BACKGROUND Several epidemiological and laboratory studies have evidenced the fact that atmospheric particulate matter (PM) increases the risk of respiratory morbidity. It is well known that the smallest fraction of PM (PM1 - particulate matter having a diameter below 1 μm) penetrates the deepest into the airways. The ratio of the different size fractions in PM is highly variable, but in industr...

Methylibium petroleiphilum PM1 is a methylotroph distinguished by its ability to completely metabolize the fuel oxygenate methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE). Strain PM1 also degrades aromatic (benzene, toluene, and xylene) and straight-chain (C(5) to C(12)) hydrocarbons present in petroleum products. Whole-genome analysis of PM1 revealed an approximately 4-Mb circular chromosome and an approximatel...

Severe air pollution, which is caused by large amount of pollutants and adverse synoptic processes, appears often 10 in Asia. However, limited studies on aerosols have been conducted under high emission intensity and under unique geographical and meteorological conditions. In this study, an Aerodyne high resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometry (HR-ToF-AMS) and other state-of-the-art...

the newly formed aerosol particles can grow to 0.25 m in diameter. This is clear evidence that regional aerosol particles originating from such regional NPF events have a significant fraction in the particulate mass concentration of fine particles (PM1) and also in the number concentration of CCN. In the same case study, the ultrafine fraction of aerosol particles contributed to about 30% of th...

Suspended particles with the aerodynamic diameters not greater than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and 1 μm (PM1, sub-fraction of PM2.5) were sampled at three sites: an urban background site, rural background site, and urban traffic site in southern Poland. In total, there were 240 samples taken within 02.08.2009-27.12.2010. Fifteen polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were determined in each dust fraction. ...

To identify the relative contribution of local versus regional sources of particulate matter (PM) in the Greater Athens Area (GAA), simultaneous 24-h mass and chemical composition measurements of size segregated particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5 and PM10) were carried out from September 2005 to August 2006 at three locations: one urban (Goudi, Central Athens, “GOU”), one suburban (Lykovrissi, Athe...

BACKGROUND Talaromyces marneffei is an opportunistic dimorphic fungus prevalent in Southeast Asia. We previously demonstrated that Mp1p is an immunogenic surface and secretory mannoprotein of T. marneffei. Since Mp1p is a surface protein that can generate protective immunity, we hypothesized that Mp1p and/or its homologs are virulence factors. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We examined the pa...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to compare the correlation between new diagnostic methodologies for detecting anti-polymyositis/scleroderma (anti-PM/Scl) IgG antibodies associated with myositis and/or systemic scleroderma assays with existing platforms. METHODS Sera from 164 samples previously tested for anti-PM/Scl IgG antibody by immunodiffusion, ID; 171 sera screened for anti-PM/Scl I...

Plus minus 1 (PM1) is an improved method to least significant bits (LSB)-based steganography techniques, which not only foils typical attacks against LSB-based techniques, but also provides high capacity. But how to apply it to JPEG images does not appear in literatures. In this paper, PM1 steganography in JPEG images using genetic algorithm (GA) is proposed, in which the GA is used to optimize...