158 research outputs found
Homogeneous Indian Monsoon rainfall: Variability and prediction
The Indian summer monsoon rainfall is known to have considerable spatial variability, which imposes some limitations on the all-India mean widely used at present. To prepare a spatially coherent monsoon rainfall series for the largest possible area, fourteen subdivisions covering the northwestern and central parts of India (about 55 of the total area of the country), having similar rainfall characteristics and associations with regional/global circulation parameters are merged and their area-weighted means computed, to form monthly and seasonal Homogeneous Indian Monsoon (HIM) rainfall series for the period 1871-1990. This paper includes a listing of monthly and seasonal rainfall of HIM region. HIM rainfall series has been statistically analysed to understand its characteristics, variability and teleconnections for long-range prediction. HIM rainfall series isfound to be homogeneous, Gaussian distributed and free from persistence. The mean (R) rainfall is 757 mm (87 of annual) and standard deviation (S) 119 mm, with a Coefficient of Variation (CV) of 16. There were 21 dry (K, -<R S) and 19 wet (R i R + S) years during 1871-1990. There were clusters of frequent negative departures during 1899-1920 and 1965-1987 and positive departures during 1942-1961. The recent three decades show very high rainfall variability with 10 dry and 6 wet years. The decadal averages were alternatively positive and negative for three consecutive decades, viz., 1871-1900 (positive); 1901-1930 (negative); 1931-1960 (positive) and 1961-1990 (negative) respectively. Significant QBO and autocorrelation at 14th lag have been found in HIM rainfall series. To delineate the changes in the climatic regime of the Indian summer monsoon, sliding correlation coefficients (CCs) between HIM rainfall series and (i) Bombay msl pressure, (ii) Darwin msl pressure and (iii) Northern Hemisphere surface air temperature over the period 1871-1990 have been examined. The 31-year sliding CCs showed the systematic turning points of positive and negative CCs around the years, 1900 and 1940. In the light of other corroborative evidences, these turning points seem to delineate 'meridional' monsoon regime during 1871-1900 and 1940-1990 and 'zonal' monsoon regime during 1901-1940. The monsoon signal is particularly dominant in many regional and global circulation parameters, during 1951-1990. Using the teleconnections of HIM series with 12 regional/global circulation parameters during the recent 36-year period 1951-86 regression models have been developed for long-range prediction. In the regression equations 3 to 4 parameters were entered, explaining upto 80 of the variance, depending upon the data period. The parameters that prominently enter the multiple regression equations are (i) Bombay msl pressure, (ii) April 500 mb Ridge at 75°E, (iii) NH temperature, (iv) Nouvelle minus Agalega msl pressure and (v) South American msl pressure. Eleven circulation parameters for the period 1951-80 were subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the PC's were used in the regression model to estimate HIM rainfall. The multiple regression with three PCs explain 72 of variance in HIM rainfall
Use of approximations of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman inequality for solving periodic optimization problems
We show that necessary and sufficient conditions of optimality in periodic
optimization problems can be stated in terms of a solution of the corresponding
HJB inequality, the latter being equivalent to a max-min type variational
problem considered on the space of continuously differentiable functions. We
approximate the latter with a maximin problem on a finite dimensional subspace
of the space of continuously differentiable functions and show that a solution
of this problem (existing under natural controllability conditions) can be used
for construction of near optimal controls. We illustrate the construction with
a numerical example.Comment: 29 pages, 2 figure
Separable and Low-Rank Continuous Games
In this paper, we study nonzero-sum separable games, which are continuous
games whose payoffs take a sum-of-products form. Included in this subclass are
all finite games and polynomial games. We investigate the structure of
equilibria in separable games. We show that these games admit finitely
supported Nash equilibria. Motivated by the bounds on the supports of mixed
equilibria in two-player finite games in terms of the ranks of the payoff
matrices, we define the notion of the rank of an n-player continuous game and
use this to provide bounds on the cardinality of the support of equilibrium
strategies. We present a general characterization theorem that states that a
continuous game has finite rank if and only if it is separable. Using our rank
results, we present an efficient algorithm for computing approximate equilibria
of two-player separable games with fixed strategy spaces in time polynomial in
the rank of the game
Stochastic Reaction-diffusion Equations Driven by Jump Processes
We establish the existence of weak martingale solutions to a class of second
order parabolic stochastic partial differential equations. The equations are
driven by multiplicative jump type noise, with a non-Lipschitz multiplicative
functional. The drift in the equations contains a dissipative nonlinearity of
polynomial growth.Comment: See journal reference for teh final published versio
Review of laser speckle contrast techniques for visualizing tissue perfusion
When a diffuse object is illuminated with coherent laser light, the backscattered light will form an interference pattern on the detector. This pattern of bright and dark areas is called a speckle pattern. When there is movement in the object, the speckle pattern will change over time. Laser speckle contrast techniques use this change in speckle pattern to visualize tissue perfusion. We present and review the contribution of laser speckle contrast techniques to the field of perfusion visualization and discuss the development of the techniques
Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2 Induces Pulmonary Artery Smooth Muscle Cell Proliferation
Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) is a progressively devastating disease characterized by excessive proliferation of the Pulmonary Arterial Smooth Muscle Cells (PASMCs). Studies suggest that PAH and cancers share an apoptosis-resistant state featuring excessive cell proliferation. The proliferation of cancer cells is mediated by increased expression of Enhancer of Zeste Homolog 2 (EZH2), a mammalian histone methyltransferase that contributes to the epigenetic silencing of target genes. However, the role of EZH2 in PAH has not been studied. In this study, it is hypothesized that EZH2 could play a role in the proliferation of PASMCs.In the present study, the expression patterns of EZH2 were investigated in normal and hypertensive mouse PASMCs. The effects of EZH2 overexpression on the proliferation of human PASMCs were tested. PASMCs were transfected with EZH2 or GFP using nucleofector system. After transfection, the cells were incubated for 48 hours at 37°C. Proliferation and cell cycle analysis were performed using flow cytometry. Apoptosis of PASMCs was determined using annexin V staining and cell migration was tested by wound healing assay.EZH2 protein expression in mouse PASMCs were correlated with an increase in right ventricular systolic pressure and Right Ventricular Hypertrophy (RVH). The overexpression of EZH2 in human PASMCs enhances proliferation, migration, and decrease in the rate of apoptosis when compared to GFP-transfected cells. In the G2/M phase of the EZH2 transfected cells, there was a 3.5 fold increase in proliferation, while there was a significant decrease in the rate of apoptosis of PASMCs, when compared to control.These findings suggest that EZH2 plays a role in the migration and proliferation of PASMCs, which is a major hallmark in PAH. It also suggests that EZH2 could play a role in the development of PAH and can serve as a potential target for new therapies for PAH
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