Modelling and Forecast of Air Pollution Concentrations during COVID Pandemic Emergency with ARIMA Techniques: the Case Study of Two Italian Cities

An efficient and punctual monitoring of air pollutants is very useful to evaluate and prevent possible threats to human beings’ health. Especially in areas where such pollutants are highly concentrated, an accurate collection of data could suggest mitigation actions to be implemented. Moreover, a well-performed data collection could also permit the forecast of future scenarios, in relation to the seasonality of the phenomenon. With a particular focus on COVID pandemic period, several literature works demonstrated a decreasing of pollutant concentrations in air of urban areas, mainly for NOx, while CO and PM10, on the opposite, has been observed to remain still, mainly because of the intensive usage of heating systems by the people forced to stay home (on specific regions). With the present contribution the authors here present an application of Time Series analysis (TSA) approach to pollutants concentration data of two Italian cities during first lockdown (9 march – 18 may 2020), demonstrating the possibility to predict pollutants concentration over time

Morphological and chemical characterization of atmospheric particles PM10 in an urban site in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico

Start PM10 concentrations and their trace metals content (Cd, Co, Cu, Fe and Zn) were determined in an urban site of Leon, Guanajuato during the rainy season 2018. PM10 exceeded the maximum permissible levels established by the Mexican Standards and WHO, constituting a potential risk to population health. Trace metals levels in PM10 were analyzed by Atomic Absorption Spectrometry, and in addition, morphology and elemental content were studied for some selected particles by Scanning Electronic Microscopy and Energy Dispersive Spectrometry. Chemical and morphological characterization revealed that Fe was the more abundant metal (0.986 µg m-3 ), followed in order of importance by Zn (0.243 µg m-3 ), due to theses metals are related to the crustal. Lower concentrations were found for Cu (0.140 µg m-3 ), Cd (0.119 µg m-3 ), Mn (0.070 µg m-3 ) and Co (0.043 µg m-3 ). Meteorological analysis showed that sources located at the SW and NE of the sampling site (industrial parks and facilities related to metals and mineral extraction) influenced the measured concentrations. Enrichment factors showed that all the measured metals were highly influenced by anthropogenic activity. Cancer Risk (CR) and Non-Cancer Risk Coefficients (cardiovascular and respiratory diseases) did not exceed the maximum permissible level established by EPA.The first section in your paper

Rivaroxaban with or without aspirin in stable cardiovascular disease

BACKGROUND: We evaluated whether rivaroxaban alone or in combination with aspirin would be more effective than aspirin alone for secondary cardiovascular prevention. METHODS: In this double-blind trial, we randomly assigned 27,395 participants with stable atherosclerotic vascular disease to receive rivaroxaban (2.5 mg twice daily) plus aspirin (100 mg once daily), rivaroxaban (5 mg twice daily), or aspirin (100 mg once daily). The primary outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death, stroke, or myocardial infarction. The study was stopped for superiority of the rivaroxaban-plus-aspirin group after a mean follow-up of 23 months. RESULTS: The primary outcome occurred in fewer patients in the rivaroxaban-plus-aspirin group than in the aspirin-alone group (379 patients [4.1%] vs. 496 patients [5.4%]; hazard ratio, 0.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.66 to 0.86; P<0.001; z=−4.126), but major bleeding events occurred in more patients in the rivaroxaban-plus-aspirin group (288 patients [3.1%] vs. 170 patients [1.9%]; hazard ratio, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.40 to 2.05; P<0.001). There was no significant difference in intracranial or fatal bleeding between these two groups. There were 313 deaths (3.4%) in the rivaroxaban-plus-aspirin group as compared with 378 (4.1%) in the aspirin-alone group (hazard ratio, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.71 to 0.96; P=0.01; threshold P value for significance, 0.0025). The primary outcome did not occur in significantly fewer patients in the rivaroxaban-alone group than in the aspirin-alone group, but major bleeding events occurred in more patients in the rivaroxaban-alone group. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with stable atherosclerotic vascular disease, those assigned to rivaroxaban (2.5 mg twice daily) plus aspirin had better cardiovascular outcomes and more major bleeding events than those assigned to aspirin alone. Rivaroxaban (5 mg twice daily) alone did not result in better cardiovascular outcomes than aspirin alone and resulted in more major bleeding events