Error analysis in cross-correlation of sky maps: application to the ISW detection

Constraining cosmological parameters from measurements of the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect requires developing robust and accurate methods for computing statistical errors in the cross-correlation between maps. This paper presents a detailed comparison of such error estimation applied to the case of cross-correlation of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and large-scale structure data. We compare theoretical models for error estimation with montecarlo simulations where both the galaxy and the CMB maps vary around a fiducial auto-correlation and cross-correlation model which agrees well with the current concordance LCDM cosmology. Our analysis compares estimators both in harmonic and configuration (or real) space, quantifies the accuracy of the error analysis and discuss the impact of partial sky survey area and the choice of input fiducial model on dark-energy constraints. We show that purely analytic approaches yield accurate errors even in surveys that cover only 10% of the sky and that parameter constraints strongly depend on the fiducial model employed. Alternatively, we discuss the advantages and limitations of error estimators that can be directly applied to data. In particular, we show that errors and covariances from the Jack-Knife method agree well with the theoretical approaches and simulations. We also introduce a novel method in real space that is computationally efficient and can be applied to real data and realistic survey geometries. Finally, we present a number of new findings and prescriptions that can be useful for analysis of real data and forecasts, and present a critical summary of the analyses done to date.Comment: submitted to MNRAS, 26 page

The use of hydrological and geoelectrical data to fix the boundary conditions of a ground water flow model: a case study

International audienceTo assess whether the hydrometric level of an artificial lake in a quarry near Milan (Italy) could be assigned as a Dirichlet boundary condition for the phreatic aquifer in a fine scale groundwater flow model, hydrological measurements of piezometric head and rainfall rate time series have been analysed by spectral and statistical methods. The piezometric head close to the quarry lake proved to be well correlated with seasonal variations in the rainfall. Furthermore, geoelectrical tomography detected no semi-permeable layer between the phreatic aquifer and the lake, so the contact between surface and ground water is good. Finally, a time-varying prescribed head condition can be applied for ground water flow modelling

The specific subcellular localization of two isoforms of cytochrome b5 suggests novel targeting pathways.

Two forms of cytochrome b5 are present in rat tissues, with a sequence identity of approximately 60% in the cytoplasmically exposed, tryptic fragments (Lederer, F., Ghrir, R., Guiard, B., Cortial, S., and Ito, A. (1983) Eur. J. Biochem. 132, 95-102). It has been suggested that the two isoforms have partially overlapping subcellular distributions, with each form localized to some extent on both endoplasmic reticulum and outer mitochondrial membranes (Ito, A. (1980) J. Biochem. (Tokyo) 87, 73-80). To investigate the degree of specificity of the localization of cytochrome b5 isoforms, we studied their subcellular distributions with antipeptide antibodies, one specific for microsomal cytochrome b5, one specific for outer membrane cytochrome b, and one against a sequence common to the two cytochromes. We first identified outer membrane Cyt b as a tightly bound, Triton X-114-extractable, 23-kDa polypeptide. We then analyzed biochemically characterized rat liver subcellular fractions by Western blotting and found that outer mitochondrial membrane cytochrome b was not present on endoplasmic reticulum membranes. Conversely, microsomal cytochrome b5 was present on outer mitochondrial membranes in extremely low concentration, at a leve

Large-scale Bias and Efficient Generation of Initial Conditions for Non-Local Primordial Non-Gaussianity

We study the scale-dependence of halo bias in generic (non-local) primordial non-Gaussian (PNG) initial conditions of the type motivated by inflation, parametrized by an arbitrary quadratic kernel. We first show how to generate non-local PNG initial conditions with minimal overhead compared to local PNG models for a general class of primordial bispectra that can be written as linear combinations of separable templates. We run cosmological simulations for the local, and non-local equilateral and orthogonal models and present results on the scale-dependence of halo bias. We also derive a general formula for the Fourier-space bias using the peak-background split (PBS) in the context of the excursion set approach to halos and discuss the difference and similarities with the known corresponding result from local bias models. Our PBS bias formula generalizes previous results in the literature to include non-Markovian effects and non-universality of the mass function and are in better agreement with measurements in numerical simulations than previous results for a variety of halo masses, redshifts and halo definitions. We also derive for the first time quadratic bias results for arbitrary non-local PNG, and show that non-linear bias loops give small corrections at large-scales. The resulting well-behaved perturbation theory paves the way to constrain non-local PNG from measurements of the power spectrum and bispectrum in galaxy redshift surveys.Comment: 43 pages, 10 figures. v2: references added. 2LPT parallel code for generating non-local PNG initial conditions available at http://cosmo.nyu.edu/roman/2LP

Cross-correlation of WMAP 3rd year and the SDSS DR4 galaxy survey: new evidence for Dark Energy

We cross-correlate the third-year WMAP data with galaxy samples extracted from the SDSS DR4 (SDSS4) covering 13% of the sky, increasing by a factor of 3.7 the volume sampled in previous analyses. The new measurements confirm a positive cross-correlation with higher significance (total signal-to-noise of about 4.7). The correlation as a function of angular scale is well fitted by the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect for LCDM flat FRW models with a cosmological constant. The combined analysis of different samples gives Omega_L=0.80-0.85$(68$0.77-0.86$ (95% CL). We find similar best fit values for Omega_L for different galaxy samples with median redshifts of z ~0.3 and z ~0.5, indicating that the data scale with redshift as predicted by the LCDM cosmology (with equation of state parameter w=-1). This agreement is not trivial, but can not yet be used to break the degeneracy constraints in the w versus Omega_L plane using only the ISW data.Comment: 5 pages, final version to be published by MNRAS Let. Minor changes with some additional clarification on error analysis don

Do Patients with Bronchiectasis Have an Increased Risk of Developing Lung Cancer? A Systematic Review

Background: Initial evidence supports the hypothesis that patients with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (NCFB) have a higher risk of lung cancer. We systematically reviewed the available literature to define the characteristics of lung malignancies in patients with bronchiectasis and the characteristics of patients who develop bronchiectasis-associated lung cancer. Method: This study was performed based on the PRISMA guidelines. The review protocol was registered in PROSPERO. Results: The frequency rates of lung cancer in patients with NCFB ranged from 0.93% to 8.0%. The incidence rate was 3.96. Cancer more frequently occurred in the elderly and males. Three studies found an overall higher risk of developing lung cancer in the NCFB population compared to the non-bronchiectasis one, and adenocarcinoma was the most frequently reported histological type. The effect of the co-existence of NCFB and COPD was unclear. Conclusions: NCFB is associated with a higher risk of developing lung cancer than individuals without NCFB. This risk is higher for males, the elderly, and smokers, whereas concomitant COPD’s effect is unclear

Endoscopic Technologies for Peripheral Pulmonary Lesions: From Diagnosis to Therapy

Peripheral pulmonary lesions (PPLs) are frequent incidental findings in subjects when performing chest radiographs or chest computed tomography (CT) scans. When a PPL is identified, it is necessary to proceed with a risk stratification based on the patient profile and the characteristics found on chest CT. In order to proceed with a diagnostic procedure, the first-line examination is often a bronchoscopy with tissue sampling. Many guidance technologies have recently been developed to facilitate PPLs sampling. Through bronchoscopy, it is currently possible to ascertain the PPL’s benign or malignant nature, delaying the therapy’s second phase with radical, supportive, or palliative intent. In this review, we describe all the new tools available: from the innovation of bronchoscopic instrumentation (e.g., ultrathin bronchoscopy and robotic bronchoscopy) to the advances in navigation technology (e.g., radial-probe endobronchial ultrasound, virtual navigation, electromagnetic navigation, shape-sensing navigation, cone-beam computed tomography). In addition, we summarize all the PPLs ablation techniques currently under experimentation. Interventional pulmonology may be a discipline aiming at adopting increasingly innovative and disruptive technologies