Sensors Network as an Added Value for the Characterization of Spatial and Temporal Air Quality Patterns at the Urban Scale.

Within the scope of the Aveiro STEAM City project, an air quality monitoring network was installed in the city of Aveiro (Portugal), to evaluate the potential of sensors to characterize spatial and temporal patterns of air quality in the city. The network consists of nine sensors stations with air quality sensors (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, O3 and CO) and two meteorological stations, distributed within selected locations in the city of Aveiro. The analysis of the data was done for a one-year measurement period, from June 2020 to May 2021, using temporal profiles, statistical comparisons with reference stations and Air Quality Indexes (AQI). The analysis of sensors data indicated that air quality variability exists for all pollutants and stations. The majority of the study area is characterized by good air quality, but specific areas-associated with hotspot traffic zones-exhibit medium, poor and bad air quality more frequently. The daily patterns registered are significantly different between the affected and non-affected road traffic sites, mainly for PM and NO2 pollutants. The weekly profile, significative deltas are found between week and weekend: NO2 is reduced on the weekends at traffic sites, but PM10 is higher in specific areas during winter weekends, which is explained by residential combustion sources.

Air pollution and tourism growth relationship: exploring regional dynamics in five European countries through an EKC model.

The present study intends to explore the relationship between tourism growth and air pollution at a regional level for five important tourism European destinations: France, Spain, Greece, Portugal, and Italy. Most of the studies found in the literature examine this relationship on a national scale and focus only on the CO2 pollutant, which is a greenhouse gas but not a critical pollutant in terms of air quality and human exposure. This research focuses on a regional basis (NUTS 2 classification) and takes into account the main critical pollutants in terms of urban air pollution (namely: NOx, PM10, and PM2.5), and considers 10 years, from 2009 until 2018. This work aims to investigate evidence of a tourism-induced Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) for the countries through the construction of five panels, one for each country, including different variables: the Gross Domestic Product, the energy consumption, and the number of nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments from both domestic and foreign tourists. The Levin-Lin-Chu unit root test proves the variables to be stationary, while the Pedroni cointegration test shows that they are integrated. The pooled OLS estimator is employed throughout the countries to check the relationship among the variables. Results reveal that the tourism-induced EKC hypothesis is not validated for any of the countries. The findings also show that in Portugal, Italy, and Greece, there is a negative relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution, while mixed evidence is found for France and Spain. Moreover, differences in the impacts of international and domestic tourists on air pollution are found: foreign tourists negatively impact emissions, while domestic ones increase them. This result is clear for Spain, Greece, and Italy. The Granger panel causality test is then conducted to see the causality among the variables.

Multi-sectoral impact assessment of an extreme African dust episode in the Eastern Mediterranean in March 2018.

In late March 2018, a large part of the Eastern Mediterranean experienced an extraordinary episode of African dust, one of the most intense in recent years, here referred to as the "Minoan Red" event. The episode mainly affected the Greek island of Crete, where the highest aerosol concentrations over the past 15 yeas were recorded, although impacts were also felt well beyond this core area. Our study fills a gap in dust research by assessing the multi-sectoral impacts of sand and dust storms and their socioeconomic implications. Specifically, we provide a multi-sectoral impact assessment of Crete during the occurrence of this exceptional African dust event. During the day of the occurrence of the maximum dust concentration in Crete, i.e. March 22nd, 2018, we identified impacts on meteorological conditions, agriculture, transport, energy, society (including closing of schools and cancellation of social events), and emergency response systems. As a result, the event led to a 3-fold increase in daily emergency responses compare to previous days associated with urban emergencies and wildfires, a 3.5-fold increase in hospital visits and admissions for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) exacerbations and dyspnoea, a reduction of visibility causing aircraft traffic disruptions (eleven cancellations and seven delays), and a reduction of solar energy production. We estimate the cost of direct and indirect effects of the dust episode, considering the most affected socio-economic sectors (e.g. civil protection, aviation, health and solar energy production), to be between 3.4 and 3.8 million EUR for Crete. Since such desert dust transport episodes are natural, meteorology-driven and thus to a large extent unavoidable, we argue that the efficiency of actions to mitigate dust impacts depends on the accuracy of operational dust forecasting and the implementation of relevant early warning systems for social awareness.

The impact of COVID-19 on air quality levels in Portugal: A way to assess traffic contribution.

The pandemic caused by coronavirus COVID-19 is having a worldwide impact that affects health, the economy and indirectly affects the air pollution in cities. In Portugal, the number of cases increased continually (32700 confirmed cases as of May 31, 2020), which has affected the health system and caused movement restrictions which in turn affects the air pollution in the country. This article analyses the indirect effect produced by this pandemic on air pollution in Portugal, by comparison of data from a period of movement restriction of the citizens by the government - COVID lockdown period (March-May 2020) with data from baseline conditions (mean of the mirrored periods from the five previous years (March-May from 2015 to 2019)). Air quality data - in particular NO2 and PM10 hourly concentration - from more than 20 monitoring stations spread over mainland Portugal was used to perform this evaluation. The mean reduction observed on pollutant concentrations was higher for NO2 (41%) than for PM10 (18%). For NO2, mean reductions were more significant in traffic (reaching values higher than 60% in some monitoring stations) and background urban sites than in rural stations. The reduction of NO2 concentration observed in traffic sites were compared to the estimation of traffic contribution by the incremental method, suggesting that this latter approach is not consistent (lower in same sites and higher in others) and alerting to the careful use of this approach in future works.

Trypanosoma evansi: molecular homogeneity as inferred by phenetical analysis of ribosomal internal transcribed spacers DNA of an eclectic parasite.

The protozoan Trypanosoma evansi is described as presenting high morphological and genetic similarities among the isolates despite its biological heterogeneity and wide geographical distribution. PCR amplification of the internal transcribed spacers of the ribosomal gene in combination with the coding region of the 5.8S ribosomal subunit further submitted to restriction enzymes digestion were carried out in DNAs extracted from 41 T. evansi strains isolated from horses, dogs, coatis and capybaras from two distinct regions of the Brazilian Pantanal. We also used one T. evansi isolate from Africa, one from Asia and one isolate of T. b. brucei from Africa. Analysis of the RFLP profiles yielded a unique "riboprinting" that does not vary intraspecifically. These results provide insights on the ribosomal gene organization of T. evansi and showed that ITS analysis by RFLP show high genetic similarity of this locus among isolates of this protozoan parasite.

Abscessos periodônticos assintomáticos como causa de febre de origem indeterminada / Asymptomatic periodontic abscesses as a cause of fever of unknown origin

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo relatar um caso de paciente que apresentava febre de origem indeterminada, em investigaçäo diagnóstica por um período de internaçäo hospitalar, foi evidenciada a presença de importante derrame pericárdico. Este involuiu espontaneamente, sem tratamento específico. Após exaustiva pesquisa clínica e devido à realizaçäo de exame físico minuncioso, concluiu-se que a gênese da febre estava ligada à presença de abscessos periodônticos múltiplos assintomáticos. Após tratamento odontológico, o paciente evoluiu com melhora clínica e desaparecimento da febre