The Met Office operational global ocean forecast system FOAM-ORCA12

<div> <p>The importance of oceans for atmospheric forecasts as well as climate simulations is being increasingly recognised with the advent of coupled ocean / atmosphere forecast models. Having comparable resolutions in both domains maximises the benefits for a given computational cost. The Met Office has recently upgraded its operational global ocean-only model from an eddy permitting 1/4 degree tripolar grid (ORCA025) to the eddy resolving 1/12 degree ORCA12 configuration while retaining 1/4 degree data assimilation. </p> </div><div> <p>We will present a description of the ocean-only ORCA12 system, FOAM-ORCA12, alongside some initial results. Qualitatively, FOAM-ORCA12 seems to represent better (than FOAM-ORCA025) the details of mesoscale features in SST and surface currents. Overall, traditional statistical results suggest that the new FOAM-ORCA12 system performs similarly or slightly worse than the pre-existing FOAM-ORCA025. However, it is known that comparisons of models running at different resolutions suffer from a double penalty effect, whereby higher-resolution models are penalised more than lower-resolution models for features that are offset in time and space. Neighbourhood verification methods seek to make a fairer comparison using a common spatial scale for both models and it can be seen that, as neighbourhood sizes increase, ORCA12 consistently has lower continuous ranked probability scores (CRPS) than ORCA025. CRPS measures the accuracy of the pseudo-ensemble created by the neighbourhood method and generalises the mean absolute error measure for deterministic forecasts. </p> </div><div> <p>The focus over the next year will be on diagnosing the performance of both the model and assimilation. A planned development that is expected to enhance the system is the update of the background-error covariances used for data assimilation. </p> </div>

Compositions of ϱ-Lower Continuous Functions

In the paper some properties of compositions of ϱ-lower continuous functions are presented. We will show conditions for a function and for a homeomorphism f : I → I under which g ◦ f is ϱ-lower continuous for each ϱ-lower continuous function g : I → 𝕉. Some relevant properties will be discussed.

Methods of comparison of families of real functions in porosity terms

We consider some families of real functions endowed with the metric of uniform convergence. In the main results of our work we present two methods of comparison of families of real functions in porosity terms. The first method is very general and may be applied to any family of real functions. The second one is more convenient but can be used only in the case of path continuous functions. We apply the obtained results to compare in terms of porosity the following families of functions: continuous, absolutely continuous, Baire one, Darboux, also functions of bounded variation and porouscontinuous, ρ-upper continuous, ρ-lower continuous functions.

Adherence to Diet and Exercise Tracking in the Lose IT Smartphone App (Preprint)

BACKGROUND With increased popularity of weight loss-related smartphone apps, it is vital to explore characteristics of successful and sustained app use. Few studies have assessed characteristics of health app use in a naturalistic context. OBJECTIVE The goal of the study was to examine demographic and patient goal-related variables and assess their relationship with continued app use and dropout. METHODS A random subset of 2,500 users’ data, including age, sex, weight, goal characteristics, and region was extracted from the Lose It user database. These characteristics were measured in terms of association with sustained use (continuous food and exercise days logged), and dropout (failing to log for 30 or more days). Descriptive statistics were calculated for all of the variables and outcome variables were analyzed by a generalized linear model regression with negative binomial distribution or logistic regression. RESULTS Dropout was not common among Lose It users: only 2.9% stopped logging exercise days, and 3.6% stopped logging food days. Male users were more likely to log continuous food and exercise days than female users. Additionally, desire to lose more weight per week was significantly associated with lower continuous days logged. Starting weight, goal weight, and region were not associated with variations in sustained use. CONCLUSIONS Knowledge of what factors influence successful, continued use of applications allows developers to utilize these results to create successful applications, and allows consumers to choose realistic plans to help them better achieve their goals. CLINICALTRIAL Knowledge of what factors influence successful, continued use of applications allows developers to utilize these results to create successful applications, and allows consumers to choose realistic plans to help them better achieve their goals.

Higher versus Lower Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Intensity in Critically ill Patients with Liver Dysfunction

Aims: To study the association between higher versus lower continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) intensity and mortality in critically ill patients with combined acute kidney injury and liver dysfunction. Methods: Post-hoc analysis of patients with liver dysfunction (Sequential Organ Failure Assessment liver score ≥2 or diagnosis of liver failure/transplant) included in the Randomized Evaluation of Normal versus Augmented Level renal replacement therapy (RENAL) trial. Results: Of 444 patients, 210 (47.3%) were randomized to higher intensity (effluent flow 40 mL/kg/h) and 234 (52.7%) to lower intensity (effluent flow 25 mL/kg/h) therapy. Overall, 79 and 86% of prescribed effluent flow was delivered in the higher-intensity and lower-intensity groups, respectively (p < 0.001). In total, 113 (54.1%) and 120 (51.3%) patients died in each group. On multivariable Cox regression analysis, we found no independent association between higher CRRT intensity and mortality (HR 0.93, 95% CI 0.70-1.24; p = 0.642). Conclusions: In RENAL patients with liver dysfunction, higher CRRT intensity was not associated with reduced mortality.