Local and regional air pollution characteristics in Cyprus: A long-term trace gases observations analysis.

Observations of key gaseous trace pollutants, namely NO, NO, CO, SO and O performed at several curb, residential, industrial, background and free-troposphere sites were analyzed to assess the temporal and spatial variability of pollution in Cyprus. Notably, the analysis utilized one of the longest datasets of 17 years of measurements (2003-2019) in the East Mediterranean and the Middle East (EMME). This region is considered a regional hotspot of ozone and aerosol pollution.

Multi-sectoral impact assessment of an extreme African dust episode in the Eastern Mediterranean in March 2018.

In late March 2018, a large part of the Eastern Mediterranean experienced an extraordinary episode of African dust, one of the most intense in recent years, here referred to as the "Minoan Red" event. The episode mainly affected the Greek island of Crete, where the highest aerosol concentrations over the past 15 yeas were recorded, although impacts were also felt well beyond this core area. Our study fills a gap in dust research by assessing the multi-sectoral impacts of sand and dust storms and their socioeconomic implications.

Is atmospheric oxidation capacity better in indicating tropospheric O formation?

Tropospheric ozone (O) concentration is increasing in China along with dramatic changes in precursor emissions and meteorological conditions, adversely affecting human health and ecosystems. O is formed from the complex nonlinear photochemical reactions from nitrogen oxides (NO = NO + NO) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Although the mechanism of O formation is rather clear, describing and analyzing its changes and formation potential at fine spatial and temporal resolution is still a challenge today.

Urban environment and health behaviours in children from six European countries.

Background: Urban environmental design is increasingly considered influential for health and wellbeing, but evidence is mostly based on adults and single exposure studies. We evaluated the association between a wide range of urban environment characteristics and health behaviours in childhood.

Methods: We estimated exposure to 32 urban environment characteristics (related to the built environment, traffic, and natural spaces) for home and school addresses of 1,581 children aged 6-11 years from six European cohorts.

Absolute optical chiral analysis using cavity-enhanced polarimetry.

Chiral analysis is central for scientific advancement in the fields of chemistry, biology, and medicine. It is also indispensable in the development and quality control of chiral compounds in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Here, we present the concept of absolute optical chiral analysis, as enabled by cavity-enhanced polarimetry, which allows for accurate unambiguous enantiomeric characterization and enantiomeric excess determination of chiral compounds within complex mixtures at trace levels, without the need for calibration, even in the gas phase.

Synergistic HNO-HSO-NH upper tropospheric particle formation.

New particle formation in the upper free troposphere is a major global source of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). However, the precursor vapours that drive the process are not well understood. With experiments performed under upper tropospheric conditions in the CERN CLOUD chamber, we show that nitric acid, sulfuric acid and ammonia form particles synergistically, at rates that are orders of magnitude faster than those from any two of the three components.

Metal oxide semiconducting nanomaterials for air quality gas sensors: operating principles, performance, and synthesis techniques.

To meet requirements in air quality monitoring, sensors are required that can measure the concentration of gaseous pollutants at concentrations down to the ppb and ppt levels, while at the same time they exhibiting high sensitivity, selectivity, and short response/recovery times. Among the different sensor types, those employing metal oxide semiconductors (MOSs) offer great promises as they can be manufactured in easy/inexpensive ways, and designed to measure the concentration of  a wide range of target gases. MOS sensors rely on the adsorption of target gas molecules on the surface of the sensing material and the consequent capturing of electrons from the conduction band that in turn affects their conductivity.

Breath chemical markers of sexual arousal in humans.

The chemical composition of exhaled breath was examined for volatile organic compound (VOC) indicators of sexual arousal in human beings. Participants (12-male, 12-female) were shown a randomized series of three emotion-inducing 10-min film clips interspersed with 3-min neutral film clips. The films caused different arousals: sports film (positive-nonsexual); horror film (negative-nonsexual); and erotic (sexual) that were monitored with physiological measurements including genital response and temperature.

Chemical profiles of PM emitted from various anthropogenic sources of the Eastern Mediterranean: Cooking, wood burning, and diesel generators.

The chemical profiles of PM emitted from a non-road diesel generator, wood burning and cooking activities including chicken and beef charcoal grilling and general cooking activities were determined. The characterization included the carbonaceous fraction (OC/EC), water-soluble ions, elements, and organic species comprising n-alkanes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carboxylic acids, levoglucosan, dioxins, furans, and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls. The main component in the PM from the different sources was carbonaceous matter with a mass contribution to PM of 49% for cooking activities, 53% for wood burning, 66% for beef grilling, 72% for chicken grilling, and 74% for diesel generator with different OC/EC concentration ratios.

Retention of deposited ammonium and nitrate and its impact on the global forest carbon sink.

The impacts of enhanced nitrogen (N) deposition on the global forest carbon (C) sink and other ecosystem services may depend on whether N is deposited in reduced (mainly as ammonium) or oxidized forms (mainly as nitrate) and the subsequent fate of each. However, the fates of the two key reactive N forms and their contributions to forest C sinks are unclear. Here, we analyze results from 13 ecosystem-scale paired N-labelling experiments in temperate, subtropical, and tropical forests.

Assessing the Effectiveness of an Urban CO Monitoring Network over the Paris Region through the COVID-19 Lockdown Natural Experiment.

The Paris metropolitan area, the largest urban region in the European Union, has experienced two national COVID-19 confinements in 2020 with different levels of restrictions on mobility and economic activity, which caused reductions in CO emissions. To quantify the timing and magnitude of daily emission reductions during the two lockdowns, we used continuous atmospheric CO monitoring, a new high-resolution near-real-time emission inventory, and an atmospheric Bayesian inverse model. The atmospheric inversion estimated the changes in fossil fuel CO emissions over the Greater Paris region during the two lockdowns, in comparison with the same periods in 2018 and 2019.

Updated national emission inventory and comparison with the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR): case of Lebanon.

Physically based computational modeling is an effective tool for estimating and predicting the spatial distribution of pollutant concentrations in complex environments. A detailed and up-to-date emission inventory is one of the most important components of atmospheric modeling and a prerequisite for achieving high model performance. Lebanon lacks an accurate inventory of anthropogenic emission fluxes.

Revisiting future extreme precipitation trends in the Mediterranean.

Global warming is anticipated to intensify the hydrological cycle. However, this is neither expected to be globally uniform nor is the relationship between temperature increase and rainfall intensities expected to be linear. The objective of this study is to assess changes in annual rainfall extremes, total annual precipitation, and their relationship in the larger Mediterranean region.

Global health burden of ambient PM and the contribution of anthropogenic black carbon and organic aerosols.

Chronic exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) poses a major global health risk, commonly assessed by assuming equivalent toxicity for different PM constituents. We used a data-informed global atmospheric model and recent exposure-response functions to calculate the health burden of ambient PM from ten source categories. We estimate 4.

Physical Activity in Polluted Air-Net Benefit or Harm to Cardiovascular Health? A Comprehensive Review.

Both exposure to higher levels of polluted air and physical inactivity are crucial risk factors for the development and progression of major noncommunicable diseases and, in particular, of cardiovascular disease. In this context, the World Health Organization estimated 4.2 and 3.

Global mapping of crop-specific emission factors highlights hotspots of nitrous oxide mitigation.

Mitigating soil nitrous oxide (NO) emissions is essential for staying below a 2 °C warming threshold. However, accurate assessments of mitigation potential are limited by uncertainty and variability in direct emission factors (EFs). To assess where and why EFs differ, we created high-resolution maps of crop-specific EFs based on 1,507 georeferenced field observations.

Increasing forest fire emissions despite the decline in global burned area.

Satellites have detected a global decline in burned area of grassland, coincident with a small increase in burned forest area. These contrasting trends have been reported in earlier literature; however, less is known of their impacts on global fire emission trends due to the scarcity of direct observations. We use an atmospheric inversion system to show that global fire emissions have been stable or slightly decreasing despite the substantial decline in global burned area over the past two decades caused by the carbon dioxide emission increase from forest fires offsetting the decreasing emissions from grass and shrubland fires.

Global hunter-gatherer population densities constrained by influence of seasonality on diet composition.

The dependence of hunter-gatherers on local net primary production (NPP) to provide food played a major role in shaping long-term human population dynamics. Observations of contemporary hunter-gatherers have shown an overall correlation between population density and annual NPP but with a 1,000-fold variation in population density per unit NPP that remains unexplained. Here, we build a process-based hunter-gatherer population model embedded within a global terrestrial biosphere model, which explicitly addresses the extraction of NPP through dynamically allocated hunting and gathering activities.

Predicting the effect of confinement on the COVID-19 spread using machine learning enriched with satellite air pollution observations.

The real-time monitoring of reductions of economic activity by containment measures and its effect on the transmission of the coronavirus (COVID-19) is a critical unanswered question. We inferred 5,642 weekly activity anomalies from the meteorology-adjusted differences in spaceborne tropospheric NO column concentrations after the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak relative to the baseline from 2016 to 2019. Two satellite observations reveal reincreasing economic activity associated with lifting control measures that comes together with accelerating COVID-19 cases before the winter of 2020/2021.

New method for the protection and restoration of calcareous cultural heritage stones by polyelectrolytes and hydroxyapatite nanocrystals.

We have investigated the feasibility of a new two-step protocol for the restoration of marbles. The process employs a polyelectrolyte multilayer film that enhances the chemical affinity between the treated stone and restorative material (hydroxyapatite nanocrystals), through functionalization, while at the same time it attributes an acid resistant property to the resulting system. Surface functionalization and material deposition is achieved through spraying; a simple and versatile application method suitable for objects of various sizes and geometries.

Spatially explicit analysis identifies significant potential for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage in China.

As China ramped-up coal power capacities rapidly while CO emissions need to decline, these capacities would turn into stranded assets. To deal with this risk, a promising option is to retrofit these capacities to co-fire with biomass and eventually upgrade to CCS operation (BECCS), but the feasibility is debated with respect to negative impacts on broader sustainability issues. Here we present a data-rich spatially explicit approach to estimate the marginal cost curve for decarbonizing the power sector in China with BECCS.

Prenatal exposure to criteria air pollutants and associations with congenital anomalies: A Lebanese national study.

Maternal exposure to air pollution has been associated with a higher birth defect (BD) risk. Previous studies suffer from inaccurate exposure assessment methods, confounding individual-level variations, and classical analytical modelling. This study aimed to examine the association between maternal exposure to criteria air pollutants and BD risk.

PM characterization of primary and secondary organic aerosols in two urban-industrial areas in the East Mediterranean.

Primary and secondary organic aerosols in PM were investigated over a one-year campaign at Zouk Mikael and Fiaa, Lebanon. The n-alkanes concentrations were quite similar at both sites (26-29 ng/m) and mainly explained by anthropogenic emissions rather than natural ones. The concentrations of total Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) were nearly three times higher at Zouk Mikael (2.

Regional and global contributions of air pollution to risk of death from COVID-19.

Aims: The risk of mortality from the coronavirus disease that emerged in 2019 (COVID-19) is increased by comorbidity from cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. Air pollution also causes excess mortality from these conditions. Analysis of the first severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-1) outcomes in 2003, and preliminary investigations of those for SARS-CoV-2 since 2019, provide evidence that the incidence and severity are related to ambient air pollution.

Model Calculations of Aerosol Transmission and Infection Risk of COVID-19 in Indoor Environments.

The role of aerosolized SARS-CoV-2 viruses in airborne transmission of COVID-19 has been debated. The aerosols are transmitted through breathing and vocalization by infectious subjects. Some authors state that this represents the dominant route of spreading, while others dismiss the option.