This paper uses both the non-parametric method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the econometric method of Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) to study the production technology and cost efficiency of the U.S. dental care industry using practice level data. The American Dental Association (ADA) 2006 survey data for a number of general dental practices in Colorado are used for the empirical ...

input frequency is one of the important variables in design and performance analysis of single-sided linear induction motors (slims). changing the frequency changes both the dimension of the slim in design process and the performance of the designed motor. the frequency influences the induced eddy currents in the secondary sheet as well as saturation level of the secondary back-iron. in this pa...

BACKGROUND/AIMS The diagnosis of small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) on bronchial biopsy is often problematical as a result of intense crush artefact. Several antibodies are now available to help in the diagnosis of SCLC and their value was assessed in this clinical situation. METHODS/RESULTS Twenty cases of SCLC and 10 control cases (one non-Hodgkin lymphoma, three non-small cell carcinomas, on...

BACKGROUND In a number of coronary bifurcation lesions, both the main vessel and the side branch need stent coverage. Using sirolimus eluting stents, we compared 2 dedicated bifurcation stent techniques, the crush and the culotte techniques in a randomized trial with separate clinical and angiographic end-points. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 424 patients with a bifurcation lesion were rando...

BACKGROUND The majority of bifurcation lesions are treated with crush stenting. However, the success of crush stenting depends on final kissing-balloon inflation (FKBI), which is potentially difficult. Although mini-crush stenting has a higher rate of successful FKBI, it still cannot be achieved in some patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the factors that contribute to failure of...

This paper describes a computational investigation on the response of thin wall structures due to dynamic compression loading. In this paper, the tubes subjected for both direct and oblique loading. Several different cross-sectional structures have been studied to specify the best one. Initially the tubes were subjected to direct loading, and then the tubes were subjected to oblique loading. Af...

PKCS#11 is a very popular cryptographic API: it is the standard used by many Hardware Security Modules, smartcards and software cryptographic tokens. Several attacks have been uncovered against PKCS#11 at different levels: intrinsic logical flaws, cryptographic vulnerabilities or severe compliance issues. Since affected hardware remains widespread in computer infrastructures, we propose a user-...

During a force-matched bilateral task, when pain is induced in one limb, a shift of load to the non-painful leg is classically observed. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that this adaptation to pain depends on the mechanical efficiency of the non-painful leg. We studied a bilateral plantarflexion task that allowed flexibility in the relative force produced with each leg, but constrained ...