A report on the field activities of the Dakhleh Oasis Project during the 2003–2004 field season

The 2003–2004 field season of the Dakhleh Oasis Project took place between 10th November, 2003 and 25th March, 2004. A total of 42 expedition members joined the field work at various times during the season. The expedition was based, for the second season, at our new headquarters at ‘Ain el-Gindi, Sheikh Wali. It was our good fortune to have the Governor of the New Valley, General Medhat Abdel-Rahaman, present at the opening ceremony on 22nd January. Field work included surveying by geoarchaeologists, paleontologists and Egyptologists; excavations at Mut el-Kharab, Ismant el-Kharab, Amheida and el-Qasr. Site conservation work was accomplished at a number of sites – the Mamissi plaster at the Temple of Tutu at Ismant el-Kharab, the Bayt el-Qadi (‘House of the Judge’) at el-Qasr, the Roman sandstone temple at ‘Ain Birbiyeh, and Roman period plaster decoration at Amheida. Special studies of Old Kingdom flint working, archaeobotany, papyrology, and physical anthropology also went forward

The effectiveness of interventions used in the treatment/management of chronic fatigue syndrome and/or myalgic encephalomyelitis in adults and children

BACKGROUND: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) consists of a range of symptoms including fatigue, headaches, sleep disturbances, difficulties with concentration and muscle pain. The defining characteristic has been reported to be debilitating fatigue. It is not known what causes CFS although various hypotheses have been suggested, including immunological, viral, psychological and neuroendocrine factors. The uncertainty regarding the cause is reflected in the wide variety of interventions which have been used in the treatment and management of CFS. These interventions have had different objectives including targeting of the underlying disease process, targeting of specific symptoms, focusing on coping strategies, and encouraging rehabilitation. Evaluations of the effectiveness of different approaches suggest a variety of different outcomes and currently a number of interventions are used in the management of CFS. Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) has sometimes been reported to be a separate syndrome from CFS. However in the research literature CFS is commonly referred to as being the same illness as ME, post viral fatigue syndrome (PVFS) and all similar symptom complexes. The scope of this review was to evaluate interventions for the management of CFS/ME. Therefore, unless specifically named symptom complexes were addressed, CFS/ME is the term used throughout this review. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effectiveness of all available interventions which have been evaluated for use in the treatment or management of adults and children with CFS/ME

A report on the field activities of the Dakhleh Oasis Project during the 2003–2004 field season

The 2003–2004 field season of the Dakhleh Oasis Project took place between 10th November, 2003 and 25th March, 2004. A total of 42 expedition members joined the field work at various times during the season. The expedition was based, for the second season, at our new headquarters at ‘Ain el-Gindi, Sheikh Wali. It was our good fortune to have the Governor of the New Valley, General Medhat Abdel-Rahaman, present at the opening ceremony on 22nd January. Field work included surveying by geoarchaeologists, paleontologists and Egyptologists; excavations at Mut el-Kharab, Ismant el-Kharab, Amheida and el-Qasr. Site conservation work was accomplished at a number of sites – the Mamissi plaster at the Temple of Tutu at Ismant el-Kharab, the Bayt el-Qadi (‘House of the Judge’) at el-Qasr, the Roman sandstone temple at ‘Ain Birbiyeh, and Roman period plaster decoration at Amheida. Special studies of Old Kingdom flint working, archaeobotany, papyrology, and physical anthropology also went forward.

Interventions for the treatment and management of chronic fatigue syndrome: a systematic review

CONTEXT A variety of interventions have been used in the treatment and management of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Currently, debate exists among health care professionals and patients about appropriate strategies for management. OBJECTIVE To assess the effectiveness of all interventions that have been evaluated for use in the treatment or management of CFS in adults or children. DATA SOURCES Nineteen specialist databases were searched from inception to either January or July 2000 for published or unpublished studies in any language. The search was updated through October 2000 using PubMed. Other sources included scanning citations, Internet searching, contacting experts, and online requests for articles. STUDY SELECTION Controlled trials (randomized or nonrandomized) that evaluated interventions in patients diagnosed as having CFS according to any criteria were included. Study inclusion was assessed independently by 2 reviewers. Of 350 studies initially identified, 44 met inclusion criteria, including 36 randomized controlled trials and 8 controlled trials. DATA EXTRACTION Data extraction was conducted by 1 reviewer and checked by a second. Validity assessment was carried out by 2 reviewers with disagreements resolved by consensus. A qualitative synthesis was carried out and studies were grouped according to type of intervention and outcomes assessed. DATA SYNTHESIS The number of participants included in each trial ranged from 12 to 326, with a total of 2801 participants included in the 44 trials combined. Across the studies, 38 different outcomes were evaluated using about 130 different scales or types of measurement. Studies were grouped into 6 different categories. In the behavioral category, graded exercise therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy showed positive results and also scored highly on the validity assessment. In the immunological category, both immunoglobulin and hydrocortisone showed some limited effects but, overall, the evidence was inconclusive. There was insufficient evidence about effectiveness in the other 4 categories (pharmacological, supplements, complementary/alternative, and other interventions). CONCLUSIONS Overall, the interventions demonstrated mixed results in terms of effectiveness. All conclusions about effectiveness should be considered together with the methodological inadequacies of the studies. Interventions which have shown promising results include cognitive behavioral therapy and graded exercise therapy. Further research into these and other treatments is required using standardized outcome measures

Conditional Forecasting of Water Level Time Series with RNNs

We describe a practical situation in which the application of forecasting models could lead to energy efficiency and decreased risk in water level management. The practical challenge of forecasting water levels in the next 24 h and the available data are provided by a dutch regional water authority. We formalized the problem as conditional forecasting of hydrological time series: the resulting models can be used for real-life scenario evaluation and decision support. We propose the novel Encoder/Decoder with Exogenous Variables RNN (ED-RNN) architecture for conditional forecasting with RNNs, and contrast its performance with various other time series forecasting models. We show that the performance of the ED-RNN architecture is comparable to the best performing alternative model (a feedforward ANN for direct forecasting), and more accurately captures short-term fluctuations in the water heights