The Importance of the conduct of Oral Health Research in responding to the Service Delivery Imperatives

The School of Oral Health Sciences (SOHS) has been the beneficiary of contribution of research projects conducted at various SA Dental Schools in particular with reference to the 2020 International Association for Dental Research (IADR) hosted by SOHS. The quality and standard of the papers delivered resemble the thoroughness and the importance which researchers attach to their work notwithstanding, very heavy clinical responsibilities. The papers will also showcase the variety of research areas that the Faculty is pursuing at present all towards efforts to answer some very difficult research questions that prevail in the clinical domain of service rendering

A search for varying fundamental constants using Hz-level frequency measurements of cold CH molecules

Many modern theories predict that the fundamental constants depend on time, position, or the local density of matter. We develop a spectroscopic method for pulsed beams of cold molecules, and use it to measure the frequencies of microwave transitions in CH with accuracy down to 3 Hz. By comparing these frequencies with those measured from sources of CH in the Milky Way, we test the hypothesis that fundamental constants may differ between the high and low density environments of the Earth and the interstellar medium. For the fine structure constant we find \Delta\alpha/\alpha = (0.3 +/- 1.1)*10^{-7}, the strongest limit to date on such a variation of \alpha. For the electron-to-proton mass ratio we find \Delta\mu/\mu = (-0.7 +/- 2.2) * 10^{-7}. We suggest how dedicated astrophysical measurements can improve these constraints further and can also constrain temporal variation of the constants.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Analysis of the impact of climate change on groundwater related hydrological fluxes: a multi-model approach including different downscaling methods

Climate change related modifications in the spatio-temporal distribution of precipitation and evapotranspiration will have an impact on groundwater resources. This study presents a modelling approach exploiting the advantages of integrated hydrological modelling and a broad climate model basis. We applied the integrated MIKE SHE model on a perialpine, small catchment in northern Switzerland near Zurich. To examine the impact of climate change we forced the hydrological model with data from eight GCM-RCM combinations showing systematic biases which are corrected by three different statistical downscaling methods, not only for precipitation but also for the variables that govern potential evapotranspiration. The downscaling methods are evaluated in a split sample test and the sensitivity of the downscaling procedure on the hydrological fluxes is analyzed. The RCMs resulted in very different projections of potential evapotranspiration and, especially, precipitation. All three downscaling methods reduced the differences between the predictions of the RCMs and all corrected predictions showed no future groundwater stress which can be related to an expected increase in precipitation during winter. It turned out that especially the timing of the precipitation and thus recharge is very important for the future development of the groundwater levels. However, the simulation experiments revealed the weaknesses of the downscaling methods which directly influence the predicted hydrological fluxes, and thus also the predicted groundwater levels. The downscaling process is identified as an important source of uncertainty in hydrological impact studies, which has to be accounted for. Therefore it is strongly recommended to test different downscaling methods by using verification data before applying them to climate model data

Dynamics of axialized laser-cooled ions in a Penning trap

We report the experimental characterization of axialization - a method of reducing the magnetron motion of a small number of ions stored in a Penning trap. This is an important step in the investigation of the suitability of Penning traps for quantum information processing. The magnetron motion was coupled to the laser-cooled modified cyclotron motion by the application of a near-resonant oscillating quadrupole potential (the "axialization drive"). Measurement of cooling rates of the radial motions of the ions showed an order-of-magnitude increase in the damping rate of the magnetron motion with the axialization drive applied. The experimental results are in good qualitative agreement with a recent theoretical study. In particular, a classical avoided crossing was observed in the motional frequencies as the axialization drive frequency was swept through the optimum value, proving that axialization is indeed a resonant effect.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure

Characterization of defect structures in nanocrystalline materials by X-ray line profile analysis

X-ray line profile analysis is a powerful alternative tool for determining dislocation densities, dislocation type, crystallite and subgrain size and size-distributions, and planar defects, especially the frequency of twin boundaries and stacking faults. The method is especially useful in the case of submicron grain size or nanocrystalline materials, where X-ray line broadening is a well pronounced effect, and the observation of defects with very large density is often not easy by transmission electron microscopy. The fundamentals of X-ray line broadening are summarized in terms of the different qualitative breadth methods, and the more sophisticated and more quantitative whole pattern fitting procedures. The efficiency and practical use of X-ray line profile analysis is shown by discussing its applications to metallic, ceramic, diamond-like and polymer nanomaterials

Simulating aerosol microphysics with the ECHAM/MADE GCM ? Part I: Model description and comparison with observations

International audienceThe aerosol dynamics module MADE has been coupled to the general circulation model ECHAM4 to simulate the chemical composition, number concentration, and size distribution of the global submicrometer aerosol. The present publication describes the new model system ECHAM4/MADE and presents model results in comparison with observations. The new model is able to simulate the full life cycle of particulate matter and various gaseous precursors including emissions of primary particles and trace gases, advection, convection, diffusion, coagulation, condensation, nucleation of sulfuric acid vapor, aerosol chemistry, cloud processing, and size-dependent dry and wet deposition. Aerosol components considered are sulfate (SO4), ammonium (NH4), nitrate (NO3), black carbon (BC), particulate organic matter (POM), sea salt, mineral dust, and aerosol liquid water. The model is numerically efficient enough to allow long term simulations, which is an essential requirement for application in general circulation models. In order to evaluate the results obtained with this new model system, calculated mass concentrations, particle number concentrations, and size distributions are compared to observations. The intercomparison shows, that ECHAM4/MADE is able to reproduce the major features of the geographical patterns, seasonal cycle, and vertical distributions of the basic aerosol parameters. In particular, the model performs well under polluted continental conditions in the northern hemispheric lower and middle troposphere. However, in comparatively clean remote areas, e.g. in the upper troposphere or in the southern hemispheric marine boundary layer, the current model version tends to underestimate particle number concentrations