The recent attention to landscape in galleries and museums across the region could be taken as a sign that this age-old genre is experiencing one of its occasional spikes in fashionableness.

When he does experience an occasional spike in his blood pressure, he said, it is usually caused by an unexpected event, particularly on the battlefield.

While that interest has ebbed since spring (with occasional spikes, as when Saddam Hussein was captured) the demographic contours of the war's most loyal audience have been fairly uniform.

Tests have revealed occasional spikes in the levels of soot, which seem to be associated with the flare-ups of fires within the wreckage, state environmental officials said.

Amazon.com was the first such provider, modernising its data centers which, like most computer networks were using as little as 10% of its capacity at any one time just to leave room for occasional spikes.

The falling curve of Mr. Grossman's spirits, with occasional spikes, reads like a vital-signs monitor approaching flat line.

A few rotting crossties half buried in the ground, an occasional rusty spike, scattered rock from the track ballast.

Mr. Mascali responded that the emergency beds were "a legal and appropriate method of dealing with occasional spikes in the shelter census."

Typically, the graphs indicate occasional spikes of activity, when a few people download a huge software file.

If companies designed their systems to comfortably cope with occasional massive spikes in traffic, they would be over-specified for the rest of the time.