Oral contraceptives and rheumatoid arthritis : further epidemiologic evidence for a protective effect

In Chapter I the history of the investigation is described: the literature reports that the pill would halve the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis which first drew our attention, our initial views on how to test this hypothesis by means of a case-control study, and the opportunity presented by the rheumatologic registry at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. The aim of the study is stated: to investigate whether the halving of the incidence of rheumatoid arthritis among oral-contraceptive users relative to never-users, as originally described in a follow-up study in Great Britain, would also be demonstrable in a case-control study in the Netherlands. In Chapter II the reasons for starting the investigation are elaborated. First, the relevant literature is critically reviewed. The evidence for a negative association between oral-contraceptive use and the development of rheumatoid arthritis is judged interesting, although still wanting: several objections to the validity of the inference can be formulated. Second, the phenomenon is interesting from a point of view of public health. If the pill protects against a crippling disease which is frequent in women, this might to a certain extent balance the negative aspects of its cardiovascular side-effects. Third, there is a strong biological interest. If the pill causally prevents rheumatoid arthritis, this provides another piece of the puzzle of the pathogenesis of this disease, which advances the state of our knowledge. The fourth and last reason for starting the investigation was the unique opportunity of a rheumatology registry that covers the patients of several of the major rheumatology clinics in the Netherlands

Injuries in amateur female soccer:Injuries of women and girls during one outdoor season

In einer prospektiven Kohortenstudie wurden die Verletzungen von 286 Spielerinnen (235 Frauen, 51 Mädchen) über eine Saison aufgezeichnet. Die Mädchen waren zwischen 8 und 13 Jahre alt, die Frauen zwischen 16 und 43. Wöchentlich füllten sie einen Fragebogen über Verletzungen aus. Die Studie sollte zeigen, dass sich Verletzungen, sowie deren Häufigkeiten und Faktoren im Amateurfrauen- und Mädchenfußball unterscheiden. Es wurden 156 Frauen- und 11 Mädchenverletzungen registriert. Frauen waren signifikant häufiger verletzt als Mädchen. Die häufigsten Verletzungen waren Prellungen, gefolgt von Verstauchungen. Die meisten Verletzungen betrafen das obere Sprunggelenk und das Knie. Verletzungen traten gegen Ende der Halbzeiten häufiger auf. Untergewichtige Spielerinnen verletzten sich häufiger als normalgewichtige. Frauen verletzen sich häufiger als Mädchen. Untergewicht führt zu einem erhöhten Verletzungsrisiko. Propriozeptives Training hat noch keinen Eingang in das Amateurtraining gefunden

Uniqueness of Five-Dimensional Supersymmetric Black Holes

A classification of supersymmetric solutions of five dimensional ungauged supergravity coupled to arbitrary many abelian vector multiplets is used to prove a uniqueness theorem for asymptotically flat supersymmetric black holes with regular horizons. It is shown that the near-horizon geometries of solutions for which the scalars and gauge field strengths are sufficiently regular on the horizon are flat space, AdS_3 x S^2, or the near-horizon BMPV solution. Furthermore, the only black hole which has the near-horizon BMPV geometry for its near-horizon geometry is the solution found by Chamseddine and Sabra.Comment: 15 pages, uses JHEP3.cls. Revised to match published version; reference added, minor alterations to section

The Geometry of D=11 Null Killing Spinors

We determine the necessary and sufficient conditions on the metric and the four-form for the most general bosonic supersymmetric configurations of D=11 supergravity which admit a null Killing spinor i.e. a Killing spinor which can be used to construct a null Killing vector. This class covers all supersymmetric time-dependent configurations and completes the classification of the most general supersymmetric configurations initiated in hep-th/0212008.Comment: 30 pages, typos corrected, reference added, new solution included in section 5.1; uses JHEP3.cl

Second order semiclassics with self-generated magnetic fields

We consider the semiclassical asymptotics of the sum of negative eigenvalues of the three-dimensional Pauli operator with an external potential and a self-generated magnetic field $B$. We also add the field energy $\beta \int B^2$ and we minimize over all magnetic fields. The parameter $\beta$ effectively determines the strength of the field. We consider the weak field regime with $\beta h^{2}\ge {const}>0$, where $h$ is the semiclassical parameter. For smooth potentials we prove that the semiclassical asymptotics of the total energy is given by the non-magnetic Weyl term to leading order with an error bound that is smaller by a factor h^{1+\e}, i.e. the subleading term vanishes. However, for potentials with a Coulomb singularity the subleading term does not vanish due to the non-semiclassical effect of the singularity. Combined with a multiscale technique, this refined estimate is used in the companion paper \cite{EFS3} to prove the second order Scott correction to the ground state energy of large atoms and molecules.Comment: Small typos corrected on Sep 24, 201

Efficient calculation of molecular integrals over London atomic orbitals

The use of London atomic orbitals (LAOs) in a non-perturbative manner enables the determination of gauge-origin invariant energies and properties for molecular species in arbitrarily strong magnetic fields. Central to the efficient implementation of such calculations for molecular systems is the evaluation of molecular integrals, particularly the electron repulsion integrals (ERIs). We present an implementation of several different algorithms for the evaluation of ERIs over Gaussian-type LAOs at arbitrary magnetic field strengths. The efficiency of generalized McMurchie-Davidson (MD), Head-Gordon-Pople (HGP) and Rys quadrature schemes is compared. For the Rys quadrature implementation, we avoid the use of high precision arithmetic and interpolation schemes in the computation of the quadrature roots and weights, enabling the application of this algorithm seamlessly to a wide range of magnetic fields. The efficiency of each generalised algorithm is compared by numerical application, classifying the ERIs according to their total angular momenta and evaluating their performance for primitive and contracted basis sets. In common with zero-field integral evaluation, no single algorithm is optimal for all angular momenta thus a simple mixed scheme is put forward, which selects the most efficient approach to calculate the ERIs for each shell quartet. The mixed approach is significantly more efficient than the exclusive use of any individual algorithm

Towards a turbulence closure based on energy modes

A new approach to parameterizing subgrid-scale processes is proposed: The impact of the unresolved dynamics on the resolved dynamics (i.e., the eddy forcing) is represented by a series expansion in dynamical spatial modes that stem from the energy budget of the resolved dynamics. It is demonstrated that the convergence in these so-called energy modes is faster by orders of magnitude than the convergence in Fourier-type modes. Moreover, a novel way to test parameterizations in models is explored. The resolved dynamics and the corresponding instantaneous eddy forcing are defined via spatial filtering that accounts for the representation error of the equations of motion on the low-resolution model grid. In this way, closures can be tested within the high-resolution model, and the effects of different parameterizations related to different energy pathways can be isolated. In this study, the focus is on parameterizations of the baroclinic energy pathway. The corresponding standard closure in ocean models, the Gent-McWilliams (GM) parameterization, is also tested, and it is found that the GM field acts like a stabilizing direction in phase space. The GM field does not project well on the eddy forcing and hence fails to excite the model's intrinsic low-frequency variability, but it is able to stabilize the model

General Supersymmetric Solutions of Five-Dimensional Supergravity

The classification of 1/4-supersymmetric solutions of five dimensional gauged supergravity coupled to arbitrary many abelian vector multiplets, which was initiated in hep-th/0401129, is completed. The structure of all solutions for which the Killing vector constructed from the Killing spinor is null is investigated in both the gauged and the ungauged theories and some new solutions are constructed.Comment: 24 pages, references added, uses JHEP3.cl