A New Data Compression Method and its Application to Cosmic Shear Analysis

Future large scale cosmological surveys will provide huge data sets whose analysis requires efficient data compression. Calculating accurate covariances is extremely challenging with increasing number of statistics used. Here we introduce a formalism for achieving efficient data compression, based on a local expansion of statistical measures around a fiducial cosmological model. We specifically apply and test this approach for the case of cosmic shear statistics. We demonstrate the performance of our approach, using a Fisher analysis on cosmic shear tomography described in terms of E-/B-mode separating statistics (COSEBIs). We show that our data compression is highly effective in extracting essentially the full cosmological information from a strongly reduced number of observables. Specifically, the number of statistics needed decreases by at least one order of magnitude relative to the COSEBIs, which already compress the data substantially compared to the shear two-point correlation functions. The efficiency appears to be affected only slightly if a highly inaccurate covariance is used for defining the compressed statistics, showing the robustness of the method. We conclude that an efficient data compression is achievable and that the number of compressed statistics depends on the number of model parameters. In addition, we study how well band powers can be obtained from measuring shear correlation functions over a finite interval of separations. We show the strong limitations on the possibility to construct top-hat filters in Fourier space, for which the real-space analog has a finite support, yielding strong bounds on the accuracy of band power estimates. The error on an estimated band-power is larger for a narrower filter and a smaller angular range which for relevant cases can be as large as 10%.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Fetus-derived DLK1 is required for maternal metabolic adaptations to pregnancy and is associated with fetal growth restriction.

Pregnancy is a state of high metabolic demand. Fasting diverts metabolism to fatty acid oxidation, and the fasted response occurs much more rapidly in pregnant women than in non-pregnant women. The product of the imprinted DLK1 gene (delta-like homolog 1) is an endocrine signaling molecule that reaches a high concentration in the maternal circulation during late pregnancy. By using mouse models with deleted Dlk1, we show that the fetus is the source of maternal circulating DLK1. In the absence of fetally derived DLK1, the maternal fasting response is impaired. Furthermore, we found that maternal circulating DLK1 levels predict embryonic mass in mice and can differentiate healthy small-for-gestational-age (SGA) infants from pathologically small infants in a human cohort. Therefore, measurement of DLK1 concentration in maternal blood may be a valuable method for diagnosing human disorders associated with impaired DLK1 expression and to predict poor intrauterine growth and complications of pregnancy.M.A.M.C. was supported by a PhD studentship from the Cambridge Centre for Trophoblast Research. Research was supported by grants from the MRC (MR/J001597/1 and MR/L002345/1), the Medical College of Saint Bartholomew's Hospital Trust, a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award, EpigeneSys (FP7 Health-257082), EpiHealth (FP7 Health-278414), a Herchel Smith Fellowship (N.T.) and NIH grant RO1 DK89989. The contents are the authors' sole responsibility and do not necessarily represent official NIH views. We thank G. Burton for invaluable support, and M. Constância and I. Sandovici (University of Cambridge) for the Meox2-cre mice. We are extremely grateful to all of the participants in the Pregnancy Outcome Prediction study. This work was supported by the NIHR Cambridge Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre (Women's Health theme) and project grants from the MRC (G1100221) and Sands (Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Charity). The study was also supported by GE Healthcare (donation of two Voluson i ultrasound systems for this study) and by the NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility, where all research visits took place.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.369

Testing gravity using galaxy-galaxy lensing and clustering amplitudes in KiDS-1000, BOSS and 2dFLenS

The physics of gravity on cosmological scales affects both the rate of assembly of large-scale structure, and the gravitational lensing of background light through this cosmic web. By comparing the amplitude of these different observational signatures, we can construct tests that can distinguish general relativity from its potential modifications. We used the latest weak gravitational lensing dataset from the Kilo-Degree Survey, KiDS-1000, in conjunction with overlapping galaxy spectroscopic redshift surveys BOSS and 2dFLenS, to perform the most precise existing amplitude-ratio test. We measured the associated E_G statistic with 15-20% errors, in five dz = 0.1 tomographic redshift bins in the range 0.2 < z < 0.7, on projected scales up to 100 Mpc/h. The scale-independence and redshift-dependence of these measurements are consistent with the theoretical expectation of general relativity in a Universe with matter density Omega_m = 0.27 +/- 0.04. We demonstrate that our results are robust against different analysis choices, including schemes for correcting the effects of source photometric redshift errors, and compare the performance of angular and projected galaxy-galaxy lensing statistics.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures, version accepted for publication by A&

Organized and Sustainable Education Program for Drug Abuse Prevention by Yogo-teachers

　学校における喫煙・飲酒・薬物乱用防止教育の充実には，問題行動が顕在化する中学校期だけでなく小学校期 における指導の推進が重要であり，系統的な指導計画を立て，指導者や時間の確保，教材作成などに組織的に取 組み，継続可能なプログラム開発を行う必要がある。そこで，地区内12 校の養護教諭が協働して，発達段階に応 じた系統的・組織的かつ継続可能な地区共通の指導計画を開発し，各校の教育課程・年間計画に位置付けた実践 研究を行った。その結果，指導計画の実施状況は，小学校11 校中，学級活動10 校，ミニ保健指導10 校，長期 休業前指導6 校，広報活動9 校となり，特別支援学校1 校では広報活動のみを行うことができた。小学校におけ る喫煙・飲酒・薬物乱用防止教育の推進には，学校保健活動の中核的役割を担う養護教諭が専門性を活かし協働 して，系統的な指導計画を各校の教育課程に位置付け組織的で継続可能なプログラムとする取組が有効であった

Pharmacokinetic aspects of retinal drug delivery

Drug delivery to the posterior eye segment is an important challenge in ophthalmology, because many diseases affect the retina and choroid leading to impaired vision or blindness. Currently, intravitreal injections are the method of choice to administer drugs to the retina, but this approach is applicable only in selected cases (e.g. anti-VEGF antibodies and soluble receptors). There are two basic approaches that can be adopted to improve retinal drug delivery: prolonged and/or retina targeted delivery of intravitreal drugs and use of other routes of drug administration, such as periocular, suprachoroidal, sub-retinal, systemic, or topical. Properties of the administration route, drug and delivery system determine the efficacy and safety of these approaches. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic factors determine the required dosing rates and doses that are needed for drug action. In addition, tolerability factors limit the use of many materials in ocular drug delivery. This review article provides a critical discussion of retinal drug delivery, particularly from the pharmacokinetic point of view. This article does not include an extensive review of drug delivery technologies, because they have already been reviewed several times recently. Instead, we aim to provide a systematic and quantitative view on the pharmacokinetic factors in drug delivery to the posterior eye segment. This review is based on the literature and unpublished data from the authors' laboratory.Peer reviewe

Global, regional, and national life expectancy, all-cause mortality, and cause-specific mortality for 249 causes of death, 1980-2015 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

Background Improving survival and extending the longevity of life for all populations requires timely, robust evidence on local mortality levels and trends. The Global Burden of Disease 2015 Study (GBD 2015) provides a comprehensive assessment of all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 249 causes in 195 countries and territories from 1980 to 2015. These results informed an in-depth investigation of observed and expected mortality patterns based on sociodemographic measures. Methods We estimated all-cause mortality by age, sex, geography, and year using an improved analytical approach originally developed for GBD 2013 and GBD 2010. Improvements included refinements to the estimation of child and adult mortality and corresponding uncertainty, parameter selection for under-5 mortality synthesis by spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression, and sibling history data processing. We also expanded the database of vital registration, survey, and census data to 14 294 geography-year datapoints. For GBD 2015, eight causes, including Ebola virus disease, were added to the previous GBD cause list for mortality. We used six modelling approaches to assess cause-specific mortality, with the Cause of Death Ensemble Model (CODEm) generating estimates for most causes. We used a series of novel analyses to systematically quantify the drivers of trends in mortality across geographies. First, we assessed observed and expected levels and trends of cause-specific mortality as they relate to the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a summary indicator derived from measures of income per capita, educational attainment, and fertility. Second, we examined factors affecting total mortality patterns through a series of counterfactual scenarios, testing the magnitude by which population growth, population age structures, and epidemiological changes contributed to shifts in mortality. Finally, we attributed changes in life expectancy to changes in cause of death. We documented each step of the GBD 2015 estimation processes, as well as data sources, in accordance with Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting (GATHER). Findings Globally, life expectancy from birth increased from 61.7 years (95% uncertainty interval 61.4-61.9) in 1980 to 71.8 years (71.5-72.2) in 2015. Several countries in sub-Saharan Africa had very large gains in life expectancy from 2005 to 2015, rebounding from an era of exceedingly high loss of life due to HIV/AIDS. At the same time, many geographies saw life expectancy stagnate or decline, particularly for men and in countries with rising mortality from war or interpersonal violence. From 2005 to 2015, male life expectancy in Syria dropped by 11.3 years (3.7-17.4), to 62.6 years (56.5-70.2). Total deaths increased by 4.1% (2.6-5.6) from 2005 to 2015, rising to 55.8 million (54.9 million to 56.6 million) in 2015, but age-standardised death rates fell by 17.0% (15.8-18.1) during this time, underscoring changes in population growth and shifts in global age structures. The result was similar for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), with total deaths from these causes increasing by 14.1% (12.6-16.0) to 39.8 million (39.2 million to 40.5 million) in 2015, whereas age-standardised rates decreased by 13.1% (11.9-14.3). Globally, this mortality pattern emerged for several NCDs, including several types of cancer, ischaemic heart disease, cirrhosis, and Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. By contrast, both total deaths and age-standardised death rates due to communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional conditions significantly declined from 2005 to 2015, gains largely attributable to decreases in mortality rates due to HIV/AIDS (42.1%, 39.1-44.6), malaria (43.1%, 34.7-51.8), neonatal preterm birth complications (29.8%, 24.8-34.9), and maternal disorders (29.1%, 19.3-37.1). Progress was slower for several causes, such as lower respiratory infections and nutritional deficiencies, whereas deaths increased for others, including dengue and drug use disorders. Age-standardised death rates due to injuries significantly declined from 2005 to 2015, yet interpersonal violence and war claimed increasingly more lives in some regions, particularly in the Middle East. In 2015, rotaviral enteritis (rotavirus) was the leading cause of under-5 deaths due to diarrhoea (146 000 deaths, 118 000-183 000) and pneumococcal pneumonia was the leading cause of under-5 deaths due to lower respiratory infections (393 000 deaths, 228 000-532 000), although pathogen-specific mortality varied by region. Globally, the effects of population growth, ageing, and changes in age-standardised death rates substantially differed by cause. Our analyses on the expected associations between cause-specific mortality and SDI show the regular shifts in cause of death composition and population age structure with rising SDI. Country patterns of premature mortality (measured as years of life lost [YLLs]) and how they differ from the level expected on the basis of SDI alone revealed distinct but highly heterogeneous patterns by region and country or territory. Ischaemic heart disease, stroke, and diabetes were among the leading causes of YLLs in most regions, but in many cases, intraregional results sharply diverged for ratios of observed and expected YLLs based on SDI. Communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional diseases caused the most YLLs throughout sub-Saharan Africa, with observed YLLs far exceeding expected YLLs for countries in which malaria or HIV/AIDS remained the leading causes of early death. Interpretation At the global scale, age-specific mortality has steadily improved over the past 35 years; this pattern of general progress continued in the past decade. Progress has been faster in most countries than expected on the basis of development measured by the SDI. Against this background of progress, some countries have seen falls in life expectancy, and age-standardised death rates for some causes are increasing. Despite progress in reducing age-standardised death rates, population growth and ageing mean that the number of deaths from most non-communicable causes are increasing in most countries, putting increased demands on health systems. Copyright (C) The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.Peer reviewe

Evaluation of high temporal resolution magnetic resonance imaging of the liver with gadoxetate disodium in combination with compressed sensing and parallel imaging under single breath-holding using a 1.5-T magnetic resonance system

Abstract Background This study aimed to determine the optimal scan time for high temporal resolution magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the liver with gadoxetate disodium injection in combination with compressed sensing (CS) and parallel imaging (PI) techniques under single breath-holding using a 1.5-T MR system. Methods Sixty-two participants underwent multiple arterial phases of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) of the liver with gadoxetate disodium using fat-suppressed GRE T1-weighted imaging—liver acquisition with volume acceleration (LAVA)—in combination with CS and PI using a 1.5-T MR system. Forty-six and 22 participants underwent 6-s and 10-s scans, respectively. Pre-contrast, multiple arterial, portal venous, and hepatobiliary phase images were acquired. Two radiologists evaluated the visual scores for the outline of the liver, inferior right hepatic vein (IRHV), right portal vein, right hepatic artery, appropriateness of the arterial phase, and overall image quality using a 4- or 5-point scale. Results The overall image quality and the image quality of the outline of the liver in the pre-contrast and arterial phases and IRHV in the pre-contrast phase were significantly better (P < 0.05) in the 10-s scan group than those in the 6-s scan group. No significant difference was observed between the two groups in terms of the appropriateness of the arterial phase (obtaining the optimal arterial phase) (P = 0.731). Conclusions A 10-s scan protocol is recommended for high temporal resolution DCE-MRI of the liver with gadoxetate disodium injection in combination with CS and PI under single breath-holding using a 1.5-T MR system

Advanced subsea imaging technique of digital holography: In situ measurement of marine microscale plankton and particles

Studying the amount, variety, and distribution of microscale particles and plankton at the global scale at different times and seasons is very important to understand ocean environments, and by reference, the global environment. It is important to image them in their natural habitats. Many optical techniques have been developed to meet this requirement. Most techniques suffer from one or another drawbacks, such as limited depth-of-field or low volume. Digital holography is an advanced optical imaging technique to image micro-objects, and it provides high-resolution recording, large depth-of-field and recording volume, and 3D viewing and tracking. This paper describes basic principles of in-line digital holography and provides common image processing methods. Four submersible digital holographic cameras, eHoloCam, RamaCam, weeHoloCam, and LISST-Holo, are introduced, as well as their image processing software. At the end, some limitations and challenges in the underwater holographic imaging systems are mentioned, and some possible solutions are discussed. </p