Search results for "PIDE"
showing 10 items of 6055 documents
Anthropometric measures of 9-to 10-year-old native tibetan children living at 3700 and 4300m above sea level and han Chinese living at 3700m
2015
A high residential altitude impacts on the growth of children, and it has been suggested that linear growth (height) is more affected than body mass. The aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of obesity, overweight, underweight, and stunting in groups of native Tibetan children living at different residential altitudes (3700 vs 4300 m above sea level) and across ancestry (native Tibetan vs Han Chinese children living at the same altitude of 3700 m), as well as to examine the total effect of residential altitude and ancestry with stunting. Two cross-sectional studies of 1207 school children aged 9 to 10 years were conducted in Lhasa in 2005 and Tingri in 2007. Conventional …
Associations between air pollution and pediatric eczema, rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma: A meta-analysis of European birth cohorts
2020
Background: Uncertainly continues to exist regarding the role of air pollution on pediatric asthma and allergic conditions, especially as air pollution levels have started to decrease in recent decades. Objective: We examined associations of long-term air pollution levels at the home address with pediatric eczema, rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma prevalences in five birth cohorts (BIB, EDEN, GASPII, RHEA and INMA) from seven areas in five European countries. Methods: Current eczema, rhinoconjunctivitis and asthma were assessed in children aged four (N = 6527) and eight years (N = 2489). A multi-morbidity outcome (≥2 conditions versus none) was also defined. Individual outdoor levels of nitrog…
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…
Search without rescue? Evaluating the international search and rescue response to earthquake disasters
2020
Earthquakes around the world are unnecessarily lethal and destructive, adversely affecting the health and well-being of affected populations. Most immediate deaths and injuries are caused by building collapse, making search and rescue (SAR) an early priority. In this review, we assess the SAR response to earthquake disasters. First, we review the evidence for the majority of individuals being rescued locally, often by relatives and neighbours. We then summarise evidence for successful live rescues by international SAR (ISAR) teams, along with the costs, ethics and other considerations of deployment. Finally, we propose an alternative approach to postdisaster ISAR, with the goal of reducing …
Predicted temperature-increase-induced global health burden and its regional variability
2019
An increase in the global health burden of temperature was projected for 459 locations in 28 countries worldwide under four representative concentration pathway scenarios until 2099. We determined that the amount of temperature increase for each 100 ppm increase in global CO2 concentrations is nearly constant, regardless of climate scenarios. The overall average temperature increase during 2010–2099 is largest in Canada (1.16 °C/100 ppm) and Finland (1.14 °C/100 ppm), while it is smallest in Ireland (0.62 °C/100 ppm) and Argentina (0.63 °C/100 ppm). In addition, for each 1 °C temperature increase, the amount of excess mortality is increased largely in tropical countries such as Vietnam (10.…
2500 Years of European Climate Variability and Human Susceptibility
2011
Climate variations influenced the agricultural productivity, health risk, and conflict level of preindustrial societies. Discrimination between environmental and anthropogenic impacts on past civilizations, however, remains difficult because of the paucity of high-resolution paleoclimatic evidence. We present tree ring-based reconstructions of central European summer precipitation and temperature variability over the past 2500 years. Recent warming is unprecedented, but modern hydroclimatic variations may have at times been exceeded in magnitude and duration. Wet and warm summers occurred during periods of Roman and medieval prosperity. Increased climate variability from similar to 250 to 6…
Cryptic diversity within three South American whip spider species (Arachnida, Amblypygi)
2020
4 pages; International audience; Cryptic diversity (CD), the presence of highly divergent phylogenetic lineages within closed morphological species, has been documented for many taxa. Great arachnid orders such as Araneae or Scorpiones are well studied and many cases of CD have been described therein; to date, however, related research on smaller arachnid orders, such as whip spiders (Amblypygi), remains lacking. In the current study, we investigated CD based on cytochrome oxidase 1 (COI) in three nominal species of the genus Heterophrynus (H. alces, H. batesii, and H. longicornis), represented by 65 specimens. The sequences were compared using three different methods. All three species sho…
Sexual selection in a wolf spider: Male drumming activity, body size, and viability
1996
Females are often believed to actively choose highly ornamented males (males with extravagant morphological signals or intense sexual display), and ornaments should be honest signals of male viability. However, this belief is relying only on some pieces of empirical evidence from birds. Our study reports active female choice on sexual display that indicates male viability in spiders. We established trials in which we studied female choice in relation to male courtship drumming activity and body size. Females chose the most actively drumming males as mating partners, but the body size of the males did not seem to be selected. Male drumming activity turned out to be a good predictor of male v…
Patterns of the lemma micromorphology : a useful tool in taxonomy of the middle Asian Eragrostis species (Poaceae)
2017
We examined all taxa of the genus Eragrostis noted so far in Middle Asia, namely: Eragrostis amurensis, Eragrostis cilianensis, Eragrostis minor agg., Eragrostis pilosa and Eragrostis virescens. By means of scanning electron microscope, such structures as long cells, short cells (cork and silica cells), prickles, microhairs and glands were scrutinized and compared among taxa. Additionally, several macromorphological characteristics were investigated. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis were conducted in order to reveal the morphological relationships and differences among species. Micromorphology of the lemma epidermis, together with selected macromorphological characteristics…
Standardised spider (Arachnida, Araneae) inventory of Lammi, Finland
2020
In June 2019, an ecology field course of the University of Helsinki was held at Lammi Biological Station, Southern Finland. Within this course, the students familiarised themselves with field work and identification of spiders and explored the diversity of species in the area. Three sampling plots were chosen, one in grassland and two in boreal forest, to demonstrate the sampling techniques and, by applying a standardised protocol (COBRA), contribute to a global spider biodiversity project. The collected samples contained a total of 3445 spiders, of which 1956 (57%) were adult. Only adult spiders were accounted for in the inventory due to the impossibility of identification of juveniles. A …