First Half Of January Research Articles

Insights into the Causes and Predictability of the 2022/23 California Flooding

Abstract In late December of 2022 and the first half of January 2023, an unprecedented series of atmospheric rivers (ARs) produced near-record heavy rains and flooding over much of California. Here, we employ the NASA GEOS AGCM run in a “replay” mode, together with more idealized simulations with a stationary wave model, to identify the remote forcing regions, mechanisms, and underlying predictability of this flooding event. In particular, the study addresses the underlying causes of a persistent positive Pacific–North American (PNA)-like circulation pattern that facilitated the development of the ARs. We show that the pattern developed in late December as a result of vorticity forcing in the North Pacific jet exit region. We further provide evidence that this vorticity forcing was the result of a chain of events initiated in mid-December with the development of a Rossby wave (as a result of forcing linked to the MJO) that propagated from the northern Indian Ocean into the North Pacific. As such, both the initiation of the event and the eventual development of the PNA depended critically on internally generated Rossby wave forcings, with the North Pacific jet playing a key role. This, combined with contemporaneous SST (La Niña) forcing that produced a circulation response in the AGCM that was essentially opposite to the positive PNA, underscores the fundamental lack of predictability of the event at seasonal time scales. Forecasts produced with the GEOS-coupled model suggest that useful skill in predicting the PNA and extreme precipitation over California was in fact limited to lead times shorter than about 3 weeks.

From X to Z: Examining Generational Differences in Sustainable Food Consumption in Portugal

The main objective of this research was to analyze the attitudes and sustainable purchasing behaviors of food products among Portuguese consumers from different generations. The study sought to identify statistically significant differences regarding ecological awareness, understanding of ecological issues, adoption of ecologically conscious purchasing habits and conscious planning of these purchases. Consequently, the research aimed to reveal sustainable attitudes and behaviors during the food purchasing process considering the generational factor. In order to achieve these objectives, a quantitative and cross-sectional study was developed based on a questionnaire adapted from Kuźniar, Surmacz and Wierzbiński (2021). Between September 2022 and the first half of January 2023, the questionnaire was applied to a non-probabilistic sample of 686 Portuguese consumers. Statistical tools such as the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to discern statistically significant differences between two and three independent groups, respectively. The results confirm that generation is a differentiating factor of sustainable attitudes and behaviors. Obviously, the discernible existence of statistically significant differences between Generations Z, Y and X with regard to ecological awareness, ecologically oriented purchasing patterns, and the manifestation of sustainable attitudes and behaviors during food purchases serves as a robust validation of this assertion. Furthermore, it was observed that Generations X and Y exhibited congruent attitudes and behaviors, demarcating them from Generation Z. With regard to depth of understanding around ecological issues and conscious purchase planning, similar attitudes were consistently observed across the three generational spectra under analysis.

Population dynamics and wintering behavior of the black–headed gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus at El Mellah lagoon (Northeastern Algeria)

Abstract The population dynamics and behavior of the black-headed gull of an Algerian coastal wetland, El Mellah lagoon (Lake Mellah), were studied during three consecutive wintering seasons (2018–2021). Maximum numbers of the species were counted in December and January depending on the year. A peak of 536 individuals was recorded in the first half of December 2018, another of 538 individuals in the second half of December 2019, and a final peak of 636 birds in the first half of January 2021. Diurnal activity patterns showed that feeding was the primary behavior, with a mean of 24% for the three seasons. It was followed by sleeping (21%), swimming (19%), preening (18%), and flight (17%). Black-headed gulls appeared to be more active in the morning than at other times of the day. This study attempts to provide recent and unpublished data on the wintering and behavior of the black-headed gull, which remains poorly documented in North Africa and particularly in Algeria, and highlights the patterns of wetland use by these species, which could help to evaluate the importance of certain areas and develop management plans specific to coastal habitats and their avifaunal diversity.

Characteristics of particulate matter during New Year's eve fireworks and Taal volcano ashfall in Metro Manila on January 2020

In this study, we describe the chemical and physical characteristics of two air pollution events in the first half of January 2020 in Metro Manila, Philippines, namely the New Year's eve fireworks and the Taal volcano ashfall. During the New Year's eve fireworks, PM2.5 concentration and most of the chemical components increased three-fold. However, we found disproportionately higher increases for certain metallic components typically used as pyrotechnic propellant and/or colorant for blue, white, and green light: Fe(5-fold), Cr(5-fold), Cu(8-fold), Ni(9-fold), V(10-fold), Ti(11-fold), and Ba(34-fold). These results provide insights for health assessments and legislation related to fireworks emissions. On January 12, 2020, the Taal volcano eruption caused much concern in Metro Manila as visible tephra deposits were observed. There was only a slight increase (8%) in PM2.5 concentration and its components related to basaltic ash. The low PM2.5 concentration was mainly due to the inhibited intrusion of ash into the stable nocturnal boundary layer. In addition, the detection of lightning in the plume and umbrella region showed size segregation of ash particles. The WRF-Chem model was able to capture the distribution of both tephra advection and fallout, a first for Taal volcano, making it possible for use in the future ashfall forecasting.

Analysis of Public Agenda during Covid-19 Pandemics Based on Turkish and English Tweets Using Nonnegative Matrix Factorization and Hypothesis Testing

In this study, Turkish and English tweets through Twitter Application Program Interface (API) between 1-31 January 2021 are analyzed with respect to Covid-19. The collected tweets are preprocessed, labeled with the Vader Sentiment library, and then analyzed by topic modeling with Nonnegative Matrix Factorization. The analysis show that the most frequently mentioned word is “vaccine/aşı” after “Covid”. The topics modelled in the study are grouped into themes and the themes are seen to be similar in both languages, which means that the Turkish and world agenda are not very different in terms of themes in pandemics. Moreover, hypothesis tests are conducted to understand whether language and time period are related to sentiment class. The results show that the Turkish people are more neutral about the Covid-19 issue than other people in the world during the given period of time. Moreover, independent of the language, there are more negative and neutral tweets in the first half of January 2021, whereas there are more positive tweets in the second half of the month. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to analyze Covid-19 related tweets in two languages to compare the local and global agendas using topic modeling, sentiment analysis, and hypothesis testing methods.

Black Carbon Emission Reduction Due to COVID-19 Lockdown in China.

During the Lunar New Year Holiday of 2020, China implemented an unprecedented lockdown to fight the COVID‐19 outbreak, which strongly affected the anthropogenic emissions. We utilized elemental carbon observations (equivalent to black carbon, BC) from 42 sites and performed inverse modeling to determine the impact of the lockdown on the weekly BC emissions and quantify the effect of the stagnant conditions on BC observations in densely populated eastern and northern China. BC emissions declined 70% (eastern China) and 48% (northern China) compared to the first half of January. In northern China, under the stagnant conditions of the first week of the lockdown, the observed BC concentrations rose unexpectedly (29%) even though the BC emissions fell. The emissions declined substantially thereafter until a week after the lockdown ended. On the contrary, in eastern China, BC emissions dropped sharply in the first week and recovered synchronously with the end of the lockdown.

Vulnerability of a top marine predator to coastal storms: a relationship between hydrodynamic drivers and stranding rates of newborn pinnipeds

Coastal storms have increased in recent decades, affecting many species, including the South American sea lion (Otaria byronia). Reports of stranded sea lion pups are becoming common in Chile, presumably due to the increase in the frequency and intensity of coastal storms. To validate this assumption, a 10-year database was built by coupling wave generation and coastal propagation models to correlate pure wave parameters (significant wave height Hs, peak period Tp, normalized wave power Hs2 Tp) and wave parameters including the tidal level (maximum surface elevation η, modified wave power η2 Tp) with records of stranded pups in Cobquecura, the largest breeding colony in central Chile. The correlation between the number of pups stranded per day and wave parameters in the first half of January and the last half of February is poor, while they are stronger for the second half of January and the first half of February. The higher number of stranded pups coincide with coastal storms with normalized wave power values exceeding a threshold of 100 m2/s. Conversely, below this threshold there is wide dispersion between the number of strandings and wave parameters. Identifying wave parameter thresholds could be used to predict when newborn pups will be most affected by coastal storms, and thus help institutions to develop remediation techniques for animals at risk.

Daily rainfall erosivity as an indicator for natural disasters: assessment in mountainous regions of southeastern Brazil

Rainfall erosivity is defined as the rainfall potential to cause erosion. Its concept is based on the kinetic energy of rainfall, rainfall intensity, and maximum rainfall intensity in a 30-min period, and purposes recurrence analyzes involving soil losses. It is a climatic index related to damages caused by erosion, landslides, and flooding. This study sought to: (1) model daily rainfall erosivity in Mantiqueira Range Region (MRR), Southeastern Brazil; and (2) propose the Rmaxday as an indicator of the areas prone to natural disasters. Rmaxday is defined as the maximum daily rainfall erosivity and is determined from the maximum daily rainfall. It should be calculated from a historical series over the least 22 years. Three seasonal models were fitted using observed historical series. The models exhibited consistent statistical performances (CNS = 0.55, on average), thereby indicating that they can be used for further studies regarding natural disasters in the MRR. The Center to Northeastern MRR had the most vulnerable areas, as they experienced Rmaxday values > 1600 MJ ha−1 mm h−1 in the year of 2000 when fatalities were registered. Overall, the first half of January had the greatest Rmaxday in MRR. This period has been the most relevant for provoking natural disasters caused by heavy rainfall in MRR. Rmaxday is a promising indicator to identify areas prone to natural disasters, as it is more robust than the commonly used rainfall depth intervals, i.e., there is a relationship between its magnitude and the damages provoked by natural disasters.

Early in the epidemic: impact of preprints on global discourse about COVID-19 transmissibility

Early in the epidemic: impact of preprints on global discourse about COVID-19 transmissibility

Estimating the Unreported Number of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Cases in China in the First Half of January 2020: A Data-Driven Modelling Analysis of the Early Outbreak.

Background: In December 2019, an outbreak of respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) emerged in Wuhan, China and has swiftly spread to other parts of China and a number of foreign countries. The 2019-nCoV cases might have been under-reported roughly from 1 to 15 January 2020, and thus we estimated the number of unreported cases and the basic reproduction number, R0, of 2019-nCoV. Methods: We modelled the epidemic curve of 2019-nCoV cases, in mainland China from 1 December 2019 to 24 January 2020 through the exponential growth. The number of unreported cases was determined by the maximum likelihood estimation. We used the serial intervals (SI) of infection caused by two other well-known coronaviruses (CoV), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) CoVs, as approximations of the unknown SI for 2019-nCoV to estimate R0. Results: We confirmed that the initial growth phase followed an exponential growth pattern. The under-reporting was likely to have resulted in 469 (95% CI: 403–540) unreported cases from 1 to 15 January 2020. The reporting rate after 17 January 2020 was likely to have increased 21-fold (95% CI: 18–25) in comparison to the situation from 1 to 17 January 2020 on average. We estimated the R0 of 2019-nCoV at 2.56 (95% CI: 2.49–2.63). Conclusion: The under-reporting was likely to have occurred during the first half of January 2020 and should be considered in future investigation.

Dynamics of Numbers and Occurrence of Colonial Species of Birds in the Area of Ukrainian Antarctic Station Akademik Vernadsky

Abstract The research covers water area, island archipelagos and coastal line of the Antarctic Peninsula from 65°31ʹ S, 64°25ʹ W in the South to 65°03ʹ S, 63°53ʹ W in the North. There was time gap of 7 years between the researches (2011 and 2018), which allows to define tendencies in development of individual colonies and to make conclusion about success of existence of a given species. The work itself was carried out during the first half of January, that is in the time when the stage of brooding ends and the period of hatching starts. As of 2011, 12 nesting points of gentoo penguin (Pygoscelis papua) with total number of 8,342 pairs were found in the region under investigation. Till 2018, quantity of the colony grew to 14, with total number of 14,105 pairs. For seven years, quantity of nesting points of aelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) almost did not change (4 colonies). Instead, total number of the species decreased somewhat: from 3559 pairsin 2011 to 3295 onesin 2018. Number of chinstrap penguin (Pygoscelis antarctica) in united stable locality for nesting also decreased from 26 pairsin 2011 to19 onesin 2018. Booth Island (65°04ʹ S, 64°02ʹ W) for chinstrap penguins and Green Island (65°19ʹ S, 64°09ʹ W) for gentoo penguins are the southern most points of nesting range of the species. Also, 7 colonies of antarctic shag (Phalacrocorax bransfieldensis) were revealed in the region under investigation. For seven years from 2011 to 2018 total number of the species in the region under investigation grew from 190 pairs to 299, and in most cases the antarctics shag forms settlements jointly with penguins.

Breeding biology of the Helmeted Manakin Antilophia galeata in an ecotone between the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado

Manakins (Pipridae) are well-known by their promiscuous mating system. Nonetheless, scarce evidence suggests that the Helmeted Manakin Antilophia galeata, the only dichromatic manakin widely distributed in the South American Cerrado, is monogamic. We studied the breeding biology of the Helmeted Manakin in the state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. We found 17 nests, which are built in the forest undergrowth (usually below 3 m height). Nests are a cup attached by its top lip usually in the angle of a forked branch. The nest attachment zone is made mostly of spider silk. The structural zone is constructed with dry broad leaves, leaf petioles and horsehair fungus, which were bind together by a considerable amount of spider silk. The outer (decorative) zone is made with some hanging dry broad leaves, frequently forming a tail. Clutch size is always two (n = 12), and eggs are long oval, with a ground color in different shades of beige, marked with irregular spot, blotches and, sometimes, streaks ranging from light to dark brown. Mean eggs measurements were 23.9 x 16.3 mm (n = 14), weighting 3.3 g (n = 10). Eggs are laid once each day and hatching is synchronous. Females are the sole responsible for nest building (which usually took 10 days), incubation (18.5 days), and nestling care (18.3 days). The simple percentage of successful nests (n = 11) was 27% and predation was the main cause of nest failure. The breeding season extends from the second half of August to the first half of January. Renesting after loss of a first clutch is a common strategy and we recorded up to three nesting attempts for a single female. We present evidence that the Helmeted Manakin is promiscuous, as usual for a dichromatic manakin.

Allocation of body reserves during winter in eider Somateria mollissima as preparation for spring migration and reproduction

Capital breeders, such as the eider duck Somateria mollissima, accumulate resources before the start of breeding. Eiders preferentially feed on blue mussels Mytilus edulis to build up body condition during winter. We explored how body condition and gizzard mass of wintering eiders relate to mussel quality and quantity, winter climate and body condition of females at the breeding grounds. Body condition during winter (defined as scaled body mass index) of eiders increased during winter and the magnitude of the effect depended on age and mussel quality. Gizzard mass of eiders increased during winter with effects of mussel quality, mussel stocks and sex. Body condition in winter of adult females increased from the first half of January to the second half of February on average by 1.5%, equal to c. 96 g. During the same period gizzard mass of adult females increased by 12.2%, i.e., a nearly ten-fold increase compared to that observed in body condition in winter. Body condition of females at the breeding grounds in Finland (defined as body condition at hatching) was significantly positively correlated with gizzard mass in winter, but not significantly correlated with body condition in winter. Thus, eiders allocate body reserves to increase gizzard mass but less so to increase body condition in winter. This can be considered an adaptive migratory strategy of these eiders, whereby large winter (pre-migratory) gizzards increase food processing capacity, making it possible for eiders to arrive at the breeding grounds with superior body condition and a high reproductive potential.

Detecting soil temperature trends in Northeast Iran from 1993 to 2016

Soil temperature is a fundamental agrometeorological variable which has a measureable influence on the development of plants. A comprehensive analysis of daily soil temperature trends at predetermined depths can provide a quantitative understanding for the sustainable management of agricultural systems, such as mitigating the adverse effects of anticipated temperature stress, supporting confidence levels of ideal seed sowing dates, as well as irrigation treatment durations and intervals. In this paper, daily soil temperature trends were analyzed (using the Mann-Kendall test) at depths of 5, 10, 20, 30, 50 and 100cm at seven discrete meteorological stations located throughout northeastern Iran during a consecutive period from 1993 to 2016. The results of this research indicate that in most of the study stations there exists a non-significant negative trend in soil temperature in the first half of January and also in the second half of December; these trends become significant as the soil gets deeper. For the warmer months of the year, especially from April to the end of August, soil temperature trends are positive and significant (or near significant) and these positive trends are of greater significance with a corresponding increase in soil depth. Agri-environmental agencies and practitioners may benefit from the approach used in this research (i.e. using the Mann-Kendall test to analyze trends in daily soil temperature time series) since it is an easily transferable approach that can provide a comprehensive geospatial and temporal analysis of crop and plant patterns in different regions and environmental conditions. Additionally, farmers may use daily soil temperature trends as a means to encourage the protection and mitigation of a variety of projected environmental stresses, such as water scarcity, irrigation demands, seasonal temperature fluctuations, and redundant crop rotation.

Frost hardiness of flower buds of three plum (Prunus domestica L.) cultivars

Frost hardiness of flower buds of three plum (Prunus domestica L.) cultivars (‘Cacanska lepotica’, ‘Stanley’, ‘Besztercei’) was characterised by the LT50 values calculated from artificial freezing experiments conducted during eight dormancy periods between 2004 and 2016. Of the two variance components, the year effect was the strongest at the beginning of dormancy explaining around 60% of the phenotypic variation in LT50 values, while the effect of genotype started to increase from November and reached its maximum in the middle of January, when 81.2% of the variance in LT50 was due to the genotype. During the first part of winter the frost hardiness of the overwintering organs developed gradually in parallel to the decreasing ambient temperature. Flower buds were the most frost tolerant in the first half of January, when the maximum LT50 of ‘Cacanska lepotica’ was −22.8°C, for ‘Stanley’ −24.8°C and for ‘Besztercei’ it was −26.5°C, averaged over the 8 dormancy periods. From the end of dormancy the effect of year became much stronger over the genotypic differences from the second half of January. Milder days during this period resulted in faster flower bud development paralleled by a steeper and quicker decline in frost tolerance, which may significantly increase the probability of frost damages in flowers caused by late winter and spring frosts.

Twig pre-harvest temperature significantly influences effective cryopreservation of Vaccinium dormant buds

Cryopreservation of temperate woody-plant material by dormant buds is less expensive than using shoot tips isolated from tissue cultured plants; however currently, dormant buds are used only for preservation of selected temperate tree and shrub species. Using dormant buds could be an efficient strategy for long-term preservation of blueberry (Vaccinium L.) genetic resources. In this study, viability of V. hybrid ‘Northsky’ (PI 554943) dormant buds was evaluated at 30 harvest dates over three consecutive fall/winter seasons to determine the optimal harvest time that promotes high post cryopreservation viability. Twigs with dormant buds were cut into 70 mm segments containing at least two nodes, desiccated, slowly cooled, stored in liquid nitrogen vapor and tested for post-cryopreservation regrowth. The highest regrowth of cryopreserved dormant buds was observed for buds harvested in mid-December and during the first half of January. Pearson's correlation coefficients were computed to evaluate the association between bud characteristics and viability at harvest date and logistic regression models were fit to test the ability of twig characteristics and temperatures to predict post cryopreservation bud viability. Post-cryopreservation viability was negatively correlated (p < 0.05) with average minimum, maximum and daily mean temperature preceding the bud harvest but was not correlated with the dormant bud initial and end moisture content, twig diameter, the number of dormant buds/cm of twig length and the number of days in desiccation. Regression tree analysis suggested post-cryopreservation viability to be between 52 and 80% for dormant buds harvested after a 10 day average maximum air temperature of <11.2 °C. Pre-harvest air temperature was a significant indicator of optimal dormant bud harvest time to produce adequate viability for long term preservation of blueberry genetic resources.

The quasi 2 day wave activities during 2007 austral summer period as revealed by Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model

AbstractThe quasi 2 day wave (QTDW) observed during 2007 austral summer period is well reproduced in an reanalysis produced by the data assimilation version of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM + Data Assimilation Research Testbed) developed at National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). It is found that the QTDW peaked 3 times from January to February but with different zonal wave numbers. Diagnostic analysis shows that the mean flow instabilities, refractive index, and critical layers of QTDWs are fundamental for their propagation and amplification, and thus, the temporal variations of the background wind are responsible for the different wave number structures at different times. The westward propagating wave number 2 mode (W2) grew and maximized in the first half of January, when the mean flow instabilities related to the summer easterly jet were enclosed by the critical layers of the westward propagating wave number 3 (W3) and wave number 4 (W4) modes. This prevented W3 and W4 from approaching and extracting energy from the unstable region. The W2 decayed rapidly thereafter due to the recession of critical layer and thus the lack of additional amplification by the mean flow instability. The W3 peaked in late January, when the instabilities were still encircled by the critical layer of W4. The attenuation of W3 afterward was also due to the disappearance of critical layer and thus the lack of overreflection. Finally, the W4 peaked in late February when both the instability and critical layer were appropriate.

Subclinical hypothyroidism and cardiovascular risk

To assess whether subclinical hypothyroidism can behave as a cardiovascular risk factor or a modifier thereof, identifying epidemiological variables and estimated in a sample of patients diagnosed in the province of Albacete (Spain) cardiovascular risk. Observational, descriptive study was carried out in Albacete during the first half of January 2012 in patients of both genders with subclinical hypothyroidism. The following variables were analyzed: Fasting glucose , total cholesterol , HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol , triglycerides , TSH , T4 , weight, height, Body Mass Index , blood pressure, a history of cardiovascular disease , cardiovascular risk factors and estimated cardiovascular risk. 326 patients younger than 65 years at 78% without cardiovascular risk factors in 48.61 %, with female predominance (79.2 %). The prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors was identified: smoking (33.2 %), diabetes mellitus (24.9%), hypertension (23.4 %), lipid abnormalities (28.9%) and atrial fibrillation (4,9%). No association between subclinical hypothyroidism and most lipid profile parameters that determine a pro- atherogenic profile, except with hypertriglyceridemia was found. Likewise, neither association with increased cardiovascular risk was found. The profile of patients with subclinical hypothyroidism is a middle-aged woman with no cardiovascular risk factors in half of cases. It has been found relationship between subclinical hypothyroidism and hypertriglyceridemia, but not with the other parameters of lipid profile, other cardiovascular risk factors or with increased risk. However, 25% of diabetics and 22% of non-diabetics are at moderate to high cardiovascular risk.

Seabather's eruption: report of fourteen cases.

Seabather's eruption is a papulo-pruritic dermatitis caused by the nematocysts of the larvae of the jellyfish Linuche unguiculata retained in the clothing fibers. Previously reported in Brazil, this work describes fourteen cases that occurred in the State of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil. The new cases observed over a short period of time (the first half of January, 2012), at the height of the summer season, should alert health teams to possible epidemics on the coast of the state of Santa Catarina.

AIMAR survey on complex forms of bronchial asthma and COPD, their management and perception of critical issues

BackgroundThe management of patients with complex forms of bronchial asthma and COPD is not usually addressed in the major international guidelines and management documents which exclusively address pure forms. AIMAR thus undertook a survey to obtain information about: a) the perceived frequency of complex forms of asthma/COPD in adult patients and in the elderly; b) patient management regarding the complex forms (focus on therapeutic goals and consequent treatment); c) the management problems perceived in diagnosis, management, monitoring, indices of appropriateness in pharmacological treatment and adherence to treatment.MethodsThe survey consisted of 18 multiple choice questions, completed by means of a web-based electronic form published in internet. All the data and responses inserted in the system were checked on-line for coherence and completeness directly during the phase of insertion and each participant had one only possibility of participating. The data thus collected were memorized directly within a relational database, based on consolidated open-source MySQL technology, and thus were immediately available for examination also during the course of the survey. Access to the data, mediated by a “back office” system of interrogation and report, enabled constant monitoring of the survey as it was being carried out, as well as extractions and verification, even on smaller data sets.ResultsThe survey was carried out in the full month of December 2013 and first half of January 2014. A total of 252 questionnaires were collected from the following physician groups: pneumologists (n = 180), general practitioners (GPs) (n = 32), allergologists (n = 8), internal medicine specialists (n = 20), other specialists (n = 12).ConclusionsComplex forms of bronchial asthma and COPD are frequently observed and considered present in variable percentages ranging from about 10% to about 50% of patients visited and considered typical of patients with a previous history of asthma. Risk factors such as smoking, obesity, bronchial hyperreactivity and genetic predisposition are considered important. Diagnosis is difficult solely on the basis of symptoms in approximately 50% of cases, and a previous history of asthma, history of spirometry and presence of allergy are of help. Treating inflammation and reducing exacerbations are considered the key therapeutic goals and the combination of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) and long acting β2-agonist (LABA) and monotherapy with ICS are considered the fundamental pharmacological mode for treating patients with mixed forms of bronchial asthma and COPD. Treating with only a bronchodilator is considered to be moderately risky for this type of patient. The identification and management of mixed forms result more impeded by “logistic” aspects, e.g. long waiting lists and integration with the GP, than by aspects intrinsic to the disease management itself, e.g. selecting the assessment or interpreting the outcome of the instrumental examinations. Treatment continuity and the integration between GP and specialist are the factors that most limit the management of mixed forms in the stable phase.