Search Results (21)

The study aims to recover, interpret, and analyze the daily meteorological observations made in Venice by Tommaso Temanza from 1751 to 1769. These records are relevant because they provide direct information about the climate of the Little Ice Age. Temanza used a barometer, an air thermometer of Amontons’ type, and an additional mercury thermometer, i.e., Réaumur’s thermometer. These early instruments are presented and discussed in this study. The barometer readings needed standard corrections, which were unknown at that time. The scale of the air thermometer was arbitrary, and temperatures were measured in inches of mercury. For the Amontons thermometer, Temanza missed the calibration points and used a particular scale with the zero-point in the middle of the range. He gave two contradictory explanations for this choice, both of which are discussed in this paper. In the 18th century, the use of a singular value to represent the average temperature, called “Temperate”, was promoted by Michieli du Crest in Geneva and Toaldo in Padua. This work reconstructs the unknown scale, using contemporary observations by Giovanni Poleni and Giuseppe Toaldo in Padua (30 km west of Venice) and snowfall reported in the weather notes to determine the temperature point at 0 °C. A discussion is made about the calibration, validation, and conversion of readings from the original to modern units of pressure and temperature, i.e., hPa and °C, respectively. The recovered record of Venice is presented in comparison with Padua, Bologna, and Milan. The paper provides and analyzes the new dataset, and improves knowledge about the climate, history of science, instruments, and observations made in the mid-18th century. Full article

Venous thromboembolism is a disease with high incidence and fatality rate, and the coverage rate of prevention and treatment is insufficient in China. Aiming at the problems of low efficiency, strong subjectivity, and low extraction and utilization of electronic medical record data by traditional evaluation methods, this study proposes a multi-scale adaptive evaluation framework based on retrieval-augmented generation. In this framework, we first optimize the knowledge base construction through entity–context dynamic association and Milvus vector retrieval. Next, the Qwen2.5-7B large language model is fine-tuned with clinical knowledge via Low-Rank Adaptation technology. Finally, a generation–verification closed-loop mechanism is designed to suppress model hallucination. Experiments show that the accuracy of the framework on the Caprini, Padua, Wells, and Geneva scales is 79.56%, 88.32%, 90.51%, and 84.67%, respectively. The comprehensive performance is better than that of clinical expert evaluation, especially in complex cases. The ablation experiments confirmed that the entity–context association and self-verification augmentation mechanism contributed significantly to the improvement in evaluation accuracy. This study not only provides a high-precision, traceable intelligent tool for VTE clinical decision-making, but also validates the technical feasibility, and will further explore multi-modal data fusion and incremental learning to optimize dynamic risk assessment in the future. Full article

Background/Objectives: Very few studies describe the various feelings experienced in the emergency department (ED). Our study describes the pain, stress, and negative and positive emotions experienced by patients admitted to the ED in relation to age, gender, and reason for ED admission. Methods: Patients admitted to the ED of seven French hospitals were surveyed as part of the randomised multicentre study SOFTER IV (n = 2846). They reported the intensity of their pain on a numerical rating scale of 0 to 10, the intensity of their stress on an equivalent scale, and their emotions on a five-point rating scale using an adapted version of the Geneva Emotion Wheel proposed by Scherer, based on eight core emotions: fear, anger, regret, sadness, relief, interest, joy, and satisfaction. Results: Patients reported an average pain rating of 4.5 (SD = 3.0) and an average stress rating of 3.4 (SD = 3.1). Forty-six percent reported at least one strong negative emotion, and the two most frequently reported were fear and sadness. Forty-seven percent of patients described feeling at least one strong positive emotion, and the two most frequently reported were interest and relief. Pain was significantly higher among female patients under 60 admitted for injury. Stress was significantly higher among female patients under 60 admitted for illness. Emotions of negative valency were significantly higher among women admitted for injury. Emotions of positive valency were significantly higher among men over 60 admitted for illness. Conclusions: Experiences of pain, stress, and emotions have a strong presence in the ED. The reporting of these feelings varies depending on age, gender, and reason for ED admission. Full article

The objective of this article is to shed light on the history of the Reformation in 17th-century Geneva. The lens through which this study is conducted is that of religious publishing activity, which was significantly managed by the Company of Pastors and Professors. The role of the Company in religious publishing is inextricably linked to the unique status of the Church of Geneva within the broader context of the Reformation. The Company’s institutional archives offer insight into the issues at stake in the printed book matters. This article focuses on the role of the Company in local censorship, which diminished over the period under study. The Company’s censorship function enabled it to exert concrete influence on the global scale of Reformed publishing. This influence was the consequence of the Company’s ecclesiastical and theological authority. This authority derived from the status of the Church of Geneva as the principal church and birthplace of the Reformation in the 16th century. An analysis of the metaphors signifying and symbolizing this role in the printed books themselves underlines the pre-eminence of the Church of Geneva in 17th-century Reformation. Full article

Due to a higher risk of maternal complications during pregnancy, as well as pregnancy complications such as stillbirth, SARS-CoV-2 contamination during pregnancy is a putative stress factor that could increase the risk of perinatal maternal mental health issues. We included women older than 18 years, who delivered a living baby at the Geneva University Hospitals’ maternity wards after 29 weeks of amenorrhea (w.a.) and excluded women who did not read or speak fluent French. We compared women who declared having had COVID-19, confirmed by a positive PCR test for SARS-CoV-2, during pregnancy with women who did not, both at delivery and at one month postpartum. We collected clinical data by auto-questionnaires between time of childbirth and the third day postpartum regarding the occurrence of perinatal depression, peritraumatic dissociation, and peritraumatic distress during childbirth, measured, respectively, by the EPDS (depression is score > 11), PDI (peritraumatic distress is score > 15), and PDEQ (scales). At one month postpartum, we compared the proportion of women with a diagnosis of postpartum depression (PPD) and birth-related posttraumatic stress disorder (CB-PTSD), using PCL-5 for CB-PTSD and using diagnosis criteria according DSM-5 for both PPD and CB-PTSD, in the context of a semi-structured interview, conducted by a clinician psychologist. Off the 257 women included, who delivered at the University Hospitals of Geneva between 25 January 2021 and 10 March 2022, 41 (16.1%) declared they had a positive PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 during their pregnancy. Regarding mental outcomes, except birth-related PTSD, all scores provided higher mean values in the group of women who declared having been infected by SARS-CoV-2, at delivery and at one month postpartum, without reaching any statistical significance: respectively, 7.8 (±5.2, 8:4–10.5) versus 6.5 (±4.7, 6:3–9), p = 0.139 ***, for continuous EPDS scores; 10 (25.0) versus 45 (21.1), p = 0.586 *, for dichotomous EPDS scores (≥11); 118 (55.7) versus 26 (63.4), p = 0.359 *, for continuous PDI scores; 18.3 (±6.8, 16:14–21) versus 21.1 (±10.7, 17:15–22), 0.231 ***, for dichotomous PDI scores (≥15); 14.7 (±5.9, 13:10–16) versus 15.7 (±7.1, 14:10–18), p = 0.636 ***, for continuous PDEQ scores; 64 (30.0) versus 17 (41.5), p = 0.151 *, for dichotomous PDEQ scores (≥15); and 2 (8.0) versus 5 (3.6), p = 0.289 *, for postpartum depression diagnosis, according DSM-5. We performed Chi-squared or Fisher’s exact tests, depending on applicability for the comparison of categorical variables and Mann–Whitney nonparametric tests for continuous variables; p < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Surprisingly, we did not find more birth-related PTSD as noted by the PCL-5 score at one month postpartum in women who declared a positive PCR test for SARS-CoV-2:15 (10.6) versus no case of birth related PTSD in women who were infected during pregnancy (p = 0.131 *). Our study showed that mental outcomes were differently distributed between women who declared having been infected by SARS-CoV-2 compared to women who were not infected. However, our study was underpowered to explore all the factors associated with psychiatric issues during pregnancy, postpartum, depending on the exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy. Future longitudinal studies on bigger samples and more diverse populations over a longer period are needed to explore the long-term psychic impact on women who had COVID-19 during pregnancy. Full article

Aiming at the problems of heavy workload of medical staff in the process of venous thrombosis prevention and treatment, error evaluation, missed evaluation, and inconsistent evaluation, we propose a joint extraction model of Chinese electronic medical records based on deep learning. The approach was to first construct the handshake annotation, then use bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) as the word vector embedding, then use the bidirectional long short-term memory network (BiLSTM) to extract the contextual features, and then integrate the contextual information into the process of normalizing the word vector. Experiments show that our proposed method achieves 93.3% and 94.3% of entity and relation F1 on the constructed electronic medical record dataset, which effectively improves the effect of medical information extraction. At the same time, the venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk factors extracted from the electronic medical record were used to judge the risk factors of venous thrombosis by means of rule reasoning. Compared with the assessment of clinicians on the Wells and Geneva scales, the accuracy rates of 84.7% and 86.1% were obtained. Full article

As in oceans, large-scale coherent circulations such as gyres and eddies are ubiquitous features in large lakes that are subject to the Coriolis force. They play a crucial role in the horizontal and vertical distribution of biological, chemical and physical parameters that can affect water quality. In order to make coherent circulation patterns evident, representative field measurements of near-surface currents have to be taken. This, unfortunately, is difficult due to the high spatial and temporal variability of gyres/eddies. As a result, few complete field observations of coherent circulation in oceans/lakes have been reported. With the advent of high-resolution satellite imagery, the potential to unravel and improve the understanding of mesoscale and submesoscale processes has substantially increased. Features in the satellite images, however, must be verified by field measurements and numerical simulations. In the present study, Sentinel-1 SAR satellite imagery was used to detect gyres/eddies in a large lake (Lake Geneva). Comparing SAR images with realistic high-resolution numerical model results and in situ observations allowed for identification of distinct signatures of mesoscale gyres, which can be revealed through submesoscale current patterns. Under low wind conditions, cyclonic gyres manifest themselves in SAR images either through biogenic slicks that are entrained in submesoscale and mesoscale currents, or by pelagic upwelling that appears as smooth, dark elliptical areas in their centers. This unique combination of simultaneous SAR imagery, three-dimensional numerical simulations and field observations confirmed that SAR imagery can provide valuable insights into the spatial scales of thus far unresolved mesoscale and submesoscale processes in a lake. Understanding these processes is required for developing effective lake management concepts. Full article

The physio-affective phenome of Long COVID-19 is predicted by (a) immune-inflammatory biomarkers of the acute infectious phase, including peak body temperature (PBT) and oxygen saturation (SpO2), and (b) the subsequent activation of immune and oxidative stress pathways during Long COVID. The purpose of this study was to delineate the effects of PBT and SpO2 during acute infection, as well as the increased neurotoxicity on the physical, psychological, social and environmental domains of health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in people with Long COVID. We recruited 86 participants with Long COVID and 39 normal controls, assessed the WHO-QoL-BREF (World Health Organization Quality of Life Instrument-Abridged Version, Geneva, Switzerland) and the physio-affective phenome of Long COVID (comprising depression, anxiety and fibromyalgia-fatigue rating scales) and measured PBT and SpO2 during acute infection, and neurotoxicity (NT, comprising serum interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-18 and caspase-1, advanced oxidation protein products and myeloperoxidase, calcium and insulin resistance) in Long COVID. We found that 70.3% of the variance in HR-QoL was explained by the regression on the physio-affective phenome, lowered calcium and increased NT, whilst 61.5% of the variance in the physio-affective phenome was explained by calcium, NT, increased PBT, lowered SpO2, female sex and vaccination with AstraZeneca and Pfizer. The effects of PBT and SpO2 on lowered HR-QoL were mediated by increased NT and lowered calcium yielding increased severity of the physio-affective phenome which largely affects HR-QoL. In conclusion, lowered HR-Qol in Long COVID is largely predicted by the severity of neuro-immune and neuro-oxidative pathways during acute and Long COVID. Full article

Before a patient undergoes surgery, they are likely to complain of anxiety to various degrees. To address this issue, we designed and implemented a composition program using TensorFlow Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) to select music for learning. The nurses’ preferences and needs were assessed using the Geneva Emotional Music Scales-9 (GEMS-9) tool and focus group interview (FGI) methods for currently used sound sources and nurses at the operating room entrance. An FGI and GEMS-9 for preference analysis were conducted by nurses who currently work in the operating room, had experience with managing the operating room’s background music, and wished to participate voluntarily in this study on 31 January 2019 in an operating room simulation center. Interviews were held with a total of three nurse. The data were analyzed using a qualitative thematic analysis. Using GEMS-9 to evaluate 16 sample sources, the average of the sad–happy values was highest at four points, with a lower tension of 1.48. Happy, Joy, and Peaceful were classified as appropriate for background music in the operating room. Additionally, the top six songs were selected as suitable songs by calculating the difference in values among Sad, Tension, Tender, Nostalgia, and Trance, which were judged to be inappropriate along with Power and Wonder. The songs selected were two jazz songs, three bossa nova songs, and two piano classical songs. The results of this study show that music used in the operating room should contain a slow tempo such as slow classical, piano, strings, natural acoustics, and new age music. Music consisting of only musical instruments (preferably containing smaller arrangements of less than five instruments) is preferred over music containing human vocals. Based on the study findings, the conditions of the sound source to be used for learning were suggested after consulting with a music expert. Full article

Virus and viroid-free apple rootstocks are necessary for large-scale nursery propagation of apple (Malus domestica) trees. Apple stem grooving virus (ASGV) and Apple chlorotic leaf spot virus (ACLSV) are among the most serious apple viruses that are prevalent in most apple growing regions. In addition to these viruses, a new infectious agent named Apple hammerhead viroid (AHVd) has been identified. We investigated whether thermotherapy or cryotherapy alone or a combination of both could effectively eradicate ACLSV, ASGV, and AHVd from in vitro cultures of four apple rootstocks developed in the Cornell-Geneva apple rootstock breeding program (CG 2034, CG 4213, CG 5257, and CG 6006). For thermotherapy treatments, in vitro plants were treated for four weeks at 36 °C (day) and 32 °C (night). Plant vitrification solution 2 (PVS2) and cryotherapy treatments included a shoot tip preculture in 2 M glycerol + 0.8 M sucrose for one day followed by exposure to PVS2 for 60 or 75 min at 22 °C, either without or with liquid nitrogen (LN, cryotherapy) exposure. Combinations of thermotherapy and PVS2/cryotherapy treatments were also performed. Following treatments, shoot tips were warmed, recovered on growth medium, transferred to the greenhouse, grown, placed in dormancy inducing conditions, and then grown again prior to sampling leaves for the presence of viruses and viroids. Overall, thermotherapy combined with cryotherapy treatment resulted in the highest percentage of virus- and viroid-free plants, suggesting great potential for producing virus- and viroid-free planting materials for the apple industry. Furthermore, it could also be a valuable tool to support the global exchange of apple germplasm. Full article

Background: Elderly COVID-19 patients have a high risk of pulmonary embolism (PE), but factors that predict PE are unknown in this population. This study assessed the Wells and revised Geneva scoring systems as predictors of PE and their relationships with D-dimer (DD) in this population. Methods: This was a longitudinal, observational study that included patients ≥75 years old with COVID-19 and suspected PE. The performances of the Wells score, revised Geneva score and DD levels were assessed. The combinations of the DD level and the clinical scales were evaluated using positive rules for higher specificity. Results: Among 305 patients included in the OCTA-COVID study cohort, 50 had suspected PE based on computed tomography pulmonary arteriography (CTPA), and the prevalence was 5.6%. The frequencies of PE in the low-, intermediate- and high-probability categories were 5.9%, 88.2% and 5.9% for the Geneva model and 35.3%, 58.8% and 5.9% for the Wells model, respectively. The DD median was higher in the PE group (4.33 mg/L; interquartile range (IQR) 2.40–7.17) than in the no PE group (1.39 mg/L; IQR 1.01–2.75) (p < 0.001). The area under the curve (AUC) for DD was 0.789 (0.652–0.927). After changing the cutoff point for DD to 4.33 mg/L, the specificity increased from 42.5% to 93.9%. Conclusions: The cutoff point DD > 4.33 mg/L has an increased specificity, which can discriminate false positives. The addition of the DD and the clinical probability scales increases the specificity and negative predictive value, which helps to avoid unnecessary invasive tests in this population. Full article

Background: The recent pandemic due to the appearance of COVID-19 in 2020 has led to lockdowns worldwide, which have affected companies and universities conducting sensory evaluations. Therefore, a novel method to conduct sensory sessions for descriptive and consumer tests using biometrics in isolation has been developed. Materials and Methods: The method consists of using communication software such as Zoom and online software such as Google forms or RedJade to conduct the sensory sessions remotely. Different studies have been conducted using this technology to assess (i) consumers’ acceptability towards coffee labels (N = 69), (ii) videos of beer while pouring (N = 100), and (iii) images from the Geneva affective picture database (GAPED) using self-reported and biometric (subconscious) responses from consumers (N = 100), and (iv) wine samples using a trained panel (N = 11) with a quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA^®) method and a 15 cm non-structured scale. The researcher shared the questionnaire link with the participants and connected through Zoom during the session, using the camera to record videos of consumers’ responses while evaluating the samples for the biometrics. Results: Study 1 showed several associations between the coffee label concepts and self-reported and biometric responses. Some of these were that the Premium label was associated with perceived coffee strength, brand as the preferred area of interest (AOI), , and valence and relaxed subconscious responses. On the other hand, the Everyday label was associated with pleasantness, colors as preferred AOI, , , , and subconscious responses such as Joy and Smile (Figure in the Poster as Supplementary Material) [1]. Study 2 showed that consumers had more positive emotions and higher perceived quality towards beers, with higher liking of foam-related parameters. In Study 3, using GAPED images, based on the self-reported and subconscious responses, participants were able to correctly distinguish positive, neutral, and negative images [2]. On the other hand, in Study 4, the trained panel was able to accurately assess the intensity of aromas in different wine samples (Shiraz and Chardonnay) [3]. Conclusions: Findings were consistent with those from similar studies from previous publications conducted in a sensory laboratory [4,5,6,7,8,9], which confirms the reliability of the proposed virtual method. Further developments involve the assessment of multiple participants to record their biometrics simultaneously and optimize the sensory session time. Full article

The achievement of the targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions set by the Paris Agreements and the Swiss federal law on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (CO₂ law) requires massive use of renewable energies, which cannot be achieved without their adoption by the general public. The solar cadaster developed as part of the INTERREG G2 Solar project is intended to assess the solar potential of buildings at the scale of Greater Geneva—for both industrial buildings and for individual residential buildings—at a resolution of 1 m. The new version of the solar cadaster is intended to assess the solar potential of roofs, as well as that of vertical facades. The study presented here aims to validate this new version through a comparison with results obtained with two other simulation tools that are widely used and validated by the scientific community. The good accordance with the results obtained with ENVI-met and DIVA-for-Rhino demonstrates the capability of the radiative model developed for the solar cadaster of Greater Geneva to accurately predict the radiation levels of building facades in configurations with randomly distributed buildings (horizontally or vertically). Full article

Inadequate sodium and potassium dietary intakes are associated with major, yet preventable, health consequences. Local public health interventions can be facilitated and informed by fine-scale geospatial analyses. In this study, we assess the existence of spatial clustering (i.e., an unusual concentration of individuals with a specific outcome in space) of estimated sodium (Na), potassium (K) intakes, and Na:K ratio in the Bus Santé 1992–2018 annual population-based surveys, including 22,495 participants aged 20–74 years, residing in the canton of Geneva, using the local Moran’s I spatial statistics. We also investigate whether socio-demographic and food environment characteristics are associated with identified spatial clustering, using both global ordinary least squares (OLS) and local geographically weighted regression (GWR) modeling. We identified clear spatial clustering of Na:K ratio, Na, and K intakes. The GWR outperformed the OLS models and revealed spatial variations in the associations between explanatory and outcome variables. Older age, being a woman, higher education, and having a lower access to supermarkets were associated with higher Na:K ratio, while the opposite was seen for having the Swiss nationality. Socio-demographic characteristics explained a major part of the identified clusters. Socio-demographic and food environment characteristics significantly differed between individuals in spatial clusters of high and low Na:K ratio, Na, and K intakes. These findings could guide prioritized place-based interventions tailored to the characteristics of the identified populations. Full article

Lake Léman (Lake Geneva), Switzerland, is known to have undergone major environmental change over the last few decades, including changes in the abundance, distribution, and species composition of macrophytic plants (aquatic plants). In this study, questionnaires and key informant interviews were used to assess lake users’ perceptions of broad scale environmental change in the lake paying special attention tochanges in the abundance of aquatic plants and the perceived ecosystem services (ES) and ecosystem disservices (EDS) associated with them. In addition, we assessed whether users’ perceptions of aquatic plants had an impact on perceived management need. Most respondents (63%) perceived aquatic plant abundance to have increased over the last 10 years, primarily because of climate change. Aquatic plants were seen to benefit water quality through improved regulation and supporting services, and to provide important habitat and food for fauna. Most EDS associated with increased aquatic plant abundance were categorized as cultural or economic. User perceptions of the ES and EDS associated with aquatic plants affected support for management (60% of respondents supported some form of management), and such information is important for informing environmental decision making. Full article