AIM: To assess sociodemographic and behavioural risk factors for periodontal attachment loss (PAL) progression after 5 years in an urban sample from south Brazil. METHODS: At baseline, 1586 subjects, 14 years and older, were derived using a multistage probabilistic sample strategy. At follow-up, 653 of 755 subjects had >/=6 teeth and were included in this analysis. A modified multiple Poisson regression was used to calculate adjusted relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). RESULTS: Overall, 247 (37.8%) subjects exhibited PAL progression >/=3 mm in >/=4 teeth. Subjects older than 30 years had approximately two times higher risk of having PAL progression than younger subjects. Subjects with low education had 53% higher risk (RR = 1.53; 95% CI:1.06-2.22) of PAL progression compared to those with high education. A significant interaction between gender and smoking was observed. Among never-smokers, males were 33% more likely (RR = 1.33; 95% CI:1.06-1.66) to experience PAL progression than females. Among smokers, there was 8% increased risk of PAL progression (RR = 1.08; 95% CI:1.01-1.14) for males and 21% (RR = 1.21; 95% CI:1.11-1.33) for females per 10 packyears. Skin colour, socioeconomy, dental care and diabetes were not significantly associated with PAL progression after statistical adjustment. CONCLUSION: Sociodemographic factors and smoking are independent risk factors for PAL progression in this Brazilian population.

Industrial wireless networks are gradually being adopted in industry, especially due to the low installation costs and low maintenance provided by these systems. For the use in harsh environments, the communication system should provide reliable radio links and low power to allow battery powered devices. In this context, WirelessHART, ISA SP100.11a and WIA-PA protocols were developed to meet these requirements. The standards of these protocols define a minimum number of RF fixed power and selectable only by commissioning. Within this scenario, it is important to adapt RF power modulation, a procedure already used in several communication protocols to minimize the energy consumption of transceivers while maintaining link quality. In this paper, three ways to modulate RF power are analyzed within WirelessHART field devices. A specific approach that works in a decentralized way is developed and the results show it can save 50% of energy in certain cases. The proposal has the extra advantage to be compatible with the standard.

The solar wind electrons observed at 1 AU are characterized by velocity distribution functions (VDF) that deviate from the Maxwellian form in a high energy regime. Such a feature is often modeled by a kappa distribution. In the present paper a self-consistent theory of quiet-time solar wind electrons that contain a power-law tail component, f ∝ v-α is discussed. These electrons are assumed to be in dynamic equilibrium with enhanced electrostatic fluctuations with peak frequency near the plasma frequency (i.e., the Langmuir turbulence). In order to verify the theoretical prediction, the solar wind electrons in the high-energy range known as the super-halo distribution detected by WIND and STEREO spacecraft are compared against the theoretical model where it was found that the theoretical power-law index is intermittent with regard to the observed range of indices, thus indicating that the turbulent equilibrium model of suprathermal solar wind electrons may be valid.

Charged particle acceleration takes place ubiquitously in the Universe including the near-Earth heliospheric environment. Typical in situ spacecraft measurements made in the solar wind show that the charged particle velocity distribution contains energetic components with quasi scale-free power-law velocity dependence, f ∼ v − α , for high velocity range. In this Review a theory of quiet-time solar-wind electrons that contain a suprathermal component is discussed, in which these electrons are taken to be in dynamical equilibrium with Langmuir turbulence. This Review includes an overview of the Langmuir turbulence theory, as well as a discussion on asymptotic equilibrium solution of Langmuir turbulence/suprathermal electron system. Theoretical predictions of high-energy electron velocity power-law distribution index is then compared against the recent observations of the superhalo electron velocity distribution made by instruments onboard WIND and STEREO spacecraft. It is shown that the theoretical prediction of velocity power-law index is intermediate to the observed range.