Endpoint regularity for 2d2d Mumford-Shah minimizers: On a theorem of Andersson and Mikayelyan

We give an alternative proof of the regularity, up to the loose end, of minimizers, resp. critical points of the Mumford-Shah functional when they are sufficiently close to the cracktip, resp. they consist of a single arc terminating at an interior point.Comment: 27 pages. v3: corrected typos, added proof of (8.1), corrected acknowledgements. To appear in Journal de Math\'ematiques Pures et Appliqu\'ees. For Errata see https://www.math.ias.edu/delellis/sites/math.ias.edu.delellis/files/Errata-crackip.pd

Gone fishing: Adélie penguin site-specific foraging tactics and breeding performance

AbstractThe ecological drivers underlying breeding performance are expected to differ across the geographical range of seabird species, but few studies have compared trade-offs between colonies with different local conditions. During chick-rearing (2000–01), we compared the foraging trips, diet and breeding parameters of two Adélie penguin colonies in the Ross Sea, at Edmonson Point (EdPo; ~2000 breeding pairs) and Inexpressible Island (InIs; ~24 000 breeding pairs). Penguins from InIs travelled farther and performed longer feeding trips. The quantity of food brought to the nest was the same for the two colonies, but penguins from InIs brought more fish and less krill. Eggs hatched earlier at EdPo. Breeding success did not differ, but chick weight during hatching–fledging was greater at InIs. Despite worse weather conditions at InIs, the larger proportion of high-energy food brought by penguins from InIs (i.e. fish) may explain their offspring's better performance. In addition, the persistence of fast ice at EdPo may have led to greater energy expenditure of breeding individuals, possibly reducing chick growth. The greater intraspecific competition expected at InIs may have been reduced by longer foraging trips and/or counteracted by the more nutritious diet. Our findings reveal complex trade-offs between foraging effort and environmental constraints in determining the breeding performance of Adélie penguins

How to evaluate resting ECG and imaging in children practising sport: a critical review and proposal of an algorithm for ECG interpretation

The athlete's heart is a well-known phenomenon in adults practising competitive sports. Unfortunately, to date, most of the studies on training-induced cardiac remodelling have been conducted in adults and the current recommendations refer mainly to adult individuals. However, an appropriate interpretation of resting ECG and imaging in children practising sports is crucial, given the possibility of early detect life-threatening conditions and managing therapy and eligibility to sports competitions in the rapidly growing paediatric athlete population. While several articles have been published on this topic in adult athletes, a practical guide for the clinical evaluation of paediatric athletes is still missing. In this critical review, we provided a comprehensive description of the current evidence on training-induced remodelling in paediatric athletes with a practical approach for clinicians on how to interpret the resting 12-lead ECG and cardiac imaging in the paediatric athlete. Indeed, given that training may mimic potential cardiovascular disorders, clinicians evaluating children practising sports should pay attention to the risk of missing a diagnosis of a life-threatening condition. However, this risk should be balanced with the risk of overdiagnosis and unwarranted disqualification from sports practice, when interpreting an ECG as pathological while, on the contrary, it may represent a physiological expression of athlete's heart. Accordingly, we proposed an algorithm for the evaluation of normal, borderline, and abnormal ECG findings that can be useful for the readers for their daily clinical practice

Wpływ lewosimendanu podawanego bez dawki nasycającej na skurczową i rozkurczową funkcję serca u pacjentów ze schyłkową niewydolnością serca

Wstęp: Lewosimendan (L) jest lekiem stosowanym w terapii ciężkiej niewydolności serca (HF). Działa inotropowo dodatnio oraz wazodylatacyjnie, nie zwiększając zapotrzebowania serca na tlen. W ostrej HF lewosimendan poprawia parametry hemodynamiczne. W dostępnych publikacjach wykazano, że pozytywnie wpływa na funkcję rozkurczową lewej komory (LV). Celem niniejszego badania była ocena wpływu lewosimendanu na zmiany długiej osi LV, która jest wczesnym markerem dysfunkcji rozkurczowej. Metody: Do badania włączono 41 pacjentów w średnim wieku 62 &#177; 12 lat przyjętych do kliniki autorów niniejszej pracy z powodu ostrej HF w klasie IV według NYHA z istotną dysfunkcją LV. Dwudziestu sześciu pacjentom podano lewosimendan w dawce 0,1 &#956;g/kg/min w ciągu 24 godzin bez dawki nasycającej (grupa L), zaś 15 chorych poddano standardowej terapii (grupa C). Wyniki: Grupy nie różniły się między sobą pod względem podstawowych danych demograficznych, klinicznych i wyników badań biochemicznych. Po tygodniu od leczenia lewosimendanem obserwowano istotną poprawę wydolności w klasie NYHA oraz obniżenie stężenia N-końcowego propeptydu natriuretycznego typu B (pro-BNP). W badaniu echokardiograficznym obserwowano poprawę funkcji skurczowej (p < 0,05) i frakcji wyrzutowej LV (p < 0,05) przy redukcji wskaźnika E/E&#8217; (p < 0,05) w grupie L. Grupę L podzielono na podgrupę z aktywnym niedokrwieniem i bez niedokrwienia oraz wykazano istotną poprawę funkcji skurczowej w pierwszej podgrupie. Nie wykazano różnic między podgrupami w odniesieniu do funkcji rozkurczowej LV. Wnioski: Stosowanie lewosimendanu bez dawki nasycającej poprawia funkcję LV i klasę NYHA u pacjentów z ostrą HF. Wydaje się, że przedłużony wpływ na parametry hemodynamiczne jest związany z działaniem aktywnych metabolitów leku. (Folia Cardiologica Excerpta 2012; 7, 2: 71-77

Genetic characterization of juvenile sudden cardiac arrest and death in Tuscany: The ToRSADE registry

BackgroundSudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in young people represents a dramatic event, often leading to severe neurologic outcomes or sudden cardiac death (SCD), and is frequently caused by genetic heart diseases. In this study, we report the results of the Tuscany registry of sudden cardiac death (ToRSADE) registry, aimed at monitoring the incidence and investigating the genetic basis of SCA and SCD occurring in subjects &lt; 50 years of age in Tuscany, Italy.Methods and resultsCreation of the ToRSADE registry allowed implementation of a repository for clinical, molecular and genetic data. For 22 patients, in whom a genetic substrate was documented or suspected, blood samples could be analyzed; 14 were collected at autopsy and 8 from resuscitated patients after SCA. Next generation sequencing (NGS) analysis revealed likely pathogenetic (LP) variants associated with cardiomyopathy (CM) or channelopathy in four patients (19%), while 17 (81%) carried variants of uncertain significance in relevant genes (VUS). In only one patient NGS confirmed the diagnosis obtained during autopsy: the p.(Asn480Lysfs*20) PKP2 mutation in a patient with arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (AC).ConclusionSystematic genetic screening allowed identification of LP variants in 19% of consecutive patients with SCA/SCD, including subjects carrying variants associated with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) or AC who had SCA/SCD in the absence of structural cardiomyopathy phenotype. Genetic analysis combined with clinical information in survived patients and post-mortem evaluation represent an essential multi-disciplinary approach to manage juvenile SCD and SCA, key to providing appropriate medical and genetic assistance to families, and advancing knowledge on the basis of arrhythmogenic mechanisms in inherited cardiomyopathies and channelopathies

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio