Publications

The 2013 Rim Fire was the third largest wildfire in California history and burned 257 314 acres in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We evaluated air-quality impacts of PM from smoke from the Rim Fire on receptor areas in California and Nevada. We employed two approaches to examine the air-quality impacts: (1) an evaluation of PM concentration data collected by temporary and permanent air-monitoring sites and (2) an estimation of intake fraction (iF) of PM from smoke. The Rim Fire impacted locations in the central Sierra nearest to the fire and extended to the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and Nevada monitoring sites. Daily 24-h average PM concentrations measured at 22 air monitors had an average concentration of 20 μg/m and ranged from 0 to 450 μg/m. The iF for PM from smoke during the active fire period was 7.4 per million, which is slightly higher than representative iF values for PM in rural areas and much lower than for urban areas. This study is a unique application of intake fraction to examine emissions-to-exposure for wildfires and emphasizes that air-quality impacts are not only localized to communities near large fires but can extend long distances and affect larger urban areas.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia worldwide, leading to an extensive public health and economic burden. The increasing incidence and prevalence of AF is due to the advancing age of the population, structural heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and thyroid disease. The majority of costs associated with AF have been attributed to the cost of hospitalization. In order to minimize costs and decrease hospitalizations, counseling on modifiable risk factors contributing to AF has been strongly emphasized. With the release of novel oral anticoagulants bypassing the need for anticoagulant bridging or laboratory monitoring, post-discharge nurse-led home intervention, and novel methods of heart rate monitoring, home-based AF management has reached a new level of ease and sophistication. In this review, we aimed to review modifiable risk factors for AF and various methods of home-based management of AF, along with their benefits.