ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Since the industrial revolution, the rate of industrialization and urbanization has increased dramatically. Regarding this issue, specific regions mostly located in developing countries have been confronted with serious problems, particularly environmental problems among which air pollution is of high importance. METHODS: Eleven parameters, including CO, SO2, PM10, PM2.5, O3, NO2, benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzene, xylene, and 1,3-butadiene, have been accounted over a period of two years (2011-2012) from five monitoring stations located at Tehran, Iran, were assessed by using fuzzy inference system and fuzzy c-mean clustering. RESULTS: These tools showed that the quality of criteria pollutants between the year 2011 and 2012 did not as much effect the public health as the other pollutants did. CONCLUSION: Using the air EPA AQI, the quality of air, and also the managerial plans required to improve the quality can be misled.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: In the past few decades, Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) has become a primary concern to the point. It is increasingly believed to be of equal or greater importance to human health compared to ambient air. However, due to the lack of comprehensive indices for the integrated assessment of indoor air quality (IAQ), we aimed to develop a novel, Fuzzy-Based Indoor Air Quality Index (FIAQI) to bridge the existing gap in this area. METHODS: We based our index on fuzzy logic, which enables us to overcome the limitations of traditional methods applied to develop environmental quality indices. Fifteen parameters, including the criteria air pollutants, volatile organic compounds, and bioaerosols were included in the FIAQI due mainly to their significant health effects. Weighting factors were assigned to the parameters based on the medical evidence available in the literature on their health effects. The final FIAQI consisted of 108 rules. In order to demonstrate the performance of the index, data were intentionally generated to cover a variety of quality levels. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the validity of the index. RESULTS: The FIAQI tends to be a comprehensive tool to classify IAQ and produce accurate results. CONCLUSION: It seems useful and reliable to be considered by authorities to assess IAQ environments.
ABSTRACT
Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has long been recognized as a hypotensive mediator. Little is known regarding the contribution of polymorphisms in VEGF gene to essential hypertension (EH), however. We aimed to investigate the association between +405 VEGF C/G single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and occurrence of EH in a sample of patients with diabetes. A study population of 474 subjects with diabetes of which 45.6% (216) had EH was enrolled in this study. Interviews and physical examinations were performed in a clinical setting. Subjects were matched in baseline anthropometric and biochemical characteristics except for total cholesterol. Genotyping of +405 VEGF C/G (rs2010963) SNP was carried out using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. The allelic distribution of the sample did not violate Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Subjects with EH had a higher frequency of G allele (P = 0.005). Additionally, those with EH had a significantly higher frequency of GG genotype (P = 0.015). In multivariate logistic regression models controlling for possible confounders, having GG against CC genotype was associated with an odds ratio of 2.51 (95% CI: 1.44-4.38; P = 0.001). Moreover, presence of each G allele was linked to a 1.58-fold increase in risk of having EH (95% CI: 1.200-2.086; P = 0.001). In conclusion, +405 VEGF C/G SNP is associated with EH in patients with diabetes, suggesting presence of G allele and GG or CG genotype confer susceptibility towards EH.
