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Rapid urbanization has led to altered thermal circulations in major cities that are responsible for the increasing occurrence of urban heat islands (UHIs) and events such as tropical nights and heat waves. To effectively mitigate such events, low-impact development (LID) and green infrastructure strategies have been developed. In Korea, LID techniques focus mainly on road pavement materials; however, issues regarding the reliability of measurements due to differences in the measurement equipment and studied specimens persist. This study presents the design of a green infrastructure surface temperature measurement (GSTM) instrument and a reliable methodology developed to evaluate the performance of pavement materials under controlled climate conditions. The developed GSTM instrument and methodology were tested by monitoring the surface temperature of materials based on LID practices and dense-graded asphalt and evaluating their ability to mitigate UHI and tropical night phenomena. The experiments were conducted under controlled climate conditions, using summer climate conditions of Seoul's typical meteorological year data. The UHI and tropical night phenomena mitigation performance of the pavement materials was evaluated by analyzing the correlation between the pavement materials' albedo and surface temperature using porous block specimens of different colors and LID-based pavement materials. The greening block recorded the most significant reduction in surface temperature, showing a difference of 22.6 °C, 185 min to the dense-graded asphalt. The white and yellow porous blocks showed surface temperature differences of 10.2 °C and 8.2 °C respectively compared to the dense-graded asphalt. The results revealed that pavement materials with higher albedo, more evaporation, and lower heat capacity have superior performance in mitigating UHI and tropical night events. HIGHLIGHTS Evaluate pavement material performance under controlled climate conditions.; Thermal imaging camera is not recommended for evaluating surface temperature of pavement material.; An experiment is needed to mitigate UHI and tropical night events considering albedo, evaporation, and heat capacity.;

Background: Clinical manifestations and risk factors associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) flares, including recurrent lupus nephritis (LN), in patients with LN who undergo kidney transplantation have been unclear. Methods: Kidney transplant recipients with LN from January 1995 to December 2021 were included in this study. A disease flare was defined as either an increase in the non‐renal SLE disease activity index score or the presence of biopsy‐proven recurrent LN. Results: Among a total of 93 patients with LN who underwent kidney transplantation, 11 patients (11.8%) experienced SLE flares during a median follow‐up period of 76.9 months (IQR, 43.0–122.4). The most common clinical manifestations of SLE flares were recurrent LN (4/11, 36.4%) and hematologic manifestations (4/11, 36.4%). Patients who had flares had significantly higher anti‐double‐stranded DNA (anti‐dsDNA) antibody titers both before and after transplantation. Furthermore, an increased anti‐dsDNA antibody level before transplantation was associated with a high risk of an SLE flare (HR, 1.030; p =.008). Conversely, preemptive transplantation was associated with a lower risk of a flare (HR, 0.617; p =.026). The rate of patient death‐censored graft survival was found to be considerably lower in patients with recurrent LN than in those without LN. Conclusions: Approximately 10% of patients with LN experienced an SLE flare after transplantation, with recurrent LN being the most frequent manifestation. Anti‐dsDNA antibody titers before transplantation were significantly related to the risk of an SLE flare. Notably, preemptive transplantation was associated with a reduced risk of flares following transplantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective We investigated the incidence of and risk factors for myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) in patients with rheumatologic disease. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients who were diagnosed with rheumatologic diseases at a tertiary care hospital between May 2009 and July 2022 and identified the patients who were subsequently diagnosed with MDS. Each patient with MDS was matched with five age- and sex-matched controls chosen from the cohort of patients with each specific rheumatologic disease. Results During a total follow-up of 55 841 person-years (PY), MDS occurred in 64 patients, yielding an incidence rate of 1.15/1000 PY {median age 57.0 years [interquartile range (IQR) 41.0–69.0], median duration to MDS diagnosis 6.5 years (IQR 3.0–9.0)]. In an age-matched analysis, SLE was a significant risk factor for MDS [adjusted hazard ratio 2.61 (CI 1.19, 36.06), P  = 0.01]. Refractory cytopenia with multilineage dysplasia was the most common phenotype of MDS (35.9%), and more than half of the patients had karyotypes with a favourable prognosis (54.7%). Compared with matched controls, RA, SLE and AS patients with MDS had lower levels of haemoglobin at the time of diagnosis of rheumatologic disease. Furthermore, the MDS patients with SLE and Behçet's disease had higher levels of glucocorticoid use in terms of frequency of use and mean dose than control patients. Conclusion SLE is a significant risk factor for MDS among patients with rheumatologic diseases. A lower haemoglobin level at the time of diagnosis of rheumatologic disease was associated with the future development of MDS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]