Ferrofluids (FFs) are stable colloidal suspensions composed of single-domain magnetic nanoparticles dispersed in a carrier liquid. And it is an intelligent material, exhibiting normal liquid behaviour coupled with superparamagnetic properties. Since the properties and the location of these fluids can easily be influenced by a magnetic field, FFs have recently attracted many scientific, industri...

CONTEXT Since 2000, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has been collecting information on beneficiaries' experiences with health care for Medicare managed care (MMC) and traditional fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare. OBJECTIVES To compare beneficiary experiences with managed care and FFS arrangements throughout the country and to assess the stability of those differences over tim...

BACKGROUND National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) records have been linked to health care use and expenditure information from Medicare records. Claims data are generally available only for traditional fee-for-service (FFS) enrollees and not for Medicare Advantage enrollees. Differences in health characteristics between Medicare Advantage and traditional FFS enrollees could a...

BACKGROUND Medicare managed care enrollees who disenroll to fee-for-service (FFS) historically have worse health and higher costs than continuing enrollees and beneficiaries remaining in FFS. OBJECTIVE To examine disenrollment patterns by analyzing Medicare payments following disenrollment from Medicare Advantage (MA) to FFS in 2007. Recent growth in the MA program, introduction of limits on ...

BACKGROUND Dose-escalated (DE) radiation therapy (RT) and androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) improve prostate cancer outcomes over standard-dose RT. The benefit of adding ADT to DE-RT for men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer (IR-PrCa) is uncertain. PATIENTS AND METHODS We identified 636 men treated for IR-PrCa with DE-RT (>75Gy). The adult comorbidity evaluation-27 index classifed comor...

To achieve the most energy-efficient operation, this brief presents a circuit design technique for separating the power supply voltage (VDD) of flip-flops (FFs) from that of combinational circuits, called the higher voltage FF (HVFF). Although VDD scaling can reduce the energy, the minimum operating voltage (VDDmin) of FFs prevents the operation at the optimum supply voltage that minimizes the ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Superficial fungal skin infections are treated using topical antifungals. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the efficacy of a single application of 1 % terbinafine film-forming solution (FFS) versus placebo for the treatment of tinea pedis in the Chinese population. METHODS Six centers in China randomized 290 patients in a 1:1 ratio to receive either 1 % terbi...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between newly introduced primary care models in Ontario, Canada, and patients' primary care and total health care costs. A specific focus is on the payment mechanisms for primary care physicians, i.e. fee-for-service (FFS), enhanced-FFS, and blended capitation, and whether providers practiced as part of a multidisciplinary team...

There are errors in the third sentence of the Results section of the Abstract. The correct sentence is: The average physical activity (in metabolic equivalents [METS]/week) of the FFs was 3953±2688, whereas those of the POs was 2838±2872 (vs. FFs: -985, CI: -1941-30, p = 0.043) and of the SCs 2212±2293 (vs. FFs: -1598.8, CI: -2477-721, p = 0.000; vs. POs: -613.6, CI: -1617.4–390.3, p = 0.229), ...

PURPOSE Barefoot running (BF) is gaining popularity in the running community. Biomechanical changes occur with BF, especially when initial contact changes from rearfoot strike (RFS) to forefoot strike (FFS). Changes in lumbar spine range of motion (ROM), particularly involving lumbar lordosis, have been associated with increased low back pain. However, it is not known if changing from RFS to FF...