Ellipticity of Structures in CMB Sky Maps

We study the ellipticity of contour lines in the sky maps of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) as well as other measures of elongation. The sensitivity of the elongation on the resolution of the CMB maps which depends on the pixelization and the beam profile of the detector, is investigated. It is shown that the current experimental accuracy does not allow to discriminate between cosmological models which differ in curvature by Delta Omega_tot=0.05. Analytical expressions are given for the case that the statistical properties of the CMB are those of two-dimensional Gaussian random fields

Untersuchungen zur Ermittlung der Bruchzähigkeit an Laubholz in den Rissöffnungsmodi I und II

Zusammenfassung: Es werden die Ergebnisse zur Bestimmung der Bruchzähigkeit an Buche (Fagus silvatica L.) und Eiche (Quercus Robur L.) sowie Buche im Mode II vorgestellt. Verwendung fand die Kompaktzugprobe (CT-Probe) für Mode I und die CTS Probe für Mode II. Es werden Ergebnisse für den Einfluss von Holzfeuchte, Rohdichte und Jahrringlage vorgestellt. Zusätzlich wurden die Schallemissionen beim Bruch aufgezeichnet und REM-Aufnahmen angefertigt. Ergänzend zu den Bruchzähigkeiten werden verschiedenen Ansätze für Bruchgrenzkurven untersucht. Die Ergebnisse für Modus I stimmen gut mit denen aus der Untersuchung an der CT-Probe überein. Weiterhin werden verschiedene Ansätze zu Bruchgrenzkurven diskutiert und mit den experimentellen Ergebnissen vergliche

Can one hear the shape of the Universe?

It is shown that the recent observations of NASA's explorer mission "Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe" (WMAP) hint that our Universe may possess a non-trivial topology. As an example we discuss the Picard space which is stretched out into an infinitely long horn but with finite volume.Comment: 4 page

Breaking up the band: European regulatory cooperation in a post-Brexit world

Since 1995, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has progressed from harmonising regulation for human and veterinary medicines across the European Union Member State national competent authorities, to galvanising one of the most successful cooperative initiatives for regulation globally. Although the EMA is the focal point for stakeholders, regulation is delivered through the European medicines regulatory network, in which national authorities, like the UK’s Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), contribute. As with any collaboration, contributions by individual members vary, and the MHRA has been noted as an innovative and highly productive member of the network. Progress in regulation not only in Europe – but also around the world through convergence – can be attributed to this unique European cooperation. The decision by the UK to leave the European Union threatens to mark the end of this cooperation; we argue here that the best decision is to maintain regulatory cooperation under new structures

Cardiac Manifestations from Non-FIP1L1-PDGFRα-Associated Hypereosinophilic Syndrome in a 13-Year-Old African American Boy

Hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) is a rare disorder typically seen in males, aged 20 to 50, with a predisposition for Caucasians. It is marked by overproduction of eosinophils (>1,500/μL) and multiorgan system damage due to eosinophilic infiltration and mediator release. There are multiple variants of HES. Cardiac complications are more common in myeloproliferative HES associated with the FIP1L1-PDGFRα mutation. Sequelae range from acute necrosis and thrombus formation to fibrosis of the endomyocardium. We describe a young boy who presented with chest pain and dyspnea. A diagnosis of HES was made after all other etiologies of eosinophilia were excluded. Although he was found to be negative for the FIP1L1-PDGFRα mutation, his cardiac complications included pericardial effusion and restrictive cardiomyopathy, without myocardial necrosis. Multi-organ involvement resulted in pericarditis, pleuritis, nephritis, and dermatitis. In this paper, we review his case and discuss the known subtypes of HES, the classic cardiac complications, and available treatment strategies

HST grism spectroscopy of z ∼3 massive quiescent galaxies: Approaching the metamorphosis

Tracing the emergence of the massive quiescent galaxy (QG) population requires the build-up of reliable quenched samples by distinguishing these systems from red, dusty star-forming sources. We present Hubble Space Telescope WFC3/G141 grism spectra of ten quiescent galaxy candidates selected at 2.5 < z < 3.5 in the COSMOS field. Spectroscopic confirmation for the whole sample is obtained within one to three orbits through the detection of strong spectral breaks and Balmer absorption lines. When their spectra are combined with optical to near-infrared photometry, star-forming solutions are formally rejected for the entire sample. Broad spectral indices are consistent with the presence of young A-type stars, which indicates that the last major episode of star formation has taken place no earlier than ∼300-800 Myr prior to observation. This confirms clues from their post-starburst UVJ colors. Marginalising over three different slopes of the dust attenuation curve, we obtain young mass-weighted ages and an average peak star formation rate (SFR) of ∼103 M yr-1 at zformation ∼ 3.5. Although mid- and far-IR data are too shallow to determine the obscured SFR on a galaxy-by-galaxy basis, the mean stacked emission from 3 GHz data constrains the level of residual-obscured SFR to be globally below 50 M yr-1, three times below the scatter of the coeval main sequence. Alternatively, the very same radio detection suggests a widespread radio-mode feedback by active galactic nuclei (AGN) four times stronger than in z ∼ 1.8 massive QGs. This is accompanied by a 30% fraction of X-ray luminous AGN with a black hole accretion rate per unit SFR enhanced by a factor of ∼30 with respect to similarly massive QGs at lower redshift. The average compact, high Sérsic index morphologies of the galaxies in this sample, coupled with their young mass-weighted ages, suggest that the mechanisms responsible for the development of a spheroidal component might be concomitant with (or preceding) those causing their quenching

Long-Term Variations in the Growth and Decay Rates of Sunspot Groups

Using the combined Greenwich (1874-1976) and Solar Optical Observatories Network (1977-2009) data on sunspot groups, we study the long-term variations in the mean daily rates of growth and decay of sunspot groups. We find that the minimum and the maximum values of the annually averaged daily mean growth rates are ~52% per day and ~183% per day, respectively, whereas the corresponding values of the annually averaged daily mean decay rates are ~21% per day and ~44% per day, respectively. The average value (over the period 1874-2009) of the growth rate is about 70% more than that of the decay rate. The growth and the decay rates vary by about 35% and 13%, respectively, on a 60-year time-scale. From the beginning of Cycle 23 the growth rate is substantially decreased and near the end (2007-2008) the growth rate is lowest in the past about 100 years.Comment: 1 table, 13 figures, accepted by Solar Physic

Improved accelerated breath-hold radial cine image reconstruction by acquiring additional free-breathing data between breath-holds

Engineering and Applied Science

Compressive Fluorescence Microscopy for Biological and Hyperspectral Imaging

The mathematical theory of compressed sensing (CS) asserts that one can acquire signals from measurements whose rate is much lower than the total bandwidth. Whereas the CS theory is now well developed, challenges concerning hardware implementations of CS-based acquisition devices---especially in optics---have only started being addressed. This paper presents an implementation of compressive sensing in fluorescence microscopy and its applications to biomedical imaging. Our CS microscope combines a dynamic structured wide-field illumination and a fast and sensitive single-point fluorescence detection to enable reconstructions of images of fluorescent beads, cells and tissues with undersampling ratios (between the number of pixels and number of measurements) up to 32. We further demonstrate a hyperspectral mode and record images with 128 spectral channels and undersampling ratios up to 64, illustrating the potential benefits of CS acquisition for higher dimensional signals which typically exhibits extreme redundancy. Altogether, our results emphasize the interest of CS schemes for acquisition at a significantly reduced rate and point out to some remaining challenges for CS fluorescence microscopy.Comment: Submitted to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of Americ

LNCS

In resource allocation games, selfish players share resources that are needed in order to fulfill their objectives. The cost of using a resource depends on the load on it. In the traditional setting, the players make their choices concurrently and in one-shot. That is, a strategy for a player is a subset of the resources. We introduce and study dynamic resource allocation games. In this setting, the game proceeds in phases. In each phase each player chooses one resource. A scheduler dictates the order in which the players proceed in a phase, possibly scheduling several players to proceed concurrently. The game ends when each player has collected a set of resources that fulfills his objective. The cost for each player then depends on this set as well as on the load on the resources in it – we consider both congestion and cost-sharing games. We argue that the dynamic setting is the suitable setting for many applications in practice. We study the stability of dynamic resource allocation games, where the appropriate notion of stability is that of subgame perfect equilibrium, study the inefficiency incurred due to selfish behavior, and also study problems that are particular to the dynamic setting, like constraints on the order in which resources can be chosen or the problem of finding a scheduler that achieves stability