scholarly journals Estimation of uv Exposure in Croatia Over The Summer Using A Simple Approximate Formula

2007 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 387-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordana Pehnec ◽  
Nenad Kezele ◽  
Glenda Šorgo

Estimation of uv Exposure in Croatia Over The Summer Using A Simple Approximate FormulaThe Tropospheric Ultraviolet-Visible (TUV) model, version 4.2 developed by Madronich (2003) was used to estimate the extent of ultraviolet (UV) exposure of general population in Croatia over the summer. Solar noon values (13 h local time, CEST) of the ultraviolet index (UVI) for the period April to October 2004 were calculated for 61 cities in Croatia. The results showed that the risk of sunburn at 13 h local time in clear weather was high between April and September (UVI > 7) and very high in July (UVI > 10). In July, the UVI exceeded 8 between 11 h and 15 h local time. In this study, we developed a simple approximate formula to estimate UVI. The formula includes data on the time, date, altitude and clouds. The difference between our estimate and the TUV model for the summer months of June, July and August at 10 h to 16 h local time was less than 10 %.

MAUSAM ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-532
Author(s):  
OMAR SULIEMAN MODAWAI ◽  
ALI HAMID AL- MULLA ◽  
P. GOVINDA RAO

An observational campaign was conducted at Doha International Airport, Arabian Gulf to find out difference between air temperature in a standard screen and direct sunlight. Hourly observations recorded during July-August 1998 and June-August 1999 formed the basis of the study. Difference between screen temperature (ST) and outside temperature (OT) in respect of all hourly data in the above period from 0600 to 1800 hrs of local time have been computed and analysed. In order to examine the difference before sunrise and after sunset, observations were also made during 1900-0500 hrs of local time from 1st to 18th  of July 1998. Results of the study revealed that the magnitude of the differences between OT and ST is not as high as expected. The highest difference observed was 5.1° C on 16th  July 1999 at 0900 hr. As anticipated, the temperature of direct sunlight between 0600 hr and 1700 hr were always higher than the screen temperature. However, after 0500 pm of local time, the screen temperatures are found to be higher than outside temperature though the sunset time in these months are after 0600 pm. The mean difference between ST and DT in June, July and August respectively found to be 1.43° C, 1.53° C and 1.67° C. The highest difference observed in these months was 3.8° C, 5.1° C and 4.1° C respectively. The study has also indicated that the difference between OT and ST is generally higher during 0900-1000 hrs of local time and lower during two hours before sunrise and sunset.


1984 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 1061-1078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiří Čeleda ◽  
Stanislav Škramovský

Based on the earlier paper introducing a concept of the apparent parachor of a solute in the solution, we have eliminated in the present work algebraically the effect which is introduced into this quantity by the additivity of the apparent molal volumes. The difference remaining from the apparent parachor after substracting the contribution corresponding to the apparent volume ( for which the present authors suggest the name metachor) was evaluated from the experimental values of the surface tension of aqueous solutions for a set of 1,1-, 1,2- and 2,1-valent electrolytes. This difference showed to be independent of concentration up to the very high values of the order of units mol dm-3 but it was directly proportional to the number of the free charges (with a proportionality factor 5 ± 1 cm3 mol-1 identical for all studied electrolytes). The metachor can be, for this reason, a suitable characteristic for detection of the association of ions and formation of complexes in the solutions of electrolytes, up to high concentrations where other methods are failing.


1999 ◽  
Vol 17 (11) ◽  
pp. 3603-3611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dympna Waldron ◽  
Ciaran A. O'Boyle ◽  
Michael Kearney ◽  
Michael Moriarty ◽  
Desmond Carney

PURPOSE: Despite the increasing importance of assessing quality of life (QoL) in patients with advanced cancer, relatively little is known about individual patient's perceptions of the issues contributing to their QoL. The Schedule for the Evaluation of Individual Quality of Life (SEIQoL) and the shorter SEIQoL–Direct Weighting (SEIQoL-DW) assess individualized QoL using a semistructured interview technique. Here we report findings from the first administration of the SEIQoL and SEIQoL-DW to patients with advanced incurable cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: QoL was assessed on a single occasion using the SEIQoL and SEIQoL-DW in 80 patients with advanced incurable cancer. RESULTS: All patients were able to complete the SEIQoL-DW, and 78% completed the SEIQoL. Of a possible score of 100, the median QoL global score was as follows: SEIQoL, 61 (range, 24 to 94); SEIQoL-DW, 60.5 (range, 6 to 95). Psychometric data for SEIQoL indicated very high levels of internal consistency (median r = .90) and internal validity (median R2 = 0.88). Patients' judgments of their QoL were unique to the individual. Family concerns were almost universally rated as more important than health, the difference being significant when measured using the SEIQoL-DW (P = .002). CONCLUSION: Patients with advanced incurable cancer were very good judges of their QoL, and many patients rated their QoL as good. Judgments were highly individual, with very high levels of consistency and validity. The primacy given to health in many QoL questionnaires may be questioned in this population. The implications of these findings are discussed with regard to clinical assessment and advance directives.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
T M Mikkola ◽  
H Kautiainen ◽  
M Mänty ◽  
M B von Bonsdorff ◽  
T Kröger ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose Mortality appears to be lower in family caregivers than in the general population. However, there is lack of knowledge whether the difference in mortality between family caregivers and the general population is dependent on age. The purpose of this study was to analyze all-cause mortality in relation to age in family caregivers and to study their cause-specific mortality using data from multiple Finnish national registers. Methods The data included all individuals, who received family caregiver's allowance in Finland in 2012 (n = 42 256, mean age 67 years, 71% women) and a control population matched for age, sex, and municipality of residence (n = 83 618). Information on dates and causes of death between 2012 and 2017 were obtained from the Finnish Causes of Death Register. Flexible parametric survival modeling and competing risk regression adjusted for socioeconomic status were used. Results The total follow-up time was 717 877 person-years. Family caregivers had lower all-cause mortality than the controls over the follow-up (8.1% vs. 11.6%) both among women (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.61-0.68) and men (HR: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.70-0.77). Younger adult caregivers had equal or only slightly lower mortality than their controls, but after age 60, the difference increased markedly resulting in over 10% lower mortality in favor of the caregivers in the oldest age groups. Caregivers had lower mortality for all the causes of death studied, namely cardiovascular, cancer, neurological, external, respiratory, gastrointestinal and dementia than the controls. Of these, the lowest was the risk for dementia (subhazard ratio=0.29, 95%CI: 0.25-0.34). Conclusions Older family caregivers have lower mortality than the age-matched controls from the general population while younger caregivers have similar mortality to their peers. This age-dependent advantage in mortality is likely to reflect selection of healthier individuals into the family caregiver role. Key messages The difference in mortality between family caregivers and the age-matched general population varies considerably with age. Advantage in mortality observed in family caregiver studies is likely to reflect the selection of healthier individuals into the caregiver role, which underestimates the adverse effects of caregiving.


Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Wojciech Feleszko ◽  
Piotr Lewulis ◽  
Adam Czarnecki ◽  
Paweł Waszkiewicz

Background: If globally implemented, a safe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination program will have broad clinical and socioeconomic benefits. However, individuals who anticipate that the coronavirus vaccine will bring life back to normality may be disappointed, due to the emerging antivaccination attitude within the general population. Methods: We surveyed a sample of adult Polish citizens (n = 1066), and compared it with the data on international COVID-19 vaccine reluctance. Results: In 20 national surveys, the vaccine averseness for the anticipated COVID-19 vaccine varied from meager (2–6% China) to very high (43%, Czech Republic, and 44%, Turkey) and in most countries was much higher than regular vaccination reluctance, which varies between 3% (Egypt) and 55% (Russia). Conclusions: These results suggest that a 67% herd immunity may be possible only if mandatory preventive vaccination programs start early and are combined with coordinated education efforts supported by legislative power and social campaigns.


Genetics ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 146 (4) ◽  
pp. 1475-1487 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Dumolin-Lapègue ◽  
B Demesure ◽  
S Fineschi ◽  
V Le Come ◽  
R J Petit

Patterns of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) variation were studied in eight white oak species by sampling 345 populations throughout Europe. The detection of polymorphisms by restriction analysis of PCR-amplified cpDNA fragments allowed the identification of 23 haplotypes that were phylogenetically ordered. A systematic hybridization and introgression between the eight species studied is evident. The levels of subdivision for unordered (G  ST) and ordered (N  ST) alleles are very high and close (0.83 and 0.85). A new statistical approach to the quantitative study of phylogeography is presented, which relies on the coefficients of differentiation G  ST and N  ST and the Mantel's test. Based on pairwise comparisons between populations, the significance of the difference between both coefficients is evaluated at a global and a local scale. The mapped distribution of the haplotypes indicates the probable routes of postglacial recolonization followed by oak populations that had persisted in southern refugia, especially in the Iberian peninsula, Italy and the Balkans. Most cpDNA polymorphisms appear to be anterior to the befinnina of the last recolonization. A subset of the preexisting haplotypes have merely expanded north, while others were left behind in the south.


The arc spectrum of cæsium was investigated with the object of finding whether any of its lines possessed hyperfine structure, resulting from a nuclear magnetic moment, due to a quantised nuclear spin. The lines belonging to the principal series should, owing to the greater degree of penetration of the electron in the (1 s or 6 1 ) orbit, and the correspondingly greater interaction, show the greatest effect. The lines of the principal series are very easily broadened if the vapour pressure of the metal becomes high, so that great care had to be used in obtaining the spectrum of cæsium at a sufficiently low temperature. The most satisfactory method of excitation was found to be the application by means of external electrodes of a very high frequency alternating current to a tube filled with helium at about 2 mm. pressure containing a small quantity of cæsium. The tube required slight heating to bring out the cæsium lines; without this the helium spectrum was very much stronger than the metallic spectrum. At a very low vapour pressures of cæsium the discharge was blue in colour. Under these conditions the lines of the principal series showed no broadening greater than that due to thermal agitation, but at a slightly higher temperature the colour of the discharge became purple and the lines broadened. The lines belonging to the principal series were found to be very close doublets with very nearly constant frequencies differences. A theory is worked out which explains the origin of these doublets, assuming a nuclear spin of one half quantum; by correlating the difference in the separation of the hyperfine structure doublets in the 1 s — m 2 p 3/2 lines and the 1 s — m 2 p 1/2 lines, it is shown that a ratio of the magnetic to the mechanical moment of the nucleus about twice as great as the corresponding ratio for the electron would account for the observed frequency differences. The spectral notation used throughout is that of Hund. The results are compared with those found for the hyperfine structure of some of the bismuth lines by Back and Goudsmid, and are found to be in satisfactory agreement. A selection principle is found which applies both to the bismuth and the cæsium spectrum.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Shaojie Lai ◽  
Qing Wang ◽  
Jiangze Du ◽  
Shuwen Pi

This article examines the propensity to pay dividends in the U.S banking sector during 1973–2014. Although the propensity to pay dividends has been declining over the 52 years of our sample period, banks are consistently more likely to pay dividends than non-financial firms. Using the coefficients from logit models estimated early in the sample period to forecast the percentage of dividend payers in each subsequent year, we conclude that there has been a decline in the likelihood of paying dividends in the banking sector. However, the decline started from a very high level as compared to that of the non-banking sectors. In addition, the variables taken from the non-financial firm literature do not explain the difference between the actual and expected percentage of dividend payers in the banking sector. We also conduct exploratory analyses with bank-specific variables. Although newly included variables are significantly related to the likelihood of paying dividends, they do not explain the declining propensity to pay dividends in the banking sector.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manoj V. Murhekar ◽  
Tarun Bhatnagar ◽  
Jeromie Wesley Vivian Thangaraj ◽  
V. Saravanakumar ◽  
Muthusamy Santhosh Kumar ◽  
...  

1988 ◽  
Vol 34 (116) ◽  
pp. 19-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerd Wendler ◽  
John Kelley

AbstractAs part of a larger experiment, detailed albedo measurements were carried out during the austral summer of 1985-86 in the dry-snow zone (1560 m) of Terre Adélie, eastern Antarctica. The following results were found:(1)Mean albedo values were high (around 82.6%). On clear days, the albedo showed some dependency on the solar elevation. The dependency was slight for solar elevations above 12° but became larger with low Sun angles.(2)The albedo was found to be a function of cloud amount and type, increasing with the amount and thickness of clouds. In white-out conditions, very high albedos were found (>90%).(3)The albedo showed a dependency on the type of snow. New snow displayed higher values than older snow, whose crystals had been destroyed by mechanical action.(4)A simple model was developed to assess the influence of sastrugi on the albedo. This model could explain the asymmetric diurnal variation about solar noon of the measured albedo above a sastrugi field.The above four dependencies might explain the considerable discrepancies which can be found in the literature concerning the snow albedo of Antarctica.


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