Sustainable policies for air pollution reduction after COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learnt from the impact of the different lockdown periods on air quality

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments imposed several mobility restrictions which can be used to evaluate their impact on air quality and generate better-targeted policies to improve it. Therefore, this study aimed to define sustainable mitigation measures to reduce air pollution based on quantifying the impacts of the restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic on air quality in Portugal. Thus, hourly concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, NO2, O-3, CO and SO2 were obtained from the Portuguese Air Quality Monitoring Network. Data was then divided into six periods (2020-2021) and compared with the corresponding historical periods (2015-2019). Furthermore, the satellite data of NO2, CO, and absorbing aerosol index (AAI) from the sentinel-5P TROPOMI was collected to complement the analysis conducted for the monitoring data. Overall, air quality improved in all study periods and areas, except in industrial sites. The satellite data corroborated the results herein achieved and thus validated the real effect of the measures adopted in the country during the pandemic on air quality. Sustainable policies to improve air quality could include remote (or hybrid) work whenever possible as a long-term measure and prohibition of travelling between municipalities when an extraordinary event of high air pollution is predicted or occurs. Other policies should be adopted for industrial areas. Given this, and as the restrictive mobility measures had a strong effect on reducing air pollution, the post-COVID era represents an opportunity for society to rethink future mobility and other emerging policies, that should favour softer and cleaner means of transportation

First report of human Thelazia callipaeda infection in Portugal

The zoonotic parasitic nematode Thelazia callipaeda, also known as the oriental eye worm, is endemic in several European countries, including Portugal. Infections may result in ocular disease in domestic and wild animals as well as humans, with more or less severe manifestations. We report the first human case of ocular thelaziosis by T. callipaeda in Portugal, a country where the parasite had already been found to infect dogs, cats, red foxes, wild rabbits and a beech marten. An 80-year-old patient from east-central Portugal, who had been suffering from tearing for a few years, had whitish filiform fragments removed from the left eye. Polymerase chain reaction of partial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 and 18S small subunit rRNA genes followed by bidirectional sequencing and BLAST analysis confirmed T. callipaeda haplotype 1, the only haplotype previously reported in Europe. The endemicity of T. callipaeda in domestic and wild animals in east-central Portugal makes it very likely that infection of the human patient had occurred locally. In east-central and other geographical areas of Portugal, veterinarians and physicians, especially ophthalmologists, should regard T. callipaeda as a cause of ocular pathology in animals and humans. © 2022This work was supported by national funds, through Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology), under projects UIDB/CVT/00772/2020 and LA/P/0059/2020, and also projects UIDB/04750/2020 and LA/P/0064/2020

Delusional misidentification syndrome: Why such nosologic challenge remains intractable

The delusional misidentification syndrome has lately been the object of lengthy psychopathological discussions. Controversies persist as to how best to define it, distinguish its subtypes and set their limits. Attempts to provide this syndrome with a better conceptual framework have usually relied on proposing new definitions and classifications. In this article, we suggest that some prevailing difficulties are basically related to two separate but intertwined issues: the self-reflexive property of the human mental functioning and the first-person linguistic expression of human experience. We argue that this discussion belongs to a broader context than the one it is usually referred to, as it deals with problems germane to conceptual psychopathological investigations in general. In that regard, DMS provides us with a very telling example, to the extent to which it has, at its core, to account for the puzzling phenomena of identity, which are particularly affected by cultural and linguistic variables. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel.39629630

Dobutamine-induced wall motion abnormalities: Correlations with myocardial fractional flow reserve and quantitative coronary angiography

AbstractObjectives. This study evaluated both the relation between dobutamine-induced wall motion abnormalities and the physiologic and morphologic features of epicardial coronary artery stenoses and the impact of the extent of the area at risk on the sensitivity of dobutamine echocardiography.Background. The accuracy of dobutamine echocardiography has traditionally been assessed by comparing results with stenosis geometry. Myocardial fractional flow reserve is a functional index of coronary stenosis severity that takes into account both anterograde and collateral flow and may therefore be a more appropriate standard for comparison.Methods. Seventy-five patients with normal left ventricular function, good echocardiographic images and an isolated corenary stenosis underwent, within 6 h, debutamine echocardiography, quantitative coronary angiography and intracoronary pressure measurements. Myocardial fractional flow reserve was calculated as the ratio of mean hyperemic distal coronary to aortic pressure.Results. The degree of dobutamine-induced dyssynergy correlated significantly with percent diameter stenosis (r = 0.68), area stenosis (r = 0.68) and minimal lumen diameter (r = 0.60) and markedly better with myocardial fractional flow reserve (r = −0.77). However, marked dispersion of the individual data was observed. The sensitivity of dobutamine echocardiography in detecting lesions with a minimal lumen diameter ≤1 mm and diameter stenosis ≥50% was 83% and 80%, respectively. All but one patient with a myocardial fractional flow reserve >0.75 had a normal stress test result. Among patients with a myocardial fractional flow reserve ≤0.75, the sensitivity of dobutamine echocardiography was significantly lower for lesions in vessels with a reference diameter ≤2.6 mm than for lesions in larger vessels (58% vs. 90%, p = 0.008).Conclusions. 1) The magnitude of wall motion abnormalities induced by dobutamine infusion correlates with angiographic and, more closely, with functional indexes of stenosis severity, even though a wide scatter is observed. 2) In patients with a functionally significant stenosis, the amount of myocardium at risk is a critical determinant of the accuracy of debutamine echocardiography