Offshore telementored ultrasound: a quality assessment study

Background Telementored ultrasound (US) connects experts to novices through various types of communication and network technologies with the overall aim to bridge the medical imaging gap between patients’ diagnostic needs and on-site user experience. The recurrent theme in previous research on remote telementored US is the limited access to US machines and experienced users. This study was conducted to determine whether telementored US was feasible in a remote offshore setting. The aim was to assess if an onshore US expert can guide an offshore nurse through focused US scanning protocols by connecting an US machine to existing videoconference units at the offshore hospitals and to evaluate the diagnostic quality of the images and cineloops procured. Results The diagnostic quality of cineloops was scored on a five-point scale. The percentage of cineloops suitable for interpretation (score 3 ≥) for the FATE and e-FAST protocols was 96.4 and 79.1. Lung sliding and seashore sign could be identified in all volunteers. The scan time for the FAST protocol (n = four scanning positions), FATE protocol (n = six scanning positions) and both lungs (n = two scanning positions) was 1 min 20 s, 4 min 15 s and 32 s, respectively. Conclusion A novice US user can be guided by a remote expert through focused US protocols within an acceptable time frame and with good diagnostic quality using existing communication and network systems found onboard offshore oil rigs.publishedVersio

TESS Hunt for Young and Maturing Exoplanets (THYME) VII : Membership, rotation, and lithium in the young cluster Group-X and a new young exoplanet

The public, all-sky surveys Gaia and TESS provide the ability to identify new young associations and determine their ages. These associations enable study of planetary evolution by providing new opportunities to discover young exoplanets. A young association was recently identified by Tang et al. and F{\"u}rnkranz et al. using astrometry from Gaia (called "Group-X" by the former). In this work, we investigate the age and membership of this association; and we validate the exoplanet TOI 2048 b, which was identified to transit a young, late G dwarf in Group-X using photometry from TESS. We first identified new candidate members of Group-X using Gaia EDR3 data. To infer the age of the association, we measured rotation periods for candidate members using TESS data. The clear color--period sequence indicates that the association is the same age as the $300\pm50$ Myr-old NGC 3532. We obtained optical spectra for candidate members that show lithium absorption consistent with this young age. Further, we serendipitously identify a new, small association nearby Group-X, which we call MELANGE-2. Lastly, we statistically validate TOI 2048 b, which is $2.6\pm0.2$ \rearth\ radius planet on a 13.8-day orbit around its 300 Myr-old host star.Comment: Revised to correct error in reported planet radius (original: 2.1 Earth radii, corrected: 2.6 Earth radii) and units for planetary radius ratio entries in Table 8. All data tables available open-access with the AJ articl

Trade with Endogenous Transportation Costs: The Value of LNG Exports

This paper investigates the economic value of trade when prices of transportation services are endogenous to cross-market price spreads. This is relevant for liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. LNG transportation capacity is limited in the short-run, and long lead-times are involved in extending the transportation infrastructure. We establish empirically that LNG transportation costs have been endogenous to regional gas prices spreads. As such, transportation service providers have been able to capture part of the price spread. We proceed to develop a method to value LNG exports under conditions of endogenous transportation costs and market integration. We use this method to quantify the effect of endogenous transportation costs on the value of LNG exports from the US to Japan. Our analysis shows that when transportation costs are correctly treated as endogenous, the LNG export benefit can drop by as much as 20-50% relative to the case of exogenous cost

Modeling UK Natural Gas Prices When Gas Prices Periodically Decouple from the Oil Price

When natural gas prices are subject to periodic decoupling from oil prices, for instance due to peak-load pricing, conventional linear models of price dynamics such as the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) can lead to erroneous inferences about cointegration relationships, price adjustments and relative values. We propose the use of regime-switching models to address these issues. Our regime switching model uses price data to infer whether pricing is oil-driven (integrated) or gas-specific (decoupled). We find that UK natural gas (ICE) and oil (Brent) are cointegrated for the majority of the sample considered (1997-2014). Gas prices tend to decouple during fall and early winter, when they increase relative to oil consistent with heating demand for natural gas creating gas-specific pricing. Using the model to infer relative values when evidence favors integrated markets, we find that the industry 10-1 rule-of-thumb holds, meaning that the value of one barrel of oil is 10 times the value of one MMbtu of natural gas

Exploring the past, anticipating the future: a symposium

Anticipating the future is both a social obligation and intellectual challenge that no scientific discipline can escape. The field of international studies is no exception to this, and we believe that few other disciplines reflect so deeply about their own capacity to provide accurate forecasts and to deliver useful early warning schemes