Knowledge and Attitudes of Cypriots on Melanoma Prevention: Is there a Public Health Concern?

Background Melanoma is the deadliest type of skin cancer. It is the eighth most common cancer in males and the tenth in females in Cyprus, an island in the Mediterranean with a high ultraviolet (UV) index. Cyprus is expected to be strongly affected by climate change and consequently, melanoma will likely become an increasing public health problem. Melanoma prevention is possible; however, it is unknown if people living in Cyprus are aware of melanoma and prevention methods. To this end, we used a validated survey to evaluate the level of melanoma knowledge and factors associated with it in the Cypriot population. Methods We conducted a 47-item survey with sections on demographics, knowledge of melanoma and risk factors, attitudes toward relevant health practices, and protective behaviors among six hundred Cypriot residents from October 2015 to April 2016. Results Our results revealed that only 59% of participants check their skin for moles, 87% protect their skin from the sun during summer holidays, and 57% do not take measures to protect their skin from the sun during non-holiday periods. Protective behavior was positively associated with educational level (P=0.016) and district of residence (P<0.0001). Melanoma knowledge was positively associated with education level (P=0.002) and district of residence (P=0.004). Level of Concern was positively associated with age (P=0.026) and education level (P=0.041). Conclusions There are gaps in melanoma knowledge and prevention practices in the study population. Further education on melanoma and its prevention should be specifically targeted to individuals of lower education levels as well as teenagers, such that protective behaviors for melanoma are adopted early in life.

Erythemal UV Dose and UV Index Measurement at 37th North Latitude and Its Possible Effects on Humans

In this study, UV irradiance and UV erythemal and UV index data of May, June, July and August measured in Adana (longitute=36 E, latitute=37 N altitute=140m) between 2013 and 2019 were analyzed. As a result of the analysis, the average of four months was 14.16 MED (2.9736 J/m2) and the highest value of these four months was calculated as 15.6 MED (3.276 J/m2) in July. The percentage frequency of the total daily UV dose was also calculated and it was determined that the region was under the effect of 70-80% high UV dose. In addition, it was calculated to have a high UV index according to local time (10.00-14.00). It was concluded that this situation poses a great risk for workers working in agricultural areas in the region and for people who spend their summer holidays by the sea. UV Dose-Ozone, UV Dose-temperature, UV Dose-humidity and Ozone-temperature correlations were also calculated. As a result of the comparison, it was found that there was an R= -0.64 correlation between UV-ozone, an R= -1.00 correlation between temperature and ozone, and a direct correlation of R= 0.60 between UV radiation and temperature.

The Use of Weather Website Data for Construction Project Decision-Making in The Short Term

In most work sites, it is a priority to keep the work going well and to avoid unforeseen incidents. Fluctuations in weather conditions are one of the factors affecting the continuity of work in construction projects. Indeed, for example, the temperature is important in concrete and asphalt works, and wind speed is important in lifting and high construction works. Therefore, taking the appropriate decision, starting and completing the work, is very important to maintain the quality of the project. This research aims to demonstrate the reliability of short-term decision-making through data taken from the weather site five days before the time to work. The data was collected for a month, five days before the intended day and on the same day, day and night, for different weather factors by weather location such as temperature, humidity, possibility of rain, Uv index, wind speed. By analyzing the data, it was found that there was little difference in those predictors of all the factors recorded. To conclude at the end of the study that it is possible to rely on the decision-making on the weather location in small and medium projects, but in large and sensitive projects, they need to rely on more accurate data than relying on weather location data.

The Role of the Global Solar UV Index for Sun Protection of Children in German Kindergartens

More than twenty-five years ago the Global Solar UV index (UVI) has been introduced as a simple means of visualizing the intensity of ultraviolet radiation and to alert people to the need for sun protection. In our survey among directors of 436 kindergartens in southern Germany we investigated the level of awareness and knowledge about the UVI as well as the practical consequences for sun protection in kindergartens. Less than half of the directors (n=208, 47.7%) had ever heard of the UVI, and only a small minority of them (n=34, 8.7%) used the daily UVI information to adapt sun protective measures in their kindergartens. Detailed knowledge about the UVI was a rarity among the respondents. The proportion of respondents with self-perceived detailed UVI knowledge was five times higher than actual knowledge assessed by an in-depth structured interview using open-ended questions about the UVI (14.2% vs. 2.8%). No clear relationship of UVI awareness, knowledge, and use to directors' age and gender was found. The UVI-related variables also showed no association with directors' knowledge of risk factors for skin cancer and their attitudes towards tanned skin. Overall, the results paint a sobering picture regarding the penetration of the UVI into sun protection policies of German kindergartens. Future public health campaigns should target increasing awareness and understanding of the UVI as well as its importance for sun protection of children.

Ozonsimulationen mit ICON für die Verbesserung von UV-Vorhersagen

&lt;p class=&quot;Default&quot;&gt;Ozon (O&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;) in der Stratosph&amp;#228;re absorbiert die biologisch sch&amp;#228;dliche ultraviolette Strahlung der Sonne (den gr&amp;#246;&amp;#223;ten Teil der UV-B-Strahlung) und verhindert, dass sie die Erdoberfl&amp;#228;che erreicht. Die energiereiche UV-Strahlung kann das genetische Material in den Zellen von Pflanzen und Tieren, sowie von Menschen zerst&amp;#246;ren. Ohne die stratosph&amp;#228;rische Ozonschicht w&amp;#228;re das Leben auf der Erde, wie wir es kennen, nicht m&amp;#246;glich.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class=&quot;Default&quot;&gt;Der Deutsche Wetterdienst (DWD) stellt UV-Indexkarten zur Verf&amp;#252;gung, um die Bev&amp;#246;lkerung bezgl. hoher UV-Belastungen zu informieren und zu warnen [1]. Dazu werden Daten aus dem golobalen Vorhersagemodell ICON (ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic model) [2], externe Ozondaten und ein eigenes UV-Modell verwendet, um eine Vorhersage des UV-Index zu erstellen, der z.B. auf der DWD-Webseite als Vorhersage visualisiert wird.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class=&quot;Default&quot;&gt;In diesem Projekt wird in Zusammenarbeit mit dem DWD ein selbstkonsistentes System entwickelt, um UV-Indexkarten vollst&amp;#228;ndig mittels ICON zu generieren. Zu diesem Zweck wird ein linearisiertes Ozonschema (LINOZ) [3] f&amp;#252;r t&amp;#228;gliche Ozonvorhersagen optimiert. Dies geschieht als Erweiterung der ICON-ART Struktur [4] [5] (ART: Aerosols and Reactive Trace gases). F&amp;#252;r die Berechnung von UV-Strahlungsfl&amp;#252;ssen und -indizes wurde ein Strahlungstransportmodell f&amp;#252;r Sonnenstrahlung (Cloud-J) [6] implementiert und angepasst. Da das gesamte System als effiziente L&amp;#246;sung f&amp;#252;r UV-Indexvorhersagen dem DWD zur Verf&amp;#252;gung gestellt werden soll, wird besonders Wert auf eine umfassende Funktionalit&amp;#228;t bei sehr geringem Rechenaufwand gelegt. Ein wichtiger Teil der Arbeit ist daher auch die Validierung und Optimierung der Verfahren und Abl&amp;#228;ufe, um zuverl&amp;#228;ssige und qualitativ hochwertige Vorhersagen zu erstellen.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class=&quot;Default&quot;&gt;Wir pr&amp;#228;sentieren erste Ergebnisse des von ICON-ART modellierten UV-Strahlungsflusses durch die Atmosph&amp;#228;re auf globaler Skala und &amp;#252;ber ausgew&amp;#228;hlten Gebieten, dessen tageszeitliche Variation, sowie den Einfluss von Wolken auf die UV-Intensit&amp;#228;t.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anmerkung:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Dieses Projekt wird durch den Deutschen Wetterdienst im Rahmen der Extramuralen Forschung mit folgender Nummer gef&amp;#246;rdert: 4819EMF03.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Referenzen:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;[1]&amp;#160; https://kunden.dwd.de/uvi/index.jsp&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;[2]&amp;#160;&amp;#160; Z&amp;#228;ngl, G., et al., The ICON (ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic) modelling framework of DWD MPI-M: Description of the non-hydrostatic dynamical core. Q.J.R. Meteorol. Soc., 141(687), 563-579 (2014)&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;[3]&amp;#160;&amp;#160; McLinden, C. A., et al., Stratospheric ozone in 3-D models: A simple chemistry and the cross-tropopause flux, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 105(D11), 14653-14665 (2000)&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;[4] &amp;#160;Rieger, D., et al., ICON-ART - A new online-coupled model system from the global to regional scale, Geosci. Model Dev., 8(6), 1659-1676 (2015)&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;[5]&amp;#160; Schr&amp;#246;ter, et al., ICON-ART 2.1: a flexible tracer framework and its application for composition studies in numerical weather forecasting and climate simulations. Geosci. Model Dev., 11(10), 4043-4068 (2018)&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;[6]&amp;#160; Prather, M.J., Photolysis rates in correlated overlapping cloud fields: Cloud-J 7.3c. Geosci. Model Dev., 8(8), 2587-2595 (2015)&lt;/p&gt;

Forecasting Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density Under Cloud Effects: Novel Predictive Model Using Convolutional Neural Network Integrated With Long Short-term Memory Network

Forecast models of solar radiation incorporating cloud effects are useful tools to evaluate the impact of stochastic behaviour of cloud movement, real-time integration of photovoltaic energy in power grids, skin cancer and eye disease risk minimisation through solar ultraviolet (UV) index prediction and bio-photosynthetic processes through the modelling of solar photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD). This research has developed deep learning hybrid model (i.e., CNN-LSTM) to factor in role of cloud effects integrating the merits of convolutional neural networks with long short-term memory networks to forecast near real-time (i.e., 5-minute) PPFD in a sub-tropical region Queensland, Australia. The prescribed CLSTM model is trained with real-time sky images that depict stochastic cloud movements captured through a Total Sky Imager (TSI-440) utilising advanced sky image segmentation to reveal cloud chromatic features into their statistical values, and to purposely factor in the cloud variation to optimise the CLSTM model. The model, with its competing algorithms (i.e., CNN, LSTM, deep neural network, extreme learning machine and multivariate adaptive regression spline), are trained with 17 distinct cloud cover inputs considering the chromaticity of red, blue, thin, and opaque cloud statistics, supplemented by solar zenith angle (SZA) to predict short-term PPFD. The models developed with cloud inputs yield accurate results, outperforming the SZA-based models while the best testing performance is recorded by the objective method (i.e., CLSTM) tested over a 7-day measurement period. Specifically, CLSTM yields a testing performance with correlation coefficient r = 0.92, root mean square error RMSE = 210.31 μ mol of photons m-2 s-1, mean absolute error MAE = 150.24 μ mol of photons m-2 s-1, including a relative error of RRMSE = 24.92% MAPE = 38.01%, and Nash Sutcliffe’s coefficient ENS = 0.85, and Legate & McCabe’s Index LM = 0.68 using cloud cover in addition to the SZA as an input. The study shows the importance of cloud inclusion in forecasting solar radiation and evaluating the risk with practical implications in monitoring solar energy, greenhouses and high-value agricultural operations affected by stochastic behaviour of clouds. Additional methodological refinements such as retraining the CLSTM model for hourly and seasonal time scales may aid in the promotion of agricultural crop farming and environmental risk evaluation applications such as predicting the solar UV index and direct normal solar irradiance for renewable energy monitoring systems.

Influence of climate factors on pediatric alopecia areata flares in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Patients with alopecia areata (AA) may experience episodic disease flares characterized by increasing hair loss that follow a seasonal pattern. However, no studies have examined whether specific climate factors contribute to the seasonal pattern of AA flares. Using Spearman rank correlation analyses, we assessed the association between climate variables and AA flare frequency per month in 336 children with AA in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Region-specific monthly values for average ambient temperature, air pressure, cloudiness, hours of sunlight, relative humidity, number of days with sun, number of days with rain, volume of precipitation, wind gust, wind speed, and UV index from January 2015 to December 2017 were obtained from World Weather Online. We found significant (P < 0.05) correlations between AA flare frequency and UV index (R = − 0.66), precipitation (R = − 0.66), number of days with rain (R = − 0.70), number of days with sun (R = 0.62), and air pressure (R = 0.80). Stratified analyses showed even stronger associations with UV index and precipitation in patients with an atopic comorbidity. New significant correlations appeared with temperature, wind speed, and UV index of the prior month. However, in patients who did not have atopic comorbidities, we generally observed weaker and non-significant correlations between climate and AA flare frequency. This study suggests that certain climate factors may mediate the seasonal pattern of AA flares and may contribute to AA pathogenesis. Atopic AA patients may be more susceptible to the influence of climate compared to those with no history of atopy.

Disparity in Populace Phenotype Impels Predisposition to Variations in Health Status

Background: The disparity in populace phenotype, embracing stature and pigmentation, drives of internal physiological constituent and adaptation to the external environment, impel variations in populace health status. The study tends to explore how significantly populaces phenotype influenced by internal or external exposures, and how effectually it prognosticates predisposition to variant health states. Methods: Ecological study encompassing twenty states residing on antipodes (North and South) endures distinct exposures, exhibit disparate phenotypes, execute different health status. Each State selected employing non-proportion quota sampling, standing extreme on either stature or pigmentation, residing in cold or hot region, contrasted on considered variables embracing UV-index, malnutrition, healthy life expectancy, fertility rate, natural increase, and top five causes of mortality. All computation, analysis, and interpretation perform employing MS-EXCEL. The complete compilation phase last from March to June 2019. Results: Findings reveal a strong association between exposures and phenotypes, UV-index and pigmentation (r = 0.96), malnutrition and stature (r = -0.81). Stature descends and pigmentation ascends along the latitude (North to South). Populace light pigmentation tall stature executes healthy prolong life span contrast to deep pigmentation standing short. Cardiac and cancer diseases significantly reported among statured nations. While high susceptibility to Influenza/ Pneumonia, and HIV/AIDS observe in pigmented nations. Conclusion: Decisively homo sapiens phenotypes inordinately servile to internal and external exposures effectually prognosticate predisposition to distinct health states. Enforcement of measures mitigating populace internal and external exposure can elicit desire output in phenotype and outcomes in health status.

Monitoring Solar Radiation UV Exposure in the Comoros

As part of the UV-Indien project, a station for measuring ultraviolet radiation and the cloud fraction was installed in December 2019 in Moroni, the capital of the Comoros, situated on the west coast of the island of Ngazidja. A ground measurement campaign was also carried out on 12 January 2020 during the ascent of Mount Karthala, located in the center of the island of Ngazidja. In addition, satellite estimates (Ozone Monitoring Instrument and TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument) and model outputs (Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service and Tropospheric Ultraviolet Model) were combined for this same region. On the one hand, these different measurements and estimates make it possible to quantify, evaluate, and monitor the health risk linked to exposure to ultraviolet radiation in this region and, on the other, they help to understand how cloud cover influences the variability of UV-radiation on the ground. The measurements of the Ozone Monitoring Instrument onboard the EOS-AURA satellite, being the longest timeseries of ultraviolet measurements available in this region, make it possible to quantify the meteorological conditions in Moroni and to show that more than 80% of the ultraviolet indices are classified as high, and that 60% of these are classified as extreme. The cloud cover measured in Moroni by an All Sky Camera was used to distinguish between the cases of UV index measurements taken under clear or cloudy sky conditions. The ground-based measurements thus made it possible to describe the variability of the diurnal cycle of the UV index and the influence of cloud cover on this parameter. They also permitted the satellite measurements and the results of the simulations to be validated. In clear sky conditions, a relative difference of between 6 and 11% was obtained between satellite or model estimates and ground measurements. The ultraviolet index measurement campaign on Mount Karthala showed maximum one-minute standard erythemal doses at 0.3 J·m−2 and very high daily cumulative erythemal doses, at more than 80 J·m−2. These very high levels are also observed throughout the year and all skin phototypes can exceed the daily erythemal dose threshold, at more than 20 J·m−2.