Branston (United Kingdom)

We read with interest the article by Bobelyak and colleagues and the accompanying Editorial.However, we have serious concerns about the article's methodology and conclusions.The authors reported REMS-BMD measurements at the proximal femur in patients before and after hip arthroplasty and, based on minimal changes in BMD and variations observed with different anthropometric inputs, concluded that REMS-BMD is essentially derived from age, sex, and BMI rather than from ultrasound spectral data.This conclusion is not supported by the evidence provided, which highlight instead technical errors and misinterpretations of REMS operating principles, as detailed below.

Anecdotally, it is currently accepted that many dental hygienists and dental therapists in the UK do not work consistently, if at all, to their full scope of practice, as determined by the General Dental Council and in line with their pre-registration training and post-qualification continuing professional development. Consider the professional demographics of the BSDHT and investigate the types of clinical skills that are being utilised in a particular setting, in addition to the members' usual daily practice, how consistently they are employing them, and any potential barriers and facilitators for working consistently to a full scope of practice. BSDHT members (n = 2487) were invited to complete an online questionnaire and take part in an individual 30-min semi-structured online interview with the investigator. The quantitative data was collected on a master Excel spreadsheet, and qualitative data following the interviews were available as digital recordings and AI transcripts. The response rate was 12.5% (n = 312), of which 64% (n = 200) were dental hygienists and 36% (n = 112) dental therapists: 70% (n = 19) of the dental hygienists who work in an NHS practice never work to their full scope, in comparison to 48% (n = 9) of dental therapists. Of those that would like to work to their full scope, 51% (n = 103) were dental hygienists and 31% (n = 35) were dental therapists. Of the 312 members who responded to the questionnaire, 24.7% (n = 77) indicated that they would be willing to take part in the online semi-structured interviews. The skills of dental hygienists and dental therapists are often underutilised across all dental practice settings. However, dental therapists are more likely than dental hygienists to work to their full scope of practice in both NHS and mixed dental practice settings. Further studies are needed to investigate and understand the barriers that prevent all dental hygienists and dental therapists from working to their full scope of practice and identify possible facilitators that could offer greater opportunities.

Traits that rapidly respond to stress in important agricultural crops have the potential to provide growers with actionable feedback. Traits that respond to water-restriction could inform irrigation systems by identifying crop water status and requirements in real-time. This would be particularly useful for potato, which is extremely susceptible to drought. We conducted two pot experiments and one field experiment to evaluate the utility of two traits, canopy temperature and leaf greenness, for informing irrigation management in potatoes. We also evaluated the efficacy of Phenospex PlantEye F500 sensors for the remote sensing of leaf greenness. We found that canopy temperatures of the cvs. Maris Piper (Spring Pot Experiment, + 0.8 °C; Autumn Pot Experiment, + 5.3 °C) and Désirée (Autumn Pot Experiment, + 2.5 °C) increased with water-restriction and that the canopy temperatures of Maris Piper returned to its baseline within three days after the resumption of well-watered conditions. We also found that these responses varied between cultivars, with predictable outcomes based on reported and corroborated drought tolerance ratings. Leaf greenness was not affected by water restriction in the Spring pot experiment but had a significant interaction with sampling date and water restriction in the Autumn pot experiment. However, leaf greenness measurements from the Phenospex PlantEye F500 were significantly correlated with SPAD values, suggesting this tool might be useful in the screening for drought-tolerant cultivars in the future.

The paper proposes a methodology for reliable design and maintenance of wind turbine rotor blades using a condition monitoring approach and a damage tolerance index coupling the material and structure. By improving the understanding of material properties that control damage propagation it will be possible to combine damage tolerant structural design, monitoring systems, inspection techniques and modelling to manage the life cycle of the structures. This will allow an efficient operation of the wind turbine in terms of load alleviation, limited maintenance and repair leading to a more effective exploitation of offshore wind.

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Plasma Classical Models Plasma Resonance The Defining Characteristics of a Plasma References Further Reading

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction Arc Welding Electric Arc Melting Arc Gas Heaters High-pressure Discharge Lamps Ion Lasers Arc Interrupters Magnetoplasmadynamic Power Generation Generation of Electricity by Nuclear Fusion Natural Phenomena Further Reading

numbers in italics indicate Figures and Tables; suffix 'n' denotes a footnote Abbreviated New Drug Applications (ANDAs) 382, 399, 412-14 component parts 413 supporting information 412-13 abstracts, isolated, publishing of clinical trials in 568-9 Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) formulary dossier 741 accelerated approvals for ANDAs and generics 412-14 post-marketing impacts/studies 411, 413 for serious and life-threatening diseases 410-12 accounting, clinical trial costs 694 acetaminophen/paracetamol 376-7 acetylation (metabolic) pathways, ethnic differences 234, 541 N-acetylcysteine 377 actual-use ('slice-of-life') studies 187, 188 additivity of drugs 256 adherence 355 see also compliance Administration of Radioactive Substances Advisory Committee (ARSAC) 452 adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting system Europe 133, 429-30, 477-80 Japan 504-5 adverse events (AEs) in complementary therapies 391-2 definition 133, 477, 539 EBGM scores 546-7 in elderly people 194-5 European database 445, 477 first known investigation 423 gender differences 213 handling/dealing with 35-6, 581-2 ICH GCP guidelines for reporting 133, 538-9 reportability assessment flowchart 478-9 reporting and recording 133, 148, 150, 151, 477-80, 535-43 in China 673 electronic reports 132-3 ethnic differences 239-40 in UK 425, 429 in USA 133, 524-5, 548 type A and type B 536 types 610 advertising clinical trial subjects 134, 200, 694 pharmaceutical Medical Affairs Department's responsibilities 525 in medical journals 657, 658 regulation of 481-2, 525, 531, 656 US spend 657 aerosols 56 agencies Malaysia 684 Middle East 678 aging population impact on society 194 see also elderly population; geriatrics agonist-antagonists, pharmacodynamics 90 agonists, full 90 alcohol effects, ethnic differences 237 alkaloids 388 allometric scaling 83, 86 in drug discovery process 86-9, 95 alternative liability 613 alternative medicine see complementary medicine(s) Alzheimer's disease 48, 194, 198 American Academy of Pharmaceutical Physicians (AAPP), career satisfaction survey 5 analgesic, concentration-time effect modelling 92 analysis-of-variance (ANOVA) model 326 analytical methods, for dose and plasma determinations 65-6 animal experimentation, ethics 591-2 animal models 48, 49, 66, 499 antagonism between drugs 256 Anti-Kickback Statute 596 antibodies, as biotechnology products 284 antidotes, early developments 415-17 antiepileptic drugs 206, 207-8, 376 antisense oligonucleotides 47, 285-6 Apothecaries 395, 417-18 inspection of shops 419-21 appraisals, training 17-18 archiving of documents 133, 141, 152, 168 audits 174-5 Argentina, postgraduate education 23 Armitage ('sequential analysis') clinical trial design 110 arthritis 198 ascending dose-ranging cohort design 108-9 Asia, pharmaceutical medicine in 680-7 aspirin 105