Global Air Quality and COVID-19 Pandemic : Do We Breathe Cleaner Air?

The global spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has challenged most countries worldwide. It was quickly recognized that reduced activities (lockdowns) during the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic produced major changes in air quality. Our objective was to assess the impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns on groundlevel PM2.5, NO2, and O-3 concentrations on a global scale. We obtained data from 34 countries, 141 cities, and 458 air monitoring stations on 5 continents (few data from Africa). On a global average basis, a 34.0% reduction in NO2 concentration and a 15.0% reduction in PM2.5 were estimated during the strict lockdown period (until April 30, 2020). Global average O-3 concentration increased by 86.0% during this same period. Individual country and continent-wise comparisons have been made between lockdown and business-as-usual periods. Universally, NO2 was the pollutant most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. These effects were likely because its emissions were from sources that were typically restricted (i.e., surface traffic and non-essential industries) by the lockdowns and its short lifetime in the atmosphere. Our results indicate that lockdown measures and resulting reduced emissions reduced exposure to most harmful pollutants and could provide global-scale health benefits. However, the increased O-3 may have substantially reduced those benefits and more detailed health assessments are required to accurately quantify the health gains. At the same, these restrictions were obtained at substantial economic costs and with other health issues (depression, suicide, spousal abuse, drug overdoses, etc.). Thus, any similar reductions in air pollution would need to be obtained without these extensive economic and other consequences produced by the imposed activity reductions.Peer reviewe

Province Classification in Terms of Tourist Attractions

Nowadays, tourism is one of the major constituents and it is considered as one of the main economic sources and an affecting factor on economic development of human societies. Tourism expansion is also affected on foreign exchange and national income, employment and other macroeconomic indicators. According to the importance of this subject and the role of tourism in economic development, this study first tries to evaluate and prioritize 16 provinces of Iran in terms of the types of tourism attractions and some of the economic growth indices using TOPSIS technique and then it tries to study the relationship between tourism attractions and economic growth indices using multivariable regression. Results indicate that Fars, Tehran and Khorasan Razavi provinces have the highest ratings in terms of tourist attractions . And man-made attractions effect on economic development more than natural and historical attractions

Solid Lipid Nanoparticles and Nanostructured Lipid Carriers: Structure, Preparation and Application

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have attracted special interest during last few decades. Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) are two major types of Lipid-based nanoparticles. SLNs were developed to overcome the limitations of other colloidal carriers, such as emulsions, liposomes and polymeric nanoparticles because they have advantages like good release profile and targeted drug delivery with excellent physical stability. In the next generation of the lipid nanoparticle, NLCs are modified SLNs which improve the stability and capacity loading. Three structural models of NLCs have been proposed. These LNPs have potential applications in drug delivery field, research, cosmetics, clinical medicine, etc. This article focuses on features, structure and innovation of LNPs and presents a wide discussion about preparation methods, advantages, disadvantages and applications of LNPs by focusing on SLNs and NLCs

Does Adding the Pulmonary Infarction and Right Ventricle to Left Ventricle Diameter Ratio to the Qanadli Index (A Combined Qanadli Index) More Accurately, Predict Short-Term Mortality in Patients with Pulmonary Embolism?

Background The Qanadli index can be used to assess the severity of pulmonary arterial involvement in patients with acute pulmonary embolism. However, it seems that considering pulmonary infarction and right ventricle/left ventricle (RV/LV) ratio along with this index (called the combined Qanadli index) can provide a more accurate view of changes in cardiovascular parameters in these patients and help predict mortality in a better manner. In this regard, we evaluated the ability of the combined Qanadli index versus the Qanadli index in predicting short-term mortality in patients with pulmonary embolism