Effects of moderate alcohol consumption and hypobaric hypoxia: implications for passengers' sleep, oxygen saturation and heart rate on long-haul flights.

Background: Passengers on long-haul flights frequently consume alcohol. Inflight sleep exacerbates the fall in blood oxygen saturation (SpO) caused by the decreased oxygen partial pressure in the cabin. We investigated the combined influence of alcohol and hypobaric hypoxia on sleep, SpO and heart rate.

NO levels inside vehicle cabins with pollen and activated carbon filters: A real world targeted intervention to estimate NO exposure reduction potential.

Traffic related nitrogen dioxide (NO) poses a serious environmental and health risk factor in the urban environment. Drivers and vehicle occupants in general may have acute exposure to NO levels. In order to identify key controllable measures to reduce vehicle occupant's exposure, this study measures NO exposure inside ten different vehicles under real world driving conditions and applies a targeted intervention by replacing previously used filters with new standard pollen and new activated carbon cabin filters.

Sleep-Induced Hypoxia under Flight Conditions: Implications and Countermeasures for Long-Haul Flight Crews and Passengers.

Purpose: Recuperation during sleep on board of commercial long-haul flights is a safety issue of utmost importance for flight crews working extended duty periods. We intended to explore how sleep and blood oxygenation (in wake versus sleep) are affected by the conditions in an airliner at cruising altitude.

Methods: Healthy participants' sleep was compared between 4-h sleep opportunities in the sleep laboratory (n = 23; sleep lab, ie, 53 m above sea level) and in an altitude chamber (n = 20; flight level, ie, 753 hPa, corresponding to 2438 m above sea level).

Chemical source profiles of fine particles for five different sources in Delhi.

Increasing emissions from sources such as construction and burning of biomass from crop residues, roadside and municipal solid waste have led to a rapid increase in the atmospheric concentrations of fine particulate matter (≤2.5 μm; PM) over many Indian cities. Analyses of their chemical profiles are important for receptor models to accurately estimate the contributions from different sources.

Influence of transient pressure changes on speech intelligibility: Implications for next-generation train travel.

High-speed trains are operated in increasingly complex railway networks and continual improvement of driver assistance systems is necessary to maintain safety. Speech offers the opportunity to provide information to the driver without disrupting visual attention. However, it is not known whether the transient pressure changes inside trains passing through tunnels interfere with speech intelligibility.

Choosing an Adequate Test to Determine Fitness for Air Travel in Obese Individuals.

Background: Air travel is physically demanding and, because obesity is rising, physicians increasingly need to assess whether such patients can fly safely. Our aim was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of two routinely used exercise tests, 50-m walk test and 6-min walk test, and hypoxic challenge testing (HCT) in obese individuals. We further explored the diagnostic potential of perceived dyspnea as measured with the Borg scale because this is often recorded subsequent to walking tests.

Distinct branches of the N-end rule pathway modulate the plant immune response.

The N-end rule pathway is a highly conserved constituent of the ubiquitin proteasome system, yet little is known about its biological roles. Here we explored the role of the N-end rule pathway in the plant immune response. We investigated the genetic influences of components of the pathway and known protein substrates on physiological, biochemical and metabolic responses to pathogen infection.

Oxygen sensing coordinates photomorphogenesis to facilitate seedling survival.

Successful emergence from the soil is essential for plant establishment in natural and farmed systems. It has been assumed that the absence of light in the soil is the preeminent signal perceived during early seedling development, leading to a distinct morphogenic plan (skotomorphogenesis) [1], characterized by traits providing an adaptive advantage until emergence and photomorphogenesis. These traits include suppressed chlorophyll synthesis, promotion of hypocotyl elongation, and formation of a closed apical hook that protects the stem cell niche from damage [2, 3].

Passenger comfort on high-speed trains: effect of tunnel noise on the subjective assessment of pressure variations.

When passing through a tunnel, aerodynamic effects on high-speed trains may impair passenger comfort. These variations in atmospheric pressure are accompanied by transient increases in sound pressure level. To date, it is unclear whether the latter influences the perceived discomfort associated with the variations in atmospheric pressure.

Gravity-dependent ventilation distribution in rats measured with electrical impedance tomography.

Ventilation in larger animals and humans is gravity dependent and mainly distributed to the dependent lung. Little is known of the effect of gravity on ventilation distribution in small animals such as rodents. The aim of this study was to investigate gravity-dependent ventilation distribution and regional filling characteristics in rats.