Recent metagenomic studies of environments, such as marine and soil, have significantly enhanced our understanding of the diverse microbial communities living in these habitats and their essential roles in sustaining vast ecosystems. The increase in the number of publications related to soil and marine metagenomics is in sharp contrast to those of air, yet airborne microbes are thought to have ...

Wood processing is usually performed in environments with large amounts of endotoxin-rich bioaerosols that are associated with a variety of health effects. The aim of this preliminary study was to assess the relation between endotoxin levels in settled and airborne dust in wood-processing industry. Ten pairs of airborne and settled dust samples were collected in a sawmill and parquet manufactur...

Bioaerosol can act as nuclei and thus may play an important role in climate change. During the Fourth Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition (CHINARE 2010) from July to September 2010, the concentrations and size distributions of airborne fungi, which are thought to be one of important bioaerosols, in the marine boundary layer were investigated. The concentrations of airborne fungi varied ...

speciated samples of pm2.5 were collected at the hamshire and orange sites in golden triangle of texas by us epa (environmental protection agency) from july of 2003 to august of 2005. a total of 269 samples for the hamshire site and 293 samples for the orange site with 52 species were measured; however, 22 species were excluded because of too many below-detectionlimit data. among the 22 species...

Airborne gravimetry is an important tool for the geodesy and geophysics communities. Able to provide medium to high-resolution measurements over large areas, it is the link between the low-resolution satellite measurements and expensive terrestrial campaigns, especially in remote areas. To explore the potential of airborne gravimetry, the Gravimetry using Airborne Inertial Navigation (GAIN) pro...

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM Successful long-term bonding to zirconia ceramic remains a challenge, requiring special cements and surface roughening by airborne-particle abrasion, which might negatively affect the ceramic. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the shear bond strength (SBS) of composite resin cylinders to a modified zirconia surface using different luting techniques after t...

The presence and abundance of pathogen inoculum is with host resistance and environmental conditions a key factor in epidemic development. Therefore, several spore-sampling devices have been proposed to monitor pathogen inoculum above fields. However, to make spore sampling more reliable as a management tool and to facilitate its adoption, information on infection efficiency and molecular tools...

Accurate exposure assessment to airborne fungi in agricultural environments is essential for estimating the associated occupational health hazards of workers. The objective of this pilot study was to compare personal and stationary sampling for assessing farmers' exposure to airborne fungi in 3 different agricultural confinements located in Ohio, USA (hog farm, dairy farm, and grain farm), usin...

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010 30 INTRODUCTION Certain workers, particularly in agriculture, are exposed to large quantities of dust during their work. The dust consists of varying amounts of inorganic material, organic substances of plant and animal origin as well as viable and non-viable microorganisms and their by-products (biochemical components, toxins, antigens).1-4 The pathogenic role of dust co...

When designing a cleanroom to achieve a required airborne cleanliness class or grade, such as specified in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14644-11, or the European Union Guidelines to Good Manufacturing Practice (EU GGMP)2, designers have a problem in deciding how much filtered air should be supplied to the cleanroom. Currently, this is not normally calculated but base...