Learn to Design Attractive Web Sites

A review of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird. The book aims to cover the demand to build Web sites by targeting designers who want to learn how to make Web sites look more attractive.     

N.m.r. study of the ferroelectric phase transition in a 7030mol% copolymer of vinylidene fluoride (VF2) and trifluoroethylene (TrFE)

Nuclear magnetic resonance (n.m.r.) studies of ¹⁹F nuclei in a $\text{70}\text{30}\text{mol}\text{\%}$ random copolymer of vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene were performed at 9.14 MHz and 20.0 MHz. The free induction decays (FIDs) were analysed in terms of two T₂ components attributed to the amorphous and crystalline portions of the polymer. The changes in crystallinity as well as the effects of the ferroelectric transition were observed during cycles of heating and cooling between 20°C and 140°C. The crystalline component of the FID lengthens by a factor of 2 at 100°C on heating and decreases by this factor at 60°C on cooling, thus exhibiting the thermal hysteresis of this ferroelectric transition. The spin-lattice relaxation was also investigated. From measurements at 9.14 MHz the observed longitudinal relaxation time T₁ appears to be dominated by the dynamics of the amorphous phase and exhibits no anomaly through the phase transition. However, from measurements at 20 MHz, well defined minima of T₁ were observed, which are associated with the ferroelectric transition (especially after repeated annealing of the samples). Results are discussed in terms of the crystalline phase structure, which appears dynamically disordered above the ferroelectric phase transition. An analogy is considered with the plastic phase transitions encountered in molecular crystals.     

Semantic Web Mining: State of the art and future directions

Semantic Web Mining aims at combining the two fast-developing research areas Semantic Web and Web Mining. This survey analyzes the convergence of trends from both areas: More and more researchers are working on improving the results of Web Mining by exploiting semantic structures in the Web, and they make use of Web Mining techniques for building the Semantic Web. Last but not least, these techniques can be used for mining the Semantic Web itself.The Semantic Web is the second-generation WWW, enriched by machine-processable information which supports the user in his tasks. Given the enormous size even of today’s Web, it is impossible to manually enrich all of these resources. Therefore, automated schemes for learning the relevant information are increasingly being used. Web Mining aims at discovering insights about the meaning of Web resources and their usage. Given the primarily syntactical nature of the data being mined, the discovery of meaning is impossible based on these data only. Therefore, formalizations of the semantics of Web sites and navigation behavior are becoming more and more common. Furthermore, mining the Semantic Web itself is another upcoming application. We argue that the two areas Web Mining and Semantic Web need each other to fulfill their goals, but that the full potential of this convergence is not yet realized. This paper gives an overview of where the two areas meet today, and sketches ways of how a closer integration could be profitable.     

CAMS dirigiert die eGK

Die elektronische Gesundheitskarte (eGK) bietet viele neue M?glichkeiten für eine vernetzte, effiziente Gesundheitsversorgung. Komplexe ≫Card and Application Management Systeme≪ (CAMS) gew?hrleisten im Hintergrund Funktionsf?higkeit und Sicherheit — von der Ausgabe der Karte bis zu ihrer Erneuerung.     

Parallel Pattern-Based Systems for Computational Biology: A Case Study

Computational biology research is now faced with the burgeoning number of genome data. The rigorous postprocessing of this data requires an increased role for high-performance computing (HPC). Because the development of HPC applications for computational biology problems is much more complex than the corresponding sequential applications, existing traditional programming techniques have demonstrated their inadequacy. Many high level programming techniques, such as skeleton and pattern-based programming, have therefore been designed to provide users new ways to get HPC applications without much effort. However, most of them remain absent from the mainstream practice for computational biology. In this paper, we present a new parallel pattern-based system prototype for computational biology. The underlying programming techniques are based on generic programming, a programming technique suited for the generic representation of abstract concepts. This allows the system to be built in a generic way at application level and, thus, provides good extensibility and flexibility. We show how this system can be used to develop HPC applications for popular computational biology algorithms and lead to significant runtime savings on distributed memory architectures.     

A modern hardware setup for real-time turbulence measurements in two-phase flows

A modern concept of cost-effective digital signal processing hardware for measuring and analysing data from experiments investigating turbulent two-phase flows is presented. Using an array processor together with an appropriate analog-to-digital converter, conventional turbulence characteristics such as turbulence spectra, correlation functions, turbulence intensities and — scales can be evaluated in real time.     

Nephropathy of type II diabetes: evidence for hereditary factors?

Family studies point to an important genetic element in the genesis of diabetic nephropathy, but it is not known whether renal abnormalities are present prior to the onset of diabetes. To address this issue we examined all consecutive patients suffering from type II diabetes with a duration of more than 10 years who attended a diabetes outpatient clinic. Ninety-four patients had nephropathy, 307 did not. All offspring who were phenotypically normal (no hypertension, normal oral glucose tolerance, non-smoking) and agreed to participate were examined, 26 from nephropathic and 30 from non-nephropathic diabetic parents. They were compared with 30 offspring matched for age, gender and BMI from non-diabetic parents as controls. We measured urinary albumin excretion under baseline conditions and at several time points after ingestion of 300 g cooked beef and submaximal treadmill exercise, respectively. In addition, casual blood pressure, ambulatory blood pressure, urinary albumin and urinary alpha-1-microglobulin were measured. Primary renal disease was excluded by clinical examination. Under baseline conditions, median urinary albumin excretion rate (AER; microgram/min) was significantly (P < 0.005) higher in offspring of nephropathic type II diabetic patients (7.8; range 1.04 to 19.5) than in the offspring of non-nephropathic type II diabetic patients (4.8; 0.36 to 17.5) and controls (4.4; 0.16 to 18.4). Submaximal treadmill exercise caused a greater proportional increase of AER in offspring of nephropathic type II diabetics (median 16-fold) than in offspring of non-nephropathic diabetic patients (6.3-fold) or controls (4.8-fold). In offspring of nephropathic diabetic patients casual and particularly ambulatory systolic blood pressures were significantly higher, but AER was not correlated with blood pressure. In summary, higher values, albeit within the normal range, for baseline and postexercise albuminuria were noted in phenotypically normal offspring of parents with type II diabetes and nephropathy. The observation suggests that changes in transglomerular albumin traffic are demonstrable prior to the onset of diabetes and diabetic nephropathy in subjects with a potential genetic predisposition to these conditions.     

Estimation of sampling error variance in the meta-analysis of correlations: Use of average correlation in the homogeneous case.

The estimate of the population correlation used in the formula for sampling error variance of a correlation is typically the observed correlation, but in meta-analysis the average of the observed correlations can be used. For the case in which there is no variation in the study population correlations or sample sizes and the number of studies is very large, the authors found that use of the average correlation estimator is more accurate than use of the traditional, individual correlation estimator, except in those rare cases in which the uncorrected population correlation is greater than .60. For typical sample sizes, when the uncorrected population correlation is between -.40 and .40, there is virtually no error in the meta-analysis credibility interval based on the average correlation estimator. On the other hand, the amount of the error in the individual correlation estimator is qualitatively important if the sample is 25 or less and the population correlation is less than .40. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Regulation of distal esophageal mucosal blood flow: the roles of nitric oxide and substance P

BACKGROUND: An increase in esophageal mucosal blood flow (MBF) may be an important protective mechanism against mucosal injury from noxious agents that are ingested or refluxed. This study investigated the changes in MBF and the regulation thereof after intraluminal application of noxious chemical stimuli. The role, if any, of substance P (SP) and nitric oxide (NO), two potent vasodilatory substances, and the vascular distribution of SP in the distal esophagus were evaluated. METHODS: Esophageal MBF was measured in anesthetized dogs with a laser Doppler flow probe attached to manometry and pH probes. MBF was measured before and after topical application of HCl (2 ml; 1N) or capsaicin (2 ml; 0.5%) in the distal esophagus. The effects on MBF of intraarterial SP and bradykinin were also determined. Pharmacologic antagonists and denervation procedures were used to delineate the mechanisms that regulate MBF. RESULTS: Sequential luminal applications of hydrochloric acid (HCl) or a single application of capsaicin increased MBF (p < 0.01). Topical intraluminal lidocaine blocked the response to capsaicin (p > 0.2) but not to HCl (p < 0.05). Abrupt increases in MBF occurred with intraarterial SP or bradykinin (p < 0.01). Neither atropine nor truncal vagotomy blocked the increase in MBF from these peptides or noxious stimuli. The NO synthesis antagonist NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) blocked the response to bradykinin and attenuated the response to HCl (p < 0.05). NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester did not affect the response to SP or capsaicin. A substance P antagonist blocked the effects of both capsaicin (p > 0.6) and SP (p > 0.1) but not that of HCl (p < 0.01) or bradykinin (p > 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Intraluminal applications of HCl or capsaicin appear to stimulate increases in esophageal MBF by different mechanisms. HCl produces an adaptive response that appears dependent on the paracrine effect of NO. Capsaicin-sensitive neurons mediate vasodilation through SP neurotransmission, independent of extrinsic vagal or cholinergic innervation.     

Wide-band symmetrical analog multiplier IC for coherentoptical-fiber receivers operating up to 10 Gb/s

A versatile analog four-quadrant multiplier IC with large bandwidth (DC to 6 GHz and 10 Gb/s) and large dynamic range is presented. It was mainly developed for differential-phase-shift-keying (DPSK) phase demodulator and polarization diversity receivers in coherent optical-fiber transmission systems. The circuit consumes 450 mW and only needs a single power supply of -5 V. The circuit principle used allows exact symmetry with respect to both linear inputs, which reduced multiplication errors. In the intended application, especially, the time jitter and the offset voltage of the output pulse patterns are reduced to negligible values. The IC was realized in a 1.25-μm double-polysilicon bipolar technology