With predicted increasing frequency and intensity of extremely hot weather due to changing climate, workplace heat exposure is presenting an increasing challenge to occupational health and safety. ...This article aims to review the characteristics of workplace heat exposure in selected relatively high risk occupations, to summarize findings from published studies, and ultimately to provide suggestions for workplace heat exposure reduction, adaptations, and further research directions. All published epidemiological studies in the field of health impacts of workplace heat exposure for the period of January 1997 to April 2012 were reviewed. Finally, 55 original articles were identified. Manual workers who are exposed to extreme heat or work in hot environments may be at risk of heat stress, especially those in low-middle income countries in tropical regions. At risk workers include farmers, construction workers, fire-fighters, miners, soldiers, and manufacturing workers working around process-generated heat. The potential impacts of workplace heat exposure are to some extent underestimated due to the underreporting of heat illnesses. More studies are needed to quantify the extent to which high-risk manual workers are physiologically and psychologically affected by or behaviourally adapt to workplace heat exposure exacerbated by climate change.
In 2022, American Urological Association updated the guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS). A significant change has been made in treatment ...recommendations. The updated guideline no longer divided treatments into first-line through sixth-line tiers. Instead, treatment is categorized into behavioral/non-pharmacologic, oral medicines, bladder instillations, procedures, and major surgery. This change emphasizes the heterogeneity of IC/BPS patients and the importance of individualized treatment, overturns traditional unreasonable ideas about hierarchical and progressive treatment, and encourages patients and physicians to make treatment decisions together. At the same time, the panel emphasized the importance of early implementation of cystoscopy in patients suspected of Hunner lesions and warned against the possibility of pentosan polysulfate causing a unique retinal pigmentary maculopathy. Urinary reconstruction surgery was considered to only be used a
The paper provides a short history of the phasor measurement unit (PMU) concept. The origin of PMU is traced to the work on developing computer based distance relay using symmetrical component ...theory. PMUs evolved from a portion of this relay architecture. The need for synchronization using global positioning system (GPS) is discussed, and the wide area measurement system (WAMS) utilizing PMU signals is described. A number of applications of this technology are discussed, and an account of WAMS activities in many countries around the world are provided.
Plant nutrients can be recycled through microbial
decomposition of organic matter but replacement of base cations and
phosphorus, lost through harvesting of biomass/biofuels or leaching,
requires de ...novo supply of fresh nutrients released through weathering of soil
parent material (minerals and rocks). Weathering involves physical and
chemical processes that are modified by biological activity of plants,
microorganisms and animals. This article reviews recent progress made in
understanding biological processes contributing to weathering. A perspective
of increasing spatial scale is adopted, examining the consequences of
biological activity for weathering from nanoscale interactions, through in vitro and
in planta microcosm and mesocosm studies, to field experiments, and finally ecosystem
and global level effects. The topics discussed include the physical
alteration of minerals and mineral surfaces; the composition, amounts,
chemical properties, and effects of plant and microbial secretions; and the
role of carbon flow (including stabilisation and sequestration of C in organic
and inorganic forms). Although the predominant focus is on the effects of
fungi in forest ecosystems, the properties of biofilms, including bacterial
interactions, are also discussed. The implications of these biological
processes for modelling are discussed, and we attempt to identify some key
questions and knowledge gaps, as well as experimental approaches and areas
of research in which future studies are likely to yield useful results. A
particular focus of this article is to improve the representation of the
ways in which biological processes complement physical and chemical
processes that mobilise mineral elements, making them available for plant
uptake. This is necessary to produce better estimates of weathering that are
required for sustainable management of forests in a post-fossil-fuel
economy. While there are abundant examples of nanometre- and micrometre-scale
physical interactions between microorganisms and different minerals, opinion
appears to be divided with respect to the quantitative significance of these
observations for overall weathering. Numerous in vitro experiments and microcosm
studies involving plants and their associated microorganisms suggest that
the allocation of plant-derived carbon, mineral dissolution and plant
nutrient status are tightly coupled, but there is still disagreement about
the extent to which these processes contribute to field-scale observations.
Apart from providing dynamically responsive pathways for the allocation of
plant-derived carbon to power dissolution of minerals, mycorrhizal mycelia
provide conduits for the long-distance transportation of weathering products
back to plants that are also quantitatively significant sinks for released
nutrients. These mycelial pathways bridge heterogeneous substrates, reducing
the influence of local variation in C:N ratios. The production of
polysaccharide matrices by biofilms of interacting bacteria and/or fungi at
interfaces with mineral surfaces and roots influences patterns of
production of antibiotics and quorum sensing molecules, with concomitant
effects on microbial community structure, and the qualitative and
quantitative composition of mineral-solubilising compounds and weathering
products. Patterns of carbon allocation and nutrient mobilisation from both
organic and inorganic substrates have been studied at larger spatial and
temporal scales, including both ecosystem and global levels, and there is a
generally wider degree of acceptance of the “systemic” effects of
microorganisms on patterns of nutrient mobilisation. Theories about the
evolutionary development of weathering processes have been advanced but
there is still a lack of information connecting processes at different
spatial scales. Detailed studies of the liquid chemistry of local weathering
sites at the micrometre scale, together with upscaling to soil-scale
dissolution rates, are advocated, as well as new approaches involving stable
isotopes.
Summary
Tree growth in boreal forests is driven by ectomycorrhizal fungal mobilisation of organic nitrogen and mineral nutrients in soils with discrete organic and mineral horizons. However, there ...are no studies of how ectomycorrhizal mineral weathering and organic nitrogen mobilisation processes are integrated across the soil profile.
We studied effects of organic matter (OM) availability on ectomycorrhizal functioning by altering the proportions of natural organic and mineral soil in reconstructed podzol profiles containing Pinus sylvestris plants, using 13CO2 pulse labelling, patterns of naturally occurring stable isotopes (26Mg and 15N) and high‐throughput DNA sequencing of fungal amplicons.
Reduction in OM resulted in nitrogen limitation of plant growth and decreased allocation of photosynthetically derived carbon and mycelial growth in mineral horizons. Fractionation patterns of 26Mg indicated that magnesium mobilisation and uptake occurred primarily in the deeper mineral horizon and was driven by carbon allocation to ectomycorrhizal mycelium. In this horizon, relative abundance of ectomycorrhizal fungi, carbon allocation and base cation mobilisation all increased with increased OM availability.
Allocation of carbon through ectomycorrhizal fungi integrates organic nitrogen mobilisation and mineral weathering across soil horizons, improving the efficiency of plant nutrient acquisition. Our findings have fundamental implications for sustainable forest management and belowground carbon sequestration.
This study addresses the different biogeochemical parameters that control the dynamics of Hg, which is a less-studied metal in the Ebrié Lagoon. During two hydrological seasons, the dry season and ...the rainy season, we regularly sampled and analysed various compartments (e.g. sediments and fishes (
Tilapia
sp.)) of the lagoon. Thus, the physicochemical parameters were measured in situ (e.g. temperature, pH, salinity, redox potential and dissolved oxygen, total dissolved organic carbon, nitrates and sulphates), and the microbiological parameters (e.g. cultivable cells, total enzymatic activity and catabolic activity) were measured to establish the seasonal variations in the links between Hg and biogeochemical parameters through multivariate statistical analyses. The bioavailability of Hg from an unpolluted site was studied by comparing the ratios of fish and sediment. The results indicated that the seasons influenced the different biogeochemical factors, although for some factors, the variations were not significant. This influence was more pronounced in the dry season than in the rainy season. The impact of microbial activities and organic matter on Hg dynamics was observed in all seasons. However, other factors, such as pH, temperature, salinity, Eh and sulphates, influenced the dynamics of Hg only in the dry season.
ABSTRACT
Background and objective: There has been increasing recognition that obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is associated with incident type 2 diabetes. The aim of this study was to assess the ...association between the severity of OSA and the risk of type 2 diabetes by performing a meta‐analysis of all available prospective cohort studies.
Methods: A search was conducted of the PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL and ISI Web of Knowledge databases through March 2012 to identify studies linking OSA with the risk of diabetes. Only prospective cohort studies, in which the presence of OSA was confirmed by objective measurements, were included. Fixed and random effects models were used to calculate pooled relative risks (RR).
Results: This meta‐analysis of six prospective cohort studies including a total of 5953 participants, with follow‐up periods of 2.7–16 years, and 332 incident cases of type 2 diabetes, showed that moderate‐severe OSA was associated with a greater risk of diabetes (RR 1.63; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.09–2.45), as compared with the absence of OSA. Sensitivity analyses yielded similar results. For subjects with mild OSA, as compared with those without OSA, the pooled RR of developing type 2 diabetes was 1.22 (95% CI: 0.91–1.63).
Conclusions: This meta‐analysis indicates that moderate‐severe OSA is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, and this appears to be an independent risk factor for the development of diabetes.
A meta‐analysis of all eligible prospective cohort studies showed that moderate‐severe obstructive sleep apnoea was associated with a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
We present the first experimental evidence supported by simulations of kinetic effects launched in the interpenetration layer between the laser-driven hohlraum plasma bubbles and the corona plasma of ...the compressed pellet at the Shenguang-III prototype laser facility. Solid plastic capsules were coated with carbon-deuterium layers; as the implosion neutron yield is quenched, DD fusion yield from the corona plasma provides a direct measure of the kinetic effects inside the hohlraum. An anomalous large energy spread of the DD neutron signal (∼282 keV) and anomalous scaling of the neutron yield with the thickness of the carbon-deuterium layers cannot be explained by the hydrodynamic mechanisms. Instead, these results can be attributed to kinetic shocks that arise in the hohlraum-wall-ablator interpenetration region, which result in efficient acceleration of the deuterons (∼28.8 J, 0.45% of the total input laser energy). These studies provide novel insight into the interactions and dynamics of a vacuum hohlraum and near-vacuum hohlraum.
One of the most promising approaches to reach a high gain in inertial confinement fusion is the fast ignition scheme. In this scheme, a relativistic electron beam is generated; this passes through ...the imploded plasma and deposits parts of its energy in the core. However, the large angular spread of the relativistic electron beam and the poorly controlled compression of the target affect realization of the fast ignition technique. Here, we demonstrate that indirectly driven (that is, driven by X-rays generated inside a gold hohlraum) implosions with a ‘high-foot’ and a short-coast time of less than 200 ps allow us to tightly compress the shell. Furthermore, we show the ability to optimize the symmetry of the imploding shell by changing the hohlraum length, successfully tuning a suitable tube-shaped shell to compensate for the large angular spread of the relativistic electron beam and to enhance the electron-to-core coupling efficiency via resistive magnetic fields. Benefiting from those experimental techniques, a significant enhancement in neutron yield was achieved in our indirectly driven fast ignition experiments. These results pave the way towards high-coupling fast ignition experiments with indirectly driven targets similar to those at the National Ignition Facility.Experiments realizing the indirect-drive fast ignition scheme for inertial confinement fusion are reported. Enabled by a tightly compressed target, an increase of neutron yield is observed.
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