Search results for "quality index"

Air pollution perception in ten countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021

As largely documented in the literature, the stark restrictions enforced worldwide in 2020 to curb the COVID-19 pandemic also curtailed the production of air pollutants to some extent. This study investigates the perception of the air pollution as assessed by individuals located in ten countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Ghana, India, Iran, Italy, Norway, South Africa and the USA. The perceptions towards air quality were evaluated by employing an online survey administered in May 2020. Participants (N = 9394) in the ten countries expressed their opinions according to a Likert-scale response. A reduction in pollutant concentration was clearly perceived, albeit to a different extent, by all …

Association between socioeconomic factors and sleep quality in an urban population-based sample in Germany.

2013

BACKGROUND: Good sleep quality is essential for recovery. The risk factors of sleep disorders have been extensively investigated, but there is sparse information on the association of socioeconomic factors with a person's sleep quality. The aim of the present analysis is to investigate this association, taking particularly the effect of health confounders into consideration.METHODS: The data were extracted from the cross-sectional QUEBEB Study. In total, the study sample consisted of 3281 participants (1817 women and 1464 men, aged 16-72 years). Here socioeconomic status (SES) was collected from the baseline survey taken in 2004. Sleep quality for the same participants was measured with in-…

Dermatology Life Quality Index among Different Cultures: A Neglected Bias Needs to Be Addressed.

2021

Interaction Between Orexin-A and Sleep Quality in Females in Extreme Weight Conditions

2016

The current study examined the relationship between plasma orexin-A and sleep in obesity. Concentrations of orexin-A and sleep were evaluated in 26 obese, 40 morbid obese and 32 healthy-weight participants. The sleep monitor Actiwatch AW7 and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were used to evaluate sleep. The Symptom Checklist-90-Revised was administered to assess symptoms of psychopathology. A higher weight status was associated with elevated orexin-A levels (p =.050), greater depression, anxiety and somatization symptoms (all: p <.001), and impoverished self-reported sleep quality (p <.001). A quadratic trend was found in objective sleep time, being longest in the obese group (p =.031). S…

A new approach to modelling the shelf life of Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata)

2013

Summary A total of 217 Gilthead seabreams were subdivided in four groups, according to four different storage conditions. All fish were evaluated by both Quality Index Method (QIM) and microbiological analysis, sampling skin, gills and flesh, separately. A QIM score predictive system was set by modelling the growth of microflora of skin, gills and flesh and coupling these predictions to each related partial QIM score (QIMSkin, QIMGills, QIMFlesh). The expression of QIM score as a function of bacterial behaviour was carried out by the employment of two coefficients. The predicted mean bacterial concentrations corresponding to the QIM score at 14 days were always near to Log 8 CFU g−1 in the …

Characterizing mortality effects of particulate matter size fractions in the two capital cities of the Canary Islands

2010

Most of the studies differentiating the effect of size-classified particulate matter (PM) exposure have been carried out in cities where the average levels of fine particles (PM2.5) were higher than those of coarse particles (PM10-2.5). These studies have suggested that PM2.5 is associated with daily mortality, but there is only limited evidence that PM10-2.5 is independently associated with mortality. The citizens of the Canary Islands are exposed to PM which is highly influenced by mineral dust because of the islands' proximity to the Western Coast of Morocco. This offers an excellent opportunity to analyze in detail the short-term association between PM size fractions and total, respirat…

Sexism, romantic love and gender inequality. A study of Latin American adolescents living in Spain

2019

Este trabajo examina el papel de los factores sociodemográficos como determinantes de las creencias y actitudes sexistas y las percepciones distorsionadas sobre el amor romántico, y analiza la relación entre el sexismo hostil y el sexismo benevolente y las creencias en mitos del amor romántico, según el Índice de Desigualdad de Género (idg), en una muestra de 203 adolescentes latinoamericanos residentes en Valencia (España). This paper examines the role of socio-demographic factors determining both sexist beliefs and attitudes and distorted perceptions of romantic love. Moreover, the relationship between hostile and benevolent sexism, and the belief in myths about romantic love is analyzed …

A case study to the Evaluation of Global Environmental Quality, concerning thermal, acoustic and atmospheric conditions of urban areas

2013

In this paper we propose an operative procedure aimed at assessing and check the global environmental quality in the urban areas. This methodology is set up by using an ergonomic approach that analyses the interaction man-environment in terms of cause-effect and uses information and data from various sources contributing to the formation of discomfort degrees.[1-2] The representation technique by normo-grams is used for showing some applications executed along the urban territory of Palermo and allows to evaluate very simply all the parameters involved in human comfort. This paper is divided in 5 sections, after the introduction in section 2 a review of the principal simple and complex inde…

Associations of Sleep Quality, Anxiety, and Depression with Cognitive and Executive Functions among Community-Dwelling Women Aged 65 ≥ Years: A Cross…

2021

Background: The objective of this study was to evaluate the associations of sleep quality, anxiety, and depression with cognitive performance, executive functions, and verbal fluency among women aged ≥ 65 years. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 241 women (72.52 ± 3.93 years). Cognitive performance (Mini-Mental State Examination) and impairment (Montreal Cognitive Assessment), verbal fluency (Isaacs test) and executive function (Trail Making Test), Sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep quality Index) and anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) were determined. Results: The linear regression analysis indicated that anxiety, depression and age, were related to…

Environmental risk factors and lung diseases in children: From guidelines to health effects

2013

Abstract During the last decades research all over the world has highlighted the deleterious effects of outdoor and indoor pollution on respiratory health of adults and children. The World Health Organization (WHO) “ Air quality guidelines for Europe ” played a fundamental role in providing information and guidance to authorities involved in the air pollution field and they are considered the key source on which the European Commission's directive on air quality is based. Children appear to be most vulnerable to the harmful effects of outdoor pollutants, which can cause both acute exacerbations, as well as chronic respiratory symptoms and diseases. Possible mechanisms include the induction …