Pectus updates and special considerations in Marfan syndrome.

Congenital chest wall or pectus deformities including pectus excavatum (funnel chest) and pectus carinatum (pigeon chest) affect a significant proportion of the general population and up to 70% of patients with Marfan syndrome. Patients often experience significant morbidity and psychological distress, which can worsen with age. Here we discuss new techniques for both operative and non-operative treatment of pectus deformity, the importance of a welltimed intervention and special considerations in patients with Marfan syndrome

Consumption of salt rich products in the UK: impact of the reduced salt campaign

YesThis paper makes use of a leading UK supermarket’s loyalty card based data which records information on purchase decisions by consumers who shop at its stores in order to assess the effectiveness and impact of the UK reduced salt campaign. We present an empirical analysis of consumption data to assess the effectiveness of the UK Food Standard Agency’s (FSA) ‘reduced salt campaign’ on the basis of information on health related announcements undertaken by the FSA under its ‘low salt campaign’. We adopt a general approach to determining structural breaks in consumption data, including making use of minimum LM unit root tests whereby structural breaks are endogenously determined from the data. We find evidence supporting the effectiveness of the FSA’s reduced salt campaign

Discovery of a New Nearby Star

We report the discovery of a nearby star with a very large proper motion of 5.06 +/- 0.03 arcsec/yr. The star is called SO025300.5+165258 and referred to herein as HPMS (high proper motion star). The discovery came as a result of a search of the SkyMorph database, a sensitive and persistent survey that is well suited for finding stars with high proper motions. There are currently only 7 known stars with proper motions > 5 arcsec/yr. We have determined a preliminary value for the parallax of 0.43 +/- 0.13 arcsec. If this value holds our new star ranks behind only the Alpha Centauri system (including Proxima Centauri) and Barnard's star in the list of our nearest stellar neighbors. The spectrum and measured tangential velocity indicate that HPMS is a main-sequence star with spectral type M6.5. However, if our distance measurement is correct, the HPMS is underluminous by 1.2 +/- 0.7 mag.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to ApJ Letter

The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey V. The peculiar B[e]-like supergiant, VFTS698, in 30 Doradus

We present an analysis of a peculiar supergiant B-type star (VFTS698/Melnick 2/Parker 1797) in the 30 Doradus region of the Large Magellanic Cloud which exhibits characteristics similar to the broad class of B[e] stars. We analyse optical spectra from the VLT-FLAMES survey, together with archival optical and infrared photometry and X-ray imaging to characterise the system. We find radial velocity variations of around 400 km/s in the high excitation Si IV, N III and He II spectra, and photometric variability of ~0.6 mag with a period of 12.7 days. In addition, we detect long-term photometric variations of ~0.25 mag, which may be due to a longer-term variability with a period of ~400 days. We conclude that VFTS698 is likely an interacting binary comprising an early B-type star secondary orbiting a veiled, more massive companion. Spectral evidence suggests a mid-to-late B-type primary, but this may originate from an optically-thick accretion disc directly surrounding the primary.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures and 8 tables. Table 8 to be published onlin

Tracer concentration profiles measured in central London as part of the REPARTEE campaign

There have been relatively few tracer experiments carried out that have looked at vertical plume spread in urban areas. In this paper we present results from two tracer (cyclic perfluorocarbon) experiments carried out in 2006 and 2007 in central London centred on the BT Tower as part of the REPARTEE (Regent’s Park and Tower Environmental Experiment) campaign. The height of the tower gives a unique opportunity to study vertical dispersion profiles and transport times in central London. Vertical gradients are contrasted with the relevant Pasquill stability classes. Estimation of lateral advection and vertical mixing times are made and compared with previous measurements. Data are then compared with a simple operational dispersion model and contrasted with data taken in central London as part of the DAPPLE campaign. This correlates dosage with non-dimensionalised distance from source. Such analyses illustrate the feasibility of the use of these empirical correlations over these prescribed distances in central London

Infrared spectroscopy of solid CO-CO2 mixtures and layers

The spectra of pure, mixed and layered CO and CO2 ices have been studied systematically under laboratory conditions using infrared spectroscopy. This work provides improved resolution spectra (0.5 cm-1) of the CO2 bending and asymmetric stretching mode, as well as the CO stretching mode, extending the existing Leiden database of laboratory spectra to match the spectral resolution reached by modern telescopes and to support the interpretation of the most recent data from Spitzer. It is shown that mixed and layered CO and CO2 ices exhibit very different spectral characteristics, which depend critically on thermal annealing and can be used to distinguish between mixed, layered and thermally annealed CO-CO2 ices. CO only affects the CO2 bending mode spectra in mixed ices below 50K under the current experimental conditions, where it exhibits a single asymmetric band profile in intimate mixtures. In all other ice morphologies the CO2 bending mode shows a double peaked profile, similar to that observed for pure solid CO2. Conversely, CO2 induces a blue-shift in the peak-position of the CO stretching vibration, to a maximum of 2142 cm-1 in mixed ices, and 2140-2146 cm-1 in layered ices. As such, the CO2 bending mode puts clear constraints on the ice morphology below 50K, whereas beyond this temperature the CO2 stretching vibration can distinguish between initially mixed and layered ices. This is illustrated for the low-mass YSO HH46, where the laboratory spectra are used to analyse the observed CO and CO2 band profiles and try to constrain the formation scenarios of CO2.Comment: Accepted in A&

UV-B perceived by the UVR8 photoreceptor inhibits plant thermomorphogenesis

Small increases in ambient temperature can elicit striking effects on plant architecture, collectively termed thermomorphogenesis [1]. In Arabidopsis thaliana, these include marked stem elongation and leaf elevation, responses that have been predicted to enhance leaf cooling [ 2, 3, 4 and 5]. Thermomorphogenesis requires increased auxin biosynthesis, mediated by the bHLH transcription factor PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING FACTOR 4 (PIF4) [ 6, 7 and 8], and enhanced stability of the auxin co-receptor TIR1, involving HEAT SHOCK PROTEIN 90 (HSP90) [9]. High-temperature-mediated hypocotyl elongation additionally involves localized changes in auxin metabolism, mediated by the indole-3-acetic acid (IAA)-amido synthetase Gretchen Hagen 3 (GH3).17 [10]. Here we show that ultraviolet-B light (UV-B) perceived by the photoreceptor UV RESISTANCE LOCUS 8 (UVR8) [11] strongly attenuates thermomorphogenesis via multiple mechanisms inhibiting PIF4 activity. Suppression of thermomorphogenesis involves UVR8 and CONSTITUTIVELY PHOTOMORPHOGENIC 1 (COP1)-mediated repression of PIF4 transcript accumulation, reducing PIF4 abundance. UV-B also stabilizes the bHLH protein LONG HYPOCOTYL IN FAR RED (HFR1), which can bind to and inhibit PIF4 function. Collectively, our results demonstrate complex crosstalk between UV-B and high-temperature signaling. As plants grown in sunlight would most likely experience concomitant elevations in UV-B and ambient temperature, elucidating how these pathways are integrated is of key importance to the understanding of plant development in natural environments

Large-Scale Controls of Methanogenesis Inferred from Methane and Gravity Spaceborne Data

Wetlands are the largest individual source of methane (CH_4), but the magnitude and distribution of this source are poorly understood on continental scales. We isolated the wetland and rice paddy contributions to spaceborne CH_4 measurements over 2003–2005 using satellite observations of gravity anomalies, a proxy for water-table depth Γ, and surface temperature analyses T_S. We find that tropical and higher-latitude CH_4 variations are largely described by Γ and T_S variations, respectively. Our work suggests that tropical wetlands contribute 52 to 58% of global emissions, with the remainder coming from the extra-tropics, 2% of which is from Arctic latitudes. We estimate a 7% rise in wetland CH_4 emissions over 2003–2007, due to warming of mid-latitude and Arctic wetland regions, which we find is consistent with recent changes in atmospheric CH_4

Renormalization Group Flow Equations and the Phase Transition in O(N)-models

We derive and solve flow equations for a general O(N)-symmetric effective potential including wavefunction renormalization corrections combined with a heat-kernel regularization. We investigate the model at finite temperature and study the nature of the phase transition in detail. Beta functions, fixed points and critical exponents \beta, \nu, \delta and \eta for various N are independently calculated which allow for a verification of universal scaling relations.Comment: 34 pages, 3 tables, 11 postscript figures, LaTe

Inference for bounded parameters

The estimation of signal frequency count in the presence of background noise has had much discussion in the recent physics literature, and Mandelkern [1] brings the central issues to the statistical community, leading in turn to extensive discussion by statisticians. The primary focus however in [1] and the accompanying discussion is on the construction of a confidence interval. We argue that the likelihood function and $p$-value function provide a comprehensive presentation of the information available from the model and the data. This is illustrated for Gaussian and Poisson models with lower bounds for the mean parameter