Shingle 2.0: generalising self-consistent and automated domain discretisation for multi-scale geophysical models

The approaches taken to describe and develop spatial discretisations of the domains required for geophysical simulation models are commonly ad hoc, model or application specific and under-documented. This is particularly acute for simulation models that are flexible in their use of multi-scale, anisotropic, fully unstructured meshes where a relatively large number of heterogeneous parameters are required to constrain their full description. As a consequence, it can be difficult to reproduce simulations, ensure a provenance in model data handling and initialisation, and a challenge to conduct model intercomparisons rigorously. This paper takes a novel approach to spatial discretisation, considering it much like a numerical simulation model problem of its own. It introduces a generalised, extensible, self-documenting approach to carefully describe, and necessarily fully, the constraints over the heterogeneous parameter space that determine how a domain is spatially discretised. This additionally provides a method to accurately record these constraints, using high-level natural language based abstractions, that enables full accounts of provenance, sharing and distribution. Together with this description, a generalised consistent approach to unstructured mesh generation for geophysical models is developed, that is automated, robust and repeatable, quick-to-draft, rigorously verified and consistent to the source data throughout. This interprets the description above to execute a self-consistent spatial discretisation process, which is automatically validated to expected discrete characteristics and metrics.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 1 table. Submitted for publication and under revie

Hyperparathyroidism with presumed sellar-parasellar brown tumour based on imaging findings

Brown tumours are an end-stage complication of hyperparathyroidism. They are relatively rare today, due to earlier diagnosis and prompt treatment of hyperparathyroidism.1 Common locations are the mandible, pelvis, ribs and long bones of the axial skeleton.2 The skull base is an extremely rare site and, for obvious reasons, it is difficult to confirm the diagnosis in the absence of other lesions. In the face of a solitary lesion, a histological diagnosis of a ‘giant-cell tumour’ of benign nature should only be made once hyperparathyroidism has been actively excluded. Brown tumours, solid aneurysmal bone cysts, giant-cell reparative granuloma and giant cell tumour can all appear identical both macroand microscopically

Subgrid scale modelling of transport processes.

Consideration of stabilisation techniques is essential in the development of physical models if they are to faithfully represent processes over a wide range of scales. Careful application of these techniques can significantly increase flexibility of models, allowing the computational meshes used to discretise the underlying partial differential equations to become highly nonuniform and anisotropic, for example. This exibility enables a model to capture a wider range of phenomena and thus reduce the number of parameterisations required, bringing a physically more realistic solution. The next generation of fluid flow and radiation transport models employ unstructured meshes and anisotropic adaptive methods to gain a greater degree of flexibility. However these can introduce erroneous artefacts into the solution when, for example, a process becomes unresolvable due to an adaptive mesh change or advection into a coarser region of mesh in the domain. The suppression of these effects, caused by spatial and temporal variations in mesh size, is one of the key roles stabilisation can play. This thesis introduces new explicit and implicit stabilisation methods that have been developed for application in fluid and radiation transport modelling. With a focus on a consistent residual-free approach, two new frameworks for the development of implicit methods are presented. The first generates a family of higher-order Petrov-Galerkin methods, and the example developed is compared to standard schemes such as streamline upwind Petrov-Galerkin and Galerkin least squares in accurate modelling of tracer transport. The dissipation generated by this method forms the basis for a new explicit fourth-order subfilter scale eddy viscosity model for large eddy simulation. Dissipation focused more sharply on unresolved scales is shown to give improved results over standard turbulence models. The second, the inner element method, is derived from subgrid scale modelling concepts and, like the variational multiscale method and bubble enrichment techniques, explicitly aims to capture the important under-resolved fine scale information. It brings key advantages to the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations including the use of usually unstable velocity-pressure element pairs, a fully consistent mass matrix without the increase in degrees of freedom associated with discontinuous Galerkin methods and also avoids pressure filtering. All of which act to increase the flexibility and accuracy of a model. Supporting results are presented from an application of the methods to a wide range of problems, from simple one-dimensional examples to tracer and momentum transport in simulations such as the idealised Stommel gyre, the lid-driven cavity, lock-exchange, gravity current and backward-facing step. Significant accuracy improvements are demonstrated in challenging radiation transport benchmarks, such as advection across void regions, the scattering Maynard problem and demanding source-absorption cases. Evolution of a free surface is also investigated in the sloshing tank, transport of an equatorial Rossby soliton, wave propagation on an aquaplanet and tidal simulation of the Mediterranean Sea and global ocean. In combination with adaptive methods, stabilising techniques are key to the development of next generation models. In particular these ideas are critical in achieving the aim of extending models, such as the Imperial College Ocean Model, to the global scale

Does current UK research address priorities in palliative and end-of-life care?

The Palliative and end of life care Priority Setting Partnership uncovered 83 unanswered research questions. Florence Todd Fordham, Bridget Candy, Stevie McMillan and Sabine Best show that, as current UK research starts to address some of these questions, UK open grant data have the potential to encourage collaboratio

Mutual Fund Management and Fund Performance

This study examines management characteristics, including education and experience, as determinants of mutual fund performance.  Managers with graduate degrees did not perform differently from managers without graduate degrees.  However, graduates of top 20 MBA programs outperformed MBAs from business schools not on the top 50 Wall Street Journal list.  Manager’s tenure was positively related to performance

An Enhanced Nonlinear Critical Gradient for Electron Turbulent Transport due to Reversed Magnetic Shear

The first nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of electron internal transport barriers (e-ITBs) in the National Spherical Torus Experiment show that reversed magnetic shear can suppress thermal transport by increasing the nonlinear critical gradient for electron-temperature-gradient-driven turbulence to three times its linear critical value. An interesting feature of this turbulence is nonlinearly driven off-midplane radial streamers. This work reinforces the experimental observation that magnetic shear is likely an effective way of triggering and sustaining e-ITBs in magnetic fusion devices.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

An Enhanced Nonlinear Critical Gradient for Electron Turbulent Transport due to Reversed Magnetic Shear

The first nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations of electron internal transport barriers (e-ITBs) in the National Spherical Torus Experiment show that reversed magnetic shear can suppress thermal transport by increasing the nonlinear critical gradient for electron-temperature-gradient-driven turbulence to three times its linear critical value. An interesting feature of this turbulence is nonlinearly driven off-midplane radial streamers. This work reinforces the experimental observation that magnetic shear is likely an effective way of triggering and sustaining e-ITBs in magnetic fusion devices.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure