Multivariate Functional Principal Component Analysis for Data Observed on Different (Dimensional) Domains

Existing approaches for multivariate functional principal component analysis are restricted to data on the same one-dimensional interval. The presented approach focuses on multivariate functional data on different domains that may differ in dimension, e.g. functions and images. The theoretical basis for multivariate functional principal component analysis is given in terms of a Karhunen-Lo\`eve Theorem. For the practically relevant case of a finite Karhunen-Lo\`eve representation, a relationship between univariate and multivariate functional principal component analysis is established. This offers an estimation strategy to calculate multivariate functional principal components and scores based on their univariate counterparts. For the resulting estimators, asymptotic results are derived. The approach can be extended to finite univariate expansions in general, not necessarily orthonormal bases. It is also applicable for sparse functional data or data with measurement error. A flexible R-implementation is available on CRAN. The new method is shown to be competitive to existing approaches for data observed on a common one-dimensional domain. The motivating application is a neuroimaging study, where the goal is to explore how longitudinal trajectories of a neuropsychological test score covary with FDG-PET brain scans at baseline. Supplementary material, including detailed proofs, additional simulation results and software is available online.Comment: Revised Version. R-Code for the online appendix is available in the .zip file associated with this article in subdirectory "/Software". The software associated with this article is available on CRAN (packages funData and MFPCA

Kurze Geschichte des Universitätsarchivs Münster:Vortrag anlässlich des Festaktes zum 100-jährigen Jubiläum des Universitätsarchivs Münster am 5. September 2012

Der Vortrag behandelt im Überblick die Geschichte des Universitätsarchivs Münster von seiner Entstehung durch Senatsbeschluss vom 12. Juni 1912 bis in die Gegenwart. Die verschiedenen  Universitätsarchivare und Geschäftsführer sowie ihr Wirken für das Archiv werden vorgestellt. Neben der personellen Ausstattung ist die räumliche Unterbringung, nicht zuletzt vor dem Hintergrund der Kriegseinwirkungen, ein wichtiger Gesichtspunkt. Daneben werden die Bestandsgröße, die rechtlichen Grundlagen, die mit dem Archiv befassten Gremien, die Beziehungen zu den anderen Universitätseinrichtungen und den übrigen Archiven Münsters sowie die derzeitige Situation und aktuelle Entwicklungen thematisiert

Notfallplanung für das Universitätsarchiv Münster

Das Universitätsarchiv Münster verwahrt die Überlieferung der Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster und ihrer Vorgängereinrichtungen. Es ist seit Mitte der 1990er-Jahre in einem Gebäude auf dem Leonardo-Campus untergebracht, das nicht als Archivgebäude, sondern als Stallung der ehemaligen Von-Einem-Kaserne errichtet wurde. Die vorliegende praxisorientierte Arbeit liefert nach einer Beschreibung der Literatur und der rechtlichen Grundlagen und Zuständigkeiten eine Risikoanalyse im Hinblick auf den Eintritt möglicher Notfälle, wie Brand, Wasser, Einbruch und Vandalismus, und beschreibt die Maßnahmen, die ergriffen werden können, um das Risiko eines Schadenseintritts zu minimieren. Soweit möglich wurden diese Maßnahmen durchgeführt oder wenigstens eingeleitet

Outcomes Associated With Delirium in Older Patients in Surgical ICUs

BACKGROUND: We previously noted that older adults admitted to surgical ICUs (SICUs) are at high risk for delirium. In the current study, we describe the association between the presence of delirium and complications in older SICU patients, and describe the association between delirium occurring in the SICU and functional ability and discharge placement for older patients. METHODS: Secondary analysis of prospective, observational, cohort study. Subjects were 114 consecutive patients \u3eor= 65 years old admitted to a surgical critical care service. All subjects underwent daily delirium and sedation/agitation screening during hospitalization. Outcomes prospectively recorded included SICU complication development, discharge location, and functional ability (as measured by the Katz activities of daily living instrument). RESULTS: Nearly one third of older adults (31.6%) admitted to an SICU had a complication during ICU stay. There was a strong association between SICU delirium and complication occurrence (p = 0.001). Complication occurrence preceded delirium diagnosis for 16 of 20 subjects. Subjects with delirium in the SICU were more likely to be discharged to a place other than home (61.3% vs 20.5%, p \u3c 0.0001) and have greater functional decline (67.7% vs 43.6%, p = 0.023) than nondelirious subjects. After adjusting for covariates including severity of illness and mechanical ventilation use, delirium was found to be strongly and independently associated with greater odds of being discharged to a place other than home (odds ratio, 7.20; 95% confidence interval, 1.93 to 26.82). CONCLUSIONS: Delirium in older surgical ICU patients is associated with complications and an increased likelihood of discharge to a place other than home

2-[1-(1-Naphth­yl)-1H-1,2,3-triazol-4-yl]pyridine

In the crystal structure of the title compound, C17H12N4, the angle between the naphthalene and 1H-1,2,3-triazole ring systems is 71.02 (4)° and that between the pyridine and triazole rings is 8.30 (9)°

Dynamic Energy Management

We present a unified method, based on convex optimization, for managing the power produced and consumed by a network of devices over time. We start with the simple setting of optimizing power flows in a static network, and then proceed to the case of optimizing dynamic power flows, i.e., power flows that change with time over a horizon. We leverage this to develop a real-time control strategy, model predictive control, which at each time step solves a dynamic power flow optimization problem, using forecasts of future quantities such as demands, capacities, or prices, to choose the current power flow values. Finally, we consider a useful extension of model predictive control that explicitly accounts for uncertainty in the forecasts. We mirror our framework with an object-oriented software implementation, an open-source Python library for planning and controlling power flows at any scale. We demonstrate our method with various examples. Appendices give more detail about the package, and describe some basic but very effective methods for constructing forecasts from historical data.Comment: 63 pages, 15 figures, accompanying open source librar

Borrelia lonestari DNA in adult Amblyomma americanum ticks, Alabama.

Polymerase chain reaction analysis of 204 Amblyomma americanum and 28 A. maculatum ticks collected in August 1999 near the homes of patients with southern tick-associated rash illness and in control areas in Choctaw County, Alabama, showed Borrelia lonestari flagellin gene sequence from two adult A. americanum. The presence of B. lonestari in A. americanum ticks from Alabama suggests that this suspected pathogen may be widespread in the southeastern United States

Mindblind eyes: an absence of spontaneous theory of mind in Asperger syndrome

Adults with Asperger syndrome can understand mental states such as desires and beliefs (mentalizing) when explicitly prompted to do so, despite having impairments in social communication. We directly tested the hypothesis that such individuals nevertheless fail to mentalize spontaneously. To this end, we used an eye-tracking task that has revealed the spontaneous ability to mentalize in typically developing infants. We showed that, like infants, neurotypical adults’ (n = 17 participants) eye movements anticipated an actor’s behavior on the basis of her false belief. This was not the case for individuals with Asperger syndrome (n = 19). Thus, these individuals do not attribute mental states spontaneously, but they may be able to do so in explicit tasks through compensatory learning

Photoluminescence and photoluminescence excitation studies of lateral size effects in Zn_{1-x}Mn_xSe/ZnSe quantum disc samples of different radii

Quantum disc structures (with diameters of 200 nm and 100 nm) were prepared from a Zn_{0.72}Mn_{0.28}Se/ZnSe single quantum well structure by electron beam lithography followed by an etching procedure which combined dry and wet etching techniques. The quantum disc structures and the parent structure were studied by photoluminescence and photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy. For the light-hole excitons in the quantum well region, shifts of the energy positions are observed following fabrication of the discs, confirming that strain relaxation occurs in the pillars. The light-hole exciton lines also sharpen following disc fabrication: this is due to an interplay between strain effects (related to dislocations) and the lateral size of the discs. A further consequence of the small lateral sizes of the discs is that the intensity of the donor-bound exciton emission from the disc is found to decrease with the disc radius. These size-related effects occur before the disc radius is reduced to dimensions necessary for lateral quantum confinement to occur but will remain important when the discs are made small enough to be considered as quantum dots.Comment: LaTeX2e, 13 pages, 6 figures (epsfig

Randomized controlled trial of SPIRIT: An effective approach to preparing African-American dialysis patients and families for end of life

This randomized controlled trial tested an intervention, Sharing Patients’ Illness Representations to Increase Trust (SPIRIT), designed to enhance communication regarding end-of-life care between African Americans with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and their chosen surrogate decision makers (N = 58 dyads). We used surveys and semi-structured interviews to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of SPIRIT on patient and surrogate outcomes at 1 week and 3 months post-intervention. We also evaluated patients’ deaths and surrogates’ end-of-life decision making to assess surrogates’ perceptions of benefits and limitations of the SPIRIT while facing end-of-life decisions. We found that SPIRIT promoted communication between patients and their surrogates and was effective and well received by the participants