Occupancy Rate Research Articles

Factors Influencing Admission Decisions in Skilled Nursing Facilities: Retrospective Quantitative Study.

Occupancy rates within skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) in the United States have reached a record low. Understanding drivers of occupancy, including admission decisions, is critical for assessing the recovery of the long-term care sector as a whole. We provide the first comprehensive analysis of financial, clinical, and operational factors that impact whether a patient referral to an SNF is accepted or denied, using a large health informatics database. Our key objectives were to describe the distribution of referrals sent to SNFs in terms of key referral- and facility-level features; analyze key financial, clinical, and operational variables and their relationship to admission decisions; and identify the key potential reasons behind referral decisions in the context of learning health systems. We extracted and cleaned referral data from 627 SNFs from January 2020 to March 2022, including information on SNF daily operations (occupancy and nursing hours), referral-level factors (insurance type and primary diagnosis), and facility-level factors (overall 5-star rating and urban versus rural status). We computed descriptive statistics and applied regression modeling to identify and describe the relationships between these factors and referral decisions, considering them individually and controlling for other factors to understand their impact on the decision-making process. When analyzing daily operation values, no significant relationship between SNF occupancy or nursing hours and referral acceptance was observed (P>.05). By analyzing referral-level factors, we found that the primary diagnosis category and insurance type of the patient were significantly related to referral acceptance (P<.05). Referrals with primary diagnoses within the category "Diseases of the Musculoskeletal System" are least often denied whereas those with diagnoses within the "Mental Illness" category are most often denied (compared with other diagnosis categories). Furthermore, private insurance holders are least often denied whereas "medicaid" holders are most often denied (compared with other insurance types). When analyzing facility-level factors, we found that the overall 5-star rating and urban versus rural status of an SNF are significantly related to referral acceptance (P<.05). We found a positive but nonmonotonic relationship between the 5-star rating and referral acceptance rates, with the highest acceptance rates found among 5-star facilities. In addition, we found that SNFs in urban areas have lower acceptance rates than their rural counterparts. While many factors may influence a referral acceptance, care challenges associated with individual diagnoses and financial challenges associated with different remuneration types were found to be the strongest drivers. Understanding these drivers is essential in being more intentional in the process of accepting or denying referrals. We have interpreted our results using an adaptive leadership framework and suggested how SNFs can be more purposeful with their decisions while striving to achieve appropriate occupancy levels in ways that meet their goals and patients' needs.

Cost-benefit analysis of Intensive Care Unit with Activity-Based Costing approach in the era COVID-19 pandemic: A case study from Iran.

Providing intensive care to acute patients is a vital part of health systems. However, the high cost of Intensive Care Units (ICU) has limited their development, especially in low-income countries. Due to the increasing need for intensive care and limited resources, ICU cost management is important. This study aimed to analyze the cost-benefit of ICU during COVID-19 in Tehran, Iran. This cross-sectional study is an economic evaluation of health interventions. The study was conducted in the COVID-19 dedicated ICU, from the provider's point of view and within one-year horizon. Costs were calculated using a top-down approach and the Activity-Based Costing technique. Benefits were extracted from the hospital's HIS system. Benefit Cost ratio (BCR) and Net Present Value (NPV) indexes were used for cost-benefit analysis (CBA). A sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the dependence of the CBA results on the uncertainties in the cost data. Analysis was performed with Excel and STATA software. The studied ICU had 43 personnel, 14 active beds, a 77% bed occupancy rate, and 3959 occupied bed days. The total costs were $2,372,125.46 USD, of which 70.3% were direct costs. The highest direct cost was related to human resources. The total net income was $1,213,314.13 USD. NPV and BCR were obtained as $-1,158,811.32 USD and 0.511 respectively. Despite operating with a relatively high capacity, ICU has had high losses during the COVID-19. Proper management and re-planning in the structure of human resources is recommended due to its importance in the hospital economy, provision of resources based on needs assessment, improvement of drugs management, reduction of insurance deductions in order to reduce costs and improve ICU productivity.

Professional burnout syndrome in a group of nursing staff employed in a psychiatric hospital

Nurses are one of the occupational groups most exposed to stress in the health care system. In their daily work, the staff of a psychiatric ward often encounters threats, aggression or unpredictability of patients' behavior. Employees, including nurses, often feel discomfort related to the treatment of patients admitted against their will, the need to use direct coercion. In psychiatry, it is also burdensome to participate in family matters of patients, to solve their problems. The group of factors recognized as stressful and causing psychological burden for nurses includes a large number of patients under their care, their serious condition as well as physical and verbal aggression of the patient and violence. The aim of the study was to present the problem of occupational burnout in a group of nursing staff employed in a psychiatric hospital Material and methods 203 nurses participated in the study. The research tool was a proprietary questionnaire and a standardized tool, the Ch. Maslach. The level of statistical significance in this study was p&lt;0.05. Results The average occupational burnout rate was 34.9% ± 20.9%. Emotional exhaustion was assessed at 32.5% ± 28.5%, the level of depersonalization at 23.1% ± 26.1%. The main motivators in the work of nurses are earnings (57.3%), willingness to help others (54.4%) and a good atmosphere at work (35%). Conclusions: Mental burden in the work of a psychiatric nurse results in the development of occupational stress leading to occupational burnout. Actions are recommended to counteract the professional burnout syndrome

Ecology of Myrmecofauna (Genus: Crematogaster) Associated to Helixanthera mannii (Oliv.) Danser (Loranthaceae) to Cocoa Trees in Oboa: Center Region of Cameroon, Africa

In order to find an effective control method against Helixanthera mannii (Oliv) Danser, parasite of agroecosystems in the northern part of the city of Yaound&amp;eacute;, a study of the myrmecofauna associated with this plant was carried out in an orchard of Oboa in Soa district. The total parasitism rate by Helixanthera mannii Danser was 20.43% for the entire orchard. 168 ants belonging to 12 species including ten genera and four subfamilies were collected from unparasitized and parasitized host individuals of Theobroma cacao. 86 ants belonging to two subfamilies were collected from selected branches of Helixanthera mannii from parasitized cocoa trees, namely Formicinae (Camponotus flavomarginatus) and Myrmicinae (Crematogaster (oxygyne) sp., Crematogaster (decacrema) sp. and Cataulacus sp. ) or 58.14% of the myrmecofauna during the flowering of this Loranthaceae and 41.86% during its fruiting. The ants of the genus Crematogaster proved to be the most active and abundant, i.e., 76.83% on non-parasitized hosts and 93.03% on hosts parasitized by Theobroma cacao by Helixanthera mannii. Crematogaster (oxygyne) sp. had an occupancy rate of 69.77% followed by Crematogaster (decacrema) sp. with 23.26% or 93.03% of the myrmecofauna recorded during the flowering and fruiting of Helixanthera mannii. Crematogaster (oxygyne) sp. proved to be the most active ant on these hosts. Note that the dominant ant status recognized for ants of the genus Crematogaster and their foraging activity on the flowers and fruits of Helixanthera mannii can contribute to the reduction of these parasitisms.

Challenges in Healthcare Management Models in The Country of Georgia and Proposed Solutions

The article "Problems in Georgia's Health Care Management System and the Proposed Solutions" examines the impact of ongoing health care reforms in Georgia on the overall health status of the population and its influence on changes in such indicators as the country's demography. The article eexplores both the primary health care system and the secondary care and highlights that despite much interventions and funding coming from donor organizations and the state budget, Georgia's health care system is still far from reaching the European Core Health Indicators (ECHI). Specifically: referral rates to a "family doctor" is low; the proportion of "out-of-pocket" payment is still high; there is a substantial shortage of nurses and a surplus of doctors; low hospital bed occupancy rates; funding for primary care on a "residual principle" remains a challenge and more. Concomitantly, all of the above reflected the demographic indicators of the country, and within the last three decades over the period from 1990 to 2021 the birth rates declined, mortality increased, and average life expectancy decreased. Based on the findings, the authors conclude that it is hard to close the existing gaps the country's health care system is facing by means of a single sectoral approach, and propose a strategy for inter-sectoral management model for health care within one cluster. The article examines a model on the example of the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia. Keywords: health care reforms; management of reforms; "Family Doctor"; Family Medicine; intersectoral management; cluster.

Observers are a key source of detection heterogeneity and biased occupancy estimates in species monitoring

Reliable assessments of population status and trends underpin conservation management efforts but are complicated by the fact that imperfect detection is ubiquitous in monitoring data. We explore the most commonly considered variables believed to influence detection probabilities, quantifying how they influence detectability and assessing how occupancy rates are impacted when a variable is ignored. To do so, we used data from two multi-species amphibian monitoring programmes, collected by volunteers and professional surveyors.Our results suggest that although detection rates varied substantially in relation to commonly considered factors such as seasonal and annual effects, ignoring these factors in the analysis of monitoring data had negligible effect on estimated occupancy rates. Variation among surveyors in detection probabilities turned out to be most important. It was high and failing to account for it led to occupancy being underestimated. Importantly, we identified that heterogeneity among observers was as high for professional surveyors as for volunteers, highlighting that this issue is not restricted to citizen-science monitoring.Occupancy modelling has greatly improved the reliability of inference from species monitoring data, yet capturing the relevant sources of variation remains a challenge. Our results highlight that variation among surveyors is a key source of heterogeneity, and that this issue is just as pertinent to data collected by experts as by volunteers. Detection heterogeneity should be accounted for when analysing monitoring data. Furthermore, efforts to increase training of field crews and collecting data to quantify differences between observer abilities are important to avoid biased inference resulting from unmodelled observer differences.

On the optimal presence strategies for workplace during pandemics: A COVID-19 inspired probabilistic model.

During pandemics like COVID-19, both the quality and quantity of services offered by businesses and organizations have been severely impacted. They often have applied a hybrid home office setup to overcome this problem, although in some situations, working from home lowers employee productivity. So, increasing the rate of presence in the office is frequently desired from the manager's standpoint. On the other hand, as the virus spreads through interpersonal contact, the risk of infection increases when workplace occupancy rises. Motivated by this trade-off, in this paper, we model this problem as a bi-objective optimization problem and propose a practical approach to find the trade-off solutions. We present a new probabilistic framework to compute the expected number of infected employees for a setting of the influential parameters, such as the incidence level in the neighborhood of the company, transmission rate of the virus, number of employees, rate of vaccination, testing frequency, and rate of contacts among the employees. The results show a wide range of trade-offs between the expected number of infections and productivity, for example, from 1 to 6 weekly infections in 100 employees and a productivity level of 65% to 85%. This depends on the configuration of influential parameters and the occupancy level. We implement the model and the algorithm and perform several experiments with different settings of the parameters. Moreover, we developed an online application based on the result in this paper which can be used as a recommender for the optimal rate of occupancy in companies/workplaces.

Opportunities and Barriers in the Planning of Hospital Bed Capacity in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Introduction: In alignment with Saudi Arabia’s 2030 Vision to improve healthcare services, Saudi hospital policymakers must have a clear understanding of the needs of their hospitals to make strategic decisions regarding hospital bed capacity planning. King Abdullah Medical City (KAMC) is a tertiary and quaternary healthcare facility that has four state-of-the-art excellence centers, of which the Cardiac and Oncology Centers are among the largest and the most advanced in the west of Saudi Arabia. Methods: This study used a mixed-methods approach. The study’s quantitative component included a revision of retrospective data of KAMC’s operational parameters, such as bed capacity, bed occupancy rate (BOR), and length of stay (LOS). For the study’s qualitative component, researchers used semi-structured interviews. Personnel at different management levels were interviewed to explore factors that might influence an increase in the BOR and patients’ LOS. Results: KAMC’s key performance indicators showed an overall LOS of 9.9 days and an overall BOR of 88%. Analysis broken down by the department shows the General and the Neuroscience Intensive Care Units and the Hematology/Oncology departments to have the highest BOR, ranging between 95% and 97%. Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews suggested that the delays in the provision of consultation services among the hospital’s inpatients were among the factors that have the biggest influence on bed occupancy; the presence of dedicated case managers in every department was among the top suggested solutions. Conclusion: A battery of interventions might help to reduce the LOS by supporting timely patient discharge. The presence of a dedicated case manager with a medical background in each department is one of the most practical interventions. Other vital opportunities include reinforcement of back-referral policies, revising policies, and having cluster-level referral policies and bed management strategies. Although such efforts are likely to have a positive effect, they are expected to only partially meet the existing gap, which probably requires increasing the number of available active beds.

Daily online review sentiment and hotel performance

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the links between daily review sentiment and the hotel performance measures of occupancy rate (OR), average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR).Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted review sentiment analyses in three moments (−1, −7 and −14 days) before arrival time using a data set of budget hotel performance and online reviews. The aim was to identify the effect of review sentiment in the budget hotel market on the three performance metrics.FindingsDaily sentiment positively affects ADR and negatively affects OR and RevPAR, but only up to a certain threshold, after which the trend reverses. Prices increase with the level of sentiment, and high prices lead to low OR and RevPAR only when the sentiment scores are low. When they are high, they are associated with low rates, which lead to high OR and RevPAR.Research limitations/implicationsDaily review sentiment can be viewed as a valuable “barometer” indicating a hotel’s daily operational effectiveness. Daily sentiment can thus allow hotel managers to adjust their dynamic pricing strategies more accurately.Originality/valueThis study identifies daily sentiment as an alternative predictor of hotel performance. In addition to the roles of valence and volume in the decision-making process, the authors found that daily review sentiment can be an “in-the-moment” factor with a high impact, encouraging consumers to complete their transactions. This study suggests that aggregated measures such as the total number of reviews and overall ratings of the hotel should not be the sole consideration in reputation management.

Mobile Thermal Energy Storages as Complementary Technology to District Heating Networks

District heating networks (DHN) are an important backbone of today´s heat supply with high potential to contribute to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, if their heat sources are increasingly transformed into renewable ones. However, an economically viable application of such networks requires adequate occupancy rates and power density along the lines, because the infrastructure causes significant effort in terms of investment, operation and maintenance. This is one of the reasons, why DHN are mostly implemented in urban regions. On the other hand, industrial plants are not always located within the meaningful range of DHN, although they require huge amounts of heat as well as release significant amounts of waste heat, depending on the specific industrial sector. The utilisation of mobile thermal energy storages (M-TES) can be a possibility to close the gap of energy transfer between a DHN and the industry or even directly between two or more industrial plants. The intention of this approach is to transfer heat by charging a mobile heat storage at the producer and transfer it to the consumer by means of common transport and available infrastructure, e.g. by a truck on the road. In this way, the M-TES concept could serve as a complementary heat supply technology for regions without DHN or it could even be a competitor to DHN for the case that it might by economically advantageous. M-TES was already investigated in the past, even by experimental implementation, but with the energy prices of 2015 is was financially not feasible [1]. As energy markets had to face unknown fluctuations in 2022, the research work presented by this paper had the aim to analyse the M-TES concept for the current situation. Therefore, a comprehensive economic evaluation was performed, based on VDI2067, for calculating the levelised costs of heat (LCOH) for M-TES. This investigation was done for the three main types of heat storing mechanisms, namely sensible, latent and thermochemical storages. In each category, several material types were considered to meet possible requirements of the specific application, e.g. in terms of temperature demand. This updated analysis of M-TES yielded positive results for thermochemical and latent heat storages, as the LCOH are significantly lower compared to the heat costs of DHN in Austria in 2022. However, the transportation distance is the most sensitive parameter in this study, which restricts the viability of M-TES to near surroundings.

Access block and overcrowding at the emergency department at Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital in Samoa

BackgroundAccess block and overcrowding are known to adversely impact on patient outcomes, service delivery, and patient experiences within emergency departments (ED) worldwide. There are no studies on access block or overcrowding from the Pacific Islands. The aim of the present study is to provide preliminary data on access block and overcrowding in the ED of the national tertiary hospital of Samoa.MethodsMixed methods study design. Data collection was performed in March 2020. The quantitative strand calculated (1) the point prevalence of patients impacted by access block in the ED, and (2) the ED bed occupancy rate to assess for overcrowding. The qualitative strand used thematic analysis of two focus group interviews exploring access block and overcrowding with ED medical and nursing staff members.ResultsOn the day of data collection, a total of 60 patients presented through the ED triage system. Of the 20 patients who were admitted into ED, 80% were triaged as ‘see without delay’ (CAT1), ‘emergency’ (CAT2) or ‘urgent’ (CAT3). For patients requiring admission to hospital wards, 100% waited 4 + h in ED, and 100% waited 8 + h, suggesting the presence of access block. Overcrowding in the ED setting was also evident, with an ED bed occupancy rate of 0.95, and an adjusted bed occupancy rate of 1.43. The major themes emerging from the ED staff focus groups and individual in-depth interviews were (1) the adverse impacts of access block and overcrowding, i.e., violence towards ED staff members, (2) the preventable contributing factors, i.e., lack of physical beds in the ED, and (3) practical recommendations to improve patient flow through the ED, i.e., improved collaboration between ED, outpatient services, and the hospital wards.ConclusionsPreliminary evidence suggested the presence of access block and overcrowding in the ED of the national tertiary hospital of Samoa. ED staff interviews provided insight into the ED frontline challenges and offered practical recommendations for ED health service improvement.

N‐dimensional hypervolumes in trait‐based ecology: Does occupancy rate matter?

Abstract Many methods for estimating the functional diversity of biological communities rely on measuring geometrical properties of n‐dimensional hypervolumes in a trait space. To date, these properties are calculated from individual hypervolumes or their pairwise combinations. Our capacity to detect functional diversity patterns due to the overlap of multiple hypervolumes is, thus, limited. Here, we propose a new approach for estimating functional diversity from a set of hypervolumes. We rely on the concept of occupancy rate, defined as the mean or absolute number of hypervolumes enclosing a given point in the trait space. Furthermore, we describe a permutation test to identify regions of the trait space in which the occupancy rate of two sets of hypervolumes differs. We illustrate the utility of our approach over existing methods with two examples on aquatic macroinvertebrates. The first example shows how occupancy rate relates to the stability of trait space utilisation due to increased flow intermittency and allows the identification of taxa in regions of the trait space with low occupancy rates. The second example shows how the permutation test based on occupancy rates can detect differences in trait space utilisation due to river morphology variation even with a high degree of overlap among input hypervolumes. Our newly developed approach is particularly suitable in functional diversity analysis when investigating patterns of overlap among multiple hypervolumes. We emphasise the need to consider analyses based on occupancy rate into functional diversity estimation. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

The composition of nosologies and occupational injury risks in officers of the Federal Fire Service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia (2012–2021).

Relevance. Professional firefighters are exposed to high levels of physical and emotional stress which impacts their functional reserves and makes the susceptible to erroneous actions and occupational traumas. The objective is to assess the decade-long (2012 to 2021) risk of occupational injuries and to establish its correlation with nosologies of external causes under Chapter XIX of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Revision (ICD-10).Methods. We analyzed occupational injuries across different categories among Federal Fire Service (FFS) officers of the EMERCOM of Russia (emergency response squads, prevention, technical and administrative workforce), their causes (technical, organizational, psychophysiological and hazardous fire-related factors), and performed occupational activities (firefighting, training, sport or daily activities). Based on the ICD-10, injury risks and exposure of particular body areas to external factors were calculated per 10,000 people according (×10–4).Results and Discussion. Over a 10 year’s timespan, 1,769 occupational injuries have been registered among Federal Fire Service officers EMERCOM of Russia. The occupational injury rate for firefighters was (9.19 ± 0.54)•10–4 injuries/(person•year), which was statistically significantly lower (p &lt; 0.001) than for male workforce employed in Russian economy sectors – (16.50 ± 1.09)•10–4. The overall average diagnose per injury rate was 1.5, including 1.7 in firefighting and other emergency response activities, 1.4 in combat training activities, and 1.5 in routine activities. The weighted average risk of body injuries was (11.96 ± 0.89)•10–4 injuries/(person•year); in particular, cumulative injury risk rate was (10.01 ± 0.83)•10–4 responsible for 83.6% of the total value, with burns (1.39 ± 0.23)•10–4 (equal to 11.6%), poisoning by combustion products (0.39 ± 0.09)•10–4 (equal to 3.3%), heat fainting (0.18 ± 0.04)•10–4 (equal to 1.5%) respectively. The congruent risk trends for occupational injuries, industrial head and body injuries, including burns, are positive and statistically significant, which suggests the trends are driven by identical (unidirectional) parameters. For determination coefficients of different significance, the polynomial trend of body injuries risk shows a downward trend of data reduction; the risk of burns resembles an inverted U-curve; while the risk of poisoning by combustion products demonstrates an increase in indicator values. Risks of injuries to the head (S00–S09 in ICD-10) showed rank 1 of significance among occupational body lesions in the entire cohort of firefighters, reaching the level of (2,49 ± 0,32)•10–4 injuries/(person•year) equal to 20.8 % of all occupational injuries; knee and shin injuries were assigned rank 2 (S80-S89) – (1.87 ± 0.24)•10–4 equal to 15.6 %; ankle and foot area were assigned rank 3 (S90–S99) – (1.11 ± 0.15)•10–4 equal to 9,3 %; rank 4 injuries were injuries of the thorax (S20–S29) – (0.91 ± 0.13)•10–4 equal to 7.6 %; wrist and hand injuries were assigned rank 5 (S40–S49) – (0.88 ± 0.07)•10–4 equal to 7.4 % respectively. Overall, these body traumas amounted to 60.7 % of all occupational injuries of external causes. In the genesis of damages of body areas of firefighters during occupational injury, the leading place is given to head injuries, which contribute to loss of balance and create conditions for falling, as a result of which other areas of the body are injured. The analysis of occupational injuries and nosologies across different workforce categories was effectively performed taking account of injury causes and types of activity.Conclusion. The analysis of cause-and-effect relations of all injuries among heads of subdivisions, occupational safety officers, fire engineers, firefighters and doctors allows to improve prevention of occupational injuries among officers of the Federal Fire Service of EMERCOM of Russia.

PERANAN ROOM ATTENDANT DALAM MENINGKATKAN PELAYANAN UNTUK KEPUASAN TAMU DI REDTOP HOTEL AND CONVENTION CENTER

In this Jurnal the author conducted research on REDTOP Hotel And Convention Center in Jakarta in the Housekeeping Department. REDTOP Hotel and Convention Center is a four-star hotel right in the Center of Jakarta area. Understanding Room Attendant to SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) which applies to the perceived level of guest statisfaction during the stay, it is intended that the quality of existing services in REDTOP Hotel and Convention Center for the better in the eyes of the guest who come This research was conducted to determine the strategic role of room attendance in increasing customer satisfaction and room occupancy rates from January to March. The results were obtained through the method of data collection and observation with the service provided in accordance with applicable regulations. The results obtained are an increase in service satisfaction of Room Antendant by 76% from January to February and an increase in service satisfaction of 84% from February to March at the Red Top Hotel and Convention center Of both methods are expected to answer the fundamental problems of research : “The role of the room attendant improves the quality of service for the guest statisfaction at Red Top Hotel and Convention Centre.”

New radiographic monitoring indices for total trapeziometacarpal prostheses

ObjectiveThe objective of this study is to propose and evaluate a method of monitoring implants via the calculation of a trapezial and metacarpal index from radiological measurements and to describe an initial patient analysis. MethodsThis retrospective study describes the trapezial index which reflects the trapezial bone stock not occupied by the trapezial cup, while the metacarpal index reflects the rate of metacarpal occupation by the prosthetic stem. Those indexes were used on a series of 20 patients with a Maïa™ prosthesis with a minimum follow-up of seven years.The indexes were measured immediately postoperatively and at the various annual check-ups.Four observers measured each index on two occasions, to obtain an inter- and intra-observer correlation coefficient. ResultsThe average intra-observer correlation coefficient for the trapezium index was 0.94, for the metacarpal index 0.98. The inter-observer correlation coefficient was 0.93 for the trapezium index, 0.94 for the metacarpal index on average. The post-hoc calculated power was 0.98 as the number of subjects required was not usable.The mean immediate postoperative trapezial index was 45.74%, compared with a value at longest follow-up of 41.74%, reflecting a highly significant loss of height of 8,74%. The mean immediate postoperative metacarpal index was 77.69% compared with a mean value at longest follow-up of 78.99% indicating a non-significant increase in the index of 1,67%. ConclusionProposed indexes had excellent inter- and intra-observer correlation, the metacarpal one is stable over time whereas the trapezial one reveals changes in some patients, requiring further investigations.These simple and reproducible indexes allow precise monitoring of trapeziometacarpal prostheses and identify radiographic changes that should lead to additional examinations to improve survival of implants. Level of evidence: III, retrospective single cohort study.

CONTROL OF THE NUMBER OF SUCKING PESTS OF WINTER WHEAT IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE RIGHT-BANK FOREST STEPPE

This article theoretically summarizes and solves an important scientific problem regarding the clarification of the species composition of the entomocomplex of phytophages in winter wheat crops and the development of effective measures to control their number, depending on the use of plant protection products. As a result of entomological monitoring of winter wheat in Vinnytsia region, 34 species of insects from 16 families that damage this crop were specified. The Diptera range consisted of 11 species, the Coleoptera range was characterized by the greatest species diversity (14 species), their share in the structure of the entomocomplex was 30% of the total. 9 species of phytophages from a number of bugs, or Hemiptera, were identified. The share of Lepidoptera and Homoptera in the structure of the entomocomplex was 8% and 10% each. The orders of Thysanoptera and Hymenoptera had 2 species each. Orthoptera represented the smallest number of species – 2%. The main and most dangerous phytophages that cause significant damage to winter wheat crops from a complex of insect pests have been identified, namely: thrips, cereal aphids, and bread bugs. The effectiveness of modern insecticides against the dominant pests of winter wheat and the optimized methods of their application were evaluated. According to the results of winter wheat seed treatment with insecticides-protozoans, it was established that the lowest number of phytophagous was noted in variants with protozoans Cruiser 350 FS t.c.s. (0,5 l/t), the aphid occupancy rate was 0,04%, in the version where Promet 400 μ.s. (2,0 l/t) occupancy rate 0,06%. Accordingly, the technical efficiency of the Cruiser 350 FS t.c.s. (0,5 l/t) was 90.7%; Promet 400, m.s. (2,0 l/t) – 86.0%, while in the control, the density of larvae of these types of pests was almost 4,5 times higher. It was noted that the highest yield was observed in the version using the insecticide Cruiser 350 FS t.c.s., where the preserved yield was 2,6 t/ha. The lowest grain yield – 3,5 t/ha was noted in the variant with the use of the drug Gaucho 70% s.p. the saved yield did not exceed 0,1 t/ha. It was established that the treatment with protoxins had a positive effect not only on yield, but also on seed quality, in particular, on the weight of 1000 grains. In variants using insecticides, the weight of 1000 grains compared to the control increased by 10,0, 12,5, 14,8 g compared to the control. It was established that the use of insecticides during the winter wheat growing season, which were studied, showed high effectiveness in controlling aphids, bugs and thrips. However, it should be noted that the use of drugs Engeo 247 SC, 1,8 l/ha and Nurelle D, КЕ, 1,1 l/ha best limited the abundance of these phytophages. When using them, an increase in productivity was observed by – 4,5–4,9 t/ha, in the control – 4,0 t/ha

Drought, fire, and rainforest endemics: A case study of two threatened frogs impacted by Australia's "Black Summer".

Deepening droughts and unprecedented wildfires are at the leading edge of climate change. Such events pose an emerging threat to species maladapted to these perturbations, with the potential for steeper declines than may be inferred from the gradual erosion of their climatic niche. This study focused on two species of amphibians-Philoria kundagungan and Philoria richmondensis (Limnodynastidae)-from the Gondwanan rainforests of eastern Australia that were extensively affected by the "Black Summer" megafires of 2019/2020 and the severe drought associated with them. We sought to assess the impact of these perturbations by quantifying the extent of habitat affected by fire, assessing patterns of occurrence and abundance of calling males post-fire, and comparing post-fire occurrence and abundance with that observed pre-fire. Some 30% of potentially suitable habitat for P. kundagungan was fire affected, and 12% for P. richmondensis. Field surveys revealed persistence in some burnt rainforest; however, both species were detected at a higher proportion of unburnt sites. There was a clear negative effect of fire on the probability of site occupancy, abundance and the probability of persistence for P. kundagungan. For P. richmondensis, effects of fire were less evident due to the limited penetration of fire into core habitat; however, occupancy rates and abundance of calling males were depressed during the severe drought that prevailed just prior to the fires, with the reappearance of calling males linked to the degree of rehydration of breeding habitat post-fire. Our results highlight the possibility that severe negative impacts of climate change for montane rainforest endemics may be felt much sooner than commonly anticipated under a scenario of gradual (decadal-scale) changes in mean climatic conditions. Instead, the increased rate of severe stochastic events places these narrow range species at a heightened risk of extinction in the near-term.

Estimating vegetation index for outdoor free-range pig production using YOLO.

The objective of this study was to quantitatively estimate the level of grazing area damage in outdoor free-range pig production using a Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) with an RGB image sensor. Ten corn field images were captured by a UAV over approximately two weeks, during which gestating sows were allowed to graze freely on the corn field measuring 100 × 50 m2. The images were corrected to a bird's-eye view, and then divided into 32 segments and sequentially inputted into the YOLOv4 detector to detect the corn images according to their condition. The 43 raw training images selected randomly out of 320 segmented images were flipped to create 86 images, and then these images were further augmented by rotating them in 5-degree increments to create a total of 6,192 images. The increased 6,192 images are further augmented by applying three random color transformations to each image, resulting in 24,768 datasets. The occupancy rate of corn in the field was estimated efficiently using You Only Look Once (YOLO). As of the first day of observation (day 2), it was evident that almost all the corn had disappeared by the ninth day. When grazing 20 sows in a 50 × 100 m2 cornfield (250 m2/sow), it appears that the animals should be rotated to other grazing areas to protect the cover crop after at least five days. In agricultural technology, most of the research using machine and deep learning is related to the detection of fruits and pests, and research on other application fields is needed. In addition, large-scale image data collected by experts in the field are required as training data to apply deep learning. If the data required for deep learning is insufficient, a large number of data augmentation is required.

Approach and Problem Solving Implementation of Housing Subsidy Policy for Low-Income People

The government plays an important role in providing access to home ownership for low-income people. The implementation of the housing subsidy policy as a government policy in the housing sector has been developed and ongoing for more than ten years now. Until now, government monitoring officials, both internal and external, still find the same problems and they tend to recur from year to year, including inaccurate targeting of housing subsidy recipients and low occupancy rates for subsidized housing. This research is aimed at analyzing the problems of implementing housing subsidy policies faced by the government and the government's steps to overcome these recurring problems. In this research, several research methods were developed, including using a literature review approach, logic model approach, systems thinking approach and SWOT analysis. The results of the research are in the form of policy recommendations that the government can use as an alternative solution to overcome the same and recurring problems, including carrying out closer supervision by involving developers/local community administrators and implementing strict sanctions by revoking subsidy benefits that are not on target.

Research on Insulator Defect Detection System Based on Edge Intelligence

The paper aims at the problems of the high occupancy rate of communication resources and heavy server load caused by the image data taken during the inspection of the substation and sent to the remote server for processing. An edge intelligent inspection data processing architecture is constructed, and an insulator defect detection model based on transfer learning and YOLO v5 is proposed. The model can meet the training of a small sample network model in the case of scarcity of power equipment defect data. The proposed algorithm is compared with typical target detection algorithms, and the experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has an excellent performance in model recognition accuracy and recall rate. The trained insulator defect detection model is further deployed on the developed edge intelligent terminal for testing, and its image processing speed can meet the image processing requirements for intelligent inspection of substations. The system has good application value.