Dynamical Boson Stars

The idea of stable, localized bundles of energy has strong appeal as a model for particles. In the 1950s John Wheeler envisioned such bundles as smooth configurations of electromagnetic energy that he called {\em geons}, but none were found. Instead, particle-like solutions were found in the late 1960s with the addition of a scalar field, and these were given the name {\em boson stars}. Since then, boson stars find use in a wide variety of models as sources of dark matter, as black hole mimickers, in simple models of binary systems, and as a tool in finding black holes in higher dimensions with only a single killing vector. We discuss important varieties of boson stars, their dynamic properties, and some of their uses, concentrating on recent efforts.Comment: 79 pages, 25 figures, invited review for Living Reviews in Relativity; major revision in 201

Congenital tumors: imaging when life just begins

BACKGROUND: The technical developments of imaging methods over the last 2 decades are changing our knowledge of perinatal oncology. Fetal ultrasound is usually the first imaging method used and thus constitutes the reference prenatal study, but MRI seems to be an excellent complementary method for evaluating the fetus. The widespread use of both techniques has increased the diagnosis rates of congenital tumors. During pregnancy and after birth, an accurate knowledge of the possibilities and limits of the different imaging techniques available would improve the information obtainable, thus helping the medical team to make the most appropriate decisions about therapy and to inform the family about the prognosis. CONCLUSION: In this review article, we describe the main congenital neoplasms, their prognosis and their imaging characteristics with the different pre- and postnatal imaging methods available

Interventional treatment of a symptomatic neonatal hepatic cavernous hemangioma using the Amplatzer vascular plug

Percutaneous intervention is one treatment option for symptomatic hepatic hemangioma in infants. We report the case of a newborn (birth weight 4060 g) with a large hepatic cavernous hemangioma, which presented early with high cardiac output failure due to arteriovenous shunting and signs of incipient Kasabach-Merritt syndrome. We performed a successful superselective transcatheter coil embolization of three feeding arteries on the seventh day of life. Because of remaining diffuse very small arteries causing a relevant residual shunt, additional occlusion of the three main draining veins was necessary with three Amplatzer vascular plugs. Cardiac failure resolved immediately. Without any additional therapy the large venous cavities disappeared within the following months. The tumor continues to regress in size 8 months after the intervention

Power distance and verbal index in Kazakh business discourse

Kazakh business discourse is a relatively new area for research, and hence many of the cultural preferences are yet to be explored. This paper focuses on measuring Hofstede’s power distance index for Kazakh culture. A novel technique is proposed, where verbal index is calculated from analysis of publically available texts delivered by representatives of different cultures. In particular, we analyzed public speeches delivered by leaders ofNew Zealand,UK,Germany,Australia,USA,Greece,China,India, andKazakhstan. From these texts we derived a verbal index, which closely correlated to Hofstede’s power distance data. As a result, we were able to obtain a power distance index of 58 forKazakhstan, which was previously unavailable in literature. Furthermore, this method can be used as a cheaper alternative to conducting surveys in estimating Hofstede’s power distance indexes for different cultures

Turkish Heritage language acquisition and maintenance in Germany

This chapter discusses the case of Turkish as a heritage language in Germany, considering the factors affecting heritage language maintenance and education, including parental and institutional perspectives. We contextualize this within a brief review of the history of Turkish migration to Germany, highlighting the relationship between the challenging integration process experienced by many Turkish immigrants to Germany, and the social, educational, and linguistic journey of the Turkish language within the Turkish community. Data from a recent research study presents empirical data examining associations between parental perspectives, including maintaining literacy, on Turkish heritage language maintenance in Germany and the linguistic outcomes of heritage language competence within the younger generation, presented here within the formalisms of Processability Theory (Pienemann 1998). We finish with a discussion on the lack of a uniform approach from German governments toward accommodating Turkish language within the mainstream education system and how this may affect the future of Turkish as a heritage language in Germany