An air quality survey was conducted at a precious metals refinery in order to evaluate worker exposures to airborne metals and to provide detailed characterization of the aerosols. Two areas within the refinery were characterized: a furnace room and an electro-refining area. In line with standard survey practices, both personal and area air filter samples were collected on 37-mm filters and ana...

We evaluated the possibility of applying field-portable x-ray fluorescence (FPXRF) analysis as a rapid, on-site and near real-time method for evaluating airborne lead contamination in Korean workplaces. A total of 287 airborne lead filter samples were measured in 12 lead-using workplaces during routine industrial hygienic monitoring procedures as required by Korean government regulations. All f...

We have detected [Fe II] 17.94μm and 24.52μm emission from a sample of M supergiants (μ Cep, α Sco, α Ori, CE Tau, AD Per, and α Her) using the Texas Echelon Cross Echelle Spectrograph on NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility. These low opacity emission lines are resolved at R ≃ 50, 000 and provide new diagnostics of the dynamics and thermodynamics of the stellar wind acceleration zone. The [Fe II...

To improve understanding of possible connections between airborne tungsten and public health, size and geography of airborne tungsten particles collected in Fallon, Nevada, and Sweet Home, Oregon, were compared. Both towns have industrial tungsten facilities, but only Fallon has experienced a cluster of childhood leukemia. Fallon and Sweet Home are similar to one another by their particles of a...

Photoreactivation was observed in airborne Mycobacterium parafortuitum exposed concurrently to UV radiation (254 nm) and visible light. Photoreactivation rates of airborne cells increased with increasing relative humidity (RH) and decreased with increasing UV dose. Under a constant UV dose with visible light absent, the UV inactivation rate of airborne M. parafortuitum cells decreased by a fact...

Airborne hyperspectral ground mapping is being used in an ever-increasing extent for numerous applications in the military, geology and environmental fields. The different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum help produce information of differing nature. The visible, near-infrared and short-wave infrared radiation (400 nm to 2.5 μm) has been mostly used to analyze reflected solar light, whil...

Abrasion dusts from three types of commercially available non-steel brake pads were generated by a brake dynamometer at disk temperatures of 200, 300 and 400 1C. The number concentration of the abrasion dusts and their aerodynamic diameters (Dp) were measured by using an aerodynamic particle sizer (APS) spectrometer with high temporal and size resolution. Simultaneously, the abrasion dusts were...

With 57,4 % of the national territory covered by forests[7], Slovenia is one of the most forested countries of the European Union. Forests represent the most important CO2 sink for Slovenia in the framework of the Kyoto protocol to the United Nations convention on climate change, predominantly due to accumulation of forest biomass. Only one quarter of the annually accumulated aboveground biomas...

Pollination is only one of the many events comprising the plant development cycle; however, it is extremely important for yield where seed is required. Although successful fertilization depends on a number of environmental and endogenous factors, including climate and plant nutritional status, a sufficient quantity of pollen must reach the receptive stigma in order to enhance fertilization pote...

The main characteristics of the Quercus pollination season were studied in 14 different localities of the Iberian Peninsula from 1992-2004. Results show that Quercus flowering season has tended to start earlier in recent years, probably due to the increased temperatures in the pre-flowering period, detected at study sites over the second half of the 20th century. A Growing Degree Days forecasti...