Genaue und robuste Online-Kalibrierung für Stereo-Kamera-Systeme mit fester Basisbreite

Feldmann A. Genaue und robuste Online-Kalibrierung für Stereo-Kamera-Systeme mit fester Basisbreite. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld; 2016.In modernen Fahrzeugen werden verschiedene Fahrerassistenzsysteme genutzt, die den Fahrer während der Fahrt unterstützen. Durch den Einsatz von Fahrerassistenzsystemen wird die Fahrt sicherer und die Anzahl der Unfälle deutlich reduziert. Um die Umgebung zu erfassen und Verkehrsteilnehmer, Hindernisse oder die Straßenoberfläche zu erkennen, werden verschiedene Sensoren genutzt. Die Kamera ist einer der Sensoren, die in diesen Fahrzeugen eingesetzt werden. In den Bilddaten können Objekte detektiert und klassifiziert werden. Durch die großen Fortschritte in der Mikroelektronik und den Einsatz kleiner, leistungsfähiger Rechner ist der Einsatz eines Stereo-Kamera-Systems für neue Fahrerassistenzsysteme möglich. Aus den Sensordaten der Stereo-Kamera kann eine dreidimensionale Rekonstruktion der Fahrzeugumgebung erstellt werden. Durch die Umgebungsrekonstruktion kann die Position und die Orientierung von Objekten relativ zum Fahrzeug bestimmt werden. Mit diesen zusätzlichen Informationen wird die Bestimmung des Typs eines Objekts in der Szene verbessert oder gar erst ermöglicht. Mit einer Stereo-Kamera kann eine 3D-Rekonstruktion der Fahrzeugumgebung errechnet werden. Um diese 3D-Rekonstruktion zu erstellen, wird eine Triangulierung genutzt. Selbst kleine Abweichungen in den Parametern der Stereo-Kamera führen zu merkbaren Abweichungen von der tatsachlichen Position relativ zu den Weltkoordinaten in dieser 3D-Rekonstruktion. Diese Abweichungen führen dann zu Fehlern in der Ausführung der eingesetzten Fahrerassistenzsysteme. Um diese Abweichungen minimal zu halten, wird das Stereo-Kamera-System initial kalibriert. Mit einer Initialkalibrierung eines Stereo-Kamera-Systems werden die intrinsischen Parameter (Brennweite, Bildhauptpunkt, Seitenverhältnis) und die extrinsischen Parameter (relative Positionierung und Orientierung der Kameras zueinander) bestimmt. Die Kameraparameter der Stereo-Kamera müssen während der gesamten Fahrzeit überwacht und angepasst werden, da sich diese Parameter des Kamerasystems durch die thermischen und mechanischen Einflüsse während der Fahrt verändern. Um eine kontinuierliche Überprüfung der Kameraparameter zu sichern, wird eine Online-Kalibrierung genutzt. Die Herausforderung der Online-Kalibrierung eines Stereo-Kamera-Systems in einem Fahrzeug ist die kontinuierliche Überprüfung der Stereo-Kamera-Parameter, sodass die 3D-Rekonstruktion der Fahrzeugumgebung genau und fehlerfrei berechnet werden kann. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen an realen Stereo-Kamera-Systemen haben gezeigt, dass die relative Orientierung beider Kameras in einem Stereo-Kamera-System die größte Änderung durch die thermischen und mechanischen Einflüsse erfährt. Weitere Untersuchungen haben gezeigt, dass die Veränderungen der intrinsischen Parameter sehr klein sind und sich durch kleine Änderungen der Orientierungsparameter (φ1, φ2, φ3) approximieren lassen. Dabei ist φj = φ_ji – φ_jo wobei j = 1, 2, 3 (1) mit i dem Wert für den Winkel j, der durch die Initialkalibrierung bestimmt wurde, der Referenzwert und o dem entsprechenden Winkel aus der Online-Kalibrierung. Dabei ist φ1 die Änderung des Nick-, φ2 die Änderung des Schiel- und φ3 die Änderung des Rollwinkels. In der Literatur ist keine Online-Kalibrierung für Stereo-Kameras bekannt, die mit den gegebenen Anforderungen die Änderungen der Kameraparameter berücksichtigt und eine hochgenaue 3D-Rekonstruktion über die Lebensdauer des Fahrzeugs sicherstellt. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit werden zwei Methoden zur Online-Kalibrierung vorgestellt, die unter den gegebenen Bedingungen eines Fahrerassistenssystems rentabel realisiert werden können. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen im Rahmen dieser Arbeit haben gezeigt, dass der Schielwinkel bei kleinen Abweichungen φ2 durch mechanische oder thermische Einflüsse am Stereo-Kamera-System die größte Abweichung in der 3D-Rekonstruktion verursacht. Beide Methoden zu Online-Kalibrierung nutzen die Odometriedaten des Fahrzeugs. Diese Daten sind zum einen der Fahrzeug-Gierwinkel, der einen Einfluss auf genutzte Methoden zur Korrespondenzbestimmung hat, und zum anderen die Fahrzeug-Geschwindigkeit. Die Sensordaten aus dem Steuergerat („Elektronisches Stabilitatsprogramm“, ESP) stellen diese Odometriedaten zur Verfügung. Die Daten aus dem ESP-Steuergerät haben ein Rauschen, das bei Berechnung der Online-Kalibrierung berücksichtigt werden muss. Die erste Methode zur Online-Kalibrierung nutzt die Information über die Gierrate und über die Geschwindigkeit des Fahrzeugs bei der Bildaufnahme. Wie schon erwähnt, kann aus dem ESP-Steuergerät aus der Information über die Geschwindigkeit die Strecke zwischen zwei Bildaufnahmen bestimmt werden. So kann in der 3D-Rekonstruktion die Distanz zu den vorausfahrenden Fahrzeugen und Objekten im sichtbaren Bereich des Stereo-Kamera-Systems auf Basis der zeitlich aufeinanderfolgenden Rekonstruktionen berechnet werden. Stimmt die Distanzangabe aus den Fahrzeugdaten mit der Distanz aus den 3D-Rekonstruktionen überein, ist das Kamerasystem kalibriert, ansonsten muss das Kamerasystem neu kalibriert werden. Die zweite Methode hingegen nutzt die Fahrzeuginformation, um zu bestimmen, wann das Fahrzeug geradeaus fährt. Bei einer Fahrt geradeaus schneiden sich alle Vektoren aus der optischen Flussberechnung in einem Fluchtpunkt. Untersuchungen haben gezeigt, dass Fahrzeuge häufig geradeaus fahren und so ist das zeitliche Intervall zwischen Kalibrierungen klein. Wird der Fluchtpunkt in beiden Bildern bestimmt, so müssen die Koordinaten dieser Fluchtpunkte übereinstimmen. Diese Übereinstimmung folgt aus der Projektion der Korrespondenzen vom linken ins rechte Bild. Stimmen diese Koordinaten nicht überein, dann gibt die Differenz der Koordinaten in der horizontalen Bildausrichtung die Abweichung im Schielwinkel an. Die Fluchtpunkte in den beiden Bildern werden in der zweiten Methode mit einem Histogramm bestimmt. Dieses Histogramm bildet die Schnittpunkte der Flussvektoren über die horizontale Koordinate ab. Die erste Methode wurde auf der Basis von fünf Stunden Videomaterial getestet. Das entspricht rund 300 000 Bildpaaren, die für die Analyse genutzt wurden. Da das Stereo-Kamera-System, wie es ins Fahrzeug beispielhaft integriert wurde, für diese Arbeit sehr spät zur Verfügung stand, wurden rund 250 000 Bildpaare mit einem Versuchsaufbau aufgezeichnet. Abschließend wurde eine Untersuchung mit einem Nachtsicht-Stereo-Kamera-System durchgeführt, bei dem die hier vorgestellten Methoden zur Online-Kalibrierung robust eingesetzt werden konnten. Bei allen Stereo-Kamera-Systemen und allen entwickelten Methoden im Test wurde ein Fehler von weniger als 0.2 [Pix] Abweichung zwischen der Soll- und Ist-Position des Pixels auf dem Imager nach der Kalibrierung gemessen. Dabei wurde eine Standardabweichung von 0.1 [Pix] zur Ground Truth gemessen. Dies ist eine Verbesserung gegenüber allen Methoden, die in der Literatur angegeben sind und von uns getestet wurden. Dies entspricht einer Verbesserung von mehreren Metern in der 3D-Rekonstruktion in der Arbeitsdistanz jedes der drei Kamera-Systeme. Die Methoden, die im Rahmen dieser Arbeit zu Vergleichszwecken nachimplementiert wurden, sind in [Brandt, 2006; Graf, 2007; Helmke et al., 2007; Kanatani et al., 2000; Kanatani und Sugaya, 2009; Laveau et al., 1994; Mühlich und Aach, 2007; Martos et al., 2010; Noury et al., 2007; Torr und Murray, 1997; Triggs et al., 2000; Dang et al., 2009] beschrieben. Diese nachimplementierten Methoden wurden auf den gleichen Sequenzen getestet und haben eine Abweichung zur Ground Truth von mehr als 0.8 [Pix]. Die Methoden zur Kalibrierung des Stereo-Kamera-Systems, die im Rahmen dieser Arbeit entwickelt wurden, haben eine Abweichung von 0.19 [Pix] für die erste Methode und 0.12 [Pix] für die Methode 2

Parallel convolution processing using an integrated photonic tensor core

With the proliferation of ultra-high-speed mobile networks and internet-connected devices, along with the rise of artificial intelligence, the world is generating exponentially increasing amounts of data - data that needs to be processed in a fast, efficient and smart way. These developments are pushing the limits of existing computing paradigms, and highly parallelized, fast and scalable hardware concepts are becoming progressively more important. Here, we demonstrate a computational specific integrated photonic tensor core - the optical analog of an ASIC-capable of operating at Tera-Multiply-Accumulate per second (TMAC/s) speeds. The photonic core achieves parallelized photonic in-memory computing using phase-change memory arrays and photonic chip-based optical frequency combs (soliton microcombs). The computation is reduced to measuring the optical transmission of reconfigurable and non-resonant passive components and can operate at a bandwidth exceeding 14 GHz, limited only by the speed of the modulators and photodetectors. Given recent advances in hybrid integration of soliton microcombs at microwave line rates, ultra-low loss silicon nitride waveguides, and high speed on-chip detectors and modulators, our approach provides a path towards full CMOS wafer-scale integration of the photonic tensor core. While we focus on convolution processing, more generally our results indicate the major potential of integrated photonics for parallel, fast, and efficient computational hardware in demanding AI applications such as autonomous driving, live video processing, and next generation cloud computing services

Application and performance of disease activity indices proposed for patients with systemic sclerosis in an international cohort of patients with juvenile systemic sclerosis

Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: the inception cohort project is supported by an unrestricted grant from the Joachim Herz Stiftung, Hamburg, Germany. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2023.Objectives: Juvenile systemic sclerosis is a rare childhood disease. Three disease activity indices have been published for adult patients with systemic sclerosis: the European Scleroderma Study Group Index, a modified version of the European Scleroderma Study Group Index and the revised European Scleroderma Trials and Research index. The objective of this study was to determine the feasibility and performance of the three disease activity indices in a prospectively followed cohort of patients with juvenile systemic sclerosis. Methods: The analysis cohort was selected from the prospective international inception cohort enrolling juvenile systemic sclerosis patients. The correlation of the disease activity indices with the physicians’ and the patients’ global assessment of disease activity was determined. The disease activity indices were compared between patients with active and inactive disease. Sensitivity to change between 6- and 12-month follow-up was investigated by mixed models. Results: Eighty percent of the 70 patients had a diffuse cutaneous subtype. The revised European Scleroderma Trials and Research index was highly correlated with the physician-reported global disease activity/parents-reported global disease activity (r = 0.74/0.64), followed by the European Scleroderma Study Group activity index (r = 0.61/0.55) and the modified version of the European Scleroderma Study Group activity index (r = 0.51/0.43). The disease activity indices significantly differed between active and inactive patients. The disease activity indices showed sensitivity to change between 6- and 12-month follow-up among patients who improved or worsened according to the physician-reported global disease activity and the parents-reported global disease activity. Conclusion: Overall, no disease activity score is superior to the other, and all three scores have limitations in the application in juvenile systemic sclerosis patients. Furthermore, research on the concept of disease activity and suitable scores to measure disease activity in patients with juvenile systemic sclerosis is necessary in future.Peer reviewe

Close-to-threshold Meson Production in Hadronic Interactions

Studies of meson production at threshold in the hadron--hadron interaction began in the fifties when sufficient energies of accelerated protons were available. A strong interdependence between developments in accelerator physics, detector performance and theoretical understanding led to a unique vivid field of physics. Early experiments performed with bubble chambers revealed already typical ingredients of threshold studies, which were superseded by more complete meson production investigations at the nucleon beam facilities TRIUMF, LAMPF, PSI, LEAR and SATURNE. Currently, with the advent of the new cooler rings as IUCF, CELSIUS and COSY the field is entering a new domain of precision and the next step of further progress. The analysis of this new data in the short range limit permits a more fundamental consideration and a quantitative comparison of the production processes for different mesons in the few--body final states. The interpretation of the data take advantage of the fact that production reactions close-to-threshold are characterized by only a few degrees of freedom between a well defined combination of initial and exit channels. Deviations from predictions of phase-space controlled one-meson-exchange models are indications of new and exciting physics. Precision data on differential cross sections, isospin and spin observables -- partly but by no means adequately available -- are presently turning up on the horizon. There is work for the next years and excitement of the physics expected. Here we try to give a brief and at the same time comprehensive overview of this field of hadronic threshold production studies.Comment: 100 pages, Review article to be published in Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. Vol. 49, issue 1 (2002

Deletion of the Pichia pastoris KU70 Homologue Facilitates Platform Strain Generation for Gene Expression and Synthetic Biology

Targeted gene replacement to generate knock-outs and knock-ins is a commonly used method to study the function of unknown genes. In the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris, the importance of specific gene targeting has increased since the genome sequencing projects of the most commonly used strains have been accomplished, but rapid progress in the field has been impeded by inefficient mechanisms for accurate integration. To improve gene targeting efficiency in P. pastoris, we identified and deleted the P. pastoris KU70 homologue. We observed a substantial increase in the targeting efficiency using the two commonly known and used integration loci HIS4 and ADE1, reaching over 90% targeting efficiencies with only 250-bp flanking homologous DNA. Although the ku70 deletion strain was noted to be more sensitive to UV rays than the corresponding wild-type strain, no lethality, severe growth retardation or loss of gene copy numbers could be detected during repetitive rounds of cultivation and induction of heterologous protein production. Furthermore, we demonstrated the use of the ku70 deletion strain for fast and simple screening of genes in the search of new auxotrophic markers by targeting dihydroxyacetone synthase and glycerol kinase genes. Precise knock-out strains for the well-known P. pastoris AOX1, ARG4 and HIS4 genes and a whole series of expression vectors were generated based on the wild-type platform strain, providing a broad spectrum of precise tools for both intracellular and secreted production of heterologous proteins utilizing various selection markers and integration strategies for targeted or random integration of single and multiple genes. The simplicity of targeted integration in the ku70 deletion strain will further support protein production strain generation and synthetic biology using P. pastoris strains as platform hosts

Medical treatment of pulmonary hypertension in adults with congenital heart disease : updated and extended results from the International COMPERA-CHD Registry

Funding Information: The authors are indebted to the COMPERA investigators and their staff. We explicitly thank Dr. Claudia S. Copeland for the professional editing of the final draft of the manuscript. Funding: COMPERA is funded by unrestricted grants from Acceleron, Actelion Pharmaceuticals (Janssen), Bayer, OMT and GSK. These companies were not involved in data analysis or the writing of this manuscript. Funding Information: ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https:// dx.doi.org/10.21037/cdt-21-351). The series “Current Management Aspects in Adult Congenital Heart Disease (ACHD): Part IV” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. Dr. DH reports non-financial support from Actelion, Boehringer-Ingelheim, and Shire, outside the submitted work; Dr. DP reports personal fees from Actelion, Biogen, Aspen, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Daiichi Sankyo, and Sanofi, outside the submitted work; Dr. MD reports personal fees from Actelion, Bayer, GSK and MSD, outside the submitted work; Dr. HAG reports personal fees from Actelion, Bayer, Gilead, GSK, MSD, Pfizer and United Therapeutics, outside the submitted work; Dr. MG reports personal fees from Actelion, Bayer and GSK, outside the submitted work; Dr. MMH reports personal fees from Acceleron, Actelion, Bayer, MSD and Pfizer, outside the submitted work; Dr. CDV reports personal fees from Actelion, Bayer, GSK, MSD, Pfizer, and United Therapeutics, outside the submitted work; Dr. RE reports personal fees from Actelion, Boehringer Ingelheim, OMT, Bayer, and Berlin Chemie; grants from Actelion and Boehringer Ingelheim, outside the submitted work; Dr. MH reports grants and personal fees from Actelion, personal fees from Bayer, Berlin Chemie, Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK, Janssen, Novartis and MSD, outside the submitted work; Dr. MH reports personal fees from Acceleron, Actelion, AstraZeneca, Bayer, BERLIN CHEMIE, GSK, MSD, Novartis and OMT, outside the submitted work; Dr. HW reports personal fees from Action, Bayer, Biotest, Boehringer, GSK, Pfizer, and Roche, outside the submitted work; Dr. DS reports personal fees from Actelion, Bayer, and GSK, outside the submitted work; Dr. LS reports personal fees from Actelion, Bayer, and MSD, outside the submitted work; Dr. SU reports grants from Swiss National Science Foundation, Zurich Lung, Swiss Lung, and Orpha Swiss, grants and personal fees from Actelion SA/Johnson & Johnson, Switzerland, and MSD Switzerland, outside the submitted work; Dr. TJL reports personal fees from Actelion, Janssen-Cilag, BMS, MSD, and OMT GmbH, outside the submitted work; Dr. LB reports personal fees from Actelion, outside the submitted work; Dr. MC reports personal fees from Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH, Roche Pharma, and Boehringer Ingelheim, outside the submitted work; Dr. HW reports personal fees from Boehringer Ingelheim, and Roche, outside the submitted work. Dr. EG reports personal fees from Actelion, Janssen, Bayer, MSD, Bial, OrPha Swiss GmbH, OMT and Medscape, outside the submitted work; Dr. SR reports personal fees from Actelion, Bayer, GSK, Pfizer, Novartis, Gilead, MSD, and United Therapeutics, outside the submitted work. The authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare. Publisher Copyright: © Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy. All rights reserved.Background: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is common in congenital heart disease (CHD). Because clinical-trial data on PAH associated with CHD (PAH-CHD) remain limited, registry data on the long-term course are essential. This analysis aimed to update information from the COMPERA-CHD registry on management strategies based on real-world data. Methods: The prospective international pulmonary hypertension registry COMPERA has since 2007 enrolled more than 10,000 patients. COMPERA-CHD is a sub-registry for patients with PAH-CHD Results: A total of 769 patients with PAH-CHD from 62 specialized centers in 12 countries were included into COMPERA-CHD from January 2007 through September 2020. At the last follow-up in 09/2020, patients [mean age 45.3±16.8 years; 512 (66%) female] had either post-tricuspid shunts (n=359; 46.7%), pre-tricuspid shunts (n=249; 32.4%), complex CHD (n=132; 17.2%), congenital left heart or aortic valve or aortic disease (n=9; 1.3%), or miscellaneous CHD (n=20; 2.6%). The mean 6-minute walking distance was 369±121 m, and 28.2%, 56.0%, and 3.8% were in WHO functional class I/II, III or IV, respectively (12.0% unknown). Compared with the previously published COMPERA-CHD data, after 21 months of followup, the number of included PAH-CHD patients increased by 91 (13.4%). Within this group the number of Eisenmenger patients rose by 39 (16.3%), the number of “Non-Eisenmenger PAH” patients by 45 (26.9%). Currently, among the 674 patients from the PAH-CHD group with at least one follow-up, 450 (66.8%) received endothelin receptor antagonists (ERA), 416 (61.7%) PDE-5 inhibitors, 85 (12.6%) prostacyclin analogues, and 36 (5.3%) the sGC stimulator riociguat. While at first inclusion in the COMPERA-CHD registry, treatment was predominantly monotherapy (69.3%), this has shifted to favoring combination therapy in the current group (53%). For the first time, the nature, frequency, and treatment of significant comorbidities requiring supportive care and medication are described. Conclusions: Analyzing “real life data” from the international COMPERA-CHD registry, we present a comprehensive overview about current management modalities and treatment concepts in PAH-CHD. There was an trend towards more aggressive treatment strategies and combination therapies. In the future, particular attention must be directed to the “Non-Eisenmenger PAH” group and to patients with complex CHD, including Fontan patients.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Galaxies Going Bananas: Inferring the 3D Geometry of High-Redshift Galaxies with JWST-CEERS

The 3D geometry of high-redshift galaxies remains poorly understood. We build a differentiable Bayesian model and use Hamiltonian Monte Carlo to efficiently and robustly infer the 3D shapes of star-forming galaxies in JWST-CEERS observations with $\log M_*/M_{\odot}=9.0-10.5$ at $z=0.5-8.0$. We reproduce previous results from HST-CANDELS in a fraction of the computing time and constrain the mean ellipticity, triaxiality, size and covariances with samples as small as $\sim50$ galaxies. We find high 3D ellipticities for all mass-redshift bins suggesting oblate (disky) or prolate (elongated) geometries. We break that degeneracy by constraining the mean triaxiality to be $\sim1$ for $\log M_*/M_{\odot}=9.0-9.5$ dwarfs at $z>1$ (favoring the prolate scenario), with significantly lower triaxialities for higher masses and lower redshifts indicating the emergence of disks. The prolate population traces out a ``banana'' in the projected $b/a-\log a$ diagram with an excess of low $b/a$, large $\log a$ galaxies. The dwarf prolate fraction rises from $\sim25\%$ at $z=0.5-1.0$ to $\sim50-80\%$ at $z=3-8$. If these are disks, they cannot be axisymmetric but instead must be unusually oval (triaxial) unlike local circular disks. We simultaneously constrain the 3D size-mass relation and its dependence on 3D geometry. High-probability prolate and oblate candidates show remarkably similar S\'ersic indices ($n\sim1$), non-parametric morphological properties and specific star formation rates. Both tend to be visually classified as disks or irregular but edge-on oblate candidates show more dust attenuation. We discuss selection effects, follow-up prospects and theoretical implications.Comment: Submitted to ApJ, main body is 35 pages of which ~half are full-page figures, comments welcom

Preterm birth and small for gestational age in relation to alcohol consumption during pregnancy: stronger associations among vulnerable women? Results from two large Western-European studies

Pfinder M, Kunst AE, Feldmann R, van Eijsden M, Vrijkotte TGM. Preterm birth and small for gestational age in relation to alcohol consumption during pregnancy: stronger associations among vulnerable women? Results from two large Western-European studies. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 2013;13(1): 49.BACKGROUND: Inconsistent data on the association between prenatal alcohol exposure and a range of pregnancy outcomes, such as preterm birth (PTB) and small for gestational age (SGA) raise new questions. This study aimed to assess whether the association between low-moderate prenatal alcohol exposure and PTB and SGA differs according to maternal education, maternal mental distress or maternal smoking. METHODS: The Amsterdam Born Children and their Development (ABCD) Study (N=5,238) and the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS) (N=16,301) are both large studies. Women provide information on alcohol intake in early pregnancy, 3 months postpartum and up to 17 years retrospectively. Multivariate logistic regression analyses and stratified regression analyses were performed to examine the association between prenatal alcohol exposure and PTB and SGA, respectively. RESULTS: No association was found between any level of prenatal alcohol exposure (non-daily, daily, non-abstaining) and SGA. The offspring of daily drinkers and non-abstainers had a lower risk of PTB [ABCD: odds ratio (OR) 0.31, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.13, 0.77; KiGGS: OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.57, 0.99]. Interactions with maternal education, maternal distress or maternal smoking were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: Although these results should be interpreted with caution, both studies showed no adverse effects of low-moderate prenatal alcohol exposure on PTB and SGA, not even in the offspring of women who were disadvantaged in terms of low education, high levels of distress, or smoking during pregnancy

Pulmonary Hypertension in Adults with Congenital Heart Disease: Real-World Data from the International COMPERA-CHD Registry

Introduction: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a common complication in patients with congenital heart disease (CHD), aggravating the natural, post-operative, or post-interventional course of the underlying anomaly. The various CHDs differ substantially in characteristics, functionality, and clinical outcomes among each other and compared with other diseases with pulmonary hypertension. Objective: To describe current management strategies and outcomes for adults with PH in relation to different types of CHD based on real-world data. Methods and results: COMPERA (Comparative, Prospective Registry of Newly Initiated Therapies for Pulmonary Hypertension) is a prospective, international PH registry comprising, at the time of data analysis, >8200 patients with various forms of PH. Here, we analyzed a subgroup of 680 patients with PH due to CHD, who were included between 2007 and 2018 in 49 specialized centers for PH and/or CHD located in 11 European countries. At enrollment, the patients’ median age was 44 years (67% female), and patients had either pre-tricuspid shunts, post-tricuspid shunts, complex CHD, congenital left heart or aortic disease, or miscellaneous other types of CHD. Upon inclusion, targeted therapies for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) included endothelin receptor antagonists, PDE-5 inhibitors, prostacyclin analogues, and soluble guanylate cyclase stimulators. Eighty patients with Eisenmenger syndrome were treatment-naïve. While at inclusion the primary PAH treatment for the cohort was monotherapy (70% of patients), with 30% of the patients on combination therapy, after a median observation time of 45.3 months, the number of patients on combination therapy had increased significantly, to 50%. The use of oral anticoagulants or antiplatelets was dependent on the underlying diagnosis or comorbidities. In the entire COMPERA-CHD cohort, after follow-up and receiving targeted PAH therapy (n = 511), 91 patients died over the course of a 5-year follow up. The 5-year Kaplan–Meier survival estimate for CHD associated PH was significantly better than that for idiopathic PAH (76% vs. 54%; p < 0.001). Within the CHD associated PH group, survival estimates differed particularly depending on the underlying diagnosis and treatment status. Conclusions: In COMPERA-CHD, the overall survival of patients with CHD associated PH was dependent on the underlying diagnosis and treatment status, but was significantly better as than that for idiopathic PAH. Nevertheless, overall survival of patients with PAH due to CHD was still markedly reduced compared with survival of patients with other types of CHD, despite an increasing number of patients on PAH-targeted combination therapy

Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function

We explore the inter-relationships between mass, star-formation rate and environment in the SDSS, zCOSMOS and other surveys. The differential effects of mass and environment are completely separable to z ~ 1, indicating that two distinct processes are operating, "mass-quenching" and "environment-quenching". Environment-quenching, at fixed over-density, evidently does not change with epoch to z ~ 1, suggesting that it occurs as large-scale structure develops in the Universe. The observed constancy of the mass-function shape for star-forming galaxies, demands that the mass-quenching of galaxies around and above M*, must be proportional to their star-formation rates at all z < 2. We postulate that this simple mass-quenching law also holds over a much broader range of stellar mass and epoch. These two simple quenching processes, plus some additional quenching due to merging, then naturally produce (a) a quasi-static Schechter mass function for star-forming galaxies with a value of M* that is set by the proportionality between the star-formation and mass-quenching rates, (b) a double Schechter function for passive galaxies with two components: the dominant one is produced by mass-quenching and has exactly the same M* as the star-forming galaxies but an alpha shallower by +1, while the other is produced by environment effects and has the same M* and alpha as the star-forming galaxies, and is larger in high density environments. Subsequent merging of quenched galaxies modifies these predictions somewhat in the denser environments, slightly increasing M* and making alpha more negative. All of these detailed quantitative relationships between the Schechter parameters are indeed seen in the SDSS, lending strong support to our simple empirically-based model. The model naturally produces for passive galaxies the "anti-hierarchical" run of mean ages and alpha-element abundances with mass.Comment: 66 pages, 19 figures, 1 movie, accepted for publication in ApJ. The movie is also available at http://www.exp-astro.phys.ethz.ch/zCOSMOS/MF_simulation_d1_d4.mo