SIERRA WAVES AND ROTORS: A STUDY OF THE SIERRA ROTORS IOP 8 EVENT

The Sierra Rotors Project took place in March and April 2004 in Owens Valley, California to study terrain-induced rotors. An intense rotor event was documented during Intensive Observing Period (IOP) 8 on 24-26 March 2004. The event was characterized by a cold frontal passage and strong westerly flow at the mountain top level that induced mountain waves and rotors over Owens Valley. This case was simulated with the Naval Research Laboratory\u27s (NRL) Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPSTM) run at 333 m resolution. In this study, we analyze the evolution and structure of the observed and simulated mountain waves and rotors during the IOP 8 event, in which horizontal circulation associated with the rotor extended to the valley floor, where it was observed as easterly flow by the DR1 mesonetwork of surface stations. The model accurately reproduced the timing and spatial structure of many of the observed phenomena, including thermally forced flow in the valley at the start of the event, an intense mountain wave during the period of observed surface easterly flow, and strong westerlies on the Sierra Nevada lee slopes

MAINTENANCE OF A MOUNTAIN VALLEY COLD POOL AND THERMAL BELT: A NUMERICAL STUDY

A mountain valley cold pool was simulated with the Pennsylvania State University-National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale Model version 5 (MM5) to determine the effects of snow cover, planetary boundary layer (PBL) parameterizations, spin-up time, vertical and horizontal resolution, and horizontal diffusion on the maintenance of a cold pool. The simulation was of a cold pool that remained in the Yampa Valley of northwestern Colorado throughout 10 January 2004. Results of model runs were verified by a mesonetwork of weather stations located on the western slope of the valley. The presence of snow cover improved the simulation results, but was not sufficient to retain the cold pool in the valley. Increasing the model spin-up time, vertical resolution, and the PBL parameterization had little effect on the model results. However, increasing the horizontal resolution from 1 km to 100 m did improve the results and retained a weak inversion in the valley. Using the horizontal diffusion scheme of Zängl (2002) had an effect similar to that achieved by increasing the horizontal resolution

An intervention to improve care and reduce costs for high-risk patients with frequent hospital admissions: a pilot study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A small percentage of high-risk patients accounts for a large proportion of Medicaid spending in the United States, which has become an urgent policy issue. Our objective was to pilot a novel patient-centered intervention for high-risk patients with frequent hospital admissions to determine its potential to improve care and reduce costs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Community and hospital-based care management and coordination intervention with pre-post analysis of health care utilization. We enrolled Medicaid fee-for-service patients aged 18-64 who were admitted to an urban public hospital and identified as being at high risk for hospital readmission by a validated predictive algorithm. Enrolled patients were evaluated using qualitative and quantitative interview techniques to identify needs such as transportation to/advocacy during medical appointments, mental health/substance use treatment, and home visits. A community housing partner initiated housing applications in-hospital for homeless patients. Care managers facilitated appropriate discharge plans then worked closely with patients in the community using a harm reduction approach.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nineteen patients were enrolled; all were male, 18/19 were substance users, and 17/19 were homeless. Patients had a total of 64 inpatient admissions in the 12 months before the intervention, versus 40 in the following 12 months, a 37.5% reduction. Most patients (73.3%) had fewer inpatient admissions in the year after the intervention compared to the prior year. Overall ED visits also decreased after study enrollment, while outpatient clinic visits increased. Yearly study hospital Medicaid reimbursements fell an average of $16,383 per patient.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A pilot intervention for high-cost patients shows promising results for health services usage. We are currently expanding our model to serve more patients at additional hospitals to see if the pilot's success can be replicated.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: <a href="http://www.trialregister.nl/trialreg/admin/rctview.asp?TC=1292096">NCT01292096</a></p

Positional Cloning of a Type 2 Diabetes Quantitative Trait Locus; Tomosyn-2, a Negative Regulator of Insulin Secretion

We previously mapped a type 2 diabetes (T2D) locus on chromosome 16 (Chr 16) in an F2 intercross from the BTBR T (+) tf (BTBR) Lepob/ob and C57BL/6 (B6) Lepob/ob mouse strains. Introgression of BTBR Chr 16 into B6 mice resulted in a consomic mouse with reduced fasting plasma insulin and elevated glucose levels. We derived a panel of sub-congenic mice and narrowed the diabetes susceptibility locus to a 1.6 Mb region. Introgression of this 1.6 Mb fragment of the BTBR Chr 16 into lean B6 mice (B6.16BT36–38) replicated the phenotypes of the consomic mice. Pancreatic islets from the B6.16BT36–38 mice were defective in the second phase of the insulin secretion, suggesting that the 1.6 Mb region encodes a regulator of insulin secretion. Within this region, syntaxin-binding protein 5-like (Stxbp5l) or tomosyn-2 was the only gene with an expression difference and a non-synonymous coding single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) between the B6 and BTBR alleles. Overexpression of the b-tomosyn-2 isoform in the pancreatic β-cell line, INS1 (832/13), resulted in an inhibition of insulin secretion in response to 3 mM 8-bromo cAMP at 7 mM glucose. In vitro binding experiments showed that tomosyn-2 binds recombinant syntaxin-1A and syntaxin-4, key proteins that are involved in insulin secretion via formation of the SNARE complex. The B6 form of tomosyn-2 is more susceptible to proteasomal degradation than the BTBR form, establishing a functional role for the coding SNP in tomosyn-2. We conclude that tomosyn-2 is the major gene responsible for the T2D Chr 16 quantitative trait locus (QTL) we mapped in our mouse cross. Our findings suggest that tomosyn-2 is a key negative regulator of insulin secretion

The astrobiology primer: An outline of general knowledge - Version 1, 2006

Peer reviewe

Bayesian jackknife tests with a small number of subsets: Application to HERA 21cm power spectrum upper limits

We present a Bayesian jackknife test for assessing the probability that a data set contains biased subsets, and, if so, which of the subsets are likely to be biased. The test can be used to assess the presence and likely source of statistical tension between different measurements of the same quantities in an automated manner. Under certain broadly applicable assumptions, the test is analytically tractable. We also provide an open-source code, CHIBORG, that performs both analytic and numerical computations of the test on general Gaussian-distributed data. After exploring the information theoretical aspects of the test and its performance with an array of simulations, we apply it to data from the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) to assess whether different sub-seasons of observing can justifiably be combined to produce a deeper 21 cm power spectrum upper limit. We find that, with a handful of exceptions, the HERA data in question are statistically consistent and this decision is justified. We conclude by pointing out the wide applicability of this test, including to CMB experiments and the H0 tension