Rewetting does not return drained fen peatlands to their old selves.

Peatlands have been drained for land use for a long time and on a large scale, turning them from carbon and nutrient sinks into respective sources, diminishing water regulation capacity, causing surface height loss and destroying biodiversity. Over the last decades, drained peatlands have been rewetted for biodiversity restoration and, as it strongly decreases greenhouse gas emissions, also for climate protection. We quantify restoration success by comparing 320 rewetted fen peatland sites to 243 near-natural peatland sites of similar origin across temperate Europe, all set into perspective by 10k additional European fen vegetation plots. Results imply that rewetting of drained fen peatlands induces the establishment of tall, graminoid wetland plants (helophytisation) and long-lasting differences to pre-drainage biodiversity (vegetation), ecosystem functioning (geochemistry, hydrology), and land cover characteristics (spectral temporal metrics). The Paris Agreement entails the rewetting of 500,000 km2 of drained peatlands worldwide until 2050-2070. A better understanding of the resulting locally novel ecosystems is required to improve planning and implementation of peatland rewetting and subsequent management.

[Treatment of carbon monoxide poisoning in Germany : A retrospective single center analysis]. / Behandlung von Kohlenmonoxidvergiftungen in Deutschland : Eine retrospektive Single-Center-Analyse.

BACKGROUND: The symptoms of acute carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning are unspecific, ranging from headaches to unconsciousness and death. In addition to acute symptoms, delayed severe neurological sequelae may occur. While a total of 440 deaths by CO poisoning were registered in Germany in 1999, a total of 594 patients died (0.73 per 100,000 inhabitants) in 2014 and in 2015 the number even increased to 648 deaths. A national database on clinical symptoms, course of illness or quality of care concerning CO poisoning does not yet exist. METHODS: The treatment data of patients admitted to the Hyperbaric Emergency Centre Wiesbaden (HEC) from 2013 to 2017 with CO poisoning formed the basis of the study. This was a comparative evaluation of patient demographics, poisoning sources, symptom spectrum, course of treatment and time intervals registered on the preclinical and clinical levels. RESULTS: From 2013 to 2017 a total of 476 patients (282 men and 194 women) with an average non-invasively measured CO-Hb of 15% (Q0.25 = 7.6%, Q0.75 = 22.3%) were treated with hyperbaric oxygen. Heaters (n = 131), charcoal barbecues (n = 93), fires (n = 90), hookahs (n = 78) and combustion engines (n = 37) were the most frequent CO sources identified. Headaches, vertigo, nausea and syncope were the most prevalent symptoms. A median of 91 min (Q0.25 = 53 min; Q0.75 = 147 min) passed between first medical contact and BGA-validated diagnosis. In total, 151 patients were transferred directly to the HEC, whereas 325 patients were secondarily transferred. The delay in this subgroup took 183 min (median Q0.25 = 138 min; Q0.75 = 248 min). After receiving the first hyperbaric treatment, 80% were free of symptoms. Remaining symptoms included headache (10%), fatigue (8%), vertigo (5%) and nausea (3%) and 45 patients terminated further treatment. Of the patients 417 received a second hyperbaric treatment and 370 patients were treated 3 times. After the third treatment, 89% were free of symptoms and 5% still reported headaches, 3% vertigo and 2% fatigue. In total, 6 patients died and 430 patients were symptom-free after treatment. CONCLUSION: Commonly known sources (fire, charcoal grills) aside, many poisonings by smoking a hookah were observed. This study highlights the importance of considering CO poisoning as a differential diagnosis when encountering patients, especially of younger age, with non-specific neurological symptoms, as well as the importance of early initiation of treatment. A direct correlation between CO-Hb values (whether measured noninvasively or by invasive BGA) and the initial symptoms could not be demonstrated. In total, substantial time expired between the diagnosis and start of treatment of patients transported to a primary care hospital compared to those transported directly to the HEC. Although analysis showed adequate treatment with oxygen in the preclinical interval, administration of oxygen during primary hospital stay showed room for improvement. Introducing a national CO poisoning register and uniform treatment guidelines could improve in-house clinical processes. Multicenter studies are needed to close the gaps identified in the quality of care in Germany.

Plasmonic Purcell effect reveals obliquely ordered phosphorescent emitters in Organic LEDs.

The non-isotropic alignment of molecules can increase the interaction efficiency with propagating light fields. This applies to both emissive and absorptive systems and can be exploited for achieving unprecedented efficiencies of organic opto-electronic devices such as organic light-emitting diodes. Optical analysis has revealed certain phosphorescent emitters to align spontaneously in an advantageous orientation. Unfortunately, established approaches only determine an average orientation because emission patterns solely depend on the second moments of the transition dipole vector distribution. In order to resolve further details of such a distribution, additional differences in the emission characteristics of parallel and perpendicularly oriented emitters need to be introduced. A thin metal layer near the emitters introduces plasmon mediated losses mostly for perpendicular emitters. Then, analyzing the emission at different polarizations allows one to measure emission lifetimes of mostly parallel or mostly perpendicular oriented emitters. This should alter the transient emission when observing the temporal phosphorescence decay under different directions and/or polarizations. The angular width of the orientation distribution can be derived from the degree of such lifetime splitting. Our results suggest a narrow but obliquely oriented molecular ensemble of Ir(MDQ)2(acac) doped into the α-NPD host inside an Organic LED stack.

Incidence of type 1 diabetes in childhood before and after the reunification of Germany--an analysis of epidemiological data, 1960-2006.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of rapidly changing environmental factors on the incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D). METHOD: We compared the frequency of T1D in children before and after the reunification of Germany by means of the registries of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, 1960-1989) and of Baden-Wuerttemberg (BW, 1987-2006). The number of cases of diabetes onset in East Germany after the reunification was predicted by a mathematical model. The observed incidence rate in the Eastern part of Germany after the reunification was taken from the literature 1. RESULTS: In Germany, the incidence rate of T1D in children aged 0-14 was 7.2/100 000/year (95%-CI 6.9-7.5, GDR, 1980-1987), and 10.4/100 000/year (95%-CI 9.5-11.4, BW, 1987-1994). For the whole observation period (1960-2006), the observed incidence rates y could be described by the square of a linear function [GDR: y=(1.86 + 0.040 * (year - 1960))²; r²=0.85; BW: y=(3.03 + 0.085 * (year - 1987))², r²=0.89]. The mean rise in incidence before the reunification was less than half the mean rise after the reunification (mean slope: BW 0.085, 95%-CI 0.080-0.090 vs. GDR 0.040, 95% CI 0.036-0.044). The observed incidence for East Germany after 1989 was higher than the prediction on the basis of the GDR -registry (GDR 12.3/100 000/year vs. Saxony 15.7/100 000/year, 95%-CI 14.2-17.3, n=412; 1999-2003). CONCLUSION: We conclude that the basis for the disease progress is a genetic predisposition. Environmental factors may modify changes in incidence of type 1 diabetes but do not determine the overall risk.

Multilevel blazed gratings in resonance domain: an alternative to the classical fabrication approach.

In this paper we present a novel technological approach for the fabrication of multilevel gratings in the resonance domain. A coded chromium mask is used to avoid alignment errors in electron beam lithography, which typically occur within the standard multistep binary micro-optics technology. The lateral features of all phase levels of the grating are encoded in a single chromium mask. The final profile of the structure is obtained by selective etching process for each level. This new technological method is applied for the fabrication of two different three-level gratings in resonance domain. The corresponding optical response as well as structural characterizations are presented and discussed. In particular, a first order diffraction efficiency of 90% is demonstrated for a grating period twice the wavelength at normal incidence.

Cartesian oval representation of freeform optics in illumination systems.

The geometrical method for constructing optical surfaces for illumination purpose developed by Oliker and co-workers [Trends in Nonlinear Analysis (Springer, 2003)] is generalized in order to obtain freeform designs in arbitrary optical systems. The freeform is created by a set of primitive surface elements, which are generalized Cartesian ovals adapted to the given optical system. Those primitives are determined by Hamiltonian theory of ray optics. The potential of this approach is demonstrated by some examples, e.g., freeform lenses with collimating front elements.

Modulational instability in systems with integrating nonlinearity.

A new type of modulational instability for coherent as well as partially coherent light in systems with integrating nonlinearity caused by an irreversible process is investigated both experimentally and theoretically. In such systems plane waves never reach the stationary limit and exhibit a nontrivial time dependence resulting in new features of the modulational instability. For example, the modulational frequency of the nonexponentially increasing perturbation with maximum gain decreases while the wave is propagating. The threshold for vanishing modulational instability due to a finite degree of spatial coherence depends only on system parameters and not on the light intensity.

Ising-Bloch transition for the parametric Ginzburg-Landau equation with rapidly varying perturbations.

We study the effects of rapid periodic and stochastic modulations of parameters in systems described by the complex parametric Ginzburg-Landau equation. Amplitude equations, which govern the dynamics of the field averaged over the rapid modulations, are derived. For temporal modulations of the linear detuning the threshold for the transition from Ising to Bloch walls is shifted depending on the strength of the perturbation. In contrast to this, rapid perturbations of the linear gain lead only to a decrease of the amplitude of both wall types leaving the bifurcation point of the Ising-Bloch transition unchanged. Stochastic perturbations of the detuning lead to a Brownian motion of the Bloch wall beyond bifurcation where the velocity is given analytically. All theoretical predictions are confirmed by numerical simulations of the full stochastic Ginzburg-Landau equation.

Stable spatial solitons in semiconductor optical amplifiers.

The existence of stable dissipative spatial solitons at low intensities in patterned electrode semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) is predicted theoretically. In contrast to conventional SOAs, this system may support stable solitons because the inherent saturating losses provide subcritical bifurcations for both the plane-wave and the soliton solution.

Reciprocity theorem and perturbation theory for photonic crystal waveguides.

Starting from Maxwell's equations we derive a reciprocity theorem for photonic crystal waveguides. A set of strongly coupled discrete equations results, which can be applied to the simulation of perturbed photonic crystal waveguides. As an example we analytically study the influence of the dispersion of a two level system on the band structure of a photonic crystal waveguide. In particular, the formation of polariton gaps is discussed.

Perturbation theory for domain walls in the parametric Ginzburg-Landau equation.

We demonstrate that in the parametrically driven Ginzburg-Landau equation arbitrarily small nongradient corrections lead to qualitative differences in the dynamical properties of domain walls in the vicinity of the transition from rest to motion. These differences originate from singular rotation of the eigenvector governing the transition. We present analytical results on the stability of Ising walls, deriving explicit expressions for the critical eigenvalue responsible for the transition from rest to motion. We then develop a weakly nonlinear theory to characterize the singular character of the transition and analyze the dynamical effects of spatial inhomogeneities.

Effects of spatial inhomogeneities on the dynamics of cavity solitons in quadratically nonlinear media.

We study the dynamics of cavity solitons under the influence of spatial inhomogeneities and derive generalized equations of motions. For perturbations large compared to the soliton size we find the modulus of the soliton velocity to be proportional to the gradient of the respective perturbation and that the proportionality coefficient changes sign when the soliton peak power drives the cavity beyond the resonance. For short scale perturbations solitons may be trapped at the extrema of the inhomogeneities. Shape and stability of these trapped solitons can be quasianalytically described by means of a perturbation theory. If both types of perturbations act solitons are either trapped or move depending on the strength of the respective perturbation. In the framework of a quasiparticle approach this dynamics is governed by a differential equation that holds for particle motion in a strongly viscous fluid under the action of a constant and harmonically varying force. We also show that in addition to acquiring a velocity the very existence conditions of the solitons (hysteresis curve) are affected by both kinds of perturbations. We find good quantitative agreement between our analytical results and numerical findings, which were obtained for a two wave interaction in a cavity filled with a quadratically nonlinear material.

SIM--simultaneous inverse filtering and matching of a glottal flow model for acoustic speech signals.

A new method "simultaneous inverse filtering and model matching" (SIM) is proposed that allows one to calculate voice source measures without any user interaction. It is based on the discrete all-pole modeling (DAP) technique for inverse filtering (IF), which is modified to include a model of the glottal flow as integral part [LF model, Fant et al., STL-QPSR (Stockholm) 4/1985, 1-13 (1986)]. As the correct LF parameters are initially unknown, they are estimated in an iterative procedure using multi-dimensional optimization techniques that are initialized according to the results of an exhaustive search. The error criteria applied reflect how well the IF is performed after the spectral contribution of the glottal flow has been removed. The resulting optimal LF parameter constellation serves as the basis to calculate 11 voice source measures. The performance was evaluated using synthesized signals and recordings of natural utterances. For the synthesized signals, the accuracy to reproduce the original parameters was high (correlations exceeding 0.88) for measures where the starting point of the glottal cycle did not enter explicitly. Errors were smaller compared to conventional estimation methods where the measures were estimated from the IF signal. The analysis of natural utterances indicates that problems still exist with regard to robustness, but that under advantageous conditions the open quotient, the speed quotient, the closing quotient, the parabolic spectral parameter, and the negative peak amplitude of the glottal flow derivative can indeed be determined automatically by the SIM method.

Universal criterion and amplitude equation for a nonequilibrium Ising-Bloch transition.

We identify a universal criterion for the onset of a nonequilibrium Ising-Bloch (NIB) transition, and describe the behavior near the bifurcation by a generic amplitude equation. We found that a NIB transition is caused by an antisymmetric eigenvector passing the translational mode of the system at a critical point. In this context we discuss Hamiltonian and dissipative systems. We report on a NIB in nonlinear optics, manifesting itself in a transition from static to moving polarization fronts.

Acoustic voice analysis by means of the hoarseness diagram.

The hoarseness diagram (Michaelis, Fröhlich, & Strube, 1998a) has been proposed as a new approach to describe different acoustic properties of voices. To test its performance in the analysis of pathologically disturbed and normal voices five requirements are suggested that should be met by any acoustic voice-analysis protocol to be used in voice research and clinical practice. The hoarseness diagram is then tested with regard to these requirements. Individual voices are found to show a satisfactory localization in the diagram. Aspects of stationarity are discussed in the context of four case studies. The different cases illustrate that changes in the acoustic analysis results are observed if the voice-generation conditions change, whereas results are stationary if phonation conditions do not change. Different pathological voice groups defined on grounds of the specific phonation mechanism are found to map to specific regions of the hoarseness diagram, with differences between group locations being significant. All results can be interpreted without exceptions if the two hoarseness diagram coordinates are taken to reflect the vibrational irregularity of the voice-generation mechanisms on the one side and the degree of closure of the vibrating structures on the other side. The hoarseness diagram and its underlying algorithms are thus shown to constitute a useful approach to acoustic voice analysis in research and clinical practice. The tests themselves demonstrate several application possibilities, including the quantitative monitoring of individual voices.

[Objective description of voice quality using the hoarseness diagram]. / Objektive Beschreibung der Stimmgüte unter Verwendung des Heiserkeits-Diagramms.

The need for an objective assessment of voice quality can be seen in the increasing use of acoustic analysis methods for clinical diagnosis and research. The hoarseness diagram allows clinicians to objectively describe even highly disturbed or aphonic votes. Its application possibilities are illustrated in three case studies in which changes in voice quality were monitored during voice rehabilitation. The distributions of voice groups that were defined on the basis of specific pathophysiological phonation conditions were then compared for their acoustic differences. The groups comprised various phonation conditions after the resection of laryngeal tumors and different types of laryngeal paralyses. Interpretation of the results suggests a direct correspondence of the hoarseness diagram coordinates and the irregularity of vibration on the one side and the degree of glottal closure on the other. This illustrates the potential usefulness of the hoarseness diagram in a clinical context.

Selection and combination of acoustic features for the description of pathologic voices.

The glottal to noise excitation ratio (GNE) is an acoustic measure designed to assess the amount of noise in a pulse train generated by the oscillation of the vocal folds. So far its properties have only been studied for synthesized signals, where it was found to be independent of variations of fundamental frequency (jitter) and amplitude (shimmer). On the other hand, other features designed for the same purpose like NNE (normalized noise energy) or CHNR (cepstrum based harmonics-to-noise ratio) did not show this independence. This advantage of the GNE over NNE and CHNR, as well as its general applicability in voice quality assessment, is now tested for real speech using a large group of pathologic voices (n = 447). A set of four acoustic features is extracted from a total of 22 mostly well-known acoustic voice quality measures by correlation analysis, mutual information analysis, and principal components analysis. Three of these measures are chosen to assess primarily different aspects of signal aperiodicity, while the fourth one indicates the noise content of the signal. All analysis methods lead to the same feature set that consists of a measure of period correlation, jitter, shimmer, and GNE. The two-dimensional projection of this set named "hoarseness diagram" allows a graphical illustration of voice quality that can be easily interpreted.

Incoherent switching between multistable cavity solitons in a semiconductor optical resonator.

We demonstrate numerically a two-dimensional threefold storage scheme based on different types of solitary waves in the transmitted field of a semiconductor planar resonator. Switching between among different solitary waves can be achieved by use of a weak incoherent switching beam.

Oscillating dark cavity solitons.

We show that oscillating dark solitons exist on a stable continuous plane-wave background in a cavity with a saturable defocusing nonlinearity. These oscillations can be attributed to a linear internal mode of the soliton with a complex eigenvalue emerging above a definite input field intensity. Using a simple analytical model, we find that the self-oscillations appear as a consequence of an interaction between the center of the soliton and the surrounding ring.

Co-expression of ICAM-1, VCAM-1, ELAM-1 and Hsp60 in human arterial and venous endothelial cells in response to cytokines and oxidized low-density lipoproteins.

T-cells and monocytes are the first cells infiltrating the arterial intima during the early stages of atherogenesis. Recently our laboratory has provided evidence that T-cells isolated from atherosclerotic intima reacts against heat shock protein 60 (Hsp60). Transmigration of activated T-cells into the intima is mediated by adhesion molecules (ICAM-1; VCAM-1; ELAM-1) expressed on activated endothelial cells. Here we studied the potential of cytokines (TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma, IL-1). Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS), native and oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL; oxLDL) and high temperature to induce adhesion molecules as well as Hsp60 and Hsp70 expression in human endothelial cells (EC). On Northern blots, a strong signal for ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and ELAM-1 was detected after 4 h, which thereafter declined, but did not reach the basal level of untreated control cells. Heat shock induced the expression of Hsp60 and Hsp70 but not of adhesion molecules. EC were cultivated in serum-free medium, which led to the expression of adhesion molecule transcripts. Addition of LDL or oxLDL to these ECs did not alter the expression of these transcripts. The production of adhesion molecule proteins was analysed by flow cytometry. In human venous endothelial cells (HVEC) and human arterial endothelial cells (HAEC) ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 production was permanently highly induced, whereas the high level of ELAM-1 production at 4 h disappeared after 24 h. Furthermore, only HAEC, but not HVEC, produced ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and ELAM-1 after stress by moderately and highly oxLDL. LDL and oxLDL did not induce the production of Hsp60 and Hsp70. The present study demonstrates the co-expression of Hsp60 and adhesion molecules in arterial and venous EC in response to cytokine and LPS exposure, and that oxLDL is an efficient inducer of adhesion molecules in arterial EC and not in venous EC. These features provide the prerequisites for a cellular immune reaction against Hsp60 expressed by stressed EC in the initial stages of atherosclerosis.