In early 2020, the spread of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) led the World Health Organization to declare this disease a pandemic. Initial epidemiological data showed that patients with cancer ...were at high risk of developing severe forms of COVID-19. National scientific societies published recommendations modifying the patients' breast cancer (BC) management to preserve, in theory, quality oncologic care, avoiding the increased risk of contamination. The Senology International Society (SIS) decided to take an inventory of the actions taken worldwide. This study investigates COVID-19-related changes concerning BC management and analyzes the will to maintain them after the pandemic, evaluating their oncological safety consequences.
SIS network members participated in an online survey using a questionnaire (Microsoft
Forms) from June 15
to July 31
, 2020.
Forty-five responses from 24 countries showed that screening programs had been suspended (68%); magnetic resonance imagines were postponed (73%); telemedicine was preferred when possible (71%). Surgeries were postponed: reconstructive (77%), for benign diseases (84%), and in patients with significant comorbidities (66%). Chemotherapy and radiotherapy protocols had been adapted in 28% of patients in both. Exception for telemedicine (34%), these changes in practice should not be continued.
The SIS survey showed significant changes in BC's diagnosis and treatment during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, but most of these changes should not be maintained. Indeed, women have fewer severe forms of COVID-19 and are less likely to die than men. The risk of dying from COVID-19 is more related to the presence of comorbidities and age than to BC. Stopping screening and delaying treatment leads to more advanced stages of BC. Only women aged over 65 with BC under treatment and comorbidities require adaptation of their cancer management.
The Neva Bay is a body of water located between the delta of the Neva River and Kotlin Island. The goal of the study was to develop a method for numerical modeling of the shallow water equation in ...the Neva Bay, based on the finite element method. To achieve this goal, we solved a number of tasks. First, we selected characteristic periods in the history of the Neva Bay and formed numerical modeling options while determining boundary conditions. Secondly, we determined the geometric characteristics of the computational domain for modeling options and formed a finite element mesh for each of the options. Then, we found a numerical solution of hydrodynamic problems in terms of determining values of current velocity vectors. Finally, we conducted a comparative analysis of the results of solving the hydrodynamic problem of the structure of currents in the Neva Bay in different periods of history. The changes in the velocity field occurred because of the construction of the fairway and the dams for the Complex of flood protection structures (CFPS) in St. Petersburg. Today there is practically no water flow south of the Sea Canal. Water exchange between the Neva Bay and the Gulf of Finland is carried out due to culvert structures in the northern part of the CFPS and navigation facilities. The average flow of the Neva River during the calculation period did not change and was about 2500 m3/s (depends on the water level in Lake Ladoga); an increase in speeds occurs north of the Sea Canal.
Objectives
The development of compact diagnostic probes and instruments with an ability to direct access to organs and tissues and integration of these instruments into surgical workflows is an ...important task of modern physics and medicine. The need for such tools is essential for surgical oncology, where intraoperative visualization and demarcation of tumor margins define further prognosis and survival of patients. In this paper, the possible solution for this intraoperative imaging problem is proposed and its feasibility to detect tumorous tissue is studied experimentally.
Methods
For this aim, the sapphire scalpel was developed and fabricated using the edge‐defined film‐fed growth technique aided by mechanical grinding, polishing, and chemical sharpening of the cutting edge. It possesses optical transparency, mechanical strength, chemical inertness, and thermal resistance alongside the presence of the as‐grown hollow capillary channels in its volume for accommodating optical fibers. The rounding of the cutting edge exceeds the same for metal scalpels and can be as small as 110 nm. Thanks to these features, sapphire scalpel combines tissue dissection with light delivering and optical diagnosis. The feasibility for the tumor margin detection was studied, including both gelatin‐based tissue phantoms and ex vivo freshly excised specimens of the basal cell carcinoma from humans and the glioma model 101.8 from rats. These tumors are commonly diagnosed either non‐invasively or intraoperatively using different modalities of fluorescence spectroscopy and imaging, which makes them ideal candidates for our feasibility test. For this purpose, fiber‐based spectroscopic measurements of the backscattered laser radiation and the fluorescence signals were carried out in the visible range.
Results
Experimental studies show the feasibility of the proposed sapphire scalpel to provide a 2‐mm‐resolution of the tumor margins' detection, along with an ability to distinguish the tumor invasion region, which results from analysis of the backscattered optical fields and the endogenous or exogenous fluorescence data.
Conclusions
Our findings justified a strong potential of the sapphire scalpel for surgical oncology. However, further research and engineering efforts are required to optimize the sapphire scalpel geometry and the optical diagnosis protocols to meet the requirements of oncosurgery, including diagnosis and resection of neoplasms with different localizations and nosologies.
K-EUSO (KLYPVE-EUSO) is a planned orbital mission aimed at studying ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) by detecting fluorescence and Cherenkov light emitted by extensive air showers in the ...nocturnal atmosphere of Earth in the ultraviolet (UV) range. The observatory is being developed within the JEM-EUSO collaboration and is planned to be deployed on the International Space Station after 2025 and operated for at least two years. The telescope, consisting of ∼105 independent pixels, will allow a spatial resolution of ∼0.6 km on the ground, and, from a 400 km altitude, it will achieve a large and full sky exposure to sample the highest energy range of the UHECR spectrum. We provide a comprehensive review of the current status of the development of the K-EUSO experiment, paying special attention to its hardware parts and expected performance. We demonstrate how results of the K-EUSO mission can complement the achievements of the existing ground-based experiments and push forward the intriguing studies of ultra-high energy cosmic rays, as well as bring new knowledge about other phenomena manifesting themselves in the atmosphere in the UV range.
The orbital detector TUS (Tracking Ultraviolet Setup) with high sensitivity in near-visible ultraviolet (tens of photons per time sample of 0.8 μ s of wavelengths 300–400 nm from a detector’s pixel ...field of view) and the microsecond-scale temporal resolution was developed by the Lomonosov-UHECR/TLE collaboration and launched into orbit on 28 April 2016. A variety of different phenomena were studied by measuring ultraviolet signals from the atmosphere: extensive air showers from ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, lightning discharges, transient atmospheric events, aurora ovals, and meteors. These events are different in their origin and in their duration and luminosity. The TUS detector had a capability to conduct measurements with different temporal resolutions (0.8 μ s, 25.6 μ s, 0.4 ms, and 6.6 ms) but the same spatial resolution of 5 km. Results of the TUS detector measurements of various atmospheric emissions are discussed and compared to data from previous experiments.
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