President’s column.

Presents remarks from the president of the APA's Division 13 (Division of Consulting Psychology). The author discusses the second annual Colorado conference on consulting to corporations and business; the planning for Division activities at the APA convention in Los Angeles; and the affect of health reform on consulting psychology and consulting psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Highly purified omega-3-polyunsaturated fatty acids for topical treatment of psoriasis. Results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled multicentre study

We report the results of a multicentre, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of topical therapy with omega-3-polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3-PUFA) in 52 patients suffering from moderate plaque-type psoriasis. In each patient, two similar stable psoriatic plaques served as indicator lesions for the study. One indicator lesion was randomly assigned to treatment with topical preparations of highly purified omega-3-PUFA in one of two concentrations (1 or 10%), and the other was treated with placebo. Efficacy assessment was based on changes in local psoriasis severity index, area involved, erythema, desquamation, induration and pruritus. After 8 weeks of treatment, all indicator lesions had improved significantly, compared with baseline. However, no statistically or clinically relevant differences between the omega-3-PUFA-treated and the placebo-treated lesions were found. Therapy was well tolerated and, apart from one patient who developed perilesional eczema, no clinically relevant adverse events occurred. In conclusion, topical omega-3-PUFA were not effective in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind setting. Results of non-blind trials should be (re-)considered with caution.     

Rupture or stress injury of the flexor tendon pulleys? Early diagnosis with MRI

In node-positive breast carcinoma, the presence of tumour cells in the efferent vessels (EV) of the axillary nodes (positive EV status) was shown to be of poor prognosis in 1979. Later the presence of nodal micrometastases was also related to survival. This report describes a new subgroup in this system that is of potential therapeutic interest. It consisted of the 40% of the EV-positive cases with micrometastases (< 0.2 cm2) in their nodes, in addition to nodes with macrometastases. In them the difference in prognosis associated with EV status no longer held. Their prognosis did not differ markedly from that in the EV-negative patients. In the absence of such 'additional' micrometastases, the prognostic difference was still highly significant. There was also some indication that the presence of micrometastases consisting of embolic tumour growth alone may be associated with early death in EV-negative cases, in keeping with the prognosis in cases with lone micrometastases.     

用增益钳制法观察烧孔效应

掺铒光纤放大器(EDFA)的烧孔效应(SHB)是导致放大器增益不平坦主要因素，进而影响长距离波分复用(wDM)光纤传输系统的性能。与此同时，对于EDFA的非均匀加宽作用的物理学研究并不成熟，所提出的几个理论模型也只是从经验和统计方面对SHB在一定程度上进行分析。为此，我们首次提出了利用放大器恒定增益控制来研究SHB的实验方法，分析了室温下1530～1564nm波长范围内SHB的深度、宽度与饱和信号波长的关系，以及SHB的深度与饱和信号功率的关系。     

President’s column.

This presidential column announces the significant internal changes of Division 13 of the Consulting Psychology Journal. The journal is now published by the Educational Publishing Foundation, which is associated with the American Psychological Association in order to increase the quality, quantity, and diversity of submissions to the journal. The author outlines the steps that will be taken to make the Division a more viable and inviting organization for members in ways that are obvious and easily accessible to them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

IV. Referate

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

INTEGER analysis of two-dimensional polygonal objects

A consistent modelling scheme for digital images is presented, with the grey-level raster image as input and the list-oriented polygonal image as output. The output information consists of two parts: The metric of the polygonal object, represented by coordinates of marked positions, and the global topology, which takes the form of a two-dimensional topologic order. The central problem, which has to be solved, is to select a digital polygon, approximating a digital arc such that the essential feature of the arc is represented at a predefined precision level. The proposed algorithm uses simple incremental calculations of INTEGER quantities to solve the problem.     

Provably correct and complete transaction rules for updating 3D city models

The shapes of our cities change very frequently. These changes have to be reflected in data sets representing urban objects. However, it must be assured that frequent updates do not affect geometric-topological consistency. This important aspect of spatial data quality guarantees essential assumptions on which users and applications of 3D city models rely: viz. that objects do not intersect, overlap or penetrate mutually, or completely cover one another. This raises the question how to guarantee that geometric-topological consistency is preserved when data sets are updated. Hence, there is a certain risk that plans and decisions which are based on these data sets are erroneous and that the tremendous efforts spent for data acquisition and updates become vain. In this paper, we solve this problem by presenting efficient transaction rules for updating 3D city models. These rules guarantee that geometric-topological consistency is preserved (Safety) and allow for the generation of arbitrary consistent 3D city models (Completeness). Safety as well as completeness is proven with mathematical rigor, guaranteeing the reliability of our method. Our method is applicable to 3D city models, which define—besides the terrain surface—complex spatial objects like buildings with rooms and storeys as interior structures, as well as bridges and tunnels. Those objects are represented as aggregations of solids, and their surfaces are complex from a topology point of view. 3D GIS models like CityGML, which are widely used to represent cities, provide the means to define semantics, geometry and topology, but do not address the problem of maintaining consistency. Hence, our approach complements CityGML.     

Microstructure and Properties of Plasma Ceramics

Plasma spraying, originally a surfacing technology used for ceramic coating of metal and nonmetal substrates, is suitable for producing large, full ceramic bodies, such as plates and tubes, in situ to almost the desired dimensions; i.e., conventional methods of designing by molding and casting green bodies followed by sintering are not required. These "plasma ceramics" exhibit characteristic mechanical and thermomechanical properties. Their porous laminar grain structure results in low E -modulus and strength, and in extreme thermal shock resistance, which is enhanced by the comparably high fracture resistance of the material. Because of these properties and their low hardness, plasma ceramics can be easily machined with almost conventional methods of metal processing.