The accessibility of dental treatment to adults with physical disabilities in northeast England

The study was carried out to gain information about the availability and the accessibility of dental services to adults with physical disabilities in Gateshead, an industrial town with a population of 199,588 situated in northeast England. Questionnaires were sent to all general dental practices to ascertain the dental staff's perceptions of the accessibility of their premises, their willingness to treat people with disabilities, and the types of treatment offered. The main problem for access was caused by stairs and other physical barriers within buildings. Lack of portable equipment limited the scope of domiciliary treatment offered.     

Microsoft als Initialzünder für mehr Datenschutz in den USA?

Zusammenfassung  Die Forderung von Microsoft nach einem einheitlichen Datenschutzrecht in den USA auf Bundesebene hat viele hier in Deutschland überrascht. Ein Gezeitenwechsel ausgerechnet in den zun?chst auf Marktmechanismen setzenden USA? ... und dann noch von Microsoft, einem Unternehmen, dessen de facto Standard schon fast selbst Gesetzeskraft zukommt. Die Motive und Hintergründe kl?ren in diesem Beitrag Axel Spies und Oliver Stutz auf.     

Getting a grip on numbers: Numerical magnitude priming in object grasping.

To investigate the functional connection between numerical cognition and action planning, the authors required participants to perform different grasping responses depending on the parity status of Arabic digits. The results show that precision grip actions were initiated faster in response to small numbers, whereas power grips were initiated faster in response to large numbers. Moreover, analyses of the grasping kinematics reveal an enlarged maximum grip aperture in the presence of large numbers. Reaction time effects remained present when controlling for the number of fingers used while grasping but disappeared when participants pointed to the object. The data indicate a priming of size-related motor features by numerals and support the idea that representations of numbers and actions share common cognitive codes within a generalized magnitude system. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Robust FETI-DP methods for heterogeneous three dimensional elasticity problems

Iterative substructuring methods with Lagrange multipliers are considered for heterogeneous linear elasticity problems with large discontinuities in the material stiffnesses. In particular, results for algorithms belonging to the family of dual-primal FETI methods are presented. The core issue of these algorithms is the construction of an appropriate global problem, in order to obtain a robust method which converges independently of the material discontinuities. In this article, several necessary and sufficient conditions arising from the theory are numerically tested and confirmed. Furthermore, results of numerical experiments are presented for situations which are not covered by the theory, such as curved edges and material discontinuities not aligned with the interface, and an attempt is made to develop rules for these cases.     

Testing models of the structure and development of future time perspective: Maintaining a focus on opportunities in middle age.

A core construct in socioemotional selectivity theory is future time perspective (FTP), conceptualized as a unidimensional and bipolar construct ranging from expansive to limited. Change in FTP across adulthood has been treated as linear, with older adults showing more limited FTP. Studies 1 and 2 showed that a 2-factor model fit better, with focus on opportunities and focus on limitations as distinct dimensions. These dimensions changed differentially with age. In cross-sectional Study 3, focus on opportunities was higher in young adulthood than in early middle age but did not drop further in late middle age. Focus on limitations was the same in young adulthood and early middle age but was higher in late middle age. In longitudinal Study 4, focus on limitations increased from early to late middle age, and focus on opportunities was again maintained, rather than showing the decrease one would assume from a 1-factor model of FTP. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Varying bending eigenfrequencies in BTA deep hole drilling: mechanical modeling using statistical parameter estimation

One serious problem in deep-hole drilling is the formation of a dynamic disturbance called spiralling which causes a multi-lobe shaped distortion of the bore hole cross section. An important factor governing the occurrence of spiralling is the coincidence of a bending eigenfrequency of the boring tool with a multiple of the spindle rotation frequency. This article presents a discrete dynamic model of the tool/boring-bar assembly including a Lanchester-damper and containing free parameters for the unknown stiffness of the tools lateral supports. Furthermore, a method for estimating these parameters by determining the changing eigenfrequencies over the drilling depth from spectrogram data using the maximum likelihood method is proposed. The work presented in this paper is financially supported by the ‘Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)’ within the ‘Sonderforschungs-bereich (SFB)’ 475. It is conducted in cooperation with Lehrstuhl Computergestützte Statistik, University of Dortmund.     

无线宽带时代手机厂商如何维护竞争优势

手机的三大应用方向 目前手机市场是除了PC外最大的市场.PC行业已经相当稳定,基本将按摩尔定律发展.但手机未来应用尚不明朗,行业充满变数.     

Intensity of class I antigen expression on human tumour cell lines and its relevance to the efficiency of non-MHC-restricted killing

A modified tetrazolium reduction assay (MTT) was used to assess the relation between HLA class I antigen expression on tumour cells and their susceptibility as a target for non-MHC restricted LAK/NK cytotoxicity using interleukin-2 activated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (MNC) from normal individuals. At 20/1 effector/target ratio this ranged from no killing to 77%. The efficiency of killing was dependent on duration of effector cell culture with IL-2, peaking at day 10 and declining thereafter. This killing could be enhanced by addition of other cytokines including interferons alpha, beta and gamma. Study of a panel of 15 tumour cell lines using a single effector showed that there was no statistically significant inverse correlation (using Spearman rank test) between the degree of tumour class I expression and LAK/NK killing at 20/1 (r = 0.23 P = 0.39) and 10/1 (r = 0.30, P = 0.27) and at 5/1 E/T ratio r = 0.47, P = 0.08) respectively. Lack of inverse correlation between these two parameters came from study of one bladder tumour line (FEN), whose absent class I antigens had been corrected by transfection with beta 2 microglobulin gene. At high E/T ratio (20/1) there was an increase in the susceptibility of target cells to lysis (36% parent cell, 45% transfected cell), whilst at lower E/T ratios (1/1) there was significantly more killing of the non-transfected cells (10% vs 31%). The addition of anti-class I antibody W6/32 increased killing by 18% but this was non-specific as the same increase occurred with a class II antibody. These data suggest that overall there was not an inverse correlation between class I expression and LAK/NK killing at high E/T ratios, whilst at low (5/1 or lower) E/T ratios this correlation nearly reached statistical significance suggesting that the conflicting literature reports may be due to a threshold levels of effector cells above which the masking effects of MHC antigens disappears.     

Anesthesia in surgery for epilepsy

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy of general anesthesia during epileptic surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective study of 64 patients who received general anesthesia during epileptic surgery. In the preoperative period, anticonvulsive medication was adjusted in accordance with plasma levels and withdrawn entirely 8 hours before surgery. After premedication with droperidol and fentanyl, a balanced anesthetic technique was applied, based on pentothal, pancuronium (or vecuronium), fentanyl, N2O and isoflurane. Continuous monitoring of ECG, arterial blood pressure, pulse oximetry, ET CO2 and neuromuscular function. Isoflurane was stopped for 10 min after the opening of the duramadre so that ECoG could be recorded and methohexital or propofol was given in some cases in order to activate the epileptogenic focus. Muscular relaxation was restored intraoperatively following the study of somatosensory evoked potentials. Immediate and later complications related to anesthesia or surgery were recorded. RESULTS: The surgical procedure performed in most cases was temporal or frontal resection, with a mean duration for anesthesia of 377 +/- 50 min and for surgery of 318 +/- 50 min. Only one patient received local anesthesia and no hemodynamic changes were observed. Perioperative complications were cerebral edema (4 cases), arrhythmia (2 cases) and bronchospasm (1 case). Postoperative complications were as follows: 3 of 9 patients undergoing callosotomy required mechanical ventilation for 24 hours, 4 patients experienced language alterations, 3 wounds were infected, 2 cases of hemiplegia were observed, 1 status epilepticus occurred after administration of propofol and there was 1 case of respiratory distress. Anticonvulsive medication was given parenterally after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: General anesthesia is a safe and effective method for epileptic surgery, with local anesthesia providing additional sedation for isolated cases. Appropriate treatment requires an understanding of the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the drugs used, as well as knowledge of the condition and the anticonvulsive medications used.