Schur Q-functions and degeneracy locus formulas for morphisms with symmetries

We give closed-form formulas for the fundamental classes of degeneracy loci associated with vector bundle maps given locally by (not necessary square) matrices which are symmetric (resp. skew-symmetric) w.r.t. the main diagonal. Our description uses essentially Schur Q-polynomials of a bundle, and is based on a certain push-forward formula for these polynomials in a Grassmann bundle.Comment: 22 pages, AMSTEX, misprints corrected, exposition improved. to appear in the Proceedings of Intersection Theory Conference in Bologna, "Progress in Mathematics", Birkhause

Development of a Low Power Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer for In-Situ Detection of Organics in Martian Soil

The Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) is a joint venture by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a sensitive, light-weight, low-power mass spectrometer for chemical analysis on Mars. MOMA is a key analytical instrument aboard the 2018 ExoMars rover mission seeking signs of past or present life. The current prototype was built to demonstrate operation of gas chromatography (OC) and laser desorption (LD) mass spectrometry under martian ambient conditions (5-7 Torr of CO2-rich atmosphere). Recent reports have discussed the MO MA concept, design and performance. Here, we update the current prototype performance, focusing specifically on the GCMS mode

The New Political Economy of EU State Aid Policy

Despite its importance and singularity, the EU’s state aid policy has attracted less scholarly attention than other elements of EU competition policy. Introducing the themes addressed by the special issue, this article briefly reviews the development of EU policy and highlights why the control of state aid matters. The Commission’s response to the current economic crisis notably in banking and the car industry is a key concern, but the interests of the special issue go far beyond. They include: the role of the European Commission in the development of EU policy, the politics of state aid, and a clash between models of capitalism. The special issue also examines the impact of EU policy. It investigates how EU state aid decisions affect not only industrial policy at the national level (and therefore at the EU level), but the welfare state and territorial relations within federal member states, the external implications of EU action and the strategies pursued by the Commission to limit any potential disadvantage to European firms, and the conflict between the EU’s expanding legal order and national

Universality-Breaking Effects in Leptonic Z Decays

We analyze the possibility of universality violation in diagonal leptonic decays of the $Z$ boson, in the context of interfamily "see-saw" models. In a minimal extension of the Standard Model with right-handed neutrino fields, we find that universality-breaking effects increase quadratically with the heavy Majorana neutrino mass and may be observed in the running $LEP$ experiments.Comment: MZ-TH/93-04 #, LaTeX, 14 p. (2 Figs

European Financial Market Integration: A Closer Look at Government Bonds in Eurozone Countries

The European Union made a number of steps not least of them the introduction of a common currency to foster the integration of the European financial markets. A number of papers have tried to gauge the degree of integration for various financial markets looking at the convergence of interest rates. A common finding is that government bond markets are quite well integrated. In this paper stochastic Kernel density estimates are used to take a closer look at the dynamics that drive the process of interest rate convergence. The main finding is that countries with large initial deviations from the mean interest rate do indeed converge. Interestingly the candidates least suspected namely the countries initially with interest rates at the mean level show a pattern of slight divergence

Domains and outcome measures for the assessment of limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis: a scoping review protocol

Introduction: Limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis (lcSSc) is the most frequent subset of systemic sclerosis. Despite this, lcSSc is not the major focus of clinical studies. The lack of interventional studies in lcSSc is due, in part, to a paucity of relevant outcome measures to effectively evaluate this subset. A combined response index dedicated to lcSSc would facilitate development of well-designed trials and approval of new drugs. The objective of this scoping review is to perform a broad and comprehensive identification of the outcome measures (core set items) within relevant domains, which have been used so far to assess lcSSc. Methods and analysis: The planned scoping review will be based on the approach proposed by Arksey et al and further developed by Levac et al. Development and reporting will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses—Extension for Scoping Reviews checklist and guidelines. The development of the search strategy was guided by the concepts of domains and outcomes based on the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology approach and by the different names and definitions of SSc, with a specific emphasis on their occurrence in clinical trial studies. Two databases will be searched: MEDLINE and Embase. Studies in English, published from the year 1988 onwards, will be included, since 1988 corresponds to the publication of LeRoy’s first consensus definition of lcSSc. Data will be extracted and analysed using a standardised charting tool. Ethics and dissemination: No ethical approval is required for this study. The results will be submitted to an international peer-reviewed journal and scientific conferences, informing the discussion on which items should be included in a combined response index dedicated to lcSSc (the CRISTAL project: Combined Response Index for Scleroderma Trial Assessing lcSSc)

A detailed clinical and molecular survey of subjects with nonsyndromic USH2A retinopathy reveals an allelic hierarchy of disease-causing variants.

Defects in USH2A cause both isolated retinal disease and Usher syndrome (ie, retinal disease and deafness). To gain insights into isolated/nonsyndromic USH2A retinopathy, we screened USH2A in 186 probands with recessive retinal disease and no hearing complaint in childhood (discovery cohort) and in 84 probands with recessive retinal disease (replication cohort). Detailed phenotyping, including retinal imaging and audiological assessment, was performed in individuals with two likely disease-causing USH2A variants. Further genetic testing, including screening for a deep-intronic disease-causing variant and large deletions/duplications, was performed in those with one likely disease-causing change. Overall, 23 of 186 probands (discovery cohort) were found to harbour two likely disease-causing variants in USH2A. Some of these variants were predominantly associated with nonsyndromic retinal degeneration ('retinal disease-specific'); these included the common c.2276 G>T, p.(Cys759Phe) mutation and five additional variants: c.2802 T>G, p.(Cys934Trp); c.10073 G>A, p.(Cys3358Tyr); c.11156 G>A, p.(Arg3719His); c.12295-3 T>A; and c.12575 G>A, p.(Arg4192His). An allelic hierarchy was observed in the discovery cohort and confirmed in the replication cohort. In nonsyndromic USH2A disease, retinopathy was consistent with retinitis pigmentosa and the audiological phenotype was variable. USH2A retinopathy is a common cause of nonsyndromic recessive retinal degeneration and has a different mutational spectrum to that observed in Usher syndrome. The following model is proposed: the presence of at least one 'retinal disease-specific' USH2A allele in a patient with USH2A-related disease results in the preservation of normal hearing. Careful genotype-phenotype studies such as this will become increasingly important, especially now that high-throughput sequencing is widely used in the clinical setting.European Journal of Human Genetics advance online publication, 4 February 2015; doi:10.1038/ejhg.2014.283