The Fruiting and Berry-Chemistry Responses of Zinfandel Grapes to Cluster Thinning

A field experiment was conducted in the Rockpile appellation of Sonoma County during 2007 and 2008. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with five replicates. Zinfandel vines were subjected to three levels of cluster thinning during the lag phase of berry growth: vines were thinned to 2 clusters per shoot with shoulders retained if present (2CS), 1 cluster per shoot with shoulders retained if present (1CS), or 2 clusters per shoot with shoulders removed if present (2CNS). Cluster thinning Zinfandel grapevines during lag phase led to reductions in yield and crop load and increased °Brix of the fruit. In both years, wines that were made from vines with the lowest crop load had consistently higher amounts of small and large polymeric pigments, tannins and total iron-reactive phenolics. Cluster thinning vines to 2CNS at lag phase consistently decreased the number of berries per cluster and cluster weight. Thinning vines to 1CS resulted in fewer clusters per vine in 2008. Botrytis bunch rot tends to develop between the shoulder or wing and the main cluster in certain varieties. Shoulder removal in areas with a high risk of Botrytis should conclusively determine if this thinning method helps to decrease disease incidence. Additional research is also recommended with other varieties to assess possible differences between shoulder thinning and removing entire clusters on berry composition, yield, subsequent wine composition and crop load

TREATMENT OF SINGLE BRAIN METASTASIS - RADIOTHERAPY ALONE OR COMBINED WITH NEUROSURGERY

Most patients treated for single or multiple brain metastases die from progression of extracranial tumor activity. This makes it uncertain whether the combination of neurosurgery and radiotherapy for treatment of single brain metastasis will lead to better results than less invasive treatment with radiotherapy alone. The effect of neurosurgical excision plus radiotherapy was compared with radiotherapy alone in a prospectively randomized trial with 63 evaluable patients with systemic cancer and a radiological diagnosis of single brain metastasis. Radiotherapy was given to the whole brain by a novel scheme of 2 fractions per day of each 2 Gy for a total of 40 Gy. Before randomization, patients were stratified by site (lung cancer vs nonlung cancer) and status of extracranial disease (progressive vs stable). Survival as such and functionally independent survival (FIS; defined as World Health Organization performance status less-than-or-equal-to 1 and neurological function less-than-or-equal-to 1) were compared between both treatment arms. The combined treatment compared with radiotherapy alone led to a longer survival (p = 0.04) and a longer FIS (p = 0.06). This was most pronounced in patients with stable extracranial disease (median survival, 12 vs 7 mo; median FIS, 9 vs 4 mo). Patients with progressive extracranial cancer had a median overall survival of 5 months and a FIS of 2.5 months irrespective of given treatment. Improvement in functional status occurred more rapidly and for longer periods of time after neurosurgical excision and radiotherapy than after radiotherapy alone. Patients older than 60 years had a hazard ratio of dying of 2.74 (p = 0.001) compared with younger patients, but in both age groups the combined treatment did better than radiotherapy alone. We conclude that patients with single brain metastasis and stable extracranial tumor activity should be treated with surgical excision and radiotherapy. For patients with progressive extracranial disease during the previous 3 months, radiotherapy alone appears to be sufficient. After treatment of single brain metastasis, patients remain functionally independent until a few months before death

Asymptotic splitting in the three-dimensional problem of elasticity for non-homogeneous piezoelectric plates

A novel asymptotic approach to the theory of non-homogeneous anisotropic plates is suggested. For the problem of linear static deformations we consider solutions, which are slowly varying in the plane of the plate in comparison to the thickness direction. A small parameter is introduced in the general equations of the theory of elasticity. According to the procedure of asymptotic splitting, the principal terms of the series expansion of the solution are determined from the conditions of solvability for the minor terms. Three-dimensional conditions of compatibility make the analysis more efficient and straightforward. We obtain the system of equations of classical Kirchhoff’s plate theory, including the balance equations, compatibility conditions, elastic relations and kinematic relations between the displacements and strain measures. Subsequent analysis of the edge layer near the contour of the plate is required in order to satisfy the remaining boundary conditions of the three-dimensional problem. Matching of the asymptotic expansions of the solution in the edge layer and inside the domain provides four classical plate boundary conditions. Additional effects, like electromechanical coupling for piezoelectric plates, can easily be incorporated into the model due to the modular structure of the analysis. The results of the paper constitute a sound basis to the equations of the theory of classical plates with piezoelectric effects, and provide a trustworthy algorithm for computation of the stressed state in the three-dimensional problem. Numerical and analytical studies of a sample electromechanical problem demonstrate the asymptotic nature of the present theory