Shape Theory

Shape theory was founded by K.~Borsuk 50 years ago. In essence, this is spectral homotopy theory; it occupies an important place in geometric topology. The article presents the basic concepts and the most important, in our opinion, results of shape theory. Unfortunately, many other interesting problems and results related to this theory could not be covered because of space limitations. The article contains an extensive bibliography for those who wants to gain a more detailed and systematic insight into the issues considered in the survey.Comment: 46 page

Bi-Equivariant Fibrations

The lifting problem for continuous bi-equivariant maps and bi-equivariant covering homotopies is considered, which leads to the notion of a bi-equivariant fibration. An intrinsic characteristic of a bi-equivariant Hurewicz fibration is obtained. Theorems concerning a relationship between bi-equivariant fibrations and fibrations generated by them are proved.Comment: 8 page

Yu. M. Smirnov's General Equivariant Shape Theory

A general equivariant shape theory for arbitrary $G$-spaces in the case of a compact group $G$ is constructed by using the method of pseudometrics suggested by Yu. M. Smirnov as early as in 1985 at the fifth Tiraspol symposium on general topology and its applications.Comment: 8 page

Strong Movable Categories and Strong Movability of Topological Spaces

The paper is devoted to one of the important notions of the shape theory: that of strong movability, which was primarily introduced by K. Borsuk for metrizable compacts. A strong movability criterion is proved for topological spaces, which in particular reveals a new, categorical approach to the strong movability.Comment: 9 page

On Orbits and Bi-invariant Subsets of Binary GG-Spaces

Orbits and bi-invariant subsets of binary $G$-spaces are studied. The problem of the distributivity of a binary action of a group $G$ on a space $X$, which was posed in 2016 by one of the authors, is solved.Comment: 11 page

Initial invasive or conservative strategy for stable coronary disease

BACKGROUND Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, whether clinical outcomes are better in those who receive an invasive intervention plus medical therapy than in those who receive medical therapy alone is uncertain. METHODS We randomly assigned 5179 patients with moderate or severe ischemia to an initial invasive strategy (angiography and revascularization when feasible) and medical therapy or to an initial conservative strategy of medical therapy alone and angiography if medical therapy failed. The primary outcome was a composite of death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, or hospitalization for unstable angina, heart failure, or resuscitated cardiac arrest. A key secondary outcome was death from cardiovascular causes or myocardial infarction. RESULTS Over a median of 3.2 years, 318 primary outcome events occurred in the invasive-strategy group and 352 occurred in the conservative-strategy group. At 6 months, the cumulative event rate was 5.3% in the invasive-strategy group and 3.4% in the conservative-strategy group (difference, 1.9 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.8 to 3.0); at 5 years, the cumulative event rate was 16.4% and 18.2%, respectively (difference, 121.8 percentage points; 95% CI, 124.7 to 1.0). Results were similar with respect to the key secondary outcome. The incidence of the primary outcome was sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction; a secondary analysis yielded more procedural myocardial infarctions of uncertain clinical importance. There were 145 deaths in the invasive-strategy group and 144 deaths in the conservative-strategy group (hazard ratio, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.32). CONCLUSIONS Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, we did not find evidence that an initial invasive strategy, as compared with an initial conservative strategy, reduced the risk of ischemic cardiovascular events or death from any cause over a median of 3.2 years. The trial findings were sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction that was used

Health-status outcomes with invasive or conservative care in coronary disease

BACKGROUND In the ISCHEMIA trial, an invasive strategy with angiographic assessment and revascularization did not reduce clinical events among patients with stable ischemic heart disease and moderate or severe ischemia. A secondary objective of the trial was to assess angina-related health status among these patients. METHODS We assessed angina-related symptoms, function, and quality of life with the Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) at randomization, at months 1.5, 3, and 6, and every 6 months thereafter in participants who had been randomly assigned to an invasive treatment strategy (2295 participants) or a conservative strategy (2322). Mixed-effects cumulative probability models within a Bayesian framework were used to estimate differences between the treatment groups. The primary outcome of this health-status analysis was the SAQ summary score (scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better health status). All analyses were performed in the overall population and according to baseline angina frequency. RESULTS At baseline, 35% of patients reported having no angina in the previous month. SAQ summary scores increased in both treatment groups, with increases at 3, 12, and 36 months that were 4.1 points (95% credible interval, 3.2 to 5.0), 4.2 points (95% credible interval, 3.3 to 5.1), and 2.9 points (95% credible interval, 2.2 to 3.7) higher with the invasive strategy than with the conservative strategy. Differences were larger among participants who had more frequent angina at baseline (8.5 vs. 0.1 points at 3 months and 5.3 vs. 1.2 points at 36 months among participants with daily or weekly angina as compared with no angina). CONCLUSIONS In the overall trial population with moderate or severe ischemia, which included 35% of participants without angina at baseline, patients randomly assigned to the invasive strategy had greater improvement in angina-related health status than those assigned to the conservative strategy. The modest mean differences favoring the invasive strategy in the overall group reflected minimal differences among asymptomatic patients and larger differences among patients who had had angina at baseline