A likelihood-based method for measuring weak gravitational lensing shear in deep galaxy surveys is described and applied to the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS). ...CFHTLenS comprises 154 deg2 of multi-colour optical data from the CFHT Legacy Survey, with lensing measurements being made in the i
′ band to a depth i′AB < 24.7, for galaxies with signal-to-noise ratio νSN 10. The method is based on the lensfit algorithm described in earlier papers, but here we describe a full analysis pipeline that takes into account the properties of real surveys. The method creates pixel-based models of the varying point spread function (PSF) in individual image exposures. It fits PSF-convolved two-component (disc plus bulge) models to measure the ellipticity of each galaxy, with Bayesian marginalization over model nuisance parameters of galaxy position, size, brightness and bulge fraction. The method allows optimal joint measurement of multiple, dithered image exposures, taking into account imaging distortion and the alignment of the multiple measurements. We discuss the effects of noise bias on the likelihood distribution of galaxy ellipticity. Two sets of image simulations that mirror the observed properties of CFHTLenS have been created to establish the method's accuracy and to derive an empirical correction for the effects of noise bias.
This paper presents the gravitational-wave measurement of the Hubble constant (H(0)) using the detections from the first and second observing runs of the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detector network. The ...presence of the transient electromagnetic counterpart of the binary neutron star GW170817 led to the first standard-siren measurement of H(0). Here we additionally use binary black hole detections in conjunction with galaxy catalogs and report a joint measurement. Our updated measurement is H(0) = 69(+16,-8) km/s Mpc (68.3% of the highest density posterior interval with a flat-in-log prior) which is an improvement by a factor of 1.04 (about 4%) over the GW170817-only value of 6(+17,-8) km/s Mpc. A significant additional contribution currently comes from GW170814, a loud and well-localized detection from a part of the sky thoroughly covered by the Dark Energy Survey. With numerous detections anticipated over the upcoming years, an exhaustive understanding of other systematic effects are also going to become increasingly important. These results establish the path to cosmology using gravitational-wave observations with and without transient electromagnetic counterparts.
Context:
Denosumab and zoledronic acid (ZOL) are parenteral treatments for patients with osteoporosis.
Objective:
The objective of the study was to compare the effect of transitioning from oral ...bisphosphonates to denosumab or ZOL on bone mineral density (BMD) and bone turnover.
Design and Setting:
This was an international, multicenter, randomized, double-blind trial.
Participants:
A total of 643 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis previously treated with oral bisphosphonates participated in the study.
Interventions:
Subjects were randomized 1:1 to sc denosumab 60 mg every 6 months plus iv placebo once or ZOL 5 mg iv once plus sc placebo every 6 months for 12 months.
Main Outcome Measures:
Changes in BMD and bone turnover markers were measured.
Results:
BMD change from baseline at month 12 was significantly greater with denosumab compared with ZOL at the lumbar spine (primary end point; 3.2% vs 1.1%; P < .0001), total hip (1.9% vs 0.6%; P < .0001), femoral neck (1.2% vs −0.1%; P < .0001), and one-third radius (0.6% vs 0.0%; P < .05). The median decrease from baseline was greater with denosumab than ZOL for serum C-telopeptide of type 1 collagen at all time points after day 10 and for serum procollagen type 1 N-terminal propeptide at month 1 and at all time points after month 3 (all P < .05). Median percentage changes from baseline in serum intact PTH were significantly greater at months 3 and 9 with denosumab compared with ZOL (all P < .05). Adverse events were similar between groups. Three events consistent with the definition of atypical femoral fracture were observed (two denosumab and one ZOL).
Conclusions:
In postmenopausal women with osteoporosis previously treated with oral bisphosphonates, denosumab was associated with greater BMD increases at all measured skeletal sites and greater inhibition of bone remodeling compared with ZOL.
Postmenopausal women with osteoporosis transitioned from oral bisphosphonates had greater BMD increases and greater inhibition of bone turnover with denosumab compared with zoledronic acid.
Methods for chlorosis detection and physiological condition monitoring in
Vitis vinifera L. through accurate chlorophyll a and b content (
C
ab) estimation at leaf and canopy levels are presented in ...this manuscript. A total of 24 vineyards were identified for field and airborne data collection with the
Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI), the
Reflective Optics System Imaging Spectrometer (ROSIS) and the
Digital Airborne Imaging Spectrometer (DAIS-7915) hyperspectral sensors in 2002 and 2003 in northern Spain, comprising 103 study areas of 10
×
10 m in size, with a total of 1467 leaves collected for determination of pigment concentration. A subsample of 605 leaves was used for measuring the optical properties of reflectance and transmittance with a Li-Cor 1800-12 Integrating Sphere coupled by a 200 μm diameter single mode fiber to an Ocean Optics model USB2000 spectrometer. Several narrow-band vegetation indices were calculated from leaf reflectance spectra, and the PROSPECT leaf optical model was used for inversion using the extensive database of leaf optical properties. Results showed that the best indicators for chlorophyll content estimation in
V. vinifera L. leaves were narrow-band hyperspectral indices calculated in the 700–750 nm spectral region (
r
2 ranging between 0.8 and 0.9), with poor performance of traditional indices such as the
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Results for other biochemicals indicated that the
Structure Insensitive Pigment Index (SIPI) and the
Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI) were more sensitive to carotenoids
C
x+
c
and chlorophyll–carotenoid ratios
C
ab
/
C
x+
c
than to chlorophyll content
C
ab. Chlorophyll
a and
b estimation by inversion of the PROSPECT leaf model on
V. vinifera L. spectra was successful, yielding a determination coefficient of
r
2
=
0.95, with an RMSE
=
5.3 μg/cm
2. The validity of leaf-level indices for chlorophyll content estimation at the canopy level in
V. vinifera L. was studied using the
scaling-up approach that links PROSPECT and rowMCRM canopy reflectance simulation to account for the effects of vineyard structure, vine dimensions, row orientation and soil and shadow effects on the canopy reflectance. The index calculated as a combination of the
Transformed Chlorophyll Absorption in Reflectance Index (TCARI), and the
Optimized Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (OSAVI) in the form TCARI/OSAVI was the most consistent index for estimating
C
ab on aggregated and pure vine pixels extracted from 1 m CASI and ROSIS hyperspectral imagery. Predictive relationships were developed with PROSPECT–rowMCRM model between
C
ab and TCARI/OSAVI as function of LAI, using field-measured vine dimensions and image-extracted soil background, row-orientation and viewing geometry values. Prediction relationships for
C
ab content with TCARI/OSAVI were successfully applied to the 103 study sites imaged on 24 fields by ROSIS and CASI airborne sensors, yielding
r
2
=
0.67 and RMSE
=
11.5 μg/cm
2.
We search for signatures of gravitational lensing in the gravitational-wave signals from compact binary coalescences detected by Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) ...and Advanced Virgo during O3a, the first half of their third observing run. We study: (1) the expected rate of lensing at current detector sensitivity and the implications of a non-observation of strong lensing or a stochastic gravitational-wave background on the merger-rate density at high redshift; (2) how the interpretation of individual high-mass events would change if they were found to be lensed; (3) the possibility of multiple images due to strong lensing by galaxies or galaxy clusters; and (4) possible wave-optics effects due to point-mass microlenses. Several pairs of signals in the multiple-image analysis show similar parameters and, in this sense, are nominally consistent with the strong lensing hypothesis. However, taking into account population priors, selection effects, and the prior odds against lensing, these events do not provide sufficient evidence for lensing. Overall, we find no compelling evidence for lensing in the observed gravitational-wave signals from any of these analyses.
We report the observation of gravitational waves from a binary-black-hole coalescence during the first two weeks of LIGO’s and Virgo’s third observing run. The signal was recorded on April 12, 2019 ...at05∶30∶44 UTC with a network signal-to-noise ratio of 19. The binary is different from observations during the first two observing runs most notably due to its asymmetric masses: a∼30M⊙black hole merged with a ∼8M⊙black hole companion. The more massive black hole rotated with a dimensionless spin magnitude between 0.22 and 0.60 (90% probability). Asymmetric systems are predicted to emit gravitational waves with stronger contributions from higher multipoles, and indeed we find strong evidence for gravitational radiation beyond the leading quadrupolar order in the observed signal. A suite of tests performed onGW190412 indicates consistency with Einstein’s general theory of relativity. While the mass ratio of this system differs from all previous detections, we show that it is consistent with the population model of stellar binary black holes inferred from the first two observing runs.
We present a new model for the global tropospheric chemistry of inorganic bromine (Bry) coupled to oxidant-aerosol chemistry in the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model (CTM). Sources of tropospheric ...Bry include debromination of sea-salt aerosol, photolysis and oxidation of short-lived bromocarbons, and transport from the stratosphere. Comparison to a GOME-2 satellite climatology of tropospheric BrO columns shows that the model can reproduce the observed increase of BrO with latitude, the northern mid-latitudes maximum in winter, and the Arctic maximum in spring. This successful simulation is contingent on the HOBr + HBr reaction taking place in aqueous aerosols and ice clouds. Bromine chemistry in the model decreases tropospheric ozone mixing ratios by <1–8 nmol mol−1 (6.5% globally), with the largest effects in the northern extratropics in spring. The global mean tropospheric OH concentration decreases by 4%. Inclusion of bromine chemistry improves the ability of global models (GEOS-Chem and p-TOMCAT) to simulate observed 19th-century ozone and its seasonality. Bromine effects on tropospheric ozone are comparable in the present-day and pre-industrial atmospheres so that estimates of anthropogenic radiative forcing are minimally affected. Br atom concentrations are 40% higher in the pre-industrial atmosphere due to lower ozone, which would decrease by a factor of 2 the atmospheric lifetime of elemental mercury against oxidation by Br. This suggests that historical anthropogenic mercury emissions may have mostly deposited to northern mid-latitudes, enriching the corresponding surface reservoirs. The persistent rise in background surface ozone at northern mid-latitudes during the past decades could possibly contribute to the observations of elevated mercury in subsurface waters of the North Atlantic.
Abstract
The global network of gravitational-wave observatories now includes five detectors, namely LIGO Hanford, LIGO Livingston, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO 600. These detectors collected data during ...their third observing run, O3, composed of three phases: O3a starting in 2019 April and lasting six months, O3b starting in 2019 November and lasting five months, and O3GK starting in 2020 April and lasting two weeks. In this paper we describe these data and various other science products that can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at
https://gwosc.org
. The main data set, consisting of the gravitational-wave strain time series that contains the astrophysical signals, is released together with supporting data useful for their analysis and documentation, tutorials, as well as analysis software packages.
Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) is among the most developed training approaches for motor restoration of the upper extremity (UE).
Very Early Constraint-Induced Movement during Stroke ...Rehabilitation (VECTORS) was a single-blind phase II trial of CIMT during acute inpatient rehabilitation comparing traditional UE therapy with dose-matched and high-intensity CIMT protocols. Participants were adaptively randomized on rehabilitation admission, and received 2 weeks of study-related treatments. The primary endpoint was the total Action Research Arm Test (ARAT) score on the more affected side at 90 days after stroke onset. A mixed model analysis was performed.
A total of 52 participants (mean age 63.9 +/- 14 years) were randomized 9.65 +/- 4.5 days after onset. Mean NIHSS was 5.3 +/- 1.8; mean total ARAT score was 22.5 +/- 15.6; 77% had ischemic stroke. Groups were equivalent at baseline on all randomization variables. As expected, all groups improved with time on the total ARAT score. There was a significant time x group interaction (F = 3.1, p < 0.01), such that the high intensity CIT group had significantly less improvement at day 90. No significant differences were found between the dose-matched CIMT and control groups at day 90. MRI of a subsample showed no evidence of activity-dependent lesion enlargement.
Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT) was equally as effective but not superior to an equal dose of traditional therapy during inpatient stroke rehabilitation. Higher intensity CIMT resulted in less motor improvement at 90 days, indicating an inverse dose-response relationship. Motor intervention trials should control for dose, and higher doses of motor training cannot be assumed to be more beneficial, particularly early after stroke.
ABSTRACT
In this paper, we present the X-ray analysis of Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR8 redMaPPer (SDSSRM) clusters using data products from the XMM Cluster Survey (XCS). In total, 1189 SDSSRM clusters ...fall within the XMM–Newton footprint. This has yielded 456 confirmed detections accompanied by X-ray luminosity (LX) measurements. Of these clusters, 381 have an associated X-ray temperature measurement (TX). This represents one of the largest samples of coherently derived cluster TX values to date. Our analysis of the X-ray observable to richness scaling relations has demonstrated that scatter in the TX–λ relation is roughly a third of that in the LX–λ relation, and that the LX–λ scatter is intrinsic, i.e. will not be significantly reduced with larger sample sizes. Analysis of the scaling relation between LX and TX has shown that the fits are sensitive to the selection method of the sample, i.e. whether the sample is made up of clusters detected ‘serendipitously’ compared to those deliberately targeted by XMM. These differences are also seen in the LX–λ relation and, to a lesser extent, in the TX–λ relation. Exclusion of the emission from the cluster core does not make a significant impact on the findings. A combination of selection biases is a likely, but yet unproven, reason for these differences. Finally, we have also used our data to probe recent claims of anisotropy in the LX–TX relation across the sky. We find no evidence of anistropy, but stress this may be masked in our analysis by the incomplete declination coverage of the SDSS.
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