‘At least I have done something’: A qualitative study of women's social egg freezing experiences

Social egg freezing has become an expanding clinical practice and there is a growing body of empirical literature on women's attitudes and the sociocultural implications of this phenomenon. Yet, its impact remains subject to ethical controversy. This article reports on a qualitative study, drawing on 18 interviews with women who had elected to initiate at least one egg freezing cycle in Belgium. Our findings, facilitated by a ‘symbiotic empirical ethics’ approach, shed light on the concerns and perceptions that accompany women's decisions while supporting a more context-sensitive reading of the ethical debate. We identified three key themes: feeling overwhelmed with uncertainty and a threatening future, bodily discomfort and distress during the medical process, and the endless pursuit of peace of mind. One of the issues that emerges from these findings is the risk ritual function of social egg freezing, referring to routine actions of risk anticipation that mitigate uncertainty and express a sense of individual responsibility. While more research is needed, this conceptualisation provides a starting point to flesh out the wider context of this moral practice and its symbolic meaning for women.

Elastomeric Seal Stress Analysis Using Photoelastic Experimental Hybrid Method

Stress freezing is an important and powerful procedure in 3-dimensional experimental stress analysis using photoelasticity. The application of the stress freezing technique to extract stress components from loaded engineering structures has, however, declined over the years even though its principles are well established. This is attributed to huge costs arising from energy consumption during the process. In addition, significant time is needed to generate the desired information from isoclinic and isochromatic fringes. To overcome the limitations of stress freezing in photoelasticity and transform it into an economical device for stress analysis in an engineering environment, a new stress freezing cycle that lasts 5 hours is proposed. The proposed technique is used in several applications of elastomeric seals with different cross-sectional profiles to assess its suitability. It was found that reducing the cycle time can lead to huge energy savings without compromising the quality of the fringes. Moreover, the use of isochromatic only to extract stress components leads to a shorter processing time to achieve desirable information since the process of obtaining isoclinic data is involving. In this paper, results of stress analysis from stress frozen elastomeric seals with various cross-sections using the new stress freezing cycle are presented.

Ideal Stage of Embryo Transfer to Improve Outcomes for Women of Advanced Maternal Age

Background The purpose of this retrospective study was to optimise the transplantation strategy for women of advanced maternal age to achieve live births within the shortest time. Methods Data were collected from patients older than 40 years who underwent assisted reproductive therapy at our centre from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2019. A total of 1233 cases of fresh cleavage embryo transfer cycles, 280 cases of frozen-thawed blastocyst transfer cycles, and 26 cases of frozen-thawed cleavage embryo transfer cycles were included. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to adjust for confounding factors. Results The main outcome was the live birth rate. The secondary outcomes were the clinical pregnancy rate, spontaneous abortion rate, and neonatal outcomes. We found that the blastocyst formation rate of patients older than 40 years was 23.5%, the freezing cycle rate was 19.8%, and the fresh embryo transfer rate was 83.0%. Conclusions Cleavage embryo transfer should be performed first to reduce the cycle cancellation rate. If the number of retrieved oocytes is more than eight, then blastocyst transplantation can be considered after fully discussing the advantages and disadvantages of blastocyst culture with patients. Alternatively, cleavage embryo transfer can be performed first, and frozen-thawed blastocyst transfer can be performed next if cleavage embryo transfer is unsuccessful.

‘I feel that injustice is being done to me’: a qualitative study of women’s viewpoints on the (lack of) reimbursement for social egg freezing

Background During the last decade, the possibility for women to cryopreserve oocytes in anticipation of age-related fertility loss, also referred to as social egg freezing, has become an established practice at fertility clinics around the globe. In Europe, there is extensive variation in the costs for this procedure, with the common denominator that there are almost no funding arrangements or reimbursement policies. This is the first qualitative study that specifically explores viewpoints on the (lack of) reimbursement for women who had considered to uptake at least one social egg freezing cycle in Belgium. Methods To understand the moral considerations of these women, drawing from twenty-one interviews, this paper integrates elements of a symbiotic empirical ethics approach and thematic analysis. Results We identify three themes: (1) From ongoing concern to non-issue; (2) Negotiating the reimbursement for social egg freezing; (3) From fully out-of-pocket to (partial) free good. In the first theme, we found that some women were concerned about the cost of social egg freezing and the lack of clear information about it. Furthermore, they reported moral sentiments of injustice which they attributed to their lack of acknowledgement for their struggles and needs. Other women perceived the reimbursement controversy of social egg freezing as something far removed from their lived experience. The second theme illustrates diverse views on reimbursement, ranging from viewing social egg freezing as an elective treatment unbefitting reimbursement to preferences for greater public responsibility and wider access. Finally, we describe the participants’ varying proposals for partial reimbursement and the idea that it should not be made available for free. Conclusions This research adds important empirical insights to the bioethics debate on social egg freezing, in particular by presenting (potential) users’ views on the lack of reimbursement. Based on our results, it seems an oversimplification to portray social egg freezers as merely affluent women who are not concerned about the coverage of egg freezing costs. While there is much more to say about the ethical and political complexities of the reimbursement of this procedure, our study highlighted the voices of (potential) users and showed that at least some of them express a preference or a need for reimbursement.

Influence of Crack on Concrete Damage in Salt-Freezing Environment

The damage development trend of concrete with cracks in salt-freezing environment is systematically studied. The cracks are also tested in intact concrete for comparison, and crack characterization is introduced. The mass loss, the relative dynamic elastic modulus, and the change of crack width are analyzed. Results show that the crack width increases as the salt-freezing cycle progresses. Following the development trend of the cracks, concrete cracks can be divided into three categories: 0–40, 40–100, and 100–150 μm. The mass loss increases significantly, and the change of relative dynamic elastic modulus decreases in concrete with an initial crack compared with the intact concrete. When the crack width is 80 μm, a maximum mass loss rate of 0.19% and a minimum relative dynamic elastic modulus of 75.81% can be obtained. These test results prove that crack and freeze-thaw coupling can influence each other and accelerate the failure of concrete. Overall, this study can serve as a basis for the durability design and life improvement of concrete structures.

Numerical Investigation of the Freezing of a Phase Change Material in a Thermal Storage Device With an Embedded Evaporator

Two time-dependent mathematical and numerical models with different levels of complexity and fidelity were developed to investigate the freezing of a PCM configured as a slab with an embedded serpentine microchannel evaporator of a vapor compression refrigeration system. The time-dependent PCM freezing process was first analyzed using finite-element modeling (FEM) of a representative 2-D domain. This model incorporates 2-D conduction and natural convection within the molten PCM. The FEM revealed that natural convection is negligible and that the freezing front advances in essentially 1-D fashion. However, the long execution time of FEM makes it unsuitable for repetitive design optimization of thermal storage devices. Consequently, a fast-executing quasi 2-D reduced-order model (ROM) was developed. The ROM is then utilized to study the freezing process in a multi-slab thermal storage device that is designed to store ∼500 W-h of “cooling” during ∼8 h of freezing operation at night, to be subsequently released for local cooling of room air during the day. The results show that (1) freezing rate is strongly affected by the frozen PCM thermal conductivity; (2) freezing almost ceases once the refrigerant is fully evaporated; (3) refrigerant exit quality drops precipitously toward the end of the freezing cycle.

A New Method for Studying the Damage in Concrete Subjected Single Face Salt Freezing Cycle

Aiming at the shortcomings of traditional research method of materials mechanics performance of concrete, this paper presents a new method to test the mechanical properties of concrete material layer body--the relative method. It focuses on the use of relative principle, testing dynamic elastic modulus of concrete damage layer subjected to single salt freezing cyclic, and draw a gradient damage curve of concrete, and then study the damage process of the concrete under the effect of salt solution and the freeze-thaw cycle synergetic factors. The method provides a new way to test body layer mechanical performance of concrete material which the traditional methods can not be directly solved.

Soil temperature-threshold based runoff generation processes in a permafrost catchment

The contributing-area concept was the universal approach in rainfall–runoff processes modelling. However, it is unclear of the role of permafrost in controlling runoff generation processes. The areas that contribute to runoff generation are complex, variable and difficult to determine in permafrost catchments, and thus, there is no suitable quantitative approach for the simulation of runoff generating dynamics. To understand how thaw-freezing cycle in permafrost catchment effect the runoff generation processes, a typical catchment of continuous permafrost on the Tibetan Plateau was measured, and the spring and autumn season when runoff generation obviously differs from non-permafrost regions were focused on in this study. By introducing soil temperature threshold functions for surface saturation excess runoff generation and subsurface groundwater discharge, two dominant runoff generation types for permafrost catchments in different seasons are analysed, and corresponding simple quantitative approach related to the thawing and freezing periods are presented. The results show that the new approach can exactly identify the runoff generation dynamics of spring thawing and autumn freezing processes. In the permafrost headwater catchments of alpine meadows, the surface soil temperature or thawed depth threshold for variable runoff generation area depend on the zero thawing isotherms, which reach a depth of 40 cm. The subsurface groundwater discharge, which is controlled by soil temperature, contributes more than 85 % of the total river discharge in the autumn freezing period. The crucial variable for the spatial–temporal variation of runoff contributing area in the permafrost catchment is the soil temperature rather than soil moisture.