Dynamic Treatment Regimes


Book Description

Dynamic Treatment Regimes: Statistical Methods for Precision Medicine provides a comprehensive introduction to statistical methodology for the evaluation and discovery of dynamic treatment regimes from data. Researchers and graduate students in statistics, data science, and related quantitative disciplines with a background in probability and statistical inference and popular statistical modeling techniques will be prepared for further study of this rapidly evolving field. A dynamic treatment regime is a set of sequential decision rules, each corresponding to a key decision point in a disease or disorder process, where each rule takes as input patient information and returns the treatment option he or she should receive. Thus, a treatment regime formalizes how a clinician synthesizes patient information and selects treatments in practice. Treatment regimes are of obvious relevance to precision medicine, which involves tailoring treatment selection to patient characteristics in an evidence-based way. Of critical importance to precision medicine is estimation of an optimal treatment regime, one that, if used to select treatments for the patient population, would lead to the most beneficial outcome on average. Key methods for estimation of an optimal treatment regime from data are motivated and described in detail. A dedicated companion website presents full accounts of application of the methods using a comprehensive R package developed by the authors. The authors’ website www.dtr-book.com includes updates, corrections, new papers, and links to useful websites.




Fresh from the Farm 6pk


Book Description




Fluid Mechanics for Industrial Safety and Environmental Protection


Book Description

Applications of the science of fluid mechanics to the new and expanding fields of industrial safety and environmental protection are discussed in this volume. The material is organized in accordance with the chain-of-events in real accidents, starting with the loss of containment of hazardous fluids, going on to the spreading and mixing processes in water or air, and ending with the damage loads caused by explosions, fires or toxic content.To develop solutions relevant to the wide range of problems considered, it is necessary to draw on material from various branches of fluid mechanics, i.e. from the engineering fields (aero- and gas- and hydrodynamics, hydraulics, heat transfer and two-phase flows) as well as from geophysics (environmental flows, boundary-layer meteorology). The relevant solutions are developed from the fundamental equations, but are kept simple for transparency and understanding. To achieve this, the simplifications offered by scaling, similarity and entrainment concepts are used extensively. Many of the solutions are novel but have been confirmed by laboratory experiments.The material in the book has been used as a teaching text on Master's level, but the content will be useful also for practising engineers and scientists engaged in safety and environmental impact. The problems considered have been encountered in consultancy work for industry and government agencies. The coherent presentation and the fundamental basis for analytical developments, makes the material accessible also to readers not acquainted with the field.




Wind Climate in Cities


Book Description

If one surveys the development of wind engineering, one comes to the conclusion that the challenge of urban climatology is one of the most important remaining tasks for the wind engineers. But what distinguishes wind engineering in urban areas from conventional wind engineering? Principally, the fact that the effects studied are usually unique to a particular situation, requiring consideration of the surroundings of the buildings. In the past, modelling criteria have been developed that make it possible to solve environmental problems with great confidence, and studies validated the models: at least in a neutrally stratified atmosphere. The approach adopted in the book is that of applied fluid mechanics, since this forms the basis for the evaluation of the urban wind field. Variables for air quality or loads are problem specific, or even random, and methods for studying them are based on risk analysis, which is also presented. Criteria are developed for a systematic approach to urban wind engineering problems, including parameter studies. The five sections of the book are: Fundamentals of urban boundary layer and dispersion; Forces on complex structures in built-up areas; Air pollution in cities; Numerical solution techniques; and Posters. A subject index is included.




Advances in Geosciences


Book Description

This invaluable volume set of Advances in Geosciences continues the excellent tradition of the Asia-Oceania scientific community in providing the most up-to-date research results on a wide range of geosciences and environmental science. The information is vital to the understanding of the effects of climate change, extreme weathers on the most populated regions and fastest moving economies in the world. Besides, these volumes also highlight original papers from many prestigious research institutions which are doing cutting edge study in atmospheric physics, hydrological science and water resource, ocean science and coastal study, planetary exploration and solar system science, seismology, tsunamis, upper atmospheric physics and space science.




Buoyant Convection in Geophysical Flows


Book Description

Studies of convection in geophysical flows constitute an advanced and rapidly developing area of research that is relevant to problems of the natural environment. During the last decade, significant progress has been achieved in the field as a result of both experimental studies and numerical modelling. This led to the principal revision of the widely held view on buoyancy-driven turbulent flows comprising an organised mean component with superimposed chaotic turbulence. An intermediate type of motion, represented by coherent structures, has been found to play a key role in geophysical boundary layers and in larger scale atmospheric and hydrospheric circulations driven by buoyant forcing. New aspects of the interaction between convective motions and rotation have recently been discovered and investigated. Extensive experimental data have also been collected on the role of convection in cloud dynamics and microphysics. New theoretical concepts and approaches have been outlined regarding scaling and parameterization of physical processes in buoyancy-driven geophysical flows. The book summarizes interdisciplinary studies of buoyancy effects in different media (atmosphere and hydrosphere) over a wide range of scales (small scale phenomena in unstably stratified and convectively mixed layers to deep convection in the atmosphere and ocean), by different research methods (field measurements, laboratory simulations, numerical modelling), and within a variety of application areas (dispersion of pollutants, weather forecasting, hazardous phenomena associated with buoyant forcing).




Radioactive Aerosols


Book Description

Whenever radioactivity is released to the atmosphere, for example by the detonation of nuclear weapons or the testing of nuclear weapons or from nuclear reactor accidents that fraction of it which remains airborne for more than a few hours is liable to be attached to aerosol particles. The resulting radioactive aerosols are carried by atmospheric mixing processes until they settle out or are scavenged by precipitation. The radiation exposure pathway of maximum concern to humans is by inhalation of aerosols and their deposition in the respiratory tract. In this context, it is important to note that radioactive aerosols are commonly of natural origin alos. In particular, the associated radionuclides can be of natural terrestrial origin, such as the decay products of radon gas, or they can e cosmogenic, such as beryllium-7. The exposure of miners of uranium and other ores and minerals to radon and its aerosol-borne decay products is of major significance. The book describes the formation of aerosols, their aerodynamic size distribution, their atmospheric residence time, their sampling and measurement, the range of radioactive aerosols found and studied thus far, including man-made nuclides and radon decay products and their interaction with man, including deposition in the lung and subsequent health effects. - Advanced level science handbook for researchers, scientists and academics - Covers all aspects of radiation exposure in humans, including subsequent health implications - Presents the latest findings and analysis in this highly topical area