Electrospray ionization ion mobility spectrometer with new tristate ion gating for improved sensitivity for compounds with lower ion mobility.

An electrospray is a dispersed nebula of charged droplets produced under the influence of a strong electric field. The charged droplets subsequently result in ions in the gas phase. Therefore, electrospray is a commonly used method for transferring liquids to the gas phase while ionizing its constituents at the same time. In this work, we investigate the performance of an electrospray ionization ion mobility spectrometer by varying the electric field strength in the desolvation region. In particular, we investigate a new tristate ion shutter with increased sensitivity for ions with higher molecular mass and lower ion mobility that are usually suppressed by classical Bradbury-Nielsen or Tyndall-Powell ion shutters when using short gating times as required for high resolving power. The electric field in the tristate ion shutter affects the optimal ratio of the electric field strengths in the drift and desolvation region. Furthermore, the solvent flow rate needs to be considered when setting the field strengths in the desolvation region. However, a higher electric field strength in the desolvation region affects the field at the emitter tip. For this reason, a smaller ratio of the drift field strength and the desolvation field strength is beneficial, especially since higher solvent flow rates require higher fields to initiate an electrospray. In this work, we use tetraoctylammonium bromide as an instrument standard and the fungicide metalaxyl, the herbicide isoproturon and the antibiotic cefuroxime as model compounds.

[Validity and Reliability of the German Version of the HSS Expectation Questionnaire on Hip Joint Replacement]. / Validität und Reliabilität der deutschen Version des HSS-Erwartungsfragebogens zum Hüftgelenkersatz.

Background: Total hip arthroplasty is one of the most successful operations in medicine. The clinical result after surgery and compliance during rehabilitation are influenced by the patient's expectations. There is a lack of a validated German instrument to record these expectations in a standardised manner. Patients: 193 patients from the Dresden Hip Register with osteoarthritis of the hip were surveyed with respect to their expectations before the operation. The study sample consists of 108 women and 85 men. The average age of the patients was 59.7 years, with a standard deviation of 12.2 years. Methods: The Hospital for Special Patient Expectations Survey was translated into German and culturally adapted. In addition, the RKI demographic core data set, the HADS-D, LOT-R and the SCL-(K-)9 were collected to validate the instrument. In the statistical analysis, four main factors could be distinguished. These were "everyday activities", "pain relief and improvement in function", "medication and social participation" and "gait improvement". Results: Patients were predominantly married. 20 % of the women were widowed. 20 % had received higher education. Almost half of the patients were retired, 30 % were employed, 15.1 % self-employed and 7.3 % were unemployed. For most of the items, patients expected major improvements up to normalisation of their health. There were many different answers to several items, such as the question on occupation. For sporting and sexual activities no high expectations were given. The average expectation of the whole sample shows major differences to individual expectations. Men showed higher expectations for medication, social participation and gait improvement than did women. There were lower expectations for everyday activities, medication and social participation and gait improvement for older patients. Summary: The German version of the HSS patients expectation survey was validated. The instrument is useful in the preoperative setting to give the surgeon a first impression on the patient's expectations.

Self-assessment of competencies in dental education in Germany - a multicentred survey.

INTRODUCTION: The aim was to assess the competencies of undergraduate dental students in Germany in the domains team competence, communicative competence, learning competence and scholarship. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The survey was conducted at 11 dental schools that are equally distributed all over Germany. Competencies were assessed with the Freiburg Questionnaire to Assess Competencies in Medicine (FCM). A short version of the FCM was used in this study. This short form included the four domains: team competence (three items), communicative competence (eight items), learning competence (five items) and scholarship (four items). Students had to rate each item twice: first with regard to the respondent's current level of competence and second with regard to the level of competence that respondents think is required by their job. All items were rated on a five-point Likert scale (1 'very much' and 5 'not at all'). Responsible lecturers from all selected dental schools received another questionnaire to answer the questions whether the FCM domain corresponding learning objectives were taught at the respective dental school. RESULTS: A total of 317 undergraduate students from 11 dental schools in their last clinical year participated. The response rate varied between 48% and 92%. Cronbach's α for the FCM scales addressing the current level of competencies ranged from 0.70 to 0.89 and for the scales measuring the presumed level of competencies demanded by their job ranged from 0.72 to 0.82. The mean values of the scales for the assessment of the presumed level of competencies demanded by the job were significantly lower compared to the mean values of the scales for the current level of competencies (P < 0.001 in all analyses). We found large differences between the two levels - in terms of 'standardised response means' (SRM) - in the domains team competence (SRM 1.34), learning competence (SRM 1.27) and communicative competence (SRM 1.18). Overall, the learning objectives that correspond to the assessed domains of competencies were taught to 19.6% completely, to 55.4% partially and to 25% not at all at the participating dental schools. CONCLUSION: The results of the present survey revealed that the participating students perceived deficiencies in all domains of competencies. These results indicate that the assessed domains are still barely integrated into dental medicine curricula in Germany and that further research in this field is needed.

[Personality and comorbidity: are there "difficult patients" in hip arthroplasty?]. / Persönlichkeitsprofil und Komorbidität: Gibt es den "schwierigen Patienten" in der primären Hüftendoprothetik?

BACKGROUND: Concomitant disorders at the time of surgery in addition to psychological and socioeconomic patient characteristics may influence treatment outcomes in hip arthroplasty. OBJECTIVES: To describe the impact of these factors on perioperative complications and postoperative results in terms of function, quality of life, and patient satisfaction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Review of relevant clinical studies, meta-analyses, and presentation of our own results. RESULTS: Comorbidities in general, especially in combination, increase the perioperative risk profile. Socioeconomic factors (education, professional qualifications, social deprivation) in addition to psychological variables (depression, distressed personality) can have a major impact on postoperative functional outcomes and patient satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: It is of crucial importance to avoid inequalities in the provision of joint replacement for patients with hip osteoarthritis and co-existing risk factors. Preventive strategies should be implemented to reduce the negative impact of comorbidities on treatment outcome. Personalized communication and education may be helpful in avoiding unrealistic patient expectations before hip replacement.

An x-ray setup to investigate the atomic order of confined liquids in slit geometry.

A setup has been designed to investigate thin films of confined liquids with the use of X-ray scattering methods. The confinement is realized between the flat culets of a pair of diamonds by positioning and orienting the lower diamond with nanometer and micro radian accuracy. We routinely achieve gaps between 5 and 50 nm at culet diameters of 200 µm. With this setup and a micro focused X-ray beam we have investigated the in-plane and the out-off-plane atomic order of benzene with atomic resolution.