In this work, we study the acceleration of hot plasma to relativistic speed through the Compton rocket effect which is viable in the two-flow paradigm.

Two types of optoelectronic oscillators delivering high spectral purity microwave signals are presented in this paper. These oscillators use the Pound–Drever–Hall laser stabilization technique to lock the laser carrier onto two different types of passive optical resonators featuring high-quality factors: a fiber ring resonator (FRR) and a whispering gallery mode monocrystalline disk-shaped micro-resonator. The different noise processes occurring inside these oscillators are discussed. Particular attention is given to the conversion of the laser's amplitude and frequency noise into RF phase noise via the laser stabilization loop and the resonator, and via the photodetector nonlinearity as well. A modeling approach using CAD software is also proposed to qualitatively evaluate laser noise conversion through the optical resonator. Moreover, different contributions of nonlinear optical scattering noise are discussed, mainly in the case of the FRR-based oscillator. When controlling these nonlinear optical effects in the case of the FRR, low-phase noise operation of the oscillator has been achieved, with a −40 dBc/Hz noise level at 10 Hz offset frequency from a 10.2 GHz RF carrier.

Background: People with dementia report lower quality of life, but we know little about what interventions might improve it.

Methods: We systematically reviewed 20 randomized controlled trials reporting the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions in improving quality of life or well-being of people with dementia meeting predetermined criteria. We rated study validity with a checklist. We contacted authors for additional data. We calculated standardized mean differences (SMD) and, for studies reporting similar interventions, pooled standardized effect sizes (SES).

Results: Pooled analyses found that family carer coping strategy-based interventions (four studies, which did not individually achieve significance; n = 420; SES 0.24 (range 0.03–0.45)) and combined patient activity and family carer coping interventions (two studies, not individually significant; n = 191; SES 0.84 (range 0.54–1.14)) might improve quality of life. In one high-quality study, a care management system improved quality of life of people with dementia living at home. Group Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (GCST) improved quality of life of people with dementia in care homes.

Conclusion: Preliminary evidence indicated that coping strategy-based family carer therapy with or without a patient activity intervention improved quality of life of people with dementia living at home. GCST was the only effective intervention in a higher quality trial for those in care homes, but we did not find such evidence in the community. Few studies explored whether effects continued after the intervention stopped. Future research should explore the longer-term impact of interventions on, and devise strategies to increase, life quality of people with dementia living in care homes or at home without a family carer.

Introduction. Knowledge of tephritid diversity in Senegal was poor before 2004, so PIP-COLEACP and CIRAD, in collaboration with Cérès-DPV, carried out, in 2004, trapping for preliminary detection of fruit flies in six orchards in the Niayes zone. Materials and methods. We selected three mixed mango orchards and three homogeneous mango orchards in this zone. In each orchard, we used three attractants: Terpinyl acetate (Ter), Trimedlure (Tri) and Torula (Tor). Traps were serviced weekly. Results. We captured 77 642 fruit flies in more than 4 months including mango season; they were represented by 18 identified fly species, including ten Ceratitis, six Dacus and two Bactrocera species. Two very serious pests were identified with the confirmation of Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) for cucurbit crops and the detection of B. invadens Drew Tsuruta & White for fruit crops. The two most abundant species of Ceratitis were C. cosyra and C. silvestrii. Discussion. We captured more fruit fly species in mixed mango orchards than in homogeneous mango orchards. Bactrocera invadens was also more abundant in mixed orchards, probably because of its polyphagous status. This new invasive species, B. invadens, can have many hosts in mixed mango orchards, enhancing its breeding potential. Conclusion. Effective management to deal with this alien species requires: (i) improvement of basic and applied research; (ii) an effective IPM package; (iii) an area-wide management approach; (iv) a sub-regional effort on the part of researchers, extension services, growers, exporters, farming associations and the different actors in fruit value chains (mainly mango).

We report investigations on the fabrication and characterization of graphene nanoribbon (GNR) field-effect transistors. Graphene layers are obtained from the thermal decomposition of a Si-face 4H-SiC substrate. To achieve high dynamic performance, a structure with an array of GNR connected in parallel was fabricated by e-beam lithography. The best intrinsic current gain cut-off frequency of 60 GHz and maximum oscillation frequency of 28 GHz were achieved. This study demonstrates the exciting potential of GNR in high-frequency electronics.

The question of the collimation of relativistic jets is the subject of a lively debate in the community. We numerically compute the apparent velocity and the Doppler factor of a non homokinetic jet using different velocity profile, to study the effect of collimation on the appearance of relativistic jets (apparent velocity and Doppler factor). We argue that if the motion is relativistic, the high superluminal velocity are possible only if the geometrical collimation is smaller than the relativistic beaming angle γ−1. In the opposite case, the apparent image will be dominated by the part of the jet traveling directly towards the observer resulting in no apparent velocity. Furthermore, getting rid of the homokinetic hypothesis yields a complex relation between the observing angle and the Doppler factor, resulting in important consequences for the numerical computation of AGN population and unification scheme model.

Jet Emitting Disc (JED) has dynamical properties quite different from both the standard and advection dominated discs. It also exhibits three different thermal equilibrium branches at a given radius: two stable (cold and hot) and one intermediate unstable. The hot solution has all the characteristics of the so-called “hot corona” generally invoked in XrB sytems in the Low/Hard states. We detail the energetics and radiative expectations of our model and show their good agreement with those observed in Cygnus X-1 in terms of jet power, jet velocity and spectral emission.

Current symptomatic treatments for dementia have only modest efficacy. Assessing meaningful benefits in this variably progressive syndrome is complex and difficult. This consensus statement was generated by an international group representing caregivers, organizations and professionals with expertise in dementia.

We recommend the statement of clear, pre-defined diagnostic and severity criteria and outcome measures, which include functional and executive capacity, in treatment trials. Outcomes can include effects on people with dementia (PWD) with regard to cognition, behavioral and psychological symptoms, quality of life, global assessments, and activities of daily living, and must be tailored to the education and culture of the participants. Outcomes can also appropriately encompass effects on caregivers. New instruments may be needed, as validation of many existing measures has been in relatively homogenous populations. Treatment goals can be to prevent dementia emerging, or in those with established dementia to slow deterioration, and to postpone, stabilize or improve symptoms. Comparisons between treatment groups should be on the basis of clinically relevant measures with both risk and benefit reported for all participants regardless of whether or not they continue to receive treatment throughout the trial. Characterization of any groups that respond well to treatment has been unsuccessful to date, but may be facilitated in the future by measurement of putative biomarkers. Despite considerable recent progress and several ‘candidate’ biomarkers, none is yet satisfactory for determining diagnosis, severity, progression or prediction of response.

To provide meaningful data, economic analyses should use up-to-date, country-specific data. Health economic measures should be incorporated as secondary outcomes in all Phase 3 trials since health systems are concerned with cost-effectiveness as well as clinical outcome. Health utility measures are not, however, validated satisfactorily in dementia, thus calling into question previous health economic analyses. While current drugs appear to reduce the amount of family caregiver time required by PWD, these costs fall in the main on older individuals who often exert little political leverage, rather than on society at large. Traditionally, elderly people have been marginalized in the political process. The growth in the older population across the world, and their potential for increasing political empowerment may lead to a radical re-evaluation of the economics of treatment in dementia.

This issue of International Psychogeriatrics is 96 pages thicker than usual, because it carries not only the International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA) Consensus Statement on Defining and Measuring Treatment Benefits in Dementia, but also a series of papers that were presented at the two-day conference devoted to the development of the consensus statement, which took place in the precincts of Canterbury Cathedral on 31 October and 1 November 2006. During the conference, the delegates (whose names are listed in an appendix to the consensus statement) heard presentations on what outcomes matter to people with dementia and their caregivers, how these can be measured and what they mean, cognitive change as an outcome, biological outcome measures, quality of life, neuropsychiatric symptoms (also known as behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD)), global measures of change, the relevance of different outcome measures to various cultures, activities of daily living, economic outcomes and the regulator perspective. These presentations have been refined into papers and are now published within these pages. In addition to 12 formal presentations on these topics, nine discussants led the conference in exploring the issues raised by the talks, and there was active and often heated debate on almost all the issues discussed. During the afternoon of 1 November agreement was achieved on several key points, which formed the basis for a draft consensus statement prepared the next day. This statement has been refined by a process of circulation among participants, whose suggestions have been incorporated into the document that is now published in this issue.

The electrical and microstructural properties of Au/Ti and Au/Pd/Ti contacts to p+-GaAs (C-doped, 5×1018cm−3) were investigated. Current-voltage measurements as a function of temperature showed that the Ohmicity of the Au/Ti contact improved upon annealing. However, the annealed binary contact featured Au spiking into the GaAs making it unsuitable for HBT applications. The addition of a Pd diffusion barrier layer between the Au and Ti metallisation layers prevented spiking, but resulted in a decrease in the Ohmicity of the contact.

For all the contact systems it was found that thermionic-field emission dominates the current transport mechanism across the metal-semiconductor interface between the temperature range 198K and 348K. The Au/Pd/Ti contact structure shows HBT potential, however higher epilayer doping levels will be required to produce satisfactory specific contact resistivities.

Au/Pd/Ti and Au/Ti/Pd ohmic structures to thin p+-GaAs layers have been investigated for use as contacts to the base region of HJBTs. The Au/Pd/Ti contact system yielded specific contact resistivities at or above 2.8 × 10−5Ω:cm2. Heat treatments up to 8 minutes at 380°C caused only limited interaction between the metallization and the semiconductor. The metal penetrated to a maximum depth of ≃2nm. Specific contact resistivity values less than 10−5Ωcm2 were achieved using the Au/Ti/Pd (400/75/75nm) scheme. The nonalloyed Au/Ti/Pd contact showed the best combination of electrical and structural properties with a contact resistivity value of 9 × 10≃6Ωcm2 and Pd penetration of the GaAs epilayer to a depth of cs30nm.

In addition to secreted growth factors, acting as autocrine or paracrine mitogens, breast cancer cells secrete other proteins whose function and significance in mammary carcinogenesis may be important. Among them, proteases are particularly interesting since it has been suggested that they play a role in metastatic process, and since at least two of them, the tissue type plasminogen activator and pro-cathepsin D, the precursor of a lysosomal protease, are induced by oestrogens and secreted in excess in some mammary cancer cells.

In oestrogen-receptor-positive human breast cancer cell lines (MCF7, ZR75–1), oestrogens stimulate cell proliferation and specifically increase the secretion into the culture medium of a 52,000-dalton (52-kDa) glycoprotein identified as the secreted precursor of a cathepsin D bearing mannose-6-phosphate signals, which is routed to lysosomes via mannose-6-phosphate-IGF-II receptors. We have determined the structure of this procathepsin D by sequencing its complete cDNA sequence, its chromosomal localisation and its transcriptional regulation by oestrogens and other mitogens. In breast cancer cells, pro-cathepsin D production and secretion is much higher and its processing is altered compared to normal mammary epithelial cells in culture. In vitro, pro-cathepsin D acts as an autocrine mitogen on breast cancer cells and can be activated at acidic pH to degrade extracellular matrix, suggesting a role in mediating the effect of oestrogens on tumour growth and invasion. Retrospective clinical studies indicate a significant correlation between high 52-kDa cathepsin D concentrations in the cytosol of primary breast cancer and poor prognosis (Danish Breast Cancer Group, S. Thorpe, Copenhagen). We propose that among the proteases secreted by cancer cells, 52-kDa cathepsin D is important both as a tissue marker in breast cancer and as a potential factor involved in carcinogenesis.