Pharmaceutical expenditure continued to rise steadily in Austria during the 1990s and early 2000s despite a variety of reforms. However, recent reforms and initiatives have moderated the growth rate. These initiatives include transparent pricing of new drugs and generics, greater restrictions on the prescribing of new drugs and voluntary price reductions. Alongside this, there have also been initiatives to enhance rational and efficient prescribing. The lack of published data makes it difficult to fully analyze the impact of individual reforms. In addition, some reforms have only recently been introduced. Despite this, implications can be drawn for key stakeholder groups in the future. This includes pharmaceutical companies continuing to need to demonstrate substantially added benefit for their new drug to command average European prices. Otherwise, premiums will be restricted to a maximum 10% above the price of current standards. In addition, companies will need to continue to lower the price of their brands in interchangeable classes as standards become available as generics. The alternative will be prescribing restrictions. Further reforms will be needed in Austria to meet government growth targets for pharmaceutical expenditure of only 3-4% per annum, while continuing to fund new innovative drugs and increased volumes with greater prevalence of chronic diseases. Possible future measures and their implications for key stakeholder groups will also be discussed.

The diagnostic techniques for simultaneous velocity and relative OH distribution, simultaneous temperature and relative OH distribution, and three component velocity mapping are described. The data extracted from the measurements include statistical moments for inflow fluid dynamics, temperature, conditional velocities, and scalar flux. The work is a first step in the development of a detailed large eddy simulation (LES) validation database for a turbulent, premixed flame. The low-swirl burner used in this investigation has many of the necessary attributes for LES model validation, including a simplified interior geometry; it operates well into the thin reaction zone for turbulent premixed flames, and flame stabilization is based entirely on the flow field and not on hardware or pilot flames.

Experimental and numerical investigations of the ignition of hydrogen/air mixtures by jets of hot exhaust gases are reported. An experimental realisation of such an ignition process, where a jet of hot exhaust gas impinges through a narrow nozzle into a quiescent hydrogen/air mixture, possibly initiating ignition and combustion, is studied. High-speed laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) image sequences of the hydroxyl radical (OH) and laser Schlieren methods are used to gain information about the spatial and temporal evolution of the ignition process. Recording temporally resolved pressure traces yields information about ambient conditions for the process. Numerical experiments are performed that allow linking these observables to certain characteristic states of the gas mixture. The outcome of numerical modelling and experiments indicates the important influence of the hot jet temperature and speed of mixing between the hot and cold gases on the ignition process. The results show the quenching of the flame inside the nozzle and the subsequent ignition of the mixture by the hot exhaust jet. These detailed examinations of the ignition process improve the knowledge concerning flame transmission out of electrical equipment of the type of protection flameproof enclosure.

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