Search results for " QUALITY INDEX"

A Regional Geography Approach to Understanding the Environmental Changes as a Consequence of the COVID-19 Lockdown in Highly Populated Spanish Cities

2021

Spain has been highly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is reflected at different scales. From an economic point of view, lockdowns and the reduction of activities have damaged the country (e.g., complete lockdown from March 13 to June 21, 2020). However, it is not clear if the associated environmental impacts could be observed in 2020. Currently, studies on the effects of the lockdown (e.g., decrease in economic activities, transport and social communication) on specific parameters related to climate change, such as air temperature or air pollution, due to a drastic decrease in human activities are rare. They are focused on specific cities and short periods of time. Therefore, the m…

Modelling Regional Air Quality in the Canadian Arctic: Simulation of an Arctic Summer Field Campaign

2017

Model simulations of an Arctic summer field campaign were carried out. The model results were compared with observational data from both ground-based monitoring and in situ measurements on-board multiple mobile platforms. The model was able to well capture regional sources and transport affecting the Arctic air quality. It is shown that the study area was impacted by North American (NA) regional biomass burning emissions. The model-observation comparison also corroborates previous findings on possible roles of marine-biogenic sources in aerosol production in the Arctic MBL during summertime.

Relations between Air Quality and Covid-19 Lockdown Measures in Valencia, Spain

2021

The set of measures to contain the diffusion of COVID-19 instituted by the European governments gave an unparalleled opportunity to improve our understanding of the transport and industrial sectors’ contribution to urban air pollution. The purpose of this study was to assess the impacts of the lockdown measures on air quality and pollutant emissions in Valencia, Spain. For this reason, we determined if there was a significant difference in the concentration levels of different particulate matter (PM) sizes, PM10, PM2.5, and NOx, NO2, NO, and O3, between the period of restrictions in 2020 and the same period in 2019. Our findings indicated that PM pollutant levels during the lockdown period…

Pesticides and Agricultural Air Quality

2016

Mercury emissions from soils and fumaroles of Nea Kameni volcanic centre, Santorini (Greece)

2013

There have been limited studies to date targeting mercury emissions from volcanic fumarolic systems, and no mercury flux data exist for soil or fumarolic emissions at Santorini volcanic complex, Greece. We present results from the first geochemical survey of Hg and major volatile (CO2, H2S, H2O and H-2) concentrations and fluxes in the fumarolic gases released by the volcanic/hydrothermal system of Nea Kameni islet; the active volcanic center of Santorini. These data were obtained using a portable mercury spectrometer (Lumex 915+) for gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) determination, and a Multi-component Gas Analyzer System (Multi-GAS) for major volatiles. Gaseous Elemental Mercury (GEM) conc…

Antihistamine-resistant chronic spontaneous urticaria: 1-year data from the AWARE study.

2018

BACKGROUND Previous reports indicate that patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) are undertreated and that physicians show poor adherence to guideline recommendations. Awareness of CSU has improved in recent years, but it remains unclear if this has improved the management of these patients in clinical practice. OBJECTIVE To describe disease burden, quality of life (QoL), and treatment patterns of patients with H1 -antihistamine-refractory CSU in Germany. METHOD A World-wide Antihistamine-Refractory chronic urticaria (CU) patient Evaluation (AWARE) is a global prospective, non-interventional study of CU in the real-world setting, supported by the manufacturer of omalizumab. Patie…

The Complex Interaction Between the Major Sleep Symptoms, the Severity of Obstructive Sleep Apnea, and Sleep Quality

2021

Introduction: Little information exists in the general population whether clinical presentation phenotypes of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) differ in terms of sleep quality and comorbidities.Aim: The purpose of our study was to assess possible differences between symptomatic and asymptomatic OSA patients concerning syndrome's severity, patients' sleep quality, and comorbidities.Subjects and methods: First, in a nationwide, stratified, epidemiological survey, 4,118 Cypriot adult participants were interviewed about sleep habits and complaints. In the second stage of the survey, 264 randomly selected adults underwent a type III sleep study for possible OSA. Additionally, they completed the Gre…

Impact on Air Quality of the COVID-19 Lockdown in the Urban Area of Palermo (Italy).

2020

At the end of 2019, the first cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were reported in Wuhan, China. Thereafter, the number of infected people increased rapidly, and the outbreak turned into a national crisis, with infected individuals all over the country. The COVID-19 global pandemic produced extreme changes in human behavior that affected air quality. Human mobility and production activities decreased significantly, and many regions recorded significant reductions in air pollution. The goal of our investigation was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the concentrations of the main air pollutants in the urban area of Palermo (Italy). In this study, the trends in the average…

Sleep quality does not mediate the negative effects of chronodisruption on body composition and metabolic syndrome in healthcare workers in Ecuador

2020

Abstract Background and aims The objective of the present work was to determine to what extent sleep quality may mediate the association between chronodisruption (CD) and metabolic syndrome (MS), and between CD and body composition (BC). Methodology Cross-sectional study which included 300 adult health workers, 150 of whom were night shift workers and thereby exposed to CD. Diagnosis of MS was made based on Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. Sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Body mass index (BMI), fat mass percentage, and visceral fat percentage were measured as indicators of body composition (BC). Data were analyzed using logistic, linear regression and …

Development and validation of the International Hidradenitis Suppurativa Severity Score System (IHS4), a novel dynamic scoring system to assess HS se…

2017

Background A validated tool for the dynamic severity assessment of hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is lacking. The aim of this study was to develop and validate such a novel scoring system. Methods A Delphi voting procedure was conducted among the members of the European Hidradenitis Suppurativa Foundation (EHSF) to achieve consensus towards an initial HS Severity Score System (HS4). Strengths and weaknesses of HS4 were examined by a multicenter prospective study. Multivariate logistic regression, discriminant analysis and receiver operating characteristic curves and examination for correlation (Spearman's rho) and agreement (Cohen's kappa) with existing scores were engaged to recognize the v…