Evaluating the quality of sediments in streams draining contrasting land-use areas in Osogbo metropolis, southwestern Nigeria.

The attendant effects of urbanization on the environment and human health are evaluable by measuring the potentially harmful element (PHE) concentrations in environmental media such as stream sediments. To evaluate the effect of urbanization in Osogbo Metropolis, the quality of stream sediments from a densely-populated area with commercial/industrial activities was contrasted with sediments from a sparsely-populated area with minimal anthropogenic input.Forty samples were obtained: 29 from Okoko stream draining a Residential/Commercial Area (RCA, n = 14) and an Industrial Area (IA, n = 15), and 11 from Omu stream draining a sparsely-populated area (SPA). The samples were air-dried, sieved to < 75 micron fraction, and analysed for PHEs using inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). Index of geoaccumulation (Igeo), pollution index (PI), ecological risk factor (Er) and index (ERI) were used for assessment. Inter-elemental relationships and source identification were done using Pearson's correlation matrix and principal component analysis (PCA).PHE concentrations in the stream sediments were RCA: Zn > Pb > Cu > Cr > Sr > Ni > Co, IA: Zn > Cr > Ni > Co > Pb > Cu > Sr and SPA: Zn > Co > Cr > Cu > Sr > Ni > Pb. Igeo calculations revealed moderate-heavy contamination of Cu, Pb and Zn in parts of RCA, moderate-heavy contamination of Zn in IA while SPA had moderate contamination of Co and Zn. PI values revealed that stream sediments of RCA are extremely polluted, while those of IA and SPA are moderately and slightly polluted, respectively.The pollution of the stream sediments in RCA and IA is adduced to anthropogenic activities like vehicular traffic, automobile repairs/painting, blacksmithing/welding and metal scraping. In SPA however, the contamination resulted from the application of herbicides/fertilizers for agricultural purposes.

Particulate matter exposure from motorized traffic and risk of conversion from mild cognitive impairment to dementia: An Italian prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Based on epidemiologic and laboratory studies, exposure to air pollutants has been linked to many adverse health effects including a higher risk of dementia. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effect of long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution on risk of conversion to dementia in a cohort of subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). METHODS: We recruited 53 Italian subjects newly-diagnosed with MCI. Within a geographical information system, we assessed recent outdoor air pollutant exposure, by modeling air levels of particulate matter with equivalent aerodynamic diameter ≤10 µm (PM10) from motorized traffic at participants' residence. We investigated the relation of PM10 concentrations to subsequent conversion from MCI to any type of dementia. Using a Cox-proportional hazards model combined with a restricted cubic spline model, we computed the hazard ratio (HR) of dementia with its 95% confidence interval (CI) according to increasing PM10 exposure, adjusting for sex, age, and educational attainment. RESULTS: During a median follow up of 47.3 months, 34 participants developed dementia, in 26 cases diagnosed as Alzheimer's dementia. In non-linear restricted spline regression analysis, mean and maximum annual PM10 levels positively correlated with cerebrospinal fluid total and phosphorylated tau proteins concentrations, while they were inversely associated with ß-amyloid. Concerning the risk of dementia, we found a positive association starting from above 10 µg/m3 for mean PM10 levels and above 35 µg/m3 for maximum PM10 levels. Specific estimates for Alzheimer's dementia were substantially similar. Adding other potential confounders to the multivariable model or removing early cases of dementia onset during the follow-up had little effect on the estimates. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that exposure to outdoor air pollutants, PM10 in particular, may non-linearly increase conversion from MCI to dementia above a certain ambient air concentration.

Vehicular Traffic Flow Analysis and Minimize the Vehicle Queue Waiting Time Using Signal Distribution Control Algorithm.

The real-time vehicular traffic system is an integral part of the urban vehicular traffic system, which provides effective traffic signal control for a large multifaceted traffic network and is a highly challenging distributed control problem. Coordinating vehicular traffic enables the network model to deliver an efficient service flow. Consider that there are four lanes of vehicular traffic in this situation, allowing parallel vehicle movements to occur without causing an accident. In this instance, the vehicular system's control parameters are time and vehicle volume. In this work, vehicular traffic flow is examined, and an algorithm to estimate vehicle waiting time in each direction is estimated. The effectiveness of the proposed vehicle traffic signal distribution control system by comparing the experimental results with a real-time vehicular traffic system is verified. This is also illustrated numerically.

Evaluating natural and anthropogenic inputs on the distribution of potentially toxic elements in urban soil of Valdivia, Chile.

The increasing population in urban areas in the last decades requires an effort to understand the geochemistry of contaminant elements in urban soil. Topsoil plays a crucial role in the exposure of Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) to humans through ingestion, dermal contact, and inhalation. In Chile, the last census revealed that 88.6% of people live in cities or towns and only 11.4% in rural areas. This study presents the first systematic geochemical survey of urban soil in the city of Valdivia, in the South of Chile. Topsoil samples (0-10 cm depth) were collected in less disturbed locations within the city at 130 sampling sites using a grid of 0.25 km2 squares covering a total area of approximately 30 km2. The concentrations of Al, Fe, Na, Ca, Mg, K, Ti, Be, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Mo, Sn, Cd, Se, Pb and Hg were measured. The results showed that high concentrations of Cu, V, Zn and Pb are located mainly in the city's northern area and exceed international soil quality legislation for agricultural use. Data processing comprised plotting of individual spatial distribution maps and the use of a combination of multivariate statistical methods. Hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis identified three element associations. The two element groups V-Al-Ti-Fe-Cr-Co-Mn-Be-Ni and Ca-Na-K-As-Mg are interpreted as a dominant lithological origin related to the most pristine soil conditions in less populated areas. By contrast, the Sn-Pb-Zn-Mo-(Cu-Hg) association presents a significant correlation with urbanization indicators, including vehicular traffic and industrial activities developed since the end of the nineteenth century in Valdivia.

Vehicular traffic density and cognitive performance in the ELSA-Brasil study.

BACKGROUND: Despite the knowledge about the deleterious effects of air pollutants and their influence on mortality and morbidity due to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, little is known about the relationship between atmospheric pollutants and neurological diseases. Recently, studies from high-income countries have suggested an association between exposures to air pollutants with cognitive impairment. Thus, we investigated the association of air pollution with cognitive performance in the participants of the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil). METHODS: Cognitive function was evaluated using the word list, the verbal fluency, and the trail making tests (TMT). Pollutant exposure was evaluated indirectly using the distance-weighted traffic density (DWTD) of participants' residence and workplace. We investigated the cross-sectional association between DWTD and cognitive test scores using adjusted linear regression models for sociodemographic and clinical variables. RESULTS: 3050 were included (mean age = 52.1 ± 9.2 years old, 56.5% women, and 63.6% white). In the simple linear regression models, participants in the higher tertile of combined DWTD (residence and workplace) presented better cognitive performance in all tests when compared to participants in the lower tertile. The DWTD was not associated with cognitive performance in adjusted linear models especially when adjusted for socioeconomic variables (age, sex, education, and race). We found similar results when we investigated the association of cognitive performance with DTWD near participants' workplace and residence separately. CONCLUSION: Air pollutants were not associated with worse cognitive performance in a large sample of middle-aged and older adults.

Vehicular Traffic Congestion Classification by Visual Features and Deep Learning Approaches: A Comparison.

Automatic traffic flow classification is useful to reveal road congestions and accidents. Nowadays, roads and highways are equipped with a huge amount of surveillance cameras, which can be used for real-time vehicle identification, and thus providing traffic flow estimation. This research provides a comparative analysis of state-of-the-art object detectors, visual features, and classification models useful to implement traffic state estimations. More specifically, three different object detectors are compared to identify vehicles. Four machine learning techniques are successively employed to explore five visual features for classification aims. These classic machine learning approaches are compared with the deep learning techniques. This research demonstrates that, when methods and resources are properly implemented and tested, results are very encouraging for both methods, but the deep learning method is the most accurately performing one reaching an accuracy of 99.9% for binary traffic state classification and 98.6% for multiclass classification.

The impact of tree barriers on the dispersal of lead in the soil at highway roadsides.

Tree windbreaks are common features in high-traffic roadsides that mitigate air pollution, winds, and noise. The impact of tree barriers on the dispersal of lead in the soil was studied at highway roadsides located near Holon city, Israel. A discontinuous line of trees parallel to the highway separated the highway from agricultural fields. The line includes alternating trees and openings; thus, it was divided into two groups: one consists of the areas hidden by trees (windbreaks) and the other includes the open areas exposed to the road (gaps). At each of the windbreaks and gaps, soil samples were collected from the upper 0-5 cm depth at various distances from the road: 6, 11, 27, 40, 60 m. Lead concentration and soil properties associated with lead adsorption (organic matter, texture, calcium carbonate) were determined for all soil samples. At both the windbreak and gap areas, the averages and the medians of lead content declined nonlinearly with increasing distance from the highway. At 6 m distance, the average lead content in the windbreak areas was higher than that in the gaps (176 and 157 mg kg-1, respectively). At the area between 17 and 40 m distance, an opposite trend was seen. High significant positive correlations were found between lead and calcium carbonate and organic matter contents at both the windbreaks and the gaps. Yet, organic matter content less than 2% did not correlate with lead.

Cooperative Vehicular Traffic Monitoring in Realistic Low Penetration Scenarios: The COLOMBO Experience.

The relevance of effective and efficient solutions for vehicle traffic surveillance is widely recognized in order to enable advanced strategies for traffic management, e.g., based on dynamically adaptive and decentralized traffic light management. However, most related solutions in the literature, based on the powerful enabler of cooperative vehicular communications, assume the complete penetration rate of connectivity/communication technologies (and willingness to participate in the collaborative surveillance service) over the targeted vehicle population, thus making them not applicable nowadays. The paper originally proposes an innovative solution for cooperative traffic surveillance based on vehicular communications capable of: (i) working with low penetration rates of the proposed technology and (ii) of collecting a large set of monitoring data about vehicle mobility in targeted areas of interest. The paper presents insights and lessons learnt from the design and implementation work of the proposed solution. Moreover, it reports extensive performance evaluation results collected on realistic simulation scenarios based on the usage of iTETRIS with real traces of vehicular traffic of the city of Bologna. The reported results show the capability of our proposal to consistently estimate the real vehicular traffic even with low penetration rates of our solution (only 10%).

An Efficient Computational Technique for Fractal Vehicular Traffic Flow.

In this work, we examine a fractal vehicular traffic flow problem. The partial differential equations describing a fractal vehicular traffic flow are solved with the aid of the local fractional homotopy perturbation Sumudu transform scheme and the local fractional reduced differential transform method. Some illustrative examples are taken to describe the success of the suggested techniques. The results derived with the aid of the suggested schemes reveal that the present schemes are very efficient for obtaining the non-differentiable solution to fractal vehicular traffic flow problem.

Vehicular traffic noise prediction using soft computing approach.

A new approach for the development of vehicular traffic noise prediction models is presented. Four different soft computing methods, namely, Generalized Linear Model, Decision Trees, Random Forests and Neural Networks, have been used to develop models to predict the hourly equivalent continuous sound pressure level, Leq, at different locations in the Patiala city in India. The input variables include the traffic volume per hour, percentage of heavy vehicles and average speed of vehicles. The performance of the four models is compared on the basis of performance criteria of coefficient of determination, mean square error and accuracy. 10-fold cross validation is done to check the stability of the Random Forest model, which gave the best results. A t-test is performed to check the fit of the model with the field data.

Dynamics of ultrafine particles inside a roadway tunnel.

Size-segregated ultrafine particles from motor vehicles were investigated in the Craeybeckx tunnel (E19 motorway, Antwerp, Belgium) at two measurement sites, at 100 and 300 m inside the tunnel, respectively, during March 2008. It was observed that out of the three size modes, nucleation, Aitken, and accumulation, Aitken mode was the most dominant size fraction inside the tunnel. The diurnal variation in ultrafine particle (UFP) levels closely follows the vehicular traffic inside the tunnel, which was maximum during office rush hours, both in the morning and evening and minimum during night-time around 3 am. The tunnel data showed very high growth rates in comparison with free atmosphere. The average condensation sink during the growth period was 14.1-17.3 × 10(-2) s(-1). The average growth rate (GR) of geometric mean diameter was found to be 18.6 ± 2.45 nm h(-1). It was observed that increase in Aitken mode was related to the numbers of heavy-duty vehicles (HDV), as they emit mainly in the Aitken mode. The higher Aitken mode during traffic jams correlated well with HDV numbers. At the end of the tunnel, sudden dilution leading to fast coagulation was responsible for the sudden drop in the UFP number concentration.

Capacity and establishment rules govern the number of nonnative species in communities of ground-dwelling invertebrates.

Nonnative species are a key agent of global change. However, nonnative invertebrates remain understudied at the community scales where they are most likely to drive local extirpations. We use the North American NEON pitfall trapping network to document the number of nonnative species from 51 invertebrate communities, testing four classes of drivers. We sequenced samples using the eDNA from the sample's storage ethanol. We used AICc informed regression to evaluate how native species richness, productivity, habitat, temperature, and human population density and vehicular traffic account for continent-wide variation in the number of nonnative species in a local community. The percentage of nonnatives varied 3-fold among habitat types and over 10-fold (0%-14%) overall. We found evidence for two types of constraints on nonnative diversity. Consistent with Capacity rules (i.e., how the number of niches and individuals reflect the number of species an ecosystem can support) nonnatives increased with existing native species richness and ecosystem productivity. Consistent with Establishment Rules (i.e., how the dispersal rate of nonnative propagules and the number of open sites limits nonnative species richness) nonnatives increased with automobile traffic-a measure of human-generated propagule pressure-and were twice as common in pastures than native grasslands. After accounting for drivers associated with a community's ability to support native species (native species richness and productivity), nonnatives are more common in communities that are regularly seasonally disturbed (pastures and, potentially deciduous forests) and those experiencing more vehicular traffic. These baseline values across the US North America will allow NEON's monitoring mission to document how anthropogenic change-from disturbance to propagule transport, from temperature to trends in local extinction-further shape biotic homogenization.

Occurrence of palladium and platinum in human scalp hair of adolescents living in urban and industrial sites.

Platinum group elements (PGEs) can be naturally found at very low concentrations in the Earth's crust. However, the increasing uses of PGEs in vehicle exhaust catalysts, in addition to some other applications (industry, jewelry, anticancer drugs) cause their anthropogenic emission and dispersion in the environment. The use of human hair samples analysis is considered a suitable biological indicator to assess human occupational and environmental exposure. It is an easily accessible material for individuals or population groups of non-invasive sampling. The aim of this study is a comparative analysis to investigate human hair content of Pd and Pt in adolescents, of both genders, residing near petrochemical plants of Augusta and Gela, in urban area of Palermo, and Lentini as control site (Sicily, Italy). A total of 108 samples were taken from school students (11-14 years old). Hair samples were cleaned, mineralized, and processed for analyses by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The samples from the industrial sites of Gela and Augusta do not have statistically significant differences between them for either Pd for Pt; however, they differ from the samples relating to the city of Palermo. Median Pd concentrations are higher than Pt in industrial sites and control site. In urban site the levels of both metals were comparable. The study does not reveal any statistically significant difference between Pd and Pt concentrations in female and male samples. The data confirm that the study areas are heavily affected by industrial and urban emissions of Pd and Pt, representing a potential hazard to the local population.

Risk Associations between Vehicular Traffic Noise Exposure and Cardiovascular Diseases: A Residential Retrospective Cohort Study.

Environmental noise can induce detrimental health effects such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). The relationship between vehicular traffic noise pollution and CVD was investigated through a retrospective residential cohort study in the city of Pisa. Four exposure classes were defined for noise pollution, using noise propagation maps. The association between noise exposures and cause-specific mortality or hospitalization of the subjects of the cohort was calculated using the hazard ratio (HR) for night and day through a multiple time-dependent and sex-specific Cox regression adjusting for age, the socio-economic deprivation index, and traffic air pollution. Mortality excess for CVD and risk trends for a 1 decibel noise increment were observed among the most exposed women (mortality: HRnightclass4 1.15 (1.03-1.28); Trendnight 1.007 (1.002-1.012); HRdayclass4 1.14 (1.02-1.27); Trendday 1.008 (1.003-1.013)), particularly for ischaemic disease (mortality: Trendnight 1.008 (0.999-1.017); Trendday 1.009 (0.999-1.018)) and cerebrovascular disease (mortality: HRnightclass3 1.23 (1.02-1.48), HRdayclass3 1.24 (1.03-1.49)). Hospitalization analyses confirm mortality results. A decreased risk for hospitalization was also observed among the most exposed men (HRdayclass4 0.94 (0.88-1.01), particularly for ischaemic disease (HRnightclass4 0.90 (0.80-1.02); HRdayclass4 0.86 (0.77-0.97)) and cerebrovascular disease (HRnightclass4 0.89 (0.78-1.01)). Authors recommend the adoption of prevention measures aimed at mitigating noise and the activation of a monitoring of the risk profile in the Pisa population updating both the residential cohort and health data.

Wombat Roadkill Was Not Reduced by a Virtual Fence. Comment on Stannard et al. Can Virtual Fences Reduce Wombat Road Mortalities? Ecol. Eng. 2021, 172, 106414.

The roadkill of wildlife is a global problem. Much has been written about deterring wildlife from roads, but, as of yet, there is no empirical support for deterrents based on visual and/or auditory signals. A recent paper entitled 'Can virtual fences reduce wombat road mortalities?'reported the results of a roadkill mitigation trial. The authors installed a 'virtual fence' system produced by iPTE Traffic Solutions Ltd. (Graz, Austria) and evaluated its effectiveness for reducing roadkills of bare-nosed wombats (Vombatus ursinus) in southern Australia. The authors recorded roadkills in a simple Before-After-Control-Impact design but did not conduct any formal statistical analysis. They also measured three contextual variables (vegetation, wombat burrows, and vehicle velocity) but did not link these to the occurrence of roadkills in space and time. The authors concluded that the iPTE virtual fence system was 'minimally effective', yet 'appears promising'. Our analysis of their data, using standard inferential statistics, showed no effect of the virtual fence on roadkills whatsoever. We conclude that the iPTE system was not effective for mitigating the roadkills of bare-nosed wombats.

Transfer of Metal(loid)s from Soil to Leaves and Trunk Xylem Sap of Medicinal Plants and Possible Health Risk Assessment.

The objective of the present study was to investigate metal(loid)s in soils, in the trunk xylem sap and in the leaves of the Dipteryx alata plant located near the highway with high vehicle traffic in agricultural regions and near landfills, and to assess the transfer of metal(loid)s from soil to plant and possible health risk assessment. Trunk xylem sap, leaves and soil samples were collected at three sites near the highway. The analysis of trace elements was carried out using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP OES). In the three soil sampling sites far from the highway edge, 15 elements were quantified. The concentrations of elements in the soil presented in greater proportions in the distance of 5 m in relation to 20 and 35 m. The metal(loid)s content in the study soil was higher than in other countries. The concentrations of Al, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, P, Se and Zn in the xylem sap were much higher than the leaves. The values of transfer factor of P, Mg and Mn from soil to the xylem sap and transfer factor of P from soil to leaf were greater than 1, indicating that the specie have a significant phytoremediation and phytoextraction potential. This plant has a tendency to accumulate As, Cd and Cr in its leaf tissues. The chronic hazard index (HI) values recorded in this study were above 1 for adults and adolescents. It is concluded that the soil, the trunk xylem sap and leaves of this plant are contaminated by heavy metals. Ingestion of the trunk xylem sap of this plant can cause toxicity in humans if ingested in large quantities and in the long term; therefore, its consumption should be avoided.

Risk of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Exposure to Particulate Matter from Vehicular Traffic: A Case-Control Study.

(1) Background: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease with still unknown etiology. Some occupational and environmental risk factors have been suggested, including long-term air pollutant exposure. We carried out a pilot case-control study in order to evaluate ALS risk due to particulate matter with a diameter of ≤10 µm (PM10) as a proxy of vehicular traffic exposure. (2) Methods: We recruited ALS patients and controls referred to the Modena Neurology ALS Care Center between 1994 and 2015. Using a geographical information system, we modeled PM10 concentrations due to traffic emissions at the geocoded residence address at the date of case diagnosis. We computed the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of ALS according to increasing PM10 exposure, using an unconditional logistic regression model adjusted for age and sex. (3) Results: For the 132 study participants (52 cases and 80 controls), the average of annual median and maximum PM10 concentrations were 5.2 and 38.6 µg/m3, respectively. Using fixed cutpoints at 5, 10, and 20 of the annual median PM10 levels, and compared with exposure <5 µg/m3, we found no excess ALS risk at 5-10 µg/m3 (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.39-1.96), 10-20 µg/m3 (0.94, 95% CI 0.24-3.70), and ≥20 µg/m3 (0.87, 95% CI 0.05-15.01). Based on maximum PM10 concentrations, we found a statistically unstable excess ALS risk for subjects exposed at 10-20 µg/m3 (OR 4.27, 95% CI 0.69-26.51) compared with those exposed <10 µg/m3. However, risk decreased at 20-50 µg/m3 (OR 1.49, 95% CI 0.39-5.75) and ≥50 µg/m3 (1.16, 95% CI 0.28-4.82). ALS risk in increasing tertiles of exposure showed a similar null association, while comparison between the highest and the three lowest quartiles lumped together showed little evidence for an excess risk at PM10 concentrations (OR 1.13, 95% CI 0.50-2.55). After restricting the analysis to subjects with stable residence, we found substantially similar results. (4) Conclusions: In this pilot study, we found limited evidence of an increased ALS risk due to long-term exposure at high PM10 concentration, though the high statistical imprecision of the risk estimates, due to the small sample size, particularly in some exposure categories, limited our capacity to detect small increases in risk, and further larger studies are needed to assess this relation.

Air pollutants and their degradation of a historic building in the largest metropolitan area in Latin America.

Historic buildings that comprise the cultural heritage of humanity are in need of preservation on a worldwide scale in regard to degradation resultant from atmospheric pollutants. The Brazilian Public Market, located in the historic center of the mega city of São Paulo, is the object of this research, due to its representation of historical Brazilian architecture. The general objective of this manuscript is to analyze the influence of air pollutants on the degradation of the historic São Paulo Public Market in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Methodologically, between May 2018 and April 2019, samples of sedimented dust were collected at five points on the side walls of the market's historic structure, for the analysis of accumulated ultrafine particles (UFPs) and nanoparticles (NPs). A total of 20 samples of particulate matter were collected using self-made passive samplers (SMPSs). Using SMPSs, 12 months of accumulation and deposition were used to sample the atmospheric PM1. The results demonstrate the presence of dangerous elements such as: As, Cd, Cr, Pb, Zn. Note that EDS coupled with microscopy techniques, points out the risks to human health, due to the presence of these dangerous elements that accumulate in the building's structure. The results show that 85% of the NPs sampled contained Pb, and 56% contained Pb and Ti, which are harmful to both historic buildings and human health. Air pollution enables the further deterioration of the São Paulo Public Market, which is in need of restoration.

Spatiotemporal correlation of urban pollutants by long-term measurements on a mobile observation platform.

We conducted a three-year campaign of atmospheric pollutant measurements exploiting portable instrumentation deployed on a mobile cabin of a public transport system. Size selected particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen monoxide (NO) were measured at high temporal and spatial resolution. The dataset was complemented with measurements of vehicular traffic counts and a comprehensive set of meteorological covariates. Pollutants showed a distinctive spatiotemporal structure in the urban environment. Spatiotemporal autocorrelations were analyzed by a hierarchical spatiotemporal statistical model. Specifically, particles smaller than 1.1 µm exhibited a robust temporal autocorrelation with those at the previous hour and tended to accumulate steadily during the week with a maximum on Fridays. The smallest particles (mean diameter 340 nm) showed a spatial correlation distance of ≈600 m. The spatial correlation distance reduces to ≈ 60 m for particle diameters larger than 1.1 µm, which also showed peaks at the stations correlated with the transport system itself. NO showed a temporal correlation comparable to that of particles of 5.0 µm of diameter and a correlating distance of 155 m. The spatial structure of NO correlated with that of the smallest sized particles. A generalized additive mixed model was employed to disentangle the effects of traffic and other covariates on PM concentrations. A reduction of 50% of the vehicles produces a reduction of the fine particles of -13% and of the coarse particle number of -7.5%. The atmospheric stability was responsible for the most significant effect on fine particle concentration.

Longitudinal Asthma Patterns in Italian Adult General Population Samples: Host and Environmental Risk Factors.

BACKGROUND: Asthma patterns are not well established in epidemiological studies. AIM: To assess asthma patterns and risk factors in an adult general population sample. METHODS: In total, 452 individuals reporting asthma symptoms/diagnosis in previous surveys participated in the AGAVE survey (2011-2014). Latent transition analysis (LTA) was performed to detect baseline and 12-month follow-up asthma phenotypes and longitudinal patterns. Risk factors associated with longitudinal patterns were assessed through multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS: LTA detected four longitudinal patterns: persistent asthma diagnosis with symptoms, 27.2%; persistent asthma diagnosis without symptoms, 4.6%; persistent asthma symptoms without diagnosis, 44.0%; and ex -asthma, 24.1%. The longitudinal patterns were differently associated with asthma comorbidities. Persistent asthma diagnosis with symptoms showed associations with passive smoke (OR 2.64, 95% CI 1.10-6.33) and traffic exposure (OR 1.86, 95% CI 1.02-3.38), while persistent asthma symptoms (without diagnosis) with passive smoke (OR 3.28, 95% CI 1.41-7.66) and active smoke (OR 6.24, 95% CI 2.68-14.51). CONCLUSIONS: LTA identified three cross-sectional phenotypes and their four longitudinal patterns in a real-life setting. The results highlight the necessity of a careful monitoring of exposure to active/passive smoke and vehicular traffic, possible determinants of occurrence of asthma symptoms (with or without diagnosis). Such information could help affected patients and physicians in prevention and management strategies.