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Visual context processing was investigated in both action video game players and nonplayers using the Ebbinghaus illusion task (N = 312, 39.4% female) in a cross-sectional study design. When presented in context, players showed markedly poorer target size discrimination accuracy compared with nonplayers in the 6-, 7-, 8-, and 9-years old age groups, but this difference was reduced in 10-years old group and diminished in adults. When presented in isolation (no-context), the two groups displayed similar performance in all age groups. Furthermore, nonplayers (linear) and players (bell curve) showed profoundly different age-related differences in context processing. These findings provide evidence that players might have enhanced perceptual bias to process visual context in the transition from early childhood to early adolescence, and the differences between the two groups start at early ages and continue with distinct developmental profiles., Mersin Universitesi [2015-TP2-1299], Mersin Universitesi, Grant/Award Number: 2015-TP2-1299

The presence of building balconies can significantly modify the near-façade wind flow pattern and surface pressures. The present study evaluates the impact of building balcony geometry on mean wind speed on balcony spaces and wind-induced mean surface pressure for generic high-rise buildings. The focus is on balconies that extend along the entire width of the building façade. Large-eddy simulations (LES), validated with wind tunnel experiments, are conducted to investigate the impact of (i) balconies present or not, (ii) balcony depth, (iii) balcony parapet walls, (iv) balcony partition walls, and (v) density of balconies. The results indicate that the balcony geometry can greatly affect the mean wind speed on balcony spaces and the local and façade-averaged mean pressure coefficient (Cp). The presence of balconies can increase the façade-averaged Cp over the windward and leeward façades by 5.2% and 8.9%, respectively. These numbers rise to 23.5% and 23.3% when two partition walls are added at the lateral edges of the façades. Adding five partition walls can reduce the overall area-averaged wind speed on balcony spaces by 68.0% compared to the case without partition walls. These findings can be useful in developing, designing and constructing buildings with façade geometrical details that improve building ventilation, air quality and wind comfort.

© 2019 Accurate Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) flow are essential for a wide range of applications, including atmospheric heat and pollutant dispersion. An important requirement is that the imposed inlet boundary conditions should yield vertical profiles that maintain horizontal homogeneity (i.e. no streamwise gradients) in the upstream part of the computational domain for all relevant parameters, including temperature. Many previous studies imposed a uniform temperature profile at the inlet, which has often led to horizontal inhomogeneity of the temperature profile. This study presents a new temperature inlet profile that can yield horizontal homogeneity for neutral and near-neutral ABL conditions when used in combination with the Standard Gradient Diffusion Hypothesis (SGDH) and a temperature wall function. The horizontal homogeneity by this profile is verified by 2D Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) CFD simulations performed with the standard k-ε turbulence model and the SGDH. The approach in this paper can be extended to other types of wall functions and other RANS closure schemes for Reynolds stresses and turbulent heat fluxes. ispartof: JOURNAL OF WIND ENGINEERING AND INDUSTRIAL AERODYNAMICS vol:191 pages:91-102 status: published

In addition to several negative environmental effects, climate change, which reduces bioclimatic comfort levels especially in urban areas, also has economic implications, especially in cities where the economic structure is tourism-oriented. Considering most of the tourism practices are based on outdoor activities in cities such as Antalya, it is of great importance to determine bioclimatic comfort level as well as the attitudes of people toward climate change who live in those conditions to be able to take proper precautions in terms of tourism and urban planning. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to reveal the bioclimatic comfort conditions of Antalya city center, and a comprehensive questionnaire was conducted with the people living in the area questioning the opinions on reasons and consequences of climate change, perceivable effects of climate change in Antalya, and suggestions to prevent or reduce the adverse effects. The areas with appropriate bioclimatic comfort conditions were determined and mapped via geographical information systems using temperature and relative humidity data of the years between 1960 and 2018. The data gathered via questionnaires were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, regression, correlation, and structural equation modelling via SPSS and AMOS software. According to the results, it was determined that in some parts of city center the bioclimatic comfort conditions decreased to levels that could reach harmful dimensions for human health and the analysis of the questionnaires revealed that people living in that area state that the effects of climate change are perceivable as the precipitation seasons have become irregular. According to the participants, it was determined that a 1-unit increase in environmental measures causes a decrease of 0.136 units in disasters (R-2 = 1.1%). In comparison, 1-unit increase of Administrative Precautions will cause 0.030 units decrease in effects of climate change on vital needs (R-2 = 1.4%). These analysis results show that the respondents expect the disaster scenarios to decrease when environmental measures are increased.

Bu çalışmada, Ocak-Şubat 2019'da Edirne (Suburban), İstanbul (Suburban) ve Kars (Dağ bozkırı) illerinden toplanan toplam 691 adet kulaklı orman baykuşu peleti analiz edilmiştir. Diyet içeriği farklı habitat türlerine (bozkır ve suburban) göre karşılaştırılmıştır. Küçük memeliler tüm alanlarda diyet içeriğinin çoğunu oluşturmaktadır, ayrıca peletlerde az miktarda kuş kalıntısı tespit edilmiştir. 7 farklı memeli taksonuna (Apodemus sp., Cricetulus sp., Crocidura sp., Micromys sp., Microtus sp., Mus sp., Rattus sp.) ait 1474 av belirlenmiştir. Edirne (%50,34) ve İstanbul'dan (%41,42) toplanan peletlerde yüksek miktarda Mus sp. tespit edilmiştir. Kars’tan toplanan peletlerde ise Microtus sp. ana av türüdür. Genel olarak, çalışmamız kulaklı orman baykuşunun fırsatçı bir avcı olarak beslendiğini ve diyet içeriğini farklı çevresel koşullara göre değiştirdiğini desteklemiştir. Kapanlama çalışması ile pelet analizi arasında uyumsuz sonuçlar elde edilmiştir. Bunun nedenleri, bazı memeli türlerinin tesadüfen yakalanabilmeleri, kapanlama alanının, baykuşun tüm avlanma alanını temsil edememesi ve bazı memeli türlerinin tuzaktan kaçınmaları olabilir., In this study, we analysed a total of 691 pellets of the Long-eared Owl (Asio otus L.) collected from Edirne (Suburban), İstanbul (Suburban) and Kars (High altitude steppe) provinces in January-February 2019. Dietary contents of the Long-eared Owl were considering the different habitat (steppe and suburban) types. Small mammals constituted the majority of the diet content in all areas, but a small amount of bird remains were also found in pellets. 1474 prey items belonging to 7 different mammal taxa (Apodemus sp., Cricetulus sp., Crocidura sp., Micromys sp., Microtus sp., Mus sp., Rattus sp.) were identified. High amount of Mus sp. was found in pellets collected from Edirne (50.34%) and İstanbul (41.42%). On the other hand, Microtus sp. was the main prey species in Kars. Overall, our study supported that the Long-eared Owl acts as an opportunistic predator and change its dietary contents according to different environmental conditions. Incompatible results were obtained between the trapping study and pellet examination. The reasons could be that some mammal species can be caught by chance, trapping area cannot represent the entire hunting area and some mammal species could avoid trapping.

Exposure to particulate matter (PM) is strongly linked to human morbidity and mortality, where higher exposure entails higher all-cause daily mortality and increased long-term risk of cardiopulmonary mortality. The objective of this study is to demonstrate how and to what extent the local removal of PM2.5 can lead to reduced exposure for the children and teachers in the naturally ventilated courtyard of the American Embassy School (AES) high school building in Delhi. The study is performed by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with the 3D steady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations in combination with the realizable k-ε turbulence model on a very high resolution grid. First, CFD validation is performed using wind-tunnel experiments of the flow pattern in and above a generic single street canyon. Next, the case study is conducted where four commercially available electrostatic precipitation (ESP) units are installed at different positions inside the courtyard and the resulting performance is evaluated. PM2.5 dispersion is modeled with an Eulerian advection-diffusion equation. It is shown that the best ESP positions yield overall volume-averaged PM2.5 concentration reductions up to 34.1% in the courtyard's corridors, demonstrating the proposed mitigation strategy to be effective. Perspectives for further reduction of the PM concentrations and the related reduction of health risks are discussed. ispartof: SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT vol:686 pages:657-680 ispartof: location:Netherlands status: published

Automatic methods are needed to efficiently process the large point clouds collected using a mobile laser scanning (MLS) system for surveying applications. Machine-learning-based object recognition from MLS point clouds in a road and street environment was studied in order to create maps from the road environment infrastructure. The developed automatic processing workflow included the following phases: the removal of the ground and buildings, segmentation, segment classification, and object location estimation. Several novel geometry-based features, which were previously applied in autonomous driving and general point cloud processing, were applied for the segment classification of MLS point clouds. The features were divided into three sets, i.e., local descriptor histograms (LDHs), spin images, and general shape and point distribution features, respectively. These were used in the classification of the following roadside objects: trees, lamp posts, traffic signs, cars, pedestrians, and hoardings. The accuracy of the object recognition workflow was evaluated using a data set that contained more than 400 objects. LDHs and spin images were applied for the first time for machine-learning-based object classification in MLS point clouds in the surveying applications of the road and street environment. The use of these features improved the classification accuracy by 9.6% (resulting in 87.9% accuracy) compared with the accuracy obtained using 17 general shape and point distribution features that represent the current state of the art in the field of MLS; therefore, significant improvement in the classification accuracy was achieved. Connected component segmentation and ground extraction were the cause of most of the errors and should be thus improved in the future.

This study focuses on the benefits of street greenery for creating thermally comfortable streetscapes in moderate climates. It reports on investigations on the impact of street greenery on outdoor thermal comfort from a physical and psychological perspective. For this purpose, we examined nine streets with comparable geometric configurations, but varying amount of street greenery (street trees, front gardens) in the city of Utrecht, the Netherlands. Mobile micrometeorological measurements including air temperature (Ta), solar and thermal radiation were performed, enabling the calculation of mean radiant temperature (Tmrt). Additionally, semi-structured interviews with pedestrians about their momentary and long-term perceived thermal comfort and their esthetical appreciation of the green street design were conducted. Measurements showed a clear impact (p = 0.0001) of street greenery on thermal comfort through tree shading: 10% tree crown cover within a street canyon lowered street averaged Tmrt about 1 K. In contrast, our results did not show an influence of street greenery on street averaged Ta. Interview results indicated that momentary perceived thermal comfort tended to be related to the amount of street greenery. However, the results were not statistically significant. Related to long-term perceived thermal comfort respondents were hardly consciously aware of influences by street greenery. Yet, people significantly (p

Land use/land cover (LULC) change occurs due to natural and anthropogenic causes. In developing countries, rapid industrialization and urbanization imposes a major threat to natural environment. Present study was carried out to monitor the LULC changes due to urbanization in a rapidly changing river basin, India. The purpose of choosing the river basin was to analyze past changes and predict possible consequences within a defined natural boundary. Multi-temporal images acquired from Landsat and Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites between 1992-2009 as well as a digital elevation model was used to generate historical and current LULC pattern in the basin. An object based image analysis technique was employed for precise classification of multi-temporal images followed by GIS-based change detection studies. The study reveals that the built up area has increased significantly and added 288 km(2) between 1992 - 2009. Increase in built up area is attributed to decrease in wastelands and agricultural land. The expansion of built up area along major transportation networks, specifically after the year 2000 shows the rapid rate of urbanization in the basin.

The chapter begins by making a conceptual reflection of the relation between, terms such as wellbeing and the quality of life, based on a contextualization of the residential satisfaction. Thereafter, a revision is carried out on the pioneer research in residential satisfaction. Concretely, the chapter shows how these studies find out evaluation criteria that will allow to understand the reason why residents are satisfied with their houses even though the home assessment is not the most appropriated one. Subsequently, the following domains of the residential environment are explinated: house, neighborhood and neighbors as well as their function as predictive variables to explain residential satisfaction. Closely linked to these domains, the residential satisfaction models that consider the same as a variable criteria of wellbeing or as a predictive variable of certain behavior are presented. Additionally it is explained a model that integrated both approaches. Once the form of understanding residential satisfaction is presented, the indexes of residential quality and their transformation to predictors of this variable will be analyzed. Furthermore, a classification of these will be explained in two dimensions: subjective vs objective and physical vs social. Finally, it is highlighted the importance of attachment to the place and its close relation with the residential satisfaction, specially focused on the neighborhood.

Particulate matter (PM) deposited on Platanus acerifolia tree leaves has been sampled in the urban areas of 28 European cities, over 20 countries, with the aim of testing leaf deposited particles as indicator of atmospheric PM concentration and composition. Leaves have been collected close to streets characterized by heavy traffic and within urban parks. Leaf surface density, dimensions, and elemental composition of leaf deposited particles have been compared with leaf magnetic content, and discussed in connection with air quality data. The PM quantity and size were mainly dependent on the regional background concentration of particles, while the percentage of iron-based particles emerged as a clear marker of traffic-related pollution in most of the sites. This indicates that Platanus acerifolia is highly suitable to be used in atmospheric PM monitoring studies and that morphological and elemental characteristics of leaf deposited particles, joined with the leaf magnetic content, may successfully allow urban PM source apportionment.

Background Identifying attributes of the built environment associated with health-enhancing levels of physical activity (PA) in older adults (≥65 years old) has the potential to inform interventions supporting healthy and active ageing. The aim of this study was to first systematically review and quantify findings on built environmental correlates of older adults’ PA, and second, investigate differences by type of PA and environmental attribute measurement. Methods One hundred articles from peer-reviewed and grey literature examining built environmental attributes related to total PA met inclusion criteria and relevant information was extracted. Findings were meta-analysed and weighted by article quality and sample size and then stratified by PA and environmental measurement method. Associations (p

Three years of aerosol particle number concentrations (PNCs), size distributions and vertical particle fluxes measured at the semi-urban SMEAR III station in Helsinki, Finland, were studied. The purpose is to study the local emission sources and their effect on particle concentrations and size distributions. By means of cluster analysis, six representative size distributions were identified. Their occurrence together with particle concentrations and fluxes were found to vary significantly with wind direction. Lower particle concentrations and fluxes were measured downwind from vegetated and residential areas compared to directions where the measurement site is downwind from roads passing near the measurement site. For these directions, contributions of the local sources on the measured particle concentrations and size distributions were evident. In particular, size distributions with a mode in the size range 2040 nm were found to be more affected by local traffic emissions, whereas the mode shifted towards larger sizes when contribution from distant sources was more evident. Using flux footprint functions, mixed vehicle fleet emission factors (EFs) were derived from the particle flux measurements. EFs of 6.03(±0.19)∙10 14 # Veh -1 km -1 and 3.65(±0.12) ∙10 14 # Veh -1 km -1 were estimated for cold (October to March) and warm (April to September) periods, respectively. Emission factors increased with decreasing air temperature ( T ) following a linear relationship EF = -0.20∙10 14 # Veh -1 km -1 °C -1 T + 6.98∙10 14 # Veh -1 km -1 (RMSE = 3.7∙10 14 # Veh -1 km -1 ). Keywords: particle number size distribution, eddy covariance, particle fluxes, vehicle emission factor (Published: 28 June 2013 Citation: Tellus B 2013, 65, 19786, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/tellusb.v65i0.19786

Trace element measurements in PM10–2.5, PM2.5–1.0 and PM1.0–0.3 aerosol were performed with 2 h time resolution at kerbside, urban background and rural sites during the ClearfLo winter 2012 campaign in London. The environment-dependent variability of emissions was characterized using the Multilinear Engine implementation of the positive matrix factorization model, conducted on data sets comprising all three sites but segregated by size. Combining the sites enabled separation of sources with high temporal covariance but significant spatial variability. Separation of sizes improved source resolution by preventing sources occurring in only a single size fraction from having too small a contribution for the model to resolve. Anchor profiles were retrieved internally by analysing data subsets, and these profiles were used in the analyses of the complete data sets of all sites for enhanced source apportionment. A total of nine different factors were resolved (notable elements in brackets): in PM10–2.5, brake wear (Cu, Zr, Sb, Ba), other traffic-related (Fe), resuspended dust (Si, Ca), sea/road salt (Cl), aged sea salt (Na, Mg) and industrial (Cr, Ni); in PM2.5–1.0, brake wear, other traffic-related, resuspended dust, sea/road salt, aged sea salt and S-rich (S); and in PM1.0–0.3, traffic-related (Fe, Cu, Zr, Sb, Ba), resuspended dust, sea/road salt, aged sea salt, reacted Cl (Cl), S-rich and solid fuel (K, Pb). Human activities enhance the kerb-to-rural concentration gradients of coarse aged sea salt, typically considered to have a natural source, by 1.7–2.2. These site-dependent concentration differences reflect the effect of local resuspension processes in London. The anthropogenically influenced factors traffic (brake wear and other traffic-related processes), dust and sea/road salt provide further kerb-to-rural concentration enhancements by direct source emissions by a factor of 3.5–12.7. The traffic and dust factors are mainly emitted in PM10–2.5 and show strong diurnal variations with concentrations up to 4 times higher during rush hour than during night-time. Regionally influenced S-rich and solid fuel factors, occurring primarily in PM1.0–0.3, have negligible resuspension influences, and concentrations are similar throughout the day and across the regions.

In this paper, PM1 elemental composition and relative sources have been investigated near Venice (Eastern Po Valley, Italy). Considering the lack of information on PM1 composition in this area and the general poor knowledge of emission profiles, this study can give useful information to better understand the source profile and the dispersion of finer particles. A sampling campaign was carried out in two sampling sites located inside the “Marco Polo” international airport of Venice. Elemental composition on PM1 samples was characterized by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy. Five sources were identified and quantified by using the positive matrix factorization receptor model: heavy oil combustion, road traffic, airplane tire-wear, glassmaking and mixed combustions. The role of local atmospheric circulation was investigated by studying the source contributions as a function of wind velocity. Days characterized by low dispersion (lower wind speed and higher wind calm with respect to full period rose) showed a higher contribution for all sources, and a glassmaking contribution increase linked to wind blowing from South, where the artistic glass district of Venice is located.

In our study we explore similarities and differences in the evaluations of 12 design gardens by students of landscape architecture and psychology students. The participants in our study visited the gardens and judged them on location. We used a questionnaire to assess similarities and differences in the evaluations of gardens by the two groups. We also provided the participants with the opportunity to describe their experience of the gardens in their own words, using their own evaluative criteria. We found significant differences between the two groups on the evaluation of four gardens. The analysis of the physical properties of the four gardens gives some clues as to what may have caused the differences, as they were 'minimalist', 'art-like', 'experimental', and 'traditional' gardens. In contrast, in spite of the large variation in the design of the gardens, no differences in evaluation were found on eight out of 12 gardens. The results of our study suggest that a high level of appreciation may be expected from the public for unusual formal designs of gardens while alerting the experts to the physical and formal properties of gardens most likely to raise conflict.

Introduction: The epidemiological transition has resulted in a major increase in the prevalence of obesity in North Africa. This study investigated differences in obesity and its association with area of residence, gender and socio-economic position among adults in Algeria and Tunisia, two countries with socio-economic and socio-cultural similarities. Methods: Cross-sectional studies used stratified, three-level, clustered samples of 35-70 year old adults in Algeria, (women n = 2741, men n = 2004) and Tunisia (women n = 2964, men n = 2379). Thinness was defined as Body Mass Index (BMI) = weight/height,< 18.5 kg/m(2), obesity as BMI >= 30, and abdominal obesity as waist circumference/height >= 0.6. Associations with area of residence, gender, age, education, profession and household welfare were assessed. Results: Prevalence of thinness was very low except among men in Algeria (7.3% C.I.[5.9-8.7]). Prevalence of obesity among women was high in Algeria (30.1% C.I.[27.8-32.4]) and Tunisia (37.0% C.I.[34.4-39.6]). It was less so among men (9.1% C.I.[7.1-11.0] and 13.3% C.I.[11.2-15.4]). The results were similar for abdominal obesity. In both countries women were much more obesity-prone than men: the women versus men obesity Odds-Ratio was 4.3 C.I.[3.4-5.5] in Algeria and 3.8 C.I.[3.1-4.7] in Tunisia. Obesity was more prevalent in urban versus rural areas in Tunisia, but not in Algeria (e. g. for women, urban versus rural Odds-Ratio was 2.4 C.I.[1.9-3.1] in Tunisia and only 1.2 C.I.[1.0-5.5] in Algeria). Obesity increased with household welfare, but more markedly in Tunisia, especially among women. Nevertheless, in both countries, even in the lowest quintile of welfare, a fifth of the women were obese. Conclusion: The prevention of obesity, especially in women, is a public health issue in both countries, but there were differences in the patterning of obesity according to area of residence and socio-economic position. These specificities must be taken into account in the management of obesity inequalities.

During recent years, aggressive air pollution mitigation measures in northern China have resulted in considerable changes in gas and aerosol chemical composition. But it is unclear whether aerosol water content and acidity respond to these changes. The two parameters have been shown to affect heterogeneous production of winter haze aerosols. Here, we performed thermodynamic equilibrium modeling using chemical and meteorological data observed in urban Beijing for four recent winter seasons and quantified the changes in the mass growth factor and pH of inorganic aerosols. We focused on high relative humidity (>60%) conditions when submicron particles have been shown to be in the liquid state. From 2014/2015 to 2018/2019, the modeled mass growth factor decreased by about 9%-17% due to changes in aerosol compositions (more nitrate and less sulfate and chloride), and the modeled pH increased by about 0.3-0.4 unit mainly due to rising ammonia. A buffer equation is derived from semivolatile ammonia partitioning, which helps understand the sensitivity of pH to meteorological and chemical variables. The findings provide implications for evaluating the potential chemical feedback in secondary aerosol production and the effectiveness of ammonia control as a measure to alleviate winter haze.

Sickle cell disease is an increasing global health burden. This inherited disease is characterized by a remarkable phenotypic heterogeneity, which can only partly be explained by genetic factors. Environmental factors are likely to play an important role but studies of their impact on disease severity are limited and their results are often inconsistent. This study investigated associations between a range of environmental factors and hospital admissions of young patients with sickle cell disease in London and in Paris between 2008 and 2012. Specific analyses were conducted for subgroups of patients with different genotypes and for the main reasons for admissions. Generalized additive models and distributed lag non-linear models were used to assess the magnitude of the associations and to calculate relative risks. Some environmental factors significantly influence the numbers of hospital admissions of children with sickle cell disease, although the associations identified are complicated. Our study suggests that meteorological factors are more likely to be associated with hospital admissions for sickle cell disease than air pollutants. It confirms previous reports of risks associated with wind speed (risk ratio: 1.06/stan-dard deviation; 95% confidence interval: 1.00-1.12) and also with rainfall (1.06/standard deviation; 95% confidence interval: 1.01-1.12). Maximum atmospheric pressure was found to be a protective factor (0.93/standard deviation; 95% confidence interval: 0.88-0.99). Weak or no associations were found with temperature. Divergent associations were identified for different genotypes or reasons for admissions, which could partly explain the lack of consistency in earlier studies. Advice to patients with sickle cell disease usually includes avoiding a range of environmental conditions that are believed to trigger acute complications, including extreme temperatures and high altitudes. Scientific evidence to support such advice is limited and sometimes confusing. This study shows that environmental factors do explain some of the variations in rates of admission to hospital with acute symptoms in sickle cell disease, but the associations are complex, and likely to be specific to different environments and the individual’s exposure to them. Furthermore, this study highlights the need for prospective studies with large numbers of patients and standardized protocols across Europe.