Although it has been documented that daily precipitation extremes are increasing worldwide, faster increases may be expected for subdaily extremes. Here after a careful quality control procedure, we ...compared trends in hourly and daily precipitation extremes using a large network of stations across the United States (U.S.) within the 1950–2011 period. A greater number of significant increasing trends in annual and seasonal maximum precipitation were detected from daily extremes, with the primary exception of wintertime. Our results also show that the mean percentage change in annual maximum daily precipitation across the U.S. per global warming degree is ~6.9% °C−1 (in agreement with the Clausius‐Clapeyron rate) while lower sensitivities were observed for hourly extremes, suggesting that changes in the magnitude of subdaily extremes in response to global warming emerge more slowly than those for daily extremes in the climate record.
Key Points
We compared long‐term trends in hourly and daily precipitation extremes using quality‐controlled stations
Upward trends in precipitation extreme were evident across the U.S., but overall, trends were better detected at daily resolutions than at hourly resolutions
Daily precipitation extremes scale with mean global temperature following the CC rate, while hourly extremes show lower sensitivities
ABSTRACT
Sub‐daily rainfall extremes may be associated with flash flooding, particularly in urban areas but, compared with extremes on daily timescales, have been relatively little studied in many ...regions. This paper describes a new, hourly rainfall dataset for the UK based on ∼1600 rain gauges from three different data sources. This includes tipping bucket rain gauge data from the UK Environment Agency (EA), which has been collected for operational purposes, principally flood forecasting. Significant problems in the use of such data for the analysis of extreme events include the recording of accumulated totals, high frequency bucket tips, rain gauge recording errors and the non‐operation of gauges. Given the prospect of an intensification of short‐duration rainfall in a warming climate, the identification of such errors is essential if sub‐daily datasets are to be used to better understand extreme events. We therefore first describe a series of procedures developed to quality control this new dataset. We then analyse ∼380 gauges with near‐complete hourly records for 1992–2011 and map the seasonal climatology of intense rainfall based on UK hourly extremes using annual maxima, n‐largest events and fixed threshold approaches. We find that the highest frequencies and intensities of hourly extreme rainfall occur during summer when the usual orographically defined pattern of extreme rainfall is replaced by a weaker, north–south pattern. A strong diurnal cycle in hourly extremes, peaking in late afternoon to early evening, is also identified in summer and, for some areas, in spring. This likely reflects the different mechanisms that generate sub‐daily rainfall, with convection dominating during summer. The resulting quality‐controlled hourly rainfall dataset will provide considerable value in several contexts, including the development of standard, globally applicable quality‐control procedures for sub‐daily data, the validation of the new generation of very high‐resolution climate models and improved understanding of the drivers of extreme rainfall.
Objective
Distinguishing depressive episodes due to bipolar disorder (BD) or major depressive disorder (MDD) solely on clinical grounds is challenging. We aimed at comparing resting‐state functional ...connectivity (rsFC) of regions subserving emotional regulation in similarly depressed BD and MDD.
Method
We enrolled 76 in‐patients (BD, n = 36; MDD, n = 40) and 40 healthy controls (HC). A seed‐based approach was used to identify regions showing different rsFC with the insula and the amygdala. Insular and amygdalar parcellations were then performed along with diagnostic accuracy of the main findings.
Results
Lower rsFC between the left insula and the left mid‐dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and between bilateral insula and right frontopolar prefrontal cortex (FPPFC) was observed in BD compared to MDD and HC. These results were driven by the dorsal anterior and posterior insula (PI). Lower rsFC between the right amygdala and the left anterior hippocampus was observed in MDD compared to BD and HC. These results were driven by the centromedial and laterobasal amygdala. Left PI/right FPPC rsFC showed 78% accuracy differentiating BD and MDD.
Conclusion
rsFC of amygdala and insula distinguished between depressed BD and MDD. The observed differences suggest the possibility of differential pathophysiological mechanisms of emotional dysfunction in bipolar and unipolar depression.
Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) are mainstay therapeutics for HIV that block retrovirus replication. Alu (an endogenous retroelement that also requires reverse transcriptase for ...its life cycle)–derived RNAs activate P2X7 and the NLRP3 inflammasome to cause cell death of the retinal pigment epithelium in geographic atrophy, a type of age-related macular degeneration. We found that NRTIs inhibit P2X7-mediated NLRP3 inflammasome activation independent of reverse transcriptase inhibition. Multiple approved and clinically relevant NRTIs prevented caspase-1 activation, the effector of the NLRP3 inflammasome, induced by Alu RNA. NRTIs were efficacious in mouse models of geographic atrophy, choroidal neovascularization, graft-versus-host disease, and sterile liver inflammation. Our findings suggest that NRTIs are ripe for drug repurposing in P2X7-driven diseases.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) uses Adult Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (Adult HCAHPS) scores for public reporting and pay-for-performance for ...most US hospitals, but no publicly available standardized survey of inpatient experience of care exists for pediatrics. To fill the gap, CMS and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality commissioned the development of a pediatric version (Child HCAHPS), a survey of parents/guardians of pediatric patients (<18 years old) who were recently hospitalized. This article describes the development of Child HCAHPS, which included an extensive review of the literature and quality measures, expert interviews, focus groups, cognitive testing, pilot testing of the draft survey, a national field test with 69 hospitals in 34 states, psychometric analysis, and end-user testing of the final survey. We conducted extensive validity and reliability testing to determine which items would be included in the final survey instrument and develop composite measures. We analyzed national field test data of 17,727 surveys collected in November 2012 to January 2014 from parents of recently hospitalized children. The final Child HCAHPS instrument has 62 items, including 39 patient experience items, 10 screeners, 12 demographic/descriptive items, and 1 open-ended item. The 39 experience items are categorized based on testing into 18 composite and single-item measures. Our composite and single-item measures demonstrated good to excellent hospital-level reliability at 300 responses per hospital. Child HCAHPS was developed to be a publicly available standardized survey of pediatric inpatient experience of care. It can be used to benchmark pediatric inpatient experience across hospitals and assist in efforts to improve the quality of inpatient care.
Exhaled breath is a robust matrix of biomarkers divided between three fractions – gaseous breath, volatile breath, and breath condensate. Breath is collected non-invasively through bags (for gaseous ...breath), cold condensation chambers (breath condensate), and adsorbent traps (volatile breath). Due to the incredibly dilute nature of breath matrices, breath biomarker analysis requires precise analytical techniques, highly sensitive technology and often challenges the limit of detection of even the most advanced assays. Interest and advances in breath collection, analysis, and use have increased in recent years largely due to advances in analytical technology. Approved and validated breath tests are available as tools for researchers and clinicians. Novel development is ongoing. This article reviews the current applications for exhaled breath biomarkers.
Understanding climate change impacts on Tropical Storm (TS) activity is crucial for effective adaptation planning and risk assessment, particularly in densely populated low‐lying delta rivers basins ...like the Ganges and Mekong. The change to TS characteristics with warming is uncertain due to limitations in global climate model resolution and process‐representation and storm tracking algorithms (trackers). Here, we used 13 HighResMIP models and two trackers to estimate the uncertainty in projections of TS characteristics. We found different trackers producing qualitatively similar but quantitatively different results. Our results show a decline (median ∼52%) in the frequency of TS but increase in the strongest TS and Available Cyclone Energy (ACE) of TS over both basins. The higher‐resolution models extract TS with much higher intensity and ACE values compared to the lower‐resolution models. These results have implications for adaptation planning and risk assessment for TS and suggest the need for further high‐resolution modeling studies.
Plain Language Summary
Tropical Storms (TS) are one of the world's most damaging natural hazards which result in colossal socio‐economic losses to life, infrastructure, and property, especially in low‐lying delta rivers basins like the Ganges and Mekong. Knowledge of changes to TS activity under climate change can therefore be helpful in better disaster risk mitigation and climate adaptation. Previous modeling studies have used coarse‐resolution global climate models unable to capture key TS characteristics. In this study, we utilized finer resolution (up to ∼25 km at six hourly time‐steps) CMIP6 HighResMIP models and two different tracking algorithms (trackers) to resolve a part of this uncertainty. Our results project a decline to the frequency of future TS but an increase in the strength of TS (in terms of intensity and Available Cyclone Energy, qualitatively similar for both trackers). These findings can be used to assess the future resilience of existing infrastructure systems to Tropical Storms across these densely populated basins.
Key Points
We used multiple CMIP6 HighResMIP models and two trackers to estimate the change in the Tropical Storms (TS) characteristics over the Ganges and Mekong basins
Our results show a decline in the future frequency of TS but increase in the future intensity and Available Cyclone Energy of TS over both basins
Both tracking algorithms produce qualitatively similar but quantitatively different results
•Semiconductor fabs need efficient & effective operations to remain competitive.•Deterministic scheduling strategies employed to improve photolithography operations.•An IP model and a heuristic ...developed to schedule photolithography machines.•The IP model primed with the heuristic improved the performance of the IP.•IP model primed with a heuristic adds value to practitioners.
This paper considers a dual resource constrained scheduling problem prevalent in high-capital cost manufacturing industry such as the photolithography area in the semiconductor industry. Specifically, the problem consists of assigning jobs to parallel machines that use common and constrained auxiliary resources such as lithography lens. Very often these auxiliary resources require heavy capital investment and setup times further complicates an already complex dual resource constrained scheduling problem. This paper advocates for the use of deterministic scheduling theory for the design and development of more efficient scheduling strategies. An Integer Programming (IP) model, a heuristic and a hybrid model were developed to schedule identical parallel machines with shared, constrained, auxiliary resources, with sequence-dependent setups, and job release dates with the goal of minimizing the sum of completion times.
An IP model primed with a heuristic can add value to practitioners looking to solve real world resource constrained parallel machine scheduling problems with sequence-dependent setups. It is extremely important to control problem instance size and time horizon in order to obtain near-optimal or efficient solutions within acceptable run times. The proposed heuristic provides an initial feasible solution for the IP model which reduces the space search by decreasing the time horizon and eliminates the time needed to find an initial feasible solution. A tighter formulation is also proposed by reducing the time horizon formulation.
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