Characterization of odorous emissions from a civil wastewater treatment plant in Italy

The characterization and reduction of odour emissions represents an open debate among the scientific community. Odour nuisances are connected to a large number of substances, mostly detectable at low concentrations. Direct estimation of odour impacts through olfactometry is not always applicable, as this approach requires air sampling and a pool of trained panellists. Measuring the concentration of odorous substances provides support to the characterization of emission sources and the design of odour monitoring systems. Civil wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are known sources of odours. The objective of this project is the design and development of an integrated odour emission monitoring system at the Castiglione Torinese WWTP in Italy. In this paper, the preliminary characterization of the emission sources and the odour emitting components are presented. The characterization of the emission sources and tracers was obtained by mean of a number of site inspections and measurement campaigns held between 2017 and 2019. In the last campaign, held in January 2019, chemical odour tracers (H2S, NH3, VOC) and dynamic olfactometry measurements were performed simultaneously. The screening of VOC species through gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer analysis of air samples was also performed. Odour emitting components were ranked in terms of odour activity value (OAV). Results show that VOC is the only group of compounds that is always detectable on the site. NH3 and H2S may, in some cases, be present at considerable concentrations. Results of OAV calculations show that a number of VOCs are detected on the site with a high spatial and temporal frequency. Additional considerations are reported on the site-specific correlation between chemical species and odour measurements. This detailed characterization of the emission sources and tracers results in the design of the final integrated monitoring system, which will be based on continuous measurement of H2S, NH3 and VOC and advanced dispersion modelling

Post-Traumatic Stress Associated with Telework-Related Job Limitation in Latin America

During the pandemic, there has been evidence of work limitations during telework, which are believed to cause mental health problems. Our objective was to assess the association between perceived work limitations during telework and posttraumatic stress during the COVID-19 pandemic in Latin America. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Latin America in 2020. Exposure was measured by self-reporting using a self-perception questionnaire; the SPRINT-E questionnaire was used for outcome measurements. Generalized linear models were applied. Of 1329 participants, 15.2% (n = 202) had posttraumatic stress. In a multivariate analysis, the highest frequency of posttraumatic stress was found among those with moderate depression or more (PR = 1.29; 95% CI: 1.03–1.61), moderate or more anxiety (PR = 2.34; 95% CI: 1.61–3.41), and moderate or more stress (PR = 2.45; 95% CI: 1.46–4.12). In conclusion, there is an association between perceived work limitations during telework and posttraumatic stress in Latin American workers. For this reason, it is recommended that occupational physicians, companies, and institutions assess the frequency of posttraumatic stress and monitor the mental health of workers.National Institute of Mental HealthRevisión por pare

"Validity of a scale of Latin American perception of fear and concern transmitted by the media during the pandemic (MED-LAT-COVID-19)"

"Introduction: The pandemic has caused fear, especially due to the daily disseminated news; however, there is not an instrument to measure this fear in multiple realities. Objective: To validate a scale for Latin American perception of fear and concern transmitted by the media during the pandemic. Methodology: This is an instrumental study. The survey was based on an instrument which was pre-validated in Peru and submitted to 15 experts in almost 10 countries. Subsequently, thousands of people were surveyed in 13 Latin American countries, whose answers were used for descriptive statistics for validation. Results: Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) generated two re-specifications, where four items were eliminated from the original scale. With these changes, the global goodness of fit (absolute and incremental) were satisfactory (CFI ¼ 0.978; TLI ¼ 0.964; GFI ¼ 0.976; AGFI ¼ 0.949; RMSEA ¼ 0.075 and RMR ¼ 0.029). The first factor measures the media exaggeration (three questions); the second, the fear transmitted by the media (three questions); and the third, the fear transmitted by others different from the media (two questions). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was higher than 0.70 for the scale and its factors. Conclusion: The MED-LAT-COVID-19 scale reported a good adjustment. It has eight items in three factors, which could be measured in an isolated way, or along with other tests that assess mental health in the current pandemic context.

Constraints on the χ_(c1) versus χ_(c2) polarizations in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

The polarizations of promptly produced χ_(c1) and χ_(c2) mesons are studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, in proton-proton collisions at √s=8  TeV. The χ_c states are reconstructed via their radiative decays χ_c → J/ψγ, with the photons being measured through conversions to e⁺e⁻, which allows the two states to be well resolved. The polarizations are measured in the helicity frame, through the analysis of the χ_(c2) to χ_(c1) yield ratio as a function of the polar or azimuthal angle of the positive muon emitted in the J/ψ → μ⁺μ⁻ decay, in three bins of J/ψ transverse momentum. While no differences are seen between the two states in terms of azimuthal decay angle distributions, they are observed to have significantly different polar anisotropies. The measurement favors a scenario where at least one of the two states is strongly polarized along the helicity quantization axis, in agreement with nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics predictions. This is the first measurement of significantly polarized quarkonia produced at high transverse momentum