More mileage in reducing urban air pollution from road traffic

Road traffic emissions are considered a major contributor to urban air pollution, but clean air actions have led to a huge reduction in emissions per vehicle. This raises a pressing question on the potential to further reduce road traffic emissions to improve air quality. Here, we analysed ~11 million real-world data to estimate the contribution of road traffic to roadside and urban concentrations for several major cities. Our results confirm that road traffic remains a dominant source of nitrogen dioxide and a significant source of primary coarse particulate matter in the European cities. However, it now represents a relatively small component of overall PM_2.5 at urban background locations in cities with strong controls on traffic emissions (including European cities and Beijing) and many roadside sites will exceed the WHO guideline (10 μg m^-3 annual mean) even when this source is eliminated. This suggests that further controls on traffic emissions, including the transition to a battery-electric fleet, are needed to reduce NO₂ concentrations, but this will have limited benefit to reduce the concentration of fine particles, except in countries where the use of diesel particle filters is not mandatory. There are substantial differences between cities and the optimal solution will differ from one to another.

Abrupt but smaller than expected changes in surface air quality attributable to COVID-19 lockdowns

The COVID-19 lockdowns led to major reductions in air pollutant emissions. Here, we quantitatively evaluate changes in ambient NO2, O3, and PM2.5 concentrations arising from these emission changes in 11 cities globally by applying a deweathering machine learning technique. Sudden decreases in deweathered NO2 concentrations and increases in O3 were observed in almost all cities. However, the decline in NO2 concentrations attributable to the lockdowns was not as large as expected, at reductions of 10 to 50%. Accordingly, O3 increased by 2 to 30% (except for London), the total gaseous oxidant (O x = NO2 + O3) showed limited change, and PM2.5 concentrations decreased in most cities studied but increased in London and Paris. Our results demonstrate the need for a sophisticated analysis to quantify air quality impacts of interventions and indicate that true air quality improvements were notably more limited than some earlier reports or observational data suggested.

Significant Changes in Chemistry of Fine Particles in Wintertime Beijing from 2007 to 2017: Impact of Clean Air Actions

The Beijing government implemented a number of clean air action plans to improve air quality in the last 10 years, which contributed to changes in the concentration of fine particles and their compositions. However, quantifying the impacts of these interventions is challenging as meteorology masks the real changes in observed concentrations. Here, we applied a machine learning technique to decouple the effect of meteorology and evaluate the changes in the chemistry of nonrefractory PM₁ (particulate matter less than 1 μm) in winter 2007, 2016, and 2017 as a result of the clean air actions. The observed mass concentrations of PM₁ were 74.6, 90.2, and 36.1 μg m^-3 in the three winters, while the deweathered concentrations were 74.2, 78.7, and 46.3 μg m^-3, respectively. The deweathered concentrations of PM₁, organics, sulfate, ammonium, chloride, SO₂, NO₂, and CO decreased by -38, -46, -59, -24, -51, -89, -16, and -52% in 2017 in comparison to 2007. On the contrary, the deweathered concentration of nitrates increased by 4%. Our results indicate that the clean air actions implemented in 2017 were highly effective in reducing ambient concentrations of SO₂, CO, and PM₁ organics, sulfate, ammonium, and chloride, but the control of nitrate and PM₁ organics remains a major challenge.

Oligosaccharide and glucose esters from the roots of Polygala arillata

The root of plant Polygala arillata has been used in the Oriental medicine as a tonic and for the treatment of certain diseases. Our current research on phytochemical profile of the roots of P. arillata led to the isolation of a new oligosaccharide ester (1, polygaloside), a new glucose ester (7, arillatoside), along with five known sucrose esters (2-6). Their structures were elucidated on the basis of extensive chemical and spectroscopic methods as well as comparison with those reported in the literature. The occurence of various oligosaccharide esters in P. arillata including unique compounds plays taxonomical impact and suggests potential in medicinal uses of the title plant.

A comparison of the quality of life of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus with and without endstage renal disease

OBJECTIVE

To compare health related quality of life between patients with lupus nephritis who progressed to endstage renal disease (ESRD) and patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) with preserved renal function.

METHODS

Patients with SLE undergoing maintenance renal dialysis and SLE patients with preserved renal function completed the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 and social support questionnaires and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. SLE disease activity and organ damage were measured by the SLE Disease Activity Index and Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology damage index.

RESULTS

We studied 104 patients with SLE: 22 undergoing maintenance renal dialysis and 82 with preserved renal function. Their scores in all 8 of the SF-36 scales were reduced compared to national norms. Patients with ESRD had significantly higher mental health scores (mean +/- standard error 71.3 +/-4.8 vs. 60.7+/-2.5; p = 0.05), but there were no significant differences between the 2 groups in the remaining SF-36 scales. Multivariate models adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, and clinical characteristics and for symptoms of depression revealed that being on dialysis was associated with higher mental health scores (regression coefficient = 12.97, 95% confidence interval 2.72 to 23.22), but lower physical function [-11.28 (-22.43 to -0.12)] and general health [-10.94 (-21.31 to -0.57)].

CONCLUSION

Patients with lupus nephritis who progress to endstage renal disease have improved mental well being but reduced physical function and general health. Strategies to improve the quality of life of patients with SLE are needed.