scholarly journals Evaluating the Efficacy of the MedicAir Air Purifier in Reducing Ambient Air Pollution in Classrooms

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neha Raghava ◽  
Matthew Perkins ◽  
Graham Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Size Range ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Particulate Contamination ◽  
Data Loggers ◽  
Air Purifier ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Ambient Levels

Abstract In light of the novel coronavirus and transmission in schools, increased scrutiny has been placed on airborne viral and particulate contamination, and efforts to mitigate this have been suggested, including the use of air purification. The importance of this is increased given the relationship between increased airborne particulates and increased coronavirus transmission, as well as the significance of removing particulates in the size range of bacteria and viruses from the air. Ambient levels of pm2.5 and pm1 in the absence of purification were recorded in two classrooms of similar size using medical grade data loggers, which then measured the change in these levels with use MedicAir air purifiers. It was found that baseline levels at times doubled the WHO limits for safe IAQ- MedicAir units were able to rapidly reduce levels of particulates to significantly below guidelines. We propose that the use of these units is an effective and rapid solution for the mitigation of coronavirus transmission, as well as the improvement of IAQ in schools.

The role and relationship of mindreading and social attunement in HRI – position statements of interdisciplinary researchers. Workshop HRI'20

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Wykowska ◽  
Jairo Pérez-Osorio ◽  
Stefan Kopp
Keyword(s):  
Mental States ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Artificial Agents ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Robot Interaction ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This booklet is a collection of the position statements accepted for the HRI’20 conference workshop “Social Cognition for HRI: Exploring the relationship between mindreading and social attunement in human-robot interaction” (Wykowska, Perez-Osorio & Kopp, 2020). Unfortunately, due to the rapid unfolding of the novel coronavirus at the beginning of the present year, the conference and consequently our workshop, were canceled. On the light of these events, we decided to put together the positions statements accepted for the workshop. The contributions collected in these pages highlight the role of attribution of mental states to artificial agents in human-robot interaction, and precisely the quality and presence of social attunement mechanisms that are known to make human interaction smooth, efficient, and robust. These papers also accentuate the importance of the multidisciplinary approach to advance the understanding of the factors and the consequences of social interactions with artificial agents.

scholarly journals Changes in ambient temperature increase hospital outpatient visits for allergic rhinitis in Xinxiang, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianhui Gao ◽  
Mengxue Lu ◽  
Yinzhen Sun ◽  
Jingyao Wang ◽  
Zhen An ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Allergic Rhinitis ◽  
Ambient Temperature ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
Hospital Outpatient ◽  
Distributed Lag ◽  
Outpatient Visits ◽  
Daily Data ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Background The effect of ambient temperature on allergic rhinitis (AR) remains unclear. Accordingly, this study aimed to explore the relationship between ambient temperature and the risk of AR outpatients in Xinxiang, China. Method Daily data of outpatients for AR, meteorological conditions, and ambient air pollution in Xinxiang, China were collected from 2015 to 2018. The lag-exposure-response relationship between daily mean temperature and the number of hospital outpatient visits for AR was analyzed by distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM). Humidity, long-time trends, day of the week, public holidays, and air pollutants including sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were controlled as covariates simultaneously. Results A total of 14,965 AR outpatient records were collected. The relationship between ambient temperature and AR outpatients was generally M-shaped. There was a higher risk of AR outpatient when the temperature was 1.6–9.3 °C, at a lag of 0–7 days. Additionally, the positive association became significant when the temperature rose to 23.5–28.5 °C, at lag 0–3 days. The effects were strongest at the 25th (7 °C) percentile, at lag of 0–7 days (RR: 1.32, 95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.05–1.67), and at the 75th (25 °C) percentile at a lag of 0–3 days (RR: 1.15, 95% CI: 1.02–1.29), respectively. Furthermore, men were more sensitive to temperature changes than women, and the younger groups appeared to be more influenced. Conclusions Both mild cold and mild hot temperatures may significantly increase the risk of AR outpatients in Xinxiang, China. These findings could have important public health implications for the occurrence and prevention of AR.

Abstract P043: Does The Severity of Coronary Artery Disease Explain The Increased Risk of Death and Myocardial Infarction From Ambient Air Pollution Exposure?

Circulation ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 125 (suppl_10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Somjot S Brar ◽  
Denise Le ◽  
Sumit Khandhar ◽  
Dong Chang ◽  
Lindsay Short ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Coronary Artery ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
Left Main ◽  
Left Main Disease ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Artery Disease ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Road Distance

BACKGROUND: Ambient air pollution from traffic increases cardiovascular morbidity and mortality and is associated with coronary artery calcification. Whether this increased risk is mediated by severity of coronary artery disease (CAD) remains unknown. METHODS: In this pilot study, the relationship between living near a major roadway and multivessel CAD confirmed by invasive coronary angiographic was explored. Subjects undergoing coronary angiography in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in 2009-10 were randomly selected. Investigators blinded to the exposure status reviewed coronary angiograms. Subjects were categorized as having: absence of or non-obstructive CAD, 1-vessel, 2-vessel, or 3-vessel CAD based upon the number of major epicardial vessels with > 70% stenoses. The distance from each subject's residence to the nearest major road was calculated in meters. Multivariate logistic regression was used to explore the relationship between severity of CAD and distance to major roadway. RESULTS: There were 642 subjects undergoing coronary angiography. The mean age (SD) was 64 years (12) and 36% were female. In multivariate analysis log-road distance was a predictor of multivessel CAD, odds ratio (OR) = 0.85 (95%CI, 0.75-0.98; p=0. 02) after adjusting for age, gender, hypertension, and diabetes, and smoking status. Other predictors of multivessel CAD included from the multivariate logist model were: male gender (OR, 3.00, 95% CI, 2.06-4.39; p<0.001), diabetes (OR, 2.49; 95% CI, 1.75-3.54; p<0.001), and hypertension 2.58; 95%CI, 1.28-5.21; p=0.008). The most severe form of CAD, >50% stenosis of the left main artery, was observed in 6.6% of the cohort. In a multivariate model, age (P = 0.002) and diabetes (P = 0.002) were significant predictors of severe left main disease; there was a trend for log-road distance (OR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.67-1.02; P = 0.079) with left main disease. CONCLUSIONS: Multivessel CAD was strongly associated with traditional risk factors. After adjusting for these factors, living near a major roadway was also a predictor. This study demonstrates the feasibility of exploring the association between angiographic CAD and traffic pollution. Additional studies are needed to better understand the mechanisms underlying the increase in adverse cardiovascular events from air pollution.

scholarly journals The Relationship Between Air Pollution and All-Cause Mortality in Singapore

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ho ◽  
Zheng ◽  
Cheong ◽  
En ◽  
Pek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Health Hazard ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
World Population ◽  
Distributed Lag ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
All Cause Mortality ◽  
Unit Increase ◽  
The Relationship

Ambient air pollution is a risk factor for both acute and chronic diseases and poses serious health threats to the world population. We aim to study the relationship between air pollution and all-cause mortality in the context of a city-state exposed to the Southeast Asian haze problem. The primary exposure was ambient air pollution, as measured by the Pollutants Standards Index (PSI). The outcome of interest was all-cause mortality from 2010–2015. A time-stratified case-crossover design was performed. A conditional Poisson regression model, including environmental variables such as PSI, temperature, wind speed, and rainfall, was fitted to the daily count of deaths to estimate the incidence rate ratio (IRR) of mortality per unit increase in PSI, accounting for overdispersion and autocorrelation. To account for intermediate exposure effects (maximum lag of 10 days), a distributed lag non-linear model was used. There were 105,504 deaths during the study period. Increment in PSI was significantly associated with an increased risk of mortality. The adjusted IRR of mortality per the 10-unit increase in PSI was 1.01 (95%CI = 1.00–1.01). The lag effect was stronger when PSI was in the unhealthy range compared to the good and moderate ranges. At lag = 7 days, PSI appeared to have an adverse effect on mortality, although the effect was not significant. These findings provide evidence on the general health hazard of exposure to air pollution and can potentially guide public health policies in the region.

scholarly journals Citation Network Analysis of the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (20) ◽  
pp. 7690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Martinez-Perez ◽  
Cristina Alvarez-Peregrina ◽  
Cesar Villa-Collar ◽  
Miguel Ángel Sánchez-Tena
Keyword(s):  
Web Of Science ◽  
Citation Network ◽  
The United States ◽  
Disease Spread ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Citation Network Analysis ◽  
Number Of Publications ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Relationship

Background: The first outbreaks of the new coronavirus disease, named COVID-19, occurred at the end of December 2019. This disease spread quickly around the world, with the United States, Brazil and Mexico being the countries the most severely affected. This study aims to analyze the relationship between different publications and their authors through citation networks, as well as to identify the research areas and determine which publication has been the most cited. Methods: The search for publications was carried out through the Web of Science database using terms such as “COVID-19” and “SARS-CoV-2” for the period between January and July 2020. The Citation Network Explorer software was used for publication analysis. Results: A total of 14,335 publications were found with 42,374 citations generated in the network, with June being the month with the largest number of publications. The most cited publication was “Clinical Characteristics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in China” by Guan et al., published in April 2020. Nine groups comprising different research areas in this field, including clinical course, psychology, treatment and epidemiology, were found using the clustering functionality. Conclusions: The citation network offers an objective and comprehensive analysis of the main papers on COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2.

scholarly journals Self-blame regret, fear of COVID-19 and mental health during post-peak pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hacer Belen
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Perceived Stress ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Multiple Mediation ◽  
Mediation Analyses ◽  
Self Blame ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The novel Coronavirus pandemic caused strong negative emotions including fear, and stress and impacted in mental health of individuals worldwide. One of the emotions linked with mental health and infectious disease is self-blame regret. Thus, current study investigated the role of fear of COVID-19 and perceived stress in the relationship between self-blame regret and depression. A community sample of 352 individuals in Turkey (71 % female and 29 % males), ranged between in age18 and 63 (M= 28.90±8.90), completed fear of COVID-19 (FCV-19S), perceived stress (PSS-10), DASS-21 scales and responded to one item concerning the self-blame regret. Results demonstrated that self-blame regret is positively correlated with fear of COVID-19, perceived stress and depressive symptoms. Moreover, serial multiple mediation analyses demonstrated that both fear of COVID-19 and perceived stress mediated in the relationship between self-blame regret and depression. Findings and implications are discussed.

Global Environmentalism and the World-System: A Cross-National Analysis of Air Pollution

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Andrew Mejia
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
World System ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
Environmental Regime ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The World ◽  
National Analysis ◽  
The Relationship

Ambient air pollution represents a global health crisis, leading to 7 million annual deaths worldwide. The rise of a “global environmental regime” manifests in the widespread adoption of environmental policies and laws to reduce ambient air pollution, but debate remains whether they have any effect. Scholars argue that the relationship between the global environmental regime and air pollution depends on the penetration of the global environmental regime. In this analysis, I argue that the relationship between the global environmental regime and air pollution levels is contingent on a country’s position in the world-system. Using fixed effects panel analyses of 144 countries from 1990 to 2010, I find embeddedness in the global environmental regime does predict lower national air pollution levels. This effect, however, is smaller in semi-peripheral and peripheral countries. These findings contribute to an emerging body of scholarship integrating world society and world systems approaches in the study of the environment.

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