Simply-connected vortex-patch shallow-water quasi-equilibria

This work is supported by a UK Natural Environment Research Council studentshipWe examine the form, properties, stability and evolution of simply-connected vortex-patch relative quasi-equilibria in the single-layer ƒ-plane shallow-water model of geophysical fluid dynamics. We examine the effects of the size, shape and strength of vortices in this system, represented by three distinct parameters completely describing the families of the quasi-equilibria. Namely, these are the ratio γ=L/LD between the horizontal size of the vortices and the Rossby deformation length; the aspect ratio λ between the minor to major axes of the vortex; and a potential vorticity (PV)-based Rossby number Ro=q′/ƒ, the ratio of the PV anomaly q′ within the vortex to the Coriolis frequency ƒ. By defining an appropriate steadiness parameter, we find that the quasi-equilibria remain steady for long times, enabling us to determine the boundary of stability λc=λc(γ, Ro), for 0.25≤γ≤6 and |Ro|≤1. By calling two states which share γ,|Ro| and λ ‘equivalent’, we find a clear asymmetry in the stability of cyclonic (Ro>0) and anticyclonic (Ro<0) equilibria, with cyclones being able to sustain greater deformations than anticyclones before experiencing an instability. We find that ageostrophic motions stabilise cyclones and destabilise anticyclones. Both types of vortices undergo the same main types of unstable evolution, albeit in different ranges of the parameter space, (a) vacillations for large-γ, large-Ro states, (b) filamentation for small-γ states and (c) vortex splitting, asymmetric for intermediate-γ and symmetric for large-γ states.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Current Challenges Face By Pakistan R&D Sector In Context Of Innovation Management Capabilities

As most of the developing countries Pakistan has not yet structure the national innovation system with any concrete policies in order to assist their domestic requirement without comprehensive development of their R&D capabilities. As compares to some of the emerging economies Pakistan National innovation system (NIS) unfortunately operated in isolation unsynchronized structure may cause serious challenge for R&D sector that still unable to developed innovational capabilities. This research study highlights the potential gaps in national innovation structure to facilitate the R&D sector. This research study explore the significance of innovation capabilities as during the development of national innovation policy to support the innovation structure

Predicting Outcomes From Radical Radiotherapy for Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: A Systematic Review of the Existing Literature

Radical radiotherapy (RT) is a potentially curative treatment in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and is delivered in conventional 2-Gy fractions, hypofractionated and ablative stereotactic courses. No reliable, predictive biomarkers for the clinical events of local control, appearance of distant metastases and development of toxicity have been introduced in routine clinical practice. Such a test would enable the Radiotherapist to tailor the clinical management of individual patients, considering their pre-treatment characteristics, in order reduce the risk of recurrence or toxicity e.g., dose modification, accelerated fractionation, hypofractionation, or concurrent systemic therapy. The aim of this review was to map the published literature relating to investigations of the potential predictive value of patient or treatment characteristics in radical RT for NSCLC. These investigations should remain a research focus for disease control given the upward trends in lung cancer incidence, and for the avoidance of toxicity, given the survivorship afforded to the cohort of patients that do well with radical RT, or with the increasing range of systemic agents following metastatic relapse. The conclusion of the presented analysis is that there are no published, effective and validated predictive tools for estimation of risk of local/distant recurrence or toxicity after radical RT for NSCLC. The authors have identified an important space for future research in the field of lung cancer radiotherapy

Equivalence of pathologists' and rule-based parser's annotations of Dutch pathology reports

Introduction: In the Netherlands, pathology reports are annotated using a nationwide pathology network (PALGA) thesaurus. Annotations must address topography, procedure, and diagnosis. The Pathology Report Annotation Module (PRAM) can be used to annotate the report conclusion with PALGA-compliant code series. The equivalence of these generated annotations to manual annotations is unknown. We assess the equivalence of annotations by authoring pathologists, pathologists participating in this study, and PRAM. Methods: New annotations were created for one thousand histopathology reports by the PRAM and a pathologist panel. We calculated dissimilarity of annotations using a semantic distance measure, Minimal Transition Cost (MTC). In absence of a gold standard, we compared dissimilarity scores having one common annotator. The resulting comparisons yielded a measure for the coding dissimilarity between PRAM, the pathologist panel and the authoring pathologist. To compare the comprehensiveness of the coding methods, we assessed number and length of the annotations. Results: Eight of the twelve comparisons of dissimilarity scores were significantly equivalent. Non-equivalent score pairs involved dissimilarity between the code series by the original pathologist and the panel pathologists. Coding dissimilarity was lowest for procedures, highest for diagnoses: MTC overall = 0.30, topographies = 0.22, procedures = 0.13, diagnoses = 0.33. Both number and length of annotations per report increased with report conclusion length, mostly in PRAM-annotated conclusions: conclusion length ranging from 2 to 373 words, number of annotations ranged from 1 to 10 for pathologists, 1–19 for PRAM, annotation length ranged from 3 to 43 codes for pathologists, 4–123 for PRAM. Conclusions: We measured annotation similarity among PRAM, authoring pathologists and panel pathologists. Annotating by PRAM, the panel pathologists and to a lesser extent by the authoring pathologist was equivalent. Therefore, the use of annotations by PRAM in a practical setting is justified. PRAM annotations are equivalent to study-setting annotations, and more comprehensive than routine coding. Further research on annotation quality is needed