Estimation of Agricultural Groundwater Usage by Well Pumping Efficiency and Electric Consumption

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive

Trends in epidemiology of hyperglycemia in pregnancy in Taiwan, 2008-2017

BackgroundHyperglycemia in pregnancy (HIP) increases the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. The increasing prevalence of overweight or obesity and the increasing proportion of pregnant women with advanced maternal age (AMA) in the recent decade may affect its prevalence. We analyzed the secular trend of HIP prevalence in 2008-2017 in Taiwan and investigated the impact of AMA in this study.MethodsThis cross-sectional study used data from Health and Welfare Data Science Center. Pregnant women who registered their data in the Birth Certificate Application in 2008-2017 were recruited. Diagnosis of HIP was defined by ICD-9-CM and ICD-10-CM codes.ResultsIn 2008-2017, 151,306-211,768 pregnant women were recruited in different years. The proportion of women with AMA increased from 15.8% to 32.1%. Meanwhile, the prevalence increased from 0.5% to 0.9% for preexisting diabetes, 0.2% to 0.4% for undiagnosed diabetes, and 11.4% to 14.5% for GDM. Maternal age was significantly associated with the prevalence of HIP. For women aged <30 years, 30-34 years and ≥35 years, the prevalence of preexisting diabetes were 0.51%, 0.75% and 1.24%, respectively (p<0.05); the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes were 0.18%, 0.24% and 0.37%, respectively (p<0.05); and the prevalence of GDM were 10.57%, 14.77% and 18.13%, respectively (p<0.05). In all age groups, the prevalence of HIP increased over time in 2008-2017.ConclusionThe prevalence of HIP increased in Taiwan in 2008-2017, which may result from the increasing proportion of pregnant women with AMA and the change in the diagnostic criteria for GDM

Multi-Segment Foam Flow Field in Ambient Pressure Polymer Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

In order to produce low-cost flow field plates for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, we used nickel foam in this study rather than conventional flow field. Nickel foam has high electron conductivity, thermal conductivity, and mechanical strength. Electrochemical impedance spectrum analysis is carried out to evidence the use on flow field plates of nickel foam. From the impedance fitting results, the nickel foam cases showed the lower contact resistance than the serpentine. However, such plates have poor performance at low temperatures and ambient pressure. In order to overcome this, a multi-segment foam flow field is designed in this study. This increased the performance of the polarization curve by 70% from 162 to 275.5 mw cm-2 than the original nickel foam design. Also, the mass transfer resistance was reduced, and the Warburg impedance value of the operation voltage decreased by 0.4 V. The numerical analysis results demonstrate that increased segment numbers can increase the performance of the multi-segment foam flow field

Bevacizumab Dose Affects the Severity of Adverse Events in Gynecologic Malignancies

In this retrospective study, we investigated adverse events and outcomes in patients treated with bevacizumab for ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancers at a single hospital. We determined the cumulative incidences of various bevacizumab-related adverse events and the correlation between dose and adverse event incidences. We analyzed data from 154 patients that received 251 rounds of bevacizumab as first-line, first salvage, >2 salvage treatments. Adverse events of any grade were observed in 121 (78.6%) patients; at least one grade 3 or 4 adverse event occurred in 32 (20.8%) patients. The two most common events were proteinuria (38.3%) and hypertension (33.8%). The first-line treatment group displayed significantly higher frequencies of hypertension (52.7% vs. 18.9% vs. 15.5%, p < 0.001), wound complications (9.1% vs. 0% vs. 1.2%, p = 0.010), arthralgia (29.1% vs. 11.3% vs. 8.3%, p = 0.003), and reduced range of joint motion (14.5% vs. 5.7% vs. 3.6%, p = 0.046), compared to those in the first and >2 lines salvage groups, respectively (Kruskal–Wallis test). The cumulative incidences of all grades and grades 3/4 of hypertension cumulative incidence plateaued at around 30% for all grades and 10% for grades 3 and 4, at bevacizumab doses above 8080 and 3510 mg, respectively. The proteinuria cumulative incidence plateaued at around 35% for all grades and 3% for grades 3 and 4, at bevacizumab doses above 11,190 and 4530 mg, respectively. We concluded that, in this realistic clinical population, different kinds and higher cumulative incidences of adverse events were observed compared to those reported in previous clinical trials. Moreover, bevacizumab doses showed cumulative toxicity and plateau effects on hypertension and proteinuria

International Gynaecological Cancer Society (IGCS) 2020 Annual Global Meeting: Twitter activity analysis

Objectives Twitter is the most frequently used social media platform by healthcare practitioners, at medical conferences. This study aimed to analyze Twitter conversations during the virtual International Gynecological Cancer Society 2020 conference to understand the interactions between Twitter users related to the conference. Methods Tweets using the hashtag ‘#IGCS2020’ were searched using the Twitter Search Application Programming Interface (API) during the period 10–13 September 2020. NodeXL Pro was used to retrieve data. The Clauset-Newman-Moore cluster algorithm clustered users into different groups or ‘clusters’ based on how users interacted. Results There were 2009 registrants for the virtual IGCS 2020 conference. The total number of users within the network was 168, and there were 880 edges connecting users. Five types of edges were identified as follows: ‘replies to’ (n=18), ‘mentions’ (n=221), ‘mentions in retweets’ (n=375), retweets (n=198), and tweets (n=68). The most influential account was that of the IGCS account itself (@IGCSociety). The overall network shape resembled a community where distinct groups formed within the network. Our current analyses demonstrated that less than 10% of the total members interacted on Twitter. Conclusion This study identified the most influential Twitter users within the ‘#IGCS2020’ community. he results also confirmed the community network shape of the #IGCS2020 hashtag and found that the most frequent co-related words were ‘ovarian’ and ‘cancer’ (n=39)

Application of social vulnerability indicators to climate change for the southwest coastal areas of Taiwan

The impact of climate change on the coastal zones of Taiwan not only affects the marine environment, ecology, and human communities whose economies rely heavily on marine activities, but also the sustainable development of national economics. The southwest coast is known as the area most vulnerable to climate change; therefore, this study aims to develop indicators to assess social vulnerability in this area of Taiwan using the three dimensions of susceptibility, resistance, and resilience. The modified Delphi method was used to develop nine criteria and 26 indexes in the evaluation, and the analytic hierarchy process method was employed to evaluate the weight of each indicator based on the perspectives of experts collected through questionnaire surveys. The results provide important information pertaining to the vulnerability of the most susceptive regions, the lowest-resistance areas, and the least resilient townships on the southwest coast. The most socially vulnerable areas are plotted based on the present analysis. Experts can consider the vulnerability map provided here when developing adaptation policies. It should be kept in mind that improving the capacities of resistance and resilience is more important than reducing susceptibility in Taiwan

Hungry bone syndrome in peritoneal dialysis patients after parathyroid surgery

Secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT) is a common complication of end-stage kidney disease (ESKD). Hungry bone syndrome (HBS) occurs frequently in patients on maintenance dialysis receiving parathyroidectomy for refractory SHPT. However, there is scanty study investigating the clinical risk factors that predict postoperative HBS, and its outcome in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. We conducted a single-center retrospective study to analyze 66 PD patients who had undergone parathyroidectomy for secondary hyperparathyroidism at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital between 2009 and 2019. The patients were stratified into two groups based on the presence ( n=47) or absence (n=19) of HBS after parathyroidectomy. Subtotal parathyroidectomy was the most common surgery performed (74.2%), followed by total parathyroidectomy with autoimplantation (25.8%). Pathological examination of all surgical specimens revealed parathyroid hyperplasia (100%). Patients with HBS had lower levels of postoperative nadir corrected calcium, higher alkaline phosphate (ALP), and higher potassium levels compared with patients without HBS (all P<0.05). A multivariate logistic regression model confirmed that lower preoperative serum calcium level (OR 0.354, 95% CI 0.133–0.940, P=0.037), higher ALP (OR 1.026, 95% CI 1.008–1.044, P=0.004), and higher potassium level (OR 6.894, 95% CI 1.806–26.317, P=0.005) were associated with HBS after parathyroidectomy. Patients were followed for 58.2±30.8 months after the surgery. There was no significant difference between HBS and non-HBS groups in persistence (P=0.496) or recurrence (P=1.000) of hyperparathyroidism. The overall mortality rate was 10.6% with no significant difference found between both groups (P=0.099). We concluded that HBS is a common complication (71.2%) of parathyroidectomy for SHPT and should be managed appropriately