Linguistic Naturalism and Natural Style. From Varro and Cicero to Dionysius of Halicarnassus

NWO276-30-009Classics and Classical Civilizatio

Antiepileptic therapy in glioma patients

In der vorliegenden Studie wurden 107 Patienten mit Gliomen untersucht: Fünfundvierzig hatten ein Glioblastom, 30 ein Astrozytom, 19 ein Oligoastrozytom, 11 ein Oligodendrogliom und jeweils ein Patient ein Ependymom bzw. Gangliogliom. Ziel war es, die Anfallsinzidenz prä -und postoperativ sowie die antikonvulsive Behandlung dieser Patienten zu beschreiben und statistisch signifikante prädisponierende Faktoren zu evaluieren. Insgesamt erlitten 68% präoperative Anfälle, postoperativ waren es ebenfalls 68%. Niedriger WHO-Grad (p=0,0079), oligodendrogliale Anteile in der Histologie (p=0,0107) und überraschender Weise auch eine rechtsseitige Lage des Tumors (p=0,0017) waren statistisch auffällig mit einem erhöhten Risiko für Anfälle korreliert. Bei temporal gelegenen Gliomen kam es besonders häufig zu Anfällen (15/16, 94%). Es konnte kein Zusammenhang zwischen dem Auftreten von Anfällen und dem Alter oder Geschlecht der Patienten festgestellt werden, dies galt auch für die Kontrastmittel-Aufnahme des Tumors. Nach den vorliegenden Daten hat das präoperative Auftreten von Anfällen keinen prädiktiven Wert für postoperative Anfälle. Mit den drei klassischen AED - CBZ, PHE und VPA - konnte die Frequenz der Anfälle nicht wirkungsvoll gesenkt werden, die geringste Quote wurde unter VPA erzielt (44%). Bei allen drei AED wurden UWI wie erhöhte Leberwerte oder Hautausschlag beobachtet, z.T. führten diese sogar zum Abbruch der Therapie. Zudem lassen unsere Daten darauf schließen, dass zumindest die o.g. AED eine Chemotherapie über Wechselwirkungen negativ beeinflussen. Eine routinemäßige postoperative antikonvulsive Prophylaxe kann nach Auswertung des vorliegenden Patientenkollektivs deshalb nicht empfohlen werden.The risk for patients with primary brain tumors of experiencing an epileptic seizure at least once in the course of disease probably exceeds 50%, depending on tumor location and tumor type. Several aspects regarding the role of anticonvulsants in the treatment of brain tumor patients have remained controversial. Here we reviewed the seizure history in 107 patients undergoing a surgical procedure for a glioma at our institution. The overall seizure incidence was 68% 74%. Pre-operative seizures did not predict the occurrence of post-operative seizures. Surgery, post-operative tumor therapy and anticonvulsive treatment resulted in no seizures or better seizure control in a third of the patients whereas one third showed frequent seizures despite this treatment. Seizure frequency increased regardless of anticonvulsive treatment with progressive or recurrent tumor growth. Based on a literature review and our institutional experience, we delineate some recommendations for the management of seizures in patients with brain tumors

Controller estimation for FPGA target architectures during high-level synthesis

In existing synthesis systems, the influence of the area and delay of the controller is not or not sufficiently taken into account. But the controller can have a big influence, especially, if a certain data-path realization requires a huge number of states and/or control signals. This paper presents a new approach on controller estimation during high-level synthesis for FPGA-based target architectures. The estimator, presented in this paper can be invoked after or during every synthesis-step, i.e. allocation, scheduling and binding, respectively. By considering the controller influence on the overall area of a design, design space exploration can be made more accurate and less error prone. We present an approach for estimating area of the controller based on information which are easily accessible during each step of highlevel synthesis, so no explicit description of the controller, which usually will be generated after the binding, is necessary. This is particularly valuable in the allocation phase, where intensive design space explorations have to be done, based on fast and accurate estimates

Self-generated oxygen gradients control collective aggregation of photosynthetic microbes

For billions of years, photosynthetic microbes have evolved under the variable exposure to sunlight in diverse ecosystems and microhabitats all over our planet. Their abilities to dynamically respond to alterations of the luminous intensity, including phototaxis, surface association and diurnal cell cycles, are pivotal for their survival. If these strategies fail in the absence of light, the microbes can still sustain essential metabolic functionalities and motility by switching their energy production from photosynthesis to oxygen respiration. For suspensions of motile C. reinhardtii cells above a critical density, we demonstrate that this switch reversibly controls collective microbial aggregation. Aerobic respiration dominates over photosynthesis in conditions of low light, which causes the microbial motility to sensitively depend on the local availability of oxygen. For dense microbial populations in self-generated oxygen gradients, microfluidic experiments and continuum theory based on a reaction–diffusion mechanism show that oxygen-regulated motility enables the collective emergence of highly localized regions of high and low cell densities

Devonian operculate corals (Calceolidae, Cnidaria) from the Massif Armoricain, France

The operculate coral Calceola gervillei Bayle, 1878 is described for the first time on the basis of the type material from the Cotentin region of Normandy (North Armorican Domain), from Early Devonian (likely upper Lochkovian to lower Pragian) strata, and is chosen as the type species of the monotypic new genus Gerviphyllum. The new genus is also present in the l\u27Armorique Formation (lower Pragian) of the Plougastel Peninsula (Central Armorican Domain) as Gerviphyllum sp. cf. G. gervillei. One locality in the upper Emsian (Polygnathus serotinus Conodont Zone) Le Fret Formation, on the northern coast of the Crozon Peninsula, has yielded operculate coral specimens described here as ?Chakeola sp., the first (tentative) record of the genus outside eastern Australia, south China and Vietnam. The operculate coral Calceola collini sp. nov. is described from six localities in the early Middle Devonian (Eifelian: Polygnathus costatus Conodont Zone) Saint-Fiacre Formation of the Plougastel and Crozon Peninsulas (Central Armorican Domain), despite the fact that knowledge of the internal characters, especially of the operculum, of the type species Calceola sandalina is very limited. From an extensive review of published references to Calceola from France, we conclude that only the record of Collin (1929) is valid