Risk assessment of particulate matter by considering time-activity-pattern and major microenvironments for preschool children living in Seoul,South Korea

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Preschool children aged 3–6 years are vulnerable to exposed to particulate matter (“PM10” and “PM2.5”). It is required...     

Absolute dominance of hydrogenotrophic methanogens in full-scale anaerobic sewage sludge digesters

Anaerobic digestion （AD） is gaining increasing attention due to the ability to covert organic pollutants into energy-rich biogas and, accordingly, growing interest is paid to the microbial ecology of AD systems. Despite extensive efforts, AD microbial ecology is still limitedly understood, especially due to the lack of quantitative information on the structures and dynamics of AD microbial communities. Such knowledge gap is particularly pronounced in sewage sludge AD processes although treating sewage sludge is among the major practical applications of AD. Therefore, we examined the microbial communities in three full-scale sewage sludge digesters using qualitative and quantitative molecular techniques in combination： denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis （DGGE） and real-time polymerase chain reaction （PCR）. Eight out of eleven bacterial sequences retrieved from the DGGE analysis were not affiliated to any known species while all eleven archaeal sequences were assigned to known methanogen species. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed that, based on the 16S rRNA gene abundance, the hydrogenotrophic order Methanomicrobiales is the most dominant methanogen group （〉 94% of the total methanogen population） in all digesters. This corresponds well to the prevailing occurrence of the DGGE bands related to Methanolinea and Methanospirillum, both belonging to the order Methanomicrobiales, in all sludge samples. It is therefore suggested that hydrogenotrophic methanogens, especially Methanomicrobiales strains, are likely the major players responsible for biogas production in the digesters studied. Our observation is contrary to the conventional understanding that aceticlastic methanogens generally dominate methanogen communities in stable AD environments, suggesting the need for further studies on the dominance relationship in various AD systems.     

Study on the initial velocity distribution of exhaled air from coughing and speaking

Increasing concerns about the spread of airborne pathogens such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and novel swine-origin influenza A (H1N1) have attracted public attention to bioaerosols and protection against them. The airborne pathogens are likely to be expelled from coughing or speaking, so the physical data of the exhaled particles plays a key role in analyzing the pathway of airborne viruses. The objective of this study was to analyze the initial velocity and the angle of the exhaled airflow from coughing and speaking of 17 males and 9 females using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and acrylic indoor chamber. The results showed that the average initial coughing velocity was 15.3 m/s for the males and 10.6 m/s for the females, while the average initial speaking velocity was 4.07 m/s and 2.31 m/s respectively. The angle of the exhaled air from coughing was around 38° for the males and 32° for the females, while that of the exhaled air from speaking was around 49° and 78° respectively. Also, the linear relation between the tested subject’s height and their coughing and speaking velocity was shown in this study.     

Abundance of denitrification genes under different peizometer depths in four Irish agricultural groundwater sites

This study examined the relationship between the abundance of bacterial denitrifiers in groundwater at four sites, differing with respect to overlaying land management and peizometer depth. Groundwater was sourced from 36 multilevel piezometers, which were installed to target different groundwater zones: (1) subsoil, (2) subsoil to bedrock interface, and (3) bedrock. The gene copy concentrations (GCCs), as gene copies per liter, for bacterial 16S rRNA genes and the denitrifying functional genes, nirK, nirS, and nosZ, were determined using quantitative polymerase chain reaction assays. The results were related to gaseous nitrogen emissions and to the physicochemical properties of the four sites. Overall, nirK and nirS abundance appeared to show no significant correlation to N₂O production (P?=?0.9989; P?=?0.3188); and no significant correlation was observed between nosZ and excess N₂ concentrations (P?=?0.0793). In the majority of piezometers investigated, the variation of nirK and nirS gene copy concentrations was considered significant (P?<?0.0001). Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) decreased with aquifer depth and ranged from 1.0–4.0 mg l^?1, 0.9–2.4 mg l^?1, and 0.8–2.4 mg l^?1 within piezometers located in the subsoil, subsoil/bedrock interface, and bedrock depths, respectively. The availability of increasing DOC and the depth of the water table were positively correlated with increasing nir and nosZ GCCs (P?=?0.0012). A significant temporal correlation was noted between nirS and piezometer depth (P?<?0.001). Interestingly, the nirK, nirS, and nosZ GCCs varied between piezometer depths within specific sites, while GCCs remained relatively constant from site to site, thus indicating no direct impact of agricultural land management strategies investigated on denitrifier abundance.