Non-Flat Power Spectra in the CDM Model

Standard inflation with one scalar field produces primordial perturbations with a nearly flat ('Harrison-Zeldovich') power spectrum. Here we consider first, a double inflation spectrum, and second, a massive scalar field with an interaction potential which mimics an early quartic interaction, but fading away at a characteristic scale. We solve numerically the linear perturbation equations with initial conditions due to scalar field quantum fluctuations at the initial horizon crossing. The resulting power spectra are shown to be non-flat, exhibiting either a break or a valley. Using the transfer function of cold dark matter model we study the influence of the shape of primordial power spectra on observations of large scale structure in the universe. We compare the power spectra in redshift space with reconstructed power spectra from the IRAS catalogue. Further we discuss the variances of galaxy counts in cells, and the mass function of galaxy clusters. Comparison with standard CDM demonstrates the advantages and benefits of the more complicated initial spectra.Comment: gzip-compressed postscript file including figure

Smart Textiles Production

The research field of smart textiles is currently witnessing a rapidly growing number of applications integrating intelligent functions in textile substrates. With an increasing amount of new developed product prototypes, the number of materials used and that of specially designed production technologies are also growing. This book is intended to provide an overview of materials, production technologies, and product concepts to different groups concerned with smart textiles. It will help designers to understand the possibilities of smart textile production, so that they are enabled to design this type of products. It will also help textile and electronics manufacturers to understand which production technologies are suitable to meet certain product requirements

Smoking and γ-Glutamyltransferase: Opposite Interactions with Alcohol Consumption and Body Mass Index

BACKGROUND: Smoking has recently been suggested to synergistically interact with alcohol intake as a determinant of serum gamma-glutamyltransferase (γ-GT), an emergent powerful predictor of disease and mortality. This study investigated whether this also applies to higher smoking and alcohol exposure ranges and to body mass index (BMI), which likewise is strongly associated with γ-GT. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Analyses were based on occupational health examinations of more than 15,000 German male workers aged 16-64 years, predominantly from the construction industry. Sociodemographics and other health-related information were collected during the exam. Joint associations of smoking and alcohol consumption or BMI with elevated or log-transformed γ-GT were examined by tabulation and multiple adjusted regression models. Cigarette smoking exerted no effect on γ-GT in teetotalers, but there was a statistically significant effect of smoking among participants with higher alcohol consumption intensity, odds of elevated γ-GT being increased by 24% and 27% per additional 10 cigarettes smoked per day in subjects drinking 61-90 and >90 gram alcohol per day, respectively (P for interaction = 0.039). The interaction was opposite for BMI, where no association was seen in obese subjects, whereas odds of elevated γ-GT were increased by 24% per 10 cigarettes below 25 kg/m(2) (P for interaction = 0.040). This novel interaction was replicable in an independent cohort. CONCLUSION: The evidence for opposite interactions of smoking with alcohol and BMI as determinants of serum γ-GT suggests that different physiological pathways are responsible for the associations between these factors

Therapists' interventions in different psychotherapy approaches: category and temporal aspects

This study describes and compares the in-session interventional behaviour of therapists who were clearly affiliated with five different types of psychotherapy: psychoanalysis, Gestalt, transactional analysis, bioenergetic analysis and systemic therapy. To determine the relative occurrence of elements specific to therapists’ own, specific to other or common to all types of psychotherapy under investigation, audio-recorded psychotherapy sessions were analysed. A second aim was to investigate if the duration of interactional units were related to certain types of intervention, hypothesizing that longer durations of intervals between therapeutic interventions might indicate higher complexities of processing in patients. Time-lined verbatim transcripts of 11 therapists’ verbal interventions from 137 (complete) psychotherapy sessions with 41 patients were coded according to a specially developed multi-method rating manual with 100 different intervention categories. Therapists used a fairly wide spectrum of different interventions, i.e., they worked eclectically. On average they used rather few techniques from their own type of psychotherapy (9.9%), about twice as many from other types of psychotherapy (18.9%), and mostly non-specific, common techniques (67.3%). Certain types of interventions were indeed followed by time intervals whose duration significantly exceeded that of others. More than two-thirds of psychotherapists’ interventions – under naturalistic conditions – were common techniques. About 30% of the interventions, however, were techniques specific to different types of psychotherapy. Among these, we found some interventions to engage patients in activities of a longer duration, which may indicate higher complexities of processing

Praxisnahe und effiziente ERP-Ausbildung im studentischen Projekt PROBAS

Mit dieser Arbeit werden Möglichkeiten aufgezeigt, eine universitäre Lehrveranstaltung so zu gestalten, dass sie einen hohen didaktischen, fachlichen und praktischen Anspruch erhält und den teilnehmenden Studenten mehr als nur ERP-spezifisches Fachwissen vermittelt. Um diesem Anspruch gerecht zu werden, wird die Lehrveranstaltung PROBAS an der TU Ilmenau als die universitäre Lehre ergänzendes SAP-Projekt organisiert. Der Beitrag zeigt auf, wie diese ERP-Ausbildung effizient aufgebaut, gemanagt und das Projektmanagement laufend verbessert wird, um kommenden Herausforderungen in der WI-Lehre zu begegnen. Es werden innovative Lehrkonzepte und fachliche Lehrinhalte an erfolgreichen, praktischen Beispielen vorgestellt, die sich im Zusammenhang mit einer universitären Ausbildung im ERP-Bereich über Jahre bewährt haben

Medium Modifcations of Mesons in Elementary Reactions and Heavy-Ion Collisions

Experimental searches for modifications of vector mesons in the nuclear medium are reviewed. Data on $\rho,\omega$ and $\Phi$ mesons are presented. The results have been obtained in elementary reactions with proton and photon beams as well as in heavy-ion collisions. Compared to the free particle properties, the $\omega$ and $\Phi$ meson are found to drop in mass at normal nuclear matter density by 9-14% and 3.5% whereas their widths are reported to increase by factors of about 16 and 3.6, respectively. For the $\rho$ meson, conflicting results on in-medium mass shifts and broadening have been published. The experimental data are compared to recent model calculations.Comment: Erice 2007 Proceeding