Search Results (111)

Seeing is a key factor affecting the image quality of astronomical observations and can be quantitatively described by the Fried parameter $r_0$. The larger the $r_0$ value (in unit of cm), the better the seeing conditions. Currently, daytime seeing measurements are primarily conducted using the Solar Differential Image Motion Monitor (SDIMM) or the spectral ratio method. In this work, we propose a neural network model for estimating daytime $r_0$. The experimental results of the training set and the test set show that this model can currently estimate $r_0$ with an accuracy exceeding $99\%$. Using this model, we estimate the $r_0$ of the Huairou Solar Observing Station (HSOS) in 22 consecutive years from 1989 to 2010. The median $r_0$ of HSOS in 22 consecutive years was around 2.5 cm, and the best seeing condition was in April and September of one year. This result confirmed the long-term stability of seeing conditions. In addition, we conducted an error analysis comparing the seeing measured by SDIMM and the results obtained by the spectral ratio method both under domeless and domed conditions. The results indicate a significant correlation between the SDIMM results and the spectral ratio method results, with first-order fitting coefficients of 2.2 and 2.9, respectively. Full article

Shift workers are at increased risk of insomnia. The standard treatment (cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia) poses significant challenges for this demographic due to irregular work and sleep schedules. New approaches are still considered insufficient due to high attrition or insufficient effectiveness. Our preliminary study identified sleep-relevant state and trait factors (see secondary outcomes) for incorporation into an innovative manual that addresses sleep in an implicit manner. The objective was to reduce the focus on insomnia and to replace regularity-based interventions. With a sample of 55 insomniacs (67.74% male, mean age 41.62 years), standard and customized treatments were compared using pre-treatment, post-treatment, and three-month follow-up measurements (RCT, self-assessment data). Our linear mixed models revealed the main significant effects of the measurement point for the primary (insomnia severity, sleep quality, sleep onset latency, total sleep time, daytime sleepiness) and the secondary outcomes (selection: anxiety/depression, dysfunctional beliefs, arousal, emotional stability, concern). No main effects of the condition or interaction effects were identified. Non-inferiority and equivalence tests demonstrated that the customized treatment is equivalent to standard therapy, which is a favorable outcome in light of the implicit approach. Consequently, this innovative approach warrants further exploration, incorporating the present results. Full article

Introduction: Patients in intensive care units (ICUs) face factors that cause anxiety, fear, pain, depression, and adverse health behaviors. This qualitative study aims to determine patients’ experiences when transferred from the ICU to the ward. Methods: Thirteen individuals who were transferred from the ICU to the ward were included in this study. Interviews were conducted using a face-to-face method in the patient’s room. The interviews were recorded with a voice recorder with the consent of the patients. Codes, categories, and themes were created, and content analysis and descriptive analysis were carried out after the audio recordings were converted into text. Results: Patients reported receiving adequate physical and personal care in the ICU and were satisfied with its continuity. They felt safe due to the close attention of healthcare professionals and continuous treatment. Although they received psychological and social support from nurses, they were negatively affected by constant lights, patient noises, and nursing conversations. Patients experienced anxiety about not knowing the health status and time of day, about their relatives, their homes, and other critically ill patients in intensive care. Some patients reported fear of not being able to leave the intensive care unit, relapse, disability, or death. Patients reported pain due to the cold environment, lighting, probes, drains, and positioning. Patients suggested that healthcare personnel communicate better with them, have a clock they can see, reduce noise, and have caregivers of the same gender. They emphasized the need for moral support. Conclusions: Constant light in the intensive care unit, sounds from other patients, nurses talking among themselves, not being able to see their relatives, not knowing what time of day it is, and wondering caused anxiety in the patients. It was determined that patients experienced pain due to catheter, drain, aspiration procedures, cold environment, and position in bed. Notably, patients reported that they needed moral support and wanted to receive care from caregivers of the same gender. Full article

Long-duration energy storage is commonly viewed as a key technology for providing flexibility to the grid and broader energy systems over a multidecadal time frame. However, prior work has typically used present-day grid infrastructures to characterize the relationship between the duration and arbitrage value of storage in electricity markets. This study leverages established National Renewable Energy Laboratory grid planning and operations tools, analysis, and data to execute a price-taker model of an energy storage system for several 8760 h price series representative of current and future contiguous United States grid infrastructures with varying shares of variable renewable energy (VRE). We find that the total value of energy storage typically increases with VRE shares, but any increase in the relative value of longer storage durations over time depends on the region and grid mix. Some regions see incremental value increasing notably, up to 20–40 h in 2050, while others do not. The negative effect of lower roundtrip efficiency on value is also found to be scenario-dependent, with the energy value in higher VRE scenarios being less sensitive to roundtrip efficiency and more supportive of longer storage durations. Long-duration storage value and deployment potential are a function of evolving electricity sector infrastructure, markets, and policy, making it critical to consistently revisit potential long-duration storage contributions to the grid. Full article

(1) Background: Suspicious adnexal masses should be referred to gynecological oncology units. However, when surgery waiting lists are prolonged, these patients usually suffer from a delay in surgery. This could have a negative impact on their prognosis when the final diagnosis is ovarian cancer (OC). The primary aim of this study was to investigate the impact of surgery delay on the oncological results of early-stage ovarian cancer patients. (2) Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of early-stage OC patients who underwent surgery in the 1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 2012 to 2019. Time to surgery was defined as the time interval from the day of first examination to the day of surgery. (3) Results: A total of 72 patients were categorized into two groups, with a cut-off point of 5 weeks: 32 were treated ≤ 5 weeks (group A), and 40 > 5 weeks (group B). Concerning age, BMI or comorbidities, no differences were found between the two groups. Furthermore, no differences were presented in the post-operative complications rate, hospital stay, ICU admittance, or in disease-free (p = 0.48) and overall survival rates (p = 0.703). (4) Conclusions: Suspicious adnexal masses should undergo careful differential diagnosis to avoid delays in the “wait and see” period when the final diagnosis is positive for malignancy. However, the time to surgery for early-stage OC over 5 weeks seems to be relatively safe, with no impact on the mortality, morbidity, or recurrence rate. Full article

Cooling water, a crucial component of the central air conditioning setup, exerts a relatively minor direct impact on the thermal comfort of building indoor environments while it has a great effect on the system’s energy efficiency. Numerous studies exist on the cooling water system, particularly focusing on the process by which the cooling tower system operates, but the linkage between the chiller and the cooling tower is typically overlooked. When the connection is long and the passage environment for the pipeline is not conventional, it cannot be neglected for the optimal control for system efficiency improvement and energy consumption reductions. Throughout this research, a control strategy of the cooling water system for deep subway stations with long pipelines is presented. This cooling system was connected with outdoor cooling towers through a corridor about one hundred meters long. In this process, the cooling water temperature is influenced by the corridor’s thermal environment. For this study, an online control strategy optimizes the cooling water temperature, and a simulation platform of the air conditioning cooling water system of the deep subway station was also developed to evaluate the energy-saving potential of the control strategy of this cooling water system. Atop this platform, a simplified heat transfer model of the pipe corridor was created to determine the cooling capacity provided by the cooling water pipe in the corridor. The outcomes suggest that, as opposed to the conventional control mode, the energy-saving ratio of the optimal control strategy during a typical day may reach 4.1%, and the cooling source system’s Coefficient of Performance (COP) might see an increase of about 4.2%. The energy consumption of the water system throughout the whole cooling season may decrease by 9778 kWh, and the energy-saving rate is 4.1%. The results also demonstrate that the cooling water pipes release heat to the air in the corridor most of the time, and the released heat is larger than the absorbed heat. The maximum heat dissipation to the air in the corridor from the cooling water supply and return pipe can be up to 24.3 kW. The cooling effect of the corridor of subway stations with large depths below the ground surface cannot be ignored when optimal control is considered for the cooling water system. Full article

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected breast cancer patients by causing delays in diagnosis and treatment processes. This study aims to investigate the effects of the pandemic on the treatment process and short-term outcomes of breast cancer patients. Methods: This retrospective, cross-sectional, single-center study included 414 patients who underwent surgery for breast cancer at the Inonu University General Surgery Clinic between March 2018 and June 2021. The patients were divided into two groups: pre-pandemic (Pre-COVID-19; n = 240) and pandemic (COVID-19 Era; n = 174) periods. The groups were compared in terms of demographic, clinical, and histopathological variables. Results: During the pandemic period, the use of neoadjuvant therapy (from 21.3% to 34.5%) and preoperative PET-CT imaging (from 80.4% to 90.8%) rates increased, while breast-conserving surgery (from 27.9% to 19.0%) and the presence of comorbid diseases (from 45.0% to 29.9%) decreased significantly. While there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of the time from diagnosis to surgery (25 vs. 28.5 days, p = 0.121), the time to report the pathology result after surgery decreased during the pandemic period (28 vs. 23 days, p < 0.001). There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of immunohistochemical (ER, PR, Ki-67, E-cadherin, and c-erbB2), histopathological (lymphovascular invasion, perineural invasion, comedo necrosis, modified Bloom–Richardson grade, and TNM classification), and clinical (recurrence, metastasis, and axillary lymph node metastasis) features of the tumor. The mortality rate in the Pre-COVID-19 group (7.1%) was significantly higher than in the COVID-19 Era group (2.3%) (p = 0.049). Finally, in terms of the survival analysis, a statistically significant difference was found between the Pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 Era groups in terms of the mean follow-up duration of the patients (p = 0.044). Conclusions: The study results show that the use of neoadjuvant therapy and radical surgery preference increased in breast cancer treatment during the pandemic period, but there was no significant change in tumor biology and histopathological features. Breast-conserving surgery rates, comorbidity rates, and pathology reporting times were significantly shortened. Long-term follow-up periods of 3 and 5 years are needed to see the impact of the pandemic on breast cancer patients. Full article

Low-Frequency Time Code time service technology, as an important means of ground-based radio time dissemination, can be divided into ground wave zone and sky wave zone according to different receiving and transmitting distances. Ground waves travel primarily along the Earth’s surface, while sky waves propagate over long distances by reflecting off the ionosphere. This paper utilizes the raw observation data received by the Low-Frequency Time Code dissemination monitoring stations before and after the 6.8 magnitude earthquake in Luding, Sichuan, China on 5 September 2022. A Low-Frequency Time Code time service monitoring system was built in Xi’an to continuously monitor the 68.5 kHz time signal broadcast by the BPC station. The data was then processed and analyzed through visualization. Simultaneously, we analyzed the signal fluctuation for multiple days before and after the earthquake to see the changes in the Low-Frequency Time Code signal during the earthquake. By combining seismic activity, solar activity, and geomagnetic data, this study aims to explore the causes and patterns of signal parameter variations. The results show that the field strength of the Low-Frequency Time Code signal fluctuated significantly within a short period during the earthquake. The value began to decrease about 60 min before the earthquake, dropping by approximately 8.9 dBμV/m, and gradually recovered 2 h after the earthquake. The phase also mutated by 1.36 μs at the time of the earthquake, and the time deviation fluctuated greatly compared to the 2 days before and after. Earthquake occurrences influence ionospheric variations, leading to changes in the sky wave propagation of Low-Frequency Time Code signals. Analysis of the influence of earthquakes on the propagation of Low-Frequency Time Code signals can provide references for research on Low-Frequency Time Code signal propagation models and earthquake prediction. Full article

Background: The aim of this study was to see if the CHA₂DS₂-VASc score (Cardiac failure or dysfunction, Hypertension, Age ≥ 75 [Doubled], Diabetes, Stroke [Doubled]—Vascular disease, Age 65–74 and Sex category [Female] score) could have potential clinical relevance in predicting the outcome of hospitalization time, need for ICU hospitalization, survival time, in-hospital mortality, and mortality at 3 and 6 months after discharge home. Materials: A retrospective analysis of 2183 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized at the COVID-19 Centre of the University Hospital in Wrocław, Poland, between February 2020 and June 2021, was performed. All medical records were collected as part of the COronavirus in LOwer Silesia—the COLOS registry project. The CHA₂DS₂-VASc score was applied for all subjects, and the patients were observed from admission to hospital until the day of discharge or death. Further information on patient deaths was prospectively collected following the 90 and 180 days after admission. The new risk stratification derived from differences in survival curves and long-term follow-up of our patients was obtained. Primary outcomes measured included in-hospital mortality and 3-month and 6-month all-cause mortality, whereas secondary outcomes included termination of hospitalization from causes other than death (home discharges/transfer to another facility or deterioration/referral to rehabilitation) and non-fatal adverse events during hospitalization. Results: It was shown that gender had no effect on mortality. Significantly shorter hospitalization time was observed in the group of patients with low CHA₂DS₂-VASc scores. Among secondary outcomes, CHA₂DS₂-VASc score revealed predictive value in both genders for cardiogenic (5.79% vs. 0.69%; p < 0.0001), stroke/TIA (0.48% vs. 9.92%; p < 0.0001), acute heart failure (0.97% vs. 18.18%; p < 0.0001), pneumonia (43% vs. 63.64%; p < 0.0001), and acute renal failure (7.04% vs. 23.97%; p < 0.0001). This study points at the usefulness of the CHA₂DS₂-VASc score in predicting the severity of the course of COVID-19. Conclusions: Routine use of this scale in clinical practice may suggest the legitimacy of extending its application to the assessment of not only the risk of thromboembolic events in the COVID-19 cohort. Full article

In this study, we analyze both linear and nonlinear color mappings by training on versions of a curated dataset collected in a controlled campus environment. We experiment with color space and color resolution to assess model performance in vehicle recognition tasks. Color encodings can be designed in principle to highlight certain vehicle characteristics or compensate for lighting differences when assessing potential matches to previously encountered objects. The dataset used in this work includes imagery gathered under diverse environmental conditions, including daytime and nighttime lighting. Experimental results inform expectations for possible improvements with automatic color space selection through feature learning. Moreover, we find there is only a gradual decrease in model performance with degraded color resolution, which suggests the need for simplified data collection and processing. By focusing on the most critical features, we could see improved model generalization and robustness, as the model becomes less prone to overfitting to noise or irrelevant details in the data. Such a reduction in resolution will lower computational complexity, leading to quicker training and inference times. Full article

Safety from crime is a fundamental human need. In Maslow’s hierarchy, safety is one of the foundational needs of well-being. The built environment should be safe to use at all times of the day and for all groups of people. After dark, the appearance of the outdoor environment changes dramatically, and this could impact the opportunities for crime. This study investigated the impact of daylight on the rates of different types of crime by comparing the crime rates during selected periods of daylight and darkness. The study used records of crime data from the Metropolitan Police Service. By studying crimes in the week on either side of the twice-yearly clock change, it is possible to compare periods that are dark in one week and light in the other at the same clock time. Where the time at which the crime took place was known, and using the GPS coordinates of the specific crime, the solar altitude was calculated and used to determine if it was light or dark at the time of the crime. A similar calculation was used to see if the crime would have been in the dark or light in the week on the other side of the clock change. The headline result is that there was 4.8% (OR 1.07) more crime in the dark periods than the light ones. However, this increase was not uniform across all crime types, and there were some further complications in some results due to potential changes in the behavior of some victims after dark. For the crimes of theft from a person and robbery of personal property, there was a significant increase during the dark period. The availability of light had an impact on the rate of certain crimes. Whilst this does not provide any information about the impact of street lighting on crime, it does provide some idea of by how much crime could be reduced if better lighting was provided. Full article

Slavic folk culture is a fusion of Christian and of pre-Christian, pagan beliefs based on magic. This article is devoted specifically to ancient pre-Christian ideas about death and posthumous existence and the associated magical rituals and prohibitions, which persist to our time. It considers the following interactions between the living and the dead: 1. the measures taken and prohibitions observed by the living to ensure their well-being in the other world; 2. the measures taken by the living to ensure the well-being of their dead relatives in the other world (including funeral rites; memorial rites; cemetery visits; providing the dead with food, clothes, and items necessary for postmortem life; and sending messages to the other world); 3. communication between the living and the dead on certain days (including taking opportunities to meet, see, and hear them; treat them; prepare a bed for them; and wash them); 4. fear of the dead and their return and the desire to placate them to prevent them from causing natural disasters (hail, droughts, floods, etc.), crop failures, cattle deaths, diseases, and death; 5. magical ways for protecting oneself from the “walking dead”; 6. transforming the dead into mythological characters—for example, house-, water-, or forest-spirits and mermaids. The material presented in the article is drawn from published and archival sources collected by folklorists and ethnographers of the XIX and XX centuries in different regions of the Slavic world, as well as from field recordings made by the author and his colleagues in Polesie, the borderland of Belarus and Ukraine, in the 1960–1980s, in the Russian North and in the Carpathian region in the 1990s. It shows that the relationship between the living and the dead in folk beliefs does not fit comfortably within the widespread notion of an “ancestor cult”. It argues that the dead are both venerated and feared and that the living feel a dependence on their ancestors and a desire to strictly observe the boundary between the two worlds. Full article

Endometrial cancer has continued to see a rising incidence in the US over the years. The main aim of this study was to assess current trends in patients’ characteristics and outcomes of treatment for endometrial carcinoma over 16 years. A dataset from the National Cancer Database (NCDB) for patients diagnosed with endometrial carcinoma from 2005 to 2020 was used in this retrospective, case series study. The main outcomes and measures of interest included tumor characteristics, hospitalization, treatments, mortality, and overall survival. Then, 569,817 patients who were diagnosed with endometrial carcinoma were included in this study. The mean (SD) age at diagnosis was 62.7 (11.6) years, but 66,184 patients (11.6%) were younger than 50 years, indicating that more patients are getting diagnosed at younger ages. Of the patients studied, 37,079 (6.3%) were Hispanic, 52,801 (9.3%) were non-Hispanic Black, 432,058 (75.8%) were non-Hispanic White, and 48,879 (8.6%) were other non-Hispanic. Patients in the 4th period from 2017 to 2020 were diagnosed more with stage IV (7.1% vs. 5.2% vs. 5.4% vs. 5.9%; p < 0.001) disease compared with those in the other three periods. More patients with severe comorbidities (Charlson Comorbidity Index score of three) were seen in period 4 compared to the first three periods (3.9% vs. ≤1.9%). Systemic chemotherapy use (14.1% vs. 17.7% vs. 20.4% vs. 21.1%; p < 0.001) and immunotherapy (0.01% vs. 0.01% vs. 0.2% vs. 1.1%; p < 0.001) significantly increased from period 1 to 4. The use of laparotomy decreased significantly from 42.1% in period 2 to 16.7% in period 4, while robotic surgery usage significantly increased from 41.5% in period 2 to 64.3% in period 4. The 30-day and 90-day mortality decreased from 0.6% in period 1 to 0.2% in period 4 and 1.4% in period 1 to 0.6% in period 4, respectively. Over the period studied, we found increased use of immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and minimally invasive surgery for the management of endometrial cancer. Overall, the time interval from cancer diagnosis to final surgery increased by about 6 days. The improvements observed in the outcomes examined can probably be associated with the treatment trends observed. Full article

Sensor technologies have sufficiently advanced to provide low-cost devices that can quantify carbon dioxide levels in honeybee hives with high temporal resolution and in a small enough package for hive deployment. Recent publications have shown that summer carbon dioxide levels vary throughout the day and night over ranges that typically exceed 5000 ppm. Such dramatic changes in a measurable parameter associated with bee physiology are likely to convey information about the colony health. In this work, we present data from four UK-based hives collected through the winter of 2022/2023, with a focus on seeing if carbon dioxide can indicate when colonies are at risk of failure. These hives have been fitted with two Sensirion SCD41 photoacoustic non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) carbon dioxide sensors, one in the queen excluder, at the top of the brood box, and one in the crown board, at the top of the hive. Hive scales have been used to monitor the hive mass, and internal and external temperature sensors have been included. Embedded accelerometers in the central frame of the brood box have been used to measure vibrations. Data showed that the high daily variation in carbon dioxide continued throughout the coldest days of winter, and the vibrational data suggested that daily fanning may be responsible for restoring lower carbon dioxide levels. The process of fanning will draw in colder air to the hive at a time when the bees should be using their energy to maintain the colony temperature. Monitoring carbon dioxide may provide feedback, prompting human intervention when the colony is close to collapse, and a better understanding may contribute to discussions on future hive design. Full article

Pilgrimages are an important part of our intangible heritage. These long journeys, often on foot, can be sensitive to weather, so this study sees pilgrimages as providing an opportunity to look at the way in which changes in climate affect intangible heritage. It examines two important Ethiopian pilgrimages that involve hundreds of thousands who travel each year to Dirre Sheikh Hussein, seen as the country’s Mecca, and Lalibela, its Jerusalem. These journeys in the cold season (December–February) often exceed 1000 km in length and expose pilgrims to low temperatures in mountain areas. Our analysis uses daily output data from ERA-5 and CHIRPS for rainfall and temperature across the recent past (1984–2014) and an ensemble of climate models (CMIP6) for the periods 1984–2014 and 2035–2065, to explore changes in nighttime low temperature, daytime high temperature and the potential increase in days of heavy rain in mountain areas. Additionally, we examine the increasing number of very hot days affecting travel to and from Dirre Sheikh Hussein. The pilgrims experience weather events and not long-term average conditions, so extremes and spells of inclement weather can affect their experience. Management plans for the regions have yet to address likely changes to climate at these religious sites, or consider how strategic planning might mitigate their impact on pilgrims. Full article