Associations between mortality from COVID-19 in two Italian regions and outdoor air pollution as assessed through tropospheric nitrogen dioxide

After the appearance of COVID-19 in China last December 2019, Italy was the first European country to be severely affected by the outbreak. The first diagnosis in Italy was on February 20, 2020, followed by the establishment of a light and a tight lockdown on February 23 and on March 8, 2020, respectively. The virus spread rapidly, particularly in the North of the country in the ‘Padan Plain’ area, known as one of the most polluted regions in Europe. Air pollution has been recently hypothesized to enhance the clinical severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection, acting through adverse effects on immunity, induction of respiratory and other chronic disease, upregulation of viral receptor ACE-2, and possible pathogen transportation as a virus carrier. We investigated the association between air pollution and subsequent COVID-19 mortality rates within two Italian regions (Veneto and Emilia-Romagna). We estimated ground-level nitrogen dioxide through its tropospheric levels using data available from the Sentinel-5P satellites of the European Space Agency Copernicus Earth Observation Programme before the lockdown. We then examined COVID-19 mortality rates in relation to the nitrogen dioxide levels at three 14-day lag points after the lockdown, namely March 8, 22 and April 5, 2020. Using a multivariable negative binomial regression model, we found an association between nitrogen dioxide and COVID-19 mortality. Although ecological data provide only weak evidence, these findings indicate an association between air pollution levels and COVID-19 severity

Perception of speech with envelope enhancement in individuals with auditory neuropathy and simulated loss of temporal modulation processing

Individuals with auditory neuropathy (AN) often suffer from temporal processing deficits causing speech perception difficulties. In the present study an envelope enhancement scheme that incorporated envelope expansion was used to reduce the effects of temporal deficits. The study involved two experiments. In the first experiment, to simulate the effects of reduced temporal resolution, temporally smeared speech stimuli were presented to listeners with normal hearing. The results revealed that temporal smearing of the speech signal reduced identification scores. With the envelope enhancement of the speech signal prior to being temporally smeared, identification scores improved significantly compared to temporally smeared condition. The second experiment assessed speech perception in twelve individuals with AN, using unprocessed and envelope-enhanced speech signals. The results revealed improvement in speech identification scores for the majority of individuals with AN when the envelope of the speech signal was enhanced. However, envelope enhancement was not able to improve speech identification scores for individuals with AN who had very poor unprocessed speech scores. Overall, the results of the present study suggest that applying envelope enhancement strategies in hearing aids might provide some benefits to many individuals with AN.8 page(s

Atlante delle residenze collettive

Atlante delle residenze colletiv