Functioning and life context among spouses of remitted and nonremitted depressed patients.

The functioning and life context of spouses of depressed patients were examined at the patients' treatment intake and again after 1 year. Three groups of spouses were defined according to their depressed partner's recovery status at follow-up: remitted (n?=?39), partially remitted (n?=?39), or nonremitted (n?=?40). These spouse groups were compared with each other and with spouses of demographically matched community control participants (n?=?157). At both assessments, the remitted and control spouses were comparable in functioning, stressors, and coping, but the remitted spouses had more social and family problems than control spouses. In contrast, nonremitted spouses had significantly more problems than control spouses on most indices, both at intake and at follow-up. There was no evidence that adaptation of remitted spouses improved or that adaptation of nonremitted spouses deteriorated. Spouse adaptation was typically unrelated to changes in the depression of the depressed partner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Digital Fluid Technologies for the Steel Industry

Digital fluid systems are controlled solely by on-off valves, in contrast to analogue fluid systems which use continuously adjustable valves. Many digital fluid systems have been in practical use for some decades. The steel industry relies on several fluid technologies. Apart from the handling of the liquid steel, several other fluid processes exist to fulfill indispensable functions; examples include cooling, motion control, torch cutting, descaling, and lubricating. Many of these processes need better control concerning precision, dynamics, resource demand, reliability, and environmental impact or must offer additional functionalities for use in factories of the future. In several cases digital fluid systems are the better solutions. In this paper this is demonstrated by four examples, ranging from proven simple solutions and concepts going currently into industrial application to promising concepts for the future.     

Relevance of peat-draining rivers for the riverine input of dissolved iron into the ocean

Peat bogs have the ability to produce strong chelate ligands (humic and fulvic acids) which enhance the weathering rates of iron-silicate minerals and greatly increase the solubility of the essential trace metal iron in river water. Fluvial networks link peat bogs with the ocean, and thus terrestrial-derived fulvic-iron complexes fuel the ocean's biological productivity and biological carbon pump, but understanding this role is constrained by inconsistent observations regarding the behaviour of riverine iron in the estuarine mixing zone, where precipitation reactions remove iron from the water column. We applied a characterization of the colloidal iron carriers in peatland-draining rivers in North Scotland, using field-flow fractionation (FFF), in combination with end-member mixing experiments of river water sampled near the river mouth and coastal seawater using a ⁵⁹Fe radiotracer method. According to our results, the investigated river contributed “truly dissolved” Fe concentrations of about 3300 nmol L^− 1 to the ocean which is nearly two orders of magnitude higher than the dissolved iron contribution of the “average world” river (∼ 40 nmol L^− 1). Thus we conclude that peatland-draining rivers are important sources of dissolved iron to the ocean margins. We propose highly electrostatic and sterical stabilized iron-organic matter complexes in the size range of < 2 kDa to be responsible for iron transport across the estuarine mixing zone.     

Scalar transport in a milli-scale metal foam reactor

We present an investigation on species mass transfer in a milli-scale plug flow reactor using metal foams to enhance the mixing process. In the current design the reactor consists of a pipe with an inner diameter of 7 mm and metal foam inserts with different pore sizes of 20, 30 and 45 ppi. Simultaneous PIV and LIF measurements were performed in orthogonal planes normal to the radial and axial direction downstream of a foam element of 50 mm length. The investigated Reynolds numbers range from 600 to 7600 defined with the empty tube diameter and the bulk velocity. We discuss the influence of the pore sizes on the scalar mixing efficiency and compare the results to the reference empty tube case. A strongly intermittent flow caused by the metal foam was observed over the whole range of Reynolds numbers. The increased radial velocities lead to an enhanced mixing performance. Coefficients of Variation in the order of 0.1 were achieved.     

Composition of a protein-like fluorophore of dissolved organic matter in coastal wetland and estuarine ecosystems

This study demonstrates the compositional heterogeneity of a protein-like fluorescence emission signal (T-peak; excitation/emission maximum at 280/325 nm) of dissolved organic matter (DOM) samples collected from subtropical river and estuarine environments. Natural water samples were collected from the Florida Coastal Everglades ecosystem. The samples were ultrafiltered and excitation-emission fluorescence matrices were obtained. The T-peak intensity correlated positively with N concentration of the ultrafiltered DOM solution (UDON), although, the low correlation coefficient (r(2)=0.140, p<0.05) suggested the coexistence of proteins with other classes of compounds in the T-peak. As such, the T-peak was unbundled on size exclusion chromatography. The elution curves showed that the T-peak was composed of two compounds with distinct molecular weights (MW) with nominal MWs of about >5 x 10(4) (T(1)) and approximately 7.6 x 10(3) (T(2)) and with varying relative abundance among samples. The T(1)-peak intensity correlated strongly with [UDON] (r(2)=0.516, p<0.001), while T(2)-peak did not, which suggested that the T-peak is composed of a mixture of compounds with different chemical structures and ecological roles, namely proteinaceous materials and presumably phenolic moieties in humic-like substances. Natural source of the latter may include polyphenols leached from senescent plant materials, which are important precursors of humic substances. This idea is supported by the fact that polyphenols, such as gallic acid, an important constituent of hydrolysable tannins, and condensed tannins extracted from red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) leaves exhibited the fluorescence peak in the close vicinity of the T-peak (260/346 and 275/313 nm, respectively). Based on this study the application of the T-peak as a proxy for [DON] in natural waters may have limitations in coastal zones with significant terrestrial DOM input.     

Investigations on the oxalic acid content of honey from oxalic acid treated and untreated bee colonies

Varroa destructor, an ectoparasitic mite, is one of the major pests of honeybees in many parts of the world. In order to keep bee colonies alive and productive, effective biological, biotechnical, or acaricidal control measures are necessary. Oxalic acid is one substance under discussion to replace synthetic acaricides (e.g. pyrethroids, organophosphates) to minimize the risk of residues in bee products. The application of oxalic acid based solutions (Bienenwohl or a self-prepared oxalic acid solution with sugar) to control Varroa destructor resulted in no relevant changes in the oxalic acid content of honey produced the following year, compared with honey samples from untreated colonies from the same location. The range of oxalic acid content in honey was 5–68 mg/kg in oxalic acid treated and 5–65 mg/kg in untreated colonies. The oxalic acid content of the honey was positively correlated with its electrical conductivity and thus with its original nectar or honeydew source.     

Copolymers—A refined way to tailor intrinsically conducting polymers

An overview is given on electrochemically prepared intrinsically conducting copolymers, their preparation, their properties, potential applications and significant differences from the respective homopolymers. Particular attention is paid to verification of the formation of true copolymers and their characteristic features in comparison to mixtures of homopolymers.     

On the absence of strict boundaries—Vagueness, haziness, and fuzziness in philosophy, science, and medicine

This contribution deals with developments in the history of philosophy, logic, and mathematics during the time before and up to the beginning of fuzzy logic. Even though the term “fuzzy” was introduced by Lotfi A. Zadeh in 1964/1965, it should be noted that older concepts of “vagueness” and “haziness” had previously been discussed in philosophy, logic, mathematics, applied sciences, and medicine. This paper delineates some specific paths through the history of the use of these “loose concepts”. Vagueness was avidly discussed in the fields of logic and philosophy during the first decades of the 20th century—particularly in Vienna, at Cambridge and in Warsaw and Lvov. An interesting sequel to these developments can be seen in the work of the Polish physician and medical philosopher Ludwik Fleck.Haziness and fuzziness were concepts of interest in mathematics and engineering during the second half of the 1900s. The logico-philosophical history presented here covers the work of Bertrand Russell, Max Black, and others. The mathematical–technical history deals with the theories founded by Karl Menger and Lotfi Zadeh. Menger's concepts of probabilistic metrics, hazy sets (ensembles flous) and micro-geometry as well as Zadeh's theory of fuzzy sets paved the way for the establishment of soft computing methods using vague concepts that connote the nonexistence of sharp boundaries.