The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic necessitated rapid changes in medical practice. Many of these changes may add value to care, creating opportunities going forward.
To provide an ...evidence-informed, expert-derived review of genitourinary cancer care moving forward following the initial COVID-19 pandemic.
A collaborative narrative review was conducted using literature published through May 2020 (PubMed), which comprised three main topics: reduced in-person interactions arguing for increasing virtual and image-based care, optimisation of the delivery of care, and the effect of COVID-19 in health care facilities on decision-making by patients and their families.
Patterns of care will evolve following the COVID-19 pandemic. Telemedicine, virtual care, and telemonitoring will increase and could offer broader access to multidisciplinary expertise without increasing costs. Comprehensive and integrative telehealth solutions will be necessary, and should consider patients’ mental health and access differences due to socioeconomic status. Investigations and treatments will need to maximise efficiency and minimise health care interactions. Solutions such as one stop clinics, day case surgery, hypofractionated radiotherapy, and oral or less frequent drug dosing will be preferred. The pandemic necessitated a triage of those patients whose treatment should be expedited, delayed, or avoided, and may persist with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in circulation. Patients whose demographic characteristics are at the highest risk of complications from COVID-19 may re-evaluate the benefit of intervention for less aggressive cancers. Clinical research will need to accommodate virtual care and trial participation. Research dissemination and medical education will increasingly utilise virtual platforms, limiting in-person professional engagement; ensure data dissemination; and aim to enhance patient engagement.
The COVID-19 pandemic will have lasting effects on the delivery of health care. These changes offer opportunities to improve access, delivery, and the value of care for patients with genitourinary cancers but raise concerns that physicians and health administrators must consider in order to ensure equitable access to care.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically changed the care provided to many patients with genitourinary cancers. This has necessitated a transition to telemedicine, changes in threshold or delays in many treatments, and an opportunity to reimagine patient care to maintain safety and improve value moving forward.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically changed the care provided to many patients with genitourinary cancers. This has necessitated a transition to telemedicine, changes in threshold, or delays in many treatments, and an opportunity to reimagine patient care to maintain safety and improve value moving forward.
Gaia DR3 publishes a catalogue of full-sky RR Lyrae stars (RRLs) observed during the initial 34 months of science operations, that were processed through the Specific Object Study (SOS) pipeline for ...Cepheids and RRLs (SOS Cep&RRL) observed by Gaia. The SOS Cep&RRL validation of DR3 candidate RRLs relies on tools that include the Period (P) G-amplitude diagram and the P-phi21 and -phi31 parameters of the G light curve Fourier decomposition, based on a sample of bona fide known RRLs (Gold Sample). The SOS processing led to a catalogue of 271779 RRLs listed in the vari_rrlyrae table of DR3. By dropping sources that clearly are contaminants, or have an uncertain classification we produce the final catalogue of SOS-confirmed DR3 RRLs containing 270905 sources (174947 fundamental mode, 93952 first overtone and 2006 double-mode RRLs) confirmed and fully characterised by the SOS Cep&RRL pipeline. They are distributed all over the sky, including 95 globular clusters and 25 Milky Way companions. RVS time series radial velocities are also published for 1096 RRLs and 799 Cepheids. Of the 270905 DR3 RRLs, 200294 are already known in the literature and 70611 are, to the best of our knowledge, new discoveries by Gaia. An estimate of the interstellar absorption is published for 142660 fundamental-mode RRLs from a relation based on the G-band amplitude and the pulsation period. Metallicities derived from the Periods and the phi31 Fourier parameters of the G-light curves are also released for 133559 RRLs. The final Gaia DR3 catalogue of confirmed RRLs almost doubles the DR2 RRLs catalogue. An increase of statistical significance, a better characterization of the RRLs pulsational and astrophysical parameters, and the improved astrometry published with Gaia EDR3, make the SOS Cep&RRL DR3 sample, the largest, most homogeneous and parameter-rich catalogue of All-Sky RRLs published so far.
Context. VX Sgr is a cool, evolved, and luminous red star whose stellar parameters are difficult to determine, which affects its classification.
Aims. We aim to spatially resolve the photospheric ...extent as well as the circumstellar environment.
Methods. We used interferometric observations obtained with the MATISSE instrument in the L (3-4 mu m), M (4.5-5 mu m), and N (8-13 mu m) bands. We reconstructed monochromatic images using the MIRA software. We used 3D radiation-hydrodynamics simulations carried out with (COBOLD)-B-5 and a uniform disc model to estimate the apparent diameter and interpret the stellar surface structures. Moreover, we employed the radiative transfer codes OPTIM3D and RADMC3D to compute the spectral energy distribution for the L, M, and N bands, respectively.
Results. MATISSE observations unveil, for the first time, the morphology of VX Sgr across the L, M, and N bands. The reconstructed images show a complex morphology with brighter areas whose characteristics depend on the wavelength probed. We measured the angular diameter as a function of the wavelength and showed that the photospheric extent in the L and M bands depends on the opacity through the atmosphere. In addition to this, we also concluded that the observed photospheric inhomogeneities can be interpreted as convection-related surface structures. The comparison in the N band yielded a qualitative agreement between the N-band spectrum and simple dust radiative transfer simulations. However, it is not possible to firmly conclude on the interpretation of the current data because of the difficulty in constraing the model parameters using the limited accuracy of our absolute flux calibration.
Conclusions. MATISSE observations and the derived reconstructed images unveil the appearance of VX Sgr's stellar surface and circumstellar environment across a very large spectral domain for the first time.
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