Search results for "outdoor"
showing 10 items of 131 documents
Unconventional Reducing Gases Monitoring in Everyday Places
2017
Abstract Air pollution, be it indoors or outdoors, is a major environmental health concern as it can lead to serious health effects, such as respiratory diseases, including asthma and lung cancer. Much progress has been made in Europe in improving outdoor air quality and limit values have been set for several pollutants. However, indoor air quality also requires attention because this is where we spend most of our time. Measurements at appropriate spatial and temporal scales are essential for understanding and monitoring heterogeneous environments with complex and highly variable emission sources, such as in urban areas. However, the costs and complexity of conventional air quality measurem…
Research on ecological design to enhance comfort in open spaces of a city (Valencia, Spain). Utility of the physiological equivalent temperature (PET)
2013
For many years now, research has focused on issues concerning making cities easier to live in and some of the most important of these concern climatology and thermal comfort issues. There is also a growing awareness of the importance of open spaces and green areas, as key elements in providing opportunities for human interaction, leisure and physical exercise. They are important for all inhabitants, but particularly so for children and the elderly population. Of especial interest are the studies which have examined the interaction of comfort with the urban climate. This issue was studied throughout the twentieth century, but recently the role which can be played by biometeorological indices…
Transgene detection by digital droplet PCR
2014
Somatic gene therapy is a promising tool for the treatment of severe diseases. Because of its abuse potential for performance enhancement in sports, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) included the term 'gene doping' in the official list of banned substances and methods in 2004. Several nested PCR or qPCR-based strategies have been proposed that aim at detecting long-term presence of transgene in blood, but these strategies are hampered by technical limitations. We developed a digital droplet PCR (ddPCR) protocol for Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 (IGF1) detection and demonstrated its applicability monitoring 6 mice injected into skeletal muscle with AAV9-IGF1 elements and 2 controls over a 3…
Environmental Features Associated With Older Adults' Physical Activity in Different Types of Urban Neighborhoods.
2020
The authors studied associations of nature- and infrastructure-based features with physical activity (PA) in different urban neighborhood types; 848 community-dwelling people aged 75–90 years reported PA and three perceived nature-based destinations and seven infrastructure-based features as outdoor mobility facilitators. Neighborhood type was defined using a geographic information system based on proximity to central service areas and residential density (city center, subcenter, and dense and dispersed areas outside centers). PA was higher in dense areas and the city center. Binary logistic regression showed that perceiving nature-based destinations increased the odds for higher PA in the …
The effect of out-of-home activity intervention delivered by volunteers on depressive symptoms among older people with severe mobility limitations: a…
2015
Objectives: To examine the effects of an individualized outdoor activity intervention carried out by volunteers on depressive symptoms among community-living older people with severe mobility limitations who have difficulties accessing the outdoors independently. Methods: Secondary analyses of the “Volunteering, Access to Outdoor Activities and Wellbeing in Older People” (VOW) data (ISRCTN56847832). VOW was a randomized single blinded two-arm controlled trial conducted in Jyväskylä, Finland, in 2009-2011. At baseline, 121 people aged 67-92 years with severe mobility limitations were interviewed at home and randomized into either an intervention or waiting list control group. Volunteers (n=4…
Projections of temperature-related excess mortality under climate change scenarios.
2017
Background: Climate change can directly affect human health by varying exposure to non-optimal outdoor temperature. However, evidence on this direct impact at a global scale is limited, mainly due to issues in modelling and projecting complex and highly heterogeneous epidemiological relationships across different populations and climates. Methods: We collected observed daily time series of mean temperature and mortality counts for all causes or non-external causes only, in periods ranging from Jan 1, 1984, to Dec 31, 2015, from various locations across the globe through the Multi-Country Multi-City Collaborative Research Network. We estimated temperature–mortality relationships through a tw…
Optimising an outdoor membrane photobioreactor for tertiary sewage treatment
2019
[EN] The operation of an outdoor membrane photobioreactor plant which treated the effluent of an anaerobic membrane bioreactor was optimised. Biomass retention times of 4.5, 6, and 9 days were tested. At a biomass retention time of 4.5 days, maximum nitrogen recovery rate:light irradiance ratios, photosynthetic efficiencies and carbon biofixations of 51.7¿±¿14.3¿mg¿N·mol¿1, 4.4¿±¿1.6% and 0.50¿±¿0.05¿kg CO2·m3influent, respectively, were attained. Minimum membrane fouling rates were achieved when operating at the shortest biomass retention time because of the lower solid concentration and the negligible amount of cyanobacteria and protozoa. Hydraulic retention times of 3.5, 2, and 1.5 days …
Outdoor microalgae-based urban wastewater treatment: recent advances, applications and future perspectives
2021
[EN] Although microalgae-based wastewater treatment has been traditionally carried out in extensive waste stabilization ponds, recent trends focus on the use of microalgae to apply the circular economy principles in the wastewater treatment sector due to the capacity of algae to absorb carbon dioxide while recovering nutrients from sewage. To this aim, the development of new intensive microalgae-based systems with higher efficiency and level of process control is required. Results obtained for these systems at lab scale are generally promising. However, upscaling to outdoor conditions is often uncertain. Some advances have been made in terms of applying open systems at large scale. However,…
Dataset to assess the shadow effect of an outdoor microalgae culture
2019
[EN] This data in brief (DIB) article is related to a Research article [1]. Microalgae biomass absorb the light photons that are supplied to the culture, reducing the light availability in the inner parts of the photobioreactors. This is known as self-shading or shadow effect. This effect has been widely studied in lab conditions, but information about self-shading in outdoor photobioreactors is scarce. How this shadow effect affects the light availability in an outdoor photobioreactor was evaluated. In addition, advantages and disadvantages of different artificial light sources which can overcome light limitation are described.
Continuous 3-year outdoor operation of a flat-panel membrane photobioreactor to treat effluent from an anaerobic membrane bioreactor
2020
[EN] A membrane photobioreactor (MPBR) plant was operated continuously for 3 years to evaluate the separate effects of different factors, including: biomass and hydraulic retention times (BRT, HRT), light path (Lp), nitrification rate (NOxR), nutrient loading rates (NLR, PLR) and others. The overall effect of all these parameters which influence MPBR performance had not previously been assessed. The multivariate projection approach chosen for this study provided a good description of the collected data and facilitated their visualisation and interpretation. Forty variables used to control and assess MPBR performance were evaluated during three years of continuous outdoor operation by means …