The PEP-II B-factory has already achieved twice the design daily-integrated luminosity. This is even more remarkable when looking at the beam orbits, especially in the low energy ring (LER). Orbit oscillations with an amplitude of 7 mm have grown over the years. Four attempts to steer them down resulted in a much lower luminosity and were therefore backed out. Finally, in August of 2001, the ma...

We study the convergence of a drift implicit scheme for one-dimensional SDEs that was considered by Alfonsi [1] for the Cox-Ingersoll-Ross (CIR) process. Under general conditions, we obtain a strong convergence of order 1. In the CIR case, Dereich, Neuenkirch and Szpruch [2] have shown recently a strong convergence of order 1/2 for this scheme. Here, we obtain a strong convergence of order 1 un...

OBJECTIVE Despite the recognition of importance to avoid visceral ischemia during thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm (TAAA) repair, the methodology of visceral perfusion seems still controversial and its pathophysiology has not been clearly understood. We investigated hepatosplanchnic metabolism during visceral perfusion/shunt in TAAA repair. METHODS Seventeen patients (10 male, 64+/-15 years o...