stirling engine cylinder/generator housing. Over 40 alloy compositions were evaluated using investment cast test bars for stress-rupture testing. Also, hydrogen compatibility and oxygen corrosion resistance tests were used to determine the optimal alloy. NASACC-1 alloy was characterized using elevated and room temperature tensile, creep-rupture, low cycle fatigue, heat capacity, specific heat, and thermal expansion testing. Furthermore, phase analysis was performed on samples with several heat treated conditions. The properties are very encouraging. NASACC-1 alloy shows stress-rupture and low cycle fatigue properties equivalent to X-40. The oxidation resistance surpassed the program goal while maintaining acceptable resistance to hydrogen exposure. The welding, brazing, and casting characteristics are excellent. Finally, the cost of NASACC-1 is significantly lower than that of X-40

Letters between Georgetta Witter and William Kerr\u27s secretary

Letters concerning recommendations for position in Domestic Science at Utah Agricultural College

Studying complex interventions : reflections from the FEMHealth project on evaluating fee exemption policies in West Africa and Morocco

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Paying for Performance to Improve the Delivery and Uptake of Family Planning in Low and Middle Income Countries: A Systematic Review

Paying for performance is a strategy to meet the unmet need for family planning in low and middle income countries; however, rigorous evidence on effectiveness is lacking. Scientific databases and grey literature were searched from 1994 to May 2016. Thirteen studies were included. Payments were linked to units of targeted services, usually modified by quality indicators. Ancillary components and payment indicators differed between studies. Results were mixed for family planning outcome measures. Paying for performance was associated with improved modern family planning use in one study, and increased user and coverage rates in two more. Paying for performance with conditional cash transfers increased family planning use in another. One study found increased use in the upper wealth group only. However, eight studies reported no impact on modern family planning use or prevalence. Secondary outcomes of equity, financial risk protection, satisfaction, quality, and service organization were mixed. Available evidence is inconclusive and limited by the scarcity of studies and by variation in intervention, study design, and outcome measures. Further studies are warranted

Differences in intestinal size, structure, and function contributing to feed efficiency in broiler chickens reared at geographically distant locations

The contribution of the intestinal tract to differences in residual feed intake (RFI) has been inconclusively studied in chickens so far. It is also not clear if RFI-related differences in intestinal function are similar in chickens raised in different environments. The objective was to investigate differences in nutrient retention, visceral organ size, intestinal morphology, jejunal permeability and expression of genes related to barrier function, and innate immune response in chickens of diverging RFI raised at 2 locations (L1: Austria; L2: UK). The experimental protocol was similar, and the same dietary formulation was fed at the 2 locations. Individual BW and feed intake (FI) of chickens (Cobb 500FF) were recorded from d 7 of life. At 5 wk of life, chickens (L1, n = 157; L2 = 192) were ranked according to their RFI, and low, medium, and high RFI chickens were selected (n = 9/RFI group, sex, and location). RFI values were similar between locations within the same RFI group and increased by 446 and 464 g from low to high RFI in females and males, respectively. Location, but not RFI rank, affected growth, nutrient retention, size of the intestine, and jejunal disaccharidase activity. Chickens from L2 had lower total body weight gain and mucosal enzyme activity but higher nutrient retention and longer intestines than chickens at L1. Parameters determined only at L1 showed increased crypt depth in the duodenum and jejunum and enhanced paracellular permeability in low vs. high RFI females. Jejunal expression of IL1B was lower in low vs. high RFI females at L2, whereas that of TLR4 at L1 and MCT1 at both locations was higher in low vs. high RFI males. Correlation analysis between intestinal parameters and feed efficiency metrics indicated that feed conversion ratio was more correlated to intestinal size and function than was RFI. In conclusion, the rearing environment greatly affected intestinal size and function, thereby contributing to the variation in chicken RFI observed across locations

Performance-based financing as a health system reform : mapping the key dimensions for monitoring and evaluation

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Evaluation of an eBook for Oral Health Literacy© to Promote Child Health: Readability, Suitability, Understandability, Actionability, and Gist-Based Message

The purpose of the study was to evaluate an oral health curriculum called an eBook for Oral Health Literacy© to determine its effectiveness for promoting child health. A secondary purpose was to describe and explain the design characteristics of readability, suitability, understandability, and actionability of the 17 chapters of the eBook. A third purpose was to conduct evaluations on verbatim representations (or literal facts) that are presented in the eBook chapters, including the gist representations that are not explicitly presented but inferred by the reader from the chapter information. Results found that the eBook for Oral Health Literacy© had acceptable, and in many cases, favorable scores, for the five design elements of readability, suitability, understandability, actionability, and gist comprehension. Ongoing dissemination of the eBook for Oral Health Literacy© curriculum has the potential to boost children who are “learning to read” and “reading to learn” about oral health hygiene and nutrition. Future studies should use one or more chapters from the curriculum as an intervention to test this educational premise as an explanatory basis for functional health literacy

Dental Laboratory Production of Prosthetic Restorations in a Population in Sofia, Bulgaria: A Descriptive Study

Objective. To describe prosthodontic production related to mutilated dentitions in Sofia, Bulgaria. Methods. Prosthodontic production from 5 dental laboratories was recorded during a 14-day period. Production was related to dentitions as noted from casts. Dentitions were classified as edentulous, interrupted/reduced, slightly interrupted, shortened, and complete. The representativeness of the laboratory sample was verified trough comparison with a Sofia population sample using proportions of crowned or replaced teeth per dental region. Results. The total production consisted of 243 crowns, 16 post and cores, 82 fixed dental prostheses, and 41 removable dentures. Proportions of crowned teeth were significantly different between the samples; proportions of replaced teeth were not. Of the 58 incomplete dentitions analyzed, 19 were restored to the level of completeness, 15 resulted in slightly interrupted, and 24 in shortened dentitions. Conclusions. Predominantly fixed restorations were provided to restore mutilated dentitions to a functional level and not necessarily to complete dentitions

Why do people become health workers? Analysis from life histories in 4 post-conflict and post-crisis countries

Sophie Witter - orcid: 0000-0002-7656-6188 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7656-6188While there is a growing body of literature on how to attract and retain health workers once they are trained, there is much less published on what motivates people to train as health professions in the first place in low- and middle-income countries and what difference this makes to later retention. In this article, we examine patterns in expressed motivation to join the profession across different cadres, based on 103 life history interviews conducted in northern Uganda, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, and Zimbabwe. A rich mix of reported motivations for joining the profession was revealed, including strong influence of personal calling,- exhortations of family and friends, early experiences, and chance factors. Desire for social status and high respect for health professionals were also significant. Economic factors are also important- not just perceptions of future salaries and job security but also more immediate ones, such as low cost or free training. These allowed low-income participants to access the health professions, to which they had shown considerably loyalty. The lessons learned from these cohorts, which had remained in service through periods of conflict and crisis, can influence recruitment and training policies in similar contexts to ensure a resilient health workforce.sch_iih33pub5152pub

Large scale analysis of expressed genes in common wheat

To assess associations between occlusal tooth wear and shortened dental arches (SDA) in Chinese 40 years and older subjects. From a sample of 1462 urban and rural adults, those presenting with SDA (n = 150) were compared with a control group of 65 randomly selected subjects with complete dentitions (CDA). Occlusal wear was assessed using a modified Smith and Knight index - the occlusal tooth wear index (OWTI) - and analysed using multivariate (logistic) regression. There was no significant effect from SDA on severe occlusal wear (OTWI score 3 or 4: OR = 2.016; 95% CI = 0.960-4.231; P = 0.064). Higher age was associated with severe occlusal wear (P values </=0.007) and with higher mean OTWI scores; urban had less often severe occlusal wear than rural residents (OR = 0.519; P = 0.008). Higher mean OTWI scores were associated with rural residents, except for anterior teeth. Females had lower mean OTWI score for anterior teeth (effect = -0.153; P = 0.030). Premolars in SDA had higher mean OTWI scores compared with those in CDA (effect = +0.213; P = 0.006). In SDA, more posterior occluding pairs (POPs) were associated with lower mean OTWI sores for anterior teeth (effect: -0.158; P = 0.008) and higher scores for molars (effect: +0.249, P = 0.003). Subjects with SDA or CDA presented comparable occlusal wear, but premolars in SDA tend to have higher probability for having occlusal wear. Fewer numbers of POPs were associated with more wear in anterior teeth