The role of atmospheric parameters and aerosols in the transmission of COVID-19 within tropical Africa, especially during the harmattan season, has been under-investigated in published papers. The harmattan season within the West African region is associated with significant dust incursion from the Bodele depression and biomass burning. In this study, the correlation between atmospheric parameters (temperature and humidity) and aerosols with COVID-19 cases and fatalities within seven locations in tropical Nigeria during the harmattan period was investigated. COVID-19 infection cases were found to be significantly positively correlated with atmospheric parameters (temperature and humidity) in the southern part of the country while the number of fatalities showed weaker significant correlation with particulate matters only in three locations. The significant correlation values were found to be between 0.22 and 0.48 for particulate matter and -0.19 to -0.32 for atmospheric parameters. Although, temperature and humidity showed negative correlations in some locations, the impact is smaller compared to particulate matter. In December, COVID-19 cases in all locations showed strong correlation with particulate matter except in Kano State. It is suggested that a reduction in atmospheric particulate matter can be used as a control measure for the spread of COVID-19.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2021GH000521 | DOI Listing |
Sci Total Environ
January 2025
Center for Marine Sensors, Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, 26382 Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
Microplastics (MP) are known to be ubiquitous. The pathways and fate of these contaminants in the marine environment are receiving increasing attention, but still knowledge gaps exist. In particular, the link between mass-based MP quantification and oceanographic parameters is often lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlants (Basel)
January 2025
Faculty of Natural Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University, Universiteto Str. 10, LT-53361 Akademija, Lithuania.
This study compared the effects of seed treatment with low-pressure cold plasma (CP) and atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma on morpho-biochemical traits in Bertoni plants cultivated by two methods: in soil and aeroponics. We investigated the impact of the treatments on the germination, plant growth, and content of secondary metabolites, namely steviol glycosides (SGs), rebaudioside A (RebA), and stevioside (Stev), as well as phenolic compounds and flavonoids. Seeds were treated for 2, 5, and 7 min with CP or DBD and 5 min with vacuum six days before sowing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSensors (Basel)
January 2025
College of Geology Engineering and Geomatics, Chang'an University, Xi'an 710054, China.
Precipitable water vapor (PWV) is an important indicator to characterize the spatial and temporal variability of water vapor. A high spatial and temporal resolution of atmospheric precipitable water can be obtained using ground-based GNSS, but its inversion accuracy is usually limited by the weighted mean temperature, Tm. For this reason, based on the data of 17 ground-based GNSS stations and water vapor reanalysis products over 2 years in the Hong Kong region, a new model for water vapor inversion without the Tm parameter is established by deep learning in this paper, the research results showed that, compared with the PWV information calculated by the traditional model using Tm parameter, the accuracy of the PWV retrieved by the new model proposed in this paper is higher, and its accuracy index parameters BIAS, MAE, and RMSE are improved by 38% on average.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiomolecules
January 2025
Xingzhi College, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321100, China.
Nitrite reductases play a crucial role in the nitrogen cycle, demonstrating significant potential for applications in the food industry and environmental remediation, particularly for nitrite degradation and detection. In this study, we identified a novel nitrite reductase (NiR) from a newly isolated denitrifying bacterium, YD01. We constructed a heterologous expression system using BL21/pET28a-Nir, which exhibited remarkable nitrite reductase enzyme activity of 29 U/mL in the culture broth, substantially higher than that reported for other strains.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Geochem Health
January 2025
Kazım Karabekir Vocational School, Waste Management Program, Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University, Karaman, Turkey.
This study aims to determine the spatial distribution of heavy metal pollution in Ermenek Dam Lake, water quality assessment and pollution sources. For this purpose, samples were taken 6 times a year from 12 points determined in 2024. Physico-chemical parameters and heavy metals were analyzed in the study.
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