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Context can affect language processing and learning. We here compare the influence of two different contexts (pseudo-objects, data from [Obrig, H., Mock, J., Stephan, F., Richter, M., Vignotto, M.,...

A pulsed discharge regime (GITT) was used to investigate the ohmic internal resistance of Na/NiCl2 cells, also known as ZEBRA Cells. Two ways were chosen to determine the internal resistance, on the one side the voltage response of the corresponding current enables a calculation. On the other side the potentiostatic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was used to measure cell spectra including the ohmic internal resistance. By comparing both methods the feasibility of ohmic internal resistance (IR) calculation can be evaluated. The cells were investigated within five different operating temperatures (300 °C–180 °C with 30 K steps). Results show that the ohmic internal resistance of a Na/NiCl2 is increasing when the operating temperature is decreasing, mainly due to the decrease of ionic conductivity of β ″ separator and the secondary electrolyte NaAlCl4. As a direct consequence, there is a significant capacity loss. Therefore, the operating temperature can be identified as capacity limiting factor.

Susarah Maria Richter,1,2 Tobias George Barnard2 1Department of Optometry, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa; 2Water and Health Research Centre, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South AfricaCorrespondence: Susarah Maria RichterUniversity of Johannesburg, PO Box 17077, Doornfontein, Johannesburg, 2028, South AfricaTel +27115596716Email mrichter@uj.ac.zaBackground: The link between hand and surface hygiene and the spread of disease has been reported by various studies and understanding the appropriate use of hand hygiene is important in healthcare. The World Health Organization (WHO) introduced the “My Five Moments for Hand Hygiene” model to educate healthcare workers about the importance of hand hygiene to stop the spread of disease.Objective: The objectives of this paper were to determine if the WHO Hand Hygiene Observation Form could be used to monitor for hand and personal hygiene practices of Optometry students, and what their actual hygiene practices are in an Optometry training facility in South Africa.Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed at an Optometry training facility in South Africa using third (n=32) and fourth year (n=39) students. The Hand Hygiene Knowledge Questionnaire for Health Care Workers by the WHO was used to determine their knowledge regarding hand hygiene. After completing the questionnaire, participants were observed in the clinic while consulting patients to determine the hand and surface hygiene practices they apply.Results: The WHO hand hygiene observation rubric was not appropriate to evaluate hand and surface hygiene in Optometry facilities. The adapted observation rubric created was a better tool to evaluate student hygiene practices and was able to record which hand or surface hygiene were missed when presented with such opportunities. Although 90.1% of the students knew that germs could be transferred to the patients via hands, only 46.5% routinely used an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.Conclusion: This observation rubric developed during this study can assist in creating awareness with students about their own hand and surface hygiene deficiencies when interacting with patients.Keywords: hand hygiene, Optometry in South Africa, surface hygiene, clinical observations

Objectives The impact of duration and intensity on outcomes after Interdisciplinary Multimodal Pain Therapy (IMPT) is poorly researched. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of low dose (LD, avg. 25 hours) and high dose IMPT (HD, avg. 110 hours).Methods Patients completed pain-related questionnaires at the beginning (T1), at the end of therapy (T2) and at 3-month follow-up (T3) and were matched according to age, sex, presence of back-pain and pain-related disability at T1, resulting in 32 patients per group. Primary endpoint was the difference in pain-related disability and average pain intensity at T3 between both groups. In addition, early treatment effects and group differences at T2 were analyzed.Results Both groups showed significant improvements in pain-related disability and average pain intensity between T1 and T2. These positive effects persisted in the HD group until the 3-month follow-up, whereas outcomes in the LD group patients deteriorated and were significantly poorer compared to HD at T3.Discussion Within a widely comparable therapeutic setting, high-dose IMPT was associated with longer lasting improvements compared to low-dose IMPT in chronic pain patients, indicating that the “dose” of therapy is a relevant factor for clinical outcomes and should be further investigated.

It is commonly assumed that for low-intensity short optical pulses far from resonance, the third-order optical nonlinear response is instantaneous. We solve the three-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation for the hydrogen atom and show that this is not the case: the polarization is not simply proportional to the cube of the electric field even at low intensities. We analyze the fundamental-frequency and third-harmonic nonlinear susceptibilities of hydrogen, investigate their dependence on intensity, and find that the delays in the Kerr response rapidly approach the femtosecond time-scale at higher intensities, while the delays in the third harmonic generation remain much lower. We also propose an experimental scheme to detect and characterize the above effects.

We simulate the pump-probe experiments of lasing in molecular nitrogen ions with particular interest in the effects of rotational wave-packet dynamics. Our computations demonstrate that the coherent preparation of rotational wave packets in ${\mathrm{N}}_{2}{}^{+}$ by an intense short nonresonant pulse results in a modulation of the subsequent emission from ${B}^{2}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}_{u}{}^{+}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{X}^{2}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}_{g}{}^{+}$ transitions induced by a resonant seed pulse. We model the dynamics of such pumping and emission using density-matrix theory to describe the ${\mathrm{N}}_{2}{}^{+}$ dynamics and the Maxwell wave equation to model the seed pulse propagation. We show that the gain and absorption of a delayed seed pulse is dependent on the pump-seed delay, that is, the rotational coherences excited by the pump pulse can modulate the gain and absorption of the delayed seed pulse. Further, we demonstrate that the coherent rotational dynamics of the nitrogen ions can cause lasing without electronic inversion.

Air lasing in the nitrogen molecular ion is not well understood because the complex physics responsible for gain is interwoven with pulse propagation in an extreme environment. Here we use a short gas jet to limit the interaction length, thereby removing the propagation effects. We report on several mechanisms that contribute to the decay of gain in different conditions, and experimentally isolate two decay timescales: the decay of long-term gain due to collisional state mixing, and short-term gain that cannot be explained by population inversion. To test the former, we control the inelastic electron scattering rate by varying the gas concentration while keeping the propagation length fixed, and predict the change of the decay using a model of collisional state mixing. We show that the same mechanism causes the decay of rotational wave packets in the states of the ion. Finally, we simulate the complex modulations of gain due to rotational wave packets and the propagation of the probe pulse through the evolving rotationally excited and inverted medium.

Time-resolving and controlling coupled electronic and nuclear dynamics at conical intersections on the sub-femtosecond to few-femtosecond time scale is among the challenging goals of attosecond physics. Here we present numerical simulations of time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy of such dynamics in NO2, where the coupled electron–nuclear motion at the 2A1/2B2 conical intersection is steered on the sub-laser-cycle time scale by a nearly single-cycle, waveform controlled mid-infrared laser pulse. For a rigorous description of the photoionization dynamics, we employ ab initio energy- and geometry-resolved photoionization matrix elements obtained with the multichannel R-matrix method, using a multiconfigurational description of the molecule and a newly developed algorithm to generate photoionization dipoles that are phase consistent on the level of both the neutral and the ionic states. We find that for sufficient molecular alignment, the time- and energy-resolved anisotropy parameters of the photoelectron angular distributions provide a particularly clear picture of both the ultrafast natural molecular dynamics at the conical intersection and its modifications by the control pulse. In particular, changes in the electronic and nuclear configurations induced by the control pulse lead to the appearance of non-vanishing odd anisotropy parameters in the photoelectron spectra. These are absent in the spectra obtained without the control pulse and therefore provide sensitive, background-free diagnostic of the control.

We show that, for the case of resonant media, the available models for unidirectional propagation of short pulses can face serious challenges with respect to numerical efficiency, accuracy, or numerical artifacts. We propose an alternative approach based on a propagator operator defined in the time domain. This approach enables precise simulations using short time windows even for resonant media and facilitates coupling of the propagation equation with first-principle methods such as the time-dependent Schödinger equation. Additionally, we develop a numerically efficient recipe to construct and apply such a propagator operator.

We show that lasing without inversion arises naturally during propagation of intense femtosecond laser pulses in air. It is triggered by the combination of molecular ionization and molecular alignment, both unavoidable in intense light fields., High Intensity Lasers and High Field Phenomena 2020, High-field Re-scattering Physics, Relativistic Nonlinear Phenomena, Intense Pulse Propagation and Filamentation (HM1B) Session, November 16–20, 2020, Washington, DC, United States, Series: OSA Technical Digest

Time-resolving and controlling coupled electronic and nuclear dynamics at conical intersections on the sub-femtosecond to few-femtosecond time scale is among the challenging goals of attosecond physics. Here we present numerical simulations of time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy of such dynamics in NO2, where the coupled electron-nuclear motion at the 2A1/2B2 conical intersection is steered on the sub-laser-cycle time scale by a nearly single-cycle, waveform controlled mid-infrared laser pulse. For a rigorous description of the photoionization dynamics, we employ ab initio energy- and geometry-resolved photoionization matrix elements obtained with the multichannel R-matrix method, using a multiconfigurational description of the molecule and a newly developed algorithm to generate photoionization dipoles that are phase consistent on the level of both the neutral and the ionic states. We find that for sufficient molecular alignment, the time- and energy-resolved anisotropy parameters of the photoelectron angular distributions provide a particularly clear picture of both the ultrafast natural molecular dynamics at the conical intersection and its modifications by the control pulse. In particular, changes in the electronic and nuclear configurations induced by the control pulse lead to the appearance of non-vanishing odd anisotropy parameters in the photoelectron spectra. These are absent in the spectra obtained without the control pulse and therefore provide sensitive, background-free diagnostic of the control.

Zusammenfassung Hauptschüler/innen haben besonders häufig Probleme damit, den Übergang in eine vollqualifizierende Ausbildung zu meistern. Um den Schüler/innen diesen Übergang zu erleichtern und Kontakte zu den Betrieben herzustellen, wurden in den letzten Jahren vermehrt Maßnahmen durchgeführt, die stärker auf betriebliche Praxiserfahrungen setzen. Im Beitrag wird am Beispiel eines Interventionsprojekts untersucht, wie nachhaltig solche Maßnahmen bezogen auf den Ausbildungsverlauf sind. Die Befunde zeigen, dass Maßnahmen, die darauf zielen, Diskreditierungsprozesse durch direkten und dauerhaften Kontakt zu den Betrieben abzubauen, für Jugendliche mit einem einfachen Hauptschulabschluss ein vielversprechender Weg sind.

NaNiCl2 batteries are member of the sodium metal halogenide battery family and represent a robust, save and environmentally friendly storage technology, which is in operation all over the world from small to large scale for decades. In particular, the high cycle stability, lifetime and the excellent safety predestine the technology for large scale stationary applications. Nevertheless, a significant marked penetration has so far failed to materialize. The dominating obstacle are the costs for conventional NaNiCl2 in competition with the dramatically falling prices for Li-Ion batteries. The energy intensive ceramic electrolyte manufacturing and the usually used high amount of nickel are mainly responsible. Beside this, some high power technical applications, such as peak shaving, are currently not accessible for NaNiCl2 batteries. The limited C-rates permit an economic operation of these business cases. To overcome these obstacles material scientific and engineering approaches are under development in workgroups all over the world. In the presentation, a technological review of new concepts for sodium metal halogenide batteries will be given. This will include new materials, designs and production methods along the battery value chain. The high economical impact from solid electrolyte manufacturing was tackled by lowering the sintering temperature by material doping. By 1.5 % TiO2 doping the sintering temperature for the Na-ß-alumina electrolyte was lowered by 150 °C. By optimizing the microstructure, an ionic conductivity of 0.25 S/cm and a mechanical toughness of 210 MPa were reached at the same time. Different cell designs matching different requirements in terms of power and energy will be presented. This will include 25 Ah plate cells and large tubular cells with high energy contents. Using the plate cell approximately, 100 % DoD can be discharged with an elevated current of 1 C which pushes NaNiCl2 close to Li-Ion cells. By a simple stacking of the cells, the capacity and the voltage level of a module can easily be adjusted to different applications. For high-energy applications tubular 100 Ah cells and 5 kWh battery packs were successfully developed. The simplification of the cell and module design with the simultaneous use of innovative production methods ended up in calculated costs of 300 to 400 €/kWh for a large scale production. An intermediate temperature NaNiCl2-like cell concept was developed. A fundamentally different cathode composition and a liquid sodium anode opens the door to a batteries with improved round trip efficiency, compared to high temperature NaNiCl2. Metal halogenid batteries have a high development potential. Away from the classic high temperature NaNiCl2 technology, a several approaches are under development and on the way to become a product in the near future. A successful implementation of the described approaches will yield in excellent batteries for large-scale stationary energy storage.

Light can be used to modify and control properties of media, as in the case of electromagnetically induced transparency or, more recently, for the generation of slow light or bright coherent XUV and X-ray radiation. Particularly unusual states of matter can be created by light fields with strengths comparable to the Coulomb field that binds valence electrons in atoms, leading to nearly-free electrons oscillating in the laser field and yet still loosely bound to the core [1,2]. These are known as Kramers-Henneberger states [3], a specific example of laser-dressed states [2]. Here, we demonstrate that these states arise not only in isolated atoms [4,5], but also in rare gases, at and above atmospheric pressure, where they can act as a gain medium during laser filamentation. Using shaped laser pulses, gain in these states is achieved within just a few cycles of the guided field. The corresponding lasing emission is a signature of population inversion in these states and of their stability against ionization. Our work demonstrates that these unusual states of neutral atoms can be exploited to create a general ultrafast gain mechanism during laser filamentation., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 10 pages supplementary material, 8 supplementary figures

Light is used to modify or control properties in many quantum systems, leading to phenomena such as electromagnetically induced transparency, the generation of slow light or bright coherent XUV radiation. Using light fields, with strengths comparable to the Coulomb field which binds valence electrons in atoms, particularly unusual quantum states can be created which describe a nearly free electron oscillating in the laser field yet still loosely bound to the core1, 2. We demonstrate that such states can arise not only in isolated atoms3, but also in gases at a few atmospheric pressures, guiding intense laser pulses, where they can act as a gain medium. This gain is created within just a few cycles of the guided field. Using shaped pulses4 with 5–10 fs risetimes, we create pulse conditions, within a laser filament, where these states can persist, and we observe in the corresponding emission, the signatures of these states. This work demonstrates a general, new, ultrafast gain mechanism during filamentation, in which any driven atom can achieve inversion intra-pulse, using pulse shaping techniques.

Inducing and controlling lasing in the open air is an intriguing challenge. Several recent experiments on laser filamentation in air have demonstrated generation of population inversion and lasing at the 391 nm and 428 nm lines in the nitrogen molecular ion [1-8], corresponding to transitions between the ground vibrational state of the second excited electronic state, B2Σ+ u , and the ground and first excited vibrational state of the ground electronic state, X2Σ+g, see figure. Importantly, lasing at these transitions appears to be a very general effect, arising during filamentation of virtually any incident radiation, from visible to mid-infrared.

Bungowannah virus is the most divergent pestivirus, and both origin and reservoir host have not been identified so far. We therefore performedin vitrotropism studies, which showed that Bungowannah virus differs remarkably from other pestiviruses. Interestingly, cell lines of vervet monkey, mouse, human and even of bat origin were susceptible. This broadin vitrotropism was not observed for a chimeric bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) expressing all structural proteins of Bungowannah virus. The viral envelope was not sufficient to completely transfer the cell tropism of Bungowannah virus to another pestivirus, and viral RNA replication was either markedly reduced or not detectable in a number of different cell lines for the tested BVDV strain and the chimera. We therefore suggest that the replication machinery together with the viral envelope is responsible for the unique broad cell tropism of Bungowannah virus.

O crescimento econômico de uma região inclui o aumento da geração de excedente, a ampliação do emprego e da renda local. A região do Conselho Regional de Desenvolvimento do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (CONSINOS) no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul se especializou no complexo calçadista, mas ao longo dos anos de 2000 perdeu o seu dinamismo econômico e por conseqüência o emprego. O acúmulo de conhecimento, criatividade, inovações e as competências tecnológicas, presentes na economia local, traduzem a possibilidade de desenvolvimento de outro leque de atividades denominadas: indústrias criativas. O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar o comportamento do emprego formal, nos anos de 2000 e 2010, com dados do Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego (MTE) e da Fundação de Economia e Estatística Siegfried Emanuel Heuser (FEE). Conclui-se que, no período estudado, os empregos no CONSINOS se concentraram no sub-grupo criativo das atividades produtivas relacionadas, porém foi nos setores de apoio que ocorreu a maior variação em todos os seus municípios.

Wie chancengerecht und leistungsfähig ist die berufliche Bildung in Deutschland? Anhand von Indikatoren vergleicht die Studie das gesamte Berufsausbildungssystem in Deutschland, von der dualen und vollzeitschulischen Ausbildung bis zum Übergangssystem. Grundlage der Studie sind statistische Daten des Bundes und der Länder, der Bundesagentur für Arbeit und des Bundesinstituts für Berufsbildung, die von einer Autorengruppe unter Leitung des Soziologischen Forschungsinstituts Göttingen ausgewertet wurden. Der Tabellenanhang zum Ländermonitor berufliche Bildung 2017 belegt die Ergebnisse der Studie in Zahlen.

Within the discussion around sustainable diets, seafood consumption is still a relatively neglected field. This article discusses relevant behaviours consumers can perform to consume seafood sustainably. The predictive power of intention, descriptive social norms, trust, awareness and pro-environmental attitudes are theoretically discussed and statistically tested across two studies in regards to (a) using sustainable seafood labels, and (b) using sustainable seafood guides. Data analysis (N1 = 309, N2 = 881 Norwegian adults) shows that intentions, social norms and trust predict seafood label use across studies. The variables predicting seafood guide use are less stable which might be due to this behaviour being performed by a very small fraction of consumers only. Causal relationships have been identified in study 2 by applying cross-lagged panel analyses between intentions, trust and social norms and seafood label use. Further causal relationships were found between intentions, trust and awareness and seafood guide use. A bidirectional relationship was confirmed between descriptive social norms and seafood guide use. Potential strategies to promote seafood label- and seafood guide use, are discussed based on these results. © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Jugendliche in Hauptschulen und vergleichbaren Schulformen sind mit besonderen Teilhaberisiken in Hinblick auf schulische und berufliche Bildung konfrontiert. Prekaren Bildungsbiografien im allgemein bildenden Schulsystem schliest sich haufig der Ubergang in das sog. Ubergangssystem an, das jedoch keine voll qualifizierende Berufsausbildung bietet. Neuere Fordermasnahmen versuchen nun einen anderen Weg zu gehen und durch Praventionsmasnahmen im letzten bzw. vorletzten Schuljahr, insbesondere fur „abschlussgefahrdete“ Jugendliche, das Scheitern am Hauptschulabschluss zu verhindern und ihre Chancen auf einen unmittelbaren Ubergang in Ausbildung zu erhohen Auf der Basis der Evaluation eines solchen Forderprojekts fur „abschlussgefahrdete“ Hauptschuler/innen zeigt der folgende Beitrag die spezifischen Teilhaberisiken dieser Jugendlichen und die Effekte der Projektteilnahme auf die Teilhabe an schulischer sowie beruflicher Bildung. Low-skilled Youth. Their Difficulties in Participating in Education ...

In einer Reihe von Bundeslandern wurden in den letzten Jahren Modellprogramme an Schulen eingefuhrt, in denen abschlussgefahrdete Jugendliche mehrere Praxistage in der Woche im Betrieb statt im Unterricht verbringen. Der vorliegende Beitrag nimmt eine gemeinsame Analyse der Modellprogramme „Berufsstarterklassen“ in Niedersachsen und „Praxisklassen“ in Bayern, welche beispielhaft fur diesen neuen Forderansatz stehen, vor. Mit Mehrebenen-Modellen wird untersucht, ob die hoheren Ausbildungschancen von Schuler/innen, die an den beiden Modellprogrammen teilgenommen haben, darauf zuruckzufuhren sind, dass durch das „Kleben bleiben“ im Praktikumsbetrieb Marktmechanismen umgangen werden. Im Ergebnis ist nicht nachzuweisen, dass die Programme die Rolle von Bildungsmerkmalen und regionaler Ausbildungsmarktlagen und somit Verdrangungs- wie auch Diskreditierungsprozesse aushebeln. Zudem wurde deutlich, dass vom Hauptschulabschluss eine hohe Signalwirkung fur den Arbeitgeber ausgeht. Im Vergleich beider Proje...

FUNDAMENTO: A maioria das tabelas de classificação da Aptidão Cardiorrespiratória (ACR) utilizadas na prática clínica é internacional e não foi validada para a população brasileira, podendo resultar em discrepâncias importantes, uma vez que essa classificação é extrapolada para a nossa população. Objetivo: Avaliar as principais tabelas de ACR disponíveis em uma amostra populacional brasileira do Planalto Médio do Rio Grande do Sul (RS). MÉTODOS: Foram analisados dados retrospectivos de 2.930 indivíduos, residentes em 36 cidades do Planalto Central do RS. Levaram-se em consideração presença dos fatores de risco para doença cardiovascular e valores estimados do consumo de oxigênio de pico (VO2pico), obtidos por meio de teste de esforço com protocolo de Bruce. Para classificar a ACR, os sujeitos foram distribuídos de acordo com o sexo e inseridos nas respectivas faixas etárias das tabelas de Cooper, American Heart Association (AHA) e da Universidade Federal de São Paulo (Unifesp), e classificados conforme seu VO2pico. RESULTADOS: A amostra feminina apresentou valores mais baixos de VO2pico do que a masculina (23,5 ± 8,5 vs. 31,7 ± 10,8 mL.kg-1.min-1, p < 0,001), e o VO2pico apresentou correlação inversa e moderada com a idade considerando-se ambos os sexos (R = -0,48, p < 0,001). Foi observada importante discrepância entre os níveis de classificação da ACR entre as tabelas, que variaram de 49% (COOPERxAHA) até 75% (UNIFESPxAHA). CONCLUSÃO: Nossos achados indicam discrepâncias importantes na classificação da ACR proveniente das tabelas avaliadas. Estudos futuros poderiam investigar se a utilização das tabelas internacionais são aplicáveis à população brasileira e às populações de diferentes regiões do Brasil.BACKGROUND: Most classification tables of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) used in clinical practice are international and have not been validated for the Brazilian population. That can result in important discrepancies when that classification is extrapolated to our population. OBJECTIVE: To assess the use of major CRF tables available in a Brazilian population sample of the Central High Plan of the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS). METHODS: This study assessed the retrospective data of 2,930 individuals, living in 36 cities of the Central High Plan of the state of RS, and considered the following: presence of risk factors for cardiovascular disease and estimated maximum oxygen consumption (VO2peak) values obtained through exercise test with Bruce protocol. To classify CRF, the individuals were distributed according to sex, inserted in their respective age groups in the Cooper, American Heart Association (AHA) and Universidade Federal de São Paulo (Unifesp) tables, and classified according to their VO2peak. RESULTS: Women had lower VO2peak values as compared with those of men (23.5 ± 8.5 vs. 31.7 ± 10.8 mL.kg-1.min-1, p < 0.001). Considering both sexes, VO2peak showed an inverse and moderate correlation with age (R = -0.48, p < 0.001). An important discrepancy in the CRF classification levels was observed between the tables, ranging from 49% (Cooper x AHA) to 75% (Unifesp x AHA). CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate important discrepancy in the CRF classification levels of the tables assessed. Future studies could assess whether international tables could be used for the Brazilian population and populations of different regions of Brazil.

Today laser pulses with electric fields comparable to or higher than the electrostatic forces binding valence electrons in atoms and molecules have become a routine tool with applications in laser acceleration of electrons and ions, generation of short wavelength emission from plasmas and clusters, laser fusion, etc. Intense fields are also naturally created during laser filamentation in the air or due to local field enhancements in the vicinity of metal nanoparticles. One would expect that very intense fields would always lead to fast ionization of atoms or molecules. However, recently observed acceleration of neutral atoms [Eichmann et al. (2009) Nature 461:1261–1264] at the rate of 10 15 m/s 2 when exposed to very intense IR laser pulses demonstrated that substantial fraction of atoms remained stable during the pulse. Here we show that the electronic structure of these stable “laser-dressed” atoms can be directly imaged by photoelectron spectroscopy. Our findings open the way to visualizing and controlling bound electron dynamics in strong laser fields and reexamining its role in various strong-field processes, including microscopic description of high order Kerr nonlinearities and their role in laser filamentation [Béjot et al. (2010) Phys Rev Lett 104:103903].

In recent years several atypical pestiviruses have been described. Bungowannah virus is the most divergent virus in this group. Therefore, heterologous complementation was used to clarify the phylogenetic relationship and to analyze the exchangeability of genome regions encoding structural proteins. Using a BVDV type 1 backbone, chimeric constructs with substituted envelope proteins E rns , E1 and E2, were investigated. While all constructs replicated autonomously, infectious high titer chimeric virus could only be observed after exchanging the complete E1–E2 encoding region. The complementation of E1 and E2 alone resulted only in replicons. Complementation of BVDV-E rns was only efficient if Bungowannah virus-E rns was expressed from a bicistronic construct. Our data provide new insights in the compatibility of pestivirus proteins and demonstrate that heterologous complementation could be useful to characterize new pestiviruses.

Several brain areas that constitute the neural matrix of pain can be activated by noxious stimuli and by pain-relevant cues, such as pictures, facial expressions, and pain-related words. Although chronic pain patients are frequently exposed to pain-related words, it remains unclear whether their pain matrix is specifically activated during the processing of such stimuli in comparison to healthy subjects. To answer this question, we compared the neural activations induced by verbal pain descriptors in a sample of migraine patients with activations in healthy controls using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants viewed pain-related adjectives and negative, non-pain-related adjectives that were matched for valence and arousal and were instructed to either generate mental images (imagination condition) or to count the number of vowels (distraction condition). In migraine patients, pain-related adjectives as compared with negative adjectives elicited increased activations in the left orbitofrontal cortex and anterior insula during imagination and in the right secondary somatosensory cortex and posterior insula during distraction. More pronounced pain-related activation was observed in affective pain-related regions in the patient as compared with the control group during imagination. During distraction, no differential engagement of single brain structures in response to pain-related words could be observed between groups. Overall, our findings indicate that there is an involvement of brain regions associated with the affective and sensory-discriminative dimension of pain in the processing of pain-related words in migraine patients, and that the recruitment of those regions associated with pain-related affect is enhanced in patients with chronic pain experiences.

FUNDAMENTO: Alguns indivíduos normotensos sedentários têm aumento exagerado da pressão arterial (PA) durante a atividade física, comportamento esse chamado hiper-reatividade pressórica (HP). OBJETIVO: Verificar o efeito de um programa de exercício físico (PEF) aeróbio sobre a pressão arterial de indivíduos com hiper-reatividade pressórica. MÉTODOS: Dez homens voluntários com HP, 45 ± 10 anos, chamados grupo experimental (GE), foram submetidos a um PEF em esteira, 3x/semana, durante dois meses, comparados a 14 homens com HP, 48 ± 8 anos, chamados grupo controle (GC), que se mantiveram sedentários. Os indivíduos foram avaliados antes e depois do PEF por teste de esforço para fins comparativos. Foram avaliadas as pressões arteriais sistólica (PAS) e diastólica (PAD) e as frequências cardíacas (FC) inicial, de pico e final de teste. RESULTADOS: Houve importante diminuição da PAS inicial (-5 %; p=0,01), da PAD inicial (-4,6 %; p=0,01), da PAS de pico (-12,4 %; p=0,001), da PAD de pico (-14,7%; p=0,03), e da PAS final (-4,6 %; p=0,03) no GE. O GC permaneceu com comportamento hiper-reativo, tendo evoluído com níveis mais exagerados quando comparados pré e pós-estudo (p < 0,04). Na FC, somente a final apresentou aumento de 11,3 bpm após treinamento (p=0,02). O VO2pico do teste aumentou 4,4 ml.kg-1.min-1 no GE (p=0,01) e manteve-se semelhante no GC. CONCLUSÃO: O PEF normalizou o comportamento da hiper-reatividade pressórica em homens sedentários.BACKGROUND: Some normotensive sedentary individuals have an exaggerated increase in blood pressure (BP) during physical activity, which is a behavior that is called blood pressure hyper-reactivity. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of an aerobic exercise program (AEP) on blood pressure in individuals with blood pressure hyper-reactivity (BPH). METHODS: Ten male volunteers with BPH, aged 45 ± 10 years, referred to as the experimental group (EG), took part in an AEP on a treadmill, 3 times a week for two months. They were compared to 14 men with BPH, aged 48 ± 8 years, referred to as the control group (CG), who remained sedentary. The subjects were evaluated before and after the AEP by stress test for comparison purposes. We evaluated the initial, peak and test-end heart rates (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). RESULTS: There a significant decrease in the initial SBP (-5%; p=0.01), initial DBP (-4.6%; p=0.01), peak SBP (-12.4%; p=0.001), peak DBP (-14.7%; p=0.03), final SBP (-4.6%, p=0.03) in the EG. The CG continued with its hyper-reactive behavior, which evolved to more exaggerated levels when the results before and after the study were compared (p

In the version of this Letter originally published, the units of the bottom three values in the Fig. 1d legend were incorrect; they should have been W cm–2. This has now been corrected.