A downward titration of antihypertensive drug regimens in summertime is often performed on the basis of seasonal variations of clinic blood pressure (BP). However, little is known about the actual interaction between outdoor air temperature and the effects of antihypertensive treatment on ambulatory BP. The combined effects of aging, treatment, and daily mean temperature on clinic and ambulatory BP were investigated in 6404 subjects referred to our units between October 1999 and December 2003. Office and mean 24-hour systolic BP, as well as morning pressure surge, were significantly lower in hot (>90th percentiles of air temperature; 136±19, 130±14, and 33.3±16.1 mm Hg; P <0.05 for all), and higher in cold (<10th percentiles) days (141±12, 133±11, and 37.3±9.5 mm Hg; at least P <0.05 for all) when compared with intermediate days (138±18, 132±14, and 35.3±15.4 mm Hg). At regression analysis, 24-hour and daytime systolic pressure were inversely related to temperature ( P <0.01 for all). Conversely, nighttime systolic pressure was positively related to temperature ( P <0.02), with hot days being associated with higher nighttime pressure. Air temperature was identified as an independent predictor of nighttime systolic pressure increase in the group of elderly treated hypertensive subjects only. No significant relationship was found between air temperature and heart rate. Our results show for the first time that hot weather is associated with an increase in systolic pressure at night in treated elderly hypertensive subjects. This may be because of a nocturnal BP escape from the effects of a lighter summertime drug regimen and may have important implications for seasonal modulation of antihypertensive treatment.

Seasonal blood pressure (BP) changes have been found to be related to either outdoor or indoor temperature. No information regarding the independent effects of temperature measured proximally to the patient, the personal-level environmental temperature (PET), is available. Inclusion of daylight hours in multivariate analysis might allow exploring the independent interaction of BP with seasonality. To investigate whether ambulatory BP monitoring is affected by PET or by seasonality, 1897 patients referred to our hypertension units underwent ambulatory BP monitoring with a battery-powered temperature data logger fitted to the carrying pouch of the monitor. Predictors of 24-hour daytime and nighttime BP and of morning BP surge were investigated with a multivariate stepwise regression model, including age, sex, body mass index, antihypertensive treatment, office BP, ambulatory heart rate, PET, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, and daylight hours as independent variables. At adjusted regression analysis, daytime systolic BP was negatively related to PET (−0.14; 95% confidence interval, −0.25 to −0.02); nighttime BP was positively related to daylight hours (0.63; 0.37–0.90); and morning BP surge was negatively related to daylight hours (−0.54; −0.87 to −0.21). These results provide new evidence that PET and seasonality (daylight hours) are 2 independent predictors of ambulatory BP monitoring.

In this article, the relationships between some urban planning indicators (GCR, green cover ratio; LCR, Lawn cover ratio; TCR, Tree cover ratio; SCR, street cover ratio; BCR, building cover ratio; BVD, Building volume density) and intra‐urban minimum and maximum average summer temperatures of Florence (Italy) were investigated. These indicators were calculated at different scales (areas of 10 m to 500 m radius) within the urban environment. Results showed that all the indicators can be used to assess the intra‐urban distribution of minimum air temperature values at all scales. Maximum air temperature was affected by GCR and TCR especially near the stations (radius up to 50 m), and by SCR at all scales, and the significance increased with radius. A 10% increase in LCR determined a reduction in minimum summer temperature from 0.14 °C (radius = 10 m; p < 0.05) to 0.53 °C (radius = 500 m; p < 0.01). A 10% increase in SCR determined an increase in minimum summer temperature from 0.22 °C (radius = 10 m; p < 0.01) to 0.66 °C (radius = 400 m; p < 0.01). The analysis of the type of green showed the significant role of forested areas on decreasing maximum temperatures and of grass areas on decreasing minimum temperatures. This research expands our scientific understanding of the effects of urban planning indicators on the intra‐urban thermal regime and can provide useful tools to urban planners and policymakers for the evaluation of the impact of an urban transformation on the thermal regime of the city at different scales.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are becoming increasingly accessible tools with widespread use as environmental monitoring systems. They can be used for anthropogenic marine debris survey, a recently growing research field. In fact, while the increasing efforts for offshore investigations lead to a considerable collection of data on this type of pollution in the open sea, there is still little knowledge of the materials deposited along the coasts and the mechanism that leads to their accumulation pattern. UAVs can be effective in bridging this gap by increasing the amount of data acquired to study coastal deposits, while also limiting the anthropogenic impact in protected areas. In this study, UAVs have been used to acquire geo-referenced RGB images in a selected zone of a protected marine area (the Migliarino, Massacciuccoli, and San Rossore park near Pisa, Italy), during a long-term (ten months) monitoring programme. A post processing system based on visual interpretation of the images allows the localization and identification of the anthropogenic marine debris within the scanned area, and the estimation of their spatial and temporal distribution in different zones of the beach. These results provide an opportunity to investigate the dynamics of accumulation over time, suggesting that our approach might be appropriate for monitoring and collecting such data in isolated, and especially in protected, areas with significant benefits for different types of stakeholders.