Quantifying changes in ambient NOx, O3 and PM10 concentrations in Austria during the COVID-19 related lockdown in spring 2020.

During spring 2020, unprecedented changes in local and regional emissions have occurred around the globe due to governmental restrictions associated with COVID-19. Many European countries including Austria issued partial curfews or stay-at-home order policies, which have impacted ambient air quality through reductions in non-essential transportation and energy consumption of industrial sites and work places. Here, we analyse the effect of these measures on ambient concentrations of nitrogen oxides (NOx), ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM10) during the first nationwide lockdown in Austria (16.03.2020 to 14.04.2020). To ensure a robust analysis, the Austrian domain is divided into four individual subsectors contingent on regional climate. For air quality analysis a novel method is applied for filtering days with comparable weather conditions during the 2020 lockdown and spring 2017 to 2019. In general, our analysis shows decreasing pollutant concentrations, although in magnitude dependent on pollutant and regional subdomain. Largest reductions are found for NOx reaching up to -68% at traffic sites reflecting the substantial decrease in non-essential transport. Changes in the O3 concentrations at background sites show a rather weak response to NOx declines varying between roughly -18 to +8% for both the median and the upper tail of the distribution. Occasional site level increases in O3 concentrations can be attributed to comparably weak titration during night-time. PM10 concentrations show the smallest response among air pollutants, attributable to manifold precursor sources not affected by the lockdown measures. However, our analysis indicates also a shift of PM10 distributions at traffic sites closer to distributions observed at background sites. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11869-022-01232-w.

A novel substrate for multisensor hyperspectral imaging.

The quality of chemical imaging, especially multisensor hyperspectral imaging, strongly depends on sample preparation techniques and instrumental infrastructure but also on the choice of an appropriate imaging substrate. To optimize the combined imaging of Raman microspectroscopy, scanning-electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, a novel substrate was developed based on sputtering of highly purified aluminium onto classical microscope slides. The novel aluminium substrate overcomes several disadvantages of classical substrates like impurities of the substrate material and contamination of the surface as well as surface roughness and homogeneity. Therefore, it provides excellent conditions for various hyperspectral imaging techniques and enables high-quality multisensor hyperspectral chemical imaging at submicron lateral resolutions.

[New oral anticoagulants in perioperative medicine]. / Neue orale Antikoagulanzien in der perioperativen Medizin.

New oral anticoagulants (NOAC) inhibit factor Xa (Stuart-Prower factor) or factor IIa (thrombin) and are alternatives to vitamin K antagonists. Perioperative indications are deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis for prosthetic hip and knee replacement, therapeutic anticoagulation for deep vein thrombosis as well as the prophylaxis of stroke for patients with atrial fibrillation. Patients on NOACs pose multiple perioperative challenges for all medical disciplines involved. For non-emergency surgery, patients should be evaluated by an anesthesiolgist as early as possible to assess an optimal appointment for surgery and bridging strategy. Management of emergency procedures for patients on NOACs requires an interdisciplinary approach. The individual risk for uncontrolled bleeding versus the urgency for surgery needs to be evaluated on an individual basis. The determination of drug serum levels enables a rough estimation of anticoagulant activity. Emergency procedures in coagulopathy due to active bleeding are treated with the unspecific administration of blood products and coagulation factor concentrates.

Haemophilia patients with HIV- and HCV-infection. Long term survival.

UNLABELLED: At present (2010), we investigate in a long term study on psychosocial aspects of haemophilia at the Munich Haemophilia Centre factors which could be held responsible for the large number of still living HIV+ patients while many patients died from AIDS or from diseases caused by HCV during the 1990ies. PATIENTS, METHODS: We retrospectively compare medical and psychosocial data of 15 HIV+ long term survivors (L-S), 15 HIV+ later on deceased patients and 15 HIV-, all of them deriving from the original investigation group from 1985 including 52 patients (30 HIV+, 22 HIV-). We prove the validity of our psychosocial factors by the SF 36 which currently serves as gold standard. The actual psychosocial factors and medical parameters of the 15 L-S are checked against the data of the 15 HIV- patients. RESULTS, CONCLUSION: In 1985 already, we retrospectively found significantly higher values regarding psychosocial factors within the group of the L-S as opposed to the later on deceased ones. Highly significant are the facts that more than 90 % of HIV+ L-S have had a good relationship to their fathers and are still employed today in contrast to the deceased HIV+ patients. At present, the differences regarding psychosocial factors between HIV+ L-S and HIV-negative patients are vanishing.

Field intercomparison of diffusive samplers for measuring ammonia.

Agricultural production systems are recognised as a major source of atmospheric ammonia. Deposition of ammonia and ammonium may contribute to undesired changes in oligotrophic ecosystems. The continuous measurement of atmospheric ammonia requires expensive and sophisticated techniques and is performed only in a very restrict number of ambient air stations in Europe. Therefore, the application of passive samplers, which have the advantage of being easy to handle and cost-efficient, is useful. In the past the comparability of different passive samplers must be considered as rather scarce. In a joint European project under the leadership of the GSF-Forschungszentrum für Umwelt und Gesundheit, Neuherberg, in 1997 a comparison of different passive ammonia monitoring methods was carried out in a prealpine rural site near Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It was considered valuable to include not only well established systems but also methods still being developed. For the comparative test ten working groups with different methods took part. A wet annular denuder system, which has been developed by the Netherlands Energy Research Foundation for on-line measurement of atmospheric ammonia, served as reference of passive methods. The experiment, which started in June and finished in December, showed that most of the passive samplers fulfil the requirements and can be recommended for further measurements. Additional measurements of meteorological parameters were performed to check the influences of different weather conditions on passive sampling.