Back to the basics of polar expeditions: personality hardiness, fear, and nutrition in polar environments

The present paper aims at presenting an overview of findings relating personality hardiness to adaptation to polar environments. Several studies from the Operational Psychology Research group at the University of Bergen have depicted individual characteristics of high hardy subjects involved in stressful activities in polar environments. These high hardy subjects have superior coping skills, are less influenced by environmental stress, show increased motivation during endurance activities, and have a more adaptive biological stress response. It could be assumed that explorers undertaking solo expeditions in polar environments would represent extremely hardy people. Thus, in addition to previously reported studies on hardiness in polar environment, the results from two previously published papers are presented and re-interpreted. The studies provided a rare opportunity to separate the effects of extreme physiological and emotional strain (mainly fear) and present the trajectory of relevant biomarkers of fear, stress, appetite, and nutritional status during a 90-day expedition across Antarctica. The studies expanded on previous knowledge by showing extreme variations in biomarkers during the expedition and suggested that extreme fear has the highest impact on indicators of stress, stress regulation, appetite, and nutritional status. This, together with the recovery effects found on nutrition status after a daily energy uptake of 5–6000 kcal, expands on previous knowledge about adaptation in polar environments.publishedVersio

High-resolution polar low winds obtained from unsupervised sar wind retrieval

High-resolution sea surface observations by spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instruments are sorely neglected resources for meteorological applications in polar regions. Such radar observations provide information about wind speed and direction based on wind-induced roughness of the sea surface. The increasing coverage of SAR observations in polar regions calls for the development of SAR-specific applications that make use of the full information content of this valuable resource. Here we provide examples of the potential of SAR observations to provide details of the complex, mesoscale wind structure during polar low events, and examine the performance of two current wind retrieval methods. Furthermore, we suggest a new approach towards accurate wind vector retrieval of complex wind fields from SAR observations that does not require a priori wind direction input that the most common retrieval methods are dependent on. This approach has the potential to be particularly beneficial for numerical forecasting of weather systems with strong wind gradients, such as polar lows

The influence of an intermediate care hospital on health care utilization among elderly patients - a retrospective comparative cohort study

Background: An intermediate care hospital (ICH) was established in a municipality in Central Norway in 2007 to improve the coordination of services and follow-up among elderly and chronically ill patients after hospital discharge. The aim of this study was to compare health care utilization by elderly patients in a municipality with an ICH to that of elderly patients in a municipality without an ICH. Methods: This study was a retrospective comparative cohort study of all hospitalized patients aged 60 years or older in two municipalities. The data were collected from the national register of hospital use from 2005 to 2012, and from the local general hospital and two primary health care service providers from 2008 to 2012 (approx. 1,250 patients per follow-up year). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Results: The length of hospital stay decreased from the time the ICH was introduced and remained between 10% and 22% lower than the length of hospital stay in the comparative municipality for the next five years. No differences in the number of readmissions or admissions during one year follow-up after the index stay at the local general hospital or changes in primary health care utilization were observed. In the year after hospital discharge, the municipality with an ICH offered more hour-based care to elderly patients living at home (estimated mean = 234 [95% CI 215-252] versus 175 [95% CI 154-196] hours per person and year), while the comparative municipality had a higher utilization of long-term stays in nursing homes (estimated mean = 33.3 [95% CI 29.0-37.7] versus 21.9 [95% CI 18.0-25.7] days per person and year). Conclusions: This study indicates that the introduction of an ICH rapidly reduces the length of hospital stay without exposing patients to an increased health risk. The ICH appears to operate as an extension of the general hospital, with only a minor impact on the pattern of primary health care utilization

Capillary based Li-air batteries for <i>in situ</i> synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction studies

A novel design for in situ X-ray diffraction Li–O2 battery reveals the crystallographic details for the precipitation and decomposition of Li2O2 for the 1st and 2nd cycles of the battery.</p

Sexual Dysfunction and Hyperprolactinemia in Male Psychotic Inpatients: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction. Sexual dysfunction (SD) and hyperprolactinemia are frequently reported in patients with psychotic disorders and have the potential for severe complications but investigations in males are particularly scarce. The primary aims were to determine the prevalence of SD and hyperprolactinemia in male patients and to investigate whether associations exist between SD and prolactin levels. Methods. Cross-sectional data were obtained at discharge from the hospital or 6 weeks after admittance for patients acutely admitted for psychosis and treated with a second-generation antipsychotic drug. Results. Half the patients reported diminished sexual desire and more than a third reported erectile and ejaculatory dysfunctions with no differences among the drugs. More than half the sample was hyperprolactinemic. No association was found between prolactin levels and SD. Conclusion. High rates of SD and hyperprolactinemia were found in male patients and should be a treatment target. SD and hyperprolactinemia were not correlated

Partial oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde in an annular reactor

A structured reactor with annular configuration was applied for studying methanol oxidation to formaldehyde over silver. By eliminating gas phase reactions, high formaldehyde selectivity (93–97%) was obtained at low methanol and oxygen conversion under practically isothermal reaction conditions. CH2O and CO2 were the only carbon containing products, and both may be claimed as primary products along with H2. It also proves that CO is formed by homogenous decomposition of CH2O and should not be considered a main precursor to CO2, as assumed in several reaction mechanisms. The analysis of H2/CO2 ratio as a function of temperature provides an estimate of contributions from dehydrogenation and partial oxidation of methanol, and clearly suggests presence of a dehydrogenation pathway to CH2O. Extracting kinetic parameters is challenging due to a correlation between activity, oxygen dissolution, and silver restructuring and morphology and its dependence on temperature. Nevertheless, the data indicate 1st order with respect to oxygen. Conditioning by reaction at high temperature followed by a temperature ramp was performed to minimize the impact of a gradually changing Ag catalyst. The resulting Arrhenius analysis implies two distinct regions of activity. The apparent activation energy was estimated to 41 kJ/mol for the high temperature region, a value close to the activation energy for oxygen diffusion in silver at high temperature. The investigation demonstrates benefits of using an annular reactor configuration in bridging lab scale investigations with industrial conditions. Collecting reaction data at low oxygen conversion is enabled, which has not been achievable in conventional lab scale reactors this far.publishedVersio