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Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

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Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#41

Post by Thorrez »

sloreti wrote: post #36
stevenwoo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s possible one of the worst long term pollution problems is from tire wear which is not addressed by cleaner running vehicles, so there’s multiple avenues to address there but most solutions only address the fuel/exhaust, was a hacker news story earlier this year.

Road wear scales n^4 with vehicle weight [1]. If tire wear is anything similar, it makes an additional strong argument that we should be using fewer (mass transit) and lighter (bicycles) vehicles. [1] https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reports/tswstudy/Vol3-Chapter5.pdf

Why should we be using mass transit? Wouldn't a bus be heavier than a car? And n^4 with weight would mean the increase in weight would likely be much worse than the gain from the n reduction in number of cars.

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#42

Post by rckoepke »

namibj wrote: post #30
rckoepke wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I highly recommend getting one of these or a similar sensor. Also, I'm looking to find something similar but capable of measuring CO and CO2, if anyone knows let me know. I have some suggestions for bare boards/chips that you can program yourself and run your own self-hosted IoT cloud over WiFi. CO: $8 [0] + [1] and very very easy. Great place to start, but these sensors have a reputation for being somewhat garbage…

I wish any of the affordable NDIR sensors would work below 400 ppm, and also without exposing them to a reference concentration every once in a while. Considering the effects of even small CO2 level increases on mental abilities, I'm looking forward to an indoor CO2 scrubber to get back below 300 and ideally below 200 ppm in the office/living room.

You've definitely done your research on these so most of this is for other readers while I kind of pretend I'm narrating to you. You may be aware, but the earth is currently at an average of >400ppm right now, so most hobbyists won't need to measure lower than 400ppm.

If you want a "cheaper" sensor that does measure all the way to 0ppm, I could suggest this one [0] for $70 at digikey.

Realistically I think any solid-state gas sensor is generally going to require calibration with reference gases --- and that totally sucks. For CO2 there are some affordable options but some other gases I've looked at are pretty unreasonable for hobbyists. I've decided that I'm personally okay with inaccuracy as long as it has good repeatability. Your needs may be different, but for me it's not so much that I need to know the exact number, but rather that I need to be able to chart trends/cycles over weekly/monthly timelines. I also accept that my sensors will drift up/down over long timelines and I try to account for that possibility in any analysis I do.

It's less than optimal, but as a hobbyist the sacrifices don't completely kill the endeavor.

0: https://rmtplusstoragesenseair.blob.core.windows.net/docs/pu...

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#43

Post by erulabs »

klyrs wrote: post #35
anoncareer0212 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be dunking on them for making a qualitative judgement, but they made a comparative one.

I think spenczar5's reaction is fairly understandable in the context. Live in close quarters with somebody in their 7th month of pregnancy and 5th month of lockdown and we'll see if your goto reflex is to explain further. There's a need for a lot of sensitivity in this conversation. It's easy for us to armchair-expert this to death... that isn't necessarily a good thing.

I mean, "armchair quarterback" doesn't really apply to posing a hypothesis, does it?

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#44

Post by rckoepke »

durkie wrote: post #34
rckoepke wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I highly recommend getting one of these or a similar sensor. Also, I'm looking to find something similar but capable of measuring CO and CO2, if anyone knows let me know. I have some suggestions for bare boards/chips that you can program yourself and run your own self-hosted IoT cloud over WiFi. CO: $8 [0] + [1] and very very easy. Great place to start, but these sensors have a reputation for being somewhat garbage…

for what it's worth, i wouldn't trust any sensor in the form of the sparkfun CO sensor (link 0 in your comment) -- there was a fellow in denmark who did a ton of research with these sensors to create an electronic nose that exploited their huge lack of sensitivity. most of them are sensitive to a huge range of gases beyond what they are ostensibly labeled for, so he would drive them at different voltages and could ba…

Oh, I completely agree. Particularly the ones for various flammable gases. I've tested some of them in a lab and found them lacking for scientific analytic data collection, although I still found use for them as binary "presence" sensors to provide additional leak-point monitoring. I wouldn't recommend using them to meet safety requirements; I only used them to go above and beyond the minimum safety measures. I found they worked well enough to alert humans "hey this fitting might be coming loose" well before a whole-room LEL monitor on the wall noticed anything.

I'd love to see that Danish fellow's research to get a sense for how terrible the non-flammable gas sensors are as well.

I might have suggested a more expensive/reputable sensor but as I remarked in another reply -- it's my opinion that any solid-state gas sensor should probably be verified and calibrated against reference gas compositions. Let me know if I'm mistaken though! I just find it difficult to trust any manufacturer's datasheet claims.

I also tried to state in my original post that the CO sensor shouldn't be used in a safety-critical application. But I'll make another note to make sure people read these down-thread discussions so they're not mislead.

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#45

Post by m0zg »

tasogare wrote: post #38
dzink wrote: post #10

Here is entirely anecdotal speculation as to why this is happening (credentials - mom of two). In the late stages of pregnancy the uterus starts preparing for birth by doing Braxton hicks contractions. The uterus flexes its muscles. They get stronger and physically push the baby down like a ping pong ball coming out of a balloon. BH contractions are also like clock ticks to pregnancy, the closer you get to delivery t…

> Late stage pregnancy mothers legitimately need less physical strain and more opportunity to take care of their bodies or the baby comes early. Keeping the same active pace of work for a few weeks in the third trimester can cost years of additional effort and suffering as a premature baby may accrue permanent damage. You are rediscovering why in traditional societies woman stop working when getting pregnant. This is…

That should be the option (and a socially acceptable one) in all societies IMO. Working until delivery and dumping a newborn to a daycare at 6 months old is insane IMO.

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#46

Post by Fiveplus »

tasogare wrote: post #38
dzink wrote: post #10

Here is entirely anecdotal speculation as to why this is happening (credentials - mom of two). In the late stages of pregnancy the uterus starts preparing for birth by doing Braxton hicks contractions. The uterus flexes its muscles. They get stronger and physically push the baby down like a ping pong ball coming out of a balloon. BH contractions are also like clock ticks to pregnancy, the closer you get to delivery t…

> Late stage pregnancy mothers legitimately need less physical strain and more opportunity to take care of their bodies or the baby comes early. Keeping the same active pace of work for a few weeks in the third trimester can cost years of additional effort and suffering as a premature baby may accrue permanent damage. You are rediscovering why in traditional societies woman stop working when getting pregnant. This is…

Having a baby is such a crucial and important event in any woman's life that a mandated pre-delivery-full-pay leave seems like a viable mandated right I would whole-heartedly support.

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#47

Post by swsieber »

peter5878 wrote: post #28
stevenwoo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s possible one of the worst long term pollution problems is from tire wear which is not addressed by cleaner running vehicles, so there’s multiple avenues to address there but most solutions only address the fuel/exhaust, was a hacker news story earlier this year.

The contribution of tire and brake pad wear is really quite low compared to other sources of air pollution. From Evangeliou et al. (2020), Atmospheric transport is a major pathway of microplastics to remote regions, page 3: "Surface concentrations of tire wear particles (TWPs) range between a few ng.m−3 and 20 ng.m−3 for PM2.5 and up to 50 ng.m−3 for PM10 (Supplementary Movie 1). Brake wear particle (BWP) surface con…

But the type of pollution does matter. An important question is does it have a greater impact. And given the studies linking health to distance from the freeway, I think that question needs further investigation.

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#48

Post by acituan »

nostromo wrote: post #8

Heart attacks are similarly down 40-60%. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/well/live/coronavirus-doc... And cancer diagnoses are down by half. https://youtu.be/TWF8KLKy-I0 Of course, no, they aren’t down, it’s just that people that absolutely should be going to the hospital aren’t and they’re endangering their lives trying to avoid COVID-19. Could something similar be at play here? I laughed out loud when they sugge…

> Of course, no, they aren’t down, it’s just that people that absolutely should be going to the hospital aren’t and they’re endangering their lives trying to avoid COVID-19.

Do we have any clear data for this link of causality? Isn't it just one guess among many as to why?

It is unlikely single factor explains the entirety of the changes in these metrics and I actually doubt healthcare usage reluctance will turn out to be the primary factor.

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#49

Post by motakraxxer »

tasogare wrote: post #38
dzink wrote: post #10

Here is entirely anecdotal speculation as to why this is happening (credentials - mom of two). In the late stages of pregnancy the uterus starts preparing for birth by doing Braxton hicks contractions. The uterus flexes its muscles. They get stronger and physically push the baby down like a ping pong ball coming out of a balloon. BH contractions are also like clock ticks to pregnancy, the closer you get to delivery t…

> Late stage pregnancy mothers legitimately need less physical strain and more opportunity to take care of their bodies or the baby comes early. Keeping the same active pace of work for a few weeks in the third trimester can cost years of additional effort and suffering as a premature baby may accrue permanent damage. You are rediscovering why in traditional societies woman stop working when getting pregnant. This is…

The plot by patriarchy is not asking women to stop working during the third trimester. The plot is to ignore those needs and punish women who stop working by not paying them maternity leave or holding their pregnancy against them when they come back to the workforce.

Re: Fewer premature babies born since Covid-19 lockdown

#50

Post by mistermann »

klyrs wrote: post #35
anoncareer0212 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be dunking on them for making a qualitative judgement, but they made a comparative one.

I think spenczar5's reaction is fairly understandable in the context. Live in close quarters with somebody in their 7th month of pregnancy and 5th month of lockdown and we'll see if your goto reflex is to explain further. There's a need for a lot of sensitivity in this conversation. It's easy for us to armchair-expert this to death... that isn't necessarily a good thing.

It's maybe also possible that some people find it more stressful than their normal routine, and some find it less.
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