1,720,963 research outputs found
Quantifying and Mitigating the Environmental Disease Burden and Health Inequalities in Urban and Transport planning
No full textIn this thesis, Bram Vandeninden presents innovative research on how urban and transport planning decisions impact public health through environmental stressors such as air pollution and limited green space. The research stands out by integrating detailed environmental and socio-economic data, each with their own spatial and seasonal variation, into health impact assessments. By combining this information with health indicators such as mortality rates and epidemiological risk estimates, the thesis reveals where and when people are most at risk. This multidimensional approach enables more precise and context-sensitive insights into how urban environments influence public health and contribute to health inequalities.It also explores how targeted strategies, like improving local green space or reducing traffic, can prevent disease, especially in vulnerable communities. In a counterfactual scenario where cities such as Mechelen, Liège, and Brussels meet WHO guidelines for air pollution and access to green space, the thesis quantifies that more than 10% of cardiovascular deaths and 20% of diabetes cases could be prevented—highlighting the major public health potential of cleaner, greener urban environments.Real-world case studies, such as car-free days in Brussels and Paris, demonstrate how urban policy can lead to measurable health gains. For instance, analyses show that even temporary traffic reductions can dramatically lower nitrogen dioxide levels, by up to 80% in some areas, bringing them below WHO guidelines. Further modelling suggests that, in a hypothetical scenario where such changes were made permanent, up to approximately 30% of childhood asthma cases in high-exposure areas could be prevented.The thesis offers new tools and evidence to guide cities and communities toward healthier and more equitable environments
Mitigation potential of local traffic interventions on paediatric asthma incidence in EU cities
No full textMitigation potential of local traffic interventions on paediatric asthma incidence in EU cities
No full textImpact assessment of local traffic interventions on disease burden: A case study on paediatric asthma incidence in two European cities
No full textIntroduction: Air pollution, particularly NO2, contributes to poor health, including paediatric asthma. This study estimated the reduction in NO2 concentrations on annual car-free Sundays in two European cities, Brussels and Paris, which have extensive car-free zones (162 km2 and 105 km2). We then conducted health impact modelling of paediatric asthma incidence using a hypothesized expansion of annual car-free Sundays to car-free daily zones. Problem statement: Exposure to air pollution, particularly NO2 exposure, contributes to negative health outcomes, including paediatric asthma. Local traffic interventions, such as car-free days, could offer a potential strategy to mitigate these effects. Methods: We assessed NO2 concentration reductions using various methods, including (1) direct calculations, (2) direct calculations adjusted for meteorological conditions, (3) random forest modelling, and (4) boosted regression tree modelling. To estimate the reduction in paediatric asthma incidence, we applied existing Exposure Response Functions (ERFs) derived from epidemiological studies. These ERFs were used to quantify the relationship between NO2 exposure and asthma incidence by linking the estimated reductions in NO2 concentrations from our models to changes in health outcomes under exposure scenarios similar to the hypothetical case of permanent car-free days. Results: NO2 concentrations were significantly lower on car-free Sundays, with reductions ranging from 63 to 83% in selected areas of Brussels and 27-56% in selected areas of Paris. The health impact modelling indicated a reduction in paediatric asthma incidence ranging from 15% [95% CI: 11-19%] in residential areas of Brussels to 34% [95% CI: 25-41%] in heavily trafficked areas Conclusion: Implementing car-free Sundays can strongly reduce NO2 levels and result in lower paediatric asthma incidence if these local traffic intervention measures were to be expanded and implemented permanently.This study has been supported by a project grant (ELLIS project, https://www.brain-ellis.be/) from the Belgian Science Policy Office BELSPO (Grant no. B2/191/P3/ELLIS)
Cluster pattern analysis of environmental stressors and quantifying their impact on all-cause mortality in Belgium
No full textAbstract Environmental stress represents an important burden on health and leads to a considerable number of diseases, hospitalisations, and excess mortality. Our study encompasses a representative sample size drawn from the Belgian population in 2016 (n = 11.26 million, with a focus on n = 11.15 million individuals). The analysis is conducted at the geographical level of statistical sectors, comprising a total of n = 19,794 sectors, with a subset of n = 18,681 sectors considered in the investigation. We integrated multiple parameters at the finest spatial level and constructed three categories of environmental stress through clustering: air pollution, noise stress and stress related to specific land-use types. We observed identifiable patterns in the spatial distribution of stressors within each cluster category. We assessed the relationship between age-standardized all-cause mortality rates (ASMR) and environmental stressors. Our research found that especially very high air pollution values in areas where traffic is the dominant local component of air pollution (ASMR + 14,8%, 95% CI: 10,4 – 19,4%) and presence of industrial land (ASMR + 14,7%, 95% CI: 9,4 – 20,2%) in the neighbourhood are associated with an increased ASMR. Cumulative exposure to multiple sources of unfavourable environmental stress (simultaneously high air pollution, high noise, presence of industrial land or proximity of primary/secondary roads and lack of green space) is associated with an increase in ASMR (ASMR + 26,9%, 95% CI: 17,1 – 36,5%)
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Impact of short-term exposure to extreme temperatures on mortality : a multi-city study in Belgium
No full textIn light of climate change, health risks are expected to be exacerbated by more frequent high temperatures and reduced by less frequent cold extremes. To assess the impact of different climate change scenarios, it is necessary to describe the current effects of temperature on health. A time-stratified case-crossover design fitted with conditional quasi-Poisson regressions and distributed lag non-linear models was applied to estimate specific temperature-mortality associations in nine urban agglomerations in Belgium, and a random-effect meta-analysis was conducted to pool the estimates. Based on 307,859 all-cause natural deaths, the mortality risk associated to low temperature was 1.32 (95% CI: 1.21-1.44) and 1.21 (95% CI: 1.08-1.36) for high temperature relative to the minimum mortality temperature (23.1 degrees C). Both cold and heat were associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory mortality. We observed differences in risk by age category, and women were more vulnerable to heat than men. People living in the most built-up municipalities were at higher risk for heat. Air pollutants did not have a confounding effect. Evidence from this study helps to identify specific populations at risk and is important for current and future public health interventions and prevention strategies
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