Publications by authors named "M Velonakis"

has been pinpointed by the World Health Organization as the highest health burden of all waterborne pathogens in the European Union and is responsible for many disease outbreaks around the globe. Today, standard analysis methods (based on bacteria culturing onto agar plates) need several days (~12) in specialized analytical laboratories to yield results, not allowing for timely actions to prevent outbreaks. Over the last decades, great efforts have been made to develop more efficient waterborne pathogen diagnostics and faster analysis methods, requiring further advancement of microfluidics and sensors for simple, rapid, accurate, inexpensive, real-time, and on-site methods.

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Background: Although a number of studies have found an association between aircraft noise and hypertension, there is a lack of evidence on associations with other cardiovascular disease. For road traffic noise, more studies are available but the extent of possible confounding by air pollution has not been established.

Methods: This study used data from the Hypertension and Environmental Noise near Airports (HYENA) study.

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In the HYENA study (HYpertension and Exposure to Noise near Airports) noise annoyances due to aircraft and road traffic noise were assessed in subjects that lived in the vicinity of 6 major European airports using the 11-point ICBEN scale (International Commission on Biological Effects of Noise). A distinction was made between the annoyance during the day and during the night. L(den) and L(night) were considered as indicators of noise exposure.

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Background: An increasing number of people are exposed to aircraft and road traffic noise. Hypertension is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and even a small contribution in risk from environmental factors may have a major impact on public health.

Objectives: The HYENA (Hypertension and Exposure to Noise near Airports) study aimed to assess the relations between noise from aircraft or road traffic near airports and the risk of hypertension.

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Aims: Within the framework of the HYENA (hypertension and exposure to noise near airports) project we investigated the effect of short-term changes of transportation or indoor noise levels on blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) during night-time sleep in 140 subjects living near four major European airports.

Methods And Results: Non-invasive ambulatory BP measurements at 15 min intervals were performed. Noise was measured during the night sleeping period and recorded digitally for the identification of the source of a noise event.

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