Statistical analysis of stratospheric temperature and ozone profile data for trends and model comparison

Work performed during the project period July 1, 1990 to June 30, 1992 on the statistical analysis of stratospheric temperature data, rawinsonde temperature data, and ozone profile data for the detection of trends is described. Our principal topics of research are trend analysis of NOAA stratospheric temperature data over the period 1978-1989; trend analysis of rawinsonde temperature data for the period 1964-1988; trend analysis of Umkehr ozone profile data for the period 1977-1991; and comparison of observed ozone and temperature trends in the lower stratosphere. Analysis of NOAA stratospheric temperature data indicates the existence of large negative trends at 0.4 mb level, with magnitudes increasing with latitudes away from the equator. Trend analysis of rawinsonde temperature data over 184 stations shows significant positive trends about 0.2 C per decade at surface to 500 mb range, decreasing to negative trends about -0.3 C at 100 to 50 mb range, and increasing slightly at 30 mb level. There is little evidence of seasonal variation in trends. Analysis of Umkehr ozone data for 12 northern hemispheric stations shows significant negative trends about -.5 percent per year in Umkehr layers 7-9 and layer 3, but somewhat less negative trends in layers 4-6. There is no pronounced seasonal variation in trends, especially in layers 4-9. A comparison was made of empirical temperature trends from rawinsonde data in the lower stratosphere with temperature changes determined from a one-dimensional radiative transfer calculation that prescribed a given ozone change over the altitude region, surface to 50 km, obtained from trend analysis of ozonsonde and Umkehr profile data. The empirical and calculated temperature trends are found in substantive agreement in profile shape and magnitude

Cointegrated VARIMA Models: Specification and Simulation.

In this note, we show how specify cointegrated vector autoregressive-moving average models and how they can be used to generate cointegrated time series

Statistical diagnostic and correction of a chemistry-transport model for the prediction of total column ozone

International audienceIn this paper, we introduce a statistical method for examining and adjusting chemical-transport models. We illustrate the findings with total column ozone predictions, based on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2-D (UIUC 2-D) chemical-transport model of the global atmosphere. We propose a general diagnostic procedure for the model outputs in total ozone over the latitudes ranging from 60° South to 60° North to see if the model captures some typical patterns in the data. The method proceeds in two steps to avoid possible collinearity issues. First, we regress the measurements given by a cohesive data set from the SBUV(/2) satellite system on the model outputs with an autoregressive noise component. Second, we regress the residuals of this first regression on the solar flux, the annual cycle, the Antarctic or Arctic Oscillation, and the Quasi Biennial Oscillation. If the coefficients from this second regression are statistically significant, then they mean that the model did not simulate properly the pattern associated with these factors. Systematic anomalies of the model are identified using data from 1979 to 1995, and statistically corrected afterwards. The 1996?2003 validation sample confirms that the combined approach yields better predictions than the direct UIUC 2-D outputs

Limiting distributions for explosive PAR(1) time series with strongly mixing innovation

This work deals with the limiting distribution of the least squares estimators of the coefficients a r of an explosive periodic autoregressive of order 1 (PAR(1)) time series X r = a r X r--1 +u r when the innovation {u k } is strongly mixing. More precisely {a r } is a periodic sequence of real numbers with period P \textgreater{} 0 and such that P r=1 |a r | \textgreater{} 1. The time series {u r } is periodically distributed with the same period P and satisfies the strong mixing property, so the random variables u r can be correlated

The polo-like kinase 1 inhibitor volasertib synergistically increases radiation efficacy in glioma stem cells.

Background: Despite the availability of hundreds of cancer drugs, there is insufficient data on the efficacy of these drugs on the extremely heterogeneous tumor cell populations of glioblastoma (GBM). Results: The PKIS of 357 compounds was initially evaluated in 15 different GSC lines which then led to a more focused screening of the 21 most highly active compounds in 11 unique GSC lines using HTS screening for cell viability. We further validated the HTS result with the second-generation PLK1 inhibitor volasertib as a single agent and in combination with ionizing radiation (IR). Conclusions: Our results reinforce the potential therapeutic efficacy of volasertib in combination with radiation for the treatment of GBM. Methods: We used high-throughput screening (HTS) to identify drugs, out of 357 compounds in the published Protein Kinase Inhibitor Set, with the greatest efficacy against a panel of glioma stem cells (GSCs), which are representative of the classic cancer genome atlas (TCGA) molecular subtypes. Oncotarget 2018; 9(8):10497-10509

Liver and Intestine Transplantation in the United States, 1995–2004

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74804/1/j.1600-6143.2006.01273.x.pd

The mutational constraint spectrum quantified from variation in 141,456 humans

Genetic variants that inactivate protein-coding genes are a powerful source of information about the phenotypic consequences of gene disruption: genes that are crucial for the function of an organism will be depleted of such variants in natural populations, whereas non-essential genes will tolerate their accumulation. However, predicted loss-of-function variants are enriched for annotation errors, and tend to be found at extremely low frequencies, so their analysis requires careful variant annotation and very large sample sizes(1). Here we describe the aggregation of 125,748 exomes and 15,708 genomes from human sequencing studies into the Genome Aggregation Database (gnomAD). We identify 443,769 high-confidence predicted loss-of-function variants in this cohort after filtering for artefacts caused by sequencing and annotation errors. Using an improved model of human mutation rates, we classify human protein-coding genes along a spectrum that represents tolerance to inactivation, validate this classification using data from model organisms and engineered human cells, and show that it can be used to improve the power of gene discovery for both common and rare diseases.Peer reviewe

Trends in the Vertical Distribution of Ozone: A Comparison of Two Analyses of Ozonesonde Data

We present the results of two independent analyses of ozonesonde measurements of the vertical profile of ozone. For most of the ozonesonde stations we use data that were recently reprocessed and reevaluated to improve their quality and internal consistency. The two analyses give similar results for trends in ozone. We attribute differences in results primarily to differences in data selection criteria and in utilization of data correction factors, rather than in statistical trend models. We find significant decreases in stratospheric ozone at all stations in middle and high latitudes of the northern hemisphere from 1970 to 1996, with the largest decreases located between 12 and 21 km, and trends of -3 to -10 %/decade near 17 km. The decreases are largest at the Canadian and the most northerly Japanese station, and are smallest at the European stations, and at Wallops Island, U.S.A. The mean mid-latitude trend is largest, -7 %/decade, from 12 to 17.5 km for 1970-96. For 1980-96, the decrease is more negative by 1-2 %/decade, with a maximum trend of -9 %/decade in the lowermost stratosphere. The trends vary seasonally from about 12 to 17.5 km, with largest ozone decreases in winter and spring. Trends in tropospheric ozone are highly variable and depend on region. There are decreases or zero trends at the Canadian stations for 1970-96, and decreases of -2 to -8 %/decade for the mid-troposphere for 1980-96; the three European stations show increases for 1970-96, but trends are close to zero for two stations for 1980-96 and positive for one; there are increases in ozone for the three Japanese stations for 1970-96, but trends are either positive or zero for 1980-96; the U.S. stations show zero or slightly negative trends in tropospheric ozone after 1980. It is not possible to define reliably a mean tropospheric ozone trend for northern mid-latitudes, given the small number of stations and the large variability in trends. The integrated column trends derived from the sonde data are consistent with trends derived from both surface based and satellite measurements of the ozone column

The comparison of grey-scale ultrasonic and clinical features of hepatoblastoma and hepatocellular carcinoma in children: a retrospective study for ten years

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Hepatoblastoma (HBL) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are respectively the first and the second most common pediatric malignant liver tumors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the combined use of the ultrasound examination and the assessment of the patients' clinical features for differentiating HBL from HCC in children.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Thirty cases of the confirmed HBL and 12 cases of the confirmed HCC in children under the age of 15 years were enrolled into our study. They were divided into the HBL group and the HCC group according to the histological types of the tumors. The ultrasonic features and the clinical manifestations of the two groups were retrospectively analyzed, with an emphasis on the following parameters: onset age, gender (male/female) ratio, positive epatitis-B-surface-antigen (HBV), alpha-fetoprotein increase, and echo features including septa, calcification and liquefaction within the tumors.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared with the children with HCC, the children with HBL had a significantly younger onset age (8.2 years vs. 3.9 years, P < 0.001) and a significantly smaller frequency of positive HBV (66.7% vs. 13.3%, P < 0.001). The septa and liquefaction were more frequently found in HBL than in HCC (25/30, 83.3% vs. 2/12, 16.7%, P < 0.001; 17/30, 56.7% vs. 3/12, 25%, P = 0.02). When a combination of the liquefaction, septa, negative HBV and onset age smaller than 5 years was used in the evaluation, the sensitivity was raised to 90%, the accuracy was raised to 88%, and the negative predictive value was raised to 73%.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Ultrasonic features combined with clinical manifestations are valuable for differentiating HBL from HCC in children.</p