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An association between climatic conditions and asthma incidence has been widely assumed. However, it is unclear whether climatic variations have a fingerprint on asthma dynamics over long time intervals. The aim of this study is to detect a possible correlation of the Summer North Atlantic Oscillation (S-NAO) index and the self-calibrated palmer drought severity index (scPDSI) with asthma incidence over the period from 1957 to 2006 in Italy. To this aim, an analysis of non-stationary and non-linear signals was performed on the time series of the Italian databases on respiratory health (ISAYA and GEIRD) including 36,255 individuals overall, S-NAO, and scPDSI indices to search for characteristic periodicities. The ISAYA (Italian Study on Asthma in Young Adults) and GEIRD (Gene Environment Interactions in Respiratory Diseases) studies collected information on respiratory health in general population samples, born between 1925 and 1989 and aged 20–84 years at the time of the interview, from 13 Italian centres. We found that annual asthma total incidence shared the same periodicity throughout the 1957–2006 time interval. Asthma incidence turned out to be correlated with the dynamics of the scPDSI, modulated by the S-NAO, sharing the same averaged 6 year-periodicity. Since climate patterns appear to influence asthma incidence, future studies aimed at elucidating the complex relationships between climate and asthma incidence are warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the distribution pattern of living and surface sediment coccolithophores, the main phytoplankton calcifying group, from 22 stations set in a neritic environment (from 10 to 50 m water depth), adjacent to the shelf area of the Volturno River mouth (Gulf of Gaeta - central part of the Tyrrhenian Sea). The survey conducted in June 2012 included five transects perpendicular to the coast, which enabled us to provide indications on the structure of calcareous phytoplankton associations in relation to coastal dynamics and the Volturno River runoff. The total number of coccospheres ranged from 15 to 64 * 10³* l-1 coccolithophores. Emiliania huxleyi dominates the assemblages, followed by Rhabdosphaera xiphos, holococcolithophores and Syracosphaera pulchra. The coccolithophore community shows a typical vertical zonation, with K-strategist taxa in the upper 15 m and the deep community developed down to 40 m. The local water circulation significantly affects the spatial and vertical distribution of coccolithophores. The river discharge influences the distribution of coccolithophore taxa, resulting in a north-south gradient. In the northern sector, outside the influence of the Volturno River, the high values of R. xiphos suggest a negative correlation with river runoff. The surface sediment assemblages reflect the overall composition of the living coccolithophore communities. The distribution of abundant reworked species, both in water and sediment, provides useful information about coastal dynamics and sediment transport in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/aim: The relationship between air pollution and respiratory morbidity has been widely addressed in urban and metropolitan areas but little is known about the effects in non-urban settings. Our aim was to assess the short-term effects of PM10 and PM2.5 on respiratory admissions in the whole country of Italy during 2006-2015., Methods: We estimated daily PM concentrations at the municipality level using satellite data and spatiotemporal predictors. We collected daily counts of respiratory hospital admissions for each Italian municipality. We considered five different outcomes: all respiratory diseases, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lower and upper respiratory tract infections (LRTI and URTI). Meta-analysis of province-specific estimates obtained by time-series models, adjusting for temperature, humidity and other confounders, was applied to extrapolate national estimates for each outcome. At last, we tested for effect modification by sex, age, period, and urbanization score. Analyses for PM 2.5 were restricted to 2013-2015 cause the goodness of fit of exposure estimation., Results: A total of 4,154,887 respiratory admission were registered during 2006-2015, of which 29% for LRTI, 12% for COPD, 6% for URTI, and 3% for asthma. Daily mean PM 10 and PM 2.5 concentrations over the study period were 23.3 and 17 μg/m 3 , respectively. For each 10 μg/m 3 increases in PM 10 and PM 2.5 at lag 0-5 days, we found excess risks of total respiratory diseases equal to 1.20% (95% confidence intervals, 0.92, 1.49) and 1.22% (0.76, 1.68), respectively. The effects for the specific diseases were similar, with the strongest ones for asthma and COPD. Higher effects were found in the elderly and in less urbanized areas., Conclusions: Short-term exposure to PM is harmful for the respiratory system throughout an entire country, especially in elderly patients. Strong effects can be found also in less urbanized areas., 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 © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)