Abundance In Air Research Articles

Quartz-Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy for One-Health

We report on the development of Quartz-Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (QEPAS) technology to detect 8 different air pollutants, namely CH4, NO2, CO2, N2O, CO, NO, SO2 and NH3, with the same acoustic detection module and interchangeable laser sources, to prove the modularity of the technique as well as the adaptability to different lasers. For each gas species, the fine structure of the infrared absorption bands has been simulated by using HITRAN database. Each gas species was detected with an ultimate detection limit well below their typical natural abundance in air even with a signal integration time as low as 0.1 s.

Postmortem radiological imaging and autopsy of a manually strangled dog with a neck twist

• Tracheal rupture with ischemic stroke was documented in a dog abuse case. • Excessive gas buildup caused by an air hunger effect was discussed. • PMCT was more appropriate to study the subtle bone structures to diagnose fractures. • Radiological imaging assists in determining a cause and manner of death in prosecuting animal crime. Forensic imaging studies were used to supplement the postmortem examination of a poodle-type dog that died of an unknown cause in an animal crime investigation. The carcass was powdered and the neck was twisted to the left. At the death scene, the police felt crepitation while moving the carcass to the autopsy room. They wondered whether the ribs and cervical bones of the carcass had been broken. Conventional X-rays revealed air pockets along the trachea and also an abundance of air in the subcutaneous tissue and body cavities. Three-dimensional volume-rendered images created from postmortem computed tomography confirmed that the hyoid bone, cervical vertebrae, and ribs were all intact. The findings during the autopsy were focally extensive intradermal and intramuscular hemorrhages and bruises on the right side of the body, tracheal rupture, and substantial brain congestion and edema. The results of the imaging and autopsy findings referred to asphyxiation and hypoxic ischemic stroke in the manner of death caused by blunt force trauma to the neck. During the police inquiry, the accused confessed to strangling the dog with her bare hands.

Aerosolization Behaviour of Fungi and Its Potential Health Effects during the Composting of Animal Manure

Compost is an important source of airborne fungi that can adversely affect occupational health. However, the aerosol behavior of fungi and their underlying factors in composting facilities are poorly understood. We collected samples from compost piles and the surrounding air during the composting of animal manure and analyzed the aerosolization behavior of fungi and its potential health effects based on the fungal composition and abundance in two media using high-throughput sequencing and ddPCR. There were differences in fungal diversity and richness between the air and composting piles. Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were the two primary fungal phyla in both media. The dominant fungal genera in composting piles were Aspergillus, Thermomyces, and Alternaria, while the dominant airborne fungal genes were Alternaria, Cladosporium, and Sporobolomyces. Although the communities of total fungal genera and pathogenic/allergenic genera were different in the two media, fungal abundance in composting piles was significantly correlated with abundance in air. According to the analysis on fungal composition, a total of 69.10% of the fungal genera and 91.30% of pathogenic/allergenic genera might escape from composting pile into the air. A total of 77 (26.64%) of the fungal genera and six (20%) of pathogenic/allergenic genera were likely to aerosolize. The influence of physicochemical parameters and heavy metals on the aerosol behavior of fungal genera, including pathogenic/allergenic genera, varied among the fungal genera. These results increase our understanding of fungal escape during composting and highlight the importance of aerosolization behavior for predicting the airborne fungal composition and corresponding human health risks in compost facilities.

Airborne microplastic concentrations and deposition across the Weser River catchment

Microplastic (MP) appears to be omnipresent in the atmosphere, raising concerns about dispersion across environmental compartments, ecological consequences and human health risks by inhalation. To date, data on the sources of atmospheric MP and deposition to river catchment areas are still sparse. We, therefore, took aerosol and total atmospheric deposition samples in the catchment area of the large German river Weser to estimate microplastic deposition fluxes (DFs) at six specific sites and airborne MP concentrations. Sampling in rural, suburban, and urban environments and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) was performed, aiming at a variation in airborne MP pollution and elucidating potential MP source areas. Aerosol samples were taken twice in April and October while monthly total deposition samples were collected over a period from March to October. Microplastics were detected in all analysed aerosol samples by Raman spectroscopy down to 4 μm, and in all 32 total deposition samples by μFT-IR down to 11 μm. Average MP number concentrations of 91 ± 47 m−3 were found in aerosol samples. The measured total MP number DFs ranged between 10 and 367 N m−2 day−1 (99 ± 85 mean ± SD) corresponding to total deposition of 0.05 ± 0.1 kg ha−1 per year and to an estimated 232 metric tons of plastic being deposited in the Weser River catchment annually. MP number DFs were higher in urban than rural sites. An effect of WWTPs on the MP abundance in air was not observed. Polypropylene, polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene, and silicone fragments were found as the predominant polymer types in total deposition samples, while polyethylene particles dominated in aerosol samples. The results suggest that proximity to sources, especially to cities, increase the numbers of MP found in the atmosphere. It further indicates that atmospheric MP considerably contributes to the contamination of both aquatic and terrestrial habitats.

Allergenic Asteraceae in air particulate matter: quantitative DNA analysis of mugwort and ragweed

Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) and ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) are highly allergenic Asteraceae. They often cause pollen allergies in late summer and fall. While mugwort is native to Europe, ragweed reached Europe as a neophyte from North America about 150 years ago and continued spreading ever since. To understand possible relationships between the spread of ragweed, its abundance in air, and to judge possible health risks for the public, we quantified ragweed DNA in inhalable fine as well as in coarse air particulate matter. Mugwort was chosen for comparison, as it is closely related to ragweed and grows in similar, though mainly not identical, habitats but is native to Germany. The DNA quantification was performed on atmospheric aerosol samples collected over a period of 5 years in central Europe. The DNA concentrations were highest during the characteristic pollination periods but varied greatly between different years. In the inhalable fine particle fraction, ragweed exceeds the mugwort DNA concentration fivefold, while the coarse particle fraction, bearing intact pollen grains, contains more mugwort than ragweed DNA. The higher allergenic potential of ragweed might be linked to the humidity or long-range transport-induced bursting of ragweed pollen into smaller allergenic particles, which may reach the lower airways and cause more intense allergic reactions. Airborne ragweed DNA was detected also outside the local pollination periods, which can be explained by atmospheric long-range transport. Back-trajectory analyses indicate that the air masses containing ragweed DNA during winter had originated in regions with milder climate and large ragweed populations (Southern France, Carpathian Basin).

Investigation of the Parameters Governing the Performance of Jet Impingement Quick Food Freezing and Cooling Systems – A Review

Jet Impingement Technology (JIT) is a heat transfer enhancement technique. Available literature soundly confirm its wide applications in the cooling of combustion chambers, critical parts of turbines, glass technology, electronic components, drying of paper and textile materials, drying of biomaterials and food preservation. The technology has interesting fluid dynamics and heat transfer properties. Its relative simplicity and low cost, abundance of air, generation of high heat transfer and faster freezing rates have made it a subject of extensive investigations. Several investigations on jet impingement quick food freezing and cooling systems which range from visualization, experimental, computational simulations and or numerical analysis, factorial and mathematical models have been studied. This paper reviews the governing parameters of the jet impingement quick food freezing and cooling systems.

Application of tracers to measure, monitor and verify breakthrough of sequestered CO2 at the CO2CRC Otway Project, Victoria, Australia

At the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technology's (CO2CRC) field site in the Otway Basin of Victoria, Australia, investigations into the storage of CO2-rich gas in a depleted hydrocarbon gas field have been conducted in the Waarre C reservoir. The injected gas from the nearby Buttress field contained 75mol% CO2, 21mol% CH4 with the remaining balance being a mixture of wet hydrocarbons, condensate and nitrogen. Chemical tracers (sulphur hexafluoride, SF6; krypton, Kr; perdeuterated methane, CD4) were added on the basis of literature surveys and small volume trials at the Frio II Brine experiment in Texas. The aim of the project was to measure, monitor and verify the presence of injected CO2 in a depleted gas field and that the arrival of tracers was a major component of demonstrating breakthrough of CO2 at the monitoring well, Naylor-1. The paper focuses on methods developed for the injection, recovery and analysis of samples collected at the Naylor-1 well. Results of tracer analysis compare well with other data collected (including pH and density measurements) to demonstrate breakthrough.A slip-stream injection system was designed to deliver the tracers mixed with the CO2-rich gas into the subsurface at the CRC-1 well. The tracers were added to the gas stream 17days after the start of injection (CO2 injection commenced 18th March, 2008) into the depleted natural gas field at Naylor. A U-tube system was used to retrieve the samples from the Naylor-1 monitoring well. Collected gas and formation water samples were analysed in detail for gas composition, tracers, isotopes (13C CO2 mainly) and inorganic geochemistry for the broader project. The tracer results confirm that CO2 breakthrough at the monitoring well occurred within the predicted times. However the interval between samples taken from the U-tubes was too coarse to resolve detailed differences in arrival times between the CO2 and tracers.Of the three tracers used, SF6 provided the clearest evidence of breakthrough at U-tube 2. Kr, because of its abundance in air, and its potential to be present in the subsurface, was more prone to contamination and had higher background levels prior to breakthrough. CD4 was expected to provide some more unique data based on the presence of abundant CH4 in the reservoir interval. With hindsight, larger volumes should have been injected to facilitate comparisons with the other tracers and add value to the data set. The test of CD4 however acted as a suitable proof of concept that CD4 could be used in such a high background of CH4.Further work is ongoing to generate data for partition coefficients between supercritical CO2, CH4 and water under the injection conditions.

The comparison of pollen abundance in air and honey samples

Honey as a food has long been used in human nutrition and is still popular. Honey is important because of its therapeutic, prophylactic and strengthening value. Pollen is one of the most decisive components that ensure the quality and type of honey. Modern society becomes more and more sensitive to airborne pollen. Therefore, it is crucial to determine the composition of allergenic plant pollen in natural honey. For this purpose, we studied and compared pollen abundance in honey and air samples collected in Lithuania. Standard methods for pollen investigation in air and honey were used in this study. The botanical diversity of pollen identified in honey and air samples indicates 10 morphotypes: 8 of woody plants and 2 of herbaceous plants, in both the honey and air samples. <em>Salix</em> pollen counts in the honey were found to be highest among airborne pollen from May to September. The anemophilous allergenic pollen constituted 44 % of the total pollen detected in the honey.

Air-water exchange of brominated anisoles in the northern Baltic Sea.

Bromophenols produced by marine algae undergo O-methylation to form bromoanisoles (BAs), which are exchanged between water and air. BAs were determined in surface water of the northern Baltic Sea (Gulf of Bothnia, consisting of Bothnian Bay and Bothnian Sea) during 2011-2013 and on a transect of the entire Baltic in September 2013. The abundance decreased in the following order: 2,4,6-tribromoanisole (2,4,6-TBA)>2,4-dibromoanisole (2,4-DBA)≫2,6-dibromoanisole (2,6-DBA). Concentrations of 2,4-DBA and 2,4,6-TBA in September were higher in the southern than in the northern Baltic and correlated well with the higher salinity in the south. This suggests south-to-north advection and dilution with fresh riverine water enroute, and/or lower production in the north. The abundance in air over the northern Baltic also decreased in the following order: 2,4,6-TBA>2,4-DBA. However, 2,6-DBA was estimated as a lower limit due to breakthrough from polyurethane foam traps used for sampling. Water/air fugacity ratios ranged from 3.4 to 7.6 for 2,4-DBA and from 18 to 94 for 2,4,6-TBA, indicating net volatilization. Flux estimates using the two-film model suggested that volatilization removes 980-1360 kg of total BAs from Bothnian Bay (38000 km2) between May and September. The release of bromine from outgassing of BAs could be up to 4-6% of bromine fluxes from previously reported volatilization of bromomethanes and bromochloromethanes.

Climate warming and the decline of Taxus airborne pollen in urban pollen rain (Emilia Romagna, northern Italy)

Woody plant performance in a changing global environment has always been at the centre of palaeoenvironmental and long-term climate reconstructions carried out by means of pollen analysis. In Mediterranean regions, Taxus constitutes the highest percentage in past pollen diagrams from cold or cool periods, and therefore it is generally considered a good index to infer climate features from past records. However, a comparison of these inferences with the true current trends in pollen production has not been attemped until now. This study reports the decline of airborne pollen of Taxus observed in Emilia Romagna, a region of northern Italy, during the period 1990-2007. Phenological observations on four male specimens and microscopic examination of fresh pollen were made in order to check Taxus flowering time and pollen morphology. Airborne pollen was monitored through continuous sampling with a Hirst volumetric sampler. In the 18-year long period of investigation, Taxus pollen production has decreased, while total woody pollen abundance in air has increased. The trend of the Taxus pollen season shows a delay at the beginning, a shortening of the pollen period, and an advance of the end of the pollen season. This was interpreted as a response to climate warming. In particular, Taxus follows the behaviour of winter-flowering plants, and therefore earlier pollination is favoured at low autumn temperatures, while late pollination occurs more often, most likely after warm autumn temperatures.

Air pressure broadening and shifting of high- J lines of (00011) ← (00001) band of 12C 16O 2

The absorption spectra of carbon dioxide (isotope 626, natural abundance in air, ambient temperature) have been studied at total pressures 68–570 Torr with spectral resolution 0.003–0.005 cm −1. The spectra were measured in the spectral domain of 2273–2393 cm −1 by FTIR spectrometer Bruker IFS 125 HR equipped with White-type multipass cell (6.4–41.6 m) and with a cell having 10 cm optical path length. Pressure broadening and shift coefficients were obtained from a series of spectra by means of a nonlinear least-squares spectral fitting technique for the lines of the (00011)←(00001) band with rotational quantum number up to J=82. For fitting of the individual line shapes, we used the Voigt profile with pre-calculated Doppler broadening parameter. The experimental pressure broadening and shift coefficients are compared with the values available in spectroscopic databases HITRAN 2008 and Carbon Dioxide Spectroscopic Databank (CDSD-296) and with other experimental values reported in the literature.

GC-R-CF-MS method to determine the 13C abundance of gaseous combustion products in cigarette smoke

To determine the 13C abundance of combustion and break down products formed in cigarette smoke, especially CO and CO2, a simple and fast analytical method is needed. Taking into account the knowledge about the determination of the natural 13C abundance in air, an online method—based on gas chromatography-reaction-continuous flow mass spectrometry (GC-R-CF-MS)—has been developed, which enables the determination of the 13C abundance of CO and CO2 in the vapour phase of cigarette smoke with a relative standard deviation of≤0.5% in one analytical run. Additionally, in a second step, the 13C abundance of total volatile carbon can be determined.

Variation in volatile organic compounds in the breath of normal humans

We studied the variation in volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the breath of 50 normal humans, using gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy. An average breath sample contained 204.2 VOCs (SD=19.8, range 157–241).The alveolar gradient of each VOC (abundance in breath minus abundance in air) varied with rate of synthesis minus rate of clearance. A total of 3481 different VOCs were observed: 1753 with positive alveolar gradients, 1728 with negative alveolar gradients. Twenty-seven VOCs were observed in all fifty subjects. This study confirmed previous reports of wide inter-individual variations. Two new findings were the comparatively small variation in total number of breath VOCs, and the presence of a ‘common core’ of breath VOCs in all subjects.