BACKGROUND Previous studies have indicated that acupuncture can alleviate the symptoms of Tourette syndrome (TS), but the evidence is insufficient. So far, there have been no reports on plum-blossom needle therapy for TS. Here we present a protocol for a randomized controlled trial using plum-blossom needle therapy to treat TS. METHODS/DESIGN Sixty patients will be randomly allocated into eit...

Mobile devices, more so than desktop computers, are used throughout the world. By internationalizing and localizing its content, a mobile application can provide the best experience for the widest possible audience. This paper describes how to internationalize and localize Java technologybased wireless enterprise applications. Although the constraints of mobile devices make internationalization...

--Tree crew supervisors in 48 California cities were asked what problems they encounter with the five most common trees along their streets. The top five trees of the 20 most often named were sweetgum, Modesto ash, southern magnolia, planetree, and Chinese or lacebark elm. Major problems reported included root damage to sidewalks and curbs, growth of suckers from the root crown, exceptionally f...

Genetically modified pigs that express fluorescent proteins such as green and red fluorescent proteins have become indispensable biomedical research tools in recent years. Cell or tissue transplantation studies using fluorescent markers should be conducted, wherein the xeno-antigenicity of the fluorescent proteins does not affect engraftment or graft survival. Thus, we aimed to create a transge...

APPROACH Traditional approaches to the problem of extracting data from texts have emphasized hand-crafted linguisti c knowledge. In contrast, BBN's PLUM system (Probabilistic Language Understanding Model) was developed as par t of an ARPA-funded research effort on integrating probabilistic language models with more traditional linguisti c techniques. Our research and development goals are : • m...

The ability to dynamically adapt an unstructured mesh is a powerful tool for solving computational problems with evolving physical features; however, an eecient parallel implementation is rather dii-cult. To address this problem, we have developed PLUM, an automatic portable framework for performing adaptive numerical computations in a message-passing environment. PLUM requires that all data be...

Acrylamide concentrations in prune products--baby strained prunes (range = 75-265 µg kg(-1)), baby apple/prune juice (33-61 µg kg(-1)), prune juice (186-916 µg kg(-1)) and prunes (58-332 µg kg(-1))--on the Canadian market were determined. The formation of acrylamide in a simulated plum juice was also investigated under 'drying conditions' in an open vessel at temperatures <100°C for 24 h and un...

At Krymsk Experiment Breeding Station of VIR, as a result collecting, studying, and selective use myrobalan plum genetic diversity, the intraspecific taxonomy species Prunus cerasifera Ehrh. was clarified. Donors traits significant for breeding were identified and, with their use, adaptable cultivars plum, Russian clonal rootstocks stone fruit plants developed. Intraspecific classification P. i...

Surveys were conducted in 1994 and 1995 to determine the pest status of the American plum borer, Euzophera semifuneralis (Walker), in New York State stone fruit crops. These surveys indicate that American plum borer is the most important of the wood-boring insects infesting tart cherries and also is an important pest in peaches suffering from canker diseases. It is not prevalent in plums or in ...