Sensors Network as an Added Value for the Characterization of Spatial and Temporal Air Quality Patterns at the Urban Scale.

Within the scope of the Aveiro STEAM City project, an air quality monitoring network was installed in the city of Aveiro (Portugal), to evaluate the potential of sensors to characterize spatial and temporal patterns of air quality in the city. The network consists of nine sensors stations with air quality sensors (PM10, PM2.5, NO, O and CO) and two meteorological stations, distributed within selected locations in the city of Aveiro.

Worldwide Evaluation of CAMS-EGG4 CO Data Re-Analysis at the Surface Level.

This study systematically examines the global uncertainties and biases in the carbon dioxide (CO) mixing ratio provided by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). The global greenhouse gas re-analysis (EGG4) data product from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) was evaluated against ground-based in situ measurements from more than 160 of stations across the world. The evaluation shows that CO re-analysis can capture the general features in the tracer distributions, including the CO seasonal cycle and its strength at different latitudes, as well as the global CO trend.

How can the built environment affect the impact of autonomous vehicles' operational behaviour on air quality?

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are pointed out as the technology that will reshape the concept of mobility, with significant implications for the economy, the environment, and society. This fact will bring new challenge to cities urban planning. Research to anticipate the AVs impacts, maximizing their benefits and reduce trade-offs are currently crucial.

Climate-Change Adaptation Framework for Multiple Urban Areas in Northern Portugal.

Climate change is increasingly exerting pressure with intensified impacts in the short-, medium-, and long-term. Cities are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and it is recognized that they play a significant role in the European Strategy on adaptation to climate change. This study intends to develop a climate adaptation framework to identify effective measures that will be evaluated using a multi-urban area located in the north of Portugal, as a case study.

Autonomous vehicles opportunities for cities air quality.

The impacts of autonomous vehicles (AV) on safety, energy and atmospheric emissions have been recognised to be important issues, but an air quality impact assessment is missing. In this study, by using a numerical modelling approach, the impact of AV on the air quality of a medium-sized Portuguese urban area was evaluated. For that, the air pollutants nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon dioxide (CO) were considered and three scenarios were developed: i) a baseline scenario; ii) an autonomous scenario, assuming an AV market penetration rate of 30%; and iii) an electric autonomous scenario, taking into account that those 30% of AV are pure battery electric cars.

Impact of harbour activities on local air quality: A review.

Several harbour activities cause negative environmental impacts in the harbours' surrounding areas, namely the degradation of air quality. This paper intends to comprehensively review the status of the air quality measured in harbour areas. The published studies show a limited number of available air quality monitoring data in harbours areas, mostly located in Europe (71%).

Assessment of source contribution to air quality in an urban area close to a harbor: Case-study in Porto, Portugal.

Several harbors, like the Port of Leixões (Porto, Portugal), are located near urban and industrial areas, places where residential urban areas, highways and the refinery industry coexist. The need for assessing the contribution of the port to the air quality in its vicinity around the port is the motivation for the present study. This contribution was investigated using a numerical modelling approach based on the web-based research screening tool C-PORT.

Assessment of health benefits related to air quality improvement strategies in urban areas: An Impact Pathway Approach.

Air pollution is, increasingly, a concern to our society given the threats to human health and the environment. Concerted actions to improve air quality have been taken at different levels, such as through the development of Air Quality Plans (AQPs). However, air quality impacts associated with the implementation of abatement measures included in AQPs are often neglected.

Integrating health on air quality assessment--review report on health risks of two major European outdoor air pollutants: PM and NO₂.

Quantifying the impact of air pollution on the public's health has become an increasingly critical component in policy discussion. Recent data indicate that more than 70% of the world population lives in cities. Several studies reported that current levels of air pollutants in urban areas are associated with adverse health risks, namely, cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer.

Individual exposure to air pollutants in a Portuguese urban industrialized area.

Industrial development from the second half of the 20th century coupled with population growth and concentration in urban areas has accentuated the concern for potential effects and impacts from air pollutant emissions on environmental and human health. This study examined the Estarreja region, an urban area that has one of the largest chemical complexes in Portugal, a complex that was recently under expansion. In the scope of the INSPIRAR project, individual daily exposure of a group of individuals to particulate matter of 10 μm aerodynamic diameter (PM10) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in two phases was determined using a microenvironmental approach.

Can the cold pressor test predict future cardiovascular events in patients without demonstrated ischemic heart disease by SPECT?

Objective: To assess whether a cold pressor test (CPT) could help identify patients at a high risk of cardiovascular events in a population without known coronary artery disease (CAD) with a normal myocardial perfusion scintigraphy (MPS).

Methods: Our population consisted of 870 patients with a mean age of 59.3years with several CAD risk factors, having been referred for an MPS.

Assessment of potential improvements on regional air quality modelling related with implementation of a detailed methodology for traffic emission estimation.

The accuracy and precision of air quality models are usually associated with the emission inventories. Thus, in order to assess if there are any improvements on air quality regional simulations using detailed methodology of road traffic emission estimation, a regional air quality modelling system was applied. For this purpose, a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches was used to build an emission inventory.

Wildland smoke exposure values and exhaled breath indicators in firefighters.

Smoke from forest fires contains significant amounts of gaseous and particulate pollutants. Firefighters exposed to wildland fire smoke can suffer from several acute and chronic adverse health effects. Consequently, exposure data are of vital importance for the establishment of cause/effect relationships between exposure to smoke and firefighter health effects.

Particulate matter and health risk under a changing climate: assessment for Portugal.

The potential impacts of climate-induced changes in air pollution levels and its impacts on population health were investigated. The IPCC scenario (SRES A2) was used to analyse the effects of climate on future PM10 concentrations over Portugal and their impact on short-term population exposure and mortality. The air quality modelling system has been applied with high spatial resolution looking on climate changes at regional scale.

Impact of land use on urban mobility patterns, emissions and air quality in a Portuguese medium-sized city.

The main objective of this work was to evaluate the impact of urban development trends in mobility patterns of a medium sized Portuguese city and air quality consequences, using a sequential modeling process, comprising i) land use and transportation, TRANUS model; ii) road traffic air pollutants emissions, TREM model and; iii) air quality, TAPM model. This integrated methodology was applied to a medium sized Portuguese city. In order to evaluate the implementation of the methodology, a preliminary study was performed, which consisted on the comparison of modeled mobility patterns and CO and PM(10) concentrations with measured data used in the definition of the current scenario.

Monitoring of firefighters exposure to smoke during fire experiments in Portugal.

Forest fires represent a serious threat to public security in Europe due to the large burned area. Moreover, smoke pollution due to forest fire events is an important public health issue for the communities directly affected, and particularly for the personnel involved in firefighting operations. Aiming to contribute to the scientific knowledge concerning firefighters exposure to forest fires smoke, data of individual exposure to carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter were obtained during experimental field fires for a group of 10 firefighters equipped with portable "in continuum" measuring devices.

The clinical use of exhaled nitric oxide in wheezing children.

The body of published work on the role of exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) in the study of bronchial inflammation allows it to be classed as a simple, non-invasive measurement that is very useful in evaluating asthmatic patients. During a prospective study into the effects of air pollution on the health of the population of Viseu (Saud'AR Project), children with a clinical history of wheezing were identified through using the International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire. Children later filled in a new standardised questionnaire and underwent skin-prick-tests, spirometry and FENO measurement.

Monitoring of ambient air PCDD/F levels in Portugal.

As part of a monitoring program conducted by IDAD--Institute for Environment and Development and supported by regional municipal solid waste (MSW) management authorities, dioxin concentrations in ambient air were measured in three regions of Portugal: Porto, Lisbon and Madeira. These independent studies were performed with the intention of providing data as a basis for the evaluation of potential impacts of the operation of recently built MSW incinerators. Thus, 170 samples were collected in nine different sites from January 1999 till present.

[Evaluation of diastolic function during and post-exercise in patients with arterial hypertension].

Unlabelled: It is known that patients with arterial hypertension and ventricular hypertrophy have diastolic alterations, in particular during exercise. However, it is controversial if diastolic dysfunction continues once exercise had concluded. The objective was to assess the effects of isometric exercise on the diastolic function in patients with arterial hypertension.

Comparison of European national legislation efficiency on the reduction of air pollutant emissions.

Since 1995, the Institute for Environment and Development in Portugal has obtained >300 stack samples from various point sources of Portuguese industries. A coherent database was made with the collected results. The limit values fixed by several European legal documents consulted, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, and Dutch emission legislation, were applied to the Institute for Environment and Development stack sampling inventory (from 1995 to 2000) to evaluate the efficiency of these standards in promoting the control and reduction of atmospheric pollutants emissions, especially regarding nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter.

General physicians and the management of heart failure in an Argentine population.

The aim of this study was to assess how general physicians (GP) think that heart failure (HF) should be managed and how they implement their knowledge. It was conducted in Buenos Aires City and suburban area, with the collaboration of 5 cardiologists, and 29 GP who were selected randomly, and were asked to keep a log of all patients they saw with HF. The methodology was similar to that employed in an international initiative named "Improvement" already performed in Europe.

Urban photochemical pollution in the Iberian Peninsula: Lisbon and Barcelona airsheds.

Numerical simulations with photochemical transport models were independently performed for two domains situated in the Iberian Peninsula covering the Lisbon and Barcelona airsheds. Although the days chosen for simulation of the two cities are not the same, the synoptic situations in both cases, known as typical summertime situations, were similar, which allowed the development of typical mesoscale circulations, such as sea breezes and mountain and valley winds dominated by the Azores anticyclone. Emission inventories for the two areas were developed.