Resolution of null fiber and conormal bundles on the Lagrangian Grassmannian

We study the null fiber of a moment map related to dual pairs. We construct an equivariant resolution of singularities of the null fiber, and get conormal bundles of closed $K_C$-orbits in the Lagrangian Grassmannian as the categorical quotient. The conormal bundles thus obtained turn out to be a resolution of singularities of the closure of nilpotent $K_C$-orbits, which is a "quotient" of the resolution of the null fiber.Comment: 17 pages; completely revised and add reference

Underground tales, overground lives: mobile work identities through to post-retirement

Although there has been recent attention given to the subject of mobile work, there has been less focus, within mobility studies, on the work of those who enable movement: the job of the transport worker. This article takes this incarnation of mobile workers as the basis for understanding the ways in which mobile work identities are pulled through into retirement. The article firstly proposes that transport workers, as movement enablers, have particular identities, and are an important and neglected topic of study within mobilities. Secondly, it suggests that the post-work identities of mobile workers are contingent on their experiences during their working lives and that these are particular to mobile work. The article is evidenced through data gathered during a mobile ethnographic study with two retired London Underground employees. The participants joined the researchers on a walking tour of a disused underground railway station in London, ‘Hidden London’, organised by the London Transport Museum and their experiences and emotional responses were recorded and analysed. Understanding post-work identities through the embodied and spatial experiences of the present, the research sought insights of the past and future; the continuity and fluidity of working identities that permeated through to post-work lives. This article argues that mobile work identities are specific identities that shape a distinct post-retirement identity

The Shapes of Dirichlet Defects

If the vacuum manifold of a field theory has the appropriate topological structure, the theory admits topological structures analogous to the D-branes of string theory, in which defects of one dimension terminate on other defects of higher dimension. The shapes of such defects are analyzed numerically, with special attention paid to the intersection regions. Walls (co-dimension 1 branes) terminating on other walls, global strings (co-dimension 2 branes) and local strings (including gauge fields) terminating on walls are all considered. Connections to supersymmetric field theories, string theory and condensed matter systems are pointed out.Comment: 24 pages, RevTeX, 21 eps figure

Cohort studies of fat intake and the risk of breast cancer--a pooled analysis.

Cohort studies of fat intake and the risk of breast cancer--a pooled analysis. Hunter DJ, Spiegelman D, Adami HO, Beeson L, van den Brandt PA, Folsom AR, Fraser GE, Goldbohm RA, Graham S, Howe GR, et al. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA. BACKGROUND. Experiments in animals, international correlation comparisons, and case-control studies support an association between dietary fat intake and the incidence of breast cancer. Most cohort studies do not corroborate the association, but they have been criticized for involving small numbers of cases, homogeneous fat intake, and measurement errors in estimates of fat intake. METHODS. We identified seven prospective studies in four countries that met specific criteria and analyzed the primary data in a standardized manner. Pooled estimates of the relation of fat intake to the risk of breast cancer were calculated, and data from study-specific validation studies were used to adjust the results for measurement error. RESULTS. Information about 4980 cases from studies including 337,819 women was available. When women in the highest quintile of energy-adjusted total fat intake were compared with women in the lowest quintile, the multivariate pooled relative risk of breast cancer was 1.05 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.94 to 1.16). Relative risks for saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fat and for cholesterol, considered individually, were also close to unity. There was little overall association between the percentage of energy intake from fat and the risk of breast cancer, even among women whose energy intake from fat was less than 20 percent. Correcting for error in the measurement of nutrient intake did not materially alter these findings. CONCLUSIONS. We found no evidence of a positive association between total dietary fat intake and the risk of breast cancer. There was no reduction in risk even among women whose energy intake from fat was less than 20 percent of total energy intake. In the context of the Western lifestyle, lowering the total intake of fat in midlife is unlikely to reduce the risk of breast cancer substantially

Psychosocial Treatment of Children in Foster Care: A Review

A substantial number of children in foster care exhibit psychiatric difficulties. Recent epidemiologi-cal and historical trends in foster care, clinical findings about the adjustment of children in foster care, and adult outcomes are reviewed, followed by a description of current approaches to treatment and extant empirical support. Available interventions for these children can be categorized as either symptom-focused or systemic, with empirical support for specific methods ranging from scant to substantial. Even with treatment, behavioral and emotional problems often persist into adulthood, resulting in poor functional outcomes. We suggest that self-regulation may be an important mediat-ing factor in the appearance of emotional and behavioral disturbance in these children

Advances in Global and Local Helioseismology: an Introductory Review

Helioseismology studies the structure and dynamics of the Sun's interior by observing oscillations on the surface. These studies provide information about the physical processes that control the evolution and magnetic activity of the Sun. In recent years, helioseismology has made substantial progress towards the understanding of the physics of solar oscillations and the physical processes inside the Sun, thanks to observational, theoretical and modeling efforts. In addition to the global seismology of the Sun based on measurements of global oscillation modes, a new field of local helioseismology, which studies oscillation travel times and local frequency shifts, has been developed. It is capable of providing 3D images of the subsurface structures and flows. The basic principles, recent advances and perspectives of global and local helioseismology are reviewed in this article.Comment: 86 pages, 46 figures; "Pulsation of the Sun and Stars", Lecture Notes in Physics, Vol. 832, Rozelot, Jean-Pierre; Neiner, Coralie (Eds.), 201

STRIDER (Sildenafil TheRapy in dismal prognosis early onset fetal growth restriction): An international consortium of randomised placebo-controlled trials

Background: Severe, early-onset fetal growth restriction due to placental insufficiency is associated with a high risk of perinatal mortality and morbidity with long-lasting sequelae. Placental insufficiency is the result of abnormal formation and function of the placenta with inadequate remodelling of the maternal spiral arteries. There is currently no effective therapy available. Some evidence suggests sildenafil citrate may improve uteroplacental blood flow, fetal growth, and meaningful infant outcomes. The objective of the Sildenafil TheRapy In Dismal prognosis Early onset fetal growth Restriction (STRIDER) collaboration is to evaluate the effectiveness of sildenafil versus placebo in achieving healthy perinatal survival through the conduct of randomised clinical trials and systematic review including individual patient data meta-analysis.  Methods: Five national/bi-national multicentre randomised placebo-controlled trials have been launched. Women with a singleton pregnancy between 18 and 30 weeks with severe fetal growth restriction of likely placental origin, and where the likelihood of perinatal death/severe morbidity is estimated to be significant are included. Participants will receive either sildenafil 25 mg or matching placebo tablets orally three times daily from recruitment to 32 weeks gestation.  Discussion: The STRIDER trials were conceived and designed through international collaboration. Although the individual trials have different primary outcomes for reasons of sample size and feasibility, all trials will collect a standard set of outcomes including survival without severe neonatal morbidity at time of hospital discharge. This is a summary of all the STRIDER trial protocols and provides an example of a prospectively planned international clinical research collaboration. All five individual trials will contribute to a pre-planned systematic review of the topic including individual patient data meta-analysis

Effect of priming interval on reactogenicity, peak immunological response, and waning after homologous and heterologous COVID-19 vaccine schedules: exploratory analyses of Com-COV, a randomised control trial

Background: Priming COVID-19 vaccine schedules have been deployed at variable intervals globally, which might influence immune persistence and the relative importance of third-dose booster programmes. Here, we report exploratory analyses from the Com-COV trial, assessing the effect of 4-week versus 12-week priming intervals on reactogenicity and the persistence of immune response up to 6 months after homologous and heterologous priming schedules using the vaccines BNT162b2 (tozinameran, Pfizer/BioNTech) and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AstraZeneca). Methods: Com-COV was a participant-masked, randomised immunogenicity trial. For these exploratory analyses, we used the trial's general cohort, in which adults aged 50 years or older were randomly assigned to four homologous and four heterologous vaccine schedules using BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 with 4-week or 12-week priming intervals (eight groups in total). Immunogenicity analyses were done on the intention-to-treat (ITT) population, comprising participants with no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection at baseline or for the trial duration, to assess the effect of priming interval on humoral and cellular immune response 28 days and 6 months post-second dose, in addition to the effects on reactogenicity and safety. The Com-COV trial is registered with the ISRCTN registry, 69254139 (EudraCT 2020–005085–33). Findings: Between Feb 11 and 26, 2021, 730 participants were randomly assigned in the general cohort, with 77–89 per group in the ITT analysis. At 28 days and 6 months post-second dose, the geometric mean concentration of anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike IgG was significantly higher in the 12-week interval groups than in the 4-week groups for homologous schedules. In heterologous schedule groups, we observed a significant difference between intervals only for the BNT162b2–ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 group at 28 days. Pseudotyped virus neutralisation titres were significantly higher in all 12-week interval groups versus 4-week groups, 28 days post-second dose, with geometric mean ratios of 1·4 (95% CI 1·1–1·8) for homologous BNT162b2, 1·5 (1·2–1·9) for ChAdOx1 nCoV-19–BNT162b2, 1·6 (1·3–2·1) for BNT162b2–ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, and 2·4 (1·7–3·2) for homologous ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. At 6 months post-second dose, anti-spike IgG geometric mean concentrations fell to 0·17–0·24 of the 28-day post-second dose value across all eight study groups, with only homologous BNT162b2 showing a slightly slower decay for the 12-week versus 4-week interval in the adjusted analysis. The rank order of schedules by humoral response was unaffected by interval, with homologous BNT162b2 remaining the most immunogenic by antibody response. T-cell responses were reduced in all 12-week priming intervals compared with their 4-week counterparts. 12-week schedules for homologous BNT162b2 and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19–BNT162b2 were up to 80% less reactogenic than 4-week schedules. Interpretation: These data support flexibility in priming interval in all studied COVID-19 vaccine schedules. Longer priming intervals might result in lower reactogenicity in schedules with BNT162b2 as a second dose and higher humoral immunogenicity in homologous schedules, but overall lower T-cell responses across all schedules. Future vaccines using these novel platforms might benefit from schedules with long intervals. Funding: UK Vaccine Taskforce and National Institute for Health and Care Research