de Branges-Rovnyak spaces: basics and theory

For $S$ a contractive analytic operator-valued function on the unit disk ${\mathbb D}$, de Branges and Rovnyak associate a Hilbert space of analytic functions ${\mathcal H}(S)$ and related extension space ${\mathcal D(S)}$ consisting of pairs of analytic functions on the unit disk ${\mathbb D}$. This survey describes three equivalent formulations (the original geometric de Branges-Rovnyak definition, the Toeplitz operator characterization, and the characterization as a reproducing kernel Hilbert space) of the de Branges-Rovnyak space ${\mathcal H}(S)$, as well as its role as the underlying Hilbert space for the modeling of completely non-isometric Hilbert-space contraction operators. Also examined is the extension of these ideas to handle the modeling of the more general class of completely nonunitary contraction operators, where the more general two-component de Branges-Rovnyak model space ${\mathcal D}(S)$ and associated overlapping spaces play key roles. Connections with other function theory problems and applications are also discussed. More recent applications to a variety of subsequent applications are given in a companion survey article

Subcellular compartmentalisation of copper, iron, manganese, and zinc in the Parkinson's disease brain

© 2017 The Royal Society of Chemistry. Elevated iron and decreased copper levels are cardinal features of the degenerating substantia nigra pars compacta in the Parkinson's disease brain. Both of these redox-active metals, and fellow transition metals manganese and zinc, are found at high concentrations within the midbrain and participate in a range of unique biological reactions. We examined the total metal content and cellular compartmentalisation of manganese, iron, copper and zinc in the degenerating substantia nigra, disease-affected but non-degenerating fusiform gyrus, and unaffected occipital cortex in the post mortem Parkinson's disease brain compared with age-matched controls. An expected increase in iron and a decrease in copper concentration was isolated to the soluble cellular fraction, encompassing both interstitial and cytosolic metals and metal-binding proteins, rather than the membrane-associated or insoluble fractions. Manganese and zinc levels did not differ between experimental groups. Altered Fe and Cu levels were unrelated to Braak pathological staging in our cases of late-stage (Braak stage V and VI) disease. The data supports our hypothesis that regional alterations in Fe and Cu, and in proteins that utilise these metals, contribute to the regional selectively of neuronal vulnerability in this disorder

A simple spreadsheet-based, MIAME-supportive format for microarray data: MAGE-TAB

BACKGROUND: Sharing of microarray data within the research community has been greatly facilitated by the development of the disclosure and communication standards MIAME and MAGE-ML by the MGED Society. However, the complexity of the MAGE-ML format has made its use impractical for laboratories lacking dedicated bioinformatics support. RESULTS: We propose a simple tab-delimited, spreadsheet-based format, MAGE-TAB, which will become a part of the MAGE microarray data standard and can be used for annotating and communicating microarray data in a MIAME compliant fashion. CONCLUSION: MAGE-TAB will enable laboratories without bioinformatics experience or support to manage, exchange and submit well-annotated microarray data in a standard format using a spreadsheet. The MAGE-TAB format is self-contained, and does not require an understanding of MAGE-ML or XML

Protective and risk factors in amateur equestrians and description of injury patterns: A retrospective data analysis and a case - control survey

Background In Switzerland there are about 150,000 equestrians. Horse related injuries, including head and spinal injuries, are frequently treated at our level I trauma centre. Objectives To analyse injury patterns, protective factors, and risk factors related to horse riding, and to define groups of safer riders and those at greater risk Methods We present a retrospective and a case-control survey at conducted a tertiary trauma centre in Bern, Switzerland. Injured equestrians from July 2000 - June 2006 were retrospectively classified by injury pattern and neurological symptoms. Injured equestrians from July-December 2008 were prospectively collected using a questionnaire with 17 variables. The same questionnaire was applied in non-injured controls. Multiple logistic regression was performed, and combined risk factors were calculated using inference trees. Results Retrospective survey A total of 528 injuries occured in 365 patients. The injury pattern revealed as follows: extremities (32%: upper 17%, lower 15%), head (24%), spine (14%), thorax (9%), face (9%), pelvis (7%) and abdomen (2%). Two injuries were fatal. One case resulted in quadriplegia, one in paraplegia. Case-control survey 61 patients and 102 controls (patients: 72% female, 28% male; controls: 63% female, 37% male) were included. Falls were most frequent (65%), followed by horse kicks (19%) and horse bites (2%). Variables statistically significant for the controls were: Older age (p = 0.015), male gender (p = 0.04) and holding a diploma in horse riding (p = 0.004). Inference trees revealed typical groups less and more likely to suffer injury. Conclusions Experience with riding and having passed a diploma in horse riding seem to be protective factors. Educational levels and injury risk should be graded within an educational level-injury risk index

Preventing weight gain: the baseline weight related behaviors and delivery of a randomized controlled intervention in community based women

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Women aged 25–45 years represent a high risk group for weight gain and those with children are at increased risk because of weight gain associated with pregnancy and subsequent lifestyle change. Average self-reported weight gain is approximately 0.60 kg per year, and weight gain is associated with increased risk of chronic disease. There are barriers to reaching, engaging and delivering lifestyle interventions to prevent weight gain in this population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This study investigated the baseline weight related behaviors and feasibility of recruiting and delivering a low intensity self-management lifestyle intervention to community based women with children in order to prevent weight gain, compared to standard education. The recruitment and delivery of the cluster-randomized controlled intervention was in conjunction with 12 primary (elementary) schools. Baseline data collection included demographic, anthropometric, behavioral and biological measures.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two hundred and fifty community based women were randomized as clusters to intervention (n = 127) or control (n = 123). Mean age was 40.4 years (SD 4.7) and mean BMI 27.8 kg/m²(SD 5.6). All components of this intervention were successfully delivered and retention rates were excellent, 97% at 4 months.</p> <p>Nearly all women (90%) reported being dissatisfied with their weight and 72% attempted to self-manage their weight. Women were more confident of changing their diet (mean score 3.2) than physical activity (mean score 2.7). This population perceived they were engaging in prevention behaviors, with 71% reporting actively trying to prevent weight gain, yet they consumed a mean of 68 g fat/day (SD30 g) and 27 g saturated fat/day (SD12 g) representing 32% and 13% of energy respectively. The women had a high rate of dyslipidemia (33%) and engaged in an average of 9187 steps/day (SD 3671).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Delivery of this low intensity intervention to a broad cross-section of community based women with children is feasible. Women with children are engaging in lifestyle behaviours which do not confer adequate health benefits. They appear to be motivated to attend prevention programs by their interest in weight management. Interventions are required to strengthen and sustain current attempts at achieving healthy lifestyle behaviours in women to prevent weight gain.</p> <p>Trial Registration Number</p> <p>ACTRN 12608000110381</p

The unrecognised cost of cancer patients' unrelieved symptoms:a nationwide follow-up of their surviving partners

We investigated if a cancer patient's unrelieved symptoms during the last 3 months of life increase the risk of long-term psychological morbidity of the surviving partner. All women (n=506) living in Sweden under 80 years of age, who lost their husband/partner owing to cancer of the prostate in 1996 or of the urinary bladder in 1995 or 1996 were asked to answer an anonymous postal questionnaire, 2–4 years after their loss. The widows' psychological morbidity was associated with the patient's unrelieved mental symptoms. When the patient was perceived to have been very anxious during last three months of life (compared to no observed symptoms) the relative risks for the widows' psychological morbidity were: 2.5 (1.4–4.3) for depression and 3.4 (1.4–8.2) for anxiety. When comparing reports of the patient's pain (much vs no), the relative risks were 0.8 (0.5–1.2) for widowhood depression, and 0.8 (0.4–1.7) for widowhood anxiety. The patients were found to have had adequate access to physical pain control but poor access to psychological symptom control. Efficiency in diagnosing and treating psychological complications of terminally ill cancer patients may not only improve their quality of life but possibly also prevent long-term psychological morbidity of their surviving partners

X-Ray Spectroscopy of Stars

(abridged) Non-degenerate stars of essentially all spectral classes are soft X-ray sources. Low-mass stars on the cooler part of the main sequence and their pre-main sequence predecessors define the dominant stellar population in the galaxy by number. Their X-ray spectra are reminiscent, in the broadest sense, of X-ray spectra from the solar corona. X-ray emission from cool stars is indeed ascribed to magnetically trapped hot gas analogous to the solar coronal plasma. Coronal structure, its thermal stratification and geometric extent can be interpreted based on various spectral diagnostics. New features have been identified in pre-main sequence stars; some of these may be related to accretion shocks on the stellar surface, fluorescence on circumstellar disks due to X-ray irradiation, or shock heating in stellar outflows. Massive, hot stars clearly dominate the interaction with the galactic interstellar medium: they are the main sources of ionizing radiation, mechanical energy and chemical enrichment in galaxies. High-energy emission permits to probe some of the most important processes at work in these stars, and put constraints on their most peculiar feature: the stellar wind. Here, we review recent advances in our understanding of cool and hot stars through the study of X-ray spectra, in particular high-resolution spectra now available from XMM-Newton and Chandra. We address issues related to coronal structure, flares, the composition of coronal plasma, X-ray production in accretion streams and outflows, X-rays from single OB-type stars, massive binaries, magnetic hot objects and evolved WR stars.Comment: accepted for Astron. Astrophys. Rev., 98 journal pages, 30 figures (partly multiple); some corrections made after proof stag

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

X-ray emission from the Sombrero galaxy: discrete sources

We present a study of discrete X-ray sources in and around the bulge-dominated, massive Sa galaxy, Sombrero (M104), based on new and archival Chandra observations with a total exposure of ~200 ks. With a detection limit of L_X = 1E37 erg/s and a field of view covering a galactocentric radius of ~30 kpc (11.5 arcminute), 383 sources are detected. Cross-correlation with Spitler et al.'s catalogue of Sombrero globular clusters (GCs) identified from HST/ACS observations reveals 41 X-rays sources in GCs, presumably low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). We quantify the differential luminosity functions (LFs) for both the detected GC and field LMXBs, whose power-low indices (~1.1 for the GC-LF and ~1.6 for field-LF) are consistent with previous studies for elliptical galaxies. With precise sky positions of the GCs without a detected X-ray source, we further quantify, through a fluctuation analysis, the GC LF at fainter luminosities down to 1E35 erg/s. The derived index rules out a faint-end slope flatter than 1.1 at a 2 sigma significance, contrary to recent findings in several elliptical galaxies and the bulge of M31. On the other hand, the 2-6 keV unresolved emission places a tight constraint on the field LF, implying a flattened index of ~1.0 below 1E37 erg/s. We also detect 101 sources in the halo of Sombrero. The presence of these sources cannot be interpreted as galactic LMXBs whose spatial distribution empirically follows the starlight. Their number is also higher than the expected number of cosmic AGNs (52+/-11 [1 sigma]) whose surface density is constrained by deep X-ray surveys. We suggest that either the cosmic X-ray background is unusually high in the direction of Sombrero, or a distinct population of X-ray sources is present in the halo of Sombrero.Comment: 11 figures, 5 tables, ApJ in pres