The Impact of Urban Forest Structure and its Spatial Location on Urban Cool Island Intensity

Urban forest can help decrease land surface temperature (LST) and create urban cooling effect (UCI) to mitigate urban heat island (UHI). However, it is still unclear how urban forest structure and its location affect UCI, particularly under different seasons. In this study, with plot-based urban forest structure and UCI intensity extracted from Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) thermal data, we first conducted correlation analyses between UCI and different forest structures (crown closure, tree height, leaf area index, basal area, stem density and diameter at breast height, etc.) and spatial location (distances from buildings and from water bodies and elevation) attributes, and we then carried out quantitative regression analyses between them. Our results indicate that (1) Urban forest could create “urban cool islands”, which were higher in summer than those in autumn.(2) UCI could be significantly affected by urban forest structural attributes, especially by crown closure and LAI. All urban forest structural attributes had positive linear relationships with UCI except for LAI and basal area which had positive non-linear relationships with UCI.; (3) UCI in urban forest could also be affected by its spatial location but not by its elevation. The UCI non-linearly decreased with decreasing distance from buildings and with increasing distance from water bodies. The threshold values of DB for significantly affecting UCI variation is approximately between 100 m and 300 m in summer and autumn, respectively; and (4) the relationships between UCI and urban forest structure and its location attributes were complex and seasonal dependent. Urban forest attributes had greater effects on increasing UCI in summer than those in autumn. These findings would deepen our understanding of interactions between UCI and urban forest attributes and provide urban planners with useful information about how to design urban forest to effectively mitigate UHI effects

Intravenous NPA for the treatment of infarcting myocardium early: InTIME-II, a double-blind comparison on of single-bolus lanoteplase vs accelerated alteplase for the treatment of patients with acute myocardial infarction

Aims to compare the efficacy and safety of lanoteplase, a single-bolus thrombolytic drug derived from alteplase tissue plasminogen activator, with the established accelerated alteplase regimen in patients presenting within 6 h of onset of ST elevation acute myocardial infarction. Methods and Results 15 078 patients were recruited from 855 hospitals worldwide and randomized in a 2:1 ratio to receive either lanoteplase 120 KU. kg-1 as a single intravenous bolus, or up to 100 mg accelerated alteplase given over 90 min. The primary end-point was all-cause mortality at 30 days and the hypothesis was that the two treatments would be equivalent. By 30 days, 6.61% of alteplase-treated patients and 6.75% lanoteplase-treated patients had died (relative risk 1.02). Total stroke occurred in 1.53% alteplase- and 1.87% lanoteplase-treated patients (ns); haemorrhagic stroke rates were 0.64% alteplase and 1.12% lanoteplase (P=0.004). The net clinical deficit of 30-day death or non-fatal disabling stroke was 7.0% and 7.2%, respectively. By 6 months, 8.8% of alteplase-treated patients and 8.7% of lanoteplase-treated patients had died. Conclusion Single-bolus weight-adjusted lanoteplase is an effective thrombolytic agent, equivalent to alteplase in terms of its impact on survival and with a comparable risk-benefit profile. The single-bolus regimen should shorten symptoms to treatment times and be especially convenient for emergency department or out-of-hospital administration. (C) 2000 The European Society of Cardiology