Non-Intercepting Ion Phase Measuring Equipment of the Isochronous Cyclotrons at Karlsruhe and Julich

A non-intercepting ion phase measuring equipment is in use at the Karlsruhe cyclotron. Five phase signals, steadily and simultaneously displayed are presenting a good survey of phase width and phase distribution versus radius. High noise immunity is obtained by the use of differential electrostatic pickup probes. Concerning the Jülich cyclotron a similar device with twelve double electrostatic probes is in construction.     

Modifiziertes Bayard‐Alpert‐ Ionisationsmanometer für Druckmessungen von 10‐9 ... 10+1 mbar

Generally, the requirements for the design and the operating parameters of hot filament ionisation gauges for high and low pressure measurement are incompatible. Nevertheless it is possible to construct an ionisation gauge with a wide measuring range. For that purpose the electrode configuration and its operating parameters of a suitable gauge have to be optimised in this way that the contrary requirements are met with minor restrictions. With the help of computer simulations and experimental investigations a vacuum gauge was developed which combines the main features of both different types of ionisation gauges in one gauge construction. According to our ideas a gauge geometry similar to the ordinary Bayard Alpert gauge enables to measure the pressure in an extended operation range by using not only the pressure dependence of the formation of ions but additional the pressure dependence of the ion drift velocity in an electric field in the upper pressure range too. The upper pressure limit of this ionisation gauge can be shifted up to the rough vacuum range without changing the lower pressure limit of 10^‐9 mbar as usual for Bayard‐Alpert gauges. Thus, the operation range of this modified gauge cover nearly ten decades of pressure.     

Untersuchungen zum Nachweis der Nutzbarkeit elastischer Wechselwirkungsprozesse zwischen niederenergetischen Elektronen und Gasteilchen zur Druckmessung

In the rough and partly in the medium vacuum range collisions and scattering processes of electrons with gas particles influence the motion of slow electrons in an electric field between anode and cathode significantly. After a sufficient number of elastic collisions the electrons move nearly randomly in the electric field with a mean constant drift velocity to their collecting electrode. Using a suitable electrode configuration these interaction processes between electrons and gas particles can be used for the pressure measurement in the upper vacuum pressure range. A gauge construction using this principle is characterised by of a simple electrode structure and electronic equipment. Experimental investigations and numerical calculations are described in this paper.     

Mortality, morbidity and costs attributable to smoking in Germany: update and a 10-year comparison

Objective

To assess the negative health consequences and associated costs of cigarette smoking in Germany in 2003 and to compare them with the respective results from 1993.

Methods

The number of deaths, years of potential life lost (YPLL), direct medical and indirect costs caused by active cigarette smoking in Germany in 2003 is estimated from a societal perspective. The method is similar to that applied by Welte et al, who estimated the cost of smoking in Germany in 1993. Therefore, a direct comparison of the results was possible. Methodological and data differences between these two publications and their effect on the results are analysed.

Results

In 2003, 114 647 deaths and 1.6 million YPLL were attributable to smoking. Total costs were €21.0 billion, with €7.5 billion for acute hospital care, inpatient rehabilitation care, ambulatory care and prescribed drugs; €4.7 billion for the indirect costs of mortality; and €8.8 billion for costs due to work loss days and early retirement. From 1993 to 2003, the proportionate mortality attributable to smoking remained relatively stable, rising from 13.0% to 13.4%. The smoking‐attributable deaths in men is lowered by 13.7% whereas that in women increased by 45.3%. Total real direct costs rose by 35.8%, and total real indirect costs declined by 7.1%, rendering an increase of 4.7% to real total costs. Accountable factors are changes in cigarette smoking prevalence and in disease‐specific mortality and morbidity, as well as a rise in general healthcare expenditure.

Conclusions

Despite the growing knowledge about the hazards of smoking, the smoking‐attributable costs increased in Germany. Further, female mortality attributable to smoking is much higher than it was in 1993.As a result of the devastating health consequences of smoking, many countries have implemented anti‐smoking measures. For example, Ireland and Italy banned smoking in all public buildings and at all workplaces, including pubs and restaurants. Several publications have shown that Germany is still rather friendly to the tobacco industry.¹ This is also supported by recent decisions not to implement a smoking ban or to prohibit smoking in all public places. However, Germany increased the tax on tobacco products three times since 2004, which decreased cigarette sales and smoking prevalence in the age group 12–17 years.^2,3The first cost‐of‐smoking study for Germany used 1993 as the reference year,⁴ and was published by some of us. Since then, three other studies have been published: one is by Ruff et al,⁵ which cannot be used for comparison because of a lack of methodological transparency, and two by Wegner et al,^6,7 which considered only indirect costs. Thus, costs of smoking can be compared with only the first study.This study presents the most recent estimate for both direct and indirect costs of cigarette smoking in Germany, based on the latest available data and referring to the year 2003. As a similar method was applied, costs of smoking can be directly compared between 1993 and 2003.     

CAE in optoelectronics

The most common problems of students attending courses of optoelectronics are discussed in the paper. On the basis of these problems, three computer programs for the computer-aided education (CAE) in optoelectronics have been developed to support the student's understanding of complex phenomena. “Gaussian Beam” serves for simulations and computations in paraxial optics, “Optical Fiber” is used for visualization of the electromagnetic field distribution in an optical fiber, and “General Dielectric Waveguide” performs the full-wave finite-element analysis of arbitrary longitudinally homogenous waveguiding structures. All the programs have been designed for Windows'95 with the emphasis on unified user's managing     

Phase I evaluation of zidovudine administered to infants exposed at birth to the human immunodeficiency virus

This study evaluated the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of zidovudine administered intravenously and orally to infants born to women infected with the human immunodeficiency virus. Thirty-two symptom-free infants were enrolled before 3 months of age. The pharmacokinetics of zidovudine were evaluated in each infant after single intravenously and orally administered doses of zidovudine on consecutive days, and during long-term oral administration of the drug for 4 to 6 weeks. As new patients were enrolled, doses of zidovudine were progressively increased from 2 to 4 mg/kg. Therapy was continued for up to 12 months in 7 of the infants proved to be infected with human immunodeficiency virus. Zidovudine was generally well tolerated; 20 children (62.5%) had anemia (hemoglobin level < 10.0 gm/dl) during therapy and 9 (28.1%) had neutropenia (neutrophil count < or = 750 cells/mm3); these hematologic abnormalities usually resolved spontaneously. The total body clearance of zidovudine increased significantly with age, from an average of 10.9 ml/min per kilogram in infants < or = 14 days of age to 19.0 ml/min per kilogram in older infants (p < 0.0001). Concurrently, there was a significant decrease in serum half-life from 3.12 hours in infants < or = 14 days to 1.87 hours in older infants (p = 0.0002). Oral absorption was satisfactory and bioavailability decreased significantly with age, from 89% in infants < or = 14 days to 61% in those > 14 days of age (p = 0.0002). Plasma concentrations of zidovudine were calculated to be in excess of 1 mumol/L (0.267 micrograms/ml) for 4.12 +/- 1.86 hours and 2.25 +/- 0.78 hours after oral doses of 2 mg/kg in infants younger than 2 weeks and 3 mg/kg in older infants, respectively. We conclude that zidovudine administered at oral doses of 2 mg/kg every 6 hours to infants aged less than 2 weeks and 3 mg/kg every 6 hours to infants older than 2 weeks resulted in plasma concentrations that are considered virustatic against human immunodeficiency virus. Zidovudine was well tolerated by infants at these doses.     

创新的提花织造技术

在2007年ITMA上,德国Grosse Jac公司将展示全新的经改进的无通丝提花织机UniShed-2,该织机采用了创新技术,摈弃了传统的通丝和皮带轮装置,紧凑的设计可以节省能源,降低成本.     

Damping control of inter-area oscillations in the European power system using aggregated models

In the first part of the paper, a new approach to the reduction of large dynamic network models is presented. This method is implemented in the program package PSD and is used here in an exemplary fashion to reduce the model of the European power system to a model usable for the solution of a number of problems. In the second part, the paper describes a new damping concept of inter-area oscillations in large power systems. Additionally installed second-level damping controllers are acting on the voltage regulator reference inputs of selected generators. They are using global information about the swing profiles of the inter-area oscillations to be damped. The damping controllers are designed as a H_∞-norm optimal decentral control system based on both a topological and a frequency range decomposition of the control task. The solution is demonstrated for the reduced model of the European system. Received: 30 April 2001/Accepted: 8 June 2001