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Coffee pulp, obtained from wet coffee processing, is the major by-product accumulating in the coffee producing countries. One of the many approaches valorising this underestimated agricultural residue is the production of distillates. This research project deals with the production of spirits from coffee pulp using three different Coffea arabica varieties as a substrate. Coffee pulp was fermented for 72 h with a selected yeast strain (Saccharomyces cerevisiae L.), acid, pectin lyase, and water. Several parameters, such as temperature, pH, sugar concentration and alcoholic strength were measured to monitor the fermentation process. Subsequently, the alcoholic mashes were double distilled with stainless steel pot stills and a sensory evaluation of the products was conducted. Furthermore, the chemical composition of fermented mashes and produced distillates were evaluated. It showed that elevated methanol concentrations (>1.3 g/L) were present in mashes and products of all three varieties. The sensory evaluation found the major aroma descriptor for the coffee pulp spirits as being stone fruit. The fermentation and distillation experiments revealed that coffee pulp can be successfully used as a raw material for the production of fruit spirits. However, the spirit quality and its flavour characteristics can be improved with optimised process parameters and distillation equipment.

Coffee pulp, obtained from wet coffee processing, is the major by-product accumulating in the coffee producing countries. One of the many approaches valorising this underestimated agricultural residue is the production of distillates. This research project deals with the production of spirits from coffee pulp using three different

Coffee leaf tea is prepared as an infusion of dried leaves of Coffea spp. in hot water. It is a traditional beverage in some coffee-producing countries and has been authorized in 2020 within the European Union (EU) according to its novel food regulation. This article reviews current knowledge on the safety of coffee leaf tea. From the various ingredients contained in coffee leaves, only two were highlighted as possibly hazardous to human health, namely, caffeine and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), with maximum limits implemented in EU legislation, which is why this article focuses on these two substances. While the caffeine content is comparable to that of roasted coffee beans and subject to strong fluctuations in relation to the age of the leaves, climate, coffee species, and variety, a maximum of 1–3 cups per day may be recommended. The EGCG content is typically absent or below the intake of 800 mg/day classified as hepatotoxic by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), so this compound is suggested as toxicologically uncritical. Depending on selection and processing (age of the leaves, drying, fermentation, roasting, etc.), coffee leaf tea may exhibit a wide variety of flavors, and its full potential is currently almost unexplored. As a coffee by-product, it is certainly interesting to increase the income of coffee farmers. Our review has shown that coffee leaf tea is not assumed to exhibit risks for the consumer, apart from the well-known risk of caffeine inherent to all coffee-related beverages. This conclusion is corroborated by the history of its safe use in several countries around the world.

The production of coffee leaf tea (Coffea arabica) in El Salvador and the influences of processing steps on non-volatile compounds and volatile aroma-active compounds were investigated. The tea was produced according to the process steps of conventional tea (Camellia sinensis) with the available possibilities on the farm. Influencing factors were the leaf type (old, young, yellow, shoots), processing (blending, cutting, rolling, freezing, steaming), drying (sun drying, oven drying, roasting) and fermentation (wild, yeast, Lactobacillus). Subsequently, the samples were analysed for the maximum levels of caffeine, chlorogenic acid, and epigallocatechin gallate permitted by the European Commission. The caffeine content ranged between 0.37–1.33 g/100 g dry mass (DM), the chlorogenic acid was between not detectable and 9.35 g/100 g DM and epigallocatechin gallate could not be detected at all. Furthermore, water content, essential oil, ash content, total polyphenols, total catechins, organic acids, and trigonelline were determined. Gas chromatography—mass spectrometry—olfactometry and calculation of the odour activity values (OAVs) were carried out to determine the main aroma-active compounds, which are β-ionone (honey-like, OAV 132-927), decanal (citrus-like, floral, OAV 14-301), α-ionone (floral, OAV 30-100), (E,Z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber-like, OAV 18-256), 2,4-nonadienal (melon-like, OAV 2-18), octanal (fruity, OAV 7-23), (E)-2 nonenal (citrus-like, OAV 1-11), hexanal (grassy, OAV 1-10), and 4-heptenal (green, OAV 1-9). The data obtained in this study may help to adjust process parameters directly to consumer preferences and allow coffee farmers to earn an extra income from this by-product.

Communication between providers and users of climate model simulation results still needs to be improved. In the German regional climate modeling project ReKliEs-De a midterm user workshop was conducted to allow the intended users of the project results to assess the preliminary results and to streamline the final project results to their needs. The user feedback highlighted, in particular, the still considerable gap between climate research output and user-tailored input for climate impact research. Two major requests from the user community addressed the selection of sub-ensembles and some condensed, easy to understand information on the strengths and weaknesses of the climate models involved in the project.

Humane Papillomaviren (HPVs) gelten als kausale Ursache bei der Entstehung maligner Tumore. Die vorliegende Untersuchung bewertet die Anwendung der in der Gynakologie als Routineverfahren verwendeten HPV-Abstrichmethode (Digene Cervical Sampler®) im Rahmen der oralen HPV-Diagnostik. Es wird die Methodik des Verfahrens beschrieben, Reliabilitatsbestimmungen und Fehlermoglichkeiten bewertet und die Studienergebnisse mit Ergebnissen der aktuellen Literatur verglichen. Die Digene Cervical Sampler HC2 Hybrid Capture®-Diagnostik (Digene Cervical Sampler® in Kombination mit Hybrid Capture II® Assay) stellt ein zuverlassiges und kostengunstiges Verfahren in der oralen high-risk- und low-risk-HPV-Diagnostik dar.

The complexity and functionality of mobile digital devices is continuously growing. This results in a higher energy consumption of such devices. To counteract this trend, it is mandatory to accomplish software power optimizations based on accurate power consumption models characterized for the processor. This paper presents an environment for automated instruction set characterization based on physical power measurements. The generic design of this characterization system enables an easy portability to other architectures. For an accurate current measurement, a high-performance sampling technique has been established, which can be either clock or energy driven. The performance of those techniques is analyzed, and the advantages over the conventional solution of a series resistor are discussed. During the characterization of different processor platforms, it could be shown that the characterization effort can be reduced from three man-months to two man-weeks.

In this work, we propose and analyze a two-way training system that exploits the fact that most wireless nodes are capable of both transmitting and receiving signals. That is, the underlying channel is by design a two-way channel, even if only one of the nodes has data to communicate. For half-duplex nodes with one antenna at the source node and M antennas at the destination node, we show that a novel training system can double the maximum diversity order of the system. The key departure from existing work is that (a) all resources used to obtain channel information at the source and destination are accounted for, and (b) channel estimates at the source and destination are mismatched and noisy. We further derive the full diversity-multiplexing tradeoff which demonstrates a diversity order gain at almost all multiplexing gains due to information at the source, even when that information is based on noisy estimates and subjected to full resource accounting.

The electrocardiograms of patients with pneumothorax show a variety of changes which can mimic myocardial ischemia. In most of these cases ECG abnormalities return to normal after resolution of the pneumothorax and are not related to any underlying cardiac disease. We describe a case of a 76-year old woman who was admitted because of dyspnea and fatigue. Standard 12-lead ECG revealed ST-segment elevation in V1–V6. Echocardiography showed apical and septal hypocinesia. We started reperfusion therapy considering an acute myocardial infarction. After fibrinolytic therapy we performed a percutaneous coronary intervention. Coronary angiography showed a three-vessel disease. Reopening of the culprit lesion—a 75% stenosis of the left anterior descending artery—was achieved by coronary stenting. But the patient still suffered from dyspnea. The anteroposterior chest X-ray revealed a left-sided pneumothorax. In summary, clinicians should be aware that in patients with pneumothorax ECG changes may not only be attributable to this condition but could also be related to ongoing myocardial infarction.

Location Awareness ist ein aktuelles Forschungsgebiet der Computertechnik und beschaftigt sich mit der Bereitstellung ortsbezogener, datenverarbeitungsgestutzter Dienste. Einleitend werden hier Technologien zur Lokalisierung von Objekten und Datenubertragung speziell fur den Indoor-Bereich vorgestellt und es wird auf aktuelle Forschungsprojekte verwiesen. LOMOT (LOcation based Messaging and Object Tracking), ein am Institut fur Technische Informatik an der Technischen Universitat Graz entwickeltes System, stellt hier ortsbezogene Dienste mit Hilfe der beiden funkgestutzten Ubertragungstechnologien RF (Radio Frequency) Tags und Bluetooth zur Verfugung. Kunftige Applikationsdomanen sind im Bereich flexibler Fertigungszellen sowie im Bereich der Inspektion und Wartung von komplexen industriellen Produktions-anlagen angesiedelt.

One hundred seven yeast strains were screened for their ability to produce a brandy base wine of exceptional sensory quality. Volatile acids, esters and higher alcohols were quantified and the results were interpreted using a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and an average linkage cluster analysis. Significant differences between yeast strains for higher alcohol, fatty acid ester and acetate concentrations were observed. On the basis of their chemical profiles, 16 strains were selected and re-evaluated in larger-scale fermentations and subsequent double distillations. Results show that the yeast lees can have an important effect on the final concentration of higher alcohols and esters in the distillate. Highly elevated levels of ethyl acetate and iso-amyl acetate were found to be undesirable. Elevated levels of all the esters present contributed positively to the overall potential quality of the brandy base product. Too low higher alcohol concentrations were also not desirable. Sensory evaluations showed that, since the panel was composed of representatives of the three largest brandy-producing companies, each company preferred a different yeast strain most suitable for their style of brandy. For these reasons, three strains, B7, LL2 and 20-2, warranted further evaluation on a semi-commercial scale for each of the respective companies. Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology (2000) 24, 431–440.

Echtzeit-KI-Systeme, insbesondere Multi-Agentensysteme, werden zunehmend fur komplexe technische Anwendungen interessant. Dieser Beitrag beschreibt VEX, ein Multi-Agentensystem fur die modellbasierte Echtzeit-Fehlerdiagnose in modularen Produktionssystemen. Die Architektur umfast mehrere Prozes-Agenten sowie je einen Simulations- und einen Benutzer-Agenten. Wir diskutieren die wesentlichsten Systemeigenschaften dieser Echtzeit-KI-Architektur. Als Implementierungsbeispiele zeigen wir den Multi-DSP-Simulatorkern des Simulations-Agenten, das Client-Server-Kommunikationsprotokoll zwischen den Prozes-Agenten und die Benutzeroberflache des Benutzer-agenten.

We describe two patients who were treated with self-expanding metal stent (SEMS) insertion as palliation of malignant oesophageal strictures. Both patients re-presented with dysphagia several months after SEMS insertion due to benign strictures. Initial treatment with balloon dilation and medical management had limited success so both patients had further SEMS inserted across the secondary benign strictures. This provided very good symptomatic relief. Chemotherapy and chemo-radiation in patients with inoperable oesophageal carcinoma are prolonging patient survival. As patients survival lengthens benign complications of SEMS may become an increasing clinical problem.

Background:Data regarding the safety and effectiveness of aromatase inhibitors (AIs) as monotherapy or combined with gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogue in male breast cancer are scarce. Methods: In this retrospective chart review, cases of male breast cancer patients treated with AIs with or without a GnRH analogue were evaluated. Results: Twenty-three men were included into this case series. Aromatase inhibitors in combination with or without a GnRH analogue were given as first-line therapy in 60.9% and as second-line therapy in 39.1% of patients, respectively. All patients had visceral metastases, whereas in five of them bone lesions coexisted. In all cases AIs were tolerated well, and no case of grade 3 and 4 adverse events was reported. A partial response was observed in 26.1% of patients and stable disease in 56.5%. Median overall survival (OS) was 39 months and median progression-free survival (PFS) was 13 months. Regarding OS and PFS, no significant effects of GnRH analogue co-administration or type of AI were noted.Conclusion:Our study shows that AIs with or without GnRH analogues may represent an effective and safe treatment option for hormone-receptor positive, pretreated, metastatic, male breast cancer patients. © 2013 Cancer Research UK. All rights reserved.

Fifty-five liver metastases in 21 patients were treated with interstitial laser photocoagulation (ILP). Tumors were irradiated with a neodymium yttrium aluminum garnet laser via optical fibers passed through 19-gauge needles inserted under ultrasound (US) guidance. Heating of the tumor was evident at real-time US as an expanding and coalescing echogenic zone around the needle tips. After ILP, dynamic computed tomography (CT) showed laser-induced necrosis as a new area of nonenhancement. Necrosis of tumor volume was more than 50% in 82% (45 of 55) of the tumors, and 100% necrosis was achieved in 38% (21 of 55). Metastases smaller than 4 cm in diameter were treated more effectively and required fewer treatment sessions than did those larger than 4 cm. Complications were minor and included severe pain in four cases, persistent pain for up to 10 days in 11 cases, and asymptomatic subcapsular hematoma (four cases) and pleural effusion (six cases) seen with CT. ILP is safe and effective for liver tumor destruction, and US and CT are useful in different aspects of treatment monitoring.

We describe a percutaneous, low power, interstitial method of controlled coagulation of prostatic tissue by laser light which may prove an alternative or adjunct to existing therapy for benign and malignant prostatic disease. One or more 200-600 micron diameter fibres were implanted within the substance of the elderly male beagle prostate (n = 11) through which Neodymium-Yttrium Aluminium Garnet (Nd-YAG) laser energy could be transmitted. Using longer exposures (400-1500s) and lower powers (1-2W) than used in routine endoscopic laser therapy, well defined areas of coagulative necrosis could be created with little tissue charring or damage to the fibre. For an energy dose of 1000J a lesion approximately 1 cm in diameter resulted at 4 days. Ultrasound scanning methods could detect the fibre(s), the area(s) of coagulation and the healed lesions. Treatments were well tolerated. At 6 weeks the treated areas of canine prostate healed by fibrosis surrounding an area of cystic degeneration. Multiple fibre experiments produced larger volume lesions relevant to more extensive cancer or to the coagulation of benign adenomatous hyperplasia causing outflow symptoms. This technique may prove of value for the treatment of moderate benign enlargement of the prostate and for the destruction of small, focal prostatic tumours.

International audience; Cette étude propose une approche systématique de la conception d’une colonne à distiller réactive. Elle a été appliquée avec succès au cas peu étudié des réactions consécutives. L’estérification de l’acide 2 methyl glutarique par le méthanol a été traitée. Les 3 premières étapes de la méthode montrent la faisabilité de la production dans une colonne hybride avec un taux de reflux faible et la nécessité de travailler avec un excès de méthanol. Ces résultats théoriques ont ensuite été consolidés par un pilotage sur une colonne de diamètre 75 mm. Dans tous les régimes pilotés, les résultats obtenus sont significativement supérieurs à un réacteur en lit fixe même avec des excès de réactif plus importants.

This study was designed to determine the number of cases and amount of operating room time required, for a population of 600,000, to provide definitive treatment in the form of cholecystectomy for all patients admitted as an emergency with cholecystitis. The total number of patients admitted to a single NHS trust in South East Wales with the diagnosis of cholecystitis during a 1-year period was assessed. The number of laparoscopic cholecystectomies performed and the time taken was investigated with the conversion rates. There were a total of 787 individual emergency admissions attributed to cholecystitis, and 224 patients (36%) underwent cholecystectomy on the same admission. The median operative time was 77 (range, 23–238) min, and the median operating room time was 108 (range, 37–278) min. To treat all patients definitively would necessitate 12 cholecystectomies per week, requiring 1,296 min or 5.4 sessions of operating room time. A population of 600,000 could be expected to generate enough emergency cholecystectomies to require more than one operating session per day. A significant increase in emergency operating room availability would be necessary to allow the provision of definitive treatment for all emergency admissions with cholelithiasis.

The palliative management of hepatic metastases remains unsatisfactory. There is a need for a simple non invasive technique which can stop or retard the rate of tumour growth. In principle, Interstitial Laser hyperthermia may fulfil such a role. In experimental studies, this technique produced precise in situ necrosis within solid organs which healed safely. In a pilot feasibility study, we treated ten patients with a total of 18 hepatic metastases on 31 occasions using a percutaneous approach to achieve an overall objective response rate of 44%. The treatment proved simple to perform, was well tolerated and produced radiological evidence of necrosis in small metastases (diameter less than or equal to 3 cm). However, further research is required before the technique can be regarded as established. Its future role in most cases will be to control the growth of discrete hepatic metastases unsuitable for resection. In instances where the extent of necrosis can be matched accurately to tumour volume, the potential for cure exists. Images Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

Multiple four-fibre low-power interstitial laser hyperthermia was performed in the canine liver to establish the parameters with which large areas of thermal necrosis could be made. Using 1.5 W for 670s (4020 J in total) and a fibre spacing of 1.5 cm, lesions with dimensions of 3.6 × 3.1 × 2.8 cm were achieved in 75 per cent of those attempted. There was no mortality and a low morbidity rate. These lesions could be visualized in both their development and resolution using ultrasonography. Healing occurred by 1 year. Temperatures in the centre of the heated region were 60°C, which is more than enough to cause thermal cell death. There was good correlation between the temperatures recorded, the sonographic changes seen, and the pathological evidence of necrosis. Multiple-fibre low-power interstitial laser hyperthermia performed with ultrasonic guidance may be of use in the treatment of liver tumours.

This paper reports on design and implementation of a hierarchical real-time expert-system architecture directed to real-time diagnosis of modern production systems. Diagnosis is model based by using timed Petri-net models as well as continuous system models. The logical and physical structures of the corresponding distributed system are discussed in some detail. As a hardware basis a multi-Transputer system with optical links is used, operated by the distributed operating system Helios which is extended by real-time servers. A prototype of the distributed system has been built and applied to a commercial Modular Production System. First results about the system behaviour are shown by means of a graphical user interface based on X Window/Motif.

Conventional palliative management of inoperable focal hepatic tumours remains unsatisfactory. Interstitial techniques such as cryotherapy, alcohol injection, low power laser hyperthermia and interstitial radiotherapy offer alternative approaches. Cryotherapy is an effective and precise technique for inducing tumour necrosis. It can only be performed at laparotomy making it relatively invasive and retreatment impractical. Alcohol is cheap and can be injected percutaneously. However, inhomogeneous distribution produces imprecise and non-reproducible lesions. Low power laser hyperthermia produces precise and reproducible areas of necrosis that are roughly spherical in shape. At present, this technique is most effective for small tumours. Interstitial radiotherapy remains the least evaluated of all the interstitial techniques. Unlike cryotherapy and low power laser hyperthermia, the biological effect of ethanol injection and interstitial radiotherapy cannot be monitored in real time by ultrasound. With the exception of cryotherapy, all methods can be applied percutaneously with low morbidity and mortality. None of these techniques is established, but they may offer the prospect of cure in cases where all areas of tumour can be positively identified and fully treated. However, in most instances the intention is to control the growth of relatively small discrete volumes of tumour within the hepatic parenchyma.

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) nodes are resource- constrained computing devices. Adaptive behavior of autonomously working WSNs tries to maximize the cost efficiency of deployments. This includes maximizing the lifetime through power consumption optimization and recharging energy reservoirs with the use of energy harvesting. The adaptive behavior that leads to efficient resource usage needs information about the WSNs energy balance for decision making. We present a novel platform to measure the harvested, stored and dissipated energy. For being applicable to different environments it allows to attach different energy harvesting devices (EHDs). EHDs do not provide power continuously. Power availability patterns are used to determine how these sources can be used efficiently. Models from harvesting theory try to adapt to it. We implement a model that targets energy neutrality on our platform. It is used to evaluate the model and improve it. Our novel platform can be used to evaluate theories that model different sources. It can utilize and characterize thermoelectric, piezoelectric and magnetic induction generators and solar cells. The measurement platform tracks energy dissipation too. Mote software is implemented to establish communication to the platform. A sample application on top of it shows that the system can be used for software characterization. This paper contributes a novel modular and low-power design for measurement platforms for WSNs. It shows utilization of different energy sources and the ability to supply different mote types. Our work shows how theories for energy harvesting can be evaluated and improved. Our work also contributes to the field of simulation and emulation through online software characterization. The approach improves in accuracy and completeness over the capabilities of offline simulation.

Todays applications for UHF RFID tags require a high operating distance and communication performance, sensing and monitoring capabilities, autonomous data processing, alarm handling and large memory areas and drive them to become embedded systems of increased complexity and energy consumption. This work proposes a novel tag architecture satisfying today's and future requirements on higher class UHF RFID systems with mentioned functionality and incorporating energy harvesting devices as additional power supply. A novel simulation concept for the functional verification of the architecture is presented, which is based on a cosimulation approach. It combines system level models of the UHF RFID system with hardware level descriptions of components defining the energy consumption of the tag. To prove the proposed simulation concept, a part of the entire system model is presented at the end of the paper together with related simulation results showing the benefits of the implementation.

The steadily increasing performance of RF-powered devices implies also a rise in power consumption. To counteract this trend, it is mandatory to accomplish power optimizations at every stage in the HW/SW co-design process. Since the momentarily available energy depends on the power profile of anterior tasks, the behavior of the RF-interface has to be considered in the optimization process to achieve a maximum of efficiency by maintaining the system stability.This paper introduces an accurate discrete-time model of the energy source of RF-powered devices. Based on this model, a power profile analysis tool has been developed, which identifies automatically critical regions for the energy source in the current profile of the system. The use of this framework is illustrated in a software optimization process, which intends to eliminate the detected critical areas.

Two-way communication over a fading wireless channel requires that nodes on both ends of the link acquire channel state information in order to successfully receive coherent signals. When the channel in question is symmetric and slow fading, channel state information at the receiving node can be used to perform power control when the same node becomes the transmitter. In this work, we propose and analyze a novel two-way training protocol that uses power control to improve diversity-multiplexing performance while saving overhead by exploiting channel symmetry.

Nowadays requirements on RFID systems are going beyond simple identification of objects; sensing and monitoring and thus autonomous operation, large memory areas in combination with high computational capabilities as well as high operating ranges are needed. This requires a revision of the formerly passive tag architecture adding various functional blocks and the most significant change of adding an energy reservoir to the formerly pure passive operating tags. As a key parameter of the reliability of an RFID system is the lifetime, a key topic for the development of enhanced tag architectures is the power management mechanism. It includes to operate the tag with the lowest possible energy, but even to ensure to keep its energy budget as balanced as possible. The PowerTag1 project and thus this paper deals with proposing special power saving mechanisms in combination with the use of energy harvesting devices to harvest power from the environment for the support of the on board battery.

The next generation of RFID tags (higher class tags -HCT) especially in the UHF frequency range provides extended functionality like high operating range and sensing and monitoring capabilities. Such functionality requiring extended system structures including data acquisition units, real time clocks and active transmitters causes a high energy consumption of the tag and requires an on board energy store (battery). As a key parameter of the reliability of an RFID system is the lifetime, the energy budget of the HCT has to be as balanced as possible. The PowerTag1 project and thus this paper deals with proposing special power management algorithms in combination with the use of energy harvesting devices to support the on board battery and thus to extend the lifetime of the HCT contemporary providing high level computational functionality.

The complexity of embedded systems is continuously growing due to the increasing requirements on performance. In portable systems such as smart cards, not only performance is an important attribute, but also the power and energy consumed by a given application. Sources of energy used in smart card systems like batteries and electromagnetic fields are not such ideal elements, as their effectiveness depends heavily on the energy consumed over time. Optimization strategies proposed so far are implemented statically. Often a manual measurement of the current profile followed by manual optimizations is carried out. This procedure is very time consuming. We present a method for reducing automatically the power of an application based on a compiler optimization.

The steadily increasing performance of mobile devices implies also a rise in power consumption. To counteract this trend it is mandatory to accomplish software power optimizations based on accurate power consumption models characterized for the processor. This paper presents an environment for automated instruction set characterization based on physical power measurements. For an accurate current measurement a high performance sampling technique has been established, which can be either clock or energy driven. The performance of those techniques is analyzed and the advantages over the conventional solution of a series resistor are discussed.

Coherent signaling over a fading channel requires the receiver to have knowledge of the current fading state (CSIR). In order to proactively prevent outages, the transmitter requires knowledge of the fading state (CSIT) to perform power control. Typically, the channel state is estimated by using a training signal, and the channel state information contains some error. In this work, we examine the performance of a symmetric, single-input, multiple-output (SIMO) channel in which both the transmitter and the receiver have independent, imperfect estimates of the channel. We give expressions for mutual information and outage probability, and we use those expressions to evaluate the diversity order of the system for a constant target rate. We show that diversity order is dominated by the transmitter error and that the diversity order is equal to that of a system with perfect CSIR

Verification based on prototypes in the target application environment proved to be reliable but also costly feedback. To decrease the design time and effort in early development stages a more frequent evaluation is supported by models. Assumption on UHF RFID specific constraints brings advantage by the possibility to extend models to higher abstraction levels and to increase the simulation speed. Using advanced simulation techniques in the system level modeling achieves more accurate results both for ASIC developers and for system integrators.

The duration of the QT interval is influenced by many pathologic processes and drugs. We report a 74-year-old man who was admitted after syncope. His electrocardiogram (ECG) showed a QT interval of 0.44 s (QTc 0.53 s). After 10 h a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm was diagnosed and the patient underwent implantation of an aorto-bi-iliac Y-prosthesis. After surgery QT interval normalized. Under therapy with amiodarone, given because of atrial fibrillation, QT prolongation occurred again and disappeared after discontinuation of amiodarone. The postoperative course was complicated by critical illness polyneuropathy and plexopathy. Whereas amiodarone is a well recognized cause of QT prolongation, aortic aneurysm rupture has not been described previously. Vegetative mechanisms and sudden decrease of cardiac afterload due to the ruptured aneurysm may have altered myocardial repolarisation and thus prolonged QT interval duration. In conclusion in a patient with syncope and QT prolongation, extracardiac causes like rupture or an aortic aneurysm have to be included into the differential diagnosis.

Transmitter side information enables techniques such as beamforming, power control, and rate control in fading channels. It is commonly accepted in the literature that the addition of transmitter information (CSIT) to receiver information (CSIR) provides better performance than receiver information alone. In this work, we examine the performance of a symmetric, single-input, multiple-output (SIMO) channel in which CSIT is acquired through the use of training symbols, and we have a genie-aided receiver. We give a closed form expression for outage probability at high SNR while accounting for the resources consumed by training. We also analyze the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff and find that, though the diversity falls far below that of systems with perfect CSIT, it is still sufficiently superior to that achieved by CSIR-only systems to justify the cost of training. We show that, at zero multiplexing, transmitter training doubles the diversity order of a CSIR-only system and offers nonzero diversity at all achievable multiplexing gains.