Sociodemographic Patterns of Exposure to Civil Aircraft Noise in the United States

13-C-AJFF-BU-016This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Please cite this article as: Matthew C. Simon, Jaime E. Hart, Jonathan I. Levy, Trang VoPham, Andrew Malwitz, Daniel Nguyen, Matthew Bozigar, L. Adrienne Cupples, Peter James, Francine Laden, and Junenette L. Peters. 2022. Sociodemographic Patterns of Exposure to Civil Aircraft Noise in the United States Environmental Health Perspectives. 130:2 CID: 027009 https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP9307Background: Communities with lower socioeconomic status and higher prevalence of racial/ethnic minority populations are often more exposed to environmental pollutants. Although studies have shown associations between aircraft noise and property values and various health outcomes, little is known about how aircraft noise exposures are sociodemographically patterned. Objective: Our aim was to describe characteristics of populations exposed to aviation noise by race/ethnicity, education, and income in the United States

Long-Term Aircraft Noise Exposure and Risk of Hypertension in Postmenopausal Women [2022]

13-C-AJFE-BU-002This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Please cite this article as: Daniel D. Nguyen, Eric A. Whitsel, Gregory A. Wellenius, Jonathan I. Levy, Jessica H. Leibler, Stephanie T. Grady, James D. Stewart, Matthew P. Fox, Jason M. Collins, Melissa N. Eliot, Andrew Malwitz, JoAnn E. Manson, Junenette L. Peters, Long-term aircraft noise exposure and risk of hypertension in postmenopausal women, Environmental Research, Volume 218, 2023, 115037, ISSN 0013-9351, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.115037.Background: Studies of the association between aircraft noise and hypertension are complicated by inadequate control for potential confounders and a lack of longitudinal assessments, and existing evidence is inconclusive. Objectives: We evaluated the association between long-term aircraft noise exposure and risk of hypertension among post-menopausal women in the Women\u2019s Health Initiative Clinical Trials, an ongoing prospective U.S. cohort

Sociodemographic Patterns of Exposure to Civil Aircraft Noise in the United States

Communities with lower socioeconomic status and higher prevalence of racial/ethnic minority populations are often more exposed to environmental pollutants. Although studies have shown associations between aircraft noise and property values and various health outcomes, little is known about how aircraft noise exposures are sociodemographically patterned.Our aim was to describe characteristics of populations exposed to aviation noise by race/ethnicity, education, and income in the United States.Aircraft noise contours characterized as day-night average sound level (DNL) were developed for 90 U.S. airports in 2010 for DNLin 1-dB(A) increments. We compared characteristics of exposed U.S. Census block groups at three thresholds (,, and), assigned on the basis of the block group land area beingwithin the threshold, vs. unexposed block groups near study airports. Comparisons were made across block group race/ethnicity, education, and income categories within the study areas (). We performed both multinomial and other various multivariable regression approaches, including models controlling for airport and models with random intercepts specifying within-airport effects and adjusting for airport-level means.Aggregated across multiple airports, block groups with a higher Hispanic population had higher odds of being exposed to aircraft noise. For example, the multinomial analysis showed that a 10-percentage point increase in a block group's Hispanic population was associated with an increased odds ratio of 39% (95% CI: 25%, 54%) of being exposed tocompared with block groups exposed to. Block groups with higher proportions of residents with only a high school education had higher odds of being exposed to aircraft noise. Results were robust across multiple regression approaches; however, there was substantial heterogeneity across airports.These results suggest that across U.S. airports, there is indication of sociodemographic disparities in noise exposures. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP9307

Lightcurve analysis of five main-belt asteroids : 3446 Combes,(9410) 1995 BJ1,(17780) 1998 FY13,(24491) 2000 YT 123, and 28341 Bingaman

An observing campaign was conducted among teams at the University of Maryland, College Park, and in Malta to determine the rotation period of 3446 Combes during 2019 March and April. Lightcurve analysis using MPO Canopus of the asteroid was conducted in order to determine its rotation period. Using the eight nights of data, 3446 Combes was found to have a rotation period of 5.6990 ± 0.0005 h and an amplitude of 0.18 mag. The University of Maryland team also observed four additional asteroids that serendipitously appeared in the images: (9410) 1995 BJ, (17780) 1998 FY13, (24491) 2000 YT123, and 28341 Bingaman. These were observed only one night each and only the raw data for them are presented.peer-reviewe

Assessment of the Impact of Reduced Vertical Separation on Aircraft-Related Fuel Burn and Emissions for the Domestic United States

The study reported here investigated the impact of RVSM when it was enacted over the domestic US in 2005 for a larger segment of data than previously assessed, and used more advanced modeling methods in an effort to more accurately assess the benefits. The study was conducted jointly by the US Department of Transportation Volpe Center (Volpe) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), under the Partnership for Air Transportation Noise and Emission Reduction (PARTNER), for the FAA\u2019s Office of Environment and Energy (FAA/AEE)

US alternative jet fuel deployment scenario analyses identifying key drivers and geospatial patterns for the first billion gallons

The aviation sector's commitments to carbon‐neutral growth in international aviation starting in 2020, and the desire to improve supply surety, price stability, and the environmental performance of aviation fuels, have led to broad interest in sustainable alternative jet fuels. Here, we use the system‐dynamics‐based biomass scenario model (BSM), focused on alternative jet fuel production capacity evolution, and the geospatially explicit Freight and Fuel Transportation Optimization Tool (FTOT), focused on optimal feedstock and fuel flows over the transportation system, to explore the incentive effects on alternative jet fuel production capacity trajectories and potential geospatial patterns of production and delivery in the USA. Scenarios presented here focus on readily available waste feedstocks (waste fats, oils and greases, municipal solid waste, and crop and forestry residues) and conversion technologies included in the ASTM D7566 synthesized aviation turbine fuels specification. The BSM modeling of possible deployment trajectories from 2015 to 2045 suggests that up to 8 billion gallons may be available by 2045 depending on the policies and incentives implemented. Both approaches suggest that 200 million to 1 billion gallons per year of alternative jet fuel production are possible in 2030 given multiple incentives and a favorable investment climate, and that capital costs and technology maturation rates will affect deployment of different fuel production technologies, and therefore the feedstocks needed. Further collaboration on these modeling approaches would reduce methodological blind spots while providing insights into future industry trajectories. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Lt

Long-term aircraft noise exposure and risk of hypertension in postmenopausal women

Studies of the association between aircraft noise and hypertension are complicated by inadequate control for potential confounders and a lack of longitudinal assessments, and existing evidence is inconclusive.We evaluated the association between long-term aircraft noise exposure and risk of hypertension among post-menopausal women in the Women's Health Initiative Clinical Trials, an ongoing prospective U.S. cohort.Day-night average (DNL) and night equivalent sound levels (Lnight) were modeled for 90 U.S. airports from 1995 to 2010 in 5-year intervals using the Aviation Environmental Design Tool and linked to participant geocoded addresses from 1993 to 2010. Participants with modeled exposures ≥45 A-weighted decibels (dB [A]) were considered exposed, and those outside of 45 dB(A) who also did not live in close proximity to unmodeled airports were considered unexposed. Hypertension was defined as systolic/diastolic blood pressure ≥140/90 mmHg or inventoried/self-reported antihypertensive medication use. Using time-varying Cox proportional hazards models, we estimated hazard ratios (HRs) for incident hypertension when exposed to DNL or Lnight ≥45 versus <45 dB(A), controlling for sociodemographic, behavioral, and environmental/contextual factors.There were 18,783 participants with non-missing DNL exposure and 14,443 with non-missing Lnight exposure at risk of hypertension. In adjusted models, DNL and Lnight ≥45 db(A) were associated with HRs of 1.00 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.93, 1.08) and 1.06 (95%CI: 0.91, 1.24), respectively. There was no evidence supporting a positive exposure-response relationship, and findings were robust in sensitivity analyses. Indications of elevated risk were seen among certain subgroups, such as those living in areas with lower population density (HRinteraction: 0.84; 95%CI: 0.72, 0.98) or nitrogen dioxide concentrations (HRinteraction: 0.82; 95%CI: 0.71, 0.95), which may indicate lower ambient/road traffic noise. Our findings do not suggest a relationship between aircraft noise and incident hypertension among older women in the U.S., though associations in lower ambient noise settings merit further investigation.•We assessed associations between aircraft noise exposure and risk of hypertension.•We found no positive associations among post-menopausal women.•Air pollution did not appear to confound the noise-hypertension relationship.•We examined modifiers and found indications in areas with lower ambient noise

Unfolded Protein Response in Cancer: IRE1α Inhibition by Selective Kinase Ligands Does Not Impair Tumor Cell Viability

The kinase/endonuclease inositol requiring enzyme 1 (IRE1α), one of the sensors of unfolded protein accumulation in the endoplasmic reticulum that triggers the unfolded protein response (UPR), has been investigated as an anticancer target. We identified potent allosteric inhibitors of IRE1α endonuclease activity that bound to the kinase site on the enzyme. Structure–activity relationship (SAR) studies led to <b>16</b> and <b>18</b>, which were selective in kinase screens and were potent against recombinant IRE1α endonuclease as well as cellular IRE1α. The first X-ray crystal structure of a kinase inhibitor (<b>16</b>) bound to hIRE1α was obtained. Screening of native tumor cell lines (>300) against selective IRE1α inhibitors failed to demonstrate any effect on cellular viability. These results suggest that IRE1α activity is not essential for viability in most tumor cell lines, in vitro, and that interfering with the survival functions of the UPR may not be an effective strategy to block tumorigenesis