Conceptualizing oral health care systems for comparative analysis – public, private and statutory

The Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 put the worldwide figure at 15 million disability adjusted life years due to oral health disorders considerably varying across countries. Epidemiological factors like Socio-demographics, diets, age and oral hygiene habits are known for the most common oral diseases. However, little is known about the health system factors and its influence on oral health outcomes. Whilst there is ample evidence on comparative health system functioning and its outcome, the oral health tributary of it needs to be reveale

Investigation of decommissioned reactor pressure vessels of the nuclear power plant Greifswald

The investigation of reactor pressure vessel (RPV) material from the decommissioned Greifswald nuclear power plant representing the first generation of Russian-type WWER-440/V-230 reactors offers the opportunity to evaluate the real toughness response. The Greifswald RPVs of 4 units represent different material conditions as follows: • Irradiated (Unit 4), • irradiated and recovery annealed (Units 2 and 3), and • irradiated, recovery annealed and re-irradiated (Unit1). The recovery annealing of the RPV was performed at a temperature of 475° for about 152 hours and included a region covering ±0.70 m above and below the core beltline welding seam. Material samples of a diameter of 119 mm called trepans were extracted from the RPV walls. The research program is focused on the characterisation of the RPV steels (base and weld metal) across the thickness of the RPV wall. This report presents test results measured on the trepans from the beltline welding seam No. SN0.1.4. and forged base metal ring No. 0.3.1. of the Units 1 2 and 4 RPVs. The key part of the testing is focussed on the determination of the reference temperature T0 of the Master Curve (MC) approach following the ASTM standard E1921 to determine the facture toughness, and how it degrades under neutron irradiation and is recovered by thermal annealing. Other than that the mentioned test results include Charpy-V and tensile test results. Following results have been determined: • The mitigation of the neutron embrittlement of the weld and base metal by recovery annealing could be confirmed. • KJc values of the weld metals generally followed the course of the MC though with a large scatter. • There was a large variation in the T0 values evaluated across the thickness of the multilayered welding seams. • The T0 measured on T-S oriented SE(B) specimens from different thickness locations of the welding seams strongly depended on the intrinsic structure along the crack front. • The reference temperature RT0 determined according to the “Unified Procedure for Lifetime Assessment of Components and Piping in WWER NPPs - VERLIFE” and the fracture toughness lower bound curve based thereon are applicable on the investigated weld metals. • A strong scatter of the fracture toughness KJc values of the recovery annealed and re-irradiated and the irradiated base metal of Unit 1 and 4, respectively is observed with clearly more than 2% of the values below the MC for 2% fracture probability. The application of the multimodal MC-based approach was more suitable and described the temperature dependence of the KJc values in a satisfactory manner. • It was demonstrated that T0 evaluated according to the SINTAP MC extension represented the brittle fraction of the data sets and is therefore suitable for the nonhomogeneous base metal. • The efficiency of the large-scale thermal annealing of the Greifswald WWER 440/V230 Unit 1 and 2 RPVs could be confirmed

The bioliq process for producing synthetic transportation fuels

Biofuels of the second generation can contribute significantly to the replacement of the currently used fossil energy carriers for transportation fuel production. The lignocellulosic biomass residues used do not compete with food and feed production, but have to be collected from wide-spread areas for industrial largescale use. The two-stage gasification concept bioliq offers a solution to this problem. It aims at the conversion of low-grade residual biomass from agriculture and forestry into synthetic fuels and chemicals. Central element of the bioliq process development is the 2–5 MW pilot plant along the complete process chain: fast pyrolysis for pretreatment of biomass to obtain an energy dense, liquid intermediate fuel, high-pressure entrained flow gasification providing low methane synthesis gas free of tar, hot synthesis gas cleaning to separate acid gases, and contaminants as well as methanol/dimethyl ether and subsequent following gasoline synthesis. After construction and commissioning of the individual process steps with partners from industry, first production of synthetic fuel was successfully achieved in 2014. In addition to pilot plant operation for technology demonstration, a research and development network has been established providing the scientific basis for optimization and further development of the bioliq process as well as to explore new applications of the technologies and products involved

Incidence, Timing, and Correlates of Stent Thrombosis With the Polymeric Paclitaxel Drug-Eluting Stent

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A new interpretation of bulge test measurements using numerical simulation

Analysis of the deflection of a circular membrane under differential pressure (bulge test) is a well-known method of determining the elastic properties of thin films. However, analytical models always suffer from simplifying hypotheses. In this study we present a new approach, based on numerical modeling, to interpret pressure-deflection curves. By adjusting Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio in the simulation program, it is possible to reproduce the experimental curves faithfully. The method was successfully tested with two different materials (silicon and aluminium) with known elastic properties and was then used to determine biaxial Young’s moduli of CVD diamond thin films for three different microstructures. The values of E varied from 565 to 620 GPa (assuming a Poisson ratio of 0.1). Grain boundaries are thought to be responsible for the relatively low values of Young’s moduli. Uncertainties in E are relatively large (lo%-15%) because the method is highly sensitive to experimental parameters such as thickness or membrane diameter and to the initial residual stress state which is known only approximately

Sucrose and starch intake contribute to reduced alveolar bone height in a rodent model of naturally occurring periodontitis

Funding: This research project was funded in part by the Strategic Research Excellence Initiative 2020 (SREI2020), University of Sydney to JE and the University of Sydney HMR + Implementation Funding Grant to VC, DLC and SS.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Development of a GEM-TPC prototype

The use of GEM foils for the amplification stage of a TPC instead of a con- ventional MWPC allows one to bypass the necessity of gating, as the backdrift is suppressed thanks to the asymmetric field configuration. This way, a novel continuously running TPC, which represents one option for the PANDA central tracker, can be realized. A medium sized prototype with a diameter of 300 mm and a length of 600 mm will be tested inside the FOPI spectrometer at GSI using a carbon or lithium beam at intermediate energies (E = 1-3AGeV). This detector test under realistic experimental conditions should allow us to verify the spatial resolution for single tracks and the reconstruction capability for displaced vertexes. A series of physics measurement implying pion beams is scheduled with the FOPI spectrometer together with the GEM-TPC as well.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings for 11th ICATTP conference in como (italy

Associated factors and comorbidities in patients with pyoderma gangrenosum in Germany: a retrospective multicentric analysis in 259 patients

Background: Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is a rarely diagnosed ulcerative neutrophilic dermatosis with unknown origin that has been poorly characterized in clinical studies so far. Consequently there have been significant discussions about its associated factors and comorbidities. The aim of our multicenter study was to analyze current data from patients in dermatologic wound care centers in Germany in order to describe associated factors and comorbidities in patients with PG. Methods: Retrospective clinical investigation of patients with PG from dermatologic wound care centers in Germany. Results: We received data from 259 patients with PG from 20 different dermatologic wound care centers in Germany. Of these 142 (54.8\%) patients were female, 117 (45.2\%) were male; with an age range of 21 to 95 years, and a mean of 58 years. In our patient population we found 45.6\% with anemia, 44.8\% with endocrine diseases, 12.4\% with internal malignancies, 9.3\% with chronic inflammatory bowel diseases and 4.3\% with elevated creatinine levels. Moreover 25.5\% of all patients had a diabetes mellitus with some aspects of potential association with the metabolic syndrome. Conclusions: Our study describes one of the world's largest populations with PG. Beside the well-known association with chronic bowel diseases and neoplasms, a potentially relevant new aspect is an association with endocrine diseases, in particular the metabolic syndrome, thyroid dysfunctions and renal disorders. Our findings represent clinically relevant new aspects. This may help to describe the patients' characteristics and help to understand the underlying pathophysiology in these often misdiagnosed patients