Papers by Thanos Damialis
Environmental Impact Assessment Review
COVID-19 lockdown measures have impacted the environment with both positive and negative effects.... more COVID-19 lockdown measures have impacted the environment with both positive and negative effects. However, how human populations have perceived such changes in the natural environment and how they may have changed their daily habits have not been yet thoroughly evaluated. The objectives of this work were to investigate (1) the social perception of the environmental changes produced by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and the derived change in habits in relation to i) waste management, energy saving, and sustainable consumption, ii)
Additional file 2. Search strategy used in the systematic review.
Additional file 1. PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis Pr... more Additional file 1. PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis Protocols) 2015 checklist: recommended items to address in a systematic review protocol.
Land, 2022
Meteorological conditions and the distribution of pollen sources are the two most decisive factor... more Meteorological conditions and the distribution of pollen sources are the two most decisive factors influencing the concentration of airborne grass pollen. However, knowledge about land-use types, their potential pollen emission, and the importance of local sources remains limited. In this study, wild grass pollen concentrations from 27 stations in Bavaria, Germany, were linked to potential pollen within a 30 km radius. Agricultural grass pollen sources were derived from the InVeKos database, which contains detailed information on agricultural land-use types and their spatial distribution. Non-agricultural grassland was identified by OpenStreetMap. Further source classification was conducted using a cultivation intensity indicator and wind direction. We show that the grassland percentage and pollen concentrations, specified as annual pollen integral and pollen peak vary strongly between pollen stations. Correlation analyses indicated that the impact of the grassland on pollen concent...
2019 41st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2019
International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 2021
Higher incidences of asthma during thunderstorms can pose a serious health risk. In this study, w... more Higher incidences of asthma during thunderstorms can pose a serious health risk. In this study, we estimate the thunderstorm asthma risk using statistical methods, with special focus on Bavaria, Southern Germany. In this approach, a dataset of asthma-related emergency cases for the study region is combined with meteorological variables and aeroallergen data to identify statistical relationships between the occurrence of asthma (predictand) and different environmental parameters (set of predictors). On the one hand, the results provide evidence for a weak but significant relationship between atmospheric stability indices and asthma emergencies in the region, but also show that currently thunderstorm asthma is not a major concern in Bavaria due to overall low incidences. As thunderstorm asthma can have severe consequences for allergic patients, the presented approach can be important for the development of emergency strategies in regions affected by thunderstorm asthma and under present and future climate change conditions.
Aerobiologia, 2021
Airborne allergenic pollen impact the health of a great part of the global population. Under clim... more Airborne allergenic pollen impact the health of a great part of the global population. Under climate change conditions, the abundance of airborne pollen has been rising dramatically and so is the effect on sensitized individuals. The first line of allergy management is allergen avoidance, which, to date, is by rule achieved via forecasting of daily pollen concentrations. The aim of this study was to elaborate on 3-hourly predictive models, one of the very few to the best of our knowledge, attempting to forecast pollen concentration based on near-real-time automatic pollen measurements. The study was conducted in Augsburg, Germany, during four years (2016–2019) focusing on Betula and Poaceae pollen, the most abundant and allergenic in temperate climates. ARIMA and dynamic regression models were employed, as well as machine learning techniques, viz. artificial neural networks and neural network autoregression models. Air temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, air pressure, sun...
Journal of Occupational Medicine and Toxicology, 2020
BackgroundUntil today, industrial sources contribute to the multifaceted contamination of environ... more BackgroundUntil today, industrial sources contribute to the multifaceted contamination of environmental air. Exposure to air pollutants has the potential to initiate and promote asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). At global scale, both entities cause the majority of about 4 million annual deaths by respiratory disease. However, we identified industrial contamination as a subgroup of air pollution that may be associated with this burden and is underinvestigated in research. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate associations between substances industrially released into environmental air and the occurrence of asthma and COPD in the human population. Here we present the protocol for our systematic review of the current evidence.MethodsThe following determinations will be applied during the systematic review process and are specified in the protocol that complies with the PRISMA-P statement. Populations of children and adults, as well as outdoor workers...
Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2020
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Atmospheric Environment, 2020
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 2020
Thunderstorms have been associated with increased occurrence of asthma incidents, some of them ev... more Thunderstorms have been associated with increased occurrence of asthma incidents, some of them even causing fatalities. To date, no determinative relationship among responsible co-factors has been revealed (the full diversity spectrum of pollen and fungal spores and relevant meteorological factors). The aim of this study was to assess the risk of asthma attacks during thunderstorm events. METHODS: In the project Climate Change and Health (Bavarian State Ministries of the Environment and Consumer Protection and of Health and Care), a dataset from 23 monitoring stations across Bavaria, Germany, during 2015 on a daily scale was analyzed for: A) lightning occurrence, B) pollen and fungal spore abudances, C) asthma emergency cases. Multivariate, full-factorial GLM models were applied, along with time-series analysis and exploratory techniques to identify a potential co-occurrence. RESULTS: A synchronisation of pollen and fungal spore incidence with lightnings was found, as well as lightnings with asthma cases. Clusters of high pollen and spore abundances across Bavaria coincided with similar clusters of high thunderstorm frequency. Asthma cases were correlated positively during thunderstorm events and, particularly, only with the interaction of lightnings and grass pollen (p50.011, R 2 50.64). It was striking that additional pollen types, apart from the usual suspect, Poaceae pollen, were implicated in asthma cases, like the also highly allergenic Artemisia, Plantago and Urticaceae. CONCLUSIONS: As thunderstorm asthma may be life-threatening, prospective investigations of the interaction effect of thunderstorms, aeroallergens and severity of allergic symptoms have to be integrated in the regular environmental urban monitoring and planning of policy makers.
World Allergy Organization Journal, 2020
The epithelial cell-derived cytokine milieu has been discussed as a "master switch" in the develo... more The epithelial cell-derived cytokine milieu has been discussed as a "master switch" in the development of allergic disease. To understand the role of innate immune response in nasal epithelial cells during allergic inflammation, we created and established a fast and minimally invasive method to isolate and culture human nasal epithelial cells from clinically and immunologically well characterized patients. Human nasal epithelial cells from non-atopic volunteers and from allergic rhinitis patients were compared in respect to their growth, barrier integrity, pattern recognition, receptor expression, and immune responses to allergens and an array of pathogen-associated molecular patterns and inflammasome activators. Cells from nasal scrapings were clearly identified as nasal epithelial cells by staining of pan-Cytokeratin, Cytokeratin-14 and Tubulin. Additionally, Mucin 5AC staining revealed the presence of goblet cells, while staining of tight-junction protein Claudin-1, Occludin and ZO-1 showed the ability of the cells to form a tight barrier. Cells of atopic donors grew slower than cells of non-atopic donors. All nasal epithelial cells expressed TLR1-6 and 9, yet the expression of TLR-9 was lower in cells from allergic rhinitis (AR) donors. Additionally, epithelial cells from AR donors responded with a different TLR expression pattern to stimulation with TLR ligands. TLR-3 was the most potent modulator of cytokine and chemokine secretion in all human nasal epithelial cells (HNECs). The secretion of IL-1b, CCL-5, IL-8, IL-18 and IL-33 was elevated in HNECs of AR donors as compared to cells of non-atopic donors. This was observed in the steady-state (IL-18, IL-33) as well as under stimulation with TLR ligands (IL-18, IL-33, CCL-5, IL-8), aqueous pollen extracts (IL-18, IL-33), or the inflammasome activator Nigericin (IL-1b). In conclusion, nasal epithelial cells of AR donors show altered physical barrier responses in steadystate and in response to allergen stimulation. Cells of AR donors show increased expression of
Science of The Total Environment, 2019
Scientific Reports, 2017
Airborne pollen and fungal spores are monitored mainly in highly populated, urban environments, f... more Airborne pollen and fungal spores are monitored mainly in highly populated, urban environments, for allergy prevention purposes. However, their sources can frequently be located outside cities’ fringes with more vegetation. So as to shed light to this paradox, we investigated the diversity and abundance of airborne pollen and fungal spores at various environmental regimes. We monitored pollen and spores using an aircraft and a car, at elevations from sea level to 2,000 m above ground, in the region of Thesssaloniki, Greece. We found a total of 24 pollen types and more than 15 spore types. Pollen and spores were detected throughout the elevational transect. Lower elevations exhibited higher pollen concentrations in only half of plant taxa and higher fungal spore concentrations in only Ustilago. Pinaceae and Quercus pollen were the most abundant recorded by airplane (>54% of the total). Poaceae pollen were the most abundant via car measurements (>77% of the total). Cladosporium ...
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Papers by Thanos Damialis