/// <summary>
        /// Recover a older ml settings from the persistent dump.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="persistentDump">Persistent ml settings dump as string</param>
        /// <returns>Previous ML_Settings object</returns>
        public static ML_Settings recoverFromPersistentDump(string persistentDump)
        {
            XmlDocument persistentMLSettings = new System.Xml.XmlDocument();

            persistentMLSettings.Load(persistentDump);
            XmlElement    mlsettings = persistentMLSettings.DocumentElement;
            StringBuilder sb         = new StringBuilder();

            foreach (XmlElement data in mlsettings)
            {
                if (data.InnerText != "" && data.InnerText.Trim().Length > 0)
                {
                    sb.Append(data.Name + ":" + data.InnerText.Trim() + " ");
                }
            }
            return(ML_Settings.readSettings(sb.ToString()));
        }