Prevalence and spatial concordance of visual field deterioration in fellow eyes of glaucoma patients.

PurposeTo examine the prevalence of visual field deterioration in contralateral eyes of patients with worsening open-angle glaucoma and to evaluate the spatial concordance of visual field deterioration between both eyes.MethodsOne hundred sixteen open-angle glaucoma patients who underwent 8 or more visual field examinations over ≥ 6 years of follow-up were included. The rates of the fast and slow components of visual field decay for each of 52 visual field test locations were calculated with point-wise exponential regression analysis. The spatial concordance of visual field deterioration in contralateral eyes was evaluated with a concordance ratio (calculated as the number of overlapping locations divided by the total number of deteriorating locations) and by comparing the rate of decay in corresponding modified glaucoma hemifield test clusters.ResultsThe average visual field mean deviation (± standard deviation [SD]) was -8.5 (± 6.4) dB and the mean (± SD) follow-up time was 9.0 (± 1.6) years. Sixty-three patients had mild damage, 23 had moderate damage, and 30 had severe damage. The mean concordance ratio (± SD) was 0.46 (± 0.32) for the mild group, 0.33 (± 0.27) for the moderate group, and 0.35 (± 0.21) for the severe group. Thirty-one patients (27%) had deterioration in concordant locations (p < 0.05). Visual field deterioration was greater in the superior hemifield than the inferior hemifield (p < 0.05) when evaluated with both the concordance ratio and modified glaucoma hemifield test cluster analysis methods.ConclusionsThere is only fair spatial concordance with regard to visual field deterioration between the both eyes of an individual. We conclude that testing algorithms taking advantage of inter-eye spatial concordance would not be particularly advantageous in the early detection of glaucomatous deterioration

Propiedades magneticas de nanopartículas de cementita dentro de nanotubos de carbono con diferentes temperaturas de tratamiento

In this work the magnetic coupling between cementite ferromagnetic nanoparticles (Fe3C) inside a double-walled carbon nanotubes for two samples, the sample O-600 and sample O-800 with treatment temperatures of 600 ºC and 800 ºC respectively, are studied. Magnetometry was used for obtaining the magnetization vs temperature curves and the hysteresis curves...En el presente trabajo se estudia el acoplamiento magnético entre nanopartículas de cementita (Fe3C) dentro de nanotubos de carbono de pared doble para dos muestras, la muestra O-600 y la muestra O-800 con temperaturas de tratamiento de 600 ºC y 800 ºC respectivamente. Se usó magnetometría para la obtención de curvas de magnetización en función de la temperatura y curvas de histéresis..

Stellar clusters in the inner Galaxy and their correlation with cold dust emission

Stars are born within dense clumps of giant molecular clouds, constituting young stellar agglomerates known as embedded clusters, which only evolve into bound open clusters under special conditions. We statistically study all embedded clusters (ECs) and open clusters (OCs) known so far in the inner Galaxy, investigating particularly their interaction with the surrounding molecular environment and the differences in their evolution. We first compiled a merged list of 3904 clusters from optical and infrared clusters catalogs in the literature, including 75 new (mostly embedded) clusters discovered by us in the GLIMPSE survey. From this list, 695 clusters are within the Galactic range |l| < 60 deg and |b| < 1.5 deg covered by the ATLASGAL survey, which was used to search for correlations with submm dust continuum emission tracing dense molecular gas. We defined an evolutionary sequence of five morphological types: deeply embedded cluster (EC1), partially embedded cluster (EC2), emerging open cluster (OC0), OC still associated with a submm clump in the vicinity (OC1), and OC without correlation with ATLASGAL emission (OC2). Together with this process, we performed a thorough literature survey of these 695 clusters, compiling a considerable number of physical and observational properties in a catalog that is publicly available. We found that an OC defined observationally as OC0, OC1, or OC2 and confirmed as a real cluster is equivalent to the physical concept of OC (a bound exposed cluster) for ages in excess of ~16 Myr. Some observed OCs younger than this limit can actually be unbound associations. We found that our OC and EC samples are roughly complete up to ~1 kpc and ~1.8 kpc from the Sun, respectively, beyond which the completeness decays exponentially. Using available age estimates for a few ECs, we derived an upper limit of 3 Myr for the duration of the embedded phase... (Abridged)Comment: 39 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A on Sept 16, 2013. The catalog will be available at the CDS after official publication of the articl

Towards a foundation for holistic power system validation and testing

Renewable energy sources and further electrificationof energy consumption are key enablers for decreasing green-house gas emissions, but also introduce increased complexitywithin the electric power system. The increased availability ofautomation, information and communication technology, andintelligent solutions for system operation have transformed thepower system into a smart grid. In order to support thedevelopment process of smart grid solutions on the system level,testing has to be done in a holistic manner, covering the multi-domain aspect of such complex systems. This paper introducesthe concept of holistic power system testing and discuss first stepstowards a corresponding methodology that is being developed inthe European ERIGrid research infrastructure project.Comment: 2016 IEEE 21st International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA

Partition-based distributionally robust optimization via optimal transport with order cone constraints

In this paper we wish to tackle stochastic programs affected by ambiguity about the probability law that governs their uncertain parameters. Using optimal transport theory, we construct an ambiguity set that exploits the knowledge about the distribution of the uncertain parameters, which is provided by: (1) sample data and (2) a-priori information on the order among the probabilities that the true data-generating distribution assigns to some regions of its support set. This type of order is enforced by means of order cone constraints and can encode a wide range of information on the shape of the probability distribution of the uncertain parameters such as information related to monotonicity or multi-modality. We seek decisions that are distributionally robust. In a number of practical cases, the resulting distributionally robust optimization (DRO) problem can be reformulated as a finite convex problem where the a-priori information translates into linear constraints. In addition, our method inherits the finite-sample performance guarantees of the Wasserstein-metric-based DRO approach proposed by Mohajerin Esfahani and Kuhn (Math Program 171(1–2):115–166. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10107-017-1172-1, 2018), while generalizing this and other popular DRO approaches. Finally, we have designed numerical experiments to analyze the performance of our approach with the newsvendor problem and the problem of a strategic firm competing à la Cournot in a market.This research has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 755705). This work was also supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through Project ENE2017-83775-P

Data-driven distributionally robust optimization with Wasserstein metric, moment conditions and robust constraints

We consider optimization problems where the information on the uncertain parameters reduces to a finite data sample. Using the Wasserstein metric, a ball in the space of probability distributions centered at the empirical distribution is constructed. The goal is to solve a minimization problem subject to the worst-case distribution within this Wasserstein ball. Moreover, we consider moment constraints in order to add a priori information about the random phenomena. In addition, we not only consider moment constraints but also take into account robust classical constraints. These constraints serve to hedge decisions against realizations of random variables for which we do not have distributional information other than their support set. With these assumptions we need to solve a data-driven distributionally robust optimization problem with several types of constraints. We show that strong duality holds under mild assumptions, and the distributionally robust optimization problems overWasserstein balls with moment constraints and robust classical constraints can in fact be reformulated as tractable finite programs. Finally, a taxonomy of the tractable finite programs is shown under di erent assumptions about the objective function, the constraints and the support set of the random variables.European Research Council University of Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Distributionally robust stochastic programs with side information based on trimmings

We consider stochastic programs conditional on some covariate information, where the only knowledge of the possible relationship between the uncertain parameters and the covariates is reduced to a finite data sample of their joint distribution. By exploiting the close link between the notion of trimmings of a probability measure and the partial mass transportation problem, we construct a data-driven Distributionally Robust Optimization (DRO) framework to hedge the decision against the intrinsic error in the process of inferring conditional information from limited joint data. We show that our approach is computationally as tractable as the standard (without side information) Wasserstein-metric-based DRO and enjoys performance guarantees. Furthermore, our DRO framework can be conveniently used to address data-driven decision-making problems under contaminated samples. Finally, the theoretical results are illustrated using a single-item newsvendor problem and a portfolio allocation problem with side information.Open Access funding provided by Universidad de Málaga / CBUA thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This research has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 755705). This work was also supported in part by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (AEI/10.13039/501100011033) through project PID2020-115460GB-I00 and in part by the Junta de Andalucía through the research project P20_00153. Finally, the authors thankfully acknowledge the computer resources, technical expertise, and assistance provided by the SCBI (Supercomputing and Bioinformatics) center of the University of Málaga

Young stellar clusters throughout the Galaxy and the interaction with their molecular environment

Stars are born within dense clumps of giant molecular clouds, constituting young stellar agglomerates known as embedded clusters. Once the parental gas is expelled through stellar feedback, they evolve into bound open clusters only under special conditions. In this thesis, we study observationally all embedded clusters (ECs) and open clusters (OCs) known so far in the inner Galaxy, investigating particularly their interaction with the surrounding molecular environment. We first compiled a merged list of 3904 clusters from optical and infrared clusters catalogs in the literature, including 71 new embedded clusters discovered by us in the GLIMPSE mid-infrared data after applying a red-color criterion. From this list, 695 clusters are within the Galactic range |l| We found that our OC and EC samples are roughly complete up to ~1 kpc and ~1.8 kpc from the Sun, respectively, after which the completeness decays exponentially. Using available age estimates for a few ECs, we derived an upper limit of 3 Myr for the duration of the embedded phase. Combined with the OC age distribution within 3 kpc from the Sun, we computed formation rates of 0.54, 1.18, and 6.50 Myr^-1 kpc^-2 for bound open clusters, all observed young exposed clusters, and embedded clusters, respectively, implying an EC dissolution fraction of 88% +- 8%. We carried out follow-up 13CO(2-1) and C18O(2-1) mapping observations towards a subsample of 14 clusters showing evidence of ongoing stellar feedback in our previous analysis, and we indeed found kinematic signatures of enhanced turbulence and expanding motions. A more detailed study towards the IR bubble G10.31-0.14, including a comparison with simple geometrical models of the velocity field, reveals that this source is more likely an expanding molecular ring inclined with respect to the plane of the sky, rather than a 3D shell seen in projection