Low-dose oral etoposide monotherapy in adult Langerhans cell histiocytosis

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to test the disease-controlling effect of low-dose oral etoposide monotherapy in adult-onset multisystem Langerhans cell histiocytosis. There are no previous reports of low-dose etoposide monotherapy for this condition. OBSERVATIONS: A 27-year-old man with a 7-year history of multifocal chronic Langerhans cell histiocytosis presented with severe disabling ulcers in intertriginous areas. He had previously been treated with 2 different regimens of antitumoral chemotherapy; one had to be discontinued due to myelosuppression and the other had proved ineffective. We treated with oral etoposide monotherapy at 50 mg/d (22 mg/m2 per day) for 21 days. The treatment was repeated at 28-day intervals for a total of 6 cycles. A rapid initial response with subtotal diminution of the involved skin area was found. No adverse effects were observed. The clinical picture has remained stable during the 7 months following cessation of therapy. CONCLUSION: Low-dose oral etoposide treatment is an adequate therapeutic measure for prolonged disease control in adult-type Langerhans cell histiocytosis.     

Surface Structure of Oxygen Annealed Donor Doped SrTiO3(100) Single Crystals Studied with Spectroscopic Electron Microscopy

Heating 5at.% (on A-site) La-doped SrTiO₃(100) single crystals in an ambient atmosphere at 1300°C for 120 h results in the formation of insulating islands on top of the surface with typical dimensions of up to 50 m. The islands and the surface between them were investigated by spectroscopic Metastable Impact Electron Emission Microscopy (specMIEEM) and Photoelectron Emission Microscopy in order to determine its electronic and geometric structure.The comparison of specMIEEM results with MIES (Metastable Impact Electron Spectroscopy) spectra from stoichiometric SrO shows that the insulating islands, which most likely consist of SrO, are at least partly covered by another species, probably SrO₂. All these islands are surrounded by 2–3 m wide haloes. The electronic structure of these haloes is quite different from that of SrO and SrTiO₃ but similar to the electronic structure of TiO₂ or Ti₂O₃. It is suggested that the depletion of SrO from Ruddlesden-Popper (Sr _{n + 1}Ti _n O_{3n + 1}) phases results in the formation of SrO islands.     

Modelling speedup (n) greater than n

A simple model of parallel computation which is capable of explaining speedups greater than n on n processors is presented. Necessary and sufficient conditions for these exceptional speedups are derived from the model. Several of the contradictory previous results relating to parallel speedup are resolved by using the model     

Temporal information processing and pitch discrimination as predictors of general intelligence.

In the present study, the relationship between performance on temporal and pitch discrimination and psychometric intelligence was investigated in a sample of 164 participants by means of an experimental dissociation paradigm. Performance on both temporal and pitch discrimination was substantially related to psychometric intelligence (r = .43 and r =.39). Regression analysis and structural equation modeling suggested that both psychophysical domains can be considered as valid predictors of psychometric intelligence. Both predictor variables contributed substantial portions of both shared and unique variance to the prediction of individual differences in psychometric intelligence. Thus, the present study yielded further evidence for a functional relationship between psychometric intelligence and temporal as well as pitch discrimination acuity. Eventually, findings are consistent with the notion that temporal discrimination - in addition to general aspects of sensory discrimination shared with pitch discrimination - reflects specific intelligence-related aspects of neural information processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On Bayes Methods for On-Line Boolean Prediction

We examine a general Bayesian framework for constructing on-line prediction algorithms in the experts setting. These algorithms predict the bits of an unknown Boolean sequence using the advice of a finite set of experts. In this framework we use probabilistic assumptions on the unknown sequence to motivate prediction strategies. However, the relative bounds that we prove on the number of prediction mistakes made by these strategies hold for any sequence. The Bayesian framework provides a unified derivation and analysis of previously known prediction strategies, such as the Weighted Majority and Binomial Weighting algorithms. Furthermore, it provides a principled way of automatically adapting the parameters of Weighted Majority to the sequence, in contrast to previous ad hoc doubling techniques. Finally, we discuss the generalization of our methods to algorithms making randomized predictions. Received February 5, 1997; revised July 17, 1997.     

Universelle Wandabstandsfunktionen bei Gleichgewichtsturbulenz

Zusammenfassung Die bisherigen experimentellen Befunde erm?glichten es, für bestimmte turbulente Str?mungen in Rohren, Kan?len und Diffusoren sowie um K?rper ohne oder mit Druckgef?lle in Str?mungsrichtung einige allgemein gültige Beziehungen aufzustellen, in denen der Zusammenhang zwischen den turbulenten Schwankungsgr?βen und dem Wandabstand erfaβt wird. Auf Bereiche mit intermittierender Turbulenz in der N?he freier Grenzen der Str?mung sind diese Beziehungen nicht anwendbar.     

Cationic Surface Segregation in Donor-Doped SrTiO3 Under Oxidizing Conditions

The influence of high temperature oxygen annealing on (100) oriented donor-doped SrTiO₃ single crystals was studied. Crystalline precipitates were found on the optical scale on surfaces of lanthanum-doped as well as niobium-doped specimens with donor concentrations above 0.5 at.%. The amount of the secondary phase increases with the doping level, oxidation temperature and oxidation time. EDX analyses of the crystallites reveal a SrO_x composition.The formation of the observed secondary phase is discussed by means of the defect re-equilibration of the cation sub-lattice. In view of the point defect model for donor-doped perovskites, n-conducting SrTiO₃ changes its compensation mechanism during an oxidation treatment from electronic compensation (N _D = n) to self-compensation (N _D = 2[V _Sr]) by forming cation vacancies. Due to the favored Schottky-type disorder in perovskites, the formation of strontium vacancies is accompanied by a release of strontium from the regular lattice. Since the excess strontium is found to be situated at the surface in form of SrO-rich precipitates only, we propose the formation of strontium vacancies via a surface defect reaction and the chemical diffusion of strontium vacancies from the surface into the crystal as the most probable re-equilibration mechanism for the oxidation treatment of single crystals.The introduced mechanism is in contrast to an established model which proposes the formation of Ruddlesden-Popper intergrowth phases SrO·(SrTiO₃)_n in the interior of the crystal.     

Boosting Methods for Regression

In this paper we examine ensemble methods for regression that leverage or boost base regressors by iteratively calling them on modified samples. The most successful leveraging algorithm for classification is AdaBoost, an algorithm that requires only modest assumptions on the base learning method for its strong theoretical guarantees. We present several gradient descent leveraging algorithms for regression and prove AdaBoost-style bounds on their sample errors using intuitive assumptions on the base learners. We bound the complexity of the regression functions produced in order to derive PAC-style bounds on their generalization errors. Experiments validate our theoretical results.     

Langasite, langanite, and langatate bulk-wave Y-cut resonators

Materials in the langasite family are of current interest for both bulk wave and surface wave devices. Piano-convex Y-cut bulk wave resonators have been built and tested on overtones 1 through 9 using LGS (langasite; La(3)Ga(5)SiO(14)), LGN (langanite; La(3)Ga(5.5)Nb(0.5)O(14)), and LGT (langatate; La(3)Ga(5.5)Ta(5.5)O(14)). Frequencies and motional inductances are compared with calculated values, with good agreement except for the motional inductance of LGT. For all three materials, frequency variation is an essentially parabolic function of temperature. For LGN and LGT, reported values of the Q-frequency product are significantly above the classical limit for AT-cut quartz. A maximum 4 f value of 25.6x10(6), where frequency is in megahertz;, was observed for an LGT resonator; for an unplated resonator, 29.2x10(6) was measured. Still higher values are believed possible.     

Modeling, analyzing, and synthesizing expressive piano performance with graphical models

Trained musicians intuitively produce expressive variations that add to their audience’s enjoyment. However, there is little quantitative information about the kinds of strategies used in different musical contexts. Since the literal synthesis of notes from a score is bland and unappealing, there is an opportunity for learning systems that can automatically produce compelling expressive variations. The ESP (Expressive Synthetic Performance) system generates expressive renditions using hierarchical hidden Markov models trained on the stylistic variations employed by human performers. Furthermore, the generative models learned by the ESP system provide insight into a number of musicological issues related to expressive performance. Editor: Gerhard Widmer