Abstract
One of the biggest challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic is the heterogeneity in disease severity exhibited amongst patients. Among multiple factors, latest studies suggest vitamin D ...deficiency and pre-existing health conditions to be major contributors to death from COVID-19. It is known that certain urban form attributes can impact sun exposure and vitamin D synthesis. Also, long-term exposure to air pollution can play an independent role in vitamin D deficiency. We conducted a correlational analysis of urban form and air quality in relation to the demographics and COVID-19 incidence and mortality across 32 London boroughs between March 2020 and January 2021. We found total population, number of residents of Asian ethnicity, 4-year average PM
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levels and road length to be positively correlated with COVID-19 cases and deaths. We also found percentage of households with access to total open space to be negatively correlated with COVID-19 deaths. Our findings link COVID-19 incidence and mortality across London with environmental variables linked to vitamin D status. Our study is entirely based on publicly available data and provides a reference framework for further research as more data are gathered and the syndemic dimension of COVID-19 becomes increasingly relevant in connection to health inequalities within large urban areas.
Numerous studies have examined the impact of urban form on microclimate and thermal comfort at street level. However, the relationship between air pollution concentration and urban form, particularly ...vegetation and building arrangement, is less considered among planners and designers, and not many case study examples are available in the literature. To address this gap, this paper provides additional evidence and a case study example, illustrating the impact of the built environment on air pollution in urban areas. The Golden Lane Estate, a residential development that has valuable and repeatable urban design and architectural features and is located near a highly congested and polluted area in central London, was selected as the study site. The analysis involved a combination of fieldwork spot measurements and computational modelling (ENVI-met), considering physical features of urban blocks, levels of air pollution, and meteorological parameters (using data from local meteorological stations). The site modelling simulated current conditions and a condition without vegetation to better understand the impact of vegetation on pollutant concentration. The results indicate that urban form and vegetation arrangements significantly affect wind speed and direction, exacerbating air pollution within street canyons of varying aspect ratios. Such findings contribute to the expanding field of hyperlocal scale measurement and underscore the need for guidelines regarding the optimal placement, scale, type, and distribution of vegetation within street canyons.
Safety of food is of great concern these days due to various contaminations including toxins, infectious agents and chemical contaminants. Therefore, there is a need to develop promising and user's ...friendly method to monitor food safety. Lateral flow tests are new, simple and rapid alternative for detection of food-borne pathogens compared with traditional methods. In this review article, we surveyed application of lateral flow biosensors in detection of different food contaminants and labels used to enhance the efficiency of the system. Finally, the unique feature of multi-parametric analysis of analytes by lateral flow device has been reported, proving a lateral flow system is able to be designed in a way to detect multiple targets, simultaneously.
•Safety of food is of great concern these days due to natural contaminations.•Lateral flow tests are new, simple and rapid alternative for detection of toxins.•We surveyed application of lateral flow biosensors in detection of different food contaminants.•The strategies to increase the sensitivity of the assays have been discussed.•The unique feature of multi-parametric analysis of analytes has been reported.
Background:
About 50% of obsessive-compulsive disorder patients still suffer significant symptoms even after the recommended first-line therapy. This demonstrates the necessity to investigate ...strategies to improve alleviation of symptoms.
Objective:
The main objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a 5-hydroxytryptophan 3 receptor antagonist, tropisetron, as an adjuvant therapy to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, in ameliorating obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms.
Methods:
Men and women between the ages of 18–60 years diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, based on DSM5, who had a Yale-Brown obsessive compulsive scale score of more than 21 were recruited in a double-blinded, parallel-group, placebo-controlled, clinical trial of 10 weeks to receive either tropisetron (5 mg twice daily) and fluvoxamine (100 mg daily initially followed by 200 mg daily after week 4) or placebo and fluvoxamine. The primary outcome of interest in this study was the Yale-Brown obsessive compulsive scale total score decrease from baseline.
Results:
One hundred and eight participants were equally randomized into two groups; 48 participants in each group finished the trial. The Yale-Brown obsessive compulsive total score significantly dropped in both groups while the tropisetron group participants experienced a significantly higher decrease in their scores (Greenhouse-Geisser F(1.53–65.87)=3.516, p-value=0.04). No major adverse effect was observed in any of the groups.
Conclusion:
This trial showed a significant efficacy for tropisetron over placebo in treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms when added to fluvoxamine.
Background: Sinonasal malignancies are a rare group of head and neck cancers. We aimed to report the oncological outcomes based on histological types in patients who underwent radiotherapy.Materials ...and Methods: In this single-institution study, we retrospectively retrieved and analyzed data of patients with sinonasal carcinomas who underwent radiotherapy during 2011–2016 as part of their treatment. The 3-year rate of local, regional, and distant recurrences, and overall survival were evaluated according to the histological type.Results: A total of 28 patients were evaluated in this study, the majority of whom were male (60%). Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC), and adenocarcinoma (ADC) were found in 15 patients (53.5%), 8 (28.5%), and 5 (18%), respectively. The highest rates of local and regional recurrences were observed in ACC and SCC, respectively. Distant recurrences were numerically more common in ADC. The 3-year OS was 48%, 50%, and 73% in SCC, ADC, and ACC, respectively.Conclusion: Different histopathologies of sinonasal cancer seem to have different patterns of failure, and this may be considered in the treatment approach.
