Approximation of sleep duration and sleep efficiency using actography

The actography is a cost-effective semiobjective method to measure sleep/wake-cycles. This is the reason why the actography should be used first. The actography is after the cost-intensive polysomnography the best method in diagnosis of sleep disorders and monitoring of sleep disorder therapy. Actography over several days allows a precise estimation of total sleep time and sleep efficiency and makes possible an analysis of sleep/wake in natural conditions. The estimation is better if the patient is in high wake body activity and the recording time is longer. The mean values of total sleep time and sleep efficiency from polysomnography and actography are congruent.     

Gewissensfreiheit in der Apotheke

Background In recent years, it has been intensively debated whether and how the conscience must be protected in the context of pharmacies. Currently, Germany and Austria have no legal regulation regarding this problem. Objective The ethical framework for a coping strategy dealing with the problem of freedom of conscience in the pharmacy will be outlined. Method By applying legal ethics' principle of proportionality within German and Austrian constitutional law as well as the European Convention on Human Rights, the problem is analyzed on its individual, corporative, and societal level. Results On the individual level, the pharmacist's and the patient's stakes and rights (e.g., the freedom of conscience) are carefully balanced by using the principle of proportionality. On the corporative level, the autonomy granted by the fundamental right of freedom of religion and belief legitimatizes a pharmacy's ideological profile as an organization and may cause conflicts of loyalty within the pharmacy. On the societal level, four pro-active options of shaping the legal framework are available: a social-welfare, a libertarian, a professional, and a communitarian. How conflicts on the individual or the corporative level can be solved depends on the option(s) that are chosen on the societal level. Conclusion If the status quo is to be changed, this article argues for two approaches: a) the introduction of a qualified conscience clause for pharmacists (including duties to consult, refer, treat in emergencies, and inform); b) a ‘weak’ communitarian option, striving for a compromise between a pharmaceutical corporation (i.e., pharmacy or pharmaceutical professional association) with an ideological profile and the public healthcare system. Both approaches satisfy a careful balancing of legitimate goods.     

Position estimation using principal components of range data

This paper describes a new approach to mobile robot position estimation, based on principal component analysis of laser range data. An eigenspace is constructed from the principal components of a large number of range data sets. The structure of an environment, as seen by a range sensor, is represented as a family of surfaces in this space. Subsequent range data sets from the environment project as a point in this space. Associating this point to the family of surfaces gives a set of candidate positions and orientations (poses) for the sensor. These candidate poses correspond to positions and orientations in the environment which have similar range profiles. A Kalman filter can be used to select the most likely candidate pose based on coherence with small movements.

The first part of this paper describes how a relatively small number of depth profiles of an environment can be used to generate a complete eigenspace. This space is used to build a representation of the range scan profiles obtained from a regular grid of positions and orientations (poses). This representation has the form of a family of surface (a manifold). This representation converts the problem of associating a range profile to possible positions and orientations into a table lookup. As a side benefit, the method provides a simple means to detect obstacles in a range profile. The final section of the paper reviews the use of estimation theory to determine the correct pose hypothesis by tracking.     

Structure‐Based Mechanism of Oleate Hydratase from Elizabethkingia meningoseptica

Hydratases provide access to secondary and tertiary alcohols by regio‐ and/or stereospecifically adding water to carbon‐carbon double bonds. Thereby, hydroxy groups are introduced without the need for costly cofactor recycling, and that makes this approach highly interesting on an industrial scale. Here we present the first crystal structure of a recombinant oleate hydratase originating from Elizabethkingia meningoseptica in the presence of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD). A structure‐based mutagenesis study targeting active site residues identified E122 and Y241 as crucial for the activation of a water molecule and for protonation of the double bond, respectively. Moreover, we also observed that two‐electron reduction of FAD results in a sevenfold increase in the substrate hydration rate. We propose the first reaction mechanism for this enzyme class that explains the requirement for the flavin cofactor and the involvement of conserved amino acid residues in this regio‐ and stereoselective hydration.     

Morphology of wax modified coil coatings without and with pigmentation

Wax modified coil coatings without and with white pigmentation were analyzed by optical light microscopy, Raman spectroscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy. By optical light and Raman microscopy dispersed spherical wax domains in the micrometer range were ascertained on the surface and within the bulk of the coatings. By the combined Atomic Force microscopical and Raman spectroscopical approach it was possible to detect resin and pigment residues in the lubricant features with diameters above 2 μm. Vice versa indications for wax inclusions with diameters below 2 μm in the matrix and rather thin wax layers expanding from the spherical lubricant domains onto the surface were obtained. As to the wax distribution evaluated by optical light and Raman microscopy significant differences between clearcoat and white topcoat were detected. The non-pigmented coating exhibited smaller wax features and an inhomogeneous distribution with less wax on the surface.     

The relationship of early alliance ruptures and their resolution to process and outcome in three time-limited psychotherapies for personality disorders.

This study examined the relationship of early alliance ruptures and their resolution to process and outcome in a sample of 128 patients randomly assigned to 1 of 3 time-limited psychotherapies for personality disorders: cognitive–behavioral therapy, brief relational therapy, or short-term dynamic psychotherapy. Rupture intensity and resolution were assessed by patient- and therapist-report after each of the first 6 sessions. Results indicated that lower rupture intensity and higher rupture resolution were associated with better ratings of the alliance and session quality. Lower rupture intensity also predicted good outcome on measures of interpersonal functioning, while higher rupture resolution predicted better retention. Patients reported fewer ruptures than did therapists. In addition, fewer ruptures were reported in cognitive–behavioral therapy than in the other treatments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of the aging behavior of ethylene copolymer films for solar applications under accelerated weathering conditions

Ethylene copolymers based on acrylic acids and acrylates are an interesting alternative to ethylene(vinylacetate) (EVA) for photovoltaic (PV) encapsulation. These materials provide similar or better mechanical and optical properties and a slightly better aging behavior, but without the formation of corrosive acetic acid during aging, which is particularly of importance in PV applications. The focus of the research work was to evaluate and screen the aging behavior of ethylene copolymers containing different types of comonomers for solar applications. To investigate the intrinsic weathering behavior of the materials, unstabilized films with comonomer contents around 10% were exposed to temperature, humidity and solar radiation. Special attention was given to the optical and mechanical properties. All investigated films showed high transparency in the solar range with hemispheric transmittance values above 91%. Regarding mechanical properties, the ethylene copolymer films exhibited a highly ductile behavior and high flexibility. Similar degradation behavior could be observed for all investigated films. Due to formation of chromophoric degradation products, yellowing could be observed and hemispheric transmittance values dropped slightly to values between 88.5 and 90.5%. The unstabilized films showed significant embrittlement due to weathering. After 750 h of weathering both strain-at-break and stress-at-break values of all ethylene copolymer films dropped significantly below 50% of the initial values.     

Minimum length of a single-mode fiber spatial filter

Using the concept of leaky modes, we derive the minimum length of a single-mode fiber required to act as a spatial-mode filter of given quality. The degree of filter action is defined by the ratio of power carried by the fundamental mode to that carried by the leaky modes.     

Fair webs

Fair webs are energy-minimizing curve networks. Obtained via an extension of cubic splines or splines in tension to networks of curves, they are efficiently computable and possess a variety of interesting applications. We present properties of fair webs and their discrete counterparts, i.e., fair polygon networks. Applications of fair curve and polygon networks include fair surface design and approximation under constraints such as obstacle avoidance or guaranteed error bounds, aesthetic remeshing, parameterization and texture mapping, and surface restoration in geometric models.