The role of antibiotics in the treatment of chronic prostatitis: A consensus statement

Practical guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic prostatitis are presented. Chronic prostatitis is classified as chronic bacterial prostatitis (culture-positive) and chronic inflammatory prostatitis (culture-negative). If chronic bacterial prostatitis is suspected, based on relevant symptoms or recurrent UTIs, underlying urological conditions should be excluded by the following tests: rectal examination, midstream urine culture and residual urine. The diagnosis should be confirmed by the Meares and Stamey technique. Antibiotic therapy is recommended for acute exacerbations of chronic prostatitis, chronic bacterial prostatitis and chronic inflammatory prostatitis, if there is clinical, bacteriological or supporting immunological evidence of prostate infection. Unless a patient presents with fever, antibiotic treatment should not be initiated immediately except in cases of acute prostatitis or acute episodes in a patient with chronic bacterial prostatitis. The work-up, with the appropriate investigations should be done first, within a reasonable time period which, preferably, should not be longer than 1 week. During this period, nonspecific treatment, such as appropriate analgesia to relieve symptoms, should be given. The minimum duration of antibiotic treatment should be 2-4 weeks. If there is no improvement in symptoms, treatment should be stopped and reconsidered. However, if there is improvement, it should be continued for at least a further 2-4 weeks to achieve clinical cure and, hopefully, eradication of the causative pathogen. Antibiotic treatment should not be given for 6-8 weeks without an appraisal of its effectiveness. Currently used antibiotics are reviewed. Of these, the fluoroquinolones ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin are recommended because of their favourable antibacterial spectrum and pharmacokinetic profile. A number of clinical trials are recommended and a standard study design is proposed to help resolve some outstanding issues

Exact thermodynamic Casimir forces for an interacting three-dimensional model system in film geometry with free surfaces

The limit n to infinity of the classical O(n) phi^4 model on a 3d film with free surfaces is studied. Its exact solution involves a self-consistent 1d Schr\"odinger equation, which is solved numerically for a partially discretized as well as for a fully discrete lattice model. Numerically exact results are obtained for the scaled Casimir force at all temperatures. Obtained via a single framework, they exhibit all relevant qualitative features of the thermodynamic Casimir force known from wetting experiments on Helium-4 and Monte Carlo simulations, including a pronounced minimum below the bulk critical point.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Nutrient-Dense Orange-Fleshed Sweetpotato: Advances in Drought-Tolerance Breeding and Understanding of Management Practices for Sustainable Next-Generation Cropping Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa

Almost half of children < 5 years old living in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) suffer from vitamin A deficiency and 60% suffer from iron deficiency. Thus, there has been a strong commitment to breeding for, promoting awareness of, and delivering adapted pro-vitamin A rich orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) in SSA during the past two decades and for enhanced iron content since 2014. This review article focuses on major breeding efforts in SSA to enhance the drought tolerance of OFSP and reviews integrated crop management practices for improved and sustained sweetpotato production in SSA farming systems. Under climate change, the frequency and severity of droughts is expected to increase. Technical issues are presented in the context of addressing challenges along the entire value chain to ensure adoption. First, the use of an accelerated breeding scheme reduced the breeding cycle from 8–10 to 4–5 years. Since 2010, 19 drought-tolerant OFSP cultivars have been released in Mozambique, 7 in Malawi, and 2 in South Africa. Moreover, research in four breeding populations using the heterosis exploiting breeding scheme (HEBS) demonstrated that within one breeding cycle of 5 years, clones with significantly higher root yield, abiotic tolerance, host plant resistance to pests and diseases, and early maturity can be produced. In the future, HEBS will be combined with greater use of modern genomic tools, new phenotyping tools, and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing. Second, beyond genetic enhancements, evidence is presented that using improved crop management systems, existing sweet potato yields can be increased 2–4 times. Current knowledge is reviewed concerning sweetpotato’s role in diverse farming systems, but integrated crop management is clearly under researched. Third, the outlook for drought tolerance breeding indicates that two distinct classes of nutrient-rich cultivars are emerging: (1) Early maturing cultivars (< 4 month growing period) that escape drought but also serve humid environments with small landholding size per capita; and (2) Medium maturing (4–6 month growing period) cultivars that avoid drought, are drought tolerant and exhibit continuous root formation. Increasing commercialization of the crop and climate change will drive demand, and the willingness of farmers to invest in improved sweetpotato crop management

Universal finite-size scaling analysis of Ising models with long-range interactions at the upper critical dimensionality: Isotropic case

We investigate a two-dimensional Ising model with long-range interactions that emerge from a generalization of the magnetic dipolar interaction in spin systems with in-plane spin orientation. This interaction is, in general, anisotropic whereby in the present work we focus on the isotropic case for which the model is found to be at its upper critical dimensionality. To investigate the critical behavior the temperature and field dependence of several quantities are studied by means of Monte Carlo simulations. On the basis of the Privman-Fisher hypothesis and results of the renormalization group the numerical data are analyzed in the framework of a finite-size scaling analysis and compared to finite-size scaling functions derived from a Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson model in zero mode (mean-field) approximation. The obtained excellent agreement suggests that at least in the present case the concept of universal finite-size scaling functions can be extended to the upper critical dimensionality.Comment: revtex4, 10 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Thermodynamic Casimir effects involving interacting field theories with zero modes

Systems with an O(n) symmetrical Hamiltonian are considered in a $d$-dimensional slab geometry of macroscopic lateral extension and finite thickness $L$ that undergo a continuous bulk phase transition in the limit $L\to\infty$. The effective forces induced by thermal fluctuations at and above the bulk critical temperature $T_{c,\infty}$ (thermodynamic Casimir effect) are investigated below the upper critical dimension $d^*=4$ by means of field-theoretic renormalization group methods for the case of periodic and special-special boundary conditions, where the latter correspond to the critical enhancement of the surface interactions on both boundary planes. As shown previously [\textit{Europhys. Lett.} \textbf{75}, 241 (2006)], the zero modes that are present in Landau theory at $T_{c,\infty}$ make conventional RG-improved perturbation theory in $4-\epsilon$ dimensions ill-defined. The revised expansion introduced there is utilized to compute the scaling functions of the excess free energy and the Casimir force for temperatures T\geqT_{c,\infty} as functions of $\mathsf{L}\equiv L/\xi_\infty$, where $\xi_\infty$ is the bulk correlation length. Scaling functions of the $L$-dependent residual free energy per area are obtained whose $\mathsf{L}\to0$ limits are in conformity with previous results for the Casimir amplitudes $\Delta_C$ to $O(\epsilon^{3/2})$ and display a more reasonable small-$\mathsf{L}$ behavior inasmuch as they approach the critical value $\Delta_C$ monotonically as $\mathsf{L}\to 0$.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

Excess free energy and Casimir forces in systems with long-range interactions of van-der-Waals type: General considerations and exact spherical-model results

We consider systems confined to a $d$-dimensional slab of macroscopic lateral extension and finite thickness $L$ that undergo a continuous bulk phase transition in the limit $L\to\infty$ and are describable by an O(n) symmetrical Hamiltonian. Periodic boundary conditions are applied across the slab. We study the effects of long-range pair interactions whose potential decays as $b x^{-(d+\sigma)}$ as $x\to\infty$, with $2<\sigma<4$ and $2<d+\sigma\leq 6$, on the Casimir effect at and near the bulk critical temperature $T_{c,\infty}$, for $2<d<4$. For the scaled reduced Casimir force per unit cross-sectional area, we obtain the form L^{d} {\mathcal F}_C/k_BT \approx \Xi_0(L/\xi_\infty) + g_\omega L^{-\omega}\Xi\omega(L/\xi_\infty) + g_\sigma L^{-\omega_\sigm a} \Xi_\sigma(L \xi_\infty). The contribution $\propto g_\sigma$ decays for $T\neq T_{c,\infty}$ algebraically in $L$ rather than exponentially, and hence becomes dominant in an appropriate regime of temperatures and $L$. We derive exact results for spherical and Gaussian models which confirm these findings. In the case $d+\sigma =6$, which includes that of nonretarded van-der-Waals interactions in $d=3$ dimensions, the power laws of the corrections to scaling $\propto b$ of the spherical model are found to get modified by logarithms. Using general RG ideas, we show that these logarithmic singularities originate from the degeneracy $\omega=\omega_\sigma=4-d$ that occurs for the spherical model when $d+\sigma=6$, in conjunction with the $b$ dependence of $g_\omega$.Comment: 28 RevTeX pages, 12 eps figures, submitted to PR

Bodenzustandserhebungen: Wie beeinflussen Standort und Nutzung den Kohlenstoffvorrat in Wald- und Agrarböden?

Die Thünen-Institute für für Waldökosysteme und für Agrarklimaschutz koordinieren die bundesweiten Bodenzustandserhebungen (BZE) in Wald- und Agrarböden. Die BZE haben unterschiedliche Ausgangsbedingungen, jedoch das gemeinsame Ziel, aktuellen Zustand und Änderungen der Bodenkohlenstoffvorräte an rund 5000 Probenahmepunkten zu erfassen. Ergebnisse zum Einfluss von Klima, Nutzung und Bodenmanagement dienen zum einen der Entwicklung zu einer nachhaltigen Bodennutzung und zum anderen der Verbesserung der Emissionsberichterstattung nach UN-Klimarahmenkonvention und EU-Regelungen.Nach aktuellem Stand der qualitätsgesicherten Datenbanken beider BZE sollen Bodenkohlenstoffvorräte verschiedener Bodennutzungsarten (Nadelwald, Laubwald, Mischwald, Acker, Dauergrünland, Grünland-Wechselwirtschaft) für mineralische und organische Ober- sowie Unterböden ausgewertet und die Ergebnisse entsprechend präsentiert werden. Ferner soll eine mögliche Stratifizierung der Ergebnisse nach Bodentypen und Bodenklimaräumen geprüft werden. Ziel hierbei ist es, räumliche Datencluster zu bilden, die stabile Ergebnisse zu Zwecken der Berichterstattung und Entscheidungsfindung liefern und gleichzeitig repräsentativ bleiben

Casimir force in O(n) lattice models with a diffuse interface

On the example of the spherical model we study, as a function of the temperature $T$, the behavior of the Casimir force in O(n) systems with a diffuse interface and slab geometry $\infty^{d-1}\times L$, where $2<d<4$ is the dimensionality of the system. We consider a system with nearest-neighbor anisotropic interaction constants $J_\parallel$ parallel to the film and $J_\perp$ across it. The model represents the $n\to\infty$ limit of O(n) models with antiperiodic boundary conditions applied across the finite dimension $L$ of the film. We observe that the Casimir amplitude $\Delta_{\rm Casimir}(d|J_\perp,J_\parallel)$ of the anisotropic $d$-dimensional system is related to that one of the isotropic system $\Delta_{\rm Casimir}(d)$ via $\Delta_{\rm Casimir}(d|J_\perp,J_\parallel)=(J_\perp/J_\parallel)^{(d-1)/2} \Delta_{\rm Casimir}(d)$. For $d=3$ we find the exact Casimir amplitude $\Delta_{\rm Casimir}= [ {\rm Cl}_2 (\pi/3)/3-\zeta (3)/(6 \pi)](J_\perp/J_\parallel)$, as well as the exact scaling functions of the Casimir force and of the helicity modulus $\Upsilon(T,L)$. We obtain that $\beta_c\Upsilon(T_c,L)=(2/\pi^{2}) [{\rm Cl}_2(\pi/3)/3+7\zeta(3)/(30\pi)] (J_\perp/J_\parallel)L^{-1}$, where $T_c$ is the critical temperature of the bulk system. We find that the effect of the helicity is thus strong that the Casimir force is repulsive in the whole temperature region.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

Critical Casimir forces and adsorption profiles in the presence of a chemically structured substrate

Motivated by recent experiments with confined binary liquid mixtures near demixing, we study the universal critical properties of a system, which belongs to the Ising universality class, in the film geometry. We employ periodic boundary conditions in the two lateral directions and fixed boundary conditions on the two confining surfaces, such that one of them has a spatially homogeneous adsorption preference while the other one exhibits a laterally alternating adsorption preference, resembling locally a single chemical step. By means of Monte Carlo simulations of an improved Hamiltonian, so that the leading scaling corrections are suppressed, numerical integration, and finite-size scaling analysis we determine the critical Casimir force and its universal scaling function for various values of the aspect ratio of the film. In the limit of a vanishing aspect ratio the critical Casimir force of this system reduces to the mean value of the critical Casimir force for laterally homogeneous ++ and +- boundary conditions, corresponding to the surface spins on the two surfaces being fixed to equal and opposite values, respectively. We show that the universal scaling function of the critical Casimir force for small but finite aspect ratios displays a linear dependence on the aspect ratio which is solely due to the presence of the lateral inhomogeneity. We also analyze the order-parameter profiles at criticality and their universal scaling function which allows us to probe theoretical predictions and to compare with experimental data.Comment: revised version, section 5.2 expanded; 53 pages, 12 figures, iopart clas