Dysphagia is a risk factor that impaires an individual’s experience of mealtimes. Few studies contribute to the knowledge on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of citizens with oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) living independently. The aim of this study involves evaluating the HRQoL in citizens living independently and suffering from OD. This cross-sectional study was performed in seven municipalities in Denmark between March 2019 and December 2020. The 90 citizens included (54% female, mean age 76.6 years (SD 0.8)) were ≥18 years, as well as diagnosed with OD using the volume-viscosity swallow test and Minimal Eating Observation Form version II. The Dysphagia Handicap Index-DK, Barthel 20, and European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions were fulfilled. Of the participating citizens, 66% of them needed additional time to eat, 64% coughed while eating, and 58% coughed while drinking. Additionally, 60% reported having a dry mouth, 62% needed to drink to succeed with swallowing foods, and 57% had to swallow multiple times. About one-third felt embarrassed when eating with others. They could not enjoy eating in the same manner as they had previously, and/or felt handicapped or limited. OD was shown to have had a high impact on the QoL in citizens with OD living independently. Focus is needed on xerostomia, as well as on the psychological aspects pertainings to mealtimes for citizens with OD.

ABSTRACT Organic policies have become an important strategy to increase the sustainability of food systems. Procurement of organic foods for the public is an important part of such strategies. Policymakers have become aware of the way through which food economy can be influenced more sustainably through the implementation of greener procurement practices. The value of food bought by the public for settings such as schools, hospitals, canteens, and care homes is considerable and provides a strong rationale for public organic policies. However, such policies require well-planned implementation and involve a multitude of practitioners. Changing practices require the backstage support of both policymakers and food professionals as well as support from the frontstage actors – the users of the canteens. The paper examines whether organic food-based diets could be implemented in a semi-captive environment, such as that of army foodservice, for the mutual benefits of both consumers and policymakers. We studied the Canteen2018 intervention implemented over 8 months period with a targeted increase of organic foods shares to the “silver” or “gold” level of the Danish organic label. Results show that such a change process creates tensions in the interface between the user, the staffs, and the policy levels, but that it was possible to increase the amount of organic share without radically compromising the overall user satisfaction. Organic conversion in the semi-captive food environments as those of army canteens is possible if due consideration is given to planning, monitoring, education and learning, information and communication, stakeholder involvement, and experience sharing.

Allergic rhinitis (AR) control is a priority in the European Union (EU), and Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) has endorsed a visual analogue scale (VAS) as the new language of AR control. This study evaluated the effectiveness of MP-AzeFlu (Dymista®, antihistamine [azelastine], and intranasal corticosteroid [fluticasone propionate]) using a VAS in real-life clinical practice in Denmark. The multicenter, prospective, non-interventional study included 170 patients (≥12 years) with ARIA-defined moderate-to-severe AR prescribed MP-AzeFlu. Patients assessed symptom severity using a VAS (0 to 100 mm) on days 0, 1, 3, and 7 and after ∼14 days of MP-AzeFlu use. On day 3, patients assessed their disease as well controlled, partly controlled, or uncontrolled. Proportions of patients achieving VAS score cutoffs (well-controlled, partly controlled) were also calculated. MP-AzeFlu reduced mean ± standard deviation VAS score from 67.1 ± 19.3 mm at baseline to 28.4 ± 23.7 mm on the last day, a reduction of 38.8 ± 27.3 mm. At day 3, 85.6% of patients considered their symptoms to be partly or well controlled. Effectiveness was consistent across disease severity, phenotype (seasonal, perennial, or combined AR), and patient age. Respectively, 28.2%, 44.2%, 61.6%, and 71.4% of patients achieved ≤38 mm well-controlled VAS score cutoff on days 1, 3, and 7, and the last day. MP-AzeFlu provided effective, rapid, and sustained symptom control in a real-life setting among patients from Denmark. These results align with EU and ARIA objectives and support the effectiveness of MP-AzeFlu for the treatment of AR in real life.

Abstract Permeable concrete soakaways store surface rainwater and let it seep slowly into the soil. This minimizes the risk of flooding, which is an increasingly larger problem because of climate change causing heavier and heavier rainfalls. In the present study, a self-compacting pervious concrete mix design is developed to use for permeable soakaway rings. A self-compacting mix design ensures a more uniform void distribution throughout the soakaway ring compared to the use of a conventional stiff pervious concrete mix design. The study is divided into two main parts: laboratory testing, in which the influence of the casting height on the void distribution is also considered, and full-scale casting of a 2.25-m-high pervious concrete soakaway ring. The overall conclusion is that a successful self-compacting pervious concrete mix design was developed by carefully balancing the use of a superplasticizer and stabilizer. Thereby, it was also possible to perform a successful full-scale casting.

Introduction: Increased demand for metal free fixed partial denture in recent years led to the developing of all ceramic material with excellent mechanical properties. One of the most popular all ceramic is zirconia which shows poor bonding properties. Recently, universal primer contains of silane and phosphate monomer for bond to zirconia have been introduced. The aim of this study is determination of the best method for bonding to zirconia based on the selection of the correct primer, suitable adhesive and best surface pretreatment. Methods: In this in vitro experimental study 16 sintered-zirconia blocks prepared in dimension of (18×6×2 mm) by CAD/CAM technology. Sample cleansed by ultrasonic device contain of 96% ethanol in 6 minutes, after air-drying, based on surface treatment randomly divided into 4 groups which each group divided into 2 sub-groups based on the use of a primer or universal bond: (1) no treatment: (a) cement + zirconia primer, (b) cement + universal bond. (2) Alumina pretreatment: (a) cement + zirconia primer, (b) cement + universal bond. (3) Cojet sand pretreatment: (a) cement + zirconia primer, (b) cement + universal bond. (4) laser pretreatment (a) cement + zirconia primer, (b) cement + universal bond. Composite disc prepared with condensation of composite resin in Tygon tube with integral diminution of 0.7 mm which cured for 40 sconds. Universal bond or zirconia primmer apply on the surface of the zirconia samples then cemented to composite disks by Panavia F2 according manufacture instructions. Microshear bond strength determined with universal testing machine. Failure mode assessed under stereomicroscope. Selected sample based on surface treatment evaluated under SEM. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results: Comparison of the 4 surface treatment groups revealed a significant difference and the highest bond belonged to Cojet and the lowest one to laser group. Conclusion: It seems that Universal Adhesive can to be considered as an alternative to bond to zirconia but the Cojet method is still required.

ABSTRACTBackground: In Denmark, few people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) engage in physical activity although it is evident that pulmonary rehabilitation has positive effects on physical activity, dyspnoea, anxiety, fatigue and quality of life.Objective: The purpose of this pilot study was to explore why people with COPD do not engage in physical activity and to explore motivational factors and barriers towards physical activity. Furthermore, to explore the role general practitioners have in this matter.Design: We conducted fieldwork among five people with COPD and three general practitioners using qualitative semi-structured interviews. We made a thematic analysis and our analytical perspective was based on The Health Belief Model and Self Determination Theory.Results: Findings revealed that people with COPD was not active because they did not receive the necessary information from the general practitioners about the benefits of physical activity neither about the negative consequences of an inactive lifestyle. Motivational factors were knowledge about COPD and benefits of physical activity. Experiencing the benefits on their own bodies, feeling that it was not dangerous to feel breathless and being successful coping with breathlessness were motivational. Functional tests like walking tests were very important and motivational for the participants because they outlined the progress achieved during activity and provided evidence of progress that was easy to comprehend compared with spirometry tests. General practitioners did not inform about the benefits of physical activity because they felt that medication was more important than physical activity and that people with COPD would not be motivated to be active.Conclusions: The main reason for people with COPD not being physically active in our study was lack of sufficient information from their general practitioners. This study described some barriers, enablers and motivational factors for a physically active lifestyle and the general practitioners’ role in this. Thus, it is important that people with COPD receive early information about physical activity - and it should start with the general practitioners, who are the gate keepers in the health care system. We recommend that lung function test results are never used as a single indicator of disease progression and that more focus should be paid to functional tests like The Shuttle Walking Test or The Six Minute Walking Test.Further studies to identify barriers to, and facilitators for referral people with COPD to physical activity in daily life from the perspective of Danish general practitioners are required.

This paper proposes a highly efficient bitmap-based approach for discovery of so-called sentinels. Sentinels represent schema level relationships between changes over time in certain measures in a multidimensional data cube. Sentinels are actionable and notify users based on previous observations, for example, that revenue might drop within two months if an increase in customer problems combined with a decrease in website traffic is observed. We significantly extend prior art by representing the sentinel mining problem by bitmap operations, using bitmapped encoding of so-called indication streams. We present a very efficient algorithm, SentBit, that is 2-3 orders of magnitude faster than the state of the art, and utilizes CPU specific instructions and the multicore architectures available on modern processors. The SentBit algorithm scales efficiently to very large data sets, which is verified by extensive experiments on both real and synthetic data.

To investigate the torque capabilities of passive and active self-ligating (SL) brackets on mandibular incisors and canines using three-dimensional (3D) imaging analysis. Two types of SL bracket systems were analyzed: a passive and an active. Both brackets had a 0.022 × 0.028-inch slot size. Treatment protocol and wire sequences were followed as recommended by the manufacturers. Twenty-six patients were included in the passive group and 20 were included in the active group; all received pretreatment and posttreatment cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scanning. Based on the CBCT scans, a customized 3D analysis was developed to assess labiolingual inclination of the roots of mandibular canines and incisors with respect to the occlusal plane before and after treatment. Following treatment, a statistically significant labiolingual proclination of the teeth was seen in both groups. Moreover, in both SL systems the roots exhibited a large variation in labiolingual inclination between adjacent teeth even after treatment. A significant proclination was seen for the mandibular front teeth; the claimed third-order torque control of SL systems could not be demonstrated. Therefore, a considerable play between the wire and the brackets could be hypothesized, even more in relation to the passive than the active SL brackets.

This paper demonstrates so-called sentinels in the TARGIT BI Suite. Sentinels are a novel type of rules that can warn a user if one or more measure changes in a multi-dimensional data cube are expected to cause a change to another measure critical to the user. We present the concept of sentinels, and we explain how sentinels represent stronger and more specific rules than sequential patterns and correlation techniques. In addition, we present the algorithm, implementation, and data warehouse setup that are prerequisites for our demo. In the demo we present a dialogue where users, without any prior technical knowledge, are able to select a critical measure, a number of cubes, and a time dimension, and subsequently mine and schedule sentinels for early warnings .