General Correlation Research Articles

Understanding Refractive Index Changes in Homologous Series of Unbranched Organic Compounds Based on Beer's Law.

Changes of the refractive index for homologous series of hydrocarbons are usually plotted versus the density. While there is a clear linear dependence for alkanes and alkenes, the linearity deteriorates for homologous series with functional groups involving heteroatoms. The slope can even become negative, e. g., for carboxylic acids. For gaining a deeper understanding and to establish a more general correlation, we reinvestigate the corresponding theories starting with the Newton-Laplace, Gladstone-Dale and the Lorentz-Lorenz rules. We revisit the concept of molar refractivity pioneered by Landolt and Brühl and show that it is closely connected with a twin of Beer's law. We conclude that the refractive index of homologues series should better be plotted versus the molar concentration of the main UV-chromophore, the C-H bond, which actually causes the refractive index changes. This new approach is not limited to alkanes and alkenes but holds for homologous series with functional groups including heteroatoms.

Least-action variational continuum description of Darcian permeation of liquids and gases through stone materials

Watertightness of natural or artificial stone materials, like trap rock or concrete, is a basic property for assessing durability of the built heritage to weathering exposure. Fundamental research of the past century has shown that a reliable experimental determination of intrinsic permeability in stone materials can be achieved by uniaxial water-permeation tests under open-flow conditions, together with the opportunity of employing air permeation tests in place of water-tests to obtain important additional information on a given stone material. Correlations of practical relevance in such laboratory applications, among inlet pressure, outlet pressure and flow rate, stem all from solutions to the general continuum modelling problem of the permeation through a non-deformable homogeneous filter of an incompressible or compressible fluid under stationary uniaxial conditions. The present study addresses such class of mechanical problems on a theoretical variational basis to infer general correlations of practical relevance in permeability testing with a specific consideration of applications in which air-permeability testing combined with use of thinner filters makes the hypothesis of isothermal process in the permeating gas not straightforwardly applicable.

Acoustic Source Localization Using Kernel-based Extreme Learning Machine in Distributed Microphone Array

Acoustic source localization using distributed microphone array is a challenging task due to the influences of noise and reverberation. In this paper, acoustic source localization using kernel-based extreme learning machine in distributed microphone array is proposed. Specifically, the space of interest is divided into some labeled positions, and the candidate generalized cross correlation function in each node is treated as the feature mapped into the hidden nodes of extreme learning machine. During the training phase, by the implementation of kernel function, the output weights of the classifier are calculated and do not need to be tuned. After the kernel-based extreme learning machine (K-ELM) is well trained, the measured generalized cross correlation data are fed into the K-ELM classifier, and the output is the estimated acoustic source position. The proposed method needs less human intervention for both training and testing and it does not need to calibrate the node in advance. Simulation and real-world experimental results reveal that the proposed method has extremely fast training and testing speeds, and can obtain better localization performance than steered response power, K-nearest neighbor, and support vector machine methods.

Storage conditions, microbial quality, and transport costs of drinking water from alternative sources in a South African municipality.

Makana Local Municipality is located in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The area is water-scarce and has been undergoing aridification in recent years, ie, there has been a 7-year long drought. At the same time, there has been a breakdown in provision of municipal services, such as drinking water, to the population since at least 2008. Mi-crobial water quality has been a result of this, and monitoring has been a challenge. Given the drought and the prob-lems with drinking water delivery, it was necessary to conduct this study to investigate the microbial quality of alterna-tive water resources that the Makana population can use during the municipal water outage. The microbial water quality of alternative sources of drinking water in the Makana Local Municipality was examined using the H2S test kit and enumeration of the fecal coliforms. Storage of the collected water was examined for potential factors influencing the microbial water quality of the alternative sources of drinking water. The costs of the water provision from the most suitable alternative sources of potable water were calculated. There was a general correlation between the H2S test kit results and the fecal coliform concentrations, with the latter values ranging from <0 to 23 ± 7 colony-forming units/100 mL. The bottled water from two retail outlets was provided the best alternative source of potable/drinking water, which is microbially safe, for the Makana population. If the consumption of the drinking water from an alternative source takes place within 24 hours of collection, then the Fairview spring could also be used as a source of drinking water for Maka-na residents. The total cost per 1 L of drinking water from alternative sources was estimated to be from 1.51 to 5.81 ZAR. Therefore, the maximum cost of daily provision of drinking water from alternative sources would account for a maximum of 0.88 percent of the monthly household expenditure in the middle-to-high-income household. However, the daily costs of such provision of drinking water would account for a maximum of 8.11 percent of the monthly household expenditure in the low-income household. Provision of the drinking water from the alternative sources would have a minor impact of the monthly ex-penditure in the middle-to-high-income households. However, it is likely that the low-income households would not be able to sustain their water supply from alternative sources for longer than 24 hours, during a municipal outage in the drinking water supply.

A general and accurate correlation for the drag on spherocylinders

The dimensionless hydrodynamic force and torque or drag, lift and torque coefficients exerted on spherocylinders placed in uniform flows depend on three dimensionless parameters: the aspect ratio β, the incident angle θ, and the flow Reynolds number Re. An accurate Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) method is developed and more than one thousand simulations are performed to generate numerical data on the drag of spherocylinders in the aspect ratio range 1≤β≤6, incident angle range 0∘≤θ≤90∘, and Reynolds number range 0.1 ≤ Re ≤ 300. A systematic analysis of the data shows the correct dependence of the drag coefficient on β, θ and Re as well as the general trends of the drag coefficient. It also generates an accurate engineering correlation with an average error of around 2%, when compared to the more than one thousand DNS numerical results. The results also show – and analysis explains – other salient features of the drag on spherocylinders, in particular the exponent for the function sinθ, and a local minimum of the drag coefficient, which is due to the interplay between the friction and the form (pressure) parts of the drag.

CP violation in light neutrino oscillations and heavy neutrino decays: A general and explicit seesaw-bridged correlation

With the help of a block parametrization of the canonical seesaw flavor textures in terms of the Euler-like rotation angles and CP-violating phases, we derive a general and explicit expression for the Jarlskog invariant of CP violation in neutrino oscillations and compare it with the CP-violating asymmetries of heavy Majorana neutrino decays within the minimal seesaw framework which contains two right-handed neutrino fields. Two simplified scenarios are discussed to illustrate how direct or indirect the correlation between these two types of CP violation can be.

Study on the Spatial Structure and Drivers of Agricultural Carbon Emission Efficiency in Belt and Road Initiative Countries

Agricultural carbon emissions are one of the major causes of global climate change. As some of the world’s largest agricultural producers and consumers, countries along the route of the Belt and Road initiative produce significant agricultural carbon emissions. An in-depth study on the efficiency of agricultural carbon emissions in countries along the route can help countries reduce environmental load while improving agricultural production, optimizing resource use, improving agricultural production efficiency, and achieving sustainable development goals, which is significant for global climate change mitigation. Based on the relational data and network perspective, this paper takes the agricultural carbon emission efficiency of 34 countries along the route of the Belt and Road Initiative from 1995 to 2020 as the research object. It integrates the social network analysis method and other methods to realize the expansion of agricultural carbon emission efficiency in the research method. The study shows that (1) agricultural carbon emission efficiency has more room for improvement and presents complex spatially linked network characteristics; (2) the spatial correlation network of agricultural carbon emission efficiency is relatively well connected, and there is a general spatial correlation and spatial spillover effect among countries; and (3) similar differences in the proportion of primary industries and differences in informatization levels help establish spatial correlations between regions and produce spatial spillover effects. It is imperative to change global economic growth, social development, and lifestyles through green development. This study is conducive to the international community’s formulation of differentiated agricultural carbon emission reduction support mechanisms for different countries to help the countries realize the transformation of agriculture and even overall economic development as soon as possible. At the same time, accelerating the pace of emission reduction and reducing the negative impact of agricultural carbon emissions are conducive to better responding to the challenges posed by global climate change.

General correlation between neonatal factors, primary and permanent tooth eruption and their interrelation in a population in german orthodontic practices

BackgroundThe purpose of the study was to determine the possible relationship between the eruption of primary and permanent teeth and neonatal factors in German children according to gender.MethodsA cross-sectional survey study was performed in 10 German orthodontic practices. Using a questionnaire information about gender, time of birth (week of pregnancy), birth weight (g) and height (cm), and the age of first primary and first permanent tooth eruption (months/years) of 405 children (230 girls and 175 boys) were collected. A Mann–Whitney U-test was used for group comparisons, and correlations were verified using a Pearson test.ResultsNo correlation was found between neonatal factors (time of birth, birth weight, and birth height) and primary tooth eruption for male participants. However, for females a low correlation was found between the eruption of the first primary tooth and birth weight (r = -0.18, CI: -0.30 to -0.042, p = 0.011) and birth height (r = -0.19, CI: -0.32 to -0.054, p = 0.006). No correlations between neonatal factors and the eruption of the first permanent tooth were found for either gender. A moderate correlation was found between the first primary and first permanent tooth eruption (females: r = 0.30, CI: 0.16 to 0.43, p < 0.001; males: r = 0.22, CI: 0.059 to 0.35, p = 0.008).ConclusionsAn earlier eruption of the primary teeth can be assumed with greater body weight and height at the time of birth for girls. For boys, the tendency is the opposite. However, there seems to be a catch-up growth effect due to the missing differences between both permanent tooth eruption times. Nevertheless, the first primary and the first permanent tooth eruption correlates in a German children population.

PHONETIC, LEXICAL, GRAMMATICAL, COGNITIVE, AND PRAGMATIC LEVELS OF THE LINGUISTIC PERSONALITY (BASED ON THE INTERVIEW FROM THE AUTHOR’S MULTIMEDIA CORPUS)

The paper focuses on the analysis of the means of representation of the informant’s linguistic personality at phonetic, lexical, grammatical, cognitive, and pragmatic levels in the oral discourse. The material of the study is a transcript of an audio recording of one interview from the author’s multimedia corpus “Everyone has their own war”. The interview was recorded in the Ukrainian language in one of the most emotionally, psychologically, and physically difficult moments of the informant’s life. Despite a certain limitation of language material, the peculiarities of the speech manifestations of the linguistic personality of the informant, a twenty-nine age widow (a woman and a mother), are representative since she describes her life and the life of her family after the full-scale invasion on February 24 and until May 2022.&#x0D; The analysis of the informant’s linguistic personality shows that the verbal and semantic specificity is determined by the volume of lexical items, the peculiarities of nominating speech objects and the choice of means for their characteristic, as well as the style of speech. The informant’s speech is characterized by violations of literary norms: it is full of adapted and unadapted lexical and morphological units of the Russian language, and improper pronunciation of words, which in general correlates with her cultural and educational level. The informant’s vocabulary is pragmatically functional and determined by the level of education, social status, type of employment and living conditions. It clearly reflects the essence and content of &#x0D; the linguistic personality. The vocabulary of the everyday sphere prevails, onyms (toponyms, anthroponyms, ergonyms) and a small amount of military lexicon are also registered.&#x0D; Emotional and evaluative interjections with a positive or negative assessment are representatives of the emotional, functional, and semantic sphere of the informant’s speech. The connotative coloration is provided, in particular, by the verbal characterization of the occupiers, which includes ethnonymic nicknames, including those based on appearance, language, and behaviour.&#x0D; In terms of content and values, the discursive activity of the informant, represented by referential semantic elements, is determined by extralinguistic factors and it correlates with universal values.&#x0D; The motivational and pragmatic aspect of linguistic personality is grounded on the desire to speak out, and includes life or situational goals, which are reflected in the discourse. It is manifested, in particular, in the manner of speech, in the choice of markers used to organize and control the discursive coherence. The analysis of the pragmatic markers included their functions, the specifics of their use and frequency.

Mapping subsurface geological structures in the Birimian Supergroup, Ghana using airborne magnetic and radiometric data: Implications for gold exploration

Rarity of outcrops is a typical feature of considerable parts of the Birimian Supergroup in Ghana as a result of deep weathering which leads to the formation of thick surficial cover and laterization. This hampers the precise mapping of lithological boundaries and mafic dykes. These boundaries are tectonic contacts that may have the potential to host orogenic gold deposits. This study aims to map these subsurface geological features using regional airborne geophysical data. Derivatives of magnetic data such as analytic signal, vertical derivative, horizontal gradient and the ternary map of the radiometric data were employed to interpret subsurface geology. The general correlation of the magnetic and radiometric maps with the existing geological map confirms their suitability as geological mapping tools. Tectonostratigraphic contacts of several geological domains within the Birimian Supergroup were delineated. These zones host world-class gold deposits and are potential corridors to focus exploration activities to ensure efficient fund utilisation and minimisation of exploration risks. Additionally, SSE-NNW, WSW-ENE and WNW-ESE trending dolerite dyke swarms were outlined.

Revisiting Forced Convective Enhanced Heat Transfer in Offset-Strip-Fin Cores and Rationalized Performance Prediction Correlations

Abstract The development of rationalized correlations for Fanning friction factor f and Colburn j factor for forced air-flow convection in rectangular offset-strip-fin cores is presented in this study with 100 ≤ Re ≤ 8000. New experimental data and three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer computational simulations were acquired to understand the flow physics and heat transfer phenomena. The offset arrangement of the fins disrupts the fully-developed condition prevalent in plain fins to promote secondary flow and enhanced heat transfer, and this effect is found to be fundamentally scaled by offset length ratio λ(=ℓ/dh). Furthermore, because of the blunt surface edge or finite thickness of the offset fin, the flow stagnation and wake effects are integral parts to the secondary flow. The influence is found to be characterized by the thickness ratio ζ(=tRe/dh) as well as the rectangular flow cross section aspect ratio α(=s/hf). New models are proposed for f and j in both laminar and turbulent regimes based on the enhanced convection effects, which are represented by these scaling parameters, and are superimposed on the fully-developed condition in a rectangular channel. The correlations are thereby devised from the new sets of experimental data as well as that given in the open literature and thus cover a wide range of λ, ζ, and α. Because the transition from laminar to turbulent regimes is smooth and continuous, the general correlations of f and j are developed by asymptotic matching as single expressions and are shown to predict the extended dataset to within ±20%.

Thermal Performance Analysis of Composite Phase Change Material of Myristic Acid-Expanded Graphite in Spherical Thermal Energy Storage Unit

In order to improve energy storage efficiency and promote the early achievement of global carbon neutrality goals, this paper proposes a spherical thermal storage unit filled with a composite phase change material (CPCM) comprising myristic acid (MA) and expanded graphite (EG). The effects of EG content and Stefan number (Ste) on the melting performance were investigated through a combination of experiments and numerical simulations. The results show that an increase in EG content (especially for ≥4 wt.% EG) leads to a temperature profile that assumes a concentric ring shape, while the melting rate increases with an increase in both the EG mass fraction and the Ste number. Compared to pure MA, the time required to complete melting was reduced by 82.2%, 85.6%, and 88.0% at EG contents of 4 wt.%, 5 wt.%, and 6 wt.%, respectively. Notably, the Ste value has a greater effect on melting when the EG content is ≤3 wt.%. The optimal EG content in the spherical cell was determined to be 4 wt.%, and a dimensionless analysis established a general correlation between the liquid mass fraction and the Fo, Ste, and Gr numbers.

A study of finding empirical correlation for the Nusselt number and the factors influencing it for perforated fin array of different shapes

An experimental investigation of three-dimensional steady state forced convection heat transfer through perforated rectangular fins with three different materials were carried out. The experimental procedure has been done in turbulent region with Reynolds number range of (6200 ≤ Re ≤ 18,700) and (Pr = 0.71) and constant inlet air temperature of (Tin≈17°C) with a constant power input of (20 W ≤ Q ≤ 70 W) step 10 W. The current study used a rectangular fin array with three materials (stainless steel 430, aluminum 2014-T6, yellow brass), with various perforation shapes and patterns which includes [Rectangular, Circular, and V-shape, all (Inline, staggered)]. It is found that the mean deviation of average Nusselt number taken for previously published results to the experimental result of all specimens have been found to be ∓ 8 %. A general correlation has been derived based on average Nusselt number with an error of ± 5 % which is described with the formula (Nu¯=βRe¯αδRAFPrRAF). It is concluded that the general correlation equation derived has reasonably acceptable degree of accuracy and it’s more general and considers many materials with a wide range of RAF compared with the other equations. The average error found between the general correlation and previously published result is ± 9.8 %.

The Concentration of Pro- and Antiangiogenic Factors in Saliva and Gingival Crevicular Fluid Compared to Plasma in Patients with Peripheral Artery Disease and Type 2 Diabetes.

Several studies have investigated various biomarkers in relation to peripheral artery disease (PAD) for disease stratification and early-onset detection. In PAD, angiogenesis is required for tissue restoration and tissue perfusion. Considering changes in angiogenesis in patients with PAD, angiogenic factors could be explored as one of the new prognostic molecules. In recent studies, saliva and gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) have gained recognition as new, easily obtained diagnostic materials. This study aimed to compare the levels of selected circulating angiogenic factors (VEGF-A, PDGF-BB, and ANG-1) in unstimulated whole saliva (WS) and GCF versus plasma at three points in time to find possible correlations between their concentrations among patients with PAD and diabetes type 2 in 32 patients with Rutherford stages 5 and 6. A significant positive correlation has been demonstrated between circulating PDGF-BB levels in GCF and plasma. In most cases, comorbidities do not have an impact on the change in general correlation for the whole group. Our results clearly showed that GCF could be a good source for PDGF assessment. However, future studies with a larger number of subjects are warranted to confirm this finding and identify the most accurate angiogenic biomarkers in saliva or GCF that could be applied in clinical practice.

Differential diagnosis of benign and malignant vertebral compression fractures: Comparison and correlation of radiomics and deep learning frameworks based on spinal CT and clinical characteristics

PurposeDifferentiating benign from malignant vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) is a diagnostic dilemma in clinical practice. To improve the accuracy and efficiency of diagnosis, we evaluated the performance of deep learning and radiomics methods based on computed tomography (CT) and clinical characteristics in differentiating between Osteoporosis VCFs (OVCFs) and malignant VCFs (MVCFs). MethodsWe enrolled a total of 280 patients (155 with OVCFs and 125 with MVCFs) and randomly divided them into a training set (80%, n = 224) and a validation set (20%, n = 56). We developed three predictive models: a deep learning (DL) model, a radiomics (Rad) model, and a combined DL_Rad model, using CT and clinical characteristics data. The Inception_V3 served as the backbone of the DL model. The input data for the DL_Rad model consisted of the combined features of Rad and DCNN features. We calculated the receiver operating characteristic curve, area under the curve (AUC), and accuracy (ACC) to assess the performance of the models. Additionally, we calculated the correlation between Rad features and DCNN features. ResultsFor the training set, the DL_Rad model achieved the best results, with an AUC of 0.99 and ACC of 0.99, followed by the Rad model (AUC: 0.99, ACC: 0.97) and DL model (AUC: 0.99, ACC: 0.94). For the validation set, the DL_Rad model (with an AUC of 0.97 and ACC of 0.93) outperformed the Rad model (with an AUC: 0.93 and ACC: 0.91) and the DL model (with an AUC: 0.89 and ACC: 0.88). Rad features achieved better classifier performance than the DCNN features, and their general correlations were weak. ConclusionsThe Deep learnig model, Radiomics model, and Deep learning Radiomics model achieved promising results in discriminating MVCFs from OVCFs, and the DL_Rad model performed the best.

Scleral appearance is not a correlate of domestication in mammals

Numerous hypotheses try to explain the unusual appearance of the human eye with its bright sclera and transparent conjunctiva and how it could have evolved from a dark-eyed phenotype, as is present in many non-human primates. Recently, it has been argued that pigmentation defects induced by self-domestication may have led to bright-eyed ocular phenotypes in humans and some other primate lineages, such as marmosets. However, it has never been systematically studied whether actual domesticated mammals consistently deviate from wild mammals in regard to their conjunctival pigmentation and if this trait might therefore be part of a domestication syndrome. Here, we test this idea by drawing phylogenetically informed comparisons from a photographic dataset spanning 13 domesticated mammal species and their closest living wild relatives (n ≥ 15 photos per taxon). We did not recover significant differences in scleral appearance or irido-scleral contrast between domesticated and wild forms, suggesting that conjunctival depigmentation, unlike cutaneous pigmentation disorders, is not a general correlate of domestication. Regardless of their domestication status, macroscopically depigmented conjunctivae were observed in carnivorans and lagomorphs, whereas ungulates generally displayed darker eyes. For some taxa, we observed pronounced intraspecific variation, which should be addressed in more exhaustive future studies. Based on our dataset, we also present preliminary evidence for a general increase of conjunctival pigmentation with eye size in mammals. Our findings suggest that conjunctival depigmentation in humans is not a byproduct of self-domestication, even if we assume that our species has undergone such a process in its recent evolutionary history.

Facile estimation of viscosity of natural amino acid salt solutions: Empirical models vs artificial intelligence

Natural amino acid salt solutions (NAASs) are paving the way for greener carbon capture. This study developed simple and precise methods for the viscosity modeling of NAASs. Two approaches, namely, empirical correlations and artificial intelligence, were assessed using a large databank (16 NAAs, 3 alkaline compounds, 25 NAASs, and 1582 data points). Two general correlations and a global equation were suggested. Benefitting from the input of single reference-point data, the modified global equation yielded the best results with a 2.28% deviation. The other empirical models represented viscosities with less than a 7.20% error. The second approach, employing artificial neural networks (ANNs) with different algorithms, was also proposed. The best ANNs were a single-layer perceptron network with tansig + trainlm functions, a double-layer perceptron network with logsig + tansig + trainlm functions, and a radial basis function network with the maximum neurons. They managed to calculate the viscosities with errors of 2.82%, 1.82%, and 0.47%, respectively.

Center-to-Center Distance’s Effect between Vertical Square Tubes of a Horizontal Array on Natural Convection Heat Transfer

An experimental study on natural convection heat transfer from the outer surface of a horizontal array of vertical square tubes in the air is investigated. The array consists of three vertical square tubes at equally different center-to-center distances. Each tube has a square cross-section with a side length of 2.00 cm, 100 cm length, and is filled with sand. Each tube is heated by inserting an internal heating element with a constant heat flux at the center. Five center-to-center separation distance to hydraulic diameter ratios (S/D) are used at different heat flux ranges of 70–360 W/m2. Results show that at small S/D, the Nusselt number of any tube in the array is lower than that of the single tube up to a specific S/D and then increases as the ratio increases. Empirical correlations are obtained for each tube in the array at different S/D using the modified Rayleigh numbers only. General correlations using S/D as a parameter are obtained for each tube, and an overall general correlation using both S/D and the tube number (n) as parameters is obtained. The difference between the predicted and experimental Nusselt numbers is in the reasonable range even at high Rayleigh numbers.

Nitrite pathway in A2/O WWTPs: Modelling organic matter reduction, operational cost and N2O emissions

Deciding whether the implementation of the nitrite pathway is useful for the treatment of a given wastewater depends on several criteria such as organic matter availability, N and P removal, N2O emissions and operational costs. This work is a simulation-based study with a conventional Anaerobic/Anoxic/Oxic (A2/O) WWTP where the nitrite pathway can be implemented. The outcomes are general correlations to calculate the minimum COD requirements for a certain influent and a practical decision tree on the opportunities of nitrite pathway in A2/O WWTPs as a function of the influent wastewater composition (for P and N concentrations in the ranges 3–11 mgPO4−3-P·L−1 and 20–60 mg NH4+-N·L−1). This study shows that the implementation of the nitrite pathway reduces the COD requirements (depending on the influent, between 9 and 68%). It also can lead to a reduction in aeration costs. For an equivalent COD in the influent, the implementation of the nitrite pathway compared to the nitrate pathway results in a reduction of 41-47% in aeration costs and similar sludge production, leading to a reduction in the operational cost index of 10-16%. However, it is essential to note that this strategy can also lead to increased N2O emissions, with an emission factor for the nitrite pathway in the range of 2.5–17 times that of the nitrate pathway.

Structural Properties of Gibbsian Point Processes in Abstract Spaces

In the language of random counting measures, many structural properties of the Poisson process can be studied in arbitrary measurable spaces. We provide a similarly general treatise of Gibbs processes. With the GNZ equations as a definition of these objects, Gibbs processes can be introduced in abstract spaces without any topological structure. In this general setting, partition functions, Janossy densities, and correlation functions are studied. While the definition covers finite and infinite Gibbs processes alike, the finite case allows, even in abstract spaces, for an equivalent and more explicit characterization via a familiar series expansion. Recent generalizations of factorial measures to arbitrary measurable spaces, where counting measures cannot be written as sums of Dirac measures, likewise allow to generalize the concept of Hamiltonians. The DLR equations, which completely characterize a Gibbs process, as well as basic results for the local convergence topology, are also formulated in full generality. We prove a new theorem on the extraction of locally convergent subsequences from a sequence of point processes and use this statement to provide existence results for Gibbs processes in general spaces with potentially infinite range of interaction. These results are used to guarantee the existence of Gibbs processes with cluster-dependent interactions and to prove a recent conjecture concerning the existence of Gibbsian particle processes.