Correlation between work impairment, scores of rhinitis severity and asthma using the MASK-air (R) App

Background In allergic rhinitis, a relevant outcome providing information on the effectiveness of interventions is needed. In MASK-air (Mobile Airways Sentinel Network), a visual analogue scale (VAS) for work is used as a relevant outcome. This study aimed to assess the performance of the work VAS work by comparing VAS work with other VAS measurements and symptom-medication scores obtained concurrently. Methods All consecutive MASK-air users in 23 countries from 1 June 2016 to 31 October 2018 were included (14 189 users; 205 904 days). Geolocalized users self-assessed daily symptom control using the touchscreen functionality on their smart phone to click on VAS scores (ranging from 0 to 100) for overall symptoms (global), nose, eyes, asthma and work. Two symptom-medication scores were used: the modified EAACI CSMS score and the MASK control score for rhinitis. To assess data quality, the intra-individual response variability (IRV) index was calculated. Results A strong correlation was observed between VAS work and other VAS. The highest levels for correlation with VAS work and variance explained in VAS work were found with VAS global, followed by VAS nose, eye and asthma. In comparison with VAS global, the mCSMS and MASK control score showed a lower correlation with VAS work. Results are unlikely to be explained by a low quality of data arising from repeated VAS measures. Conclusions VAS work correlates with other outcomes (VAS global, nose, eye and asthma) but less well with a symptom-medication score. VAS work should be considered as a potentially useful AR outcome in intervention studies.Peer reviewe

Index to 1981 NASA Tech Briefs, volume 6, numbers 1-4

Short announcements of new technology derived from the R&D activities of NASA are presented. These briefs emphasize information considered likely to be transferrable across industrial, regional, or disciplinary lines and are issued to encourage commercial application. This index for 1981 Tech Briefs contains abstracts and four indexes: subject, personal author, originating center, and Tech Brief Number. The following areas are covered: electronic components and circuits, electronic systems, physical sciences, materials, life sciences, mechanics, machinery, fabrication technology, and mathematics and information sciences

World Happiness Report 2020

This year the World Happiness Report focuses especially on the environment – social, urban, and natural. After presenting our usual country rankings and explanations of life evaluations in Chapter 2, we turn to these three categories of environment, and how they affect happiness. The social environment is dealt with in detail in the later parts of Chapter 2. It is also a main focus of Chapter 7, which looks at happiness in the Nordic countries and finds that higher personal and institutional trust are key factors in explaining why life evaluations are so high in those countries. Urban life is the focus of Chapter 3, which examines the happiness ranking of cities, and of Chapter 4, which compares happiness in cities and rural areas across the world. An Annex considers recent international efforts to develop common definitions of urban, peri-urban, and rural communities. The natural environment is the focus of Chapter 5, which examines how the local environment affects happiness. Chapter 6 takes a longer and broader focus on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The wide range of the SDGs links them to all three of the environmental themes considered in other chapters

Evaluation of performance of European cities with the aim of increasing quality of life

Tese de Doutoramento. Engenharia Industrial e Gestão. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

A Possible Circular Approach for Social Perception of Climate Adaptation Action Planning in Metropolitan Cities

AbstractOne of the factors that will affect the livability of cities and the overall citizens' quality of life in the future is certainly climate change. Urban areas will play a fundamental role in the commitment against climate change and will have to develop appropriate adaptation actions, in accordance with the European Strategy against climate change, including the planning and implementation of Green Infrastructures (GIs). They produce various environmental and social benefits in the urban context. Various studies have shown that citizenship involvement at all levels is necessary for the evaluation of the sharing of the proposed projects. The research proposes an innovative methodological model to support administrations in the strategic planning choice of GIs according to a shared and circular approach. To perform a multi-layer assessment, the multi-criteria evaluation will be combined with the circular evaluation model called Green City Circle. The evaluation is set up as a circular process, followed by a first investigative phase, followed by a proactive phase of solutions and an implementation phase up to a final stage of evaluation of the results and strategies for long-term sustainability. The study was carried out in the city of Catania to test a planning and management tool for GIs envisaged by the administration as win–win climate adaptation measures

Planning walkable cities:Generative design approach towards digital twin implementation

The idea of a walkable city refers to the extent to which the built environment encourages people to walk by establishing comfortable pedestrian routes, which allows people to connect to numerous services with reasonable effort and time. Walkability is currently regarded as a “good to know about” rather than a “must-have” factor for sustainable development. A combination of walkability with a standard design strategy, such as generative design, may result in a more efficient way of planning a walkable city. Interestingly, the sole indicator taken into account for walkability in the generative design domain is “distance to amenities”, while in reality, other parameters, such as the comfort factor, could also influence walkability. Therefore, in this research, we developed a workflow based on the generative design, which considers the comfort dimension in combination with distance to amenities and street-level greeneries. We also included the human perspective, given that walkability is always personal. This research successfully generated three different scenarios of walkability-optimal urban plans, where the highest walkability is 82.43 (very walkable). Furthermore, the baseline scenario of two different locations also aligns with people’s perspectives when compared. In addition, we found that the inclusion of a temporal dimension, enhanced 3D-related indicators, and constraints should benefit future research

Višekriterijska evaluacija pametnih performansi europskih gradova: gospodarski, socijalni i okolišni aspekti

The purpose of the paper is to provide the ranking of Central and Eastern European cities, based on various elements of cities’ smart performance. Our analysis enables the evaluation of social, economic and environmental aspects of urban life that represent the determinants of cities’ competitive profiles and consequently, the positions on the ranking lists. The research is based on the data on perceptions of citizens on different aspects of urban quality, provided by the Eurostat’s Urban Audit Perception Survey. For the assessment of various hierarchically structured indicators of cities’ smart performance, a multi-criteria analysis model is developed, combining the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) for determining the relative importance of criteria and TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method of ranking. The main finding of the paper implies that direct perceptions of citizens on the overall life satisfaction in the analyzed European cities are not influenced by their smart performance. The comparison of ranks obtained by the constructed multi-criteria model and perceived satisfaction of life indicates a rather weak relation.Svrha rada je rangirati gradove srednje i istočne Europe na temelju različitih elemenata pametnih performansi gradova. Ova analiza omogućuje procjenu društvenih, ekonomskih i ekoloških aspekata urbanog života, koji predstavljaju odrednice konkurentnosti gradova, a time i pozicije na rang listi. Istraživanje se temelji na podacima o percepciji građana o različitim aspektima urbane kvalitete, koje pruža Eurostatova baza Urban Audit Perception Survey. Za procjenu raznih hijerarhijski strukturiranih pokazatelja pametnih performansi gradova, razvijen je višekriterijski model analize koji kombinira metodu Analitički hijerarhijski proces (Analytic Hierarchy Process – AHP) za određivanje relativne važnosti kriterija i TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) metodu rangiranja. Glavni nalaz rada sugerira da izravna percepcija građana o cjelokupnom životnom zadovoljstvu u analiziranim europskim gradovima nije uvjetovana “pametnim” performansama gradova. Usporedba poretka dobivenih konstruiranim višekriterijskim modelom i percipiranog zadovoljstva života ukazuje na njihov prilično slab odno