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Outdoor air pollution in urban areas, especially particulate matter (PM), is harmful to human health. Urban trees and shrubs provide crucial ecosystem services such as air pollution mitigation by acting as natural filters. However, urban greenery comprises a particular biodiversity, and different plant species vary in their capacity to accumulate PM. Twenty-two plant species were analyzed and selected according to their leaf traits, the different fractions of PM accumulated on the leaves (large - PM L , coarse - PM C , and fine - PM F ) and their chemical composition. The study was conducted in four city zones: urban traffic (UT), urban background (UB), industrial (IND), and rural (RUR), comparing winter (W) and summer (S) seasons. The average PM levels in the air and accumulated on the leaves were higher in W than in S season. During both seasons, the highest PM accumulated on the leaves was recorded at the UT zone. Nine species were selected as the most suitable for accumulating PM L , seven as the most efficient for accumulating PM C, and six for accumulating PM F . The leaf area and leaf roundness were correlated negatively with PM accumulation. The evergreen species L. nobilis was indicated as suitable for dealing with air pollution based on PM 10 and PM 2.5 values recorded in the air. Regarding the PM element and metal composition, L. nobilis, Photinia x fraseri, Olea europaea, Quercus ilex and Nerium oleander were selected as species with notable elements and metal accumulation. In summary, the study identified species with higher PM accumulation capacity and assessed the seasonal PM accumulation patterns in different city zones, providing insights into the species interactions with PM and their potential for monitoring and coping with air pollution., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Two low-cost (LC) monitoring networks, PurpleAir (instrumented by Plantower PMS5003 sensors) and AirQino (Novasense SDS011), were assessed in monitoring PM 2.5 and PM 10 daily concentrations in the Padana Plain (Northern Italy). A total of 19 LC stations for PM 2.5 and 20 for PM 10 concentrations were compared vs. regulatory-grade stations during a full "heating season" (15 October 2022-15 April 2023). Both LC sensor networks showed higher accuracy in fitting the magnitude of PM 10 than PM 2.5 reference observations, while lower accuracy was shown in terms of RMSE, MAE and R 2 . AirQino stations under-estimated both PM 2.5 and PM 10 reference concentrations (MB = -4.8 and -2.9 μg/m 3 , respectively), while PurpleAir stations over-estimated PM 2.5 concentrations (MB = +5.4 μg/m 3 ) and slightly under-estimated PM 10 concentrations (MB = -0.4 μg/m 3 ). PurpleAir stations were finer than AirQino at capturing the time variation of both PM 2.5 and PM 10 daily concentrations (R 2 = 0.68-0.75 vs. 0.59-0.61). LC sensors from both monitoring networks failed to capture the magnitude and dynamics of the PM 2.5 /PM 10 ratio, confirming their well-known issues in correctly discriminating the size of individual particles. These findings suggest the need for further efforts in the implementation of mass conversion algorithms within LC units to improve the tuning of PM 2.5 vs. PM 10 outputs.

Context: American Thyroid Association (ATA) guidelines do not consider age at diagnosis as a prognostic factor on the estimation of the risk of persistent/recurrent disease in differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) patients. While age at diagnosis has already been assessed in high-risk patients, it remains to be established in low- and intermediate-risk patients., Objective: The aim of our study was to investigate the role of age as a prognostic factor in the short- and long-term outcome of DTC patients classified at low and intermediate risk according to the ATA stratification risk system., Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 863 DTC patients (mean follow-up: 10 ± 6.2 years) 52% classified as low (449/863) and 48% as intermediate risk (414/863). For each ATA-risk class patients were divided into subgroups based on age at diagnosis (<55 or ≥55 years)., Results: In the intermediate-risk group, patients aged 55 years or older had a higher rate of structural disease (11.6% vs 8.9%), recurrent disease (4.1% vs 0.7%), and death (4.1% vs 1%) when compared with younger patients (<55 years) (P = .007). Multivariate analysis confirmed that older age at diagnosis (odds ratio [OR] = 3.9; 95% CI, 1.9-8.6; P < .001) was an independent risk factor for worse long-term outcome together with response to initial therapy (OR = 13.0; 95% CI, 6.3-27.9; P < .001), and T (OR = 32; 95% CI, 1.4-7.1; P = .005) and N category (OR = 2.3; 95% CI, 1.1-5.0; P = .03). Nevertheless, a negative effect of older age was documented only in the subgroup of intermediate DTC patients with persistent structural disease after initial therapy. Indeed, the rate of worse long-term outcome rose from 13.3% in the whole population of intermediate DTC patients to 47.8% in patients with persistent structural disease after initial therapy (P < .001) and to 80% in patients older than 55 years and persistent structural disease after initial therapy (P = .02)., Conclusion: Our results suggest that age at diagnosis further predict individual outcomes in Intermediate-Risk DTC allowing ongoing management to be tailored accordingly., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Endocrine Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)