Evaluation of hazardous airborne carbonyls in five urban roadside dwellings: A comprehensive indoor air assessment in Sri Lanka

Indoor hazardous airborne carbonyls were quantified in five natural-ventilated roadside dwellings in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The total concentrations of all targeted carbonyls ranged from 13.6 to 18.6 mu g/m(3). Formaldehyde (C1) was the most abundant carbonyl, followed by acetaldehyde (C2) and acetone (C3K). The concentrations of C1 and C2 ranged from 3.3 to 8.5 mu g/m(3) and 2.3 to 4.4 mu g/m(3), respectively, which accounted for 23 to 42% and 18 to 26% respectively, to the total quantified carbonyls. The highest carbonyls levels were obtained in the dwelling located in an urban district with a mixture of industrial, commercial and residential areas. Much lower concentrations of carbonyls were measured in a light local traffic value was counted. Moderate correlations between individual combustion markers from vehicular emissions suggest the strong impacts from traffics to the indoor airs. The concentrations of C1 and C2 were compared with international indoor guidelines established by different authorities. A health assessment was conducted by estimation of inhalation cancer risk, implementing the inhalation unit risk values provided by Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), associated with C1 and C2, which were 6.2 x 10(-5) and 7.7 x 10(-6), respectively. Even though the risks did not reach the action level (1 x 10(-4)), their health impact should not be overlooked. This kick-off indoor monitoring study provides valuable scientific data to the environmental science community since only limit data is available in Sri Lanka

Transport, energy and environment: a model for policy evaluation in Hong Kong

published_or_final_versionCivil and Structural EngineeringDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph

Bus lane safety implications: a case study in Hong Kong

Bus lanes have been widely adopted in major cities such as Hong Kong to improve the efficiency of bus services and increase bus modal share. However, their impacts on road safety have been overlooked. This study employs two observational before–after study techniques aiming to examine whether accident occurrences of the roads equipped with bus lanes had been changed thereafter. On the seven studied sites, decrease in public bus accidents, both fatal and serious (FS) and fatal, serious and slight (FSS) were found; but, increase in other vehicle FS accident were found. Albeit only two of the decreases and neither of the increases were statistically significant at the 5% level, the results appear to suggest that only public buses have benefited in terms of road safety from the bus lane operation. Further investigation into the impacts on non-bus traffic is thus required to provide an insight for future bus lane planning regarding safety

Bus lane safety implications: A case study in Hong Kong

Bus lanes have been widely adopted in major cities such as Hong Kong to improve the efficiency of bus services and increase bus modal share. However, their impacts on road safety have been overlooked. This study employs two observational before-after study techniques aiming to examine whether accident occurrences of the roads equipped with bus lanes had been changed thereafter. On the seven studied sites, decreases of public bus accidents, both fatal and serious (FS) and fatal, serious and slight (FSS) were found; but, increases of other vehicle FS accident were found. Albeit only two of the decreases and neither of the increases were statistically significant at the 5% level, the results appear to suggest that only public buses have been benefited in terms of road safety from the bus lane operation. Further investigation into the impacts on non-bus traffic is thus required to provide an insight for future bus lane planning regarding safety

Size distribution and new particle formation in subtropical Eastern Australia

An intensive measurement campaign of particle concentrations, nitrogen oxides and meteorological parameters was conducted at a rural site in subtropical Eastern Australia during September 2006. The aim of this work was to develop an understanding of the formation and growth processes of atmospheric aerosols, and the size distributions under various meteorological conditions. In order to achieve this, the origins of air arriving at the site were explored using back trajectories cluster analysis and the diurnal patterns of particle number concentration and size distribution for the classified air masses were investigated. The study showed that photochemical formation of nucleation mode particles and their consequent growth was often observed. Further, the nucleation mode usually dominated the size distribution and concentration of the photochemical event in the first 3-4 hours with a geometric mean diameter of 26.9 nm and a geometric standard deviation of 1.28. The average particle growth rate was estimated to be 1.6 nm h-1, which is lower than that observed at urban sites, but comparable to the values reported in clean environments. The potential precursors of the photochemical events are also discussed

Early sepsis care with the National Early Warning Score 2-guided Sepsis Hour-1 Bundle in the emergency department: hybrid type 1 effectiveness-implementation pilot stepped wedge randomised controlled trial (NEWS-1 TRIPS) protocol

Introduction Early sepsis treatment in the emergency department (ED) is crucial to improve patient survival. Despite international promulgation, the uptake of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) Hour-1 Bundle (lactate measurement, blood culture, broad-spectrum antibiotics, 30 mL/kg crystalloid for hypotension/lactate ≥4 mmol/L and vasopressors for hypotension during/after fluid resuscitation within 1 hour of sepsis recognition) is low across healthcare settings. Delays in sepsis recognition and a lack of high-quality evidence hinder its implementation. We propose a novel sepsis care model (National Early Warning Score, NEWS-1 care), in which the SSC Hour-1 Bundle is triggered objectively by a high NEWS-2 (≥5). This study aims to determine the feasibility of a full-scale type 1 hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial on the NEWS-1 care in multiple EDs.Methods and analysis We will conduct a pilot type 1 hybrid trial and prospectively recruit 200 patients from 4 public EDs in Hong Kong cluster randomised in a stepped wedge design over 10 months. All study sites will start with an initial period of standard care and switch in random order at 2-month intervals to the NEWS-1 care unidirectionally. The implementation evaluation will employ mixed methods guided by the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance framework, which includes qualitative and quantitative data from focus group interviews, staff survey and clinical record reviews. We will analyse the 14 feasibility outcomes as progression criteria to a full-scale trial, including trial acceptability to patients and staff, patient and staff recruitment rates, accuracy of sepsis screening, protocol adherence, accessibility to follow-up data, safety and preliminary clinical impacts of the NEWS1 care, using descriptive statistics.Ethics and dissemination The institutional review boards of all study sites approved this study. This study will establish the feasibility of a full-scale hybrid trial. We will disseminate the findings through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations and educational activities.Trial registration number NCT05731349