Tinnitus, the phantom perception of sound, is a frequent disorder that causes significant morbidity and treatment is elusive. A large variety of different treatment options have been proposed and from most of them some patients benefit. However, a particular treatment that helps one patient may fail for others. This suggests that there are different forms of tinnitus which differ in their pathophysiology and their response to specific treatments. Therefore, it is a major challenge for tinnitus treatment to identify the most promising therapy for a specific patient.However, most published clinical treatment studies have enrolled only relatively small patient samples, making it difficult to identify predictors of treatment response for specific approaches. Furthermore, inter-study comparability is limited because of varying methods of tinnitus assessment and different outcome parameters. Performing clinical trials according to standardized methodology and pooling the data in a database should facilitate both clinical subtypisation of different forms of tinnitus, and identification of promising treatments for different types of tinnitus. This would be an important step towards the goal of individualized treatment of tinnitus.For these reasons, an international database of tinnitus patients, who undergo specific treatments, and are assessed during the course of this treatment with standardized instruments (e.g., psychoacoustic measures, questionnaires) has been established. The primary objectives of this database are (1) collecting a standardized set of data on patient characteristics, treatments, and outcomes from tinnitus patients consulting specialized tinnitus clinics all over the world (at present 13 centers in 8 countries), (2) delineating different subtypes of tinnitus based on data that has been systematically collected and (3) identifying predictors for individual treatment response based on the clinical profile. Starting in 2008, the database currently contains data from more than 400 patients. It is expected that more centers will join the project and that the patient numbers will rapidly grow, so that this international database will further facilitate future research and contribute to the development of evidence based on individualized treatment.

We report the flexible piezotronic strain sensors fabricated using carbon fiber-ZnO nanowire hybrid structures by a novel and reliable method. The I-V characteristic of the sensor shows high sensitivity to external strain due to the change in Schottky barrier height (SBH), which has a linear relationship with strain. This fabricated strain sensor has a quick, real-time current response under both static and dynamic mechanical loads. The change in SBH resulted from the strain-induced piezoelectric potential is investigated by band gap theory. In this work we develop a new feasible method to fabricate a flexible strain sensor within the fabric adapted to textile structures, able to measure their strain.

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The Central European Basin is a classic area of salt tectonics, characterized by heterogeneous structural evolution and complex salt movement history. We studied an area on its SW margin, based on prestack depth-migrated 2D and 3D seismic data. We use seismic interpretation and retro-deformation to obtain a better understanding of salt tectonics, structural control, and sedimentary response in this region. The first phase of salt tectonic evolution started with two main events of NW-SE extension and rafting in the Triassic before the Upper Bunter and before the Upper Muschelkalk. Rafting was accompanied by first salt diapirism and an increased sedimentary thickness adjacent to the salt structure. After salt supply ceased updip to the salt structure, a mini-basin grew in the intra-raft area. This sedimentary differential loading caused salt movement and growth of a pillow structure basinward. The second phase of salt movement was initiated by the formation of a NNW-SSE striking basement graben in the Middle Keuper that triggered reactive diapirism, the breakthrough of the pillow's roof and salt extrusion. The following downbuilding process was characterized by sedimentary wedges with basal unconformities, onlap structures and salt extrusions that ceased in the Jurassic. The third and latest phase of salt tectonic evolution was activated in the Late Cretaceous to Lower Tertiary by compressional tectonics indicated by salt rise and a small horizontal shortening of the diapir. The interpreted salt tectonic processes and the resulting geometries can now be better tied in with the regional heterogeneous framework of the basin.

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A special relation between Young's modulus, Rayleigh-wave velocity, and Poisson's ratio