Healthcare costs of post-traumatic trigeminal neuropathy in Belgium - A retrospective analysis.

The present aim was to estimate direct health care costs of patients suffering from post-traumatic trigeminal neuropathy (PTTN) and to compare the use of health care services, medications, and costs between temporary and persistent (>3 months) PTTN cohorts. A pre-existing clinical dataset of PTTN patients visiting a tertiary orofacial pain clinic in Belgium was utilized, including symptoms and quality of life measurements. Cost and resource utilization data were obtained by Belgium's largest health insurance provider for a period of 5 years after onset.

Polarity-Dependent Adsorption of Inverse Micelles.

The adsorption of charged inverse micelles at the electrode-liquid interface has an important effect on field screening and on the voltage drop over diffuse double layers. Recently, we analyzed the behavior of inverse micelles in a nonpolar liquid close to this electrode-liquid interface. For the fluorocarbon/surfactant system under study, we are in the limit of slow adsorption and negligible desorption of inverse micelles on the electrodes.

Tuning charge carrier transport and optical birefringence in liquid-crystalline thin films: A new design space for organic light-emitting diodes.

Liquid-crystalline organic semiconductors exhibit unique properties that make them highly interesting for organic optoelectronic applications. Their optical and electrical anisotropies and the possibility to control the alignment of the liquid-crystalline semiconductor allow not only to optimize charge carrier transport, but to tune the optical property of organic thin-film devices as well. In this study, the molecular orientation in a liquid-crystalline semiconductor film is tuned by a novel blading process as well as by different annealing protocols.

Sustained low rotavirus activity and hospitalisation rates in the post-vaccination era in Belgium, 2007 to 2014.

In 2006, Belgium was the first country in the European Union to recommend rotavirus vaccination in the routine infant vaccination schedule and rapidly achieved high vaccine uptake (86-89% in 2007). We used regional and national data sources up to 7 years post-vaccination to study the impact of vaccination on laboratory-confirmed rotavirus cases and rotavirus-related hospitalisations and deaths. We showed that (i) from 2007 until 2013, vaccination coverage remained at 79-88% for a complete course, (ii) in children 0-2 years, rotavirus cases decreased by 79% (95% confidence intervals (CI): 68--89%) in 2008-2014 compared to the pre-vaccination period (1999--2006) and by 50% (95% CI: 14-82%) in the age group ≥ 10 years, (iii) hospitalisations for rotavirus gastroenteritis decreased by 87% (95% CI: 84-90%) in 2008--2012 compared to the pre-vaccination period (2002--2006), (iv) median age of rotavirus cases increased from 12 months to 17 months and (v) the rotavirus seasonal peak was reduced and delayed in all post-vaccination years.

Mortality in Individuals Treated With Glucose-Lowering Agents: A Large, Controlled Cohort Study.

Context: Several observational studies and meta-analyses have reported increased mortality of patients taking sulfonylurea and insulin. The impact of patient profiles and concomitant therapies often remains unclear.

Objective: The objective of the study was to quantify survival of patients after starting glucose-lowering agents (GLAs) and compare it with control subjects, matched for risk profiles and concomitant therapies.

Anisotropic materials in OLEDs for high outcoupling efficiency.

We present the results of an optical study in which we evaluate the effect of anisotropic electron transport layers (ETL) and anisotropic hole transport layers (HTL) on the outcoupling efficiency of bottom emitting organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs). We demonstrate that optical anisotropy can have a profound influence on the outcoupling efficiency and introduce a number of design rules which ensure that light extraction is enhanced by anisotropic layers.

RCWA and FDTD modeling of light emission from internally structured OLEDs.

We report on the fabrication and simulation of a green OLED with an Internal Light Extraction (ILE) layer. The optical behavior of these devices is simulated using both Rigorous Coupled Wave Analysis (RCWA) and Finite Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) methods. Results obtained using these two different techniques show excellent agreement and predict the experimental results with good precision.