Abstract Background The need for community surveillance of respiratory viruses in high-risk settings such as homeless shelters has been underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we show that sampling high-touch surfaces is a low-cost, minimally intensive means virus surveillance. Methods Environmental samples were collected weekly from adult and family King County, WA November 2019 – April 20...

In their manuscript “Improved identification of primary biological aerosol particles using single particle mass spectrometry”, Zawadowicz et al. present a new classification method to distinguish single particles containing “biological” and “inorganic” phosphorus from their mass spectra. The algorithm is developed and tested using single particle mass spectra acquired in laboratory measurements...

A two-wavelength laser-induced fluorescence technique is described for detecting and classifying biological aerosols. Single aerosols, smaller than 10 mm, are interrogated with 266 nm and 355 nm laser pulses separated in time by 400 ns. Fluorescence signals excited by these pulses are detected in three broad spectral bands centered at 350 nm, 450 nm and 550 nm. The results indicate that bacteri...

Aerosol studies of Listeria monocytogenes in food processing plants have been limited by lack of a suitable surrogate microorganism. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential of using green fluorescent protein-labeled strains of Listeria innocua as a surrogate for L. monocytogenes for aerosol studies. These studies were conducted in a laboratory bioaerosol chamber and a pilot...