How well do CMIP5 climate simulations replicate historical trends and patterns of meteorological droughts?

Assessing the uncertainties and understanding the deficiencies of climate models are fundamental to developing adaptation strategies. The objective of this study is to understand how well Coupled Model Intercomparison-Phase 5 (CMIP5) climate model simulations replicate ground-based observations of continental drought areas and their trends. The CMIP5 multimodel ensemble encompasses the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) ground-based observations of area under drought at all time steps. However, most model members overestimate the areas under extreme drought, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere (SH). Furthermore, the results show that the time series of observations and CMIP5 simulations of areas under drought exhibit more variability in the SH than in the Northern Hemisphere (NH). The trend analysis of areas under drought reveals that the observational data exhibit a significant positive trend at the significance level of 0.05 over all land areas. The observed trend is reproduced by about three-fourths of the CMIP5 models when considering total land areas in drought. While models are generally consistent with observations at a global (or hemispheric) scale, most models do not agree with observed regional drying and wetting trends. Over many regions, at most 40% of the CMIP5 models are in agreement with the trends of CRU observations. The drying/wetting trends calculated using the 3 months Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) values show better agreement with the corresponding CRU values than with the observed annual mean precipitation rates. Pixel-scale evaluation of CMIP5 models indicates that no single model demonstrates an overall superior performance relative to the other models

The renormalization group and quark number fluctuations in the Polyakov loop extended quark-meson model at finite baryon density

Thermodynamics and the phase structure of the Polyakov loop-extended two flavors chiral quark--meson (PQM) model is explored beyond the mean-field approximation. The analysis of the PQM model is based on the functional renormalization group (FRG) method. We formulate and solve the renormalization group flow equation for the scale-dependent thermodynamic potential in the presence of the gluonic background field at finite temperature and density. We determine the phase diagram of the PQM model in the FRG approach and discuss its modification in comparison with the one obtained under the mean-field approximation. We focus on properties of the net-quark number density fluctuations as well as their higher moments and discuss the influence of non-perturbative effects on their properties near the chiral crossover transition. We show, that with an increasing net-quark number density the higher order moments exhibit a peculiar structure near the phase transition. We also consider ratios of different moments of the net-quark number density and discuss their role as probes of deconfinement and chiral phase transitions

Preparing a mechanical oscillator in non-Gaussian quantum states

We propose a protocol for coherently transferring non-Gaussian quantum states from optical field to a mechanical oscillator. The open quantum dynamics and continuous-measurement process, which can not be treated by the stochastic-master-equation formalism, are studied by a new path-integral-based approach. We obtain an elegant relation between the quantum state of the mechanical oscillator and that of the optical field, which is valid for general linear quantum dynamics. We demonstrate the experimental feasibility of such protocol by considering the cases of both large-scale gravitational-wave detectors and small-scale cavity-assisted optomechanical devices.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

The Spatial String Tension and Dimensional Reduction in QCD

We calculate the spatial string tension in (2+1) flavor QCD with physical strange quark mass and almost physical light quark masses using lattices with temporal extent N_tau=4,6 and 8. We compare our results on the spatial string tension with predictions of dimensionally reduced QCD. This suggests that also in the presence of light dynamical quarks dimensional reduction works well down to temperatures 1.5T_c.Comment: 8 pages ReVTeX, 4 figure

G\"odel-type universes in f(T) gravity

The issue of causality in $f(T)$ gravity is investigated by examining the possibility of existence of the closed timelike curves in the G\"{o}del-type metric. By assuming a perfect fluid as the matter source, we find that the fluid must have an equation of state parameter greater than minus one in order to allow the G\"{o}del solutions to exist, and furthermore the critical radius $r_c$, beyond which the causality is broken down, is finite and it depends on both matter and gravity. Remarkably, for certain $f(T)$ models, the perfect fluid that allows the G\"{o}del-type solutions can even be normal matter, such as pressureless matter or radiation. However, if the matter source is a special scalar field rather than a perfect fluid, then $r_c\rightarrow\infty$ and the causality violation is thus avoided.Comment: 18 pages, introduction revised, reference adde

A Simple Operator Check of the Effective Fermion Mode Function during Inflation

We present a relatively simple operator formalism which reproduces the leading infrared logarithm of the one loop quantum gravitational correction to the fermion mode function on a locally de Sitter background. This rule may serve as the basis for an eventual stochastic formulation of quantum gravity during inflation. Such a formalism would not only effect a vast simplification in obtaining the leading powers of $\ln(a)$ at fixed loop orders, it would also permit us to sum the series of leading logarithms. A potentially important point is that our rule does not seem to be consistent with any simple infrared truncation of the fields. Our analysis also highlights the importance of spin as a gravitational interaction that persists even when kinetic energy has redshifted to zero.Comment: 39 pages, no figuire.(1) New version has clarified the ultimate motivation by adding sentences to the abstract and to the penultimate paragraph of the introduction. (2) By combining a number of references and equations we have managed to reduce the length by 2 page

A comprehensive review of contemporary literature for epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer and their toxicity

© 2020 Lee et al. Mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) are common amongst those with non-small cell lung cancer and represent a major factor in treatment decisions, most notably in the advanced stages. Small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) that target the EGFR, such as erlotinib, gefitinib, icotinib, afatinib, dacomitinib and osimertinib, have all shown to be effective in this setting. Osimertinib, a third-generation EGFR TKI, is a favorable option, but almost all patients develop resistance at some time point. There are no effective treatment options for patients who progress on osimertinib, but ongoing trials will hopefully address this unmet need. The aim of this review is to provide a comprehensive review of the data with EGFR TKIs, management of the toxicities and the ongoing trials with this class of agents

The dynamics of the 3D radial NLS with the combined terms

In this paper, we show the scattering and blow-up result of the radial solution with the energy below the threshold for the nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation (NLS) with the combined terms iu_t + \Delta u = -|u|^4u + |u|^2u \tag{CNLS} in the energy space $H^1(\R^3)$. The threshold is given by the ground state $W$ for the energy-critical NLS: $iu_t + \Delta u = -|u|^4u$. This problem was proposed by Tao, Visan and Zhang in \cite{TaoVZ:NLS:combined}. The main difficulty is the lack of the scaling invariance. Illuminated by \cite{IbrMN:f:NLKG}, we need give the new radial profile decomposition with the scaling parameter, then apply it into the scattering theory. Our result shows that the defocusing, $\dot H^1$-subcritical perturbation $|u|^2u$ does not affect the determination of the threshold of the scattering solution of (CNLS) in the energy space.Comment: 46page

Primordial Gravitational Waves Enhancement

We reconsider the enhancement of primordial gravitational waves that arises from a quantum gravitational model of inflation. A distinctive feature of this model is that the end of inflation witnesses a brief phase during which the Hubble parameter oscillates in sign, changing the usual Hubble friction to anti-friction. An earlier analysis of this model was based on numerically evolving the graviton mode functions after guessing their initial conditions near the end of inflation. The current study is based on an equation which directly evolves the normalized square of the magnitude. We are also able to make a very reliable estimate for the initial condition using a rapidly converging expansion for the sub-horizon regime. Results are obtained for the energy density per logarithmic wave number as a fraction of the critical density. These results exhibit how the enhanced signal depends upon the number of oscillatory periods; they also show the resonant effects associated with particular wave numbers.Comment: 25 pages, 14 figure