Additional file 1: of Patients’ experience of recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and their perspective on the EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-H&N35 questionnaires: a qualitative study

1. Literature review and 2. Conceptual Saturation Analysis. Literature review search strategy and list of publications finally included in the development of the patient road map. Results of the conceptual saturation analysis from the 14 patient interviews. (DOCX 84 kb

Viscosity of Ring Polymer Melts

We have measured the linear rheology of critically purified ring polyisoprenes, polystyrenes, and polyethyleneoxides of different molar masses. The ratio of the zero-shear viscosities of linear polymer melts η_0,linear to their ring counterparts η_0,ring at isofrictional conditions is discussed as a function of the number of entanglements <i>Z</i>. In the unentangled regime η_0,linear/η_0,ring is virtually constant, consistent with the earlier data, atomistic simulations, and the theoretical expectation η_0,linear/η_0,ring = 2. In the entanglement regime, the <i>Z</i>-dependence of ring viscosity is much weaker than that of linear polymers, in qualitative agreement with predictions from scaling theory and simulations. The power-law extracted from the available experimental data in the rather limited range 1 < <i>Z</i> < 20, η_0,linear/η_0,ring ∼ <i>Z</i>^1.2±0.3, is weaker than the scaling prediction (η_0,linear/η_0,ring ∼<i> Z</i>^1.6±0.3) and the simulations (η_0,linear/η_0,ring ∼ <i>Z</i>^2.0±0.3). Nevertheless, the present collection of state-of-the-art experimental data unambiguously demonstrates that rings exhibit a universal trend clearly departing from that of their linear counterparts, and hence it represents a major step toward resolving a 30-year-old problem