Assessing uncertainty in airborne birch pollen modelling
AbstractIn Europe, more than one quarter of the adult population and one third of the children suffer from pollinosis, but the geographical variability is large. In Belgium, at least ~ 10% of the people develop allergies due to birch pollen. These patients may benefit from a forecasting system that raises alerts when episodes with huge amount of airborne birch pollen grains are expected. Such a forecast system for birch pollen was established for the Belgian territory in 20 23 based on the pollen emission and transport model System for Integrated modeLling of Atmospheric coMposition (SILAM). The question, however, is ...
Source: Aerobiologia - April 16, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Spatial variation of airborne bacterial heterogeneity and potential opportunistic human pathogens: a comparative study of sites in Korea and Japan
AbstractBiological particles known as bioaerosols are present in the atmosphere and have recently been implicated as influencing agriculture, cloud development, biogeography, and human health. The present study was conducted to characterize airborne bacterial heterogeneity at Jeju Island in Korea and at Saitama and Toyama in Japan, focusing on potential human pathogens. Air samples were collected during the winter, when the monsoon blows from the northwest. Samples were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA genes to detect spatial differences in airborn...
Source: Aerobiologia - April 10, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Culturable bacteria in clouds at R éunion, tropical island
AbstractThe viable bacterial assemblages in clouds at R éunion Island (Indian Ocean) were examined through culture-based approach. A total of 176 isolates were recovered from 15 independent cloud events collected during 3 field campaigns, and identified to the species level through full length 16S rRNA gene sequencing. As often in atmospheric samples, A lpha-, Beta- and Gamma-proteobacteria dominated, along with Actinobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes, depicting these as the backbone of the global aeromicrobiome. A comparative analysis with similar work from a cloud sampling site in Central France revealed site-spec...
Source: Aerobiologia - April 5, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
The role of automatic pollen and fungal spore monitoring across major end-user domains
AbstractThe advent of automatic pollen and fungal spore monitoring over the past few years has brought about a paradigm change. The provision of real-time information at high temporal resolution opens the door to a wide range of improvements in terms of the products and services made available to a widening range of end-users and stakeholders. As technology and methods mature, it is essential to properly quantify the impact automatic monitoring has on the different end-user domains to better understand the real long-term benefits to society. In this paper, we focus the main domains where such impacts are expected, using Eu...
Source: Aerobiologia - April 3, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Spatial analysis of COVID-19 risk factors: a case study in Bangladesh
AbstractIn 2019, the world grappled with an unexpected and severe global health crisis —the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, which significantly impacted various aspects of human life. This case study, focusing on Bangladesh, aimed to uncover the complex spatial patterns and potential risk factors influencing the virus’s uneven spread across 64 districts. To analyze spatia l patterns, two techniques, namely MoranI and GearyC, were employed to study spatial autocorrelation. Hotspots and coldspots were identified using local MoranI, while spatial hotspots were pinpointed using local Getis OrdG. Exploring spatial ...
Source: Aerobiologia - March 27, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Characterization and health risk assessment of size-segregated fungal bioaerosols in and around a sugar mill in India
AbstractSuspended particles of biological origin comprising of virus, fragments of plants and animals dander, pollen grains, fungal spores and bacteria known as bioaerosols have become a major concern in the past decades. In the present study reports, the concentration and size distribution of fungal bioaerosol in and around a sugar mill situated in the Muzaffarnagar region of Uttar Pradesh, India, are presented. The sampling was performed in the winter when the mill used to be in the operational mode. The highest mean fungal concentration was observed at the cutter site (4022 ± 321 cfu/m3) and lowest at storage sit...
Source: Aerobiologia - March 19, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Assessing the impact of climatic factors on dengue fever transmission in Bangladesh
AbstractDengue fever is a virus-borne disease spread by mosquitos, and its global prevalence has risen significantly in recent years. The aim of this study was to analyze the impact and association of climatic factors on the spread of dengue incidence in Bangladesh. From January 2011 to December 2021, the study used secondary data on monthly dengue cases and the monthly average of climatic factors. In addition to the descriptive statistics, bivariate analyses of Kendall ’s tau-b and Spearman’s rho have been performed for measuring the association of climatic factors on dengue infection. The generalized linear negative ...
Source: Aerobiologia - March 18, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Characterization and decontamination of deposited dust: a management regime at a museum
AbstractDeposited dust represents a nutritional niche for microflora. Inhibiting microflora-associated deposited dust is a critical approach to manage cultural heritage buildings. Knowledge on the effectiveness of commercial disinfection on microflora in a real field environment is limited. The present study aims to: (1) characterize deposited dust composition, and (2) assess the effectiveness of several commercial biocides/and an air ionizer on microflora-associated floor surface and air before and after treatment. Deposited dust was collected using a dust collector and microbial air sampling was conducted via a volumetri...
Source: Aerobiologia - March 5, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
