Nuclear axis. Secret collaboration between West Germany and South Africa

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cervenka, Z.; Rogers, B.

1978-01-01

Today there is virtually no doubt that the white racist minority government in Pretoria has-or shortly will have-its finger on the nuclear button, introducing a new and extremely volatile element into African politics and threatening the peace of the whole world. This book is the sinister story of how they are getting the bomb and who has helped them. Relying on hitherto top-secret government documents, informants, and the public record, Zdenek Cervenka of the Scandinavian Institute of Africa Affairs, and Barbara Rogers, formerly of the British Foreign Office and a consultant to the United Nations and the Congressional Subcommittee on Southern Africa, have pieced together the story of the clandestine collaboration between West Germany, and South Africa to develop operational nuclear weapons. The authors trace Germany's rise as a military nuclear power (only thirty years after unconditional surrender); the growth of its atomic cooperation with South Africa; the transfer of secret technological data; the way in which other countries-including the United States, Britain, France, Israel-have been involved. The authors show that the Germans, pledged never to develop nuclear weapons, have become a major nuclear power, and, together with the South African military-industrial complex, now have the power to alter the course of modern history in Europe, Africa, and the rest of the world. The authors conclude with a discussion of how the international system of nuclear safeguards failed and how the Western allies acquiesced in that failure

Professor Eugen Cerkovnikov (1904-1985): the founder of the Chemical and Biochemical Institute of the Rijeka University School of Medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Milin, Cedomila

2008-01-01

Professor Eugen Cerkovnikov, PhD (Kamenska, Russia, 1904- Rijeka, Croatia 1985) graduated in chemical technology from the Faculty of Engineering in Zagreb in 1929. His first job was at the School of Medicine in Paris in 1930, and then he moved to Zagreb to the Department of Organic Chemistry of the Faculty of Engineering run by our Nobel Prize winner Vladimir Prelog (1935-1938). There he took his PhD degree with a dissertation on piperidine gamma derivatives. From 1938 to 1947 he was a research associate at an institute established by the pharmaceutical company Kastel (later Pliva). This is when he became a lecturer at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Zagreb and the first director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry, established in 1946/47. In 1948 he became reader, and in 1956 (full) professor. In 1957 he moved to the newly established School of Medicine in Rijeka, and set up the Institute of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He ran the Institute until retirement in 1975. He was the second dean of the Rijeka University School of Medicine and a pioneer of quantum chemistry and medical cybernetics in undergraduate and (post)graduate courses. His scientific work consists of over 200 papers published at home and abroad, 60 professional papers, 20 book reviews, three works of translation, and 27 volumes of lecture notes. In 1958, professor Cerkovnikov established the Croatian Chemical Society and the Rijeka and Istria branches of the nation's Association of Chemists and Chemical Engineers, chairing them until 1974. In addition, he was one of the founding fathers, and the first chair of the Health Culture Studies Association in Rijeka (that preceded today's Croatian Scientific Society for the History of Health Culture), established in 1965.

Osteogenic cell differentiation on H-terminated and O-terminated nanocrystalline diamond films

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Liskova J

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Jana Liskova,1 Oleg Babchenko,2 Marian Varga,2 Alexander Kromka,2 Daniel Hadraba,1 Zdenek Svindrych,1 Zuzana Burdikova,1 Lucie Bacakova1 1Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic; 2Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague, Czech Republic Abstract: Nanocrystalline diamond (NCD films are promising materials for bone implant coatings because of their biocompatibility, chemical resistance, and mechanical hardness. Moreover, NCD wettability can be tailored by grafting specific atoms. The NCD films used in this study were grown on silicon substrates by microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition and grafted by hydrogen atoms (H-termination or oxygen atoms (O-termination. Human osteoblast-like Saos-2 cells were used for biological studies on H-terminated and O-terminated NCD films. The adhesion, growth, and subsequent differentiation of the osteoblasts on NCD films were examined, and the extracellular matrix production and composition were quantified. The osteoblasts that had been cultivated on the O-terminated NCD films exhibited a higher growth rate than those grown on the H-terminated NCD films. The mature collagen fibers were detected in Saos-2 cells on both the H-terminated and O-terminated NCD films; however, the quantity of total collagen in the extracellular matrix was higher on the O-terminated NCD films, as were the amounts of calcium deposition and alkaline phosphatase activity. Nevertheless, the expression of genes for osteogenic markers – type I collagen, alkaline phosphatase, and osteocalcin – was either comparable on the H-terminated and O-terminated films or even lower on the O-terminated films. In conclusion, the higher wettability of the O-terminated NCD films is promising for adhesion and growth of osteoblasts. In addition, the O-terminated surface also seems to support the deposition of extracellular matrix proteins and extracellular matrix

Expanded DMPK repeats in dizygotic twins referred for diagnosis of autism versus absence of expanded DMPK repeats at screening of 330 children with autism

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Musova Z

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Zuzana Musova,1 Miroslava Hancarova,1 Marketa Havlovicova,1 Radka Pourova,1 Michal Hrdlicka,2 Josef Kraus,3 Marie Trkova,4 David Stejskal,4 Zdenek Sedlacek1 1Department of Biology and Medical Genetics, 2Department of Child Psychiatry, 3Department of Child Neurology, Charles University 2nd Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Motol, 4Gennet, Centre for Fetal Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic Abstract: Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1 belongs to the broad spectrum of genetic disorders associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD. ASD were reported predominantly in congenital and early childhood forms of DM1. We describe dizygotic twin boys with ASD who were referred for routine laboratory genetic testing and in whom karyotyping, FMR1 gene testing, and single nucleotide polymorphism array analysis yielded negative results. The father of the boys was later diagnosed with suspected DM1, and testing revealed characteristic DMPK gene expansions in his genome as well as in the genomes of both twins and their elder brother, who also suffered from ASD. In accord with previous reports on childhood forms of DM1, our patients showed prominent neuropsychiatric phenotypes characterized especially by hypotonia, developmental and language delay, emotional and affective lability, lowered adaptability, and social withdrawal. The experience with this family and multiple literature reports of ASD in DM1 on the one side but the lack of literature data on the frequency of DMPK gene expansions in ASD patients on the other side prompted us to screen the DMPK gene in a sample of 330 patients with ASD who were first seen by a geneticist before they were 10 years of age, before the muscular weakness, which may signal DM1, usually becomes obvious. The absence of any DMPK gene expansions in this cohort indicates that targeted DMPK gene testing can be recommended only in ASD patients with specific symptoms or family history suggestive of DM1. Keywords: autism, myotonic

MRI-guided stereotactic amygdalohippocampectomy: a single center experience

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Vojtěch Z

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Zdenek Vojtěch,1 Hana Malíková,2 Lenka Krámská,3 Roman Liščák,4 Vilibald Vladyka41Department of Neurology, 2Department of Radiodiagnostics, 3Department of Psychology, 4Department of Stereotactic and Radiation Neurosurgery, Na Homolce Hospital, Prague, Czech RepublicBackground: This paper presents our experience of stereotactic radiofrequency amygdalohippocampectomy performed for intractable mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.Methods: The article describes the cases of 61 patients who were treated during the period from 2004 to 2010. Mean postoperative follow-up was 5.3 years. Neuropsychological results were obtained for a subset of 31 patients.Results: At their last postsurgical visit, 43 (70.5% patients were Engel class I, six (9.8% class II, nine (14.8% class III, and three (4.9% class IV. The surgery was complicated by four intracranial hematomas. One of them caused acute hydrocephalus and was treated by shunting and resolved without sequelae, while another caused transitory aphasia. The remaining hematomas were asymptomatic. There were two cases of meningitis which required antibiotic treatment. One patient committed suicide due to postoperative depression. After the procedure, we performed open epilepsy surgery and rethermolesions in three and two patients, respectively (8.2%. Patients showed increases in their mean full scale, verbal, and performance intelligence quotient (IQ scores of 4, 3, and 4 IQ points, respectively (P<0.05. Five (17.2%, four (13.8%, and four (13.3% patients improved their full scale, verbal, and performance IQ scores, respectively. No significant changes were found in memory performance, with a mean increase of 1, 3, and 0 memory quotient points in global, verbal, and visual memory, respectively (P<0.05. Global memory improved in three (10.3% patients, verbal memory in one (3.4%, and one patient (3.3% showed deterioration in visual memory.Conclusion: Stereotactic radiofrequency amygdalohippocampectomy offers a

Hand grip endurance test relates to clinical state and prognosis in COPD patients better than 6-minute walk test distance

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Kovarik M

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Miroslav Kovarik,1,2 Vera Joskova,1,2 Anna Patkova,1,2 Vladimir Koblizek,3 Zdenek Zadak,2 Miloslav Hronek1,2 1Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Kralove, Charles University, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic; 2Department of Research and Development, University Hospital Hradec Kralove, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic; 3Department of Pulmonary Medicine, University Hospital Hradec Kralove, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic Purpose: Patients with COPD present peripheral muscle dysfunction and atrophy, expressed as muscle strength and endurance reduction. The goal of this study was direct dynamometric assessment of hand grip endurance and strength in relation to the stage of disease, multidimensional predictors of mortality, and 6-minute walk test (6MWT. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no previous study determining these parameters.Patients and methods: In this observational study, 58 consecutive outpatients with stable COPD and 25 volunteers without respiratory problems were compared. All COPD subjects underwent a comprehensive examination to determine COPD severity, prognostic scales, and 6MWT. Body composition, basic spirometric parameters, and hand grip strength and endurance were determined in all study participants.Results: Patients in the COPD group had a 15% decrease in maximum strength (P=0.012 and a 28% decrease in area under the force/time curve (AUC of the endurance test (P<0.001 compared to the control group. Dynamometric parameters were significantly negatively associated with the stage of disease and values of multivariable prediction indexes, and positively associated with the results of 6MWT. In most cases, closer associations were found with AUC than with 6MWT and in the gender-specific groups.Conclusion: Both hand grip strength and endurance are impaired in COPD patients in comparison with the control group. In particular, AUC could be considered as an attractive option not only to

Dynamic balance in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and its relationship with cognitive functions and cerebellum

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Goetz M

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Michal Goetz,1 Jaroslava Paulasova Schwabova,2 Zdenek Hlavka,3 Radek Ptacek,4 Craig BH Surman5 1Department of Child Psychiatry, Second Faculty of Medicine, Motol University Hospital, 2Department of Neurology, 3Department of Statistics, 4Department of Psychiatry, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic; 5Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA Background: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD is linked to the presence of motor deficiencies, including balance deficits. The cerebellum serves as an integrative structure for balance control and is also involved in cognition, including timing and anticipatory regulation. Cerebellar development may be delayed in children and adolescents with ADHD, and inconsistent reaction time is commonly seen in ADHD. We hypothesized that dynamic balance deficits would be present in children with ADHD and they would correlate with attention and cerebellar functions. Methods: Sixty-two children with ADHD and no other neurological conditions and 62 typically developing (TD children were examined with five trials of the Phyaction Balance Board, an electronic balancing platform. Cerebellar clinical symptoms were evaluated using an international ataxia rating scale. Conners’ Continuous Performance Test was used to evaluate patterns of reaction. Results: Children with ADHD had poorer performance on balancing tasks, compared to TD children (P<0.001. They exhibited significantly greater sway amplitudes than TD children (P<0.001 in all of the five balancing trials. The effect size of the difference between the groups increased continuously from the first to the last trial. Balance score in both groups was related to the variation in the reaction time, including reaction time standard error (r =0.25; P=0.0409, respectively, r =0.31; P=0.0131 and Variability of Standard Error (r =0.28; P=0.0252, respectively, r =0.41; P<0.001. The burden of cerebellar symptoms was strongly related to

Relationship between remnant hippocampus and amygdala and memory outcomes after stereotactic surgery for mesial temporal lobe epilepsy

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Malikova H

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Hana Malikova,1,2,* Lenka Kramska,3,* Zdenek Vojtech,4,5 Jan Sroubek,6 Jiri Lukavsky,7 Roman Liscak8 1Department of Radiology, Na Homolce Hospital, 2Institute of Anatomy, Second Medical Faculty, Charles University in Prague, 3Department of Clinical Psychology, Na Homolce Hospital, 4Department of Neurology, Na Homolce Hospital, 5Department of Neurology, 3rd Medical Faculty, Charles University in Prague, 6Department of Neurosurgery, Na Homolce Hospital, 7Institute of Psychology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 8Department of Radiation and Stereotactic Neurosurgery, Na Homolce Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic *These authors contributed equally to this work Background and purpose: Mesial temporal structures play an important role in human memory. In mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE, seizure activity is generated from the same structures. Surgery is the definitive treatment for medically intractable MTLE. In addition to standard temporal lobe microsurgical resection, stereotactic radiofrequency amygdalohippocampectomy (SAHE is used as an alternative MTLE treatment. While memory impairments after standard epilepsy surgery are well known, it has been shown that memory decline is not a feature of SAHE. The aim of the present study was to correlate the volume of the remnant hippocampus and amygdala in patients treated by SAHE with changes in memory parameters.Materials and methods: Thirty-seven MTLE patients treated by SAHE (ten right, 27 left were included. Patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging examinations including hippocampal and amygdalar volumetry and neuropsychological evaluation preoperatively and 1 year after surgery.Results: Using Spearman correlation analyses, larger left-sided hippocampal reductions were associated with lower verbal memory performance (ρ=-0.46; P=0.02. On the contrary, improvement of global memory quotient (MQ was positively correlated with larger right-sided hippocampal reduction (ρ=0.66; P=0

Bioremediation Kinetics of Pharmaceutical Industrial Effluent

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M. Šabić

2015-05-01

Full Text Available In recent years, concerns about the occurrence and fate of pharmaceuticals that could be present in water and wastewater has gained increasing attention. With the public’s enhanced awareness of eco-safety, environmentally benign methods based on microorganisms have become more accepted methods of removing pollutants from aquatic systems. This study investigates bioremediation of pharmaceutical wastewater from pharmaceutical company Pliva Hrvatska d.o.o., using activated sludge and bioaugmented activated sludge with isolated mixed bacterial culture. The experiments were conducted in a batch reactor in submerged conditions, at initial concentration of organic matter in pharmaceutical wastewater, expressed as COD, 5.01 g dm–3 and different initial concentrations of activated sludge, which ranged from 1.16 to 3.54 g dm–3. During the experiments, the COD, pH, concentrations of dissolved oxygen and biomass were monitored. Microscopic analyses were performed to monitor the quality of activated sludge. Before starting with the bioremediation in the batch reactor, toxicity of the pharmaceutical wastewater was determined by toxicity test using bacteria Vibrio fischeri. The obtained results showed that the effective concentration of the pharmaceutical wastewater was EC50 = 17 % and toxicity impact index was TII50 = 5.9, meaning that the untreated pharmaceutical industrial effluent must not be discharged into the environment before treatment. The results of the pharmaceutical wastewater bioremediation process in the batch reactor are presented in Table 1. The ratio γXv ⁄ γX maintained high values throughout all experiments and ranged from 0.90 and 0.95, suggesting that the concentrations of biomass remained unchanged during the experiments. The important kinetic parameters required for performance of the biological removal process, namely μmax, Ks, Ki, Y and kd were calculated from batch experiments (Table 2. Figs. 1 and 2 show the experimental

SENSITIVITY TO ANTIBIOTICS, ANTISEPTICAL NOSOCOMIAL PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA, ISOLATED IN UROLOGICAL PATIENTS

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Rymsha E.V.

2015-05-01

cultures around the disks with antibiotics. To explore sensitivity to antiseptics used commercial samples drug Decesan® (decamethoxin of 0.02% solution ("YURI-PHARM", Ukraine, Miramistin® 0.01% solution (benzyldimethyl-myristoylation- Propylamine chloride monohydrate (ZAO Pharmaceutical firm "Darnitsa" and Chlorhexidine (chlorhexidine digluconate 0.05% solution (PJSC "Monfarm". Comparative evaluation of sensitivity of microorganisms to the test preparations was determined by the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBsC standard method, serial dilutions of the drug in a liquid medium (μg⁄ml. Results and discussion. Just received 20 nosocomially strains of P. аeruginosa. Isolated strains had the typical morphology polymorphic thin sticks, gramnegative on dense nutrient media formed a rounded, translucent colonies with a smooth edge, with a blue-green pigment. The biochemical properties referenceusa gram-negative bacteria were determined using Neverlast-24 (PLIVA – Lachema a. s. Brno, Czech Republic. The results of the determination of antibiotics susceptibility of tested strains P. aeruginosa. The greatest activity against the studied strains of P. аeruginosa had Meropenem, amikacin, ceftazidime and imipenem. Nimensa frequency of resistant strains identified to Meropenem were insensitive to 10% of strains of P. aeruginosa. From resistant to Meropenem 6 strains had perekhresne resistance to imipenem. The second activity with β-lactam antibiotics were identified ceftazidime. Insensitive to it were 5%. Antoniniani penicillins were less active than the carbapenems and ceftazidime.So resistant to Pirillo/tazobactam were 30% of the isolates. The most frequent combinations of stability were gentamicin – piperacillin 55,3%, gentamicin – piperacillin – piperacillin/tazobactam 35%. One strain of P. aeruginosa possessed simultaneously resistant to all antibiotics. Decesan and Miramistin had the same sensitivity P. aeruginosa (62.5± 8.94 μg∕ ml and 62.5±16,04 �

Vladimir Prelog i Zavod za organsku kemiju

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Jakopčić, K.

2007-03-01

-operation from the small but prosperous pharmaceutical company "Kaštel" in Zagreb. On behalf of the agreement, Prelog and his department obtained funds to fit up the laboratory and to start very prosperous research in the synthesis and studies of pharmaceutically interesting compounds. With his assistants, students and other collaborators, Prelog started research of cinchona bark alkaloids, preferentially oriented to the synthesis of quinine. For example, Prelog's method of double intramolecular alkylation to synthetize the quinuclidine moiety of quinine was patented by "Kaštel". With R. Seiwerth he developed the first useful synthesis of adamantane. Prelog's group started research in the field of sulphonamides and commercial success of "Streptazole" stimulated the development of the research laboratories within "Kaštel". The collaboration in the research continued in fields of other chemotherapeutics, analeptics, spasmolitics, barbiturates etc. Within the period 1935-1941, Prelog published 48 scientific papers and 8 patents. In less than seven years, his results enormously influenced the entire organic chemistry in Zagreb till nowadays. Under the confused and uncertain circumstances caused by the beginning of World War II, Prelog left Zagreb in 1941 and continued his extraordinary scientific career at the ETH in Zürich.During the war (1942-1945 the tuition and the Department were run by Dr. Rativoj Seiwerth, former collaborator and first assistant to V. Prelog. In almost unbelievable conditions, the young assistant, then assistant professor (since January 1943, R. Seiwerth fully succeeded in continuing most activities founded by Professor Prelog. After the war (1945, R. Seiwerth was forced to resign. Nevertheless, soon after R. Seiwerth continued his research work, firstly in the Institute for Industrial Research in Zagreb (1946-1952, and later in the Research Institute of "Pliva" in Zagreb. He retired in 1980.In post-war conditions (1945/46, the activity of the Technical

Obituary: E. Dorrit Hoffleit, 1907-2007

Science.gov (United States)

Trimble, Virginia

2007-12-01

, began writing about eighty short news notes per year for Volumes 1-15 of the newly for med Sky & Telescope. And then there was a war. Women were not, of course, drafted nor required to find state-side war work to avoid deployment overseas, but Dorrit, still mindful of her German heritage, volunteered. After about six months working under Zdenek Kopal on preparation of firing tables for Navy cannons, she returned briefly to Harvard, having been employed (and paid) at roughly the high-school student level by the Navy. But soon it was on to the Ballistic Research Laboratory of the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground and another computing job, this time for trajectories of anti-aircraft missiles. The other job opportunity was to measure missile tracks on photographic plates, which she would have preferred, but this would have placed her in the department headed by Edwin P. Hubble. No love was lost between Harvard's Shapley and Mount Wilson's Hubble, partly due to scientific differences, but also partly due to their very different views on what scientists should do in war time, so perhaps is was just as well she ended up in the computing section. There was another stage of fuss and bother to be got through before Dorrit received an appropriate, "professional" (meaning with PhD) rank and the commensurate salary. To the Colonel who complained that women were forever leaving their jobs to get married, she mentioned only her age, and not her early resolve never to marry or to have children, because of a deep worry that they might inherit the mental instability that had led to her maternal grandmother's institutionalization and early death. By the end of the war, her position, salary, and responsibilities a good match to her skills and credentials, Dorrit willingly put in another three years with the Army, working on reduction of records of "DOppler Velocity and Position" data for the captured V-2s being flown from White Sands Missile Range. But it was not the astronomy she loved, and

Comet Hyakutake to Approach the Earth in Late March 1996

Science.gov (United States)

1996-03-01

collisions of comets with the Earth may be found in an article by Zdenek Sekanina and Don Yeomans (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CALTECH, Pasadena, U.S.A.) which appeared in 1984 in the American journal The Astronomical Journal , Volume 89, page 154. Notes: [1] Prominent examples are Comet Kohoutek in 1973 and Comet Austin in 1990. [2] 1 Astronomical Unit (AU) = 149.6 million kilometres (the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun). Note also that ESO has set up a special Home Page for the Comet Hyakutake event ( http://www.eso.org/educnpubrelns/comet-hyakutake.html) where new information from ESO will be brought.

Obituary: Brian Marsden (1937-2010)

Science.gov (United States)

Williams, Gareth; Marsden, Cynthia

2011-12-01

compute the orbits of comets. Recalling his earlier interest in Jupiter's moons, he completed the requirements for his Ph.D. degree with a thesis on "The Motions of the Galilean Satellites of Jupiter". At the invitation of director Fred Whipple, he joined the staff of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge (MA) in 1965. Dr. Whipple was probably best known for devising the "dirty snowball" model for the nucleus of a comet a decade and a half earlier. At that time there was only rather limited evidence that the motion of a comet was affected by forces over and above those of gravitation (limited because of the need to compute the orbit by hand), and the Whipple model had it that those forces were due to the comet's reaction to vaporization of the cometary snow or ice by solar radiation. Dr. Marsden therefore developed a way to incorporate such forces directly into the equations that governed the motion of a comet. Application of a computer program that included these nongravitational effects to several comets soon gave results that were nicely compatible with Dr. Whipple's original idea. Continued refinement of the nongravitational terms, much of it done in collaboration with Zdenek Sekanina, a Czech astronomer and friend of Dr. Marsden whom he and Dr. Whipple succeeded in bringing to the U.S. as a refugee following the Soviet invasion of Prague in 1968, resulted in a wealth of improved computations of cometary orbits by the time Dr. Sekanina moved to California in 1980. It is noteworthy that the procedure devised and developed by Dr. Marsden is still widely used to compute the nongravitational effects of comets, with relatively little further modification by other astronomers. The involvement of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory with comets had been given a boost, shortly before Dr. Marsden's arrival there, by the transfer there from Copenhagen of the office of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, a quaintly named organization that was

PREFACE: CEWQO Topical Issue CEWQO Topical Issue

Science.gov (United States)

Bozic, Mirjana; Man'ko, Margarita

2009-09-01

This topical issue of Physica Scripta collects selected peer-reviewed contributions based on invited and contributed talks and posters presented at the 15th Central European Workshop on Quantum Optics (CEWQO) which took place in Belgrade 29 May-3 June 2008 (http://cewqo08.phy.bg.ac.yu). On behalf of the whole community took place in Belgrade 29 May-3 June 2008 (http://cewqo08.phy.bg.ac.yu, cewqo08.phy.bg.ac.yu). On behalf of the whole community of the workshop, we thank the referees for their careful reading and useful suggestions which helped to improve all of the submitted papers. A brief description of CEWQO The Central European Workshop on Quantum Optics is a series of conferences started informally in Budapest in 1992. Sometimes small events transform into important conferences, as in the case of CEWQO. Professor Jozsef Janszky, from the Research Institute of Solid State Physics and Optics, is the founder of this series. Margarita Man'ko obtained the following information from Jozsef Janszky during her visit to Budapest, within the framework of cooperation between the Russian and Hungarian Academies of Sciences in 2005. He organized a small workshop on quantum optics in Budapest in 1992 with John Klauder as a main speaker. Then, bearing in mind that a year before Janszky himself was invited by Vladimir Buzek to give a seminar on the same topic in Bratislava, he decided to assign the name 'Central European Workshop on Quantum Optics', considering the seminar in Bratislava to be the first workshop and the one in Budapest the second. The third formal workshop took place in Bratislava in 1993 organized by Vladimir Buzek, then in 1994 (Budapest, by Jozsef Janszky), 1995 and 1996 (Budmerice, Slovakia, by Vladimir Buzek), 1997 (Prague, by Igor Jex), 1999 (Olomouc, Czech Republic, by Zdenek Hradil), 2000 (Balatonfüred, Hungary, by Jozsef Janszky ), 2001 (Prague, by Igor Jex), 2002 (Szeged, Hungary, by Mihaly Benedict), 2003 (Rostock,Germany, by Werner Vogel and