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Background Shift work can disturb circadian homeostasis and result in fatigue, excessive sleepiness, and reduced quality of life. Light therapy has been shown to impart positive effects in night shift workers. We sought to determine whether or not prolonged exposure to bright light during a night shift reduces sleepiness and enhances psychomotor performance among ICU nurses. Methods This is a single-center randomized, crossover clinical trial at a surgical trauma ICU. ICU nurses working a night shift were exposed to a 10-h period of high illuminance (1500–2000 lx) white light compared to standard ambient fluorescent lighting of the hospital. They then completed the Stanford Sleepiness Scale and the Psychomotor Vigilance Test. The primary and secondary endpoints were analyzed using the paired t test. A p  value <0.05 was considered significant. Results A total of 43 matched pairs completed both lighting exposures and were analyzed. When exposed to high illuminance lighting subjects experienced reduced sleepiness scores on the Stanford Sleepiness Scale than when exposed to standard hospital lighting: mean (sem) 2.6 (0.2) vs. 3.0 (0.2), p  = 0.03. However, they committed more psychomotor errors: 2.3 (0.2) vs. 1.7 (0.2), p  = 0.03. Conclusions A bright lighting environment for ICU nurses working the night shift reduces sleepiness but increases the number of psychomotor errors. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03331822 . Retrospectively registered on 6 November 2017.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention programme to reduce falls among geriatric rehabilitation patients. Design: Pre/post-test design with independent pre-test and matched post-test samples. Setting: Inpatient geriatric wards in a rehabilitation hospital. Participants: Seventy-six matched pairs (n = 152) of geriatric rehabilitation patients from one control and one intervention ward participated in the study, and 36 nursing staff surveys were completed. Intervention: The intervention programme was developed based on interviews and systematic reviews. Educational materials were distributed to patients and families, and preventive measures were implemented. Main outcome measures: The rates of falls before and after the intervention both within and between the wards were compared, and surveys were completed. Results: The matched patients presented no significant differences on age, gender or medical conditions. The falls rates, proportion of fallers and length of stay was higher among those in the control ward (P< 0.043). The percentage of fallers and the rate of falls/1000 patient days were lower on the intervention ward after implementation: odds ratio (95% confidence interval) = −2.9 (−6.6, −1.2) and −1.8 (−6.0, 0.5). Thirty of 36 respondents considered the tool to be helpful and beneficial for use on other wards. Conclusion: The intervention programme was effective in reducing falls among geriatric rehabilitation patients.

BackgroundMany local authorities in England and Wales have reduced street lighting at night to save money and reduce carbon emissions. There is no evidence to date on whether these reductions impact on public health. We quantified the effect of 4 street lighting adaptation strategies (switch off, part-night lighting, dimming and white light) on casualties and crime in England and Wales.MethodsObservational study based on analysis of geographically coded police data on road traffic collisions and crime in 62 local authorities. Conditional Poisson models were used to analyse longitudinal changes in the counts of night-time collisions occurring on affected roads during 2000–2013, and crime within census Middle Super Output Areas during 2010–2013. Effect estimates were adjusted for regional temporal trends in casualties and crime.ResultsThere was no evidence that any street lighting adaptation strategy was associated with a change in collisions at night. There was significant statistical heterogeneity in the effects on crime estimated at police force level. Overall, there was no evidence for an association between the aggregate count of crime and switch off (RR 0.11; 95% CI 0.01 to 2.75) or part-night lighting (RR 0.96; 95% CI 0.86 to 1.06). There was weak evidence for a reduction in the aggregate count of crime and dimming (RR 0.84; 95% CI 0.70 to 1.02) and white light (RR 0.89; 95% CI 0.77 to 1.03).ConclusionsThis study found little evidence of harmful effects of switch off, part-night lighting, dimming, or changes to white light/LEDs on road collisions or crime in England and Wales.

The present study was conducted to identify the barriers and facilitators of Workplace Visual Comfort (WVC) as perceived by hospital personnel. While adequate lighting is recognized as essential for the execution of medical tasks by healthcare workers, achieving optimal and sufficient lighting conditions often encounters numerous difficulties. This qualitative research carried out between May and October 2023. The main participants included 18 staff members from a hospital, and the data were gathered through semi-structured individual interviews, which continued until saturation was achieved. The data were further analyzed using conventional content analysis. Data analysis was performed using MaxQDA 10 software. The data analysis revealed three themes, i.e., (i) Lack of managerial attention to the work environment and standard lighting system design, (ii) Visual annoyance caused by unnatural inappropriate lighting system combined with a high workload, and (iii) A sense of visual comfort based on proper lighting, under eight categories and 23 sub-categories. The findings of the study indicated that WVC faced various obstacles. As a result, it is recommended that hospital administrators pay greater attention to lighting conditions and work on removing structural impediments in this area. Additionally, assisting hospital personnel in improving lighting conditions and ensuring the provision and supervision of key facilitators for WVC (considering workplace standards) can ultimately enhance satisfaction and quality of care services.

In recent years, the need for comfortable visual environments in indoor spaces has increased energy use in buildings. There have been diverse studies on using a light shelf to solve this problem. It is an effective system that allows external natural light deep into indoor spaces through reflection. However, prior studies have used light shelves with a fixed reflectivity, and there are few studies on improving the visual environment through light shelf control. Therefore, this study proposes a movable light shelf with a rolling reflector that can change the reflectivity. To achieve these objectives, we conducted a performance evaluation of the system’s ability to save energy and improve the visual environment. This study built a real scale testbed and conducted a performance evaluation by deriving values for lighting energy consumption, uniformity, and luminance contrast depending on the light shelf variables. We conclude that (1) the light shelf system achieved an energy savings of 13.6% and 5.7%, respectively, compared to a fixed type light shelf, whose reflectivity cannot be changed, and a traditional movable light shelf; (2) in terms of improving the visual environment, results suggest that the visual environment could be improved using a light shelf by deriving light shelf variables that disturb indoor uniformity; and (3) the results verified glare generation conditions by deriving luminance contrast caused by the variables of light shelf angle and its reflectivity.

This study presents a comprehensive assessment of lighting conditions in the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) of two major hospitals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): Hospital du Cinquantenaire in Kinshasa and Jason Sendwe Hospital in Lubumbashi. A mixed-methods approach was employed, integrating continuous illuminance monitoring with structured staff surveys to evaluate visual comfort in accordance with the EN 12464-1 standard for indoor workplaces. Objective measurements revealed that more than 52.2% of the evaluated ICU workspaces failed to meet the recommended minimum illuminance level of 300 lux. Subjective responses from healthcare professionals indicated that poor lighting significantly reduced job satisfaction by 40%, lowered self-rated task performance by 30%, decreased visual comfort scores from 4.1 to 2.6 (on a 1–5 scale), and increased the prevalence of well-being symptoms (eye fatigue, headaches) by 25–35%. Frequent complaints included eye strain, glare, and discomfort with posture, with these issues often exacerbated during the rainy season due to reduced natural daylight. The study highlights critical deficiencies in current lighting infrastructure and emphasizes the need for urgent improvements in clinical environments. Moreover, inconsistent energy supply to these healthcare settings also impacts the assurance of visual comfort. To address these shortcomings, the study recommends transitioning to energy-efficient LED lighting, enhancing access to natural light, incorporating circadian rhythm-based lighting systems, enabling individual lighting control at workstations, and ensuring a consistent power supply via the integration of solar inverters to the grid supply. These interventions are essential not only for improving healthcare staff performance and safety but also for supporting better patient outcomes. The findings offer actionable insights for hospital administrators and policymakers in the DRC and similar low-resource settings seeking to enhance environmental quality in critical care facilities.

Critically ill patients frequently encounter disruptions in their circadian rhythms in the intensive care unit (ICU) environment. New lighting systems have been developed to enhance daytime light levels and to promote circadian alignment. To investigate the impact of implementing an innovative lighting technology that mimics natural light and reproduce the colour of the sky. Prospective, observational, non-randomized comparative trial. ICU patients were exposed to either a cutting-edge lighting system based on new technology (intervention group) or a conventional lighting system using fluorescent bulbs (control group). An Italian intensive care unit with ten beds and five windowless rooms, thereby denying access to natural light. Three rooms had new lighting technology. The two groups were compared to assess the prevalence or absence of delirium and the need for sedatives during ICU stay. The secondary aim was to assess the presence of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder in patients at 3, 6, and 12 months after ICU discharge. 86 patients were included: 52 (60 %) in the intervention group and 34 (40 %) in the control group. Seventy-nine patients (82 %) were alive at ICU discharge. Fourteen patients (16 %) developed delirium (intervention group: n = 8 [15 %] vs. control group: n = 6 [18 %] in the control group, (P=0.781). The use of sedative drugs and neuromuscular blocking agents was similar in both the groups. No differences in the incidence of anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorders were observed among patients who underwent follow-up visits. Compared to traditional fluorescent tube lighting, the innovative lighting system did not provide any significant benefit in reducing the frequency of delirium or the necessity for sedative medications. A single intervention, the use of lights that mimic sunny light and the sky, did not result in a statistically significant reduction in the incidence of delirium. Delirium has a multifactorial aetiology, necessitating interventions that are multifaceted and address different domains.

Artificial lighting has received increased attention from urban scholars and geographers in recent years. It is celebrated for its experimental aesthetics and experiential qualities and critiqued for its adverse effects on biological life and the environment. Yet scholars and practitioners unite in their disapproval of uniform and homogenous lighting that follows from standardised lighting technologies and design principles. Absent from debates in urban scholarship and geography, however, is any serious consideration of how lighting designers respond to such standardised measures and regulations. In this article, I address this lack of academic attention by exploring how designers overturn the restrictive challenges posed by the standards and regulations of the design and planning process. Drawing on interviews with designers involved in the lighting design of a mixed-use redevelopment project in Canning Town, East London, I demonstrate how the interpretation and translation of lighting standards and regulations resist the tendency to predetermine design aesthetics and functions. By drawing attention away from the technical specifications and numerical values that are prescribed in standards and regulations, and towards lighting’s experiential and performative effects, the article argues that lighting designers can play an important role in challenging how standards and regulations are measured, defined and maintained. Calling on urban scholars to play a more prominent role in foregrounding this process of translation, I suggest that standards and regulations can provide frameworks within which luminous differentiation and preservation of darkness can be achieved, playing a potentially crucial role in ensuring a socially and environmentally sustainable transition to energy efficient lighting. 近年来，人工照明越来越受到城市学者和地理学家的关注。它因其实验美学和经验品质 而受欢迎，但又因其对生物生活和环境的不利影响而受批评。然而，学者和从业者一致 反对遵循标准化照明技术和设计原则的统一和同质照明。但是，在城市学术界和地理学 届的辩论中，大家没有认真考虑过照明设计师如何应对这些标准化的措施和法规。在本 文中，我研宄设计师如何克服设计和规划过程中标准和规则所带来的限制，从而填补这 一学术研宄空白。通过采访伦敦东部坎宁镇一个混合用途再开发项目的各位照明设计师 ，我展示了设计师们如何通过对照明标准和法规的解释和转化来抵制预先确定设计美学 和功能的趋势。通过将注意力从标准和法规中规定的技术规范和数值转移到照明的体验 和表现效果，本文证明照明设计师可以在挑战标准和法规的测量、定义和维护方面发挥 重要作用。我呼吁城市学者在推动这一转化的过程中发挥更突出的作用，因此，我提出 标准和法规可以提供一个框架，在这个框架内可以实现照明的区分和黑暗的保留，从而 在确保向节能照明的社会和环境可持续过渡方面发挥潜在的关键作用。

Road lighting is a fundamental public service for the safety of pedestrians and drivers. Due to the global energy crisis and climate change, energy conservation has become a priority in any country. Road lighting should provide the required quality and quantity of illumination in the most efficient manner possible. In this work, a study of lighting conditions was carried out in an Argentinian city, and energy efficiency was evaluated based on three methods. The results and conclusions of the work provide an objective critique of the advantages and disadvantages of applying each method to measure the efficiency of an installation.

Plant secondary metabolites are widely used in the food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. They can be extracted from sterile grown plant cell suspension cultures, but yields and quality strongly depend on the cultivation environment, including optimal illumination. Current shaking incubators do not allow different light wavelengths, intensities and photoperiods to be tested in parallel. We therefore developed LEDitSHAKE, a system for multiplexed customized illumination within a single shaking incubator. We used 3D printing to integrate light-emitting diode assemblies into flask housings, allowing 12 different lighting conditions (spectrum, intensity and photoperiod) to be tested simultaneously. We did a proof of principle of LEDitSHAKE using the system to optimize anthocyanin production in grapevine cell suspension cultures. The effect of 24 different light compositions on the total anthocyanin content of grapevine cell suspension cultures was determined using a Design of Experiments approach. We predicted the optimal lighting conditions for the upregulation and downregulation of 30 anthocyanins and found that short-wavelength light (blue, UV) maximized the concentration of most anthocyanins, whereas long-wavelength light (red) had the opposite effect. Therefore our results demonstrate proof of principle that the LEDitSHAKE system is suitable for the optimization of processes based on plant cell suspension cultures.