Search

The urban heat island (UHI) effect can contribute to extreme heat exposure. This can be detrimental to human health. In this paper, we propose a method to estimate air temperature to evaluate the spatial distribution and to monitor the intensity of the air urban heat island (AUHI) from existing GPS infrastructure. The proposed algorithm is based on the relationship between the refractivity of the troposphere and environmental variables, as well as the relationships between the zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD), a by-product of the precise point positioning technique, and the refractivity of the troposphere. The advantage of GPS data is its high temporal resolution and the availability of embedded GPS receivers. In this paper, GPS-derived ZTD data from stations in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of China and Tokyo in Japan are processed to estimate the hourly AUHI intensity. The results derived from this technique are validated using meteorological data in the same cities. Mean absolute error values of 0.79 °C in Hong Kong and 0.22 °C in Tokyo are found from data from the summer. Moreover, an overall accuracy of 0.51 °C is found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Huge right lobe hepatocecullar carcinoma (HCC) at presentation is not uncommon in Hong Kong. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE) followed by stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) can be used as a conversion therapy for huge right lobe HCC. We retrospectively reviewed two groups of patients with solitary huge right lobe HCC (defined as > = 10 cm in size) treated with direct surgery or conversion therapy (TACE + SBRT) first. From 2009 to 2014, 23 patients with huge right lobe HCC with resection done in our centre were reviewed. Eleven patients had direct surgery and 12 patients had received conversion therapy first. The mean tumour size for the conversion therapy group was significantly larger 13.9 cm versus 11.2 cm (p =.03). Patients in the conversion therapy group also had other unfavourable factors at presentation. Overall median survival for direct surgery group was 63 months while that of conversion therapy group was 40 months (p =.48). Operative time was 313 min for the direct surgery group versus 317 min for the conversion therapy group (p =.95). We concluded that TACE + SBRT can be a feasible conversion therapy for borderline resectable huge right lobe HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]