Improvements in Circumpolar Southern Hemisphere Extratropical Atmospheric Circulation in CMIP6 Compared to CMIP5

One of the major globally relevant systematic biases in previous generations of climate models has been an equatorward bias in the latitude of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) mid‐latitude tropospheric eddy driven westerly jet. The far reaching implications of this for Southern Ocean heat and carbon uptake and Antarctic land and sea ice are key reasons why addressing this bias is a high priority. It is therefore of primary importance to evaluate the representation of the SH westerly jet in the latest generation of global climate and earth‐system models that comprise the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6). In this paper we assess the representation of major indices of SH extratropical atmospheric circulation in CMIP6 by comparison against both observations and the previous generation of CMIP5 models. Indices assessed are the latitude and speed of the westerly jet, variability of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) and representation of the Amundsen Sea Low (ASL). These are calculated from the historical forcing simulations of both CMIP5 and CMIP6 for time periods matching available observational and reanalysis datasets. From the 39 CMIP6 models available at the time of writing there is an overall reduction in the equatorward bias of the annual mean westerly jet from 1.9° in CMIP5 to 0.4° in CMIP6 and from a seasonal perspective the reduction is clearest in austral spring and summer. This is accompanied by a halving of the bias of SAM decorrelation timescales compared to CMIP5. However, no such overall improvements are evident for the ASL

Connections Between Opioids and Road Injury: Linkage of Prescription Monitoring and Crash Databases

Road traffic injuries and drug overdoses are the two leading causes of injury death in the U.S. In 2017, these two mechanisms were responsible for more than 100,000 deaths. Perhaps more importantly, these two leading causes of injury are closely interconnected. Opioids and other drugs affect driving abilities (e.g., reaction time, alertness, concentration) and crash-related injuries often result in opioid prescribing, creating a potential feedback loop from crash to injury to pain to opioid use and back to crash. At any given time, about 20% of drivers have a potentially impairing drug in their system

Come back Marshall, all is forgiven? : Complexity, evolution, mathematics and Marshallian exceptionalism

Marshall was the great synthesiser of neoclassical economics. Yet with his qualified assumption of self-interest, his emphasis on variation in economic evolution and his cautious attitude to the use of mathematics, Marshall differs fundamentally from other leading neoclassical contemporaries. Metaphors inspire more specific analogies and ontological assumptions, and Marshall used the guiding metaphor of Spencerian evolution. But unfortunately, the further development of a Marshallian evolutionary approach was undermined in part by theoretical problems within Spencer's theory. Yet some things can be salvaged from the Marshallian evolutionary vision. They may even be placed in a more viable Darwinian framework.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Extensions of the matrix Gelfand-Dickey hierarchy from generalized Drinfeld-Sokolov reduction

The $p\times p$ matrix version of the $r$-KdV hierarchy has been recently treated as the reduced system arising in a Drinfeld-Sokolov type Hamiltonian symmetry reduction applied to a Poisson submanifold in the dual of the Lie algebra $\widehat{gl}_{pr}\otimes {\Complex}[\lambda, \lambda^{-1}]$. Here a series of extensions of this matrix Gelfand-Dickey system is derived by means of a generalized Drinfeld-Sokolov reduction defined for the Lie algebra $\widehat{gl}_{pr+s}\otimes {\Complex}[\lambda,\lambda^{-1}]$ using the natural embedding $gl_{pr}\subset gl_{pr+s}$ for $s$ any positive integer. The hierarchies obtained admit a description in terms of a $p\times p$ matrix pseudo-differential operator comprising an $r$-KdV type positive part and a non-trivial negative part. This system has been investigated previously in the $p=1$ case as a constrained KP system. In this paper the previous results are considerably extended and a systematic study is presented on the basis of the Drinfeld-Sokolov approach that has the advantage that it leads to local Poisson brackets and makes clear the conformal ($\cal W$-algebra) structures related to the KdV type hierarchies. Discrete reductions and modified versions of the extended $r$-KdV hierarchies are also discussed.Comment: 60 pages, plain TE

Recurrent duplications of the annexin A1 gene (ANXA1) in autism spectrum disorders

Validating the potential pathogenicity of copy number variants (CNVs) identified in genome-wide studies of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) requires detailed assessment of case/control frequencies, inheritance patterns, clinical correlations, and functional impact. Here, we characterize a small recurrent duplication in the annexin A1 (ANXA1) gene, identified by the Autism Genome Project (AGP) study

A look at the other 90 per cent: Investigating British Sign Language vocabulary knowledge in deaf children from different language learning backgrounds

In this study we present new data on deaf children's receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge in British Sign Language (BSL) from a sample consisting of children with deaf parents, children with hearing parents, and children with additional needs. Their performance on three BSL vocabulary tasks was compared with (previously reported findings from) a sample of deaf fluent signers. We use these data to assess the effects of some key demographic/ child variables on deaf signing children's vocabulary and discuss findings in the relation to the meaning of 'normative' data and samples for this heterogeneous population. Findings show no effect of the presence of additional disabilities on participants' scores for any of the three tasks. As expected, chronological age is the most significant factor in performance on all vocabulary tasks while the number of deaf relatives only becomes statistically significant for the form recall task. This study contributes to the field of sign language assessment by seeking to identify key variables in heterogeneity and how these variables affect signed vocabulary acquisition with the long-term objective of informing intervention

A terminal assessment of stages theory : introducing a dynamic states approach to entrepreneurship

Stages of Growth models were the most frequent theoretical approach to understanding entrepreneurial business growth from 1962 to 2006; they built on the growth imperative and developmental models of that time. An analysis of the universe of such models (N=104) published in the management literature shows no consensus on basic constructs of the approach, nor is there any empirical confirmations of stages theory. However, by changing two propositions of the stages models, a new dynamic states approach is derived. The dynamic states approach has far greater explanatory power than its precursor, and is compatible with leading edge research in entrepreneurship

Radio emission and jets from microquasars

To some extent, all Galactic binary systems hosting a compact object are potential `microquasars', so much as all galactic nuclei may have been quasars, once upon a time. The necessary ingredients for a compact object of stellar mass to qualify as a microquasar seem to be: accretion, rotation and magnetic field. The presence of a black hole may help, but is not strictly required, since neutron star X-ray binaries and dwarf novae can be powerful jet sources as well. The above issues are broadly discussed throughout this Chapter, with a a rather trivial question in mind: why do we care? In other words: are jets a negligible phenomenon in terms of accretion power, or do they contribute significantly to dissipating gravitational potential energy? How do they influence their surroundings? The latter point is especially relevant in a broader context, as there is mounting evidence that outflows powered by super-massive black holes in external galaxies may play a crucial role in regulating the evolution of cosmic structures. Microquasars can also be thought of as a form of quasars for the impatient: what makes them appealing, despite their low number statistics with respect to quasars, are the fast variability time-scales. In the first approximation, the physics of the jet-accretion coupling in the innermost regions should be set by the mass/size of the accretor: stellar mass objects vary on 10^5-10^8 times shorter time-scales, making it possible to study variable accretion modes and related ejection phenomena over average Ph.D. time-scales. [Abridged]Comment: 28 pages, 13 figures, To appear in Belloni, T. (ed.): The Jet Paradigm - From Microquasars to Quasars, Lect. Notes Phys. 794 (2009

Symptom-led staging for semantic and non-fluent/agrammatic variants of primary progressive aphasia. Alzheimer's & Dementia

INTRODUCTION: Here we set out to create a symptom-led staging system for the canonical semantic and non-fluent/agrammatic variants of primary progressive aphasia (PPA), which present unique diagnostic and management challenges not well captured by functional scales developed for Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. METHODS: An international PPA caregiver cohort was surveyed on symptom development under six provisional clinical stages and feedback was analyzed using a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design. RESULTS: Both PPA syndromes were characterized by initial communication dysfunction and non-verbal behavioral changes, with increasing syndromic convergence and functional dependency at later stages. Milestone symptoms were distilled to create a prototypical progression and severity scale of functional impairment: the PPA Progression Planning Aid (“PPA-Squared”). DISCUSSION: This work introduces a symptom-led staging scheme and functional scale for semantic and non-fluent/agrammatic variants of PPA. Our findings have implications for diagnostic and care pathway guidelines, trial design, and personalized prognosis and treatment for PPA

Symptom-based staging for logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia

Background and purpose Logopenic variant primary progressive aphasia (lvPPA) is a major variant presentation of Alzheimer's disease (AD) that signals the importance of communication dysfunction across AD phenotypes. A clinical staging system is lacking for the evolution of AD-associated communication difficulties that could guide diagnosis and care planning. Our aim was to create a symptom-based staging scheme for lvPPA, identifying functional milestones relevant to the broader AD spectrum. Methods An international lvPPA caregiver cohort was surveyed on symptom development under an ‘exploratory’ survey (34 UK caregivers). Feedback from this survey informed the development of a ‘consolidation’ survey (27 UK, 10 Australian caregivers) in which caregivers were presented with six provisional clinical stages and feedback was analysed using a mixed-methods approach. Results Six clinical stages were endorsed. Early symptoms included word-finding difficulty, with loss of message comprehension and speech intelligibility signalling later-stage progression. Additionally, problems with hearing in noise, memory and route-finding were prominent early non-verbal symptoms. ‘Milestone’ symptoms were identified that anticipate daily-life functional transitions and care needs. Conclusions This work introduces a new symptom-based staging scheme for lvPPA, and highlights milestone symptoms that could inform future clinical scales for anticipating and managing communication dysfunction across the AD spectrum