Carcinogenic Content of PM10-Bound PAHs in University Classrooms and Outdoors at an Urban Location in Rome, Italy, during Winter Working and Not-Working Days

To assess the contribution of carcinogenic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in ambient air, EU Directive 2004/107/EC indicates to monitor relevant carcinogenic PAHs in PM10 fraction other than benzo(a)pyrene at a limited number of measurement sites. This indication refers to outdoor environments, and the environmental air quality being taken as a reference also for indoors, it can be extended to indoor environments. In this work, the contribution of carcinogenic PAHs bound to PM10 has been evaluated in winter in two classrooms of a University campus in Rome with the aim of studying the relationship with the outdoors and with working activity. PM10-boundPAHs were monitored over five different periods selected to distinguish Weekend from daytime and nighttime Weekdays, separated into two parts of the week. Data aggregated over Weekend and Weekdays allowed calculating of the concentration of carcinogenic PAHs, the mass contribution to PM10, the Infiltration Factor, the indoor to outdoor Ratio, and the Total Carcinogenic Potency by Toxicity Equivalent Factors, for “not-working” and “working” days. In addition, some indications on contributions to the source have been obtained from the chemical profile normalized to the maximum value of concentration, which also provides the source fingerprint compound. Indoor PAH concentrations were lower than outdoor, and both accumulated as the week progressed. Although the two indoor environments were on the same floor and had a similar volume, they presented different contribution to PM10 and infiltration capacity, both higher during Weekend than on Weekdays. The analysis of indoor and outdoor chemical profiles normalized to the maximum concentration indicated an external source infiltrating the indoors environment. During Weekdays, the indoor fingerprint compound changed compared to that observed during Weekend, probably due to an additional contribution of local “fresh-traffic” source. The calculation of Total Carcinogenic Potency gave indoor values always lower than outdoor, confirming in the two classrooms different dynamics for carcinogenic PAHs. Moreover, the Total Carcinogenic Potency on Weekdays was twice that of Weekend, meaning a higher toxicological impact when urban “fresh-traffic” source is added. The present study shows that the dynamics of PM10-related carcinogenic PAHs can be different within adjacent classrooms of a building and during working and not-working days. This evidence suggests the possibility of a potential different impact on occupant exposure to be taken into account in planning monitoring programs of indoor pollution.

Development and application of a street-level meteorology and pollutant tracking system (S-TRACK)

A multi-model simulation system for street level circulation and pollutant tracking (S-TRACK) has been developed by integrating the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF), the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and the Flexible Particle (FLEXPART) models. The winter wind environmental characteristics and the potential impact of a traffic source on nearby sites (about 300 to 400 m) in Jinshui district of Zhengzhou, China are analyzed with the system. It is found that the existence of buildings complicates the structure of the wind fields. The wind speed inside the building block is smaller than the background wind speed due to the dragging effect of dense buildings. Ventilation is better when the dominant airflow is in the same direction as the building layout. Influenced by the building layout, local circulations show that the windward side of the building is mostly the divergence zone and the leeward side is mostly the convergence zone, which is more obvious for high buildings and influencing air pollution transport at the street-level. Using the traffic source (line source) on a road within a city block, the system was applied to investigate the potential impact of a line source on specific sites under the influence of the streel-level circulations. The potential contribution ratio was estimated by the method of residence time analysis and to a particular site found to vary with the height of the site with a peak not at the ground but on a certain height. The results of the study are helpful to understand the characteristics of wind environment and effect of traffic emissions in the area, which is important to improve urban living environment and control air pollution.

Big Data Analysis of a Dedicated YouTube Channel as an Open Educational Resource in Hand Surgery

Background: Educationally designed videos have the advantage of explaining difficult concepts via graphic diagrams and dynamic illustrations. The benefits of videos will be enhanced if videos are well-designed, concise, explore scientifically correct content, and have a clear presentation.Aims: Video as an open educational resource (OER) is the cornerstone for online learning. YouTube has been widely used as a distribution platform for OER. The aim of this study was to evaluate the engagement of hand surgery videos on a dedicated education channel on YouTube.Methods: The senior author has been utilizing a YouTube channel dedicated to the education of clinicians in Hand Surgery, surgical education, and management since 2008. The degree of engagement was evaluated using YouTube Analytics, providing up-to-date metrics and reports.Results: Since 2008, there have been 6521 subscribers with 1,360,680 views, a total view time of 35,033 h and an average view time of 1.72 min. The channel views averaged 1000 views per day. There were 4,324,724 impressions with a 7.32% click-through rate, with the United States of America accounting for 23.5% of the audience. YouTube search accounted for 33.3% of the traffic source and suggested videos by others were 19.4%, and external links were 19%. Playback location was through mobile devices in 76.7%, while 16% was through the computer. The two popular playlists were “flaps in hand surgery” (50.2%) and “basic hand surgery workshop” (21.9%). Sharing by WhatsApp was most popular (27.9%) in embedded websites and apps. Overall there were 488 comments on the channel.Conclusion: This paper confirms the phenomenon of micro-learning by online learners. It is recommended that educational videos as OER should be confined to 2 min, made compatible for the mobile device, and be optimized for sharing on social media. These can be used as resources for blended learning, allowing better utilization of time for deliberate practice in surgical training.

Measurements of traffic-dominated pollutant emissions in a Chinese megacity

Direct measurements of NOx, CO and aromatic volatile organic compound (VOC) (benzene, toluene, C2-benzenes and C3-benzenes) flux were made for a central area of Beijing using the eddy-covariance technique. Measurements were made during two intensive field campaigns in central Beijing as part of the Air Pollution and Human Health (APHH) project, the first in November–December 2016 and the second during May–June 2017, to contrast wintertime and summertime emission rates. There was little difference in the magnitude of NOx flux between the two seasons (mean NOx flux was 4.41 mg m−2 h−1 in the winter compared to 3.55 mg m−2 h−1 in the summer). CO showed greater seasonal variation, with mean CO flux in the winter campaign (34.7 mg m−2 h−1) being over twice that of the summer campaign (15.2 mg m−2 h−1). Larger emissions of aromatic VOCs in summer were attributed to increased evaporation due to higher temperatures. The largest fluxes in NOx and CO generally occurred during the morning and evening rush hour periods, indicating a major traffic source with high midday emissions of CO, indicating an additional influence from cooking fuel. Measured NOx and CO fluxes were then compared to the MEIC 2013 emissions inventory, which was found to significantly overestimate emissions for this region, providing evidence that proxy-based emissions inventories have positive biases in urban centres. This first set of pollutant fluxes measured in Beijing provides an important benchmark of emissions from the city which can help to inform and evaluate current emissions inventories.

The Roles of YouTube and WhatsApp in Dementia Education for the Older Chinese American Population: Longitudinal Analysis

Background Dementia remains a stigmatized topic in the Chinese community. Objective This study aims to analyze and compare the usage of dementia educational YouTube videos and the modalities of video sharing over a 6-year period. Methods Dementia educational videos were uploaded to YouTube. Data was collected over a 6-year period. Results from the first 3 years were compared to those from the second 3 years using descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis. Results Over 6 years, the dementia educational videos generated a total watch time of 269,388 minutes, 37,690 views, and an average view duration of 7.1 minutes. Comparing the first and second 3-year periods of video performance data, there was a longer watch time (59,262 vs 210,126 minutes), more total views (9387 vs 28,303 views), and a longer average view duration (6.3 vs 7.4 minutes). Furthermore, WhatsApp has become a leading external traffic source and top sharing service, accounting for 43.5% (929/2137) and 67.0% (677/1011), respectively. Conclusions Over 6 years, YouTube has become an increasingly popular tool to deliver culturally sensitive dementia education to Chinese Americans. WhatsApp continues to be the preferred method of sharing dementia education and has become a top external traffic source to dementia educational videos. Taken together, these social media platforms are promising means of reducing the disparity in dementia knowledge in linguistically and culturally isolated populations.

Impact of direct traffic effect on online sales

Purpose This study aims to analyze the impact of newly created brand awareness on customer’s buying behavior in online environment. Design/methodology/approach The authors analyzed more than 280,000 online customer journeys from four e-commerce stores based in Slovakia. Within the results of the interaction analysis of individual customer journeys, the authors determined three criteria based on the level of theoretical brand awareness. The purpose was to determine their occurrence in real-world data. Findings It was found that each of the specified criteria accounts for the significant share of the company’s revenues. Based on these criteria and the level of their occurrence, the authors introduced the term direct traffic effect. Research limitations/implications Because of the available Web analytics tools, the data might be imprecise because of data collection issues. There is also ambiguity in the interpretation of the customer journey. Practical implications The company can build awareness among prospective customers by offering them a positive customer experience during the first interactions online. Data proved that customer will not only repeatedly visit the website from the direct traffic source but also his customer journey will end with the purchase of the company’s products. Originality/value This paper fulfills the need for further research on the impact of multi-channel marketing on brand awareness and consumer behavior, respectively.

Implementasi Weighted Product untuk memberikan Rekomendasi Prospek Pelanggan bagi Sales Marketing Berdasarkan Web Analytics

<p>Keberhasilan sebuah perusahaan dalam memasarkan produk atau jasa yang ditawarkan sangat tergantung dari kinerja marketing. Kegiatan marketing saat ini berkembang tidak hanya dilakukan secara kovensional melalui tatap muka langsung dengan pelanggan. Salah satu pemasaran yang dilakukan pada perusahaan adalah dengan <em>digital marketing</em>. <em>Digital marketing</em> menggunakan<em> Internet</em> dan <em>World Wide Web</em> untuk mendekati pelanggan. Dalam mencapai tujuan ini, perusahaan harus mengadopsi <em>Web analytics</em>, yang didefinisikan sebagai pengukuran, pengumpulan, analisis dan pelaporan data Internet untuk tujuan memahami dan mengoptimalkan penggunaan Web. Dengan melakukan <em>web analytics</em>, <em>marketing</em> dapat mengenali calon pelanggan prospek yang sering mengakses <em>website</em> perusahaan. Tidak seperti kegiatan marketing konvensional, kegiatan mengenali pengunjung website menjadi kesulitan tersendiri. Pada penelitian ini akan dilakukan penggalian data lebih dalam untuk melihat perilaku dari pengunjung website dari sebuah perusahaan dengan menggunakan metode Weighted Product. Parameter yang dipertimbangkan antara lain: jumlah kunjungan (<em>visit</em>), durasi kunjungan (<em>visit length</em>), jumlah halaman yang dilihat (<em>pageview</em>), jumlah satu halaman yang dilihat pada satu kali kunjungan (<em>bounce</em>), kategori dari traffic source (<em>medium</em>), dan asal dari traffic (<em>source</em>). Berdasarkan proses perhitungan dan pengujian validasi maka didapatkan nilai kecocokan 100%. Sehingga dapat disimpulkan sistem rekomendasi memiliki tingkat akurasi yang tinggi.</p><p> </p><p><em><strong>Abstract</strong></em></p><p> </p><p class="Abstract"><em>The success of a company in marketing the product or service offered is very dependent on marketing performance. Marketing activities currently developing are not only done conventionally through face-to-face contact with customers. One of the marketing activities done by companies is digital marketing. Digital marketing uses the Internet and the World Wide Web to approach customers. In achieving this goal, companies must adopt Web analytics, which is defined as "measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of Internet data for the purpose of understanding and optimizing Web use. By doing web analytics, marketing can recognize potential customers who often access the company's website. Unlike conventional marketing activities, the activity of recognizing website visitors becomes a particular difficulty. In this study deeper data will be extracted to see the behavior of website visitors from a company using the Weighted Product method. Parameters considered include: number of visits (visit length), number of visits (pageview), number of pages viewed at one visit (bounce), category of traffic source (medium), and origin from traffic (source). Based on the comparison of the results of the decision by applying the WP and the expert achieving a 100% match value. So it can be concluded that the recommendation system has a high level of accuracy.</em></p>

The Roles of YouTube and WhatsApp in Dementia Education for the Older Chinese American Population: Longitudinal Analysis (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Dementia remains a stigmatized topic in the Chinese community. OBJECTIVE This study aims to analyze and compare the usage of dementia educational YouTube videos and the modalities of video sharing over a 6-year period. METHODS Dementia educational videos were uploaded to YouTube. Data was collected over a 6-year period. Results from the first 3 years were compared to those from the second 3 years using descriptive statistics and chi-square analysis. RESULTS Over 6 years, the dementia educational videos generated a total watch time of 269,388 minutes, 37,690 views, and an average view duration of 7.1 minutes. Comparing the first and second 3-year periods of video performance data, there was a longer watch time (59,262 vs 210,126 minutes), more total views (9387 vs 28,303 views), and a longer average view duration (6.3 vs 7.4 minutes). Furthermore, WhatsApp has become a leading external traffic source and top sharing service, accounting for 43.5% (929/2137) and 67.0% (677/1011), respectively. CONCLUSIONS Over 6 years, YouTube has become an increasingly popular tool to deliver culturally sensitive dementia education to Chinese Americans. WhatsApp continues to be the preferred method of sharing dementia education and has become a top external traffic source to dementia educational videos. Taken together, these social media platforms are promising means of reducing the disparity in dementia knowledge in linguistically and culturally isolated populations.

Measurements of traffic dominated pollutant emissions in a Chinese megacity

Direct measurements of NOx, CO and aromatic VOC (benzene, toluene, C2-benzenes and C3-benzenes) flux were made for a central area of Beijing using the eddy covariance technique. Measurements were made during two intensive field campaigns in central Beijing as part of the Air Pollution and Human Health (APHH) project, the first in November–December 2016 and the second during May–June 2017, to contrast winter and summertime emission rates. There was little difference in the magnitude of NOx flux between the two seasons (mean NOx flux was 4.41 mg m−2 h−1 in the winter compared to 3.55 mg m−2 h−1 in the summer). CO showed greater seasonal variation with mean CO flux in the winter campaign (34.7 mg m−2 h−1) being over twice that of the summer campaign (15.2 mg m−2 h−1). Larger emissions of aromatic VOCs in summer were attributed to increased evaporation due to higher temperatures. The largest fluxes in NOx and CO generally occurred during the morning and evening rush hour periods indicating a major traffic source with high midday emissions of CO indicating an additional influence from cooking fuel. Measured NOx and CO fluxes were then compared to the MEIC 2013 emissions inventory which was found to significantly overestimate emissions for this region, providing evidence that proxy-based emissions inventories have positive biases in urban centres. This first set of pollutant fluxes measured in Beijing provides an important benchmark of emissions from the city which can help to inform and evaluate current emissions inventories.