Empirical models for estimating monthly global solar radiation: a most comprehensive review and comparative case study in China

Global solar radiation is a core component of scientific research and engineering application across a broad spectrum. However, its measurement is limited by a small number of stations due to the technical and financial restricts. Estimating solar radiation with the meteorological variables using empirical models is of benefit to obtain solar radiation data at global scale. Yet, there are various options of available empirical models to select the most suitable one. This study conducted a most comprehensive collection and review of empirical models employing the commonly measured meteorological variables and geographic factors. A total of 294 different types of empirical models were collected and classified into 37 groups according to input attributes. Such collection built an empirical model library providing an overall overview of the developed empirical models in literatures. Furthermore, the collected models were calibrated and evaluated at three meteorological stations in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area in China. This study suggests that these model-comparing processes can assist the governments, scientists and engineers in tailoring the most fitted model for specific applications and in particular areas

Segmentation of stress echocardiography sequences using a patient-specific prior

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

An innovative non-invasive technique for subcutaneous tumour measurements.

INTRODUCTION:In oncological drug development, animal studies continue to play a central role in which the volume of subcutaneous tumours is monitored to assess the efficacy of new drugs. The tumour volume is estimated by taking the volume to be that of a regular spheroid with the same dimensions. However, this method is subjective, insufficiently traceable, and is subject to error in the accuracy of volume estimates as tumours are frequently irregular. METHODS & RESULTS:This paper reviews the standard technique for tumour volume assessment, calliper measurements, by conducting a statistical review of a large dataset consisting of 2,500 tumour volume measurements from 1,600 mice by multiple operators across 6 mouse strains and 20 tumour models. Additionally, we explore the impact of six different tumour morphologies on volume estimation and the detection of treatment effects using a computational tumour growth model. Finally, we propose an alternative method to callipers for estimating volume-BioVolumeTM, a 3D scanning technique. BioVolume simultaneously captures both stereo RGB (Red, Green and Blue) images from different light sources and infrared thermal images of the tumour in under a second. It then detects the tumour region automatically and estimates the tumour volume in under a minute. Furthermore, images can be processed in parallel within the cloud and so the time required to process multiple images is similar to that required for a single image. We present data of a pre-production unit test consisting of 297 scans from over 120 mice collected by four different operators. CONCLUSION:This work demonstrates that it is possible to record tumour measurements in a rapid minimally invasive, morphology-independent way, and with less human-bias compared to callipers, whilst also improving data traceability. Furthermore, the images collected by BioVolume may be useful, for example, as a source of biomarkers for animal welfare and secondary drug toxicity / efficacy

Transboundary particulate matter, photo-oxidants, acidifying and eutrophying components : EMEP Status Report 1 2017; August 23, 2017

This report presents the EMEP activities in 2016 and 2017 in relation to transboundary fluxes of particulate matter, photo-oxidants, acidifying and eutrophying components, with focus on results for 2015. It presents major results of the activities related to emission inventories, observations and modelling. The report also introduces specific relevant research activities addressing EMEP key challenges, as well as technical developments of the observation and modelling capacities. An important topic this year is the transition to the new EMEP grid and resolution. For the first time, officially reported fine scale emissions (0.1◦×0.1◦ resolution) have been used in the EMEP MSC-W model runs for air pollution assessment. The impacts of this change on model results and its comparisons to observations are analyzed in this report