Searching for the Power Law in a historical analysis of Test cricket

Active research has been going on to observe and validate the Power Law in physics, computer science, economics, linguistics, sociology, geophysics etc. Newton’s Law of Gravitation, the Coulomb force equation, Gutenberg-Richter Law for earthquake sizes, Pareto’s Law of income distribution (the famed ’80-20 Law’), inter alia, are all classic examples of the Power Law. This paper starts off with the hypothesis that the Power Law is applicable to several aspects of the ‘system’ of Test cricket – distribution of runs scored, matches played, wickets taken, half-centuries and centuries scored, catches pouched, etc., and investigates data accumulated and organised from a single statistical source on the Internet – www.howstat.com – in order to test this hypothesis. It was found out that there is a healthy conformity to the Power Law for almost all the aspects of the game of cricket. The inferences are dependent on the timing of the study. What is inferred in this analysis is not necessarily what has been applicable to the ‘system’ of Test cricket all along, or what can be assumed to always apply to it in the future. The hypothesis has to be tested dynamically, at regular intervals of time. It can also be extended to several other aspects not considered in this paper, to other versions of this sport – One-day cricket and the Twenty20 matches – as well as to other sports

FGF9 can induce endochondral ossification in cranial mesenchyme

BACKGROUND: The flat bones of the skull (i.e., the frontal and parietal bones) normally form through intramembranous ossification. At these sites cranial mesenchymal cells directly differentiate into osteoblasts without the formation of a cartilage intermediate. This type of ossification is distinct from endochondral ossification, a process that involves initial formation of cartilage and later replacement by bone. RESULTS: We have analyzed a line of transgenic mice that expresses FGF9, a member of the fibroblast growth factor family (FGF), in cranial mesenchymal cells. The parietal bones in these mice show a switch from intramembranous to endochondral ossification. Cranial cartilage precursors are induced to proliferate, then hypertrophy and are later replaced by bone. These changes are accompanied by upregulation of Sox9, Ihh, Col2a1, Col10a1 and downregulation of CbfaI and Osteocalcin. Fate mapping studies show that the cranial mesenchymal cells in the parietal region that show a switch in cell fate are likely to be derived from the mesoderm. CONCLUSION: These results demonstrate that FGF9 expression is sufficient to convert the differentiation program of (at least a subset of) mesoderm-derived cranial mesenchyme cells from intramembranous to endochondral ossification

Super-linear speed-up of a parallel multigrid Navier-Stokes solver on Flosolver

In parallel computing, scalability is an important issue and getting linear speed-ups is difficult for most codes. Super-linear speed up has been achieved on an eight-processor Flosolver system for a multigrid Navier-Stokes code. The physical problem solved, the parallelization method, the speed-ups obtained and possible explanations for this result are discussed here

WaterMet2: a tool for integrated analysis of sustainability-based performance of urban water systems

This paper presents the "WaterMet2" model for long-term assessment of urban water system (UWS) performance which will be used for strategic planning of the integrated UWS. WaterMet2 quantifies the principal water-related flows and other metabolism-based fluxes in the UWS such as materials, chemicals, energy and greenhouse gas emissions. The suggested model is demonstrated through sustainability-based assessment of an integrated real-life UWS for a daily time-step over a 30-year planning horizon. The integrated UWS modelled by WaterMet2 includes both water supply and wastewater systems. Given a rapid population growth, WaterMet2 calculates six quantitative sustainability-based indicators of the UWS. The result of the water supply reliability (94%) shows the need for appropriate intervention options over the planning horizon. Five intervention strategies are analysed in WaterMet2 and their quantified performance is compared with respect to the criteria. Multi-criteria decision analysis is then used to rank the intervention strategies based on different weights from the involved stakeholders' perspectives. The results demonstrate that the best and robust strategies are those which improve the performance of both water supply and wastewater systems

WaterMet2: a tool for integrated analysis of sustainability-based performance of urban water systems

Open Access journalThis paper presents the "WaterMet2" model for long-term assessment of urban water system (UWS) performance which will be used for strategic planning of the integrated UWS. WaterMet2 quantifies the principal water-related flows and other metabolism-based fluxes in the UWS such as materials, chemicals, energy and greenhouse gas emissions. The suggested model is demonstrated through sustainability-based assessment of an integrated real-life UWS for a daily time-step over a 30-year planning horizon. The integrated UWS modelled by WaterMet2 includes both water supply and wastewater systems. Given a rapid population growth, WaterMet2 calculates six quantitative sustainability-based indicators of the UWS. The result of the water supply reliability (94%) shows the need for appropriate intervention options over the planning horizon. Five intervention strategies are analysed in WaterMet2 and their quantified performance is compared with respect to the criteria. Multi-criteria decision analysis is then used to rank the intervention strategies based on different weights from the involved stakeholders' perspectives. The results demonstrate that the best and robust strategies are those which improve the performance of both water supply and wastewater systems.European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013

Scenario 2040 for Oslo as model city

This report – D34.2, authored by NTNU, is a sequel to D34.1 in which interventions suggested by the water-sanitation utility in Oslo - Oslo Vann og Avløpsetaten, had been tested using both the models – the WaterMet 2 (WM2) model developed by Exeter and the Dynamic Metabolism Model (DMM) developed at NTNU, as part of TRUST. The report starts off by emphasising the need for a holistic long-term sustainability approach in decision-making in water and wastewater utilities around the world. The models referred to above, are proposed as aids in meeting this need. With the help of references to earlier published works and TRUST deliverables related to these models, as well as some new tests carried out using one of them (DMM), the usability of the same has been demonstrated. ‘Usability’ here refers to understanding the impact of interventions on selected metrics/indicators in year-2040 (in keeping with the title of the deliverable; and the timeframe which has been considered for the TRUST project); and subsequent choices/selections which utilities would like to make depending on their priorities, targets and benchmarks they would set for themselves. As concluded in D34.1, there are differences between WM2 and DMM – which make them useful in different contexts – situational, circumstantial etc. These differences are recounted here again, in order to make it clear to the readers and end-users that one model is not meant to substitute the other, per se. Simply put, depending on what the end-users’ needs, goals, objectives and constraints are, one or the other would be preferable. The models have been extensively tested at Oslo VAV. A brief summary of the initial feedback from personnel at Oslo VAV is provided. The models were also introduced to pilot cities to understand their points of view, which have been presented in brief.Venkatesh, G.; Sægrov, S.; Brattebø, H. (2014). Scenario 2040 for Oslo as model city. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/4662

Quantitative UWS performance model: WaterMet2

© TRUST 2014The report presents a detailed description of the WaterMet2 methodology and tool as a quantitative urban water system (UWS) performance model. The WaterMet2 model is described in three distinct parts. Modelling concepts of different components in WaterMet2 are first described. It provides an overview of the principle flows/fluxes modelled in spatial and temporal scales in WaterMet2 and how they are modelled within the framework of mass balance equations in four subsystems (water supply, sub-catchment, wastewater and water resource recovery). The second part describes the WaterMet2 software. This consists of an overview of WaterMet2 on how input data are prepared, how to run a simulation and finally how to retrieve results in different formats. This part also introduces the WaterMet2 toolkit functions which can be used by other programming languages to call a WaterMet2 simulation model. In the third part, WaterMet2 is illustrated using the city of Oslo UWS as a generic reference model. This part first describes building and calibrating a WaterMet2 model for the existing UWS which faces water scarcity problems for a 30-year planning horizon starting from year 2011. Then, it examines two alternative intervention options (i.e. adding new water resource and water treatment options) which are supported by the WaterMet2. These options are examined for the UWS model and the improvements are compared to the business-as-usual case.European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013

Quantitative Assessment of Future Sustainability Performance in Urban Water Services using WaterMet²

TRUST project / IWA Cities of the Future conference, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, 28-30 April 2015Urban water services are likely to face challenges in the future, mainly due to population growth, climate change, increasing urbanization and ageing infrastructure. These factors are expected to impose significant strains on the performance of urban water services. This would subsequently decrease the capacity and quality of services in the urban water system (UWS) and thus negatively affect different dimensions of the sustainability framework (i.e. economic, environmental, social, asset and governance) presented by Alegre et al. (2012). Performance of future sustainability in the UWS can be evaluated by using simulation of metabolism-based processes in the urban water cycles over a pre-specified horizon. The WaterMet² model developed in the TRUST project quantifies the metabolism-based performance of the integrated UWS. The integrated modelling of the UWS implies the whole processes and components in an urban area related to water flows as a complex and interrelated system. A mass balance approach of water is followed within the system. WaterMet² enables the calculation of quantitative key performance indicators (KPI) of urban water services over a long-term planning horizon. These KPIs encompass various aspects of water systems sustainability such as cost (economic), GHG emissions (environmental), water supply reliability (social) and leakage (assets). WaterMet² can support various intervention strategies by calculating the relevant quantitative KPIs which can be used for a multi-criteria decision analysis in a decision support system framework. The overall KPI values (calculated on a per-capita basis) obtained from the UWS can be used for comparing sustainability indicators of water services among different cities. The comparison of KPI values in the main UWS components reveals the critical components for which appropriate intervention options should be undertaken.European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013