Periodontal health care of the geriatric patients in Tanzania

No Abstract

180 DEGREE REFLECTIVITY AND VELOCITY PERTURBATION OF THIN METAL DOTS.

Reflective arrays of rectangular thin metal 'dots' spaced in a regular or near regular grid pattern, such as have been used in surface acoustic wave resonators and in-line dot RACs on LiNbO//3 , are analyzed. The half-wavelength spacing of dots required leads to capacitative coupling between adjacent dots. The charge distribution induced on the dots by the passage of the SAW is presented including the coupling. The 180 degree SAW reflectivity of the dots and the SAW velocity perturbation through the dot array are given for a range of dot sizes. These are shown to be in good agreement with experimental results. The work establishes that the method of analysis can form the basis of the design of 180 degree reflective weighted dot arrays, allowing them to be implemented through varying dot density and/or by varying dot dimensions

Self-reported, subjectively-determined breath malodor, associated factors, treatment seeking behavior and oral hygiene practices among adults in Kinondoni, Tanzania

Aim: To study the self-reported (SRM) and subjectively-determined breath malodor (OSM), associated factors, treatment seeking behavior and oral hygiene practices among adults in Kinondoni district.Subjects and methods: This was a cross-sectional, descriptive and community-based study in convenient sample of 290 adults aged ≥ 18 years in Kinondoni district. The SRM, OSM of the exhaled air using the same individual’s nose, associated factors, treatment seeking behavior and oral hygiene practices were assessed using a self-administered structured questionnaire.Results: The prevalence of SRM was 76.6% and of OSM (16.6%), while tooth brushing practice and use of dentifrices was 100%, tongue cleaning (73.4%), awareness on presence of hard deposits on teeth (30%), gum bleeding on tooth brushing (69.7%), mobile teeth (7.2%) and medical problems (13.4%). The proportion of study participants who used ginger-spiced tea were (32.8%), tobacco smoking (16.6%), alcohol consumption (37.9%), dental floss (6.9%) and seeking treatment for breath malodor (TSM) was 11.8%. On logistic regression analyses, (AOR 95% CI), SRM was associated with ginger-spiced tea 3.27 (1.54-6.95), medical problems 3.25 (1.12-9.44) and smoking 7.92 (1.76-35.77). OSM was associated with Not-brushing the tongue 2.21 (1.08-4.54) and mobile teeth 6.01 (2.15-16.84). The TSM was associated with secondary education or higher, being married and awareness of having hard deposits on teeth.Conclusion: Breath malodor was a common problem, associated with not-cleaning the tongue, mobile teeth; tobacco smoking, ginger-spiced tea, and general medical problems whereby the majority sought no care. All participants reported daily tooth brushing with dentifrice but practiced limited interdental flossing

Are practical recommendations practiced? A national multi-centre cross-sectional study on frequency of visual field testing in glaucoma

Aim: To estimate current clinical practice for frequency of visual field (VF) monitoring in glaucoma in England. Methods: A cross-sectional review of all patients with chronic open angle glaucoma (COAG) attending specialist glaucoma clinics at six hospitals in England was performed. The number of VF tests undertaken prior to the study date and during the first 2 years since diagnosis were recorded and compared with European Glaucoma Society (EGS) guidelines for newly-diagnosed patients. Clinician-requested monitoring intervals were compared with intervals from the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines, and the relationships with disease severity, intraocular pressure (IOP) and glaucoma progression status were reviewed. Results: One-hundred and four patients with COAG were included. 73 patients had at least 2 years of follow-up. Median (IQR) total number of VF tests and in the first 2 years of diagnosis were 4 (2–7) and 2 (2–3), respectively. No patients met EGS guidelines, but 87% of patients had their monitoring intervals requested in accordance with NICE guidelines. These intervals were not related to disease severity or VF stability (Kruskal–Wallis test, p=0.25) but shortened significantly when IOP control was inadequate or when the overall clinical impression was disease progression (p<0.001). Conclusions Most newly-diagnosed COAG patients receive less than three VFs in the first 2 years following diagnosis and an average of 0.7 VF per year over the duration of follow-up

The practical Pomeron for high energy proton collimation

We present a model which describes proton scattering data from ISR to Tevatron energies, and which can be applied to collimation in high energy accelerators, such as the LHC and FCC. Collimators remove beam halo particles, so that they do not impinge on vulnerable regions of the machine, such as the superconducting magnets and the experimental areas. In simulating the effect of the collimator jaws it is crucial to model the scattering of protons at small momentum transfer t, as these protons can subsequently survive several turns of the ring before being lost. At high energies these soft processes are well described by Pomeron exchange models. We study the behaviour of elastic and single-diffractive dissociation cross sections over a wide range of energy, and show that the model can be used as a global description of the wide variety of high energy elastic and diffractive data presently available. In particular it models low mass diffraction dissociation, where a rich resonance structure is present, and thus predicts the differential and integrated cross sections in the kinematical range appropriate to the LHC. We incorporate the physics of this model into the beam tracking code MERLIN and use it to simulate the resulting loss maps of the beam halo lost in the collimators in the LHC

Feasibility and effectiveness of offering a solution-focused follow-up to employees with psychological problems or muscle skeletal pain: a randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Long-term sick leave has been of concern to politicians and decision-makers in Norway for several years. In the current study we assess the feasibility and effectiveness of offering a voluntary, solution-focused follow-up to sick-listed employees. METHODS: Employees on long-term sick leave due to psychological problems or muscle skeletal pain were randomly allocated to be offered a solution-focused follow-up (n = 122) or "treatment as usual" (n = 106). The intervention was integrated within 2 social security offices' regular follow-up. The intervention group was informed about the offer with letters, telephone calls and information meetings. Feasibility was measured by rate of uptake to the intervention, and effectiveness by number of days on sick leave. RESULTS: In general, few were reached with the different information elements. While the letter was sent to all, only 31% were reached by telephone and 15% attended the information meetings. Thirteen employees (11.5%) in the intervention group participated in the solution-focused follow-up. Intention to treat analysis showed no difference in mean length of sick leave between the intervention group (217 days) and the control group (189 days) (p = 0,101). CONCLUSION: Even if the information strategy might be improved, it is not likely that a voluntary solution-focused follow-up offered by the social security offices would result in measurable reduction in length of sick leave on a population level. However, the efficacy of a solution-focused follow-up for the persons reporting a need for this approach should be further investigated

Total Hadronic Cross Section Data and the Froissart-Martin Bound

The energy dependence of the total hadronic cross section at high energies is investigated with focus on the recent experimental result by the TOTEM Collaboration at 7 TeV and the Froissart-Martin bound. On the basis of a class of analytical parametrization with the exponent $\gamma$ in the leading logarithm contribution as a free parameter, different variants of fits to $pp$ and $\bar{p}p$ total cross section data above 5 GeV are developed. Two ensembles are considered, the first comprising data up to 1.8 TeV, the second also including the data collected at 7 TeV. We shown that in all fit variants applied to the first ensemble the exponent is statistically consistent with $\gamma$ = 2. Applied to the second ensemble, however, the same variants yield $\gamma$'s above 2, a result already obtained in two other analysis, by U. Amaldi \textit{et al}. and by the UA4/2 Collaboration. As recently discussed by Ya. I. Azimov, this faster-than-squared-logarithm rise does not necessarily violate unitarity. Our results suggest that the energy dependence of the hadronic total cross section at high energies still constitute an open problem.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, introduction extended and general references added to match editorial style, to appear in the Brazilian Journal of Physic

Inevitable Evolutionary Temporal Elements in Neural Processing: A Study Based on Evolutionary Simulations

Recent studies have suggested that some neural computational mechanisms are based on the fine temporal structure of spiking activity. However, less effort has been devoted to investigating the evolutionary aspects of such mechanisms. In this paper we explore the issue of temporal neural computation from an evolutionary point of view, using a genetic simulation of the evolutionary development of neural systems. We evolve neural systems in an environment with selective pressure based on mate finding, and examine the temporal aspects of the evolved systems. In repeating evolutionary sessions, there was a significant increase during evolution in the mutual information between the evolved agent's temporal neural representation and the external environment. In ten different simulated evolutionary sessions, there was an increased effect of time -related neural ablations on the agents' fitness. These results suggest that in some fitness landscapes the emergence of temporal elements in neural computation is almost inevitable. Future research using similar evolutionary simulations may shed new light on various biological mechanisms

An analysis of sickness absence in chronically ill patients receiving Complementary and Alternative Medicine: A longterm prospective intermittent study

BACKGROUND: The popularity of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has led to a growing amount of research in this area. All the same little is known about the effects of these special treatments in every-day practice of primary care, delivered by general practitioners within the health insurance system. From 1994 to 2000 more than 20 German Company health insurances initiated the first model project on CAM according to the German social law. Aim of this contribution is to investigate the effectiveness of multi-modal CAM on chronic diseases within primary health care. METHODS: A long-term prospective intermittent study was conducted including 44 CAM practitioners and 1221 self-selected chronically ill patients (64% women) of whom 441 were employed. Main outcome measure is sick-leave, controlled for secular trends and regression-to-the mean and self-perceived health status. RESULTS: Sick-leave per year of 441 patients at work increased from 22 (SD ± 45.2) to 31 (± 61.0) days within three years prior to intervention, and decreased to 24 (± 55.6) in the second year of treatment, sustaining at this level in the following two years. Detailed statistical analysis show that this development exceeds secular trends and the regression-toward-the-mean effect. Sick-leave reduction was corroborated by data on self-reported improvement of patients' health status. CONCLUSION: Results of this longterm observational study show a reduction of sick leave in chronically ill patients after a complex multimodal CAM intervention. However, as this is an uncontrolled observational study efficacy of any specific CAM treatment can not be proven. The results might indicate an general effectiveness of CAM in primary care, worthwhile further investigations. Future studies should identify the most suitable patients for CAM practices, the most appropriate and safe treatments, provide information on the magnitude of the effects to facilitate subsequent definitive randomised controlled studies that will help to position complementary and alternative medicine in health care