INTRODUCTION Previous studies revealed fewer visits for congestive heart failure (CHF) to emergency departments (EDs) in New Jersey, USA and fewer admissions for CHF to a Southern Indian and an Israeli hospital during warmer months. Using hospital admission rate for CHF as a marker for illness severity, we hypothesized that CHF would also be less severe in warmer months. MATERIALS AND METHODS...

The question of why, in the annual mean, the Northern Hemisphere is warmer than the Southern Hemisphere is addressed, revisiting an 1870 paper by James Croll. We first show that the ocean is warmer than the land in general which, acting alone, would make the Southern Hemisphere warmer because of its greater fraction of ocean. Croll recognized this and thought it was caused by greater humidity a...

BACKGROUND Otitis media (OM) is one of the most common early childhood infections, resulting in an enormous economic burden to the health care system through unscheduled doctor visits and antibiotic prescriptions. OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to investigate the potential association between ambient air pollution exposure and emergency department (ED) visits for OM. MATERIALS A...

This study assessed the composition of aeromycota at a grain mill and four dwellings (two apartments and two basements) as well as in outdoor air during one year in Zagreb, Croatia. The incidence of Aspergilli from sections Flavi, Nigri, and Versicolores was also assessed. Airborne fungi were collected using an air-sampler and DG-18 agar plates. The average concentrations of airborne fungi in t...

Effects of meteorological variables and air pollutants on child respiratory morbidity are investigated during two consecutive summers (December-March 1992/1993 and 1993/1994) at the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo (MASP), Brazil. The MASP, with almost 17 million inhabitants, is considered the most populous region in South America. Due to warmer temperatures, increased rainfall and consequent low...

Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling under future climate change is associated with large uncertainties in litter decomposition and the turnover of soil C and N. In addition, future conditions (especially altered precipitation regimes and warming) are expected to result in changes in vegetation composition, and accordingly in litter species and chemical composition, but it is unclear how such ch...

This study demonstrates a link between coastal downwelling and tropical cyclone (TC) intensification. We show increases air-sea enthalpy (heat, moisture) fluxes ahead of TCs approaching land, creating conditions conducive to intensification even in the presence typically inhibiting factors like strong vertical wind shear. The uses coupled TC model (HWRF-B) buoy observations demonstrate that dev...

Scientists predict climate changes and warmer conditions for the world in future. Predicting the warming effect on plant performance is one of the most important challenges in ecological sciences. In this study, the effects of short-term warming on physiological traits of Pteropyrum aucheri as one of the domain shrubs was assessed in riverside of semi-arid rangelands of Kohpanj region, Bardsir,...

The Sierra Nevada region has experienced substantial wildfire impacts. Uncertainty pertaining to fire risk may be reduced by better understanding how air temperature (Ta: °C) influences ignitions independently of other factors. We linked lightning-ignited wildfires Ta patterns across the from 1992 2015 and compared monthly high- low-air-temperature between ignition non-ignition locations at loc...