The concentration of BTEX in selected urban areas of Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Hawari N
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9276713 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Urban, peri-urban forests and other natural areas provide a wide range of material and non-material benefits to people known as ecosystem services. Access to these areas has been linked to benefits for physical and mental health of local populations. In the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 global pandemic forced many governments to impose a set of restrictions including the closure of businesses, cancelation of public events and schooling, social distancing, limitations on the size of social gatherings, and travel restrictions. During this period of restrictions, we conducted a study assessing the importance of urban and peri-urban forests and other natural areas to people living in and around the city of Burlington, Vermont, USA. We evaluated the self-reported use and changes in personal importance related to these natural areas before and during the period of restrictions. We received over 400 responses to our field survey. The results show that 69.0% of the respondents had increased or greatly increased their visitation rate to our natural areas and urban forests, and 80.6% of respondents considered that the importance of these areas, and access to them, either increased or greatly increased. Moreover 25.8% of the sample had either never, or very rarely accessed their local natural areas before the pandemic, but 69.2% of the first time or infrequent visitors reported that having access to these areas during COVID-19 as 'very important'. People reported that these areas were important for a wide range of activities from exercise to birding, but also reported values related to reducing stress in a time of global chaos. Our results indicate the increasing demand and value of such areas in times of crisis such as COVID-19. Experts in zoonotic disease predict the potential for more frequent pandemic events, thus predicating the importance for continued funding for, maintenance of, and improved access to, natural areas to our largely urban civilization.
| S-EPMC7746267 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Until 31 May 2020, more than six million confirm COVID-19 cases had been reported worldwide. Lockdown has resulted in significant air quality improvement, especially in urban regions. The lockdown has acted as a natural experiment empowering researchers, policymakers, and governing bodies. The present study focuses on quantifying and analysing the effect of lockdown on India’s metropolitan cities, namely New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and Bangalore. The study analyses the phase-wise and diurnal variations in the air quality from 24 March 2020 to 31 May 2020 while focussing on-peak and off-peak duration concentrations. To investigate the reason behind pollutant reduction, correlation of drop percentages in pollutant concentrations with vehicle population, extent of construction activity, and meteorological parameters are analysed. The 24-h drop in PM10 and PM2.5 showed a high correlation (R2 = 0.97 and 0.72, respectively) with the city’s vehicle population. During peak hours, the inland cities (Delhi and Bangalore), with a more extensive vehicle fleet, recorded a higher drop in PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations than coastal cities (Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata). With respect to 2019 concentration, the maximum decrease in pollutant concentrations averaged across the five study locations was recorded in NO2 (46%), followed by PM2.5 (40%), PM10 (37%), and CO (19%). SO2 and O3 contrarily recorded an overall increase of 40% and 41%. These results wherein vehicular pollutants recorded the maximum drop indicate that reduced vehicular traffic primarily influenced air quality improvement during the lockdown. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12517-021-07777-x.
| S-EPMC8284691 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The increasing expansion of urban environments with associated transformation of land-cover has led to the formation of urban heat islands (UHI) in many urbanized regions worldwide. COVID-19 related environmental impacts, through reduced urban activities, is worthy of investigation as it may demonstrate human capacity to manage UHI. We aim to establish the thermal impacts associated with COVID-19 induced urban 'lockdown' from 20 March to 20 April 2020 over Tehran. Areal changes in UHI are assessed through Classification and Regression Trees (CART), measured against background synoptic scale temperature changes over the years 1950-2020. Results indicate that monthly Tmean, Tmax and Tmin values during this time were considerably lower than long-term mean values for the reference period. Although the COVID-19 initiated shutdown led to an identifiable temperature anomaly, we demonstrate that this is not a product of upper atmospheric or synoptic conditions alone. We also show that the cooling effect over Tehran was not spatially uniform, which is likely due to the complexity of land uses such as industrial as opposed to residential. Our findings provide potentially valuable insights and implications for future management of urban heat islands during extreme heat waves that pose a serious threat to human health.
| S-EPMC9760287 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundSince the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019, many countries around the world have imposed lockdown measures in order to reduce virus spread. Social isolation is known to have a significant psychological impact, potentially triggering alcohol misuse in adults. In our study, we aimed to investigate the effect of COVID-19 lockdown measures on alcohol consumption in adults in Bavaria.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, we enrolled 2067 participants, with 1961 young adults (mean age 23.3 ± 4.1) and 106 mature adults (mean age 66.7 ± 9.7). Participants were asked to complete a standardized questionnaire, semi-quantitatively evaluating the alcohol drinking behaviour before and during the pandemic lockdown.ResultsAfter implementation of lockdown, the alteration of alcohol consumption was significantly different between young and mature adults (p < 0.001). Among young adults, 42% reported unchanged drinking behaviour compared to 76% in the mature adult group; 44% of young adults reported to drink less compared to only 7% of mature adults. An increase in alcohol consumption was only reported by 14% of young adults and 17% of mature adults. Interestingly, in the entire cohort, the change of alcohol intake was most pronounced among moderate drinkers (> 0 to < 5 drinks/week) in both age groups (p < 0.001). Ordinal logistic regression revealed female sex, low BMI and younger age to be associated with a decrease in number of self-reported drinks/week.ConclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic lockdown significantly affected alcohol drinking behaviour. Further studies exploring long-term effects on potential alcohol misuse and the relevance on public health are warranted.Trial registrationThe study was retrospectively registered at ClinicalTrials.gov ( NCT04361877 ) on April 24, 2020.
| S-EPMC8112739 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Aim: To analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on US healthcare resource utilization. Methods: Optum claims data were used to compare all-cause healthcare visits and healthcare spending for selected diseases between the prepandemic and pandemic periods. Telemedicine use was only assessed for the pandemic period owing to data availability. Results: During the first wave of the pandemic, all-cause healthcare visits across all selected disease areas displayed a rapid decline compared with the prepandemic period, followed by a period of recovery. A reduction in outpatient and home healthcare spending was observed, whereas inpatient and prescription spending increased. Conclusion: Changes in healthcare resource utilization trends were observed during the pandemic. The magnitude of these changes can inform subsequent studies that utilize COVID-19-era data.
| S-EPMC9251631 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Abstract The relationship between pandemic, or chronic infectious diseases, and the carceral, meaning set‐apart spaces of enforced confinement for “wrong‐doers,” has a long, tangled history. It features in Foucault's inquiries into disciplinary power and its associated spatial formations, not least in the shape of the modern prison. Drawing lightly from Foucault's claims about disciplinary and biopolitical power, as well as on his anti‐prison activism, this paper explores three possibilities for penal transformation arising during the early months of COVID‐19 in UK prisons (circa March to August 2020). Consulting primary source material, these possibilities are respectively identified as “retrenching,” “reworking” or “reducing” the carceral. A chief finding is that under the press of pandemic “emergency,” the tilt of emphasis has been towards a retrenched or reworked “carceral state,” disappointing any promise of abolition, let alone more humble reduction in carceral conditions. The “biological sub‐citizens” of prisons are hence being left especially vulnerable to the press of pandemic, in part precisely because of how carceral spatialities are being intensified. Short Abstract The relationship between pandemic, or chronic infectious diseases, and the carceral, meaning set‐apart spaces of enforced confinement for “wrong‐doers,” has a long, tangled history. It features in Foucault’s inquiries into disciplinary power and its associated spatial formations, not least in the shape of the modern prison. Drawing lightly from Foucault’s claims about disciplinary and biopolitical power, as well as on his anti‐prison activism, this paper explores three possibilities for penal transformation arising during the early months of COVID‐19 in UK prisons.
| S-EPMC9347962 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Biodiversity is threatened by the growth of urban areas. However, it is still poorly understood how animals can cope with and adapt to these rapid and dramatic transformations of natural environments. The COVID-19 pandemic provides us with a unique opportunity to unveil the mechanisms involved in this process. Lockdown measures imposed in most countries are causing an unprecedented reduction of human activities, giving us an experimental setting to assess the effects of our lifestyle on biodiversity. We studied the birds' response to the population lockdown by using more than 126 000 bird records collected by a citizen science project in northeastern Spain. We compared the occurrence and detectability of birds during the spring 2020 lockdown with baseline data from previous years in the same urban areas and dates. We found that birds did not increase their probability of occurrence in urban areas during the lockdown, refuting the hypothesis that nature has recovered its space in human-emptied urban areas. However, we found an increase in bird detectability, especially during early morning, suggesting a rapid change in the birds' daily routines in response to quieter and less crowded cities. Therefore, urban birds show high behavioural plasticity to rapidly adjust to novel environmental conditions, such as those imposed by the COVID-19.
| S-EPMC7944088 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background: Many regions worldwide reported a decline of stroke admissions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. It remains unclear whether urban and rural regions experienced similar declines and whether deviations from historical admission numbers were more pronounced among specific age, stroke severity or treatment groups. Methods: We used registry datasets from (a) nine acute stroke hospitals in Berlin, and (b) nine hospitals from a rural TeleNeurology network in Northeastern Germany for primary analysis of 3-week-rolling average of stroke/TIA admissions before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We compared course of stroke admission numbers with regional cumulative severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2) infections. In secondary analyses, we used emergency department logs of the Berlin Charité University hospital to investigate changes in age, stroke severity, and thrombolysis/thrombectomy frequencies during the early regional Sars-CoV-2 spread (March and April 2020) and compared them with preceding years. Results: Compared to past years, stroke admissions decreased by 20% in urban and 20-25% in rural hospitals. Deviations from historical averages were observable starting in early March and peaked when numbers of regional Sars-CoV-2 infections were still low. At the same time, average admission stroke severity and proportions of moderate/severe strokes (NIHSS >5) were 20 and 20-40% higher, respectively. There were no relevant deviations observed in proportions of younger patients (<65 years), proportions of patients with thrombolysis, or number of thrombectomy procedures. Stroke admissions at Charité subsequently rebounded and reached near-normal levels after 4 weeks when the number of new Sars-CoV-2 infections started to decrease. Conclusions: During the early pandemic, deviations of stroke-related admissions from historical averages were observed in both urban and rural regions of Northeastern Germany and appear to have been mainly driven by avoidance of admissions of mildly affected stroke patients.
| S-EPMC7815522 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectivesThis study explored attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control of participants across urban, rural and remote settings and examined intention-to-use telemedicine (defined in this study as remote patient-clinician consultations) during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study. 12 focus group discussions were conducted with 60 diverse telemedicine user and non-user participants across 3 study settings. Analysis of responses was done to understand the attitudes, norms and perceived behavioural control of participants. This explored the relationship between the aforementioned factors and intention to use.ResultsBoth users and non-users of telemedicine relayed that the benefits of telemedicine include protection from COVID-19 exposure, decreased out-of-pocket expenses and better work-life balance. Both groups also relayed perceived barriers to telemedicine. Users from the urban site relayed that the lack of preferred physicians discouraged use. Users from the rural and remote sites were concerned about spending on resources (ie, compatible smartphones) to access telemedicine. Non-users from all three sites mentioned that they would not try telemedicine if they felt overwhelmed prior to access.DiscussionFirst-hand experiences, peer promotions, and maximising resource support instil hope that telemedicine can help people gain more access to healthcare. However, utilisation will remain low if patients feel overwhelmed by the behavioural modifications and material resources needed to access telemedicine. Boosting infrastructure must come with improving confidence and trust among people.ConclusionSustainable access beyond the pandemic requires an understanding of factors that prevent usage. Sufficient investment in infrastructure and other related resources is needed if telemedicine will be used to address inequities in healthcare access, especially in rural and remote areas.
| S-EPMC11331966 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We present a forecasting model aim to predict hospital occupancy in metropolitan areas during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Our SEIRD type model features asymptomatic and symptomatic infections with detailed hospital dynamics. We model explicitly branching probabilities and non-exponential residence times in each latent and infected compartments. Using both hospital admittance confirmed cases and deaths, we infer the contact rate and the initial conditions of the dynamical system, considering breakpoints to model lockdown interventions and the increase in effective population size due to lockdown relaxation. The latter features let us model lockdown-induced 2nd waves. Our Bayesian approach allows us to produce timely probabilistic forecasts of hospital demand. We have applied the model to analyze more than 70 metropolitan areas and 32 states in Mexico.
| S-EPMC7822260 | biostudies-literature