| 1. |
|
|
| 2. |
- Hallquist, Mattias, 1969, et al.
(författare)
-
Photochemical smog in China: scientific challenges and implications for air-quality policies
- 2016
-
Ingår i: National Science Review. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2095-5138 .- 2053-714X. ; 3:4, s. 401-403
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In large areas of China severe air pollution events pose a significant threat to human health, ecosystems and climate. Current reduction of primary emissions will also affect secondary pollutants such as ozone (O3) and particulate matter (PM), but the magnitude of the effects is uncertain. Major scientific challenges are related to the formation of O3 and secondary particulate matter including Secondary Organic Aerosols (SOA). Large uncertainties also remain regarding the interactions of soot, SOA and O3 under the influence of different SO2, NOX and VOC concentrations. To improve the understanding of these secondary atmospheric interactions in China, scientific areas of central importance for photochemically induced air pollutants have been identified. In addition to the scientific challenges, results from research need to be synthesized across several disciplines and communicated to stakeholders affected by air pollution and to policy makers responsible for developing abatement strategies. Development of these science-policy interactions can benefit from experience gained under the UN ECE Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP)
|
|
| 3. |
- Brouwers, Lisa, et al.
(författare)
-
Micro-simulation of a smallpox outbreak using official register data
- 2010
-
Ingår i: Eurosurveillance. - : European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC). - 1560-7917 .- 1025-496X. ; 15
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To explore the efficacy of four vaccine-based policy strategies (ring vaccination, targeted vaccination, mass vaccination, and pre-vaccination of healthcare personnel combined with ring vaccination) for controlling smallpox outbreaks in Sweden, disease transmission on a spatially explicit social network was simulated. The mixing network was formed from high-coverage official register data of the entire Swedish population, building on the Swedish Total Population Register, the Swedish Employment Register, and the Geographic Database of Sweden. The largest reduction measured in the number of infections was achieved when combining ring vaccination with a pre-vaccination of healthcare personnel. In terms of per dose effectiveness, ring vaccination was by far the most effective strategy. The results can to some extent be adapted to other diseases and environments, including other countries, and the methods used can be analysed in their own right.
|
|
| 4. |
- Nielsen, Ingeborg E., et al.
(författare)
-
Time-resolved analysis of particle emissions from residential biomass combustion – Emissions of refractory black carbon, PAHs and organic tracers
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Atmospheric Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 1352-2310 .- 1873-2844. ; 165, s. 179-190
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Time-resolved particle emissions from a conventional wood stove were investigated with aerosol mass spectrometry to provide links between combustion conditions, emission factors, mixing state of refractory black carbon and implications for organic tracer methods. The addition of a new batch of fuel results in low temperature pyrolysis as the fuel heats up, resulting in strong, short-lived, variable emission peaks of organic aerosol-containing markers of anhydrous sugars, such as levoglucosan (fragment at m/z 60). Flaming combustion results in emissions dominated by refractory black carbon co-emitted with minor fractions of organic aerosol and markers of anhydrous sugars. Full cycle emissions are an external mixture of larger organic aerosol-dominated and smaller thinly coated refractory black carbon particles. A very high burn rate results in increased full cycle mass emission factors of 66, 2.7, 2.8 and 1.3 for particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, refractory black carbon, total organic aerosol and m/z 60, respectively, compared to nominal burn rate. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are primarily associated with refractory black carbon-containing particles. We hypothesize that at very high burn rates, the central parts of the combustion zone become air starved, leading to a locally reduced combustion temperature that reduces the conversion rates from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to refractory black carbon. This facilitates a strong increase of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons emissions. At nominal burn rates, full cycle emissions based on m/z 60 correlate well with organic aerosol, refractory black carbon and particulate matter. However, at higher burn rates, m/z 60 does not correlate with increased emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, refractory black carbon and organic aerosol in the flaming phase. The new knowledge can be used to advance source apportionment studies, reduce emissions of genotoxic compounds and model the climate impacts of refractory black carbon, such as absorption enhancement by lensing.
|
|
| 5. |
- Weidemann, Eva, et al.
(författare)
-
14th congress of combustion by-products and their health effects-origin, fate, and health effects of combustion-related air pollutants in the coming era of bio-based energy sources
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Environmental Science and Pollution Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0944-1344 .- 1614-7499. ; 23:8, s. 8141-8159
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The 14th International Congress on Combustion By-Products and Their Health Effects was held in UmeAyen, Sweden from June 14th to 17th, 2015. The Congress, mainly sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Research Program and the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning, focused on the Origin, fate and health effects of combustion-related air pollutants in the coming era of bio-based energy sources. The international delegates included academic and government researchers, engineers, scientists, policymakers and representatives of industrial partners. The Congress provided a unique forum for the discussion of scientific advances in this research area since it addressed in combination the health-related issues and the environmental implications of combustion by-products. The scientific outcomes of the Congress included the consensus opinions that: (a) there is a correlation between human exposure to particulate matter and increased cardiac and respiratory morbidity and mortality; (b) because currently available data does not support the assessment of differences in health outcomes between biomass smoke and other particulates in outdoor air, the potential human health and environmental impacts of emerging air-pollution sources must be addressed. Assessment will require the development of new approaches to characterize combustion emissions through advanced sampling and analytical methods. The Congress also concluded the need for better and more sustainable e-waste management and improved policies, usage and disposal methods for materials containing flame retardants.
|
|
| 6. |
- Aidas, Kestutis, et al.
(författare)
-
The Dalton quantum chemistry program system
- 2014
-
Ingår i: WIREs Computational Molecular Science. - : Wiley. - 1759-0876 .- 1759-0884. ; 4:3, s. 269-284
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Dalton is a powerful general-purpose program system for the study of molecular electronic structure at the Hartree-Fock, Kohn-Sham, multiconfigurational self-consistent-field, MOller-Plesset, configuration-interaction, and coupled-cluster levels of theory. Apart from the total energy, a wide variety of molecular properties may be calculated using these electronic-structure models. Molecular gradients and Hessians are available for geometry optimizations, molecular dynamics, and vibrational studies, whereas magnetic resonance and optical activity can be studied in a gauge-origin-invariant manner. Frequency-dependent molecular properties can be calculated using linear, quadratic, and cubic response theory. A large number of singlet and triplet perturbation operators are available for the study of one-, two-, and three-photon processes. Environmental effects may be included using various dielectric-medium and quantum-mechanics/molecular-mechanics models. Large molecules may be studied using linear-scaling and massively parallel algorithms. Dalton is distributed at no cost from for a number of UNIX platforms.
|
|
| 7. |
- Boman, Johan, 1955, et al.
(författare)
-
PM2.5 at a semi-rural site near Beijing, China
- 2023
-
Ingår i: X-Ray Spectrometry. - 0049-8246 .- 1097-4539. ; 52:6, s. 447-56
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Breathing clean air is a human right still not accessible to everyone. In most of the world, the air is polluted, which affects both the environment and human health. To investigate the air pollution situation in a semi-rural part of northern China, particles with a diameter below 2.5 & mu;m (PM2.5) were collected in Changping, 40 km northwest of Beijing in May and June 2016. The particles were analyzed for mass, trace elements, and black carbon (BC). The mean PM2.5 mass was 49 & mu;g/m(3), ranging from 3.1 to 266 & mu;g/m(3). S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, V, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, and Pb were determined by Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF). They constituted 4% of the PM2.5 mass, with BC adding another 3%. Enrichment factor evaluation identified S, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, and Pb as the main anthropogenic contributors to environmental impact. A pollution load index (PLI) of 0.03 showed that the site could not be considered as polluted by the trace elements in PM2.5. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) was used for source apportionment of the PM2.5 content. The PMF analysis reveals that a mixture of mineral dust, fossil fuel combustion, industries, and salts were the main sources of air pollution. The non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health risks were assessed, and both show a small health risk in the short study period. Following the development of PM2.5 concentrations over time in this part of China shows a decreasing trend of PM2.5 pollution, which is promising for the future.
|
|
| 8. |
- Prakash, Jai, et al.
(författare)
-
Characterization, sources, and atmospheric transformation of a few key short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) at a rural super-site in the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) of India
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Environmental Science: Atmospheres. - : Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). - 2634-3606. ; 2, s. 517-538
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) region of India faces some of the most severe air pollution problems on Earth that threaten human health, food security, ecosystems, environmental sustainability, and the climate. The aim of this study is to identify and characterize the sources of key short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) - black carbon (BC), brown carbon (BrC), and ozone (O3) - as well as other pollutants [carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides NOX = NO and NO2], and interlinked atmospheric processes of their formation and transformation at our long-term air pollution monitoring station in a remote rural IGP site, the Indo-Gangetic Plains Centre for Air Research and Education (IGP-CARE). Because of its location, measurements acquired at IGP-CARE provide otherwise new information on the key SLCPs in the IGP region at a remote and rural location. The year-long measurement data at this remote site provided new insights into the variability of SLCP concentration and interlinked atmospheric processes that affect air quality in the rural IGP region. Thirteen episodic events (E1-E13) of elevated BC and BrC concentrations were identified, which can largely be attributed to the local biomass burning activities in the neighboring rural communities. It is suggested that high concentrations of BrC were mostly primary in nature and thought to be co-emitted with BC from biomass burning. Also, secondary pollutant tropospheric O3 showed elevated concentration. O3 peaks were mostly attributed to local ozone formation. Nevertheless, on several occasions, O3 emission was also attributed to regional urban areas. This study's most important finding is that BrC concentrations were relatively high throughout the year with very pronounced diurnal variation with distinct morning and evening peaks in general and a minimum at around noon time; this is hypothesized to be associated with daytime photochemical processes. Analyses using a conditional bivariate probability function (CBPF) and potential source contribution function (PSCF) suggest that regional sources likely affected the local concentrations of SLCPs. These results partly explain the high concentrations and spatial distributions of SLCPs at the local and regional scales at the IGP-CARE site in winter and autumn. In contrast, in the summer and monsoon seasons, strong convection likely favored the dilution of pollutants.
|
|
| 9. |
- Rotish, Nelon K., et al.
(författare)
-
Essential trace elements in the African spider plant (Cleome gynandra). A case study in Molo Ward, Nakuru, Kenya
- 2023
-
Ingår i: X-Ray Spectrometry. - : Wiley. - 0049-8246 .- 1097-4539. ; 52:2, s. 83-89
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Kenya, cases of malnutrition and nutritionally related ailments have been on the rise. This calls for the search for food crops with vital trace elements. The aim of the current study was to use energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (EDXRF) to determine the concentrations of Zn, Fe, Cu, and Mn in the stems and leaves of the African spider plant (Cleome gynandra) in the context of nutrition. Stems and leaves of the African spider plant grown in the highland and in the lowland of Molo Ward, Nakuru, Kenya, were found to contain total available Zn in the range of 140±50 to 230±60mg/kg, Fe in the range of 2200±700 to 3900±1700mg/kg, Cu at 13±3 to 16±5 mg/kg, and Mn at 380±120 to 400±140mg/kg. There was no significant difference in the average concentrations of the trace elements in the leaves and stems of the African spider plant from the lowland and highland regions of Molo Ward (p>0.05). The concentrations of Zn, Fe, Cu, and Mn in the African spider plants is high enough to make it a nutritious traditional vegetable. Therefore, farmers should be encouraged and empowered to grow more vegetables.
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
