A New SFF Process for Functional Ceramic Components

SRI International in collaboration with Saint-Gobain/Norton Industrial Ceramics Corporation and Allison Engine Company is developing a new SFF process, Direct Photo Shaping, for the fabrication of functional ceramic components. The process is based on the layerby-layer photocuring of ceramic slurries containing monomers curable by visible light. Each layer is photoimaged by a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a digital light processing (DLP) projection system. After binder removal and sintering, the properties of silicon nitride tiles prepared according to the Dire~t Photo Shaping process were found to be comparable to properties of tiles formed by conventional methods.Mechanical Engineerin

Differential West Nile Fever Ascertainment in the United States: A Multilevel Analysis

We evaluated the completeness of West Nile fever (WNF) surveillance within the U.S. public health system. We surveyed laboratory and surveillance programs on policies, practices, and capacities for testing, confirmation, and reporting (collectively called ascertainment) from 2003 through 2005. We calculated syndrome ascertainment ratios by dividing WNF counts by neuroinvasive disease counts; separately, we performed multilevel modeling. Jurisdictions were more likely to ascertain at least one WNF cases per West Nile neuroinvasive disease case when ≤ 1 testing restrictions existed (odds ratio [OR] = 7.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.3–46.4), when conducting ≥ 4 activities to enhance reporting (OR = 9.3, 95% CI = 1.6–54.8), and when ≥ 5.0 staff per million residents were dedicated to arboviral surveillance (OR = 6.4, 95% CI = 1.0–40.3). Ascertainment of WNF was less likely among Blacks (OR = 0.56, 95% CI = 0.31–0.99) and Hispanics (OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.48–0.98) than among Whites. Ascertainment was more complete when testing and reporting were enhanced, but differentially incomplete for minorities