A numeric model to simulate solar individual ultraviolet exposure.

Exposure to solar ultraviolet (UV) light is the main causative factor for skin cancer. UV exposure depends on environmental and individual factors. Individual exposure data remain scarce and development of alternative assessment methods is greatly needed. We developed a model simulating human exposure to solar UV. The model predicts the dose and distribution of UV exposure received on the basis of ground irradiation and morphological data. Standard 3D computer graphics techniques were adapted to develop a rendering engine that estimates the solar exposure of a virtual manikin depicted as a triangle mesh surface. The amount of solar energy received by each triangle was calculated, taking into account reflected, direct and diffuse radiation, and shading from other body parts. Dosimetric measurements (n = 54) were conducted in field conditions using a foam manikin as surrogate for an exposed individual. Dosimetric results were compared to the model predictions. The model predicted exposure to solar UV adequately. The symmetric mean absolute percentage error was 13%. Half of the predictions were within 17% range of the measurements. This model provides a tool to assess outdoor occupational and recreational UV exposures, without necessitating time-consuming individual dosimetry, with numerous potential uses in skin cancer prevention and research

Facial exposure to ultraviolet radiation: predicted sun protection effectiveness of various hat styles

Solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) doses received by individuals are highly influenced by behavioural and environmental factors. This study aimed at quantifying hats' sun protection effectiveness in various exposure conditions, by predicting UVR exposure doses and their anatomical distributions. A well-defined 3-dimensional head morphology and 4 hat styles (a cap, a helmet, a middle- and a wide-brimmed hat) were added to a previously published model. Midday (12:00-14:00) and daily (08:00-17:00) seasonal UVR doses were estimated at various facial skin zones, with and without hat wear, accounting for each UVR component. Protection effectiveness was calculated by the relative reduction in predicted UVR dose, expressed as a predictive protection factor (PPF). The unprotected entire face received 2.5 times higher UVR doses during a summer midday compared to a winter midday (3.3 vs 1.3 standard erythema dose [SED]) with highest doses received at the nose (6.1 SED). During a cloudless summer day, the lowest mean UVR dose is received by the entire face protected by a wide-brimmed hat (1.7 SED). No hat reached 100% protection at any facial skin zone (PPF <sub>max</sub> : 76%). Hats' sun protection effectiveness varied highly with environmental conditions and was mainly limited by the high contribution of diffuse UVR, irrespective of hat style. Larger brim sizes afforded greater facial protection than smaller brim sizes except around midday when the sun position is high. Consideration of diffuse and reflected UVR in sun educational messages could improve sun protection effectiveness

Estimating the contribution of occupational solar ultraviolet exposure to skin cancer

BACKGROUND: Exposure to solar ultraviolet (UV) light is the main causative factor for skin cancer. Outdoor workers are at particular risk because they spend long working hours outside, may have little shade available and be bound to take their lunch at their workplace. Despite epidemiological evidence of a doubling in risk of squamous cell carcinoma in outdoor workers, the recognition of skin cancer as an occupational disease remains scarce. OBJECTIVE: To assess occupational solar UV doses and its contribution to skin cancer risk. METHODS: A numerical model (SimUVEx) was used to assess occupational and lunch break exposures, characterize exposure patterns and anatomical distribution. Risk of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) was estimated from an existing epidemiological model. RESULTS: Horizontal body locations received 2.0-2.5 times more UV than vertical locations. Dose associated to lunch outdoor every day was similar to outdoor work one day per week but only half of a seasonal worker. Outdoor workers are associated with an increased risk of SCC but also of frequent acute episodes. CONCLUSION: Occupational solar exposure contributes largely to the overall lifetime UV dose, resulting in an excess risk of SCC. The magnitude of the estimated excess in risk supports the recognition of SCC as an occupational disease

SimUVEx v2: A numeric model to predict anatomical solar ultraviolet exposure

Solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation has a dual effect on human health. Low UV doses promote the photosynthesis of vitamin D and regulate calcium and phosphorus metabolism, while an excessive UV exposure is the main cause of skin cancer, along with eye diseases and premature skin ageing. Nevertheless, the link between UV radiation levels and UV exposure is not fully understood since exposure data are limited and individual anatomical variations in UV doses are significant. For these reasons, a numeric simulation tool (SimUVEx) has been developed and validated in order to predict the dose and distribution of UV exposure received taking into account postural information and ambient irradiation data. SimUVEx is based on 3D graphics techniques usually used to render virtual environments to estimate the exposure of a 3D virtual manikin characterised as a triangular mesh surface. Each triangle receives a certain quantity of solar energy depending on the direct, diffuse and reflected radiation, the body surface orientation to the sun and the shadows from other parts of the body. The goals of the second version of SimUVEx are to move from individual-based to population-based (e.g., Switzerland and, eventually, Europe) exposure assessment, expanding temporal, spatial and morphological simulation capabilities. Outputs from SimUVEx version 2 will allow building exposure scenarios, identifying high-risk situations and producing reference dose ranges for typical outdoor occupational and leisure activities

Prediction of anatomical exposure to solar UV: a case study for the head using SimUVEx v2

Excessive exposure to solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation is the main cause of skin cancer. The dose-response between UV exposure and skin cancer occurrence is not yet fully understood since UV exposure is highly heterogeneous and strongly influenced by host and behavioural factors, such as posture, orientation to the sun, skin complexion and clothing. To address this issue, a three-dimensional (3D) numeric model (SimUVEx) has been developed to assess dose and distribution of anatomical UV exposure. The model uses 3D computer graphics techniques to compute UV radiance on the basis of postural information and ambient irradiation data, without necessitating time-consuming individual dosimetry, ensuring a wide potential use in skin cancer prevention and research. With the purpose to improve simulation capabilities in order to obtain more realistic scenarios and quantify effective sun protection strategies, a new version has been released, SimUVEX v2. Among new features, a specific morphology for the most sun-exposed body area, the head, has been added. We selected three different styles of hat (cap, wide-brimmed hat and helmet) to compare scenarios with and without solar protections considering the relative contribution of the direct, diffuse and reflected radiation. It was found that, sites directly covered apart (e.g., forehead and top of the head), hats with a wide brim are necessary in order to provide reasonable protections around facial zones on which non-melanoma skin cancers commonly occur, such as nose and cheeks

Solar irradiances measured using SPN1 radiometers: uncertainties and clues for development

International audienceThe fast development of solar radiation and energy applications, such as photovoltaic and solar thermodynamic systems, has increased the need for solar radiation measure-ment and monitoring, for not only the global but also the diffuse and direct components. End users look for the best compromise between getting close to state-of-the-art mea-surements and keeping low capital, maintenance and operat-ing costs. Among the existing commercial options, SPN1 is a relatively low cost solar radiometer that estimates global and diffuse solar irradiances from seven thermopile sensors under a shading mask and without moving parts. This work presents a comprehensive study of SPN1 accu-racy and sources of uncertainty, drawing on laboratory ex-periments, numerical modelling and comparison studies be-tween measurements from this sensor and state-of-the art in-struments for six diverse sites. Several clues are provided for improving the SPN1 accuracy and agreement with state-of-the art measurements

SimUVEx v2 : a numeric tool to predict anatomical solar ultraviolet exposure

Solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation has a dual effect on human health: low UV doses promote the photosynthesis of vitamin D and regulate calcium and phosphorus metabolism, while an excessive UV exposure is the main cause of skin cancer, along with eye diseases and premature skin ageing. The link between UV radiation levels and UV exposure is not fully understood since exposure data are limited and individual anatomical variations in UV doses are significant. SimUVEx is a numeric simulation tool that uses 3D graphic techniques to estimate the dose and distribution of anatomical UV exposure received on the basis of ground irradiation and morphological data. The second version (SimUVEx v2) intend to move from individual-based to population-based exposure assessments expanding temporal, spatial and morphological simulation capabilities and improving the meteorological model to provide UV irradiance data for the whole of Switzerland (eventually the whole of Europe)

Effects of the prewhitening method, the time granularity and the time segmentation on the Mann-Kendall trend detection and the associated Sen's slope

The most widely used non-parametric method for trend analysis is the Mann-Kendall test associated with the Sen's slope. The Mann-Kendall test requires serially uncorrelated time series, whereas most of the atmospheric processes exhibit positive autocorrelation. Several prewhitening methods have been designed to overcome the presence of lag-1 autocorrelation. These include a prewhitening, a detrending and/or a correction for the detrended slope and the original variance of the time series. The choice of which prewhitening method and temporal segmentation to apply has consequences for the statistical significance, the value of the slope and of the confidence limits. Here, the effects of various prewhitening methods are analyzed for seven time series comprising in-situ aerosol measurements (scattering coefficient, absorption coefficient, number concentration and aerosol optical depth), Raman Lidar water vapor mixing ratio and the tropopause and zero degree levels measured by radio-sounding. These time series are characterized by a broad variety of distributions, ranges and lag-1 autocorrelation values and vary in length between 10 and 60 years. A common way to work around the autocorrelation problem is to decrease it by averaging the data over longer time intervals than in the original time series. Thus, the second focus of this study is evaluation of the effect of time granularity on long-term trend analysis. Finally, a new algorithm involving three prewhitening methods is proposed in order to maximize the power of the test, to minimize the amount of erroneous detected trends in the absence of a real trend and to ensure the best slope estimate for the considered length of the time series

CYP2E1 genotype and isoniazid-induced hepatotoxicity in patients treated for latent tuberculosis

Objective: To determine whether pharmacogenetic tests such as N-acetyltransferase 2 (NAT2) and cytochrome P4502E1 (CYP2E1) genotyping are useful in identifying patients prone to antituberculosis drug-induced hepatotoxicity in a cosmopolite population. Methods: In a prospective study we genotyped 89 patients treated with isoniazid (INH) for latent tuberculosis. INH-induced hepatitis (INH-H) or elevated liver enzymes including hepatitis (INH-ELE) was diagnosed based on the clinical diagnostic scale (CDS) designed for routine clinical practice. NAT2 genotypes were assessed by fluorescence resonance energy transfer probe after PCR analysis, and CYP2E1 genotypes were determined by PCR with restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. Results: Twenty-six patients (29%) had INH-ELE, while eight (9%) presented with INH-H leading to INH treatment interruption. We report no significant influence of NAT2 polymorphism, but we did find a significant association between the CYP2E1 *1A/*1A genotype and INH-ELE (OR: 3.4; 95% CI:1.1-12; p=0.02) and a non significant trend for INH-H (OR: 5.9; 95% CI: 0.69-270; p=0.13) compared with other CYP2E1 genotypes. This test for predicting INH-ELE had a positive predictive value (PPV) of 39% (95% CI: 26-54%) and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 84% (95% CI: 69-94%). Conclusion: The genotyping of CYP2E1 polymorphisms may be a useful predictive tool in the common setting of a highly heterogeneous population for predicting isoniazid-induced hepatic toxicity. Larger prospective randomized trials are needed to confirm these result

Temporal dynamics of amygdala response to emotion- and action-relevance

It has been proposed that the human amygdala may not only encode the emotional value of sensory events, but more generally mediate the appraisal of their relevance for the individual's goals, including relevance for action or task-based needs. However, emotional and non-emotional/action-relevance might drive amygdala activity through distinct neural signals, and the relative timing of both kinds of responses remains undetermined. Here, we recorded intracranial event-related potentials (iERPs) from nine amygdalae of patients undergoing epilepsy surgery, while they performed variants of a Go/NoGo task with faces and abstract shapes, where emotion- and action-relevance were orthogonally manipulated. Our results revealed early amygdala responses to emotion facial expressions starting ~130ms after stimulus-onset. Importantly, the amygdala responded to action-relevance not only with face stimuli but also with abstract shapes (squares), and these relevance effects consistently occurred in later time-windows (starting ~220ms) for both faces and squares. A similar dissociation was observed in gamma activity. Furthermore, whereas emotional responses habituated over time, the action-relevance effect increased during the course of the experiment, suggesting progressive learning based on the task needs. Our results support the hypothesis that the human amygdala mediates a broader relevance appraisal function, with the processing of emotion-relevance preceding temporally that of action-relevance